Yesterday I saw a couple of people come to a funeral, sign the guest book and then slip out once the funeral started. Is there some sort of funeral etiquette about that? It seemed rather disrespectful to me.

Telephone conversation:

Hello, Nick? I can’t find the old towels I use when I bathe the dog. Did you take them?
No, but I’m coming home soon.
Why would you be coming home? (He never comes home in the middle of the day and especially not when he is finishing a job, like he is now.)
Well, I got some blood on my shirt.
What happened?!
I cut my arm and it got blood everywhere.  I need to change.
So, where are you now?
I’m in the doctor’s office getting stitched up.
What?
Yeah, it needed a few stitches.  I’ll be home soon, OK?
When were you going to tell me?
When I got home

Half an hour later he comes in with his arm bandaged from wrist to elbow, 17 stitches. I haven’t seen it, but he says it is 3 or 4 inches long. A change of clothes, a quick lunch and he’s gone back to work. I don’t know.  He sure does handle situations differently than I do!

Celina had a song on today that said, “The years were short, but the days were long.”  That is so much like this summer is passing. Each day seems to last forever, but the summer is flying by. I love the school calendar as a work calendar. I’ve never outgrown the need for a summer vacation.

The past couple of mornings have been spent at school doing diagnostic tests for our new students.  Next I will need to prepare my room.  Once again, I am changing rooms and have to start with empty walls and boxes of books to once more rearrange.  I am really looking forward to this year though. I loved last year working with the high schoolers, but junior high is definitely my favorite age.  I’ll have 21 seventh graders and 5 eighth graders this year.  We use a different school system than most schools.  Our students work independently for most subjects so we are able to have different levels in the same room.  I will have students working from 5th to 9th grade in my junior high class.  Those with learning troubles can work at levels that are successful and productive.  The more advanced students can stay with their peers and yet work above their grade level.

I never realized how much it takes to get a school year started until I had to do it myself.  I hope it all comes together in time!

Grass is so hopeful.  We have had two days of off-and-on rain. Our lawn is turning a joyful green.  All is forgiven; no grudges held.  The instant they get what they need, they leap into living again.

I have always had a preference for bermuda grass.  It is so sturdy and simple.  When we were children, my father favored carpet grass. It need watering and pampering.  Even with all that it was deadly on little bare feet, sometimes causing painful grass cuts in the creases of the toes.  Bermuda was always soft and cushiony.  It looks more feathery too.  I could never understand the preference except that carpet grass was considered cultured, and bermuda was seen as a weed.  Most of my yard is bermuda grass and in the spring wild flowers.  I don`t have a single blade of carpet grass. 

RAIN!  RAIN! RAIN!  We’ve been so dry that evey bit of grass is brown and crispy.  Suddenly today, out of the blue, , it’s pouring.  The land and all the plants cry, “Hooray!”

It’s been an amazing day of roadblocks and perfect timing.  This morning when I woke up, I was determined to get to the swimming pool for laps early in the day. A dozen little things kept happening that kept me from leaving. I was beginning to get frustrated as I finally got the last of the roadblocks out of the way.  As I walked out the door, the mailman came up the walk with my husband’s passport that I needed to sign for. I almost missed him! 

After swimming, I needed to stop by a store, but I couldn’t decide which would be easiest.  Finally, I decided to go to Target.  I couldn’t find a place to park at first. So finally, I walked into the store. Behind me I heard a familiar voice, “Esa, come here.”  I only know one boy named Esa, and he is the son of a dear friend of mine who lives in Dubai, UAE. Her mother is my next door neighbor, and I knew she was in town, but we hadn’t managed to visit.  She was right behind me with her children.  How great to see her!  What an orchestrated moment!  All my little frustrations and hinderances got me to the perfect places twice today.  How many other times has that happened? Probably more than I’ll ever know!!

I remember the day you were born.  Your hair looked like a little black wooly sheep.  You were so cute and so huggable!!  We all loved you right away.  We couldnt’ wait for our turn to hold you.  Now you are so big and just as lovable.  May your birthday be a great blessing!! 

This past weekend when two of my girls were here, we went maternity clothes shopping.  Poor Kevin got drug along since his cousins had gone home. I hadn’t really realized that they would both have babies near the same time.  Somehow that idea had escaped me.  I was still absorbing the fact that they were pregnant.  So we traveled in and out of stores at the outlet mall, a group 6 masquerading as 4 when you include the two little stowaways. What a magical moment!

How I wished we were all closer so we could share more of these times together!  I was IMing a friend last night and told him about having them here.  His response was “Bittersweet, isn’t it?”  “Yes,” I thought, “it is.”

Everyone is gone, and the house is almost too quiet.  While I have been busy this past year, I’d often think of what I would do when my time was my own.  So what did I end up doing yesterday and today? 

Sorting legos!!  I have 16 bags of different colors and shapes.  I’m down to the last layer, mostly yellows, grays and whites.  Now our poor lego people will have hair, hats, and hands. They’ve looked like chemo patients or war veterans with missing limbs. We must have over 20 steering wheels and dozens of pin-sized antennas. Seriously, how many air tanks do lego people need?  Robin Hood will finally have a sword again, and there are enough megaphones for a cheer leading camp!  So the three 18 inch square, 6 inch deep boxes and the underbed box will now have bags of sorted legos instead of loose piles to dig through.  Nick thinks I’m ruining the fun, but really, what is the chance of finding that tiny transparent red dot in all the clutter!! Who knows what I’ll end up doing next?