Summer Vacation ~ Day 1

Today is Monday June 16th.

It is the first official day of my children's summer vacation.

No lunches to pack.

No 23 mile drive to the school to drop them off.

No 23 mile drive to the school to pick them up.

No after school practice, game or study session.

No homework.

My husband is working from home today.

There are 3 kids and 1 adult in the pool playing volleyball.

There are 3 more kids on their way over to swim.

There are beach towels strewn all over the deck.

Every window in the house is open.

It is a warm, breezy, mostly sunny day.

I can hear the sounds of water splashing and laughter all through the house.

Life is good!

Out Of Towners

My Mom and Aunt Betty drove up here to Michigan from Knoxville Tennessee to visit with us for a few days. They are staying at my sisters house.

So we have plans together everyday while they are here.

I went to my sisters house yesterday with the kids to visit with them. The kids (cousins) played and we had a nice time.

Today, my sister, Mom, Aunt and I spent the day down town. We went to Greektown for lunch and stopped by the fabulous bakery to bring treats home to our families.

Tomorrow, we are all meeting at a Mexican restaurant for lunch and then off to a movie.

Saturday, everyone is coming to our house for the day for a BBQ. My oldest daughter will be off work, so she'll be able to come with her daughter. All my Mom's grand kids will be here. There will be 4 generations in my house.

Weak Internet Signal

We have cable internet service and at one time the internet service wouldn't stay connected. It kept disconnecting (right in the middle of my work which was driving me nuts) The constant disconnections were because of a weak signal due to the cable splitters we had connected to all the TV's in the house. So my husband made an adjustment to make sure my computer wasn't splitting the signal with anything else. And that worked.

Until 3 days ago.

For the last three days, I have been disconnected from the internet more than I've been connected. We called the cable company and they said we had a bad modem. We went to Best Buy to buy a new modem. Nope... that's not it.

My husband "attempted" to work from home today, but found himself disconnected almost the entire afternoon.

So now we don't know what's causing the problem. Obviously I'm connected right now. So my husband is catching up from all the work he missed from being down this afternoon. I've got to go catch up too because I got so sick of it disconnecting me right in the middle of work, that I just stopped trying.

I hope we get it worked out soon. Our land phone line is connected through the computer, so when the internet goes down, so does our ability to receive or make calls on our house phone. (We have cell phones, so we're not desperate, but this is annoying to say the least)

Visiting Day

I have a nice day planned this sunny Thursday.

I'm having my monthly lunch date with my friend today. We are having Thai food, yum.

Then a little shopping after lunch since I'll already be out and about.

I'd like to get my bedroom dusted and vacuumed, but we'll see how that pans out.

My husbands brother is flying home this evening to attend a golf outing in northern Michigan for the next 4 days. He moved to Connecticut a few years back, but he comes home at least a couple of times a year. We're picking him up from the airport at about 6:00pm and then heading downtown to the casino.

Then tomorrow is Friday again.

This week flew by.

It's supposed to be in the 90's tomorrow. I almost can't believe that, since it's been unseasonable cool for months now. It will be a hot and humid weekend. We'll probably have to run the AC. Humidity zaps the energy right out of me and sometimes gives me a headache.

The Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup. I could hear all the horns blowing from cars last night and some folks were shooting off fireworks. A little good news for Detroit right now is just what we need. All the celebrators behaved themselves too... so that's good.

The View I Love The Most

The view from my front porch

holds a man that I love so dearly. A man that never ever raises his voice, doesn't curse and makes me laugh every single day.

The view from my front porch

holds a visit from my grown daughter every now and then with ice cream and McDonalds for her sister and brother and a kiss for me.

The view from my front porch

holds a teenager girl with blond hair, blue eyes and the most beautiful smile you've ever seen.

The view from my front porch

holds the last baby (boy) I'll ever have who has just become a teenager, yet still says "I love you Mom"

The view from my front porch

holds the precious granddaughter that we didn't know we needed so badly or could love so much.

Yeah... The view I love the most, ... is my front porch looking in ...
(Lonestar)

You Know What I Hate?

I hate when I "unknowingly" step in pet poop in my own front yard when I don't even own a pet.

I hate the first wave of realization that there is a strong odor of poop suddenly, in my house.

I hate that it wouldn't occur to me that I could possibly have poop on my shoe... because... again... I don't own a pet... but sure enough, upon lifting my foot... there is poop on my shoe.

I hate when I turn around to find that I've tracked said poop through the house.

I hate when I have to start Monday morning by mopping up poop tracks across the kitchen floor, down the stairs and onto the landing.

I hate when I have to scrape my shoe with a stick to get poop off of it.

I hate the smell of poop!

And finally... I'm not very "fond" of people who either let their pets poop on my front yard, or let their pets roam the neighborhood, to poop anywhere they can, except their own dang yard.

We Are Those People

On an early beautiful Sunday morning ...

We open every window and door in the house to let the cool breeze in ...

We close the doors to the TV cabinet ...

We listen to the melancholy lyrics of slow country music ...

We read the Sunday paper ...

We speak in quiet whispers to each other ...

We make pancakes and bacon for breakfast ...

We look forward to the sunny glorious day ahead ...

We thank God ...

We are those people ...