Busy Summer

Wow, the summer is moving right along. The weekend right after our anniversary I took a drive down to the Bay Area to visit my family. Blair couldn’t go because he was still in the middle of summer teaching, but a friend from church has elderly parents living down in Santa Cruz so she and I drove down together to share gas & driving. We had been planning to take my car, since it gets good gas mileage, but then we discovered a coolant leak (we had overheated on our trip to Bend, that’s probably why) so we ended up taking LL’s minivan. It had cruise control which made such a difference. I wasn’t exhausted like I usually am after the 10 hour trip.

I got to hang out with my “kids.” Except now they are young adults. My youngest 2 sisters made the flower fairies shown above, and they remind me of the things SS and I used to make when we were their age. I also got to hang out with my siblings that are married with their spouses. That was fun – thanks S & N for hosting me, and J & S for treating me to a lovely dinner.

Big changes at my parents’ house – Grandma M has come to live with them, and GC & RC now live in the “dorm” that was constructed in what used to be the garage. It felt really strange to go into a new room in the old house I grew up in. It was also good to see my Grandma since I haven’t much in recent years. Everybody is adjusting to each other, and it’s often not easy especially for my Mom since my Grandma needs a lot of help. I was only there for a few days but I was wishing I lived close so I could help with cooking and driving and such. I did drive the ‘burb, which felt like driving a tank – I mean it’s an automatic so it’s actually easier to drive than my honda, but it’s very wide, long, and heavy.

I took MA and HN to go visit JI and her new little guy, JMI. He was born premature, just little less early than his big brother SM was, 2 years ago. As of this writing he is home from the NICU and doing well. It was really special to be able to see him when he was just 10 days old.

Click here to see pictures.

So, that was 2 weeks ago now… I have had a busy time with work and trying to keep up with my fitness regimen – we are planning to hike the South Sister again this year and I vow it won’t hurt as much this time! Other than those activities I’ve just been hanging out and enjoying the warm and mostly sunny weather. I’m also knitting a sampler from a book I checked out from the library about how to design your own sweaters, “Sweater Workshop” by Jacqueline Fee. That’s fun. I have gotten so many invitations from friends to join Facebook that I finally did. It’s actually caused me to get in touch with a few friends-from-the-past so that’s good.

What’s new with you?