Nothing Much New

Not much exciting around here lately. I've started walking Rocky once or twice a day. She's gonna get back in shape with me. I spent yesterday afternoon in the yard and it looks great. The weather has warmed up so we've been swimming again, YAY! Scooped a BIG frog out of the pool this morning, along with a smaller toad (about the size Lilly & Abby were playing with).

Pogo is spending the day here again. I swear that dog has IBS. Whenever he gets the runs (which is at least once a week) Kellie doesn't want to keep him alone in the house so Chris brings him here on his way to work. I don't mind. He's usually a good dog, except when he does stuff like this:

Katie worked all summer and saved up her graduation money. She was excited to get a new flat panel TV for her dorm room. It was delivered here yesterday afternoon and Drew was happy to deliver it to her dorm room for her last night.

Kellie has a kid in her class whose mom works for Mrs. Fields. The mom is happy to provide a big cookie cake for the classroom whenever they have something to celebrate. Today is another teacher's birthday, so they surprised her with a cookie cake. Better watch out Kellie, Christmas is just around the corner and I'm gonna take your 50 bucks!

Dave gave me an envelope full of his expense receipts a couple weeks ago. It's time to get his expense report done and that envelope has walked off who knows where. GRRRRRRR! That's my job this afternoon, going through the credit card statements and trying to figure out what's work and what's personal. It will NOT be fun. Double GRRRRR!

I want to give a shout out to my mom and dad and Nathan who are visiting Bev in Florida for a few days. Hope you're having a great time!

I love my kids!

I spent Monday morning helping Drew with his online computer course. The class requires Vista and Office 2007, so we ended up going to Dave's work and doing his assignment on the computer there. I was excited to see he got a 20/20 on his last assignment. He thought I was silly to be so excited about that. He's determined to get a 3.0 this semester and I'm determined to make sure he does.

I talked to my sister, Bev, in the afternoon and found out she is a grandma again for the 5th time. How exciting! Erin and Masood had another boy on Friday evening. After a quick chat with Bev I had to call Erin and congratulate her on baby boy #3. Welcome to the family Ahmed!

The highlight of my day was Katie, Kellie & Chris coming "home" for a terrific lasagne dinner. I just love sitting out of my patio with the whole family together. Meals on the back patio were always a happy part of my life growing up and still are whenever we go to Wisconsin for our summer visit.

Of course Katie brought her laundry home with her. She had to be back to school for a dorm meeting so I wasn't able to finish her laundry before she had to go so I'm gonna meet her for lunch today. All of her stinky dirty soccer gear is washed by the school (which is great), so she usually doesn't have more than one load for me when she comes home.

I'm also taking her two big industrial mousetraps. She has a few too many occupants in her dorm room lately. Her roommate doesn't want to kill them, so the traps are live traps.

The mice climb in the hole on the side and are swept into the back of the trap where they stay (alive) until someone opens the door and lets them out. They are multiple catch traps so they can catch a whole bunch of them. Katie figures they have at least 3 in their room. I think they should just sneak a cat into their room. It will be interesting to see who takes care of letting them out. I know one thing for sure -- it won't be ME!

Kellie and I have a friendly bet to lose 20 pounds by Christmas. Anyone want to join us?

Monday Monday

Yesterday was the first day I really felt like I missed Katie. On Sundays with nothing much to do we usually go do something fun, like shop at Kohl's. I miss my shopping/church buddy.

Kellie & Chris stopped by to pick up Dave's spaghetti sauce recipe. They tried out the wii fit while they were here. Here's Chris trying to head soccer balls, but also trying to avoid other things thrown at him, like soccer shoes.

Wii Fit is so fun. You can do yoga, aerobics, skiing, and other fun games. You don't even realize you're exercising until the next day when your muscles are hurting.

Katie's team won 10-0 yesterday. Yay! After getting pizza delivered to their bus they set off back home for the 9 hour return trip. They arrived back on campus about 10:30 and classes begin this morning.

This morning there is an article in the paper about the University of Tulsa. They have their highest freshman enrollment ever (702) and are scrambling to find places to house all of them. They have converted the student lounges in the dorms to rooms and are putting 3 students into rooms meant for only 2. TU was recently recognized by U.S News & World Report as the highest-ranking college in the state and came in at 83rd among universities throughout the nation.

Kellie left her cell phone here, so they stopped back later in the evening and we enjoyed sitting on the patio enjoying some refreshments, watching the sunset and the dogs playing. She said the sauce turned out great!

After a lazy Saturday morning we went to lunch at Macaroni Grill (me, Dave & Drew). It was yummy and we enjoyed each other's company. It's weird without Katie around. The other day Dave took four dinner plates out as he was serving up the food for the three of us.

A few weeks ago I helped Kellie & Chris out by taking a load of stuff to Goodwill for them. Goodwill would not take a mattress frame they no longer needed. This week I had some stuff picked up by Prevent Blindness. They, too, would not take the mattress frame. The driver told me someone got hit in the head with one at their store and they were sued, so they don't take them anymore. Yesterday Kellie called and told me she wished we hadn't given away the mattress frame because they needed it now. After only two months of marriage they already broke their bed!!!!!!! She was relieved to hear no one would take it and I still had the frame. I took it over to their house and Chris and his step-dad fixed their bed. Funny how things work out. We also tore apart every box and pile of papers in her house looking for Pogo's immunization papers, to no avail. Kellie can't enroll him in doggie obedience classes until she finds them.

We anxiously waited for Katie's call to tell us about the game. Since Katie wasn't going to be playing we didn't bother buying the game online. The team lost 2-0. We can't help but wonder if things might have gone differently if Katie had been in goal. This is the first time in her long soccer career she has sat on the bench an entire game. It's a little tough for her. This afternoon they have another game. Hopefully that one will go a little better for the team. Natchitoches, Louisiana is the place where they filmed Steel Magnolias. Katie and her friends are going to have to rent it now because they can say "we've been there."

One last night watching Olympic competition -- Yay USA track team! We are going to record the closing ceremonies tonight so we can fast forward through the commercials.

Summer has returned so I think we'll spend some time in the pool today. Woo Hoo!!

Good Morning

Let's see, Friday I worked in the yard on my little rose garden. I just have to get more dirt to level out the rocks and I think I'm going to be very happy with the improvements. When it's done I'll post a picture.

Every Friday afternoon I stop at Dave's work and clean the offices. This had been Katie's job until she went off to college. The place always looks shiney clean after I'm done with it.

Katie called from Louisiana. She enjoyed spending the day in Nachitoches. They have quaint little shops and she was excited because she found a late birthday present for me. Woo Hoo! She's having fun traveling with the team. After dinner at a steakhouse she had a talk with her coaches. They plan to start the senior goalkeeper and, although they have all the confidence in the world in Katie and feel she may be the better keeper, they would like to avoid using her if possible so she can play the next 4 years. Because of the strenuous schedule of athletes they usually spend 5 years in college instead of 4, but they are only allowed to play 4 years. So they are thinking of redshirting her this year. She will still continue to travel with the team. She sounded a little disappointed but at least she knows now what they are thinking.

Dog Sitting

Last night Pogo came for a visit. Kellie and Chris went out to dinner to celebrate her being able to stay a 5th grade teacher at her school. Around lunchtime yesterday the principal came to the 5th grade teachers and said one of them would have to move to a different school and teach 2nd grade because of "numbers." Since no one would volunteer to go, it was down to Kellie and another teacher who were lowest on seniority. The decision was made by drawing straws and Kellie ended up with the longer straw - whew! Teachers spend weeks and lots of their own money getting their rooms ready for school. Kellie did not want to start all over, plus she loves her kids and the school is very close to her house. She was so relieved that she gets to stay put.

Katie arrived safely in Louisiana but the game has now been delayed until Saturday afternoon. Apparently Louisiana has been having some bad weather with lots of rain so they are giving it a day for the field to dry out. They are two in the hotel room and Katie was looking forward to sleeping in a big bed all by herself. She's rooming with her regular roommate, Maddie.

Yay to the men's beach volleyball team. What an exciting match! Congrats also to the women's soccer team. Go USA!

Finally, Happy Birthday today to my father-in-law, Dick.

Pogo!

This morning Katie is on a bus with the team for the 9 hour drive to Natchitoches, Louisiana. They will have games there Friday evening v. Northwestern Louisiana and on Sunday afternoon v. Southern. The Friday game we may be able to watch on the internet, which will be fun. Dave is going to pick up a cord or something so he can connect his computer to the TV.

She's a Keeper!

Day 1 - Here I go!

Katie sent me an e-mail telling me she set up a journal. It's going to be fun following her exciting new college life. She suggested I get one too, so here goes.

I've been rather sleep deprived lately. We've been staying up way too late watching the Olympics, but we're loving it. How about that Michael, Shawn and Nastia! Whoo Hoo! They have been fun to watch. Dave's getting sick of the China athlete lovefest and I'm getting tired of hearing him complain about it every night.

I'm so proud of my girls. Kellie is back to teaching 5th grade. The kids in her class are much better than last year, but she says they are a bit "chatty." She's been dealing with a sad beagle who is having anxiety at being left alone all day. Chris is thinking he needs some puppy prozac. They're also thinking of changing his name to Houdini. They bought a baby gate and have been leaving him in the kitchen, but every day he greets them at the front door. Starting today he's gonna spend Wednesday afternoons in my back yard. I go right by their house every Wednesday so I'll stop and pick him up for a mid-week visit to spend the day with Rocky.

Speaking of Rocky, she's doing much better lately. I think the diet dog food is helping and she seems to have more of a spring to her step. She even caught a rat the other day. Yay Rocky!

We're so proud of Katie. She's been working so hard at soccer. They have been practicing three times a day for the past three weeks and now she will be going to Louisiana to play in her first college games this weekend. We will be waiting anxiously by the phone to hear from her to see how it goes. The following weekend they will be in Arkansas and Missouri for games. I think we will be taking road trips to those games. She has been so sore from all the workouts. They have even been bubblewrapping her deeply bruised hips before practice. I never heard of bubblewrap treatments before, but it makes sense. She returns to campus Sunday evening and school starts on Monday. Her life is about to change again but she seems to be dealing with everything quite well.

Drew started at the local community college this week and is still working a few hours a day. It's nice to have him around so we're not quite empty nesters yet. We got rid of the glass dolls and Harry Potter stuff in Kellie's old room so now he can make it more of his own. We went shopping yesterday and picked up a cool University of Oklahoma comforter set. His dream is to attend college there some day instead of the community college. Maybe next school year if he works hard and does well at TCC.

Yesterday was my godchild/niece, Amanda's, 22nd birthday. I sent her a text and sang to her voicemail but didn't get to talk with the birthday girl. I hope she had a great day.

The weather here has been unseasonably cool, which means not much swimming. The cooler weather and rain has been great for the grass and soccer teams, but I'm hoping summer will return soon.

That's all for now!