Boredom

So...the "important" football games are over for the day. Cait's softball game this afternoon was cancelled, and a dinner date with a couple of my friends was rescheduled to Tuesday. I read our local paper online, checked my e-mail, surfed around (saw that WI Badgers moved up to #5 in the rankings!). Wasn't sure what else to do...do you ever Google your own name to see what you find? I do every now and then, just for fun. It used to be that my work website would come up, but they must not have changed my name there yet because that didn't come up. I got a lot of Anna Nicole Smith references (her given name was Vickie Lynn Hogan), some references to an artist by the name of Vicki Lynn...and, this...isn't she cute?

Waahhhhhh!

Well that didn't work. I was searching the Net for a different template, other than those in/on Blogger. Found one. Loved it. Couldn't figure out how to use it. Oh well...I'll save that project for another day when I have time to study up on this HTML BMX PG USA computer stuff.

A Little Bit of Everything

-Does anyone have any advice for getting my tub clean? It's really bothering me, especially since we're not really dirty people. I've tried my "regular" cleaning supplies (Sprinkles, the foamy stuff, spray stuff) and nothing works. I even bought a new scrubber thinking that might help. Nope. It's not a nice, new fiberglass tub. It's old. Not sure the material, maybe ceramic, steel, iron? All I know is it's cold in the a.m. and it's not fiberglass. Anyways, I can't get the darn thing clean for the life of me. And I don't like a dirty bathtub (I tend to refrain from taking a bath, which I love to do). Someone must have a magic solution for me...?

-I have the day off tomorrow. The other day I was standing at my kitchen sink looking out at the yard and thought to myself how, since we moved, I haven't had a day at home to myself. We're almost always home on weekends, but that doesn't count because there's cleaning and laundry and this and that. I mean a weekday where I can just relax and lounge around and be by myself. So, since work is a little slow this week, I asked my 2 bosses and they said go for it! YAY! (Not to mention that the atty. I work for was on vacation the last TWO weeks and I worked my tail off!) I'm really looking forward to it.

-The Schwan's man stopped by on Monday since we were "new" in the neighborhood (how does he know?). Anyways, he gave us a catalog and said he'd be back on Wednesday. After looking through the catalog I decided we'd try a few things. Some items were reasonable. Some were not. At all. We ended up getting some French baguettes (We love bread!), some pancakes, and popsicles. I'm all about the pancakes! My dream one day is to run an IHOP. Even though I've never been to IHOP I still want to own one. Huh.

-Jason has/had 4 interviews this week. Hopefully something will work in his favor. He's been trying and trying to get into the prison system as a social worker. He had an interview at Jackson Correctional on Tuesday and another at Stanley Correctional tomorrow. This will be his 2nd trip to Stanley. The first time he interviewed there they called him and offered him the job, then called back 15 mins. later and said they called the wrong guy. He was 2ND on the list. Nice, huh? We're really praying that 2nd becomes 1st and they'll just offer him the job at the interview on Thursday. :-)

-Cait is doing well in middle school so far. She really likes it and seems to like her teachers (that's always key). She's made lots of new friends and is having fun. We have 2 more weeks of fall softball and then basketball starts up in November so we're still running, running, running.

-I'm going to work on my blog a little bit. See if I can jazz it up.

Mr. Rene

I'd like to give a shout out to Mr. Rene, who is now looking down on us from Heaven. Mr. Rene was our neighbor, and although we didn't know him very well, we already miss him! He passed away last Wednesday and I saw his obituary in the online version of our local newspaper today. We knew something was up because Mr. Rene had a lady friend that went to his house every single day, like clockwork. The lady friend's car wasn't there one day and I knew something was wrong. Then we saw another vehicle and a woman there along with a contractor changing the locks. Mr. Rene was a very nice man. He was quiet and kept to himself. He kept a nice lawn and he let us borrow his phonebook when we first moved in and didn't quite know where ours was. I couldn't believe when I saw in his obituary that he was 91 years old. He rode his bike around the neighborhood quite often and still drove his car to the grocery store every Saturday morning. It wasn't too long ago that I saw him on his bike. He was the kind of guy that everyone would want as a neighbor. I think he secretly watched out for us, even though we didn't know him that well. And we watched out for him, even though he didn't know we were. :o)

Whoops!

That's a big squirrel, eh? LOL...oh well. I'm still learning about posting pictures. I chose the "small" option! Good thing I didn't choose large. Must be the original size of the picture I stole from Photobucket.

Squirrels Squirrels EVERYWHERE!

And they're so cute. At least I think so. Some might see them as an annoyance, but I think they're fun to watch. For the past few weeks they've been harvesting chestnuts from our lovely chestnut tree. We have one and our neighbor across the street has two, so they run back and forth across the street and up and down the trees. They go waaaaay out on the very end of the limbs to the point that the little branches bend and the squirrel is left hanging there. Just after work today I was sitting on the couch looking out the window and I could see 5 little squirrels all at the same time. It looks like they get the chestnuts and peel the outside (leaving a mess in my yard), take the nut on the inside and then bury it to save for a later date. It's fun to watch them in all of their scurriedness (? made up word ?). Must be a sure sign fall is here...yay!

Junior High!?!?!?!

Today was BACK TO SCHOOL! YAY!!! I don't know if I've ever been so excited for another school year to start. Part of my excitement was because of Cait's growing boredom towards the end of summer...the other part is because I am 100% certain that she is ready for this. And some because I really like her new school and I think she'll fit in well. She started today as 1 of 175 sixth graders at Northstar Middle School here in Eau Claire. Sounds like a lot of kids, doesn't it? Well the other 2 middle schools in town have even more of the little buggers! We were fortunate enough to find our little house on the "north side" of town, which enabled Cait to attend Northstar. She was apprehensive about the move and the whole bit until we got here, and until she visited Northstar back in May. Then 2 weeks ago she had Camp Middle School--a program for incoming 6th graders to go to school and hang out with the other students, practice lockers and bell schedules, and get to know each other and the school. Last week we had orientation, and of course she knew everything because she spent 3 days there the previous week, but it was my first time to learn about the school (other than our brief visit in May), so I insisted that we stay for the presentations. Anyways, here's a picture of her from this a.m. Not sure why the attitude, other than it was early. Exxxtrreeeemmely early for her! The bus comes at 7:10 a.m. and school starts at 7:40. She had her alarm set, and I set mine too just to make sure she got up. I didn't know she was up, so I hit snooze TWICE thinking to myself "she'll still have plenty of time". Well when I finally did roll out of bed she was already up and dressed and eating her breakfast. What a good kid! :o) We're looking forward to a fun year...