Weekend Almost Over Here.

Girls are asleep and I'm doing (you guessed it) laundry.

Rebecca and I were the only ones who made it to church this morning. Rochelle was planning to go with her mom to a special service for kids (which they ended up missing - got the time wrong). Ray was getting ready and was short of breath so he stayed home. He's okay now. I think he just hurried a little too much. Our Hmong congregation was having their egg roll sale between the services so Rebecca and I indulged. The proceeds go to the youth activities, I'm pretty sure. Their small group is active and thriving.

Never did make it to the lake today. The water will still be too cold. It's supposed to hit the 90's here next week and we'll try it again then. It's hard to be that close to the water and not let them in.

In spite of my long standing ban of toy weapons, I picked up squirt guns and a whiffle ball and bat today. I decided last year as long as the squirt gun looked like something from Star Wars it was barely acceptable and they do have a lot of fun with them. Nobody could possibly mistake it for anything other than what it is.

The upside of my boycott of the neighbors is that R & R are getting along with each other much better. They play together, have begun calling each other Becca and Shelly (fine with me), and managed to get through the weekend without a fight. Elcie feels a little left out and I'll try to figure out ways to include her more. Some of it is Elcie being her teenaged self. If I ask and she says no, I'm hesitant to ask again too soon. I don't want to pressure her. Of course then she says "but nobody invited me". I explained all she ever has to say is "me too" and that we sometimes don't take her because she so often doesn't want to go. Can't have it both ways, kid.

The joys of puberty.

Now that their first unchaperoned trip to the park (all 3 of them) has succeeded, I'll let them go again on the weekends and they can play in our back yard after school. It's small but they'll be okay. Once the dust has settled, I'll let them go out front on our side of the street more often. I really hate all this. It's stupid and unnecessary.

Still almost one more week of tests for Rochelle and Rebecca. The school year is winding down and I still haven't heard about summer school. It may be their grades (Elcie and Rochelle) have been so good they won't need it. I'm not sure Rebecca would benefit. She might learn more just from hanging out with me.

Just returned from filling two more baskets of clean laundry. I'll probably find cats on my next trip. (The clothes are still warm - how can they resist.)

I've seen Claire's Garden before but, since I can't remember if I mentioned her and I don't want to dig back through the archives, better twice than not at all. She's from Scotland and has beautiful photos of her gardens. Makes sense, doesn't it? The "search" function on Blogger sometimes works and sometimes not.

And of course Junie Rose has a blog. As a matter of fact, she has three. Somehow, her Blogger profile doesn't list them. I knew I remembered the name but it was late and I was fuzzy. Sorry Junie. I should never take Blogger's word for anything. The link takes you to her home page which lists all three blogs - one with poetry. She's a grandma too.

We have a very new blogger as well. Della B is a grandmother from Queensland, Australia who shares a blog called Turning Sixty with two other bloggers. (Della, correct me if I got any of this wrong and welcome.)

Just went back through the comments and discovered I'd missed Nancy . She and I were raised in the same part of central New York. She's a mother of two living in the Washington, DC area.

I'm officially the last one awake here. It's a little past midnight Pacific Daylight Time and I still have clothes in the dryer. I'll get them out to make a softer spot for a cat and then probably call it a night. I can put things away in the morning after I take Ray for his tests. Sounds like they will take a while. I'll let you know when I know something more.

Already emailed Mollie with the sporting news. We're sinking.

Good night all.