ski camp

Dylan left for ski camp this week. He will be gone until Friday and I think the dynamics in our family will totally change. I think his brothers will be surprised at how much they miss him and I am pretty sure he has left a gaping hole in MY heart and life. Our funny boy is growing up...he was much more calm this morning, responsible about what he had to take with and that he had it all organized on time. This morning a very grumpy little girl has agreed to keep me company. Her name is Alinya. She is usually not so grumpy but today seems to be an exception. I am already looking forward to Dylan coming back and telling us how it was...they have a week of excellent weather and snow conditions ahead. The girl in the turquoise is our Monday girl, Timea, whom Alinya loves. I have not yet figured out how to turn the pictures around on our camera...mes excuses.

We hung the shutters on the chalet on Saturday. They are exceedingly bright, which will feel good on a winter's day and keep people feeling energized during the afternoon mtg at conv! There is just a little misc cleaning to do before our renters arrive on Thursday. Hopefully with a little bit of power shopping on Friday, they will be able to use their newly refurbished abode. We're really happy with the way it all turned out, even though it is pretty much what we have been doing since May! The yard will be next so we will be attacking that as soon as it warms up enough to plant grass. There are front and back doors coming next week and the balcony railing needs some magic wand work still. I'll be showing the place to the people who sold it to us today. I am sure it will evoke memories of their auntie who owned the place. Just to make sure there were no serious night noises (or ghosts) in the house, we slept there Friday and Saturday nights. It was fun but all is back to normal and we have a boy leaving for ski camp today. We got a bunch of kiss cookies ready (heart cookies here as we don't have hershey's products but do have some really yummy chocolate hearts) and a big bag packed and he's ready to go. Just has to eat breakfast and get on the bus. Happy Monday!

Laundrymat adventure

The last time I was at a laundrymat that I can remember, I was a little girl and I looked suspiciously at the other poor folk using the facilities. I imagined that they were all derelicts (how in the world do you spell that word?) and I was in immediate danger. It was a real adventure. We were in Greenfield, California and it was REALLY hot out. Or is Greenfield in Arizona? Anyway. When we had finished using the machines, we got our things out of the dryer and put them in one of those nifty rolling carts with a basket on the bottom and a place to hang things up on the top. We were disgusted to see our things full of dead (but now clean) flies who had gone through the cycle in addition to our clothes. It sure made an impression on me! Soooooo, today, because of a delay in the washing machine repair man's schedule, I took about 8 loads of steaming, stinking laundry to the laundrymat. The machines were state of the art, the caretaker exceedingly odd but no flies in our stuff. AND I got all of the loads done in two machines within one hour. Hm. I might just get a regular subscription to the place.

Alinya goes to school

Alinya started a little playschool yesterday. She'll go every week for an afternoon. My littlest child gave me a kiss and hug and walked away into her new world without a backward glance. I got home and wondered what to do with my free afternoon (for about 1.3 seconds) and then time passed quickly until I went to get her again. She had a mixture of joy and apprehension on her little bright face while she searched for me in the crowd of parents. Then she ran to me and said that she didn't want to go home yet, it wasn't over yet was it? She hasn't said a lot about what they did but she seemed very happy and very tired so I think it was good. She slept in the next morning until 9am! And is now eating beans on toast for breakfast at her request...

christmas past