My family has been here for the summer. It's been fun, but it keeps us pretty busy. If I have free time, I'm over there playing games with Mom and her sister Frances, and entertaining Keri's two little boys.
Meghan has been taking swimming lessons again. I think she may actually learn to swim this time. The whole swimming thing has been a battle since she was tiny. She HATED water in her face and screamed through lessons when she was five and six. She refused to put her face in the water when she was eight. Finally, when she was ten we made a little progress, just got her past the fear of the water. This year, she's actually SWIMMING. Not well, yet, but she can almost make it across the small pool where she's taking lessons. I've signed her up for one more session this summer, hopefully we'll have a swimmer by the time it's over. But, it's every day...about 25 minutes away. BIG time sucker.
She's also been participating in a summer book club with some friends. Twice a week for a couple of hours...(in theory, anyway. It usually stretchs longer because it's at a good friends house and we end up visiting too long)
We've had visits from assorted people and that's always fun. The latest was my nephew Andy and his cute little family. We had a great time. This weekend Sam's sister, her husband and Sam's mother are coming. They've recently returned from a trip to China, we're anxious to hear about their adventures and see more pictures.
We planted a huge garden and we're just starting to reap the fruits of our labors. We have zuchini and yellow squash going crazy, pickling cukes that no one checked on and now they're bigger than the zuchini. They're tasty just to eat, though. We got our first tomatoes last week...about a month earlier than usual, due to our unusually warm weather. The stupid squirrels/ground squirrels/chipmunks (whatever they are) are taking their toll. Everything has little teethy marks on it. Not sure what to do about them, as they can climb whatever fence you can put up. Between snails, gophers, deer, rabbits, and the d*&% squirrels, we're lucky we get to eat any of it. I was so excited to see a handful of almonds on my almond trees, but something ate them already.
Ry and Sue came up for July 4th. Sam took a few days off and we all played for five days. We had a great time, as usual. However, Monterey cancelled their fireworks show and we had a hard time finding another one without driving an hour. We ended up buying $20 worth of sparklers and having a short sparkler party in our friends' front yard. This was after a beach bonfire and killer smores. So it wasn't a complete loss. Monterey better figure out their stupid budget and get those fireworks back on for next year...they're messing with our family tradition.
My new calling is Activity Days leader. That's keeping me busy as I figure out what the heck I'm doing, what's already been done, etc. I have twenty kids who come regularly, so it's a challenge. For me, it's mostly a challenge just to remember all their names.
Meg is going to YW girl's camp on the 27th, so we've been shopping/preparing for that. I can't believe my baby is old enough to go to camp. She was a little apprehensive at first, but her first year leader is a good friend of ours, her piano teacher is the Stake YW Pres, and her Youth Leader is her favorite Laurel. She's very excited now. I told her there had better be significant progress in the state of her room (which looks like it weathered Katrina...and not well) before she goes. I have at least one volunteer to help me shovel it out while she's gone. She doesn't seem concerned enough to do anything about it, so I imagine there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when she returns.
Just to make you chuckle: Sam takes the Apple shuttle bus up to work every day. They pick him up in Gilroy (about 20 mins away) and drive him up to Cupertino (another 45 miles or so). They have two runs, one at 6:30 and one at 8:15. He takes the 6:30 bus, because then he can take the early bus home and be home before dark. Yesterday, he got on the bus, put in his headphones with his new iPod and apparently went to sleep. He slept through the entire trip up to Cupertino, and then he woke up. The bus was going the wrong way down Hwy 85. Apparently, he slept through all the stops in Cupertino (there are several, as the Apple campus is huge, and has buildings for several blocks) and was still on the bus when it headed back down south to pick up the 8:15 load. So...he got a 2 1/2 hour nap on the way to work.
OK, I gotta clean house, etc.
