All news, no wit

Because it has been soooo long since I have blogged, there is nothing clever to say. There is only the latest goings-on to relate.
First, we'll start with my trip. I have the luck of visiting Sharmyn and Jon on Tuesday! Chet surprised me with a plane ticket for our anniversary and I will be visiting the Mitchells in time to help them pack to move. I'm very excited! I will have a layover in Phoenix, so I hope to visit with an old friend Robin. Actually, she's not old; she's younger than me. (What do you know--wit!)
In October our family will be visiting Utah for Jesse's baptism. He turns 8 on September 29th, and since most all of the family and many friends are in Utah, we thought it best to have him baptized down there. It will be a quick trip, so we hope to see as many people as we can at the baptism. Actually, it will be a double whammy for my family because my nephew Ty will be sealed to my sister Debbie's family that same day, October 8th. I'm so happy to be able to attend a sealing for another one of Jeff and Debbie's kids!
Lately my days have been filled with getting kids off to school and trying to accomplish our family goal of reading the Book of Mormon before the end of the year. We started a bit late, so we've been doing a bit of catch-up, but I am confident that we will finish in time. If we get in a pickle we'll have a New Year's Eve scripture countdown party.
I've also been doing a bit of babysitting. We have a nurse in our ward who has a regular sitter for her evening shift, but every once in awhile she has a day conference, so I've been watching her 15 month old, Louden. It's been fun to have a little one around again. My next-door neighbor, Aja, talked to me last week about watching her baby when she goes back to work. She will need me to watch Deacon, her 3 month old, once we get back from Utah while she puts in 3 months of work. So I'll have a little one for November, December and most of January. Not exactly what I thought I'd be doing, but definitely a blessing. I can be home for my boys when they need me and still bring in some money. After January I'll be looking into being a lunch lady. My friend Loraine has been working as a substitute lunch lady and will be doing it permanently very soon. It's only 3 hours a day, only on the days your kids are in school, and they have medical benefits--not great pay, but did you hear that?--medical benefits--for working in the cafeteria a few hours. Not a bad gig!
Chet has finished the roof !!Hooray!! and I highly recommend never doing your own roof. It's hot and miserable, so start saving pennies now to hire someone else to do your dirty work. Chet is helping out a friend from our Steilacoom ward who left his architectural firm to go it on his own. He's been swamped with business, so he was happy to have Chet help him out. Definitely a win-win.
Sam is enduring his first semester of middle school. He only has three teachers stretched over his six periods because he is in the accelerated learning program. He has 3 core classes with one teacher, an elective with another, and two more core classes with a third teacher. I believe it has made it a smoother transition from elementary school and has been a good experience for him. He says it's OK, he just doesn't enjoy being in school.
Jesse, however, LOVES school. He has many of his friends from last year in his class this year, and he has a good teacher, Mr. Pete, who doesn't stand for students talking during teaching time. Imagine that--our kid being talkative....
Also as a bit of news, my mother-in-law has been very ill. She is definitely showing her age and has been in and out of the hospital and various care facilities because of falling or kidney troubles or diabetes and other health issues. This past year since April died has been incredibly tough on Chet's whole family, and it's really been wearing on Sherrie. Please remember her in your prayers--she needs all the peace she can get.
On a lighter note, I recently cut my hair and am trying to embrace my curl. I've always said that I have enough natural curl in my hair to be annoying, not enough to be cute. I think I need product. What product I don't know, so I've been experimenting. I tried to do sponge curlers last week and I woke up looking like Harpo Marx. I've thought of buying a curling iron <*gasp*> but that's too much of a commitment for me. A lady in my ward said my hair looked cute the other day, and then followed that up with "The messy look is really in!" I didn't know I was going for "the messy look". Well I guess it still has to be better than when I got my hair chopped in Nashville; the hairdresser convinced that I would love the Meg Ryan bedhead look. I look nothing like Meg Ryan, why would her hair look good on my head? I'll figure it out soon I'm sure, although the bald look is really in now if I don't.
Well, I'm heading down to get ready for bed. A quick browse through the Monastery Icons catalog we got in the mail, maybe a chapter of Wild at Heart (a book recommended by our old bishop), and a nice hot shower, then off to bed. Oh, and I have to check to see if the fish is dead. Sam found him half stuffed under a seashell earlier today and it's not looking good. I can't imagine how he got stuck under a seashell that has been in his vase* for so long, but maybe it was a suicide attempt. If he doesn't make it through the night the boys will be able to deal, but I don't know about the bird. It may devastate him.

*Our fish doesn't live in a fishbowl, he lives in a fishvase. Lived?