Friday, August 28, 2009
Moving day.
This is almost two weeks overdue. I figured I'd wait to write about it until I could think about it without wanting to bawl my eyes out. So, here goes:
Here she is, posing as she comes out of the door for the last time before heading off into her great college adventure. It's like 5am, a little past. We thought about not sleeping and just heading out the evening before, but then we thought better of it. It is a very long drive, and you don't want to attempt it without sleep.
Being the geeky dad with a camera that I am, I had to snap one of her getting into the car. She is a little irritated with me at this point because I've been chanting "let's go let's go let's go" for about 5 minutes.
Finally we were on the road. It was a great, scenic drive, once the sun came up. But for the first couple of hours we drove along in the dark. I caught her trying to read in the pale pre-dawn twilight. She made a face at me.
I didn't take any pictures of the drive. I was just too sleepy. Plus I didn't know how much life my batteries had in them and I really wanted to get some shots when we got there.
We made a couple of regular stops for gas and bathroom, hit a drive-thru for lunch, but we pretty much drove straight through. We made the whole drive in about 7 hours (it took us 10 when we went for orientation!)
Finally we made it into Las Cruces, made the exit to the University, and followed the signs directing us where to go to unload. It was about 1 in the afternoon when we saw her dorm. This is the street-side view of Garcia hall. It's very pretty.
Her room is in the D section. They had signs posted on every section. Each section is about the size of a football field and three stories high. There's a lovely little garden in the middle of each. I don't know how many rooms are on each floor in each section, but with two people per room, I'm thinking there are easily close to a thousand kids in this massive building.
We pulled in to park right across from where her room was. Fortunately her room was on the first floor so we didn't have far to go. There was this large bush next to the car with all these little white flowers on it. I don't know what they are, but they were nice.
As you can see, the back of our little Subaru was stuffed, really stuffed. They had shopping carts available to help us move the stuff from the car to the room.
Geeky dad with the camera irritating his college co-ed daughter. She was so anxious to get everything moved in that she just wanted me out of the way.
Shortly after we started unloading, a guy asked us if we wanted help. They told us at orientation that the Greek society volunteers to help people move in, so this wasn't unexpected. However, what we didn't expect was that he would grab 7 or 8 other guys and they would unload the car all in one shot!
Here she is trying to deal with the chaos of everything coming in at once. Her roommate wouldn't arrive until the next day, but we didn't know that, we were trying to keep the mess just to her side.
Her room is pretty nice as far as dorm rooms go. It's a well used building, so there were scuff marks on the walls and such, but it was relatively clean and the air conditioning works great. She has a ton of storage space and a pretty nice walk in closet.
Her bed was unusually long. A lot of colleges do that now. We had to buy special sheet to fit. Of course everything has to be green with her. I don't know why.
Here you can see a good shot of the desk area which is the main living space of the room besides the bed. You can see that she set herself up quite nicely with a fridge, a microwave, a coffee maker, and her TV. The dorms have free cable, she get's like 70 channels! I told her I was going to stay so I could watch her TV. She didn't think I was funny.
It took us a couple hours or so to get everything set up and put away. But when it was done it was really cozy.
Finally, she was all set. Here she is getting comfortable on her bed with her favorite thing in the whole world, her sketchbook.
Finally, it was time to go. We were all exhausted from the drive, the excitement, and finally the relief of having her all set and settled. She laid down for a nap and we left to find a comfortable hotel.
There is a PS to the story. She called a little while later to ask what we were doing for dinner. While she could have gone to the cafeteria, she wanted to spend one more meal with us. We grabbed some KFC and ate at the hotel.
Then the next day, as we were ready for the drive home, she called again. She needed help getting her computer set up on the network. So back to her dorm to fiddle with the cord and network settings.
A final good-bye and we were off to home. I had the video camera with me but never found anything worth recording, so I played with it on the way home. I set it to record in fast forward and captured about 300 miles of our ride home.
Here she is, posing as she comes out of the door for the last time before heading off into her great college adventure. It's like 5am, a little past. We thought about not sleeping and just heading out the evening before, but then we thought better of it. It is a very long drive, and you don't want to attempt it without sleep.Being the geeky dad with a camera that I am, I had to snap one of her getting into the car. She is a little irritated with me at this point because I've been chanting "let's go let's go let's go" for about 5 minutes.
Finally we were on the road. It was a great, scenic drive, once the sun came up. But for the first couple of hours we drove along in the dark. I caught her trying to read in the pale pre-dawn twilight. She made a face at me.
I didn't take any pictures of the drive. I was just too sleepy. Plus I didn't know how much life my batteries had in them and I really wanted to get some shots when we got there.
We made a couple of regular stops for gas and bathroom, hit a drive-thru for lunch, but we pretty much drove straight through. We made the whole drive in about 7 hours (it took us 10 when we went for orientation!)
Finally we made it into Las Cruces, made the exit to the University, and followed the signs directing us where to go to unload. It was about 1 in the afternoon when we saw her dorm. This is the street-side view of Garcia hall. It's very pretty.
Her room is in the D section. They had signs posted on every section. Each section is about the size of a football field and three stories high. There's a lovely little garden in the middle of each. I don't know how many rooms are on each floor in each section, but with two people per room, I'm thinking there are easily close to a thousand kids in this massive building.
We pulled in to park right across from where her room was. Fortunately her room was on the first floor so we didn't have far to go. There was this large bush next to the car with all these little white flowers on it. I don't know what they are, but they were nice.
As you can see, the back of our little Subaru was stuffed, really stuffed. They had shopping carts available to help us move the stuff from the car to the room.
Geeky dad with the camera irritating his college co-ed daughter. She was so anxious to get everything moved in that she just wanted me out of the way.
Shortly after we started unloading, a guy asked us if we wanted help. They told us at orientation that the Greek society volunteers to help people move in, so this wasn't unexpected. However, what we didn't expect was that he would grab 7 or 8 other guys and they would unload the car all in one shot!
Here she is trying to deal with the chaos of everything coming in at once. Her roommate wouldn't arrive until the next day, but we didn't know that, we were trying to keep the mess just to her side.
Her room is pretty nice as far as dorm rooms go. It's a well used building, so there were scuff marks on the walls and such, but it was relatively clean and the air conditioning works great. She has a ton of storage space and a pretty nice walk in closet.
Her bed was unusually long. A lot of colleges do that now. We had to buy special sheet to fit. Of course everything has to be green with her. I don't know why.
Here you can see a good shot of the desk area which is the main living space of the room besides the bed. You can see that she set herself up quite nicely with a fridge, a microwave, a coffee maker, and her TV. The dorms have free cable, she get's like 70 channels! I told her I was going to stay so I could watch her TV. She didn't think I was funny.
It took us a couple hours or so to get everything set up and put away. But when it was done it was really cozy.
Finally, she was all set. Here she is getting comfortable on her bed with her favorite thing in the whole world, her sketchbook.
Finally, it was time to go. We were all exhausted from the drive, the excitement, and finally the relief of having her all set and settled. She laid down for a nap and we left to find a comfortable hotel.
There is a PS to the story. She called a little while later to ask what we were doing for dinner. While she could have gone to the cafeteria, she wanted to spend one more meal with us. We grabbed some KFC and ate at the hotel.
Then the next day, as we were ready for the drive home, she called again. She needed help getting her computer set up on the network. So back to her dorm to fiddle with the cord and network settings.
A final good-bye and we were off to home. I had the video camera with me but never found anything worth recording, so I played with it on the way home. I set it to record in fast forward and captured about 300 miles of our ride home.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Jon & Kate plus 8, Octomom and others who think they "deserve" it.
Or
Raising a family of 10 on less than $3000 per year per person.
Normally, I would put a rant like this on my other blog, saving this one for news about the kids, cute pictures, things like that. But today I've blown a fuse and I've had enough. If I hear one more thing about "The Goslins" or "Ocotomom" and their multi-million dollar reality TV deals (and worse, their whining about how they couldn't survive without it) then I'm going postal.
I have a large family. There are quite a few of us out there that do. There are a very small percentage of us are insane enough to take fertility treatments to have large multiple births - they are the crazy ones, the fringe. The rest of us may or may not have planned to have large families but we do. In our case, we didn't plan. Mind you, none of our kids are unwanted, but we never set out saying "let's have 8 kids and no money". There are others that criticize us for being irresponsible, for overpopulating the world, for using more than our share and so on. And there's something to be said for that. But in our case, even with preventative measures in place, God exercised his sense of humor and blessed us with a large family.
We've always struggled - well, struggle isn't really the right word, maybe "manage" - we've always managed on a fairly small income relative to how many of us there are. Except for a brief time (pre-9/11/01) when the economy was soaring and I was able to secure a computer programming position, we've always ALWAYS lived on about $3000 a year per person. And not just survived, but we've managed to have some luxuries. We've had to ask for help from time to time, sometimes getting by on a prayer and the kindness of others, but we've never gone around with our hand out, demanding from others what we didn't truly deserve.
Enter reality TV.
We don't have cable or satellite TV. That's one thing we do without. Partially out of financial frugality, but mostly because we honestly feel it's not worth it. The cost to our family from the amount of garbage that would be streaming in far outweighs any benefit. Because we only get like three channels, I have never seen Jon & Kate Plus 8 or any of the other reality shows that are out there about large families. But I've heard about them. Too much. In our entertainment saturated society, the break up of Jon and Kate made NATIONAL news. As did reports that Nadya Suleman, known as the "Octomom" was being offered a multi-million dollar reality show. Then came the reports that both shows were in jeapardy. Jon and Kate's show because they broke up and Octomom's show because nobody really cares. THEN came the outcry from both of them whining because "how are we going to take care of our kids!" Seriously. Google them, you can follow the whole shebang of both stories.
I have 8 kids. I know many others who have large families as well, and none of us walk around like the world owes us. One of my good friends from Colorado has 6 kids and they run a pretty successful carpet cleaning business. One of my friends from down here has 5 kids, she doesn't do as well, but she does what she has to to get by. Those of you who follow my blogs know that I am disabled (hopefully not forever) and we survive on disability insurance while my wife goes back to school to make a better life for us in the near future.
$3000 a year per person. Except for a brief time when we lived in Colorado and spent way too much on a rented townhouse, we've always gotten by on that. (Coincidentally, if take out that house payment we got by on about that during that time too!) Never have we felt like we DESERVED more. Never did we go around with our hands out saying "look at us, there's so many of us, we need more more more just to survive!" Yes, we've accepted help when it was offered. Yes, we've made use of public assistance programs that are available, but never, ever did we stomp our feet, clench our fists, and demand that the world take care of us, like just because we have a lot of kids we were somehow more deserving than the rest of the world.
I don't understand the mentality of these reality show "stars". What did they do before they had TV shows? What did they do for money? I'll tell you what they did. They did what the rest of us do: WORK and GET BY WITH LESS. Yes, it can be done, and done comfortably. Sure we go to a lot of garage sales and buy some of our clothes from the Dollar Store. We don't have a big screen TV (but the one in the living room is big enough!), we don't have an Xbox (but we do have a Wii!) we don't have cable or satellite (but we do have Netflix!) we don't order pizza a lot (but we do get take and bake!) we don't go to McDonald's or Sonic very much (but we make some awesome bacon cheeseburgers here at home!) but guess what? We are healthy, comfortable, and happy.
So let's do these reality "stars" a favor and boycott their shows. They will be much happier living in the real world and earning a living like those of us who live in the REAL reality.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Another shot of the kids
This one took a little touch up because the little ones were pretty much done with pictures by this point, but I think it looks good.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Three Hundred Miles in 25 Seconds.
I was playing with my camera on the ride home from NMSU. I recorded at one frame every three seconds. The battery gave out just as we got to Albuquerque, so I captured about 300 miles. Nice scenery, but it goes by really fast!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Friday, August 07, 2009
Just some randomness.
It's been a while since I've posted more than family news and photos here. Most things that cross my mind I post on my other blog since they are more personal thoughts and not related to the rest of the family.
But today I'm bored so I thought I'd just say some random things.
I've started watching "Lost" online (Netflix). I'd been wondering for a while what the big deal was with this show, since we don't pick up the channel it's on out here in the boonies. I'm on episode 16 and it's actually getting pretty good. It hasn't really blown me away like Heroes or some other things I've seen, but as you get into these characters' lives it's pretty interesting.
Healthcare is in the news. I have some very strong opinions about what needs to be done, but I'm not a politician or an expert in this area at all, so I could rant and rave all day, but it wouldn't really matter unless I knew what I was talking about. But there are some things I do know. When my company stopped paying for my health insurance, I was able to continue it under a plan called COBRA. However, instead of being double what I was paying before, it was more than 5 times as much. An incredibly insane amount - more than what I was making per month when I was working. So it was either spend every penny we had, plus more that we would have to borrow to continue my health coverage, or let it lapse and not starve to death. Also, if I had never gotten insurance and had saved all that money, I would be able to pay the bills for all the things the insurance wouldn't when I did have coverage, plus what little they did pay, plus have some left over. In other words, it cost me more to have insurance than it would have cost me to not have it. That's a broken system. Someone needs to stop the insurance companies from doing stupid crap like that. That's all I know.
My lovely wife got me an ice-cream maker for Father's Day. It's probably the greatest gift I've ever gotten. I've probably made 10 batches so far. Mostly vanilla, just because that's easiest, but I'm getting anxious to try new combos. The issue is, most recipes I find online are trying to get all fancy schmancy and stuff, saying to scald the cream and all this other stuff. If you're going to go through all that trouble, then what's the point? Others call for raw eggs. I'm not even going to go there. Just give me cream and sugar and something that blends in with it. I'm thinking my next batch I'm going to make chocolate then stir in m&ms and brownies and all that good stuff when it'd done. Death by chocolate.
One of the stupid girls from High School Musical took some obscene pictures of herself which have been released onto the Internet. My little girls love those movies. Like it or not, actors are role models. It's just plain shocking and stupid that someone who's fan base is under 12 would do something... well, shocking and stupid. At least wait until you're in your 20s, like Britney Spears, before you do something like that.
I've only been to one movie lately. I only get to see about one a year in theaters. Mostly that's due to poverty, but also because there are so few that I really want to see as soon as it comes out. I don't remember what I saw last, before this time anyway. It couldn't have been very good if it didn't stick in my brain. This time, it was Star Trek. (Thanks Mom!) Did I talk about this before? I don't know. If I'm repeating myself, I'm sorry. Anyway, a lot of Star Trek fans were worried that it wouldn't be any good; that you couldn't make a Star Trek movie without William Shatner or Patrick Stewart. But guess what? In spite of using the old stand-by trick of time travel, the movie was awesome. I heard they are already filming the sequel. Which is awesome.
That's enough rambling for today.
But today I'm bored so I thought I'd just say some random things.
I've started watching "Lost" online (Netflix). I'd been wondering for a while what the big deal was with this show, since we don't pick up the channel it's on out here in the boonies. I'm on episode 16 and it's actually getting pretty good. It hasn't really blown me away like Heroes or some other things I've seen, but as you get into these characters' lives it's pretty interesting.
Healthcare is in the news. I have some very strong opinions about what needs to be done, but I'm not a politician or an expert in this area at all, so I could rant and rave all day, but it wouldn't really matter unless I knew what I was talking about. But there are some things I do know. When my company stopped paying for my health insurance, I was able to continue it under a plan called COBRA. However, instead of being double what I was paying before, it was more than 5 times as much. An incredibly insane amount - more than what I was making per month when I was working. So it was either spend every penny we had, plus more that we would have to borrow to continue my health coverage, or let it lapse and not starve to death. Also, if I had never gotten insurance and had saved all that money, I would be able to pay the bills for all the things the insurance wouldn't when I did have coverage, plus what little they did pay, plus have some left over. In other words, it cost me more to have insurance than it would have cost me to not have it. That's a broken system. Someone needs to stop the insurance companies from doing stupid crap like that. That's all I know.
My lovely wife got me an ice-cream maker for Father's Day. It's probably the greatest gift I've ever gotten. I've probably made 10 batches so far. Mostly vanilla, just because that's easiest, but I'm getting anxious to try new combos. The issue is, most recipes I find online are trying to get all fancy schmancy and stuff, saying to scald the cream and all this other stuff. If you're going to go through all that trouble, then what's the point? Others call for raw eggs. I'm not even going to go there. Just give me cream and sugar and something that blends in with it. I'm thinking my next batch I'm going to make chocolate then stir in m&ms and brownies and all that good stuff when it'd done. Death by chocolate.
One of the stupid girls from High School Musical took some obscene pictures of herself which have been released onto the Internet. My little girls love those movies. Like it or not, actors are role models. It's just plain shocking and stupid that someone who's fan base is under 12 would do something... well, shocking and stupid. At least wait until you're in your 20s, like Britney Spears, before you do something like that.
I've only been to one movie lately. I only get to see about one a year in theaters. Mostly that's due to poverty, but also because there are so few that I really want to see as soon as it comes out. I don't remember what I saw last, before this time anyway. It couldn't have been very good if it didn't stick in my brain. This time, it was Star Trek. (Thanks Mom!) Did I talk about this before? I don't know. If I'm repeating myself, I'm sorry. Anyway, a lot of Star Trek fans were worried that it wouldn't be any good; that you couldn't make a Star Trek movie without William Shatner or Patrick Stewart. But guess what? In spite of using the old stand-by trick of time travel, the movie was awesome. I heard they are already filming the sequel. Which is awesome.
That's enough rambling for today.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
A Conversation with Mr. L
Mr L came into our room yesterday while Mom was cleaning.
"I wanna play the Wii!" he announced.
Mom said, simply, "No."
"How 'bout now?", the toddler asked, immediately after Mom's Denial.
"No."
"How 'bout... now?"
"No."
"How 'bout.... now?"
"No."
This exchange went on for about 5 minutes. Finally Mr. L decided to change tactics.
"I wanna play Smash Brothers." choosing to ask for a particular title instead of the system as a whole.
"No." was Mom's continued reply.
"I wanna play Wario!" exclaimed Mr. L, choosing now a character in the game.
"No."
"I wanna play RED Wario!"
"No"
"I wanna play GREEN Wario!"
"No"
"I wanna play YELLOW Wario!"
"No."
This exchange went on for another 5 minutes, the toddler going through every color he could think of.
Finally, after exhausting all his options, Mr L finally asked in frustration "Well why not???"
Watching this exchange I started chuckling at about the third "No", by the time he uttered "Well, why not?" I was laughing so hard I almost fell off the bed.
"I wanna play the Wii!" he announced.
Mom said, simply, "No."
"How 'bout now?", the toddler asked, immediately after Mom's Denial.
"No."
"How 'bout... now?"
"No."
"How 'bout.... now?"
"No."
This exchange went on for about 5 minutes. Finally Mr. L decided to change tactics.
"I wanna play Smash Brothers." choosing to ask for a particular title instead of the system as a whole.
"No." was Mom's continued reply.
"I wanna play Wario!" exclaimed Mr. L, choosing now a character in the game.
"No."
"I wanna play RED Wario!"
"No"
"I wanna play GREEN Wario!"
"No"
"I wanna play YELLOW Wario!"
"No."
This exchange went on for another 5 minutes, the toddler going through every color he could think of.
Finally, after exhausting all his options, Mr L finally asked in frustration "Well why not???"
Watching this exchange I started chuckling at about the third "No", by the time he uttered "Well, why not?" I was laughing so hard I almost fell off the bed.
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Saturday, August 01, 2009
An Update for August First
It's become my tradition that even when I've had nothing to say that I always try to share the "state of the family" on or near the first of the month. I hope you don't mind. This is not just for you, but for me as well. It helps me to think, to look around, to keep track of the chaos that is our life (see, I knew I named the blog that for some reason.)
School starts this month, for everybody but me and the babies (and the dogs, though they could use some obedience training!) Miss C is "going away" to school and she's a nervous wreck. I for one am so jealous of her. I'd love to be able to relive those days and weeks before I "went away" to school. The anticipation was in many ways better than the reality of it. Not that my freshman year at college wasn't amazing, it's just... well, it's like the excitement of expecting a trip to an amusement park - all you think about is the fun and not how much you're going the throw up on the spinning tea cups.
Miss C on the other hand is making up things to worry about. It's still two weeks before she goes and last night she couldn't sleep because she hadn't bought her shampoo yet. Not because she was worried about her classes or her room mate or how she's going to pay for books, shampoo.
Miss T and Mrs. A are in classes again at the college here. They are both having issues getting registered as most professors are too busy enjoying their summer to open up their classes for registration, but that's always the way it is around here. So over the next two weeks they will probably make several trips to the college to get everything set in stone.
Everyone else is anxious to go back to school too. Which I don't understand because when I was in grade/high school I dreaded the end of summer. I begged for the school to have a busted pipe or something so we didn't have to start on time. My kids, on the other hand, are counting the days more passionately than they count them down for Christmas. I'm glad they like school, but I don't get it.
As for me, not a lot has changed. It's been a rough summer, but our swamp cooler works well so I haven't suffered too much from the heat. It's getting harder for me to get around, but I'm trying to get a little exercise so that I don't lose what I already have. We got an exercise thing for the the video game and that's pretty good (when I motivate myself to do it!)
We finally got a hearing for Social Security. On the 20th. I don't know what to think. We were thinking about getting a lawyer when it came through. I don't know if we can get one now, but I'm hoping the judge will actually LOOK at me rather than going by whatever their so-called experts will say. But we can continue to appeal it as many times as it takes. We're very fortunate to have a great disability insurance plan from my previous employer that will continue to pay out indefinitely (at least for now - who knows what will happen when they start tinkering with the insurance companies.)
What else can I share? Bob, the big white van, continues to run OK. Sometimes the transmission can be a little "stuttery" when it's really hot, and for some reason the speedometer has stopped working (probably just came undone), but it's doing OK. Our little blue Subaru is running great too. That's our main car for running around and getting groceries and stuff. With gas prices the way they are going, I'm thankful for that one. It get's close to 25mpg!
This coming weekend is the tax-free weekend here in New Mexico for school supplies. We don't have a whole lot to get this year as we stocked up during tax-free shopping last year. We are going to need shoes, of course, and some clothes, some other odds and ends. The stores are busier than they are at Christmas, but so totally worth it.
What other randomness can I share? I've tried to share all the pictures and videos that I've taken lately. We haven't really gone anywhere fun and exciting this summer. We were hoping to make a trip to the zoo, but that's going to have to wait. We don't get out to movies much. We do get Netflix here at home.
That's our one luxury. We get two movies at a time so we let the kids pick one and the adults pick one. Lately we've been working our way through Battlestar Galactica. If you like Sci-Fi, and even if you don't, the show is fantastic. We're not even through season 1 and we're addicted. I heard recently that they changed the charter of the UN based on a summit the writers and actors had with the representatives. Any show that changes the world has to be pretty good.
So that's all I have to say for now. I'll be posting news about Miss C's move, the first day of school and all that stuff as it happens. Take care and God bless.
School starts this month, for everybody but me and the babies (and the dogs, though they could use some obedience training!) Miss C is "going away" to school and she's a nervous wreck. I for one am so jealous of her. I'd love to be able to relive those days and weeks before I "went away" to school. The anticipation was in many ways better than the reality of it. Not that my freshman year at college wasn't amazing, it's just... well, it's like the excitement of expecting a trip to an amusement park - all you think about is the fun and not how much you're going the throw up on the spinning tea cups.
Miss C on the other hand is making up things to worry about. It's still two weeks before she goes and last night she couldn't sleep because she hadn't bought her shampoo yet. Not because she was worried about her classes or her room mate or how she's going to pay for books, shampoo.
Miss T and Mrs. A are in classes again at the college here. They are both having issues getting registered as most professors are too busy enjoying their summer to open up their classes for registration, but that's always the way it is around here. So over the next two weeks they will probably make several trips to the college to get everything set in stone.
Everyone else is anxious to go back to school too. Which I don't understand because when I was in grade/high school I dreaded the end of summer. I begged for the school to have a busted pipe or something so we didn't have to start on time. My kids, on the other hand, are counting the days more passionately than they count them down for Christmas. I'm glad they like school, but I don't get it.
As for me, not a lot has changed. It's been a rough summer, but our swamp cooler works well so I haven't suffered too much from the heat. It's getting harder for me to get around, but I'm trying to get a little exercise so that I don't lose what I already have. We got an exercise thing for the the video game and that's pretty good (when I motivate myself to do it!)
We finally got a hearing for Social Security. On the 20th. I don't know what to think. We were thinking about getting a lawyer when it came through. I don't know if we can get one now, but I'm hoping the judge will actually LOOK at me rather than going by whatever their so-called experts will say. But we can continue to appeal it as many times as it takes. We're very fortunate to have a great disability insurance plan from my previous employer that will continue to pay out indefinitely (at least for now - who knows what will happen when they start tinkering with the insurance companies.)
What else can I share? Bob, the big white van, continues to run OK. Sometimes the transmission can be a little "stuttery" when it's really hot, and for some reason the speedometer has stopped working (probably just came undone), but it's doing OK. Our little blue Subaru is running great too. That's our main car for running around and getting groceries and stuff. With gas prices the way they are going, I'm thankful for that one. It get's close to 25mpg!
This coming weekend is the tax-free weekend here in New Mexico for school supplies. We don't have a whole lot to get this year as we stocked up during tax-free shopping last year. We are going to need shoes, of course, and some clothes, some other odds and ends. The stores are busier than they are at Christmas, but so totally worth it.
What other randomness can I share? I've tried to share all the pictures and videos that I've taken lately. We haven't really gone anywhere fun and exciting this summer. We were hoping to make a trip to the zoo, but that's going to have to wait. We don't get out to movies much. We do get Netflix here at home.
That's our one luxury. We get two movies at a time so we let the kids pick one and the adults pick one. Lately we've been working our way through Battlestar Galactica. If you like Sci-Fi, and even if you don't, the show is fantastic. We're not even through season 1 and we're addicted. I heard recently that they changed the charter of the UN based on a summit the writers and actors had with the representatives. Any show that changes the world has to be pretty good.
So that's all I have to say for now. I'll be posting news about Miss C's move, the first day of school and all that stuff as it happens. Take care and God bless.
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