A while back, I decided that Saturday mornings were going to be "Blog time". The kids are watching cartoons, Anna is sleeping late, and I'm up anyway so I might as well attempt to be productive.
I don't know if the three of you that read this noticed, but I did really good for about 2 weeks. After that, things just kind of went out the window. Then I didn't want to blog during the week because I was "supposed" to do it on Saturday, then I'd feel guilty for not doing it on Saturday when something came up. So then I figured, "ok, I'll just do it whenever". And when is the first time I have available?
Saturday morning.
So here I am, thinking I need to give you something profound because I haven't really written anything in quite a while. But, let's be honest, I never really have written anything profound, so who am I kidding?
It's been a while since I've told you "what's up with the Andersens", so let's do that.
Life in New Mexico has been interesting lately. The weather is just nuts. Spring time is normally kinda windy, but by every definition, the wind has been insane this year. I've literally been scared that the house was going to blow off the lot, with us in it! And it's been COLD! Normally by this time we are getting very warm and having to turn on the air conditioner, but so far we've only had to use it once. There are some nights the furnace still kicks on.
The Mrs. is done with school for the spring. They got done really early. Immediately she started her summer job, which is the same job she had during the year: tutor at the student center. It kind of sucks because it's going to make it hard to just drop everything and go and do stuff like we all so desperately need this summer, but we need the money. I miss her, but that's life.
Not much going on with me. My health continues to slowly slide downhill. The good news is we finally got a hearing with Social Security and it seemed to go really well. My pro-bono lawyer was awesome. He knew every jot on every scrap of every piece of paper relating to my condition from every doctor everywhere. The judge asked me about driving and when I said my doctor told me not to, he said, he hadn't seen that in writing. Immediately, my lawyer was able to tell the judge, from memory, which form, which page, what date, which doctor had signed it and so on. It was great. It will probably be around Christmas before we get an answer, but win or lose, it's over now and we can get on with life.
If you haven't heard, Miss T is engaged. I would relate that whole story, but she has started her own blog at
http://tasha-chaoticsymphony.blogspot.com/. She's very happy, which is great because she hasn't been for a very long time.
Miss C is home from school. Her last semester was really a disaster for her and she's basically just a mess. It's been very hard adjusting to having her at home after she's used to being very independent. Very hard. She's signed up to take classes here at San Juan. Personally.... well, never mind what I personally think. She's an adult and is making her own choices. But it's hard to balance that with her living at home again.
Mr. D is going to finish the year at the top of his class, or very very near the top of his class. While things have been hard with his girlfriend this year (very long story), he's really excelled at his school work. Our mission as soon as he gets out of school is to get him his driver's license. Finally. Miss T left her car behind (it won't make the trip to Iowa) and Mr. D and Miss C are in a race to see who can get their license first and get a job to raise enough money to buy it from her. We're still not sure what his future plans are. He talks a lot about joining the Marines, which is great, but I want him to join for the right reasons and not because he thinks he has to for the money. With his grades, he will be writing his own ticket to any school he wants to go to. I've been encouraging him to apply to Harvard, Stanford, MIT....
Miss D just had a birthday. She's really becoming an awesome young lady. She's starting to really develop her own unique sense and style, kind of a toss up between cow-girl and flower-child. She's done awesome in her school again this year, but like most teenagers (or near teen-agers) she's having a little trouble getting and staying organized. But we'll work on that this year. She still thinks boys are icky, but I'm not sure how long that will last.
Mr I had a great wrestling season. He didn't get many first place medals this time, but he had a great time. He too is doing great in school this year. He's anxious for summer to start, but I really don't know what we will do with him all summer long. I'm hoping we can get to the pool a lot for him. He'd be happy playing the video games all summer, but that's what I do and I'm not sharing.
Miss G has been doing school work at the grade above where she's at all year. They didn't move her up a grade because they don't do that for kids her age in this area, but she did spend a lot of time in the classroom next door for the grade above hers. So she not only drove her teacher crazy, but the teacher next door. In both cases, she totally blew through all her work and was still bored. The poor kid just needs constant intellectual stimulation. For her we are going to try, really hard, to get to the library at least once a week, maybe more.
What can I tell you about Mr L and Miss R? They've enjoyed having the house to themselves while the kids are in school. Particularly, they've enjoyed making some really huge messes. But that goes with the territory. We're hoping that we can get Mr L into a preschool program this fall. Miss R will be lost without him, but she'll cope. Her most favorite thing is to sit and draw all the time.
What else do you want to know? We're trying really hard to squeeze the crud out of every penny we have to be able to do a trip this summer. The first part of August, Anna's sister is getting married and we want to be there. So we need to tune up Bob the big white van, pull together some camping gear, and plan an itinerary that will allow us to get to the wedding, but also get to see everyone that we haven't seen in more than 10 years.
So that's all for now!
The Mrs. is done with school for the spring. They got done really early. Immediately she started her summer job, which is the same job she had during the year: tutor at the student center. It kind of sucks because it's going to make it hard to just drop everything and go and do stuff like we all so desperately need this summer, but we need the money. I miss her, but that's life.
Mr. D is going to finish the year at the top of his class, or very very near the top of his class. While things have been hard with his girlfriend this year (very long story), he's really excelled at his school work. Our mission as soon as he gets out of school is to get him his driver's license. Finally. Miss T left her car behind (it won't make the trip to Iowa) and Mr. D and Miss C are in a race to see who can get their license first and get a job to raise enough money to buy it from her. We're still not sure what his future plans are. He talks a lot about joining the Marines, which is great, but I want him to join for the right reasons and not because he thinks he has to for the money. With his grades, he will be writing his own ticket to any school he wants to go to. I've been encouraging him to apply to Harvard, Stanford, MIT....
