Pictures of Othello Park

On the bridge.

Johnny really likes playgrounds.

Took Holly a while to be comfortable with the spiral feature.

It was pretty windy that day.

Not that either of the kids mind windiness.

Johnny likes slides.

Clapping in jubilation.

Mommy on the bridge.

Holly on the slide.

See my foot?

On the bridge again.

Johnny did pretty good on this playground.  He could do most of the features that they had there.

It was parent watch week for Holiday's dance class so David and I took turns watching.  The kids always have trouble focusing when the parents are watching.  Towards the end Holiday got it together.  Bunch of 4 year olds...chaos, but fun chaos.  We got to visit Grandma Linda again this weekend.  She said she really enjoyed the 'card' that Holiday made for her.  I guess Holiday made it complete with a bar code on the back of it.  She made one for Daddy that same evening and when she was asked what that bar code meant she said it was 'the end'.  Kids are great.  On Sunday, Holiday and I got a lot of yard work done.  We planted pumpkins, zucchini, broccoli, romaine, and dahlias in the greenhouse, then planted thyme and spinach in the back yard planter beds.  That was a lot to plant and she stuck it out.  She also helped with the transplanting of the really big daisy plants from the back yard to the front yard.  Then she helped me rake and dispose of the last of the dead fallen leaves on the back side of the house.  We filled up that green bin.  If any a little girl deserved a chocolate milk it was Holiday.

Pictures!

Sleepy Johnny

I guess it's been awhile since we've downloaded pictures.  That snow happened quite some time ago.

But it was fun while it lasted.

Geared up Johnny.

Doctor John

Here's my smiley face...

...and my foot.

My mom laughs about stuff like this. I did the same thing at his age. 

I think he was unhappy about wearing the hat...he just wanted to go outside.

Sits on a chair like a civilized human being.

Playing stickers.

Holly's new Kindle is fun too.

There hasn't been any earth shattering news lately.  David is still hard at work trying to situate things for Grandma Linda.  Now we need to find assisted living for her because of all the medical rules she needs to leave the nursing home.  It's quite a complex system but not intuitive and certainly not sympathetic to our situation.  We did get to see Grandma Linda this last weekend and it looked like she was doing good.  We dropped off some stuff for her.  There's a family room near her room so we basically just hung out there.  Johnny freaked out when we first stepped into her room.  There's definitely a medical feel to the place so I'm wondering if he thought it was going to be a doctor's appointment.  Or maybe seeing people in wheelchairs was odd to him.  Hopefully he chills out next time and realizes nothing is going to happen to him there.

Dust Settling

David and Grandma Linda made it back into town on Sunday and the kids and I survived Daddy's absence.  David is still wrapping up stuff from her California residence but he can do that from a distance.  It did get a little complicated when he arrived there last Thursday to find that the house had been burglarized.  They took a lot of sentimental things.  I'll just say that I don't have nice things to say about people who do stuff like that.  Filing a police report wasn't on his original agenda, but he did manage to get everything done that he had planned on and then some.  Hired a company to clean and sell the remaining furniture and housewares, car and motorcycle.  Hired a real estate agent to fix up and sell the house.  David is still pretty busy keeping up with Grandma Linda's paperwork.  There's still lawyer stuff to do.  It's been an eye opening experience.  At least our own family schedule hasn't been too heavy lately, that keeps the stress level from skyrocketing too much.  The kids' birthdays are coming up in the next couple of weeks so that gives us something to look forward to.

One thing after another

Well, David has finally received the go ahead on a nursing home.  They said he was probably getting the run around because it's so hard to get someone moved from out of state.  So for everyone out there that has an out of state relative make a personal note of that.  David's making all the travel arrangements right now so the big road trip will happen soon.  I'll be getting some help from family and friends while David's gone.  I've been trying to help by managing all the family schedules.  Birthdays are coming up, dance class related stuff, summer schedule stuff and getting Holiday enrolled in Kindergarten.  It's been pretty stressful and I'm pretty exhausted.  But then last night as I was getting ready for bed, the toilet made a funny sound when it flushed.  Alas, it was plugged two flushes later which required cleaning up the bathroom floor.  David made a Liquid Plumber run and everything seems to be working fine.  It's likely we need to call RotoRooter again, but we'll use some root killer stuff to clear some of the roots out.  But honestly, it's like we're writing new verses to the book of Job sometimes.