Catching Up

I haven't been doing very well at my goal to keep this blog current. But it's not like I've been totally uncommunicative web-wise. I have three blogs plus facebook plus email.

Lately I've been turning political on my writing blog. Why? I think it's time--probably past time--to use any venue available to say what needs to be said. So I wrote about racism (a conservative view) and received a disappointingly closed-minded response from a liberal friend (probably former friend now) of mine. I also posted pictures that express my view of the Crowley-Gates Beer Summit. Check it out:
http://nightingalescage.blogspot.com/

This week we've been drying apricots (a bucketful every two or three days, wash 'em, put 'em on the dryer) and freezing beans. And I ate my first ripe tomato! YUM!! We've also been tearing the house apart, getting rid of stuff we don't need and boxing up stuff we don't need right now. We just need to find someplace to shove the boxes. Storage units are pricier than I had anticipated, and if we don't move we're really won't want to live in perpetuity (at least partially) out of a storage unit. We're still not absolutely convinced moving is the right thing right now, but we're moving forward with the process of preparing to sell our house. If all else fails our current house will have new paint, some new carpet, some long-delayed repairs completed, and the yard looking nice.

The real-estate agent would like us to get the house on the market ASAP, but I absolutely do not want to be pressured in any way to hurry and find a new house.

Let's see...

Maren spends as much of her time as possible playing with friends, and it is the end of the world if she has no one to play with. She also really got excited about cleaning out her room and boxed up an astonishingly huge bunch of stuff. PLUS she's doing a SUPER job keeping her side of the room picked up. She got a haircut this week, too. It's cute, cute, cute!

Ian went on High Adventure with the scouts. They hiked more than 60 miles during the week all totalled, and hiked to the top of King's Peak. The next week he started band camp, in which the band does most of their work getting their field show ready. They went from 7 AM to 9 PM for five days, with breaks for lunch and dinner. Ian had a great time and spent time with his bandy friends. He's excited for the band season to start on the 21st at Ogden High's first foot ball game.

Hannah has kept the Ogden High fiddle group active and practicing all summer. They'll be playing at a ward adult activity the end of August. The music teacher--who plays bass in the fiddle group--suggested to her that he might do a celtic marching band program next year and include the fiddle group in that. That would be cool. She's been a great help around the house--painting and cleaning and organizing. She's also been reading. How's THIS for light summer reading--The Canterbury Tales. Yep. The whole thing. She finished The Aeneid today, has read part of The Fairy Queen, Dante's Inferno, Plato's Republic, Marlow's Dr. Faustus, and various other works of poetry and prose. And she has a stack of books--mostly epic poetry and Shakespeare plays--that she wants to read.

Darin got to work from home this morning. That was nice--just to have him there even though we couldn't bother him. He also got to play pitbull last night. We were woken up at 2:30 in the morning when the alarm on our pickup truck went off. We heard a car driving away. He threw on some shorts--very light tan shorts; it looked like he'd gone out in his underwear--and ran out to check things out. No damage to the truck, nothing missing. The window had been left down enough for someone to reach in and unlock it. But when you unlock the truck manually the alarm goes off unless the key is in the ignition. It was enough to scare them off before they could get anything. Not that we keep much of any value in the truck. They might have gotten away with a pair or two of Hannah's shoes. She has so many she has to keep them SOMEWHERE! We called the police and Darin talked to the officer. It took us both an hour to get back to sleep. Maybe it's another sign that we need to move.

Suzanne is working on Roadshow. Thanks to Hannah for all her help on script and lyrics. Unfortunately we had to put the cement galoshes on the rabid squirrel that's actually a parrot, and the parrot that's actually a rabid squirrel. Don't ask. The youth are primarily in charge of writing the show. 'Nuf said? We'll read through the script and hear the music for the first time Wednesday.

We're also gearing up for school. We've been buying books and deciding on curriculum, as well as clothes shopping to make sure everyone has at least three pairs of long pants without holes in the knees.

But right now I need to go pay bills. I hope the bank's online account services is up and running again. That's the reason I'm blogging right now. So I guess that's OK.