Wow, time has gone by, I have been the full-time Grandma now for almost a year! Cara starts first grade on Sept 6th. Tonight we have the open house, she is going to English Crossing Grade School in the Lakewood School District. The School is less than two miles from home. The bus will get her at 8:10am.
I don't think I blogged since Heather and Cara moved out of the farmhouse to a double-wide next door owned by Pat Swift. It came available in December and they moved about a week before Christmas. It was kind of bittersweet for us. We are glad they are still close by, and Heather is happy to be in her own space again. It was a shock, though, losing the rent money was a concern, and also because we did not really have much here in the way of furniture. Luckily we did have a couch/hide-a-bed, and a side chair to put in the living room. Didn't have any Christmas decorations and basically felt lost for a few months, adjusting . All in all it was a good thing.
We took a trip to Oregon last week and brought home a trailer load of furniture, and the dog kennel, wheelbarrow and misc. that could fit into the trailer. So the house finally looks like home and I was able to get beds upstairs and am sorting and re-arranging things up there. made the landing into a little room for Cara to do school work and play. Maybe I can keep the downstairs looking better without all her playthings scattered around.
Tom has had pretty steady work since the spring. Has had some good jobs for nice people that keep calling him back and he has not had to travel too far most of the time.
We got a cheap wood insert off of Craiglist and sold the pellet stove on Craiglist, so now we will be heating with wood, and we have lots of scaps from his jobs, and hope he will get some regular wood also. It is an old one, I forget the brand now, but uses no electricity, so is quiet and radiates the heat. In fact I buildt a fire yesterday morning and this morning to take the chill off the house!
The summer weather did not arrive until August, so we spent every day we could at the Lake Goodwin Park. It is a great place to have children swim, and it is sanded and very shallow a long ways out to a dock. So I don't have to worry about Cara. We always take a friend with us when we go, and they are out there jumping off the dock and having so much fun. There is a little playground there, and the ice cream man makes an appearance in the afternoons. Then the Lake Goodwin Store has Corn Dogs for a dollar, so that is usually dinner on the way home!
Cara also took six acro classes at NWDance and Acro during July(two days a week) and also a fun dance class for two weeks. Next week the acro classes start up again and I am going to get her into a hip-hop class. She has so much fun dancing. Last winter spring she took a combo class and at the recital they did a routine to Broadway Baby. Seven in the class ages ranged from 4-6. They did great and it was really cute.
Last Friday we went to the Evergreen State Fair and watched the horse show and then did the rides, barns and food. My friend Gale Forrest went with me, and Cara took her friend Maddie.
We spent the whole day from 9:30 until 3:30 there. Then I took Cara and Maddie back to the Lake when we got home to cool off!
Cara has a new friend named Adelin who lives close by. She has been over here two days in a row this week, and I think she may come this morning also for awhile. They really play well together, lots of time on the trampoline, and yesterday dressed up the dogs and had a dog show. Then made dirt stew on the porch( it's a mess right now!)
I have applied for jobs every week, only have been called twice and no job offer yet. I only want part time for now, or evenings. I started collecting Social Security, only $573 a month, but it helps me feel less vulnerable to at least have that much coming in.
Tom's Dad died end of June, and we had to spend on airline tickets and motels to go to Illinois for the funeral. Tom also had to go to Nashville early June to help with his dad. His quality of life had not been good for 10 months, and he kept getting fluid in his lungs , put on a ventilator twice and finally came home from the hospital and died at home. Tom's mom still not coping with the death, even though it has been obvious to everyone that it was coming.
She came here the week after the funeral and stayed with us and we all went to Chris Brock's wedding on July 17th. Cara was a flower girl, it was fun. Well this blog is covering a lot of lost time, since last November, so it's kind of long. Just wanted to catch up!