<p>She found her dress–it was that easy. D even got a picture of herself in it!</p>
<p>I moved over the winter, so for the past few months I’ve been working on fixing up a long-neglected planting bed in front of my new (to me) house. I’ve been slowly filling it in with flowers from my friends’ and family’s gardens. I really don’t know what I’m doing and I’m learning as I go along. This morning while I was out there planting more flowers, my neighbor came over to compliment me on how nice it looks!</p>
<p>I am NOT at all handy at fixing household things, especially metal parts to windows. For many, many years, we’ve had ONE broken rivet at a key part of a window handle. I dropped it one day and it was missing for weeks until H dug thru his stuff and found where it fell. We were both puzzling about how to reattach the broken rivet so it could still operate the louver handle but flex and not get in the way of the mechanism, which is flush. H was resigned to having to remove the entire window if he could ever find a suitable replacement rivet (which he despaired of ever finding as the windows are original–about 60 plus years old). </p>
<p>I decided to try duct tape to at least keep the rivet from falling out of the frame so easily. That was a help, but I just added a doubled piece of elastic that I tied into place. We both think that will do the trick until we figure something we prefer. :). Yippee! H had never considered either dust tape or elastic, but the combo seems quite functional and much safer and easier than removing this ancient window (possibly breaking parts in the process).</p>
<p>Insurance company preauthorized my “experimental” and hopefully life prolonging treatment! Ten days til we get started.</p>
<p>I tried to nail something to the wall and was not successful. However, I successfully spackled the holes and repainted them the correct color. The holes are now invisible!</p>
<p>yay, everyone! (an especial congrats for footballmom on getting caught up on mortgage!)</p>
<p>I took a longer than usual bike ride along a couple Jersey shore barrier islands. It was tough going on the way back, as I was riding into the wind, but I feel good about myself for going farther than I had this summer.</p>
<p>Also, I had another story accepted for publication. 2 in one month, when I hadn’t had one taken in 3 years!</p>
<p>I took yoga class with a huge range of folks including 20-something’s through 70s, male and females. I was comfortably in the middle of the pack for fitness and stamina, even with my health issues. :)</p>
<p>My baby received her masters degree today and tied for third place in academics with her best friend/roommate/study partner of five years of the PA program. When the head of the department announced the awards there was much laughter and jocular accusations of cheating!</p>
<p>Number one daughter has been visiting for three months (good news) and is leaving in a few days to return to the wilderness of Alaska (also good news; great to see her and great to no longer entertaining/chauffeuring her).</p>
<p>We bought our S1 a car - a 2001 Chevy Malibu. I had a company car when he was in high school and he had the use of our truck. When I lost my job, I lost the car too. We told him we would get him one when I found another job. I ended up being out of work for 18 months, we nearly lost our house and had to get rid of one of our cars. So being able to finally do this for him really feels good! And he’s also lost his last excuse for not looking for the intership he needs to graduate in his major …</p>
<p>Yeah footballmom! now the rest is up to S and to luck. That has got to be a good feeling.</p>
<p>footballmom…congrats on the new job. My S needed a internship to graduate in 2012. Every road seemed like a dead end but then out of the blue, he got a call for the perfect internship. Good luck to your S.</p>
<p>My hair has been driving me crazy for the last few years. It never looks right. I finally found a great stylist by asking the one person I know who has a great cut who she goes to. Lo and behold, a GREAT haircut, and it turned out to cost half what I expected.</p>
<p>One daughter just graduated from masters level healthcare program. Boyfriend of another daughter called to ask for our blessing as he is going to propose. We are so happy for both daughters :)</p>
<p>I have been wanting to share this because I am so excited. My sister-in-law, who spent several years in jail for DUI, just graduated from college in engineering!!! She is in her mid 40’s, and really had to reach rock bottom to see the light. The best news is that she got a job!!! The family is thrilled for her. She is an inspiration to so many people. Many, many prayers have been answered.</p>
<p>Silver- Your excitement definitely came through! So happy for her. Resilience and grit come to mind.</p>
<p>I met some really nice people tonight.</p>
<p>Still have some work to do but the worst part is over after being slammed by Superstorm Sandy last year. My house looks really festive and it feels good to be here! And it’s really nice to see all the lights up in my neighborhood - the darkness was so depressing last year.</p>
<p>Silver - delighted for your SIL! It’s a long road back and it sounds like she’s going to make it.
SandK - glad you’re doing OK. I helped with some cleanup after Katrina and one of the hardest things for people to accept was the “new normal” in their lives.</p>
<p>We have three partially deflated soccer balls in the backyard for the dog to play with. He will stand at the top of our small hill with one ball in his mouth and wait for you to try and kick another ball past him…like a keeper. He deftly and with great intensity deflects the kicked ball using the ball in his mouth and will push the ball forward until it rolls back down the hill to me.</p>
<p>He trained me to play this silly game with him.</p>
<p>He cracks me up.</p>
<p>garland…way to go with the two articles being published! Hope it leads to nice feedback.</p>