September 1st , 2016

1. I thought it would be good to get a few words down on my blog since the last time I blogged was at the end of June and this way I can sort of close out summer and start fall.

2. It has been a whirlwind summer. So if summer where the months of June, July and August - I went up to Anchorage 8 times for a total of 33 days - Just my 8 times in the past 3 months is 40,000 miles- I have been working on the house - garage sales- organizing- packing- it has been a monumental task and is still not done but my helper who had the weekends off now has a different job and works on the weekends so he can help me put up signs and take out tables and stuff and then come back at 7 pm and help me put it all away but I haven't got to that point yet. For the most part all of the furniture is out and the attic is cleaned out with only about 15 boxes left-  I have boxes in the great room and family room that Tom needs to work through so we can decide what to get rid of and what to keep and store. The kitchen is no longer functioning as a kitchen because it is cleaned out for showings and so it seems more like a shell vs a home at this point. I do feel good about what I have gotten done so far but still lots to do .....

3. I really do not like being in the house by myself - I have never liked being in the house by myself- In May I was asked by a cousin if she could move into the cabin for a month or two and I thought it would be good to have someone there while I was gone and then while I was there and so I agreed. So it is nice to have someone on the property and then in the summer time it would get semi dark at 1 or two in the morning and then at 4 am it would be daylight again and so that didn't bother me that much to be in the house and then my helper would stay in a tent outside  and be in and out working on stuff until 2 or 3 in the morning - so lots of life at the house over the summer- but this last time I was up there it gets dark about 10 pm until 6 am and I just really do not like being in the dark house by myself. I still  have the "cabin people" as the realtor likes to refer to them but not my helper being around it just seems creepy in there with three empty levels and lots and lots and lots of windows - anyway it looks like we may have someone interested and so not much longer and I will not have to go up there as much or out to the house because it will not be our house anymore. Anything pass that point I have no idea yet what the plan is going to be- I really and truly do not want another house in Alaska- I know we have to have something but I am thinking a cute, small condo in Anchorage would be perfect with little to no upkeep needed- Right now I have almost 3 acres- 4000 sq ft house, 1560 sq foot shop and the 500 sq ft cabin and it is just to much work especially for not living there.

4. Well my plan was to get this out on Sept first but now it is the 5th and I am planning on finishing it this morning - Did you guys see the cute picture of Babybear that Adrienne posted on Facebook? He was sleeping on the couch wrapped up in a blanket that my mom made for Adrienne back when she was in 6th or 7th grade- I had put all of mother's blankets up in the attic with Adrienne's name on the boxes but someone went up to the attic and decided to open up every box they could find to take out whatever they decided that they wanted or thought they might get monetary gain from and so the blankets were out of the boxes just laying in the open and so I found this one and decided to make sure it got to Adrienne - for baby bear.

5. I have been home 7 nights in a row- I really did not want to go up last weekend and decided to stay down here and it has been really relaxing because not much was going on for auditions being the labor day or week before labor day and not only that but classes were not happening this week for the same reason and so we have just been pretty much hanging out at home and getting tons and I mean tons of homeschooling done which is pretty awesome. I have had lots of time to spend with Rainey and we are in the process of reading Trixie Beldon and are on the second book- interesting story- I ordered it off of Amazon used for a penny with the 3.99 shipping - do this with  most of my books - this time the book got here and it was literally published in 1950 - very, very, very old - when I turn the pages they almost fall apart and not only that but I  have a hard time not coughing while reading the book - not sure what that is all about but I am entertaining the idea of getting a newer book  but Rainey loves the idea of this book being so "old" the pictures are pretty cool. She is one good little reader... but that is for 6.

6. We had Rainey tested at the beginning of August - she is reading 50 more words a minute than the number used to denote "advanced" our counselor is pretty impressed  to say the least :) this is funny because back in 1st grade at the beginning she was one of the bottom 3 in the class but after Lexia by the spring she was in the top 3 in the class and in the last week of school she was the top reader in the class... . and then when they did the timed math test they expected 20 as the high number and she got 29 - she is doing good in math but I would like her to push a little bit harder so this year we are putting reading a bit on the backburner and focusing more on grammar, writing and language arts skills and then lots of math with the plan being she knows her multiplication tables and has an understanding of division by the time she tests in early December- also we are working heavily on science - unit on rocks and minerals right now and then social studies we are heavy  on learning the states/capitals  and about early explorers - so pretty much school takes up a huge portion of the day and we tend to even play learning games for a few hours at night with lots of logic thrown in which is something Rainey really likes - lots of Mindware games. We then watch Shark Tank and she gets a good understanding of life/money/business from watching the Sharks.

7. Last Friday I went to the fair with Adrienne and Baby Bear.

He did not like the sun in his eyes so I had to have the cover up most of the time. Look at the pretty Alaskan fair flowers behind the stroller...

 That was on

Friday that we went to the fair and then Adrienne went back to town. We were having a family gathering because my cousin Marie and her husband Stephen were coming to visit from Washington D.C. with their two young ones and so we were having a gathering at the senior center in Peters Creek where Diana lives. Only Nancy had seen Baby Bear by this point so I thought it would be nice if she brought him but she wanted to go fishing and wanted me to babysit so I had her drive out from Anchorage and meet me in Fred Meyers parking lot in Eagle River and I drove from the valley to ER to pick up Baby Bear - it  had to be around 3 pm because she wanted to go fishing early and so then BB and I headed back to the valley so I could finish making my appetizers and get ready to be picked up by Nancy - BB was asleep during the driving process and when he woke up this was his smile for me. He was smiling up a storm - so happy to see his grandma. He helped me finish my chores and then I took him out to have his bottle outside In the fresh air out in the yard and then we played in the grass for a while until Nancy arrived. Then we all piled in the truck - since his seat was in there and neither Nancy and I were sure we could get it in and out of her car) so off we went to the family gathering - Baby Bear got loads and loads of love - I did not get to hold him much  but that was ok - I did not mind sharing him- Adrienne showed up about 9 pm to take him home- I did not see them the rest of the trip- I was going to make an attempt on Monday but had to many errands to run in the valley and my flight left at 2:35 pm for Seattle and then into Burbank. I was home at 10 pm on Monday night the29th- I was really happy to be back which is most likely why I have not left since - 

 

Back to work this week - class starts again tomorrow at 5 pm but before that we have an audition for Lexus at 3:45 and she needs to learn her lines for both of them - than Cerris is back from filming in Philadelphia so we have Cerris twice this week and then the auditions come in pretty much every day and throw that in with school and you get a very, very busy week which is why I am grateful for the down time we have had the last few days. It is 3:30 pm and I am still in my jammies - school work this morning and then for the past 3 hours I have been cleaning up the living room and organizing the school area- I know that sounds incredible but Rainey is probably the  biggest mess maker I have ever seen. She likes to get into EVERYTHING and reorganize it into whatever idea she has going on at the time. One hour was spent just putting all the game parts back together - at any rate it is almost done and we  will have a nice clean living room for the next week at least:)