The end of August through the middle of September

Wow...I don't know that I've ever taken such a long hiatus from blogging. If it's any consolation, I have felt guilty most of the days that I've taken "off."

At the tail end of August I travelled to Yorktown, Virginia to see Nathan graduate and drive back across the states with him. I'll cover that in a separate post. We came home and he had exactly one week of leave in which to pack for his new duty station in Cordova, Alaska. The fun thing is that his ship, the USCG Cutter Sycamore, is currently underway on a training trip (I think) to Japan and Russia, so Nathan flew out there and met up with his ship at the Yokosuka Naval Base in Tokyo. He flew in on September 10 and called me this evening from the ship to let me know he got there without incident and that "everything is amazing." He's going to try to find some internet somewhere so he can write an email or something, but in the meantime it's nice to know all is well.

The kids all started school. Dylan is in Grade 12 (horray!), Sean starts Grade 9, Patience is in Kindergarten, and Jordyn begins her second (out of three) year of preschool.

I am providing day care for my friends little boy, Darrell. He's here M, T, W and he's in Patience's kindergarten class, so it's very convenient.

Nick is walking more and more! I counted 12 steps today. Also today, he took a few steps away from me, realized that was a bad idea, turned around, and took a couple of steps back to me. It's great to see how much he grows and changes every day.

Don is BUSY. Two full-time jobs, it seems. This time of the year is always extra stressful, as he's under the gun to get all the tree work done in time for harvest. Thankfully Dylan is on board to help him both days this weekend.

Dylan and Sean are both on volleyball teams at school. It's hysterical because they come home from practice (4-6 p.m.) so sore and tired that they can barely lift their arms. They've done really well the first week of school, especially considering we cut off their internet habit cold turkey. We're reserving the internet for weekend entertainment...the weekdays are for school, music, cadets, and other worthwhile interests.

So, in case you were wondering or concerned, all is well in our neck of the woods! : )