A happy report

I am happy to report that there appears to have been no mouse activity last night. There were no droppings and the poison had not been disturbed.

Yesterday I got to cleaning up the droppings in the closet. As it turns out, they were a little busier than we thought up on that shelf. If you didn't realize it, Gary's hat makes a nice place to eat poison. I had to take everything off the entire shelf, wipe it down, and clean the shelf. I washed all the hats and cloth bags I had sitting up there. Everything is back in order and I will be putting a container up there for all the non-wipeable things.

The Apple Store

And I don't mean an eating apple store, either.

I was having trouble updating my iPod to the next version. My updated iTunes kept telling me the iPod had the latest version, which it didn't. After several attempts to fix it myself and calling Apple tech support, I ended up at an Apple Store with an appointment at the Genius Bar.

If you've been to one, you know what it's like. [I assume all stores are alike.] If not, then . . . I walked into a cacophony that was the Apple store. There were large work tables set up on either side as you walk in. The first one on the left had six iPod stations, the right had six iPhone stations. Next were the tables with laptops of all sizes and next came the desktops and iPads. Around the perimeter were more of the same. There were no less than twenty people walking around in blue shirts emblazoned with the Apple logo. And the place was packed with customers. I checked in with the Apple employ holding an iPad. I waited for my turn. When it was my turn, the guy took my iPod asked me my troubles and tried to update it himself. His iTunes immediately asked if he wanted to update the iPod, which of course it would since he's the Apple guy. He asked if I had all my stuff on my iTunes, which I do, so he updated it at the store. Before I left, I tried loading an App that I couldn't load before, to make sure it worked. It did, and I was on my merry way.

I'd also like to note that during the update waiting time, Josh informed me that he had to use the potty. Since I am all for him using a potty and not his diaper, I told the Genius Bar guy that I'd be right back. We hurried to Neiman Marcus for him to use the potty. He didn't produce anything, but at least he asked. He did, however, create a dirty diaper before we left the store.

The car is in

Today to avoid droppings removal, since there is still more to clean up, and because I've wanted to do this for awhile, I moved all the tools so I could pull the car into the cellar.

Phillies news

The Phillies are the National League East Division Champions. They currently have the best record in all of baseball.

We are going to the playoffs.

As an aside, I was discussing with myself what the best sport to be a fan of is. I concluded that it was baseball. There are 180 games per season. If your team (PHILLIES) goes to the playoffs, than it's even more.

Football is only 16 games, basketball is 82 games, and hockey is 82 games.

Now if you root for more than one team, your numbers go up of course. But still, you get the most games per team if you are a baseball fan.

Just saying.

The mice

I have been cleaning up mice dropping for at least three weeks now. We knew they were in the house, but they weren't coming out much. But still, they needed to go. I wasn't into killing them, so I bought a plug in device that uses the wires in the house to mess with their nervous system and is suppose to make them leave. But . . . nobody told the mice that. All they did was up their activity and started in earnest to eat our food, in the pantry and on the counters. We have found more droppings on the counter and on our food shelves then ever before since plugging that thing in.

Friday, I cleaned off all the shelves, made sure all food was in hard plastic, cans, or glass. That night we bought poison. We put it out. The mice had a party with it. Gobbled it up, in fact. As they have done since. I unplugged that really helpful device.

Today I bought steel wool to shove in all the inside access holes they use. Gary plans to plug up all exterior holes as well.

I will have my kitchen back.

A Recap

I thought I'd go back and post several posts about the last two weeks, but then I decided to just post a bunch of photos.



Josh and me at the Wallenpaupack dry creek bed. I know the water might throw you off, but it really is a dry creek bed. The water is from run off. The actual water that should be there is diverted through a pipe line to a hydroelectric station.










Ellie and Josh sleeping.











My newly made baggies. An attempt to use less plastic baggies for snacks and lunches.









Newly made bag chewed by the blasted mice.









Ellie's self-motivated and self-hung clothes line. Josh is taking a break from hanging laundry.










Gary, Ellie and Josh enjoying the Wallenpaupack dry creek bed.








Josh and me on our neighbor's sail boat.













Gary steering said sailboat, with a little help from his friends.

MOPS

Today was MOPS. Josh came down with a cold last night, so I wasn't sure if I should go. I decided to go anyway, and they found some extra helpers to watch Josh and keep him out of the regular room. He wailed and cried for me not to leave. I had to pry him off. A little while later, I was told he had calmed down and was playing happily.

I wasn't nervous about going until I actually walked in the room. I was a little confused by the set up but just made like I knew what I was doing and sat down. I had met some of the women before, so at least, I recognized some faces. They had a drawing for a prepared meal for those who arrived on time. I won. I also received a kid book, since I have a child entering kindergarten this year.

There is a singing group performing at the church all week and the girls in the group shared a few words about their mothers. I teared up with what most of them said. They were all so thankful to their mothers and blessed by them. Right now in mothering, I generally do not here words of appreciation from my children. So when I heard these girls speak of their mothers the way I long someday to hear my children speak of me, I cried. Well I tried not to cry, but those pesky tears snuck out anyway.

What I heard most from the girls is that they are grateful for their mothers' individual attention, ability to listen to them and hear them, and their servant's heart.

It gave me insight as to what I need to focus on with my children.

Now you see it . . .

I started digging at 1:15



































Josh helping me.









. . . now you don't. I was done at 3:30. There were two breaks.


I decided to move the pile of dirt for several reasons. The main one being, it was in the way. Come snow time, we can't really have the cars on the rode out front, with plows coming through. Indian rocks has asked residents to move cars off the road to make room for the plows. We have the back driveway, but the boat made it harder to use. But the boat was taken away yesterday. So that left the large pile of dirt. More than once I wondered how the pile got there in the first place. I don't remember it always being there, and there aren't any hole it would have come from.

As I looked around with the boat being gone, my eyes kept coming back to the pile. It had to go. Then Gary could pull the car in with nothing in the way, back up into the new spot, and easily turn around and to pull out of the driveway. He had tried doing that with the boat and dirt pile still there. He gave up and has been parking on the street. Let's see where he parks tomorrow.

My next project is to make room in the cellar for my car. Some people think it won't fit, but I'm going to try.

Nurture Shock

For those who have children or work with them, I highly recommend you read the book Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. It isn't a book about discipline or techniques, but new thinking about children.

I was impressed with the chapter called "Can self-control be taught?" The chapter discusses the extreme success of the curriculum called Tools of the Mind for pre-K and kindergarten. I was so impressed, I called, and then emailed, Ellie's school principal to let her know about the Tools of the Mind program. I also emailed a friend who is homeschooling her children.

In fact, I am impressed with the whole book. I don't want to take it back to the library.

The train show

The train ride was nice. The actors should not quit their day jobs. But actually they had a good show. They were all volunteers from a local riding stable.



The kids getting ready to board the train.










Grammy H, Ellie and Josh








The sheriff, a Pinkerton, dance girls, and the ticket collector (not part of the show.)








The shoot out.








The marauders attacking the train. They were not masked.










Ellie's family.

Our first visitor

We have our first new visitor to the cabin this weekend. My parents and sister have already been up to visit us, but they've been here hundreds of times.

This weekend we have the pleasure of Gary's mom joining us in our mountain home. Tonight we went to the Greene, Dreher, and Sterling Fair. It is much smaller than the Wayne County Fair. But it had all the same stuff: rides, food, animals, exhibits, vendors, monster trucks.

Tomorrow we take a train ride on the Stourbridge Line. And it's not just any train ride, it's the Great Train Robbery excursion. Masked mauraders will ambush the train. Then we are going out to eat.

Monday will probably be a sleep in, relax around the house kind of day.


Here is a photo of the last vacation with Gary's mom. We went to Ocean City.

This weekend is a vacation for her, but not so much for us. But we can pretend.

The bus thing

Not so sure about the bus thing. Ellie was gone from our care for 9 hours today. She's only 6 and she was gone longer than Gary normally is.

On the bus at 7:05 or so and off at 4:05 or so, with school being from 8:30-3:15. I am hoping that the bus ride home will be shorter, once they work out the system. It doesn't help that they have two elementary schools on one bus.

I had to stop the bus driver from pulling away, because Ellie hadn't gotten off. She had fallen asleep. I'm glad she got her nap, but goodness me.

Not really what I had in mind, when sending my kid off to school.

First day of school

Here is Ellie on her first day of school. She is excited and nervous. Or maybe nervous and excited.

Last night we organized her supplies and made her lunch.

Today, I got her up at 5:45 am. She got herself dressed, brushed her hair, and ate some of her breakfast. She was nervous, so didn't quite finish it. She brushed her teeth and went potty. She put on her sweater and backpack and walked around with it on, while waiting to leave.

There were no fits. There was no complaining or whining. We had a great morning.

All four of us went with Ellie to the bus stop. There is another boy in kindergarten (but not her class.) There is a girl in fifth grade who says she helps make sure everyone is doing what they should. And several other children in the grades in between.

The parents were all friendly and nice also.

I held back my tears as she rode away.