Addicted to Craig's List

Well, here it is..my new "addiction" -- Craig's List I know it's not a "new" thing - but I have that same giddy-ness that I had when I first found e-bay. I still love e-bay...but e-bay costs money - and often takes a long time to sell things. On Craig's list I have had things sell within a few hours -- and usually the person lives close-by and you can just arrange to meet and swap or pick up the item. Much more convenient. Now that my ten-shift-in-a-row work marathon is over I was able to spend a little time on my favorite new website...and it was fun.

We have a busy weekend planned. Mary's last soccer game of the Fall is tomorrow morning - followed by traditional last-game-ice cream at the best local Ice Creamery (which is open until 10/31 --so we can get the yummy pumpkin flavored ice cream -- it is amazing!) Special Olympics swimming follows. That went "swimmingly" :) last week, so I am looking forward to seeing how tomorrow goes. Bill is able to come along tomorrow - so that should make things even a little easier on everyone.

I'll try to update more after tomorrow is in the record books - and I definitely need to get some new pics....so I'll do my best...Happy Fall!

One of Those Days...

Yesterday was one of those days that I was glad to have be over. I was tired and feeling sorry for myself. As gas prices soared again I was depressed by Jim Cramer (host of Mad Money) who expects gas to be at 5.00/gallon by the 4th of July. I began to question how in the world people are supposed to afford it. What is happening to our world?

I tried to put myself together, went and grabbed an ice cream cone and came home to start cleaning. I almost immediately recieved a call from school that Katie had managed to "escape" the classroom and was unaccounted for for almost 10 minutes before she was found. This has happened before, so I'm never really shocked by the call, but am always anxious to make sure that she has been reclaimed in an unharmed state. 10 minutes is a long time for an autistic 5 year old to be unaccounted for at a school that is right on the river.

After the day I had been through, my mom and I started to talk about Katie and how that her life is so simple. She lives to play outside and play with water. She is unconcerned with the daily burdens of life such as gas prices, disease and illness, and the many ofther things that make my life at times miserable to bear. She doesn't worry how the bills are paid (nor would any 5 year old..but this will be Katie's life for the foreseeable future.) or that we have too much laundry to do. She is carefree. She is happy. She is Katie.

Fast forward to this morning. It was Mary's last soccer game of the season. She was so excited. Unfortunately with the sudden spurt of 90 degree days that we have had it was too busy at the marina for Bill to make it to her game. She was a little disappointed, but we worked through it. He will be able to come to her big carnival at school Monday. so that helped to ease her pain a little. We are hoping to get our pool up this weekend which will also put smiles on both of the girls faces :)

Happy weekend....

Post-Weekend Update - Gas is 4.10/gallon

Well, another week has passed. They are flying by at an astounding rate. Only 6 1/2 days of school after today. As I have previously said, I am ready for school to be over. Katie cried and cried again as we walked into school today. She is done, too. Mary seems to be enjoying the end-of-school festivities as most 7 year olds do. For that I am thankful.

If you see my new header picture above, it was taken this morning. That is Katie in Mary's soccer jersey from last year. Katie would not leave for school without wearing it. She pulled it out of the laundry basket (no, I am not caught up on laundry, and as usual have many baskets to put away!) and threw it at me..which in Katie speak is "Mom, I'm wearing this and I need you to help me put it on!"

Our weekend was fairly uneventful. Mary's soccer game (she only has one left,) Church, we finished planting the garden, put up the kiddie pool that my mom bought for the girls. We have a 1000 gallon pool that isn't up yet. My mom saw this pool (see pic) in a Land's end catalog and apparently thought it was a lot bigger than it was. Too funny, but the girls liked it anyway. We will try to get the big pool out this weekend. It is supposed to be hot here all week (86 on thursday, so yes, summer is coming), so I think it is finally time for the pool!

And as a final note, yes, gas is 4.10 here. Thought it would go down a bit after the holiday, but apparently not.

What a Weekend...

Yes, it has been a crazy weekend. I had listed my status on facebook as "Jill is feeling like Wonder Woman minus the outfit" - and that is how I felt. Too much to do. Katie came home with the spider hat on Friday from school. This is the first year that she has wanted to wear hats. She wore it for a little while and then spent about 15 minutes torturing the poor spider by swinging it around until the legs fell off. It was beyond repair and has now made it's way into the dumpster :(

Then on Saturday we had soccer in the morning. Bill had to work so it was just the girls and I. I opted out of picture taking because I had my hands full with Katie. Mary's team won and she played very well -- especially at goalie. She has already told us that this is her last season of soccer and she has no desire to play again next year. It's her third year of soccer - fifth season...so Bill and I are good with that. She is hoping to start Tai-Kwan-Do lessons this summer.

We then had a two hour pool party on Saturday afternoon at the Middle School pool. I was dreading this b/c Katie always is a handful when we go swimming. She wants to swim but has a hard time adjusting to the initial shock of swimming (temperature, etc. ). Then, once she is in she has no desire to get out. Even after two hours of non-stop swimming when she is rubbing her eyes and is barely able to stand up on her own. Thankfully I didn't even have to get in the pool. Our neighbors (who were having the party for their kids' birthdays)helped get her in and adjusted and I was able to hang out on the side of the pool. Katie can swim, but we just put her in a lifejacket and let her bob around. She is much happier this way. Mary spent the majority of her time practicing her diving technique. It still needs a little work and she ended up doing quite a few belly flops. She ended up coming home and was in bed for the night at 5:30. If only Katie could have followed suit we would have been all set :), but the Katie-bug held out for regular bedtime.

It's been a crazy weekend. But a good one. Church today was great. Katie's "buddy" is working out fabulously. So far 3 weeks in a row of church with no significant issues. It might be a record. I have to work early, so I need to go to bed...more later. Goodnight.