Starting High School, Selling Cookies, and Long Weekends

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's been forever. Hey, life's crazy; I've thought several times about writing but haven't been in front of a computer at the time.

That's all I have to say about that.

So, Princess #2 officially started High School. She is attending one that is close to her mother's house instead of the one that is 3 blocks from our house--time for a change of scenery for our little Drama Queen. Interestingly, on the first day of school, she has her ride "home" take her -- not home. For some reason, parents were not surprised. Basically, she wanted to see what the other high school was like and see some of her friends from 8th grade. Even more interestingly, she reports all the drama going on at what we'll call the "old school" as opposed to the "new school" where she is attending and knows all of 3 people. I chuckle and think of all the drama that must be going on that she just doesn't see because she doesn't know the cliques and the individuals. Can't wait for the drama to begin! She does have extra time after lunch to do some homework, so here's hoping that she doesn't just spend the time as extended lunch and does some of her work before she comes home--where she certainly is not known for doing her work, of the school-type nature or otherwise! She's a good kid, though, and we just can't help but love her. She's so creative, and very much looking forward to her art classes this year since she'll be doing a variety of different art practices instead of all pottery.

Princess #3 is selling cookie dough as a fundraiser for her school. She is working very hard to earn the next level in awards and prizes, but I'm not sure what we're going to do with 83 cases of frozen cookie dough until she can deliver them--or even how is she going to get it all home? I remember as a kid selling all kinds of garbage as fundraisers - from soap to jewelry to wrapping paper, but I still think the best fundraisers were the single-serving candies, either M&M's or chocolate bars or whatever. Kids could take them and sell them--or not; parents could put them in the breakroom at the office with a note and an envelope for collections (instead of having to deal with order forms and please pay now--it's just not worth it!). Ah, well, the bennies are much better than they ever were--she has earned a limo ride to lunch with several of her friends who have also achieved the same level of sales. Yeah, a LIMO RIDE, to where? Taco Bell??? Sheesh. At least make her work for it!

Princess #1 wrecked Dad's car last week. As she was leaving campus, she pulled out in front of a car, got smashed, and we're out a car payment. Uh, yippee? Oh wait, we're also out a car. Hmm... Well, I guess it's time to figure out how to ride the bus! SO glad that we had gap insurance coverage, because we were completely upside down in that car. If you have a loan on your car, PLEASE look into it and get it--it's cheap, and well worth the money in the event of one of those moments in time that will change one's life. Oh yeah, Princess is just fine. Her boyfriend is righteously upset (a little too much so) and insists that it wasn't her fault. Dad & I have surveyed the scene, and I tend to believe the police officer (who sees wrecks all the time and can better tell from experience who is to blame) who indicates by virtue of the ticket he wrote that our Princess was at fault. If the boyfriend doesn't pipe down, she might miss the lesson to be learned here, but she'll get to make up some of the lost lesson when we sit down to discuss the financial ramifications and what she will be contributing to get the situation squared away.

Finally, we have a "temporary" word on DH's assignment. He is wrapping up his time (if nowhere near his effort) at the current store, and will be assigned to another local store for a while. We're not sure what they're waiting on before they give him the permanent assignment, but we just keep praying that the decision-makers see what they need to see to make the decisions that God has in store for us. Hey, it's kept us here so far, so maybe that's His plan for us for the foreseeable future! Maybe He has an even better position for DH than we originally envisioned? We can only hope!

Long weekends are made for garage sales. I gotta tell you, we had one a couple weeks ago--participated with the neighbors in a "block" sale, and did extremely well, even if we were nickled-and-dimed to death. Sold a TON of little stuff, and at the end of the day had to move almost ALL the large furniture pieces back into the garage. Knowing that we had so much stuff, we didn't hesitate to determine that we would have another sale in a couple of weeks. Well, after cleaning up from that one with the help of Hubby and Princess #3, I was exhausted, and allergies were having a heyday for having stirred up all the garage-sale dust. I was still stuffy and sore throat come Monday. This time, however, was different: no block sale, no ad in the paper; just signs. Effective, apparently, because ALL the furniture sold (I even tried to give away the last dresser as I was "closing shop" but the guy insisted on giving me some money), I had very little to drag back into the garage afterwords, and made some decent cash, again. Now, if only I had remembered to put those boxes and bags of leftover goods on the stoop this morning so that AARP would pick them up... DOH!!! Guess I'll freecycle some stuff. Maybe, in light of the fact that we're down by one car, we'll figure out how to get the ole' truck running and haul some of the stuff to ARC or Goodwill. Duh? At least this time, I had Monday to recuperate as well--a good thing, since the rest of the weekend had been shot!

Okay, I gotta get going - hope you all are having a GREAT day (week, month... how long has it been?) and God bless!

~Me