So this is my first post on the new site. Yahoo 360 changed and really sucks now and I just hated everything about it. This is so much nicer! I can change fonts! Wooooooo and spell check!
So I haven't posted since right after Angel got out of school for the summer on June 5. To bring you up to date....let's see....
June 13, I went to a 6 hour class for my ham radio license and took my test at the end of it. The instructor had emailed a study guide and that really helped a lot. I had a study guide from the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League) but it went into huge amounts of detail. This one was exactly what we needed to know. When I went up afterward to sign my certification from the examiners, they asked if I knew Randy and thought I was his younger sister. They thought he was robbing the cradle when I told them I'm married to him! It was funny! So my call sign is N8LTG - hence the address to this blog.
on June 18 was Angel's dress rehearsal for her dance recital. I like going to that because I'm able to take pictures then. You're not allowed to during the actual recital. I just love watching them rehearse. Anyway, she was done with her 2 dances before the finale practice. The studio owner let the little kids go, and we could have actually gone, too. But we stayed. I was out in the auditorium and Angel was still backstage. When she finally came out - she had put her green fringy tap costume back on - over top of the black shorts from hip hop - with the white t-shirt and tennis shoes from the finale. I just laughed at her. Most people wear one costume at a time.
So the recital was the 19th. Awesome as usual.
On the 22nd, she started going to the Boys & Girls Club while I'm at work. It's much better than her old latchkey where she was the oldest kid and basically I paid them for her to help out with the little ones. Ppppbth! She really likes it at "the Club". She's in a group of kids her own age and they really keep the kids busy and out of trouble. They go on field trips once a week - to cool places, too. This week they went to the Tigers vs. Mariners game.
Over 4th of July weekend, she went up north with Linda as usual and came home with a rope burn from the tubes across her neck. She'll have a nice little scar for a while.
Back in the middle of June, Geri (the other girl who's partially in billing at work) and I got called up to the boss Michelle's office. With all the GM plants being shut down for so long, they cut our hours in half until July 20 . A lot of people just went down to 4 days and have been for a while. At least, being in billing, we have the opportunity to see exactly WHY management had to do something. They were losing easily $100K a week from the shut downs. It was insane. Luckily, things are doing better now. I had a whole week off and got the living room totally repainted! It looks awesome. Who knew that all my Navy deck department experience would pay off on something useful??!
So on July 14, we went to Greenfield Village in Dearborn. They have some cool replicas, and even real historical buildings that were moved there, like the Wright Brother's bike shop and Thomas Edison's labs, etc. There's a display of the first Ford assembly line and you can go for rides in a Model T, or a horse-drawn Omnibus, or a real steam driven train. http://www.hfmgv.org/ It's pretty neat. We're going to be going back this summer to the Henry Ford Museum to see the display of Rock Stars' Car & Guitars. That will be awesome. Even Angel wants to go, after she said she "doesn't DO museums". Ha!
July 18 was Randy's birthday. I got him a Top Gear box set of the entire season 10 and Jeremy Clarkston's Heaven or Hell. He tests 7 of the best (heavenly) cars and destroys 7 of the worst (hellish) cars. It's pretty funny, but 2 hours of just Jeremy gets kind of old. He needs to be with Richard Hammond & James May. They're a good mix.
Dad has been in and out of the hospital all summer again. He was to the point there for a while that the doctor pulled Mom to the side and told she she should make sure his affairs were in order and maybe consider last rites! He was doing really bad! But not long after than - they moved him to a rehab/therapy center for a month or so and got him up walking and moving on his own. Now he's home and when I say him today, he's doing great! I haven't seen him look that good in a long time. But it's still odd, since he was always to robust and strong and now his arms are real thin and he's got droopy old person skin now and his hair is gray. He really keeps poor Mom and little Lisa hopping. I know Mom's getting tired and I was happy to go get Lisa today and take her and Angel to the roller rink, so she could get away for a while. Laurie takes her a lot, too.
I'm still doing Weight Watchers. I've lost a total of 56 pounds now and I've been on it almost a year. I've hit a plateau the past couple months, so I really need to re-commit and lose those last 30 or so pounds. At least I know I'm able to maintain! I've been in the same 5 pounds since the beginning of May!
So, plans for the rest of the summer? Not much until the week after my birthday. Randy and I are both taking that week off and we're going to go do some family trip before school starts again on Sept. 8. Don't know what we're going to do yet. Maybe head up to Mackinac or something. We figure we'll get Angel good and tired of us and she'll want to go to school! Heehee!
