In between household chores

Now, anybody who knows me pretty well knows I don't keep my house picture-perfect, but the work involved in keeping this place just 'lightly picked up' looking is simply incredible. I need a housekeeper! Ok, going to take a break now to iron a few things. Yup-iron. I don't, in general, iron, but my scrubs for work I do. Sigh. Ok, a little while later I am back, and three days' worth of scrubs are ready for wear. I got the ironing the scrubs thing from a teacher I had at the very beginning of nursing school who said we all needed to iron our scrubs. I remember thinking she was ridiculous, but here I am, a few years later, and all my scrubs are ironed before wear. Maybe just the tops sometimes, but they look nice. One must remember, I often have clientele who are quite elderly. They are from a time when everything was ironed before wear...

So right now Eric and the girls are off on another outing. Before they were walking the dogs, now they are off at a park teaching Sophie about bike riding. Sophie is so sensible, and careful, and gentle. She was all decked out in safety gear...and she did this all on her own. Eric took a picture of her on a throw-away camera. Cute! Now, our Alissa is still a daredevil, not afraid of getting hurt, and will use the safety gear and things like, oh, her glasses so she can see better ONLY when forced to.

I have been neglecting my blogging lately. Now that I am back to nursing full-time, I have time issues. I like to have time for my coffee, and I pretty much make time for that every morning. I ran from one thing to the next when I was off of work for the first time in a few days the other day. Got one car in for winterizing, got my hair cut, got baked goods from Marios, came home, then went back out and shopped for groceries. Eric was working during this day off, so I got back for the kids in the afternoon. We managed to have a relaxing day yesterday.

We went to the music store and rented a clarinet for Alissa, as she is going to have lessons now. She'll also be participating in track this year. I admire in Alissa the fact that she is up for just about anything, really. Anything we ask, do you want to do volleyball? Yup. Soccer, yup. Basketball, ballet, girl scouts, I could keep going, anything,,,answer is yes. And track? Puleeaase...only if someone is chasing me with a weapon would I ever do something like track. Ha. But Alissa, she is going to do track. Sophia is going to have dance lessons, either ballet or Irish-step. Both girls are excited about these activities.

Anyway, we then went to TSC, the Tractor Supply Store, which is sorta like a mini-Bass Pro Shop. I found four dollar thermal hats for winter (or next week) for all of us, but also enjoyed shopping around, looking at shoes and other stuff. There was country music playing in the store, and I was walking around humming the songs to myself until Alissa asked me what I was doing and did I know I sounded funny, then I realized what I was doing and stopped. I had that song in my head for hours that goes: "You look so good in love..."

Anyway, we came home and had lunch, then headed out with the puppy to Onondoga Lake Park, where we had a nice time. At least if the puppy is with us, we reasoned, we know he isn't wreaking havoc on the house. I saw a video on You Tube, where the people called their dog a 'Cairn Terrorist'...well, that is what we have. He's gonna be such a good boy...someday, I keep telling Eric. He's really not a bad dog, he's just a puppy. A wild, wild, nipping, barking, chewing, havoc-wreaking puppy. We saw a water snake at Onondaga Lake, about 4 feet long, in a little area of a canal that runs off of the lake. The four of us and two twelve-or-so year old boys stood and watched the snake for a while, we were intrigued, talking about how long the thing was, and look at the patterns on its skin, and ooh, ooh, there it goes...away under a rock. Wow.

So now it is Sunday morning, September 23, the first day of fall, the day before Eric's birthday. We're actually both off for the day tomorrow, so that's good. I gotta get signed off of this blog and get back to some chores. I'll try and write more again, and sooner than the last time. Oh, and yes, fall is about to be in full swing here soon. The colors are coming out more and more. There is still quite a bit of green, but now there are yellows and reds and browns, too. There are some flowers still in full bloom, lots of yellow flowers in particular, and some leaves are on the ground. It's pretty here now, and the weather is warm some days and cool on other days, just lovely!