Thankful thursday on Saturday

Its been a crazy week in the Smart household.  =)

On Sunday Irene hit and we lost power until Tuesday.  It is the longest we have been without power here in this house and for that we are very fortunate.  There are still people who are waiting to have their service restored.  Living out in the country means we are on a well... and the electricity powers the pump that brings water into the house.  A situation that many many people are familiar with, but it was eye opening for me when we moved here 2+ years ago.  I will never forget, shortly after we moved here we were pulling into the driveway and our landlord was by the barn and said in a very matter of fact way... "we have been without power for 4 hours or so now.  If you need water for the commode you can get it at the lake" and he pointed down the road.  I had no clue what he was talking about until we got inside the house and realized without electricity we had no water... and no ability to flush the toilet.   I think it hit me wicked hard at that moment how very different our lives were going to be in this new home.  Hahaha.  Since that time we have had bats in the house, a snake that likes to come visit the sun room.  Beavers swimming feet from us at the lake... deer behind the house, stopping and waiting for turkeys and all their babies to cross the road lol.  Very different from living in perhaps Maines second largest city, coffee shoppes at every corner... a library with 3 branches and a grocery store within 5 mins.  Anyway... we got our power back Tuesday afternoon and we were so very happy.

Maddy started high school the next day.  She is now a freshman... its so hard to comprehend... my baby is in high school.  It definitely didn't hit me as hard when the eldest was a freshman.  Wednesday the school was open to only Freshmen and Seniors... the upper class-men were there to help the younger students acclimate.  Then Thursday and Friday all the students were there and Maddy is loving it so far.  She adores her English teacher, the woman has a System of a Down poster on the wall that Maddy thinks is wicked cool.  They are reading the Odyssey next and when Maddy raised her hand and asked... "What if you have already read it"  The teacher was very excited, even more so when Maddy shared at the end of class when they were doing a "lets get to know each other" exercise that she loved Shakespeare.  My daughter is going to love her English class.  They did an experiment in her earth systems class already and she was so excited about that... and very disappointed that some of the kids in another class were being idiots as she put it.  When handed a globe and asked to pick out a country and give a fact Maddy said " This is Australia... here (she pointed) is the great barrier reef and blah blah blah something about sharks." ( Maddy loves sharks and has since she was maybe 7 years old)  Another student pointed to Canada and said " this is Canada... Justin Bieber comes from there." and another said " this is Florida, its hot there."  She is already being driven insane and we got a lecture in the car  about idiot students.  *sigh*

Then on Thursday I went in for an interview for a job, but after waiting almost an hour they asked if they could reschedule it due to the computers being down.  That evening the husband had a phone interview with a new company that does things just up his alley.  The interview was over an hour long and afterwards I could see how very excited he was about the possibilities.  Its a company here in Maine that does some similar things to his current company, but they will be able to use his test engineering background.  The problem is that this company is almost an hour from the house and we are locked in to this house for another year or so.  Maddy has just started  high school... I dont want to rip her out of it... but on the other hand the husband seems so very intrigued by this new company... and the current company is getting ready to go through another set of layoffs.  His job is safe for the current time but during the last round of layoffs another manager that had been there longer then Paul got demoted with a paycut in order to keep her job.  We have already been through a layoff (before we moved to this area) and it took him 6 months to find this position.  If the current job hadnt shown up we would have had to move out of state which I wouldnt have minded but would have torn him up.  =(  Next step is a visit to the facility including meetings with HR, owners, and other engineers.   I just want him to have a job where he is challenged and where he absolutely enjoys his work.  I would also like to have health insurance again... its been sometime since we had that.  This new job has a fantastic benefits package which would be lovely.

Friday I had my interview (and boy was that nerve wracking) and they offered me a job as cashier, but only if I passed the pre-job screening and a background check.  Later on in the afternoon they called (which I missed because I didn't have my phone with me) and said everything looked good and I needed to call and set up a time for orientation. 

This weekend the kids (Eileen and Shaun) want to come visit us on Sunday, we also need to get down to visit Paul's parents, borrow the truck from them (until we can get another vehicle) and the landlords want to do their yearly walk through and get a list of things that need to be worked on.  Busy busy busy.

So... back to the thankful thing...

I am thankful for..

~ opportunities that are coming our way.
~ cool english teachers who inspire my 14 year old.
~the fact that my daughter will never conform to fit other kids ... but in fact will continue to march to the beat of her own drum.
~ the lake at the end of the path that allowed me to get water each day we were without power so we could flush the commode ... hahaha.
~backgammon =)

~Reg

Wow... Its not Monday and yet a post from Regi.

Ok ok... i have been missing in action for a while. So many things happening on the home front... all good and all very time intensive. Things are finally slowing down and we can breathe and yes this is a good thing.

I am way behind on loser mondays... so I think perhaps we will start from the beginning... ahem... not because we gained a bit of weight or stalled on the exercise front but just because ... If you buy that i have a lovely bridge to tell you about =P

Madelynne's spring musical is almost over... its been a lot of fun and a long road to arriving but here it is... I went up to orono on Friday morning and picked up the eldest so she could be there for opening night. It was rather important to Miss Maddy and she was pleased as punch that her sister could make it. Then I turned around and at 9:30 pm started the long trek to taking the eldest back to school. I finally poured myself into bed at 2 am. Monday and Tuesday are finals for her and then she is done with her freshman year so the timing wasnt great... but she so wanted to be there to support Maddy. Im pretty proud of both my girls... The musical went very well... as I type this we are gearing up for the last showing. Then we will take Miss Maddy out to dinner to celebrate. Tomorrow Maddy has her cast party as well as the wrap up of the play... taking down the sets etc.

Eileen will be home for the summer on tuesday following the last of her finals. She is very excited to get it all over with... she has done extremely well in school this year. However with the end of the school year along comes the departure of her fiance to bootcamp. She is kinda nervous about this but we will keep her busy this summer with all kinds of fun and no so fun stuff. She has her classes for next semester all picked out... knows where she is living so all is good.

Our landlords will be arriving back in Maine after a winter away in sunny florida. So we are gonna get the yard nice and spiffy for them. Just have to work on mr jasper and his tendency to bark at the wind... *sigh* the little brat. We have been having an awful time with ticks and spiders as well. Country living at its best I guess. Frontline check... a doc visit to get a new prescription for his heartguard... and lots of research on gentle ways to repel spiders. The things are so huge they could carry the dang dog away... we now have these lovely little electronic devices that emit a high frequency that supposedly spiders dont like... we have lots of lemon pledge to dust window sills and door frames with. Lemon scented floor stuff... we are getting rid of all the cardboard we can find in this place... keeping things off the floor... keeping outside lights off unless absolutely necessary... adn so on. I just wanna nuke the dang thigns but thats not acceptable. *sigh*

I have a quilting project or two I seriously need to get finished... several that i need to finish up by the end of the year... and quite a few I need to start. I am so far behind its scary lol. I think I am going to put a few things I signed up to do on the back burner so I can get some projects that are intended to be birthday and holiday gifts finished up first.

We are busy looking into summer camps stuff for Miss Maddy... get the little blue car either up and running or in a junk yard where it belongs... and plan what we are going to do when and in what order. Things are just crazy I tell ya.

Hope all is good in your neck of the woods...

till i talk to you again...

Peace..
Regi

Packing and quilting and just stuff...

Today we are heading down to organize and pack up the rest of our stuff so that next weekend when we have the moving van we can just load that sucker up. Still am not sure what we will be doing with some of the stuff. There is no way we have room for all of it. We may have to rent a storage unit for the larger items that just wont fit in our new home. Perhaps when we find a new place this summer it will be a bit larger and have room for all our things. Then again we may have a storage unit yard sale instead. LOL

When we get back this evening I have some ironing and cutting to do so I can get some work done on a Christmas gift I am making... as well as cut some more strips for Leenies quilt. I cant wait to see that come together... and i have been procrastinating on it. I guess im a bit worried she wont like it ... worried that the colors are all wrong. But after a bit of soul searching I have come to the conclusion that (1) its going to be fun to make... (2) if she truly doesnt like it I know i can find someone who would love it... and (3) I will learn a lot making it. So those are all wins... and if necessary, next time I will take her with me to shop for fabric.

We got Maddys report card yesterday and she got all A's and one B in school. She is quite proud of herself and we are so glad to see her adjusting so well, making friends, working hard for her teachers etc.

Our landlords are getting ready to head south for the winter. Its going to be strange to not have them there. We have always had ppl around... always lived where neighbors were close by. But once they head out we will be on this hill alone. Kinda spooky, but I am sure we will adjust.

There is a knitting shop near by that offers free knitting classes as long as you buy your supplies. I am hoping to take a class or two, I can do a lot of basic stuff (i have made mittens, scarves, christmas stockings and a baby sweater)... but it will be nice meet people and hone up some of my skills. One of the classes listed in the fall was for making socks. I would love to learn how to do that. Anyways... I have to get the listing for the winter and see what is offered. I would love to take a quilting class as well... but the only shop i know of is a bit of a distance away. I will have to check out the community classes in the area.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

~Regi