Penultimate school week

Well, we are down to the last week of school.  We are saying goodbye to all kinds of things.  Ben will be saying goodbye to middle school and starting high school (who knows where!) and Maggie will be leaving Hudson and going to middle school.  I can't believe that we will be saying goodbye to Hudson after 8 years, it's a fantastic little school.

Among other goodbyes, Ben got his braces off on Wednesday.  Look at those perfect teeth!!!!  He's getting his teeth cleaned and his stitches out this Tuesday-let's hope he says goodbye to stitches then too!!!!!

Girls on the Run is now over.  We had a wrap up session at Cici's on Tuesday evening.  Girl Scouts bridging ceremony was on Thursday evening.  I don't think any of the girls are going to continue next year, but if they do, they will have to join another troop.  Barbara and I are done with it!!!!  This is the 1st grade, 3rd grade and 5th grade girls after the bridging ceremony

What is left of our 5th grade troop (actually 2 missing).  Our biggest number was 17 one year, now we are down to 7

Girls on the Run 2015

Girls on the Run was on Saturday. It was a brutal program this year, the girls were just not into it at all.  We had a practice run on Thursday in Tilles Park.  Maggie did really well and kept up with me the whole time. We lapped some of the girls though and so we walked around with them for a cool down lap.

As with every year, they did so much better on actual race day.  This is the 5th grade group lining up to run

The whole Hudson team

Maggie and Mum selfie

The coaches

Maggie at the start line

One of the great things about this run is that almost everyone wears their race shirt and you can see a sea of colour-doesn't come out as well in a photo, but it was great to see all the green and yellow both ahead and behind us

The Bubble Bus was close to the end, so much fun to run through the bubbles

Maggie looks great at the end of the run!!!  We ran in 36:11.  Not great, but I think Maggie was second on the team (Neva ran in less than 30 mins!!)

Got to get a selfie at the end of the run!!!!

Our tradition is to go to breakfast after running.  This is Maggie and Taylor sitting at First Watch

Maggie, Taylor, Anna and Riley

Ben's trip to Memphis

Ben did a quick, two day trip to Memphis with school.  They left at 5:30 am on Thursday and were back at 11 pm on Friday, so it was a full two days!!!!  They went to the National Civil Rights Museum, Stax Museum, Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum on Thursday; Sun Studios, Cotton Museum and Graceland on Friday.  He said he had a great time and he seemed to like Graceland the best.  He sent me a couple of pictures from Graceland-who doesn't take a picture of Elvis Presley's grave?

Of course, he spent the whole time with his girls!!!!

This past week-not much going on

Ben came bounding down the stairs the other morning and said "I'm a blueberry today. Take a picture"

He's also into driving the car whenever he can, so I let him drive mine in the church car park

I dug up some of Caroline's yard during our open house and planted some herbs, looks much better

This part is in the shade, so I planted some shade plants and I moved our bird bath over there

This is my little kitchen garden this year.  I'm growing some kale for salads

I bought this old coal shuttle last year and I put some herbs in it this year, they are growing well

I love these clematis.  Need to get some seeds from them before we move

My English bluebells

How Maggie sees her future....

Maggie: Mum, can I show you something? Me: Sure Maggie: This is a picture of my house. It's a box on the road. Here's my bed and here's my refrigerator Me: You're going to live in a box on the road? Maggie: Most likely, yes. If I can't afford a house, I'll just live in a box Me: Well, it's going to be a mighty fine box if it has a refrigerator!!!!

They're in, they're out, they're in again.....

I took Ben to Wash U yesterday morning so that they could take the cast off his hand and remove the stitches.  It was more swollen than I expected it to be, but it still looked pretty good.  They took his stitches out and I made an appointment for in a month's time just in case we needed it.

Well, apparently a month is a little too long because it took less than 10 hours before we needed a doctor again.  Ben fell off his bike and landed on his hand.  He came running into the house dripping blood on the floor-he busted the whole wound open again in its entirety.  Obviously, it wasn't healed enough to cope with the life of a 14 year old boy.
I had to take him to the Urgent Care Facility and they started him on i.v. antibiotics.

They have stitched his hand up again.  He has more stitches than he had before (9 vs 7).  Let's hope it holds better this time.  I felt so sorry for him.  I was so mad when it happened and he was afraid that we were very angry with him.  I told him that I had no idea that anything like that would happen, I thought it was much more healed than that.  He hasn't been that upset for a long time.

I cannot help wondering how on earth all of this seems to happen to us.  What are the odds that he would fall of his bike the same day he had his stitches out?  That has never happened before.  Friedrich Nietzsche said “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.”  Some days I wonder why on earth everything seems to be so complicated for our family.  I wish something would go smoothly once in a while.  I just keep telling myself that we have each other and everyone is safe, that's all that matters.

Quick Trip to San Diego

I did a quick trip to San Diego for an American Heart Association grant meeting.  To be honest, a little part of me only agreed to do the grant meeting because I knew it was there!!!!  I stayed at the Wyndham-first hotel I ever stayed at in San Diego years ago.  This was the view from my hotel room, wish I had been able to see the bay, but still not bad.

The meeting was the first 2 days I was there, but I stayed an extra day so I could wander around.  After the meeting, I walked down to Seaport Village and had coffee at the Upstart Crow, a great coffee and book store

I saw this ship pulling out of the bay with the sailors standing on the deck, of course I thought of Sam immediately

These strange Mexican statues were in San Diego

I love these trees down by the Midway

But, I'm still not sure about this statue at all

I just love the Midway, but it scares me more than a little.....

The Star of India, made in the Isle of Man

It was a great trip, way too short