Well, I've had neither a pleasant, restful ORRRR productive week!  It's been rather frustrating actually.  Glitch somewhere between the computer systems of our medical insurance carrier and our pharmacy has left me more than grinding teeth and making nasty phone calls, today I was actually in tears!  We have prescriptions that need filling and since these two systems are not playing together, Pip and I are left high and dry for drugs!!  Spent the entire week trying to resolve the issue and still, late Friday night of a three day weekend and STILL we are unable to get what we need!!!  

Piper had orientation every day at the college. Some days she was there one hour, some days three to four hours.  It's an hour round trip for me from home, both getting her there and bringing her home - I spent a lot of time on the road this week and when I wasn't driving or making phone calls I was job hunting - which is another beast altogether!!!  Frustrated, frustrated, FRUSTRATED!!!

Buntah is killing me though.  Piper has been trying for ages to get me to watch the BBC version series of Sherlock Holmes - she fell in love with it a year ago - well I finally agreed to take my mind off of irritating matters. I liked it.  But what's funny is BUNTAH LOVES IT!!! She sits on my chest, or Pip's or the couch and actually WATCHES IT - yes all the way through to the end!  An hour and a half show and this little Buntah Toad Person is into it!!!  I know you probably don't believe me so I'll try to get pictures!!!  Buntah is such fun.  She didn't seem to are for football very much.

The little guy I babysit just kills me sometimes. He's trying so hard to sort out this "boy/girl" business. He's only two and a half and this has been heavy on his mind recently. The other day he reminded me I was a girl like his mom and had a vagina. "Yes, that's true," I confirmed. A little while later, we were outside digging in our big dirt pit when he announced he really likes to play in water. In his next breath he said, "Girls don't like playing in water cuz they have a vagina." I almost hated to burst his little bubble but I couldn't have him thinking like that. "Well Tad, I'm a girl and I LOVE playing in water." You should have seen his face, a true Kodak moment. He looked genuinely befuddled. He slumped his little shoulders in defeat, "Hmmm, that's right," he conceded. An hour after the dirt pit, we were working in the garage on his father's workbench when he started looking around for something. I finally asked him what he was looking for and without stopping to look up at me, he said, "I'm looking for a vagina," and continued looking everywhere! In tool boxes, under sanding blocks, in the pockets of his fathers tool belt - nowhere on that workbench, to my utter relief, did he find a vagina! It was also a relief to know he didn't even know what one looked like. Ahhh but he still wasn't done. The afternoon routine goes as follows; lunch, stories then nap. Immediately after stories I turn the light out and lay next to him and sing to him until he falls asleep. I have, on numerous occasions, made up silly songs for him using tunes he's familiar with. I got through one of his favorite songs and he sat right up, "I know," he said, "I know, YOU can sing a song of vaginas!" He was sooooo enthusiastic! "I don't know any songs about vaginas Tad."  He was not easily diverted, "Well you could make one up! Yes, sing me a song of vaginas!" Oh my, oh my, oh my.

No, he never got the song he was hoping to hear, at least not from me. "I'm very disappointed Darcy," he finally said and laid back on his pillow.

Monday is my last day watching him four days a week. His pre-school starts on Tuesday. After that, depending on what I find for work, I may get to watch him the one day a week he won't have pre-school. I sure hope those ladies are up for him. And I sure am going to miss him.

Hallelujah and HAPPY DAY!!!!! I finally finished the baby blanket I started for my grand daughter several months ago! Equally impressive - I've already mailed it to her!!!  Ah, when I'm good, I'm GREAT!!!

Next project - illustrations for a children's book I wrote two years ago. I've decided I will self-publish this one, hopefully within the next couple of months. And no, I haven't taken my vacation pictures off my phone and camera yet. I hate dealing with technical, mechanical chores - HATE IT! Therefore I avoid them. I am master at procrastinating complicated and nerve-wracking ventures.

Job hunting is lot different now than it used to be. Everywhere I've gone to inquire and pick-up applications, I leave empty handed. So every place I've been requires their job applications to be done on-line! "And no, don't bother about call-backs, we'll call you if we're interested," they say.  You can't even get a managers name - privacy issues!!  It's very frustrating.  I've been talking with friends in other states, and it seems the wide-spread use of on-line job applications is a bigger trend here in California than in other states. Don't know what good it does to tell you that, I guess I'm just venting. And I don't know what good an on-line application is? You get no feel for the applicant!  I'd hate to try and hire people this way!!! Things seem so de-personalized nowadays. Oh and I wish I had a dollar for every time one of the people I talked to asked me if I had a Facebook account! I tell ya, the world we live in is rapidly changing and I feel more on the "old" end of the "young vs. old" spectrum and I don't like it one bit! I know my home page says I don't have a Facebook account and don't want one but I'm beginning to think I need one. So yes, that's on my To-Do list as well. I hope to use it as a marketing tool. Wow, I have so much to learn!!!

Am excited about football season though, Piper too. We've been talking about treating ourselves and going to a live "at home" game for the 49er's as a Happy Birthday to us this fall. Our birthdays are in the same month and that would be one heck of a fun way to celebrate! Being without TV/cable has greatly impeded our enjoyment of football season, but not this fall!!!  I think if I have to I will purchase the live stream package and watch them streamed on-line.

In case you haven't noticed, Fall is in the air.  Football pre-season, Back To School and the dropping of temperatures!!  I've felt that subtle shift that signals my being that it's time to begin my fall baking. I found myself in Wal-Mart a couple of days ago, don't know how THAT happens, gotta be a Black Hole kinda thing I suppose, anyway the place was mad-house-crazy-packed! I mean it was like Christmas season!  And then, oh yeah, it's back to school time and for the first time in 25 years I don't have to worry about it! I skirted my way around the crowds with a big ol' grin on my face!  Pip's college doesn't start until the 23rd of September and she wants to do it all herself - gooooo Piper!!!      

Somewhere between here and New England I've lost my get-up-and-go, my motivation, my drive. The trip was one long non-stop, supercharged flurry of fun at a two year old's pace - both grand daughters are two. I came home with a level of exhaustion - emotionally, physically and spiritually - I've rarely experienced before. And still, there were several things we had hoped to do that we never got to because we were also at the mercy of the small ones who can only take so much. The grown girls and I didn't get nearly as much Mom and Daughter time as we hoped for or needed. We are all sad about that. My children are just too far away. I miss them so much. Will post a few pictures when I finally take them off my phone and camera.

Came home to the news I won't be with Tad much longer. He will begin pre-school at the end of this month and I will no longer be needed daily. Happy for him that he's ready for the big world, but I will miss him and our time together. So, like Piper, I am now in the process of acquiring new employment.

Pip is also in the process of enrolling in college. I've been worried about her. Her last two years of high school, I didn't see much spark in her, much excitement for life. After her first day checking out the campus - the GUYS - and taking her placement exams, she came home with a happiness I haven't seen in ages. She was just DONE with high school and ready to move on. It's so good to see her excited for something again. 

Now I just have to get my feet back under me and get some forward motion of my own. Wow, my son and his wife will be welcoming their second daughter in late October or early November - gotta get ready for that too. I've been working on a children's book for their oldest daughter for awhile, down to the final edit stages. I want to illustrate it myself and may self-publish it perhaps on Amazon to start. I've even been thinking creating a facebook page. I know my Home page here clearly states I don't have one and don't want one, but lately I've been thinking it may be a marketing tool worth trying. Will let you know.

Right now I can barely keep my eyes open, I'm going to bed. But first I will have to drag Buntah out of my shirt. She crawled in there once I helped her finish her post and has fallen asleep.  I think she's happy to have us home. She's certainly wanted more of our time and we've obliged. We missed her. I still miss Ginger terribly, and would give anything to have her home again.