in mourning

My camera is dead. The Commissioner of Education for the state of Alaska was in town, and there was a reception last night for him. The kids morning music class were to play, as well as the Native Dancers and the high school choir (chamber singers?, can't remember what they were called). So the kids met in the library at the h.s. to warm up and all that, I got out my camera to take some pictures of them. I took one of Ashley, who was across the room so I had to zoom in, and then went to take one of Brett and I had to zoom out. Well it wouldn't zoom out, it said "lens error - restart camera" and turned off. I tried and tried to get it back on to no avail. I was googling all afternoon trying to figure out what the problem was and how to resolve it, and got nowhere.

R.I.P. little camera... It's been a good 2 years.
Here's the single picture I got (Ashley warming up her fiddle)

Hopefully we can get a bigger, better one now - gotta convince Jeff of that :). But luckily I had the camcorder with me so I was able to get their performance on tape so we can remember it forever.
Now to figure out how to get it onto the computer...

Busy busy bees

Ashley is now signed up for Girl Scouts and somehow I got wrangled in to being a co-leader. Should be fun & interesting...

Brett is still doing Cub Scouts.

The kids are going to "morning music" at school (it's 30 minutes before school starts on Thursdays & Fridays). Belle, who runs the 4H Bluegrass Music Camp, does the class. Brett was learning to play the dobro (in regular music class -as well as at home - he's learning the guitar), and then Belle asked if he would be willing to play the bass in the band (acoustic, stand-up bass) so he's learning that now also. Ashley has been learning the guitar (in regular music class she learns the keyboard) and now just started the fiddle. Monday the Commissioner of Education (for the state of Alaska) will be here and there's going to be an Open House Reception, and they just told me that the morning music class will be performing. Wow! I have to remember to charge the camcorder battery & take it with me, so Jeff can see.

Yeah, the boat is gone - on their way to Hawaii. :( 6 weeks is a long time, but at the same time I'm pretty sure it'll go by fast. (jeez, I hope so)

In about a week dance classes start back up also. Since it's a small town & there's only the 1 instructor she has limited classes available, but there will be ballet for Ashley's age, and then also tumbling. So even though she was hoping for tap, she loves ballet & hopefully the tumbling will be better than creative jazz was last year (we weren't big fans of that class).

So the kids are pretty busy, and hopefully that will help us keep our minds off of daddy being gone & moping around. (ha!) I stay busy knitting & reading - who needs to clean? (oh, can't forget dog-sitting)

Oh! And the kids had their birthdays - 10 & 8! Where has the time gone?

Near Death Experience

I went to the boat as usual today to drop Maddy (the dog) off to her mommy, and then to say hi to Jeff since he was on duty. The problem? It was high tide, raining & windy. So the "brow" (gangway, bridge, whatever you want to call it - you go up the stairs & across the brow to get onto the boat) was nearly straight up because of high tide, and because it was windy the stairs (they're on wheels) were moving all over the pier which then moves the brow so it's not straight. And then to top it off they had to fix the regular brow, so they had the back-up brow on and that it very slippery! It doesn't have the "grippers" that the usual one has. And although there are hand rails they're metal & as I said it was raining so they were very very slippery. I thought for sure I was going to fall off, slide down, drop my purse into the water below, etc... My heart was racing, let me tell you. When I was was ready to leave I was talking to Jeff about how nervous I was coming onboard, but he hadn't been out or looked at the brow, so when we get outside, he was a little pissed. He went down first and was moving the stairs around to straighten it all up, and then I had to try to get back down. My legs were jelly when I finally got to the car. My pants were also pretty wet from standing out there waiting for Jeff to get it straightened and then trying to get the courage up to go down. Oh geez. Hopefully the tide is down now because we're on our way to have dinner on the boat (oh joy, what delicious meal are we having?), but I did tell Jeff that if it wasn't I was not going to risk getting the kids up & down that damn thing.
*deep breath* I'm still nervous thinking about it.

ETA: So the tide was still high at 5:00 - no dinner on the boat. Went to Baja Taco instead LOL.

Juneau the Capital of Alaska?

So I am leaving this evening for Juneau for a couple days. I'll be back on Friday. I'm hoping that it's not raining there as much as it is here - ugh. It's been raining for days and days, you tend to lose track after a while. It did stop long enough yesterday to take the dogs on a good walk - not just a potty break, so that was nice. Roxy hates the rain & even avoids puddles. But Maddy has such thick fur I don't think she even notices the rain. But I'm realy getting tired of this pouring-down, soak-your-jeans-in-a-minute rain. And the wind we had for a few days certainly did not help, well except to blow the rain sideways so that the covered porch was all wet.

Ooh exciting news - the Vet came to town! So Roxy got her shots and is now vaccinated for rabies. And she weighs 20.8 lbs! I thought she was around 15, shows what I know. She's getting so big, I don't think she'll be able to fit under the seat to fly.

New & Improved!

I am sure that you noticed all the new & exciting things I have added to this blog. What do you mean, No? Alright well I'll point it all out to you. So I have my followers as well as the blogs that I follow over there on the left. And then I added the Green Bay scoreboard on the left as well (in case you're reading my blog while they are playing, you won't miss the score). And then at the bottom is a "This Day in History". I like that, but it's so far away down at the bottom of the page, but it's too big to put on the side there. And I'm not sure if it automatically updates every day so we'll see about that.

I signed up for Ravelry the other day and got my invitation today, so I have been busy today making my profile and adding stuff & finding people I know (so if you happen to be reading this & I haven't added you I'm knittymel - big surprise, eh?).

I have finished Ashley's sweater
she loves it & wants to wear it every day.

Hole-y Pants, Batman!

What do you do when your favorite pair of jeans gets a hole in the crotch? Me, I sewed a patch over it. Now what do you do when you have 2 holes? *sigh* probably throw them away. Makes me sad because they are so comfy, but that 2nd hole is really very big - it ripped fast. I just spent $3 on that patch, should I salvage it before I throw the pants out? lol

Having a puppy is almost harder than having a toddler running around. She jumps a lot higher than my kids ever could, and sneaks into small spaces they never would have thought of. So I can't just put stuff up on top of the table or on the counter because she will get it down. Besides food stuffs, she is especially fond of pencils, knitting needles & yarn, and cardboard boxes (any size or thickness). The problem now is that she has outgrown the crate she came on the airplane with, so her new bed is our bed.