Friday

We had Planet Gymnastics today. We have not been in a while so it was a nice change for both Summer and I. I got good conversation and Summer got to play and excercise. Lately, every time I get together with my homeschool friends it leaves me with a feeling of loss. I am not really a social butterfly so when I aquire friends they have been usually long and thought out.....I guess it usually does take people awhile to make meaningful relationships, but for some of us it's a little harder. I treasure friendships when I have them. I am really looking forward to moving to a new and different place with new experiences, but I really dread the making new friends thing. Hopefully, it will come easier than I imagine.....I think I will have to consult my friend Jennifer on the ins and outs of moving out of state while it's still fresh in her mind.

Weekly Update

Not much been going on this week but the usual. We have been doing ALOT of "spring cleaning". Since we are only going to be carrying one load "cross country" we don't want any extra stuff...only bare essentials.

Since we have taken the pool down and it's somewhat cooler, I have resumed walking again. It gives Summer a chance to ride her bike and gives me some excercise.....we call it P.E.

We haven't had many people looking at our house lately, but we have noticed that the houses around here have been starting to sell again. We are really not to stressed on it yet anyway. We will be having some inheritance come in Jan. plus our taxes so we would rather it sell closer to the beginning of 2008. We know that it will all work out either way.

We have decided that soon, we will be taking a trip to Austin to check out the territory and make sure that we get the "feel". We also want to look at the neighborhoods and Toby wants to check out some of the shops. I'm sure the 7 or so hour drive will be a stressful thing with a active 6 year old in tow. Summer can't even hardly take 3 hour drives!

Park Day

Since I missed the first park day of the month I decided that I would make the trek to Semmes for the last park day of the month. Even though we had a great time after we got there, the park was a lot further than what I thought it was. It took 1 whole hour to get home. The traffic was really conjested (as usual since Katrina) and we left about the time school was letting out. Needless to say, the trip home was miserable and was only made worse by the fact that about 3/4 of the way home we had realized Summer and I both had forgotten all about Summer's scooter that was left behind at the park. She was freaking out and once I got her calmed down I had to figure out if it was worth fighting traffic and consuming my time for another hour trip back to the park and grab a $20 scooter that may or may not still be there. In the end I decided it was worth my sanity not to go back and get it. And yes, since it was my suggestion to pull the scooter out of the trunk in the first place..and that she really likes her scooter, I went and replaced the one that was left behind. Luckily, they were on sale at Toys R Us.

I think I will stick to the park days that are near my homestead from now on.

The Snake

In the 7 years we have been living in this house I have never seen a snake.....until today. My son is the one who found him hanging by a spider web on the bottom of a chair that sits on the front porch. Seems the little bugger was trying to get to some spider eggs and he just wasn't big enough to untangle himself from the web that surrounded the eggs. I'm glad Lucas found him before I did. I am usually the one who sits in that chair. He was very small, but the way I see it, his mama probably wasn't that far off! I couldn't tell what kind he was but on my trip to the library this week I will pick up a snake book for a little research.

Seems that while we were gone last week we had a few hits on our house. Now we are just waiting on the bites.

Here's a pic of the snake

The "Big" City of Troy

Ya know how sometimes when your expecting to have a really bad time, and you end up having a really good time? Well, that's how it was for me this past week. Toby had been asked to do a guest spot at an old friend of his' tattoo shop in Troy, AL. I had really debated on whether I would go with him or not. He would be working most of the time so I had mostly decided in the end that I wouldn't go. I would be trapped in a motel room with a 6 year old in a strange town and that didn't really sound all that appealing to me. Toby really acted like he wanted Summer and I to go and I decided that there wouldn't be much entertainment if we stayed here in Mobile either...so we went.

We left on Thurs. and got to Troy in the afternoon. After we checked into our motel and grabbed a bite to eat Toby took off for the shop leaving Summer and I to fend for ourselves. We mostly watched cable T.V (because we don't have it at home) and I lounged around reading magazines. Not bad so far.

Here's a pic of Toby and Tim in front of Tim's shop.



On Friday after Toby left, Summer and I ventured around the city checking out some thrift stores and other stores that we don't have in Mobile. Later on after we got back to the room I took Summer out to the pool and she swam while I read some more magazines. Ahhhh, so far, the life.

Here's a pic of a rainbow Summer spotted outside of the motel after a a rain shower. It was a really beautiful double rainbow, but of course this pic does it no justice because I could only get half it.



After being in Troy for 2 days I quickly realized that Troy State University is a really big deal to people around here and that "the game" they kept talking about was an even bigger deal. Toby and I, not being college or sports fans, felt a little out of place when we were asked if we were there for "the game". We were usually met with raised eyebrows when we informed them we were not in town for the game. Of course in the end, for my own curiosity, I found out who won the game. (Troy won!)

While in the motel lobby, Toby found some brochures on some attractions in Troy. There wasn't but a couple but I hit the jackpot with one called the "Pioneer Museum". It was one of the best museums I have ever visited and I recommend it to anyone who is ever travelling to, or going through Troy. Summer and I spent 3 1/2 hours there. There was so much to see that you could go back 2 more times and still not have seen everything. Here are just a few pics but they don't even come close to showing it all.

Here is a pic of Summer sitting in an old school room at the museum....hopefully the only pic I'll ever have of her in a schoolroom!



Here's a couple more pics of the museum.








We left Sunday morning and Toby decided he wanted to talk a walk through memory lane. We passed through his hometown of Enterprise Alabama so he could "show Summer the Bowevil Monument". We also took a look at what the Tornado did to his old high school.



Toby seemed to have a good time working with his old friend and made some pretty decent money doing it too. All in all, I would have to say for this not to be a vacation....it turned out to be one of my favorite vacations!

Reunion

After conversing on the internet for 2 years, I finally got together with my best friend from high school. We both are sort of introverted and it took us a while after "finding" each other for us to plan a get together. Pathetic, isn't it? Anyway, I really could have kicked myself in the butt for not taking any pics....I guess we were just so caught up in conversation after not seeing each other in 20 years, that the camera slipped my mind. Oh well, we have another get together planned where we will take pictures and read old notes that were written back and forth between us. I'm sure that they will be the embarressment for the year!


We had one person look at the house so far. This whole house selling thing is really a pain in the butt. I'm a pretty tidy person, but having to keep the house in constant cleanliness is driving me and my family crazy. I have my fingers crossed that someone will see the beauty in the ghetto and snap my house up soon. :-)

Flowing

Not much out of the ordinary happened this week, but we did manage to put our house up for sale. Now we just sit back and wait for the bites. It's kind of a bittersweet thing. Although we don't live in the best of neighborhoods, we have had a lot of good times as a family here.

Toby also got a hit from one his tattoo forums. It's a tattoo shop in Austin that will be looking for a tattooist at the beginning of the year. Toby checked out the shop online and the work coming out of the shop looks very proffessional. We'll just have to wait and see. I know everything will work out the way it's suppose to so I'm just sittin' back and lettin' it flow.

Labor Day

Today was the first time I had been out of the house in 3 days. Summer has had some kind of a bug so the past few days have been spent playing nursemaid. It really wasn't too bad, because I got to read a whole book and got to watch a little bit of T.V. Today she was feeling alot better so we went to Target and Books a Million. I have been doing alot of research on where to relocate to and I keep jumping back and forth between Austin, Tx and Houston. I am leaning more towards Austin, but sometimes I still jump back to Houston and sometimes just somewhere in between Austin, San Antonio, then back to Austin. My head is beginning to spin. I wish sometimes God would just send little notes down with the answers written on them and it would make things alot easier. I guess I just live in such undesireable place now that I want to make sure I make it up with our next location. Anyway, I know it will all work out for the best....I just hate the inbetween stage.