Preparations...

Next week, we will be visited by Daniel--our British friend Carol's son--and his girlfriend, Kerry. In two weeks, we are hosting Tom's family for a long-overdue get-together of the extended family. Needless to say, we are busily preparing the house and the yard for both events.

Tom recently purchased a log-splitter on E-Bay. We picked it up last weekend, and he has been splitting logs every evening after work and much of the day yesterday and today. The logs came from the tree we had removed last November... I attempted to move firewood from the lower part of the yard to the log holder closer to the house--the one we almost emptied last winter. I had thought we would be stacking the newly split logs on the emptied rack. Tom had thought to leave them where they are--stacked on or against the retaining wall in the driveway. Hmmmm. We'll see how that goes. I did not get very far emptying the rack by myself. The work went much more quickly when Tom started unloading it. We will have to stabilize the rack before putting new logs on it. The ones that had been there were toppled when we moved into the house.

Yesterday, I spent some time weeding flower gardens. I will need to spend more time on the peripherals of the property, weeding the edges of the lawns and ground cover, as well as the mailbox area and the driveway. We'll see how that goes...

Jen made a suggestion for a decoration for the Family Event that I would like to try. I am on my own, though, because she is tied up with a special project all next week, and Ryan starts school the following week. I can't believe he starts First Grade so soon! He is ready--I'm not!

Taking Lily to class

I took Lily to her 'make up' gymnastics class yesterday afternoon. She was so sweet! She met me at the door when I went to pick her up, ready to walk right out--no kiss to Mommy or anything. When I suggested it, she looked horrified that she forgot and turned right around to find Mommy and say goodbye.

During the ride there, Lily chatted away from the back seat. She mentioned that she doesn't like it when 'bad guys' come to her neighborhood. Surprised, I asked her if she knew any bad guys. She thought about it and replied "Darth Mal is a bad guy." OK, imaginary bad guys I can deal with.

When class started, I sat down to wait with a good book. I felt the wall behind me vibrating...it never occurred to me that Lily would be tapping on the window to say hello and wave! I watched, and she checked periodically to see that I was indeed watching. Each time she caught my eye, she waved and smiled happily. I loved it.

She had a good class, too, although I think that Jen is right when she says this teacher assumes Lily is too small to participate fully and sometimes misses having Lily practice a skill. Afterward, she couldn't wait to get back to our house to see Grandpa. They played together on his computer, he printed out some pictures from Word World, and Lily happily colored with Grandma until Daddy arrived to take her home. It was a great way to spend an afternoon.