Parentheticals

On Tuesday we arrived home from vacation. Mike went to the board game design guild, and played someone else's game. After Tuesday we have spent most of the week getting back into the swing of things. Mike has been working from home on Wednesdays, so he did that the day after getting back. Friday we went to a play - The Grand Duke  by Gilbert and Sullivan. We like all of their plays, and this one was no exception. The ending was totally ridiculous, but most of them are fairly so, it was expected. Also on Friday Petra came over and played with us. She is coming over a few more times next week so that Scott can go to work even though Sheila is out of town right now. On Saturday we had Scott and the kids over, and the kids played Titanic in the canoe. It was fun to talk to Scott, and the kids had a fun time playing together. Timmy wanted to write this week that we played Smooze , which is that Mike is a giant evil sentient purple blob that is throwing balls of himself at peop

This was the last week that the pool was open, so we went to the pool on Wednesday so that the kids could show Mike how much they improved their swimming this year. Rea can swim all over without any problem, and was jumping from the high dive board as well. Sara is now swimming very well, and Timmy is bravely walking away from the stairs and playing around in the area where he can touch. On Thursday we all went to the dentist, and only one person had a cavity. On Thursday we also got another quarter cow from a local farm. Our last one lasted 2 years, so we apparently eat about an 1/8 cow worth of beef each year. On Friday after work, we drove out to Grandma Sheila's and Grandpa Mike's house so that we could see the solar eclipse. We spent the weekend with them, going to the pool, their local waterfall, and also talking with family members. It was a fun trip. Some of Grandma Sheila's brothers came to see the eclipse as well, so we had a full house. The eclipse was re

The sunflowers that we planted this year are growing very big. Rea uses their leaves to hide under when it rains.  We plan on planting the seeds of the biggest one, and harvesting all of the rest of them for food. On Monday Alison and the kids played in the creek at the park where the pool is, and for the first time we met three other families at the place that we didn't even know. The big kids caught minnows, and one of the families had a dog. Gideon loved it, and tried to say dog a lot of times. He didn't sound exactly right, but he has remembered the word, and has been yelling it all week whenever we see a dog. On Tuesday Mike went to the BGDG meeting, and he played the Madness Place. It went well, and he got some new ideas. Now he just has to implement them. On Wednesday, Alison went to her writing group. It was nice for her to be in a different group with non-published authors. It makes her feel more confident about bringing her own writing some time. On Thursday M