Family Update
Autumn is here and it’s starting to get colder. It’s still in the 70’s during the day, but drops down into the mid 20’s to 30’s at night. The leaves are falling. It is nothing on the scale of upstate NY but people from the Valley (Phoenix area) seem to think it is awesome. Alex has been coming up intermittently to paint the outside of our house before is gets too cold. The front is finished and Sam is going to try to finish the rest this week and next. He is leaving on a hunting trip to the Grand Canyon on Thursday. I’m not sure exactly where he will be, I just know it is somewhere around there. After much discussion over several weeks, he bought a camper today and is busy getting it stocked and ready. Will moblog pics. It is pretty new (2004), I think 19 feet long and sleeps 5-6. It has a bathroom and shower (major necessities). It is worth about $11,000 and he paid $7700 from a private seller who lives just a few blocks away. It came with a generator and special hitch too.
The kids got their first report cards last week. Tara got straight A’s as usual. Jake got 2 A’s and 3 B’s, Erin got 4 A’s and 1 B. We are working on Jake being more responsible, respectful and truthful. Last week, he had missing homework assignments and issues with truthfulness. He was grounded and we took his cellphone away. Since we’ve done both those things before, we decided to throw in some manual labor (Sam’s idea-moving a dirt pile), and a 5 page hand-written essay on the afore-mentioned topics (My idea). Hopefully, he’ll learn his teachers’ homework is less time-consuming than what I can think up.
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Moblog Entry
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My Grandbaby
I haven’t had hardly any free time to blog. It has been busy as usual. It seems I am either working, at the gym or doing housework so I haven’t had time to blog about this huge milestone.
On Oct. 01, Jenny and Jeramiah found out that she is pregnant!! She had an ultrasound last week and we learned that the baby is due on June 14th. This will be my first grandchild! I am so excited for Jenny and Jeramiah because I know that they will be wonderful parents. Jenny is lucky that she hasn’t really had any nausea, even while on the Cruise.This baby is going to be surrounded by so many doting relatives that he/she is sure to be spoiled. He/She will be at least 4 before knowing just its Aunt’s and Uncle’s names! I must admit that I am not quite used to the idea of actually being called Grandma, but I have about 8 months to adjust. Jenny and Jeramiah also celebrate their !st Wedding Anniversary this coming Sunday. Christine will be 29 yrs old on Friday, the 24th. So, this time next year, not only will I be a grandma but I will have a child who is 30 yrs old!!
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The Cruise
Our cruise to Cabo San Lucas was re-routed to Catalina Island and Ensenado, Mexico because of Hurricane Norbert. We had lots of fun on the ship, although we didn’t swim because it was too cold. The food was pretty good and I ate shrimp cocktail every night. Our room was small but just fine for our needs. I didn’t feel at all like we were cramped. The service was excellent and all the crew treated us great. We didn’t run into any traffic on our drive to the Port of San Diego. We had to go through a few Border Patrol checkpoints but were glad to see the agents hard at work protecting our country. We were planning on going sailing and snorkeling in Cabo, so when we found out we weren’t going there, we booked a different snorkeling excursion in Catalina. Then, the winds were too strong in Catalina so we weren’t permitted to get off the ship. Our excursion in Ensenada included a bus tour and going to La Bufadora AKA The Blow Hole. It’s one of the few natural blow holes in the world. The rising tide of the ocean causes air to be trapped in a hole in the rocks on the shore. When the pressure gets to a certain point, it is blown out forcefully causing a big spray of water. We saw dolphins swimming along the shore there too. We did some shopping at a street market near La Bufadora and bought some Tequila and Silver necklaces for me, Tara and Erin. The cruise line had a video on the ship TV in our room explaining where to shop so we wouldn’t get ripped off. We only shopped at shops endorsed by Carnival Cruise Line. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that while we were riding back to town on the bus, I got to see an old man peeing in a ditch. The main part of town was nice and they even had restaurant chains there from the US, but the outskirts were pretty shabby. Our tourguide on the bus spoke English real well. Most of the shop-owners spoke English, but they were like vultures as we walked down the dirt street.
Sam and I were so glad to get away and relax for once. Alex came up from Phoenix to watch the kids because they still had a few days of school before Fall Break and also to continue painting the house. The rest of the time, they stayed with Grandma.