July | 2007 | anni811's Xanga Site

I am so bad - it has been ages since I have been on Xanga!

Life has been crazy the last month or so. The last few weeks of school were nuts!! The boys had odd schedules as they do the testing thing, so they go to school whenever they have a testing period, so my days were crazy - thus causing me to lose my brain!

Things finally settled down - JA graduated from 8th grade and the next day, the boys headed off to sleep away camp! They will be gone until the middle of August (can we say the house is sooooooo quiet!!) Hannah (16 yr old) is off at horse-back riding camp right now - and after she comes home next week will be off to Spain with her grandma -how fun!! So...the only one home is Julia (8yr old) and she is in day camp - and loving it. She goes at 9 and I pick her up at 4...she is so tired when she gets home...but what fun. I wish I had a camp like that when I was growing up!!

I have been enjoying summer vacation - things are not as hectic. I think we all needed a break! I have been having fun with my friends and that makes life much more pleasant. One of the coolest things - my friend Kathy spends the summers in NY with her mom and thank goodness I remembered that! I had not seen her, or her kids for probably 7 years, so we have been catching up and hanging out. It is fun - and almost like no time has past - LOL - except the fact her kids are all grown up....don't they know they need to stay little!

Also - my friend Adriana got a karaoke machine a few weeks ago at Costco. It is a Leadsinger machine, and I must say it is pretty cool! It has about 2500 songs and they are actually good - not to cheesy! The whole machine is basically a microphone that plugs into your tv. The music chip is in the microphone itself, so there is not a huge machine to mess with - it is very cool, and we have had more than one fun evening of singing and drinking.....LOL - good times!!

On a more serious note (and another reason I have not xanga'd much)...It has been a couple worrisome months in my family. My dad had a cough that wouldn't go away this past winter and about 1 1/2 months ago he had to have a lung biopsy - which turned out to be pretty ok. He has a lung condition (I can never remember the name) and it is just something he will have to live with - gotta love being a farmer and breathing in all the dust and such. So...that turned out ok, but about the same time his hip started bothering him. It was to the point where he could hardly walk...again, if a farmer is complaining - you know it is really hurting. He had a MRI and saw a specialist. This doctor couldn't find anything specific, but was concerned to send him on further and he had to get a MRI. That was also inconclusive - and he had an invasive biopsy on Thursday. The doctor was happy with the way things look, but we will have to wait and see what the pathologist says next week to completely rule out cancer...but we are all keeping our fingers, eyes and everything else crossed! The doctor is not sure if it is arthritis or ?, but hopefully they can get things figured out. It is not fun to see my dad in pain.

My mom did retire at the end of May - no more teaching! I think she is really going to enjoy this, and it is good that she is free - especially lately with my dad and his issues. She has been a Behavior Disorder teacher for about 17 years (i think) and is ready to not have to deal with those lovely jr.high kids - LOL. Now she can enjoy being a grandma and not having to commute!

I am leaving for Nebraska on Thursday to go on vacation for a couple weeks - I can't wait!! I am going to drive, so it will take about 1 1/2 days to get there...but I-80, here I come I am needing a nice break, so Annie will be very happy. My nieces/nephews keep asking me when I am going to be home...and now I can honestly say - very soon!! I will be home until July 31st..then my brother and SIL are going to drive back with me...and they will have a few days vacation in NY. My brother is a die hard Yankee fan (and has been his whole life...along with my mom)...so he can't wait to see the game. We are going on the 1st which is also his birthday - so he will be in heaven!!