Kitty’s Place

It has been a very quiet week at my house. Tuesday morning when I woke I was dizzy and nauseated. It just got worse as the day wore on. I switched my laundry time and spent the day going between couch and bed and organizing things to keep the kidlet occupied. That is basically how the week went. I had a bilateral ear infection and at one point was wondering if I could move to monastery just to rest them. Friday I still felt bad but the kidlet had been cooped up for days, so I took him out to play in the park while I was doing laundry, that could not be left any later. On our way back home, his sparkcykel fell apart, literally. He was walking it up the hill to the apartment building and it fell to pieces in his hands. I found what pieces I could and boxed it to take back to the store. He has only had it a month and has not used it roughly or even that very much. Saturday night my right ear finally started draining and Sunday the left ear no longer felt like it had an expanding balloon inside it. The right is still sore and still draining but the dizziness is subsiding and I do believe I am on the mend. *laugh*

The past couple of days I have been catching up on mail and journals. Yesterday I ordered a bunch of new clothes online. I am so excited for the packages to get here. Time for some soup and then pick up a bit more. It will likely take all this week to catch up on the cleaning front. *grin*

The weekend was basically quiet. Saturday we went back to my fellows’ parents for dinner. We had a repeat of the evening before, herring, salmon, potatoes etc. It was very nice. I always enjoy spending time with his family. *smile*

Sunday I took the kidlet and we went in to clean. Now I am done with work for 8 weeks. My fellow put together the bureau he got for his birthday. I started it but he and the kidlet took over, so I made dinner instead. *smile*

This morning I got the kidlet into his new bicycle helmet and we went to the park at 1030 where we met David and his mom Marilyn. The kidlet was so excited to see David. They had a great time. I got him onto his 2 wheel bike and we made a few laps around the park. At first he just looked anywhere and didn’t pay attention at all to where he was going, but after I let him almost hit the wooden fence he got the point that it is his job to steer. *laugh* I also showed him how to get his feet on the ground if the bike is wobbling, how to get on and off without it falling over and how the hand brake works (explaining why it is not good to use it when you are riding really fast *smile*). When he is sitting on the bike his toes just touch the ground, so it is still just a bit big. He would have ridden more, but my back was spasming from bending over to hold the bike while he was riding. Marilyn said there is something I can get that attaches to the bike so I can hold it while standing. She suggested training wheels were a better idea though. *laugh*

I have no plans for the rest of the day. Tonight I am going to start putting toys into the bureau so we can empty out the toy corner.

So this has been a week of shopping. The local toy store at Eurostop is going out of business and has a 30% off sale. Since I was up early on Tuesday to see my fellow off to Göteborg for the day, I had the housework etc done early and so I took the kidlet shopping and out to lunch. We went to the toy store and bought a Brio Adventure tunnel for his train set, a Labyrinth Beginner set, a large plastic jar full of plastic beads for stringing and a set with forms to make pictures using those beads. Then we had lunch at McDonalds and were home by 1400 so I could do laundry. The kidlet set up his train set with the new tunnel and played all afternoon with it. He has been looking at this particular tunnel for a couple of years so needless to say, he was ecstatic to finally have it here at home.

After the kidlet went to bed, my fellow and I talked about getting him some of the other things he has been asking for but we have deferred because of them being just a bit too pricey. Wednesday morning we went to öppna förskolan after we met up with one of the women who go there and it reminded the kidlet that it was there. Wednesday afternoon found us back at the toy store. *laugh* We came home with a Mighty Action Locomotive, a battery operated engine that the kidlet kept looking at and saying “I have wanted this forever!”, a Platform with elevator, a Remote control switch and a childsize accordion. He has been asking for a “dragspel” for a very long time and I have been putting it off. The reason being, he wants it so he can play it on the train to Stockholm and I can go around with the hat and collect money while he plays. *laugh* After our shopping trip we came home and set up his train, then I got dinner ready since we had farmor joining us. It was a fun evening filled with the sounds of trains and accordion music. *smile*

Thursday we went to öppna förskolan in the morning. It was the last day, since it will not reopen in the fall. Inger got lots of flowers and gave all the kids a stuffed toy. We had cake and it was a nice morning. After lunch farmor picked us up and we went shopping with her. We started off at Väsby centrum in Upplands Väsby and there I got the kidlet good summer sandals at half price and bought two tops at Lindex for myself. We hunted for a helmet for him with no success. From there we went to Rotebro to a cycle shop. The kid working there was really dense and they did not have anything that was satisfactory for the kidlet. We went and had a coffee then went to Barnens Hus and found him a great bike helmet. We wanted one with a green buckle, because they are the ones that are designed to have the harness break away from the helmet if the child climbs up and ends up hanging from the helmet. Since kids will do such things it is best to be safe. We shopped in a few more stores and then came home.

Today was Midsommarafton. We went to my fellow’s parents home. We had the typical swedish midsommar meal, two types of pickled herring, dilled marinated salmon, baked salmon fillet, new potatoes, sour cream and chives and assorted pickles. For dessert we had strawberries, ice cream and whipped cream. It was a lovely afternoon and evening. The kidlet stayed the night with farmor. It was a cold, rainy nasty day weatherwise though, so we did not go to the raising of the maypole this year. So now I am home, relaxing with a cup of tea and looking forward to not being awakened at 7 am by the sounds of an accordion being played in the other room (which is what happened this morning
*laugh*).

“A SWEDISH nursery assistant has been fined for biting a baby in an attempt to discourage him from sinking his tiny teeth into other children, a media report says.

A court in the western town of Skoevde ordered the assistant to pay her victim 1,320 euros ($2,340) in compensation for “poor treatment” of the child, a two-year-old boy, the daily Expressen reported.

The trouble began back in October 2002 when the boy, whose parents had warned workers at the creche that he was prone to bite, sank his miniature but powerful jaws into the 35-year-old assistant.

The child received more than he had bargained for when the assistant bit him back, prompting his parents to call on staff at the creche to find some other way of discouraging their son’s disagreeable habit.

But three days later, after the boy bit another child, this time in the face, the assistant bit back for a second time, leaving an indentation that was still visible 10 days later.

The assistant, who was not named, has since resigned her job.”

So I have been stewing over this for a couple of days. Of course the teacher was wrong, she had no right to bite the child at all. She should have been fined and obviously should have lost her job after the first incident, since she bit the child twice. But I am looking at this and wondering what responsibility the parents are taking. They warned the daycare that the child had a biting habit. Well why did he? My son bit when he was that age, all kids do. He was told it was wrong and why it was and was punished when he did a third or forth time. It was not fun for us as parents to put him in his room or sit him in a chair and hear him sobbing, but he learned that biting was not acceptable and he stopped doing it. I know this is my particular high horse, but isn’t it taking the easy way out for a parent to say “my child is prone to biting (hitting, spitting, pinching, etc?” Is it the responsibility of a daycare worker to watch that child non stop just in case he/she decides to attack another child? They have a number of children under their care, so is it right that if the teacher is busy with another child, the biter can attack another child and the parents can say “well he is prone to doing that”. Again I feel we are seeing a generation where the parents abdicate parental responsibilities to the daycare workers, because they won’t work at teaching the child themselves.

There was a child who pinched a while back at öppna förskolan. He actually left bruises on the kidlet when he cornered him one morning and grabbed both his cheeks, pinched and then twisted. He only held on long enough for me to get across the room and remove him but he still left bruises. He did it to every child he got close to and his mother was told she would have to stop him or not come back. She stopped coming back. She put him in daycare but had to remove him because he would not stop attacking other children. His dad did not see that there was any problem, he said the child was just a typical boy and would not go along with the mom on disciplining this behavior. I saw them at the grocery store one day and he was still doing the same. His little sister was about 18 months old at the time and in a stroller. Every time the mom turned to put groceries on the belt, he pinched his sister until she screamed and then jumped away so he was not near when his mom looked. So while he has finally learned what he is doing is wrong, he is still doing it. In a couple of years he is going to be in school, they can’t make him leave like the daycares have. So because his parents did not teach him how to behave properly, he will be in a classroom with other children like my son, who will be at risk of injury. It just angers me beyond comprehension.

Tonight was “glassbil” night, so we were out and waiting at 1810 for it. It is always a few minutes late so we had a chat with the daughter of one of our neighbours while waiting. We also said bye to my fellow as he headed off to his meeting. When the glassbil arrived the kidlet placed his order and 200 crowns worth of ice cream later we came back home. *laugh* It is a good thing I cleaned out space in the freezer for it earlier.

We picked up our package after putting the ice cream away. Thank you so much Angela! The Girl Guide cookies arrived intact and I have had one vanilla and one chocolate. I definitely am in heaven at the moment. Along with the cookies the lovely Angela sent 3 bags of candy, ‘Sour Patch Keys’, ‘JuicedUp Sour Neon Wigglers’ and ‘Jolly Rancher Gummies’. The kidlet is savouring the gummies as I type. Now I am going to go and make the vanilla sauce and the red currant cake. It is a day of treats and goodies for all. *smile*

Saturday was Valsta Day and there was a fair type thing at the local town square. We missed the first 20 minutes or so and missed our local political leader giving his speech. But we were there in time for the kidlet to see the firetrucks and an ambulance. I liked that too, the ambulances here are set up differently than what I am used to, so it was cool to see one up close. Llywellyn built a birdhouse and had great fun doing that. His dad helped and took some teasing from some of the other politicians, since it is a big change from computer to carpentry. *laugh* When it was done, the kidlet announced that he was going to put it up in a tree for birds to live in.

From there we stopped to talk for a few minutes with some of the other people my fellow works with politically, then the kidlet went for a pony ride. There were only real horses, no Canadian “pony” in sight. (a few years ago we were at a Lions Club Carnival in Port Colborne and they had a big sign saying ‘Pony Rides’. One of the ‘ponies’ was actually a donkey and my fellow was quick to dub it a Canadian pony) We were in line behind some of the kids from öppna förskolan. They wanted to ride on the “big” horses, so the kidlet got to go ahead, since he was quite happy to ride the little brown pony. How boring it must be to just go around in a circle all day with a thousand different kids on your back.

We walked around a bit and checked out the booths, then stood in line for face painting. We were in line for the better part of 2 hours, since there was just one girl doing it and she worked really hard on every kid, no slapping on some paint for her, she was a perfectionist. It rained on us twice and one little girl who butted into the line to start with, gave another little girl who had been there for the whole 2 hours, a hip check, so she could move up in the line. Mom’s had to get involved at that point. She kept announcing to us that she was before us and my fellow would open his eyes really big every time she did. Finally her mom told her to stop, that we had no intention of going in front of her. The girls behind us however were very verbal about the fact that she had moved ahead by going to “talk” with her friend who had been waiting there all along. Those girl kept crowding the kidlet and pushing him forward until I told him to push back if they were going to be rude. That put an end to the pushing. *smile* He really looked cute when she was done with him. He had decided he wanted to be a cat the minute he saw that there was face painting available.

From there we went and got the kidlet a hot dog and a coke, then we got some kind of yummy, spicy sandwich from the stand set up by the people who own the Lebanese restaurant in town. The kidlet at his hot dog while we were waiting and wanted another, so he and his dad went and got one while I saved a place at one of the picnic tables. We saw lots of people we knew, people Ibo grew up with or knew from politics, lots of parents that I know from playgroup and preschool and we even saw Anna-li. She stopped to say hi and ask LL what he was. After we ate we stopped at the store and got ’saturday candy’ and some other snacks. Those got put out when my fellow’s sister stopped over in the evening.

Sunday we went in to work. We stopped at McDonalds for lunch and things went along quickly at work. We were home a bit past 1600. I made hamburgers for dinner and we had a quiet evening. We saw L&O:Criminal Intent and then my fellow watched his car race.

Today we went grocery shopping in the morning and my fellow picked us up on his lunch hour and brought us home. ICA Maxi had salmon fillets on sale and if you don’t get there on the first day of the sale, you don’t get the nicest fish. I filled our freezer with salmon, sausages, hamsteaks, meatballs and ground beef. We are ready to bbq lots this month. My fellow has 2 meetings today, so we will fit dinner in between them. I am going to bake salmon and will serve it with rice and a salad. There is a parcel at the postal outlet, we got the slip a little bit ago. It is from Angela! So after dinner we will go over and pick it up and I will get some vanilla sauce to go with the red currant cake I am going to bake to have with tea when my fellow gets home tonight.

Today was our annual Valsta day celebration at Valsta centrum (Valsta is the area of Märsta we live in). We saw lots of friends and neighbours, had lots of fun and yummy food. Here are the pictures of how Llywellyn enjoyed his day. *smile*

Am feeling somewhat better today. Thanks to all of you who sent hugs and kind thoughts, it really helped. *smile*

Not sure what exactly triggered this bout of homesickness, but I even dreamed I was home and was so sad when I woke and wasn’t. It isn’t that life is bad here, I love Sweden, my fellow, his family. Just some days I miss the sights and smells of Niagara and my family in Canada. *smile*

We had a kid free night last weekend. His grandparents called on Friday night and said they were going to Sköldinge and could he go along. So he headed out about 0930 Saturday morning and my fellow and I had a quiet day together. I did do laundry in the afternoon but it went quickly without the kidlet arguing every trip over to the laundry room that he is big now and should be allowed to stay at home by himself. *laugh* We kind of lounged about and made an early night of it. Sunday we slept in and were lazy again. The kidlet came home in the late afternoon and was really sad that he couldn’t go to Månkarbo with his grandparents. But apparently his hysteria over all things that fly led to not much sleeping at all in Sköldinge, so farmor felt that going out to the cottage with all the flies and such was not wise.

I am at my wits end how to combat this fly thing. I understand he is scared but it is the hysterical part that needs to be dealt with. He throws whatever he might have in hand and runs screaming “help” whenever he sees anything airborne. He has run into furniture, doorways etc. I am afraid he will panic outside and run out into the roadway. He has done that here at home but there are not many cars in the complex and they always drive carefully because of the little kids about. Today he was sitting in a chair eating a chocolate pudding and watching tv. One of those tiny little flies that flourish in house plants flew past him. He threw the pudding, covering the chair, his shirt and jeans, a path across the floor and even got pudding in my hair! I really got upset with him over that and feel bad for getting angry but I have spent almost a whole month talking this over rationally and working with him to make him understand they are not going to eat him. I know that it is from school, I have seen the other kids reacting the exact same way there, so of course he thinks that is how he should react. I do hope we can get past this or it is going to be a looooong summer.

Monday we went to work. I got ticked at my fellow and spent the evening wound up like a top. I wish he would argue, then I could get it out of my system, but arguing with someone who just looks at you and then goes on with whatever they were doing, is just infuriating. I was talking to his mom last evening and she said his dad is the same and that sometimes a person just wants to argue and it is hard to do it alone. *laugh*

Tuesday the kidlet wanted to stay home in the morning, so we did. He went to school in the afternoon though. We did some shopping after school. I was planning on bbqing sausage but my fellow came home between meetings and was hungry so I did a quick meal instead.

Wednesday we went to öppna förskolan in the morning and then it was his last day of preschool in the afternoon. I had to pick him up early though because it was also graduation day for his aunt. So they had their cake and party before I picked him up at 1445. He had a candy dish he had made at school, a swedish flag and a balloon. We headed over to the school his aunt attends and met up with farmor and farfar there. LL had made her a card and we got flowers for him to give to her as well. It had rained all morning and continued up until about 10 minutes before the graduates all came out and got into a circle. They were given their diplomas and then families rushed in to congratulate and give flowers to the graduates. My fellow came from work, he missed the actual ceremony part but stayed when we all went back to his parents for strawberries and cream. It seems funny to think that his sister will be going to high school in the fall. I still see her as a kid. *smile* My fellow had to go back to work and he had a meeting in the evening, so we stayed at his parents and had dinner with them and spent the evening. We got home about 2030 and I settled the kidlet in bed. My fellow got home about 2 minutes after I had turned out the bedroom light, but the kidlet was already asleep. I noticed a bag in the hall with my fellow’s knapsack and laptop case and asked what it was as I pulled it out of the corner. It was this. My fellow bought it for me. I had his old Nokia that he bought when he came back here in 1999 and he has been wanting to get me a newer one for a while. So I put it together and plugged it in to charge. Tonight he can show me how to move the SIM card from the old to the new (it is so little I am afraid of breaking it *laugh*). Have been reading the manual since last night and am so excited that now I can send an SMS, instead of only being able to reply to them. *smile*

Today has been a quiet day, we played trains for a couple hours this morning, have watched cartoons, played some games and some computer games. I have managed to straighten up and do dishes. Now I am going to vaccum before starting dinner.

Thursday we made it to öppna förskolan. The talk there was that a petition was written and sent around for signing while Inger was off sick and the school was closed. It was Monica who took the bull by the horns, I knew she would and obviously with much more success than I did, since she is swedish and has a network here. So lets hope it and the letter writing will have some effect. There were a lot of kids there and LL had fun as always.

In the afternoon he went to preschool. I had no fruit for him to take with him, so I dropped him off and said “I am going to go and get you some fruit and will come back, what do you want?”. He said “apple” and I went off. He stood and waved to me until I was out of sight. I bought his fruit and took it back, to be greeted by many little voices yelling “Llywellyn your mom is coming!!!”. I thought I was more popular than usual. When I got to the door, his teacher said he had sobbed that I forgot his fruit and was really upset. I said I had told him I was coming back and she said she had said the same thing. He said “I forgot”. Today when we went to öppna förskolan, Inger gave me the whole story. Apparently once I was out of sight he began to cry and sob really loudly. His teacher and Inger went to see what was wrong. She asked him if he had hurt himself .. no. She asked if one of the other kids had hurt him …. no. So she asked what exactly was wrong and he was sobbing so hard he couldn’t say, so Sofia informed her that Llywellyn’s mom had left him with no fruit for the afternoon. *laugh* So all the kids were very happy for him when his awful mom returned bearing fruit. *grin* The funny thing is, he really did forget. He said he watched me go and started to play and then thought “where is my apple” and never once thought of our conversation. I do believe he is destined to be an actor one day. *laugh* He also managed to break his sparkcykel and his teacher made an attempt to repair it but it was not really successful. So I had to study it a bit but I did get it put back together correctly. He has been instructed not to dismantle it again. *smile*

Today is Swedish National Day, so he made a flag at öppna förskolan this morning. This afternoon he had his apple so there was no dramatics. Only 3 kids were there and they had a fun afternoon. Before school he was typing his name on the computer and sounding it out as he went “L L Y W E L L Y 1″ … I said no honey, it is N not one and his reply was “that is en”. Smart mouthed brat using swedish to outsmart me. *laugh*

I have been pondering this all afternoon. Today when I took him to preschool there were a group of school kids getting ready to play ball on the other side of the woods on a paved surface there. They were 15/16 year olds, the group that is graduating to go on to high school in the fall. As we were walking in the path through the woods I saw 3 boys just casually ripping small limbs off trees. Not for any reason that I could see, just because they were bored that the game wasn’t started and random destruction is as good a way to fill in time as anything. So I made sure LL took his sparkcykel into the school and said “if those teenagers are willing to rip branches off trees, they wouldn’t think anything of taking a kids’ scooter just for kicks”. The teacher gave me a really odd look and it reminded me of the attitude about kids here.

Kids are let do whatever they please because “kids will be kids”. In the 3 years I have been here I have seen a noticeable increase in vandalism and graffiti. I used to walk Susan with no worries, but these days I take her only a short distance from the apartment if it is after dark, because there seems to be a “pack” mentality here and I have been harassed more than once at the local mall by groups of kids when I refuse to buy them cigarettes. I am really getting afraid to be out of the house after dark. It makes me sad because the only other time I ever felt that way was when I was living in downtown Toronto when I was going to university. If you talk to most swedes they just brush off any reference to teens causing problems or say “it is the immigrants”. Well I can say personally it is not “the immigrants” alone. It is the kids raised in daycares and schools, whose parents were too willing to let the system raise their children and did not take the time to teach them to be good people, they just learned to be good followers. I teach my son to say please and thank you. I teach him to respect other people and their property. I teach him that God gave us the beauty we call nature and to love that gift. He doesn’t go about ripping down branches, pulling off all the leaves from trees, pulling up wild flowers just to leave them lying where they dropped. He has been taught that it takes time for those things to grow and they are alive and should be left to live out their life cycle. Last week I saw a little girl not much older than him rip a branch off a bush, strip all the leaves off of it and then use it to whip at the other branches, doing further damage. She was at daycare, no one stopped her. What will she destroy in 10 years?

Monday is a red day here, so I am going to go and clean on Sunday. That leaves us 2 days to do fun things together. *smile*

Well my fellow had another birthday on the 29th. This year it was on the same day as a red day (Ascension Day) so he was off of work. We woke him about 1000 with breakfast in bed and the books that Leslie brought back with her from the States. He likes the “Uncle Johns Bathroom Reader” books, they are full of trivia and short little stories, perfect for reading before going to sleep at night. So we gave him the first 4 books from that series. Then while he and the kidlet watched tv and puttered about, I cleaned up some here and got things organized for dinner. His parents joined us and we barbecued marinated salmon fillets. We also had potatoes, peas, corn, fresh rolls and salad. After dinner we moved into the living room and had an ice cream cake and coffee while he opened the rest of his gifts. His mom and dad got him a 6 drawer bureau to match the tv centre/bookshelf unit they got him last year. It will sit beside and house toys and papers etc. *smile* They also brought him a lovely plant. Our gifts were 2 pairs of jeans, 2 polo shirts, 4 pairs of socks, a bound edition of the years worth of Farside comic books from 1998 and 3 other BR books, that I ordered here through AdLibris. The kidlet’s gift to his dad was a picture made from small plastic beads, glued onto a plastic frame. We worked on it for days at playgroup, he designed it, and mom did the outline while he did the filling in. So it has his dad’s initials at the top and then a car, all surrounded by a geometric design. It was a very nice day all around.

Friday we went to work and so did my fellow although it is not unusual for people to take the Friday between a red day on Thursday and the weekend, off. We first went to lunch though and that was great fun. We had lunch with Jenny and she and I swapped books. It was fun to finally meet and get a chance to chat some. Of course that is not the easiest to do with a 4 year old demanding attention but it was fun all the same. *smile* After we ate, the kidlet and I stopped and got some muffins, then went to the book store where I looked at books and he sat in a big chair reading conveniently placed kids books. Then we went to work and saw a couple of the girls and I got my vacation schedule. Will have 8 weeks off from work over the summer, the advantage of working at a place that runs on the same schedule as the schools. *smile*

Saturday we went to the cottage since it was farfar’s birthday. We had dinner there and I made the “Roasted Vegetables and Couscous” that Gale posted the recipe for a bit ago. It was a big hit. Then we all had a sauna, ate some and headed home. The kidlet fell asleep immediately, he was zonked from all the fresh air and then the sauna. After dinner we heard the “glassbil” and it went past. It always turns around and comes back, so the kidlet got money from his dad. When it was coming back he ran to where it stops usually and while he was running he was waving the money so the driver would see it. *laugh* So he got a box of ice cream bars and we left them there for his next visit. When we were coming home we saw this huge red sun setting in front of us at almost 2200. I can’t beleive how long the days are already.

Sunday was a quiet day here, my fellow watched his race and we didn’t do anything exciting at all.

Monday the kidlet slept in till almost 1000. I think the late nights on the weekend caught up with him finally. We are having a running battle about sleeping while the sun is shining. Yesterday the weather page said that the length of daylight is now 21 hours, so there is no choice but to sleep when the sun is still up. It is just dusk when we go to bed after 2300. *laugh* I have a terrible sore throat and sore ears, so there was no playgroup but I did take him to preschool. He is using his sparkcykel a lot now and it is amazing how much it is improving his sense of balance. Monday night was meeting night for my fellow and I guess it was the night that the final decision about closing our öppna förskolan was made. The total lack of protest rather sealed its’ fate.

Tuesday I was still feeling rotten, so we stayed home again. The kidlet was at school in the afternoon and I was in cleaning up in the bathroom. (there is no cleaning fairy who visits when you are sick after all *laugh*) I could hear him saying, “it is here but I can’t see the number” so I opened the bathroom window and there was my son and two of his friends in the woods outside the building, looking for which apartment was ours. He couldn’t tell because he is used to having the number out front to show him which it is. *laugh* So I called him and they came to see me before running back to school. A few minutes later I heard someone calling “MOMMY” and there was my son, back again at the bathroom window. He just wanted to tell me that they were going in now and he would see me at 1530 when I picked him up. Which reminds me, he always has called us ‘mamma’ and ‘pappa’ until a few days ago. Now he calls us ‘mommy’ and ‘poppy’. I have no clue where that came from but every time he says ‘poppy’, I think about the Seinfeld episode where Poppy doesn’t wash his hand after using the bathroom. *laugh*

Today my fellow went down to Göteborg and I went back to bed and slept in till about 0900. Still have the sore throat and ears but the sinus symptoms have abated so hopefully the rest will follow suit shortly. My fellow has a meeting tonight, and I am not sure when he will be home from down south. So I am waiting on making dinner until I hear from him. The kidlet came over with two different friends today and I could hear the dog barking like crazy and then him calling her, so I went and opened the window and said hello, then they all went back to school because the teacher called them to come back. It is good that school is only for another week. The kids are really getting restless.