Where has the time gone?

Okay, so my plan of keeping an updated blog over the summer and into the new school semester has failed miserably, but at least this gives me a good reason for a nice catch up blog. Therefore, beware, this might be a long one.

In May I made a list of to dos over the summer, so let's see how many I actually did.

1. Strip the border in the dining room and get it painted this week.
I did this one!! I thought the border would be easier since it wasn't double layered like the rest of the wallpapered rooms, see below to the pictures of the foyer. The dining room also looks great if I may say so. Pictures to come when I get my computer back.

2. Go see April, Robert and Duncan in Natchez
This one unfortunately we didn't do :( But I hope to change that soon.

3. Have a great time teaching Intro to Lit in June
This one came true. I had a great time teaching a bunch of great students in June!

4. Celebrate Joshua Patrick's arrival on June 4th (give or take a day)
This one didn't happen on June 4th, but on May 30th! Little man is not so little any more and so precious. Again, I'll post pics later.

5. Paint the 70s poop brown trim on the outside of our house to a nice pleasing tanish and paint our garage so it doesn't feel like your driving into a dungeon
Alas, we still have our dungeon, but we do have the paint colors ready!

6. Put up a privacy fence in our backyard! (Hopefully, this may get moved up the list)
It did get moved up!! And we finished it by the first weeks of July working off and on between my teaching and Alan's baseball practice.

7. Read for pleasure
This I definitely did! Nora Roberts and I caught up on a little quality time.

8. Paint our bedroom (The first room to paint with no wallpaper to take down
9. Get our kitchen painted (There's lots of wallpaper, so I'm calling in professionals this time!)
Alas, 8 & 9 didn't get done, but hopefully, soon.

10. Go to the beach with my family
11. Go see Travis, Julie, and Addison in Jacksonville
These two were done in the same trip (pics to come). We went down and spent four days with my family and then drove on to Jacksonville and spent 3 days with Travis, Julie, and cutie pie Addison. We had the best time!

12. Go see Keith in Boston
Unfortunately and luckily, this one didn't happen. I'll explain the luckily in a minute.

13. Go see Alan's summer ballteam (mostly in June)
14. Relax
These two were done, but not always together. The Green Wave did pretty good this summer. They're really coming together as a ball team.

Now to the major happening this summer. I said I would tell you why luckily we didn't go to Boston. Well, the only week we really had for out of town travel was the week we went to the beach and Jacksonville. We had orginially thought to then leave Jacksonville and go up to Boston and then get back before Alan had to be back at work. It would have been a push, but in the end we didn't want to stretch ourselves too thin. Well, the last week of July (when we would have went), my grandmother died. My mamaw, Mary Lucille Moore, was the grandparent I was closest to. She and Dada (my grandfather) lived next door to us, and I would always go over and play in the garden or with the dogs or play dress up in her old clothes. They were part of our everyday lives. After my grandfather died in 2001 and Mamaw had fallen a time or two, she moved in with my parents. She was 92 years old and still very sharp. Back in May, she had a light stroke, which she bounced back from pretty quickly, but the after effects to her body really weakened her. She had trouble remembering for a little while, but got that back. It was her mobility that really got her down. She was in a nursing home swing bed for rehabilitation, and she hated it there. She said she didn't like being around all these old people :) That was Mamaw's humor! But the last week of July, she got pnemonia suddenly and past away that same day. Luckiy, my parents were back from the beach and we had just gotten home from Jacksonville; in fact, I was planning on going to see her that weekend. So, she certainly will be missed even though I know she up in heaven with Dada now and all her friends. They're probably having a big time like always :)

That's all for now, but I'll be back soon with another edition. I promise.