Survived the storm

We had huge wind/thunderstorms go through here last night.  I think it was something called a derecho.  We're having more tonight, but the wind isn't so bad.  Our high yesterday was over 100 °F.  I think it was today, too, but it didn't seem quite so hot.

Last night when the wind swept through, we lost power for about fifteen minutes.  It came back on and went out again.  This happened about five times as midnight approached.  Finally the power remained on. 

I had figured with the heat today, we'd go to the pool.  It turns out the pool and the neighborhood outside the pool (we're slightly outside the neighborhood) had no power so the pool was closed.  I felt especially bad for all the people with no air conditioning (since no power) who also couldn't cool off in the pool since it was closed.

I expect our power might go off with the storms tonight, but I hope not.  Around the state, especially in northern Virginia, a lot of people have no power so I imagine getting ours back on is not a priority.  I just hope it remains on.  The last round of storms seems to be ending, but more might form yet.

K's Rough Week

N and J are at camp this week.  It is leaving K very lonely.  I hadn't planned to take K to the swim meet this evening, but the coach reamed me out and said K needed to go (and wanted to go) so there she is just before her first and only race--freestyle.  She can now go farther towards the other side of the pool without needing to hang on to the lane lines for a quick break.

She had a friend over to play with her yesterday.  Mr. K set up his tent in the family room Sunday so she could play that she was camping, too.  I had her write a letter to J yesterday.  We got one from J today.  J mentions she got stung by a wasp the day she arrived.

Mr. K dug potatoes this evening.  K and I sorted them by size and by condition (some were skewered with the turning fork during harvest) on towels.  I'll have to cook the wounded one's as soon as possible.  A few were quite large.  We grew Yukon Gold potatoes.  The wounded ones were already removed when I took this picture.  Unfortunately, there were quite a few.

K has a job this week.  She is watering the neighbor's plants and new landscaping while she's in Japan for just over a week.  N and J would have had the job, but they are at camp.  I help her figure out what to water each night and make sure she does it.

None

My test did not go as well as I hoped, but the results aren't back yet.  It's not working very well for me trying to take classes on line in the summer.  The kids seldom stop wanting things so it's pretty hard to study.  It seemed to be going a lot better until the kids got out of school. 

Swim team is keeping us really busy.  I had no idea team sports were so much work.  We've never done on e before so it is a good experience.  I think there are a total of six meets, and the season is over in July.  J has practice every work day at 8:30 a.m.  At 9:3l0 a.m., I swap her out for N.  He has practice until 11 a.m.  At 10:45, I can watch K play in the pool until 11 a.m., when her practice starts.  It's over at 11:30 a.m.  I REPEAT, THIS IS MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY.

 I am lucky that the pool is less than half a mile away.  We could walk if it weren't for the traffic on the road.  I am also lucky that there is now free WiFi at the pool so I can work on my classes when I have to remain there. It's been so hot lately that it's hard to think, though.  I know the high was in the 90s today.  Yesterday was 98 F.

We have had two swim meets already.  The seem to be about once a week.  We arrive at 4:30 if they are home meets and at 5:00 if they are away.  They last until somewhere close to 10 p.m.  At most of the meets, I have volunteered to gather the littlest kids together when their races are near and make sure they get directed to the person who sends them up for the races at the right time.  I now know most of the little kids' names.

This is a white-breasted nuthatch.  It's a pretty small bird.  I got this close because he ran into my sliding glass door and stunned himself.  The girls and I watched him until he flew off.  I got some pitures, and this one came out the best.

School ended yesterday for the kids.  We had our first swim meet.  I was a mite/mini-mite mom for the first half of the meet.  I helped get the smallest kids where they needed to be in order to compete.  Since I don't know most of their names, it was very confusing.

I got chiggers.  My ankles are itching incredibly.  I'm not sure where I got them, but I suspect it was from a creek in the woods I got near on Thursday evening when we were at J and K's school picnic (not a pot luck but a bring-your-own dinner).

N got a baby molar pulled yesterday after school.  He screamed and screamed and for a while, I was afraid the dentist would call off the whole thing.  She finally got the tooth out.  N did not go to his first swim meet because he was recovering.

I have my first test in nutrition on Wednesday.  I hope it goes well.  It is multiple choice, which will help make it easier probably.

A baby rabbit is eating my soybean plants as they come up.  Mr. K has fenced them off now, and we are hopingthe bunny can't get through.

New DVD Set

Here is my new boxed set of the entire Stargate SG-1 series.  There are ten seasons of episodes in this box.  I never thought I'd buy it because it's not as good as Stargate Atlantis (in my opinion).  I do own that series and was happy to get it. 

Amazon sent me an offer I could not refuse a few days ago.  I could get the entire thing, all ten seasons, for $54 with free shipping.  I did it.  Some episodes are great.  Others are not good.  I haven't seen many of them, but I've seen all of the first couple and last couple seasons. I'm not sure when I'll watch them because we have other things to watch together in the evening right now, but I'm glad I got them at that price.

Pot Luck Again

We're going to a Girl Scout pot luck tonight.  It's the awards meeting for the year.  The theme is soup and salad.  Sign Up Genius was used in order to get us to bring different kinds of foods.  I've signed up for soup in a crock pot (senate bean) and a dozen dinner rolls (homemade white/wheat).  It seems like everyone and everything is using Sign Up Genius this year, including the swim team.

There are so many end-of-school-year things going on that it is crazy.  Tomorrow I'm going to J's class in the afternoon to help with an ice cream social.  N is supposed to have one today.  J is having a pizza party today in class.  Thursday the girls' school is having a picnic night.  Tomorrow N's school is having pot luck snacks and dessert after dinner. 

It all ends with N getting a tooth pulled after school on the last day, and the rest of us having a swim meet to attend.  N won't be there for obvious reasons, even though he is our best swimmer (we're pretty much a non-swimming family so I do not mean to indicate he's a great swimmer; he's learning).

Washington, D.C. Again

The girls and I took a charter bus to Washington, D.C., yesterday with their Girl Scout troop and other troops in our service unit.  There was a big celebration at the mall there in honor of the 100th birthday of Girl Scouts.  It was a big sing-along.  It was very hot and we went through a lot of water.  The girls traded pins with out city and state on them that they made with girls from other troops who did the same.  We met girls from Indiana, Connecticut, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, and New Jersey.

For us it was just a short, two-hour bus ride to get there.  I guess we are lucky we live so close to Washington. 

We did see one Smithsonian while we were there.  It was the air and space one.  I found it boring.  J loved it.  K was bored, too.  At least it had air conditioning and flush toilets.

Own Vegetables

I harvested those beans (rattlesnake beans) and those beets this afternoon from my garden.  I'll eat the beets myself tomorrow (no one else likes them), but tonight we're having the green beans (and some from the past two days I've been saving) tonight.

N back to school

N has nausea and heaving with a tiny bit of throwing up the final three days of last week.  He's been home with me.  I finally took him to the doctor Friday, and she had him tested for flu and strep throat.  He had neither, so her guess was it was just a virus.  It's better now.  I had wanted to wait until today (Monday) to take him to the doctor, but Mr. K was pretty insistent he go Friday since he was on his third day without school.  Because of his sore foot, the doctor had me get an X-ray so she could confirm his foot was not broken (which we both pretty much knew but she couldn't confirm it without an X-ray).  I did that and his foot is fine.  Actually, it is doing quite a bit better now because the nausea kept him off of it a lot.

I had to write his school a note confirming he was ill.  He's going to be so far behind that I don't see how he'll catch up before the school year is over (which happens next week).

My classes are moving along.  It's been harder to work on them with N home.  It's going to be really tough when the kids are all home from school all day, especially K who doesn't do a good job of entertaining herself.