What's up? | Pad Patter 10.20

Well we have had a day of torrential rain, which is really a good thing round here after our months without any rain, but it meant that our trip out to lunch with friends went by car and not their boat. Power boats don't excite me and sail boats are too much work so I was just as happy to be in the car - comfy & dry.

And today I said Ok, today's the day. Turn on our gas Jotul (which is not the Jotul brand but a Jotul was the first one we ever had so that name is kinda like Kleenex for tissues for me...)

 

Jan, I'm so sorry about your former students.

I'm trying to complete my Iceland '18 trip album to have it ready to be printed for the next big printing sale. I don't know why, but when I scrap the first 3/4 of the album comes together fast, then it drags on and on and on... I feel I've been working on the last part (proofreading, formatting, etc.) for weeks. But I'm almost there! Two more pages to scrap and three pages to journal before I do the last check on everything. I'll be so happy when I'm done!

 

@IntenseMagic I'm very sorry to hear about your students. And having your son deploy must be really tough; I hope he is going to be somewhere safe.

I spent most of the weekend working on editing jobs and up-loaded the last manuscript to a slooooooow server in China this morning. Then I celebrated (and gave my typing hands a break) by hiking with my husband to a local waterfall. It was such a glorious fall day here in South Carolina, and I really needed a dose of nature.

@QuiltyMom I hear you. I have been stuck a little over half-way through my Lake District album for, well, years. I don't know why that happens!

 

Was just going to be the usual non eventful week here til I got a phone call inviting me to a job interview on Friday so now it’s a mad rush to line up accomodation (booked) and travel (still working on that one) plus get my haircut before I head away on Thursday. Was hoping I’d have a bit more time to sort things out but I can’t be too picky.

 

I'm kind of dreading this week. On Saturday, my husband leaves for 5 and 1/2 months. He's going back to Pittsburgh to finish up his final year of coaching his high school swim team. (A brand new school with a brand new pool that he helped design. He's been the coach for 21 years and the team never had its own pool until now) We knew this was going to happen when we moved to Florida in August, but now it's real. So we're trying to do all kinds of things before he goes - shopping, packing, visiting, walking the beach.

I've always said I want to be alone, but do I really? Not for 5 and 1/2 months anyway.

 

Jan, my heart hurts for your students. That must be tough for the community, and I pray you (and all the teachers/admin) have strength tomorrow at school as I'm sure current students know the two who were hurt. As for your son, thank you for his service, but I can only imagine what you're feeling. I hope you got to relax tonight and just turn your brain off for awhile!

 

Some of you are definitely dealing with some heavy stuff!! I'll be sure to include you in my prayers. I'll share some complete randomness

• I (finally!!) started listening to Born A Crime by Trevor Noah on audio - I'm on chapter 4 and it's amazing/unreal!
• These sweats and this sweatshirt from Aerie are incredibly soft and comfy!! I got them last Saturday and have pretty much worn them since then (when I'm home, not to work )
• Our desktop PC started having issues a while back so we're using my laptop as our main computer now. In order to still use our two very large monitors, we got this "hub" and it's working out fantastically! Then, we found out that you can buy housing that internal drives plug into that essentially turn them into external hard drives. I love technology!

 

Thanks, normally I’d be sweet but this time it’s just made more complicated by the fact a) it’s leading into a holiday weekend where travel costs are more $$$ than usual and b) the person who normally helps me financially is on vacation til later today so I have to wait to book my flights and hope the price doesn’t go up more

 

@IntenseMagic Oh Jan, I'm sorry to hear about your former students. I pray they are okay especially the one in critical condition and that your current student are coping okay today too. That's a rough situation. I also hope you're able to hear from your son sooner rather than later. I can imagine the waiting and not knowing is so hard. I can't even imagine!

@cookingmylife Maureen... that gas stove looks heavenly. I wish I had one in my office at work! I'm always cold in there in the fall/winter!

@QuiltyMom Jan, I know what you mean about finishing albums. At first the excitement level is high and it's like revisiting the places you've been all over again, but then... ugh... you just want to be finished and not look at the same pictures anymore!

@littlekiwi Good luck on the interview Friday Jennifer!

@djp332 Whoa! That is a long time to be apart! I always say I love to be alone too, but that is a really long time! I hope you guys will be able to visit each other at least a little bit! And... it looks like it's time for a major crafty project to keep your mind busy! Time for an online painting class or something! New book series to read of FAT books... like Outlander?

@busywoman139 oooh... those sweats look awesome! I might have to add those to my Christmas wishlist!


I spent the whole weekend with 13 middle schoolers on a Confirmation retreat and while it was exhausting because we were running from early morning until midnight, it was also super amazing! The retreat was in a "camp" that was more like an old school resort right on Lake Michigan in the Up North part of Michigan and we had beautiful weather (SUNSHINE and 60s). The kids were all well behaved and got along and had fun and learned a lot and we had the most amazing guest pastor that told stories so amazingly well that he kept the attention of 125+ middle school kids so well you could hear a pin drop! I can't wait to download and start scrapping all the fun pictures I took!

 

I got ill over the weekend, and still haven't shook it off yet. TJ Toucanette has been to Paris on a school trip and got home last night. School as normal this week, then next week we have the Autumn 1/2 term break which is 1 week off school. We intend to do some family stuff that week.
This week I've got more medical paperwork to sort out, and I'm leading 2 bible study groups. Trying to fit some crafting and scrapbooking in between resting and the housework etc.