Taking the Scenic Route

We talked briefly with some other family members about making a place where we can all upload our photos together and share the pictures.

I made an account at Walgreens. The username is our last name, and the password is (the other) Jennifer’s maiden name followed by the number “1″ (you have to have both letters and numbers in the password).

I am just now starting to load pictures on there, so if you see this message right away, it might be empty, but there should be pictures there later today.

PLEASE feel free to add your pictures. That is what it is there for.

ETA:
The username starts with a capital letter
The password does not.

Sorry if this caused confusion.

The pictures are all raw footage. I will be going through them and doing red eye corrections, etc. If you have one/some in particular that needs a bit of photoshop work, let me know and I will do that for you. I also just uploaded with the default settings. I don’t know if that means it is the original size, but if not, again, tell me and I can try again. I haven’t done this much, but I chose Walgreens because they actively support integrating autistic and developmentally delayed adults into the workplace and have a really high percentage of disabled workers.

Kids stayed asleep when we brought them inside, bags are inside, we are going to bed.

We drove straight through and arrived at 3:30 or so, but didn’t get settled until 4:30-5am.  We got up at 8am and went down to breakfast and met up with Aunt Joyce &  her husband.  We are following them to the airport this afternoon to help pick up Sandy &  Bob, Wright, Mead, Cady and Lauren who are all, amazingly, arriving on the same flight.  About 2 hours after we pick them up is the family viewing, then we don’t know if we are going to the house, or hanging out with the family.

This morning Zach’s brother-in-law picked him up to go to the family meeting with the minister.

Zach has very few pictures from his childhood, but here are a few:

We finally got a person at Hertz that was willing to help find us a car before Thursday so we could get there on time. We leave Wed at noon, or earlier if they are able to get a van/car/whatever seats 4 people here sooner.

The visitation/viewing is on Thursday evening
The Burial is on Friday morning, a military burial
The Memorial Service is on Saturday morning at the church

The hotel is supposed to have free wifi, so I should be able to check messages and maybe post if I feel up to it.

If anybody wants a link to the funeral home obituary, leave a note. If I already know you, I will send you the link. If you know my mom, she has the link too.

Zach just received word that his dad died tonight. He had a massive heart attack. He just turned 63.

We don’t know anything more at this point.

eta: He had a heart attack while planting a tree. He loved landscaping, so, at least he was doing something he loved to do. He was alone, his wife (not Zach’s mom, btw) found him.

Neither of the kids need new coats this year. WooHoo! Zane still has the mittens and hat I knit him, and Zora will probably actually fit into her mittens that match her coat this year. I might knit a hat for Zora, but she does have a hood, so it isn’t pressing.

We will need new boots for each. I can’t find Zane’s old boots, and even if I could, I know we were broke broke broke when she was his age, so they probably were really cheap and likely not in good shape anyway.

We got Zora a pair of shoes last week from Target, so that she has something with closed toes, and she is wearing an 8.5 already. I am holding off on buying her much right now because she is eating anything not nailed down, cranky, and starting to get just a bit of a pudge, so I am expecting another growth spurt any day now. I suspect she will grow into 3T a little more solidly, but I want to hang out a bit and see if the prices go down a little more with all of the economy stuff going on.

The weather turns cool and I can enjoy my kitchen again. I love cool weather cooking…long simmering soups and roasts, the house filled with the smells of baking. Mmmmm.

Yesterday we made the first bread of the season (I really don’t like to bake in the summer if I can avoid it). After we made the dough together, Zora insisted on making her own mess batch of glue dough. She had a lot of fun. She even insisted on warming up the “milk” (water & flour) in the microwave. (just putting it in there and setting the timer seemed to satifsfy her…her brow scrunched up a bit like something was right, but the ding of the bell made it better. lol)

“heavywork” lol

Nothing super dramatic, but I am so annoyed with how today started.  We had such a good day yesterday and I was not expecting this.

Woke up at 9, a bit late.  We are supposed to go to ST at 10.  (I canceled it.  I just can not do it today) In the first place, I couldn’t believe that Zane was still asleep because he almost never sleeps 12 hours.  What I REALLY couldn’t believe is that Zora was still asleep.   Not only did she not wake us all up this morning at the crack of dawn, but she slept through me bugging Zane until he dragged himself out of bed, complaining, and up to the couch upstairs.  I heard her cry for about 30 seconds and expected her to appear up here, but then she stopped.  She fell back asleep on the bottom step.

*TMI warning*  Add to that, it is day 2 of my cycle and I feel like somebody is stabbing me repeatedly.  It is so bad it hurts to breathe and walk.  I also discovered that I am out of Ibuprofin and had to take regular Bayer asprin, which doesn’t really nail it.  I gotta tell ya, I saw some stronger stuff in the cabinet and that is just really tempting right now.  If I didn’t have to stay awake and be a parent, I would have downed that in a New York Minute.  (seriously missing the “old days” where Zach worked from home and I could crawl back in bed on these kinds of days)  The only good thing is that, as horrible as my pain is, at least it is happening on day 2 and not 2 days before my cycle.  Just “normal” really bad, not “Endo” really bad.  I wonder if PCOS has bad cramps associated with it during the cycle.  Dude, I just want to curl in a ball and cry right now.

Oh, and it’s raining.  A cold, dark rain. 

If you remember, our car doesn’t have door seals any more and since it has been raining for two days now that means that all the seats are probably soaked and I would have to take out plastic bags and towels to keep all of us from getting wet when we sit down. I just can’t deal today.

Maybe later I can post yesterday’s pictures.  Besides the normal stuff, it was cool enough that I can have the oven going more so I made some homemade rolls to go with the pot roast and roasted veggies.  The kids were thrilled to help, although Zane was hoping it was cookies and a little dissapointed it was only bread.  lol.

Zora is really wanting to “hep” with everything these days. She can unload silverware by herself (we get any sharp pointy things out first, obviously) and the last week or so she has been helping take out the plates and cups too. Last night she wanted to help load the dishwasher, so as I rinsed each piece off (a little better than usual because she kept wanting to lick everything before putting it in the dishwasher *shudder*) and handed it to her to put in the dishwasher.

As I was finishing up the silverware, I looked down to see this:

She played with her truck for a while as I finished the dishes and when I was finishing up I looked down to see this…

All tuckered out. I wish I could say she stayed asleep when we put her to bed and we had a peaceful evening, but I think I will just skip that part. lol.