what's in a name?

I'm blogstipated. I don't know why, really blogging has been so much fun and easy for me to do and now all of a sudden block. We still swim and read and eat and walk around saying witty things to each other yet some how the reporting has lost it's ...something.. for me. Grandma B was a big motivator for me to keep writing. She read all the time and loved it. She often sent me e-mails or snail mails telling of her delight in our antics and the closeness she felt to us as a result. So it was easy, I knew she'd be checking and I wrote to her.

Despite this slump I'm not really ready to quit so lets see....

It's been an odd summer. We've been gone on trips, both planned and unplanned.
S has her first job and now a second. She is cleaning offices for Durham at night. This one is temporary. I'm glad to see her interest in making money and sticking her toe into the grown up world of employment. When D was a junior she got a job at Washington Mutual with their HS intern program. It was a great program and she stuck with it for two years. I am really grateful that she and now S have been able to get such awesome first jobs, where they can not only earn money but also learn real life skills (not that dipping fries in hot oil isn't but these are both a little nicer)
I've spent a lot of energy thinking and planning for our schooling in the fall. It will be a really different year for us as H comes back home to learn and E, who is old enough for K, will instead learn at home as well. We'll have the two big girls in public HS and the littles home. I am excited. We have some great curriculum and plans. And nervous. We have busy bright and not always agreeable children.
I've also been working on getting my ankle back in order. It still hurts. Today I went for an MRI, which wasn't bad. The last ones I got were 15 years ago and they slid you in a tube and shut both ends and you had to lay perfectly still for a long time while it was noisy and shaky around you. Not fun. I am not claustrophobic but even still had to sing primary songs to myself to endure the hour (and if you've heard me sing you would know that that was bad enough!)
This one was open and loud and shaky but not scary and I had headphones with music and may have even drifted off to sleep at one point.

Yesterday we had friends over all day. It was great. H had two sisters Belle and Livie who were awesome and fun and they got along great all day. E had Ben (their brother) and they played happily as well.

Today we went to the library. The kids behaved and we had a lovely time.

Last night I took J to the airport where she very happily and excitedly boarded a plane all by herself for a fun trip to CA with her very good, dear and sweet and oh so fun friend Emma and her family. She's been looking forward to it for a long time. She will also spend 3 days with Grandma Joyce and is thrilled about that too.