The Circle of Life

Well, it's been a hot minute since I've updated anything here on the blog.  I've popped over a couple times to write and have been sidetracked, I'm sure you can relate.

In my last update I told you I'd gone back to work.  July 17, 2025 was my 2nd anniversary with the City.  There has been SO MUCH drama and changes in those two years.  Our director was fired and replaced and all of our superintendents have retired or been replaced. I've been promoted to office manager, and am currently trying to right the ship within the administrative team.  Replacing people has been extremely challenging, partially because our salaries aren't competitive with the private sector and partially because people lie REALLY well on their resume and in interviews.  The previous office manager hired, and lost, three differed part time people for the same job, over a 6 month period.  I think the one I just hired is going to work out, fingers crossed on that one.

Olivia continues to thrive in the equestrian world.  She's getting to do a lot of traveling with her employers, and has been to several World Shows.  Her employer is very generous and includes her in their team photo shoots, magazine articles and posts.  

She earned her purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in June.  She's teaching several kids BJJ classes a week, has hosted women's self defense seminars and is on the adult teaching staff at her gym as well.

Additionally, she traveled to Australia in July of this year for grins and giggles.  She spent a week in Melbourne and had a grand time.  She had one of those delayed landing situations that required running through the Sidney airport with all of her things to catch her connecting flight.  I was super impressed with how well she navigated things, especially after having been awake and traveling for over 24 hours straight by the time she landed in Sidney.  She had a great time, and got to do some fun animal encounters at the Melbourne Zoo.

We added a son-in-law!!   Lindsey married a wonderful young man, named Ethan, who we all adore.  He is a federal forestry firefighter, and is often out west putting his life on the line in the fires that seem so prevalent there.  They are very down to earth and don't like a bunch of fuss or fanfare, so the wedding was a simple, private event with only parents present.

Then in August, they blessed us with our first grandchild!  Little Hazel Grace was born 7 weeks early, but is healthy and perfect, just tiny.  Lindsey and baby are both doing well, and Ethan is completely smitten with his new little love.  On a side note, someone in our area needs to open a preemie shop because it's crazy trying to find anything like that unexpectedly. 

That's all my updates for now.  I hope you're all doing well.  I'm tossing around the idea of a new blog, so I'll keep you posted on that.

Big Changes!

In my last post, several months ago, I told you all that I was looking to reinter the workforce.  I'd applied for several part time positions and had ZERO response.  Then I saw a full time position in my town's Public Works Department, and applied on a whim.  Well within 2 days I got a call back, followed by an interview on a Thursday morning, job offer by Thursday afternoon and I started working within a week.

My hours are supposed to be Monday-Friday, 8am until 4:30pm, but there's only been 2 or 3 times that I've gotten out of the office on time.  By the end of my second week, the office manager announced that she's already targeted me to be her replacement when she retires in three years.  

We shall see how this all goes.  I do like the co-workers, and I meet some REALLY "interesting" people. The family is adjusting and helping pick up the slack around the house.  The dog seems to be taking my absence the hardest. so he's my shadow when I am home.

In other news, Lindsey turned 18!  It's hard to believe the "baby" is now an adult.  She's been doing a lot of house/pet/farm sitting and has a new thing where she's milking a couple of cows pretty regularly for a family that's traveling.  All this in addition to her position at the museum.   She finished a new 1850's outfit for herself and has a little traveling to Renaissance Faire's with a couple of co-workers.

Olivia's career is thriving.  She's gone for the next several weeks, floating between several horse training centers while the owners are traveling to shows and vacations.   She's also planning her next big trip.  She's heading to Israel in March 2024.

I hope you've had a great summer!  It's hard to believe we're in September!

Touching Base

It's hard to believe it's almost been a full month since Lindsey officially graduated.  Her graduation gift was finally completed, and I was able to pick it up this week.  I'd sent all of her recital/sports/camp/youth group shirts off to have her memory quilt made.  Here's the final project.

The month has been busy for her.  She's working, did some additional pet/house sitting and has been going out with work friends to bowl, eat and do random things.  She's back to physical therapy on her knee.  She's mostly doing at home exercises and going to the YMCA to ride the recumbent bike and do leg presses to strengthen the knee.  She goes back to see the PT for another evaluation in three weeks.

I'm wrapping up small projects around the house and sending out resumes for various types of jobs.  Thus far, I'm not a hot commodity, but that's ok.  The right doors will open up, at the right time.

I hope you're having a good summer!

Lindsey's Graduation

This past weekend was the grand finale of Lindsey's homeschooling, and my homeschooling Mom career.  She did not want to participate in the homeschool group's graduation ceremony.  Instead we opted to have a small gathering here at the house.  We invited family, close friends and such.  We ended up with about 21 people spread throughout the house.

We did an evening event, with heavy finger foods (meatballs, sliders, side dishes and a huge cake).  We ate, then I did a little speech and presentation of Lindsey's diploma and then had photos done with each family unit with Lindsey in her cap and gown.

It was low key, but a good time and it was how she wanted her graduation to be done.  The beauty of homeschooling, it didn't have to be like everyone else!  I was so busy preparing food and being a hostess, I didn't think to take photos of the food spread, and other than the scheduled photos (that my BFF was in charge of), there were few photos taken.   Here are the highlights!

Congratulations Class of 2023!!!

Weekly Wrap Up - Big Adventures

We are in our last two weeks of homeschooling.  I'm basically just waiting for Lindsey to turn in her final report and we're done.  Graduation is scheduled for June 3!

Lindsey finished physical therapy on her knee last week and we had the follow up with the orthopedic nurse practitioner, who has now finally decided that we do need an MRI. She said to "be thinking about which surgeon you prefer" so I'm guessing she's finally come to the conclusion that there is a problem.  It's ridiculous that insurance won't cover imaging until after 6 weeks of therapy, which has actually made the knee worse.  The MRI is scheduled for May 30.

Lindsey and a couple of coworkers decided to have a 19th century picnic in our local park this week.  They wanted to enjoy their finer clothing, and mess with random park goers as well.  So many people asked them why they were doing it, and they responded "Just to have fun", and people still kept saying "but why"?

They ate, walked around the park, played a few time appropriate lawn games and then decided to dance the Virginia Reel.  A group of teens saw them dancing and came and asked if they couild show them how to do that.  They danced for over an hour with this random group of young people.

Olivia is currently in London!  It's been a great learning experience for her, learning how to navigate international airports, subways and the city itself.  She's been to Westminster Abbey, Buckinham Palace, Queen Victoria Monument,  London Eye, Big Ben, House of Parliament, The Tower of London, Tower Bridge, The National Gallery, The British Museum, Churchill's War Room Museum, Trafalgar Square and a plethora of other places.  She also saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham, and just happened to be in the right place at the right time to see the United National Annual Peacekeepers Memorial Parade.  She has taken literally THOUSANDS of photos on her camera, but here are a couple snippets from her phone thus far.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!