I'm here! Still alive! It's just a busy time of year. And BOY do I have plenty of news!
* Japanese Festival is this weekend, and I am ready to have several great taiko performances! If you are at all in the area, this festival is very, VERY worth seeing, and I especially recommend the taiko performance.
* Not a great time for Abbie to get sick, but these things happen. I'm just glad the babysitter still agreed to come.
* I start my new JOB on Tuesday!! That's going to make for a rough week, and I'll tell you why. My new job is at Citigroup (and through a temp agency) and I work from 5:30am to noon, Monday through Friday. So, I will play my last one-hour taiko show at 2pm, then load drums, then take them back to the studio, then unload them, then give two people rides home, then go home and go to bed....then get up at 4am so I can get showered and dressed and at work by 5:30. But there are many good things to make up for that really rough first day. I will always be home before the kids. That's the main one.
* Abbie loves school, but she can write words, and her class is learning to trace alphabet - one letter at a time. She comes home with elaborate drawings on the backs of her papers. They are both doing well with the school work. This week, we started collecting Box Tops.
*I will be wearing a yukata to play onna uchi for the song Tobihi, but the group only owns winter ones. It's heavy, hot, and itchy. Boo for that, but at least I'll look fancy!
* I won't be staying with Helena during J-fest this year. First of all, she's honeymooning, even if they haven't gone on the trip yet. Secondly, there are so many people who need rides from me, it wouldn't be worth the drama and finding someone else to take them if I couldn't. Although, this would be a magnificent time for any/all of them to suddenly help with gas costs.
* Grant is super excited that Cierra invited him to her birthday party at the movies. Abbie didn't get invited, so I told her that I would buy popcorn and she and I could have a movie at home.
* My mommy is coming on Sunday to stay with the kids while Josh is working and I am J-festing. I miss my mommy! And her dogs are going to come, too, and Callie will LOVE that.
* October 1, I am going to go to the apple festival in Versailles again, to be with my Grandmother. That will be fun. I will be sure to be packed for any kind of weather, remembering last year.
Um...I think that is enough to go on. Now you know that things are going well, despite some minor bumps in the road. I'm going to snuggle with the sicky, and then - a weekend of taiko at the Japanese Festival!!! You should all go. Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis - Saturday to Monday. You'll have a great time!