Fall Finally Fell

Looking east, as I write this, the full moon is beginning to light up the entire Skagit Valley as the setting sun to the west has turned the horizon into pure gold.  The weather today was absolutely spectacular and the sunset tonight was jaw-dropping.  Everything about this day felt like Fall.  It was a good day and I needed it.  It's been another challenging week, but in a technological kind of way this time.  (My internet connection is even down at this very minute, which only serves as the icing on the cake for me and all the techno-dilemmas I've faced lately.)

The week started out good for Kaleb and Kory.  Many months ago I reserved a room at Great Wolf Lodge, south of Olympia, where they offered a screaming deal for several homeschool co-ops in the state.  I thought it would be fun for Kaleb to spend some time with other homeschool kids as they played in the incredible water park that's at the hotel.  The hotel is a destination kind of place, totally designed for kids, so Kaleb had a blast.  Kory enjoyed having two days home by himself and I asked a friend and her son, Malik, to fill in the gap Kory left behind.  The last place Kory wants to be right now is in a water park.  I feel the same, but again, the ol' "mother's love" thing kicks in from time to time and I just gotta do what I gotta do.  I figured while Kaleb was going down the water slides and jumping in the wave pool, I'd be cuddled up with his laptop (because his works and mine doesn't), getting my lesson done for the "Millionaire" class I'm teaching on Fridays.  I brought along my two portable hard drives so I could work with my files on Kaleb's computer, but it seems someone broke into our room and took my two hard drives and Malik's wallet while we were in the waterpark.  There's no other explanation as to how all three items could go missing when the last time we all saw them was on the table in our room.  I'm still in denial, as those hard drives contained all the photos for the entire year we spent in Norway, as well as my year's worth of blogs and several other files I really didn't want to part with.  I'm holding out hope somehow they show up, because honestly, I can't deal with the thought of losing everything.  Some of the files and photos are also stored on my laptop, but that computer had a virus and had to have the hard drive formatted so I lost all the software that would enable me to access those files.  When I finally found the discs that came with the laptop so I could reload all the software, I couldn't find the "key code" number the computer needs to make them work.  That number is printed on the box the software came in and I'm pretty sure that box is sitting in our storage unit in Norway.  I just broke down and bawled at that point.  My friend Janet says I should be asking God what He's trying to teach me in all of this because I've sure had my share of headaches in trying to find things that don't seem to be where I need them to be.  She said I may need to simplify my life a little and get more organized.  Now there's a thought.

Kaleb tried to SKYPE (video call) his buddy in Norway earlier this week but the microphone didn't work on my laptop so he could see us, but not hear us.  I got a webcam and installed it on my office computer and this morning Kaleb tried to SKYPE another buddy in Norway and he could hear us, but not see us.  Finally I took the microphone off my office computer and put it on my laptop, and we were all able to see and hear all that was going on, so that was one minor triumph, but only after much time and frustration had passed.  I'm so ready to be done with computers and just go back to writing letters by hand and making old fashioned telephone calls.  I'll even get out my IBM Correcting Selectric typewriter if I'm every going to write again as I'm sure I'd be using less time than what it takes to deal with all these technological problems.  Ugh!

It's much more pleasant to think about the good things from this week and there were plenty, so I'm thankful for that.  Kory is continuing to improve and is able to do more around the house (he vacuumed today!).  He's also driving a bit more and really has no pain, just fatigue in his back if he's up too long.  He picked all the Asian pears and apples off our trees for the wonderful cider press party we attended today at my friend Wendy's house (see photo), so that was good.  We also had the Robert's family back for one night this week, which was a treat for us to spend more time with them.  And I was able to spend time with Grammy J (Janet), taking her to the pool so she could go swimming to get some strength back in her broken leg.  It was a busy week, full of school routines and schedules but we all survived.  Kaleb went through about five boxes of Kleenex though as he's had a terrible cold but that didn't keep me from cracking the whip on his school work- he's had far too many distractions to let a little sniffle slow him down now.  He's plodding along and only drags his feet on algebra.  My money management class is a big hit with the homeschool kids so that's also good (I pay well for their participation.)  And we may have found tenants for our last empty apartment in Seattle.  Woo hoo.

So, I should be thinking about all these good things rather than focusing on the negative as I'm still a bit more stressed than I'd like to be.  Kory told me he thinks I should fly to California soon to visit my good friend Dani, just to get away and have some time to myself.  Honestly, I think it's more for him to have time away from me, than for me to relax - but either way, I'm taking him up on his offer.


P.S.
(The challenges continue - who knows why the photo landed where it did, and why it failed four times in a row when I tried to post the blog?  I finally had to retype the whole thing as I couldn't copy and paste from my Word document.  Double ugh!  OK Lord, what's the lesson here?)