Well, if the measure of a parent’s success is the extent to which one’s children are independent, Jeff and I have succeeded in our parental endeavors.  Not only do all except for the youngest live on their own, independently, but they frequently make large life choices without asking for our input!  For example, Sandy (who is in the Navy Reserve and lives in San Diego) didn’t tell us he was joining the Navy (he was in the regular Navy, stationed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise) until I came home from work one day to find the Navy recruiter sitting in my livingroom.  Now, his Navy reserve unit has volunteered to attend fire fighting school in Maryland for six weeks.  He claims he thought he told us.  Not!  Going to Maryland?  Didn’t know!  Fire fighting?  Clueless about this life choice!!  Here he is with his gear on:

Cute, but fire fighting?  I guess it’s the young man’s passion for excitement and new experiences.  He never was one to sit on the sidelines.  Always up for a challenge, that one!

Not to be outdone, our daughter Susanne is moving back to California.  Not only that, but she also tatooed “California” complete with palms on the top of her foot.  I’ll see if I can get a picture for you.  Tatoos are her thing, though, so that didn’t surprise me.  She’s going in just 5 weeks.  We’re so going to miss her!  It isn’t going to be the same without having her a few blocks away.  Micah will especially miss her.

The others are also moving forward.  Scott is going back to school to get a bachelor’s degree in IT, Katie has moved with her two little darlings to a new apartment in Birmingham, and Jason and Ashley are all settled into their own house after the honeymoon.

Micah will be in his first play tonight - Pirates of Penzance Jr.  It has been a month long intensive camp - 9-5 Monday through Friday for four weeks.  He’s loved it, hated it, wanted to quit, refused to quit, loved it again.  Pictures will be forthcoming.

Well, I finally have a Mac Book Pro.  Not purchased by me, but for work.  Still, it’s a Mac!  I’m excited about it.  I feel the creativity flowing through me just by association with it.  Great things await me on this laptop.  I’m sure of it!  I can feel greatness oozing from its titanium case, spreading out like an aura from its crystal clear display, flowing into me through the fluid keyboard…

See, already I wax poetic!  Within only a few hours of receiving it, I have begun to emote in literary tones hitherto unheard from these fingers…  I’ve got to get a grip.  Here’s a picture.  This isn’t a picture of mine, but it looks the same.

Isn’t it lovely?  Beautiful??  Magnificent???  Can’t you just imagine all the possibilities within?

How’s that for random? We have been back from PSG for a couple (or three) weeks, and I’m just now getting around to blogging about it. It was awesome! We met some very cool people - Anita from Indiana, and Tina and Eric from Illinois - and had lots of relaxing time to reflect on important things. I had a very intense experience with Anita. She does this thing called BEST - Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique. It sort of realigns your mind and body through motions and thoughts. That sounds so lame, but let me say - this works! I have had frozen shoulder for over a year. It’s very painful, and prevented me from doing a lot of stuff (including knitting). Anita had me do a muscle resistance test, which checks for energy interference (hoaky…but it worked), and then put me in some poses with breathing exercises and what I can only call affirmations. Before she started I couldn’t life my arm over my head. Afterwards, I had full range of motion with no pain. NO PAIN! I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t been the party involved. I’m a believer, now. Check it out. It’s amazing. Three weeks later and I’m still mostly pain free. If it recurs, I just go through the poses and voila! All better!

Also at PSG, Jeff met and hung out with a new friend. Not particularly surprising, that, but what I found amusing is this:

Eric is just a bit over a foot taller than Jeff. They looked quite cute walking around together. Jeff looks like a kid next to Eric. He also took four or five steps to every one of Eric’s, so he got quite a workout as they hiked around Wisteria.

I got a bit of knitting done at PSG. All of one Rainbow Sock for Selenia, and almost half of the second. The second sock is now finished, and waiting to be washed and sent off. Don’t they look lovely?

I even got them to match! I’m so proud…

The weekend after we returned we had Jason and his lovely new wife, Ashley, over for dinner, swimming, and fireworks. They had lots of fun in the pool with Jeff and Micah.

They even threw me in at one point. I would like to emphasize that no one perished or even suffered retaliation for that offense. I was a “good sport.” Really. Besides, I got my revenge a little later when we looked at Jeff’s back and saw the results of haphazardly applied sunscreen..

Note the interesting pattern left by the small amount of sunscreen that actually made it onto his back…

And on a floral note, I have proven that putting eggshells in with your hydrangeas turns them pink. These were green last year. They’re pink this year. How do I make them blue? It’s like chemistry with hydrangeas!