Splash - June 2019

 The June splash was taken at Rachel, Samantha, and Matt's new house - in Fruitland, Maryland.  Rachel's boss owns the house and she splits the rent with Matt and Samantha.  Rachel is an independent soul and while she enjoyed living with Eric and Abbey (she was in their spare room about five months), she needed a space of her own.  The addition of Matt and Samantha make this house affordable and cozy.  They have plenty of hand-me-down furniture and it's set up just like a first house of a bunch of twenty-somethings should be - gathering areas and places to lounge.  It's small, tidy and the floors slant in every direction.  It's perfect.  This is Samantha's first home away from home.  She was always our daughter - the homebody - who said she would never move out.  Now, though, with her big sister as a roommate, she's more confident that she will be okay.  And she will.  They all will.  It's a good move and I'm proud of them for making their way in the world.  They all have jobs, plans, and confidence.  They are on their way.

In the back yard they have an oversized picnic table.  They invited us down for hot dogs and burgers on the grill and we enjoyed the beautiful June evening.  They have a great back yard.

A goofy picture to scare the neighbors.

Pool hopping

 The strange part about only having three kids at home is that outings can be more frequent - sorry big ladies, but, sometimes you ARE the outing, so, it all works out.  The little ladies and JMichael are home all day every day, so on the weekends I like to take them out with me and do something fun to get out together.  Pools are a winner - our favorite so far is in Saint Michaels.  Big, clean, and not too crowded.

 One shot each of the pool beauties.  Tanning is essential - gotta be smart about it.

Charlotte's public service announcement - stay hydrated people!

Josephine and the OBX

Josephine has a friend, and our next door neighbor in Kennedyville, Chelsea.  Chelsea has been on the blog before, in the company of Josephine, always.  Chelsea has two older sisters, but, they both live out on their own, so Chelsea is spending her days as an only child.  She loves to come over to our place, full of noise and activity, only to retreat back to her more clam household of three, plus a dog.  Chelsea's parents have agreed for the last two years that Josephine could go with them on their family vacation - always to OBX.  Josephine is a beach girl and she really enjoyed herself this year.  Restaurants, boogie boarding and thrift shopping - what a great vacation.  Thank you Bender Family for letting Josephine vacation with you.

The Wright Brothers Memorial - taking off!

They also went to a few Delmarva Shorebirds games in Salisbury.

Josephine's Promotion

Josephine has finished the eighth grade - and they had a Promotion Ceremony.  Josephine loves school.  She has to work at some subjects - like Spanish - and not at others - like Math, English, Science.  She really is in her element in school.  I think it gives her confidence and we praise her achievement constantly.  Straight As in all STEM and AP classes!  WooHoo!  This picture is most of her closest buds from eighth grade - Bella is not in this one, but, we do have Chelsea, Aurora, Delaney and Josephine.  A great group of friends and she will carry them with her to her next adventure - high school!?!

Car Trouble

Cars are supposed to start when you turn the key.  They should run perfectly and do it all again tomorrow.  Right?  It's so rough when the car gets a mind of its own and just stops on the highway.

We went back and forth on having the car towed to the local GMC dealership and analyzed and towed to Auto Zone to get tested and I took Ubers to work and home for over a week.  

You may notice James has a few costume changes in these pictures.  Once we knew what was wrong, James knew he could fix it - the dealership wanted $1400.  We got the part at Auto Zone for $189 and three days later - James had it fixed and on the road.

The problem I found, is that cars are not built to be repaired.  The innards of the vehicle are all encased in plastic covers and the spaces are so small.  You need specially designed tools and tons of patience.  I'm sure at the dealership, they have all the specialty items that make the job more do-able.  In our driveway, though, with James and his bad back and arthritis, in the gravel and the heat - it was a chore.  I took my turn under the car and futzed with the serpentine belt until I wanted to hang myself with it.  Ugh.  But, in the end, James won.  The car is on the road and all is well.  Thank you  Babe.  Well done.