Tom and Syanna

We have been busy the past month or so. We have a teenager (C) staying with us this school year and we spent the first week or two of the month running around trying to make sure that C got enrolled and registered for school. We did figure that out and C started school yesterday and so far it seems to be going well. The school does a block schedule so C has had each class once so far, which means there hasn't been much homework, just all the papers and waivers that have to be signed. Seriously, yikes, there are so many. Other then that we have just been trying to keep our heads above water. Tom starts school next week and has been deligently working on various projects in the yard since he had a few weeks between terms. He has gotten a lot done and it has been really good. I have managed to kill a radio, have my laptop meet its maker, and mess my ankle up enough to be referred to a podiatrist. Too bad that the earliest appointment available for her is in October. Here is h...

Tom's 31st birthday has come and gone. This year Tom rally want to go camping but we didn't really have the money for the gas and stuff to really do it, so we camped in the backyard. Tom took Thursday and Friday off, so we camped out Thursday-Saturday night. We busted out the fire pit every night and made s'mores and the like. We also set-up the tent so we could have the "real" experience. Since we had one of the nieces over we got out the big tent, kind of glad we hadn't gotten rid of it yet after buying the smaller tent a few years back. We always let the pups camp with us too, we tried the first night without any puppy beds and it was a total failure. Buddy wouldn't stop moving and tried to kick each of us out of our sleeping bags and Izzie couldn't keep her cool with the fireworks going off. The niece was all settled in and had her flashlight and was ready to read all night, but she fell asleep as soon as we caved and brought o...

This past weekend I had time to work on my next phase of the "Konmari" experiment. After the clothes and the books come the "papers". Mari Kondo recommends getting rid of everything, although I love this in principle I just don't know that it is always practical. She says that if you have to keep paperwork make sure it is important. I personally interpreted this as, tax related, class/degree planning, warranties, proof of registration for cars and dogs, and financial records of certain types. The before mess, you will notice the various holders and bag of looseleaf paper and other recyclables. One of my favorite things about this little project is that when I'm done cleaning out a certain category I always have enough less that I can find nice, neat ways to put everything I keep away. This time I kept one of those folder-fulls worth of paperwork, I know that sounds like a lot but I got rid of over 2 folders worth. It now all fits into my single fil...