Thursday, July 30, 2009

Quiet

Things have been pretty quiet around here. Patrick will finish his last week of camp tomorrow, and from then on we will have no plans until school starts. I'm really looking forward to it!! Keeping the kids apart with rotating weeks at camp has worked out very well but for one thing - I am trapped in town because I'm not taking just one of them on a field trip, and if anything happened I can't be too far away. So, I'm planning on going a few places in the next couple weeks, maybe once to Baltimore and once to DC.

We found out that DH has the potential of a job with a Dream Company. It's nowhere near firm yet, so I can't really say anything, but it looks good. The benefits there are great, the company is very employee-respectful, and he would be doing what he really wants to do - development. So, keep your fingers crossed.

Josie has started taking karate as well. Thankfully, her class is right after Patrick's, so we just hang out there an extra 45 min. I think it will be really good for her, too; in addition to regular exercise, it will also be good for her self-esteem, and frankly I like the idea that she'll be able to protect herself as she gets older if necessary. I don't think many boys would try something with a girl who has an orange or blue belt in karate, or at least they would think twice. Her class is all boys, and I think that's good, too, since learning to hold your own in a group of boys, and being comfortable, is a big bonus as far as keeping perspective goes. Not to mention, she'll have a whole cadre of boys who know as much or more than she does as friends. :)

I found out the other day that our first single-family home was gutted in a fire, the day before our anniversary, oddly enough. That made me so sad. I loved living there, and I loved the house. We were so happy, and it was where Patrick was born, and I have a lot of great memories of being there. Plus, we did a *lot* of work on the house, which is now all gone. It's a miracle no one was hurt; the fire was started when the young teenage girl held a bottle of nailpolish remover too close to a candle she had burning in her room (?!?!?!), and it exploded. She threw it, and ran out, but the room was engulfed in about a minute, and the whole upstairs was ablaze in less than ten. If it had been winter, with her in long sleeves, I hate to think what would have happened. Thankfully, everyone got out OK, and it was just the interior that was destroyed. The woman that owns it is a single parent, and it was all she could do to buy that house; she even had to borrow from her sister to pay the closing costs. The only consolation, I suppose, is that she'll have an all new interior, electrical system, and kitchen with the insurance money.

7 comments:

Nowheymama said...

That's such a weird feeling, isn't it?
A house I lived in burned down a couple years after I moved out when the first-floor resident threw a Molotov cocktail into the third floor apartment because he was mad at the third-floor guy. The entire house burned to the ground.

Giselle said...

Josie is just radiant in that picture...I love her big bubbling smile. Beautiful girl...and karate is such a great idea. I'll put that on my list of things for Lily to take someday.

d e v a n said...

Ooh, sorry about the house. That would make me sad too. GL to your husband!

Stimey said...

I love girls who do karate. Before I had kids I would watch little ones going into martial arts studios in their uniforms and thought they were so cute. The boys were adorable, but the girls? There is something about a little girl in a karate uniform that says a lot of good things.

Not Your Aunt B said...

Totally planning on enrolling both of the girls in karate when they get old enough. And that is so sad about your house. The memories. They are always so special in your first home.

creative kerfuffle said...

uh, what was a kid (even a teen) doing w/ a candle in her room? they were very lucky nobody was hurt. it is sad though, to see homes we've lived in lost. i've not "lost" one, but looking at places i've lived or my grandparents lived and seeing them rundown and uncared for is as close as i've come.
i love that josie's taking karate--i wish the girl would show some interest in that.

{sue} said...

Ohhh, so sad about the house. I am VERY attached to the houses I have lived in. They are lucky she didn't get burned. That story sounds fishy to me. Hmmm...

I would love to learn a martial art, but I can't get any of my kids to take it. Maybe my tiny girl. She will need to learn how to fight off the bullies!