Salt of the Earth

So my dad got into town yesterday. WHOOO HOOOO 

Today we spent the day at the mall- his favorite place in the whole wide world. He loves to look around at all the different stuff and compare it to Denver.  We stopped at one of the Kiosks which sold these really cool outdoor decorations that spin. (Hard to describe but way cool) The girl working there was a good 10 years younger than me and started flirting with my dad. He was oblivious. When my dad turned to look at something on the other side the sales girl asked me if he was my uncle- I said “no, he’s my dad.” This made her eyes almost pop out of her head and she said ‘he looks so young.” Then she proceded to ask me if he was married. I was shocked.   I told my dad it was time to go. So we left. That’s just crazy. Then we went into Eddie Bauer- another one of his faves. The sales lady was equally flirtatious and told my dad he needed to move to Portland and to make to come back and visit her. I would have rolled my eyes but the lady let me use the employee bathroom which saved me a HUGE walk to the other end of the mall. Once again, my dad was oblivious. That one was funny. 

I took my dad to my all time favorite store today- REI. He loved it and picked up quite a few things. I got some cool bike gear which i am excited to use when the weather changes. Graham got a marshmallow shooter and Thomas got a new camera. We had lunch at Macaroni Grill-mmm my favorite. 

I made chicken, black bean chili for dinner and took some over to my friend John- for helping me take stuff to the dump the other day. After that my dad and I ventured to Home Depot (land of the assholes) where we got stuff to change the lights in my house and fix the one in my kitchen. Dad is really excited to work on my house and I am really excited to finally get the home improvements done. 

The evening ended with Thomas and my dad putting some lights up under my cup boards in the kitchen and Mick, Graham and I watching an interview with Michael Phelps. Speaking of which, i am addicted to the olympics and can’t get enough. That whole Michael Phelps thing was just incredible. The coolest part about it is that he’s so close to his mom and sisters. My favorite part of watching him is after he received his 8th gold medal and he made his way through the photographers to get to his family. When he saw them he reached up with his enormous arms to hug them. His sister was crying, and once again he handed his mom his roses, and his whole family reached down for him. Brought tears to my eyes. What an awesome role model. 

Graham hurt his toe tonight. The top of the nail was bleeding and came off. Made me weak at the knees so I had Mick pull the nail off as I stood by with band aids (and smelling salt for me! ha ha) 

Well, i am off today. I had a great day with my dad. 

Tina

Today marks a year that our little fatty died. Mick wrote a tribute to him on his blog- and it includes a little video that Thomas made.

I still miss our fluffy black kitty.  It’s hard to believe he’s been gone for a whole year.  Sometimes when Thomas is carrying Baby Elvis around and al I can see is black fur, there is a moment when I think it’s Nietzsche. 

I know the whole circle of life thing needs to happen but sometimes it’s hard to see it as just that. 

It’s about midnight here and I’m wide awake. I’m missing Thomas and hoping he’s having a good time on his hike around Mt. Jefferson. This was a hard thing for me to let him do because in so many ways he still seems so young to me.  Cutting those apron strings is just so hard. Usually when he goes off camping it’s only for a few days OR at a place where I can reach him and if needed, could have contact with him. Not the case this time. He’ll be home Tuesday with a ton of stories about his adventure. I hope all good. I’ll be on pins and needles until then. 

I can’t believe how fast summer is flying by. The kids will be back in school in about a month. I still want to do so much with them before we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of school. 

I think all of this is being over shadowed by the fact that Mick’s company is closing their office here on Sept. 2nd so Mick will be/is looking for work. It’s a hard blow this time because this was such a great job and the benefits were good, the work was steady and it really felt like we were finally on our way to being on our feet. It was just so bad for so long when he worked for CPS. Then EFI came along and it was just to good to be true.  Mick is optimistic which is good and he has a couple options that he’s looking into. At first, he was gonna have the month of August off and I was excited. With his new job in January, he hasn’t built up much vacation time yet.  The thought of having the entire month of August to camp, go to the beach, etc… was enticing.  

I am invited to 3 separate weddings on August 30th.