The New Normal.

So, now that one of the kids is out of the house, temporarily at least, we begin our new normal.  We have 2 homeschooling, which is the same as last year and they are in 9th and 11th grades.  Youngest son was telling some people at our party last week that he had no idea what grade he was in.  That really makes homeschooling seem so positive to all the public schooling relatives and friends (Sarcasm)  ... but I was able to overhear, tell him he's in the 9th grade and give a little speech about how his education is personalized and that he is in 11th grade math and science and 3rd grade spelling at the same time, so it's no wonder the boy is confused.  Really though, he should know we call it the 9th grade.  :-P. 

The oldest boy is alive and well.  I have seen evidence of him on Facebook, though he did not call me last night.  He starts classes today and hopefully will get the ball rolling on his work study job because he's going to need that.  He spent the weekend at an event for freshmen called Survival Weekend, where they do a lot of team building and getting-to-know-each-other activities and he's making some friends.  His roommate arrived yesterday and is from Belgium, so that should be interesting.  I hope it goes well.  I got a little teary in the milk aisle of the grocery store yesterday because I didn't have to buy Lactaid milk for him.  It's funny how his food intolerances are something I miss, but I have spent a lot of time and effort, not to mention money, trying to properly feed the boy for the last few years. 

The girl woke up yesterday with a sore throat and does not feel horrible, but doesn't feel great either and has spent a lot of time lying around and sleeping this weekend.  

My job is a mess because my computer crashed on Friday night just after we got home and I posted my last update here on this blog.  My husband has been working frantically trying to get it set up again, but I have lost my medical dictionary and all my work files, so I can't work until that gets fixed.  Honestly, I enjoy not working, but we seriously need the money after the Mississippi trip. 

We booked a hotel on line, site unseen, with decent reviews.  Our main goal was to be within walking distance of the beach, but that shouldn't have been our main goal.  The hotel was not nice.  The sheets were kind of brownish and someone's taco was in the fridge.  We ended up leaving there for another hotel and haven't heard yet if we will get our money back.  It's my fault.  I thought it looked okay, but then the longer we were there, the less I liked it and my daughter HATED it.  On a scale of 1-10, she rated it a 1.  I personally rated it more of a 3-4.  I was just too exhausted and emotional to be confronted with making a decision about a hotel.  Anyway, we called and got another hotel and moved at 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday night.  It was not fun, but we were relieved once we got to the new place.   We found out after we got there that the beaches in Mississippi are not good swimming beaches.  It was okay for walking in the surf and looking at shells and stuff, but that's it, so we took a mini vacation on Thursday, walking on the beach, going to the Barrier Islands National Seashore which sounds more impressive than it is but was free and eating at the Mellow Mushroom.  Then we got up early Friday, moved the boy into the dorm and drove 9 hours home, only to find that we were too late to pick the dogs up, my husband's car battery had died while we were gone and my hard drive had erased itself.  Good times.

There were good times throughout the week and my youngest son provided quite a bit of comic relief while the older 2 kids were just sweet and my husband was a hero, driving us all down there and back, fixing the car and the computer and getting up and going to work at 4:00 am on Saturday when I could barely even open my eyes. 

Pictures to follow.