Cats, bars, and OOPS (in other words, an update)

It has been a very eventful summer! The kids go back to school in 3 weeks (September 6th) - Brendan will be in 4th grade, Betsy in 3rd, and Andrew in kindergarten. All three have been taking swimming lessons; they started in level one the end of June, but Brendan just passed ARC level three and Betsy passed level two. Andrew will be repeating level one next summer but he is finally putting his whole head underwater and not being afraid all the time - huge progress for him. There's hope for him. :) Justin - starts school next fall, and will start swimming lessons next summer, so he has another year of tagging along.

In house news - we purchased furniture for our sunporch and have been enjoying actually being able to use it (other than as a makeshift workshop for Mike and storage). We also (I say we; it was Mike) took out the bar this past weekend - it was a black hole for everything that didn't have a home, and we need the storage space, so out it came. We will be puting in a half wall with a pocket door (at least, that's the current plan) and shelving.

Here's the original:



And as it is now:



Also, we have a new furbaby. We rescued a mama cat and her kittens and while two of them went to our friends, we fell in love with one, and he stayed.

Here's our newest addition, Frodo



Me - there's no big news, although I will say this: if ever you get a cut, and it gets infected, and you see a red line following a tendon up whatever limb the cut is on, go to the ER. I cut myself making supper last Wednesday, dicovered it was infected on Sunday night, then didn't go to the ER on Monday (at the recommendation of the on call doctor - Monday was a holiday in RI), and got yelled at by a doctor on Tuesday (when I went to see a doctor finally). Apparently that's an indication of blood poisoning, and I'm very blessed that it was actually healing on its own (after I lanced it myself - apparently another no-no)! Anyway, should anything like this ever happen again, I'll go right away.