July 4th was filled with fun & celebration as we held the annual Corn Roast at St. Bartholomew's. The parade featured antique cars, motorcycles, mopeds, and dozens of children in their red, white & blue decked-out bikes, trikes, & scooters. (MG rode her bike without training wheels for the first time!!) We celebrated the Eucharist together, then got in on to the corn eating!Highs had been in the record 100s in the week previous, and cooled down to only 99 that day! The kids were able to cool off with the California Wave! It's better than a slip-n-slide because you run & jump onto 18" inflatable surface as you slide down into the pool of water at the end. What a treat! (Yes, I tried it and had a blast!)
Classes were back in session after an almost 3 week hiatus on July 9th. It was good to have our students back to free me from quiet projects and boredom.MG lost her two front teeth, plus two more that we "wiggled out" by the dentist to make room for growing. I wonder what those two permanent teeth are going to think when they finally break through the gums in a few months. "Hey! Make room for us!" She also had her first cavity filled. Boy does that make me feel like mother of the year...
She started 2nd grade last week, and loves her teacher. We're tickled, because we know she's the kind of teach who will love MG, but hold her feet to the fire. Parent/Teacher meeting tomorrow night, so we'll get to learn more all about it.
Disappointment came my way in many forms this month. First, I found out that the job I had applied for was finally filled when the new Dean of Libraries sent an email out to introduce herself. (Good one HR & the powers that be. Real professional.) I had figured out that the job wasn't the best fit for me or my family after I had interviewed twice, thrilled with how well it went, but knew that I couldn't handle a job that traveled so much. Changes in my job with a new Campus President haven't been the smoothest, as she makes radical changes to schedules and responsibilities, so I guess that's why it still stung.
Next, and I know this isn't huge, my Aunt's birthday rolled around for the first time without her. (And thanks Blackberry for reminding me first thing that morning on my calendar.) She was so much of a mother/grandmother to me and understood me in ways that my mom doesn't.
But what saddened me the most was having to make one of the hardest decision of my life: to put our beloved Blue Tick Coon Hound down last week. Lila Bird came to live with us in January 2004, after she had been nursed back to health by a dear woman who found her. It was a big adjustment to having her and all her emotional problems in the first few years. But the love and patience that we poured into her was given back to us and to MG tenfold. She was a new, very kind and gentle lady dog. She became our anchor and alpha to the other two dogs, who watched her decline so steadily in the past 6 months. The arthritis, and now what we know to be cancer became too much to bear - and bless her heart, she just couldn't tell us how much pain she was in.On the evening we made the appointment with the vet, we all just sat around loving on Lila and the other dogs, hugging and crying with one another. Those brief 20 minutes we had together will forever be in my memory to treasure, as she looked at me lovingly and flapped that big tail of hers, as if to tell me, "Mama, it's okay. You can tell me goodbye." Oh I miss her so much! So I sat with MG at home, while Sean too her in to let her fall into that last long sleep in his arms.
:: sigh :: What will the next month become!?
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