Disappearing Act

So, I had this temp job with some very nice people (just wish it had paid more), and was on the computer all day doing brain-numbing, eye-crossing things that made me reject any other computer usage.  And THEN there is the fact that my baby laptop does not hold a charge for more than five minutes now, and the PC downstairs is just waaaaaaaaaay messed up and confused and doesn't even turn on properly.  The only computer left in the house is John's laptop--and I'm strictly forbidden to use it (Shhhh!  I'm being disobedient RIGHT NOW!)

Those are my excuses.  Lame, I know.

Anyway, I'm back for the moment.  And here is a quick list of stuff you've missed.

• All three kids did super with their report cards.  And now I have a second-grader, fourth-grader, and SIXTH-GRADER in my house.  Hold me!
• About a month after we lost our beloved dog, Mary's matronly guinea pig Hazel left for the great pet heavens.  She was such a great pet.  We replaced her with another tiny baby guinea pig who has been christened Cinnamon (and whom we now suspect is a boy).  Cinn-o-MAN is such a doll.  He coos and coos and coos.  Something that old codger Hazel never did.  And now he's already all big and grown.  *sigh*
• John coached Keith's baseball team this year.  And an icky, nasty beginning of season it was with the torrential downpours we were receiving every day.  Games got postponed and moved so much that the season went on after school ended--and the end of year tournament got totally skipped.  They had a losing season (about a third of the team had never played baseball previously), but John thoroughly enjoyed coaching, and the kids still all had a good time.
• John must have impressed as he was voted to coach/manage the travel tournament team, and Keith also got voted to play.  So baseball season is STILL not done.  They have played five games, and they are now 4-0-1.  The actual tournament starts Tuesday....
• Mary decided not to play softball this year, but we told her she had to do SOMETHING.  We talked her into joining a swim club.  She's been going for about three months now.  She swims and gets coaching three times a week.  There is NO whining about going to swim practice (Well, except now that they moved one of her nights to Fridays at 6:30.  Really, swim club?  REALLY?).  And she is just happy as a lark.  She is already improving greatly and will probably move up a level by the fall.
• Izzy has been wanting a pet, so we finally promised her one as a "good report card" reward.  We coached her into something STURDY that would not need a lot of maintenance or more cage cleaning.  So!  We now have a pet turtle in the house!  Skippy may not be cuddly, but he is cute--and very, very low maintenance.
• We took our annual trip back to Indiana over the week of the fourth, but due to the travel team practices/games John and Keith had to come back early.  That left the girls and me hanging out with my father, step-mother, and grandmother (and great aunt!) for the rest of the week.  I took the girls to all of my old favorite haunts, and we had a great time.  The girls didn't want to come back!
 

The rest of our summer will be mostly boring as we are poor-ish and are trying to keep costs down.  But, we will enjoy it to the best of our abilities.  Hello, sprinkler!