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August 20, 2003
Summer’s Last Hurrah…...sigh…….......
Sorry I’m a little late in updating. Bill decided to download some info for the computer on Sunday and crashed the whole thing. Gotta love it! This seems to happen whenever he updates things. Sometimes I wish I had my own computer. I don’t care if things are updated. I just want to do what I want to do when I want to do it! No special effects, no “latest technology”, I just want it to WORK! Is that asking too much?!
OK, back to the latest news…..We gave Alaina the choice of going to Kings Island for two days and camping or going to the Ohio State Fair. We were shocked when she chose the Fair! So last week Bill took a day off and up to Columbus we went. This whole summer has been gorgeous. Low humidity, pleasant temps, etc. Of course the day we choose to go to the fair, summer decides to remind us that she is still here! It was hot, sunny, and humid. In short, what it’s supposed to be like around here! We got up there at noon and were pleasantly surprised to see a new form of transportation from the parking lot to the gates. These young men from San Diego, CA were riding bike jockeys. These are the things you usually see in Japan. There is a cart attached to the bike and you ride in the cart while they are pedaling away. It was so neat! I felt sorry for the guy in the heat, but he was having a good time. Since this was Alaina’s day, we bought her a ride band for the day. Little did I know how valuable that would be! This year is Ohio’s Bicentennial, so “they” said that the fair would be bigger and better than ever. And boy, were they right! They had two different midways for the rides. One was for the smaller kids and one was more daring for the bigger kids. Alaina is the perfect size to be able to do both kinds of rides. Yippee! One of the first rides she did was a funhouse kind of ride. She was having a great time on it until she went down the slide at the end. It was a metal slide that was in the sun. We heard this screaching sound, then a scream, and see Alaina running to us holding her wrist. I looked at her wrist and the hot metal had burned and torn the flesh from her wrist! I ran to the smoothie stand and got some ice for her. Poor thing! I know it had to hurt, but she didn’t complain about it. Nothing was going to stop her from riding all those rides LOL! I rode the giant slide with her a number of times. You know the big yellow slide that you ride down on potato sacks? I LOVE that thing!! We had a blast on it. I also rode the big swings with her. I love that too. The rest of the rides gave me a headache just looking at them, so we just watched her have a great time. We also saw this show performed by a family from Wyoming. There was a father, mother, and FIVE daughters who all sang and played instruments. They were amazing! The daughters were aged 16, 15, 14, 12, and 10. It was an awesome show. Then we went to the bigger rides to see if Alaina could ride any of them. She is such a daredevil! She went on everything!! It was fun watching her. After dark we all went on the ferris wheel. I hate that thing…..! I was clinging on for dear life and Alaina was about to fall out from leaning over to see everything. It was all I could do not to grab her ankles! Anyway, we survived. I just got a little more gray hair…..
On the way home, we noticed a full moon. Nothing unusual there, I know. But it was RED! I have never seen a red moon. I have heard of them, but never seen one. I know the orange moon is called a Harvest moon, but do any of you know what a red moon means? It was beautiful!
Alaina starts school tomorrow. I just can’t believe it. My baby is starting second grade. Where does the time go? I think it’s totally unfair that times goes slowly while we are young and then flies by when we are older and appreciate it more! How I wish I could have the days back that I wished away when I was a kid. My philosophy on life is this: We should be retired when we are young and can travel and enjoy life. Then work when we are old and can’t do anything else! I think that would work very well, don’t you?! Anyway, back to the school stuff….I got her backpack ready yesterday. I put her name on everything and put in it all in the right place where it belongs, knowing full well that it won’t come home that way tomorrow! Alaina got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday. Her new teacher sent her a card to welcome her to second grade and tell her that she looks forward to having Alaina in her class. How sweet is that?! Alaina loves school so I hope that this is another great year for her. We’ve been trying to ease back into the earlier bed time and getting up earlier this week. Can I just say that this sucks?! I am not a morning person at all. Unfortunately, neither is Alaina. I am not looking forward to the struggle of getting her out of bed in the mornings. She is so slow to wake up that I usually guide her to the bathroom. While she is using the bathroom, I get her dressed. Yes, you read that right! She is fully capable of dressing herself when she is awake. However, on school mornings, she is a walking zombie! So instead of rushing her and yelling at her to hurry up, I dress her while she sits there. You choose your battles, you know? Starting the day off with yelling just isn’t my idea of a good morning.
On a much more fun note, I have decided to start my own business. Bear with me while I explain this a little bit. I have been a customer of a company called Melaleuca for several months. They have over 300 products for your home, health and beauty that are all environmentally friendly and more cost effective than what you buy at the store. I am not selling the products. The company works like a wholesale club, like Sam’s Club, etc. Except that you order what you want from the catalog or online and it comes to your door. I will be signing people up as customers. I had read stories of how the air in our home is more toxic than the air outside. I saw articles on 20/20 and other shows about this, too. My family has suffered from allergies and Alaina has had reactions to laundry detergent for years. But since I switched to the Melaleuca products this past spring, we have had no allergy symptoms and Alaina’s skin has not broken out. To give one good example of one of their products, if any of you have a dishwasher and use something like Cascade to wash the dishes, they contain bleach to clean the dishes. Chlorine gas is released into your kitchen as your dishes are being washed. If you put the Melaleuca dishwashing detergent and Cascade side by side on a piece of aluminum foil, the Cascade eats through the foil while the Melaleuca does not. If any of you are interested in environmentally friendly products for your home, please check out the website at www.Melaleuca.com . If you are interested in becoming a customer, please contact me to help me build my business. Post a message to me on my board and I’ll give you my email. This is a wonderful company. Please check it out! Most of their products contain tea tree oil which is a natural antiseptic and has healing qualities. My friend who signed me up this spring also started her business at that time. In 5 months she has built her business to where she earned $10,000 last month. She has three girls and works from home like I will be doing. Check out the website and decide for yourself. Thanks for listening to this!
Back to Alaina! I started a tradition with her when she started kindergarten that you all might enjoy doing. Before the start of school, I make a sign that says something like “First Day of 2nd Grade, Aug. 21, 2003”. Each year I make a sign for her and have her stand by a tree in our back yard and I take her picture. So I can see how much she has grown and changed each year and also see how much the tree has grown. It’s so cute! I put these pictures into her scrapbook. I think it will be great when she graduates from school to put all the pictures together. Anyway, that’s my tip for the week. I hope you enjoy it!
I guess that all for now. Whew! I didn’t think I could write that much! I hope you all are enjoying our last days of summer. I’m definitely getting into the fall mood. I have a roast in the crockpot and am making peach cobbler for dessert. YUM!!
Blessings,
Alicia
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