Monday -- I Have No Idea What To Call This Entry!

I did finally get to sleep Saturday night, although I lay in bed for quite a while before sleep came.  I did manage to get up at 7 a.m., though, and I took a nap in the afternoon.

I'm not officially starting school with Eler Beth this week until Wednesday, since that's when school starts here in the county.  I was going to have lessons today, but decided to give her a two-day break.  I took Eler Beth out to do some shopping today, leaving it up to her where we would go to eat, and she chose Denny's.  I haven't been to Denny's in years.  After that we met up with Andrew and went to the mall, just the three of us.

We mostly just window shopped, but we did a little real shopping as well.  Both the kids needed shoes and some other essential items.  I of course had to visit Waldenbooks while I was there.  I had ordered three books online from eBay and Amazon to send to my niece in Florida; they'd come in this past week, and I wanted a couple other things to send her as well.  Summer is my oldest great-niece, who graduated from high school this year.  She is going to USF and will be enrolling as a Sophomore.  My niece Sheila sent me an email yesterday in which she bemoaned having to take her down on the 17th.  They're really going to miss her, but at least she's not too far away from their home in Ocala.

We're sending her some money, but I also am sending her three books that I think are great for graduates going off to college or young people who have their first place of their own.  They are: Where's Mom Now That I Need Her?; Where's Dad Now That I Need Him?; and You're Officially A Grown-Up.  The first two are chock-full of tips and advice for everything under the sun as well as simple recipes and blank pages where you can write your own mom's or dad's recipes.  The third one is a cute, witty little rhyming book.  I actually ordered copies of the first two for myself, too!  If you have someone graduating and going off to school or moving into their own place, these make great gifts.

Then at Waldenbooks I got her a copy of The Last Lecture.  I got ME a neat little tome called The Amazing Book of Useless Information.  (You can never have too much useless information, you know.)  And I was charmed by an attractive volume entitled i before e (except after c), old-school ways to remember stuff.  Ostensibly I bought it for Eler Beth, but -- who am I fooling?  I bought it for myself!  But I'll share with Eler Beth!  And then I dragged myself out of there and had a 15-minute massage in the massage chair while the kids shopped some more.

Lucy, the cockatiel, laid another egg yesterday.  Only instead of laying this one in the nesting box, she laid it on the floor of the cage, just beneath the water dish.  So I gingerly picked it up and put it in with the other one.  I hope this one is fertilized.

I know Eler Beth has told the story of catching the BIG snapping turtle on Sunday.  She exaggerated a bit about the weight, but it is at least 40 pounds.  They took pictures today and I think Thomas measured it as closely as he could without getting TOO close to that head.  Its head is the size of Thomas' fist, at least.

I couldn't tell the story of the BIG snapping turtle here because she needed to tell it first in her own journal.  I'm competing with my daughter for journal material! 

Well, I guess that's about it for today.  I'm off to try to read a few journals. 

Tags: High school graduate gifts, Where's Mom Now That I Need Her?, Where's Dad Now That I Need Him?, You're Officially A Grown-up