"Out Here" is GOOD!!!

The work was upon me this morning and these are glorious days. The state of the economy is not so good and the overall consumer confidence is way down; however; having missed most of the past two years I really could care less. A good friend of me said, “The economy has been kind enough to reset itself to the levels before I went away so essentially I haven’t missed much!” Of course this was stated in good fun and I did have a very good laugh but it does put things into perspective.

No matter how bad the economy gets I wouldn’t trade life “out here” with life “in there” for anything. Obviously I have no investments that are affected by the flailing economy and as fate would have it I sold our house at the height of the market. Truly timely was everything I do wonder what would have happened if there were any further delays in my sentencing but that is neither here nor there. Everything continues to happen for a reason and I am eternally grateful for this reason.

I was a bit tired this morning and so was the rest of the family. Grandma is still here and I could hear her call upstairs to see if I needed any help getting the children ready for school. There are days where I often wonder how they get out of the house in time but invariably they seem to arrive at school well in advance of the “tardy bell”. I have found the best way to get my daughter out of bed after the tickling method seemed to die day and this new method involves me carrying her to the bathroom. This may not be the best method to teach my daughter how to do things herself but it does get her moving in the morning. This worked well this morning and everyone was out the door well in advance of that “tardy bell”.

Grandma and mommy were in tow as they went off to school. Grandma does take particular interest in the children’s schooling mostly because grandma is a retired schoolteacher and she really cares about her grandchildren. Grandma wanted to meet the teachers and it is so nice to hear positive comments from her about the teachers and the school. I do believe the school system out here is much better than in New Jersey and I think the children would agree. The whole atmosphere is much better with the school being a true campus as opposed to a building. I know the teachers do their best in any environment but this environment seems more conducive to caring teachers. This showed when my daughter attended kindergarten, first and second grade out here and it continues now. We are very blessed to be in such a great environment.

With everyone off to school I sat down and did some work which entailed working the telephones. I am starting to make some headway and I am also getting more responsibility in my position. I have a very good relationship with my boss and he treats me like an equal. I have been given some administrative type responsibilities and I do relish these very much. I will do anything (obviously within the legal limits!!) I am told to do and I have no problem with these additional responsibilities. This all started last week and continued today.

I had to go to the office for a few hours and just like that my day flew by so quickly. I soon found myself at my son’s baseball practice in the late afternoon. These practices are a great deal of fun but these 6, 7 and 8 year old boys can be like “herding cats” sometimes! My son to his credit is very much into baseball but some of the other boys just want to play in the dirt. This is fine but when a hard baseball is headed their way it is not so fine! Thankfully everyone stayed safe and there were no bumps or bruises of any kind. It was a fun practice and I noticed that my son took direction very well from the other couch as he was counseled on how to field a ground ball the correct way. My son made it a point to field the ball properly the next time he had the opportunity. It these little things that go a very long way for me and I had a big smile watching him

The practice was over and we headed home. We are very fortunate that the practice field is only one mile away from our house which affords the opportunity to take our bicycles. We rode home and were home very quickly where we needed to shower in order to get ready for Grandma’s departing dinner. Grandma was once again so kind and generous to take us out to my favorite restaurant. We spoke so highly of this restaurant that Grandma wanted to go and tonight was the night. The entire family went and we had a great meal.

This is the same restaurant I went to on my first night “out”. The food was delicious then (but in all fairness most anything would have been delicious at that point!) and it was still delicious tonight. Grandma enjoyed her meal and the children were very good the entire time. This was a very nice way to end Grandma’s trip and I think she enjoyed her meal as well. Today was a great day through and through.