September

It has been busy, busy, busy around here the past few weeks. Jacob began 10th grade on the 4th of this month and has already been bogged down with homework almost every night. We have had to completely readjust our bedtime/wake-up schedule to accommodate the hideous early-morning start time of our local high school. Ugh.

Two weekends ago, Jacob and I spent Friday and Saturday nights up in Kaleva with Nancy and Irma. While we were there, we visited a unique store named Punzel's that had an eclectic collection of Scandinavian items, in addition to an outdoor pathway filled with hand-carved trolls & gnomes. The place definitely had a different atmosphere, but I found it very interesting nonetheless. Last week, both Jim and Adam flew to town to join the family for the monthly birthday shindig. It was great to have all my boys here, especially because, among other things, we were celebrating my big day. We had a fun weekend!

Unfortunately, we have also had a couple of vehicle issues this month, beginning with a flat tire on the CRV. After a few attempts to fill the flat using an air pump & an entire can of Fix-a-Flat, we eventually ended up just buying four new tires. We also ran into a dilemma when the front passenger tire of the Jeep rolled over an errant skunk who scampered unexpectedly into our path on Ann Arbor Road last week. The resulting stench was overwhelming and is taking forever to fade away despite our numerous efforts to clean it. We have had to leave the Jeep out of the garage in order to keep the smell from seeping into the condo. Pretty gross. I figured that driving around and splashing through some puddles would hasten the de-stinking process, but, naturally it has not rained since our skunk encounter.

I ripped out all of my impatiens from the front yard already, not because there has been a frost (although we have come close to 32 degrees a few nights), but rather because some sort of critter had been walking or jumping on them and had smashed & broken them all. I replaced the flowers with some hardy fall mums that haven't actually proven to be all that hardy. I never have had a green thumb. Bring on the winter and the snow! I'm ready for that instead!