Update

It's been a little while since I blogged last, thought I'd give an update as to what's been happening. During Conference weekend, Mom's sites where she was stung started getting red and purple and swollen (she could hardly bend her elbow) and icky. She went to the Dr on Monday and was told she had staph infections, we don't know if it was from the bees themselves or if she scratched something into her sores, but pretty much all the places she was stung was affected. She got put on antibiotics and is doing much better a couple of days later. Her arms are healing faster then her legs, I guess that's because you have less blood supply there. She and Laura have been canning lately, peaches and pears, yum! Our pickles turned out well too.


On to Dad...yesterday he had surgery in Erie on his other knee, to clean it out after tearing stuff. When he was in China, he injured his good knee (already ripped up his other knee on the job and uses a cane) when the boards he was walking on in the engine room came loose (not secured well) and my dad fell. Now this knee is as bad if not worse than the other one! I tease him about getting him a Rascal scooter and having him paint flames on it and soup it up. He did fine with the anesthesia and it looks like the surgery went well. We tease him about having matching scars on his knees..how "Monk"! He's all bandaged and swollen and whatnot. I can't help but wonder if GE is going to want to retire him now that both his knees are bad (Oh and they make my dad walk up and down stairs all day since his office is on the 2nd floor and there's no elevator! How do you get away with that in this day and age?), there's been retiring talk since he injured the first one. If they retire him (and keep in mind both knees were hurt on the job) they'll be paying him less, so we don't want that.



My sister Laura is preparing for cabin fever this winter by stocking up on yarn and projects to do. I have the car at school so she and Mom are stuck home in the winter when they can't use the truck in the snow. Laura's puppy Grant is now 6 months old if not closer to 7, and I totally spoke too soon in my other post about him...he is a terrible dog. I have not had much peace these last six months because I'm either angry about how the dog is behaving (he is noisy too) or I'm angry at Laura for not working with him enough. For years I've been lectured as to what not to do with these dogs in training, so it drives me batty seeing Laura let him get away with stuff. Grant is a hardheaded dog as it is (chocolate labs have that reputation) and Laura's training styles don't help. I'm not mean to this dog but I make sure it knows I'm boss and that he's not getting away with anything. And it shows- when I walk Grant, he behaves when he comes in the house. When Laura walks him, he's a bucking bronco! Laura gets upset if I work with him (I got him to learn how to lay down but he's forgotten it since Laura doesn't reinforce it) but the only reason I do is because I never see her working with him. He's not my project and I don't want to overstep, but hey I put up with a lot! I think I should get some say. And these dogs have to be especially obedient- they're helping blind people! How's the blind person going to know if they did it or not? They have to trust the dog will do what they say. Enough of that rant.



As for me, school has been chugging along. I think it's been like 6 weeks now. My classes are going fine, for the most part I don't have that much homework. Painting is going well, my first brush color study is going up on the display wall (makes one feel like a gradeschooler!). I'm now working on another larger still life that is starting to go somewhere, though my drapery looks more like water! Maybe later if I try to paint water it will look like drapery, ha ha. I like my Art Ed class, we've been presenting lesson plans and it's fun to think of what I did in classes and what I would do with a class. I had to present a lesson plan to the class yesterday and it went quite well. I'm thankful for all the teaching experience that I've had through church...Primary, mission, Relief Society, Young Womens...I've got 10 years of teaching compared to my fellow students who are squirmy when up in front of the class.


Fall is getting to be a busy time. There are a lot of activities going on. Two of my good friends from here, Rene and Ame are each getting married very soon (Rene just before Christmas and Ame a week later in January) and when they come home I'll be throwing each of them a bridal shower. It's looking like Rene around Thanksgiving and Ame in early December. They are marrying out west so I won't be able to be there for that, so I'm helping out best I can out here. They both thought they wouldn't be getting a shower at all, how sad is that? I haven't used my Martha Stewart party planning skills much since my fab 25th birthday party so it'll be fun. Adding to the craziness is the fact that Ame is marrying Rene's brother Dennis, that's two weddings in a very short amount of time for that family! Yikes! Their engagements have been short as well (both couples got engaged in September), so it is all very crazy.

I'm off to go have some fun in Erie...running errands, doing some crafty shopping (hooray!)and then going to an artist's reception at the Erie Art Museum for my metals teacher. She's a really great teacher and my casting class was mega fun. I'm excited to go see her and her work.

Toodles! Sorry no pics, that's very unlike me. I'll post some soon.