WOW!

Did I ever have a whack-load of posts to read!  I haven't been here since last week some time.  I did take notes, so some responses might seem out of place since they're referring to posts that are a whole week old.

Sandi, naps are good.  There are days when I would just about kill for a nap.  Cool on getting all that good stuff for your school for $50.  I hope they reimbursed you.  I think I've got some Beverly Barton books, at least the name sounds familiar.  Didn't know that she was no longer with us, though. 

Thanks for the congrats for my grandkids.  My buttons are bursting.  On one of my granddaughter's certificates (the piano one, I think) it says "Highest Honors with Distinction".  Whoo hoo.  I sure never got that on any certificate I ever got.  Come to think of it, I never got any certificates, either.  {:-o 

ATV's can have 3 wheels, 4 wheels or more, or even tracks.  They can carry from 1 to 4 people, and be enclosed or not.  You can buy a little old second-hand trike for a couple hundred dollars, or spend several (many) thousand for a great big top-of-the-line new one.  ATV simply means "all terrain vehicle".  {;-) 

Hmmm, I never thought of getting my cover pictures from Fresh Fiction.  When I was reading for Pink Heart Society the books I was sent that weren't Harlequins I had to get the covers from Amazon, and then the picture was always way smaller than the ones from Harl. 

Mary, sore ankle?  I didn't know you could get gout in your ankle.  But I'm glad it's better now. 

I haven't gotten a new book from Tell H recently.  Seems I'm always several weeks behind when everyone else gets theirs.  I often wonder how they choose which books they send, as they sure don't send me books I'd pay $$ for, either.  My guess would be they send out the ones that no one orders in the hopes that a review of them will help sell some. 

Our kids had a swing set growing up, too.  Seems kids never get too big to swing.

Margie, I'm with you on the "Born in -- " series.  Now that I've finished them all, I can say that I liked the first one best, and the last one least, too. 

Four of my grandkids left just this morning on a school overnight campout.  But the little ones aren't allowed to go.  You can't go until you're in grade 5, so by the time the little ones have heard the hype for 4 years they're ready and waiting. . . 

Thanks for the congrats to my grandkids.  They sure didn't get it from me.

I've been going to eHarlequin for 15 years, ever since I first got a computer.  They were the first website I visited with my new computer.  At first they really cared when I was there, and if I missed a few days, someone was wondering where I was.  Now I can miss weeks, and no one even notices I wasn't there. 

Do you remember Valerie (Lots of Cats) from eH?  Her oldest daughter, Sylvia, has speech problems, and goes to "school" for it.  She's 3.  She might have some ideas of things you could try that might work.  May I give her your email address?

Cady, I enjoyed swimming lessons as a kid, but I'm so out of shape now that it's all I can do to keep myself afloat.  That and piano lessons is all we did as kids because $$ was very tight.  My dad was working plus going to school, so that's where most of our extra cash went.  There were 4 kids to feed and clothe, too. 

Summer school?  Oh.  That sounds like a really smart way to keep kids out of trouble for the summer.  Our teachers are way too lazy to do something like that here, though.  (My niece is a teacher, and I'll still say that) 

We drive 18 hours every time we go visit Hardy's family in BC.  We took the kids a couple of times, but never when any of them were really small.  We took my in-laws a couple of times, too, when Opa could no longer drive.  I think that was worse than having 5 kids in the car. . .

I'm still waiting for the library to get me Witness.  Last time I checked I was 154th on the list.  But that was a couple of weeks ago.  Maybe I should check again. 

Trudy, if your a/c's still working this long, maybe it'll last through the summer, and you can save up what you'll need before you actually need it.  Will pray that's what happens.  Our youngest daughter, Joy (actually Joy-Anne, but we call her Jo), is having terrible problems with her roof.  It's leaking in just about every room in the house.  They thought they needed to shingle, but just can't afford it.  Hardy went up to check their roof on Monday, and discovered that the flashing in the valleys was not installed properly, nor around the chimney, and that's where it's leaking.  So he got a couple cans of this spray tar stuff -- problem solved, at least until they can save up some money to have it done properly. 

I'd think if there was any kind of lawsuit against you, they'd have to let you know first.  One wouldn't imagine that people are expected to go around checking to see if there's a lawsuit against them.  But if it was me, I guess I'd be calling my lawyer to find out, too.  I can't believe that it's anything serious, though.  I thought you got all that stuff cleared up from the other year. 

Amanda, I'd have had a heart attack, too, if one of my kids had leaped into the pool like that, too.  My middle daughter, Lynda, (actually Lynda-Gayle, but we call her Lyn) had her kids in private swimming lessons from the time they were about 1 year old.  She had to go in the pool with them for the first couple of years.  Now just the younger ones take lessons, the two older ones actually have their lifeguard certificates already, and don't take lessons any more.  I think everyone should learn to swim, the earlier the better, if at all possible. 

Do Blazes still have so much sex in them?  I read a few when they first came out with that line, and a couple of them were okay, but most of them had so much sex in that there was no room for a story line.  It was basically in bed by page 3, and stay there till the end of the book.  So I stopped reading them.  I'm not a prude, I love a good sex scene as much as the next person,  but there was so much of it that your eyes just kind of glazed over after a while. 

Donna M, your brother's place is beautiful!  We lived 3 1/2 miles out of town for 28 years, and I'd live there still if the house hadn't been falling down around our ears.  We'd sold the land, but still lived there.  Didn't pay any rent, so couldn't ask the guy to fix the house, and weren't about to put any of our own $$ into something we didn't own, so we moved into town.  We're right on the edge of town, and have an acre and a half, which makes it seem as if we're still on the farm. 

I used to know how to post book covers here.  I could probably re-learn it pretty fast, but just don't have the time to go looking for them. 

Thanks for the congrats for my grandkids.  I was lucky if I passed a class, never mind get honors with distinction in it. . .

Cool house pictures!  I love old places like that.

LOL on finding books in the trunk.  That's always a good thing, to find books you'd forgotten about.  {:-) 

(Me) Wow, this is a long post.  Didn't realize I had that much to say. . .  {;-) 

We have to pay for things like crutches, neck  braces, etc, but everything else is paid for.  A stay in the hospital is covered by the government.  There are a few things that aren't covered, like plastic surgery for implants, etc, but all necessary stuff is free.  There are people who take advantage of it, like sometimes older people who live alone and are lonely, they'll go to the ER just to have someone to talk to.

Ah, you guys, all complaining about the heat.  We're still below normal, haven't had a hot day yet.  So I don't know where the idea came from that we're having a hot, dry summer.  Haven't seen it yet. . .

So many kids get labels that they don't deserve, and sometimes it just because the teacher can't be bothered to take the necessary time to interact with the kid. 

Well, I hope all this wandering from topic to topic makes sense. 

Hardy just got home from having his ear syringed out.  And our car is now fixed, too.  Didn't ask him how much it cost, though.  Now he wants lunch. . .