THREE BY THREE THURSDAY

[helia]

Back from helping out with the jazz band. The kids walked to a fairly nearby elem. school, but there was no way they could carry string basses, the drumset, the tuba, elec. keyboard, and some of the other larger instruments. It was a good thing I volunteered; I had the only mini-van there. With the seats down, we could load a lot of the larger instruments in the back of my van. So, I had the tuba (in a hard case), the 2 string basses, the keyboard, the bari sax, plus some other sundry instruments, trombones, saxophones, etc. The concert was fabulous, of course.

I'm having some lunch. Ds is off to return some sundry books at the hs book depository. There are 2 he can't find; he thinks perhaps he and dd16 switched Latin books so that he turned hers in by mistake. He claims he's already turned in his Latin book while the book depository says he hasn't. The Latin classes 3, 4, and 5 use the same textbook, alternating between poetry one year and prose the next. Latin 5s, all of 2 students this year - ds and a friend, have additional books for their ind. studies. Ds loves Latin and will use up as many electives as he can taking Latin at the Univ. If he could swing it, he would have a classical languages minor to go with his engineering major. I'm not sure that would help him professionally! But it would develop 2 different interest areas he has.

The worker guy just returned. I'm off to Target and perhaps the mail place to take care of that grad. card.

[Lilac]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRIET!

[Emptynester]

Didn't catch up. We are on the road. Only 33 minutes late. Will post from Williams.

[Cowinkie]

A Very Merry Birthday to you Harriet

I've done a few things around the house and am waiting for my nails to dry. Then Sweetie and I are thinking about going to the movies. I don't think I've been away from the house since Sunday, and somewhere along the line I lost a day. Anyway I am having a great time and it really doesn't matter except my friends are giving me a retirement party on Sat and I thought that was 3 days away

Lucylee, My son WAS a SID's baby and a baby monitor would not have prevented anything. Lets face it, I'd never been a mother before and when he was sleeping in my room he made funny little noises. I thought that was normal, but after a while I was so intent on listening to him sleep that I couldn't. So I moved him to his room which was across the hall and down a room where I could still hear his funny little whistling sounds. One night I woke up to silence. I laid in bed for a moment doing that...should I get up and check on him or not. Decided for my peace of mind I needed to. When I went to check on him, DS was NOT breathing. In a moment of panic I grabbed him out of the crib and shook him. He gasped and began breathing again.

Long story short we had to have test run on him and luckily we didn't have to set him up with a SID's monitor. However for months I was terrified everytime I walked in DS's room to wake him. My Dr. back then, whom I loved and adored and would compare to the original Dr. Spock, told me a child with a monitor is hell (thank you Indy) for his/her parents and I agree. I know that I would have been sitting in my LR or BR just waiting for the darn thing to go off.

I'm old school. For most of my life I've lived without a cell phone and didn't miss it. A monitor in my situation would not have helped my son...but my ears and gut intuition did. I think people get too dependent and rely on electrical gadgets and let their guard down. But like I said thats just the way I feel.

Off to make the bed and join Sweetie. My cramps have eased up. Took my vitamins and will drink another gallon of water today, but will have to spread it out if I'm going to the movies. Its gonna be 112* suppose to break the record high today. I know this summer was gonna be a bad one. Cya'll later...........

[sherinjoy]

Happy Birthday Harriet! Enjoy your special day with your family.

Heating up here - high of 88 expected. Not anywhere near Cowinkie's 112, but hot for us.

Off to the adventures while still cool.

[Sadie]

Happy Birthday Harriet!!!

[helia]

My 3x3 are done - and I still have 50 minutes left.

After I finish unloading the car and putting everything away, I'll work on
1. signing up dd14 for field hockey this summer
2. filling out paperwork for dd14's camp this summer
3. write 2 checks and prep for the mail - for oboe reeds for dd14 and for band camp for dd14.

Hmmm..... that whole list is just keeping up with dd14's activities. That doesn't include phone calls to more oboe vendors that need to take place. . . .yesterday. There's so much more I need to be doing.

Ds said that yes, he did turn in dd16's Latin book, so he turned in his own today, which means dd16 is without for the rest of the semester. She will borrow one for the the teacher. There was one last missing book which he just found -- on the school books bookshelf in our liv. room, of all places.

Dmom emailed and said that a dfriend will do the pix for their anniversary party. I am very grateful! It is very difficult for me to get down there, and doing it long distance is virtually impossible. This dfriend has been staying with them and visiting family in the area for about a month. I just hope dmom is not offended. . .It's so hard to say with her.

[Sunny]

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRIET! Wishing you a wonderful day!

Safe travel wishes for MT & dh.

Sorry to hear of the loss of your duncle Dee.

I made a quick run to the grocery store to carry us through the next few days.

Tea towels vs hand towels: I wouldn't think of using our hand towels to dry dishes. I have paper towels and hand towels both in the kitchen for drying hands. The tea towels are separate and are changed at least every other day. Dh is of the same opinion, which he learned by helping with kitchen chores while growing up, as did all his brothers and sisters!

I've just finished lunch and will straighten up kitchen then sweep driveway/porch and water outside plants.

[Harriet]

Oh, hi there, Pepper.

I count on dishes to drain dry, with occasional drying of unimportant still-wet bottoms or backs with the hand towel. But if I have to hand-dry what our mouths may touch, it has to be a paper towel. If that happened more frequently, yes, I'd probably have a dishtowel, but up to now it has never been extravagant. I want to hang my kitchen towel over the stove handle, but now that my ddad lives here he can't understand the concept and I find it all over the place. It has occurred to me to use the looped-over ones (that hang on) exclusively but I think it would be limiting, plus they touch the floor, then, when you open the stove, unless they are easily removed.

HRH brought me a lovely meal of pineapple fried rice (that is a great favorite of mine). I hesitate to think how much sodium - guess I'll know tomorrow. Also he brought a few things from the grocery, where he had mellowed after chatting with me and decided to appreciate the niceness of at least one employee. Now he's off to a meeting.

I've been doing some decluttering, mostly of papers, mail, magazines, catalogs.

Ds27 called. Dd32 had called last evening to see if I'd gotten the boys' card.

I need to make sure I have boxes and gift wrap for b-day gifts for others!

Wow, Cowinkie, please drink enough fluids - tell your sweetie, Willis and STWD: water, water.

Stay safe, Emptynesters!

Thank you again, everyone, for all these nice wishes!

[Lilac]

Cowinkie, I was SO relieved to read that you saved your SIDS baby and didn't lose one. How scary but shows how important mothers intuition really is.