Three New Things

Three new things...Katy's first day of FIFTH grade (can we all believe this???) taken in our front yard, back on September 2nd. So far, she is having a good year with her teachers Mr. Green and Mrs.Shere. At the open house, I was glad to meet Mrs. Shere as she is one of the only people in the entire school that has grey hair. Most of the teachers are in the 20s...she is obviously a bit more mature and I'm thinking experienced! Katy complains that "Mrs. Shere makes us put periods at the end of sentences and capitalize the first word...SO much work!" Not seeing many of those 30 year vetrans these days in the public schools...they are a breed that is sadly missing from our kid's educational experience.

Next new thing is Katy's haircut...which happened last Thursday. She wanted it shoulder length...I just let her go with the stylist (who I trust) and she came out grinning ear-to-ear (and looking 5 years older)! This pic was taken this morning before we left...I see that it is hard to detect the length b/c I took it in front of our cabinets...but you probably get the general idea!

And the last new thing...is our new cat Callie. We saved her from being sent to a shelter b/c her owner's son got very allergic. She is somewhere between 1 and 2 years old. It has been a huge adjustment for her...previous owners had a tiny house and Callie mostly lived in the teenage daughter's bedroom. We followed some suggestions about how to integrate her with the other cats...she and Sarah (our indoor cat) have really done well together...in fact last night, they both were sitting about 2 feet apart in our big room, sleeping. I think Sarah actually likes having a pal upstairs again. Grey Cat is another story. She is outdoors so much this time of year that we really haven't done much to integrate them...mostly let Callie run around the house so her scent is around. Grey has met up with her a couple of times by accident...and has chased Callie right back upstairs like she does with Sarah. Katy has done a really great job taking care of Callie...she is in charge of the litter box, food and water, and has probably only missed a day or so since Callie came to live with us.

I had my bookclub meeting last night. Our selection for this meeting was Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth. Several members had read it back in the late 80s when it came out. Oprah picked it as one of her club selections...a fairly uplifting selection for a change! We all really enjoyed reading it, but it IS fairly long so fair waring to those of you out there who don't do well with big books! I'm up for choosing our book in January...am open to suggstions from any of you who have a favorite you think we'd enjoy.