Jenna’s here!!!

Yesterday we did some shopping around the big metropolis that is Pittsburg. Needless to say, we probably stopped by all the shops and it took us about two hours. After that we rented some movies and did manicures and pedicures.

We’ve been walking the dogs everyday, but it hasn’t been much fun (for us) because the park is waterlogged. The dogs don’t seem to mind!

Today, we are going to work on the bathroom and then I get my haircut. Nico’s working so we’re on our own. I hope that I’m not boring the kid too bad.

Here is a supercute picture of Jenna and Bella sleeping together this morning. Adorable!

We've got lots to do today, so we'll have to post later.

-G

Aunties Came for a Visit

Today, the aunties came for a visit. They brought with them Grandma, cousin Carolyn, cousin Reed and my sister Jenna. I had a very lovely visit with them.

Jenna will be staying with us for a week or two. I’m excited to have her here, but I wasn’t expecting her so soon, so some of my previous plans may need to change.

Well, I have to go to bed now. Jenna and I have to figure out what exciting things we will be doing these next few weeks. One of our first priorities is figuring out what we’ll do for the 4th of July holiday. I think Nico will have to work, it may be a girls-only holiday.
-G

Back from RENO!

Well, I’m back from RENO!!! I had an absolute blast, but I was exhausted by the time I got home on Sunday. I’ve spent the last two days getting groceries, cleaning house and doing laundry. Sometimes I really wonder how Nico would live if I wasn’t around…

The topic of the conference was “America’s Cultural Kaleidoscope: Challenges and Opportunities.” I was already interested in diversity and multi-cultural studies, and this conference reinforced those interests. Since it was the AAFCS conference, I was also able to attend workshops on “foods that heal,” “public deliberation” and integrating diversity into workplaces and classrooms (of course).

Well, I’ve got to go. I have to finish cleaning up the house. My mom and “the aunties” are coming for a visit tomorrow. I’ll post more about the Reno trip later.

Memorial Services and other updates

Well, I’ve had a heck of a week. My Granddad’s wife, Marilyn, died on Wednesday the 13th. My Dad and his brother were coming to town for Father’s Day, so I was already planning to go to KC for Father’s Day. I didn’t realize that I would spend most of the week trying to get things in order so that I could be gone all weekend.

Her memorial service was yesterday (Monday the 18th) and it was a very nice service. She had been sick for a long time, but I never realized how sick she was because she was only 68. Way too young. The nice thing that came out of all of this was meeting my Granddad’s only living sister and two of her children. My dad also had another cousin in attendance. It was nice to finally meet these family members. The seeds were sown for a McClellan family reunion. I would really love to if they had one.

I’m exhausted and I have LOTS of homework for my SSLS 888 class. I leave tomorrow morning for Reno for the AAFCS annual conference. My Granddad also goes in for surgery tomorrow to remove his melanoma. With the surgery and everything, this trip will be bittersweet.

Nico’s home this week and he’s going to take care of all the animals and hopefully work on the bathroom project.

Hopefully, my next post will be good news about my trip.

The Flood is Back!

I just woke up and my first thought was OMG, I slept until 10:00? My second thought was it’s raining really hard, must be why I slept so long. Then I realized, we had a big flood yesterday and the ground’s totally saturated…hmmm. Then I looked outside.


Looks like the flood is back. Here is a veiw of my street and the field across from us.

Below is a picture of my driveway and the roundabout.

Looks like I won't be going anywhere any time soon!

Long night...

I’m very tired today. It all started yesterday. I spent most of yesterday working on my AAFCS project and Nico tried to get as much done around the house as he could because he knew he was leaving for Chicago this morning. We stayed up kinda late because he was trying to pack for his trip. His flight was scheduled to leave at 8:15 this morning. These quickie commuter flights don’t have arranged seating, so to ensure that he had a seat he needed to be there an hour early, so now we’re talking 7:15 a.m. It takes two and a half hours to get to the airport, so he left here at 4:00 a.m. We set our alarm clock and the cell phone alarm for 3:00, just to make sure we didn’t miss it.

Have I mentioned the storm yet?

We had terrible thunderstorms and a tornado watch yesterday evening and when we went to bed it was still raining pretty hard. That said, at 2:30 a.m. someone starts pounding on our front door. It’s our neighbor. He’s up because his house is FLOODED. The creek at the end of our street is all the way up, over the street and into our yard. He woke us up because Nico’s truck, which was parked on the street, was filling up with water. Nico had to wade in knee high water to get in his truck. Thank GOD it started and he parked it in our driveway, which is higher up than the street.

Since it was only a half hour before he was planning on getting up, he just stayed up. I stayed up for a while checking the ceiling (previous leak sites) and the basement. God Bless the sump pump. It ran all night, but kept the water level low enough that nothing in the basement was ruined. Nico left at 4:00 and I went back to bed for a few hours. I’ll be crashing early tonight, but I bet Nico crashes even harder!