Happy Rainy Monday!

The weekend sure seemed to fly by around here as nothing but the basics got taken care of, grocery shopping, meals, laundry, and I finished writing some video reviews. School and sports continue as usual, a little lighter this week, no games for Ben until Saturday, practice Tuesday. Fox has a meet in Marlette on Wednesday, they will get out of school an hour early to take the bus there. I'm going to pull Ben and Ethan a little early too so we can get there by the time Junior High runs. Fox expressed he'd like it if someone was there at all his meets for him, I said I'd do my best to make that happen. There was one so far I couldn't be at cause Ben had a soccer game at the same time, but Alex and some of her buddies were there to cheer him on.

Alex, unfortunately did not get the part that she was hoping for in the play....again. It's a dog eat dog business, acting. She is "an Egyptian woman" which has me shuddering as to what the costuming might entail for that. Second week of Intro Philosphy seemed to go well, she reported that the prof actually advocated drug experimentation....great. The kids thought is was hilarious; and apparently the North Branch Broncos girls made friends with some duel enrollments from Dryden High School. So, she's enjoying the class so far. We've already got a new boyfriend, this one really threw me at first, but after spending some time with him Friday night after he brought Alex home from having dinner at his house so she could meet his parents and sister, I think he's ok. He's a very honest, up front, fellow, which is refreshing, and I can honestly say I know more about this gentleman than anyone else Alex has ever 'dated.' He's really big into making sure she does what her mom says so that they'll be able to do things together, smart guy.

Recycling news: I was happy to find out that North Branch Elementaries are participating in the Capri Sun recycling program. They have a recepticle in the lunch room to collect packages, of which the school can get $.02 each on. Click here http://www.caprisun.com/terracycle for details on Be Green Earn Green: Earn $$$ for School.

Green Efforts: Now that I have a dryer it is more of a concious effort to hang clothes outside. I do most of the clothes out on the line except for socks. I also dry towels inside (crunch factor), but sheets and blankets outside. Someone suggested vinegar as a softener, tried it, seems to help somewhat on lighter materials, makes no difference on jeans or towels. Unless you have a really good warm breeze going, towels just don't dry soft outside.

Not having the oven working helps cut down on energy but is challenging to come up with stove-top only meals and I don't like to microwave too much and definately not entire meals. Still keeping our eyes and ears open for a cheap or free electric stove. Checked the ReStore but none there, I'm on the wish list, a few on Craiglist were already gone or too far to go get. I know I can find something decent for $50 or so, any leads let me know.

Shopping Bags: I don't know what it is but I never remember to put my bags back in the car after I shop and I forget to grab them when I leave to go shop. I hate that feeling of pulling up in the parking lot of the local mega mart and realizing I'm bagless, then I have to make a choice if I'm going to use the plastic, if I'm just grabbing a few things forego the bag entirly, or buy yet another reusable bag for the collection. Ugh.

I'll be running between the raindrops as I do a few errands this morning, of course it could be 75 and sunny by the time I leave to coach at GTC this afternoon. The other day I used reverse psychology Murphy's Law. It looked like rain and I had laundry to put on the line, I knew - "Murphy's Law" - if I put it out there it most definately would rain, so I decided I'd put the stuff in the dryer and cause it to be sunny instead, it worked!

Saturday was the end of their winning streak, I think those little brains were mushed up after a full week of school and two weekday games, they just weren't playing their best. Orange defeated them 3-0.