Three more days! Today is the slow one, Megan wants to see some friends, but otherwise I will just try to do laundry and get the house ready for the cleaning people, who come tomorrow. Tomorrow we have the cleaning people and two orthodontist appointments (Megan goes every once in a while to have her retainer checked), and then on Friday, we have to do all the final preparations as well as drop off the dogs at their respective caretakers. Brian has the neurologist, and Megan has volunteering at the hospital. Then we'll be up bright and early Saturday for our 8:05am flight!! We haven't been able to do our seating assignments yet, as British Air won't allow it till the day before, or slightly sooner if you meet certain criteria which we do not. So that should be done early Friday morning.
Last night we finally had our dinner with E. It was nice to see her again, and she has finally cleared all her things out of our house. For some reason she was amazed at how much she still had here. I can't imagine how she would have felt if she had had to straighten up and pack up, if I hadn't done it all for her when she left it all over the place! But we dropped her back at the house where she is staying with her three boxes, one suitcase, and one bag of clothes. Oh, and two giant pictures for her wall. She leaves on Friday to start her new life.
Meanwhile, the kids continue to plug along through their summer reading assignments, Brian doing better than I thought he would, although still lucky that he already read one of the books on his list, and therefore only has to read two 'real' books and one on 'success secrets', and Megan plodding through the many books she had to read for Language Arts, getting ready to start reading all the history passages she must read and prepare a written response for.
Wilbur is still committing transgressions in the house when he isn't watched closely. He seems to think that a carpeted room can substitute in a pinch. He does understand that he should go outside, but he doesn't seem to know how to ask us to take him outside. I'll have to work on that when we get back. I am feeling terribly guilty about boarding him while we're gone. He is such a small dog, and having him in that big kennel full of loud barking beasts makes me feel terrible! I'm bringing him with a bed, a blanket, a bone, and a soft toy. He'll have to spend eight nights there! Which will also punch our pocketbook.
Speaking of pocketbooks, I really need to start getting paid again soon after school starts! Just getting Wilbur in the first place put me into the red, and then his many maladies beat me further in. Without a paycheck since June, the bills mount, and now the vacation is adding to that stress. Trying to think of ways to trim the fat - I have to think about the cleaning people. Of course, it is nice to have the house be cleaned top to bottom every other week (but do they really do that??). But they charge us $110 each time and I have to supply the cleaning supplies, even the ones I was told initially they would provide.
They have switched ladies on me, and the new one uses everything ... even the supplies that I have for my own daily clean-ups, so when I need the Fantastic, for example, it might be gone, or it might be moved. They sometimes miss vacuuming under things, and just a couple of weeks ago, I found that a medicine cup had been knocked over behind Megan's bed, and the medicine had gotten onto the heater, and all kinds of hair and dust had stuck to it. I took one wet wipe, and the whole thing came off, but the cleaning people had just been ignoring that! So maybe when we get back, I should look into a cheaper alternative, or practice doing it myself. I need a more routine schedule, the subbing can be so unpredictable that it makes me inefficient.
But in other news, I can't believe summer is winding down. We have birthdays coming up, and driving lessons, learners permits, and the start of school. Wilbur has to be taken in for his 'big operation,' and there is maintenance to be done around the house. We also have not resolved our billing issues with the former lawn service, and we have started having to pay for Brian's schooling, which is a small fortune in itself. It had better be worth it, and pay off in the long run. So far I think he is already showing more self-confidence and better judgement, just because he knows he will be going to a school with a superior reputation. So let's see if he can make that work for him.
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