Busier

Our little brood is back together after a few short-staffed days here at Motel Metcalf. Will and Audrey spent the past several days in Logan with their buddies up there, and Olivia went to Aunt Melissa's to hang with cousins. That left just me, Duncan and Dan to hold down the fort. And we were gone most of the time too, working, making trips to Logan to deal with rental home issues, and keeping my parents in check. Tonight is the first night in a week that me and the kids have been home together. Dan is out cavorting somewhere, but the rest of us had a nice hot dog dinner when I got home from work about 8:00,  and then we got enough chores done to keep the place from going completely to pot. The weekend will bring more time at work, a garage sale, and seeing my folks off on a flight to Nashville, which is a story in itself. There will not be much time for relaxing, or attending to the myriad of tasks to do around here, but all of that can wait, I suppose.

This was supposed to be the summer of relaxation, but so far, all we have done is run like crazy, or in my case, limp like crazy, since I got hit by a truck in case  you haven't heard. My leg is healing nicely, but it sure did put a dent in my June. Then our car decided to become temperamental about when and where it would start. Getting stranded more than a few times over the course of a few weeks convinced us pretty quickly that it was time for a new car.  So in all of our spare time between working, and taking care of family, we had to car shop with an old car that we were never sure was going to start. In fact, when we finally found a car to buy, we had to postpone the deal for two hours while we worked on getting the old car started so we could trade it in. Needless to say, we didn't strike much of a bargain in the trade in value. But we are now the proud owners of a 2011 Honda Pilot which will be known as Old Blue, because it is blue. All I can say is, it better start.

Then, it turns out that getting a kid on a mission is quite a process. We have had to apply for his passport, start visa paperwork, track down immunizations, shop, plan, shop some more, fill out more paperwork, and on and on. And oh, yeah, don't forget to get him spiritually prepared too.  And Duncan has been debating about whether to extend his mission for a few more months. We have also been finding out about job placements and benefits for him when his mission ends. It looks like he will be extending til the end of December, which will give us all time to get Will off before we have to worry about what comes next for Duncan.

Then we finally kicked our deadbeat renters to the curb, and July so far has been spent dealing with the mess they left behind. They left a filthy house full of garbage, two cars in the driveway, a bunch of junk in the back yard and garage, and an old broken down washing machine which we discovered was FULL OF WATER AND OLD MILDEWED CLOTHES that had been there for who knows how long. Who does that?? I could go on about other things we found too, but honestly, I dont't want to waste my time rehashing it all. Suffice it to say, it's been a mess in every possible way. And, we tracked down the renter's mother and told on them. So Hah. Oh, and we get to put a new roof on the house, which means we get to refinance so we can pay for the thing.  The joys of being a landlord.

So between taking nonstop calls from renters, prospective renters, car salesmen, roofers, bankers and real estate agents, the summer is passing us by with only one trip to the pool to show for it so far. I'm not confident that things are going to slow down any time soon either. But I am getting very adept at multi-tasking.