Schoolio!

Today I enjoyed some sort of miracle. I had all three kids in school today for the first time in over a week. Andy has been home since last Tuesday and has had a runny nose that just hasn't quit. Today it was good - for the most part anyway. We had a couple of snot runs this morning but nothing deep and green as it has been and certainly not constant. After school they said he was a little tired now and again but no complaints about his nose. Jack had been home two days last week and again yesterday. He did fine today and that is also a big relief. Natty has been whining every morning about not feeling well and wanting to stay home. She is not sick, she is fine and I just don't give in with her. I can't really. She had a bit of a stuffy nose tonight so she got a dose or meds and a little vicks on her feet.

The Vicks on the feet has been an excellent remedy in our house since Heidi mentioned it to me a couple months ago. I love it and the kids seem to as well. I laugh because I took off Andy's shoes an hour or so ago and they smelled of vicks. Hey, I needed a little assistance to get him through the day so I put it on his feet before taking him to school. Did I mention that I love it? Well, I do. It is also very easy to know if you should put it on or not. Simply hold the jar of vicks up to your nose, if you fall backwards put it on. If you fall forwards there is no need. Okay, that is simply a bad joke on mom who use to take all these minerals that way. Paalease. Can I get a little colloidal silver? I am not quite looking smurf enough. Love you mom.

So this lady that the folks and Amy know wanted to sell them her salon at some give away price. It sounded to good to be true. Not to be a glass half empty guy but when something sounds to good to be true it usually is. As cool as everything sounded my thoughts were why? Why does someone just up and walk away from a thriving business and take a loss on it at the same time? You don't. If you are tired of running it bring in a manager. If you want to sell it then you do so for what it is worth. Another red flag for me was that she was going to move her operation to a smaller location - this place was just too big and too much work and she was trying to simplify things. So we went over to take a look at the books to see if there really was this amazing opportunity. Today we discussed some things after pops had an opportunity to dive into the numbers. As we ran those numbers it was obvious why she was getting out and it was equally obvious that this was not a business venture that would make any sense for us. It all sounded very exciting and quite enticing but ultimately we would be paying to take over a money pit and a headache. I am glad that we all felt the same after looking at the numbers. I think it lends confirmation of the value of councils. Also glad to see that Amy is gearing up for her test anyway and we are going to work on some stuff for her anyway without the huge operation and the debt that would come with it.

Lots to do. Lots to do. I have several pieces in the garage still and hit a couple with the first coat of red tonight. I am excited for them - sure that sounds funny but I really like the way the red pops with the black undercoat and then sanding down some edges and getting some wood peeping through. One of the pieces is this little coffee table that I thought was fairly disgusting when the folks brought it over on Monday. Well, I love it now and am looking forward to getting the next coat on it and then hitting it with the sander. It has some great lines and they are really popping at the moment. I love art, always have and this is my way of using my creative side and I really enjoy it. There are some tricks that I still need to learn with all the refinishing stuff but that will come. Also look forward to maybe a skosh more space at some point in the future.

I have failed to mention that Jack has gotten 100% on his last couple of spelling tests. We are reading together everyday and we do work on the spelling words some but probably not as dedicated as I need to be there. His success in that is more on him and I am really happy about that. His handwriting still stinks but we can deal with that. Look, I wrote in a journal for 16 years with never missing a day and my handwriting remains terrible to this day. I am sure he will be using a computer before too long anyway. Look at what that has done for my journaling. You can actually read it now - heck, I can actually read it now.

Final note. I actually have a date scheduled for Saturday evening. It is a girl that Laura worked with at a salon a number of years ago. Laura and Amy both like her and thought she would be a good date so why not. I talked to her on the phone this evening and I think it went okay. I was nervous as could be just because I am but we will see how it goes. Umm, dating. Yeah, not the easiest thing in the world to do.