In 30 short days, 2024 will be half over. This year is flying!
DS has been on summer break for a little over a week. He's rather enjoying himself.
He has a busy week this week. We're surprising him with a day trip to a Bearizona on Monday. We're also going to go to Raptor Ranch/Bedrock City. The owners of Raptor Ranch bought Bedrock City a few years back and, from what I can tell from current reviews, have refurbished Bedrock City. I spent many summers during my childhood at Bedrock City and am excited to see it again. Later in the week, he has church camp for 3 days/2 nights. Then, he will end his week with a sleepover at one of his friends.
He's annoyed about having to see the sun finish rising on Monday morning but it's a 2.5 hour drive and I intend on being there when the park opens. He doesn't know where we're going. He just knows he needs to be in bed early on Sunday and up early on Monday. He'll get over his annoyance when we pull up to the park.
I hope your son has a good time at camp and bedrock city. Unfortunately we have nothing planned except getting a new roof, I don’t really care to go on vacation during the summer since our children grew up and left home, we may make another trip to see the east coast kids in the fall sometime and possibly go to Texas to visit my brothers grave. I know that sounds morbid, but I didn’t really feel like I got to say goodbye officially. We are going out to dinner with some friends Friday so that would be fun.
The boys turn 16 this month so we'll be car shopping. #1 has a neuropsyche leadership conference so we're driving to Duke University in NC to take him to that then we'll drive back in a couple weeks and pick him up. We'll spend a few days down there and do a little sight seeing. Our big vacation will be in July when we fly to Punta Cana for a week. Today I'm taking the boys bowling/lunch for some mother/son fun time while DH works. Yesterday I took #2 to lunch (#1 wasn't interested in going). Two more years and they both will be going off to college so I'm going to make the most of this time. They will be looking for jobs but the ones they want require they be 16 so they believe once that happens their universe will open up. We'll see.
Wow! 16 years old! Seems like yesterday they were little. I’ve visited dukes when I was visiting my daughter and family, she went to nursing school at UNC which they aren’t to far apart. North Carolina is a beautiful state.
Lindley - Hopefully you get the new roof and it wasn't too pricey. Not morbid to visit graves. It's not my thing but it doesn't have to be. If it's something that brings you comfort/peace, go for it.
FNW - 16, wow! I think they were toddlers or a bit younger when I joined the boards. Hopefully, your car insurance doesn't go up too much when they start driving.
Got #2 a 2024 VW Jetta. It had 1,200 miles on it so it was technically used. But he picked it out and loves it. It's pretty.
You, too, had a stroke, Trudy? So sorry to hear about GG. Fired over a medical condition? Time to lawyer up.
We visited both UNC and Duke campuses. I thought the UNC campus was prettier, but walking around Duke, I got this Harry Potter feel. #1's loving it there, experiencing the freedom of college life. And apparently the food is really good.
NC has a lot of trees, so we really couldn't see anything else while on the highways. We did drive around neighborhoods, but I wasn't very impressed. Perhaps it's nicer in the bedroom communities? Houses seemed tiny, run down, and on small lots. The newer stuff was all condo's, apartments, or duplexes. And the drivers on the road seemed to have a lot of road rage. It was odd to me. Maybe I'll like it better on our next visit next week.
They do get pretty aggressive in their driving. There are some beautiful neighborhoods in Raleigh, especially the wealthy neighborhoods. I like going to Linville falls , Boone, grandfather mountain and other areas. My son lived in North Carolina for awhile and I thought he was going to make it his permanent home, but he moved back. I enjoyed visiting Duke. I hope #1 has a good time at Duke.
Trudy, I’m so very sorry to hear that you had a stroke too! 😞 Prayers for both you and GiGi. Take care of yourself self..
Chef, we got our new roof and gutters, nice to get it over with, now for the payments.
Went to all the baseball games our grand boys played, it was fun, especially the kindergarten teams, all the littles ran and tackled the ball fighting over it while the other teams “batter” makes it to base. On both sides, it was cute..
Trudy: Prayers for healing for you and GG! I agree with FNW - time for a lawyer. Being fired for a health condition is wrong.
June 2024 comes to a sad end. DS' hamster died about an hour ago. His grandparents took him into the backyard to bury him. On the human side - my maternal grandma died 10 days ago. She would've been 102 in August. A long life well lived!
DS was holding his hamster when he died. Hamster had been showing signs of old age and it was clear Sunday evening that death was imminent. DS was heartbroken but I told him that he should consider it an honor that his hamster trusted him enough to let him hold him in his final moments. I told him animals tend to go off somewhere to die to avoid showing weakness to predators.
He was ok yesterday. He requested a hamster plush, which should be delivered today. Later this evening, a woman from the buy nothing group I'm on is going to pick up the hamster supplies for their incoming hamster.
