the first week of school

Kirsten has been here all week from Florida, and it's been very fun.  I took a few days of vacation at work, and it ended up being the best decision ever.

Now it turns out Kirsten can't actually leave because her community is under evacuation from Hurricane Irma.   It's involves some inconvenience for her, but the good part is she's completely safe and so are the dogs.  Hurricane Matthew was an ordeal, driving, looking for motel rooms.  Not this time.

 This little dog was being harassed by the foolish puppies yesterday.  I looked at her annoyed, miserable expression while Elin barked relentlessly at her, opened the back door and said, "Pay-pay, come to Grandma."  She didn't hesitate, ran straight into the house.  I shut the door so the puppies couldn't get in.  They went to the other door and cried in the window.

No.  Go do some dog activities.

Here's one of the puppies, Brody.   He's quite a sweet guy.

Here are pictures Heidi took at the bus stop, getting that one off to First Grade.  

 He was so tired the first day he fell asleep on the floor and didn't even eat supper.  It's okay though.  He survived.  It's a lot to take in when you've never been to school before.

Here the fools are, working on dog activities.

 My trusty camera broke a couple weeks, so I bought a new one.  It's fine, I just liked the old one quite well.  It still takes pictures, but the button broke off, so I have to use a pen or something pointy to press down--unwieldy

But I think this one will work out with some practice.

 Julia started school this week too, Grade 7, didn't want to be the only kid in homeschool, which I completely understand.  She has a lot of energy and enjoys being busy, but this was a bit much even for her.   Thursday they evacuated the school due to a power failure--toilets don't work without electricity, apparently.   They took them by bus to a big church and what a deal that was for the first week.  She was so tired.  But she's going back again next week, taking it all in.

And this--Kari's senior pictures.

And that's the end of a week that felt SO MUCH longer than 4 days.

Onward!   Love always, Val