Back at last

Greetings, everyone!

I've been having a time with bills and electronic equipment. Our Internet service got cut off, so I checked our bill, and sure enough, we were a little late. Big sigh. Our budget wouldn't allow for a new payment until the following week, so the laptop sat silent and lonely, and the phone was off, because (of course) since we've switched to Vonage if anything happens to our Internet connection, our phone services are affected. However, the joy of paying a $20 phone bill over a $60-70 phone bill far outweighs that little problem.

While financial woes plagued us, Keith fiddled with the wireless connection of the laptop to see if we could go on-line that way. We could. Sort of. I could go on-line again, but I couldn't sign in to anything or send email. So I went off to the the library computers when it came time to get caught up with the Internet -- at LAST able to connect with the outside world again!

That's when I found out that all this time, we could have still be hooked up, that we had NOT been disconnected for lack of payment after all, but something had just happened to our connection. A little push of a button on their end and we were back in business! Sort of.
Because NOW, since Keith had been fiddling with the wireless connection, the laptop kept defaulting to the non-existent wireless server. So I still couldn't get on line! AHHHHHH! Help me!

But now, our phone service is finally connected again. Our computer is finally REALLY back on line. I'm finally really able to send an actual email! It's amazing!

Today, Kristofer and Kathleen are on their way to a Braves game along with about 150 of the youth group. Keri Lynn would have gone if she had not already committed to a babysitting job. (She's really bummed, but I'm proud of her for showing strength of commitment.)

As for me, I'm still recuperating from the weekend. We had our very first ever yard sale on Saturday snug in the middle of a nice little 12-hour flu bug that made its way to just about every member of the family in pretty short order. Saturday morning, I still had not succumbed, and got to be the one sitting out the whole morning making the big sales while Keith cleaned up Keva's vomit and watched over Keri Lynn, Kristofer and Kathleen who lay around the family room looking very pathetic.

We're good at that -- looking pathetic. We often have contests. Which one of us will win Most Pathetic. It's stiff competition.

Keith was the only one to make it to church the next day. He was scheduled to sub for our regular teacher. By the end of that Saturday, I was feeling a little woozy myself, breaking the very firm Mommy Rule: Mommies do NOT get sick. So I stayed home with the rest of the sickies. Keith must have looked truly pathetic at church, because one of the the families in our Sunday School class came by with some delicious chicken soup, muffins and fruit salad for the lot of us for dinner that night. Thank you so much, Connie! That was the BEST!

I needed some good fast recuperation time on Sunday, and so did Keri Lynn, because Monday was her very big, long-planned, highly anticipated Sweet Sixteen Birthday Party. Four girls joined her on Monday afternoon in their formal gowns and Keith wore his tux shirt and chaperoned them all to go see Pirates 3. Then, they came back for dinner. Kathleen was a huge help as assistant housekeeper, chef, waitress and bottle washer. Keith hid out during dinner in his room, and I had to shoo the little kids out to go play outside so they weren't all doing cartwheels in front of the guests. Keva had to stay in her room for a while to keep the flowers and the cake safe. Kody had to stay in the basement because, well, he's Kody.

I can't tell you how beautiful Keri Lynn looked. Keith and I had a hard time coming to grips with the fact that we have a sixteen-year-old daughter. Old people have sixteen-year-olds. Not us. No, definitely not us.