7-Quick Takes

Join Jen and the other Quicktakers over at the Conversion Diary.

1. We bought a van on eBay. I’m a little apprehensive about it, but we know several people who have bought vehicles this way and it worked out well for them. This vehicle is quite a distance from here. Mr. Pete had it all figured out that we would drive down together and then we would each drive a vehicle back but then I pointed out to him that I don’t think I can drive 10 hours in a row by myself. Sort of threw a monkey wrench into the works. Anyway we are getting a really good deal on this vehicle and since it is from the south it won’t have any rusting problems.

2. I suggested that Mr. Pete might want to take the Greyhound Bus down to get this vehicle. My dad use to ride in Greyhound all of the time. That is what he did for vacation – get on a Greyhound bus and just ride around the country. That is how he ended up on the college campus where he met my mother. Sad but true.

3. My niece mentioned that she was surprised at how upset her family got when her boyfriend recently broke up with her. I was kind of surprised at how angry it made me too but then in retrospect we’ve had a lot of losses this year. When my sister got divorced it was as if our part of the extended family got divorced as well. Now my nieces and nephews have to spend holidays and special occasions either with their mom or dad and how aunts and uncles and cousins figure into that isn’t as much of a consideration because it can’t be. Division by two is bad enough. Then there was the loss of grandma. So it’s not so much that the loss of this particular guy was such a big deal – it was just salt on the wound.

4. I will have three weeks of less typing to do as one of my biggest clients leaves on vacation. And I don’t know how to feel about that. Part of me is happy for the free time, but part of me is anxious at not having my usual routine to do. I just don’t like change right now I guess. I for sure will miss the money.

5. Calvin will be 20 on Sunday. I will be the mother of a 20-year-old. I just cannot believe it.

6. Sam has started driving. There is nothing worse than being in the car with your 16 year old novice driver and not having a brake on your side of the car. I can’t tell you how many times my foot goes slamming down to the floor where a brake should be while yelling at him to slow down or stop! The other part I hate is when I tell him to do something and he tells me he is, when he clearly is not!! I really don’t see how these parent/child relationships survive the learning-to-drive stage!!

7. So yesterday we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Mouth Carmel. I had day dreams of making a scapular cake like this. Isn’t it gorgeous? But I knew I could never pull that off. So I made a plate of brownies, stacked them to be like a mountain, put Mary on top of it and had the scapular cascading down. Really it looked great. Unfortunately by the time I got a picture someone had been undermining my Mt. Carmel by eating the brownie base! It ended up looking more like this!

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