This Week at Our House #31

August is here. Our weather has been wet, wet, wet!!!! We've had serious downpours with flash flood warnings everyday for over two weeks, and it looks like that is supposed to continue for another two weeks. Our 400ft driveway is flooded. All low spots and all the areas around trees are flooded too. It's been quite hard to get laundry to dry, but we are managing that. Some loads have gotten caught in a down pour. The grass in most parts of the yard is knee length now and soaked, since it is too wet to mow. I have not been able to get into my garden and I doubt much is going to survive this kind of moisture. The kids are mostly staying in doors. The fenced in area of the backyard was mowed, but it was very hard to do. Otherwise the conditions for snakes and snapping turtles are too perfect, so the kids cannot be tromping through the yard. In fact, they found one snapping turtle taking care of some necessary house care. The beach is still having red flag warnings, so we didn't bother with a beach trip this week. Apparently, this never happens. To have so many red flag days is rare enough that it has been on the news. Hopefully all of our rain will move out west where it is very needed. It's odd to be in such a flood when all of my friends are complaining about drought and fires. But our ducks are in water fowl heaven!

1. John continues to have no luck with jobs, but he continues putting in applications daily. He has however, made a lot of progress on his third game. My family gave him the necessary apple equipment, so he will be able to put his games up on the apple store now.
2. I drove the 5 hour drive home and back to visit my family on Friday. My sister took me to the homeschool store there and got me some pretty awesome used books that all the kids were very excited about. She also got me a couple of workbooks that Arwen and Josh need. My mom and my sister Monika are going on vacation to Maine, where we grew up. They have invited me to come along, so Sam and I will be going with them. I think they leave in one week from today. I am pretty excited. I will get to see some of my old stomping grounds, eat in my old favorite restaurants, and see my grandmother's grave, as well as have lots of time to spend with my mother and sister, which I never have.
3. I miss Ruth so much. I love her emails and hearing from her. I think she is doing quite well. She is happy on her mission. Her companion is from Australia and they seem to get along. I know that makes Ruth happy.
4. August is Kate's birthday month. She will be 19 and wanted so much to be leaving on a mission now. This is the first birthday in her life that she is not excited for.
5. Johnny's computer died and my family came to our rescue with a computer that they did not use. So he had a week off of programming and is excited to get back into it.
6. Adam is so funny. He doesn't watch much tv and only a few movies, but he has a movie quote that fits in hilariously to every situation. I love to see how Adam, Johnny, and Kate hang out together talking and joking everyday. They are the best of friends.
7. Rachel went with me to my mother's. My mom took her out to buy shoes. Apparently, her shoes were worn out. I did not know, because Rachel never complained. But I think Rachel really liked being singled out by grandma and getting a special little shopping trip with her.
8. Anya was the only girl that did not go to my parent's house. She did not want to be a part of all the driving. She had a really nice time at home. Apparently, she got some one on one time with John drawing and telling stories. John needs to do a lot of art and story writing as part of game development, so he invites the kids to do those things alongside him. 
9. John spent a little money on some animation programs to use for his upcoming game and games. The kids are using it too. Joseph spent much of a day making his own animated story with stick figures. It's actually quite good.
10. Joshua wanted to come with me, but since I was taking all of the other little kids and he is always good at home, I did not let him come. I will need to find something else to take him on to make up for it.
11. Arwen played a game in which she, Joshua, and Suzy ran through the house dumping out toys, and emptying out closets. I made her play a game where she had to pick them all up and put things back together. Hopefully, she will be wiser with her game choices in the future.
12. Suzy came with me to my parents. She loved playing with her cousin and their new puppy.
13.  Sam is learning to talk now and it's cute. My mom gave me a new set of skipbo cards. In the morning, I let Sam play with the old, nasty humid, dirty cards. Kate went to take some from him and he said very clearly, "It is mine." When we got home from the long drive, Kate went to put him straight in bed, because it was 1 am, Kate asked him if he wanted to go to bed. He thought for a moment and said, "I want mom." He is always saying "I want more", and "I want one" because he LOVES food.

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