Jen, I can't imagine trying to play any kind of sport in that weather! Yikes!

TGIF!! Happy Friday, everyone! We have a cold front coming in -- yesterday's high: 98; today's high: 58. Dropping throughout the day, so, "yay" (insert sarcasm font back there, please....). House is clean, b/c of the boss maybe coming (but not) yesterday, so nothing to do there. Laundry is waiting to be folded, but otherwise caught up except for sheets ready to go in the wash. Will fold while I watch Grey's Anatomy. Got all school with DS done already, except for a small Lang Arts assignment, so once he comes down we'll do that. DH can't pick up DS18, so I'll do that, once I hear from him what time he needs to be at his friend's for their D&D session. Then drop off DS18 & DS14 at their friend's house, come home, and have the rest of the day to sew/quilt, which never got done yesterday. DS22 will, theoretically, be home sometime today-ish. We'll see; haven't heard from him yet, so not sure if he'll be home today or tomorrow. We shall see. I'll sew/quilt till he arrives. Tonight is potato soup (a copy of zuppa tuscana), perfect for our first cold night, and the kids all love it, so when the other 2 get home from D&D they'll have something yummy. It was the planned dinner before I knew D&D was happening, so it's staying. Other than that, no big plans today.

When we got back to the US, I finally got Fiestaware, in all the colors. Love it!! It is heavy, of course, yes, but the colors are just so very *happy* that it's worth it.

Fencing done -- another private lesson, by default. I love this for us, not so much for the fencing school. For their sake, I hope they get more hs students. But man, in the meantime, it's amazing to have private lessons for the price of a group lesson/class! DS is thriving with this. School done -- found a worksheet after we finished, that his teacher sent to use to record the answers to certain questions. :sigh: I'll transcribe it later for him. He had a test in class, and thinks he turned it in, but can't remember if he did well or finished or not. Normally he does not finish, so that surprises me, but okay. We'll see; I think if he completely did not finish, his teacher will send it back for him to finish. I hope. Folding laundry, (well, maybe not, DH has called, so trapped on the phone with him), DH is on the way home and then going for haircuts for him & DS. Dinner will be pork chops w/cranberry stuff. No boss for football.

It's her side hustle, more or less. She isn't selling them in a shop or anything, but yes, she makes/sells shirts for people, mainly via FB and such. Money won't come into play again until we (at some later time, not right now probably) ask her to remake them, or at least remake mine, b/c of this issue. But yes, paying her for them is non-negotiable, and I'll insist. I could just see her, when I tell her of this freak thing, *offering* to remake them free of charge. Which I won't let her do......but which she'll possibly try to do. Yes, prairiewindmomma, that sounds exactly like her. Thanks, everyone; I'll talk with her this weekend sometime; I do think it's going to be better in person, b/c of how strange the whole thing is; she'll need to see my face/hear my voice to understand I just find it freakishly odd, and to believe that I don't fault her at all.

Well, she's just this super sweet, super kind, super non-confrontational, "Oh, gosh, I can't believe that! I'm soooo sorry! Oh no, I'll fix it for you, no, you totally cannot pay me...." kind of person. That's basically how I think she'd reply if I am not super careful in how I word this; it's just who she is. She's an absolute gem. She will be *horrified* that this happened, even though it was absolutely NOT something that she could have known, predicted, expected, is NOT in her control, etc. Just her personality. Not so much that she'll have her feelings hurt, but more.....feel oddly responsible (even though she is absolutely NOT).

I think you and your DH need to very quickly figure out if you are paying x amount per month, period, to have her coming in at those times (and thus you would still pay that amount even if she is a bit late, or you take off a day, or whatever) OR if you are paying x amount per hour, and she only gets paid for the time she's actually there (as you would with a babysitter). You sound like you lean towards "we're paying her by the hour" but that she thinks "they're paying me by the month" and that *really* needs to get clarified, soon. If you are firm on the "by the hour" part, then, yes, you'd only pay her for the time she's actually there. So, you take off a day and swap to Friday, but she can't come b/c of her other job, she only gets paid for 3 days that week. You're off for Christmas, she's off, she doesn't get paid. You offer that she *can* come on the 1st or not, she chooses not to, she doesn't get paid. You reduce her hours from ending at 1 to ending at 12:30, you adjust her pay accordingly (so, what, 2 hrs fewer per week/8 hrs fewer per month?). She's late, you keep track and reduce it when you pay her. She's sick, or her kids are, or you are, or your kids are, or whatever....no pay. Etc. OR, you realize that you are not just paying for the time she's at your house, but ALSO the committed availability, the guarantee of having someone available/willing to come in every day, each week, at that time, and OF COURSE it's reasonable to pay a set amount for the month in order to have that commitment rather than dealing with uncertainty each week. In that case, if you cancel a regular day to swap to Friday, and she can't come on Friday, you still pay her the full rate b/c you are the one that cancelled on her, and you still want her to come the following week. If you choose to do school on a holiday, and she chooses not to, you still pay her for that, because you still want her to come the next week. You take off for Christmas, and she takes off for Christmas, YES, if you tell her now, you can not pay her for that week, because it's agreed upon early/ahead of time. (Or if you really want to, you pay her for that week anyway as a thank-you/Christmas bonus/because you want her to come back the next week). You adjust her hours from 16 hours/week to 14 hrs/week, you may (assuming she agrees) adjust her pay accordingly going forward. She's late, with notice, you accept that. You may have her stay late to make up for it, or, let her know if there's more than 1 hour worth of tardiness in a month, you'll deduct that from her pay that month. (I mean, I wouldn't go around deducting 15 mins of pay each month, that's very nitpicky, but if she's 15 mins late 4x a month.....that's a lot, and yes, that would be worth deducting maybe). Personally, I'd shift lunch by 15 mins to make up for it, if possible, rather than hassle with keeping up with a time card or something, but that's just me. The bigger question would be what's the cancellation policy if she, you, your kids, whoever, are sick and she can't come/you cancel on her/ask her not to come. One "free" sick day/month? Obviously you don't want to have her come if she's ill (and I wouldn't ask her to come if your kids are ill, either), and if YOU are the one that cancels on her, I'd be inclined, personally, to still pay her. If she cancels b/c she or her kids are sick, I don't know. You don't want a policy that encourages her to come despite being sick, and then you & she are passing around illness between all of you/your children all winter, but neither should you have to pay for tons of time when she's not really there. Maybe a policy similar to the tardy policy...? One free sick day/month, and anything beyond that, she makes up the hours? Maybe comes 30 mins/an hour earlier the rest of the week (or stays later, or whatever) to make up for it? I don't know. Anyway, those are my thoughts. Hope it helps.

School prep is basically done. I have printed: science, history, language arts for K, and created the homework checklist for the week (need to switch to colored paper before I print it). I need to double check if I printed the history stuff for 1st grade or not, and print it if needed. Math is sorted. Just need to pack my stuff. Laundry is going in the dryer now, with yesterday's load about to be folded/put away. DS and I are eating lunch, we head to fencing in about 30 mins. School with him, and sewing, when we return. No word yet from DH as to whether the boss is coming for pizza, beer, and football. Hopefully I hear by the end of fencing so I can plan dinner when I get home, if needed.

Well, yes....that's a given, LOL! But *everyone* here gets ants in their house at some point every year. When it rains a lot, they come in looking to dry out. When it doesn't rain for a while, they come in looking for water. It's just a fact of life, and an issue that likely ALL of her customers will have at some point or another. It happens like clockwork.....it pops up in the neighborhood FB group, in my FB memories, etc. at the same time(s) every year. So, I mean, yes, the problem is that we had ants. BUT, the ants weren't *leaving* because they liked whatever material was in/on the shirt vinyl. Which isn't *her* fault at all, but *is* something I think she'd want to know, so she uses a different brand shirt vinyl next time. For three DAYS they ignored the (normally works w/in 24 hrs) bait traps because the food supply on the shirt was that much more tempting. We removed the shirt last night, and this morning, the bait is GONE and able to do its job. This particular shirt had 3 colors of vinyl on it, in equal amounts, distributed equally over the shirt, although with one color on one side, one on the other --- the ants crawled up the wall, *across* the other 2 colors, to the far side of the shirt, to eat the vinyl on the far side. Literally, the red was on the side facing the wall (on that sleeve, and across the chest on that side); the white was on both sides as a secondary color in each emblem & across the chest, and the maroon was on the side *AWAY* from the wall (on that sleeve, and across the chest on that side). The ants climbed up the wall, onto the shirt, ACROSS the red (leaving it alone), across the white (leaving it alone), and onto the maroon, specifically, eating that emblem entirely OFF the shirt (the sleeve side) and eating bites out of the wording on that side of the chest (and again, leaving the white totally untouched, and the red mostly untouched). So.....yes, the problem happened/was found because we had ants get in the house (as happens in our area, yearly). BUT there is *definitely* something about this particular vinyl that is attracting them, and I do think she'd want to know "Hey, if you have to do more shirts w/this color.....you may want to find another brand, because this happened." Heck, she may want to check her stash to be sure she's not got ants eating whatever of it she has left at home, honestly.

Yes, this is my motive entirely -- I know she'd want to know, so that she's not using that particular brand/color/whatever of vinyl again. I'll probably ask her to remake the shirt at some point (and of course pay her again, not ask for it free or anything like that), and will need to explain at that point at least. In person will definitely work; we're neighbors and so I see her often. She's the sweetest friend, super kind, and I know I need to tread lightly so she doesn't take it personally (she will be horrified, probably; I *must* explain it in a way that lets her know that I know that it's the vinyl, not her at all). But again, I know she'd want to know so that she isn't using it again on other people's shirts, just in case. It's so odd! (DH was joking maybe the ants are fans of the rival college, LOL!)

So, we have ants. Every year, around this time or in the summer during the heavy rains, ants find their way into our house. It's just part of living where we live, and we're well versed in how to deal with it. Put out bait, they carry it back to the nest/mound, they die and it gets rid of them. No big deal. (I mean, it's not fun, but we're used to this at this point). Well, this weekend ants showed up in my closet, crawling on my t-shirts (hanging up on the lower bar in the closet). Weird, but not the first time. We put out the baits, and waited. Only the ants weren't leaving this time, and weren't taking the bait. Finally (3 days later) DH moved the ant-covered shirts outside so they'd quit spreading. Put out more bait. Noticed, when he moved the ants, that the one shirt they were favoring is a shirt a friend made for us (heat-set vinyl decals on the shirt). The ants are *eating* the vinyl off the shirt!?! Mostly one color of vinyl. We've had other shirts by this friend, with no issue (even shirts in the areas where we've had ants before). My question is: HOW do I let my friend know that this vinyl, or something in the process, or something, is attractive to ants?? I mean, I need to tell her, right? But how, in a way that doesn't make her feel bad??? It's not a problem with her shirts, at all, and she tracked down this color specifically for us (went lots of places to get the exact right color, for our son's college), and.......it's such an odd thing, but I know she'd want to know in case she uses it again. I mean, it's unlikely to recur just like this, but on the other hand, these ants literally like the vinyl so much they were coming in from outside, ignoring the bait, and chowing down. One of the decals is completely eaten off the shirt, visible holes in the rest, but almost all on the one color only.

I love the variety of weather/climates around the country/world! I'm so sorry all of you are having snow already, packing up the hummingbird feeders, etc.....we're hoping/planning for our first "cold front" tomorrow, when temps will drop from a high in the 90s today to a high in the 50s tomorrow. Yay (or BRRRR, if you ask me). Yesterday, I finished cleaning up the house, put away the one load of laundry and got the other into the dryer, but not folded/put away. Also got the school planning mostly done. So, today: ....finish school prep ....fold/put away the laundry ....wash the next load of laundry (wash, dry, put away) ....sew/quilt ....school with DS ....DS to fencing lessons ....sew/quilt some more ....dinner is either pizza, or....? Depends if DH is bringing his boss over for football or not

oh, yay!!! So glad to hear this!

LOL! I get it. Dealing with mice makes you want to really get everything right.

Ugh, Jen, that sounds so ridiculous. I hope it gets sorted and maybe at some point others decide to follow the rules, too. And the car....yikes. Best of luck! And....looked up the info on the shelter. It simply states "vaccinated" on the website; the paperwork we got does spell out, just rabies vaccine. So, drat. Back to the vet I go this afternoon. In looking through all the records, turns out ALL of the shelter pets are late on their rabies vaccines (egads; how on earth....) so I'll schedule appts for them, too, and find out what else we need. I need to remember to print the email from the boarding place to see what it is they're requiring.....we don't do ALL of the preventative stuff since they are all stay-at-home animals, fenced in, etc. Well, ha, not wild kitty; she needs the full whatever, our little escapee mouse hunting warrior.

Okay, weird; it seems like the 2 channels "black out" for long enough for a commercial break.......maybe they aren't selling enough commercials for the channel?? Weird! But they're back, so not going to contact cable company about this just yet.

Home from tutoring; things went well, I think this is going to be nice easy money. Yay! While there, got an email from the cat boarding place, apparently our cat is missing some other vaccine that she needs. Sorting through records to see/make sure she didn't get it elsewhere, and have scheduled a return visit back to the vet this afternoon (who thinks we're quacks for not knowing this when we were there this morning.....). Trying to decide if I want to talk to the shelter about this or not; they state that animals are vaccinated & spayed/neutered. She was young, so we had to do the spay later (they set it up/paid), but come to find out, they only gave her the rabies vaccine, not the distemper and such. So, debating whether that was a mistake, an oversight, or when they say "vaccinated" they only mean "against rabies" and the other stuff is meant to be extra. I don't recall from our other cat..... Also having a glitch with our cable, so need to figure out how to report that. A couple of channels blacked out for a little while yesterday, and doing it again today (right around the same time). They both came back, so hopefully they come back again, but.....weird. So, rest of the list: ....start laundry ...school with DS ....check about vaccines at the shelter ....check on the cable ....return with kitty to the vet ....clean up downstairs in case DH brings his boss home tomorrow

Prayers, Margaret, for your DH and also your DS's fiance. Sounds so hard. 😞

done: coffee x2 rabies vaccine for cat watch my 2 recorded shows to do: tutoring gig take DS to his science class do school with DS once home do laundry (fold/put away one load, wash/dry/put away 2nd load) finish school prep/printing that I didn't get to yesterday sew/quilt take DS to youth group dinner? just me & DH, so....

Did school with DS; looked over the stuff for his lang. arts class.....I really do not love the curriculum. Talked with him about it. Looked into buying a teacher's book....you can only get the teacher's book as part of a kit (you can, however, get the student book on its own, which is what the teacher had us all do). I will need to spend a LOT Of time, sometime soon, deciphering all of the random info in this curriculum and see if I can make it make sense for him (as it barely makes sense for me, and then DS has severe dyslexia.....oye). Not today. Took a nap, or tried to. Barking dogs = very short nap. Got history stuff sorted for school; one needs a correction, so I sent a note to the creator on TPT; hopefully she updates. So that's moved to the "print for school" folder but not printing until the correction. The stuff for 1st is moved to that file to be printed once I go change the ink cartridge. That covers all the bulk of my school prep for the week, more or less, so that's good. Or the hard part, ha! And it's only Tuesday!! Yay! Splitting out the meat that I bought, cooking dinner, and maybe I'll get some sewing time tonight.

Went to the bank. Went to the grocery store; got some new meat (yayyayyay!! I never imagined I'd be happy about ground beef! LOL!), and got an ink cartridge. And stayed under budget! yay! Frozen pizza in the oven. Next up, lunch, science with DS, and then back to my school prep.

zookeeper, cont'd prayers for your son; so hard when they don't get something they've worked at! Praying he gets it next time (and it's not a bear to schedule for you, the way it is here...). Got the science stuff prepped for my school for next week......found out the (recently replaced) black ink cartridge is empty again ??? I do print a lot, but....not that much. Wondering if we got counterfeit or refilled ones or something, because while I am printing more than last year....not *that* much more. Going to grab them at the store today vs. Amazon, just in case. (my color hasn't had a dent in it......I have my settings set for "save ink" and this is just weird.....). But, science for K & 1st, done. Going to do my bank/grocery run while all the dogs are settled, get ink while out, resume prep once I get back.

Good Morning! I had so much fun at my quilt retreat, and got tons done. Tons! I took 4 things to work on, besides the "we'll have this to play with for those who want to" stuff that was there, and got all of it done! (well, to the point of done that I intended). So, a quilt top that was already the full rows, now assembled. It's a statement (political statement) piece, not a useful piece, and I still don't know what I'm going to do with it once it's done, but.....the quilt top part is done. It's rows of what looks like adorable paper doll chains.......only, each one represents a death in a mass shooting over the last (at that time) 2 years. It's longer ago than that, now, but as shootings just kept happening as I was making it, and then one happened near enough to affect people I know IRL, I had to stop adding to it. Second, I assembled blocks into rows, and rows into a quilt top, for a lap quilt for my niece. That one is just sweet and cute and useful, all floral prints, and my niece loves the photo, thank goodness. It's been sitting, neglected, for about 2 years. It was a pain in the rear to make, but I'm very happy with how it turned out. Third, I am in a new Round Robin group, so took the fabrics for that and assembled my center medallion for that. We have our first hand-off on Sunday. Yay! Fourth, I made the backing for my first Round Robin quilt, so that now I can quilt it. I used all the leftover fabrics and pieced a back from all of that. I will hopefully start working on that soon. I'm not sure yet what I want to do to quilt it, but at least the backing is made and I can start thinking about that. Fifth, I played with the black & white stuff that was the "everyone can play" stuff. I had a cute panel that I cut apart and framed out some of the pieces, to represent people in my family. Got four of those made. I'm not sure what I'm *doing* with these.....put together into a couch quilt? Make pillow covers for the upstairs couches? Not sure. Wall hanging for my sewing room?? I have no idea, but I'll figure something out. Ha! It was a lot of fun. Anyway, on to today's list...... ....bank (deposit checks) ....grocery store -- we have our chest freezer now so I can start buying meat again! Yay!!! (DH said, "Please don't stock up all at once...." -- yes, dear, I promise...) ....babysit MIL's dogs (they'll be here at our house until Thurs/Fri sometime); the house is ready for them, so should be okay ....school prep for next week ....science with DS14 ....work on more quilting stuff; I figured out how I want to quilt a small piece, and have been asked to take the house collage to the quilt shop for her to hang, so need to quilt it; I could theoretically get that done today, maybe, and take it up tomorrow.....maybe. I can't rush it, if she's going to hang it. ....dinner......I'm buying ground beef. Finally. Probably will do chili, b/c it's finally fall temps here (ahem, a term here meaning "below 85"), and because I am so very tired of pulled pork and chicken.

Oh my word....I am so very sorry, Spryte. Prayers for your mom as she recovers from this horror, and for you as you help her and process all of this yourself. I can't even imagine. I'm so grateful you're in such close contact with her, so frequent, so you knew the instant something was wrong. (((((a million hugs)))))) to her & you.

Jen, I'm so so so glad that your son is able to be at the courts again!!!! Yay!!! Cont'd prayers, but what good news! (and prayers for the finances, too, and the stickiness of a responsible party not, well, stepping up and being responsible.....) Thanks, all, for the well-wishes; I'm ready to go and just waiting on DS to be done. (well, loading up my car, but everything is packed and ready). I've made the house as ready as I can for DH and the boys' D&D thing on Saturday; they can handle the rest. DH has promised to help DS18 put his room back together after the mouse incident this week (did I ever tell y'all that one?? She got a mouse just before I came home from taking dinner to someone, DS14 tried to intercede, she ran the mouse up to DS18's room where it escaped behind the bookshelves. We had to empty all the shelves to move them enough to retrieve/dispose of the mouse). DH is thinking underground fence is the way to go on this, will be a little more costly than doing the chip dog door thing, but should work better, perhaps. Hopefully. Meanwhile we're just operating on a limited hours schedule and locking the dog door well before we think we should (I am so nervous leaving today, b/c seriously, she beat me in by about 5 mins the other night when the mouse got loose in the bedroom......DH swears he'll be home in time to lock her out, mouseless.......we shall see.). Okay, loading up the car, heading out, see y'all in a few!