Retreat

I haven't blogged because I haven't been home. At the last minute, arrangements were made for me to join our ladies from church for the retreat at Lake Ann Baptist Camp. I knew for just over a week that it was a possibility but it was literally the day before we left that the final details were worked out for me to be able to go.

It was really a nice retreat. We left on Thursday afternoon and returned Saturday around 4. We had rain on the way up but otherwise the weather was very nice. There wasn't many colors changing yet but the evenings were crisp and just right for enjoying L.A.'s delicious hot cocoa. We had 30 ladies from our church which is the largest group ever.

After I got home, Mark put the new alternator on the Cavilier. It seems to have done the trick. We are back to being a 2 vehicle family!

While I was gone, the supplies that I had been waiting for arrived in the mail. I have been working on getting my old clarinet ready for Rachel to use. I didn't think this was going to be such a big deal. I thought I should be able to get new pads and corks on it easily enough. The local music stores wanted $150-$200 to do the work! and also told me that the instrument wasn't valued at that much. The all wanted me to rent a new or used instrument from them. I also couldn't seem to get any supplies from them to do the work myself. As much on the internet as I am, surprisingly that was the last place I turned. I found a wonderful website, www.shopforband.com out of Mesa, AZ that had all the supplies plus step-by-step instructions to do the work myself. That is exactly what I did! Last week, I took all the keys off, removed the cork, and treated the wood. I was just waiting for the supplies which arrived on Thursday just after I left. I put the pads in the keys Saturday night. I then put the cork on Sunday afternoon and finished it up this morning. By lunch time, it seemed to be working fine! Putting the keys back on was quite a puzzle but I did it!

Now I'm trying to get caught up on cleaning, laundry, and AVON that all fell behind while I was gone.

Joshua will be tested tomorrow morning concerning his speech. It is a 2 hour period with 1/2 hour for hearing and the rest on language/speech. I'll let everyone know the results as soon as I know anything. I don't know if that will be tomorrow or whether we have to wait for results.