I have A new TOY!

I'm back on!  Have a new toy and I'm ready to roll!  Here's the downside....my old broken laptop is on the boat to Germany....along with all my pictures.  So we will have to use our imaginations for today, won't we?  Well, here is what has been going on in our house since we last spoke.....moving to Germany for 3 years...I think everyone knew that already.  John left today.  Dropped him off at the airport this morning.  Well, let's go back to March...Emily had a birthday....12 years old....hard to believe!  What a beautiful young lady!  Started wearing a little bit of make up this summer.  John had the BIG 16 in April!  Really can't believe that!  He has been driving us around.  We are hoping to be able to get his license before we leave.  Keep your fingers crossed!  John's driver's ed teacher went WAY outta her way to help us out with that or there'd be no way.  Thank you Ms. Mann!!  School finished.  Ethan made perfect scores on SOLs in English and Science, very close in Civics.  What a super smart boy!  Emily got perfect score on SOL in English and History and came home with a fistfull of awards for being so smart.  She wanted BLUE hair as her reward for making all As.  And I said "sure".  What was I thinking?  So, we bought blue dye and it was so messy and so dark and didn't even TINT her hair.  Completely unchanged.  Completely.  So we had to go back to the store (because I'm a mother of my word, unfortunately) and go in a different direction because we discovered that, in order for the blue dye to work, you have to bleach the hair and then dye it blue.  The blue will wash out in about a month, leaving you with....bleached hair.  Not an option!  So we went with a hairwash....one of those washes out in about 28 days jobs.  She went with a dark red color.  Looks good on her.  She was happy!  And guess what....that made us all happy!  So, what happened next??  We went on vacation!!  Woohoo!!  Vacation...ah...vacation!  We went to Palestine and saw family and then took Kristin and Nana with us to the beach at South Padre Island.  Fun filled week of sun and sand.  And a nasty rash that threatened Ethan's sanity.  Poor guy!  I really thought he was going to claw the flesh off his back before we got him some relief.  At the end of vacation, John, Ethan, and I came back to Virginia (to an empty house).  John and Emily remained in Texas for an extended vacation.  Ethan would have stayed except that, when we planned the vacation we didn't know that we would be moving and we expected Ethan would have to be here for football practice.  So, he is getting the only child experience and not sure he's liking it.  He is missing John and Emily.  An upside, though, we can eat at more expensive restaurants without the whole fam.  But that doesn't mean we don't want them home.  Please come home!  We miss you so!  I think Emily will be ready to see us.  John is trying to convince us that The Willmott Farm will not survive without him and he must make the ultimate sacrifice, and remain on the farm in Texas.  Say that with your face tilted towards the sky, a hand on your forehead, and with a heavy sigh.

So, today John is in Germany.  John and Emily are in Texas.  Ethan is at a water park with his BFFs.  And I am home, alone, with no furniture, and a chore list.  Please feel sorry for me!  I do believe I will play hookie from chores and go get a pedicure.  Later tater!