Quick Update:

The Loudon family has been busy. We had a nice visit with my mom last week -- she joined in with all the regular family stuff -- play dates, 6-year old birthday parties, library runs, visits with cousins and other various family members. The only down fall? I can't find my camera -- so not a single picture of the fun. Gotta find that camera -- I'm sure I'll have a little more time this week to search harder and do some organizing around the house and it will surely show up....right?

In other news:

Back to School -- Only another week and a half until school starts. I talked to a number of families at a birthday party this weekend who told me how lucky I was to have Christopher in Leigh's class. Made me feel better all the time. Plus, it was interesting to see how 3 of us mothers had our kids assigned to 3 different classes and we were all feeling a little strange about it. Maybe it's just the nature of the beast -- our kids are moving on with teachers we're unfamiliar with and with older kids (it's a 1-2 combo class) that we don't know -- and we're much more nervous about it then the kids seem to be. At the beginning of summer I was wondering how we'd EVER get through 3 months -- Christopher had to re-learn how to occupy his time creatively on his own. We had loads of behavioral issues. We've finally seemed to get through them and Christopher has now re-learned how to keep himself busy -- today at various times I found him sitting and reading a book, building a complex block structure, and having a dinosaur war. He's just figured it out -- just in time to return to school.

Cate's preschool back-to-school meeting is next week. I have to run the meeting as Parent Chair-- guess I should prepare sometime for that?

Greg's Work -- Crossing fingers for Greg...a big account he's been working to gain looks promising. He should find out if he's been selected in the next week or so. He'll be in Bethel and outlying villages all next week. He's doing open-enrollment for YKHC's health plan. It's a major change for YKHC and employees are worried, so they're having Greg there to answer questions. He'll be having something like 20 take-offs and landings next week, hitting several villages each day. Pray for those pilots!

Jenny's Work -- I've got a lot to do this week...2 major projects are in the works right now and I'd like to finish up one this week. One is an Elder Falls Prevention program and the other is a policy piece that would be advocating for changes in behavioral health funding. Might get Elder Falls done which would be nice. The behavioral health one is more complex and it would be nice to feel like I can focus. With Greg gone this next week, I think I'll try to get a sitter a few afternoons to get work moving along.

Kitchen Remodel --I know we've been working on this for months, but it seems we're almost there....we finished picking out cabinets and countertops and appliances today...we developed a final budget. We even have work slated to begin on moving the laundry facilities in the next week or so. I'm still a bit in shock that after the months of discussions things are actually happening. Even though I'm looking forward to a new kitchen, it's a bit much for this girl, who considers a big shopping spree at Value Village thrift store as a fun afternoon.

Fairbanks Property --Anybody want to buy a piece of property in Fairbanks near Chena Ridge? I hear it is a lovely area -- a nice Southern facing slope with a view. We are apparently going to be proud owners soon. We're buying it at under-appraised value from Ramy. The hope is that it will help him with immediate cash flow, while giving us something of value to re-sell. It's not in my nature to make big financial decisions like this but I pray that our desire to help Ramy out will be beneficial to all involved. So, as I was saying...anybody want to buy property in Fairbanks?