Tuesday

The last Tuesday of the month is when our home school group gets together at the bowling alley for a couple of hours. We love the fun and visiting with friends and throwing the balls down the lanes. Well, the kids love all of the above while I concentrate on the visiting-with-friends bit. This is a great group of people and the new bowling alley is so cool with black-lighted lanes, pins, and balls, bumpers that come up automatically as programed into the main computer for those who request them which allows kids to bowl together regardless of expertise, couches as well as tables and chairs, and an extremely well-equipped arcade.

But here is a changing of an age. Cameron wasn't able to bowl this month because of a job interview conflict. Sometimes it's hard to believe he's old enough to be job- and apartment-hunting, budgeting for life on his own and college. Yikes! Seems like it was just a month ago that he crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. Anyway, he had the interview with the mill and one home school couple at the bowling alley is so interested in his success that the mom jumped every time my cell rang, hoping it was Cameron telling me the interview was over and he was hired. Eventually that call came through I was able to tell her that although he wasn't hired on the spot, he did have an appointment for a physical and they said they'd call in a few days for an orientation meeting.

After the bowling, I took Richelle to the bank so she could exchange $46 WORTH OF PENNIES! for paper money. Why? She wants a hamster. She's been collecting pennies since her seventh birthday and decided that a hamster is the ideal thing to spend them on. She did ask Mike for permission and he told her it was all right with him as long as she promised to take good care of it and did research to find out how to do that. She did and she did. She's done quite a lot of research actually, and can go on at length about the care, diseases, health, habits, habitats, and the best prices to get food, bedding, treats, etc.

Who rolled the pennies? Richelle and Yours Truly. One would count and the other would roll until Richelle got bored with her job and we'd switch. I ought to have taken a percentage for effort. We did it all at once and then had to go through them Tuesday morning because I realized that there were half a dozen times that I saw an old penny with the heads of wheat on the back and set it aside....then didn't replace it before rolling the stack! Duh.

So we went to PetCo where they had the habitat and a chew toy Richelle wanted and then went to Wal*Mart for the bedding, chew sticks, and food. She didn't get the hamster because she wants to have everything set up for it before-hand. The habitat Richelle got came with a water bottle, food dish, and exercise wheel that doubles as a zip-around ball. When she gets the hamster, she'll get the salt wheel, lava chews, and possibly some treats.

Richelle started complaining that she was hungry when we left the bowling alley around 3pm. As time went on, she increased in frequency and theatrics as only 11-year-old girls can do. Wal*Mart was the last stop and as we crossed the parking lot to the car, she was in fine form, slumped forward, staggering a bit, moaning plaintively, "I am SO hungry!"
"How hungry are you?" I intoned.
"Hungry enough to eat a WHOLE MEAL!" she exclaimed.
The guy walking a little behind us snorted.

The rest of the day was pretty dull. Except for when Mike said that the flowers in the hanging pots were growing. How can he tell? We just transplanted them Saturday! Maybe the times he went out there and yelled at them to grow had an effect?