I just received an e-mail from Ronald saying that Jackie and the boys have arrived safely to Bert's home in Nairobi. Which is what I was telling everybody today.  So let's see what did I do today.  Woke up at 7, walked the dogs, woke up Howie,  fed him breakfast, helped him get ready for gymnastics camp, drove to the conoco, got gas, met Denny who gave me Kuka and Katie M, drove down to the Wades and picked up Jackson and Nickie, and then off to Bozeman.  On the way to Bozeman, about 10 minutes from the gym, I could hear Nickie moaning in the backseat.  "What's going on back there?"

" I don't feel good," Nickie answers.  So I open windows, pull over, get him out of the car, take off his jacket, and make Howie switch seats with him, so he's now sitting in the middle seat, and I give him a plastic bag.  I drive away.  Nickie looks fine, but a few minutes later I see him breathing into the bag.  Whatever works.  We arrive at the camp.  The five of them run in and do their thing.  It is 9:05 am and I don't need to pick them up till noon.  So it's off to do chores.  First stop Staples to buy office supplies for the store, then Pet Smart to buy shampoo and a brush for Buddy, and a toothbrush and toothpaste for Murray.  Then Bob Ward to buy rainpants and a rainjacket for Micah's canoe trip. Success on the pants - found a pair for only $11 that should work.  I gave up on the rain jacket - he will have to borrow my fishing jacket - it's a little too big, but it'll work.  I couldn't spend $60 on something he will never wear.  At all three stores the salespeople were all unbelievably helpful. I was impressed and grateful.

What next?  I walked Buddy.  Murray, I left home with Micah, who I left at home alone, asleep.  He called while I was shopping at Pet Smart.  I called Lance to figure out the weekend soccer tournament plans.  I got back in the car and drove to Town and Country where I bought myself my pretzels.  I also called the store to see if there was anything they needed from town.  We  decided on a couple of watermelons.  I drove to the synagogue to see if the rabbi was there to discuss Micah's Bar Mitvah.  He wasn't.   I also wanted to tell Jenny Rassaby I was sorry, but I was unable to figure out a way to get the kids to jewish camp this week, but she wasn't there and the other people there were all in a meeting.  So I just left.  As I was driving away from Town and Country my phone rang and it was the store - we need a case of potatoes.  "Really?  I'm already gone, I'm sure we will be O.K. on potatoes."  So I drove back and got a case of potatoes. Somehow that all took 2 hours, so I drove to see my friend Alex who is building his family a new house over by Storymill.   When I arrived, Alex was helping one of the workers put up some corrugated steel siding.  Cutting, fitting, and screwing it into the house.  I walked over with Buddy.  Then I watched as 3 guys rolled a garbage pail over to his neighbors house to fill it up with water to clean out some drains, the water to the house was supposed to be turned on today, but it wasn't. Alex and I walked around the house and found the spigot, 2 guys rolled the pail around, one guy drove the lift over.  They cleaned out the pail and discovered it had a hole in it - they tried filling it up anyway. No good, so they go a wheelbarrow, and filled that up and then drove it over and lifted it to the high drain on the rooftop patio. Buddy enjoyed running all over the place.  I tried helping fit the cut out siding to fit around the speakers, and of course I talked to Alex who is planning on working on the house with the crew for the next month.  Then it was back to gymnastics for the noon pick up and the drive back to Big Sky.  The kids ran out of gymnastics and headed to the car. Nickie seemed fine, nothing like a few back flips to fix an uneasy stomach.

All the kids got dropped off at Katie M's house, including Howie.  I drove off, calling Micah, letting him know I was on my way.  As I talked to him I realized I left Buddy at Katie M's and then my call waiting started beeping.  I turned around, said goodbye to Micah and hello to Barbara and told her I was on my way back.  So I picked up Buddy and drove home and got Micah and the back to the store.  Now it was already 2 pm so I had maybe an hour and an half to get some work done.   Which I did, emptying out the car of the store purchases, hearing about scheduling issues, payroll mistakes, answered e-mails, phone calls, did a deposit, walked to the bank with the dogs, on the way dropped off a bottle of Siduri wine for Beth's 40th birthday who was absolutely thrilled -"Beth, you're my oldest friend in Big Sky", bought change and before I knew it, it was 3:25 pm.  Time to find Micah, who had just returned to the store, and now go pick up his friend Cooper and drive back to Bozeman in time for their 4:30 soccer practice.  

When I got out of the canyon I had 2 voice mails on my phone.  Christian asking about coming early to the Baked Moose opening day softball games at 5:30 and Sarah calling about babysitting for Howie and the dogs this weekend.  I returned the calls.  About 5 minutes away from the field and it was almost 4:30 I turned around and asked the boys if they were dressed for practice.  Cooper said he would change in the bathroom at the field. I told them to change in the car, and I would try not to drive by any teenage girls who might try to look in and see them changing.  We ended up at the fields at exactly 4:30.  I let the dogs out of the car, and chatted with some other parents for a little while.  And then it was off to pick up the t-shirts that the screen printer had called and told me were ready a couple of hours earlier while I was at the store.

Is anyone out there still reading this?   

The I took the dogs to Cooper Park because I had like 20 minutes that were not planned.  Then I  bought a $5 pizza at Little Caesars, put it in the trunk, otherwise Buddy would eat it.  He dug a pen out of my box and chewed it up, he found Howie's leftover snack and chewed it up through the ziplock bag, and I hardly ever left him in the car for more than 5 minutes.  

Back to the field where I walked the dogs some more and ran into Amy Stefan who was at the field collecting even more soccer equipment.  I gave here a hug and talked about Jackie and the boys, and then it was finally time to head home with Micah, Cooper, Cody and Isabella.  Yes, a couple of kids already in Bozeman needing a ride home from practice. They found the pizza and devoured it. And then realizing I had no more water we stopped at the 4 corners Conoco where the kids all bought liter sodas for only $1 each.   That pumped them up with sugar and made the ride home very talkative and silly.  When we got to Big Sky it was just in time to catch most of the 2nd game of our softball doubleheader.  Howie was there, left by Denise who called me as I was driving home to let me know he was there.  We had lost the first game, but were winning the second game handedly. Lots of Baked Moose jerseys everywhere.  People were having a blast, and best of all we were winning by playing good defense and hitting the ball. 

Game over, Micah and his friends started playing on the field. Finally I get them all to the car and Micah asks if he can sleep over Cooper's.  I call all the parents to make sure all is good and then I drop off all the emerging teens at the Hungry Moose, which is kind of the neighborhood kid hangout, especially since they often get lots of free stuff when they hang out with Micah.  Howie and I were about to head home when I remembered we needed ice cream so we went in and got some treats.  Micah and his friends were all sitting in the dining area eating novelty ice creams.  Howie and I picked out our ice cream treats to bring home and then I remembered the shirts were in the car so I brought them in and then Howie and I finally went home.  I fed the dogs.  I fed Howie and then we took the dogs for  a walk.  And showered and had ice cream and watched baseball together.  Howie went to sleep which is what I need to do now.  But Maybe I should try to figure out how to load pictures onto this blog first...