Hallelujah and pass the butter! Joey went to soccer practice tonight and had fun. Even more, she didn't suck. In fact, there were a few new girls who were as inexperienced as her so she has some company. It was so gratifying for both of us. They had a practice game tonight for a few minutes and Joey was actually going for the ball in the thick of things and got a foot on the ball before the coach called an end to the practice. You should have seen her face--she positively beamed. "Mom, he said 'good job' to me a bunch of times and no one told me how to do stuff. I had lots of fun. I love soccer." It was a good moment.

We had a load of barkdust delivered today and Ed made a business proposition to Joey. He said he'd pay her $5/hour to help spread the barkdust. She went for it. He told her that if she complained, the deal was off. It was a rough hour because the rake was heavy and she wasn't having a lot of fun but she made it through her hour. She has another hour of spreading scheduled for tomorrow.

Ed is determined to teach her to work without complaining. He swears he shoveled snow from their driveway when he was 6 and 7 years old though I'm a tad skeptical of that, given his really porous memory. I challenged him to find a 7 year old girl who would joyfully spread barkdust or do yardwork. He agreed but said it was time to change that. We'll see how his campaign goes. He may go broke and I don't think that bribery is the way to teach a child how to work but since he's convinced that I'm too bossy and make too many of the decisions about Joey's life, I'm letting this one go. I'll just stand back and see how it works. And I promise right now not to gloat when this doesn't have the desired effect. You all are my witnesses.

My ankle didn't like being subjected to barkdust spreading. It was aching all the way up to my knee after that. I drugged myself with 4 ibuprofen which kicked in after about 45 minutes, which was not a minute too soon. I'm thinking I might be able to milk this for time off from spreading barkdust tomorrow. (Here I am scheming to get out of work while Ed is trying to teach Joey the joys of work--how lame am I? But it really did hurt.) Actually, it's supposed to rain hard tomorrow so perhaps the barkdust can wait a day. I need to go to Costco tomorrow and I don't think my ankle can do both so I'll opt for shopping. I've got to get my Jolly Time Kettle Corn microwave popcorn and my 12 rolls of developed film and drop off 3 more rolls of film. (I found 2 rolls of film in my drawer today and I have no idea where they came from. We'll see what pictures show up on them.)

The piano will be delivered tomorrow. I guess I'd better make room for it. I hope the rain doesn't hurt the piano--I'm guessing they'll cover it, won't they? It's leased piano so it's their loss if they don't. I'm very excited about this piano delivery. BTW, we decided today that we will buy a digital piano and then in about 3 years we'll get an acoustic so we'll have both, which is what I really wanted anyway.

We went to Joey's new school today and found out who her new teacher will be. Then we walked through the school to let her find her classroom and the lunchroom and the playground and restrooms. She's excited about school to start but she is supremely bummed out that the only 2 second graders that she knows at that school are in a different class from her. But they're just across the hall so that's not too bad. This is a pretty big school--there are four 2nd grade classes and one 2nd/3rd blend. And something like 8 kindergarten classes. I went to a school where there was one class in each grade so you were with the same kids forever (which in my case wasn't so great because I skipped a grade and so was shunned by the 2nd graders I left behind as well as by the 3rd graders who thought I was just some kind of 2nd grader upstart, but that's another entry entirely). Anyway, Joey said that for the first week, she wants me to drive her to school and pick her up but after that, she wants to ride the bus. She's a little concerned, though, about riding the bus since there are no seatbelts on the bus. That's my little Safety Girl.

Have I mentioned how much I like my new neighbors? They're terrific and we have so much in common. And we have a real similar approach to parenting. I don't have to worry about things like guns or smoking in their home and she's a stay-at-home mom so we'll have some time to do things together during the day and we'll be able to help each other out with after-school stuff. What a treat to have neighbors who are young, nice, friendly and interested in the same things we are with a kid Joey's age. I'm just delighted.

And on that happy note...

--L