helloooooo!

Well, I just opened my mailbox and what should appear to my wondering eyes, but an invitation to join the Holther blog! I have gone through and read everyone's posts and caught up with a few of us. How nice! To catch up with me: Well, Bob, the kids and I bought a home in LaGrange Indiana this last March. LaGrange is a TINY town about 10 minutes south of the Michigan border, so we are closer to Mom and Dad than what we were while we were in Middlebury, IN. We decided to buy in this direction instead of going further west in Indiana because Bob's mom was suffering with terminal cancer and we wanted to be closer to her and my folks as well as his sister and her family. It has been a really good move for us, as we really like this little town and the kids love it in the schools here. Michael is now in 2nd grade and Samantha just started full day kindergarten this year. I am really happy with the schools except for the fact that they make us pay $40 a week for tuition for kindergarten here and we have to "rent" their ratty used books each year to the tune of between $80 and $90 per year for now (will be more as the grades progress). I am buying their books through Amazon or Barnes and Nobles.com for next year. Bob is working 3rd shift for a company called Utilimaster; they build Fed Ex trucks and the like. I left my career at Waldenbooks to become a bar wench this year. Let me tell you, I feel like I am on vacation! Most important, I am so close to the kids all day now and I am able to do PTO now as well as class volunteering. I am also volunteering at the local library so I get my book fix. Life is really quiet for us. We don't get out and about as much as we would like to but with Bob's work and the kids' school, we are pretty much home bodies. I did manage to make it out to see the Johnny Cash movie with Mom though. Has anyone else seen it? I really enjoyed it -- much more than I thought that I would! Well, enough about me. I need to leave some mystery about my fabulous life now don't I? Oh! Good book of the week: Queen of the Big Time by Adrienne Trigianni. Enjoy!! Cyndi

"Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow." -Jeff Valdez