Day Care Joy

Oh I understand why they did it.  But it doesn't make my life any easier by any means.  I hope it gets repealed.  Seems there is a new law that states state paid kids can only be in daycare programs that are part of an early achiever program.  Now daycares do not have to participate....they just can't have any under school aged kids paid by the state if they don't.  Our provider is not opting in to this program.  She doesn't want to jump through any more hoops than she already has to and no one has ever ever complained that her preschool program is insufficient.  In fact she has heard hers is almost too good and gets some kids too ready for kindergarten.
So for us, this means Audrie is still fine going to our daycare.  Connor is not.  He has a whole year before he is "school" aged.  We got the notice last week.  The law takes effect August 1st.  So I have less than two months to decide what we are doing.  And it doesn't look like there are any work arounds.
My whole thing has been staying where we are at so they are always in the same day care.  Outside of me....daycare is the only other constant in their lives.  And the state agrees that continuity is an extremely healthy thing.....except if the provider doesn't want to jump through this new hoop.  When I was looking at moving I was only looking in the BG area.
So today I went online and found there is one center listed that is complying.  And three home day cares, but none of those are in the boundary of Audrie's school and home day cares don't do drop offs and pick ups like our daycare does.  The actual center listed did not return my call today.  And I called the other one that I know is doing the early achievers.  Something about being told to convince the state to pay for five days a week due to my varying work schedule sets me wrong.  I can only use day care when I am working.  So she wants to be paid for all five days even if I use two.  She also let me know that our daycare is not taking any state paid kids.  Well not under kindergarten age they aren't.  Oy.
It is a bit of a quandry.  Looks like I may be private paying for Connor just to keep him in our daycare.  We know them.  We love them.  They have worked with my schedule for over three years now.  And if that is what is to be, it is only 13 months before he is "school" aged.

Manic Monday

Today was the little woman's last day of kindergarten.  Now I have a first grader.  I am amazed at how fast that school year went by.
Mom had her doctor appointment today.  We got a new anti-anxiety prescription for when she needs it and got all her inhalers back.  She got a cream for her forehead that she has been picking at for the past few months.
After we got part of her meds picked up, we had time for a late breakfast.  Stopped in at the Hockinson Cafe.  We love their food and it is so close.  Took her home.
I got home in time for the Comcast technician to come make my internet work in the dining room.  All good once I had everything hooked up right.  And now the office is ready for the carpet installation on Wednesday.
Then it was time to pick up the kids, pick up the rest of the meds for Mom and then to DQ for some soft serve ice cream which turned into dinner.  Dropped off the meds for Mom and home for stepping.  Whew.  Quite a busy day.

Home

It was a very good weekend.  Hardest part was sleeping in the upper bunk with the littles.  Yeah.  Climbing up there was easier this year.  Next year we do something different.  We made a lot of memories.  Mom was glad she came.  She actually had a good day today and we appreciate those when we get them.
I asked the littles what the best part was.  The little man liked everything in no particular order.  The little woman liked meeting all the dogs at the concert.  My animal girl.  I am still enthralled with the dragonfly that landed on her.  Made me feel like Papa was with us for a moment.  He got sick right after we planned our first camping trip at the beach and couldn't go.  Maybe this weekend he was there.
My brother didn't catch any crabs or fish.  We don't seem to be good luck for him.  Maybe he will turn that around next camping trip.  But he did get to try out his new cart for hauling stuff around.  Worked pretty well even if part of the stuff he hauled was kids.  ;p

Cape Disappointment

It was the coolest day.  The littles and I went down and played on the beach.  The littles and Uncle Pat went crabbing on the beach and got soaked.  Mom enjoyed lunch and dinner inbetween sleep times.  The little woman met lots of dogs at the free concert put on at the campground.  But the absolute coolest thing was when the littles were laying on the pavement soaking up the warmth and she pops up with "what is that"?  She was talking about the dragonfly that had landed on her hand.  Stayed there for about 15 seconds before flying off on its way.  After that they waited for another one, but alas it was not to be.

Heading to the Beach

After a day of work....had to set up the buyback room,  I hit the store and home for the last of the camping supplies we needed. Then I picked up the littles from daycare and Mom from her place.  And we were off.  We made pretty good time.  Pulled into Seaview about 6 and met Pat.  He had gone a couple of hours earlier than we had.  We had dinner at Chico's Pizza.
Then on to the campground.  We have a cabin this time and it is very similar to the yurt.  The yurt however has a dome that you can see the stars.   We were next to a lake but didn't have any mosquitoes.  Got to love that.

Rose Festival

Again Betty bought the pins from the BG Rose Float Princesses.  And again she passed them on to us.  The plan was last weekend to go and then it got so darn hot.  And then I fell.  So it wiped out the whole weekend.  This upcoming weekend has been planned out for almost six months.  So today was the only day left open to go.
About the time we picked up Sissy from school the sprinkles started.  Oh no.  Rose Festival didn't open till late afternoon.  We took a nap.  And then the little man slept a lot longer.  Finally about 5 I woke him up.  Still raining, but according to weather.com the rain was to stop.  So we donned our jakcets and headed to Max.
First traffic was backed up to 503 with nearly stop and go all the way across the 205 bridge. I totally understood the traffic in the other direction.  Anyway...got to Max and had to wait almost 45 minutes.  Wow.  But we made it.
I actually got very little whining about not riding the rides there.  $5 a pop is outrageous.  Don't know what the little kids rides were going for but it didn't matter.  We watched a cowboy clown show and they loved that.  We ate.  We enjoyed the animals.  All the cats were awake.  Got to love that.  The little woman loves the rattlesnake who was a little too interested in us for my taste.  The little man loved all the animals, but mostly the tortoise.  We looked at the ships and enjoyed cotton candy.  The little man even shared some with one of the security guys.  He tried to share with the coast guard guy, but that guys hands were too dirty.
The rain had kept a lot of people from coming on down to the waterfront.  It was so nice to be able to walk around and look at stuff without a crowd.  We hurried back to Max to catch it before my ticket expired.  I only bought the 2.5 hour ticket. We were at the stand before it expired but not on the train.  And bad me....I just went with it.  Max was all messed up and we had to wait a long time to go back to our car.
Anyway we all agreed that we had a good time.  Everyone mostly behaved.  Thank you again Betty for a great outing.

Success

In my life I have bought carpeting three times, with two of those being whole house jobs.
  I wasn't happy with the first place in that they didn't offer us options......  The second place was fine and the third place was Cascade Flooring.  Since Cascade Flooring was a bust on Monday we decided to try the other place I have bought from.  It is the Remnant Ranch out in Washougal.
After we dropped Sissy at school we headed out there.  They had a red that was way too red for Nana.  So we just looked and then one of the guys came and pointed us to the remnant wall and showed us which ones would fit.  The little man went back and forth on a few of them.  He finally landed on a kind of teal with burgundy splotches.  Great for a boy room.
They looked up the work schedule of installers and we are set for next week.  They gave us an extra discount on the carpet and on the installation.  Ours may be a small job but they treated us like it was as important as any other job. I'm happy.  And I will be happier once it is in and the boy can have his room.
Thanks Aaron for a good experience that went smooth.