7. We've got fleas. Bouncing all through the house. And the battle is not over. After giving Tasha (our Great Pyrenees) three baths in 4 days, one flea collar, an oral med, and a possible doggie overdose of Frontline Plus flea meds... plus two full-house Terminix flea treatment and a twice-a-day full house vacuuming; it finally occurred to us: she's not the problem. The two most interesting things that we learned from this: (1) The dog pleads not guilty. For one, the Terminex guy mentioned that the last 3 houses he treated didn't even have pets. Secondly, I guess we can't overlook the fact that she's flea-free (maybe the only one in the house). With the meds that she's on, fleas only have to touch her in order to die. It's like she's got a force field. So while we've relegated her to the outdoors until we solve the problem, the irony is that she is basically one big pesticide and we probably just need to grab her by the tail and drag her around the house in order kill the last of the fleas. Interesting fact number (2): Dawn dish detergent is more effective at killing fleas that just about anything you can by at a pet store. Google it. Craziest thing in the world. But it worked... and also left me thinking, if this stuff kills fleas... what in the world are we washing our dishes with?
8. After starting midyear last year, we have officially begun our first full year of homeschooling. Justin is picking up where he left off... not that we really know where that is (somewhere between kindergarten and second grade, depending on the subject and the day of the week). And Jasmine is following suit with a very loose Pre-K / K curriculum. In all, they're doing great things, enjoying school, and Venesa continues to do an incredible job at embracing her role as the primary home educator. Now if someone can just get the pencil swiping, crayon breaking, homework eating, no-nap taking Naomi on board, everything would be great.
9. I flew to San Antonio to celebrate my uncle's retirement from the Air Force after 30 years of service. Awesome ceremony. Great to see so much family. Shocked that my parents made it (PA to TX road trip... insane). Would've been cool if Venesa could've made it, too. But her dad's pending liver transplant still has her on house arrest (bag packed for two weeks now, waiting for the call). Congrats, Uncle Daryl.
10. My paternal grandmother passed away on July 12. In early August, Justin and Jasmine joined me for a quick road trip (Thursday to Sunday) for her memorial service in Brooklyn. Despite 24 hours in the car over 3 days, they were absolutely great the whole weekend. Justin was awestruck by the sheer volume of (everything) in New York. Meanwhile, Jasmine barely noticed that we left Hartsville. The highlight of the trip for both was the pool at the hotel on the way there and back. We love you, Grandma Espie. And we'll undoubtedly miss you.
11 Jasmine is officially allergic to Soy, and unofficially allergic to... pretty much everything else. I feel like I've blogged about this already... but thought I'd throw it in just in case I didn't. Venesa has essentially become an allergist and allergen nutritionist over the past 3 months. Want to know how to make 28 different 3-course entrees without a single dairy ingredient? Ask my wife. She's a culinary genius.
12. Venesa took over as the coordinator of the Darlington County chapter of MOPS (Mother's of PreSchoolers). I'm tempted to talk about how the chapter has grown in every which way it possibly could under her leadership (spiritual maturity, membership numbers, organizationally, outreach efforts, community ties, etc.)... but she'd be totally embarrassed if I mentioned any of that... so I won't.
13. Ruben and Stacy welcomed Zane Ruiz into the world about 3 weeks ago (congratulations!), which means that Naomi now holds the family record for the shortest stent as the youngest grand baby. Move over girl, you're last year's news. I hope you enjoyed your fifteen minutes of fame.
Okay... I am officially exhausted, and ready for bed. And (minus a slew of details and a handful of photos) the blog is officially up to date.
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