Roller Coaster Life

Ah, the ups and downs of life. We Hammers have been busy these last few weeks (hence the lack of blogging). Lately there seem to be a lot of ups and downs, but truly I am feeling happy and blessed with life in spite of some of the downs right now. Here's a little glimpse of some of these ups and downs:

UP: Just had a great time with friends at Okinapa, the annual wine festival, on Friday night. We are so fortunate to have such great friends here - I'm glad we extended after all.

DOWN: Sadly, it is our last time going to Okinapa. I will miss events like this when we leave next summer.

UP: School "starts" this week for me. The past week was filled with home visits and parent meetings. This week the real work begins with the kids coming to school!

DOWN: I am so not ready! I'll spend my Labor Day laboring away in the classroom.

DOWN: We're down to one car. The Turtle (my car) died on us late Saturday night and we ended up having to walk home. Looks like the alternator needs replacing.

UP: Having the car towed was easy and headache-free. MCCS came through for us in a big way. Also, I'm glad the car died when Noa was around and I didn't have to take care of it alone.

No, that's technically not my car pictured below. My camera battery had run out of juice when it was time to get the car towed. So, hopefully, my car will be running like this one from the web in no time:

UP: We recently hired a dog walker for the weekdays. The dogs are getting some much-needed attention in the afternoons.

DOWN: It's that time of year again when I'm working a lot. I'm still working on keeping balance in my life.

UP: There was a rainbow outside our building the other day. There's nothing down about that! Sometimes, you gotta just count your blessings!