Christmas week away from home...

We spent this year's Christmas Day at the airport and on our way to Las Vegas, NV. Jim's mother moved there several years ago and this would be Jim's second trip to see her there and my first. We also took Patrick with us since Jim took James with him the first time that he went to visit her.

Las Vegas was much different than I remembered. The only other time I had been there was the year that we drove to Southern California via the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam at Las Vegas. Then, the only place that we stopped was at the Circus, Circus Hotel and Casino --- mostly because that is one of the few that had something for the children to see.

Now Las Vegas has gone from a place for adults---to a place that adults can take their children---to mostly a place for adults again. The buildings are tremendous, unusual, and continuing to be built there in that dry desert town that truly is a busy and a tourist filled place. After we landed at the airport and got checked into our hotel we drove to Jim's mom's apartment. Actually, she had moved and we had the first address as opposed to the current one. When we finally found the correct place, Bruce (Jim's nephew) answered the door and we picked up both of them and went out to get something for dinner. We ended up at the a huge casino: The Orleans, and ate at TGIFriday's.

Have Retired, Will Travel

We have returned (it's actually been since Sunday night) from our cruise to the Southern Caribbean. We are happy to say that we didn't get seasick even once on this one...Evcn though we chose this particular week because it was AFTER the hurricane season, it seems that this was one of those years that don't fit the norm. Hurricane Olga or what later became Tropical Storm Olga was let loose in the Caribbean and even though we weren't actually in it we certainly felt it! Especially the rolling waves and the one time that we were awakened by the sound of everything all over the ship falling off the shelves and tables at 4 am. The ship was listing! For about 10 minutes we were laying in our bed thinking about whether or not we should get up and get dressed in case we are called to the life boats. And then we were thinking but trying not to think of movies we've seen like "The Poseidon Adventure" and "Titanic." When the ship slowly righted itself we went back to sleep---hard to believe, but we did!

The picture above was taken in St. Thomas at the top of the cable car ride up the mountainside right near the dock.

The next afternoon we (and everyone else on board) received a letter from the

captain explaining what had occurred the night before and apologizing for it. He said that the ship was never in any danger...

\

Anyway, we did have a good time. Each morning we were docked at a new port (except for the last day when we were at sea all day then.) So, we slept at night with the ship rocking and rolling because as we began the waves were described as being rough and then by the end of the week they were "very rough." We were not such wonderful sailors that we didn't feel just a little bit blah so on the nights when the show was only at 10:30 we usually were already in bed and asleep because once we returned to our room after eating those nights we usually just watched a movie and went to bed. The two shows that we saw were at 8:30 and very enjoyable. I don't know how those dancers can move around on the stage with it moving at the same time!

)ur ship the Carnival Destiny...

More about the ports of call later...

Decorated but not quite ready...

These are pictures of the inside of the house...since we had our Christmas parties before we left for our cruise to the Southern Caribbean (pictures of that to come)...

More Party Pictures...Smile!

Party pictures...we held the Sunday School Class party at our house this year. Following a delcious meal prepared by various members we held the annual gift exchange...

Seeds of Faith Sunday School Class Christmas Party

Here are those pictures of last week's gathering at our house...

Just Three more Days until Embarkation Day!

It's again, hard to believe it but we are just a few days away from our cruise in the Southern Caribbean. We will be flying out of DFW and flying to San Juan , Puerto Rico. From there we will make stops at these ports: St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, and then a full day at sea before we return to San Juan and home via Miami. I am looking forward to a lot of just sitting around....taking in the sunlight and fresh air (but not with out sunscreen slathered on liberally!)...enjoying the shows and maybe even a little dancing so that we can use some of our just learned and soon to be forgotten skills of ballroom dancing!

We have decorated for Christmas and already had two parties...one with our Sunday school class and one with our Bunko group...will finish this tomorrow morning and post a few pics of the decorations...bedtime now!! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.................................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..................

Happy Thanksgiving!

A very happy thanksgiving to everyone! Tomorrow is the big turkey day. We will be having Thanksgiving dinner at about 12:30 or 1:00 pm. We surely hope that all of our family can be here together; however, we are not sure of the whereabouts of James. So, I will simply say that I hope that he expresses his thanks to those who have helped him including his family members. It would be nice to see him.



This Thanksgiving I am most thankful for a wonderful husband who keeps such good care of me. I love him very much and am very glad to be spending this part of my life with him. I'm also glad to be able to help out my mother since she broke her hip and had a partial hip replacement. She is getting better each day. I am so very glad we were able to help by asking her to come and stay with us for a while. A special thanks for my grandmother, mom's mom, for the terrific life that she has lived and for her healthful living at age 104.



For a son that continues to serve others and a blessing on his chosen work with the young adults and youth of Meadowbrook UMC. For many friends -- friends that we can share our life with-- the ups and the downs of our own lives, as well as those of our friends.

Another month halfway gone!

The reason that no one could read the last entry is because I had accidentally published the title before I was ready to write...essentially a false alarm...sorry!!!

But now I have more news regarding Mother and her recovery from the broken hip. She was in the rehab center until today. She has come here to stay with us for a while. So, we have relocated all of the HOBBY stuff in the front bedroom and Mother had a hospital bed delivered here last Friday. The front bedroom is now a guest room again with a semi-permanent guest---Mother. She will be here with us for a while before going home since even though Scott lives there too, he works nights and that might make things difficult for Mother.

All of the hobby stuff has been moved upstairs if it is a scrapbooking item and to the computer room if it is a stained glass item. And I actually have a lot more room to work up there with a desk in the central room and the tables in one of the bedrooms. In fact, there are also two closets in that room so that makes for a lot more room for storage.

This week I also agreed to be the first grade tutor up at Ditto. I plan to work half days, probably three to four days a week. I am working with only 11 students so for the most part I can work with individuals or pairs of students in 25-30 min. time segments. The students are the ones that need the most help.

We've decided to go ahead and begin decorating for the holiday season...We will be having our Sunday School class Christmas party on November 30. So it looks like we will be decorated for Christmas while we celebrate Thanksgiving!!

Waiting right now for Dancing With the Stars: the results...MY FAVORITE SHOW!

A New Month!

Report of Friday's hospital experience

The word from my mom is that she has been transferred to the Health South Rehabilitation Center on W. Lancaster as of last night. I believe that she is in room 3113 A but I'm not sure of it...She called last night to tell me of her whereabouts...she sounds pretty good following her partial hip replacement on Tuesday. I’m not sure yet of how long she will need to stay at the rehab center but I’m very glad she will have access to daily therapy etc. for a while.

Jim made it through his gall bladder removal yesterday. We had to stay at the hospital a lot longer than we had expected but he did get to have a laparoscopic surgery which I assume means his return to normalcy will be faster.

When he was called back to the surgery center at 6:15 am or so he had stepped into the restroom for a sec. I told the nurse that and as we waited, she asked me if I knew her charge nurse, Sue Sudan. I said yes that she was a friend from church. She said that she hoped that Jim had a good sense of humor because although Sue wasn't working that day, she had decorated his room the night before. My response was that he usually did have a good sense of humor so as we got to the room just before she opened the door she turned to Jim and relayed the greeting from Sue that she couldn't be there but had decorated his room. There were pictures of food (from the magazines) cut out and taped up on each wall of the room, on his tray table, and on the pillow of the bed..
We all had a good laugh and Jim said he was just glad that there were no pictures of cups of coffee ---that's what he wanted most.
The reaction of the nurses who had not already been "IN" on the joke was especially funny. They would enter the room and then their mouths would drop open and they would say, "Who did this?" and "How mean?"
The operation itself took about an hour and a half and the doctor, (Paul Stiefel, Mary Hightower's son and Jim's across the street neighbor as he grew up on Martel Ave. and a fellow classmate of mine from elementary school at Meadowbrook to high school at EHHS.) said that his gall bladder was rather "beat-up" and that Jim had most likely been suffering a lot more attacks than he had thought. He said that he had had to sort of "chisel"out the gall bladder so the expectation is that the pain that Jim had been experiencing was caused by the gall stones and the removal of his gall bladder would mean that he could go forth with no more pain in the abdomen area.
They wouldn't let him go home until he "peed" and that was why we didn't leave until about 4:30 pm or so. Patrick even volunteered to “pee” in Jim’s place as we sat there from 10:45 on and waited. I told the nurses that it would most likely be a while since Jim is the “King of Not Stopping to Go to the Restroom” when we are driving on vacation. We all enjoyed the nurse that spent most of the day with us and decided that she was definitely a “perky” person. Congratulations were in order at about 4:15 or so and we got home just in time to receive the meal that our Sunday School Class had prepared. Jim says that he is very sore this morning at the incision sites... I'm sure that he will be getting steadily better. He will be taking some time off from work next week and plans to return to work the following week.
So. that's more than you really wanted to know, I'm sure but I wanted to write it all down so that I can relate it to others too...
Several sad notes: We are both saddened to hear of McKay Brown’s death. She is a long time friend from our Sunday School class at Meadowbrook and will be missed I’m sure by all who knew her Also saw in the paper that John Woodard’s family will be celebrating his dad’s life this afternoon with a memorial service at Handley UMC in FW. .
Thanks again for your prayers and your concerns...I'm hoping that both Mother and Jim will get well quickly because I'm not as good a nurse-caregiver as they are and am thanking God that at least I'm already retired and don't have to worry about school at the same time as trying taking care of them.

A very eventful week...

Friday of last week I had my first day of subbing...only planning to sub for first grade and only when needed badly. I subbed in Sondra's class and enjoyed a nice day since her class was very attentive and very good. They worked hard that day and I must have too because I was very tired. That evening our Sunday School Class met for a party and dinner at the Nelle's house. At least I won the booby prize for losing the most during the night.

Next day I went to watch a little girl from last year's class play soccer. Her team had a game and she had sent me a copy of the schedule with an invitation to come so I went out and enjoyed the beautiful weather that day. Jim spent most of the day working on his newer aquarium of reef fish and animals....he's still got a lot to do on it.


This week is only half over and already I'm just about worn out! First of all, we got to see THE LION KING at the State Fair Music Hall Sunday night. It was absolutely awesome and incredible! We agreed as we drove home that night that both of us could see it again and again. The costumes were great as were the puppets and masks that each character wore. The music was good (written by Elton John and Tim Rice).



Next big thing that happened: When we got home late that Sunday night we had a message on the answering machine from my mom...asking us to call when we can. Normally I would wait since it was after 10:30 pm but something told me I should call so I did. She had fallen earlier that day (about 3:00 pm right before the Cowboy game started) and she said that she felt like she'd probably really goofed this time). She was trying to "dust" the shelves above the TV and standing on a small white plastic stool...The stool didn't tip but she says she guesses that she stepped off it wrong...lost her balance, and sat down hard on the floor. The carpet is so worn there that she said the floor was really hard and that Scott told her to sit there a minute to make sure she was ok before getting up...



Well, I don't know how she did it but, she sat and watched the cowboys get beat and eventually went to bed which was where she was when I called. I asked her if she thought she had broken something...she said she didn't think so and that she and Scott thought she had "sprained " a muscle and that she'd most likely be sore.



Next morning, Jim and I went to the hospital so that he could get all the pre-op stuff taken care of for his scheduled surgery this coming Friday--he's having his gall bladder removed Friday at 7:00 am. When we got back home at about 10:00 I called Mother only to find out that she had called Clay and also her mother and her mother's friend and driver to come over and help her...she didn't think she could get up from bed etc. So, I waited until they called again in the next 30 min. and then grabbed some books and magazines and my laptop and drove to the hospital to meet them at the ER at Baylor All Saints in FW. I just beat them there and then Bobby and my grandmother arrived with my mother in their car. Clay drove up too just ahead of me and they had to get help to get her out of the car and into a wheelchair. Now we were having to sit and wait...she was in a lot of pain by now and they gave her some pain meds to try to help. Following xrays we finally got the word at about 2 or 2:30 that she had definitely broken her hip and "who was her orthopedic surgeon?" We called her brother to find out who had put my grandmother (mother's mother) back together back last November when she broke her hip and then we called that Dr. to come and talk with us about mom.



She ended up having a partial hip replacement yesterday (Tues. afternoon). I had spent Monday night with her at the hospital (trying to sleep on two straight back chairs pushed together--believe it or not I did sleep some that night) so I drove back to the house and changed clothes and took a shower and then went back to be there during her surgery. Cindy Woelke, Lynn Rambo, and Jane Maxwell (all from our old church and mother's now church ...as well as Patrick's place of employment) came and sat with Scott and Clay and me in the waiting room. Jim Chandler, the new pastor at MUMC, came by the night before to pray with us and had also called yesterday morning and prayed with mom on the phone. (He refers to mother as "Patrick's grandmother" because mom hasn't been to church except to the musical in August, and he doesn't know of her history at the church: having been the church secretary for 27 years before retiring.)



This afternoon, I went up there to see her for a while...had to wrap up in a blanket it was so cold in her room with the fan blowing right where I was sitting. She was working with a physical therapist and she was glad to be sitting up on the side of the bed for a couple of min. before getting dizzy and having to lay down again. The doctors and nurses expect her to be there for 5 or 6 days and then to rehab for a while before she can go back home. In fact, she may come here for a while if she has to between rehab and home.



I'm very lucky to be retired and not have to worry about planning for a sub, etc. but I suspect that I won't have much time to spend up at school volunteering or subbing since Mother's going to need more help for a while. Now hopefully, Jim's surgery on Friday will be successful and not last as long. He's expecting to be home sometime after noon time and is planning to stay home next week to recover. Funny story about that is that we both grew up at church and at school (and Jim even lived across the street) with his surgeon, and we are both pleasantly surprised at what a great guy he's evidently turned out to be! Many people have told us of their own experiences with him and all that has been said has been very positive. So as you are getting up on Friday morning ...please say a little prayer for him and for his recovery. It goes without saying that I am happy to be on the other side of the hospital bed in both cases...hopefully I can manage to keep care of them both as well as they took care of me when I've had my numerous surgeries (which actually Mother has me beat in that area--after going through her entire medical history from 9:30 pm until midnight with the doctor who is coordinating her case at the hospital and then the nurse on duty and lucky enough to get mother as her patient. They were very thorough and I'm glad of that!)

Thursday (tomorrow) I have a baby shower to attend for one of our former team members (she's teaching second grade now)...and then there's always the trip over to the hospital in FW and hopefully nothing else!

Butterfly Life --My Choice For Workout Place

Ok, well, I've made my choice for a workout place. I did choose the nearest place. I can walk up the street to the storefront and can get there within 20 min. I think... This afternoon (after joining this morning) I went up for my first workout. At 3:15 I met with one of the women that works there and she got me started on the circuit machines. She weighed me and took my measurements and then we went through the circuit once with her showing me each set up and then I did the next circuit by myself. I am starting at the lowest level with the weights and the smallest number of repetitions. It's amazing but I already can "feel" the soreness that I'm sure I will be experiencing big time by the end of this week. The workout room had only one other person in it during the time that I was there. I was there for about one hour but I expect to be able to do it in about 30 -45 min. if I drive there, and in about an hour if I walk up there. The walking up there will most likely occur once it gets a little cooler weatherwise.

So, I'm exercising regularly now...hooray and hopefully I can lose the weight that I've put back on since I lost that weight last year prior to the first cruise we took. I'm sure that I will begin to feel better once I lose some of this weight.

Time for EXERCISE

If you have driven around here in Arlington and perhaps in your town, you have seen the logo that I have placed on the left here. That is what I am trying to make a decision about. Should I go to the Curves nearest me and sign up for a great workout? or should I go to the newer and similar place (it's even closer to the house!) and sign up with the Butterfly Life program?

I'm leaning toward the Butterfly mostly because it is so easy to get to and is also in a brand new facility . Also I have found a yoga class that is offered at this same place and that is one of the kinds of exercise that I'm interested in. So, the next step is to get myself motivated and get out of the house and go sign up!

Maybe tomorrow!!! :o)

A long week...

This has been a longer week than usual mostly because Jim is in Washington DC for the whole week. I've been busy the whole time but it has certainly been a tiring week. On Monday I went up to the old schoolhouse and helped my former team members assess their students with the assessment tool that they are using. It was great to get to be working with the students again--at least the one-on-one work was fun. Such smart children too! That night I had handbell choir from 7 to 8...



Tuesday--back to school for part of the day to continue the same--->that evening I had a meeting at church from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. It's amazing how a change in routine can just make one so tired!



Wednesday--again to school ...although this time I left for a lunch date with a couple of friends from church, then went back to finish up Melissa's class. Sherry has a few word lists to finish so I told her I'd finish those on Friday morning.



Thursday (today) I visited with a rep from the Heritage Makers about their product (making storybooks written by you or me or anyone else.) They have put together a pretty neat website and will "publish" books for all the scrapbookers who like to journal more and more. Then this afternoon Patrick and I went to eat at Mijo's.



Tomorrow I finish with the assessment help and the next time I go up there will probably be as a sub for Sondra on the 12th.



Over and out!



Cheryl

Fear of Heights

Yesterday I confirmed that one of those old fears that I had as a child still hangs on out there! FEAR OF HEIGHTS!! When I was growing up and would ride in the car with my family, we rarely drove anywhere other than in the area between Fort Worth and Hillsboro. There were a few times when we got to take a vacation and one of those vacations that I will always remember was to the GRAND CANYON.

There was something about viewing the Grand Canyon from the edges of it that absolutely scared me to pieces! I can remember getting mad at my two younger brothers for getting too close or what I thought was too close to the edge.

And then there was the simple drive to Arlington to swim with the family at Lucas Park. On the way home my dad drove us west on Arkansas and rather than going home the way we came down Spur 303, he drove us across the dam of Lake Arlington. I was in the floorboard praying silently that we'd make it across and not fall into the hole in the lake that was visible to anyone who didn't ride across hiding her eyes in the floorboard of the back seat! I was truly scared and didn't appreciate that trip route home. Well....

...as you can read from the sign, yesterday those fears were again brought out when Jim and I drove to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado. The scenic views were breathtaking but it was all I could do to keep from crawling over the back seat of the car and getting down in the floorboard with my eyes tightly closed. At first, it wasn't too bad, but at about Mile 8 of 19 I was looking away from the window with tears streaming down my face.

Luckily the digital cameras of today can take pictures (although not always great ones) without the camera owner having to look through the view finder!

It's about at that spot that the paved road becomes a dirt road and it seemed that each hairpin curve our vehicle was just about to spin out as we turned around each corner. Luckily for us and for all of the other hundreds or maybe thousands of visitors to that famous mountaintop, we arrived at the top safely and then later descended to the base of the mountain without anyone getting hurt. I thank God for keeping us safe and giving us the chance to make that trip even though it scared me to pieces!

It's no wonder that the composer (whose name escapes me at the moment) of "America the Beautiful" was inspired to write that beautiful patriotic hymn when she visited the summit of that mountain! It is absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to see the pictures that Jim took yesterday. My pictures are not quite as sharp as I'd hoped- a little blurry. But as you can see here -- some turned out ok.

We are blessed to be able to travel and take in the views that others have shared with us...

Thank you, God, for bringing us safely back to our hotel. I know that I will most likely always have that fear of heights at times. Help me, God, to be a lot less nervous so that whoever is with me doesn't end up with a crick in the neck as Jim did yesterday due to my own fears making him uptight too! Thank you, too, God, that Jim is the safe and self-confident driver that he is---getting us both to the top and back-- without letting my fears infect him.

The views from the top were awesome!!

Almost Finished!

Here we have the final project...at least, everything except the window treatments (probably will be shutters). I'm thinking about making cookies tomorrow so that I can try out my new oven!

The next picture is of our backsplash that is on the wall under the ventahood and above the new cooktop. We especially like it because we designed it ourselves along with the help of one of the women who work at the Arizona Tile store/warehouse where we picked out our granite for the countertop and the tile for the backsplash. The cooktop is a Jenn-aire and it has 5 burners (and means we need new pots and pans because they have to be flat-bottomed.)

Our cabinets were all sanded and stained and look terrific! How nice to have what seems like a brand-new kitchen!

Here you can see the corner of the cooktop and the corner of the sink. It is a black sink and even though the salesman at Home Depot tried to dissuade us from getting a black cast acrylic, I 'm very glad we did---we love it!

Coming up next is the ceiling fan that is in the breakfast room. We hadn't even thought of getting a new one...but the peach colored one just would not have worked in our new dark, rich red walled kitchen and breakfast room.

More cruising...

I can't believe it but we are going to try for one more cruise this year! Jim found one that was on sale and very inexpensive so he signed up. We'll be flying to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to embark on a seven day tour of the Southern Caribbean.

The dates will be December 9-16 so we will essentially be giving each other a cruise for our Christmas. Actually, perhaps this should be Jim's birthday cruise. We were in Alaska on my 55th birthday and it looks like we'll be in the Southern Caribbean on the Carnival Destiny for his 55th birthday!

Just for Lydia...and...oh yes...anyone else who likes to look at "OLD" pics

Here you go, Lydia...these pictures are just for you (and, of course, for anyone else who enjoys seeing "OLD" pictures--Ha!)

For those who don't recognize the happy couple, that's my roomie and her boyfriend/husband of 30+ years.

The date on the back of this one says Nov. 17, 1972. It was taken up in our dorm room--- maybe even that night day that Alan proposed to your mom!? (I didn't realize that he had proposed so soon. It's amazing how much one can find out on the internet. :o) )

The date on this one was Jan 11, 1973. It was the spring semester and we were back in Nacogdoches early. Most likely we were there to beat the bad weather. We really took advantage of the snow days and enjoyed more than our share of snowball fights. I think that’s what C. was expecting in this picture –a snowball thrown at her.

And here’s the orange ’69 camaro…at least that’s the color I remember.

That same semester but at the end of the semester. This picture was taken in the front section of the cafeteria where all the vending machines were.

I’m thinking that this is your mom and dad’s first anniversary of dating each other. They are so much in love!

The final picture is taken on a bridge somewhere in East Texas. We took a day trip to Lake Livingston with Chuck …the date was March 22, 1974.



So, how’s that for a little bit of history? I love it!

And a very special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, my old friend!

Retirement Feelings--Now That School Begins Tomorrow

Now that school begins tomorrow I can tell a little more about how it really feels to be retired...It feels absolutely terrific! I can attest to the fact that the loss of the stress that I dealt with now for the last three years or so is a big plus! I have been able to cut back on my meds now that the stress is lowered...what a great thing this retirement is!

Remembering that I had planned to do a lot more traveling, Jim and I are planning a trip to Denver and on to the Boulder area for the second weekend of September. Hopefully we will be able to visit family members in Colorado then. And as we have already proven that we love to cruise this year we're hoping to get one more cruise in before the end of the year--one to San Juan, Puerto Rico and the islands around that island. Hopefully, it will soon be among our list of places we've been...

And then there's also a quick trip to Las Vegas to see Jim's mom. We plan to take Patrick along with us then too. It will most likely be sometime after October 12, 2007, which is the date that Jim has scheduled his gall bladder surgery. The sonogram that he had to have shows "medium" gall stones and one very small kidney stone. After visiting with the surgeon (who just happens to be someone we've known forever --grew up across the street from Jim and went to our church), we both feel good about the process--keeping our fingers crossed that he will make it to that day without any further difficulties.

And now, the pictures at the first of this post-- are pictures of our kitchen and breakfast room. The painters came and scraped the popcorn stuff off the ceiling and pulled the paper off the walls in order to get ready to paint and texture tomorrow.

The granite countertops and the tile backsplash are next...maybe I'll put a picture up tomorrow...

For now,

Cheryl

Remodeling Time

This weekend we spent Friday afternoon and part of Saturday and Sunday making decisions regarding our soon to be newly remodeled kitchen. Having already chosen the slab for the granite countertop, we have also chosen a new cooktop

and a new oven

and a new microwave (which I don't have a picture of...Maybe I'll e inspired to do some cooking!). With all of this new stuff it's going to seem like a new house...

Finished product (we hope!)

The reason that I say (we hope!) is that yesterday after taking Jim's car in to the shop earlier that morning -- and that's another story...but anyway, I discovered that the floor around the aquarium was soaking wet! Something about the way that Jim had set up the aquarium caused it to shut down and then overflow below the aquarium so that the 25 gallons of salt water that I had rushed to the pet store to buy at the last minute the day before (ties to story about the car) was soaking into the carpet around the aquarium! I immediately called Jim and said HELP! He tried to tell me what valve to turn...I wasn't strong enough to turn it...and then he told me where to stop the siphon. Finally I began trying to get the water up with the old shop vac that we had...

Jim got home and began working on the tank at about 3:45 or so...Now it just so happens that Monday nights are our dance lessons night. I suggested to Jim that we would have to miss, but he was not inclined to do so for fear of never being able to catch up. So as a result at 5:25 we were dashing off to the pet store to buy the salt water we needed to fill up the aquarium again. Then we left the store and drove over to UTA for the dance lessons. We were only about 30 minutes late so we essentially missed the review part of the lessons.

When we got home following the lessons we stopped at Colter's to eat and came home so that Jim could put the water into the tank. Of course, all of this makes it sound much simpler than it is...Finally, again, we have a beautiful tank. Pictures below: