Here NOT in Topeka…

The Gershwin/Kay/Paul clan is now about 60% moved out of Topeka, and are in Lawrence!  Our new address

625 Folks Rd.  Apt. 129

Lawrence KS  66049

No home phone, just the 2 cellphones.

Gershwin starts at Quail Run school tomorrow, and is quite excited.  She is hoping for no bullies, we have been talking a lot about behavior that will make you more likely to be bullied.

I had a great trip toNew Orleans, and am hopeful about coming up with a job there, but then again aren’t I always?  I REALLY liked the people, and am only a little nervous about the city.  While we origianally talked about Baton Rouge, now we are mainly talking about New Orleans itself.

I wanted to get some pictures posted, but about half of the computer systeme is still not set up!

hugs to all, and happy bday to Douglas tomorrow!

Kk

Big things afoot

As you may know, the Davis clan are packing the moving boxes soon.  Shannon will be transferred to First United Methodist in Wagoner.  Wagoner is about 35 miles from Tulsa.  The church is bigger than where we are now.  He is not getting a raise, but since it’s not too far from Tulsa I plan to keep my job at Zarrow, so we will not be losing my income as we would have had we moved anywhere else. 

 

So Solomon, Eli, and I will hit the highway every morning to head for Zarrow.  Eli was accepted into next year’s kindergarten class, and I confirmed with my boss that he and Sol would be able to stay there at the school.  We’ll leave Solomon at Zarrow until he’s through the program and at middle school we will transfer him to Wagoner schools.  Jake will go ahead and start 8th grade at Wagoner.

 

Moving day is June 4.  I’ve seen the outside of the house, but not the inside.  It has 3 bedrooms plus a study/office that they said could serve as a bedroom.

Topeka/Lawrence happenings

Gershwin picked out an apartment in Lawrence for us, and we are going to move into it within the next couple of weeks.  She has been bullied by the same kid for several weeks, and it started after we complained about another kid who was a constant problem– she was finally moved away from sitting by kid 1, then sat right next to kid 2, who is the only kid in the class I had ever heard any other parent complain about. So, even though there is only about 6 or 7 weeks left of school, we are tired of her being in such a hostile environment.

On a brighter note, I have an interview in New Orleans on Monday and Tuesday (the 6th and 7th) about a job in Baton Rouge– and then at the end of April, there is the annual wound conference (in the Dallas area this year) and I may come up with a lead or two by then!

I will post some pictures of Grandpa Great’s shindig at Brewster Place that we had before he left town….  His birthday is the 2nd!

Gail, sorry about your woes– don’t forget that the cheapest place to get cords/chargers for cell phones is off ebay! Sorry about the bags– that is just plain weird!  (or maybe fancy weird…….   speaking of which, just try to find “plain” catsup– it is always described as fancy!)  At least no one is injured!

Marches

Except for it being Mom’s birth month, it seems March is not a good month for me.  Last year in March, I found out on a Friday that I failed the first two CPA exam sections I took, then two days later a lady crashed into my parked car outside the apartment building.  This year in March, I came home from work about a week ago to find that my apartment had been broken into.  The next day at work, we found out all hourly employees have to take 8 unpaid holidays during April and May, basically a 20% cut.   Then sometime in the night this last Saturday, someone went through my car and took some stuff.

I can’t help but wonder if it was the same people both times.  With the two bikes in the room they got through the window, and it being the only car in the complex with a bike rack, it would be easy to tell it is my car.  Whoever broke into my apartment took my extra key, which I noticed and had the locks changed immediately so maybe that was their way at getting back at me.  But stuff in the apartment was re-closed, like the window they came in, and the patio door they opened then closed and locked but didn’t replace the security bar (my initial clue that something was amiss).   I can tell they rummaged through my CDs and the few DVDs I have, but they left very little mess.   Whoever was in the car left the glove box open and what they didn’t take laying on the floor, visors down, a door wasn’t fully shut, and they also popped the hood I think looking for the trunk but didn’t seem to find that button.   They both took weird stuff though, like the speaker cord and the old cycling gloves I had in the net behind the passenger seat.

The most valuable thing that was taken was my mp3 player.  The most annoying things taken were the power cord for the computer speakers and the car chargers for both my cell and the GPS.  They are replaceable but not with 80% income in the next couple of months.  The cell charger will be useless to them, because I have Alltel with G & GP.  I know for a fact no one sells that phone in TN because I could only get the charger on a trip back to KS.

The loss I am the most upset about though, is that they took all of my canvas grocery bags that were in the back seat!  All I have left were the ones that I hadn’t taken back out since the last trip to the grocery.  Now I have to start my collection again.  Some Heidi had given me, and I had a couple from a store in Denver called Vitamin Cottage, also known as Natural Grocers.  Those will be the hardest to replace.  Is there some kind of black market for those bags that I don’t know about?  It’s not like they are expensive, so why take them?   Heidi had hers taken out of her back seat last month too.  Some of hers were ones I gave her from stores in Tennessee.  People sure steal weird things.  But I guess the Davis family also learned that the hard way!

Here we are in Washington D.C.!

We’ve been in D.C. since Saturday night.  We arrived at around 9ish–we were originally supposed to be in after 11:00 PM, but our flight was overbooked and they asked for 2 people to switch flights.  We volunteered and as a result, in addition to getting 2 $250 flight vouchers, a $20 food voucher, and free ground transportation, we pretty much walked immediately onto the flight we were switched to and had a shorter layover.  We’re hopeful they’ll ask for 2 people to switch flights on the way home as well!  We’re planning to use the vouchers to fly to Atlanta to see our neice who was born in January.  Granny would have been proud!

 

So far we’ve seen the capitol, the Museum of Natural History, the Library of Congress, the Air and Space Museum, the International Spy Museum, and the Washington Monument.  Tomorrow we tour the White House, and we also plan to visit the Museum of America History, the Nat’l Archives, and who knows what else.  The great thing about D.C. is that the only thing we’ve had to pay an admission fee to was the spy museum.  We did pay to see a movie in the planetarium ($6.50 each) and we’ve bought some nifty souvenirs for the boys.  The Metro train takes you wherever you want to go and it’s pretty cheap.  That leaves you only having to worry about food, which isn’t cheap, but oh well.

We did eat in a neat restaurant called Ben’s Chili Bowl which we saw featured on the Travel Channel.  It is highly endorsed by Bill Cosby.

Kay Ann’s new musings

Hey all you Kile yarners, I am starting a new blog (even though I hate that term) Called “Loominescence” that will cover my loom interests and wherever that takes me.  Granny said I should write a book with stitch patterns for the plastic looms, as the small gauge stuff is somewhat confusing.  I also am interested in converting needle knitting stuff to loom, and so I will be covering that kind of stuff too.  I will include family ramblings if they pertain to knitting.

I actually learned to cast on last night!!!!!! (I couldn’t find a knit-picker….don’t worry, I picked up 2 today.)

Meanwhile, back in Topeka,

Grandpa Ben is doing well at Brewster, he is enjoying his new room, actually seems to look forward to being in the dining room.  He says the bed is more comfortable, and is walking farther.   The occupational therapist actually says he can put his own shoes own if he has a shoehorn.  We discussed that he may need to be by himself at times, because Dale might want to get a part time job to qualify for having “earned income”.

Making my way closer to being a CPA

I’m not licensed yet, but I am making headway.  After passing the exams, I was given a year membership in the Tennessee Society of CPAs.  I went to a fancy dinner at a country club last night, where I was presented with a membership certificate and also a real marble paper weight with the TSCPA logo!

Most states added an ethics exam requirement as of Jan. 1, but in exchange they reduced the experience requirement from three years to one.  It is another $95 cost, but I think it is better this way.  I am waiting on that information to come so I can take it.  I met up with an old classmate at the dinner last night, and he said it is an online test and is much easier than the actual exams are.

Josh is here visiting me now; he got here on Sunday and will have to go back in three weeks.  The girls and I are all enjoying having him here.  It’s been nicer here and I’ve been able to do some biking on my lunch breaks.  I am making him go with me this weekend for a good hard ride.

That’s everything exciting that is going on in Nashville!

The Kile legacy lives on…

Jacob came home from an after-school run to Sonic with a friend the other day pushing a black computer chair.  When I asked him where it came from, he said somebody was putting it out on the side of the road for the trash collectors.  He asked them if he could have it and they said yes.  He rolled it all the way home through the neighborhood.  There was nothing at all wrong with it except for a broken arm rest (and, oh yeah, the back wouldn’t stay upright).  Unfortunately it found it’s way to the side of our yard for the trashmen to pick up the next day when someone leaned back in it and it completely busted back.

 

But we knew that Grampy (Dale) would embrace him with tears of joy if he had been here to witness the proud moment of Jake’s first trash rescue.

Grandpa Ben in Topeka

Grandpa Ben is now at the Brewster Place medical unit in Topeka.  We have been seeing him a lot, and will continue to do so– we missed today because Gershwin was home from school today ( she had a fever last night).  Actually, tomorrow he has to go back to follow-up with the surgeon about his leg incision, but will return tomorrow evening. Then, mom and dad (Dale and Becky) will go to Coldwater and then Liberal for at least a few days.  I don’t think Dad has decided how much time he is comfortable being away from Grandpa Ben, and he feels like he needs to stay close by to make sure GB doesn’t feel abandoned or get too dependent.  I personally think GB should stay in the facility till they are sure he isn’t going to benefit any more from therapy.  He seems to be happy, everytime we have been there he has talked about how nice everyone is.  He has only been there a few days, so when he has been there long enough to start remembering the people he is meeting, I think he will enjoy the socialization even more.  I know that Dale is anxious for him to be back home, but I also know that Grandpa wasn’t happy there, and just seemed to be waiting to go.

Feel free to come on to Topeka to visit– we will all squeeze in together somehow!  G doesn’t mind giving up her bed for the floor, and we have a sofa too.  I am not much of a hostess, though, and we are really aren’t in a financial position to feed people, but the heat is paid!

 

I have really been enjoying having Granny here to talk knitting with!

Kk