Goodbye Again

Monday Brandon went back to Ontario. It was very sad, I hate saying goodbye to him. He does however, make me laugh! I love this boy who has been here for a week and decides after we leave for the airport that maybe he should have seen that last room in our house. Zoe's bedroom is under construction and therefore the door is always closed. Brandon had never peeked into it and thought he had better see it before he leaves. So we turn the truck around and head back. He sees the room and is happy. We get in the truck again, start the engine and head out the driveway "Wait mom. Maybe I should hold a chicken just once before I leave." Back up the truck, turn off the engine and go find Racheal. Chicken held, photo taken, and we get back in the truck. I did not start the engine, I did not head out the driveway, instead I turned to look at Brandon. I ran off a list of everything he may not have done or seen to decide if there was anything else he wanted to do before we left for the final time. Nope, he was good! Off to the airport we went. His flight was delayed so we enjoyed one last meal together at the airport then took our family selfie and sent him through security. The hardest part of this goodbye is not knowing when we will see him again. At every other parting we have been able to say "See you in August" or "See you at Christmas" or "See you this summer". This time I was at a loss as no future plans have been made.

At home, things have continued to go well for Zoe and me on the work front. As I believe I mentioned before, Zoe has proven herself at work to be honest, reliable, and hard working and as a result has been promoted to supervisor. She was thrilled and has done an amazing job in that role. Sadly though this is just a summer job and will be coming to an end next week. Then the job search starts again and she will apply these newly acquired skills to another position. I love working at the YMCA. Both the staff and members are terrific. Everyone is so happy and welcoming and I feel so lucky to have been given the opportunity to work there. About a month ago there was a different position posted within our YMCA that I applied for. I was fortunate enough to get this and am now Membership and Sales Lead. I am still learning all the responsibilities of this new position, but have a very supportive group of coworkers who are making the transition very comfortable.


One of my coworkers has a young dog with whom Dixie has become friends. We have had two previous dog dates for them to socialize and run and have fun. This weekend we met for a third such date. This time however we decided to take them to the beach at low tide so they could run on the mud flats. We had not quite anticipated how soft the mud would be though and had two nose to tail mud covered puppies. They had so much fun and were so exhausted that it was totally worth the mud flung everywhere bathroom as I tried to bath Dixie on our return home!

No blog is complete without the weekly chicken update: our new fifteen girls were introduced to the original flock of hens this week. We are letting them all out together for a few hours in the evening and it is going very well. My instinct is to protect, so when Monica starts chirping and nipping at my new babies, I just want to step in and shoo her away. But I know there is a pecking order that has to be established and over the week it has been interesting to watch this develop. There have been a few plucked feathers and a few arguments. But things are settling down now and the two groups are starting to mix.