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My First Update can be found here

Family_continued

4. Support daughter in decision regarding WestValley

Lauren’s high school offers students the opportunity to take high school and college courses starting at the junior level at West Valley Junior College. The program is not so much about academics, a B average (which she has) and being 16 (which she wasn’t) is all that’s required, but more about fitting in. Some kids thrive in a high school environment, some don’t. I disliked high school, I loved college. I may have been of some influence on Lauren but she also realized she wasn’t very much, if at all, tied into her high school. She ultimately decided not to go after having been accepted (they waived the age requirement), I think, when she realized that while it might be easy to leave her high school behind, it would not be easy to leave her best friend, Jimmy, behind.

8. Preparations for Boston & New York
Some stuff from Boston          Some stuff from New York

This started out as two goals, one city in 2009 and one in 2010 but we finally figured whatthehell, since we’ll be back east anyway why not just take the train from either Boston to New York or the other way around and save ourselves the second flight out. The flight to either city from California is the really big, and expensive, deal. And so we did. After one wonderful week in Boston, we were in New York in four easy hours where we spent two fantastic weeks being touristy New Yorkers. Personally, I could have stayed much longer…like maybe forever. And Lauren and I will undoubted be using our photos from both cities for at least another 6 months to a year in 100_snapshots.

Home

3. Paint hallway_one side is light yellow, the other creamy white, not a huge difference but enough in actuality if not photographically.

When we got the kitchen remodeled in the summer of 2008, having some walls removed impacted the hallway and until I finally repainted it, it remained divided, of two worlds, part the old colors and part the new. Now we have unity and, therefore, harmony. I actually felt the house heave a sigh of relief. Wheee!!

6. Remove carpet from & refinish wood floors in daughter’s bedroom

This is a small part of the much larger task of ‘remodeling Lauren’s bedroom’. Original to this house, the wood floors have been protected by carpeting for years. One by one, we have been removing the carpet from the bedrooms, first the master and now Lauren’s with only the office to go. We have almost completed the remodeling task as well with just a couple of more boxes to be unpacked that, for whatever reason, she won’t do and with some pictures left to be hung when she finally tells me where she wants them. We’ve been going around on this for over two months, so seriously, give me a break. (I forgot to take a pic before removal so, pic shows torn out carpet in garage patiently waiting dumping. The refinished floors will show-up in the pics of her , FINALLY, redone bedroom for my month of March update.)

Personal/ LJ

5. Continue doing the monthly “one good thing” post on LJ for 2009

One of my favorite LJ writers, in and around the QAF fandom (he has this thing for Brian), is big_brian_o  who, in 2008 in his Happy New Year post, asked that we do good things for each other and others. I decided to follow his advice by once a month posting about a cause or an organization that my family and I believe in. I don’t know if doing this helped any but it felt good doing it and that matters.
If you are interested, the posts can be found in my memories here. I talk about organizations that range from Defenders of Wildlife to the ACLU, from FreeRice to The National Trust for Historic Preservation.