It was a great week with Samantha and Jennifer. The only problem was with the YMCA camp that Jennifer had signed Sam up with. The communication was terrible between them and Jennifer. They told her to provide a lunch, but the first day at 10 AM all of the kids had a snack that they brought and poor Samantha had a bag of tortilla chips that one of the counselors dragged out for her. She felt bad that she didn't have a snack and Jen was pissed that they hadn't communicated with her to provide a morning and afternoon snack.
We met Jennifer at the facility (a Catholic church) at noon and took her and Sam to lunch at a deli. After lunch, Jennifer went back to work and Darla and I took Sam to the mall to do some school shopping. We bought her a couple of outfits with leggings and tops and tried to get her some new tennis shoes. She wanted some shoes that were "ballerina" shoes and have a built in round spinner on the bottom of the sole at the toes. They are made so the little girls can stand and twirl. Unfortunately, they didn't have any in her size. From there we headed back to downtown Pleasanton and the Organic Ice cream shop. I kept kidding Samantha that she could have any flavor except chocolate and she loves chocolate. When we got to the shop, alas they were out of chocolate, so she made do with a cinnamon flavored ice cream. We took her back to the apartment and then to the pool. Jennifer got home about 4:30 and we took her to the park next door. Jennifer and McKenny treated us to dinner at a little oriental restaurant across the street from their apartment. From there we drove home.
On Tuesday, Jennifer packed two snacks, a lunch and when she showed up with Samantha, she was very concerned that they just had her sign in and no one paid any attention to Samantha, getting her into a group or settled in. It bothered Jend when she picked Sam up and found out that they had gone to the pool that afternoon and Sam had to sit by herself in the shade because she didn't have a swimsuit, Jennifer demanded her money back and pulled Sam out of the program. She was ticked off and sad for Samantha. The program was run by a bunch of high school kids with one administrator and Jennifer was very uncomfortable having her precious daughter in a poorly run program. She worked from home the rest of the week and Sam got to stay with her, which of course Samantha loved.
She took Samantha to ice skating Tuesday night as Sam has replaced her karate with ice skating. She missed her lesson last week in Las Vegas and so Jen took her to the rink in Dublin. She also took Thursday off and they went to the museum in San Francisco and had lunch there.
Friday night they drove up to Roseville. Initially McKenny was coming with them, but he checked his calendar midweek and had a record swap that he had committed to and had to stay home Saturday. I was already committed to a golf game with Boyd and Darren and was home a little after 11 Saturday. They were up about 8 and Darla and David took them to breakfast in Roseville at The Pacific Street Café, a train theme restaurant that has a full scale railroad that runs through the restaurant. Sam loved it and played with all of the toys, including a Mr. Potato head. They were all in the pool when I got home and I was hot and sticky after shooting 82 at Woodcreek.
I fixed some hot dogs on the bbq, but they were all full from breakfast ( I had a half a breakfast sandwich at the turn). I fixed my food and was heading back outside and somehow didn't realize the screen door was closed and ended up with hot dogs, relish, mustard and ketchup all over myself. They all had quite a laugh, but it is rude to the elderly to make fun of them.
Sam soon tired of the pool and spa and wanted to take a picnic lunch to the park across the street, so we brought drinks, sandwiches and chips to the park and ate in the shade of the trees. Sam played on the playground equipment and then wanted to play "Duck, Duck, Goose." I had never heard of the game and Darla and Jennifer were amazed that I didn't know it. I guess it is one of the first games that toddlers learn. And everyone sits down and the "Goose" walks around tapping each person and saying "Duck'. When they say "Goose" you have to get up and chase them back around to your spot. If you tag them before they get back to your spot you get to sit back down, if not then you are the Goose. This is not a game played in Canada. I think it would be "Beaver, Beaver, Moose" in Canada.
From there we headed back to the house and played Wii bowling, golf and tennis and Sam had a ball. She would do a little dance whenever she won a game and it was so cute. She also wanted to play pool and we moved all of Darla's Silpada samples off of the pool table and David, Jennifer, Sam and I played pool. We ended up back in the pool. I slept for awhile and the girls went through Darla's jewelry and Jennifer loaded up on retirement jewelry. Sam came out and woke me up by jumping on to my chaise lounge in the pool while I was fast asleep and scaring me half to death. We played for a while longer and then I cooked a tri tip for dinner and we had corn on the cob and fruit salad. Darla got Sam to take some pictures by taking pictures of Jennifer and David. That's the picture of her with crossed eyes with her Mom.
They left about 7 PM and John was at Jennifer's house this morning at six for the ride back to Vegas. Jennifer had an easier time saying goodbye knowing that She will be back in Vegas next weekend to get Sam set up for school and back permanently once her new job starts. It was hard to say goodbye and Sam always asks to stay with Jennifer, but easier because that will all soon be part of the past. Darla thinks that Sam will always remember this and she has trouble saying goodbye to us as well. Saturday night when it was time to say goodbye, she just clung to her Mom. We finally got our kisses when she was in her car seat and ready to go. I'm now thinking that we will make the trip to Vegas after all. Life is short.
Darla officially quit her job on Thursday and I'm a wreck trying to figure out how to replace $5000 a month in income. It will come from her jewelry business, but that will take her time to take it to the next level. in the meantime, the belt is tightening. Darla and I talked the other night about areas where we can cut back and I said, you could do without a nail treatment each month and massages each month and eating out so much. She stopped and said, "Hey, all of the cuts are coming from me." I said, "Well, I'm not making any changes in my work." She wasn't amused.
Well, that was short and sweet, but Darla is working on grilled sausages on the barbecue and I don't want her to muck them up. We are off to Tahoe next weekend with Neil and Lilly for Neil's 70th birthday and I will try to get a blog entry in on Saturday. Saturday is the Rose Cup qualifier at Diamond Oaks and I would love to get back on that team. I hope you are all well and living in the shadow of our Lord and Savior. Ciao.
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