Glory hallelujah! Our digital camera has not been working for a couple weeks now. It just gives us a mysterious error message that apparently is only decipherable by the Canon repair dept and they're not sharing! We pretty much knew we were going to have to purchase another and I was OK temporarily taking pictures on my iPhone. But Jeff the Engineer couldn't let the camera go without a fight, so he took it apart last Saturday afternoon. Not seeing anything obviously sticking out or disconnected, he simply reassembled the mess and it now works! Who am I to question!

Bryn toured Carroll University in Waukesha last Friday and actually liked it! They have a unique 6-year, freshman-entry doctorate program in Physical Therapy which is what she wants to go into. Carroll was a great contrast for her to Univ of Minnesota, which she still likes also. It was fun for me to see all the beautiful building improvements since I went there back in the 80s. Bryn even got to meet with the Cross Country/Track coach who was very interested in her and talked running strategies with Bryn. Since we were so close to Kristin's, we stopped in for a quick lunch. Unfortunately, Lucy wasn't so welcoming and cried most of the time.

Bryn and Paige had their first day of school this Tuesday (Sept 1st). Each had a half-day with Paige going in the morning and Bryn in the afternoon. They both go to the high school now with Bryn being a senior and Paige a freshman.

With Bryn and Paige in school this week,

Abby has had a lot of time to herself to get ready to go back to UWL. One of her projects was making a quilt/blanket from squares she cut from old t-shirts. Kids receive t-shirts from so many events, the blanket really is a great idea for a keepsake. Abby went over to Kristin's last

Sunday after church to use her sewing machine to finish it up.

Abby also had several pictures printed and replaced all the pictures in her frames.

I collected the pots Abby and her friends decorated last summer and potted new plants for this year. Only one of the four plants from their freshman year survived! I'm hoping I made better (hearty) plant selections for them this year.

And finally we took Abby and Mark out for a "back-to-college" dinner at Stir Crazy last night. It was delicious. We all had fun watching the chefs torch our dinners in huge flames and then try to eat it with chopsticks. Hard to believe she's leaving us again tomorrow. It's been nice having her home.