Week two of the new job and I am loving it. Nothing like 'trial by fire' though. I am training while doing. Last issue was a small issue, thank goodness, but his one has 29 pages. But already I am starting to feel more comfortable. Tomorrow I am going to be left on my own, all alone, by myself, no one to hold my hand - as my daughter said, "left alone to make mistakes?", (she's 9) yes...hope the mistakes are few but at least I can still fall back on the fact that I am in training, the editor has been there for 3 years and he's still blaming his screw ups on being a newbie.

School is in next Wednesday. Sarah is dying to know who her grade 4 Teacher will be but I am sworn to secrecy. I am happy to say she will be pleasantly surprised and most of her friends will be with her. She won't find out until the first day back. I almost told her this morning but I will enjoy seeing her face when her name is called to join the rest of her class. The Principal will give a little speech and call each teacher one by one and call off the names of the students of her class to join her. From there each class will head off down the hall towards their classroom. It is always an exciting time. Used to be that the students knew before the first day of school which Teacher they had. The kids used to call each other to ask who they got and if they were in each other's class. There certainly is a lot more anticipation this way.

Shawville Fair starts next Thursday. Kids plan on spending a lot of time there, a lot of money too. If you haven't been to the Shawville Fair you are missing out on one of the greatest little fairs in the Pontiac, "up the line". It's a real agricultural experience with horse and cattle shows, there always very strong showing by our young 4H members. Maria Hawkins will be here - she's a great performer from Ottawa. Always a great source of entertainment and a great way to say 'good-bye' to summer.

Can't believe Ben will be 12 on the 3oth of August. He has asked for 4-wheeling gear, pants and jersey...can't wait to see him all decked out. He's gotten over the fact that he has to start school on or near his birthday each year. This year he didn't even ask for a party. He has asked if his buddy Matt can spend the night - his school gives them a day off on the Friday, which turns out to be the day after his birthday - because a lot of the kids are either 4-H members or skip school to go to the fair so the school has gotten smart and closed for the day - attendance was always very low so why not. We have plans to go out for breakfast on the Friday morning with our friends visiting from Calgary and Kris and her twins.

Friends leave to go back to Calgary on the 3rd., really going to miss them. The girls stayed here for the first week. Mom and Dad came in later. When they left the house was sadly quiet, they fit right right in just like one of the family. Alex and Ben drove to Bristol and took the girls 4-wheeling one day, they all had a blast.

Too bad they weren't back here living, I could see the 4 of them spending a lot of time together - hanging out, 4-wheeling. Alex says he misses them. Emma, the girl on the red bike with Alex punched him in the nose when they were in grade 6 and made his nose bleed. He cried, it's always going to be something he gets teased about - Emma was so tiny and the last person in the world who would ever hit someone but Alex was bugging her so she let him have it. Too funny! Grace says she wants Ben to be her brother, not sure that's how he wants to be thought of, secretly he has always had a bit of a crush on her...they are the two on the blue bike.

Summer has gone by too fast, can't say we had a great summer weather-wise but the time spent has been great.