Tuesday, November 16, 2021, MN

The grandkids got their Covid shots last Friday and were feeling tired and had sore arms, so they didn’t go to Gymnastics on Saturday but had a ‘hang around the house in your PJ’s’ kind of day. While they were messing u the house, Ben and Jill worked on getting rid of the leaves in the yard, putting down grass seed, and getting the garage ready for winter. They asked if I could come over to hang out with Camille and Norah on Sunday, as Charlotte had a swim meet and Jill had to work, so I offered to pick them up on Saturday afternoon and have a sleepover with them.  Charlotte had a sleepover at a friend’s house, so Jill and Ben got to have a rare evening alone together.

It was a quiet evening, as both were really tired. We had some dinner and watched a movie and went to bed.  They even slept in until 9:00 on Sunday morning.  Then, after breakfast and a walk, we spent the afternoon doing crafts. They both wanted to make something for their teachers, so they made a tissue paper star, a heart, a rainbow, and a soccer ball by wrapping small squares of tissue paper around a pencil eraser, dipping it in glue, and sticking it to the paper shape that they had drawn. Camille made one for her teacher and Norah ended up making three - one for her teacher, her art teacher her PE teacher, and she took the materials home to make one for the music teacher.

Camille’s Star

Norah’s Rainbow, Heart, and Soccer Ball

We also made Thanksgiving Turkeys

Charlotte did well at her swim meet  and got a first place in 50 lap breast stroke and 50 lap freestyle. She also came really close in one other match.

I spent a bit of time yesterday making phone calls to auto repair shops about the brakes on my car. I have two appointments today for inspections. I’m crossing my fingers that it isn’t too expensive.  My first appointment was at Eric’s Repair Shop, just a mile from home, and I was pretty impressed the minute I walked in the door. Their customer service was great, the shops was clean and they got me in right on time. Eric himself did the inspection and called me into the garage to show me what was going on. My front brakes are fine and have another 2 years of life to them, but the rear brake pads and rotors are shot. He also sent me photos of of each wheel that showed exactly what was going on. His price to fix was competitive with other information I had gotten from the dealers and one other shop and he could fix it today, so I gave him the okay and took one of his rental cars home. $540 later, it was all done and I got my car back. Considering that the last time I had brake work done was about 70,000 miles ago in 2015 and the fact that the car hasn’t needed any other work, I am good with that price. I love my Toyota!