Happy 16th, Bentley!

Yup, you read that title right: Bentley is 16!  And I know exactly what you're thinking: can he drive now???

And the answer to that is: No.  Not yet.  Virginia has its own way of doing driver's licenses, and they require that you have your learner's permit for a minimum of 9 months before you can get your license.  But you can't get your permit until you're 15½.  Which means the absolute earliest anyone can ever get their license is when they're 16¼. So he'll be eligible for a driver's license on Christmas Eve.  

I have mixed feelings about those rules, but mostly I'm okay with them.  Trying to get your driver's license on your birthday feels like a great way to totally ruin your birthday if you don't pass that test, so I'm glad we aren't putting kids through that.  Give them a few months to get used to being sixteen before you let them drive solo!

So, yes, Bentley is 16, but not driving just yet.

For his birthday, he wanted to eat out at Citizen Burger Bar, so we all enjoyed a meal with Grandma and Grandpa on the downtown mall while the weather is perfect!

Bentley takes his hamburgers VERY seriously.  His favorite thing is if he can get a fried egg included in it.

Then we got doughnuts, the only dessert item Bentley likes:

We even had the candles for "1" and "6"!

And then he opened his present from Grandma and Grandpa:

The faces Bentley pulls make me laugh...

This is a much better picture, though, I suppose...

This year he just asked for cash.  But Grandma and Grandpa had a lot of fun giving it to him in various bills and coins and then hiding it all throughout that box!  They made him work for it a little bit!

The next day I took him shopping-- we hit Target, Costco, and the new Marshalls that opened near me.  And had lunch at Torchy's.  As much as I hate shopping, we had a very fun time of it!  And then yesterday he got a gym membership.  So Bentley is living his best life for his birthday!

I can't believe he once was my tiny little baby!

This might be my favorite picture from the hospital...

At Rachael's wedding when Bentley was three; I'm 5 months pregnant with Ryder here...

From our portraits with Adam last October.  Bentley's grown at least an inch since this, and gotten his braces off... Time for more pictures!!!

Happy Birthday, Bentley!!!

Windshield Update

I did, in fact, call about my windshield again.  They said they had one in stock now and could install it on Thursday (why they hadn't reached out to me like they'd promised to do is a big question, but what can you do?).  I was given the same 8am-5pm window, with assurances that the technician would text when he was on his way.

He showed up at 8:45 without texting.  I'd been planning on walking around the neighborhood with my friends, so he was lucky we hadn't left yet.  But I was thrilled he was there and had a windshield for me and everything!  We watched as he and another guy installed it.  He'd said it should take about an hour and twenty minutes (part of that time was driving around to make sure it was properly calibrated).  After about a half hour he knocked again.  This wasn't the right windshield for the cameras on my van and couldn't be calibrated.  So they'd put the old, cracked windshield back in.  He promised to come back on Tuesday with the right one.  At this point it had all become so ridiculous I couldn't stop laughing.

Later that evening, as I was in the middle of cooking dinner and making sure the kids showed up for each of their piano lessons (this is harder than you might think, since they're constantly running off to neighbors' houses).  I got a call from the middle school: it was Ryder!  He'd somehow missed the bus (???) and needed me to come and pick him up.  The middle school is a ways away, so I frantically tried to get everything on the stove to a place where I could walk away for a bit.  Then I jumped in the van and... it wouldn't start.

A light was on inside.  I guess the technician had left that on when he left, and it drained the battery?

So now I'm no longer laughing.  I'm frantically calling and texting everyone I know trying to find a ride to the middle school and I'm also calling Safelite demanding that they fix my car.  They promised to come right over and jump it.  They never showed up.  (A neighbor was able to pick up Ryder, since her son had also missed the bus.  What the heck, schools???).  I tried calling Safelite again this morning since my car was still dead, and the main office guy couldn't get the local store to answer their phone.  He gave me their direct line and suggested I call them myself.

Instead I called my insurance and asked if there were any other companies they could contract with.  And if they could send out roadside assistance, too (which they did, in less than an hour).  

The new guys are scheduled for this Wednesday.  They said they've heard similar bad stories about Safelite.  Here's hoping the Glass Doctor is better.  

And I can't decide if I care enough to cancel on Safelite, or if I should just waste their time like they've been wasting mine.

My life is so stupid sometimes.

How I'm Spending My Days

I feel like we've been very busy.  In the spring, Adam's assistant, Stephanee, said she'd like to cut back on her hours.  I've always told him that I wanted her job if she ever quit (but I made sure he knew I wasn't trying to compete with Stephanee-- as long as she was happy, I wasn't interfering).  So Adam asked me if I still wanted it.  And I do!  So I'm hoping to finish up with the closed files at Smith Bain and then maybe I can just drop in every now and then and get them caught up on their filing?  I'm still trying to figure out how that will look.  And in the meantime, Adam is training me as his assistant and we are eating lots of tacos as we work, which is a great way to learn a new job!  How did I go from being sad about not getting the library job to juggling two part-time jobs that are both perfect for me in very different ways?

And in between stuff like that, a lot of my time is going towards taking care of kids, trying to get the house clean again after the summer destruction we've wrought on it (I've been meaning to tackle Colton and Camille's room and my own filing for weeks now, but I keep finding other things to do instead...), and a fair amount of car maintenance.  For example, two weeks ago Craig got pulled over and learned that the safety inspection sticker in his car that says "Jan 22" does NOT mean that he got it this last January.  It means it expired last January.  Oops!  The cop was very nice about the whole thing, but we switched cars so I could spend a day tracking down a place that could do the inspection that day.  (I did.  It passed.  You're welcome, Craig!)  And I had last Thursday set aside to stay home and wait for a repairman to come to my house and replace the windshield on my van, which has had a crack spreading across it since May and is now VERY impressive (and by "impressive" I mean 3 feet long and "trashy").  They had helpfully told me to plan on the guy coming between 8am and 5pm.  Then around 10am they texted that he should be here in 15 minutes.  Great!

Then he didn't show up.  I waited an hour before I finally called.  The poor guy had gotten in an accident!  So I had to reschedule.  (He was fine.  I wonder if my windshield survived, though?)  I was stuck at home again this last Thursday.  This time they called in the morning to tell me they weren't sure they even HAD a windshield for my car.  But they assured me they were working on it and would get back to me.  They never did.  I need to call them again Monday, I guess.  Or see if my insurance will work with someone else...

I also had the van in the shop on Tuesday to flush out my transmission and fix a leaky hose.  They did the safety inspection and passed it, which was very generous, considering that cracked windshield.

Between stuff like that, it feels hard to ever get anything else done!

This week, the secretary at Smith Bain is out (she's going to Disney World, lucky woman!) so I can focus on trying to figure out more of what I do for Adam.

And maybe find a nice afternoon to sit by the pool before it closes?  Maybe?

That's what I'm doing while the kids are in school.  Obviously, once they're home, I'm running around like a crazy person trying to get them to and from their various activities.  I've always tried really hard to not over-schedule ourselves, but when each kid does one thing (Bentley: tennis; Kendra: marching band; Ryder: baseball; Colton: gymnastics; Camille: gymnastics), plus piano, plus church activities...  That's actually a whole lot.  Add in my own evening stuff (choir just started back up!  and my beloved book club!) and all of Craig's stuff...  And, yeah, we're really busy it turns out.

We also managed to go to a UVA football game a couple weeks ago:

The last time we went was seven years ago (Camille was a baby!), so it was definitely time!  UVA won and we had fun, even if it was very hot and sweaty.  We went home and everyone showered and then we went to dinner at the Melting Pot to celebrate Craig and my birthdays.  My kids love fondue and had never been, so this was something of a revelation to them!

I look pretty sunburned here, but I LOVE the looks of delight on Ryder's and Bentley's faces!

Happy birthday to us!

So we are having fun, too!  We aren't just running around like crazy people.

Also, one morning there was fog sitting between the hills and I got this great picture as we were walking to the bus stop:

I'm looking forward to cooler weather!  Any day now...