pacemakers and fire alarms

It's been a while since I updated last! Been keeping busy! Last month we all went to the shore with Jay, Lisa and the kids for a long weekend. It was a great trip. The kids had so much fun together, and the weather held out nicely for us. On our last day there, we got a call from home saying that George's dad was in the hospital, having a pacemaker "installed." Apparently his heart stopped a few times, and they had to put the paddles on him to reboot. It's pretty much the same thing that happened to my dad a few years ago, when Abby was a baby. Everyone was very scared, as you can imagine. But everything went very well. So well that the next week, even though I worried Al was not going to be ready for such a trip, we headed down to the boat with Al and Dot for our annual cruise. Actually, not all of us went. Denise took Georgie for the weekend, since he doesn't bunk well on the boat. We dropped him off on Friday, and George and Abby and I enjoyed a couple days at home alone before we headed to the boat on Sunday night. ETA 11pm. This year Al was told not go any further than the canal with the boat. The jerking of the waves in the bay was enough to pull the wires of the pacemaker out of their stratigically placed points in his heart. Late Monday morning, maybe early afternoon, we scooted out of the marina towards the canal, but when we hit the bay, it was so calm that Al dismissed all doctor's orders and he and George kept right on going... to Chesapeake City, where we stayed for two nights.

I started back to class last week. My first day of English was the 7th. I've already had 2 quizzes, written 2 short essays, and I have a big essay due on Tuesday. Sociology just started this Monday, the 13th. So far I think I'm going to love both classes, but they're going to be alot of homework and studying. Sociology class was a bit of a waste on Monday. Someone pulled the fire alarm during the first half-hour of class, and we had to stand outside for 45 minutes until they got everything sorted out. But somehow we still managed to squeeze in 4 pages of notes and a pop quiz on the 20's by the end of the night.

Georgie has been walking everywhere!! He finally got the hang of it. We think Jayme taught him how. He does not like the whole concept of shoes yet. Everytime I put them on his feet, he either crawls, or he'll walk (actually, it's almost an exagerrated march) raising his feet as high as he can lift them, probably hoping the shoes will fall off mid-stride! I guess he'll get used to them, I don't remember if Abby had this problem or not.

M.