Agreeing with everyone today . . . except for a dreadful occurrence in our area over the past weekend. Gruesome. More later.

Got a call from my Ms. Emily *8YO last night. She is our negotiator (should work for a travel agency figuring out hotel prices, right?). Anyway, she has decided that Nana is going to take her to the American Girl store (have one about 70-75 miles away) and she has been perusing their latest catalog. I tell you, the kid has to learn some finance skills and pretty soon, too. So she tells me last night that I should pick her up today so she can work for me and earn some money and she has decided that she can't accept a mere $5 an hour - she will need $10 an hour to meet her goals. Oh, if life were only that easy. Wonder if she can get me an increase in my Social Security? I explained that I would let her work but $10 an hour was way out of my budget.

So, I called Mom later and asked if she was aware that Emily was expecting me to buy her a $95 bed for her American Girl Doll, a $34 bedding set, a pet dog and a dog bed (who knows what those cost). Momma starts laughing. Seems that Emily has made up lists and lists of things she NEEDS and the first list she shared came to over $400. What a kid. I think we'll probably just tour the store, have lunch with all the dolls, maybe get our hair done, and then come home. I'd sew up all kinds of doll bedding sets if I could sell them for $34 - and Papa says he could make a bed that would rival anything on the market for less than $95.

So, today I will be working with Ms. Emily - and her sister, Michelle is coming, too. We are tasked with moving all my scrapbooking materials from my sewing room to my art studio. Starting the second full week in August I will be doing some very special art and craft projects with the three older girls - for two weeks. They have decided they want to learn to do paper mache (so we'll be making pinatas), origami, friendship braided bracelets (though they can probably teach me - but we will learn some new macrame knots), acrylic and water color painting, and scrapbooking. We are also going to be doing some special drawing lessons before tackling the painting projects.

I don't know if anyone has figured out that I come on here and ramble on because it does help me get my old befuddled brain working in the mornings.

I sincerely hope that everyone survives the heat and whatever other bad calamities are facing us around the world. Here's to better health, wealth, and total happiness.