Thursday on the bench

(Sunshine) Good morning. We hope that everyone is doing well and has had a good week. It's just me and Carolin today. Louise is at work today and Cathy is home sick with the flu. It's been a good week in our home so far. It is very busy and there is even more to do now that school has started. Teen sunshine has auditioned for the play at her new school and I am so excited for her! She made it and is in full swing rehearsals after school and on weekends. The play is in November so they need to cram it all in. I am so happy for Teen Sunshine. If the dates work I would love to see the play. Little sunshine is a junior this year and she wants to try out for every sport team available. We have been going early for soft ball tryouts and there are more tryouts coming up. She has also started French this year and they are learning to sign as they learn French (a new program at our school this year). The girls are both happy so that makes things a little bit easier.


Mr Sunshine has been out of town for most of the week so things have been really busy. We have a family get together for his side of the family this weekend and I am getting ready for that. Amongst this there are various renovations going on in the house and I had my front porch finally put back together. If you recall we had a skunk problem so that has been dealt with but now the porch has other problems. I will blog about it later.


I am also in the midst of planning a 75th birthday party for my dad coming up in a few weeks. If I wasn't exhausted already, I am now after reading Sunshine's past week.


(Carolin) What a crazy week. Why is it that the first few weeks of school when everyone is busy adjusting to routine and dealing with teacher notes and homework. And then every evening and weekend activity has registration this week. Though I had registered for the fall fair I never did get anything in to them so I guess no ribbons for me.


Sunshine just told me that she saw arancinni (rice balls) at Costco 16 mini for $9.55. Rice Ball day is coming up soon. (really?)With Louise working full time I don't know when we can figure out a date to make them. But I really hope we can get a date cause I can not make the rice balls a small as Louise does. Really benchers all I do is roll the rice balls in the egg and breadcrumbs. We need Sunshine to make the rice, the sauce, and do the frying and Louise to form the rice into small balls, and me to eat them!



Sunshine is talking to Cathy(by phone) and they are complaining about me. Seems now that I have caller display I screen my calls too much. And I don't answer the phone with a happy hello to Sunshine. Between you and me bloggers, there are some nights when Sunshine will call me 5 times in one hour!!!! So yes she is right, by the 5th call I answer with a "what now". Wait a minute everyone! First of all, Carolin will answer with the same tone the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th call. Second of all, I am usually calling to set up a meeting time as instructed by Cathy.(huh?) She usually asks if we are meeting this week and I say that I am good to meet. Then Cathy asks if Carolin is available. When I say I don't know then she asks me to call Carolin and see if she is available.(I sound like the bad guy here!) So, the first call is to see if Carolin is available and I usually end up leaving a message as she isn't home yet. Then Carolin calls me back and gives me some options for possible days. Then I call Cathy back and she gives me her reply. Then I call Carolin back and try to arrange the time(3rd call now) then I call Cathy back to confirm and sometimes I call Carolin's number by mistake (4th call). Then I call Carolin back for a final time to let her know what time we will meet (5th time). In the end I have made about 10 phone calls for one meeting.(whew!). Good thing I am home! In other words this meeting is taking place because of my many phone calls which I do regardless of everyone's tone.(ok, so you are our social convener, have I said thanks, you are doing a great job!) Lastly today, I get a phone call from Cathy saying that after all this, she has the flu and will not be coming today.(I have slept most of the day on the couch.) So I call Carolin to see if she still wants to get together just the two of us. Carolin is not home yet so she calls me back. Then on my way I call to see if she wants anything from Tim Horton's. Thank goodness they don't charge per call.(now I'm exhausted after following all that, it is all true, we do ask Sunshine to co-ordinate our visits. She does a great job!!!!)


Cathy and Sunshine are now discussing(by phone still) that fact that I posted a picture of the little one with her hero. In the past we have discussed the fact of not using our real names for the privacy protection of our families. I decided to post the picture of the little one only after I asked her first and I felt the picture was not a clear picture of her and it was important to the blog. So that brings up the idea of us posting pictures of ourselves. What do all you benchers think?


As I type Cathy and Sunshine are talking about what the Monday "Bench Talk" topic will be. Sunshine wants to know if she is overly sensitive. In her usual fashion, Cathy beats around the bush and when I answer her she just ignores me! So benchers if you haven't worked it out already, YES, SUNSHINE IS WAY TOO SENSITIVE!!!!!!!! MAYBE I AM BUT I DON'T REALLY THINK SO BUT SOMETIMES SITUATIONS MAKE YOU A LITTLE MORE SENSITIVE THAN USUAL. (I ONLY CAPITALIZED BECAUSE CAROLIN CAPITALIZED).(I choose to be neutral, see, little letters :) )


Well I think that I am going to go now. It's been fun watching Carolin do laundry and cut up bread for church and now she is upset that she forgot that she has to cook a meal. She says that she has so much trouble saying no. I think that the word "NO" pours out of her mouth quite easily and attached to the "NO" is "I'm not doing that, It's just stupid."


Carolin is now cutting up onions for the meal and then later she has to go shopping for some supplies. Thank you, Sunshine for grating the cheese for me.


Louise, we hope that you are doing well and Cathy we hope that you are feeling better.

Hi, I have managed to eat a bit and hubby has made me some tea. I will be early to bed tonight as work for me starts at 6am.
I have to say that one of the highlights of my day today was listening to Carolin and Sunshine. At one point I was laughing so hard I was crying! I am so blessed to have such good girlfriends, they brighten up my day.

Until next time, God bless!