It only ends once.

The girl and I are giddy over her new science books that arrived last week! We are going to use them for homeschooling, but we keep peeking and reading things now--it's hard to wait with books that good! We won't be able to wait until fall, so we'll be working through some experiments and labs this summer. One of the books has a lab on how to extract your own DNA from a saliva sample. I'm ridiculously excited about that one for some reason, so we might even have to jump out of order a bit, because it's toward the end of the curriculum.

Here are of the pups trying to keep cool Sunday afternoon. We had storms today that finally broke the 90+ degree weather we've been having. It's hell on the garden, the dogs, and the chubby menopausal woman (who should be losing weight from all the damn sweating!)!

We had a security system installed in our home last week. I feel a little stupid about it, because in my paranoid mental world, I think it looks like we are materialistic, when that has nothing to do with it. Losing our laptops would be a huge inconvenience, but we could get over it. The only “stuff” we have that I would be absolutely devastated to lose are pictures and things my kids or grandparents made. Since those things have sentimental and no material value, I think they are pretty safe from thieves. The reason we started looking into the security system initially was for the safety of our animals.

I’ve long worried about a fire occurring when we are away from home. We have smoke alarms throughout the house (which I need to battery test!), but they do no good if we are away. I don’t want my precious animals burning to death in the time it takes for a neighbor to notice the fire and call it in! I like the concept of the security systems with the fire detection that has heat sensors and contacts the fire dept. immediately. It’s the only shot my babies would have in a fire situation (which I hope we never face!). This is one of the many thoughts that get me all worked up in the middle of the night and interfere with my sleep!

One would think, then, that I would have had a little peace once the installation was complete. Instead of panicking and worrying over fire issues (instead of sleeping), my brain decides to start a new panicky thought. It struck me that the security system’s control center allows for two-way communication with their monitoring service. Two-way communication means they can hear what is going on in our house! I do not like that idea at all! So yet again, I’m lying awake panicky over something that’s pretty stupid by the light of day.

I’m starting to adjust to the idea, but I still feel a little invaded by it. We will keep it, because I feel that I need to do everything in my power to protect the innocent lives who depend on me for safety. I will probably not have very many conversations in the room in which the control center is installed for a while. Eventually, I probably won’t be bothered by it at all, but for the time being, I just keep reminding myself of how much safer my babies are at all times now.

LOST. I'm seriously greiving this week. I would absolutely not let something as epic as the finale of the best tv show ever made pass without discussing it. I'm finding myself much more emotional over the loss of LOST than I anticipated I would be! It's semi-crazy! So, the LOST post(s) will be coming soon. I will have a little more time (and hopefully less sadness) later this week to work on that.