Saturday, March 19, 2011

11 years!

Yesterday was our 11th anniversary and we enjoyed a beautiful spring day together. We went to the Botanical Gardens and walked the many trails winding through all kinds of plants, trees and shrubs.

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Mini-me and Dad. “Can we reach around this tree?”

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Just barely!

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Appropriately, Savannah was wearing a shirt with 11 on it! :) And, just today, I thought how it would have been cute if we would have made a heart with our hands.

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We also went to the Birmingham Art Museum and enjoyed looking at the exhibits. We will have to go back another day because we were all pretty hungry by then :)

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We ate an early supper at Red Robin before Hadden had baseball practice (chicken pesto pasta – YUM!). We all really like the American flag made from baseballs, so we snapped a shot of it before leaving. Finally, we played for a little while at Learning Express Toys. The kids made a chain from “zoobs”.

The weather was absolutely beautiful and it was a very fun day. My dear hubby even watched “Ever After” with me at the end of the day. Ah, bliss! :)

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Loving this spring weather!!

We are enjoying some incredible spring weather here in Alabama and it is a nice break from the rain. Baseball and soccer are in full swing, so we are hopping getting kids to their various practices and games. This past winter was very quiet - I didn't have any painting to do or other tasks to keep me busy, so I was really looking forward to spring sports starting to fill some of that down time. Boy, did that down time get filled! But I really do love it. Savannah has had 2 soccer games, and Hadden has his first game next Thursday.

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Neli was fixed last Monday - whew! She now is feeling better, however, and would really like to be outside enjoying the sunshine. Unfortunately, we have to try to keep her calm and quiet for about 4-6 more days.

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Savannah will be doing the standard testing next month, so we are doing practice tests right now. Any suggestions for spelling? She is a very avid reader, but can't spell for beans! I used to do spelling lists and tests, but have not been doing those for a while. Any hints would be greatly appreciated.

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Homeschooling is going pretty well. Having our week scheduled out in advance has been a major improvement for all of us. This week, we have taken a bit of a break because the public schools are on spring break. We decided to take a break from a big load and enjoy some of the nice weather, too. 43 days to go :)

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I started making my own granola and it is so yummy! I saw a couple of recipes for crackers, so I think I will try that next. I need to get some of the ingredients first.

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John went to PA with We Care for 5 whole nights! The kids and I stayed home because of sports, but then most of the events were rained out. 5 whole nights is a really long time!!!

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Planning on putting a garden in - John made me some raised boxes and now I just need to clean them out and put some dirt in. Later tonight (after it cools down some), I am hoping to get working on that.

Friday, March 4, 2011

I will try really hard ...

From now on, when John is working on a project, I will try really hard:

1. to not laugh when he asks me where his pencil is after he just had it 2 seconds ago.

2. to be more quick to help him find tools, get something, etc.

3. to be more quick to listen to him think things through.

4. to run for the charged battery for the power tool.

5. to not complain that he doesn't feel up to putting all of the tools away immediately.

Today, while John was gone, I had to rig up two temporary caps for the camper. Yesterday I found one of the little vent caps on the ground, completely destroyed. The kids then told me that there was another one missing, and sure enough, there was. I really wanted to blame the dogs because they are normally not innocent in these kinds of things, but there was really no way they could get on top of the camper.

After investigating this morning, it seems that the Alabama sun was too much for the hard plastic and they had basically disintegrated.

Since there is rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow, the gaping holes in the top of the camper really needed something over them. And, boy, do I appreciate John all the more - he makes this stuff look so easy!

After coming up with a game plan,
hunting tools and supplies,
3 separate phone calls to John,
a splinter,
sawdust in my eyes,
a broken bit (seriously? HOW did that happen?),
a dead and then replaced battery,
screws the wrong length,
hunting for more screws,
whew - found some,
assembling,
putting the first cap on,
running into "issues",
rethinking,
sawing more off of the bottom board,
praying,
coercing,
whew - it worked,
repeat most steps for second cap,
oh, good, this one was much easier,
tightening down,
exhausted,
still had to put all the tools away (ladder is still waiting),
I am DONE!

Now, off to put that ladder away before it blows away :)