I was really trying to only post through Twitter this week…but this one I feel I need to post on. My Dad’s dog Trooper had to be put down today due to complications from cancer and surgery. It’s been a tough day being here while my family is dealing with it at home. I feel silly crying so much in front of the youth here about my parents’ dog but he really was like a family member to all of us. Heather posted a great post today about it. Suddenly I really hope all dogs really do go to Heaven. I miss you, Trooper!
what i did today
Youth Camp Week
Alrighty, I think I’m all packed and ready to head out in the morning. I’ll be attending StudentLife camp in Winston-Salem, NC. I’m really looking forward to Todd Agnew as our worship leader. I’ll be gone until Friday afternoon sometime. I’m really excited to go and am planning to enjoy my week “off”. I’m going to miss the kids and Scott like crazy but it will be a good week.
I’m taking my laptop and hoping to have WIFI but there are only about 2 hours during the day I would have time to get on and with One Tree Hill beginning to film this week, I’m sure I’ll be devoting my online time to catching up on that scoop. Heather is going to fill in for me on the site so I hope that goes well! Good luck, Heather, only the entire One Tree Hill fan population is counting on you. JK! No pressure. OK, I think I might have just lost Heather. Call for backups! lol
Anyway, I AM planning to twitter quite a bit from my iPhone including pictures using TwitPic. I finally got on board with that this week. Although the kids students are not allowed cellphones so I’m not sure I’ll be whipping mine out a lot. We’ll see though. I’ll go into withdrawals without any online access! I will have access to emails on my phone though for sure, so hit me up there if you need me. Other than that, all I can say is enjoy your week!
My normal day
I just found this picture on my camera and I can’t tell you how indicative it is of our normal day. Let me point out things just in this picture that tell of my day:
- I have two computers in front of me. Yes, I check up on personal email and stuff while I work throughout the day.
- I’m in my pajamas. Actually, I’m in my bathing suit with my pajamas on top. We had just gone swimming. My hair is wet here and I have no makeup on. That is pretty typical at least in the mornings for me. For the summers, it’s typical that I don’t get a shower until after I’m done working at 4. There’s just no point when we swim at lunch time and then sometimes in the evenings.
- Lexi’s hair is falling out. I’m really bad at fixing my girls’ hair on a daily basis. Normally I can get myself to brush through Emma’s hair but for Lexi, she screams when I do it, so I usually just leave it alone when it’s in a ponytail until it is in really bad shape as it is in this picture.
- Lexi’s dress is not buttoned. Lexi loves wearing dresses. Sometimes multiple ones per day. And I’m just too lazy to do the buttons. If you don’t believe me about the dresses. Let me show you how many dresses I washed TODAY of theirs. Usually, I wait a few weeks to wash all the dresses at once.
- My breakfast is still sitting on my desk. Yes, this is why Scott, Mr. OCD, goes insane with me around sometimes.
- My hot pink high heels are lying on the ground. The girls love to walk in my shoes and that pair just didn’t get put up yet.
- Emma is writing. She loves to write and color. Especially on my printer paper. In this case, she was writing a recipe. I would not want to try it.
- But most importantly, the 3 of us are together and I’m working. And that’s why I love working at home and even if there on top of me, dishes aren’t up, shoes are lying around, Emma’s making a mess coloring, I don’t get a shower until 5, I LOVE IT!
Overheard in Chick-fil-A last night
3yo-ish boy to Daddy sitting behind us. I caught the tail end of their conversation: Daddy, can I have some ice cream? *pause* Can I have some ice cream?
Daddy: Cayden! You don’t have to ask me 50 times!!
I cracked up laughing. I could have sworn Scott switched seats with that other guy.
Calm before the storm
I guess you could say tonight was the calm before the storm. I went into work today which turned out to be a pleasant day. Nothing like Mexican, M&M’s, Root Beer, friends and very little work to make a day.
Emma however was fighting a fever all day. Scott kept Tylenol in her throughout the day and I just had to give her another dose before she went to bed. Lexi had a fever last night but woke up with what feels like maybe a slight fever but she’s been acting completely normal.
Emma on the other hand sat in the recliner the ENTIRE evening barely saying a word which is NOT like her AT ALL. MIL stopped by to see them since she had planned to keep them tonight. She’s convinced Emma has the mumps as her cheeks do look a bit swollen. But I looked it up and mumps are rare these days barring an outbreak somewhere in the Midwest two years ago and it’s caused by a virus so there’s not much they can do. I’m just going to keep an eye on her fever for now and if her cheeks or jaws become painful, I’ll take her in to the doctor just to verify her diagnosis. Who knows what it is though.
So basically all that to say we had a VERY quiet night at home. I kept up with the laundry and the kids basically watched TV. I hate for them to watch it that long but Emma really didn’t feel like doing anything else and Lexi made herself busy on her own as always.
Tomorrow MIL is planning to get the girls assuming they are fever-free in the morning. I’m hoping to clean the house while they’re gone and maybe start packing for both me and the girls for next week. Scott’s not too great at the outfit thing so I’m planning to lay out some clothes for them and go ahead and pack their overnight bags for Tuesday and Wednesday.
I’m getting pretty excited about going. I’m really going to miss my family but I know it will be a great week and honestly, I really need to be a youth camp junkie for a week.
Settlement Day
Today Scott went to finalize his settlement from breaking his collarbone at work almost two years ago (has it been that long?). We already have the entire thing spent I think. We’ll pay off the short note from the truck Scott just bought, pay off the van, tithe and I think that covers it. Back in January we had a list of things from last year we wanted to pay for and now we have a few more marked off:
Hardwood floors in living room/kitchen/entry/playroom
Kitchen countertops
Refrigerator (and stove if I REALLY had a lot of money)
Curtains for my room
Curtains for my living room (if I could figure out what fabric I wanted)
Pay off our van
Get another car for us to use
Bedside table for Scott
Telescopic lens for my camera
New computer that will run Pinnacle including new graphics card with TV Tuner – off the list
DVD camcorder
A few more things I’d like to add:
Water softener
New bedroom suite/bed for the girls
With the money coming in from my OTH site, the IRS check, hopefully selling the Land Rover soon and so forth, our savings account is becoming quite healthy and I’m SO happy about that…not to mention the fact we are going to have NO car payment. Whoo Hoo!
Random Blog Notes
I make notes on my iPhone about posts I want to do. But sometimes they’re too cryptic to understand. Like this one:
Line into vending machine
Today the day we get eaten alive
I’d really like to know what wisdom I was going to share with that one. Are we surprised that one was written at 12:45am?
Pros and Cons of a Pool
If you haven’t noticed, with the extreme heat in the area, we’ve been spending a lot of time in the pool since it opened this weekend. You may be wishing you had one at your disposal as well but there are some disadvantages. I’d say right now #1 on the Pros list beats all the others but it doesn’t come without work and lots of it!
Pros:
- There’s a pool in your backyard
- It’s a go-to entertainment tool for parties
- It keeps the kids busy during the summer
- Your kids are familiar with the pool/water
- You get a tan
- People come visit you
Cons:
- There’s a pool in your backyard
- You have to build a deck around the pool
- You have to buy furniture for on the deck
- You have to stain the deck
- You have to buy pool toys/floaties/goggles and usually every year
- You have to buy containers to store the pool toys/floaties in
- You have to go to the pool store fifty bagillion times
- You have spend fifty bagillion dollars at the pool store
- You get burned
- You have to have a lot of food on hand
- You have to wash lots of towels
- The towels take too much room in your hall closet
- Insurance goes up
- Stress level is higher with the kid/water combination
- You have to scoop algae/leaves/bugs/hair/unnamed things out of the pool, sometimes with your hands
- You have to vacuum the pool
- You have to cover the pool (unless it’s 101 outside and it’s hot enough)
- You have to clean your floor more often because everyone tracks in grass/dirt from walking in
So yeah, I think that’s my official complaint list on the pool. But right now, I wouldn’t give it up!