Catch Up

What a whirlwind! 

School.  Projects.  School.  Work.  Sleep.  :)

We've been enjoying school.  Our month long study, has been on "You are the salt of the earth."  We are learning what it means to be salt.  How to make our conversations "salty".  We've also been using some recipes that have lots of salt in--beef jerky (the salt is used in preserving), home made ice cream (the salt is used to make it colder). 

We've also been doing some projects.  Still cleaning up outside stuff.  I think we have 1 more time to mow.  Then, we can get the mower stuff put away.  Yesterday, Ben was home for the day, and we had 1 last time of using the fire pit.  We made s'mores, and used our campfire pie makers, and made blueberry pies.  It was a chilly day, and sitting around the fire pit was perfect.

Last week, it really cooled off!  I tried turning the furnace on one day last week, so that it would take the chill off, but wouldn't you know?  The furnace would run for less than a minute then shut off.  A man was going to come and fix it, but they had a tragedy strike (his mother-in-law was killed in a hit and run accident while going to get her mail).  So, he hasn't had time to fix it.  The temps continued to drop.  I did a lot of baking to try to heat the house up.  :)  We pulled in our electric fireplaces, so the bedrooms would get a bit warmer.  Today, it was just downright cold!!  I was up at 4 this morning (had some crazy dreams), and I checked the outside temp, and it was 29 degrees.  Well, Rick decided to try the furnace again this morning, and it started up, and got the house warm!!  PTL!!

Today was the funeral for the lady.  Then, tonight, we had a birthday party for Brittany at a local Pizza Hut.

As for projects, we are working on staining and varnishing our new French doors!!!!  They are going to be beautiful!!!  I usually bite off more than I can chew for a project.  I was hoping to get both sets of doors done (4 doors and frames).  I got one set with 1 coat on the whole top side.  It is slow going.  We also put in a new kitchen faucet, as the old faucet, the sprayer part broke.  We have recently put in a new shower head.  Now, I am a person that likes to kick back in a bath.  I took a shower in with the new shower head, and it was absolutely wonderful!!!!

We have had some funny stories about mice this week.  Jon had been to a fruit baseball party.  They throw rotten tomatoes at you, and you hit them with a baseball bat.  Then, I think it was a free for all, and they just started throwing the fruit at everybody.  So, he comes home loaded with tomato seeds.  I told him to change his clothes, and then toss the clothes outside, as I wanted it all sprayed off the clothes, so it wouldn't wreck my washing machine.  I went out there a couple days later, as the clothes hadn't been washed off, and picked up the clothes, and here was a baby mouse inside.  I dropped it and ran, screaming as I went.  I hate mice!  Then, yesterday, we were getting loaded up in the truck, and Sam comes to the truck, and he will NOT get in.  Come to find out--there was a dead baby mouse laying on the step to get into the truck.  This was not the same mouse, as hubby had buried the other one. 

We have also taken a dinner cruise with a bunch of family and friends (that was to make up for missing the Tim Hawkins tickets). After the dinner cruise, we went to an ice cream shop, and I have never seen an ice cream cone so HUGE!!!  We SHARED a child's size cone!!!!!  The child's size cone is $3.25, but it is absolutely huge.   We have also gone out to eat with Josh & Brittany, which was for our anniversary.

Well.  My brain is winding down.  I think I shall turn in.
Blessings!

Weekend work and start of school

This weekend was busy, getting summer stuff down, so we can head back into the school year.  So, we started on the pool.  Let's just say, the pool goes up much quicker than it comes down.  It took us 2 days to get it down.  Then, we cleaned it up, and got it stored.  We also picked up all the pool toys, goggles, floats, noodles.  Then, we got the tent folded up, and stored.

We also got the truck and car cleaned out, and did a very thorough job of it.  We even shampooed up some of the car seats.  The truck has leather, so we just washed that down.  Washed all the windows, Rick did all the dashboards, and doors.  Whew!

I cut 2 heads of hair, and still have more to do.  I just got too wore out, after all that work.  I think we collapsed into bed that night.

Sunday night, we didn't have church, so we took 3 vehicles to Stillwater to Nelson's ice cream store.  WOW!!!!!   What a huge ice cream cone, and what a blast!!!  Siah & Sarah & family went in one van, Josh and Brittany and Elise, and Rachel and Becca & Gracelyn took another van, and the rest of us followed in our truck.

Here is Gracelyn, after eating some of Rachel's cone!

These were the child size cones!!  They cost $3.25 each, and very well worth it.

Yesterday, we went with my parents to the National Eagle Center.  It was a lot of fun  They take in injured, and unable to fly eagles.  They had 4 bald eagles, and 1 golden eagle.  It was very informative, and lots of fun.

Today, I got my Zagg mate for my iPad!  I am so excited!!  Then, I found out I have to wait, as it wasn't charged. 

Thursday night, we were supposed to go see Tim Hawkins up in the cities.  We made a mistake, and didn't get tickets ordered in time.  So, instead, we are going on a river boat cruise, with a dinner of bbq'd ribs and herbed chicken.  YUM!!  And, I am talking people into going back to the ice cream shop!!  :)

Blessings!