February 17th to the 23rd

February 17^th, 2010

Well, it’s been a bit longer than I expected to be writing again! It’s crazy how time flies; I can’t believe that February is more than half way over already! So, what’s been going on with us…

We’ve been working on and just finished (last night) Anna’s Science Fair Project! We did at least a full week of monitoring our squirrels eating different nuts we put out for them. We put out Spanish Peanuts, Virginia peanuts, almonds, and walnuts. We did a similar experiment last year with sunflower seeds, peanuts, and corn. The squirrels liked peanuts best, but this time around they liked almonds first, then walnuts, Spanish peanuts, and they’ve only really been eating the Virginia peanuts because there aren’t anymore of the other nuts. It was fun and we got Anna’s Project board done last night and she took it and last years board to school today. We’ll go to the Science Fair tomorrow night with a few extra props for display. (We have a plush squirrel and need to pick up a few of the different kinds of nuts that we used to display.) I think everyone had fun; we all participated in some way or another! :O)

On the 5^th Anna had her friend Carra over for a play date.Her mom, Carley, wanted to come over and see where we live so she’d know where to go in case of emergency. Carley walked over with her son Brandon and ended up staying the entire play date. We talked quite a bit and pretty much hit it off! She reminds me a lot of Sara in her personality and facial features. It’s pretty cool! They live just the other side of the school and are only about a 5 min speed walk from our house (as Carley put it the other day when they came over). We have gotten together quite a few times now. On the 6^th Carley, my friend Cindy and I went to a movie. So now I have a new friend and am really excited about it because she’s really fun to hang out with, plus Anna likes hanging out with Carra and Brandon plays video games with David.

February 21^st, 2010

On the 18^th was Anna’s Science Fair. We went and hung out for a bit and checked out other exhibits. One in particular that I liked was the one that they wanted to know if people could tell the difference between diet and regular root beer. They let people have samples and I knew the difference right off. I thought we should try something like that for Anna’s experiment next year, but this time instead of just two flavors we should try a whole bunch of different flavors. We’ll see though, her next project won’t be until next year this time, so we have some time to think about it!

Last week we had a pipe back up in the basement. There was about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of standing water on the floor in the laundry room. We had to have someone come and snake out our pipes. We also found out that our water heater was leaking and only working at 50% productivity. So not only did we get the snaking done, but we also got the water heater replaced. It’s going to use up almost all our refund money to cover this unexpected expense.Fortunately we have a credit card to cover it until the refund comes in! So in order to fix the pipe properly it will cost over $8000 or to just power wash the pipe will be a little over $4000.

We’ve started attending a couple new Church’s. We’ve gotten tired of people ignoring us at the other Church. They don’t have enough room for us in their lives, so we’re moving on trying to find another Church with people who want to be involved with us. So now we’ve been going to two different Church’s. The most recent Church is actually the one that Carley and her family have been going to since they got here about 9 months ago. It’s a really nice Church and the kids really like their classes. Actually Anna and David have both requested to go back which is rather unusual for them. They aren’t usually very excited about going to Church.

February 22^nd, 2010

Sorry about that…I keep starting this then get distracted with everything that’s going on around me!

Today after school we have Anna and David’s Parent/Teacher conferences.Jacob should be home about 3 and then we pretty much need to head out to their appointments. I don’t think we are going to have any problems with them; they are both doing really well! …Anna and David’s Parent/Teacher Conferences went well! Anna still needs to work a bit faster, but otherwise her work is done exceptionally well. David is doing much better with his numbers and reading.He isn’t a consistent reader, but he’s showed a great improvement. We’re working on sight words at home which will help more with his reading and he should be able to get through some beginning level reader book by the end of Kindergarten.

I’m trying to get some chores done today, laundry and just general cleaning. Speaking of which I need to go and check on the laundry real quick; I’ll be right back… Tomorrow is trash day so I have a temporary bag in the compactor right now so we don’t use up one of the expensive compactor bags for all the trash we collect today.

February 23^rd, 2010

Well, yesterday I did get some cleaning done. I’ve been really annoyed with how messy the playroom has been and since the kids don’t clean it very well or at all I decided to clean it myself; I even vacuumed. I’ve informed the boys that how clean the playroom is now is how clean I want it to be every night before the go to bed. We’ll see how long that lasts? :O)

So I also got a bunch of laundry done yesterday too! I only need to wash one more blanket and the whites and I’m done with laundry for a bit (though laundry is never ever really done). I also decided to go through my clothes and try and take out things that I don’t like or wear anymore; I’ve decided that as I lose weight and clothes don’t fit anymore that I’m just going to get rid of them so that I don’t have fat clothes sitting around saying “It’s okay for you to gain the weight back because you have your fat clothes to go back to.” I’ve also started Spring Cleaning a bit and really want to work more hard core on it, but don’t really have anywhere to store the stuff that I want to get rid of. I plan on having a garage sale in April or May some time to just get it out of the way. I don’t want to have the sale when our Community has it because that isn’t until the first weekend in August and it’s just way too hot to sit around then. I do go to the other sales though and I really like to shop the Ptarmigan Communities sale usually that same weekend too! :O)

So tomorrow I’m going to go to a movie with my girlfriends Cindy and Carley. We’re going to go and see “It’s Complicated” at the Cinema Grill and enjoy a yummy burger and fries (well at least that’s what I’m going to get).