Dancing in the Park

AND OTHER STUFF WE'VE BEEN UP TO LATELY...

Yesterday I stuck around the house most of the day, cleaned a little, and spent some time with John and Maggie.  I also sent out a few cards and realized that I don't seem to have as many people to write since I'm writing most everything here in my Blog.....

The guy in charge of the crew that did all the work for the maintenance on our sewer line, with AAA Plumbing, came by after 2 to make sure that everything was put back to normal.  Everything looks pretty good though there is a divot in the the front lawn that he said if it doesn't grow back in the next couple weeks they'll come out and take care of it.  He scoped out the pipes again, everything looks great, and he went over the paperwork with Jacob, who arrived home just in time to do that.  I paid the bill and scheduled the whole house drainage pipe cleaning for next Monday at 8am (it's included in the package we bought).  So hopefully with the new pipe line and the Home Service Plan that Jacob signed up for with AAA, we won't have any more major problems with our pipes as long as we live and if for some reason we do, it's covered by warranty!

I made chicken curry and vegetables over rice for dinner yesterday.  I really wanted to eat more, but my stomach was telling me not to.  The kids aren't all fans of the curry, but we told them if they ate up we'd have a surprise for them when we went out later that evening.  Our Community had scheduled a DJ and Free Ice Cream Social for 6-8pm.  I'd been thinking about going all week since I'd seen the fliers about it and was still debating, but I got a call from my friend Athena and she wanted to know if we were going to go?  I told her I wasn't sure, that I needed to call Jacob, so after I got off the phone with her I called him at work.  He said it sounded like a good opportunity to get out and do something different!  So, I called my friend Carley and invited her and her family to come;  she accepted.  Then I called Athena back and let her know we'd be going.  Just before 6 we all got ready to leave to the Community Commons for "Dancing in the Park".  The kids got pants, t-shirts, socks, and tennis shoes on, then outside we sprayed everyone down with bug spray just before we left the house.  (Mosquitoes can be killer here, especially to some of us, like David, he must be extra sweet.)

"Dancing  in the Park" was lots of fun!  It was nice to just sit and talk with friends and listen to the music while the kids run around.  I did get up to do the "Hokie-Pokie" with Maggie, she thought that was a riot.  I think we all had a good time, even Maggie got to run around a bit.  She thought it was fun to walk up and down a strip of the sidewalk where we were sitting.  She even got a bit too bold and took off a bit too far from us, Jacob chased after her.  lol  David got a lot of tree climbing in, there are some really good climbing trees in that park of the greenbelt.  Anna got to hang out with a bunch of her friends.  John stuck pretty close to us, he's not very social and was rather bored and cold, so he wrapped up a bit in our picnic blanket and just laid down.  He wanted to leave early, but we stayed till the very last song then headed home.  I hope they do another one of these in the near future.  I think I heard them mention something about doing one in September maybe?  We'll see...

This morning I got up about 6:30.  Woke up on my own, Maggie wasn't up yet.  Jacob wasn't in bed so I went downstairs and found him playing a video game.  He was too distracted with his game so I went upstairs and did my regular Saturday weigh in, plus I also did my measurements which I haven't done in about 2 months.  I'm progressing nicely, lost 2 lbs this week.  I think I haven't lost more because I've been doing more strength training and am converting fat to muscle which weighs more.  At least I did lose 2 lbs, that's my goal for ea. week.  My measurements were down in most areas as well, but I haven't done my measurements as regularly and I haven't lost as much as I should have in the last two months.  It's really hard to stick to this WW program and not eat the things you like.  I am working harder now though!!!

Jacob decided to shut his game off when the rest of the family was up.  Anna was the only one that had grabbed cereal for breakfast, so I proposed that we go and get doughnuts, it's been about 2 wks since we last got some.  However, Jacob decided that he wanted to get a couple things done this morning before we left.  He fixed the boys closet door which was off it's hinges and hung this small cast iron 'Welcome' sign with squirrels on it that I've had for quite awhile.  After we were done (I helped hang the sign) we left for the doughnuts, it was almost 9am.  We went to Smart Co. and I let each of the kids pick out 2 doughnuts, Jacob too, and I grabbed 4 cream cheese filled croissants.  On our way out we got a bunch of bananas and a small bag of white peaches, for the healthy part of our meal.  :O)  At the register a lady asked that we come over to her line, she'd just opened it up, so we went over there instead of waiting for our line.  I told the lady I had a dozen doughnuts and she was like, no you have some croissants in there, they aren't the same price as a dozen doughnuts. I was like "I've been getting almost the same thing, almost every Saturday since you guys opened and I've only ever been charged the $3.98 for a dozen doughnuts."  She was like, "I'm sorry, they shouldn't have done that because the croissants, danishs, and other pastries are a different price."  I was like, "So how much is this going to cost me?" I was only prepared to pay the $3.98 for a dozen.  She figured it out and it came to over $7.  I was like, "This is ridiculous!", grabbed my doughnuts and fruit and headed back to the the bakery.  I checked the signs on the door and there was a .79 cent sticker for 'other' pastry items.  Then I asked the people working in the Bakery about the dozen doughnut price and apparently those 'other' pastries are not  included in the $3.98 dozen doughnut price.  I was ticked!!!  I couldn't put the doughnuts back since I'd already grabbed them, so I grab 4 more 'regular' doughnuts to make the full dozen 'doughnuts' and get the $3.98 price and paid the extra for the croissants.  Anyway, I was not a happy camper, not when I'd been coming for over 2 months, possibly 3 and getting the same thing and now all of sudden I have to pay A LOT more than what I used to!!!  I WON'T be getting doughnuts as often as I used to anymore, not when it's gonna cost me so much more!!!  :O(

So I left Smart Co. in a bad mood, probably shouldn't have been driving, and we went home.  At home the kids were excited to get their doughnuts.  I had forgotten, which doughnuts each child had picked (since I was throwing my own little fit) and unfortunately I ended up giving one of John's doughnuts to David and he took a bite.  John started freaking out because David was eating his doughnut and I realized, as I looked at the doughnuts more closely, that I had given David's John's doughnut and he knew it!  I grabbed the doughnut from David and gave it to John, but then he didn't want it because it had a bite taken out of it.  This whole issue went on for awhile, but it eventually resolved and everyone gets THEIR doughnuts.

After doughnuts Jacob let us go to Furniture Row to check out the rocker, recliner I thought I'd be interested in (mine's been busted for awhile now).  Turns out that they one I went for isn't as good of quality as I would have hoped.  The arms of the chair, though very cushy, would go flat pretty quickly due to not so quality materials and the back didn't provide as much support as we would have hoped, so we left.

It was after 11 as we headed back towards home.  I'd already decided that I wanted to get Chinese for lunch so went to LD's Chinese Buffet.  I planned to only spend about $30 for take out, but as we arrived our friend Athena was there w/ her kids, unloading them from her van.  Come to find out our friends the Mikelevicius' were there for their daughters Birthday lunch, that's why Athena and her kids were there, so we decided to eat in too.  It was nice to see everyone and get to spend some time with them, even though it was pretty noisy in there!  AND fortunately the dine-in fee wasn't as expensive as I thought it was going to be!!!

Back home Jacob put Maggie down for a nap, she missed her morning one because we were out.  Then we worked on my chair a bit.  I had him help me fix the cushioning on the arm.  After he'd repositioned it a bit he decided that he'd check and see if he could figure out why/how the back was broken.  After removing the back, which a very hand feature to Lazyboys, he found out that one of the screws that holds the side support in place was completely broken off and was no longer holding the side support in place.  So, he grabbed a large screw from the garage, drilled a pilot hole in a different location, but still providing the same support, and now my chair doesn't fall over to the left anymore when I sit in it, it's completely supported now!  YAY, for my Honey's ingenuity!  Now if only the darn arm cushion would stay in place!!!  ;O)

So, now that the majority of our projects/plans are done for the day I decided to get on here and post an update.  Jacob is playing another video game and all the kids except Maggie are watching.  Not sure what we're going to do for the rest of the day???