Zona has been so excited for swimming lessons. She has been bugging me about it at least once a week for about 2 months. About a month and a half ago, I called and signed us up for swimming lessons and they told me I had to send a check in to hold our place. I forgot. I finally remembered on Saturday. Last night, I decided to just try. I also decided that they would be less likely to turn us away if we showed up all ready to swim. It was kind of a big deal because the pool is about 1/2 hour away, but I decided it was worth it. We showed up just in time. They were calling the names in the different classes. I recognized the lady in charge and went up and explained the situation. She let me know that she had noticed that we hadn't paid, but remembered us from past years and she hadn't worried about it. She'd already put the kids in their classes. It was great!! I love living in an area where people remember you from year to year. We didn't even take last year and she still remembered us.
After swimming, we came home, the kids showered and got ready for the day, and we hung out outside. It was SO nice to finally have a day that we could be outside. And not even in jackets!! I actually got some sun on my arms. The kids played and played and played outside, then they ate lunch outside. I was finally able to sand and scrape my awful Adirondack chair project from last fall. I'm finally feeling like there's hope.
After lunch, we went quilting. I took the kids with me to help me pick out our new kitties. A few weeks ago, I had talked to the lady whose house we quilt at. She had had 4 litters of kittens. I let her know that if she wanted to get rid of any, I'd be willing to take some. I knew that her kittens would be good mousers and that is what I wanted. Our cat is a mouser, I'm pretty sure. We haven't had any problems with mice since we got him. But, he keeps getting hit by cars. His tail is paralyzed and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he gets hit good. We've decided to give him to Nathan's sister. She's been looking for a full grown cat so it can handle her dog. I think Stupid Cat . . . um . . . I mean Black Shadow will be great for her. Anyway, the lady whose house we quilt at told me that her babies were ready to go and we could pick out anywhere from 2 to 4. Nathan and I decided on 2, but when we got over there, my kids were told that they couldn't only take 2 for the 3 of them, they each needed to have one. So, we ended up with 3. They are CUTE!! I'm hoping that they learn to stay out of the road.
After Nathan got off work, he, Jo, and Owen went to look at another horse for us. We have 2 pretty good horses, but Nathan realized that we need a good kids horse. They came home with another horse. He used to be a buddy to a race horse and was used to calm down the race horse at the track. I'm thinking that means that he's pretty calm. The lady we bought him from says that he isn't afraid of anything. Owen, whose had a hard time since he was bucked off of Shorty last year, can already go up to him and almost catch him. He would have caught him if he'd had a halter. He got his arms all the way around his neck. After Owen let go, Mitch (the horse) followed after Owen, almost begging Owen to catch him again. So, he did. It's good to see Owen's confidence building already. We also got him to help Jo build confidence. She fell/slid off Shorty a few weeks ago after cantering and ever since has not wanted to go faster than a trot. We're hoping to build her confidence, too. Okay, I'll admit it, it's for me, too. A few years ago, I almost got dumped into a creek out by Nathan's parents' house and I didn't realize how it affected me until I tried to get on a horse to go on a real ride. I kind of . . . okay, really freaked out. I'm hoping this horse will help me get back up on a horse, too.
We also added to our inside collection of animals today. Last year, Jo's class had a class parakeet (Mr. C). At the end of the year, the teacher asked if anyone wanted to take the parakeet home for the summer. 4 kids wanted to, so they get to split the summer. Our turn started today. Nathan said that the mom that came with the last student to have it couldn't get rid of it fast enough. It is a talkative bird, but it reminds me of being at my grandma's house when I was little. I'm enjoying it so far. We'll see what the next three weeks bring.
For FHE tonight, we enjoyed the weather outside and played baseball. We're still attempting to teach the kids the rules. It's hard when there are only 5 players. We had fun, though. We enjoyed the outdoors and got some exercise.
Here's Zoey checking out Mr. C.
Closeup of Mr. C.
Jo says he LOVES this mirror!
Owen holding Mitch. This was before he was totally comfortable with him. It was later before he caught and hugged him.
Mitch
These are our new kittens. Aren't they CUTE!! The gray one is Jo's. Her name is Smoky. The orange one in the back is Zoey's. He's Buddy. And the orange one in the front is Owen's. She's Buttercup or Butterscotch.
Smoky
Butterscotch/cup and Buddy
And some quick pictures of the mama hen and babies. I love how they climb up on top of her and peek out of her feathers. They are growing up!! I put some cardboard around in the cage so they couldn't get out when they were first born. I took that out today and had to put it back in when two of the babies were still able to get out. Then one of them snuck out into the pasture. It was a little nerve wracking, but all ended well.
Another one with mom and a baby.
And here are some pictures from our bathroom project.
Here is a picture from the last year. This was the beginning of our project. This was right after the toilet was moved.
After we moved the toilet, Nathan put down a square of particle board so we wouldn't be open from the bathroom into downstairs. That's how our bathroom was until this last week. Here is a picture after we tore up most of the linoleum before we moved the toilet.
Here, the toilet is moved and the rest of the linoleum is taken up. You can see all of the water damage against the back wall. There was a leak in the toilet when we first moved in and even though we fixed the leak, the damage was already done. That was the flooring we had to take up. Off to the left, up against the tub is where we had to fix three layers of flooring.
A picture from the doorway. These pictures are of after we took the particle board off of the old toilet hole so we could see where the joist was so we knew where to cut the floor to.
This picture is after we got the floor fixed and I'd put the leveler down. I wish I would have taken pictures during the process, but I was focused on other things.
And, we finally have linoleum. This was at about 1:00 Sunday morning. Right about the time we realized that Nathan had cut the bolts off when he took the toilet out and the new wax ring didn't come with any bolts. I actually think that when I took these pictures, he was outside welding and fabricating new toilet bolts.
Look!! Only one toilet hole. I often wondered what people thought when they came in our bathroom and saw two toilet holes.
And everything put back together.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll be replacing the rugs and shower curtain with ones that all match to celebrate getting the floor done. I guess it's not actually done yet. We decided that we could caulk at some time other than 1:00 in the morning, so we just got the bathroom usable at that point.
I am so grateful today . . .
1. I am grateful that we were able to get into swimming lessons today. I really do not like confrontation and I am grateful that they were ready for us and I didn't have to try to persuade anyone. I'm grateful that Zoey can take her swimming lessons and learn to stick her face in the water, play motorboat, and do all of the other things she was so excited about.
2. I am grateful for the nice weather. I'm grateful that it's warming up. I hope it stays that way at least until after the 4th. I love it when my kids can play outside and get all of their energy out.
3. I am grateful that we were able to find a horse that can help us all with our confidence issues. I'm grateful that that help has already started.
4. I am grateful for the inspiration I felt while I was sanding. I know, that sounds silly, but I was getting frustrated and I feel hope that I'll be able to finish this project.
5. I am grateful that everything worked out with scheduling today. It seems like I'm crazy busy lately and it's only with divine help that I am able to get everything to work out right.
6. I am grateful that someone new came to quilting today. It was great to get to know her.
I felt like there was serious divine intervention today to help everything go smoothly with getting into swimming lessons. I was so worried. When I talked to the lady, it just all fell into place so easily and all of my stress disappeared. I also feel like I was helped to know the best way to sand the chairs this morning. I kept sanding, scraping, sanding, scraping and then; for whatever reason, I decided to sand in circles. The loose paint seemed to fall off. I'm not sure what made me start sanding in circles, but it worked and I'm seeing the end of sanding in sight.
P.S. I am also VERY grateful for the new blogger updated editor. We seem to get along much better than the last one.
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