The Last Summer Day

Today was the last Tuesday of the summer that I had the kids since they all three start school on Thursday. We had such a fun day!

A good part of the morning was spent working in the garden, emptying pots and baskets of scraggly flowers, sweeping the sidewalk, and gathering piles of weeds I'd left around the back yard. They each earned a dollar for their labor, so they made sure they worked hard enough to get paid. :o)

Break time meant sidewalk chalk - lots of sidewalk chalk. So much so that they all had to strip down before coming inside, and I tossed their clothes in the washing machine.

After getting changed, we threw together some PB&Js and headed out for a picnic. Instead of eating here in the yard, though, we climbed into the car and drove the few miles to Stromsburg's park. My thought was that we'd have lunch, then possibly swim in the baby pool (if there were no babies there). They had other plans. As soon as they saw the big swimming pool, they would not even entertain the idea of just wading in the small one. So I took the plunge (so to speak) and as soon as the pool opened, we were heading to the locker rooms to get a shower "before entering pool area". I didn't have my suit, so just sat on the side of the pool with my feet in the water, and watched the kids turn into fishies before my eyes.

They had so much fun, and it was great to watch them go from timid and cautious to comfortable and confident. They'd not ever been to a big public swimming pool before and loved having the room to play. By the time we left, Wyatt was jumping off the side, and both Wyatt and Grace were putting their face into the water. Garett was pretending to be a shark, chasing the others back and forth across the pool.
Of course, no one wanted to leave when it was time to go, me included. Now I know that next summer we'll make this a regular activity. I look forward to it as much as they do! :o)

Feel "The Force"

One day a couple of weeks ago just Wyatt came for the morning. Leslie dropped him off with me in the parking lot where I work. As he jumped out of the van, I noticed two light sabers hooked on the waistband of his shorts. I asked if he was expecting an Imperial invasion and should I be on the lookout for Stormtroopers?

Later that morning we finished up our third board game. It was time get our bodies moving, but alas, it was raining outside. Wyatt invited me to have a light saber fight. :o) Sorry, I said, we can't play light sabers in the house. That is an outside game.

Please, Aunt Tammy?

No, Honey, it's an outside game.

We can just play right here in the living room... please?

(Sigh - how do I say no to him?)

We popped in the DVD of the very first original Star Wars movie (the best one in Greg's opinion, and the only one he owns) and selected the light saber fight scenes.

Thus began the re-enactment of Luke's light saber training and Obi Wan dueling it out with Darth Vader. We had spins and jumps and chased each other around the room. In the house.

On the furniture.

He kept saying I was Darth and he was Obi Wan. I told him I preferred to be Princess Leia. I mean, she was all over those light sabers in this movie. Okay, she wasn't, but I don't look like Darth Vader. Do I? Okay, I don't look like Princess Leia, either, but this is fantasy play, so go with it.

He was a worthy opponent and our duel ended in a draw. We both lost body parts - you know those light sabers are sharp - but neither of us gave in.

Fortunately there was no one there to take video of this amazing battle, but I do have a couple of "after" photos. We were both winners. :o)

After the Fury

Yesterday morning, shortly after 3:00, we were hit with an extremely strong thunderstorm. Straight-line winds measured at 78 mph caused major damage to the trees in our little town. This one was directly across the street from our house. It was planted just a couple of years before we moved here, so it was about 30 years old. Lots of the trees that were lost were much older. This is the extent of damage we had in our yard, and it's an easy fix. Greg will just nail the lattice back up. The lawn furniture in the front yard was untouched.

I don't know specifically what woke us up, but we both jumped out of bed at the same moment, 3:23. We lost power about 10 minutes later, then the tornado whistle blew. Fun times.
The power was back on by the time I got home from work about 8:30 a.m., and by 9 or so the tree across the street was gone.

There are drag marks on the streets all over town where tractors and chains were used to drag huge limbs to the dump. Chain saws buzzed all day long. The clean-up will continue as more damaged trees are cut down before they fall down.

He Lights Up My Life...

Look at this porch light. Ugh, right? It's tarnished and the plastic surround behind it is cracked and chipped. The back door light looked just as bad, so last Fall we purchased two new fixtures. Greg got the light changed by the back door within a few days of our purchase, but didn't get to the front light before winter. Early in the Spring I asked him when I might look forward to having the front one done. His answer? "Before Autumn." Hmmm, can you get more noncommital? Last week he was off work and got a few projects done, including this one.

Normally I might have just posted a before and after of the lights, but one of my internet friends requested some photos of the process.

First of all, I would have removed the glass panes and the light bulb, but he got right to it, cutting through the caulk and taking out the screws. Oh, of course you should turn off the power to the light, and that he did.

He's pulled the fixture off and is removing the caps from the wiring. Untwist the wires and remove the light.

Now take off the metal bracket that holds the fixture to the electrical box.

Pull out the electrical box, then tuck the wiring back up into the wall until you're ready to connect the new light.

The new surround is much larger than the old one. Center and trace around the new one.

You don't have to worry about it being perfect, since the new one will cover the marks, but don't go crazy. :o)

Use tin-snips to trim the siding along the trace lines. This gives some room to get under the siding to remove the old surround.

The old one was stapled into the wall, so he used the tin-snips and cut through them. Then pull the surround off, being careful of the siding.

Here it is all cleaned out.

He had to trim the siding a bit more before fitting the new surround in under the siding, then it slid in and fit perfectly.

Again, be careful with the siding, but it will pull up so you can get under it.

Pull out the wire and thread through the electrical box. Here he's putting caulk around the opening before putting it back into the wall.

The light fixture we chose does not sit flush against the wall, so there is a cover that goes over the surround. You can see it has a scored template for whichever size/shape of hole you need. Greg cut out the large round one with a utility knife.

He screwed the electrical box back in.

Then he snapped the cover on and screwed the bracket on.

I held the light up while he connected the wires and tucked them into the electrical box. Then he fit the light over the bracket and screwed it on.

Ta-Da! Here's the pretty new light!

Thanks, Honey, for letting me photograph your every move on this project. And thanks for getting it done before Autumn!

Still Singing...

Here is Garett, on the highway of Life, minus the lyrics. :o)

Sing, Sing a Song

Remember a few weeks ago when Jess got out her guitar and the kids each took a turn to play?
Here's Wyatt with one of his songs:

My Helper Man

Last week on Tuesday I had Wyatt for a few hours. We ran some errands, then picked up a carpet shampoo machine and headed home. Wyatt loves to vacuum, and that was his job before we cleaned the carpets: You can seek how seriously he took his job. He was quite thorough.
While he prepared the rugs, I prepared the shampoo machine. As soon as it was ready to go, he took it from me and got to work.

The machine was pretty heavy when it was full of water, so we took turns using it. Thanks to Wyatt's help, the carpets were shampooed in about an hour and a half.

To his delight, Leslie took the machine home with them and he got to help her clean carpets at home all afternoon. The key word there is "got" - I'm sure the day will come when it's more of an imposition to help us with our chores than it is a privilege, but until that day, I'm happy to have him as my assistant!

The Pink Guitar

The kids were very excited that Jessica has moved back to our house and they are able to spend some time with her again. (We're all excited that she's moved back to our house!)
The kids come here on Tuesday mornings while Leslie works, and we try to do something new and fun each week. This particular day found Jessi at home, so she helped entertain them by bringing out her guitar. (You should have seen Grace's face when she saw the guitar was pink!) They sat in a row for a mini-concert,

then each one got to take a turn. Wyatt sang of his love for Spiderman and regaled Ironman as being "awesome"...

Gracie also sang of Ironman...

Garett sang "Life is a Highway" from Cars. He's a Lightening McQueen boy.

Shortly after their performances, Jess inadvertently hit the ceiling fan with the neck of the guitar and broke some strings. That put an end to the music making that day, but I'm sure there will be more. Remember how Tucker loves pink? He'll want his turn...

Patriotic Decoration

This was a "use what you have" craft project I threw together last weekend. I've been looking at a piece of 4x4 in the garage for awhile, thinking about painting it up to be a firecracker for 4th of July. Turns out I already had red, white, and blue spraypaint, so I didn't have to buy anything.
This photo shows the piece I started by painting white. The other piece shows what it started out like.
It took several coats of white to get soaked in enough to cover. You'll notice the wood isn't in great shape, but that's okay. It lends a more "rustic" look to the finished product. The next step was cutting several stars out of adhesive-backed vinyl using my Cricut. I rubbed the edges down really well,

then painted the top section blue. Peel off the stars right away, then leave it to dry awhile. I had a fan running in the garage to help the drying process.

For the stripes, I taped off the blue section, then ran tape down the remaining length of the wood.

Make sure you really rub down the edges of the tape - then spray a couple coats of red.

Remove the tape immediately and let dry.
Here's the finished product sitting on the porch. It really catches your eye when driving past the house.

The best part was not spending any money to make it!

Happy S'mores Day!

That's what I'm calling today, S'mores Day, since we didn't bbq or have fireworks here, but we did light up the fire pit and toast some marshmallows.
Jessi was kinda crabby about having her photo taken...

Here's Greg, putting marshmallows in the fire. Yeah, I need some longer toasting sticks. These metal skewers from the kitchen were a tad too short.

The fire pit was Greg's birthday gift from last year. We've only used it a couple of times, but I look forward to crisp Autumn nights outside next the fire.

Nick made his s'more with a York Peppermint Patty instead of a Hershey's bar. He said it was "very delicious".

I know my marshmallows were toasted golden brown, crispy on the outside, melted on the inside, and just perfect. Even though it was a cool, cloudy, and sometimes rainy day, both my kids were here, and that's the best way to spend any day for me - the s'mores were just a bonus!