Monday, July 18, 2011

Swimming

The boys just completed day one of swimming lessons.  Their reactions were pretty much what I expected.  Ethan learned how to swim at the Baker pool in Florida last year, but hasn't had much pool time to practice.  But he was excited about lessons and jumped right in, willing to try anything that was thrown at him. 

Caleb was crying before he entered the locker room.  Granted, it is a little frustrating that the only way to the pool is through the locker rooms, and the boys are too old to go through the girls' side.  Caleb calmed down before the lesson started, but once he realized he wouldn't be in the same class as Ethan, I think he started feeling very apprehensive.  There were lots of tears, but he did do everything asked of him, though with much hesitation, much fear, and many tears.  Poor kid.  His teacher said it's what's to be expected for a first-timer, and she was pleased that he still cooperated (sort of).  I'm hoping tomorrow will be better.  I AM happy with the student-teacher ratio.  Caleb is with one other little girl.  Ethan is the only one with his teacher.  :)

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Random Things

I know, I'm way overdue for a new post.  I haven't had anything remarkable to write about, but I figured it was time for something new (though I still like looking at those pics of Anelise in her life jacket.  so cute!). 

We had a busy weekend getting work done outside.  Jonathan and I spent a significant portion of Saturday working in the yard.  Jonathan mowed and trimmed (weed-whacked), and trimmed one of the pine trees in the front (near the neighbor's property).  I weeded the mulch around the trees in the front.  And it was a big job.  My wrists are still sore from putting pressure on them while pulling out miniature oak trees.  Lots of them. 

We also spent a fair amount of time with friends over the weekend.  Saturday we had a cookout with a couple of church friends.  Sunday after church we headed over to the home of an unnamed Irish police sergeant's family.  We planned on spending a few hours there, and ended up monopolizing their entire day.  We arrived around 1:00 and didn't leave until after 8.  That's how much fun they are.  On Monday we had a busy day, preparing for house guests (I'll get to that in a minute), and ended the day by heading downtown for the fireworks.  Where we met again with the Irish folks.  What a great family.  :)

Houseguests.  We are thoroughly enjoying our time with good friends Bill and Alissa, here for a visit from our nation's capitol.  We have spent some time out and about (park, zoo), but mostly we're relaxing at home together.  The kids (their 3 plus our 3) have been playing well together, just having a good time.

I spent a few minutes looking at the calendar today, and I can hardly believe what I see.  The month of June was fairly relaxed, but our calendar is FULL from now until school starts!  I would have preferred to space things out a little.  But I AM very excited about the rest of our summer.  Coming up: Bax visit, Dad Baker visit, Baker cottage, Ippel cottage, camping at Clifty Falls.  Whew!

Last week, Ethan was at SpringHill day camp all week.  He had a blast, and at the end of the week, was awarded the Integrity Award for his group.  We are so proud.

Anelise continues to wow us with her language skills.  The word we hear most often is "smine."  And yes, she's saying, "it's mine."  I'm not too worried about selfishness; her context is more factual.  Like she'll point to her chair, and say, "smine."  Or her shoes: "smine," and then point out "mommy soo", "daddy soo", etc.  She's such a sweet girl.  And so cute, I can hardly stand it.

Caleb just finished his first chapter book. 

Hmm... the middle child got the least written about him.  Raise your hand if you're a middle child!  (hand raised)  Maybe I'll devote an entire post to Caleb soon.  Maybe...

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Deal of the Day

A little later this summer, we will spend two weeks at two cottages.  The first week will be in Michigan City with the Baker side, and the second week will be at Morrison Lake with the Ippel side.  I am very much looking forward to these upcoming two weeks.  Since both cottages are on lakes, and since I don't have any appropriate floatation devices for Anelise, I thought I'd check out what Meijer had to offer, during my weekly shopping trip.  I found a very nice, appropriately sized, neoprene life jacket that fit Anelise really well (and once I tried it on her, she didn't want to take it off!).  Unfortunately, it didn't have any tags, and there weren't any other ones like it.  There were some other brand name neoprene jackets on sale for 44.99.  I was hoping not to spend that much, and I figured since it was an off-brand, it would be cheaper.  So at the checkout, another associate took the jacket back to the sporting department to figure out a price while I got the rest of my groceries checked out.  It took her a long time (which didn't surprise me, as I already knew there weren't any others like it), but finally she called my checkout person to give him a price.  I was hoping for something around $30.  Guess what they charged me?

$10.49!!! 

I am so pleased.  I know life-jackets are important, but it's hard to spend money on something you know will likely only fit your child for one season.  This jacket goes up to 30 lbs, so it's possible she could still wear it next year, but that's unlikely.  But we're going to really enjoy it this summer!



Monday, June 27, 2011

Production

Ok, apparently I was really crabby when I wrote that last post.  Yes, we all have days like that.  But we don't all have to broadcast them.  Sorry.

I have actually had a very productive day, despite the lack of grocery shopping.  I did three loads of laundry.  I cleaned up the family room and the kitchen, including clutter that had been accumulating for a month or two.  I wanted to dust the family room, but I still can't find my Pledge.  It's on the shopping list for tomorrow.  I also cleaned out the van (but haven't vacuumed).  And now I'm working on chicken skewers and rice for a late dinner.  We had other plans for dinner that fell through, so I'm scrounging.  Since both boys are very tired from their days at camp and the Children's Museum, and since Anelise didn't take a long enough nap to counteract the late night we had watching the Fishers Freedom Festival fireworks, I'm hoping for bed time to come shortly after dinner.  Sadly, my hubby won't be joining me for dinner OR the ensuing post-bed time relaxation.  He's working late tonight, and then playing softball.  If he can leave work on time.

Monday

It's definitely Monday around here.  Typically Mondays are good days, but today, we're struggling.  And to make matters worse, I had already typed a bunch of this post when Anelise decided to turn off the computer by pressing the power button multiple times.  She received a time out, which is a new thing for her.  She's learning how to say "sorry, Mommy." 

Ethan started Springhill day camp today.  It's all week, every day, from 9 am until 4 pm.  And Caleb is at the Children's Museum with Mom Baker, who is in town for a bit.  So my plan WAS to get my grocery shopping done today.  However, Anelise's constant crying and need for attention has shown me that shopping is not a good idea.  I guess it can wait until tomorrow.  Shopping with 2 kids is still so much easier than with 3, right? 

With Kids Camp last week (it went really well!), things on the home front took a back seat, so I have plenty of things to occupy my time at home.  But I'm having a hard time getting motivated to start.  I HAVE started a load of laundry, but I have dishes that need doing, not to mention just picking up clutter that has landed in various places around the house.  And speaking of dishes, our dishwasher is no longer being used.  It was stalling between the wash cycle and dry cycle.  For awhile I was able to stop it, let it rest for an hour or two, and then restart it.  But now it won't finish.  Ever.  I researched online for a new one, chose the one I wanted, went to Lowes, and discovered that it's a special order, which means it may be up to two weeks before it arrives.  In the meantime, I've had dishes piling up for the last two days that need to be dealt with.

Oh, and in addition to buying a new dishwasher, we also bought a new lawnmower last week.  This month is going to be an ugly one on the budget.  Sigh.

Monday, June 20, 2011

High Water

Today was Day 1 of Pandamania!   Kids Camp (AKA VBS) at Faith Church started off with a bang.  As in lots of thunder and torrential rain that lasted for hours.  I must be exaggerating, right?


Nope.  Not exaggerating.  Our church is located right under the period of 6.25".  Our house is under the " of the same label.  Folks, that's a LOT of rain.  Now, I know it's June, but just for fun, I looked up a conversion of rain to snow.  If our temps were in the 20s, we'd have 5+ FEET of snow, just from this morning.  (Wouldn't that be fun?!)

Fortunately, I was at church super early to print name tags and get things set up.  So I missed the worst of it.  For many families, it took over an hour to get to church, when it would normally be 15 minutes.  Roads were closed due to high water.  The roads that WERE open were packed with people trying to get to work on a dreary Monday morning.  Ugh.

The registration tables for Pandamania were buzzing!  So many kids (162, to be exact, not counting babies) came through, some registering for the first time.  Yesterday I worked on registration stuff from 2 pm until 11 pm.  And when I went to bed, so much was flying through my brain, I wasn't able to fall asleep until after 1:30 am.  I was pretty stressed out this morning, not knowing if the labels I'd spent so much time on would actually print once I got to church.  And if they hadn't, what a mess we would have had!  So when everything went smoothly, I was extremely relieved.  The rest of the week will be a breeze in comparison with today (for me).  I still spent probably 2 hours working on stuff for tomorrow.  But each successive day SHOULD mean less work.  And you'd think I'd get faster at it too.

Our trip home from church was a bit interesting, since some of the roads we usually take were closed due to high water.  But we made it home in about 40 minutes.  Our house stayed dry, unlike many others in our city.  The yard, which already needed mowing badly, is now a swamp, and will have to wait even longer to get cut.  Sorry, anonymous neighbor.

(Thanks, Tina, for the graphic.)

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Arnold

Last night, or early this morning, to be exact, I had a very vivid dream.  In it, Jonathan and I were at some sort of convention, though there weren't very many people there.  He and I were at a table, and Arnold Schwarzenegger came over to our table and sat down to talk with us.  He was running for president and talked at length about why we should support him.  When he was finished, I told him that I had some concerns about him.  I talked about the importance of the commitment to marriage, and how the breakdown of marriages and families in our country was something that needed to be addressed.  And that he couldn't be a good leader because he doesn't model that needed commitment. 

Then I woke up.  Because Ethan had had a bad dream and was calling for me.