Catch Up Week

We have been out of school for 4 weeks and this is the first one that I do not have major commitments during. I have so very much to do and have high hopes for the week. Already this morning I have worked out with my new Wii EA Active game. I started the 30-day challenge and plan to finish that out before the end of July! It's a fun mix of cardio, strength exercises, and some fun like boxing. I was surprised how much I liked the boxing.

After that, I took my coupons to the fancy grocery and got a bundle. I also took advantage of their rock bottom meat sales and got four mega packs of round steaks, 8 lbs of ground beef, two whole chickens, and some beef chuck cross rib steaks? which are now in my crock pot with BBQ sauce. I put each of the packs of round steaks in a different marinade in the freezer, holding one for tomorrow night. I am going to make the ground beef into a meatloaf and some patties and put them in the freezer too. I'm hoping I can get Eddie to smoke the chickens for me tomorrow night when he cooks. That makes the best chicken salad!

Now I need to go paint the floor trim in the bathrooms we had floored earlier in the month. THey look pretty bad next to the pretty new floor. And I have to work on some grades to get the last few classes reported. If I get all that done, it will be a successful day :) Happy Monday!

And another Museum

For those who don't know, Dr. Pepper was first invented and bottled right here in Central Texas. About a mile from the zoo is the Dr. Pepper museum and Wesley is a HUGE Dr. Pepper fan. So we went there after lunch.

And we finished off the museum tour with a trip to the old fashioned soda fountain for ice cream.

Here is my little guy, very happy!

Day at the Zoo

This week my whole family is in town from all over the place. My brother lives in Portland OR and my sister lives in SE Texas. But for this week, we all came central and are having a great time. We started the celebration with a Father's Day dinner after church here at my place. I made Italian Beef for sandwiches and bought deli sides to keep it simple. On Monday we went early and the kids went out on the lake in my Dad's boat with my brother and his lovely girlfriend.

Then yesterday we went to a nearby zoo. Despite the temps over 100, we all had a blast! Here are the highlights:

Red!!

I have been wanting to play with my hair color for quite some time, but just couldn't quite get up the nerve. until today.....

Building a Fort

This morning the kids built a giant fort wonderland in the living room... Then played Scrabble Slam in it... read in it...and just enjoyed having a private space.

And it continues...

Red tape is so frustrating. I have two situations right now that are causing way more stress than they should. First, I am trying to get my two oldest in the local junior college for some dual credit courses. It is supposed to be free for us since we live in the district. All along the way, there has been one hitch after another. I thought we finally got it all straightened out. Then this morning when I went to use the phone registration system to enroll them both in fall classes. Bethany's went fine but at the end of Bill's I heard the recording say the payment balance is.........$474/ Ugggh! Now I have to go stand in that line yet again to find out why. sigh.......

The other is much more frustrating. It is a divorce issue which has now been resolved so I am editing out the anger I felt a couple of weeks ago... some things are better not left to read over and over :) But it all goes to show just how inextricably intertwined you become when you are married. Breaking that union is not easy, not God's plan, not ideal. But it happens, and sometimes interactions like this are just further reinforcement. sigh....................again.

Summer

Wow, it's been a month! May is such a whirlwind for me, I rarely have time to breathe. We finished out another school year. That was my 5th in this business teaching science and it was a great one! But I am so relieved that it is summer. I just get so behind during the school year and things pile up. So what have I done since we got out of school?

1- I now have 2 kids in the local junior college, so the first thing we did was spend several days working our way through the red tape of applying, testing, advising, and now registering. They will be taking one course each for summer school and two classes each in the fall. Spanish, writing, math, and creative writing. I'll leave it to those who know them to figure out who is taking which classes :)

2-I also took on a part time temporary job delivering flyers for a local paint company. For about two weeks, the younger kids and I walked thousands of steps, many including hills and stairs, putting them on doors. Still trying to decide it it was worth the pennies per flyer?

3- A while back we had a toilet overflow upstairs. In the cleanup process, we discovered that the floor upstairs was rotten from years of toilet problems. Eddie had to rebuild the whole area, and I got new flooring just last week. We had Lowe's install new vinyl, and since there was a minimum installation fee for that tiny bathroom, I went ahead and got new flooring for the boys' bathroom too. Both were in pretty bad shape after 14 yrs of this family! Still need to caulk and paint the woodwork. I also have to strip the nasty old wallpaper and paint both bathrooms. this will a be a project for July. June is full already!

4- Bethany and I helped Eddie cater a wedding reception for 100 on Memorial Day weekend. That is always a full week of shopping, prepping, cooking, and then a marathon day for the event but I think it went very well and all the food was enjoyed.

5- The next day, we had a goodbye breakfast at Denny's with Eddie and then I went to my sister's over in Southeast Tx. I took Bethany to stay for a while and she is still there! But I'm getting her back on Friday. I miss my girl. We enjoyed playing with Emmalyn who is about 2 and a half now. And I got lots of holding time with Jude, my brand new nephew. He was about 6 weeks when I was there, and just adorable. We played at the Bouncy place, went to a MOPS meeting, went to church, and went shopping. Hard to do much with 2 tiny ones in tow but we had a great time. That Emmalyn LOVES to "go see friends". Cute :)

6- This past week I was home and tried to get some things accomplished. I did get much of my room decluttered from end of the school year clutter. I took the kids to some museums on the University of Texas campus all day on Thursday. I went to school there, so I love to visit now and then, and there are some real treasures there.

7- Over the weekend, I helped Eddie cook and deliver briskets. When he cooks, it is a 2 day process, including 16-18 straight hours with meat on the pit, which has to be checked every 40 minutes. So I often just go hang out with him. We watch lots of Food Network, take mini naps.


When that was finally done on Saturday, we delivered some meat and then went to dinner. The UT baseball game was on and we wanted to find a place to see it since it was on a weird channel neither of us got. We discovered a very nice restaurant, sports bar that is owned by the son of a friend. So that was a lovely evening.

8- Sunday morning church... Bill was leaving for a mission trip all this week, and the others were with their father at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Eddie and I had eaten so much Saturday night, we just had a small lunch at Sonic. Then a nap... always a Sunday nap if I can sneak it in.

9- One of the things I had really been wanting to do was power wash my entry way and sidewalk. It was just so very dirty! Eddie did most of the hard, messy work, but I finished out the sidewalk and even Wesley took a chance. He had a "blast"!

10- All along the way, we've been doing the normal grocery shopping, haircuts, library visits, etc. And I feel like I am constantly driving kids one place or another. This morning, Wesley and I went to the store and saved a BUNDLE. I love using the Grocery Game and the kids like to help me, choosing some of the fun things on the list.

11- Then we came home and the 4 of us (Bethany and Bill are gone all week) cleaned up the playroom and vacuumed it. It gets a mess and I rarely get that far in my cleaning. So that felt good. Now, I am taking a break while I watch Clean Sweep on TLC. It motivates me to toss, declutter, and organize.

This afternoon I need to finish up grades and get them out. We may go to the pool. I promised Wesley a trip to Target. And tonight he starts baseball through the Y. We are trying a summer session since he may not love it and it is a small commitment. I'll keep you posted, with pictures, I'm sure...

Happy Summer!