Chainsaw and paint

On Saturday night I got a call from the nurse at Camp Susque. Not exactly who I was really wanting to hear from. She said Nadia had a slight fever (100.2) and was complaining of a sore throat. She gave her some Tylenol and had her sleep in the infirmary that night. She must have been doing better since then because I haven't heard from anyone at Camp Susque since then, and I did see Nadia in pictures they posted that they took of the girls at camp on Sunday - some from chapel on Sunday morning, some from a picnic dinner, and some from a hymn sing on Sunday night. The first 4 photos are from the

camp's FB page. The theme this week is Wild West - hence the red bandanas. The boys have the same bug, which for them also includes a cough. They were both rather crabby today. I was going to take them to a VBS tonight that I saw advertised in our grocery store a few days ago, but I ended up letting them have a little VeggieTale marathon this evening at home instead while Paul and I were working on the deck outside. We stayed home almost all day today. We made one quick trip to the hardware store in our town for a second gallon of porch and floor

paint and also the parking lot of the grocery store to sell two toys to someone (that's another $30 toward my next camera lens).

I got plenty of exercise today. I did use the elliptical, but that's not what I'm referring to. I was painting the basement floor (took almost two gallons as it's a big surface area) and also lugging parts of our deck to Paul's dad's truck after Paul sawed off a section. He removed all of the railing except for the big posts and about 1/5 of the flooring of the deck. The chainsaw started to get dull, the

truck was pretty full of wood, and it was the boys' bedtime so we stopped at that point. Yesterday when I went out to mow the lawn as I walked down the steps of the deck half of a board flew up and two nails flew toward me. That was the final straw. We knew when we bought the house in 2008 that the deck wasn't in great shape, and we had been talking this year about doing something in the near future. We're thinking probably we'll put in concrete steps and some pavers instead of another deck. Two of our neighbors built decks this summer. Our next door neighbor

replaced a wooden deck with a composite deck, and another neighbor built a wood deck (their house didn't come with a deck). I'm not sure when Paul will be able to work on putting in steps and pavers so after we finish removing this wood deck we'll probably just be going out the garage or front door for awhile until we at least have steps from the sliding glass door in the kitchen down to the ground. The only table we had on the deck was a small picnic table for kids. I was planning to bring that in this week anyhow as we'll be using it for the smallest kids when my sister's family is here. If money was no object, I'd choose to have a composite deck, but considering we don't use the deck that much at all, it's really not a priority to me at all in terms of our finances.

I painted the wooden steps going down to the basement. They look a million times better. I should have done that years ago. I feel the same way about the basement floor. I've never painted a concrete floor before, but it looks SO much better. I also painted the two poles down there which had been a dark orange (rust) color. They look so much nicer light green! I tried painting one block of cinderblock with white paint and quickly decided I would rather not paint all the cinderblock walls. I am going to try to use white curtains instead to hide at least some of the walls, electric panel, hot water heater, etc. I am excited to see how the basement will look when I'm done! I should have taken a "before" pic. I'll share an "after" pic when I'm done. Today was a day I was really missing my mom. Home improvement projects really make me think of her so much. She had such great ideas, and I would love her input and also to show her what I had done. Thankfully the boys gave me a lot of positive feedback. They love the new look! Paint is not expensive (much cheaper than flooring), but what a difference it can make! I also did a little bit of painting of the walls in the garage and the stairway going down to the basement. I'd like to do a bit more in those areas later this week. We have plenty of white paint in the basement so I don't need to spend any money to spruce those walls up a bit. Prior to this week I hadn't done any painting in the basement or garage.

A prince, a pauper, and some trucks

This morning our first stop was to see a production of a Prince and the Pauper. They had a little juggling for the pre-show entertainment. It was almost as funny as the BFG performance last night. I took all three kids as Paul was at work. Our second stop was our local library (not the one we usually go to but the one closest to our house) for a Touch a Truck event. There will be a similar event at the Children's Museum next Saturday, but we won't be going to that one this year as we have other plans for next Saturday including our town's sesquicentennial parade. The Children's Museum has FAR more trucks on hand, but the kids still had fun at this one. They had two trucks, one school bus, one fire engine, and two tractors. I almost had a stroke as I was taking a picture of Oliver in the fire engine because it started moving. Ian was in the driver's seat. I wasn't looking at him at that moment, and he pulled a yellow knob which released the brakes. And the library is on a hill so it was starting to roll down. I screamed and he let go of the knob and the truck stopped moving. It would

have plowed into a car and then a house if it had kept going. Now I know to emphasize ONLY touch the steering wheel the next time we attend a touch a truck event. They were giving away hot dogs, chips, ice cream sandwiches, etc at the library. We spent a couple of hours at home before it was time to take Nadia to camp. Paul came home early so he could join us. The last two years she was in the Shawnee "tent" (a raised platform with beds on it with a tent for the roof/sides). This time she's in the Navajo cabin. It's the cabin they use on Safety Day in the fall for the kids to crawl through while it's filled with smoke. On our way home we did some grocery shopping at Aldi's. In part I was starting to stock up for when my sister and her family will be with us. There will be 15 people sleeping in our house for six nights!

We also stopped at Lowe's. I wanted to get some paint for the concrete floor in the basement. Ian and Oliver wanted green paint. We guided them away from dark greens and fluorescent greens, and I think all four of us are happy with our

selection. Now to find out next week if one gallon is enough. I am planning on making the basement a sort of "boy's dormitory" when my sister's family stays with us (with several air mattresses down there) plus now that I am exercising down there almost every day, I am trying to make the basement look more attractive. If we could afford it, I finish at least part of the basement, but I wouldn't consider it until the basement is paid off, and that will take about 10 more years so I'm kind of guessing it will never happen as Nadia will be 19 at that point. I am also thinking of either painting the walls or hanging some curtains to cover up the walls, hot water heater, etc. I also have a goal of getting a big table down there to be Ian's Lego table (instead of my dining room table). Maybe next year I'll get some light fixtures as right now they are just naked light bulbs. In the house my parents owned since 1981 we had a finished basement with a large recreation room so I know what a blessing a space like that can be for a family. I'm going to try to make it look nicer with just some paint and curtains - nothing that costs much but hopefully will still make the room look nicer.

DelGrosso's and the BFG

Our first trip to DelGrosso's was in June 2013. That year we went on a day they were featuring Word Girl, which happened to be one of the kids' favorite shows at the time. In 2014 and 2015 we returned, but those years we went in July when the tickets were half off if you brought canned goods. Last year we didn't go. In 2015 we saw that they were in the middle of building a wave pool and a lazy river. Yesterday was our first time to actually use those new features at the park. The parking was still free, but when we got out of our van I could immediately tell that they had added quite a bit to the park. The entrance itself was much fancier than before, and they had added some new restaurants in addition to doubling the size of the water park. They haven't added any dry rides. We started on the dry ride side of the park, but after a couple of hours we were so hot we really wanted to get wet. We spent a couple of hours in the waterpark, came back to the dry part for about an hour, and then spent two more hours in the waterpark until that part closed. I thought we would leave then (at 7pm), but the kids

begged us to go back to the dry ride part, and we did.

Since all of the kids were taller than they were two years ago, they were each able to ride rides that they had never ridden there before. Nadia is now tall enough to ride everything in the park. Ian can ride almost everything, but he has no desire to ride some of the things he's tall enough to ride. One ride she hadn't ridden there before was the X-Scream Tower which goes up 140 feet! I kept my camera for the first few hours, and then locked it up in the van. I wanted to go down water slides and such and not be worried about someone stealing my camera. I was wishing I had my cell phone or a camera or something to get pics or a video of Ian and Oliver on the Free Fall ride. They were laughing their little heads off. It was priceless. Speaking of the price, it had gone up some, but still we paid $75 for the five of us to enjoy the dry and wet rides. I expect us to continue to come once a year. It's 90 minutes from our house (about twice as far as Knoebels). The weather was perfect, and we had a fabulous day!

This morning we stayed at home. Claire and Sophie (sisters who are 8 and 9 years old) came over around 10:40. They played and ate lunch at our house before I took all five kids to the pool. The girls swam for a little over 2 hours. The boys and I didn't last as long since the water temperature has dropped. We came home, had dinner, and then I took Nadia and Ian to see BFG at the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. They were the organization that offered the acting class Nadia took earlier this month. It was very well done and was downright hysterical. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much. I am very glad we went. Nadia and Ian really enjoyed it as well.

Three Videos

I think I do a pretty good job of frequently taking pictures of my kiddos, but I could do a better job of taking more videos. Today I finally got around to doing Nadia's 9th birthday interview video (1 month plus 2 days after her birthday). I also took a video of Ian and Nadia singing two songs from Camp Good News and Oliver singing one from VBS. He sings it around the house all the time, and we have been trying to get him to change from spelling Bictory to Victory.

This morning I opted just to stay home rather than to take the kids to another $1 movie at the theater. Nadia and I made blueberry muffins with some of the blueberries we picked yesterday. We went to the pool this afternoon but since the water temperature and air temperature were both around 75, I opted not to get in the pool. Oliver and Nadia stayed in for two hours. Ian lasted about 40 minutes in the water. Paul is putting in a crazy long work day today. He left for work around 3AM and said he won't be home until after I'm in bed (and I often go to bed around 10:30 these days). Thankfully he's taking off work tomorrow to go with us to DelGrosso's because between the kids having VBS the last two weeks and us going away this past weekend, he's barely seen us. When the kids have VBS he only sees the kids for a grand total of 10 minutes a day (the time it takes them to brush their teeth, put on their pjs, and hop in bed).

Thankful Tuesday

1. I was able to attend Bible study last Tuesday night.

2. Nadia and Ian had a great week at Camp Good News last week, and it was wonderful to carpool with our neighbor. Oliver enjoyed having Westyn come and swim with us twice last week.

3. Last Friday we stopped at our library's book sale. The kids are always allowed one free book each. Nadia got a Paddington Bear chapter book that she hadn't read before, and Ian let me use his free book for a resource on teaching kids about Shakespeare and his time period. I bought Nadia three cd's of contemporary Christian music.

4. The kids and I enjoyed dinner at Taco Bell (thanks to a gift card) on Friday night.

5. We had a safe trip to Maryland on Saturday morning and back home on Monday night. We were able to visit the Goddard Space Center on Sunday, go to Friendly's for dinner on Saturday night, and go on a Pirate Adventure on

Monday afternoon. Ian said the best part was when he shot a water cannon and hit two other pirates who were in a smaller boat. The kids had their faces painted and had tattoos painted on their arms - ex. an octopus for Oliver. Ian's nametag read "Eagle Eye Ian," Oliver's read "Octopus Oliver," and Nadia's read "Night Owl Nadia." Maurice tried to join us, but the fifth ticket I purchased went unused because he got lost trying to find the ship.

6. This morning we enjoyed seeing Happy Feet 2 for $4 total for the four tickets at the movie theater. Then we did a little shopping at JCPenney since they are closing in seven days. I got myself a pair of earrings for $3 and two dresses for Nadia. One of the dresses was a splurge for me. I rarely spend more than $5 on a dress for Nadia. Many times I pay as little as $1.50. I don't believe I've ever spent more than $10 on a dress for her. One of the dresses I got her today was $24. It was originally $120 so it was 80% off. She certainly didn't *need* another dress, but she really wanted to get it and wear it at Grandpa's

wedding. I told her I'd get it if she used some of money to pay part of the cost. She then asked Grandma later if Grandma would pay for part of the dress. It's very pretty, and since it's long I believe she'll be able to wear it next year as well. All 21 grandkids will be processing down the aisle during the ceremony (each holding one long stemmed flower) so she'll have a pretty dress to wear for this special occasion.

7. After JCP we stopped at the berry farm on the way home and picked about 2.5 pounds of blueberries. Yum! The weather was about 20 degrees cooler today than it has been lately, which made it ideal weather for picking blueberries. It also was better weather for mowing the lawn, although I still got really sweaty this afternoon even though it was only in the 70's.

8. Rosalie called me yesterday to tell me that she spoke to Jessica, the chair at Gratz College. She said Jessica is very excited about having me teach online courses for their master's and doctoral programs. I have no idea when this might actually

happen, but it will be wonderful to earn some extra money at some point through teaching online. I'm hoping it happens at least by next spring so I can earn enough money for us to go to San Diego in October 2018.

9. I got to sit in the class where my brother was the substitute teacher on Sunday morning.

10. I received one of the five employment verification forms thus far, and I was told a second one is in the mail.

11. All five of us attended a Crosscutters game this evening (minor league baseball). They were giving 500 free handstamp vouchers for Knoebels this evening, but Paul couldn't get home from work early enough for us to be one of the first 500 people there this evening. I had gotten the tickets for free, and parking is always free at this stadium. We did spend some money at the concession stands. The kids shared an order of French fries, a slushie, and one cotton candy. Paul had a burger and chips, and I had a soft pretzel. We stayed for the first 5 innings. The score was 4-1

(home team was losing) when we left, and that ended up being the final score so we didn't miss anything by leaving early. We left because it was past Ian and Oliver's bedtimes. The end of August I am planning on taking them to a Little League game during the week of the championship.

12. My aunt gave me some special markers for drinking glasses/mugs to write names on (that can come off if you rub it off with a sponge). She gave me enough to share them with my dad and siblings. I gave my dad two of them, and we used them this weekend. What an awesome invention! I also am enjoying some hand-me down sandals that she gave me while we were in New York that she can't wear any longer due to some foot issues that she has.

13. I did a little grocery shopping on Saturday night for my dad so I could make our Sunday dinner (pot roast, mashed potatoes, etc.). I bought Nadia and I four plums as well. She had asked me last week to buy plums. I hadn't bought any since last summer. Oh they were so good!!! Here's to hoping some grocery store around here will have them on sale for a decent price sometime in the near future as we'd both like to have some more plums!