For several months Oliver has been asking me to give him a mohawk. Thankfully all he meant by that was basically a stripe. Although I can't say I really wanted to shave off so much of his hair, at least he wasn't asking for his hair to stand up straight in the middle of his head. I figured it's just hair. It grows back rather quickly, and so I said "yes" to this request. I said we'd do it when it was warmer out, and we also wanted to wait until after Grandma's funeral. I do not profess to be a trained barber or hairstylist, but I did the best I could to follow Oliver's request. Nadia was shocked that I included him in the Memorial Day picture with Milo yesterday. I guess she thought I wasn't going to take any pictures of him until his hair grew back?
Paul planned to go to work yesterday, but he actually ended up staying home, which meant he had a four day weekend. Wow! Considering he almost always has a one day weekend that's a big difference. I mowed the lawn, trimmed some bushes, did some weed whacking, and did some weeding yesterday. I also started taking down the trampoline yesterday, and I finished that project today. We bought some new parts for the trampoline last year (to the tune of $100+), but in the end decided for a variety of reasons not to continue to put money into the trampoline or buy another one. We got a lot of use out of it for the past 10+ years. Thankfully another neighbor got a trampoline recently so Oliver has used theirs some. After I finished taking it apart this morning, I worked the soil, spread grass seed, laid down straw on top, and watered it. The next project related to the backyard is that I want to get more rocks for a bed in the backyard and mulch for the beds in the front and on the side of the house. I also cleaned the fence some yesterday. Unfortunately that aggravated the carpal tunnel in my right arm. I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel in 2008, but it didn't cause me that much grief until 2020. Now the pain extends all the way to my elbows especially when I'm in bed. It's getting to the point I'm contemplating surgery, and I am one who tries to avoid surgery. Someone (either Oliver or one of the neighbors) broke Nadia's large swing not that long ago. I ordered her a replacement as an early birthday present, and Paul hung her new swing on the swing set yesterday.
Nadia kicked it into high gear as far as studying Matthew for Bible Bowl as she leaves for Oklahoma in exactly two weeks. I don't think she has prepared as well as she should have over the past year. I have decided that starting in September I'm going to work with Nadia and Ian on a daily basis (on school days at least) with quizzing them on their knowledge of Romans and James.
We also went to Reptiland today. Because Nadia was still twelve when we renewed our WVIA membership, she can still get into places like Reptiland for free once this year. The employee at Reptiland actually was going to let all four of us in for free, but I told her that I was supposed to pay for my admission. The kids told me that being honest cost me $16 today, which was true. She also didn't punch our card or stamp their passport, but I won't take advantage of her mistake. We only go once a year. Nadia told me that next year she'll just stay at home. I would be willing to pay for her admission next year, but I'll leave it up to her. I can see that having a 13 year old is a lot more expensive than having a 12 year old because many places that is the difference between a child and adult admission. I wish it was 18 and under for kids prices! I paid 50 cents to buy food to feed the emus and $6 to buy three sticks to feed the birds. In the past they've only had parakeets. This year they also had cockatiels, but they were not as interested in being on a feeding stick so we didn't get any pictures of them. Last June we wore masks when we were at Reptiland, and they didn't let you touch any of the animals at the end of the show. This time masks were optional, and they did let us touch a snake at the end. Yahoo for steps back toward normalcy!
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