Thankful Tuesday

1. I got a haircut on Thursday. It had been almost 8 months since I had gotten one. The hairdresser also trimmed my eyebrows (without asking?!?). Nadia doesn't like it when I get it cut, but when it's 90 degrees out, I greatly prefer having a shorter hairstyle. 

2. Thursday night Nadia, Tab, and I had a girl's night out. We saw a production of Emma. We knew some of the actors.

3. We've had two people come to our house to give us estimates on having solar panels installed on our roof, and we've also received two other estimates by email. We're looking forward to having them installed this fall and not paying any more electric bills.

4. Ian had his half birthday this past Saturday! I'm ever so grateful that the Lord brought Ian into our family. We love him oh so very much!! He enjoyed his bowling and dinner date with Paul on Saturday night.

5. The kids and I attended enjoyed our community group's picnic on Sunday evening at the home of someone who lives on a local golf course. 

6. Nadia and Ian enjoyed attending a water war event (included water balloons and a slip and slide) at FBC's youth group on Sunday evening. Ian has now attended the youth groups at two different churches this month.

7. On Saturday afternoon Nadia, Oliver, and I showed up at the pool only to find out they had closed five hours earlier than usual because of low attendance. Thankfully they gave us five passes for a free item of our choice from the concession stand in light of what happened. Paul and I haven't redeemed ours yet. On Monday Nadia and Oliver each got a soft pretzel and Ian picked peanut M&M's. 

8. The orthodontist took out Ian's expander yesterday. It was too difficult to keep an expander in his mouth when one of the teeth it was attached to was about to fall out. Today we returned to get his first retainer. The good news is that now we won't have to go to the orthodontist as frequently as we have lately. 

9. Our neighbor signed her two kids up for the same week of Camp Good News as I did, and we're

planning to carpool. Yahoo!!! The camp is 40 minutes from our house so I greatly appreciate being able to share the driving. I have to say I am looking forward to that week. I love my kids very, very much, but it will be nice to have five days were I can get more work done without interruption. 

10. I signed the kids up for co-op today. It took F O R E V E R. I was waiting in line for two full hours, and the whole experience took more than 2 hours. Since Nadia was already en route to Oklahoma, I had to bring the boys with me, but we had been asked not to bring our kids into the church building today. So they had to sit in the van. Thankfully it wasn't hot out today. I did leave at one point to get some lunch. The good news is that only one class was already filled by the time it was my turn to register. I switched Oliver from an art class to a music class (colored bells). Hopefully we will have a good experience this year with co-op.

11. I finally was able to sell Ian's old bike via FB. Someone came and picked it up on Monday evening. I gave him the $20.

12. I rearranged the order of our 24 day road trip in September. This was helpful for three reasons: #1 means we'll arrive in Chicago on a weekend (which is a good thing as I'm assuming their cousins will be attending school in person in the fall), #2 we'll arrive in Salt Lake City on a Friday which means the kids can spend a day at Snowbird (it's only open Friday-Sunday in September), and #3 we'll arrive in Oklahoma City on a Saturday which means the kids can go white water rafting, zip lining, etc with Riversport (it's only open on Saturdays and Sundays in September). I've made several other changes recently. I really wanted to visit a slot canyon but many of them are closed because they are on Navajo land which is still closed due to COVID. I found some near Zion/ Bryce that are open. So I eliminated Arches National Park, Wind Cave, and Yellowstone Bear World from our itinerary, but I've added Zion, Horseshoe Bend, Bryce Canyon, and a slot canyon tour. The new plan also means we're going a little farther out of our way to visit Mesa Verde, but I think it's worth it to spend a day there. I think we'll be driving around 7K miles on our big road trip. If we had more time to add to our trip, I'd definitely spend more time in Utah, but I'm very thankful Paul has agreed to a 24 day trip!

13. I got some books at very good prices at the homeschool co-op registration today! Some families were actually just giving books away for free. 

14. The boys and I picked a little over 7 pounds of strawberries today. Yum! I had strawberries on waffles for dinner tonight. Nadia loves strawberries so it was strange to do it without her, but the weather was cooler today so I thought it was a good day for picking strawberries. I assume she'll be with us when we pick blueberries and raspberries next month.

15. A plumber *finally* came and replaced the expansion tank for our hot water heater yesterday morning. This had been a problem for months. 

16. Life keeps getting closer and closer back to normal. Yay! Now if only far more National Parks would reopen....

17. We thought Nadia couldn't audition to be in Tuck Everlasting this fall because of our lengthy vacation in September, but the director said she could still be in the chorus! She's so excited!!!