Life is Busy...as usual

From taking care of sick kids to my computer being in the repair shop for a week and then just being busy with painting, etc. I just haven't been able to post anything for the last month. 

Jack and Garrett both had concerts in late February and early March to get ready for their Festivals. Jack's concert was also their annual fundraiser. It used to be a Fiesta with Mexican food but this year they changed it up to a Round Up western theme because after all, they are the Lone Star Longhorns. They served pork/chicken pulled sandwiches with BBQ sauce (if wanted), mac n cheese and baked beans. They had lemonade, iced tea and water for drinks. They also had auction items. I almost bid on a couple of them but decided not to this time. 

Jack is the first boy on the far left.

Garrett is the white face in the back. He played the big bass drum again like in marching band.

The drumline had their own musical number and we finally got to see Garrett play the snare drum! He's still timid and not confident in himself but hopefully he'll get there with more years of band.

The two younger girls had some fun at their schools in the 1st week of March to celebrate Dr. Suess's birthday. Charlotte has a Wocket in her pocket and Alice made a Cat in the Hat hat.

Alice had to make hers at home since she was home with a runny nose the first week of March. It's flat so she had to hold it up.

Speaking of Alice being out sick that first week of March, Jack was also sick that whole week with fever and cough, etc. and had to miss his ensemble festival. Garrett was out of school from Wed-Fri also with the same thing Jack had. Nikki missed some days from not feeling well but hers was medication related since she had started a new medication that was upsetting her stomach and causing migraines. At her last appointment on March 9th the doctor took her off of that medication because it wasn't helping with her ADHD and was only making her gain weight even after getting the migraines under control. So, Charlotte was the only one that didn't miss any school that week. 

I had taken a break from painting ever since I finished my bedroom but I finally got back to it and did the family room. We still had 2 five gallon buckets of  green paint leftover from when we originally painted a few years ago so I just repainted those walls the same color they were before. We still really like that color. Even after finishing the family room I still had just a little paint leftover from the first bucket. We way over estimated how much paint we needed!

                                  

There was a lot going on March 9th besides painting the family room. It was my mom's birthday and since I forgot to mail her a card I made sure to send her a text message. I was glad to hear that she had a really good day. She got text messages from all 7 of her kids and some siblings. Plus she had several friends stop by to see her. It made me happy since I don't live close enough to stop by myself. I'm thankful to hear that my brother Colby and his wife Cindy would take her out to eat on the 19th.

Not only did Nikki have an appointment with her psychiatrist on the 9th but earlier that same day she also had an orthodontist appointment where she got her braces taken off. Yay! She said she might actually show her teeth when she smiles now. She had told us before that she wouldn't even after getting braces off. Just like I did though, she will kind of need to train herself how to smile without it looking funny. But she's happy with her teeth now. Success! 

 

My computer battery was having problems charging. It would recognize that it was plugged in but it wouldn't charge my battery. It kept showing that it was at 7%, sometimes even as low as 3%.  I looked at the charging port where it gets plugged in and it looked broken to me. Sure enough, as soon as I took in to ABI Computers that's the first thing he looked at when I handed it to him. So I spent $100 to have them put in a new port (most of that was labor cost). I picked it up a week later and guess what, it didn't work! I still got the same result. So I called them again and he said that it could be the charger. When the port went bad it could have affected my charging cable. He plugged it in with a different charger and it worked! I paid about $25 for the charger and now I'm back in business. Thank goodness! I thought I might need to get a new computer.

Charlotte had an eye appointment on the 3rd and a week later we picked up her new glasses with a slightly different prescription. Her old glasses were getting too small anyway. I really hope she actually uses these ones. She was excited to get them. Charlotte is supposed to wear them when reading or doing school work.

They're a mix of black, purple and pink. Plus she got a new sparkly silver case.

On Friday the 11th was a field trip for Alice to West Park. It's within walking distance from the school so I parked at the park and walked to the school so that I could walk over with the kids. The parents were told to pick up from the park anyway. They had a long rope for the kids to hold onto so that we wouldn't have kids running out to the road. The kids did very well and it was a lot of fun. Thankfully the colder weather we were having early on in the week got warmer in time for their park day. It was still a little chilly but a beautiful day.

After church on the 13th it was cold and breezy but Curtis really wanted to go on a walk. I'll admit I needed it too. I was feeling depressed and needed to get out of the house. I just bundled up warmer so I could enjoy the walk. I'm glad I went. Garrett came along with us but the rest of the kids opted to stay home. We actually found a new path we had never seen before over by the lake.

A view of the lake behind those trees.

There was a bench on the trail to sit and rest on.

This last week we finally started to do some car shopping. We have been wanting to upgrade from my minivan for a long time now. On Monday the 14th we let the little girls come along with us. They were excited about each car we looked at it. We did not find one that night and decided we could look again on the weekend. Charlotte kept saying though that she wanted the 2nd car we looked at which was an SUV called an Armada. 

She liked that this one had TVs.

On Tuesday the 15th I still had half of the office to paint. Whitney is back in town trying to earn money to fix her truck (long story) so I had her come over the previous week to do the first half of the office and then she came again on Tuesday to do the 2nd half. That evening after dinner Garrett wanted to make a mug cake. So I made one for me, Whitney and the girls. They are good but too much to eat a whole mug cake by yourself. The girls shared theirs. I'm so glad to have the office painting done now. I think I will hold off on bedrooms though until we can clean stuff out of the kids' rooms. They have too much stuff!