Making some changes

 April is off to a bang. Right after spring break was over Alice had a field trip with the preschool to the Nampa Public Library. When we have field trips with preschool that means that parents are supposed to come with them to help supervise the kids. They gave a tour around the first floor, which is the kids floor, and we even got to go back and see the conveyor belts where the books are returned and sorted into the corresponding bins. It was neat. Then they had story time with the kids, did a craft and played with some toys.

They are building with giant magnets.

The craft was making this owl mask.

The very next day was Charlotte's first day going to horse camp at Harvey Horse Camps in Kuna. She loved it! I was able to get a picture of her standing next to one of many horses they had in their stable before I left. She told me she got to ride a horse bare back today for the first time. Of course someone was there to lead the horse around. Charlotte loved it so much that she was telling me on the ride home that she wants to live there. 

Curtis also decided to start the task of widening our doorway that leads from the dining room to the hallway of the family room. We had a very difficult time moving couches back there a few months ago and so something needed to be done. After removing the old door and doing some cutting we added 5 inches of space. Of course when we put on the trim it won't be that much extra but still at least 3 maybe 4 inches wider than before. We will also be replacing the door with a sliding barn door. We finished the doorway just yesterday. Next step is making the door and hanging it.

We were able to reuse some of the old trim. The brown trim is new.

We both painted it together. On Saturday we did primer and one coat of paint. Then I did the 2nd coat of paint yesterday morning.

After work yesterday Curtis did the caulking to fill in the cracks.

Ta da! The doorway is done. Next, build the door!

The same day of conference after Charlotte got back from horse camp I later took the girls and Garrett on a walk near our neighborhood. We walked in front of the Sands Point neighborhood which is next door to ours. There was no water yet so the girls had fun exploring on the rocks.

Sitting where the waterfall would be.

It was like going on a hike. They even crawled through the short pipes that went under the sidewalk. They had so much fun exploring down there.

Well, that very same evening Charlotte got a little stomach bug. Thank goodness we were able to stay home and watch conference the next day. She was feeling good on Sunday. We went until Tuesday before Alice and Nikki both got sick. Nikki's started as a sore throat for a couple of days, then stuffy nose and then late Tuesday night she puked 3 times. She was in so much pain from the combo of puking and having menstrual cramps that I thought I might need to take her to the ER. I said several silent prayers while I sat out there with her in the front room. Thankfully the thought to get a heat pad came to my mind and eventually she settled down and was able to go to sleep. The next day she felt better but Garrett stayed home with his stomach hurting.

Garrett's stomach was hurting Thursday morning as well so he stayed home again. I thought he was going to miss his jazz band concert. He never did throw up and then felt good in the afternoon so we went ahead and took him to the concert. He felt even better after having gotten out of the house for the concert.

He got to wear his new hat. 

With all the sickness last week I went around cleaning doorknobs, light switches, etc. Then I decided to try again on cleaning my bathroom floor. There was a dirt and hairspray build up that has been getting worse all the time. I had tried cleaning it years before but couldn't get it off. Well, I had the thought to try the bleach cleaning spray but to let it sit for at least 10 minutes before scrubbing. It worked! The floor looks so much better. I hadn't intended on cleaning the whole bathroom floor that day but once I got started I couldn't stop. I cleaned the trim around the walls as well. It looks so much better! The only problem is I couldn't get the yellow spots off the floor that are under our rug. I tried lots of different things for that but nothing worked. Our kids' bathroom used to have a yellow spot almost as bad but when I started hanging the rugs up on the tub and letting the sunshine in, eventually the yellow went away (mostly). Unfortunately, my bathroom never gets direct sunlight through the window. I'm still hoping that maybe more light and air will help the coloring. We'll see.

The lighter square next to the dark area is the first square I tested. Above that is where the rug usually is and you can see the yellow.

So excited to finally get this gunk off the floor!

The trick is to let it sit and soak so that it can work.

This picture was during my experiments for trying to clean the yellow spots but you can see the rest of the floor that I already scrubbed to get the darker stuff off from the hairspray and dirt.

After rescheduling several times I finally had my appointment with Melissa to do my hair. I decided I was ready to try some color in my hair again and wanted highlights. I haven't had color in my hair for probably 10 years. I also decided that since I was there I would have her give me a trim as well. 

The before shots:

I took some pics a couple days before so I could see the color of my hair and try to decide what I wanted to do.

Here's the before at Paul Mitchell school.

It took a lot longer than I expected it to take but I guess that makes sense since it is a school and Melissa is just learning. Not to mention I have a lot of long hair. I was there from 8:30am to about 2pm.

The after shots:

I decided to have Melissa straighten my hair since I haven't done that in a long time and since it would be easier to see the highlights.

And here it is with the curl. Sometimes I'm not sure about all the blonde because it looks like too much but I do like it!

I couldn't forget to post about the pinewood derby that Jack participated in last week at mutual. Garrett and Nikki were sick that day so they weren't able to go and their cars weren't ready yet (and it was a combined activity). Jack was funny because he was trying to lose on purpose. He put next to no effort into designing his car. The only rule that night was that the car had to weigh 5 oz or less. Jack's car weighed 4.7oz. and the only thing he and Curtis did was spray some lubricant on his wheels. Apparently the lubricant was all he needed. He ended up getting 4th place! 😂 I think if he had made it weigh 5 oz he could have won. It was cool to hear that girls won 1st and 3rd place. We weren't there to watch but we heard stories later about Nikki's friend Logan getting the crowd to cheer for "the block" which was Jack's car. Wish I could have been there to witness it but it's fun to hear about it.

He wrote "Team Failure" on both sides with a sharpie.