August Happenings

Time to catch up on my blogging once again! It's a good thing I take pictures sometimes otherwise, I would forget things that have happened. Back on the 10th of August, Garrett finally passed his written driving test! It took him 5 times total, twice last year (then he gave up for a long time) and three times this month. He was always very close to passing, usually only missed one too many questions, but he finally did it!! We drove over to Dairy Queen right after to buy him a milkshake to celebrate. He was so happy and relieved. The last thing to do is the driving skills test. We scheduled it out a couple of weeks so he could do some more practicing, particularly on parallel parking, since I learned that was on the test. He has been more willing to drive ever since he passed the written test.

With all of the new furniture we got down in the family room, I decided it was time to buy Milo a crate cover and stop using the two tiger blankets I've had since high school. This cover looks so much better and it matches the new bookshelves and piano!

A couple of weeks ago I also visited with our next-door neighbors and brought up the subject of our odd fence layout between our two properties. Apparently, their fence at fallen down years ago and it was going to take awhile to get the fence put back up, so Mr. Spaulding (who lived here before us) put up a chain link fence because he had 3 schnauzer dogs. So, there's a little gap in between the two fences and it was boarded up on both ends, so we couldn't get in, and it was filling up with weeds, grass and garbage. I don't know why I didn't think of doing this before but it wasn't until our neighbor, Paul, mentioned that there was only one screw holding those boards up and that it should come off easily, that I finally did just that. And then took two days to clean it out. It looks so much better!

Side view with the weeds.

Looking down the space just after I got started.

I just had to remove 3 boards, one screw on top and one on bottom of each board. It was easy. 

All done cleaning it out!

You can see the old fence posts.

Paul wanted to come put Preen on it for me, but I told him he didn't need to. I had never used Preen before but because he mentioned it, I picked some up at the store. It's supposed to keep weeds from growing there for at least 3 months. Unfortunately, it's been a couple of weeks and I'm seeing grass sprout up back there. I'm going to have to spray those before they get out of hand again. But at least there's no weeds!

Charlotte finally put her 3D dog puzzle together, with a little bit of help, after seeing Garrett put his own 3D owl puzzle together. I was almost too intimidated to help her but we got it done. It's definitely a different kind of puzzle. She's had that puzzle for several months, so it's good she finally got it put together.

On Saturday the 17th of August, we had the opportunity to go see the parade in Kennewick for the first time and Jack performed in it with the band. Last year the smokey air was too bad and the band pulled out of the parade. This year it was a beautiful day for a parade and very sunny. We had no idea how long it was going to last because it was our first time attending. After 2 hours, we decided to call it quits, because it was still going! People in the parade were from all around the area, not just Kennewick. The parade was for the Benton County fair and rodeo kick off. It was fun, but more than two hours is way too long! And we loaded up so much candy that the girls got tired of picking up candy. 

Ghostbusters! No idea why they did this one but it was fun to see.

Mexican dancers.

Bronson Brown had a float because he's trying to get elected for judge. He's in our ward bishopric. The McShane family were helping with his float. It was fun to see them. Our girls wanted to hop on the float with their friends. Maybe next time!

Southridge and Kamiakin high school bands marching together. In the two hours we watched, they were the only bands we saw.

Jack's in the green socks.

Our candy stash from the parade. The grocery bag was half filled! There were a few items in there that weren't candy, like bracelets and toys or first aid kits. 

After the parade, I was outside getting the pool cleaned and I spotted a praying mantis and took a picture up close. It was too cool not to share.

Curtis worked on changing out Garrett's bedroom door that afternoon and while we were both busy, Milo got busy also....digging! He keeps digging new holes but fortunately, we were able to find a video about putting his own dog poop in the holes and covering it up to keep him from repeating the same spot. It's been working so far, as long as we put the poop near the top of the hole, so he can smell it. Well, since I caught him in the act, he got a smack on the rear and put in his kennel. The funny thing was that his kennel door is usually left open and Coco happened to be resting in there. I didn't realize that until a few minutes later when we saw him by Milo. It was pretty funny and cute!

The girls let Coco out after I got the picture.

He sure makes a mess when he digs.

Shopping with the girls for a new bedroom door for Garrett's room. They enjoyed riding on that cart.

That evening I finally talked Garrett into swimming with us. I warned all the kids that it would be a family swim night, except Jack already had plans to go to a church dance. Not only did Garrett get in, but I could tell that he had fun! It's always good to see your kids happy.

Being silly.

Puzzle, Lessons and Rewards

I have finally found a way to do my 2000-piece puzzle I got for my birthday without it being in the way and I can take my time working on it. After moving my sewing machine and sewing box to the new dresser, that left my sewing table without anything on it, and I realized I could use that table for my puzzle. I would just have to keep it downstairs. I started this puzzle a couple of weeks ago and am slowly making progress. It's definitely a difficult puzzle but I'm still enjoying doing it. I work on it here and there.

Started on July 22nd.

This is what it looks like today (Aug 6th).

The girls did swim lessons a couple of weeks ago at the home of someone in our ward. The Brown's college age daughter, Alyssa, has been teaching lessons at their pool. It's been a lot more expensive than when I took my girls to the Rec Center in Nampa two years ago, but it's worth it. (The prices of swim lessons at the Rec Center have also gone up.) It will not only help my girls to become better swimmers, but it will also help someone we know. They did one week of lessons two weeks ago (7/22-7/26), and just started another week of lessons yesterday. The nice thing is that there's only been 3 people in their classes both times. During the first week, I had Alice in level 2 and Charlotte in level 3. This week Alice advanced to level 3 also, so the girls are doing it together. Alyssa is only teaching up to level 3. The girls love it!

One of Charlotte's best friends happened to be taking lessons that week also. It made it that much better!

Alice had one of her friends in her class also.

Charlotte finished filling her reward jar and had me take her shopping for a prize. She picked out a solar robot to build (and a few other items). Inside the box there was also instructions to build a solar s'mores cooker.

The finished solar robot. It was fun to help her build it. She actually did quite a bit herself. It will only move in the sunlight or a powerful light. It won't work with LED though.

Testing out the solar s'mores cooker with a friend.

Alice and her friend making one in another box. Charlotte made two s'mores cooker boxes.

The top is covered with plastic wrap to help keep the heat inside. And the foil reflects the sun, to create more heat.

A bit messy, but delicious.

Our friends, the Hayes', came to visit Kennewick again and so they made a visit to our house. We invited them over for lunch and swimming. We had some delicious smoked chicken thighs and pork chops along with frog eye salad, grapes, chips, green salad, and juice. It was fun to see them, even if it was only for a couple of hours.

Elie is a little younger than Charlotte but A LOT taller. She gets it from her dad.

Chrystal and me

Sage was naughty and got in trouble. There was a bowl of shredded cheese on the food table. While we were eating, I looked over and she was digging in with her face in the cheese bowl. She likes cheese. I'm surprised that she didn't go for the meat.

After Charlotte filled her reward jar and got her prize, Alice did too! She picked out a big Bluey stuffed animal and a few other toys.

She's a happy girl!

Last week was FSY (For the Strength of Youth) in La Grande, Oregon. It's a program for the youth of our church. This was a year for our ward to be able to go, so most of them were going at this time and location. They would be gone from Monday morning to Saturday morning and stay in a college dorm room on the college campus. They go to lots of classes and activities throughout the week and have lots of spiritual experiences. We knew going into this that it would be tough for Garrett because he gets a lot of anxiety in crowds, but we were hoping it would be good for him. I even had him take his prescription medicine that his doctor gave him last year to take as needed for anxiety. It was a low dose and Garrett never used it until last week at FSY. Unfortunately, they didn't help. It was too much for Garrett to handle and I ended up driving down to get him Tuesday afternoon. We're happy that he tried going and at least stayed one night. Jack stayed the rest of the week though and loved it. His roommate was Porter, his best friend from Nampa.

With summer, comes heat.....and that means ice cream to help cool off! Alice was really enjoying her ice cream cone.

Last week I finally ordered some new bookshelves and an L-shaped desk from walmart.com. The bookshelves went in the family room and the desk in our bedroom. I was so excited to be able to get some boxes out of the garage again. I think I emptied about 10 boxes last Saturday. Curtis built them and I filled them. The shelves were a little smaller than we had thought they would be, but it still looks good and I'm glad I bought two of them. I was able to unbox books and decorations. Unfortunately, my Christus statue wasn't packed well enough, and Jesus broke a few fingers off. I haven't been able to fix it yet. The pieces are so small, it's difficult to hold them without getting glue on my fingers.

I added some decorations on top of the dresser that holds my sewing stuff.

I didn't have anywhere to put our ocean decor, so I put them around our soaker bathtub. I'm not sure if I like them there but that's where they'll go for now.

Our new corner desk in our bedroom, and new purple exercise ball.

Curtis tweaked his knee a couple of weeks ago and has been dealing with pain and swelling. We're hoping he didn't tear anything. On Sunday, Brother Gale, who does physical therapy, had Curtis come over and show him some exercises to do to strengthen his knees. I had to go shopping to find the equipment for him while he was at work yesterday so that he could start as soon as possible. That's why there's a purple ball in our room now. We're hopeful that the exercises will help.