Memorial Day weekend

We went camping this weekend at the Conference Grounds.  It was a bit cold, but it didn't rain at all which was nice.  We go with some friends (and some family/friends of them).  It's nice to have some people to do things with, but there aren't many expectations and we can do our own things too.

We got there right around dinner on Friday.  I often try to get there a little earlier, but between the kids being at home and it being cold we waited to leave.  Not much was all that interesting about Friday night, but the kids enjoyed the playground and we had a fire.

Saturday we did the fun run.  It was a bit of a fun walk.  The boys completed the mile in 15 minutes while I showed up a few minutes later.

Afterwards we collected Ben and took a walk to the lake.  There's actually a bit of sand this year, which was nice.  ...not that we played in it though as it was also rather cold.

We went on the wagon ride.

And played mini-golf.  Joshua got his first hole-in-one on hole one.

Ben also participated in a game of dodgeball.  Sadly, the parents lost.

Sunday we did some frisbee golf.  Sometimes the boys were way too silly, sometimes they did a nice job.

A very old frisbee finally hit the dust.  This is rather unimportant, but I did like the juxtaposition of "life is good" on a broken frisbee.

The boys loved the merry-go-round.  I went over a few times to give them pushes and they would just stay on as long as I'd push.

Ben and I enjoyed our books quite a bit too!

Monday we slowly packed up, took a walk, the boys played on the playground, etc.  Nothing very special, but it still took us until about 2:15 to leave!  Packing up doesn't really take that long, but there were assorted talking, reading, and walking breaks.  Many people seemed to leave before lunch this year which was a bit surprising and it felt empty by the time we actually pulled out.

Thursday: home

Ben's home! Ben's home!

Wednesday: game

 Joshua's been playing a game around me these last few days.  It's one of those games where he follows me around while I work and I need to just say a few things here and there to progress the story.  (Usually.  Sometimes I need to be more involved.)

Part of the armor has also come with wrist-maps.  This map is a pretty simple one, but I've seen some more elaborate ones too.

Tuesday: sleep over

Since Ben is gone I said we could have a sleep over tonight.  Joshua was very excited.  I got the little mattress out in the morning and he got his bed all set up.

I think he might have been a bit disappointed in the execution though, because I didn't go to bed at the same time as the boys.

Monday

Ben's gone for a few days, but other than that it was a pretty normal day.  We finally went back to the dojang for karate.  We do the family class when we go, and everyone likes that class a bit more.

Isaac read something about cheetahs for school, and Tornado was acting all needy, so I gave Isaac a mini-cheetah to hold.

Sunday: in pictures

 Ben grilled some steaks for us.  I think it's the first time we've actually grilled steaks, and they were delicious.  At least, they were delicious for the adults.  The kids didn't appreciate their few bites.

All my towels were in the wash.  (It took two days before I realized the dishwasher could at least serve as a drying rack.)  I found an old bib.  It was a bit weird, but worked.

I put the cat box up yesterday and Horizon enjoyed it this morning.  They stopped using it in the middle of the summer last year, so I wasn't sure if they were going to go back in or not.

Ben's "favorite" animal is a penguin, mainly due to a joke one day in the car with the kids.  So whenever I see a penguin book I get it.  This one was especially cute.

Isaac made a stop motion video.

Saturday: the good and the bad

Let's start with the bad news: the roof is in need of significant repairs due to hail and our insurance provider has not been approving any roof claims due to hail.

OK, that was the bad news of the day.  There was much more good news.

*The roof, while in need of repair, is not leaking.  It needs to be dealt with soon but is not urgent.  

*Dealing with the freezer was a bit easier than expected.  It helped a ton to have a hand-dolly and a walk out basement.  It took Ben and Larry a bit of time at the store because they apparently moved the unit, but that was probably the worst.  Lowe's even recycled our old one (for a fee), so it's gone!  Getting this all situated calmed me down a lot.

*All the flowers/plants are set for the summer.  Well, more-or-less.  We need to fence the strawberry because something ate our first one.  Isaac choose a watermelon plant and Joshua has some snap dragons.  There are also a few other random things that we're trying to grow from seed, so we'll see how it goes.

*The boys were incredibly content today.  This isn't to say that they just did their own thing, but they easily found things to do.  At one point this involved nailing, drilling, and inserting screws into a board, but it lasted a while.

*It felt like we used most of the appliances in the kitchen today.  While this isn't close to true, using so many was a slight mistake because there were a lot of dishes and still no dishwasher.  But dinner was good and there's banana bread for breakfast.

Friday: freezer

This is just not really our week.  The basement freezer went out and we discovered it today.  We made another trip to Lowes...they had them in stock!  Alright!  ...but delivery was two weeks out, which really doesn't work at all.  Ben's dad is going to help out tomorrow with their truck.  We're also getting a temperature alarm, which we probably should have thought of a long time ago.

We're also getting the roof checked tomorrow.  Based on the week this has been, I don't expect good news.  (To be fair though, we have no reason to expect bad news.  So I suppose I'm actually optimistic since the disherwasher/freezer and roof have nothing to do with each other.)

Horizon nipped Isaac today, so Isaac made it his goal to make a cat proof fort.  Of course, while he was making the the cats kept getting inside, which was rather ironic.  I also saw both of them sitting on top of the fort this evening, probably out of spite.

Oh!  We also went to a playground this morning.  In the mess of dealing with the freezer I completely forgot about that.  The boys played for a surprinsingly long time.

Thursday: dishwasher

Well, we got one more load through the dishwasher before it died again.  Now the control panel doesn't respond and the drains continuously if it's closed.  I have the power to it off overnight to see if we can get another cycle. :)

In the meantime, we purchased another dishwasher.  Of course, the one(s) I wanted weren't in stock so it'll be over a week until it gets installed.  However, I feel much more able to handle this today (now that grades are put in) versus Monday (when I wasn't sure if my graders were going to finish their part).

The really big news, though, is that I went to the store without a mask.  To be fair, I went two times.  The first time the boys were with me and so I wore my mask because it doesn't seem fair to not wear it when they have to.  The second time the boys weren't with me though, so I decided to live daringly and not wear it.  After so many dreams of not remembering my mask, it was weird to purposefully not wear it.

(Who would have thought, two years ago, that this picture would be big news?  Oh look, you're smiling in a store.  What's so abnormal about that?)

Wednesday: this and that

 I stubbed my little toe this morning.  It is still a bit sore.  It doesn't really hurt, but I still notice it.

One of Joshua's lessons at school today was that somethings you have to give away things even if it's hard.  Then he asked, "Do I have to give away Grey Bear?"  I responded with a probably not, but there might be some circumstances where it would be the best thing to do.  Tears were threatening so I said (hopefully) comforting things like 'we'd try to give a different stuffed animal first' and 'I don't really see any circumstances where we'd actually have to give away Grey Bear.'  Grey Bear got some hugs and I think Joshua calmed down.

I also wanted to show my karate partner.  He really likes to come and lay on the mat during my class.  It's sometimes a small problem, but mostly fun.  He's pretty consistent and will come back multiple times if I accidently scare him away in the middle.

Oh!  All my grades were finally put in today.  (Which is good, because they were due today.  You get a 'nasty' email if you don't get them in on time.)  I will try to get a head start on the fall semester so I don't have to do it during everyone's summer vacation, but I really only need to get a minimum of stuff ready.  I won't be hard.

Tuesday: worries

Joshua came down after bedtime and seemed a bit worried.  He had already been down a few times complaining about how there weren't any books he wanted to read.  It ended up slightly different.

J: I kind of wonder this every night, but are pirates going to come tonight?
A: Nope, no pirates.
J: How do you know?
A: We don't live by pirates.
J: Oh, ok!

If only all worries were so easy to deal with. :)

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Our power went out right before the boys started their second meetings of the day.  It took me a few minutes to figure out, but I realized I could use my phone as a hotspot and then they could both go to their meetings.  Luckily the power turned back on after about a half hour, because the phone wasn't going to last long enough for them to do the whole day.  I was rather worried that it wasn't going to come on in a timely manner because it never showed up on the outage map.

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Isaac finished his math NWEA today with a rather high score.  After dinner I made an off-hand comment to Ben about calculating the standard deviations and Isaac was curious to know what that meant.

So Isaac got a math lesson in standard deviations.  The lesson never returned to his test score, so he knows he did well, but probably not how well.

Monday: all's well that end's well??

 It was a busy day.  I made curry in the morning along with trying to get some other important chores done and helping the boys as needed.  I did a little grading, but was hoping that my graders would pull through and finish the grading they said they would.  Cheryl picked the boys up around 2pm and I continued my chores...there were a lot.

I went to run the dishwasher so it'd be done by the time the house cleaners showed up, but none of the buttons would push.  I reset it at the fuse box, which is what it usually needs.  No luck.  I tried a few more things.  Ben tried a few things.  No luck.

I assume that the dishwasher died because we said mean things about it yesterday right in front of it.  And then this morning as I was emptying it I was thinking that maybe it was just time for a new dishwasher.

Well, instead of emptying the dishwasher the housecleaner washed a bunch of dishes by hand.  It was good timing, really.

I was finishing up drying the last of the supper dishes after dinner and accidently hit a button on the dishwasher.  "Beep."  Wait a minute!  I thought it was dead.  It shouldn't be beeping.  Well, all the buttons push now.

This is especially nice because Ben's on a low sodium diet for the next 1.5 weeks and I expect to be cooking more than normal.  Now, if I'm nice to the dishwasher and tell it good things, maybe I won't have to wash all those dishes by hand.  (We still might start looking into a new dishwasher.)

Also, my graders finished up all their work!  I can start putting grades in tomorrow.

Saturday: Happy Anniversary!

Ben and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary today...by having a pretty normal day.

I bought us an air fryer.  It also roasts, bakes, toasts, and dehydrates, so it'll be replacing the current toaster oven.

The picture above makes everything look clean, but the reality is completely different.

However, I did get a ton of grading done today.  If my one TA comes through with her commitment to finish grading, I'm almost done with just a few loose end to tie up and then grades to put in.  She said she would finish by Friday though, so I'll check in with her tomorrow.  After all that is done I can hopefully get back to normal a bit and only have a slightly messy kitchen.  (Is anyone else laughing about that statement?)

Blogger

 Well, I woke up to more emails from Blogger.

Luckily, they restored the posts that were deleted.

Phew.

Friday: a busy day

 It was a busy day.  I started by actually making food for dinner, although that of course got interrupted several times to help the children with stuff.  We also celebrated the cats' 3rd birthday with a Lego cake in the shape of a cat and some treats they didn't eat.  Suddenly it was time for lunch, Isaac had piano lessons, and then it was off to do the "errands".  

One errand involved going to the dojang so the boys could play with the obstacle course.  They played for about three hours!  I got quite a bit of work done during that time, although not as much as I was hoping.  

I just checked my email to find that Blogger decided to delete five of my posts from March due to malware/virus content.  Now, I have the posts sent to my email every post so they're backed up.  But it scares me a bit too.  I looked at one of the back-ups and it was just text.  There were no links, no pictures, etc. that might be suspicious.  Did someone maliciously flag those posts and then somehow Blogger agreed with them?  There is no way to dispute them either.  They're gone.  While the emails were from four hours ago, I'm a little afraid that I'm going to wake-up tomorrow to all my posts being gone, one at a time.  (I have also downloaded an official backup, and do this from time to time, but still...)  It'd also be nice to know exactly what the problem was so that I can avoid it in the future.

Thursday: finished

I finished several things today.

*I finished giving an exam.  There was a computer issue for one student that was annoying, but otherwise it went fine.

*I finished most of my grading for lab.  I just need to wait for two labs from someone who received an extension and for the grader to finish her part to put grades in.

I also didn't finish several things today

*I didn't fold the basket of clean laundry from the last two weeks.

*I didn't finish freezing the chicken, but I did at least start it.

Wednesday: exam week

It's exam week.  I feel like usually exam week is a little bit easier, but this time it feels a little crazier.  I think in part because there's more grading than last semester and the boys are at home.  

If you ask me what I did this morning, I'm not sure where the time went.  I exercised, had a short on-line meeting, took a shower, did a little grading, and ... I'm not sure what else.  Probably I answered a bunch of questions from the boys.  Oh!  Joshua read me a book and then trapped me.  I still feel like there's at least an hour and a half unaccounted for.  I'm sure I was doing something productive, but still...

Monday: in pictures

 

Ben was looking especially cute as Isaac was trapping him.

I ended up ordering my tea from Amazon because it was cheaper than the grocery store.  I'm set for quite a while now.

We're still doing karate at home and so I need to improvise a lot with Joshua.  They were crawling under somethings and then jumping over some things.  Joshua apparently really enjoyed the crawling because he wanted a picture.

Sunday: Mother's Day

 While we didn't do too much special for Mother's Day, the boys did go out and get some donuts and a Lego set.  Isaac made me a donut man out of two of them.

(Ben also took my picture with the kids, but neglected to send it to me.  Hint. Hint.)

We worked on Lego sets.

In an effort to be an equal mother to both lovies, I took a picture of the Lego set giraffe with Giraffe.  Giraffe didn't become the lovie of choice until slightly later in Isaac's life, and I never had to keep track of him during errands, so I don't have the same attachment with him as I do with Grey Bear.

Joshua made a card during his school time.

Tornado kept me company while I worked on some lab grading.  Most things have been turned in for this class, so really the only thing holding me back from wrapping it all up is the grading.  I'm not super far behind, but I also wasn't as on top of it as I was at the beginning of the semester.