Monday: Isaac's big news

It was so big, that we made a video to share with Ben.



After this circuit, he proceeded to make several others, learning about short circuits.  It was rather fun.  Then I went to make lunch and he and Joshua made the fan spin off the motor.  We've done this one before, but they were rather excited to discover it themselves.  And yes, Joshua really likes this toy.  He works on his fine motor skills of snapping things together.

I'm feeling better today.  I had a low grade fever this morning, but the meds kicked in and the rest of the day was fine.  Not awesome, but fine.  While Isaac was at gymnastics, Joshua and I went to get some pictures of a quilt.  My map app said there was a park nearby, so we headed over there.  Turns out, it was a cemetery.  While I would be fine with my headstone in a picture, I didn't think it was very appropriate.  So we walked all over the large cemetery until we found the unused portion and got some pictures.  The weather was nice, but windy.

Sunday: Happy Father's Day

Today, instead of celebrating Father's Day in a semi-proper fashion, I helped Ben and Dad live up to their fatherly potential.

I went to church this morning, not feeling all that great but hoping I was just tired.  About twenty minutes into the service I called it quits, packed up the boys, and dropped with off with Ben while I went to bed.  And shivered.  The dumb thermometer wouldn't give me a higher temperature than 97.9F, but there was obviously a fever coming.  I waited about 15 more minutes and took Ibprofin.  My temperature continued to increase, peaking around 101.2 when I added in the Tylenol.  I've been running a low grade temperature since then, continuing with the medicine.

Now here's the thing; Ben's back was in more pain than normal too.  He made it through lunch, we had our house cleaner play with the boys instead of clean, and then my dad came over.  He brought the boys out for ice cream and played with them a bit.

Thanks to the Dads, who come through to help out even on their "special" day.

Last Saturday: mini reunion

Last Saturday the boys and I went to a mini-reunion on my mom's side.  It was a lot of fun.

Both boys got a tractor ride.  Joshua wouldn't let Uncle Dave steer.

I love this picture.  (Aunt C, I ordered a print for you today.)

Isaac loved the tractor ride.  He really wanted a second one, so we'll have to go back some time.

Picture paparazzi

Three of the four girl cousins.  (There are ..10 boy cousins?  This is the first time I remember meeting the girl cousin from Texas, and I just can't remember if there is a boy too.)

...and a delicious lunch.

Saturday: racquetball trivia

Today's biggest news is that a racquetball hit me squarely in the arm, leaving a welt.  In honor of the welt, I've decided to give you some racquetball rule trivia.  Ben and I have wondered these questions for a long time, but finally looked them up.

1. Unintentional carries are allowed.  This is a new rule change.  See 3.13b
2.  A short serve includes balls that bounce on the short line.  See 3.9b
3. A screen serve must pass close to the server's body.  See 3.9i
4. The ball is in play until it bounces twice.  This means that it can be hit by player 1, hit the front wall, hit the back wall, bounce, hit the front wall, and may still be hit by player 2.  See 3.13e

Other things that I didn't know but learned by glancing through the rules...
1. You can call a screen during play.  See Rule 3.14.a4
2. There is a rule modification that may be adapted such that if the ball hits the front wall between one and three feet it may bounce twice instead of once and still be in play.  The lines should be marked on the front wall.  See rule 6.3

Here is the document, in case you have a burning desire to learn about racquetball rules now.

Friday: geocaching, wedding

Today we stopped on the way to the library to do a quick geocache.  We got to the spot and started to look around.  I didn't see anything.  Humph...hopefully not another bust!  Then I saw something, so I leaned into the bushes.  Bother, it was just a piece of trash.  I looked around a bit more, and saw more trash.  Isaac started to tell me, "Mom, get the red thing!"  The red thing?  Apparently the cache was under the trash.  Isaac was pretty excited to have found it.

This afternoon we went to a wedding.  It was a lovely wedding and nice to catch up with people.  I didn't get any pictures, but everything was beautiful.

Thursday: deck

We finally got our deck fixed.  (It still needs to be painted, but that's another day.)  Isaac was out of it this morning so we didn't go to gymnastics.  I went back and forth several times about going, but in the end think I made an ok decision.  It probably would have been fine either way, really.

Anyway, the carpenters got here and the boys sat down to watch.

Joshua lost interest rather quickly, but Isaac watched for all three hours.  (That's the only reason I think skipping gymnastics might have been the right call.  He doesn't seem like the type of kid that would sit watching the deck be fixed for three hours straight.)

Joshua came back near the end.

And now all the bad boards have been replaced!  Furthermore, they used screws instead of nails, so if they ever need to be replaced again it should be easier.  It's one of those things I'm glad we paid for...I'm sure we could have done it, but it might have taken a whole weekend (or we only would have dealt with the worst of the boards).

Wednesday: marble mazes

This morning Joshua and I went to the downtown game store while Isaac was at gymnastics.  They have a back room with lots of demo games.  Joshua didn't really get into it as much as I was hoping, but we did pass the whole 40 minutes there.  He enjoyed doing one game with a slide in it.  He says "Hop, hop, whee!"



I finally took a peak in Isaac's classroom too.  There are uneven bars, a low balance beam and a tall one, lots of mats, and a little trampoline.  It's nice to have a bit of an idea of what's there.

The activity of the day was to make marble mazes.  It didn't take as much time to make as I was expecting, but that's not always bad.  They're in Isaac's bedroom for now...I expect we'll play with them a bit this week and then they will go away.





Oh, and I learned at lunch today that dirty gems need to go in the sparkler upper.  Then they will be sparkly again.