Tuesday: rock climbing

Tonight I climbed a route with a very slight inverse incline.  I've never managed to get a route on that incline before, let alone flash a route on it!

Then as I was picking Isaac up after practice someone said they'd like to be my belay partner!  All right!  I had a notice up on the board for about a month and at this point didn't really expect anyone to respond.  Yay!

Monday: animals and chores

I was on a roll today!  I crossed so many things off my to-do list.  I went from 62 items to 46 items!  It'll go back up again, but hopefully it's going to keep trending down.  I haven't been this low in about 2.5 years, and if I can get just a few more things crossed off I'll be at a record low.

I pulled out a chair today to sit down, only to find a cat on it.

Horizon also was sitting on a chair later in the day, but when I pulled it out to take a picture he jumped off.

Usually, Horizon is a very quiet cat.  However, when I'm picking raspberries he has been very vocal - reminding me that he wants to come outside too!  The problem is that he doesn't just want to come outside, he wants to eat the plants outside.  Guess what doesn't agree with his stomach?  Plants.

Sunday

The kids and I helped out during the preschool Sunday school today.  The kids noted that it didn't feel like we did much...and we didn't.  It's only during the sermon and the fourth person led the lesson.  However, there were a ton of kids there and so we were all needed.

We went to Great-Grandma's in the afternoon.

We joined her for dinner, which was good, but dinner service was so slow.

Hmm, I thought there was something else funny that happened today.  There probably was.  The children are funny.

[update] It wasn't a funny thing; I ordered my Christmas cards today!  I needed to order some other prints and shipping photos is always so expensive.  So I ordered the cards today too to save on shipping.  

Saturday: flu shot

Earlier this week I had proposed going to a corn maze today.  The kids were not all that excited about it so I scheduled flu shots instead. 

I wanted to bike there; it is less than ten minutes away by bike.  Joshua wasn't excited about this part either, but he came around.  Isaac wasn't excited about it either, and therefore biked as slowly as possible to the pharmacy.  I would look behind me to make sure everyone was with me and Isaac would be a minute behind.

We made it to the pharmacy only a few minutes late.  They proceeded to be so slow though.  They're always slow, but since Isaac was grumpy I was a bit grumpy.  He was coming around, but it's harder when you need to wait a long time.  

Unsurprisingly, we finally got in and got our shots.  Isaac was the last one to get his shot and after the tech put the band-aid on he started laughing.  The tech had completely missed putting the band-aid on the injection site...and it was a lovely turning point.  We also got to leave right after that, which was nice.

The trip home was still a bit slow, but this time Isaac led so I didn't feel l was leaving him behind.

Friday: animals

Yesterday Giraffe decided to come to work with me.  

Giraffe got to come out to pick Isaac up too.

Today Tornado followed me around.  It was especially impressive when I found him already where I was going.

Only Giraffe showed up for nap pile today, but Tornado followed me in too, so Giraffe attempted to nap pile with him.  It didn't work very well.

Thursday: green route

Ben got his boot off today!  Hooray!  He still needs to wear his shoes while in the house, along with what seems like a half-dozen other restrictions, but at least there is no boot.

I had a little bit of time after dropping Isaac off at rock climbing so I also climbed today.  Isaac told me I should do the red route.  I had watched a woman do it last week and she got stuck at the top, which obviously proceeded to make me nervous.  Isaac told me to just come back down the way I went up.  And so I did.  It was a nice route!  I'm glad he encouraged me to do it, because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have otherwise.

I also finally finished the 5.9 green route that is on the auto-belay.  The holds aren't my favorite: they are large are look like seashells.  And the worst part is that they don't have good handholds.  I ran it once and got pretty close to the top but got stuck...it was the same place I got stuck in last time.  So I did what I should do before climbing any route and sat down to look at it.  Lo and behold, I found another handhold!  There was one right around the corner that I hadn't noticed.  When I tried the route again it was so much easier and I made it to the top.

Wednesday: pictures

It was a pretty normal day today; I did the boring chores.  I did a few interesting chores, went on a walk with Cheryl, and went to karate too.

There have been a few pictures of the kids that I didn't take but wanted to share.  First we have Isaac during youth group.  I've never been in this part of the church (and I think the mural is new).  He's in the yellow shirt near the bottom right of the picture.

Every few months Joshua takes a little test at piano and levels up.  (Kind of like a karate belt system.)  I get these nice pictures every time, but usually forget to share them.  It looks like Joshua has been there for two years!  He might get a trophy too.  He really likes the trophies but they take a little bit of time to come in.