Vacation Bust

We have been following the news in Colorado very closely. If you want to see today's latest click here. We felt like it was time to stop holding our breath so last night I called and cancelled all our reservations. Maybe we'll figure out something else to do in the next week, but on such short notice it isn't looking too promising.
Mr. C is in the above photo. Do you see him?

All Kinds of Kids

This little guy got kicked out of the nest too soon and couldn't fly. He fluttered around and cheeped for his mama. She was high overhead squawking at him to try harder. We sat outside and watched his progress for awhile and then went in. Later that evening he was gone. Hopefully he learned how to fly and didn't become someone's dinner.

This week all three kids made it to kayaking. It was M's first time, S's second time, and Mr. C is the expert with three lessons. The instructor told M to flip upside down and he would help her upright. He said, "Don't worry. I won't let you drown." After she floundered for what seemed an eternity she got upright and he told her, "Wow, you almost drowned that time." In all seriousness, there is a lot of supervision and they are only in about 4 feet of water. I'm glad they are learning how to get themselves out of sticky situations.

Normally I don't comment on world events, but this morning when I woke up I was hit in the face with the Sandusky verdict. I haven't followed the trial because it was so unpleasant to me. For some reason I read the article today and was just sickened by the things this man did. I think it is even more hard for me to take it in since I have my own 12 year old boy. All those poor boys/men. Makes me want to never let mine out of my sight.

Fix-Ups

I've been switching out outlets and light switches (brown to white). Some of them have red and black wires. Some have white and black wires. Some have a ground and others don't. Interesting. I also painted the floor of the deck--Happy Father's Day! I still need to do the spindles and supports. I hate painting spindles.

Mr. C found some free software to develop his own paintball computer game. He spends unhealthy amounts of time working on it.

M is now working (volunteering) exclusively in the pediatric oncology unit at the hospital. She is the only volunteer in that department and loves it. She agreed to work a third day of the week as well as an extra month (she was supposed to only be there in June). Occasionally they have Lunch & Learn at the hospital where employees from different departments talk to the kids about their jobs. M attends these too, so she spends a lot of time at the hospital. She is still pretty sure she wants to go to UT but now she wants to go visit other colleges this summer. I said, "When do you have time?" By the way, she starts six weeks of rowing next Monday. It will be M-F, 7-9am. Whew!

She will be taking a week off when we go on family vacation in July. We are anxiously watching the wildfires in Colorado and hoping they are contained/put out soon!

My Heart

Aren't these kids great?! What a lucky mom I am. Right now they are having sibling bonding time at Dark Shadows. M wanted me to go, but mainly so I'd pay. hahaha! She is so funny, and optimistic.

Smarty has come to the realization that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who know what an actuary is and those who don't. She told me that some actuaries were playing poker with an accountant friend, and the accountant was winning. He said, "I can't believe I'm beating you. What are the odds of that?" And they promptly told him. haha! A little actuary humor for you.

I've had an up and down week. I guess it all equals out in the end. Everything that is really important is still fantastic. So that is what I am focusing on.

New Experiences

There is an organization here in town that does all kinds of outdoor training and if you become members you can take advantage of as much of it as you want. So Mr. C went to kayaking last night.The first thing they did was flip him upside down and make him get out. His skirt (thingy they wear around their waist and it attaches to the boat) got stuck in the first kayak so they gave him this bright green one.

Then they practiced flipping back over with help from a partner.

Then they got to paddle around. He had a blast and can't wait to go back next week. I think the rest of us might give it a try as well. Everyone, except me, is really excited about it. I would be too, but I don't like to have my head underwater, much less be strapped in a kayak underwater. I'm going to try to work up the nerve to go by next week.

M started her volunteering at the hospital yesterday. She is also working morning and evening VBSs at our church this week. I still can't figure out how she fit it all into her schedule yesterday. Maybe she has a time-turner that I don't know about.

Plugging Along

Here are a couple of rooms that I have been working on.

This is Mr. C's room before I painted the trim white. His room is complete now, except for replacing the closet doors, which I'm in no hurry to do. Mr. C picked out this gray-green color (khaki forest) and I think it is very masculine. Good choice!

This is what our living room looked like last week when I started priming the walls. You can see the difference covering the dark paneling makes.

And this is what it looks like now. The walls are "gray wintermist" and all the trim in the house is "antique white".  We are removing the wood beams from the ceiling and that is what the white strip is on the ceiling. We will have to somehow paint the popcorn ceiling to get it uniform. I am not up to removing it.

I am not the only one who has been busy. Mr. C has been making improvements to his trail. He now has steps and a firepit, but don't expect any fires in the woods!

Note about the other blog: I have put an author approval on comments, due to a comment that I received yesterday. So if you comment on that blog, it won't appear immediately. I'm leaving this one alone for now, as it is usually just family and you are not going to write questionable comments with bad language.