Update on the House, Chapter 5

As I mentioned earlier, the painters came and went this month. Picking out colors was much more stressful than I expected it to be. What I was positive I liked turned out to be awful once it was put on the wall. Generally when I pick paint, I have a swatch of fabric or wallpaper that I have the paint store match it to. I've decided it's much more difficult to nail down the color when it's in your head. After a few tries, and many sample swatches on the wall, we finally came up with a yellow we liked. The living room is green which I picked on the first try--Hooray! The blue was great until two days after they were finished James decided he didn't like it and was going to have them repaint it. I told him that was not going to happen. I convinced him to give it a chance and wait until everything was put together then he could decide and we could re-do it later. He has since decided that he does like it and we are good to go. This is a good thing as he is the one who picked the blue and insisted that was the shade, hue, etc we needed to have. I'm just really relieved that part is over. I've decided that I don't enjoy design as much as I thought it would. I would prefer people tell me what to do. Anyway, here are some pictures.

Matthew's Angel

The other day, Matthew told me that his angel had helped him make a decision. I asked him what his angel's name was and he informed me the angel was named Matthew. I asked him where he was from and he told me his angel comes from Salt Lake City. Kids say the funniest things.

Heather's Party

Heather told me a few weeks ago that she had two parties planned, one if our house was finished and one if it wasn't. Obviously, we had to go with the latter. I have to admit, it was probably the easiest party I have done. Heather wanted to take some friends to go see the movie "HOP" so that is what we did. We met at the park beforehand and were lucky enough to have one of the rare days that wasn't filled with rain. Heather's friends had an Easter egg hunt, painted a craft, and played some bunny games. After presents and cake we loaded up and headed to the movies. The girls all had bunny ears head bands. It was fun to watch them at the movies with the bunny ears poking up over the seats. Heather had a great time and I think her friends did too.

Heather's Birthday Gift

Sweet Heather turned 10 years old. The best gift she experienced on her birthday was not one she received but one she gave (or tried to give.) Heather was off track for three weeks in March. At the beginning of that time, she decided she wanted a Barnes and Noble Nook (an electronic reader)so she was going to work at James' office and earn enough money to buy one. I would drive her out to the dental office nearly everyday where she would assist James and clean the rooms. She also helped me out around the house to earn more money. She was determined to raise enough to buy the Nook. About a week after she went back to school, she came into our room at night and told us she had decided she didn't want to buy a Nook with her money. We asked her why not and she began to tell us a story about her school teacher. The point of the story was that her teacher had told the class she was going to need a hearing aid due to an injury and hearing aids were expensive. Heather had decided she was going to give all of her money, over $200, to her teacher to help her buy a hearing aid.

The day of her birthday, Heather went to class with an envelope full of money. She tried to give it to her teacher but her teacher wouldn't accept it. Nonetheless, I was so proud of Heather and so humbled as I watched this unselfish act of kindness. I feel very blessed to have the children that I do who so often teach me by their examples. It truly is much better to give than to receive. I've decided that from now on, I will spend my birthday's seeking out opportunities to give. Thanks Heather.

Dig It!

Lindsey's 6th grade class performed the play Dig It. We saw this play last year when Luke's class did it but we had a fun twist this year, Lindsey had one of the leads. The class had auditions and Lindsey made call-backs and then was awarded one of the leads. They had rehearsals regularly, she even had to go when she was off track. All of the practice paid off, she did a great job. Lindsey seems quite at ease onstage. She definitely tries to ham it up and does a good job. The play is about two archeologists who discover a talking skeleton that describes the history of ancient civilizations to them. There is singing and dancing performed by the various civilizations. Lindsey was the talking skeleton. We were very proud of her and her hard work.

Luke and Lindsey Get Braces

Luke and Lindsey had the joy of getting braces. They were really excited which I found odd. It seems to me that in my day, nobody really wanted to get braces. Nowadays, it is a rite of passage. I also had to smile and nod when they wanted green, blue, and other colors for the brackets. I kept trying to persuade them to get clear brackets but they wouldn't be swayed. If I were getting braces, I wouldn't want to bring attention to the fact but my kids sure did. So far they haven't had a lot of pain. We'll see how it goes after their first tightening.

March Madness!

This month has been crazy and exciting. The house is coming along, the trim guys finally finished up and the painters came on in. Unfortunately, the kids were off-track most of the time the painters were here. It wasn't easy trying to keep them out of the way of the painting. Of course, whenever they are off track we have to find things to do. We did manage to stay busy with a few activities. The kids eventually went back to school and were right back out with SEP conferences. I enjoyed visiting with their teachers. The best part was Savannah's conference when we read together an essay Savannah had written about her home. The opening sentence was, "Our house is really dirty and dusty." It's always a great feeling when the teacher thinks you are a slob. I explained to her what was happening at our house and she told me she was relieved. She mentioned she was surprised when she read that because I didn't strike her as the type to be so "sloppy." Life is good.