Category: Uncategorized (Page 69 of 201)

Well, back home just in time to discover a wet ring appearing on the ceiling in our living room… so we called the plumber who cut a hole in the ceiling and discovered a very slow drip (that had been dripping for quite some time it appeared) that had finally soaked through the sheetrock.  We were happy it wasn’t anything more serious, but also frustrated at the bad solder job done by the previous plumber…. which makes us question any other bad plumbing that might be leaking at this very moment that we’re just not aware of yet.  Ah, well.  Tis the price you pay for home ownership I suppose.

Either way, the pipe is fixed.  And Tim worked on patching the hole in the ceiling today.   Now we have to finish mudding and adding back the popcorn.  I’m sure it will be impossible to blend it well, but we can try.

I’m just glad it wasn’t anything more serious and that we caught it right away.

Somehow the days are slipping through my fingers lately.

We had a really great weekend full of nothing special in particular, but busy nonetheless.  We did a deep cleaning of the house (things that needed to be done but had been put off for a while: a.k.a. mopping bathroom floors and vacuuming stairs) and got the yard all ready for snow.  That meant picking up all the toys and storing them away as well as getting the snowblower ready and the lawn mower stored.  We also bid farewell to the bikes for another year and hung them up in the garage.  And while we were in the garage we spent some time getting the next batch of clothes out for Maddie and swept the floor and cleaned out the garbage.  It feels great to have all those things done.

I’m starting to get anxious about remembering everything I need to pack for our trip next week.   I’ve started a massive list of things I need to bring.  The good news is that I’m sure we’ll be in driving distance to some type of store while we’re there in case we forget anything.  It’s just a lot of those little items that I keep saying to myself, “Oh, I’ll just bring that the next time I see you” that are really random and I don’t want to forget them.  We hung up a paper chain the other day and are excitedly counting down the days.

Maddie is completely over her ear infection and back to her delightful self–sleeping like a champ again at night.  I’m very happy about  that.

Tomorrow is surgery day for Shannon’s little boy Xavi.  He’s having a variety of things done (the main one being tonsils and adenoids removed).  Prayers for him–and Shannon–would be greatly appreciated.

Since I’ve been back at teaching (in September) I’ve made a point to use my teaching desk raised up so I stand most of the time I’m teaching.  At first I had a hard time and would need to sit by about supper time.   But I’ve conditioned myself now to be able to stand the entire afternoon/evening.  I find that I’m much more inclined to play duets with students and pointing at more items on the page, and just generally more interactive with them when I’m standing.  It’s nice.  Plus I feel better about not sitting so much.

I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but just couldn’t get myself to give up the comfort of my chair.  So, after taking the summer off from teaching and starting to get back into shape it was the perfect timing to implement the change.   Yippie!

Today Josiah was eating lunch and the chair gave way beneath him.  Literally.

I’m not sure exactly how that’s possible.  But the leg shattered.  And as it fell to the floor (hard, since Josiah was still sitting in it!) it broke off a piece at the top as it banged against the floor/wall/sliding door.

After figuring out what happened and comforting Josiah, who was a bit shaken up, I now have the disappointment of having a broken chair.  Sad day.  So, Tim’s going to see if he can do a little chair rehab.

The other morning the grass was covered with dew.  It was beautiful.

And it would have been much more beautiful to me if I hadn’t planned on mowing the lawn… but still.

I decided it would be fun to try and take some pictures.  Along with the dew we have an abundance of mushrooms.  No idea why.  But we do.  So, here are a few of my favorite pictures my my “artsy” session:

Love the close up. You can really see the glimmer…

So sparkly!!

Fields of sparkles… ahhh…

Cute little mushroom

Well, just after I complained yesterday about being overwhelmed with everything starting at the same time, today happened.  No, it wasn’t anything huge.  In fact I didn’t even think twice about stuff that happened until I started teaching this afternoon and thought back over my day so far.  And then I smiled and said to myself, “Huh.  I bet that wasn’t a coincidence.”

I went to my music seminar utterly unprepared.  I forgot to pre-order all the music like I normally do, so I was going empty handed.  And I couldn’t even find my contest list sheet with all the songs listed.  But when I got there, I ran into my friend (who happens to be my old boss in MMTA) and she encouraged me and then just “happened” to have copies of EVERY SINGLE SONG for the day.  And she gave them to me.

My friend at church volunteered to come and watch the kids for me this morning while I went to to the seminar.  I was a bit stressed about Maddie being on schedule because I tell this friend all the time, “Oh, Maddie is such a great baby!  She’s totally on a great schedule and is like clockwork!”… so now was the true test.  Would she be a good baby, like I had led her to believe?  Yes.  (Whew!)  Another huge relief.  She said Maddie was so easy and happy.  (Double whew!)

I know it’s not much when I write it down, but sometimes it’s the little things that can really turn your day around.  I was completely refreshed by the time I left my music seminars.  I forgot how much I really enjoy listening to really good live piano music.  This was an upper level for contest, so it wasn’t music I can generally sit down and sight read well, so it was so much fun to immerse myself in music for 2 hours.  It reminds me how much I love doing what I do.

So, even though I complained yesterday, I have a new outlook tonight.  🙂

Tomorrow I start going to my music seminars for Piano Contest.  I just hate how everything happens in one awful chaotic mess in September.  We go from relaxed summer days to utter chaos with school starting, Bible study starting, music seminars starting and teaching starting.  Yikes!  And it’s all good things, so I shouldn’t really complain… but it would be nicer if the music seminars were earlier or later than September.  Oh, well.

Anyway, all that to say, I need to take more pictures this week so I post those instead of writing.  🙂

Chloe has an irrational fear of bees.  Well, anything really that looks remotely like a bee.  So, there are a lot of flying bugs that fall under that category.  Lately there have been a few wasps/yellow jackets hanging out around our deck.  The other day I sent Josiah out to play and he yelled up to me that there was a bee on the steps going down to the yard.  I yelled back, “just walk past it, you’ll be fine.”  Then about 30 min. later I walked outside to grab something.  There were no less than 10 wasps flying around.  Yuck!

So, I quickly retreated back inside (don’t worry, Josiah was already inside) and put a note on the patio door that said not to go on the deck for now.  Over the course of that day I watched through the kitchen window as wasps crawled up and down the screen trying to get inside.  It was creepy.  We also discovered that we have a tiny hole in our screen door to the patio… Yup.  Those wasps are smart little buggers.  Two wasps “let themselves in” the house before I figured out they were coming in through the tiny hole…

Tim picked up a wasp trap on the way home from work.

Now do you see where the product review is coming in?  🙂

He bought this W.H.Y. trap.  It’s for Wasps, Hornets and Yellowjackets.

I was a bit sceptical, but I thought WHY not give it a try?  (hehe!  Notice my funny little pun there?)  After the first night we had 3 in the trap.  A whopping three.  I was sorely disappointed.  But then by noon we had another 9, and then by night another dozen or more.

WARNING:  IMAGES OF DEAD WASPS AHEAD!

Here’s what the trap looked like after about a full day or two.  There are roughly 40 in there.

Yeah, not too bad.  I was now pleased.  And, I might add, it was strangely addicting to watch the wasps fly into the trap… every time one would crawl in and get wise to the trap and crawl back out I would be disappointed.  But, don’t worry, they kept coming.  And they kept dying.

Here’s what our trap looks like today (it’s been 6 days now).

I can safely say I’m not disappointed anymore!  At this rate I’m feeling much better about letting the kids go back out and play on the deck again!  Over the weekend there were SO many buzzing around the deck it was scary.  I’ve looked and looked for a nest and I can’t seem to find it anywhere.  I’m just hoping we’ve made a dent…

Look at all those dead wasps!  I’m tempted to dump them out and count them!  I seriously wouldn’t be surprised if there are over 200 wasps in there.  We do have 2 traps set out now (I set it out 2 days ago).  The other one is not nearly as full, but it still has quite a few.