This Just In.

So, I'm making Eva her morning chocolate milk. I see a fly and grab the swatter, then I kill it, it hits the floor. I get distracted by the TV and go over to it to watch a preview of the new Julia Childs movie. As I am watching, Eva is taking my hand and trying to give me something. She fails and tries again to give me the thing. I look down at my hand and I am holding a dead fly.

I shook it off my hand and reached for the stick vacuum, then I came over to the computer and started typing this up. I was enjoying our morning together, for a brief hour or so me and Eva are the only ones awake and I like it that way. She comes over to me as I am typing and says, "Mommy, I just waked up Wyatt and Sarah!" I said, "why did you do that?" She said, "because they were sleeping!"

Speaking of literally not having enough time, last night when I was taking a shower, Wyatt comes to the shower door and asks me "Ma, how much longer you gonna be in there?" I say to him, "I'm in the shower dude, give me a minute!" He says, "OK, I'll go count to 60."

I'm going to pour a much desired second cup of coffee, eat my frozen waffles, and get busy. Today is Emily's "day off" from volunteering at summer school so we will take her to piano, get in a little park time, head to the library and then back home for more super exciting adventures.

Amusing [to me].

I've always liked Battleship. Remember it? You have to hide your ships and you and your opponent take turns guessing and searching using coordinates. He said that just before he and I started our game. He is so funny. I didn't look.

And then from Eva,

Me: can you at least eat an apple?
Eva: no
Me: can I make you a sandwich?
Eva: I'm not a sandwich eater!
Me: so sorry
Eva, after some thought: I will have an apple.

That sandwich eater part had me rolling. I can't complain, here is what was left after she devoured that apple:

So Far So Good.

It's so thrilling to watch this transformation!

Today my brother-in-law Junior added a ceiling fan with a light out there and Tony is anxious to paint it [the structure, not the fan, ha!]. It's so funny, but since we have had the pool completed we have had unusually low temperatures and even rain here and there. I took this photo early this morning.

She geared up and stood out in the rain for a good rainy while. Today the headline was "near record low temps," which for us, means it was barely 80 degrees. Even so, the kids have not missed a day of swimming since the water was swimmable. I fired up the solar panels yesterday and it makes the pool pretty comfortable. Sending the solar heat to the spa alone pushed the spa temperature to a whopping 94! No gas used and our spa made it to 94 with the air temp at only about [I think] 80! I was in some serious awe. It's supposed to get to 90 on Wednesday and I will really welcome that.

Look at what my resourceful daughter contrived today:

She has a healthy obsession with origami for the last six months or so and she can fold paper into almost anything. She has a really big creative bone, and I am very proud of that.

Oh, Saturday night, take me away!

Making More Stuff.

One of the things we were planning to make last weekend, great new camping memories, did not get made. We have been having some rare June weather which translated into about a forty degree temperature drop at our camp in Pinecrest with the certainty of rain and the possibility of snow! No thank you said we! Even more of a bummer was that we had recruited another family to camp with us this time. We spent lots of our Saturday with them anyway, at the bowling alley, and after that we camped out for a few hours at our favorite pizza place. We will try to camp again in August, we have reserved a campsite at a great place on the beach. We have never camped at the ocean so if the weather wants us to, we'll be making some awesome new memories there. I'm already dreaming of the great pictures!

We're making a total transformation in our backyard. When we moved in here eleven years ago, Tony wanted to build a covered patio off the back door but I didn't want it so it didn't happen. I thought it would be a shame to cover the high windows in the living room. This many years later I have had a change of heart, we really need the extra shade and the extra living space out there, so it's finally getting made. Tony is also building a fence to separate the side yard/garden from the swimming pool. If you haven't been here in a while, you'll hardly recognize the place!

It should only take another day or two and I'll be sharing the result...stay tuned.

I'm off to take Emily to school [she's a summer school volunteer], work at the nursery school for three hours this morning, attend a PTA board meeting early this afternoon, and later to Wyatt's final t-ball game with a pizza party after. I'm going to need an extra cup or ten of coffee for this kind of day!