Big Decisions!

Well it's been a pretty epic week. Highlights: I got a lot of painting done. Scott ordered many plants and stained wood all week to build more garden boxes. He decided that our front side lawn was a waste so he is turning it into more area for his gardening obsession. He was very busy with that project all weekend. I had book club which I love, the kids and I had a shed movie date which we haven't done in forever.

I made a lot of decisions last week. I've been stressed and worried about this next school year with my kids and my work and I've been thinking about what to do for several months now. I applied for several teaching jobs and I didn't even get a call back for an interview. I wasn't too upset because I was really stressed at the idea of getting back into teaching under the current world conditions right now. I didn't want to go back and work full time as a para because the pay is terrible and the job is hard and trying to plan ahead I'm assuming my kids will be stuck at home at least part of the time with school closures. The idea of going to a crappy pay hard job while my kids were at home trying to do their school work themselves sounded terrible. At the beginning of the month I was in the middle of another teaching application and I decided to stop. I do not want to try to go back after 13 years and start over creating lesson plans from scratch for in class and remote learning and also be supporting my kids with their school work. Nope! On the 4th of July I walked into Target and saw that they pay $15 which is $4 more an hour than at the school and I applied for a job that day. It took a few weeks but I got an interview. I had the interview Monday morning and they hired me in the interview. My thinking was I could work part time at Target and make more than I do at the school full time. This way I could be more available to help support my kids with their work. But then I got to thinking how stressful it will be to have the kids go to school under the current conditions and know that school will probably be shut down anyway. The idea of trying to communicate and deal with ALL of my kids' teachers and assignments sounded terrible! So I decided to look into home school. Even though I think home school could be really stressful I think it will be less stressful than dealing with the school next year. I'm mid application to an online home school. If they get in they give each student $1300. We can use that money to go on field trips and buy supplies and pay for our internet and all kinds of things. I'm nervous and excited. I figure worse case scenario if they learn nothing from me...they will recover!

I have 2 8 hour training shifts with Target this week. I hear they aren't good at training their employees so hopefully I can ask lots of questions and figure things out quickly. Okay it's late! I've been painting off and on all day. Peace out!

Gabby got stung multiple times by a wasp. I hate wasps! 

Book Club!

Shed movie date

I snagged a picture of Scott lusting after some raspberry plants. We went and checked out the catholic church's garden on our date night. Ha. 

Scott dragged the kids out to Nampa to a nursery to buy more plants of course! 

Scott removed the grass for his garden boxes.

He also extended our front garden. Take that HOA! Ha.

Garden box! 

I finished the garage section. It took at least 20 hours and I'm not kidding. Oy!

I really wanted to finish the front door this weekend while I would have Scott's help removing the door. Before

After. 

Family Reunion

It was a busy week. After we moved everything back in it was time to start on repair of the baseboards. We paid to have them removed and put back on and they did a pretty good job but they needed some work. I had to wipe, calk, and paint over them. It was super tedious and annoying and probably no one but me will ever no the difference BUT they look much better and it would have made me crazy had I not done it. Last Sunday I was so wiped out I thought about hiring someone to paint our exterior but I rested up and by Monday I was ready to do it myself again. After lot of hours I power washed, and calked one tiny section. I'm sure with some practice I will get faster. Unfortunately I used the wrong calk on that section and it doesn't dry for 7-14 days! 7-14 days! SOOOO annoying. So I couldn't paint the outside edge of the garage door like I'd wanted to. I did paint the garage door which took forever and doesn't look any different. Repainting and touching up around my faux windows was especially annoying. It had to be done though and I'm glad I was able to complete something. My plan is to just do a section at a time. We will see how much progress I make this week. It's difficult with the sun and heat of July. I couldn't paint the garage door past 8:00 am because it was blindingly bright with direct sunlight so I would have to do it in the afternoon heat and into the evening. I was so annoyed one night when I only had 2 squares to finish up and couldn't do it because it got too dark! That's one of the many challenges with painting the exterior, working around the weather, temperature, and light or lack thereof. 

Piper had to give up thumb sucking last week. It's something she has been dreading for a long time. I've been talking to her about it for awhile and she knew that she would have to get a spike put in the roof of her mouth if she did not stop. We went to the orthodontist last month and the plan was to see if she could give it up on her own and if not they would put in a device. She was so upset and devastated at the thought of giving up her favorite thing. We came up with an action plan and picked a date 1 month from that day for her to stop. She had a month to suck her thumb as much as she wanted and start to mourn and deal with the reality of giving it up. She cried about it a lot. July 15th came and in one crying fit she told me she would never be happy again but overall she is doing fantastic. As far as I know she hasn't been sucking her thumb. Even if she still does suck it here and there in secret that's vastly better than 24/7 like she was. I'm really proud of her. She's doing a great job and it's been a really hard thing for her to do. 

We also had the Beal family reunion. Scott has been pretty burned out with work and needed a break so I offered for him to stay home and work on his many projects and have a re-set and I took the kids myself. The worst part of that was the drive. I hate to drive! The drive was especially bad this time with lots of traffic on the one lane highways. It made it take that much longer and be more stressful but I did it and made it through. Go me. The kids had a great time playing non stop with their cousins. They rode the 4 wheelers, played pool and swam in the inflated pool. I enjoyed going on bike rides, seeing my mom's beautiful yard, and chatting and eating. On Saturday morning we went on a hike to hidden mouth cave. It was a harder hike than I'd remembered and I was a little worried about my dad but he and his new knees made it! Overall good times were had by all.

I love that the girls were sitting close together to watch a show. Cutest.

Freshly painted door.

Group shot at the mouth of the cave.

Gabe is a sport to bring his pool every year. It is a hit! 

Ryan was so tired Saturday night he gassed out on the couch without me putting him to bed. Ha.

Kelsey snagged this shot. Not sure what I'm pointing at. 

Corbin and Gabby went on the hike. Piper and Ryan are hiking babies. I'm so glad I left them in the truck to wait with Granny. They would have died! 

Always lots of laughter around the fire.

New Floors!

We finally got new floors! I've been wanting new floors forever! I've particularly hated the linoleum in the kitchen. I could never make it look clean. I HATED it! I was nervous but loved them immediately. I especially loved that I walked in and it was covered in construction dust and I couldn't even tell. Perfection! It looks really good with my recently painted walls and furniture. I am SO happy! We also got a new picnic table as well. I tried to order it at the end of May but he wasn't able to make it until last week. I love that as well. I am feeling tired today. I got a really good bid on an exterior paint job but at the time I was excited to try it myself. Now I'm not sure. I always want to make up mind this hot second but I will try to chill for a second and decide what I want to do. We are also waiting on gutter people and trying to get a new roof. So I need to put on my patient pants.

My friend Mary was working on redoing her bedroom and I helped her paint her room. I like doing projects with people. I think it's fun and a great way to catch up. We haven't hung out in a long time so it was fun.

Our friends the Millers are THE best. They came over Thursday and helped us move everything which was hard and annoying and then they let us stay at their house for a couple of days while our floors were being installed. We had a fun time hanging with them but I was really happy when the floors were done and we could go back home to our new floors! Oh and the Millers helped us move everything back in. Pure gold!

New picnic table

I love eating outside 

Finally cleaned out my freezer. Before

After

Ryan drinking leftover watermelon juice. Ha.

I got some kind of nasty bite. It was angry! I went to the doctor and got some antibiotics just in case but I didn't end up needing it.

Scott did a fruit taste test with the kids. They tried things like white peach, white nectarine, saturn peach., pluot, plucot, aprium, lemonade apple, and more.

SO Many Things

It's been a big week! My friend Krista was moving last weekend and I helped her for several days to load up and unload things. Luckily her new house is only a few miles from her old house. She has a LOT of stuff. Ha. The crazy thing is I helped her move out of her old house and then we went to help our other friends move into their new house the next day...it was the same house. TOO FUNNY! Such a small world. It will be weird to go over to the Tolman's new house and see their furniture and decorations and not Krista's. Krista is so kind and generous she gave us her old sectional! I love it! Our couches were really starting to peel and look terrible. I am very excited. With all of my painting and now a new couch and new floors in a few days it's going to all feel brand new! 

I've been painting up a storm for several weeks now. I finished the walls and moved onto the furniture. I did the TV stand first, that was easy peasy. Then I did my desk, less easy peasy but not bad, and then I touched up the kitchen table. The table has been looking rough for a while but I didn't have the motivation to do anything and I wasn't quite sure how to fix it up. I just scrubbed it down really well and added sealer to the stained sections and touched up and repainted the white sections and sealed it. It looks and feels SO much better! Yay. Our estimate on our floors was less than expected and I finally decided how I wanted to paint the outside of my house so now I am in the homework phase of getting several bids. I'm temped to do it myself. Even though my house is only one level it is very high on the sides. I could easily do the front and back but the sides...not so sure. We also need a new roof so we will see when these things happen. If I have anything to say about it will be soon. Like real soon. 

We've only been in Boise for the 4th 2 or 3 times. I bought a pack of fireworks and when we went to light them up Friday night I realized it was a pack of poppers. Dumb! And I remembered that I did the same thing last time years ago. Luckily both times our neighbors were lighting fireworks (actual good fireworks at the same time). Voila! Firework show. On Saturday night we went to a BBQ with my family. Gabe and Christy are always so good about hosting. We had a fun time with them for a few hours and then we met our friends at the Meridian Speedway. Our friend Christin's parents own it. We were able to go for free and be in a special VIP section which was perfect because our kids could run around and be wild. It was fun but it was SO loud. I was wishing I had brought my ear plugs. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it was so loud you couldn't really talk to people, certainly not easily. It was a fun night though. The best part was they did fireworks and we were really close. It was especially great because the fireworks in Boise were canceled. It was great to get a front row seat to the only fireworks in town. 

This week we are getting new floors. I am so nervous and excited. Pics to come.

The table had a gross film I couldn't wash off and had nicks and Gabby paint splatter.

It looks and feels so good now. Also the cute table behind the kitchen table was also given to me by my friend Krista. It looks good! 

I still love that color but ready for a change.

This looks so good with my new couch sectional. 

Love the old desk but rather than touch it up I wanted an excuse to go wild.

I put fabric on top. I love that fabric.

Painting the inside was annoying but I wanted something really girly and cute.

Our new sectional! 

Cute Ryan pic from our Utah trip.

Watermelon is a number 1 summer fav for me.

Scott put the blackberries in the pot to sprout new roots. It worked.

Roots! 

Now a new plant.

Scott found yellow raspberries at a neighbors house. He knocked on the door and turns out they are renters. They were okay with Scott stealing some starts. Gabby has gone back several times to snatch more yellow raspberries. They are good! 

Scott found this GIANT slug on them!

So yummy! 

We bought a new sink fixture when we fixed our lights and Scott put it in. Love it! 

Watching the neighborhood fireworks. 

The poppers.

Cute tired Ryguy

Gabby swinging at Gabe and Christy's house.

Cute Corbs

The Tolman's, Miller's, and Cannon's

These two are best friends. They couldn't be more adorable with each other.

Plenty of space to play.

Cute! Ha.