Quick 5

The countdown is on.  Maybe I'll make one of those fancy countdown chain things you see all over Pinterest.  It doesn't matter...all that matters is one week from today our a/c will be completely fixed and fully functioning.  It's worth celebrating.

1.  I love watching the progression of a child's artwork.  It's fun to watch things take recognizable shape over time.  Here is a particularly good one that Alaina did the other day:

"Miss Christina"

Notice the slightly smudged eye in this one...I barely caught Joya the Destroya before she wreaked her havoc.

2.  Thanks to Alaina, Joya has begun to ask "Why?" whenever I tell her to do or not to do something.  The thing is, I'm not sure that Joya understands what the question means, yet I find myself explaining like I do to Alaina.  I thought I had at least six months before she started in on the whys.

3.  The biggest thing that has taken our time and energy these past couple of weeks has been Alaina's swimming lessons.  She's done great, although we'll find out today if she passed the class or not.  I'm not worried about that, though.  There are only four (five?) levels, so if she needs to spend another year on Level I, it's no big deal.  The point is she has had a blast, and has learned a thing or two.

Doing "bobs" (aka putting her face in the water)

High fiving her teacher (I don't know her name)

 4.  What do Joya and I do during the lesson?  The same thing every day.  First I give her the crayons and coloring book, and she tries to get Hayley and Macy to color with her until it's time for them to go to class.  Then she begs for snacks, so I give her a little baggie of whatever I brought.  Then she sits and has a bite, then wanders around with the baggie.  Then she smashes a few crackers or whatever on the cement.  Then she digs in the bag of toys and drags out whatever I brought.  She does not play with any of them; just drags it out.  Then she has another bite of snack.  Then she smashes a few more.  Then she either says hello or fusses at the little girl who sits near us with her mommy.  More munching, more smashing, then the 30 minute lesson is over.

5.  Not only is the a/c being fixed next week, but we're also have the ducts cleaned.  I'm very much looking forward to using the a/c without having to breathe in the remnant second hand smoke that the previous owners left behind.  It'll be a good week.  (But we're still praying that the Lord sends clouds and rain every afternoon to keep things cool.)

Peace out.

Quick 5

I know that my not-so-patient public has been waiting semi-patiently for the return of the Quick 5.  Well, here it is.  Let's see if I can catch you up on our July.

1.  We had a great day camping with the Gilletts on the Fourth, even though most of the Gilletts weren't there (due to a medical emergency.)  We did our best impressions of squatters and took over their campsite for the day anyway.  The girls had a blast, and Joya even got a really good nap in the tent.  (I mostly credit all the other kids for that...they were fantastic is staying away from the tent and quiet when they were near the tent.)  Joya and Alaina both got as dirty as they could, and I could see that Joya was truly in her element.

 2.  The A/C saga continues.  The guy came out.  What he did didn't work, so the owner came out and determined we need a new motor.  Which is slightly pricey, but not as pricey as an entire new unit would be.  We knew it would be awhile before we could pull that together, so we resigned ourselves to a summer without artificial coolness.  Then things opened up and now we're having a new motor put in on August 3rd.  These next two weeks promise to be hot, but it's nice to know we don't have to try and survive August and early September.  Thank You Lord.

3.  Our biggest adventure was our quick trip to Alaska for Joe's wedding.  It was such a great experience being in such a different part of our country.  We had three goals going up there: eat some fish, see a bald eagle and see a moose.  We were able to eat some fresh halibut, and we saw a couple of bald eagles at the wedding reception.  Alas, we did not see a moose, even though we were told many stories of how prevalent they are up there.  We were also unable to see the enormous Mt. McKinley because of low hanging clouds, and we were pretty bummed about that.  I knew that Mt. McKinley would probably put Pike's Peak to shame, and I really wanted to see it.  But, thus is the hazard of only spending three days in such a place.  I've decided that Alaska is Colorado on steroids.  Their mountains are HUGE.  Not taller than Colorado's, but the fact that they start at sea level and rise to 6000+ feet is pretty impressive.  (Most of Colorado's start at 5800 feet or so and rise up to 10,000...only 5,000 feet, if you think about it.)  Anyway, the weather was so beautiful to us: cool and rainy with the highest temp around 60 degrees.  I tried to savor every goose-bump and shiver I got up there.

I'll post more pics on Facebook, but here are a few:

Everything was lush and green; a stark contrast to the crusty brown of Colorado this time of year

Our cabin in Talkeetna, Alaska

The happy couple

Lee's long-lost Missouri friends, Joel and Natalie

and Clint

That white void behind our heads is Mt. McKinley.  At least that's what they tell us.  I never saw it.

This pic was taken at 10:30 at night, when we got to the airport.  It didn't really get dark until about 1:30 in the morning.

  4.  The girls did great with Grammy and Grandad.  And Apple Ben.   Our trip usurped our family tradition of attending Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a, but I sent the stuff and Grammy dressed them up and took them.  Alaina was happy to be home with us for about three hours; then she declared that she didn't want to be at her home and wanted to go back to Grammy's.  That's pretty typical.

5.  This brings us to this week, which is the first week of swimming lessons for Alaina.  She gets to be in a class with her bestie Avery.  She LOVES it, as I knew she would.  She's learning to put her face in the water, to float, and to swim like an alligator.  She has one more week of lessons, and I'll try to take some pics.

Stay cool, my friends.