More quick fishing - no, we didn't catch anything, but that's not the point is it? Despite the girls' unrealistic expectations...
The kids all got haircuts on July 31st, which had been a long time coming. Ellie wanted short hair, and Kassidy needed to lose a few inches, so we decided to just go short with her too, since she hates having her hair done.
Mckayla just got a trim since she is growing her hair out to have "princess hair" although she did try to convince me to have the lady cut her hair short after she got her trim since everyone else got short hair cuts, which we denied. We also got Gavin his first hair cut. It was a HUGE change. Like crazy different. This was his fuzzy head before, and his clean cut hair after.
Needless to say, we left a lot of hair on the poor woman's floor.
We took to the kids to the local carnival that comes each year with the rodeo. The girls love the rides, so we always go on Thursday night when rides are only a ticket each. MG loved the roller coaster, although the other girls did NOT.
Steve and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, which seems a bit crazy to both of us... We went to dinner at the Copper Mill which had delicious steak in my case and scallops in Steve's case. Then we went to the Martin Harris pageant, which was kind of hokey with the mediocre singing in the beginning, but had such a strong spirit and powerful testimony of the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon by the end. It was a fabulous night, especially given I had a rough day earlier that day.
Which brings me to another big event of the summer - I got fired! For the first time ever! Last spring I was supposed to be running the same program I supervised the summer before, but a few weeks before the season started they suddenly told me they were moving buildings because they couldn't support the pool anymore. So, I was out of a job. I found one pool that was still certifying staff (mine had lapsed while pregnant on limitations with Gavin) and hiring. I got a job teaching there Monday-Thursday from 9-1 all summer. Then, at the end of the summer they needed a new Head Guard/Instructor. I was interviewed and told I had the position. Then, a girl on staff who hadn't applied and insisted she didn't want the job, and that she wanted me to have the job turned around and got the job. I was told the manager "owed her one". Later on, she tried to blame everything on the outgoing supervisor, and when I wouldn't agree to that she started causing a lot of drama. So, I was told it wouldn't work with both of us on staff, and that even though I hadn't done anything wrong, it was too much and that I was being let go. Fun times! I still teach my lessons there, just as a private individual now. So, yay for being self-employed?
Other not-so-fun things, included health challenges with the kids through July and August, which was a blast... Most of the challenges started when my parents got here in July. Gavin had a cold that day and then woke up in the night with distressed breathing and vomiting while crying and gasping for breath. He ended up in the ER that night getting steroids, breathing treatments, and popsicles to help the swelling go down. Thankfully his breathing did normalize. We later found out we were just a few minutes from the doctor admitting him to the hospital. After that, we never could seem to get Gavin healthy, or Kassidy. By August we had Kassidy suddenly leaking some strange yellow discharge from her mouth with really swollen tonsils. We later found out that they both had bad sinus infections that had moved to ear infections, and in Kassidy's case caused major tonsil inflammation. They finally got healthy after antibiotics. In Gavin's case we first found out he seems to be allergic to amoxicillin and had to take expensive antibiotics. Yeah, it was fun. It also taught us Kassidy and Gavin have very high pain thresholds since we had almost no idea they were even sick until they were VERY sick. Once they were on antibiotics we couldn't believe how much more Kassidy was talking, how much less she was crying, and how much easier she was to be around. Obviously she wasn't feeling good, and just never really complained.
Lat this summer Reva and I have also been busy canners. We canned green beans, pears, peaches, spiced peach butter, green gage plum jam (those plums are delicious!), pickles in a few different varieties, and we still need to do apples and carrots. It has been busy but awesome to get all that good food put up for our family!
We have also made a TON of progress on the house this summer. Wyatt visiting meant we pushed Mckayla's new room into high gear. Admittedly we still haven't done our last fill and touch-up paint, but it is definitely her room now with wall decals of princesses and planets hanging from the ceiling. This is what it looked like when Wyatt came. I'm pretty proud of the work we did.
We have also made a TON of progress on the house this summer. Wyatt visiting meant we pushed Mckayla's new room into high gear. Admittedly we still haven't done our last fill and touch-up paint, but it is definitely her room now with wall decals of princesses and planets hanging from the ceiling. This is what it looked like when Wyatt came. I'm pretty proud of the work we did.
Similarly, we got the wiring done in the family movie room downstairs so we could watch a movie on the projector for Kassidy's birthday, but that project stopped there. Then, we got some temporary flooring and cheap seating and I organized all the junk that was in the room before Ellie's birthday party.
We also took our yard from full of rocks, scrap metal, weeds, and uneven mounds and dips to just dirt and then to flattened out dirt, and eventually laid 3 truck loads of scrap sod.
And we got a second, larger propane tank so that we don't have to fill up in the winter!
I also raked out two small flower gardens in the front yard and we have some flowers growing up against the front of the house now. I have worked some on the sides of the house, but they won't get done till spring probably at this point. Ray just laid gravel at the side of the house next to our garage as well. This is about what our yard looks like now.
The last thing I'll put on here is that we were much more involved in farm work this year. Because of my work schedule the kids got to ride in lots of trucks and tractors and spend lots of time with Grandma, for which we are SO GRATEFUL. Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying their time on the farm.
Oh, and a field caught fire just down our road - that was exciting. Thankfully, they saved the wheat near the fire, although they did lose the hay, the trailer and truck hauling it, and a tractor that fell into the fire trying to help.
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