Can't keep up -- so trying to catch up!

So much has happened lately that it will take some time to catch up on all of the happenings at this house.

POOL

The pool is coming along nicely. It is so close to being done we can dream about it, but still have a little time to endure. They need to fix the wet deck that they did too shallow (or would it be that the wall to the jacuzzi was done too short?) so that we have more than a couple inches of water for the little kids to play in. After that gets taken care of, then they are ready to plaster and put water in it. Then it has to sit for a few days (they originally said 10 but we'll see if that really holds up) and hopefully by then it won't be too cold to throw these patient little rugrats at my house, in the cold water. The weather forcast for the next few weeks shows it to still be in the 90's through the middle of Oct. so hopefully we can put that solar to use and have some warm water to dunk in a couple of times before it's too cool.

I will miss the girls out "panning for gold" or "fishing" out in the deep end of the pool. They have found a lot of entertainment with "nuggets" of concrete that they fish out of the water and let me tell you, WE ARE RICH!!! They have spent hours out enjoying themselves, until we told them they are not allowed in the water anymore. It looks kind of toxic out there now.

School

Brayden is getting by in school. He has had lots of days of not-so-usual behaviors, but that is now becoming the norm of expecting the unexpected behavior wise. He is doing well in his computers class and his art class. Wish I could say the same for the rest of his day at school, but the two with the "regular peers" are his best grades. I don't know whether to credit that the teachers really like him, or they don't know what else to do with him other than slip by so that they can be done with him.

Morgan is still loving being in middle school. She is not so fond of her Science and Math classes, but LOVES PE, English, and Reading. Her Explorations class is okay (even though "the boys in that class are a pain"). She loves texting her Mom and Dad during her lunch hour and is finding her way around campus just fine.

Bailey recently ran for student body treasurer. When she brought home the paper to get permission to run, I felt comfortable signing it because it said that only 4 students out of the school would be allowed to actually run. They had to apply and the advisors would pick the top 4 candidates. I wasn't totally thrilled when the note came home saying she was selected to campaign. UUUGGHHH! So off to creative land we tried to go. We were only allowed to do one poster (thank heavens) and then she could do flyers, etc. before school, at lunch or recess, and at the end of the day. I spent all my extra time that week cutting out watches that reminded the kids that it was "time 2 vote 4 Bailey". Needless to say, she wasn't elected, but she handled the disappointment well. She was very pleased to report that the next Monday she was chosen by her classmates to be a class representative. She loves to be involved!

Kelsie is of course doing wonderful in preschool with her best buddy Max. She is doing quite well at learning the sounds for letters, but more impressively, she LOVES to rhyme. She can make up any word to rhyme with any word you can come up with. No matter if you are asking what a certain letter is or what sound it makes, she can come up with a rhyme to some word -- even if it's two words that she made up and makes no sense to anyone else. She is one even-keeled girl. I sure enjoy her. Her older sisters would enjoy her more if she would clean up after herself so they don't get stuck helping clean up her messes.

Dalton is content..... as long he is being packed around in his mom's arms. He is my little buddy I must say. We love hanging out together, much to the dismay of my back. He is getting so big, and sees that walking is much faster at getting around than crawling, so he resorts to the "crying to get carried" method and it seems to be working well for him. He is scooting around and reminds me of a caterpillar the way he slinks around, but he brings such happiness to our household. The girls all fight over who gets to hold him or help him or play with him, or...... you get the picture. He has all of us (with the exception of Brayden who still luckily mostly ignores him) wrapped around his chubby little fingers and can get any of us to jump and run at his beckon call.

Church

They recently realigned the boundaries within our stake and made some big changes to our ward. Our big exciting news here is that our dad got released and we now get him back with us. Morgan isn't so sure that it is all good. Her comment last Sunday (the first week of him back in the trenches) was that "He's strict. He won't even let us talk or play finger games." Obviously I can figure out what was happening when I was out in the foyer before, and now Dad is the reverence enforcer and not all of the crew are convinced it is a good thing.

We also are attending a different chapel (about 5 miles away from home) so the kids are disappointed that they can't walk home after church -- they have to wait until Mom gets done gabbing.

Of course there is more to catch up on, but that will have to be at a different time. The young'uns are getting restless and they think they need their mom. Better go find her.

A Pool of Frustration and Fun

Long overdue for some pictures of the pool progress. They started our pool the last week of August and we are underway, but how far and how fast they can go still remains to be seen.

They brought in the big equipment and tore out the grass like nothing. I just stood there stunned thinking about the work and hours of sweat that went into getting our backyard the way that we had it. The hours by way of moonlight to get the sprinkler system in so that we could "mooch" grass off of the neighbors across the street that were taking a bunch out of their yard. The sidewalk, the planters, the swingset, the list goes on. What a bittersweet day that was. And all we were left with was a big hole.

They next came in to do the plumbing. That day made me frustrated. To see them tearing apart my planters just so they could get their equipment in and taking out plants and bushes. I didn't like it. Shane knew that the plants and such would be coming out and he was fine with it. In fact, he thought they were doing a really good job. I decided it was best for me to just stay in the house and distance myself from it all. Afterall, none of the workers could speak English anyway, so stick to my own "indoor business."

The most recent installment was the steel. This guy came by himself and spent all day in the 102 degree heat working away. He was friendly and I didn't mind him nearly as much as the previous crew. He even seemed to get a kick out of Pittman when we would let him loose for a little break.

Saturday night, Shane stepped outside to check on things and found that a water line they had done a couple days previously had broken apart and had water flooding clear back into the pool (it was over by the playhouse where it was broken).

I think the next crew to come in is to run the electrical conduit. The inspector then should come in to inspect all the work to that point. If everything looks good, they should be able to do the gunite. I will be nice to not have the dirt sluffing into the big hole. Then they will be ready for the next installment of money.

This will be a point that we might stay for a little while, depending upon the status of finances at that point and time. We are still stuck at the point of trying to establish Shane's identity so that we can get a credit report on him. Once that finally goes through, I think that things should move, but who knows how long it will take to clear up this little credit glich. (When they enter Shane's SS# with equifax, it pulls up Cody's name and SS# with AKA: D. Shane Dennett listed.)

Shane is so excited, I'm still a little on the reluctantly excited side. It will be nice and I know that our family will really enjoy it. I guess I'm a little like Brayden in that I don't like change. I like the grass, even though it leaves me with a $150+ water bill in the summer. I like things the way they were. I know that this will be a really good form of exercise for the whole gang and I think that it's a kind that Brayden will even enjoy. Especially since he and Kelsie learned to swim this past summer.

Unfortunately, the pool will be done, just in time for winter! We'll be more than ready to put it to use next spring though!!!! These swimmers can't wait!