Saturday, November 4, 2017

We can breathe again...

We have officially survived September and October.  I started using the calendar app on my iPhone last year and it puts a dot on each day you have an event scheduled.  Well, there was one day without a dot in September and October.  The schedule hasn't lessened up that much but enough that we can breathe, catch up and relax a little bit.

Sara is doing dance 2 nights a week, and gymnastics one night a week.  Evan is only doing Basketball on Saturday afternoon.  Previously we had 2 dance nights, 2 soccer practices, 1 gymnastic, 1 flag foot ball practice, and 3 games on Saturday.  Evan had a football game in the AM and a soccer in the PM.  Sara had a game every Saturday AM.  Unfortunately Marc works many Saturday mornings so it was a circus getting everyone prepared.  I also had Sophomore class advisor duties of concession stands for Football games on Thursday nights, homecoming weekend game and dance, and our church does an Octoberfest.  For Octoberfest I was selling tickets after mass each week, either on Saturday or Sunday and finally I spent a Sunday working the event. The bonus was after purchasing a ticket for the past 6 years we finally won $100.   In between all of this are the playdates, shopping, cleaning, birthday parties, and attempting to take care of our cottage and home.

Phew... I thought today would be our first Saturday off.  Instead we had a fundraiser at school that I had to attend from 11-2 and then return to school for basketball from 3-4:30.  My only saving grace is I can drop the kids off and run an errand or run home.  2 weeks ago we started car pooling to dance with a girl that Sara has danced with for 2 years.  This makes my life so much easier and we found out she lives close so hopefully we will have a new friend for playdates.

School has been going well for the kids.  They both have at least 30 minutes of homework per night.  Some nights its a challenge.  Evan is my more academic child and Sara is more of a social butterfly.  She can make friends with anyone while Evan prefers a few close friends.

Last weekend our fridge started freezing.  Of course we discovered it on Friday night.  Marc called Saturday and they couldn't make it out until Monday.  Well after some research Marc decided he would try to fix it (its 5 years old).  He had me order 2 parts from Amazon for $80 and they finally arrived on Thursday.  In the meantime we were turning the breaker on and off - enough to keep the fridge cold but turning it off to keep it from freezing.  Thankfully he chose the correct parts and its working.  That saved us from the $150 service call, plus parts and labor.

I think we are slowly getting ready for colder weather.  I still need to get Sara a coat to play outside in and Evan some new boots.  I have ordered some from LL Bean and Lands End and can't seem to get the correct fit.  We still have a few pieces of furniture to store for the winter and one more trip to our cottage to quickly clean up and we should be ready.

I am proud to say I ordered our Christmas cards.  I usually take a picture in November or have a picture taken and this year I cheated and used a beach picture from our trip to Florida.

This week we are heading to Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls.  We are off from school on Friday so Marc can't go, so crazy me is allowing Evan to take a friend.  There are 10 families from the kids school going so I know Sara will have plenty of friends.  I was nervous to ask our friends if there son wanted to go.  I know we will need his birth certificate and a note to cross the border.  He is such a great kid and so easy going that I know he will be fine.  We have never been there and we have a great group rate so hopefully it will be a success.

I am so thankful that I had success ordering from Ikea this week.  I have been procrastinating ordering a sideboard for our cottage since last winter.  I was hoping we could at some point find time for an overnight in Pittsburgh so I could pick it up or we could purchase it in Canada for a bit more.  Well last week I received a free shipping email that would save me $49.  I tried to order it and it could only be picked up in the store.  I tried the next day and the price dropped $120!  It dropped in price to $239.  Now we need to purchase an inexpensive TV and our cottage will be a bit more livable.  Marc spent many hours this summer replacing and building a tile corner shower.  Hopefully next summer we can spend some more time there and spend the night.  The shower has leaked the past few years so we always drive the 40 minutes home.

Funny Sara story - last week I told Evan that my belly used to be as firm and hard as his.  Sara lifts up her shirt and says in disgust "I have Dads belly!"  Sara has always been softer than Evan he is so thin.  I laughed so hard.  I still love when they say something out of the blue that is pure honesty!

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