The kids have been out of school all month. It seems like forever since they were in school. This summer has been nice because now that Girl 1 is 11, the girls often choose to stay home if I have an errand to run. Sometimes I just take Girl 3 - which is a real treat for the older ones because Girl 3 likes to ruin much of their fun. At first Girl 1 wasn’t comfortable with the idea, but now she realizes the benefits and enjoys it.
Girl 1 and Girl 2 just completed 3 weeks of swimming lessons. They are both doing really well. Girl 1 can do all sorts of strokes and is comfortable swimming in any part of the pool. I saw Girl 2 today swimming in the deep end with her face in the water with no assistance, even though it was only for a few strokes. We have had quite a cool and somewhat rainy start to our summer so the girls have been cold many times at their lessons, but they like it so much they haven’t complained. Girl 1 also started tennis lessons and although she is truly a beginner, she is enjoying it.
I took the girls in for an orthodontic evaluation. Girl 1 is ready for braces, although we are not in a rush to get her started. I can’t imaging her doing well with the pain. Girl 2 will need a little more work. She has an under bite that the orthodontist said will only get worse. He wants to place an appliance in the top of her mouth to expand her upper jaw, then attach to it an appliance that sits on her forehead that she will wear at home (even while sleeping) to help her upper jaw grow. Only at that point can they fix the large space between her upper teeth (that bothered her so much for awhile that she refused to show her teeth when she smiled).
We have had a few wild pets visit our home this month - a snapping turtle, a dove, and many chipmunks. The chipmunks keep digging in our flower pots and one of them somehow fell down our covered window well and died. An unpleasant experience for me who had to retrieve the body and conduct a funeral (after his dead body smelled up our garbage for a day or two).
We had our shutters and front doors painted. Fiberglass doors are a bit of a pain to deal with, but then I guess real wood doors wouldn’t be easy either.
The girls and I went to our block party (located right in front of our house) a few weeks ago. It was pretty fun (food, moon bounce and slide, music) until after about 9pm when the noise just wouldn’t stop. Kevin managed to skip the party by working most of the day.
Kevin has been really busy at work lately, coming home most nights around 8pm or later and working on Saturdays. He was supposed to go to his cousin’s wedding in Washington last weekend, but cancelled the trip because he had too much to do.
