Stayin' Alive

Here was our (last) weekend:


We went to early swim class on Saturday because David wasn't going to the later class, so we went to the class that Eleanor's friend, Larissa, attends. It was Daddy's turn to swim with Eleanor, and as always, she had lots of fun.

Blowing bubbles in the water. She is so good at participating this year. I just love watching how much she gets into it.


Kicking and splashing Daddy in the face.

Riding on Daddy's back.

Then, we went home to our lovely mess. . .

This is where I set up the drop cloth to paint the drawers and shelf from the bathroom. Then, Grant used it to glue the strips of laminate to go on the edges of the counters. That glue is some really nasty stuff, but we couldn't trust the weather for him to do it outside.

While Grant worked on this, Eleanor and I hung out in the backyard so we wouldn't be breathing toxic fumes. I wish I had taken some pictures of Eleanor out there. We blew bubbles. Eleanor couldn't figure out our dog, Lane's lack of interest in the bubbles. She kept asking me, "He wanna chase them?" After a while, she gave up on Lane and decided she should chase bubbles while I blew them. Our grass was pretty long, probably just over a foot, and she would just flop her body down in the grass as if she were trying to tackle the bubbles. It was hilarious!

I've been having a hard time with having my house torn apart right at the time when all my hormones are telling me to get it in order. I think I cried without provocation every night last weekend. So, while we were in the backyard and I was feeling desperate for something I could control, something I could accomplish, I did something really out of character for me that may not happen again for a long time; I did yard work. Grant had trimmed the rosebushes a while back (translation: long time ago), and the branches were still in piles on the ground. Eleanor kept following the dog by them and snagging her clothes on thorns, so I dragged the yard debris can to the backyard and got the clippers and some gloves to cut down the branches to put them into the can. I just felt good to be doing something. Meanwhile, Eleanor decided to play in her sandbox.

After I filled the yard debris can until it could hold no more, I started lunch for us. This is what my kitchen looked like on Saturday. . .

That's water boiling on our stove, in the middle of the floor, for our lunch.
If you can see the counter on the left under all the junk, that's the new counter top we're putting in over the old. And that's my hard-working husband (if only I could whistle. . . ).

By the time lunch was ready, Eleanor had gotten so, shall we say, involved in playing in the sandbox that she had sand from head to toe, ingrained in her clothes and sprinkling from her hair. The skies had been threatening rain all day, and Grant said he felt a few drops. We decided to chance it and picnic on the back patio since we didn't have time to bathe her before eating. We didn't get rained on. We brushed Eleanor off and gave her a bowl of mac & cheese to eat. She made it through with only a little "pepper" sprinkling from her hair into her food. After that, it was straight to the bath and nap time.

See my sink? Me neither. Grant took it out Friday night. Luckily, it was back in and functional by Monday evening. Woohoo!

Here I am, finishing this post on Sunday evening (bad blogger!), and I can hardly remember what day I started it. I took these pictures on Tuesday. With our mess of a kitchen, we had a picnic in the living room (next to the drop cloth) for lunch. Eleanor kept saying, "We're having a pic-pic!" Gotta love it!

We recently got her a new set of headbands, and she has scattered them around the house (don't know how that could happen with my impeccable housekeeping of late), and she finds them now and then. She put this one on herself, happy in her independence, and every time I looked at her, the song, "Staying Alive," popped into my head. Either that or "Eye of the Tiger."

"You can tell by the way I use my walk. . ."


Wednesday was very busy. Maybe I'll post about it later, but that evening, we drove out to the coast, and guess what I took with me to read?

I have finally succumbed to all the peer pressure. I saw through blogs that many of the people I knew were reading it at one point. Curious, I looked it up on Amazon and read a brief description (which, I have been informed by my sis-in-law, is inaccurate). All it took for me was finding out it was about a vampire in order for me to immediately lose interest. A vampire? A love story about a vampire?! Give me a break! But then everyone kept telling me they read it and loved it, and when I went to Utah, my sister (who hated reading probably until a few years ago) and sister-in-law, Lia ganged up on me to convince me I had to give it a shot. I left with my sister's copy, still skeptical, telling her I had to finish what I was reading before I would start it. I have found more and more people who have read it and loved it wherever I bring up the subject. Beth kept checking up on me, asking if I had started it yet, and I kept telling her I was still trying to finish Mansfield Park. She would tell me I had to hurry so we could call each other and girl-talk about it the same way she and Lia do. Some of her enthusiasm rubbed off on me, and I found myself picking up the pace trying to finish Mansfield Park. Once that was done, my house was in shambles, and as much as people kept telling me I would ignore my house and family until I finished the book, I knew it wasn't the right time to start reading it.

So I figured a trip to the beach would be the perfect time. I'm really getting into it. It's a very large leap from Jane Austen, but it reads easily and quickly. I can't say that I group myself with the many who gush about how much they love the book, but I'm trying to keep an open mind. Every now and then it's difficult because we are talking about a vampire here! I told Grant I wouldn't possibly be attracted to that character because his skin is always cold, and being the always freezing person that I am, it just wouldn't work out. I love my warm husband!