The kids were in the pool as early as I would let them yesterday. It was freezing. Elijah and Max stuck it out for a really long time. I had told the boys before they got in that they could only get in once for the day. I also told them they should wait for the afternoon and warmer temperatures but they were too excited to wait.

Something I have learned about painting: painting door jambs takes forever. Also, the worst part of painting is cleaning the rollers after you are done for the day.

Before

After

Jared has been getting on me for the lack of blog entries. Being houseless for a month and without a smart phone or netbook like some people I am married to will do that to a person. Also the crazy stressful weeks of cleaning and packing and planning preceding the houselessness and the crazy, stressful weeks of new housefulness will do that to a person. I think I am well covered in the excuse department.

We have now been home owners (as of Friday afternoon) for 3 weeks. It has been a crazy three weeks. The boys had their end-of-quarter stuff, we have been painting, planning, and unpacking just enough to get by, and it has just been crazy busy.

We have been to our new ward 3 Sundays. Everyone seems really genuinely nice. I got a calling my second Sunday there (pulled out of Sunday School) and was needed to fulfill it starting my third Sunday there. I was a lot shocked and explained to them that we weren't even fully moved in yet. We still had most of our stuff in storage and we were spending all of our free time painting. Better yet, they gave me what they described as a "problem class" with two highly energetic boys. I am teaching Valiant 10. These are the kids who were 10 on December 31, 2009. They told me the class needs a "firm hand". I am not what I would describe as firm. Hopefully my loving personality will be the kind of hand those boys need or I am in for some trouble.

My first week they traded names. I kind of figured they had traded names so I made a point of using their names regularly. Eventually they felt bad (or were tired of being called the wrong names) and let me know. There was also some self-punching, spit-flying acting out in Sharing Time. I will have to see what they come up with next week.

Jared and I finished painting the entry-way and mostly the great room and hallway. We still have a bit of touch-up and trim to do in those two areas. We painted a greened-gray which is really nice looking. It was the color I wanted originally and the only color I thought would match our carpet (grey), fireplace, (red brick), and couch (beige/black-brown). Jared has a hard time with the color because he has a hard time figuring out what color it is and what it matches. Unfortunately for him I kept buying him pants and shorts in this color because I love it. I only learned recently that it was an issue for him.

We consulted Carol, the designer at Jared's work since we didn't know what to do. She picked out a greened grey for our walls and gave us a color palette to show us what other colors we could bring in. That made me laugh and made me happy since I ended up with what I wanted. Jared likes the color on our walls now though. Our house definitely doesn't look like a rental.

Today Carey and the Bailey babes met us at the park for a picnic lunch and some fun. Carey took the boys home with her afterwards. My boys were plenty relieved. With the painting they have had to put up with much couch time and parents freaking out over wet walls being touched. Before we met at the park I had spent the morning researching different pool service companies. I didn't have much luck figuring anything out so I suggested to Jared that we hit the pool store that afternoon.

We took water samples to 2 different stores. Both of them suggested that we get our pool drained and refilled. That was kind of a discouraging answer but at least it gives us a place to start. A service tech should be calling me tomorrow to schedule our draining. It isn't as big as a drama as it sounds. So no fretting. It is annoying but we'll get that done and then schedule a pool school and we should have our pool ready by the time it gets warm enough. Jared is now brushing and netting the pool for the first time. We bought an extension pole and a brush today. Because we didn't have the boys we were able to hit 4 stores without anyone whining about what has to be done.

I also spent a bit more time working on my lesson. I don't know how I am going to fill 45 minutes to an hour with the story of Rebecca and Isaac. Hopefully it will come to me.

The boys' summatives were awesome. Xander spent the quarter learning about pioneers and wagon trains. Elijah designed toys and a marketing program for the toys. Maxwell did a bunch of science projects about the sun and created a science center. I was really impressed with the subject matter.

The boys are back so I got to check out.

Taken the day we bought it: 02/26/2010.

So I haven't left a blog entry in awhile. The laptop I am using during the day has a crash record so I don't trust it enough to compose an entry and risk losing it to a crash. Also, Jared's netbook has a super tiny keyboard (which I am using now) that makes me a slow typer.