Water Heater Woes

Well, woke up this morning to running water. Thought that Canyon was up, outside and had the hose on. I got up and when I passed the bathroom found that it was Sahara trying to get the shower to work. 'There's no hot water mom.' I try and sure enough there isn't. I told her no shower today, we will see what is going on when I am more awake. After a cup of coffee, I went to the water heater and cut off the wrap so that whoever might need to fix the problem can get to the panels better. Then I decided to wipe off the top of the water heater because after 10 years, it was quite dusty. I got buzzed touching the side of the tank. Not much, but enough to make me wonder what was going on. I checked the breaker box and all was ok there. I continued to wash off the top and got ZAPPED when I touched the copper line from the wall to the tank. I called a plumber but was told he was on a job and would have to call back. Joe (the neighbor) came over and checked it out with a friend of his. We came to several possibilities, but not wanting to buy unnecessary parts or parts at all if the whole thing was shot, we decided to get better help. He wont be available to come see until tomorrow. The plumber called back but I didn't answer the call. From what I hear just to come to the house is around $80 and that's on a week day. Double time on the weekend. I'll do without hot water for 2 days and go to Mila's for a shower or boil water if I have too. A new tank the same size as the one I have will be $400. Hopefully Jerry (the guy coming tomorrow) can rescue this one. Part for it are between $15 and 25. That is more like it. The heater is about 10-11 years old. I assume they are supposed to last longer than that. I might be wrong.

GAME 1

Canyon had a great time at his first basketball game. He liked it much more than baseball, more action I guess. Here he makes a basket (with the help of a buddy). Next time I will be sure to get on the side of the court that he is shooting on instead of the wrong side.

all signed up

Canyon is going to be playing basketball :) It's a special league for kids with disabilities. We missed it last year. I found out about it at their last game. It's just for the month of October. Thru Upward Basketball at the Baptist church, it's called Shooting For Success. He gets his team shirt and pictures done on Thursday. At sign ups we saw so many familiar faces from A Field Of Angels baseball. I'm so glad these activities are available for him.

5th grade

Canyon names the planet in order starting with the sun.

Like the class I work with, Canyon does not take the Benchmark tests in the Spring. Instead little samples of work are compiled together in a 'portfolio' of all the standards for the grade level and sent to the state for grading. It takes for every student having a 'portfolio' put together, about 5 months of work. One of the many things 5th graders study are the planets. One of the tasks with the planets are putting them in the correct order. Canyon has brought home several worksheets about this activity and today he just blurted out the planets. I couldn't believe that he repeated them in perfect order about 10 times. I'm guessing that they are not learning Pluto as a planet tho because he left it off each time. It's a shame that useful things and life skills can't be used or taught for the portfolio tho. It would be so great to show he has mastered money or telling time. Instead he will have to show he knows the difference between an acute and obtuse angle, fractions, parts of a plant...things nice to know, but not necessary for everyday living.

And she wants me to go next??!!!......

This past weekend I was Mila's moral support. She had a tattoo on her ankle for the last 20 years she was not happy with. She finally went to get it fixed.

With stress ball in hand, she endures the outlining.

She said the coloring in was not nearly as bad.

The end result...

It was a rose (not colored in ) and a word under it. She had the word covered with the rose stem and leaves and added angel wings for sentimental reasons. You can't even see that a word was ever there!

Sahara's Party

click on picture for closer view


YAY! It rained the morning and afternoon of the party, but pretty much left 5-10:30 open and free of rain. Perfect for Sahara's party.
We had 8 boys and 10 girls show up which was a pretty good turn out considering the weather.

They first played football (mostly the boys) and then we tried to get them to play race games. They were too 'immature' for that really and I got the games on video, but they didn't play well. So we ended that and went for the roasting of the wieners. I ended up with so much left over that we will be roasting again today for lunch.

After the hotdogs they did s'mores, listened to music, and played hide and seek in the dark.

It started raining at about 10:30 and why do we still have so many kids here past 10???... because I invited any girl who wanted and could stay the night to do so. Mila took what ever boy could stay to her house. She ended up with 3 plus Zach. I had 8 girls. You should have seen the livingroom. I put Saharas trundle mattress and Canyon's 2 mattresses on the floor and 7 girls slept there all in a row. They looked like the kids on the Grinch all in the bed together. One took the couch.

Before all that, Sahara opened her gifts. She got a lot of $$$, earrings, a belt, a bear, and a couple of shirts.

The loot!

7 girls in a row

It was a pretty good time and we all went to breakfast at Mila's with the boys at 9:30. I took 2 cartons of scrambled eggs, paper plates, plastic forks, and 2 pitchers of koolaid. Mila made biscuits and sausage.

I have lost a few now at noon, but the rest are staying thru lunch to roast the leftover hotdogs. 4 packages. I have to use them because the buns will go stale in a few days.

Sahara's b-day

Seems like everyday since her b-day has been her b-day. Money and gifts just keep trickling in. Here she is with her b-day money so far ($125 I think)

~ thank you Aunt Kristy, Aunt Paula, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Mel and Uncle Brian

A phone from dad with a full keyboard which is so important when you have to make 50-150 texts a day.

Nana got her a fairy door and window in the perfect color blue.

Her party isn't till Saturday (weatherman is predicting rain) OF COURSE!

Flu Shots

The Arkansas Dept of Health is offering free flu shots to all kids and school employees this year. We do have cases of N1H1 at both the kids schools and my school all ready this year. We are requested not to use or let the kids use the water fountains and the desks and tables are disinfected nightly. Now, my kids (as far as I can remember) have never had the flu and I haven't had it since Sahara was 3 months old. Nor have any of us ever had the flu shot. I'm torn whether or not to go ahead and get the shots for us with the chance of getting the flu from the shots or just taking the chance on getting the flu. Hmmmmmmmmmmm......

Sahara's Invites

Sahara helped me create her invites to her b-day party on the computer. We attached driving directions to the back and she will start handing them out tomorrow at school. We are praying for good weather because I don't know what I will do with the kids if it is raining or the yard is a soppy mess from previous rain. Both the kids will be with Dad in Memphis for her real b-day so we are having it the weekend after.

Saltbox

See the blond jumping up and down in the front by the singer??? That's Sahara.



And I am sooooooo glad I finally got to post a video!

Back 2 School Bash

Sahara went to her first concert last night. It was down the road at a church about a mile from the house. Several heavy metal Christian bands set up and played for about 3 hours. I dropped the girls off but about 1 1/2 hours later Sahara called as said to come and see myself, bring Canyon.

Saltbox was the group Sahara was 'hanging' with for that first 1 1/2 hours. She said they were a lot of fun and very nice people. Here they are setting up their stage and getting ready to play.

Sahara, Brittney and Canyon after the show.

Sahara and Brittany with Joel, the drummer. He is a little guy :) And a girl named Mercedes who thought she needed to be in every ones picture and jumped up behind just when I took the shot.

Before the night was over, they got their faces autographed by the band members.

They had a great time and I hope this church makes this an annual thing. Sahara was right up in front at the stage the whole time they played banging her head.

Canyon was scared of the bandanna Joel wore and wouldn't get close to him. And the music was way too loud for him and he was actually shaking while the where playing and hiding behind me.

It's that time of year again!

PoPcOrN !!!

Canyon all ready has 4 cans sold and he has till November 12th to sell more.

First day of school 2009

Looks like we survived the first day of school!

Canyon was worn out but after school went with Rusty for 3 hours.

Sahara likes her schedule and even gets bused over to the high school for choir class.

I have a very good crew of kids in my class.

Looks like it might be a great year!

Pool party

Canyon went to a b-day pool party for a 3 year old. I was messing around with my camera and using the panoramic shots, captured this.
It's too funny!

Canyon has a twin!


~click on the picture for a closer view~

So, one of these days I told Sahara we will have to experiment with the camera and see if we can get triplets of both of them.
I love this feature!

1 week of summer left

The kids have one week of summer left. I get to go back on Monday. They don't go till Wednesday. They have their school supplies and new bookbags. Canyon has all new shorts and his pants should make it thru this winter. Next year he will have to get all new pants. Sahara has all new pants and a couple shirts. She feels her clothes shopping needs to be kicked in overdrive, but honestly, she has enough shirts (and pants and shorts) that she can wear a different outfit till Thanksgiving and not have to wear the same thing twice. The girl is loaded!

Fun with Fotos

Sahara's room is done and we used my camera to take panoramic pics of her room.




Canyon got his furniture swaped around and a new curtian too. Can't really tell here but it has flames on it to go with his hot rod/cars room.

Who says there no such thing as a free lunch, and dinner, and breakfast, and snack...

I decided to get my little tin of gift cards out and see if I could make some dents on them. I had 5 believe it or not for Walmart. So today I did the regular shopping, plus got a few extra things and spend $136. I got to use 4 of the cards, the 5th did not register and probably was used up and so old the number just did not exist anymore. On the others I had $11, $20, $25 and $30. So I ended up paying $50 for the groceries that were $136 to begin with! Go me!

Sahara's new room ~ UpDaTeD ~ floor pic at the bottom

After 9+ years of purple walls, Sahara decided she wanted a redo. It's her b-day gift (early) to repaint the walls and get some sort of floor in. She has had cement floors since we tore up the carpet about 3 years ago.


Step 1: We moved all the furniture to the center or out of the room. We took everything off the walls.

Step 2: We went to Walmart and bought $75 worth of paint and supplies.
Step 3: Spackle

Step 4: 1st coat of paint.

Two walls blue, two walls white.

That's it for today. Paint is taking a good while to dry. Tomorrow is hopefully second coat of paint and trim. Then floors.

*Update*

I forgot to add yesterday that she had wanted bubbles painted on the walls. Whatever, it's her room and she has to live with it. They are cute tho.

So, second coat is done and so is most of the trim. Floors are tomorrow. We went to Lowe's and she picked a beige colored stone look tile. The trouble is we have to tile around furniture. Hope it all goes well. Worse than the furniture being in the way, the cement is very rough. I bought cement leveler, but I only got one and I guess I could have used 3. This is beginning to be a pretty expensive project. I think we are up to $250 now. Not that I have the money to be spending on this. It definitely is her b-day gift now.

The floor is in! YAY !!!

TJ

Before we went to Branson we had a really friendly turtle we named Tommy. We let him go. When the kids (Zach and Sahara) were test driving Josh's car up and down the street, we found this little guy. He also was very friendly. So we named him TJ (Tommy Jr.) He has been set free too.

Fishin'

Canyon and I went with his Cub Scouts fishing the other weekend. It was the earliest we got up this summer. We had to meet the troop at a gas station at 8 am then follow them out to the fishin' hole.

No one caught a thing but a couple boys got turtles who stole their bait. Canyon learned how to cast and since he didn't have the patience to wait for a fish, he just cast over and over and over. He got really good at it.

After about 1 hour and 15 minutes, we gave up and called it a day.