Whack a Chicken

The pool has been mostly beautiful this summer!  I think we have pool maintenance figured out... crossing fingers.  It's been nice to jump in on a hot day!

The kids have been learning to carry each other around on their shoulders and play chicken.  It is not the safest thing so I have asked them to stop, but it was fun to watch :).  

Mhari on Talmage

Bug on Chica

Grant showing off how to jump into his tube ;)

Our squirters had died so instead of playing "spray a mole" we went for the original "whack a mole", using pool noodles.  It may not have been the most effective game, but it was fun while it lasted!  The kids had a blast with Daddy too!

Media Mayhem

We decided it was time to get the new receiver, speakers and furniture for the media room!  This was my first visit to Fry's Electronics and it is possibly my last.  Jeff found an overly helpful employee to talk about sound system stuff.  Sandra and I went and found some TV mounts and DVD players and looked at DVD's and Jeff was not done talking.  It was like an hour and I was so tired of being there.  That guy could talk!  He could tell I was bored and yet it still took forever!!  I found the sound room to hang out in until Jeff seemed like it was almost time to go.  They were loading our cart up with speakers and such.  We stood around for another half hour, at least while the guy typed up our ticket and made adjustments to our order.  

Then we made it to the check out counter.  You would think we were in the clear now ... just pay and get out.  Nope, nope, nope.  First the ticket was wrong.  It had an extra item on it.  Then once that was fixed it was missing an item that was supposed to be there.  Then the subwoofer that we got didn't match the one on the ticket!?  I was so mentally worn out from all of this I didn't really care what was wrong anymore and why it was taking so long to fix it.  I just wanted to sit down.  There are no seats at the checkout area, (or like anywhere) so I had to get creative.  Finally after being at the store for over 2 and a half hours we escaped.  I was seriously a little crazy at the end of it!

Jeff and Sandra were both done too... but they stayed at the counter.

This was my make shift seat.... a scale.  Jeff told the guys it's pretty bad when the wife is willing to sit on the scale because she is done.  I was seriously that done!  I had enough time to scroll my facebook feed and then still just sit and wait.  If I had to talk to someone I was not going to be nice.  

Once we made it home with our stuff we headed back out to check out Rooms-to-go outlet store.  I really wanted some furniture for the media room.  The people there were so quick and helpful!  We were able to find armless recliners (that don't recline right now) and got a steal of a deal on them!  All 5 they had for under $500!  We were in and out of the store in an hour!

That night when the TV was all set up we just camped out on the floor for our first movie night.  We went back to pick up the chairs on Monday.

The room set up with the chairs.  We will probably still mount the TV to the wall, but it's set up for now. 

They are nice chairs!  

We are so happy to have this room done!  So much hard work finally paying off!

Making Friends

We have been working on making friends :).  One of the families we are friends with is the McCrarys.  They live in the ward next to us and they recently joined our co-op.  The homeschool and have 2 teenage boys and a daughter in speech with Clark.  It's like they are our perfect friends ;).  We invited them over to swim and everyone had a great time.  When they were getting ready to go the kids started a card game.  It was so fun to see them all sitting around the table enjoying each other!

Lorna made quick friends with their daughter, Caroline.  They are too cute together!

 Then we got word of a family moving into the ward that needed help moving a gun safe.  Jeff offered to house it in one of our garages, but I guess that was a no go.  That thing was beastly!

Jeff was wearing boots so he didn't end up pushing it much.  Seriously there is only so much room for people to push and pull this thing up to the 2nd floor apartment.  

It's always nice to have new move ins, especially if they like guns too :).  

Texas Awesome

Texas is pretty awesome. The weather is kind of crazy.  Like the kind of crazy that it's not really worth checking the weather because it changes so often.  Some of the weather is severe and not fun, but most often we get some good rain and beautiful clouds and sunsets.  This day the rain was pouring down!  Within a half hour it was over and the sky was beautiful!

So amazing!

The next day we went to 6 Flags to check out the new Joker ride. Grant, Sandra, Mhari and I were brave enough to ride it.  It was freaky awesome... as a roller coaster should be!   

The older kids went to do Aquaman and got soaked!

Meanwhile I was in the kid area with Clark and Lorna.  They had a blast running around doing the rides since there were no lines for them!

We didn't stay long, but the weather was perfect.  So glad we can just pop in for a few rides and not have to spend the whole day :)

The progress of the Eagle!

Grant's eagle project was to reroof and repair a garden shed at a nearby elementary school.  The plywood was rotted under the shingles since there was no felt paper.  Then the door trim needed some wood replaced.  There were a several volunteers that came, which made it go smoother.  Brother Myerhoff is good at roofing so we let him take the lead with that.  Everyone else was a good support too.  All of the little helpers were good for hauling away the old shingles and trash and then helping pass up new shingles.  Overall the whole project lasted just over 4 hours.  It was pretty quick considering all we were able to accomplish!

Here they are taking off the old shingles.

Loading up the trailer to take the shingles to the trash

 Taking off the old plywood

Working on the door trim

 Cutting new plywood

More trash

 To the dumpster!

Plywood going on!

 Felt paper!

Shingles!  We ended up with the adults on one side of the shed working the shingles.  I got the youth started on the other side and it became a race to the top...

 Look at those kids line them up!

 The little kids had a bucket brigade style going on passing up the shingles ;)

 Grant... not sure how safe that is

Making good progress

 Closing in on a winner!

The men's side looks level and they made it to the top first, but they also started first.

 All done!  

Way to go Grant!  Now to finish up some merit badges and the rest of the paperwork!  So close!