So we finally got tired of baking inside the house during the summer, feeling the hot ceilings everywhere where the house hadn't been added onto during the remodel. So, we decided to take advantage of some fleeting tax incentives and got insulation blown into the attic. Some poor guy actually squeezed himself deep into the ~18" peak of our attic with the hose and the whole thing was done in a little over a half hour.
Liz had a chaotic and painful day today at Stroller Strides. She was running on some grass during their morning routine when she rolled her ankle in a hole masked in grass. The heard a good "crunch" and so she stayed put while another mom took Anneliese and a concerned Ethan on the rest of the trip while six lifeguards attended. Julie brought Liz' car to take the kids to Gigi's while Liz then drove herself to urgent care. However, our usual urgent was shut down because some idiot near the DMV had driven into a power transformer and the block had no electricity. So, Liz had to go down the road to go to one that of course wasn't in our network and was going to cost more. She was finally seen more than two hours after arriving and kicked out with a nebulous diagnosis and a shiny pair of crutches. Her whole ankle and foot turned a nice shade of purple and was very swollen. This was a real bummer occurring two days before our trip to Denver, Colorado.
At an adult ministries meeting for church a while back, I'd asked if we had ever participated in Habitat for Humanity. The group leader said no but that she'd look into it. Next thing you know I'm in charge of our first event (always happens when you speak up, doesn't it?). We were tasked with fixing up a ladies home in Lynwood as part of the Brush with Kindness program. Her roof had apparently decayed and was sagging into her house, so we arrived and were told we were roofing! Cool! No air guns? Not cool. Well, it was a fun day in the sun (with a decent breeze thankfully) putting up fascia, drip edge, and laying down black tar paper. We were in a little competition with the folks working on the garage which wasn't quite fair since they were dealing with a third the square footage and they had one more person than we did. Anyway, the next day my legs were really sore from working on the sloped roof.
We are all pumped that after for what seems like forever we are headin out on a summer vacation. And not just one at that, but two! Yes, we be pullin anchor this weekend for Denver to spend a week with Liz' long lost friend Allison who moved there two years ago to be able to buy a roof for less than a pirate's fortune. Then in August we be crossin ocean to spend some time on Oahu with Mémère and Pépère.
It's been a year since our last post on Ethan's television preferences. It's a very dynamic situation. We stick to educational stuff even though we turned out OK watching Tom & Jerry. We're transitioning off from Curious George and on to a regimen of hidden English lessons.
The family flew up north to Sacramento for a long weekend and had lots of fun. The kids aunts and cousins Maddie and Grant arrived after a few days too. The kids fed apples to the neighboring horses, played in the treehouse, hunted for bugs, watered vegetables, played in a kiddie pool, went to the California State Railroad Museum, fed geese, and had a great time with Mémère and Pépère.
I had my sights set on participating in Long Beach Serve Day for Serve the City this year. I searched the various job listings ready for some manual labor when I discovered that they were looking for a half dozen 'experienced photographers' to document the day! I wasn't sure what defined "experienced" but I signed up with the instructions to get 30 shots of at least 3 events going on that morning all across the city. I had a good time but felt guilty taking pictures of people working hard.
Well, we've had two noticeable earthquakes in the last three days. Sunday night Liz and I were enjoying the first few seconds while watching TV until the house did a quick jolt upon which we darted for a doorway. The kids slept through it. Then Tuesday afternoon there was a good aftershock. Both of these were very close to my work.
Having too much fun recently! Oma visited and we went to a small carnival at a local church. We blew bubbles in the backyard, launched rockets, went to a birthday party at Pump It Up, and made our own pizzas. When Mommy and Anneliese went to go visit great grandma Muffin in Mukwonago, WI for five days, we kept on going by dressing up in costumes, playing in the pool, and hitting McDonalds and Chuck E Cheese! Anneliese has really developed a voracious appetite and she is hilarious in that she opens her mouth wide open like a little bird for stuff she likes...which apparently includes IN-N-OUT Burger which we did after picking up the girls from the airport. Both Ethan and Anneliese loved not only the food but also hanging out across the street and having airplanes fly 100 feet over our heads as they landed.
