Swim Lessons, Second Session

The kids started their second session of swimming lessons last week. So we have three more days this week and then we're done with lessons! It has filled up our July -- I can't believe we're at the end of the month already!

They all got different teachers for this session. They moved McKay up a level, as well as Hayley, although I'm not so sure she was quite ready for the next level. For the most part I've been happy with their new teachers, although I've been the most disappointed with Hayley's teacher. He just doesn't seem to relate as well to the little kids and I haven't seen much in the way of teaching skills. For example, he'll just stand a few feet away from them and tell them to swim out to him, and if the kid doesn't want to, he goes to the next kid. So I'm not very impressed, but she is getting more confidence and exposure to the water, which was my main goal for her this year.

So now on to the pictures! (Of course, you knew there would be pictures.) I wanted to practice using a fast shutter speed to make water drop/splashes appear "frozen" in the pictures.

Before lessons started the girls went over to play in the "splash pad" area:

Since Hayley's class is a higher level, they don't have the kids stay on the steps, but along the wall. Hayley's discovered that she can actually barely touch the bottom here (I was surprised at first too!). So she's been having fun tip-toeing around during her lesson time.

Courtney's got a pretty small class this time and her teacher tells me she is doing great!

And check out how the summer sun is really bringing out those blonde highlights in Courtney's hair (this was taken after lessons as we waited for Dad to pick us up since we still were without our van):

Hannah's class is quite a bit bigger, but I like her teacher (and she often has someone helping her). This isn't the best picture of Hannah, but I thought the water splash was kind of neat:

And here's Hannah having a happy time:

I also had to get one of her after lessons so you could actually see her eyes instead of her goggles!

Here's McKay doing his favorite, the backstroke. He is getting pushed a bit in this level (and by his teacher), which is good for him although he doesn't always think so. He struggles sometimes to get all the way across the pool without stopping, so hopefully he can build up his stamina just a little.

And I've been taking so many close-ups with my photography class recently, I realized it's been a long time since I've taken a picture of all 4 kids together. So here one is!

More Pictures!

For lack of other news (our van is back at the dealership hopefully getting wires repaired for the last time -- and we do agree with my dad that it's probably rats building the nests in the engines), I thought I'd share a few more of the pictures I've been taking as part of my photography class. Some definitely turn out better than others and I still feel like my head is swimming sometimes when I have to try to think about how to set the camera, but I do like taking pictures! I hope you're not getting too tired of seeing them!

A few scenery shots:

Our last weekend's assignment challenge word was "metal" (the previous week it was "blue") -- here are my metal inspired pictures:

A couple more critters spotted in the yard (no surprise it was Courtney who came and picked up each of these):

Hayley practicing her letters (that's her Aunt Julie's hand in the picture) -- she can write her whole name now, even though if you ask her what the letters are, she'll say "I don't know!":

Courtney on the back patio (in the second shot she was riding past me on her bike -- I snapped a quick picture and thought it turned out good even though she wasn't really smiling):

More attempts at finding good lighting indoors (you can see part of our new bed frame -- I'll have to post a new picture soon):

And finally a couple more portrait attempts (outside in the wind):

I'm taking the camera again to swimming lessons tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get some good shots. We've started session two so the kids all have new teachers. More about that later!

The Critter Saga

The story just keeps getting more interesting...

I wrote about how we had to take our Honda Odyssey in to the dealer because some check engine lights were coming on. They found a nest inside the engine built by some kind of critter. There were wires chewed up, which supposedly got fixed, only when we came to pick it up the next morning the check engine lights were back on again.

Well, they checked it out again on Monday morning and said they think the critter (whatever it is) is still hiding in the van somewhere, because there were a few more leaves in the engine and the exact same wires were chewed through again. Believable? Possibly, I suppose, but it is all rather odd. Brian's more skeptical than I am because he doesn't see how or where a critter big enough to carry some of these pieces of wood and mulch could hide (and survive) while the van has been driven quite a ways and not be seen by anyone checking it out. This time, they said they had to order the wire harness part needed to fix the wire and it would take a few days to come in.

Brian drove down to the dealership today to talk to the mechanics and have them show him the van. They did tell us they wouldn't charge us any extra to fix the wires a second time (which was very good news). However, the bigger concern is making sure whatever has been chewing the wires is gone and won't come back. They decided that Brian would take the van home for now and suggested a garden center where we could go and get some repellant stuff to spray in the engine.

This evening, Brian sprayed the repellent throughout the engine (it is actually a deer repellant, but the people at the garden place told him it worked well for this situation too). Then we thought maybe we should spray the engine of the Xterra as well, just in case.

We popped the hood of the Xterra and there was a collective gasp as we saw this:

We could not believe how much "stuff" there was stuffed in the engine! It filled a good part of a plastic shopping bag. Most of it was mulch type pieces (some of them quite big), but there were pieces of bushes and berries and a couple of very interesting things, like this little plastic army guy stuffed way in there:

And this piece of mouse (or rat?) skeleton (yuck!!):

Brian and Julie worked for quite a while digging stuff out of all the little cracks and crevices -- not to mention the big pile that was sitting right on top in a very neat and round nest. It really looked like a bird's nest on top!

We got most of it cleaned out and sprayed it as well, but I sure wish we knew what kind of critter we were dealing with (or how many) and if it was even still around. Our best guess is a squirrel, although we haven't seen any at all around our house. It's weird that we had so many squirrels in The Woodlands, yet no one we knew of ever had a problem with nests being built in their car engines.

Now we really need to get our garage cleaned out!

Looking for the Light

The subject of my online photography class this week is light, which is the most crucial aspect of photography. So I have really been trying to pay attention to the lighting and am working on getting pictures with good natural light (not having to use the camera's flash).

One of my goals is to take good close-up portraits of the kids that I can hang in the family room in the new black 8x10 frames I just bought. For the most part so far, they've been pretty willing subjects and put up with me and the camera. (We'll see how long that lasts!)

I've tried taking both some inside and outside pictures and am still not sure if I've found "the light." I am learning lots of things, however, like how I can try to "blur" the background and how to change settings on my camera.

So here are a few portraits I've taken recently -- I'd love any opinions as to ones you like or ones you think might be too dark, etc. (I do realize I have a problem with reflections on McKay's glasses, so I've asked my teacher for suggestions on correcting that.)

Any opinions, critiques, suggestions, favorites? (Pretty please?) :-)

Odyssey Adventures

A couple of days ago, I noticed some lights on the dashboard of our Odyssey van. First, the "engine malfunction" light was on and then the "TCS" light starting coming on every time I hit about 30-35mph and would stay on until the engine was turned off. So we decided we'd better take it in to get checked out.

We dropped the van off at the Honda dealer on Friday morning. Brian picked us up and we all had to squeeze in the Xterra to get back home (there are only 5 seatbelts in the Xterra, so McKay had to sit in the very back area -- so of course the girls whined about why they couldn't ride back there too).

I got a call Friday afternoon from the Honda service guy. He said that apparently some kind of critter decided to build a nest up inside our engine and also started chewing on wires. He said it almost looked like there were two nest areas -- they pulled out a bunch of sticks and leaves (some of them were pretty thick pieces of wood). He thought maybe it was a squirrel, but we haven't seen any squirrels around our house (we don't have any trees). We've seen lots of rabbits and turtles, but I don't think either of those would be carrying sticks up inside an engine. The joys of living in the country! (I guess we need to hurry and clean out the garage so we can park in it.)

He called me back a little later and said all the wires were fixed and they drove it and it wasn't "throwing any more codes" so we could come and pick it up. We didn't get back there before they closed yesterday, so we went down this morning to get it.

We got back down to the dealer, paid a few hundred dollars for the wires they supposedly fixed and I loaded up the girls in the van and Brian and McKay left in the Xterra. Wouldn't you know it, a few hundred yards down the road and both of those lights came right back on. Aargh! So we turned back around and took it back to the dealer. He wasn't sure what was going on and the mechanic who worked on it wasn't in today, so they can't look at it again until Monday. I guess we get to be a one-car family and squeeze in the Xterra a few more times.

Piano Music

With our beautiful new piano, I've decided I need to start playing more often! I was looking for some new music to try and found a new favorite piano composer/arranger - Paul Cardall. He is sort of a new-age composer who writes original pieces but has also done arrangements of Primary songs and hymns. I love them!

I discovered that I could purchase the "digital" version of his sheet music from his Web site, so I first downloaded the "Primary Worship" book. I just love his arrangements. I can't play all of them (yet!) and I need to practice to play them very well, but I've been able to get through several of them well enough to enjoy them. :-)

One thing that is a little unique about his arrangements is that in several of his songs, he does sort of a "variation on the theme." In the middle of the song, you get a totally different melody (usually more new-age sounding) and then after a bit it goes back to the melody of the original song.

Last night I downloaded his first book of Hymn arrangements and I'm excited to try playing them -- we'll see how many I can get through! It is great incentive for me to practice -- something I haven't done enough of for several years now.

You can also buy CDs of his music if you just want to listen to it. I just wanted to share!

Decorating!

I've finally made a little progress in the decorating department this past week, especially since Brian's sister Julie has been here to help (she is our fabulous decorator!).

Our dining room table and chairs finally came in and we got them all assembled:


I don't get the see the pretty table too much, however, as we have been keeping it covered with a tablecloth to prevent crayons and markers from making their way onto the table. The girls are constantly coloring and as the tablecloth already shows, they aren't always too careful around the edges. :-) We're hoping to get some barstools for the high counter and some plastic placemats or something (since the counter is tile and makes for a bumpy surface) and try to "train" the girls to sit up there and color.

McKay and Hannah have already complained that they don't like the new chairs -- they say the curved design in the back of the chair feels really weird/uncomfortable to them. Hopefully they'll get used to them!

As part of the dining room decorating process, we moved our black "kid art supply" cabinet out into the family room. Hopefully this will also help encourage the girls to color at the closer counter (once we get barstools) rather than over at the table. Julie helped me figure out what to do with the walls here (in case you're wondering Dad, the door on the far right goes into the kid's bedroom area). And the thing on top with the big antenna is our new weather radio which is supposed to keep us alerted to any tornado warnings or that sort of thing.


Here's a close-up of the wall. We got the vinyl lettering from my friend Lorie before she moved (she also did the lettering design in Hayley's old bedroom if any of you remember that).


Finally, our bedroom! I have been wanting to replace our bedding for awhile now and since the blue didn't really match the paint color in this room, it was a good time to finally get it done! Julie helped me pick some out and was my super seamstress in "stretching" the bedskirt (it wasn't quite wide enough for some reason, so she added a strip of fabric down the middle).


We are also planning to get a headboard (hopefully soon). We saw some pretty metal ones on sale in the Garden Ridge ad, so Julie might grab one for us and bring it up the next time they come (since there isn't a Garden Ridge here).

We ordered a goose down comforter and put it inside a white duvet cover we found at Target. Julie found the white bedskirt on clearance at TJ Maxx. I ordered some white flannel sheets (also a set of sateen sheets which haven't come yet). Julie also found the little pink pillow to add a touch of color. I am so excited to try it out tonight -- it looks so comfy and cozy!

Bed of Weeds

The girls went outside after dinner tonight and I decided I'd better go check on them after a while when I hadn't seen them out the kitchen windows. I went out the front door and immediately heard Hayley crying (quite hysterically). She was "locked" in the bike trailer that McKay had left out in the driveway and couldn't get out from the inside. Apparently they were playing and Hannah had snapped the net cover on and then left with Courtney somewhere, forgetting all about poor Hayley. I don't know how long she had been crying -- poor thing!

After I got her out and she calmed down, we went to find the other two girls and see what happened. They were on the back side of the house, in the small fenced dog run area (not that we have a dog, but apparently the previous owners did). They were lying in the "grass" and gazing up at the sky. Apparently they couldn't hear Hayley's cries for help.

To make Hayley feel better, they offered to make her a "bed of weeds" too. And yes, we really need to mow the area around the house. This dog run area has more weeds or something than other parts around the front of the house. But I guess they make a soft bed (at least until the bugs start crawling on you!)

Evening Walk

Yesterday evening after dinner we all took a little walk around the property. Brian wanted to see if he could get exact location readings from his GPS in the different corners of our property. I decided to bring along the camera -- I ended up taking lots of flower pictures (see my previous post), but took some others as well.

Here is everyone walking towards the NE property corner. (Julie and her two youngest boys were out with us.) Most of our property is covered with these bushes (not sure what exact kind they are -- does anyone know?)

The area right behind our house (on the north side) slopes down quite a bit. Here is a view looking up at the back of our house from the bottom of this hill.

Another view of the back of our house from the bottom of the hill. If you look closely, you might be able to see Hannah and her cousin Austin climbing up the hill to go back to the house. Hannah ended up stepping in an ant mound or something and getting several bites on her ankle, as well as stepping in some kind of cactus plant and getting lots of little prickles in her foot. She was not a happy girl!

A few close-ups of the kids (except Hannah, who was in the house recovering).

Hayley and her face that didn't get washed after dinner:

Courtney riding her bike in the wind:

And McKay with his brand new glasses! He ended up needing a stronger prescription as we guessed (it actually changed quite a bit for less than a year) and we got him two pairs.