NAILED IT!

AUGUST 1st! Can you believe it??? 

It is 15 days until Stacia's 18th birthday. 

It is only 5 days until Stacia's 18th birthday and graduation celebration. I bet you THOUGHT we forgot, didn't you? Stacia is an introvert and would only allow me ONE party....we finally pulled it together. 

It is 16 days until Allie and Stacia's college orientation. 

It is 20 days until Stacia and Allie begin classes at Alaska Bible College. 

The fireweed is slow in blooming this year. I suspect this is due to our late spring and RAIN....we are trying to decide if it means it will be a late winter, but some of the tree leaves are starting to change colors.  HOWEVER - and this is STRANGE, ODD, UNHEARD of for this tropic-raised gal - I find myself looking FORWARD to winter this year. I'm EXCITED for the season to change. There really is something to be said for living fully present and embracing each season. 

We NAILED this day! I was up and out of the house early. I headed over to CoRielle's to spend my morning with the boys while Arielle went to her work morning at the church. 

Selfies with Bachan! Pretty sure Danny isn't
sticking cereal up his nose! 

We spent most of our time together outside. We played with bubbles, RAN, and played basketball. Inside we made a giant fort and read 2 books. 

Go, Danny!

LOOK! No emojis over any faces!!!

Something about this scenario is just a bit off! LOL 

Charles helps Benny make the basket! LOL 

I returned home at 1100 and told the girls if we could knock out dinner for our new pastor by 1230, we could deliver it before we went to our appointment at ABC and have the rest of the afternoon to work on the basement project. This way Allie could be part of the fun of dropping the meal off as well. We got it done! I popped some brownies in the oven. Stacia made pie crusts, Allie and I worked on the Chicken pot pie filling....threw it all in a box with salad, some muffins and deviled eggs and we were ready. I DID forget the fruit - but hey - it all worked out. 

We picked up boxes they had unpacked for our basement project.  

At ABC the girls both talked over their plans and the credits they are transferring in.  We were excited both girls only had the "welcome to XYZ university" credit that wasn't accepted. They registered for classes! We talked with the finance department and assured them we WILL pay the first week of school if the VA funding hasn't arrived by then. There was no problem, I just wanted to be sure we weren't missing an expectation. 

We arrived home minutes before Arielle, Benny and Danny. Charles was at therapy, and they were here to look over our homeschooling books and see if she'd like any of them. Arielle was surprised at how much we have. It HAS been 35 years of schooling. Some of it I will need to pitch. Quite a bit of it, however, is still valuable. Bre will check things out and then I'll let other friends from church know they are welcome to check out the stash and then....who knows what I'll do with the stuff....but it needs to be gone. We ARE saving books I want to read to grands and/or the ones that I always meant to read but haven't gotten around to yet. I have a ton of high school Sonlight manuals - I have no idea what to do with them.

Into the midst of the homeschooling mess - we added all the things we were storing in the trailer. We wanted to loan the trailer out...and now that the boys' old room is freshly painted and ready to be turned into the study...it seemed like a good time to get everything from our parents inside and see what to do with it all. The problem is we moved Stacia's party up a week, so I have this week to clear the space...in case it rains, and we need the space for people.

Much of this goes into the new "guest room" - which currently houses all this.... homeschooling material, years as a pastor, an Air Force office that has never been fully unpacked, parts of a home office....

Sometime in here Allie had to leave for work. We managed to CLEAR the big shelves we wanted to move to the new study. I wasn't 100% sure they would fit out the door as Michael built them in the room...but they did. It's one large shelf....Benny and Danny WERE a huge help carrying books and shelves. I wish I'd taken a moment to grab a photo. 

The three of us got it out of the study, across the common room, to the new study. We only had to start and stop a few times to get the angles right. We didn't chip ANY paint. I'm impressed with the wonderfulness of us. ::snort:: 

Stacia and Arielle 

While we worked on this, Michael was dragging large broken appliances and other yard trash to the back of his truck. We are going to take a load to the dump BEFORE the party. I have a couple of large yard bags from the "old study" to contribute to the load and I'm sure there will be more. 

We had a LOVELY day. I believe we broke 80* on our back deck. Summer is finally fully here. LOL Stacia and I enjoyed a quick break on the deck. 

Oh, making pot pies for Scott, Rachel and family reminded us we had a salmon pot pie in the freezer. HEY - don't knock it until you try it. If one must eat salmon, it's not bad - as long as you KNOW it's salmon and prepare your tastebuds.  We pulled it out and heated it up for dinner. We had just a bit of pie crust left, so I pulled one of our apple pie mixtures from the freezer and made a cobbler for dinner too. While Stacia and I pulled together dinner, Michael cut and placed a LOT of shims under the bookshelf. Our floors are NOT level in the basement. 

After dinner clean up Stacia and I ran over to the parsonage to deliver eggs and pick up more empty boxes. 

We will be ready in the morning to load the shelf in the study and unload the other books shelves still in the old study. Stacia has an appointment in the a.m. but I'm set to make some good progress. 

I think I can. I think I can.