Spring tease

     I don't know what the weathers like where you are but here in good old Alpine we've had some warmer days and it was so NICE!! Of course the warm days are just a tease of what will come and winter reared her ugly head just days after these photos were taken and we're back to having snow all over the lawn but it was fun while it lasted. Spring can't get here fast enough!!

Now this is an activity I can get behind. This is way better than playing xBox all day.

These two couldn't be happier being outside enjoying the warm/spring like weather.

     So our basement bathroom has been a sore spot for me for quite awhile. We did a quick update on it when we first moved into our house 11 years ago but it's never really been updated properly so the time has come. We've bought the majority of the materials and Monday Greg ripped out the shower and thankfully there was no mold. The only issue was the drain hadn't been properly installed so there was some water build up under everything that wasn't so pleasant and a horrible smell permeated the basement for a few hours but I'm glad that was the only real problem and the drain was going to be replaced anyway so no further expense is required. We're going to probably do things in steps, starting with the shower. Hopefully we'll never have the toilet out of commission for more than a few hours but for now all 9 of us are using one shower but so far no major fights have broken out.

This is just the beginning of the tear out.

  Brock had his last basketball game of the season this past week. He's had fun learning and playing with his team and I'm sure he'll want to sign up again next year.  

Brock, over all, had a fun basketball season. This was his last game of the season.

      Mark's truck is parked in the driveway a lot lately and someone must have felt the need to say hi in a fun way. He's actually been frustrated because we've had to borrow his truck quite a bit this past week. Tuesday my fuel pump went out on our Yukon so we were without a vehicle for a couple days while Greg did the repairs needed. Then today my garage door wouldn't open (The spring on the garage door has busted so that's going to be a fun fix.) and I had to borrow it again.  I guess the universe heard my tax refund is here and so now is the best time for things to really fall apart around here. I am glad the funds are available and I'm really glad the car died just a few yards from home so I wasn't stranded far from home and had to deal with the hassle of having it towed home. I was actually able to get it back home without having to push it but it did die three different times so that was a small miracle. And I'm really glad I have a handy husband who can fix so many things, but there's nothing fun about car troubles.

Mark was more annoyed than flattered by these cute notes, weird kid!

     Hopefully my next post will have some photos of the new shower coming together!

Valentine's and a little more.

     Let the photo fun begin.

McClane lost his third tooth and his first top front tooth. It won't be long now before his adventure in braces begins.

This is one of our favorite weekend night activities. Who doesn't love a good burn barrel on the streets of the neighborhood.

This is what happens when your teenager gets a hold of your phone during church. She looked cute despite the funny facial expression.

Then it was Valentine's day and Carter's turn to enjoy the 'torture' of the 6th grade Valentine dance. He's laughing in total embarrassment for having to dance with his mom.

Sixth grade buddies.

Plenty of cute girls to dance with. He wasn't embarrassed to dance with these cuties.

Of course he was most comfortable hanging out with his buddies.

We kept our Valentine dinner pretty simple this year. The bundt cake was a splurge and worth every penny and calorie.

Someone captured this little rascal in a posing mood.

And to avoid getting in trouble, Greg surprised me with this monster box of chocolates right before bed. I wasn't sad about this gift at all!

And then to finish off the week I treated myself to an hour at the salon with my great hairdresser and cousin. I'm loving all the new layers.

     So the hope was to work on the basement bathroom this weekend but it's not looking good. Greg has work tomorrow so I guess the rest of us will just enjoy the day off from school and look forward to the three day weekend with nothing on our schedule.

Fun and NO FUN!

     This week started out fun with the Superbowl and all the yummy food and visitors.

Crazy game!

   The week was going ok until Tuesday! Tuesday was one of the worst days ever! I had the most awful meeting at the middle school where I lost my cool with a teacher regarding Isaac. I was told by a counselor the next day that this particular teacher had never felt so attacked and offended by any parent in all her 25 years of teaching. It was a NIGHTMARE!! But the good news is, I was right, Isaac does not have any kind of learning disability. 

     Then after that debacle I got my new iPhone 7 and then spent the rest of the day trying to get it set up. I spent over four hours on the phone with Apple and it still wasn't working but finally I had a revelation on a password I needed and couldn't remember and I finally got everything restored and where I needed it to be back in full function mode. I love the new phone but I don't always love technology.

     Then Wednesday Charlie and I got to hang out in the waiting room at the dentist office while Brock had FIVE cavities filled. Charlie wanted to test out the camera on the new phone while we were waiting.

This was the best she could do after several tries.

     Thursday was a big day for Mark. He had his first, and hopefully his last, court hearing in regards to his 'hit and run' at the high school parking lot a few weeks ago. This was a bit daunting for Greg and me but Mark seemed to think it was pretty cool and he didn't even blink when the judge ordered him to pay a $500 fine. I was a bit surprised at the large amount, especially since our insurance covered the property damaged but it was a class C misdemeanor so the fine could have been as large as $1900 so I guess I should be grateful it wasn't more. He initially told the judge he would need to make lots of payments but I told him as we were leaving we needed to just pay it all that day so his case could be closed so we used nearly half his savings to pay the fine but I'd rather he was paying himself back instead of the court. We also had to meet with a DMV official the same day about the excessive amount of points on Mark's driving record and due to that excess of points he's been denied his license for a month and he'll have to pay $30 dollars to reinstate his license once the 30 days is up and then he'll also have to go to traffic school after the 30 days and if he does that he'll be back to a zero balance of points, which will be great and then we'll just hope and pray he doesn't get any more tickets or traffic violations. The kid is brain dead!

This was Carter's attempt at capturing the pretty sunset we had Thursday night. I'm glad he can appreciate a pretty sunset even if he can't photograph it quite right.

And this dog is obsessed with looking out the front window and nothing or no one will deny him that privilege.

     I'm so glad it's Friday and this week of craziness is over!

The cutest

     Not our busiest week but I did capture a couple cute moments with my two 'cutest'!

When it's cold outside we like to sit in front of the portable heater and let it blow 80 degree heat on us while we watch our favorite shows.

Their favorite show is Caillou on the tablet.

    And these two occasionally have a sweet moment like this. ↡ You'd never guess they were just arguing and fighting minutes before this reading session.

    And this dog was in desperate need of a shampoo and hair cut. What a difference an hour with the groomer can make!

These haircuts cost more than mine but I guess the groomer does a bit more 'detailed' work then a hairdresser does.

     We didn't do anything too exciting this week but we do have big 'food' plans for Superbowl Sunday. Any excuse to make my grandma's yummy slush and eat snack food for dinner! Go whoever!!