A Nice Summer Weekend

We had a very nice, but busy summer weekend!  Needless to say, I didn’t get very far on my painting projects, but it was good to relax with the kids and take a break from it for awhile.

On Friday I took the kids to a nearby town for a quick trip.  A few weeks ago, Kara had broken her glasses, and her new ones were ready to pick up, so that gave us the excuse to go for a drive!  There is a neat statue honoring Buffalo Bill in the same town as our eye doctor’s office, so we stopped and had fun learning all about that.

Dan, John, and Brock left for scout camp on Saturday morning.  Although having our whole family together is always the best option, dividing up the kids every now and then gives us special time with each child.  The boys should be back this morning, and I haven’t heard how the camp has gone, but I am sure they have had fun.  I know that I had fun with the three youngest Prairie Family kids here at home!

Saturday was not a typical summer day on the Prairie!  It was cool and cloudy most of the day, but I had promised my home-bodies that we would break out our back yard pool while the big boys were camping, so I kept my word.  The water was CCCOOOLLLLDDD!  The kids had fun for a little while, but soon decided that waiting until a warmer day was probably a better option!

Sunday was definitely a warmer day, and after church we did try the pool again–much better this time!  The kids splashed and played for quite awhile, and I enjoyed relaxing and watching them. 

We did have one near-tragedy with the pool, though!  The kids were splashing so much that they got water on my digital camera.  I had warned them about not splashing water in my direction for that very reason, but they just didn’t listen. By the time we got in the house, the lens was all fogged up–on the inside!  I didn’t know if it would clear up or not!  So, we used that as a learning time, and I reminded the kids how important it is to always listen and obey.  I also suggested that praying and asking God to help dry out my camera would be a good idea too.  After we prayed, I had an idea:  I took the batteries and memory card out of my camera and left the camera lens cover off.  I put it up on top of a ladder directly under one of our ceiling fans and left it there for awhile.  Believe it or not, within an hour or so the water had evaporated that was inside of the lens!  Another good lesson for the kids:  remember to thank God when He helps with even small things!  We celebrated by going out for ice cream and pop, which, of course, the kids enjoyed!

Like I said, the boys should be home this morning.  We really miss them!  Anyway, we have a busy week scheduled.  Swimming lessons start this week and those will take up most of our mornings, and of course, baseball is continuing.  I guess it’s time to return to my painting as well–I sure am thankful for the nice break that I had!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

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Kara’s Messages

From time-to-time I find these messages from Kara.  This week I found one on my teacher’s desk downstairs and this one on my refrigerator.  She tells me that they say, “Kara loves Mom.”  It always makes my heart happy to see these sweet notes!  Mommy loves you too, Kara Joy Mincui!

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Hallway Painting Finished!

You know what?  It’s really hard to get a good picture of a hallway!  🙂

I finished painting our hallway yesterday, and Dan put the wood trim back last night.  It came out all right, but I’m not particularly fond of how glossy the paint is!  I decided to use semi-gloss paint rather than the satin finish that I normally use so that the walls can be washed easier, but boy, did it come out glossy!  The walls look like plastic!  If this is semi gloss, I can’t imagine what glossy paint would be like!

Oh well, it’s done.  So, I’m ready to start the school rooms downstairs.  I don’t know how much painting I will get done this weekend.  Brock is going to Webelos camp, and Dan and John are going as leaders.  I will try to have some special activities for those of us who stay home, so my painting will probably move to the end of my to-do list for the next few days.

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Blue Thunder Baseball!

Brock’s baseball team has been having a lot of fun this summer.  This is his third year on the blue team of the Rookie Boys city recreation league, and, let’s be honest, they have not always played very well!  🙂  The last two years they have not had a very good record, but this year they are doing pretty well!  So far their record is 3 wins, 2 losses, and 1 tie–believe me, that’s doing better!

Seriously, the Blue Thunder has improved, and the boys are having a lot of fun.  They have new coaches this year, and both of them relate really well with the boys.  One big area of improvement that I have seen is the team’s abilty to field the ball. 

Last night’s game was really exciting!  They were playing the Red team, which is known to be one of the best teams in the league.  In fact, they were undefeated!  Things didn’t look too good half-way through the game.  Red was ahead 9-3.  But, the boys didn’t give up, and, believe it or not, in the last two innings, they held the Red team at 9 runs, and went on to win the game 10-9!  Beating a previously undefeated team certainly gave our boys a boost! 

We’re half-way through the season.  Brock is hoping that his team will at least make it past the first game in the season tournament–something he has not yet experienced!

Make a Smilebox postcard

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CPR/First Aid Class Completed!

John has been working on his First Aid merit badge for Boy Scouts.  He just finished a huge part of the requirements by successfully completing the American Red Cross First Aid and Adult CPR-AED classes.  He was by far the youngest person taking the class, and he passed with flying colors!

He seems to have enjoyed learning these new skills, and as a former EMT myself, it pleases me that he did so well.  Who knows how these skills may be used?!  Good job, John!

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How to get Dried Latex Paint off of Clothes

This morning I noticed that some of the purple paint that I used in the girls’ room had dripped onto one of Kara’s pretty church dresses when I was painting above her closet.  I was so upset!  This dress is an especially nice one–in fact, Cosette had worn it when she was a flower girl in my brother’s wedding!

At first I just wrote it off as a loss, but then I decided to look on the internet to see if there was any tips for removing paint stains.  I found a site that suggested isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol.  I decided it was worth a try, so I grabbed the alcohol from my medicine cabinet and rubbed it on the spot.  It took a little while to soak into the stain and then it took some good old elbow grease, but the spot completely came out of the dress!  Yea! 

 

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Girls’ Room Finished!

It has been a lot of work the past few days, but I finished painting the girls’ room yesterday, and Dan and I hung the border after the baseball game last night.  I was a little worried when I soaked the border to get it ready to hang, because the scallopped edge curled terribly!  I was sure that it would not stay on the wall, but I rubbed each part with my putty knife, and so far, so good!  It seems to be staying!

I still have a few things to get hung and put away in this room, and then I will be ready to paint the hallway, and then I hope to work downstairs.  I need to paint both of the rooms that we will be using for school this fall and will try to get the books out and the school stations set up so we will be ready to start before I go on with my painting in other parts of the house.

I am happy with how the rooms are turning out, but I sure am tired!  Actually it will be a good thing to slow down a little as I go down into the school rooms so I don’t wreck my health!

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Boys’ Room Finished!

I finished painting the boys’ room yesterday, and Dan, John, and I put up the border last night.  This morning Dan and I put the furniture back and put the decorations back up on the walls, and everyone is very pleased with the results!  It definitely “grew up” the room with it’s new scout theme, and the boys love it!

I had planned on painting the girls’ room the same color of green, but I am so glad that I held up their flower border in the boys’ room to check the color because it did not match at all!  It looked right on the little color sample, but it looked ridiculous held up against a wall!  So, this morning I shifted gears on my plans for the girls’ room.  They had really wanted purple all along, and I found a nice purple color that looks quite nice with their border.  After we finished the boys’ room, Dan and I prepped the girls’ room, and I got the first coat of paint on half of their room.  That pretty much finished up my day.  It’ll take me a few days to get that room done, and then I hope to do the hallway and then move into our school rooms after that.  Still plenty to do!  🙂

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Kara’s Piano Lessons

Ever since Kara has been in the Prairie Family, she has always shown a lot of interest in music–particularly in playing the piano.  At first I must admit that I wasn’t sure that she could learn to play the piano because of her hands that were born with syndactyly.  All of her fingers were fused together when she was born, and she had surgery prior to her adoption to separate her fingers.  She has excellent use of her hands, but she is missing fingers on one hand and has deformity on her other hand.  After living with Kara and seeing how well she functions, I decided to at least ask the orthopedists about the possibility of Kara learning to play the piano, and both Dr. G., who did her clubbed foot correction, and Dr. Benson, who has been her hand consultant, agreed that it would be great to let Kara try out lessons and see what she can do.

So, this summer I started both her and Luke on lessons, and both of them are just loving it!  Kara is quickly catching on to reading musical notation, and so far her hands have not slowed her down one bit!

Yesterday I saw the lady who taught me piano when I was a child.  In fact, I took lessons from her from the time I was in 3rd grade until I graduated from high school.  After I graduated from college, I returned to the high school that I graduated from and worked in the music department for several years, and this same lady became a colleague and friend during that time.  It had been awhile since I had seen her, so I went up to her in the store, and we had a nice visit.  I told her that I was beginning Kara in piano lessons, and her immediate response was that Kara would never be able to play!  That did make me a little upset, to tell you the truth! 

Our family never tells Kara that she “can’t” do things because of her special needs, and, you know what?  There really isn’t anything that we do that she doesn’t do too!  So, I just told myself that in a few years, I’ll just have to have Kara go play some songs for this lady!  I told my former piano teacher about Hee Ah Lee, who is a young woman from Korea that I have posted about before on this blog.  She was born with only four fingers, but guess what she does?  She is a CONCERT PIANIST, and she is completely AWESOME on the piano!  She is my inspiration for Kara, and I thank God for her.  For those who missed my first entry about Hee Ah Lee, here is another video of this amazing woman:

 

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Wall Prep Helpers

After last night’s baseball game, I decided to try tearing off a little bit of the boys’ room border to see how hard it was going to be.  The kids thought it looked like so much fun that they asked if they could give it a try!  They were such good helpers!  With all of us working together we had all of the vinyl layer off in just a short time, so today I only have to scrape off the paper/glue layer!  Luke especially got into this project and asked me if he can help again when I get ready to do the girls’ room.  What great kids!

(By the way, even though Cosette is reading a book in this picture, she was just waiting for someone to bring her a scraper.  John isn’t in the picture, but he helped out too!)

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