I think summer is here!

Where does the time go? I cannot believe that it will soon be 2 months since my trip to Savannah!

And busy???? My goodness!

The last month of school went SO fast! We attended awards programs for each of the girls.....I helped for a couple of weeks in the school library getting the books reshelved....I attended Emmie's "end of the year" party, we took our trip to FL....and then it was time for school to be out.

Samantha got Meritorious Attendance Award, President's Education Awards Program Certificate with a letter from the president, Champions of Conduct Award, Courtesy Award, and Physical Education Award.

Ashlyn with her teacher. Ashlyn received the Meritorious Attendance Award, Most Improved Student Award, Champion of Conduct (all A's in conduct this year), and D.A.R.E. Certificate of Achievement.

End of year party for preschool and Emmie is not too sure about this water slide!

On the last day of school, we picked up all of the girls and headed with the camper to a lake in Mississippi. Jake came the next day with his camper, and Christie showed up after work on Friday. Ron's Aunt Midge and her husband, Sheldon, were there with their camper. Ron's cousin lives there as her husband is the manager at this state park....so we had a couple of "cook-outs" together with some really good food!

The girls enjoyed the water and the lake was pretty. But the weather was HOT!

Right at our campsight:

Did I tell you that we bought the flooring for the kitchen/dining room? We did. And it is all stacked up in the dining area.

We bought enough to do the hallway and the guest room....which is the first bedroom down the hall. We decided that we would start the floor installation in the bedroom so we could "learn" in a room where the floor will be mostly covered by a bed! (haha) That meant that the room had to be emptied, the carpet had to be removed, and I might as well give everything a fresh coat of paint in there. So that is where we are this week.

The floor in that room under the carpet and pad had a cork tile glued to the concrete. All of the carpeted rooms are that way. Unfortunately, it was not in good enough shape to stay, so we had to scrape it up. This had been a very difficult job when we first moved here and did the living room. We did it on our hands and knees. But the summer after that, we found a tool at a garage sale in Michigan that I thought would help. Dad told me it was an "ice spud" for cutting holes in the ice on the lakes when they freeze. Whatever it was, it worked perfect for this job! It tore the tiles to bits, but they FLEW off the floor! Yay! I have started the painting and hopefully by Monday we will be starting on the floor.

Above: Me scraping up cork tile.

Below: Ron is shoveling it up.

This was my plan for getting up the cork until Ron reminded me that we had bought that "tool" in Michigan!

This is the tool for the job, for sure!!

In the meantime, we decided that Emmie was old enough for us to consider putting our above ground pool back up. We had it for 2 years before we moved here, but have had it stored since then. Our yard is pretty small. But this summer has started out WARM already. (I'm not complaining, mind you. I promised when it was cold and snowy so often this winter that I would NOT complain when it got hot!!!) We studied and studied our yard. This spot was not level. That spot was too close to trees. This spot was not close enough to electrical power for the pump. That spot had no privacy from the street and the neighbors. We settled on one spot.....and were making plans in that direction when I suggested moving our clothesline poles, and removing a picket fence that Ron wanted to get rid of! It was the perfect suggestion. We removed the fence and have installed about 18 feet of privacy fence at the end of our driveway, blocking the view of the pool from the street and/or neighbors. Our yard is already enclosed on 3 sides...one side is the house and one side and the back of the yard has privacy. We are already filling the pool (with one glitch) and Ron will be finishing the fencing next week.

We worked like crazy on a hot day getting the pool all spread out. It is 18 feet across, 4 feet deep and HEAVY! After a LOT of sweat, we had the water going in, but a couple of hours later Ron discovered that it was leaking! Oh my! So...after a quick discussion, we decided to buy another....which was on sale at Toys R Us. Off we went. By the following morning we had the old pool emptied and the new pool set up in its place. It takes hours and hours to fill! But we are looking forward to hours and hours of fun in this pool this summer. Ron and I both enjoyed it before.....and he wasn't retired yet.

So...we keep plugging away on our little "improvements" around here. It goes slow, but it eventually gets done and we are taking lots of time off to enjoy friends and family in between.

I wish you were here to visit with us. Leave a comment so I know you stopped by!