Flying creatures in the house

We were all hanging out downstairs.  Suddenly I heard flapping, as Mike was saying, "There's a bird in the house!"  I turned just in time to see a full-grown sparrow flying across the room.  The cat saw it too, and he cornered it.  I was just starting to wonder how we would ever get the thing out alive, when Noah just reached down like St. Francis of Assisi and picked it up with his bare hands.  He took it outside and released it, and it flew across the street into the neighbor's bush.

A few hours later, I opened the door to go out, and something flew at me.  I ducked, and the thing flew right into the house.  I chased it down and discovered it was a huge bug of some kind with extremely long legs and wings.  It flew around the house for awhile, and then Mike tidily disposed of it. 

Moving

We are getting ready to put our house on the market, so we've been boxing up stuff to store at my parents' basement until we move. Our realtor let us use his moving truck, so last night we loaded it. The kids had a great time with it.

 In cleaning out my closet, I found a pair of white heels that I used to wear to work.  Since I don't wear heels now (and never plan to ever again), I put them in the Goodwill box.  Sarah discovered them and claimed them for her own.  She wore them the rest of the night.

Night school

We were very busy today and didn't get around to doing school until after dinner.  The principle visited our class, and school went horribly.  He was not impressed.  I hope I don't get fired.  I learned a valuable lesson:  always do school earlier in the day.

The hair is always blonder on someone else's head

I was washing Sarah's hair and telling her that it's the most beautiful hair I've ever seen, and she said, "I wish I had your golden hair."  I told her that mine is the color of dirty dishwater, and she said, "No way, Mom.  Yours is the color of pure gold."  Then she stroked it and looked at it in awe. 

Here are some examples of her fabulous mane (she was only two years old in these first two pictures):

Kids save Mom from wasting whole day!

I woke up this morning feeling pretty lousy.  All my ailments were flaring up at the same time and ganging up on me.  I just wanted to stay in bed all day and put the kids in front of the TV.  But it's the first day after a long weekend, and the to-do list is full to overflowing.  So I ignored myself and got busy, and by lunch time I was feeling pretty good! 

The pool is closed.

You can tell fall is right around the corner, because we took the pool down yesterday.  The project consumes several days of draining, disassembling, scrubbing, hosing, drying, and packing, and it all has to be timed with the weather conditions.  Ideally, draining day would be when the ground is very dry so it can handle the deluge.  Scrubbing and hosing day should be pretty warm, because I always manage to get soaked.  Most importantly, I need at least two days of no rain for drying and packing.  Sun and a nice breeze help too. 

Two days ago, we drained.  The ground was nice and dry.  Yesterday was day one of scrubbing and hosing.  The kids scrubbed the nasty green slime off the patio while I worked on side one of the pool.  It was plenty humid and warm, so we didn't mind getting soaked. 

Today was day two of scrubbing, and we all worked on side two of the pool.  There was some sun and a stiff breeze, but it was pretty chilly to be drenched and covered in filth.  This is the view of our back yard now:

Every fall I ask myself (as I'm on my hands and knees, tarred and feathered in algae and debris) if it's really worth it.  Did we really get enough enjoyment out of it in the summer to justify all this?  The answer is always yes.  The four of us and all the neighborhood kids spent hours and hours of fun in there.