May news

School is OVER!  I knew this past year was going to be rough – and it was.  But, now it is suddenly done. 

My last day of classes was Wednesday even though the kids were in classes until Friday.  I had Baccalaureate Tuesday evening, CIS senior recognition dinner Wednesday, and CIS Commencement Thursday evening.  My grades are submitted.  Keys get turned in this coming Tuesday. 

So, now I have to catch up for the entire month of May – yikes!  So, here are the highlights:

Mother’s Day weekend – Steve and I traveled to Indiana to visit Julina and Alex.  We saw Alex’s home in Greenwood, 

 

went to a minor league baseball game, 

 

checked out the airplane that Alex is working on.    

And, we visited Emily and family on the way back.  It was a great time.

Grandma with Quinn

Rock Bridge – the joint concert with Hickman orchestra went very well.  Six members of my ensemble were seniors.  Even only knowing them for just one year, I am still going to miss them.  

my RBHS orchestra 2012-2013

 

  We had the first annual orchestra end-of-year picnic …..current and future orchestra members were invited and I was happy with the turnout considering that half the invitations were inadvertently not sent!  

picnic photo

 

Home improvements began anew two weeks ago.  This time around, Ricky has been working on the sports room and Noah’s Ark room.  Being in the basement on the end of the house that has done the most settling, they needed the most repair work.   I moved all the stuff in both rooms are crammed into the family room and my music studio Thursday morning

this is the sports room

 

 

The Noah's Ark room

How our kitchen looked for a week while drawers were in repair

our countertops full of the belongings of the drawers

 

 In between applications of mud on the drywall, he has been doing lots of other little projects.  We now have new lights in the upstairs bathrooms, a new vanity top in the master bath, and our kitchen cabinet drawers are the sturdiest they have ever been. 

 

 

 I have nine cans of paint and last Thursday, the first day I didn’t have classes, I began painting the ceilings in the main and downstairs bathrooms (these were repaired back when we got the new doors – a couple of months ago! ).  I will be painting throughout the summer since every room in the house got new doors and the new framing is smaller than the original molding.  So, I need to paint each door and the wall that they are in.  And, almost every room also either has a patched crack (settling) which will need painting. 

Last weekend, Steve and I went to St. Louis - to the temple and then to watch Noah's T-ball game.  Steve gave Noah his temporary sunglasses he got after an eye exam and dilation.  Noah REALLY LOVED THEM - he said they made him feel like a Transformer.   Beckie flew in from Hawaii that morning and she also came to the game.  We have her for two weeks!

Noah swings away

Lucy at the game

walking back to the car

 Yard update:  Here is how my irises looked a couple of weeks ago.  So pretty!  I have little peaches apples, plums, pie cherries, and blueberries.  We created a strawberry bed and a raspberry bed and planted 20 more asparagus plants.  We also created a new garden spot in the south part of our back yard. Steve is in the process of digging up the front grass strip that sits between the street and sidewalk.  We transplanted our two hazelnut bushes out to this spot and we are thinking of making the rest of it a rose garden.  (hey, less grass to mow - which we have been doing A LOT lately thanks to all our rain).