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Had Lauren’s birthday party last weekend. We decided (with Lauren’s approval of course) to have a small family party now, then a larger kid party later when the weather is nicer.
As you can see she decided to dress up for her party. To which she continually reminded us that she was the moth queen and this was her day to get whatever she wanted.
Fair enough.
Jen and Abigail had to dress up too. Somehow I lucked out.
Can’t believe our youngest is now 5.
– b
Both Abigail and Jen updated their Jiu Jitsu status this week. Abigail was promoted to grey/white belt and Jen got a stripe.
The basic jist (at least at our school) is that you’re tested 4 times a year for a stripe. After 4 stripes you qualify for a belt upgrade (depending on belt color).
You can find more details here.
I did not participate in the stripe test. I’d like too, and certainly will the next time around in March.
– b
The pool (and everything else around here for that matter) is really starting to show its age.
For the most part things were just looking old and ratty. Now they’re starting to literally fall apart.
Of course to fix is both big money and big time. Neither of which we really have.
In the meantime a quick fix will do at least to keep things functional.
In time we should have both the time and money to fix it all right.
Looking to the future…
– b
It looks like we can save the earring.
Routine cleanings, antibiotics and boiling the earrings have quite possibly done the trick.
– b
We got the tree up and mostly decorated by the girls.
Notice how the majority of the decorations stop at a certain height?
With the girls doing the heavy lifting in regards to the decorating, Jen was able to cook up this nice fat leg of lamb. Yummmm.
– b
Decided to start taking the girls with me to the climbing gym on Monday nights. The plan is/was to take one each Monday, so they’d trade every other Monday. The first Monday was Lauren. She was a climbing machine. Dad, I want to do this route, that route, and that route over there for an hour and a half. I hardly got to climb until she said, “you should go boulder while I’m on the next route.” Her technique is not as honed as Abigail’s was, but her enthusiasm and determination to get to the top more than makes up for it.
When it rained Wednesday night, instead of riding I went climbing again, but this time took both girls. Yeah, not exactly what I’d planned, but whatever. Again Lauren was a machine. Abigail’s obviously hit that point in life where self preservation takes a bigger role. She wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as Lauren to climb fast or climb high, but she did climb well. She was actually more interested in the slack line, to which I decided to get ours up and usable for them whenever.
– b
Abigail lit a cotton ball using flint and steel. I’d say she was mildly impressed with herself.
Not nearly as impressed as she was (and rightly so) with her wooden grill that she constructed. Though now that I see again, we should have stacked it up on top of the fire pit to see how it would work. that would have been fun at least.
But her smoke stick skills are second to none.
– b
One of Abigail’s ear piercings has gotten infected, so it’s antibiotics and cleanings 3 times a day in hopes we can save it.
The doctor was anything but optimistic. She said give it two days. If we don’t see improvement, we should pull out the piercing and let it close up/heal.
We suspect it’s the Jiu Jitsu. All that rolling, squeezing, and crushing on the floor isn’t the best for newly pierced ears.
Stay tuned.
– b
We had this handy-dandy self straightening tree stand that I really liked.
Jen hated it.
I found it very convenient for standing up the tree and leveling it.
Jen thought it was too tall and required too many branches to be cut off the bottom.
Yesterday it wouldn’t work as easily as I had remembered.
I got impatient.
I stomped on it.
It broke.
Back to the old stand that doesn’t self level.
Back to frustration and trial & error.
At least now Jen admitted the old stand wasn’t so bad considering how difficult the standard stand is.
Oh well. We’ll wait post season and get a new one on discount.
Hopefully.
– b
Not sure if I’ve posted this or not. Certainly meant to.
Sometime this year (can’t remember if it was spring or summer) I hit the metabolic wall. No longer could I eat whatever and not gain weight. In fact I seemed to do nothing but gain weight regardless of what I ate or stopped eating.
Granted I’m not talking 10’s of pounds, but enough for me to notice.
Annoying.
Yeah. Yeah.
Welcome to the club.
Not being as active certainly doesn’t help, hence the Jiu Jitsu.
So I’ll keep at it. See what I can do or just settle.
– b