this weeks happenings

This is the last week of swimming lessons for the boys (swimming lessons are everyday for two weeks). They have had good teachers this session and small classes. Jacob is happily becoming a little fish. We think Ryan finally passed level 3 (we'll know tomorrow for sure), and unfortunately Jared came up short on the swimming merit badge -- diving and flip turns being the root of all evil there, but its been good practice anyway.

We are trying to re-paint our family room, so we had to take the wallpaper strip down that went around the ceiling. I hate wallpaper. Mostly because it is so dang hard to take off. I don't know why we put this border up in the first place 10 years ago, the room looks tons better just having it off. Now we are having a hard time getting the right color of paint. Grrrr. The next challenge will be the actual painting and keeping all the little hands and bodies out of the wet paint. I hope it all turns out well. If we can't move, we might as well try to fix up, right?

Mark is STILL fighting a sore throat -- we are both sick of him being sick. Since we've still had a few cool days, the boys have had plenty of game time, but have also had some great afternoon fun outside with friends -- Ryan fried himself while using the slip n slide at a friends house earlier this week and his shoulders are still pink. I think he'll remember the sunscreen next time. Dentist and ortho appointments have been taken care of for the week and I've done a TON of laundry and half the ironing that has been piling up. I've done the weekly Costco run and now I'm headed to the grocery store for the things I can't get at Costco or don't want to buy in mass quantity. I managed a quick trip to the mall yesterday simply because I was having withdrawals and needed an "out" -- although I had 3 kids with me (not exactly bliss!) Tomorrow Ryan is heading to Cub Scout Day Camp and then we'll all be heading out to Heidi's for dinner and fishing.