To Do List

Today's To-Do list was long... and here I am at the end of it trying to muster up the energy to take a hot relaxing shower.

9am-11am: Take Cadence to the primary program practice/Halloween party. Cade does NOT like being with a crowd of people. He does NOT like to talk into a microphone or even stand up in front of people. He does NOT like to stand up and sing, and he does NOT like to sit on the stand where the Bishop sits. After crying, clinging desperately to me (sitting right next to him) and disrupting the whole thing he and I compromised. He sat on the 2nd row of the chapel and watched without crying, and I left him there alone for 10 minutes. He upheld his end of the deal, so he got to participate in the real fun: Cupcakes and Cookies and Juice and a goody bag to take home. Suddenly not so timid anymore.... hmm.

11am: Work on winterizing the pool.... I bought the winter chemicals and we just needed to vacuum and drain the pool, but of course vacuuming made the whole thing that had been crystal clear into a swampy pond, even though the return hose wasn't connected anymore and was watering the grass instead. So then we debated buying more shock and chlorine on Monday to try to get the pool clear vs. draining the pool completely. One of us is going to the pool store on Monday for chemicals.

11:30-4pm: Work on the pathway. A seemingly endless project that was all my idea and I've taken it as my project though it's taken me forever.... But, today I laid every rock that we had and now we need to buy more so I can continue to work on it. For those of you who don't know what this project is, it is the most complicated jigsaw puzzle you could ever imagine-- irregular rocks of varying widths, shapes and sizes being fitted together into a 3.5 foot wide pathway that starts at the deck and wraps around the entire side of the house, past the gate and to the driveway. Call me crazy, but it's looking good. The part in front of the fence is done and has been for months (finished that in June), the part by the deck is done and has been for months (finished that in July), the stretch in between has been in progress for months (didn't work on it much for all of August (vacations and Cade's broken leg) and half of September, got 2 great days in where we got about 25 feet done and then I haven't worked on it since... something about a wedding and kids). I have 3 feet to the corner and then about 15 feet until I meet up with what's already in place. Yay! I laid about 6-7 feet today, with a half hour break for lunch and who knows how many breaks for the kids.

12-6pm: Simultaneous project for Michael-- chainsaw a tree down in the backyard of house #2, winterize the swamp cooler over there, and pick the remaining grapes from the fully loaded grapevines. Yum!

4-9pm: I pack up the kids and head over to house #3 for some painting... it's starting to look very good over there!! Nearly done with all the painting (whole house makeovers are so much work!), the basement is just about done. Michael got the light fixtures in the downstairs bedrooms so he can finally paint in the light and get the final coat on down there tonight (he's still there, I came home to get the kids to bed at a decent hour).

Now that I've written it all down it doesn't seem like it was such a hefty to-do list afterall, but thinking about it it was all hard labor. I'm beat. I think I'll go take that hot shower now and relax my back from all the rock sidewalk building and corners of rooms painting. :)

Now you might understand why we've sworn off of all new projects for awhile... of course the other night Michael started building me shelves in the laundry room downstairs and we put in an updated light in our kitchen... but those have been on the "want to do" list for the last two years so we won't count those.

Night all.