Balancing My Way Through Life

Friday, July 29, 2016

Matthew's First Acceptance

Matthew applied to Iowa State last night at 5:15. This morning at 9:15 he received a video.....it was very fun. Here are a few still pictures from the video. There might have been a tear or two (me) and a huge smile (Matthew).

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Eagle

This guy had his Eagle Board of Review last night! Since its inception in 1902, 2.01 % of the boys who joined Boy Scouts went on to get their Eagle. Things have been trending higher such that in 2014 6.01% of eligible scouts earned their Eagle.*

The council member at Matthew’s board indicated that 4.4% of boys who join scouts get their Eagle. So pick your statistic. We know is was a lot of work and Matthew saw it through to the end!

*http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2015/03/30/what-percentage-of-boy-scouts-become-eagle-scouts/

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Sassy girl

We are a foster family.

This is Sassy, but she is rarely sassy! She is sweet.

The kids love her (well Matthew is indifferent). Ken and I think she is really nice.

Carolyn is gah-gah go-crazy for this dog.

Luckily, the feeling is mutual. If Carolyn walks in the room, the rest of us are chopped liver. Unluckily, Sassy is not our forever dog. No dog is our forever dog. I just have too much on my plate to make room for a dog. We have vacations, trips to eastern Iowa, college visits, plus I don't want to leave a dog 7.5 hours a day 3 days a week when I work. Carolyn didn't go with us to the Foster meeting, which I thought was strange and indicated a lack of interest in the dog. Well that wasn't true. She wanted to keep the dog forever after knowing her about 3 minutes. Sassy has a meet and greet tomorrow with a potential adopter. The timing would be fine because Carolyn and Joel are doing "Christ's Hands", a service retreat at our church for 3 days. Then we leave for vacation for a week, then Carolyn is at camp for a week, then we go to Burlington....not a good time to be dealing with the dog.

Truly the kids haven't reneged on their duty to the dog. They do the feeding and the bagging of poop. Still the house smells a little "doggy", there are dog things strewn about the place.....I just can't do it for 13 more years. (Sassy is 2 and her breed (mostly dachshund) live to 15 typically.) Anna will be long gone to college by then and I want to travel!

That said, isn't she a cutie. If I wanted a dog, she would be a great choice. She will be a great addition to someone else's house!

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Before and during....deck edition

Here is the deck in need of an overhaul!

Matthew and Joel helped with deconstruction

Here is a before vs. after shot of the wood...and the picture makes the old wood look good compared to the reality of the old wood. The new wood is beautiful and nicely sanded.

Here is the deck after a 3 day weekend of construction (which was 99% Ken's handiwork....the boys can't be as much help with this part and Matthew was at HyVee for 2 of the 3 days)

Ken joked that he needed to go to work to get a break from his vacation. In reality though, he was blessed with excellent weather over the 4th of July holiday weekend. Today (7/5/16) there is going to be a heat advisory...but this weekend we had the house opened up because it was so lovely. "AFTER" pictures of the deck to follow! Hopefully in a week or two. Work will slow down considerably now!