What's missing in this picture? Can you say water? Our pool is still not finished. We are on day #3 of our Summer break and no pool. As our luck always goes, we are told a deadline and it always takes longer. Always problems when it comes to our projects. The tile is new and I really like it. As I type this, they are putting in the new "bottom/lining". Hopefully tomorrow or Friday we can start adding water and be swimming soon. It's already pushing 90 degrees here. Still no sign of rain. WE NEED RAIN. Friday officially kicks off Hurricane Season. I need to sit down and make my list of everything I need to purchase so we are ready "just in case". Basically, I just need to make sure I have lots of batteries for the flashlights and lots of bottled water. I also stock up on canned goods such as tuna, ravioli and spagetti O's. That kind of stuff. If we lose power, we have a burner on our grill that we can use. We also keep an extra full tank for the grill. Hopefully, this season will be as mild as last one.

My scrapbook room/study room is done. I am still moving everything back into it. It's all in my living room right now and I feel the need to go through everything before I put it away. I am really pitching a lot of stuff out. What a good feeling that is. We tackled all the kids books from when they were little and donated a bunch of them.

We spent last Friday and Saturday over at the Magic Kingdom. This is why I love living in Florida. We put it together at the last minute (we had to use up our last 2 days of passes). It only takes us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to the hotel. Then we hop on the bus and hit the park. It was a blast. Unfortunately, it's love bug season so there were a lot of them flying around. It was interesting to watch the people who aren't used to them freak out over them. They don't hurt or bite you. Some people were really freaking out. I felt sorry for some of them though because they were really afraid of them.

Not much else going on in our house. Legion ball started already and Greg has his first baseball game tonight. What really stinks though is that they play teams all over the city of Tampa and with gas so high, it's going to cost me a fortune to fill up my gas tank. I just keep hoping that the price of gas comes down soon. It definately affected our decision to travel home this summer. So maybe next summer.

Well, need to go tackle my mountain of laundry. With all the work we have been getting done on the house, I have neglected it. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

TV SHOW ENDINGS

WoWzer! (Is that even a word?) hehe. Just got finished watching the season finale of Desperate Housewives. If you haven't watched it yet, you may want to come back after you have watched it. I am going to spoil it!

Bree's back! yeah. Her character is such a big part of the show that I was finding it boring without her. I guessed that she was "faking" the pregnancy to cover for Danielle. Still not sure I like her hubby, Orsen. He's weird. I want Rex back!

Susan....................I loved it when Mike was teasing her about her being in a wedding dress and being around a chocolate fountain. That was funny. That was so clever of her to put that wedding together. How romantic. I just hope that they can keep a storyline going with them.

Lynette: I didn't like her this season. Not sure about the whole cancer storyline. Having lost people close to me from it, I don't find any kind of storyline referring to cancer as entertaining. Wasn't it enough for her character to get shot this season? Oh and that Kayla chick (her stepdaughter)---YIKES. What a little snot. Needs a good you know what. But, she does add great conflict to the family.

Edie: Didn't see that one coming. Edie is the character you hate, but love. I don't want her off the show. Hopefully, Carlos will come in and save her. Even as evil as she is, she definately adds to the show.

Finally, Gabrielle. How can you not love her? Loved her reunion with Carlos. How cool will it be if she got preggars with his baby. I figured Victor was a fraud. I can't wait to see what she does to him.

So, now I have to wait four months to find out what happens next. At least it was a real cliffhanger, IMO. Grey's Anatomy (my other show) was such a let down. I didn't like the "spin off" episode. I tried to stay awake and watch it but Mr. Sandman made be a better offer.

My team won "The Amazing Race" Yeah.

American Idol--BORING. I can't believe Melinda went home. I truly believe people are missing the whole talent concept. For the two that are left---GO BLAKE. About mid way through, I started to really not care for Jordin. I have liked Blake all along so I will definately cast my votes for him. Did you not love watching Elliot Yamin sing? I liked him last season. I voted for him too. Taylor who?

Now, my favorite of all the Reality Shows--DANCING WITH THE STARS! I have watched every episode of every season. I have not missed one. People think I am nuts but I just love to watch that show. I think the best two are left (Joey & Apollo). I just don't think Leila can compare to them. She's a good dancer but Joey or Apollo should be the champ! I rooted last season for Emmit. I knew since week #1 that I wanted him to win. I have been going back and forth this season. It's going to come down to the final dances to see who gets my vote.

Okay, what a boring post this was. All about TV. I am a reality show "addict" Now that all the shows will be ending maybe I will actually do more. I have several rooms to paint so maybe I will actually get them done.

Well, it's late (okay not too late, but I like my sleep), so I am going to call it a night. Have a wonderful Monday (what am I going to watch tomorrow night--CSI Miami ended last week).

I did it! I finally got a picture of my kiddos together. AND, they are all smiling. Now that's rare. So, I cherish this picture. I don't know when I will get another one. My goal this summer is to get a family picture. The last time we did a family picture was when Mark was 6 months old.

Not much to blog about. It's the same old crazy stuff going on. This past week has been AP exams for Greg and Elizabeth. Next week are finals. Next Thursday is their last day of school! YIKES. Whatever will I do with them all home this summer. I am so thrilled to finally be able to sleep in but at the same time, what am I going to do with them all and their friends all summer.

We head off to Disneyworld one week from today. I love Disney. We have to use our last days of passes before the end of June so we thought we would head out before all the tourists come down and it gets too miserably hot. Elizabeth is taking her friend so I won't have to listen to her "whine". She's at such a fun age. It's so 'uncool' to be seen with her family. So, they can go off on their own and have fun. They both have worked so hard this school year with all their classes and stuff, they deserve it.

We are anxiously awaiting for the pool people to call and get started on our pool. It has to be drained and resurfaced and retiled. Pretty sad that we have to do it already. The house is only 7 years old. So, I picked some really cool mulit colored blue tiles and some dolphin tiles. I am really going with a "beachy" theme on the lanai. We had the ceiling fan replaced last week and the one I put up has blades that look like palm leaves. I got some really cool candles to go with the theme. Now if it can just get done before it gets too hot to sit out and relax. Once the heat rolls in, it's just too hot and humid to just sit. They say it will take about a week to do. I really thought we would have it done before school let out.

Well, told you it's been kind of boring here. Today, I am off to Home Depot to get paint to paint my soon to be office/scraproom. That room is scheduled to be done on May 29th. I finally settled on a tropical theme (pinks, oranges & blues). The walls will be blue. I can't wait to cross that room off my "to do" list. My goal is to make the room "fun" so I can get motivated to get some of my scrapbooks up to date and since it will serve as Mark's workspace too, he will have a fun place to go and study. I will post pictures of before and after. So, my guest room is no more. My guest room will officially be the Wingate Inn or Holiday Inn down the road. :)

Have a wonderful Friday! Off to conquer that long "to do" list that's sitting on my kitchen counter!

Just a quick entry this morning. ............

We got our A/C back up and running. It's so nice to be cool again, especially since we are in the mid to upper 80's. They say there is a chance for some rain and thunderstorms today. Bring it on!! We need rain so badly.

Today, my day consists of running around. The electrician is supposed to come tomorrow and replace 2 ceiling fans, the kitchen light (the light over the kitchen table) and install can lighting in the kitchen as well. I still have to go and pick up one of the fans. Our Home Depot and Lowes are right down the street from each other so I was running back and forth comparing prices and styles. So, I already picked up the lights from Lowes and now I have to go back Home Depot. I also have a meeting with a mom to go over our class gift to the teacher for teacher appreciation week. Well, we also have to plan our end of year gift as well. I hate asking parents for money so we have decided to do something more crafty and inexpensive for Teacher Apprecation and do a bigger end of year gift in 2.5 weeks. I also have to read to Mark's class. Busy day.............

Is anyone else as happy as me that school is almost over? My kids are DONE. They are on such burnout. They are hard to get up in the morning and out the door. I know I am burned out.

Emily has two choir concert coming up. Sunday afternoon they are singing for the entire school board. This is the first year that the school was opened so they are doing a "dedication" finally. Then on Tuesday, they have their Spring concert. I will be so glad choir will be over as well.

Well, off to run all my errands. Wish I had more to blog about but it's been kind of boring in our house lately. Have a great Friday!

It has been a CRAZY week. I am finally finding a few extra minutes to update my blog.

Last week was Greg's 15th birthday! I would post a picture but I don't have my pictures uploaded from my camera. The kids have taken over the computer with all their homework and projects. Why do teachers pile on the work the last few weeks of school. My kids didn't work this hard throughout the whole school year and now they are all needing MY computer. Only 3.5 weeks of school left.

I am so excited though to report that I am getting a real scrapbook room! When we moved from Utah to here, we lost a guest room, bathroom and my scrapbook room. So, I have 2 rooms of stuff crammed into one. Well, it's just not functional. We also need a space where Mark can go into silence and get his work done (it's all part of the auditory processing). So I told Steve that I would give up my scrapbook desk (just a computer desk) and set up the banquet table for my to work. We would have to get rid of the sofa bed though so if we had guests, I don't know where they would sleep. He surprised me by calling a closet company and they are going to build an "L" shaped workspace and hang cabinets for all my stuff. Also, a bookcase for all my albums. Mark would get one side and I would get the other. We are also going to set up the old computer so I will be able to use that instead of having to wait on the kids to get off MY computer. Yippee. Now I just have to pick a new color. Something fun and soothing. I'll let you know what color I choose when I figure it out.

Our A/C went out on Friday night. It was a long and miserable weekend. We finally got it fixed yesterday afternoon. Funny thing is I grew up in Ohio without A/C so one would think I could handle it. NOPE. I was hot and whined the whole entire weekend. The kids swam in the pool to keep cool. The water temp was a little to cool for me to get in (it was 81, I get in when it hits 84). So, I just soaked my feet.

Elizabeth has been very busy getting all her ACT's and SAT's done. She is still interested in journalism and has her colleges down to 3--Northwestern, University of South Carolina and University of Florida. I would love for her to go out of state, but unless they offer her some serious Scholarship $, she will probably end up at University of Florida--GO GATORS!!! She got to write the front page story for her newspaper last month. It was cool. The school made it on CNN headline news last month because the principal locked some of the bathrooms to curtail the vandalism. Someone went to the medial and said ALL the bathrooms were locked--not true. It's just sad that kids feel the need to destroy a beautiful school--it's only 5 years old. Here's link to her story.

RevolutionNewspaper - Home


Not much else going on. Today I have to get caught up on the mountain of laundry I DIDN'T do because it was too hot without the A/C. So, my day is laundry, laundry, and more laundry. I have to run to Home Depot and Lowes to get some lighting fixtures that we are changing out. I am also replacing the icky ceiling fan on the lanai and putting one in that looks like bamboo.

Have a great Tuesday!