July is history, and we're marching through August

The suggestion I heard about writing down on the calendar what we did each day is proving beneficial.  For me, more so than for the girls.  I feel like I've been totally busy and it's nice to know why.  


It took me an extra week to get the new garage door.  I PAID for the garage door toward the middle of June, and was told it would take two weeks.  Two weeks later I got a call for final measurements, not to schedule an installation.  Two more weeks, I was told.  When those two weeks came and went I started calling, and was told it was scheduled to be delivered to their offices the last part of July, and could be installed some time after that.
The installation was scheduled for last week.  The garage door guy came and told me the opening of my garage door was screwy, the cement foundation is in the way of the track, and there's a trim piece missing on my wall that will be easier to install before the door goes up.  I called the contractor, who came over and ended up being kind of nasty to the garage door guy.  He said he had deliberately not installed the trim piece, would do that after to give them wiggle room on the door.  He insisted there was enough room on the cement foundation to lay the tracks for the door.  He called into question the installer's experience.  Repeatedly.  With increasing volume and vehemence.  It started getting a little tense.  The garage door guy insisted he couldn't install the door until he had his boss's approval of the opening.  The contractor told him to stop giving us excuses and either install the door or go away.  He left.  I asked the contractor what was eating him and he again insisted everything was fine with the wall, the guy should just put up the door.  Anything that was wrong could have been fixed while he was unloading.  Whatever.


The middle of the next week the manager himself came and installed the garage door.  I apologized for my cantankerous contractor, who was there when the installer guy got there but left.  The garage door went up and it is beautiful!  There is so much light now in the garage! !

  And the windows are so pretty! 

Other than that, we've been having a good summer.

We saw the fireworks on July 3rd at Bountiful.  They were amazing!  We've gone every year since we moved back here, they're great!
Thing 2 was invited to walk in the local 4th of July parade with the other Spelling Bee participants.  We ended up on the wrong side of the street, but she had a lot of fun and we learned how to go to the parade:  
1) don't bother with the boy scout pancake breakfast - eat before you go, or bring something to eat there.
2) arrive early, and stake out your spot for the parade. If you bought tickets to the breakfast (See #1), unless you get there super early, chances are you won't want to fight the crowd anyway. 
We ended up sitting behind someone else, with people kind of pushing by behind us through the parade.  It was fine, but next time we'll do it different.
 
One of the highlights of the summer was being invited to my brother's wife's family lake lot.  We got to ride in the boat, the girls got to ride the tube, 

and we all went wake surfing.  My oldest niece can get up on the surfboard with someone else in front of her, she took Thing 1 and 2.  It was fabulous!    Look at that smile!

It was too windy to get any good skiing in, but we did do a little sailing.  My brother and I took out my two girls and his youngest, and they got to hang out on the trapezes, and ride the pontoons.  Not a really strong wind, but perfect for three little girls who don't need a really wild ride to have a ball.  I didn't get any pictures, though.  The only down sides of the day were 1) Hubby was out of town 2) Thing 1 got sunburned.  I swear I put on sunscreen repeatedly, but the tops of her legs got kind of fried.  So the next day when we were going to go horseback riding, she would whimper when I tried to rub lotion on her, and I figured she was too uncomfortable to go riding.  So she had to stay home.  Thing 2 had a marvelous time, though, we went on a trail up the mountain and went for longer than we normally have before.

Thing 2 had a summer camp, catching frogs and bugs and lots of activities, she had a ball.  It was run by our favorite babysitter, who has been living in Hubby's office for the summer, to be closer to this eco center where the camp was held.  Thing 1 has a robotics camp there next week.
She had a pop-up book class this week that went pretty well.
One of the neighborhood moms has set up a schedule of things for the moms and kids to do once a week.  We made it to a couple, not a lot of people come but that's fine with me because I feel it gives my girls more face time with the kids who are there.  And I like the mom who arranged it and enjoy talking with her.  One that was a big hit was the Hill Air Museum.  I thought the girls might find it less interesting, but they loved it.  I enjoyed seeing some of the planes I used to work with.

We've been driving down to my brother's house (30 minutes away) for swimming lessons from one of my nieces, because their pool is salt water and doesn't turn Thing 2's hair green, and the girls get the bonus of being able to play with their favorite person in the world, their cousin who is right between them in age.  They've been taking Spanish lessons from my cousin, but she's moving to Spain in a week so we had to stop the lessons.  I'm sad the Spanish lessons are over, but it will make it easier to have that one day a week back to ourselves.
Still two and a half weeks left of summer, but I wanted to catch up.

Sleeping Buddies

Thing 1 became attached to a stuffed Eeyore beanie baby when she was little.  She slept with it until it became sad looking and abused, very Velveteen Rabbit real.  She has since adopted other special stuffed animals.  Not every one that passes through her hands makes the cut, but enough do that she has a sizable pile that sit on the top bunk who are possible sleeping companions.
In order to not offend anyone, Thing 1 started keeping track in a little log she drew up and kept by her bed.  She listed the name of each stuffed animal and gave it a tick mark on the grid each night she slept with it.  She faithfully noted and rotated and the stuffed animals for a couple of years.

I haven't seen the log lately, and she seems to be choosing her sleeping companions based on the mood of the evening.

Thing 2 goes in phases.  She picks an animal and sleeps almost exclusively with it and only it for a couple of months.  For a long time now it has been Princess, a stuffed horse my sister gave her when she turned two. Horses have always held a special place in her heart, and I think she feels the largeness of the stuffed horse provides a sort of barrier between her and any intruders who might pose a threat to her at night.