Putt-Putt, Tubes and more

     This past week I learned a lot of things.  Cats may be the death of Jason.  My children can't handle more than one round of putt-putt.  Garage sales are great.  Front desk-type employees can really make or break your day when your plans are in their hands.  All of this and more!  As for the first comment, we acquired a super sweet kitty a few weeks ago.  We named her Moxie and she loves to be loved on and likes to play with string, feet under covers, etc, - normal cat things.  But having had a cat before that didn't like these things, this one fits our family much better.  However, we have finally noticed that Jason's allergies go nuts when we are home and are fine when we leave the house.  So now we are going to attempt to clean  the house super well and keep the kitty out of our bedroom in the hopes that this will be enough.  Otherwise our sweet kitty may have to find a new home.  :(  Which is super sad because she's already been abandoned once and then given to us.  I keep thinking of the cat Mittens in the movie Bolt and her emotional baggage after being left behind by her family when they moved.  Poor kitty!

     This summer we decided to start a "Fun Jar" with the girls.  We thought of fun activities that we don't do a lot and put each one on a piece of paper in a jar on our counter.  Barring any horrible behavioral delays, each week they get to pick one thing out of the jar for us to do.  They chose things like going to the Bloomington/Normal Children's Museum, Knight's Action Park, picnic at Homer Lake (the one activity they chose that is free!), and putt-putt.  This past week the paper pulled from the jar was putt-putt.  Now I will say that we have played putt-putt before at the indoor putt-putt place here and it has never gone well.  I rationalized however that the disaster was always extraordinary circumstances - like having relatives in town, the ever-to-be-avoided no nap afternoon, etc.  So Friday we made sure Lyla had a nap, Gwyn had a friend over with us so theoretically this would allow her to have fun, and Celee was pumped for it so we were set!  We probably would have been ok if we had only played one round.  When the lady at the register told us we had the option of one game or two though, the girls all were very adamant that we play two.  Foolishly I paid the extra amount for the two games.  We had never been to this particular putt-putt place which is outside and has spinners placed at the start of every few odd holes in which each player spins and has to do some wacky thing like putt on one foot, hit the ball with the wrong end of the putter, after everyone's first putt exchange your ball for one of the others, add one to everyone else's score if you get a hole-in-one, things like that.  Things to make the game more fun, right?  At first yes, then everyone gets hot an suddenly begins to take it as a personal offense that they may get their ball exchanged or their score altered.  Celee ended up getting mad and hitting her ball across the street.  We got another one.  Gwyn thought it was really funny when she got to move my ball all the way back to the beginning, but thought it was not so funny when her ball was moved. 
     I will say that Lyla did really well.  She got a little bored and began putting her hands in the florescent blue water of the "river" throught the course and threw her ball through the fence at one point.  This actually lightened everyone's mood after we realized she was small enough to fit through the bars of the fence to get her's and Celee's ball.  By the end of the second round though, Gwyn had quit playing and was begrudgingly keeping score.  I'm not sure if her friend was having fun or not.  Celee was hot and tired and at the end of her off-and-on patience.  Lyla was playing some holes and not others.  All in all, I am glad that Jason didn't opt to go with us - He would not have had fun.  It was all I could do to keep on a happy face and continue to try to interject fun into the situation.  (Which at times just makes Gwyn madder)  So my lesson from this - play at a cooler time of day, only play one game, and have drinks at the ready. 

     Friday must have also been part of National Garage Sale Weekend or something because whole neighborhoods were having sales this past weekend.  We hit St. Matthew's sale and found some cool stuff.  Then we went to a neighborhood that I was told had 60 some odd houses participating.  I found a picnic table complete with two benches and two chairs for $35!  The chairs are not safe to sit in, but if we can fix them great and if not that's fine too.  It's neat to realize that Gwyn is now big enough to physically help me do things when I need another person.  We somehow got all of it in the van and made it home without anything falling out.  So now I just have to find a pretty umbrella and paint it all and I think it will be great!  I love the feeling of getting something used and sprucing it up!  Jason calls some of my garage sale or side-of-the-road finds stewardship furniture.  That's a nice name I think.
     Saturday we took some of our Girl Scouts tubing at Turkey Run.  It was kind of a feat in itself as it was tricky to get council approval to do this in the first place because we would be on moving water and tubes are considered "small water-craft."  But it was finally approved and we had a reservation so it was all good.  We had planned to do a short hike at Turkey Run prior to the tubing departure, which was supposed to be at 12.  I neglected the fact that there is a one hour time difference there, so our hike ended up being really really short.  Then when we got to the canoe place, the teenager at the front office told me that she didn't have us on her list so that meant we were supposed to be at their other location at Shades State Park up the road.  If we left then we could make it.  Our group was all outside eating lunch at this point, so I went back inside to ask her to call the other location to make sure.  (None of our cell phones worked out there)  This wasn't a trememdous request I thought, but she wouldn't and just told me if we weren't on her list we should be at the other place.  She gave me directions to go up the road and turn at the Shades State Park sign and was done with me.  What she didn't tell me was how far anything was, which ended up being a twenty minute drive away.  When I went in the second canoe place I was told that our reservation was in their system but tubing trips leave from the place we had been at.  If we wanted to we could take canoes from there.  1/2 our group did not want to canoe and would rather go back to swim at Turkey Run in the nice pool there.  Unfortunately the canoe place does not give refunds for any reason, oh but if we go back to the first place we can take the tubing trip that leaves at 1:30.  What!?  Why didn't someone tell us this first?  Everyone decided to try for this so we all drive back to the first canoe place and wonder of wonders yes, we can tube at 1:30.  The original girl didn't even apologize!  She just said, "I heard what happened."  Yeah, because the other people called you to tell you we were coming back, because you do have a phone, because they at least tried to help us figure out a way for our reservation to be honored.   I have a front desk job, and my lesson from this is that in the little bit of interaction I have with people who come in I can be a big help or a source of big frustration.  So against all odds, Girl Scout Troop 2019 did tube on Saturday.  We had a good time too.  I would definately go back, although I probably will give the other canoe outfitter on Sugar Creek a try next time. 

 

     This week one of my goals is to make curriculum decisions for homeschooling.  I had yet another wonderful homeschool family share their way of doing things with us on Sunday.  There are so many people with so much expertise here!  I'm keeping notes on who to call for what kind of questions and the list is wonderfully long!  I am so thankful for people who are passionate about what they do and generous with their knowlege and time.  I'm so thankful for the flexibility to make decisions for our family like this.  I'm so thankful for a wonderful supportive husband who doesn't just approve, but is in this with us.  I am thankful for three little girls who are willing and excited to give this a shot.