Star Fishing Pond, Swagger Wagon, and Cousins Visit

We bought a new-to-us couch! Our brown leather couch was falling apart, tears in the cushions, rips in the lining, AND the set did not fit our 7 person family at one time. I found a used sectional set on FB Marketplace. The girls and I went to check it out and said “yes, to the couch” a few minutes later. By 10:30 am our new sectional was delivered. I had quite a fun time rearranging the space to best fit our needs. I really wanted the sectional along the east wall, except that the LR air conditioning vent is on that side. Sweeping under the furniture and rug just made the switch even better. Fergus had to mark 5 cushions…little booger. He spent some time in his kennel for that dork move. We can all fit comfortably if no one tries to stretch out. 

Phillip started percussion camp for Marching Band on Wednesday. He will play vibraphone II for the marching band season. That is a good fit with his piano experience! His section leader said Phillip did not play like the regular 9th graders just coming in, he excelled quickly. 

Corn topping is winding down, the boys only worked Monday, Tuesday, and Friday this week. I think there are two more fields to finish up, about 8 more hours to get the job completed. The boys earned about $400 each with all their hard work. The smoke and heat is really hard on the respiratory system, both boys are coughing all the time. The boys are so tired. Phillip even fell asleep swimming at the Bledsoe's pool. 

Sara and I checked out a “new” pond on Wednesday in Star. I saw some other friends talking about it a couple weeks prior. The pond boasts a fun dock with a fishing square and a super fun diving platform. We had a lovely afternoon floating along. Josie had Melody along to play with, those two are goofballs. Josie was brave enough to jump off the platform with me. Everett and Oliver were twisting and diving like the 15 foot height was no big deal. I had my phone in my “special pocket” while Sara and I were relaxing on our floaties. Can you guess? My phone fell into the pond. I had Everett stay close to where I was, ran on shore to grab my scuba mask and snorkel. Sara insisted I lost it further away from Everett. I checked out the other area while Everett searched around him. Evelyn said a mighty prayer! And…Everett found it. Phew. Justin heard tell about the phone fiasco. Next morning I woke up to my alarm, when I patted around for it I felt this foam monstrosity instead. Justin had speed ordered a floating phone case and switched out the case. Well-played! Well-played! I LOVE it, the case came with bags to seal your phone inside for a true waterproof experience. The pond had thousands of tiny fish, the kids had a blast following the fish underwater. Everett’s tooth accidentally collided with Oliver’s head, I noticed blood pouring from Oliver’s head! The wound was tiny yet mighty. We are going again next week! The pond is close, not in the downtown area like Quinn’s pond, clean, and fun. 

I started working on paring down my photo collection this week. It will probably take me a year just to get through it all. I was quite thorough in backing up my photos…like 4-5 copies of most photos. It was time to help the girl’s clean their room again. Everett cleared the stuff out from under Evelyn’s bed…he found at least 6 bags of food, 25 books, and 4 rolls of used toilet paper (for boogers). Impressive. She will not starve nor wipe boogers on the wall.  

Justin arranged a sealing session for the Ostlers and I on Friday night. Dusty and Sara last sealing session was their wedding 20 years ago! The sealer was very accommodating with Sara, stopping often to explain what was going on. We felt several of the people there accepting the work on their side of the veil. We had enough names to do another session! Let’s go again soon. Sara found a yummy ice cream place. Justin and I tried the hopscotch which boasted 5 small scoops of ice cream! Best ever! Got to try 5 different flavors for just $7.50. 

Justin and I spent 6 hours shopping around for a van. The front tires on the swagger wagon are already shot…after 6 months of use. Stupid. The left passenger door is sealed shut, the right passenger door took a trip back to the 80’s when sliding van doors were manual, I pushed the garage door button the button decided to slip inside the holding case, the buttons no longer work not he steering wheel, and so on. I took the van to an underbody specialist. They fixed a small misalignment, nothing that would cause the tire wear. Instead I got a $5000 estimate to fix an oil leak, transmission leak, a torn boot, and two other major things. Guess it is time to replace rather than fix since the value of the van is under $5,000. The new plan is to turn the swagger wagon into a kid car. I will save my $500 a month income for a year to get a new kid car. My favorite van was a very clean government vehicle, bare basics…the back seats had side catches and moved on rails! I made sure Justin tried out the brakes and acceleration…those back seats were zooming forward and backward along the rails. So fun. We did not feel great about any of the vans except maybe the first one. I will get new tires so we can at least make it Utah next week. 

Courtenay and kids stopped for the night on their way to Oregon for her family reunion. The kids were so, so, so excited. Evelyn and Emmie were glued to the hip for 12 hours! The boys had quite a fun time catching up. Penny and Josie were quite a pair too. We love having cousins come to visit. Thank you Courtenay for stopping by! We loved every moment.