Adventures in Summer Vacation

I've had a somewhat eventful summer vacation so far. It started with an ambitious idea of finally clean up the basement craft area & bathroom a.k.a. the pit. I had mentioned to E the other day that our vacuum wasn't working very well and he'd mentioned it to a customer that works on them and came back with the idea to check the belt. So, the other day I had the girls picking up all the crayons, markers and scraps of paper that like to usually live on the floor around their craft table and I was cleaning the basement bathroom. Then I got the vacuum and brought it down before I remembered I had to change the belt, so I ran back upstairs for the extra belt and a screwdriver. I flipped it over and unscrewed the cover to find the belt was in perfect condition. So I put the cover back on and started to screw it in, but found that the screws were not going in as easily as they came out, and not wanting to strip them I just left it with the cover mostly on. When I flipped the vacuum back over, I found that the cover to where the bag is had come off and there was dust and dirt all over. Seems that the hole in the bag had come off the part its suppose to stay on and so the bag had stopped catching all the dirt and instead it was all in the bag compartment and up against the filter area. It was gross but I was so grateful for that filter at that moment! So I cleaned out all the dust and dirt, cleaned off the filter and put a new bag in. Stood up the vacuum and turned it on. I could tell the front wheel thingy wasn't moving right, but it still had suction so I quick got the bathroom w/ the attachment and then I started to smell....burnt plastic! Yikes. So off it went and back over I flipped it, opened up the belt area and TA-DA I had managed to burn up the belt! So in goes the new belt and boy that was tough, seems they aren't super flexible and to get the wheely part back into place w/ a new belt takes a bit of muscle! The girls were watching me and asking me if it was hard and if I needed help. Ha ha, they are so cute. So finally, the belt is on and in place, I made sure the wheel could turn and then replaced the cover a bit better this time. I crossed my fingers and started the vacuum again to find it working just fine! Phew!! All I can say is it is a good thing I don't work on home appliances for a living!! But the basement was clean when we were through and E was pleased to see it. When we moved in I told him the basement would be his area and that I wouldn't intrude, but me and girls have taken over a good portion of the main room with our crafts/scrapbooking stuff so I'm gonna try to keep it cleaner for him!

Monday was our first real day of summer vacation--I don't count last Friday because it was so busy we didn't get to sleep in or anything slightly "vacation-y". And it was interesting. I had the girls help me make a list of activities they'd like to do this summer and things they'd like to eat for lunch to get some ideas for groceries and for activities that would entertain them and, hopefully, keep them from fighting out of pure boredom. We came up with some fun ideas, like going to the library for books, play dates, camping, fishing off daddy's boat and doing crafts. So I hope that if we do at least one fun thing each day that will help. We'll see...they have a tendency to fight over toys or being first and even if they are being slapstick silly it can turn into a fight in just a moment, it can be very wearing on my nerves!

Well I'm gonna jump into a task that I haven't had the nerve to tackle yet in my 6 years of being a mom, and that is making a birthday cake. I don't mean a cake mix into a 9x11 pan w/ a jar of frosting plopped on top, I mean a Tinkerbell pan (picked out by Kera) cake with her painted on top via frosting and cool new frosting set w/ all sorts of tips. It shouldn't be too hard, but I'm not very good w/ cakes & frosting, so I'm crossing my fingers! :-) I'll post pictures later this week when I finish it and maybe even in the process. Who knows, it might be a funny story, although I hope not!

Sorry, no pictures today (*note to self...leave camera on the counter so I can easily capture cute moments throughout the day) although I have a "to-do" list a mile long, so I better get to it!