Work and Play

Most days we drive the 20 minute drive to our old house to check on progress made by the handyman and cleaner or to do work there ourselves. Sometimes we make this trip twice a day. Matt, Grace, Paul and I worked over there yesterday for the entire day. I got all the touch-up painting done. The others worked on the outside. They weeded, spread bark, sprayed weeds, set sprinklers and loaded the trailer--again. The two sheds and the barn are cleared out. The garage still has stuff in it. We hope to get all of that next weekend and make it our last load.

When we're not busy at the other house, we're trying to make things more livable here. I did find a couch and love seat for a good price on Craigslist. The woman who sold them to us even threw two brass lamps into the deal. We put the couch in the family room. It coordinates well with the two chairs from my grandma. The love seat is in our bedroom. It's hard to imagine having enough room for a love seat in a bedroom, but there is. Matt hung one of my grandma's big pictures over the two electrical panels in our room. Now all the kids think it's the coolest room in the house and they want to sleep there every night. So far, we've not granted this request, although I can see indulging them in a few weeks when Daddy goes on his business trip.

The kids started swimming lessons this past week. They'll continue for another two weeks. My niece, Raphaella, also joins us for swimming lessons. This makes five kids in the pool. Joel has been practicing his walking while the others are swimming. The last couple of days he has finally found walking to be more efficient than crawling. His left leg looks like a peg leg when he walks. It's just going to take a while for him to regain full use of it. Here's a picture of Joel and Paul sitting on the bench together while Paul waited for his turn in the pool.

This past Tuesday I took the kids to the airport to see three WWII bombers and a P-51 that were in town for a few days. Paul is just crazy about planes, so I couldn't resist. He loved it. I wasn't a very good tour guide, having next to no knowledge on the subject. We did see some vets and overheard their conversations, which helped a little. We saw one man who had been a rear gunner on a B-17 get his picture taken by the rear of that plane. The B-24 had all its crew members written on its side. I wondered how many of those men's tombstones I'd seen at Arlington when we visited there back in September. A mere $2,200 would have gotten us a ride on the P-51 for a half an hour. Rides on the bombers were only $425--and I thought the price of admission to see the planes just sitting on the tarmac was steep. We did get to see the B-17 in the air that afternoon from our back porch. Here's a picture of the kids looking out from the B-24.