What's going on at home

I didn't plan to blog much while Gary was away.  I planned to keep busy in other ways, to help the time go faster.  Here's a few photos to show what we've been up to:

 Make a fort with me, Mom.  Glad you asked!

 The fort turned out to be a General Conference hang out for small periods of time.  Not too long though, the kids didn't want to miss out on the talks.

 After several attempts, we found the perfect place for a sand box- in the shade of a large tree.  Everyone had fun with it. 

 But then James and Rachel had other plans.

 See me on the slide? Rachel learned to slide and likes it a whole.lot.

 I was going to take a picture of James shooting hoops, but by the time I got the camera, he was already scooting away. 

Turn your head sideways for these next 2:

Here's a bathroom I repainted.  The bottom is tile and is original to the house.  I wish I had taken a before picture.  The bottom was forest green vinyl, the top navy blue and between them was multicolored fringe. 

 Before, this one looked like dark, burgendy lipstick.  Now it's white.  I like white.

 I remembered to take a before picture of this one (this is after the vinyl was removed from the lower tiles.)  Hopefully it will be done by the time Gary gets back.  It's going to be (you guessed it) another shade of white.  One that has a lavendar undertone.  That's the only color on the color matching machine at Home Depot that complimented all of the tile colors.  Our real estate agent actually took pictures of this room to show at the office.  She got a real kick out of the ceiling mirrors. 

It warmed up nicely yesterday and today.  There's a lot of yard work to be done.  Yesterday we played basketball, soccer and baseball instead.  Today I pulled weeds and spread mulch for a few hours (Rachel napped!  She hadn't done that in a few days and I took advantage of that time.  The little boys played Star Wars trivial pursuit and then rode bikes.  Jonny asked when Simon will be up on two wheels- I added that to my to do list, then realized he's only 3 and I still had time.)

Well, so much for my goal to go to bed early and turn in to a morning person, it's almost midnight!  I decided to give the old "early to bed, early to rise" a try while Gary's away.  I am undecided as to whether it is better to get up early to get things done or stay up late to get things done.  Or maybe, in the case of my poor husband, both at the same time.  (My bathrooms have been painted in the early morning hours.)