pool party!

Well, the pool is officially up and running (and clear!!). I pulled into the driveway to find 3 kids and a husband in an icy cold pool. Hopefully we'll get some warmer days to heat up the pool a bit. I wish I had a thermometer to see just how cold it was. It is really a good size pool. We can add about 6 more inches of water or so, but wanted to see how deep it was for the kids first.

Speaking of pool parties, I have the grand idea to have a pool party/birthday for Cal at the end of August (even if his birthday is at the end of September). This will ensure kids outside, having fun, and polly pockets will stay upstairs instead of over the balcony (I am still finding little pieces in the living room...)

Think pink...

alot more pink to be in our house in the relatively near future! While I wasn't terribly shocked, since I had a feeling it was a girl. Though my only clue was the dream I had. If I had to compare the pregnancy to one of the others, (while this one was very unique and different than the other 3...) I would have had to say when I was pregnant with Cal. Which doesn't make sense either ! Obviously it's a girl for other reasons--not because I dreamt it up! But I feel just a tad bad for Cal and Mike. Pretty sure Cal and Mike were near tears for a moment. A tad disappointed, I'm sure. Mike had his hopes set high for a boy (as did Cal). I was pretty indifferent. Though all along I thought a girl would be easier just for the fact we won't need to purchase a thing!! So tonight Cal said, "Mom, you're the best mom ever. Even if I have to have another sister." So I think he's already over the fact it's going to be a girl. Mike on the other hand, I believe, is in denial. In a joking sort of way. I know he's bummed about being outnumbered, and has a fear of girls growing up, but he'll get over that quickly (I think!!) He says, Guess we'll just have to have more. While I am sure he is being sarcastic, he sounds awfully serious when he says it!! At least now, we only have a girl's name to argue over (girls names will come much easier than the boys names would have anyhow.) Seriously, at this point, I think having another would be fine. But it would have to be a closer age gap!! (Oh my gosh, did I really say I'd have another? Yikes.)

My plan for next week--I'd like to go through all baby girl clothes and weed it out. I am telling you I bet we have a dozen bins of clothes for newborn to age 6. It's really unnecessary. I can't believe how much girl stuff there is. Well, it's cute and fun to look at! If it was a boy though, all new clothes would've been fun, too. Oh well : ) Maybe there will be a next time???

Statistics

Not that I am a statistician, though I did take a statistics class in college. Not that this is nuclear science. Generally, 50/50 chance of having a boy or girl, right? I found this info after a search on gender statistics. "For every 100 baby girls, there are 105 baby boys. This is a fact. Why more boys? Nobody knows! And it's a real puzzle because...Other animal species have half male and half female offspring. Men produce equal numbers of x-chromosome and y-chromosome." Hmmm. Interesting. Anyhow, so thinking of all the people in the past year or so that I know that are pregnant or have recently given birth, there were/are 10 babies (that I can think of offhand...) 7 boys and 3 girls. So given the probability factor, this baby must be a girl, right? I'm not anxious at all to find out, can you tell??? ; ) Big news in less than 18 hours!!!

another to-do

I've decided to start making shutterfly books for 2002-present, since those are the years I have digitally kept. Perhaps if I ever get ambitious enough, I will go back further and scan and whatnot, but for now that's how it's going to be. I am going to start with the most current, since all that stuff is most fresh in my head. I won't be able to buy them all anyways in an instant; besides they'll take a while to compile and write in. It's something I'll have to do over time. I just figure if I get them started all I'll have to do is buy them because they'll be ready to go. Also I intend to start my Christmas gifts (Shutterfly books for the parents again) early this year. Money will be tighter with me not bringing in the bucks from bartending (boy, do I miss that $$$!!!). But we'll make it work somehow. I was disappointed to find out that there is a job opening at our church/school...part time MWF. It would have been perfect!! Obviously it won't work because I'll have a baby 2 months into the school year (it was an office/helper type position for the preschool department). Oh well, maybe next time...

pools and pianos...

So we emptied the pool halfway. Mike was so frustrated because he put so much time, effort, and money into getting this "free" pool to work. Well, more like to get the water to NOT be brown. SO he emptied half of it last night, and has decided that for an hour every day, he is going to connect the hose from inside the house to the pool. Water coming directly from inside the house is filtered, and thus will be CLEAR. Though by this morning, the entire pool managed to empty, so I don't know if a valve or something was left open on the pool itself, but the rest of the water leaked out. What a pain anyhow. I'm so over it. But of course the kids are disappointed. Mike figures with the cool weather this week, there wouldn't be any swimming anyways, so let's try this filtered water thing out. Hopefully that'll do the trick. I never had a pool growing up, and while I probably wanted one when I was younger, I was never a swimmer or water lover anyways. I definitely never thought we'd have a pool. But when something's free...what do ya do? Try it out I guess.

Which leads me to a MUCH more exciting freebie. I happened to go on our church/new school website to check out registration info, etc. There I found a post for a FREE piano!!! Yes, a free piano. The school is giving it away, for no charge. The reason?? They just don't have a need for it; the 7 & 8th grade teacher doesn't play the piano (that is the classroom it was in). Every other room already has a piano, or uses the internet/smart board to access hymns (I am a bit shocked by that...so parochial teachers are no longer required to play piano, or what?? Technology...) SO, I went to look at it today, expecting I don't know what. But I loved it!! Yes, it's big. But it plays beautifully, didn't even sound like it needed to be tuned. It definitely needs to be refinished, but I don't even care. I'd be in no rush to do that. A free piano. For those who don't know, I am a self-taught piano player. In my parents' last house, a piano came with the house (so, that was approx. 1993 or so when they bought that house I believe). While my Aunt had taught me the basics, I listened to songs I loved and my Dad would buy me cool sheet music (Tori Amos, for example) and I would play till I could get it right. I am so excited!! I've been dying to play again; it's been almost 10 years... And Kaycey wants to take lessons. Conveniently the new school offers lessons by two different teachers: either during the school day or after school. We chatted with the principal (he's also the 5 & 6 grade teacher) and his wife (Maddie's soon-to-be preschool teacher). They are so nice! Not that we ever had direct run-ins with the principal at the public school, but even just in passing she was not particularly friendly. I really feel good about the switch. Kaycey and Cal still do not...