Recap of the week

Aside from getting ready for the Relief Society program yesterday, we had a full week!
Monday evening we took the boys to see The A-Team. Big mistake. The movie is not appropriate for younger kids at all, and bore little to no resemblance to the original series... The language was the biggest problem.
Because we don't watch TV and the boys are not in public school, they really don't know any bad words, so I believe 95% of the language went over their heads. I don't believe we have caused any permanent damage to the boys' psyche, but it was disappointing. The plot was quite complex and difficult to follow, so that was also not so good for the boys. There is a website that Ben goes to which reviews movies especially in terms of what is appropriate for families, and according to that website, this one was supposed to be ok. I guess we won't trust that site anymore.
On the positive side, the movie did give us a chance and a reason to talk about bad language with the boys, which we did all the way home. :-)
I guess it wouldn't have been as disappointing if we hadn't been expecting something actually based on the original A-Team episodes! Aside from the names and racial makeup of the characters, there really was no resemblance.
We've watched a couple of A-Team episodes on Hulu since then, and the boys really enjoyed them.
The next night we made homemade pizzas! The boys had been begging to make pizzas for a few days, but I hadn't gotten my act together enough to start the dough for the crust in time (it takes about 2 hours with 2 different risings). Each boy got to make his own pizza, and it all go eaten up. :-)




Waiting anxiously and hungrily!


Joseph never wants to squander an opportunity to capture a weird look on film!


And if one boy is going to be weird, they all are!


Mosey's final masterpiece. He made a smiley face with sausage, and glasses around the eyes with onion pieces.


Brigham's creation. He likes pizza with everything on it!


And Joseph's. Again, life isn't worth living if he can't give me weird looks. :-)


On Wednesday we went to the lake and rented a boat and a tube. It is the first time we have done that on Lake Travis, but it won't be the last. What fun! The boys took turns on the tube, and I was really proud of them. I personally find lakes to be a bit creepy, especially deep lakes, and Lake Travis is pretty deep. But the boys were brave and had a wonderful time.

It was such a beautiful day. It was pretty hot, but once we were out on the water, it wasn't bad, and soon the sun was going down and the temperature was perfect. We actually got a few minutes of rain-- one of those weird times when it is raining and the sun is out, and the most gorgeous rainbow appeared in the sky.

See the rainbow?

Mosey was the first one to give the tube a try. The first time, he didn't hang on for long, but by the end of the evening he was a pro.


Here's a closeup on his face. Cracked me up!


Here he is, immediately after his first dunking. Still smiling!



Mister came with us. He was not interested in the water. Like, at all. I don't know what kind of dog you are, Mister, but you're sure not a water dog!



Here's Joseph! I think he would have spent the entire time on the tube himself if we let him.
When he wasn't on the tube, he was leaning out at the very front of the boat.



Here he is waiting for his next turn to tube. And, shockingly, giving me a weird look!


Brigham also had a great time.

He wanted me to take a picture of him like this. He looks like an explorer!



Isn't that rainbow awesome?




Ben also took a turn on the tube. He wanted me to drive as crazy as I could to try to knock him off. He hung on, though, until he tried standing up on the tube.



We had some adventures with the van this week as well. The automatic locks on the 2 front doors went out, and then the AC went out on Monday. It's been in the 90's here every day, and I really must have AC in the car or I can't drive. I mean, I literally can't drive. If I spend any time at all in temps over 85, I start to lose my eyesight and my other MS symptoms go crazy.
We had taken our van in to the dealership to have the locks looked at a couple of weeks ago, but they wanted nearly $300 per lock! That seemed crazy, so on Monday afternoon we took it to another place that Ben had been to before (at least, he thought he had-- in retrospect he thinks it must have been a different place). It turns out, they wanted even MORE to fix the locks, and the estimate for the AC was ridiculous as well. So we went back Tuesday morning and I resolved just to take it to the dealership. But once we were there, the mechanics tried to put the screws to Ben. They kept increasing what we owed them for the estimate, I guess trying to make us leave it there to get fixed. I was really mad because they were very deceitful. I had been there when Ben signed the paperwork for the estimate. I remember him asking, "So it's $49.99 for the estimate?" and the guy saying, "Yeah." Well, it turns out if you read the very small print, it is $49.99 PER EACH ITEM that is being looked at. So $50 each for the locks and the AC. And then they wanted $90 more because the locks were an electrical problem, and those are more. At one point we decided just to let the guys fix it, but then I called Ben again when he was in the office (I was waiting in his car) and told him to forget it. I don't want to give creeps like that my business, even if it is going to cost us more. So, $190 later, I drove the van back home, still not fixed.
It ended up being a good decision, though, because when we took it back to the dealership, it turned out that the other mechanics were wrong on every count when it came to what was wrong with the locks and the AC. So we would have spent $1400 and the problems wouldn't have been fixed. I hate getting ripped off, though.
Let's see, what else. Joseph and Brigham went to a Scout thing on Thursday afternoon up at the lake. Joseph had been moaning and groaning, not wanting to go. But I made him go and he ended up having a really great time. Sometimes mom does know best. :-)
On Friday afternoon the boys set up our tent out on the back deck. They dragged in sleeping bags and pillows and every single stuffed animal we have (it seemed like anyway). They roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire in the fireplace that night, and planned on sleeping out in the tent. But it is LOUD outside! There are these really loud bugs-- not cicadas, but really loud like that, that make a ruckus into the early hours of the morning, and the boys couldn't sleep. Funny, huh? So they came back inside. The tent is still up out there. I need to make them go clean it up before we get another rain storm.


And here are the last pictures off my camera this week.


Joseph, our very own zoologist and entomologist caught this bug last week in the middle of molting. He watched it crawl out of its old skin, and was amazed to see it come out this vibrant green color!


It's always funny to see what pictures the boys have been using my camera for. Here's Chrissy hiding out under the deck.


Mosey had some solo horseback riding lessons for a couple of weeks while the big boys were at Scouts. He is starting to trot now!

The boys love, love, love their toy soldiers. They set up a gigantic battle here in the living room. There were armies led by Napoleon, the English, the "rebels," the Texans, Santa Anna's forces, the "sneaky guys," and the firefighters.


Napoleon won this gigantic battle. Of course!

On a slightly related tangent, the boys have been requesting "Napoleon" ice cream whenever we go to the grocery store. I keep trying to convince them it is "Neopolitan," but they are unmoved. Napoleon ice cream it is!

And of course, lots, and lots, and lots of block buildings.








Joseph builds them too, but doesn't like me to take his picture with them. I'll tell him next time he can give me a weird look. :-)