Roughing it

Well, we are having a bit of a "Survivor" experience in our own house. Thursday evening we got home from running some errands to find that we had no water. Mark called a friend a few blocks away and they were without water too. I called a neighbor and they too were without water. By this time, I decided we needed further investigation and checked our local news website. Seems that there was a watermain break that was leaving 3,000 customers without water for the night. The city hoped to give us water by 7 a.m. the next morning. Sure enough they actually had it on by 6:30 a.m. but now we were under a boil water advisory. Now we are told that the advisory will last at least through the weekend and possibly longer. We are glad to have the water back for bathing and flushing but the everyone is still struggling with not using the water to brush teeth or drink. I keep boiling water and trying to keep a full pitcher in the fridge but that just adds to the crazy schedule.
I mentioned lots of things coming up in our schedule and haven't gotten back to writing about them. Now we are actually part way through them. Rachel started volleyball try-outs last week. She has them again this week through Wednesday before she finds out if she makes a team. They have 2 teams and there are 12 girls per team. Right now, there are only 31 trying out so she has a pretty good chance, I think. But this also means someone going back out to the school at 5:30 to pick her up after practice. The good news though is that our neighbor girl that rides with us to the school and a friend from church are all trying out too so we have broken up the extra trips. Now, we sort of hope that either they all make it or none of them do to keep the trips to a minimum.
Rachel didn't quite get all the info right on the AWANA grand prix cars. We did have pit day a couple of weeks ago but we are having another one next weekend to finish them up so we are still open to more suggestions if anyone has any for us. Mark even made a car this year since we are working with the program. Rachel's is going to look like a offering plate and she is using real money for the weights. Stephen made is basically a slim triangle painted red. He plans to put a white Coke symbol on the front of it. I don't think there is any question what Mark's looks like for anyone that knows his love of Nascar. Rachel is really hoping for a trophy or ribbon this year since it is her last chance. I think she might make best design if nothing else.
The kids had a 1/2 day of school yesterday since it was the end of the marking period. Joshua went on his second field trip. This one to the local children's museum. Then in the afternoon, there was tubing at a place called Pando Ski Area. It was sponsored by the school although no school supervision was provided. It was for 3rd through 8th graders so Joshua mainly got to watch. It was a beautiful day for it! Boy do these guys have it easy! The worst part of going sledding was always the trip back up the hill. Now, they just attach a tow rope to the line and sit back while they are pulled to the top of the hill again! It looked like lots of fun! There were even some teachers that joined in but only towards the end since they had to stay at school till all their grades were in the computer.
Stephen's class is in the middle of a series of water safety lessons. Rachel never had the opportunity to take these but I am really glad Stephen is. Each 4th grade class takes turns being driven to a pool of another school system and spending an afternoon learning water safety. They did it back in second grade too so this is more advanced. There are 5 classes and they have done 3. This week they even have to take an extra set of clothes to get wet and they will be jumping in fully dressed to work on how to stay afloat using the clothes. I used to teach the same thing back in Alpena only we only demonstrated and didn't have the kids do it too.
We also have the AWANA games that Stephen and Rachel both want to be part of. Practices are twice a week starting the end of Feb. and running through March. The area games are on a Saturday at the end of March. Last year is about the only year, I don't think that our team has placed with Rachel on the team. This year, we hope to have enough to take 2 teams to the area competition which would give Stephen a better shot of making the team. Last year he was an alternate and everyone showed up so he didn't get to compete.
Mark's also swamped at work. They had their FNI (finance) person quit at the first of the year and the bosses are dragging their feet at hiring another person. Now they are into boat show season and wondering why Mark can't keep up. He is really frustrated because the main show he will have to spend the entire show at is Daytona 500 weekend.
We have our car back! It is running good. It needs an alignment yet but other than that it looks and runs good. Our friend was able to get it going for just $450 in parts which leaves enough from the $500 to cover the alignment. Our next car adventure is to get heat in the van again especially now that the garage door is broke so we can't keep it in the garage at night and no heat means no help clearing windows.
Well, I have to get these kids motivated around here. We played yesterday, now everyone has homework to do today but while I'm at the computer they don't think they have to do it.