We have had a busy week helping my parents finish some renovations, going to my nephew’s baptism, getting our heat pumps installed and staying cool in the warm weather . . . oh and losing our door knob.

We took the kids to the Church early so we could play on the playground before the Baptism (and we didn’t want to be wandering in late because kids take 100 years to get ready). Amelia was in a pretty dress because she “wanted to be the same as mommy”, but that did not slow her down one bit. She was busy scaling the climbing wall like Spiderman. While she was busy scaling walls Cedric was busy running around underneath the play structure while also investigating the gravel. It was no heat wave that day, and we lucked out missing the rain in the morning.

After the weekend we finally got word that the heat pump we ordered LAST may was finally in and ready for installation. What perfect timing! Last year when that crazy heat wave came through we had to abandon ship to go live at my parent’s house as they have central air conditioning. Of course nothing goes smoothly though. I had a dream the night before, and in that dream the heat pump could not be installed because there was no power (talk about foreshadowing). In the morning I made a passing comment to my husband (the Electrician) about if the main panel had been finished . . . he looked at me and I could see that something was wrong. No in fact, the main panel did not have the circuit breaker, and we had not purchased the armored cable.

This was a even worse development because he had just come off his night shift and could not stay up to buy and install everything before Polar Refrigeration showed up promptly at 8:30am. They were able to install everything up to the powering up part, and thankfully they had trouble themselves so it took them all day meaning they had to come back to finish the job.

Speaking of “they had trouble themselves” the poor guy who showed up promptly locked his keys into his van. He asked if I had a wire coat hanger so he could break into it. The house is a 1948 wartime home so never had closets until we added on the extension last year and subsequently added closets to all the rooms at the same time; therefore no, I do not own hangers. I did have some boxes in the basement that I never unpacked and said I would check on-the-off chance a hanger was kicking around. Sure enough, the second box had the elusive and highly sought after metal hanger!

I left him to his own devices while he got into his van, and a few minutes later he showed up with my door handle in his hand. He looked very horrified that this had just occurred and apologized profusely; however, there was nothing to be done about it so I told him not to worry I’d figure out something. This lead to me being a butler all day as people came and went. You don’t realize how much you use a front door until you have no handle. It was funny hearing people using the touch pad to unlock the door, then wind up knocking because they still couldn’t get in.

I was internally very miffed about the door handle, it was not a cheap one, and was only installed 3 years ago. My Dad happened to be over and took the handle back to the specialty store we got it from and lo-and-behold expensive door knobs have warranty! Hurrah! In 40 days or so we will have a replacement for the faulty handle (the o-ring inside the handle snapped in half). In the mean time I found another door handle in the garage and installed it the other day.

The little heat wave we have been expecting finally arrived, so I got the backyard all set up with the Thermacells to keep the mosquitos away, the water table, the sandbox and the sprinkler. The big swimming pool is almost ready to be put into it’s new spot, I just need to finish setting up that area. I’ve been working on it during the kids’ nap time, so don’t make huge progress each day; however it should be up and running in the next day or 2!

We probably spent 3 hours outside today enjoying the sandbox in the shady area, and the water table in the sunshine. Amelia got me to run through the sprinkler with the promise she would go next. Lies, all lies haha. She laughed and said no no and ran away. Cedric on the other hand is a creature of water and got right in there. He was absolutely sopping wet with water running out of his shoes and diaper by the end of the playtime.