I worked on the downstairs room a little more today. Beth took the kids to Wal-Mart and the playland at McDonald's while I stayed at home. I got quite a bit of sanding and re-mudding done, maybe just a few more days like this and I'll be ready to paint that room. We dropped off the minivan at Midas right after that because we've felt like the brakes were getting worn out, but of course it turns out that it more serious than that and the front wheel bearing is loose. $500. Ouch. Last night we went to see a high school play at Lakeland Christian Academy that one of our babysitters is in. It was cute..."The Family Nobody Wanted." It was a pretty good high school production. Last Wednesday Bob from work and I went to the Chicago area for the day to check out a blast cabinet. We drove out there in the morning, checked out the thing and had lunch, then came home. I even finished the work day as we got back at around 3:30. Anyway, the machine looked good and I am going to buy it.

The weather was unjustifiably crappy this week. HOW can it SNOW a week after it hits 80 degrees? The grass I'm trying to grow in the backyard is probably going to die. Anyway, yesterday was clear enough for Beth to take the kids up to Michigan for the afternoon, I stayed behind to work on the downstairs room. I had about 5 hours of uninterrupted work time, which I haven't had in a loooong time. I got a lot of sanding and mudding done, and even opened up the vent in the attic for the new microwave we had installed this week. Beth was back in time for bowling, in which neither one of us were spectacular but Steve got a 200 game. The first softball game was this week, I was 0-3 with no fielding chances.

Beth and I went geocaching again yesterday and had a really good day at it. We first hit the appliance store, though, and purchased a new microwave oven. Finally, we are replacing the easy-bake microwave oven we have been using since we left Arkansas with an over-the-range model. We were going to look into getting a new door to the garage installed but the place we wanted to look is closed on Saturdays, so it's going to be very inconvenient to see them. Them being closed, we headed out for a day of caching. Back to Potawatomi Park, where it was such a gorgeous day this time. We found three caches in the park as we hauled the kids around in the wagon and a stroller. We had such a good time we decided to keep going with some Spirit Quest caches we didn't get to last week. We found two, but the first one was the longest because when we got back to the van after a quick find, the battery was dead. We'd made the mistake of leaving the accessories on. So here we were in a cemetery in North Manchester Indiana with a dead battery. How ironic. It was at least an hour until roadside assistance came with a jump. We did stop to get another quick cache that was on the way home but didn't turn the engine off while we looked for it.

Beth and I took the kids geocaching today. We went to get some Indiana Spirit Quests because those are usually easy to bring the kids to, being in small, rural, historic cemeteries. We found five of them before heading home to get the kids naps. Bowling was afterward, I'm still in a slump.

I took Alex back to Potawatomi park this afternoon while Beth and Missy were napping. There was a geocoin I wanted to snag before someone else got it in one of the park caches. It was about a mile and a half hike/wagon ride (the park is very nice enough to provide wagons for pulling tykes around, which Alex loves) one way to the cache. The cache was well hidden and it's a good thing I was there in April before the weeds and grass and such were up, or I'd never have found it. And I likely would've lost Alex too. But I got it, and the geocoin. Didn't have time for any other nearby caches.

The Spartans just lost in the Final Four a few minutes ago. Oh well, I gotta say I'm really happy they got this far, more so than I expected. And the tournament produced the game it should have, so it's all good. Beth and I tried to take the kids geocaching today, but the stupid weather keeps being nice during the week and crappy on weekends. When we got to Potawatomi Wildlife Park (home of 4 caches) it was just too cold and windy to bring Missy out. If not for the wind it would have been all right. She's feeling a lot better now, after being unable to keep any food down for several days. And for some reason Alex has been super wired lately. Even when we try to wear him out.