March 2022

 

March was a blur of pulling up the floor and band stuff for Avian... 

BUT these exciting things also happened.  

 March 2nd Steve and I paid off the first loan on the house and refunded it with the refinance as well as paid off  our portion of Nick's school loan.  That felt really good.  

March 3rd Nick got a promotion to Intermediate Tech which came with a pay raise.  He is working so hard to get his career off and running.  

March 13th, Steve and I got to go with Sister Newman to have her patriarchal blessing.  It was a special day for her and we were privileged to be a part of it.  

March 17th we started pulling up the floor.  We wanted to make sure we had enough time to get everything out and the floor ready for Eduardo when he came to lay the floor over spring break in April.  We started by using a crow bar and a hammer, like we had seen in the numerous how-to videos.  It worked okay, but the floor had REALLY been glued down and wasn't coming up easily at all.  Steve had seen a video where they were using a power hammer (mini-jackhammer).  He went and bought one and that made things much easier.  We were going to have to do a lot of work once the floor was up because they had used a ton of glue and it had soaked up through the wood and would either pull up the cement floor with it or leave glue residue with bits of wood stuck in it.  

Avian and I took a quick run to Target to get some things and when we got back in the truck to come home the truck would not start.  I turned the key to the off position and then tried to start it again.  Luckily it started and we hurried home.  When I went to show Steve what had happened in the Target parking lot it did the same thing.  We called Heath immediately and he said to bring it in.  We left it with him to put a new starter motor in it.    Jeremy decided he wanted to change departments at Lowe's and put in for a transfer to lumber, which was granted and he was over the moon excited to start.  

March 19th we continued to pull up the wood floor.  We were making a HUGE, dusty mess and decided to sell the couches since we wanted new ones anyway and they would take up a lot of room storing them in the garage.  I put the couches out on the ward Facebook page and had a buyer within a few hours.  We delivered them that night.  

Three different types of flooring in three different room.  The hardwoods look really shiny and nice in this picture, but in reality they were very scratched up and had several ding marks from when the kids would drop items from the upper landing to see if they would bounce.  For the record, rocks do not bounce!!

Steve and Nick using the crowbar and hammer method.  

The much easier power hammer method.  

Delivering the couches.  The kids sat on them one last time while they were being driven to their new home.  

Two couches - two deliveries - two rides

 March 22nd I stopped and made a note in my journal that we have all been insanely busy.  Jeremy has been getting a lot of hours for work doing his training for lumber as well as being in school.  He is applying for a writing/tutoring class next semester and is really excited.  Nick has been working a lot of hours at the dealership and spending his off hours with friends from school and church.  Avian signed up with Carolina Juniors Volleyball to keep their skills sharp for the school season. School volleyball has started their afternoon workouts as well.   I have been asked to run an after-school tutoring program at school and it is keeping me VERY busy!!  Steve is getting into some cool stuff with Encore and is loving his new job.  

March 25th and 26th Avian participated the Charlotte Mecklenburg Honors Band.  For two days they learned new and challenging music and then did a performance on the night of the 26th for the parents. It was amazing what they learned in such a short amount of time. They also made some really good friends from other schools in the area.   The performance was amazing.  

March 28th was a little stressful.  I had gotten a confirmation email about the appointment (made a month and half in advance) for Avian's driving test only to get a cancellation email one minute later.  I immediately called and the supervisor put us back on the schedule.  Steve picked Avian up from school and took them.  After a very long wait, they were finally asked for the supervisor who got them through the system very quickly and out the door.  I thought they would  beat me home by a couple of hours, but they were behind me pulling in.  I tried to make the DMV a better experience for them, but I guess that may just be an impossible request for a government agency.  After all was said and done, Avian now has their permit and can start driving us around.  

They were exhausted after the long wait and forgot to take the picture in front of the DMV.  We re-enacted it at home.  

March 29th I took a long lunch break to drive to Mooresville High School to watch Lake Norman Charter perform for their NCBA adjudication.  They sounded amazing!  Avian had a small solo in the middle of one of the songs - nailed it!  After the performance for the judges, the kids were taken to another room to demonstrate their site-reading ability and to be judged on that as well.  At the end of everything they were awarded a "Superior" rating which is the best you can get.  Mr. Scaringelli really inspires these kids to be their best and it shows.  

Waiting for the judges to signal to start

Performing

Avian almost to the solo.  I didn't take a picture during the solo because I wanted to completely listening without distraction!

The bow after the performance concluded.  


The picture below is of the whole band with their award!

After a long day of band competition, Avian attended their first Carolina Juniors Volleyball work out.  They came out afterwards and told me they had been invited to play at the Gold level instead of the Silver level.  They were super excited.  This is going to be a good thing.  

In all of this craziness, Steve was asked to help out with the Scout Wood Badge courses and was attending planning meetings.  One of the gentlemen brought their dog with him.  Steve loved it because he looked just like Sammy!!!!  I miss Sammy!

Th

March 30th was the Relief Society party.  It was a favorite things party and we had a lot of fun getting to know each other playing games and eating yummy food.  

Steve and I had finished pulling up the wood floor, but couldn't get all the glue up.  We had tried melting it with a heat gun and then scraping, but that created noxious fumes and we were getting headaches.  He stumbled across a video of a guy using glue solvent to soften the glue.  We put down a layer and left it on all night long.  The next day, the glue came up much easier with the use of the jackhammer with a scraper blade on it.  HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!  

March 31st was Decades Day for Spirit Week.  I pulled out my old BABES pep club sweater and outfit to sport for the day.  The big hair bow was especially fun to do!!!

Me with the 6th grade crew.  We all had on our 80s stuff.  

WE MADE IT THROUGH MARCH!!!!