Day: June 3, 2011

Kevin received the bamboo shades he ordered.

He was a little disappointed because he thought they would be a bit more opaque than they are, but we still like them. They will provide a little shade.

(I think we’re going to look for some hardy [because I’m a BLACK thumb] hanging plants for the ends of the slats next].

Also? Remember when I mentioned that patio furniture was outrageously expensive? Well, leave it up my mother-in-law to find something on clearance. It was at some place in Ozark that we had never heard of before. It was some Farm and Home place that moved in when Wal-Mart moved out. They have some pretty neat stuff there and their prices are VERY reasonable.

So reasonable, in fact, that we ended up going back and buying the table my mother-in-law told us about.

I’m not sure if we’ll keep it where it is now, but we’ll play around with it and find the perfect spot for it. It’s bigger than what we had originally discussed, but somehow, it works.

And the coolest part about this table? The table top consists of removeable tiles – just regular, standard-sized tiles.

Which means we have the option of buying new tiles, if we choose, you know, to mix them up a bit, and give the table a whole new look. We’re pretty excited about that part. In fact, we’re thinking we might do something like our backsplash in the kitchen:

I really love the contrasting colors like that. But for now, the tiles that came with the table look a bit like leather, which Kevin really likes.

We really like the chairs, too. They’re a bit hard, but surprisingly comfortable and should weather well. I’ve already told Kevin that I will likely be anal about keeping the chairs outside and will likely cover the table top with some sort of cloth so I don’t have to scrub them every time we want to eat outside. I will likely just take them off completely and store them during the winter months.

But get this – you are NEVER going to guess how much this cost us. Go ahead … guess. I’ll wait.

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Give up? We spent a WHOPPING $67.00 on the table, and an another WHOPPING $25.00 on each chair. The whole set cost less than one chair a lot of places we checked out. Now we’re talking!! The best part? WE didn’t have to shop around and find it, we left that odious task (neither Kevin, nor myself, enjoy shopping) up to Kevin’s mom, who DOES love to shop.

So it was a win-win for everyone involved. 😀

Now we’re thinking of buying some sort of lounge chair and small table for the other corner of the patio. Kevin wants some place he can relax and play his guitar on cool, starry nights.

So, in between preparing the school websites for the summer months (and they kept me HOPPING this morning, let me tell ya), picking Jazz up for his last day of school, having a family lunch out together, grocery shopping and buying the patio table and chairs, that was my day.

It was a good day.

Today is the last day of school for Jazz! (Remember? Dude graduated).

At least, the last day of REGULAR school. Jazz starts summer school Monday.

At a different school. Further away. Which means more gas. And more money. *sigh*

None of us are looking forward to him going to summer school this year. But since he’s pretty adamant about keeping band (which lasts all year) and Jazz band (which takes up the spring semester) on his schedule, we really don’t have a choice. We simply don’t have enough time slots to accommodate all of the classes he HAS to take in order to graduate.

But hopefully, this will be the last summer he has to take classes. Since he didn’t get all of the classes he wanted for next year (and WOW, Jazz was not happy about that one little bit), he will HAVE to take one more English class, a half credit of math and one full credit of Practical Arts, which translates into an Accounting class, per Jazz’s choice. Other than that? He should be good to go. The one class I’m worried about is the Practical Arts class. He HAS to have one credit in order to graduate but apparently, they only offer Accounting a few times and the class is hard to get into. However, Juniors get first dibs on classes, so hopefully he won’t have any trouble getting into the class next year.

In the meantime, Jazz is scheduled to take Personal Finance from 8:00 to 11:00, then break 30 minutes for lunch, and then take P.E. from 11:30 to 2:30, Monday through Friday throughout the entire month of June. Yeah. Not fun. It won’t be fun for him, and it won’t be fun for me or Dude (because he will be helping out, whether he likes it or not), dropping him off and picking him up all day.

We also need to get busy on Jazz’s driver’s permit. He’ll be taking his test very soon, so we’ll also be busy this summer teaching him how to drive. On top of everything else, Jazz will be attending various practice nights for marching band, so in an nutshell? The kid is going to be crazy busy during June.

Oh well. At least June will go fast and then …. THEN … family vacation time!!!!