Plumbing Success

A week or so ago, I noticed that everything under the sink in the hall bathroom was wet. Further investigation revealed a slow drip from the cold water supply line - from before the shut-off, it seemed. Humph. I cleared out the cabinet and put a bucket under there - it would catch an inch or two a day. I tried shutting off the cold water line and it still leaked. Grrr. I wasn't sure what the problem was, but guessed it might be in the shut-off valve. The bucket contained the problem for the moment and I figured I would deal with it "later".

Well, last night, I was walking down the hall and heard water running. I thought, oh, A is running his bath now, good. Except A said that no, he wasn't. *cue ominous music*, as I stepped into a puddle on the bathroom floor! I opened up the cabinet to find water spraying everywhere. I turned off the shut-off valve and A and I proceeded to mop up the bathroom floor and cabinet. Then I got to sweep out the garage. And give thanks that the bathroom is over the garage and not a finished part of the basement! D got to escape this fun, having taken M to a school function.

This morning I called the local Ace hardware and determined that I needed to bring in the old supply line (I had a feeling that if I didn't call they would ask some question I couldn't answer). After much contorting, with a headlamp and 2 pairs of pliers (and finally help from my mom (Thanks MOM!)), I got the line off and headed off to Ace. They had exactly what I needed and reinstalling the line was FAR easier than taking it off.

Even better, that original leak I had. GONE! It must have been the very beginning of a leak in the supply line that ran down onto the valve. We now have water in the bathroom again and I can put the stuff back into the cabinet once it finishes drying out.

First Class Scout

A had a Court of Honor last night at Scouts. They only hold these a couple of times a year, so this was for all the merit badges and rank advancements since May, including summer camp.
A ready for CoH:

A getting his rank advancement, 2nd class and 1st class ranks. This is pretty impressive since the Scouts like to claim you can reach 1st class in a year and A has only been a Boy Scout since February (7 months).

They call a parent up there with the Scout, so that the Scout can pin a parent's pin on as thanks for the parents involvement in the Scout's journey. A managed to pin my pin on with the pin part under my collar - and I didn't discover that until almost the end of the evening.

Happy 1st class Scout!

A also got to participate in an Eagle ceremony that was held immediately after the Court of Honor. He got to light one of the rank candles (in the dark the picture came out extremely blurry). The Scout who made Eagle was a sophomore at M's school, so we got to see a lot of M's teaches there (and his middle school English teacher, who was disappointed not to get to see M - he stayed home to do homework, rather than get free food and sit through a ceremony).

GA baby quilt

I made a baby quilt for some friends who are expecting their first baby - a girl, as you can probably guess from the colors. And if you look closely, you can see that it has 2 different UGA fabrics, as they are huge GA fans.

Here is the quilt in the natural light out on the deck:

And here Pounce is enjoying it inside:

Happy parents to be, at a baby shower:

A with the clarinet

A finally got his clarinet and the first bit of instruction in playing it last week. He seems to be enjoying it so far, though his says they have only learned to play 2 notes.

Study Skills

Both kids seem to be in need of some better study skills, though not necessarily the same ones.

A is having issues with remembering:

1) what he has for homework

2) to bring home the necessary books for said homework

3) to take the completed homework back to school.

He has an agenda, but he only really uses it for the classes that require him to (and it only helps with #1). So this afternoon I cleared an even larger area of the dining room table (his preferred study location) of anything extraneous and filled a pencil box with basic supplies. We went over his agenda and I filled in extra assignments. Then we checked the area and the agenda at the end to make sure that all the homework was back in the backpack. I'm sure this will help in the short run and I'm hoping that some of it will stick for the long run.

M is having more issues with time management, trying to multi-task homework, videos, facebook, iPod, etc. And then still be doing homework at 10pm, when he is well past his optimum thinking. He just finished up tonight at 10 and headed off to the shower. He has also had a few issues of forgetting what the homework is or not checking the online sites to see if he has any. He also has an agenda, but I think it gets even less use than A's does!

I know its still reasonably early in the school year, but I also know that things tend to slide rather than improve spontaneously. We'll see. I have a conference scheduled with one of A's teachers next week.