Take that, hot tub professionals!

Well the kids are back at school! Every day this week, even Monday when the kids weren't at school, Tuesday when the kids were in and out for testing, and yesterday when it was only a half day I have exercised. I haven't done anything spectacular (a one mile brisk walk with Oliver either in sling or stroller), but I do plan on increasing the speed and length of the walk as time goes on. It's amazing how much that alone has improved my overall feeling of health.

I am in full post summer organizational mode. Yesterday I cleaned most of my main floor including vacuuming out the crumbs in the sofa and dusting the ceiling fan (yuck!). Today I plan on hitting the mud room, putting away all the swimming stuff and getting caught up on laundry to include cleaning the washer and dryer. It's amazing how gross they become after a few months of use.

And a couple of days ago I convinced Gary that he really did have the smarts to tear down the hot tub and figure out why it wasn't heating. Previously he had done everything (he said) that he knew how to do to diagnose the problem and he would have to leave the rest to a "hot tub professional" who incidentally charge a ridiculous fee simply to diagnose the problem, let alone what the charges might be for a new part and labor to install it.

We decided pretty much as soon as we discovered it wasn't working that spending a large amount of money on it wasn't a priority this year and that we would wait on it. The kids have used it as a pool this summer. But every time we grill or spend time outside around the firepit we've both been guilty of looking at it longingly and making such comments as "wouldn't it be nice if we could just hop in the hot tub right now?" I could tell that any day I was going to come home to find a fixed hot tub and an $800 bill to show for it.

So I set out to change Gary's mind about fixing the hot tub himself. After all, he has his MBA, and teaches people about wireless networking or something at the college level, not to mention all the stuff he does at work but don't ask me exactly what that is because I'm not completely sure!

We discussed it to the point of it being an argument. Of course I came at it wrong using the whole saving money angle - NOT a good idea, but then I convinced him of his superior brain power and he agreed. On Tuesday evening he borrowed a thingy (a yellow box that tests something) from work to help him out and took loads of pictures of the insides and then got to work. I tell you he had it figured out within 10 minutes and by Wednesday morning he had a replacement part ordered and it should be here by tomorrow. It all seemed ridiculously easy so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed. If we succeed then I'll post some pictures of hot tubbing fun - of the kids of course - don't panic!

So Oliver is unloading something into his diaper - just in time to get it changed before I put him down for a nap and get to the organizing and cleaning. The sun is shining, it's not too hot yet and all the windows are open. Nathan is watching Tom and Jerry and he's off to school this afternoon. I am anticipating a wonderfully quiet day. The only tiny bit of sadness is that I won't see many of these moments in the days ahead. (see below)