June 19

June 19, 2005
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!! Well, another week has come and gone. I swear summer is so much busier. I guess it’s good in a way.

On Monday, we watched Olivia and Hannah (neighbors and friends) for several hours because A.J. (The brother) had broken his leg. He came home that afternoon with a bright pink cast. What a sense of humor he has. He is Marisa’s age and will start middle school in August. Maybe pink is the "in" thing? Marisa also started her orchestra lessons and really loved it. She learned how to tune her violin herself and they are working on sight reading. Tyler and Kayla had Taekwondo that night and then we took the kids to go swimming at the YMCA. It’s the first time I have been swimming since I taught watercise in Torrance. It felt odd to be in a swimsuit again. Bob played with the kids while I did laps. I wish I could go that more often. It felt great and there is nothing better than working out when no one can really see you!

On Tuesday, we spent the morning organizing the disaster we call a toy room. We took A LOT of toys out and put them in storage to be taken out only 1 box at a time. We even set up a corner as a school and one as the barbie playland. At least they can make their way into it now. That night I started my yoga class. It’s the first time I have taken an actual yoga class and I loved it!! I selfishly admit that it helped that I was one of the youngest there. However, I have a long way to go before I get some of those moves down. I need to work on getting my flexibility back- as soon as I remember what that is!

Wednesday was extra busy. We decided to do an early Father’s day gift and mowed the backyard. We also weeded the plants, cut down the big weeds on the fence, cleaned up any trash and deep cleaned and organized the shed. It looks so cool now and much easier to function in. (I know...I have issues!) Marisa had orchestra class and the kids had taekwondo. We also went swimming with the Garcia’s to the Y and had so much fun. Alayna is such a character. I put floaties on her and she absolutely REFUSED to have anyone touch her. She just doggie paddled around everyone with this huge grin. Sheesh!

Thursday we spent cleaning out the storage room. (I wanted to get the whole house done so I could relax for the rest of the summer) While I mowed the front lawn, the kids practiced jump roping. I also had my pilates class again where I learned that our teacher had taken it easy on us last week because it was the first week of the season. Boy, was I sore.

On Friday, Marisa had orchestra once again. We were also excited to go attend Bob’s work party. The kids have always loved attending the Alpine ones. This one was so lame! They had food, but nothing else. Even the clown and face painter they promised were AWOL. So, we came home and went on an hour bike ride. We finally decided the kids were good enough to venture out so we went a whole new direction into a new neighborhood to see the new house our friends are building. They are doing all of it and it looked like a daunting task to us. No thank you! Then we all came home and started watching "Little House on the Prairie". We are watching it from season1. The kids love it so far. I have forgotten how sweet and innocent those episodes were. My goodness how TV has changed.

On Saturday, Bob was in charge of the blood drive at church. However, they kept waiting and the red cross never showed. I guess there was a scheduling error so they had to cancel the whole thing. In a way, that was good, because we got more time with Bob. The poor guy! We dragged him around to Sears, Walmart and Sam’s. Then we got the kids a slip and slide and they had an absolute blast in the back yard. That thing makes the heat much more bearable. I didn’t slide, but put my feet in. Maybe I will try next week when I am sure no neighbors are watching! We also watched more "Little House" and watched some of the new Western mini series "Into the West". We had a fun barbeque where we gave Bob his Father’s day present early. We gave him a fun personalized BBQ apron with BBQ tools in it. He was even a good sport and wore the hat for fun. We sure love grilling. We were under our beautiful canopy and enjoyed a lovely evening.

Today we accidently slept in and ran around like nuts to get to church on time. Tyler gave a great talk in primary today. I was asked to help teach the sunbeams. I thought it would be insane, but it was probably one of the most entertaining 2 hours I have had in a while. These kids say the funniest things (they are 3). One had a bug bite on her eye and her whole eye was swollen almost shut. (Her dad was just shipped to Iraq this week for an 18 month tour of duty, so she was sleeping on the floor in her moms room). When I asked what happened she said "A bug ate my eye". Anyway, it was fun. I am teaching them again next month.

Alayna report: We could tell Alayna has been watching "Little Mermaid" too much when at the table, she combed a huge chunk of her hair out of her head with a fork and called it a "dinglehopper". What a silly girl. Then the kids were practicing some of their moves from taekwondo and Tyler turned to Alayna and said with fists in the air "You want a piece of me?" and Alayna put her fists in the air and said " You want a piece of chicken??" We died laughing.

Well, a Happy Father’s Day to all you wonderful dads and grandpas out there. We love and miss you all very much! We will be heading to Missouri this coming weekend. We are so excited. So, we won’t have an update on here until we get back July 3rd or so.
Love-The Harts