A hailstorm, more books, and a 3 hour handcart trek through the mud

That’s Iowa for ya!

Talk about weird weather. We had a freak storm hit this week. It was an amazing thunderstorm. We went outside and it had the most ominous, black, fast-moving clouds and lightning that lit up the whole sky. It was intense. Good thing we came inside when it started to rain because we had hail! It started out small like about the size of a quarter, and then we got some that were almost golf ball sized. It was crazy! Who knew it could hail during the summer? Storms like that are seriously one of my favorite things in the whole wide world! Last night the sky was gorgeous so we took some pictures of that too.

(Hail storm)

(Getting pegged by hail)

Blog books

I did it! I finished 5 books: 2005-2009!! They look so great and I am so pleased. I would rather do a blog book than scrapbook any day!

I’ve also finished a total of 9 ITA books so far. Some of these are almost 400 pages, so I feel like I am kicking butt! Some of them have been so great that I find myself up at 2:00AM still reading cause I can’t put the dumb book down. That’s how you know it’s good, right?

The end of the childhood myths?

Alayna: Are YOU Santa???

Me: Um, why do you think that?

Alayna: well, I was thinking reindeer aren’t real and they can’t fly, which means Santa can’t fly. And you ARE the tooth fairy. So…you really are Santa?

Me: Yes.

Alayna: Then why didn’t you bring me a Barbie car like I asked???

Me: I tried

Alayna: But the seats are super tiny and no Barbie would ever fit in it!

Me: Well, it looked bigger on the computer screen.

Alayna: oh wonderful! What other “fairytales” are there? (as she walks away)

5 minutes later

Alayna: Oh my heck! Are YOU the Easter bunny too? And did you write the note saying ‘I have so many kids I can’t count’? Oh GRREEAAT! (that was said dripping with sarcasm)

At least we don’t have to be sneaky for Christmas this year!

End of college for kids

Tyler finished up his final week of College for Kids. He brought home his sun car. Alayna ended up swiping it for a Barbie car (see conversation above)

Youth Conference

The girls spent the week in Nauvoo for Youth Conference. They had a great time. They were able to visit Carthage, go to the temple, tour Nauvoo, and even did a 3 hour muddy handcart trek. They said it was the best youth conference ever. I wish they would write about their experiences so they could share it with you, but there’s about the same chance of that as there is for hail to fall in Iowa during the summer! Oh, wait a second…

(At Carthage jail)

(In front of Nauvoo temple)

Extras:

~ Chalked again

~Organized and went through ALL the food storage. Did MASSIVE shopping trip to Sam’s to restock storage. (The guy who worked there asked if we were buying for a restaurant!) We are working on the 72 hour bags and emergency kits this week. There’s always too much to do, right?

~Started shopping and putting things together for my classroom

~Realized summer is almost gone….