And the summer comes to an end…

August 15

Teen Week

The girls had another fantastic teen week at the Harts in Illinois! I am so proud of Marisa making the long trip there and back and Kayla being the awesome navigator (using the TOMTOM of course!) Here’s what they did the few days they were there:

Sun. - Arrival (finally all together about 4:30), played a few games, planned our week, dinner

Mon. - Temple (each of them performed 10 - 11 names, 64 all together), lunch in park, Nauvoo Scavenger Hunt, Visitor's Center and movie, Adventure Zone (go carts, video games, table tennis, pizza), BYU International Folk Dancers, Play Station American Idol.

Tues., - Service Project (lifting and transporting old mattress to dumpster), Photo Scavenger Hunt, lunch, American Idol, BB Gun shooting, Mystery Theater, dinner, 5 min. Masterpieces, watched last year's Teen Week DVD, Make Me Laugh Game, Latter-Day Night Live DVD.

Holey Moley! More canning!

We started out the week making 7 jars of spaghetti and 5 cans of tomatoes. Yesterday we made 10 more jars of salsa! I’m excited that we will have all these during the winter! Speaking of looking forward to the cold…

And so it begins…

Our first day back to school (as teachers), my room had no AC. It was unbearably hot (at least 100 degrees I swear) and I couldn’t open the windows because we were under a heat advisory and the temperature outside with the heat index was over 100! Do you remember the wicked witch in “Wizard of Oz” when she gets water thrown on her and she starts screaming, “I’m melting! I’m melting”? That was me. (It was all dramatic like that too!) If I had had the pointy hat and the cape on, the kids would say that it matched my personality that day as well.

The temperature was much better the next day and my room is all set up and looking great. I have been working hard getting everything organized for those 1^st few days of school which start this Wednesday.

The end of summer

Our kids are trying to live up their last few remaining days of freedom. I have this gut feeling it’s gonna be a long year! We went to cold stone one night and tried out Zoe’s pizza on another. We went walking too, but it was so hot we almost had more “melting” incidents.

(Does this scream Iowa or what?)

My marvelous magnificent magic migraine shot

I have been having migraines for quite some time. This time, the headache lasted 6 days and I knew I needed to get into a doctor quick when I started spending my day thinking of all the ways I could detach my head from my body. Bless that doctor’s heart- he gave me a shot of Immitrex which made the headache go away. I almost jumped over the table to give him a giant hug, but I thought better of it. Anyway, now that I’ve been diagnosed, I will be going into meet with my doctor to come up with a preventative plan. That will be super-awesome!

Swimming lessons

Alayna finished up her swimming lessons. She got brave enough to do the diving board on the last day! She even went 4 times! I had to work so I didn’t get to see it, but Marisa took some pictures for me.

(Alayna on the diving board)

Tyler, the comedian

Tyler is one of the funniest kids I know. He is like this walking beam of joy. He said a couple of really funny things this weekend that I just have to share.

Friday night, we watched this movie called “The Invisible”. The main girl character wore her hair up in a knit cap for most of the movie. At the end, she took the cap off and Tyler said, “Why would she wear that dumb hat when she has such beautiful hair?” We all stared at him with our jaws dropped and then started laughing. He made a good point!

Yesterday, while canning salsa, I put on my new favorite song called “Like we used to” by Rocket to the Moon. It’s kind of a sad song where this couple broke up, and the girl has a new boyfriend and the old boyfriend wants to know if she does stuff with the new boyfriend like she used to do with him. (How’s THAT for an explanation?) Anyway, at the end of the song, while peeling tomatoes, Tyler said, “I have NO idea why she broke up with that guy. He sounds like such a nice guy!”

So, between that, and him crump dancing to a slow 80s song, he keeps us very entertained!

How much can you pack into one day?

We should win some sort of prize for all we accomplished yesterday! We made 10 cans salsa and 6 frozen meals for when school starts (2 enchiladas, turkey broccoli casserole, manicotti, shell noodle casserole, etc). We deep cleaned the house, mowed the front and back yards as well as weeded them. We made PB cookies with the kisses on top. We watched a movie. I did about 4 hours of work for school (like taping spoons on my pencils so I can deter students from being pencil-stealers!) We did the laundry, the dishes, and finished off a giant list of things to do. Sometimes we totally rock!

(Taking a break from canning to dance)

And this sums up how we all felt when the day was done (I didnt get to bed until 2!)

"If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers." - Edgar W. Howe

What do we do to fill those last days of freedom?

10. Yes! We can can!

We used a super secret formula on our tomatoes and guess what happened? Well, we have tomatoes coming out of our ears! We love it! This week we made 10 cans of salsa:

(Official Jalapeno chopper)

(adding cilantro)

And 10 cans of spaghetti:

And 7more cans of salsa:

If you ask me, they TOTALLY rock! I smell like tomatoes now. So, I was tempted to wear red today so I could smell AND look like a tomato. But, I refrained.

9. Alayna learned to dive in the deep end this week!

8. Book Marathon

I have finished 16 books for ITA. Working on the next 3. I have lots of great book recommendations if anyone wants any.

7. Modesty Project

Marisa and Kayla had friends over to help them with their massive modesty project for personal progress. They have been cutting out pictures in magazine to show how you can be modest despite what the current trends are. I think they are up to 12 posters. I will take a picture again when it’s all done.

6. Train for a 5K in the rain!

I swear that running in the rain is so amazing! Its refreshing and you don’t feel like you will pass out from sweating like a piggy. Marisa and Kayla went with me. We came home soaked, yet refreshed!

(Soaking wet from the rain)

5. Family night at the pool

One night we decided to go to the Noelridge pool to celebrate the end of summer (even though we don’t want to celebrate it, we want to PROLONG it!) Bob and the kids had fun going down the slides and off the diving board. I lounged on a chair, reading more of my books in perfect weather!

4. Mother/Daughter Personal Progress Night

We had a fun mother/daughter night! I even had 2 extra daughters that night! They went over the new program again and the girls shared some of their projects that they are working on. Did you know they are encouraging all moms (and even grandmas) to go through the program again? So, my girls are trying to get me to join them in their quest. We made these adorable certificates to go along with the new bookmarks they can earn.

3. A SUPER date night

Marisa and her friends, Meg and Alyssa, planned a fun group date for Saturday with Jordan, David, and Garrett. They rotated who their date was throughout the night which I thought was a cool idea. They started off here at our house making cookies. They were allowed one glance at the recipe and then they had to measure it and mix it with their hands. It was a competition in teams. Then they played Book of Mormon trivia down the stairs (moving 1 step as they answered correctly) to go watch Brian Regan . Then they went to Wal-Mart and did a food scavenger hunt. After that, they went to dinner at Wendy’s and then watched Monty Python at Alyssa’s house. I heard they all had a wonderful time! Maybe we adults should plan dates like this!

2. Summer is where the girls go barefoot and their hearts are just as free as their toes

The girls decided to hang out with friends on Monday (as if they haven’t been hanging out with each other all summer!) They went to the mall (and played UNO in the middle). They watched “Elf” and even had a sleepover at our house. This group is inseparable.

1. My last days of freedom

The kids helped me unpack most of my classroom this week. I was super organized so it was pretty easy. My first official day back is Thursday!

Girls left for teen week. I know I’m an overprotective mom, but I do worry about Marisa driving into another state for the 1^st time!

(Putting up the bathroom shelf)

How much fun can you have at Wal-Mart?

What would you end up wearing in an emergency?

I decided that we should go through our family 72 hour kits and update them. I used to be very diligent about updating it every year. Anyway, It is a dang good thing we did because look what Tyler would have been stuck in:

(Thos are a size 6 underwear!)

The kids all tried on the clothes and we were dying laughing! So, we updated them and now we are ready to go.

Volleyball camp

Alayna had volleyball camp this week. I was worried that she might not love it since she didn’t see anyone she knew when we got there. But afterwards she came running out, very excited, and said “Can I go again sometime??” Apparently she didn’t know she was signed up for the camp for the week. Guess that was important info. It ended up being a wonderful experience for her and she made several friends.

School Supplies

I took the older 2 girls to do all their school supply shopping on Monday. I always hate remembering how much all those supplies cost. But we finally found both of them some great, new sturdy backpacks. Kayla’s’ is already almost bigger than her and it doesn’t even have the textbooks in yet! We REALLY need to get all textbooks computerized so kids can access them from home. Why hasn’t anyone done that yet? I took the older kids on Friday to do their shopping and I got stuff for my classroom. So, fingers crossed, I’m done with it! Know how I can tell Kayla is my daughter? She organized all the folders in our school supply closet by color! A girl after my own heart!

Summer swimming

Alayna started swimming lessons. Sitting there under the giant umbrella, watching her and reading my books, is definitely one of the best parts of summer! She is doing great and isn’t scared of the water anymore.

The training begins

The kids started joining me this week in training for a 5k (I've been working on it for about a year). One day, we walked a 5k around Linn Grove while Alayna played on the playground and Tyler played basketball with his friend Hunter. Tyler’s friend asked him if I was a “professional walker”. That made my day! We went down one day this week and practiced on the high school track and I was booking it. I have shave about 10 minutes off my time since last year in August!

We also went to play tennis several days this week. On one of the days it was already 80 degrees by 8:30am! It was hot, but as always, we had so much fun. We are hoping all this practice will have Tyler ready for when he starts on the school tennis team this month.

Redecorating

We also put up our new family pictures around the house. I’m pretty dang pleased with the results.

(Alayna actually designed the layout of the mantle)

How much fun can you have at Walmart?

Marisa and Kayla went with their friend Justine to see Karate Kid. Afterwards they spent some time at Wal-Mart and even bought a fish (which died the next day). I’ll share the pics they took. They also had a slumber party this weekend as well as a huge friend activity where they played water dodgeball and watched Pixar short films. I swear we hardly ever see them anymore!

(Marisas shirt says “I only date ninjas)

Our tomatoes runneth over

I just love this time of year! Well, we have tomatoes ripening like crazy. So, yesterday we made 7 jars of spaghetti sauce and our house smelled like heaven. We need to make salsa soon to use up the other 3 giant bowls of tomatoes. We also have a fantastic crop of onions!

I hope I NEVER know how it feels to lose a child

We have a family that was moving into our ward this week from Colorado. 3 days before they were supposed to leave, all the kids were in a bad accident and the older daughter (21 yr old) was killed. The other kids were in intensive care and have had to undergo several surgeries as well. As you can imagine, their family is devastated. It sounds like the younger 2 (16 and 13) will be in the hospital about a month. 3 men from their ward in Colorado volunteered and drove their 3 moving trucks all the way out here! I was incredibly impressed by that. Yesterday, our ward pulled together and unloaded all 3 trucks. Somehow, being one of the only women there, I was in charge of organizing where everything went. It took us 6 hours to get the trucks unloaded, and the kids and I organized and cleaned every bedroom, including setting up and making their beds. It was a wonderful service activity for our family and I truly hope I NEVER know what it feels like to lose a child. Ever.

You can see the article and the video clip here:

http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/99445799.html

The final countdown

Only 11 days til I go back to work and 17 until we start school. Help me!