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!

Handcart Trek

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….

The Giant Lavender Floral Easter Egg and the Worst Tooth fairy Ever!

Worst tooth fairy ever

Tyler lost a tooth this week (I guess he has several baby ones on their way out). A few days later, he came and sat by me and said, “Hmmm, isn’t it interesting that it’s been 3 days and the tooth fairy STILL HASN’T COME?!!” Um, oops. Good thing he already knows about the tooth fairy. Good grief! Why can’t I keep up with all of these things? Is it a sure sign of getting old?

Speaking of the tooth fairy….

Kids say the darndest things

I must preface this story with a little background so bear with me. If you are in our ward and you are reading this you MUST raise your right hand and SWEAR this story will never EVER be leaked to the missionaries. If you can’t do that, then skip this paragraph and go to the next one!

#1 OK, so yesterday I finished my daily workout (60 minutes/6 days a week- just HAD to brag) and sat down to eat my lunch. I was literally dripping in sweat and was in my tight workout clothes, which by family law only my immediate family can see me in (Mainly because they won’t run away screaming.) Marisa came into the living room and said, “Hey- the missionaries on here”. So, I go into panic mode. Do I make a run for the door and risk being seen? As I start to run for my room, the doorbell rang, ruining my chance to run. So, I did the next best thing and ran and hid in the laundry room. . They ended up coming in and talking for about 40 minutes and also had a thought and prayer. The whole time, I stayed in the dark laundry room. While this may sound juvenile, I really didn’t have any other options. I could sneak outside the garage door and risk being seen by neighbors. I could sneak through the back yard and risk being seen by the missionaries. So, I just had to sit and wait.

Then Alayna found out I was hiding in there and I must have looked supercool because she decided to join me. We had an interesting conversation while in there, all at a very hushed level.

Alayna: I think its really weird that the tooth fairy comes and takes your tooth and leaves you money. That doesn’t make any sense. What does she do with the tooth?

Me: Yep. Weird.

Alayna: There are a lot of movies that say that the parents are the real tooth fairies.

Me: Yep

Alayna: Are YOU the tooth fairy?

Me: Well, what do you think?

Alayna (standing up really fast): Are YOU THE TOOTH FAIRY??

Me: Shhh!!! Don’t give up our position! Do you want an honest answer?

Alayna: Yes!!

Me: Yes, I’m the tooth fairy.

Silence for a minute

Alayna: You are the tooth fairy?? Why didn’t you give me more money then?? (That’s the 1^st thing she thinks of?) I only get 3 dumb quarters per tooth and some of my friends get 10 bucks!”

It’s hard to laugh hard in silence. You look like a dork. Anyway, we hid out until Marisa came, opened the door, and turned on the light to tell us they were gone. She started laughing hysterically- apparently it was quite the sight.

#2 Today, before we left for church, I was NOT happy with my outfit. The only shirt that matched my new skirt was this big purple one. Anyway, I stated that I looked like a giant grape to which Alayna replied, “No you don’t mom! Grapes are MUCH darker!” Wow- thanks for that…so it’s not the fact that I’m huge and round that’s the problem, it’s that the color was wrong? So, I went to church feeling like a giant lavender, floral Easter egg!

#3 On the way to the dentist, I noticed Alayna had on a giant heavy winter sweater (yes, it took me til we arrived to notice) and it was 91° outside. When I asked her why in heavens name she had that sweater on she shrugged her shoulders and said, “That’s how I roll”. Oh my heck!

Speaking of teeth:

Cavities

I had to take Kayla and Alayna to get cavities filled. Alayna had 8 and Kayla had 5. You wouldn’t believe how much that cost me!!

College for kids:

This week, Tyler started College for kids at Coe College. He is taking Edible art history, Chinese, and Sun Racer. He has learned several sayings in Chinese, learned how to write his name and made some beautiful art. He is enjoying the edible art history: made Roman arches out of cheese and Greek columns out of rice crispy treats. In Sun Racer, they are building cars powered by the sun and studied how a solar panel works. He has one more week of classes left.

Chalking

Marisa and a friend went out the other night “chalking” which is a big thing here for teens. Anyway, the next night, Alayna yells out “there are people outside writing all over our driveway and they just ran away”. I’m including pictures-apparently we were attacked by the “Gadianton Chalkers”.

Birds nest

A little bird built her nest on the drainpipe outside our window. We have been watching her from the time she built her nest to the time we saw the baby beaks poking out. Alayna went out to monitor the babies and “talk” to them everyday usually by using the well known bird language “kaKAW kaKAW”. She would watch the mommy feed worms to her baby and keep them safe. On Friday, the babies finally flew out (kindly nudged by their mom) and they were trying to fly around our yard. One got stuck in our ball bucket and we had to help her out. We haven’t seen them since yesterday and Alayna really misses them already.

Campout

Tyler finally got to go on a real scout camp out and he finished everything for his tenderfoot! So, now he just has to go to the board of review. It was hot, but he had so much fun. His tent almost landed in the river during the freak storm, plus we had a heat advisory where the heat index registered temps of up to 110°, but he survived (unless you count the 6 mosquito bites and the major sunburn he got.

(Exhausted-after-camp picture)

Blog Books

I finished 4 more blog books this week and ordered them! Yeah me! So now years 2005-2009 are done. I will do 2010 in December. The hard part will be going back to before I was blogging and getting all the newsletters I sent out through email and match them with the right pictures. It could take years to do it all. I’m so happy I can finally cross this huge project off my list of things to do!

Books

I told you all in May that I had been asked to be a reader on the ITA (Iowa teen awards) committee. I’ve been waiting all summer for the list of the books to read. Finally, on Monday, I realized that this was ridiculous and if I didn’t get a list soon, there would be no way I could finish them all in time. So, I wrote the librarian. Come to find out she sent the list before school was out and I had accidentally not been on the list! Major ugh! So, I have been frantically trying to get the books from the library and get them read. I’ve finished 3 books (out of 38) in 3 days and I’m sure that’s where the migraine is coming from. Wish me luck…

I think Jordan Sonnenblick is quickly becoming one of my favorite teen authors. I just read “After Ever After” and I read “Notes from the Midnight Driver” in May. He is such a witty, humorous, and brilliant writer, so even as adults, I’m sure you would enjoy them. I can’t wait to read another one of his!

(Kayla at the swim team car wash fundraiser)