Lee Joe's b-day

Well I think everyone has fallen off the blogging band wagon. But I will update since it easier to do that than talk. My mouth is having it's worst day yet and I am in miserable pain from it. Yesterday I was so sick I went to take Kelsea to the doctor and asked if I could see one too. I had a UTI. They thought my mouth is in reaction to that but I am not so sure. But I spent the afternoon hunting down the best deal for Lee Joe's birthday present. I was quite miserable and went to 6 stores. I only bought half of what I was suppose to get. But he got a 29 gallon aquarium and a little bit of stuff to go with it. I just didn't get the stand. We went out to BK for dinner. big spenders aren't we? And then went to Petsmart to look at the fish stuff and came home with nothing but an argument. Which was excruciatingly painful for me. Then they all went to Cabellas to look at ther big tanks in there while I sat in the car because I finally could do no more. We came home and had cake and jell-o. I had nothing. But he really liked the aquarium and had no clue. He has wanted one for awhile. So we will see how we do with our new pet adventure.

Not much

Can you believe it? Two days into the week and I can say not much has happened. Except summer school and summer band, and house sitting and one appointment. That amounts to not much. Monday was beautiful with a high of 73. We cleaned the house real quick. The girls finished painting the trim outside and I tore out the sliding glass door in between the dining room and family room by myself and the girls helped me carry it out. I worked a little on the kitchen and bought some tile for one section and stain to figure out what I am doing-I still don't know. Today I was sick or something. My mouth is super sore and I have felt awful. I got the lawn fertlized and pet sat. Made dinner. Got kids where they needed to go. That was it. I watched a movie!! I am sorry but I still need to take pictures of the kitchen. I hope I feel better tomorrow. I need to get Lee Joe's present!! I will let you know what it is when he knows.

Ohhh--Some interesting bit of news. Lee Joe found out about a superintendent position with a big construction company in town. He might try for it. He is qualified for the position and he talked at length with the guy that is hiring for the position. 401K, health insurance! I hope he really goes after it.

What a Sunday

It kind of turned into a strange evening. I talked to my sister and she told me she heard that a mom of one of Kylee's classmates died last week. She would sub at the school sometimes and I have talked to her. Her son has had a crush on Kylee for the last 3 years. It is just the saddest thing. She had been sick for a few days, then she started coughing up blood and went to the ER and I guess she died. Her youngest son is about to start 2nd grade. That has been mulling in my head all night. I checked the paper and her obituary was in there today. It is very sad. She had 5 kids. The oldest was 17.

Then we had this crazy dog problem. I don't like pit bulls. There were 2 in our yard at about 5. I told Lee Joe and then he caught them both. I called the Humane Society and we had a half an hour to get them there. But then Lee Joe left in the van to Home teach leaving us with the unfamiliar dogs in the front yard on ropes. They were barking at the neighbors, then just barking and wrestling with each other. One was a puppy. It was getting later with no one claiming the dogs and then finally at 8:30 Lee Joe took one of them for a walk and the owners found him and got the other dog. I so didn't want to deal with the dogs all night. I was tempted to let them loose if they weren't claimed soon. So we did our good deed for the day.

Everything

So I forgot to mention fathers day. Lee Joe got a Tennis racket and a movie he wanted. Out Anniversary is Sat and we are leaving the kids overnight to go to the anniversary inn. We are going to the South Pacific. I suppose that is the closest I will ever get. And Lee Joe's birthday is next week and I have something special planned but it will cost a couple hundred dollars. But he really wants it. I really want to get it for him. There are 2 more birthdays in July we may celebrate the guys birthday on July 4.

I have spent so much time in the car this week and it has been over 90 degrees all week and gosh am I grumpy about it. At least this week is finally over. We went to Kohl's last night and I asked them if they would take a 10 dollar off coupon that expired on the weekend and they did! And then we went to Krispy Kreme and got 2 and 1/2 dozen donuts for FREE! Kylee had a dozen free donuts from jump rope for heart and they give you a donut for every A on your report card. We brought in 3 of the 4 the girls had. Amber got 5, Kelsea had 5 Autumn had 6. We couldn't find Kylee's but she would have had 7. The funny thing was, Kylee does not like those donuts at all. She had 2 bites of two different donuts and that was all she could handle. We told her how many she might have gotten with her report card and she had the most disgusted look on her face. It was so funny.

Funny-sort of

I have this neighbor who lives across the street. She is very nice so I don't mean anything mean by this. I think I have figured why she is like she is. But she is somewhat a dependant person. I came home from Costco yesterday. I was grumpy as heck though. It has been 90 something degrees and I have been driving too much this week. She saw me and asked if I had a minute. That was about all I had and I hadn't even brought my groceries in yet. She wants to show me a little bird she found dead in her back yard. She says "its eyes are closed and it hasn't been dead long" I said "That happens" "I don't know how it got there" "Maybe a cat got it and it flew in your yard and died, birds are fragile" "what kind of bird is it" "I don't know" "is it a baby" I don't know" Really I don't know why she needed me to see the bird or if she needed reassurance. She did all she could. She called someone to see if they needed to test it for West Nile but they aren't testing them anymore. So pretty much I told her -its dead, I don't know why and I don't know much else either. I have come to the conclusion that she is a youngest child in her family so maybe that means she requires a lot of reassurance from her neighbors. I am the oldest child so maybe my nature is the reassuring that she needs. I think she calls or comes over every day. She is close to my age and her girls are 11 and 8. I can't believe it-I found someone who worries much more than I do.

No rest for me

This week could kick my butt. Maybe that was just yesterday and could be today. I want to take a picture of my kitchen but we have to clean it up again. I haven't touched it since last week as far as remodeling. We have summer school, basketball camp for Ky and Autumn in the morning. Ky is alternating days in band. Afternoon is Kelsea's basketball camp. Most of what she can do is sit there but we have found that presence is everything in getting them to know the coaches. There is another girl that sprained her ankle that sits with Kelsea when they can't do the running. We are pet sitting for our piano teacher. I think he thinks we are going to go there 2 times a day. Its a cat. I am lucky to sqeeze in once a day.

We did get the mattress for Hannah's new bed. When the bed frame was put up Kylee and Autumn camped out with Hannah on the floor in her room. Yesterday when the mattress was put on and we put all her new bedding on the bed all 5 girls were in there on the bed for over an hour. They were so funny.

almost a fiasco

So we thought a formica countertop was a doable easy cheap countertop. Especially when the labor has been traded out already. But I told the guy I didn't want wood on the sides I just wanted formica. I threw him for a loop I guess because he hadn't done it that way before. So 2 1/2 days later I have a finished counter that had a big mistake on the edges because- just because I guess that is what you get when you are only paying for materials. He did a really bad backsplash at first and then he redid it the next day and it was perfect-the way the counter should have looked. And figured out where the mistake was made on the counter. But I have fixed it up and have made it look like something that was meant to be there on purpose and it doesn't look so bad now. I will take pictures and post them later. It about became a nightmare for us all. With the good comes the mess. I have to rewash many of my dishes and there is dust everywhere and I have a lot of work to do to get the kitchen the way I want it and have about decided I will do most of my repairs and remodels on my own here on out.

Today I cleared out Hannah's room and put her new bed together. It is all painted but the new mattress I ordered won't be here for a week. In the meantime her crib mattress is on the floor under the bed and I can go through all Hannah's stuff while she is bed and I can throw away and get rid of stuff without her. You can't throw anything away when she is around. It is all her "favorite". All 3 little girls are camping on the floor in her room tonight.

The girls have had free lunch at the park this week. We still can't seem to go anywhere without injury. I forgot my summer rule that we were going to duct tape all the girls to the floor. We went to the pool Tuesday afternoon. Hannah got a blister on her foot walking there with Amber. So she didn't want to get in the water. She was playing around the outside of the pool and she slipped on one of the lid thingys. She skinned up both knees really bad and her foot and above her ankle. She tried on 4 pairs of shoes yesterday before she found a pair that didn't inflict pain and walked funny half the day. She has two of the biggest band aids you can find on one knee, a regular big one on the other and 2 bandaids on one foot. We forgot sunscreen. New to this pool thing for the summer. So 2 girls had sunburns, one had blisters across all her toes from the bottom of the pool and the pool wasn't kind to Kelsea's ankle. I guess that is one way to make sure the girls want to stay home awhile.

Pictures are coming and I have a bunch more remodel work under way once I reclaim the family room from Hannah's stuff.

kitchen and other misc

I should have pictures of progress on the kitchen tonight. It didn't look much different after yesterday but today it will. I still have walls to clean up some more. I wore myself out yesterday. I stayed up till 2am Sunday night getting ready. Was up at 7:30 to get Kylee and the neighbor girl to band and then did all sorts of stuff I have been needing to do. I got my sandbox covers fixed and sanded and painted a low loft bed that will be Hannah's and then Kylee's when we do the room switch later this summer. It is pink because I had pink paint from something else. I need to hunt down a mattress. I am painting the rest of it today and hope to plant flowers.

We have been harvesting a few things from our garden already. We have had broccoli. The kids love it, I don't. And we have romaine lettuce! It is good. I brought in a whole bowl of strawberries. And the first raspberries have been eaten. We should have a bumper crop even after I had to remove most of the wood this spring. And Lee Joe thought I hacked them all. We have a carrot from last year that didn't get picked and survived the winter. It has turned into a flowering wierd thing.

Amber and Kelsea started summer school today. All the girls that have nintendo hand held games got a game yesterday for good grades and money earned working for Lee Joe. It has been very quiet the last 2 days. You can't even tell there are kids home. Autumn has read 3 hours already.

Crazy

The last week of school is always crazy. More so with a high schooler and a jr high kid that can't walk home. They don't all get out at the same time. Some days Amber would get out at 11:40 and Kelsea out at 1:15 and the little girls out at 3:15. Then the last day was 10am for Amber, 12 for Kelsea and 1:15 for the little girls. What made the last day even more interesting was having to take Kelsea and Autumn to the ortho doctor at 8 am. Good news there. Kelsea has break that heals easily. She can bear weight on it now, is off crutches and in a couple of weeks we can get her out of the boot and into a lace up ankle brace. She can swim now and in a couple weeks she will be able to run some. Autumn is out of the splint and sling and in a wrist brace when she is playing. She bewildered the ortho doctors too. I have been trying to adjust our June activities around Kelsea's ankle. I had to change the girls summer school classes because she wasn't going to be able to do summer school PE 3 hours a day quite yet. And Amber didn't want to do PE alone. So they are both doing Tech reading and writing instead. Kylee is doing beginning band in summer music and she is playing Trombone.

I have been so worn out all week and had a "take care of mom moment" that turned almost into a "bad mommy moment". I was so tired Weds. I needed a half hour of some mom time out. I told the girls to not disturb me for that time. What we all forgot was that it was Weds and 7. The girls needed to go to the church. Just after 7 one of the girls knocked at the door. I told them not to bug me so Amber and Kelsea on crutches, walked and crutched their way down to the church. I didn't remember until almost 8 that it was Weds after I asked where Kelsea was. But she survived so all is well.

Friday turned into some nuttiness. I told Amber I would take her and friends to see Pirates 3. And I told her it would be nice if Kelsea and her friends could go too. Amber and her buddies changed the time they were going 7 times. But Kelsea had to wait until after one so her friend could go. So in the end Amber and her friends went at one. I picked up 3 girls and Amber. And Kelsea went at 5 with 2 friends. I told her to find a ride there and I would get them home. Then Lee Joe and I went to see it at almost 10. Its a long movie. We got home after 1am. It was good. It could have been better. It was long. I was sad about how it ended but I guess it needed to end that way.

I spent almost the entire day running around. I took the little girls to a book fair in the morning and took them to the Y in the afternoon since it was too chilly to swim outdoors. I met my sister there and we visited while the kids swam.

Today was nice. I told the girls we were staying home. Amber and Kelsea made $25 each helping a lady a few houses down the street get ready for an open house. Kylee is pet sitting for the neighbor behind us. I yard worked all day and harvested a bowl of strawberries and bought a bunch of flowers for my flower beds since I can finally plant something. I am getting ready for our kitchen to get more work done on Monday. Lee Joe is working. Amber and Kelsea are at parties this evening. Guess what, I am still tired.

The good news I have so far on grades-Kylee got straight A's. At the awards assembly, she got an honor roll award and student of the month. Autumn had A's and B's. Amber may have pulled off straight A's as well which was a tough thing to do this year. And Kelsea did well but her grades are all over the place. She tries pretty hard most of the time and she has been in a program that challenges her a lot this year. I will see her report card once they mail it to me. We will be fine with whatever she gets.

I think it will wind down

So Saturday was the grand finale for dance. Sunday was looking calm and all week we wound up with more and more, it became a full day. And I missed half of it with Autumn. We think she has fifth disease-it is really a virus in the same family as chicken pox but milder. She was covered in a hive like rash even worse on Sunday and threw-up. We got worried made calls and figured out what it was. So I stayed home from church. We sent the 4 other girls to church and Lee Joe went to see Thomas who was with a friend in Idaho City this weekend and that was the time to see him. Then our neighbors had a cake and ice cream block party-I went to that. Then Lee Joe took the 3 healthy girls and gimpy to Darren and Carrie' s for Wade's graduation party. I stayed home but they had more cake and ice cream after dinner there. Then we went to Meridian to surprise my nephew Dylan for his 10th birthday. He thought the party was at my mom's. He wanted a surprise party but it wasn't there. Then he came home and there we were in the kitchen. He was so cute. He stayed upright-unlike Amber's friend-but he was genuinely surprised. Then my mom came with gaming rocking banana chair and then he went outside and saw he got a new basketball hoop too. We had more cake and ice cream.

Today I spent 3 and half hours on the playground at school volunteering for field day. I did a clown shoe relay. It was the most brutal thing. The clown shoes were hard plastic and most of the kids had to take their shoes off and many kids had flip flops or low ankle socks and the shoes were hurting the kids ankles and I had 2 kids that needed band-aids. I was 90 something degrees today with humidity. We never have humidity. Tomorrow it will be in the 60's and it will be that way for the rest of the week. It looks like the pool is out for the last day of school. Such a bummer.

Some things clam down but with Gimpy, she gets a ride to school now. And all the kids are getting out at weird times this week so I have make 3 separate pick-up trips. I guess it is prep for next year sort of. I don't EVEN want to think about next year. I hope we get Amber a license here soon.

Dance

Saturday was very busy with the 3 youngest. We had dress rehearsal that lasted 3 hours early in the day and then the program they got down to just over 2 hours. I did 5 buns. My neighbors girls needed my help. And when we were leaving I realized I forgot to finish my hair after my shower. It was blow dried and that was it. Hannah's teacher taught them 2 dances so that meant two costumes. Kylee and Autumn did one. The girls did a fantastic job and looked like little ballerinas all the way. Even with Autumn feeling miserable and breaking out in hives, she did a good job still. Yay-no more driving to dance!

Looks like Autumn has fifths disease. It is a viral infection in the same family as chicken pox. She is not contagious anymore since she has the rash and it isn't as contagious anyways. But we didn't know that last night. poor kid-talk about kid get rung through a ringer this year. Hopefully it will end soon.

More Temple pics

my little rant

I have found driving around town there is a new club for drivers. It is most aggravating. I am bothered by speeders and I am not a road rager really but this could put me over the edge. This new club is called the 5 mile and hour club. To be a member of this club you must drive 5 miles and hour BELOW the posted speed limit on impassable streets. The lower the speed limit, the more affective member of the club you are. I have found many members of this club while driving around my neighborhood and I do lots of driving. I get upset over the people driving well over 25 down my road but there is nothing worse than getting stuck behind someone driving 19 to get to my house. I don't think my car idles that slow. That means if I drive about a mile and half behind someone driving that slow it will take me at least 4.5 minutes but that doesn't include the stoplight which adds another 3 or 4 minutes. I have been stuck behind people driving 30 in a 35. They are everywhere. I have never seen anything like it. Because the club is growing and I encounter at least one member everyday. They are of everyage and male and female. So take caution. And make sure you account for the extra time needed while travelling if you get stuck behind one of these club members

If you hadn't heard--

If you haven't read Devanie's blog yet, we switched gears and went to Utah to see Devanie instead and we spent the motel money on tickets to Lagoon. We can get them at Costco here for $30. That is a $7 dollar savings per person. I have hard time switching gears quickly but I went to Costco for the tickets instead of leaving for Wyoming and Amber took a much needed nap and Kelsea stayed up till 12 working on an English project.

Lagoon was great fun for us all. The older girls and Lee Joe were more daring than last time and went on the roller coasters they didn't go on last time. There weren't as many people there as last time so even though we got there at 1pm we still did lots. I made the mistake on going on the tilt a whirl with Hannah and Kylee. I get sick swinging back and forth twice on a swing. So I think it should be renamed the tilt a hurl. But I didn't do that-just felt like it a long time. Met Devanie and all the girls. We all took turns holding the baby and made sure Devanie got some ride time too. One of Kelsea's friends from school was there and she thought Devanie's girls were her sisters. Kelsea went on the rocket 3 times, 2 times with Devanie, everyone else was a wimp(me included) Hannah even rode a roller coaster and loved it

We went to all the Salt Lake things on Sunday. Kelsea was holding Aurora and got a funny look from a lady. I think she thought the baby was hers since they both have red hair. But we had a nice time and I got some pictures of the girls with the Salt Lake temple in the backround.

Before we went to the zoo on Monday something had to happen to make the trip memorable. Kelsea was running down the stairs with Lee Joe. She was trying to beat him to the bottom and jumped--and caught the last step all wrong--and hurt her ankle really bad. Now we have been through this before so we iced it and went to the zoo anyway. Rented a wheelchair and wheeled Kelsea all over the zoo. It was packed so the wheelchair was more difficult than a stroller to get anywhere. But thank goodness it was the zoo and not Lagoon so she could still participate. We really enjoyed the zoo. Hannah had to see armadillos and Giraffes and she saw them both. We liked everything. The zoo there was much much better than here.

In all, with the switch in plans which suited us all just fine in the end, We had a great time, great food, Great company and enjoyed every exhausting minute of it all.

Today we took Kelsea took the doctor. Our family was quite the topic of conversation with the nurses and the X-ray tech. She asked me "Which Lay is it today and what did she do?" I wasn't going to take Kelsea at first because I had my fill. Lee Joe was off. I figured I better take her because Lee Joe wouldn't remember anything. I suffered through all the attention for my accident prone brood and the verdict was she did the best job out of all the girls and there is no question that her ankle is fractured. The tech showed me and I could see it too. She is in a fancy black velcro boot up to her knee. She thinks she is going to decorate it with colored duct tape. The worst part though was there was a volleyball camp she was going to be at this week and she can't put weight on it at all this week. And she is suppose to do Summer school PE once school gets out. 3 hours of PE a day through June. I don't think that is going to work. I have some things to figure out. More Pics are coming!!

We are going away-I think

We are going to Jackson Hole Wy tomorrow and will meet Devanie there. We may try and get my sister to go. Kim and Gwen, there kids and Jared and Michelle and crew will all be nearby and we will find them too.

We almost had a big glitch in the plan. My starter decided it didn't want to start yesterday so Lee Joe spent all day today trying to get it all lined out so we could go. He fixed it. That and the headlights and the transmission flushed. And the air filter changed and he took it to get an oil change. The car should feel loved now.

I worked at the school. Thank goodness it was the breeziest day yet. The crosswalk was fine in the morning and the there were no fax machines dialing 911 or upset people to deal with. I just had my zipper malfunction on my jeans and had to go home for lunch and change my clothes.

Amber is so excited for Pirates 3 to be out. I downloaded the soundtrack that was released on Tuesday. She loves it. So does Kelsea and I. They are going to do Pirates-pieces from all 3 movies- for marching band next year so that has her hyped up too. She got her year book already and most of what's in it from friends is "Congrats on drum major" Their year book is huge. Like a Coffee table book. There are over 600 Sophmores!!

Got to go to bed.

Shopping fun

Lee Joe is starting to get the side work money in and there are no birthdays or holidays this month to worry about and I got a good paycheck in for April at the school so we all got clothes this weekend. I always get the girls a new swimsuit for the season and the 3 little girls got towels this time too. Kylee needed shorts that fit her and didn't look like they were falling off her so she got 4 pairs. Kelsea and Amber needed new one piece swim suits but they are impossible to find in something that they like so we didn't get suits for them. They needed shorts or capris. Kelsea got 3 shorts and 3 shirts. She bought 2 shirts herself. Amber came home with one capri and a cute eyelet skirt and 2 shirts. I got 5 things to cover my fanny-now that was hard work to find, and a swim suit and 4 inexpensive t-shirts. What fun!

mmm- dinner

So last night I made enchiladas. Nobody could remember the last time we had them. Too labor intensive for busy nights. Lee Joe even found a way to stick around to have dinner before he did his side job. They were GOOOOD!

Somehow in 3 days 2 pants and 2 shirts of mine were ruined. A mulitcolored pen went through the wash and got on my capris and a shirt I needed to get rid of, that was all that had ink on it, and another shirt came out of the same load with several new holes. But it was quite a wash day. One load of laundry came out with a bunch of wadded up pretend money. Dollar after dollar came out of the wash one by one. Too bad it wasn't the real thing. I like getting paid for doing laundry. And when Lee Joe's work clothes went through the wash there was a lot little bitty pieces of paper on all his clothes. I found two small clumps with a staple. After analyzing it I came to the conclusion that one of Lee Joe's checkbooks went through the wash. Then I found a giant wad of paper on the side of the washer. So much for duplicate checks. There is a "check your pockets" rule in the house after several lip glosses have gone through and oiled up several loads of laundry. I think I will be washing my clothes separate from here on out.

SHE DID IT!!!!

Amber just called me to tell me she made Drum Major!!!! There were 4 other sophmores that tried out. She was so upset after she led the band yesterday because the band didn't follow her. But she had gone first. She thought it went badly. She was really down when she came home. So now she is happy!! She wanted it badly and Amber usually doesn't want much.

What to call it-I don't know

I don't how to title this. But yesterday was Hannah's day. We haven't done preschool with Hannah for a long long time. So we went to the library. I got there in time to go to the music and movement thing they have there. It has been awhile since we did that too and she was not so sure. We stayed for two songs and she looked like it was painful so we went and looked for books and then came back for the last 2 songs and the parachute and she liked that. I decided spur of the moment to take her to the zoo. It has been since early fall that we went and I told her she could get something at the gift shop and she remembered something she really wanted. I wasn't sure she would find what she wanted and we walked in and she found it instantly. She has an incredible memory. The word she uses lately is she knows the stages a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly and when she says chrysalis she blows me away.

Autumn could be a little Autistic. I have to an expert about it and it sounds a lot like she is a little. But one of the things she does is fixates on things and consumes herself with her interests and deviates very little. It started with Care Bears and lasted years and I was excited when she showed interest in anything else. So now she is fascinated by the the solar system. Her class is going to the planetarium today and she is so excited. She has the planets memorized better than Kelsea and is thinking and talking about space endlessly. We call her little thing she does Autumnism. Even her teacher has noticed some of her little quirks. By the way, she is still in a splint and sling now.

I am trying not to think too much about it. Trying to keep my thoughts distanced from it, but Amber is trying out for drum major. She wants it so bad. She leads the band today and had her interview yesterday. The band teacher did say that he has asked the kids in band what they think about her and he said that the kids respect her. That could be good. There is a really good senior trumpet player that keeps telling her she is the future drum major. About 3 of Amber's good friends are trying for the spot too. They are such good friends that it shouldn't be too bad if one of them gets it. She should know by Friday.

Kelsea got a 2 on her solo. What was strange is she got a half a point marked off for her locking her knees. The lady that played piano for her had judged earlier and thought that it was not right for her to get marked off for THAT.

I mowed the lawn last night and had the worst allergy attack I have had this spring. I had to stop and find all my allergy stuff in between my nonstop sneezing. Amber finished the lawn for me and as I moved the trampoline it tool a bite out of my most comfortable $2 pair of athletic pants. Then I sneezed so much I got a headache after everything calmed down. I was hoping sleep would get rid of it but it escalated and I got little sleep. I finally took some medicine at 7 and Lee Joe got the kids ready and arranged for our friends to do today for carpool so I didn't have to drive. Miserable. Usually the stuff I am taking is wonderful but I can still feel it but it isn't as bad. Not much is getting done today. But at least I am upright. I need to go find a stick to beat the laundry down in the laundry/bathroom. It is crawling all over the place in there.