Mom moments

This morning my oldest daughters had themselves a spat. "MOM!!!" you know that tone they use, the tattling one. They still have it down at 16. "Mom!!! Amber made my toothbrush fall in the toilet and she won't take it out!" huh? "She threw a shirt at me and it made my toothbrush fall in the toilet and now she won't pick it up!" So who's fault is it really? And I can't determine who should fish it out of the toilet. Great way to start the day. Thankfully dad intervened but I am happily in the dark about who got to pull it out of the toilet.

Fun at Chuck E Cheese today. Really you ask? Now really it is just throw tokens at a bunch of super happy and excited super cute 7-10 year olds. I informed my brood that they were coming to help. I didn't mind that they didn't show up with me but I did start to mind after every invited child showed up and all my help was no where to be found. After they finally arrived, the begging for their own tokens started. My help was lost when it came to the pizza. Off, all playing Skee ball together after I had most of the invited children at the table. Then the post birthday girl (she did have her birthday in December, mid January allowed plenty of Christmas recovery time before throwing the birthday party) was last to be found and brought to the table. We were ready to do cupcakes, twice I had to ask my "help" to return to the table. I sent kids packing with more tokens after presents were opened. My biggest "helpers" sat at the table texting. The dad was lost in a virtual reality kind of game. Kylee kept feeding the game tokens. I wondered several times if he had left but he was still there. It was still a fun day and a super easy party. I was able to come home to messy house. I put a small dent in the mess. I would have put a bigger dent in it but someone on Facebook-not me- accidentally clicked on something that downloaded one of those horrible viruses on the computer. I am always the one though that gets to try and recover the computer even though I am really not all that computer gifted. I have spent my entire evening trying to fix it and I think I have finally accomplished that now that it is midnight and I am blogging as I have it scanned one last time. AVG couldn't find it. But I found something that finally found a ton of crap on my computer. It is Malwarebytes anti-malware. I could download it for free and it really has worked. I found it through a CNET recommendation. Oh yes, I sound so smart but not really. We will see. I am pretty sure so far that it did the trick.

I have been reflecting on one special revelation from this past week. There are times I don't like my job-the one that pays me. But sometimes I need to reflect on those special moments. There are a couple of girls that lost their mom when the little one was pretty young. Dad is doing a great job. They walk to school most days and when they run a little late they run most of the way. They always share stuff with me before they cross the street. Their dad was gone for the weekend and just came back that evening he gave the girls some souvenirs from his trip before they had to go to school. They were SO excited to show me what he gave them. Another dad with 2 girls saw this. When he came back across the street he commented something about the girls and how "some kids just really are an open book" comment. But I told him that they had lost their mom. That they are like that with me. But I didn't know what else to say. That dad's face just fell and it was like he was instantly sad and reflected on his own girls. He thought about how hard it would be to not have a mom to their hair. I can see that there is a little void in their life and they sure do like to share stuff with me. The youngest hugged my leg when I went into her classroom the other day. I am not their mom but I get little opportunities to share happy little girl things with them. Maybe in the end it is not the paycheck I should be there for. It is just to have an opportunity to be something positive in over 500 kids lives. Okay, there are some days some kids might not like me in the end. Some days I don't like all of them. There have been some really rough days. No wonder the Savior loved little kids so much. There is nothing better than to be loved by a kid.

Even when an 18 year old and a 16 year old are bantering over who's fault it is that there is a toothbrush in the toilet, there is nothing better than to have that title of mom and to feel mommy-ish to all those you come in contact with. At the end of the day it is still okay to the shut the door and tell them to go away. Darn it-moms get tired!!

I just wanted to share a snippet of my mommyhood. I would call it super human feats of amazingness but every mom fills those shoes so it really is just quite ordinary.

Should I post something new?

I think some of the bloggers in the bloggin world have called it quits. But I noticed the interest in Facebook is waning as well but I think it is because they keep changing it and gets harder and harder to see what you want.

So anyways, Christmas was nice, once I could talk and stop coughing up a lung. It was still very nice and we were very blessed.

Lee Joe's job is working out fine for now. Jobs and paychecks and wonderful things to have. And knowing when the paycheck will show up is great too.

We almost have the settlement on the car. We are getting far more than I expected. We may have our next car lined up.

Hannah turned 8. She was baptized the Saturday after her birthday. Devanie came and helped make her baptism super special. Besides the fact that she came with cousins in tow. But she brought the most beautiful dress and accessories for Hannah to wear with it. She was so very excited from like Christmas until the 3rd of January. She got her ears pierced on her birthday. That is when my girls have been able to make the choice to get their ears pierced.

Kelsea is still fighting illnesses as well. She got her blood drawn today. She is on some strong anitibiotics. We are hoping to kick whatever is trying to nail her once again.

Amber and Kelsea are in the process of changing rooms. It is a decision they made together and they are doing the work together. I am not involved. They are funny-when Kelsea is feeling well. Kelsea just makes hilarious comments about everything and Amber laughs her head off the whole time. If you have seen her profile pictures on Facebook-well it is like that all the time. Some boys came over during Christmas break and she was mortified over our old family picture from about 5 or 6 years ago. She is not embarrassed over wearing green mud on her face for all her friends to see?

Amber has finished her first semester in college with 3.8 GPA!!! She was taking calculus, chemistry and intro to engineering. WOW!! She blows me away. She has a job tutoring at the jr high. So she is doing well.

Kylee and Autumn are doing very well. They are healthy at the moment, playing instruments like their bog sisters and having pre-teen and just turned teen spats. PMS is becoming a consistent visitor around here. I can do without that.

Like always, I need to post lots of pictures. So much has happened in December alone. Wow!

Lee Joe's turn to be sick. He just came home running a fever. He has the flu. Of course he thinks he might faint. I need to go put him to bed, poor guy.

Christmas-It's here too fast!

I have liked baking at times. I don't like the mess I have in the end. I realize I depend a lot on labels on items for my baking-

Rice Krispie treats-usually on the box- Not this year. Had to Google it
Muddy Buddies-On the Rice CHex box at Christmas time.
Fudge-Favorite recipe ever is on the marshmallow creme container. It's easy and almost always yummy.
Toffee cookiesLove cookies made with Toffee bits that you can find at Wal-mart. I use the recipe on the package and they are a big hit.
Sugar cookies-I was ready to give up on those until I found a recipe that calls for you to use Cream Cheese. I found that recipe at Kraft.com. They are my favorite now and they are easy, you don't need to chill and they stay soft after you bake them.
I have a chocolate chip cookie a friend gave me. I might have to share that one later.

I have been terribly sick. Could be the great outdoors that did me in this year. I usually get some form of larygitis with a cold this time of year. Never have I lost my voice permanently for days. It was gone for 3 days. It is still struggling to come back for 3 days since. I have the worst cough so I am pretty sure I have a wonderful bout of bronchitis. It's been hard to get things done this week because I have felt so bad. Today is the best day and I started with some kitchen stuff. I have made only the rice kripie treats and muddy buddies.

We have been touched by the genorosity of others like never before. Someone we know came by the house on Thursday, the day after the red car was totaled, and gave us a $500 dollar gift card to the mall. I have never been so overwhelmed in my life. We have also received gift cards to Winco too. I have never been more grateful for the love of others.

Lee Joe started his new job last week. We are thankful he has a job. He drives 50 minutes to work. The weather has been awful and he is driving cattle trucks all over. Hard job. Hard work and long hours. It was on his way home, his first week, 3rd day when he lost control of the car went off the road. He was checking the tires to see if any were flat when another car came around the corner and lost control and hit the car. He was not in the car and in absolutely the safest place he could have been standing when the car was hit. We are amazed he is safe. We are without a car but we have enough cars to be OK. I say again how lucky he was to be where he was when that car came around that corner. So we are counting our blessings and will hopefully start to feel some relief soon in other areas as well.

Wonderful things have happened even though I am whining about my health again and some of the challenges seem so much smaller now.

Here is to 2010 making 2009 disappear because of it's greatness.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

The good news is....

All I wanted for Christmas was good news. And it has finally come. We had good news regarding our house payment, I may be able to get a discount on our phones because I work for the school and Lee Joe finally has A JOB!! It was felt like almost a year at least of struggling and the last six months have been hard. When I heard he got the job with Simplot I think I wasn't ready to believe it yet until I heard more. But he starts tomorrow. We went out this weekend and we both could feel the relief. We sighed great big sighs of relief over and over.

I have been grateful that I have a job. Weeks like last week are pretty rough. It was below 0 or like 3 or 4 degrees in the morning every day last week. Even though the kids can come in, I still have to be outside for the crosswalk in the morning. Our principal was wonderful and spelled me off so I wasn't out that long. Inside recess all week is a big pain in the month of December to make even more so. I have this cold now. I get it every December. I have a really soft voice but then you give me a case of laryngitis and it is ridiculous. I was SO frustrated. I can't talk loud enough to be heard. I feel like yelling sounds like a whisper. Everyone told me to stay home on Friday so I did. Even though I have been inside all weekend I am not much better. Oh well. We have this big stake choir thing though. I thought for sure I couldn't sing and would have to just mouth the words. I was pleasantly surprised that I could sing. We sang the Hallelujah chorus in the end and then I started coughing after that and had no voice for Silent Night but was able to sing everything else. Amazing!

I am happy to report- and why I am so silly excited over this, I don't know- But I went to the dentist for the first time in several years and my teeth are healthy, no cavities. They went ahead and cleaned my teeth and my gums were healthy too. I liked that good news.

We are getting ready for Christmas with a big sigh of relief thank goodness. I am very happy about that. One more week of school and I am off too. I like that as well. We have had snow and it has finally warmed up. I hope we can send the kids out at the school to have fun in the snow.

I like good news.

All I want for Christmas....

I decided earlier this week if anyone were to ask me what I wanted for Christmas that I was going to tell them that All I want for Christmas is Good News. From a pukey flu, sore throat thing, to one thing after another and then someone stole my husbands identity and then applied for credit. It looks like they have new teeth for the trouble they are causing us. I thought my stress level couldn't get any higher. But I have found some great ways to manage. So when I came home from work on Friday I finally got some good news. It is a start. I am not going to divulge here but it finally felt good for once. It felt like Heavenly Father gave me a hug.

I have gone into Thanksgiving with great thanks for good news and how much I have really missed hearing something good come my way.

We had a very nice dinner here with my kids and my mom. Who knows if Amber will want to be around us all next year.

Here is to good news and yes I would still like to hear good news-That is Good news that is meant for me and my house.

I love my house and all it's imperfections.

Good news?

Yeah, I am not blogging the way I use to and Yeah, I need to find my positive energy. I wish there was great news. I guess it's great that in spite of all the hard things our family is struggling with, my kids have had some good reports from their teachers. And that is blessing. But we have been slammed with Swine flu's aftermath with one kid, infected toes and cysts in embarrassing locations on other children. The recession and joblessness still reigns and the cars are beginning to come up with their own afflictions and well, I am ready for the turn for the worst to end and the turn for the better to show up on my roadmap. So this and all past blogs are dreary enough.

October curse

By the way this week went, I think this October is cursed. The whole month has been rough. It has been a very rough week. I felt like it was Friday on Thursday and didn't think I could make it through Friday and it was one grand finale day.

I print the awards at the school for student of the month and personal best. I print 42 individual awards, 3 class awards and a volunteer award every month. you would have thought this was the first time I ever printed awards with how many times I messed it up and how much paper I wasted in the process. Then two were put in the shredder box with all my mess ups and they were good awards. Thank goodness that stuff waits to get sent to the shredder. And then even the teachers acted like they didn't know how the process worked. By some feat of super human diligence all the awards were ready at 9:00 this morning for the 9:15 awards assembly. That was it's own struggle along with double activities a few days this week. Two concerts on the same night at 2 different schools meant I missed one. But thank goodness Lee Joe made one of them.

Kelsea is dealing with another heavy duty round of illness. She was taken to the doctor Monday. They said it was a cold. She still went downhill all week. She went back today and they said it was probably some sort of secondary bacterial infection that set in because she was weakened by the H1N1 virus. NOW she is on antibiotics and she has missed 8 days of school in 3 weeks. Lee Joe has taken several of the girls in to the doctor these past 3 weeks. Today Lee Joe finally got a good dose of trying to deal with 3 kids visiting the doctor at once and it was all pretty serious stuff. Kelsea had her blood drawn and was tested for strep again. She doesn't handle needles well at all. Amber had some serious pain in her tailbone that got really bad over the course of 3 days. She had a cyst. I guess it was a really big one. So she was cut open and grossness took place and she is draining I guess. She has to go in again to see a doctor tomorrow to change the packing and again on Monday. Autumn went in a couple weeks ago with an infected toenail. She was on antibiotics and now it is much worse so she had parts of both big toenails removed today. They said they were in really deep. So we left the doctor with 6 prescriptions today. I showed up at the end of their visit to get the prescriptions so I could get them filled while Lee Joe took all the sick and sliced children home. Autumn's toes are wrapped. Amber prefers to lay on her stomach and Kelsea had to leave the clinic with a face mask. Visiting my doctors office was disturbing. I have gone to the same clinic since I was pregnant with Kylee. They had plastic shields covering the gaps in the glass for all the ladies at the sign in desk and there were people all over the waiting room with masks on. I really felt like I was entering into a danger zone. But I am around 500 kids all day and so many of them have had this I am not too disturbed about it and I am pretty sure I had it first anyway. But man, it is really bad here. But in our house this weekend I suppose we are calling it Recovery weekend.

So good news-Kylee tried out for honor band and made it. She is proud of herself and I am so happy for her. Only 3 kids from our jr high are in it. We know people who made it so a car pool may take place and I love that!

More bad news-Kelsea has been doing Color guard with the band all season. She missed all week because of her crud and they changed all the choreography this week, so she can't perform for DIII this weekend. She feels like she has wasted her time and I am so bummed.

Lee Joe is trying to find work. I am struggling with all this stuff. I am waiting for it to let up. I have had a sense of humor about it all and had some good laughs but I seemed to have misplaced it right now. I keep teasing Amber that she was trying to grow a tail but she doesn't think that is as funny as I think it is.

Blechyville

That sick piggy thing made a pit stop at our house and decided to stick around awhile. Kelsea has had and recovered from it. We got her into the dr right away and they gave her Tamiflu so she was sick but not in the worst way. I was concerned because her lungs are still compromised from pneumonia this past spring and I heard how someone's neice was in ICU after just 3 days and she came down with pneumonia. Kelsea had a good day on Saturday-plus she was determined to go to homecoming. She made it to Homecoming but came home early. Party the date and partly that flu. She missed 3 days of school with the weekend in between. Of course Monday child number 2 was hit. Autumn started running a fever. We got her in right away. No Tamiflu for her or cough medicine with codeine and she is my croupy cougher. I guess Kelsea was considered high risk. Lee Joe took them in so I am not sure if they told him that and he didn't remember or what. Autumn has run a really high fever for 3 days now. I called the dr this morning because she couldn't breathe this morning and I wanted some cough medicine at least for her but they never called me back until after 5. Good thing she felt a little better. Not much though. So they called in the prescription but the pharmacy wouldn't fill it because they wanted an actual signature from the dr. She has no voice from the congestion. her throat is killing her and she has the most wicked cough that hurts her throat more. I could go on more about my headache with that but I just hope she doesn't have to go to the ER. She looked a smidgen better just now going to bed. So I hope that means she is turning around. And the PA I talked to said "You know they just feel really bad." She is telling this to a mom of 5 trying to care for number 4. Yeah, I know.

So then last night I thought I was getting sick with a cold. I was coughing and my nose was miserable. My chest was hurting and I couldn't breathe. Before bed I thought I would treat it like allergies so maybe I could breathe. Then everything felt much better within a half an hour except my eyes were hurting and bothering me. I thought something was in one of my eyes and it wouldn't stop. Then my eyes kept sealing shut and My right eye got really swollen. I looked pretty scary. I had to call a sub and no one picked up my job. I went to the doctor. Tried to get my wonderful nasal spray refilled. Ran into problems with that. My insurance doesn't want to cover it. Veramyst is absolutely the best allergy spray EVER!! My doctor offered to give me a sample to get by until we figure out if the insurance will cover it so that was a trip on the other side of town. But it was worth it. That is the stuff that calmed everything down last night.

I am rambling. But basically I remember the days when a doctor visit was maybe 30 dollars without insurance. And medications maybe cost 50 dollars for an expensive one. And now everything is ridiculously high priced and so are the doctor's visits because of all the people they have to hire to go back and forth with insurance companies. In the end the insurance company is who wins out everytime. When I didn't have insurance I would get shafted with extra fees the doctors office was making up from their contractual obligations to insurance companies and now I am shafted by the insurance company and I am still paying for what they have decided is pre-existing conditions. I don't think Obama has it figured out. But I think everyone would be better off without insurance companies dictating everything. That is where the problem is. Insurance. I am stepping off my soapbox now. Goodnight.

Week of the run over

This is one of those weeks that run you over. Yeah, so 4 kids to the dentist one day ( two with cavities that I have to schedule appts for and a wisdom tooth consult to schedule too.), my dr's appt the next and figure out how 2 kids are getting home at different times and then there is one more appt to finish the week with. One has started elementary basketball, and honor choir this week. there is the school carnival. On top of one in tennis (thank goodness she can walk to and from the jr high) one in color guard and playing in the homecoming powder puff football game and the performance at the game on Fri and the dance on sat and now she is coming down with a sickness. She says it is starting like her pneumonia did. Ugh. SO yeah, I am complaining like I do so well but it really is no surprise yet the bonus is having enough cars so enough of them can drive. That's good.

There is my week and yet I have a little time in the evenings to decompress some. But I am ready to schedule myself a mental health day but I will wait until things settle down some so it's worth it.

Wait, so I have to share today. We had a 911 emergency that was weird with an adult on the sidewalk outside the school. Then another person- a friend, had a passing out episode of some sort and we almost had to call 911 again. Kids were given these little strobe light whistle things for walking to school. Having about 50 kids blowing these things on the playground at once is like some sort human torture device. NERVE WRACKING!! and then Amber's boyfriend's mom is the PTO president and she is organizing the school carnival. She calls the office and says "Hi, this is ---- I am stuck in the attic." I laugh. But I don't know where the attic is. She tells me so I find her. She is scared of heights and doesn't want to climb down the ladder without help. But she really did need another person there to hold it but she also didn't know where the light switch was so I turned on the light and saved her. Ok not really all that heroic but after our day any little boost counts right? That was almost like a week full of little crisis rolled into one and it isn't even a full moon anymore.

Nough said!!

Birthdays and flus

So I should mention first of all that today is Kylee's birthday. My middle child is 13 years old. She has been one of my easiest at times of my kids. She is really laid back-almost too much at times. She goes with the flow. She just had a great day with her grandma and was spoiled beyond belief but she had a great day. We were both treated to lunch at the Olive Garden by my mom as well. My favorite place EVER!! So she got all the Teen girly girl stuff. Make-up, nail polish, some clothes, jewelry and a DS game. She was very excited.

Then my mom threw in my birthday tonight and I got a Wii fit. I like it a bunch.

I think I might have been hit with the H1N1 virus last week. I had the symptoms and was down for 4 days. I didn't know that is what it was when I started to feel it coming on Saturday morning as I was away from home. I had a very nice weekend in spite of being sick, in Jordan Utah at a time out for women event. I had one of the best dinner's out at a mexican restaurant before I parted ways with Devanie and Her in-laws. I have still been feeling not quite myself all week so I hope this thing doesn't rebound. blech....

Music

So I am really liking some music right now. Why I am posting it- well I feel like sharing somewhere. I don't want to do a music link on the side so you will have to chesk it out.

I am so liking this one funky song-- It is "Say Hey (I love you)" By Michael Franti. It is such a fun song.

I just got two more songs that are totally different and LOVE them. They are By Priscilla Ahn and they are "Dream" and "In a Tree" That one is currently on some car commercial and that is what led me to both so there you go.

Just watch the biggest looser while riding a stationary bike-- Motivating!!!! There is woman on the show that lost her hubby and two kids in a car accident. Breaks yout heart completely but she is there for herself. And then there is the biggest woman ever on the show that grew up in foster care and is a social worker now. Gotta love her. You want them all to stay so much longer than they ever let any of them stay.

So in the coming week or two I complain about everyone being sick- it should be no surprise. More than half the 6th grade was sick yesterday. Today we were sending kids home that had fevers but didn't look sick. No nurse in the afternoon. I was the nurse. YUCK!! I washed and washed my hands.


I need to be doing something else somewhere else. Just wanted to throw some random tidbits out there.

Where did I go?

Yes, life has become hectic again. I have been more loyal to Facebook than blogging. But I guess mainly because of exhaustion. Even though this week would be considered a short one it was a rough one to get through all the way around. It feels like we have been back over a month but it has only been two weeks.

Amber is adjusting to college life just fine but she keeps to herself mostly and she kid just spend a week with her boyfriend's family watching his 4 younger brothers while he was in Utah and his parents were on an Alaskan cruise. She was given a little trinket box from Russia and I said "Why did they give you something from Russia when they went to Alaska?" And she says "I can see Russia from my house" With her Tina Fey acting like Sarh Palin voice. It was funny to me but I might have just been hysterically tired. One little mishap which I also find funny. The cable on their suburban decided to break when she drove it to our house with the boys. Since we couldn't release it, the suburban had to stay here overnight. They have personalized plates so every who knows them that decides to drive by our house- on the busy street we live on- would know who's car that was. Lee Joe was able to release it later Sunday. But as soon as the mom and dad got home, they made the mistake of pushing the brake in and got stuck in their driveway and the red car had a flat. That was one welcome home for them.

Kelsea is not liking high school so much but that's because it is school. She is flag waving in band. Alright, she is doing color guard.

Kylee has transformed into a very social jr high kid. It is like she grew up all of a sudden. Kind of funny to watch the change because it is dramatic.

It is just Autumn and Hannah and I going to the elementary school. Autumn is starting to play the flute this year. Hannah has a wonderful teacher and most of the students in her class are great with the exception of one. They have had to evacuate the class a couple times and he has an behavior interventionist and he has been sent home several times and we just finished the second week of school. I am not happy about this at all. Especially since Hannah's class has strict criteria to be in it and someone has bulldozed their way around and through it at the expense of many. So I will leave that there.

We are here. And life is not going to slow down for some time. I am just trying to get use to it again.

At work again

Ummm.. Vacation in over for me. I am sad and wishing for the good old days. But what is fun with the lack of schedule with no kids is I have gone out to lunch a few times with friends from school that I normally don't get to have lunch with. The kids start on Monday. But Amber started this week too. I am exhausted every day. Oh well.

Lee Joe is trying to find work. There has been very little and a lot of waiting without good news.

Such as it is. I wish I had good things to report. It's Friday eve. There's the good. One more day to go before the weekend.

pictures promised

Here are my pictures. Not sure the order. I am still getting the computer jargon when the pictures upload and I am tolazy to preview. I know there is one of my tile job. Two of Hannah's cute glasses. The rest are of our hike from our little daytrip to Twin falls to Jared's house. We met Janika and had time to hang out for lunch and go on a couple of really short hikes with all the kids and take some pictures and then we had to come home so the 2 oldest could go see all the kids about to leave for college. So far the biggest event of our summer.

I am here

I haven't gone far. Just to Twin Falls and back today but other than that I have been sitting here at home. Not doing much. Kidney stones have calmed down only to make for a migraine battle. But I have been very successful in fighting those off. here is my rejoicing in that--Hooray!! YAY!! WOOHOO!!! The weather is crazy cool but that's nice, but probably the source of my headaches. So the days are ticking to when school and work starts for me again. I am trying to make everyday last as long as I can. Well, going to bed a 2am most days is not the best way to make summer last but the freedom is great.

My next post will need a bunch of pictures but I am not posting those yet.

Kidney Stone

Something has been a brewing. I just didn't realize it until it was too late. Devanie has felt my pain. And yes it is THE worst. As if migraines themselves weren't enough of an affliction. But I have a stone causing me some misery all of sudden. I haven't had one do this for a while. Yep, lack of water, too much sitting and writing on my laptop and too much soda and maybe some of the new medications causing a flare up. I hope it feels better tomorrow.

I have pictures of Hannah in her new glasses to post and my nice little tile job. I will post them later.

Waiting.....

And Waiting...I seem to be waiting so much for all sorts of things that UGH summer is slipping away.

So Hannah's super cute glasses should be in by now but are not. I was waiting for something that help us out tons here and that took almost 2 weeks when they said a few days. We wait for every check Lee Joe is suppose to get until we are almost at our wits end. As of Friday it is one month until I have to be back at work and things will be picking up with things to do with the kids.

Lee Joe keeps applying for every job he can find and every job gets inundated with applicants. 150-200! people applying for one job. He is getting bits and pieces here and there but those are the things we have wait forever for.

The good things-The 3 little girls did summer reading and got a bunch of free stuff for it. They got to do the first thing today and go to the Discovery Center. I didn't go so no pictures. Lee Joe has never been there so he took the girls for a little while and Amber hung out with them until they were ready to come home. I am fixing my mom's laundry closet door for some extra money. So I got that started. I was able to do some serious grocery shopping. The house is stocked for the first time this summer. Good feeling there.

It is nice to be so low key with out much to do. I will be very reluctant to shift gears when school starts. It is super hot so you really don't want to go far or do much. Hopefully though we can find some more pool time. I will try to get some more projects finished and a garage sale in the works so more good to come I guess. I have been writing. Staying up ridiculous hours doing it but I am so into it that it's so cool. I am finishing up Aurora's doll right now. She has been kind of finished but just needs a couple of little things. I just love it. She looks like a little Anne of Green Gables doll. Pictures will be coming of that. Oh yeah, I finally grouted some tile that has been unfinished for 2 years this summer. I needed to caulk around the counter top back splash but the caulk spent too much time in the garage and was more like nasty vaseline so now I have to clean that up and redo it and THEN I can sand and paint the walls so I will post pictures of that home improvement task here soon. I love the tile. So on that positive note I end this burble.

Harry Potter

Kelsea was SOOOO excited for this Harry Potter movie to come out. She looked up when movies were playing it for the midnight premiere and bought us tickets several weeks ago. She knows I read the books and enjoy it so she bought me one to and I got to hang out with all her teenager friends. The movies theater we went to downtown didn't have any movies playing that night except for Harry Potter in all 8 theaters. She left at 9 and panicked and told me I should come because there were so many people there. Even if you had a ticket for a certain time, they told everyone to just pick a theater. So for the time leading up to the movie we saw all the people dressed up like characters from the movie or just Harry Potter excitement all over them. Kelsea dressed up like Ginny. She made herself a wand which I did not get a picture of, days earlier. She wore Amber's graduation gown and went to savers to get a clip on tie. One of the radio stations took a picture of Kelsea. We are waiting still to see if they post it. It was like 95% teenagers at the midnight showing. I waited in the theater with all the teenagers- Kelsea had a huge group of friends-from like 10 until the movie started at 12. It let out at 3am. And it was sold out so all the theaters were packed. The movie was well done and is like the lead in to last movie or movies- one of the kids said they are making the last book into 2 movies. They probably should. When it ended everyone was like "Uh, the end?" it was a good ending spot but you are kind of like wanting more. I need to reread the last 2 books now.

New glasses

The best news is that Hannah was overdue for a new eyeglass prescription. The even better news is that she doesn't have to wear a foil on her lens anymore. She really was kind of tired of it anyways. That's why she didn't wear her glasses all the time. I have insurance that I could all the girls on for eye care. Medicaid gives you little selection. So we were excited to shop for the really cute glasses. There are the absolute cutest Disney Princess eyeglasses they have out now. We bought a pair a few years ago when we had some eye care insurance and I loved them. Hannah picked out the CUTEST pair on Thursday. Check this out. Her pair is purple and pink. I will post pictures of her when we get them. She is so excited to get them!
http://www.bestbuyeyeglasses.com/disney-princess-giselle/298336.html

What the foil has done--- She sees about 20/25-to 20/30 with glasses on with the eye that has the persistent pupillary membrane. She was 20/40 with glasses on when we started. That is pretty good improvement. The other eye does a REALLY good job of seeing and that is why we had to put the foil on. It really was a little piece of clear looking plastic film that obscured the vision in her good eye. Check out those glasses, they are super cute.

Yesterday I spent the entire day at Boise State University at Orientation. Ugh. I didn't realize I needed to be there until Thursday night. But I learned a lot about things I needed to know to get Amber prepared even though she is going to be doing most of this herself. We got a free lunch and free dinner while we were there. I came home with a migraine. Too much sitting I guess. A lot to take in. I was suppose to go back this morning for at least half the day but there wasn't much more I needed to do. Amber was signing herself up for her classes anyway without my help. I did meet some parents from around the country. I met a nice lady from Chicago and a couple people from Los Angeles. It was fun to hear other parents from around the country ask questions about Boise and Idaho, about weather and driving laws and just other little funny things you take for granted living here. Amber went on a tour of the campus and she has been in and around it so much in her high school years that it was more like revisiting places she had been. The neat thing I came away with was a new perspective on the university and how it is settled in a really neat location where the kids can have really fantastic college experience. I guess you have to know Boise and what it has to offer and what is down town to really appreciate it. The lady from LA really likes it here and that has the city feel but not overwhelmingly so. They make a really big deal about it being one of the top 5 bike friendly cities in the nation. So yeah, I like this place and I just appreciate it more and I am glad Amber is sticking around to go to school. We are maybe 10 minutes away from the university and that is mostly just waiting for stoplights. She could ride her bike on the greenbelt and get there in 15 or 20 minutes. And yeah, I am burbling on.

A mystery....

What? Two blogs in one day? Due to the pictures coming into my blog in computer jargon I will post two. But this one should be on it's own anyway.

This is all we can find of Hannah's glasses. It has been several weeks and still this all we can find. I asked her to go get her glasses and put them on and she came back with this. I know they were on a little table between the recliner and the giant beanbag we have. There are no lenses and no other bits of metal. I have looked in and beside and under the recliner. Under the bean bag. No evidence. It is still a lingering mystery as to what happened to Hannah's glasses. I am baffled. Perhaps one of the girls broke them and has not fessed up and threw away all the bits they found to cover up the accident. But I still don't know.