Free time? what free time?

So I have sent the kids off to school and every day this week I have had morning appointments. I have managed to wash and put away laundry and cleaned Hannah's room on Mon, Tues something weird happened and I didn't do anything around the house but make dinner, Yesterday I cleaned the living room and vacuumed the living room, both stair cases and halls and Hannah's room and I made real lasagna for the first time in 3 or 4 years. The weather has cooled off considerably and I am freezing today but my plan is the yard today.

Kelsea went to the doctor today. They froze a wart that started from an infection in her finger and gave her a tetanus shot because she is past due for that. We followed up on her meds. She is doing fantastic and is going well. She cried with the shot though and then she bled like you wouldn't believe. I brought her back to school and she wanted a note so she wouldn't have to play in Orchestra. She is having volleyball tryouts this week and hopefully she will manage through that. Last night I had a parent meeting sprung on me. I hate that. They planned it at the last minute.Weds are the worst day of the week for them to do that. I went to the meeting and the lasagna sat on the stove for a half an hour. But it was the perfect temp to eat by the time we got back. I had to make sure there were a few pieces left for Lee Joe for when he got home. The girls would have ate the whole thing if I let them. It was yummy!

I was impressed with Amber! She took some initiative and had two of her classes flip flopped. She went to the counselor on her own at the end of the first day in High school. It took until Weds for it to become active but she is really happy about the change. One of the funny things is almost every class now is with our Doctor's oldest son. I don't think this is a problem for either Amber or Matt. I think they like each other in their silly sophmoric way. Matt is one of the only boys at the church dances that will ask Amber to dance. Wink wink. I was Matt and Amber's "preschool teacher" when they were both almost 5.

No complaints from Kylee or Autumn. THey are in their happy elementary world. They were sad when I said I wouldn't be working at the school and a few of the other kids were sad too. It was sweet. But I will be back to volunteer in the weeks to come.

Tonight 4 of the girls have something going on at 6pm in 3 different directions. Somehow we will figure it out and we will see if Lee Joe will be around. Typically he is not so it is all me.

I went to Port of Subs for Lunch today with Hannah. Have I mentioned that it is my favorite place to eat?

I got my haircut on Tuesday. Everyone that notices says "you got your hair cut" and then that's it, so I am assuming it may not be as flattering as my last haircut that nobody said a word about. Oh well, I like it.

We have added another creature to our zoo. We found a healthy live baby mouse and at a loss as to how to deal with it, mind you we are a house full of creature loving girls, we turned it into a pet. It's name is Mort and last night he discovered it's wheel and is getting use to people. We believe our cat has taken care of other members of it's family so it could be an orphan(two dead adult mice and one injured baby in the past month). Little orphan Mort. Add him to the mix. Hamsters Cheeseball(formerly known as Polka the 2nd) and Dot the 2nd. And our prize champion mouser cat Socks and the best example of big and little-Buddy(part Great Dane) and Spot (part poodle and japanese chin- a jap-a-noodle or Chin-a-poo) our dogs.

There is life at the Lay zoo.
I should get something done.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Good- School started today, I am staying home with Hannah this year and sort of Home schooling preschool with her.
Bad-School started today-the beginning of afterschool run around, I can't afford to put Hannah in preschool because I am staying home with her this year.
The ugly-I have been fighting a stye for 3 days now and my shoulder went out last night when I was sleeping, I feel like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Call me Quasi for short.

Anyways, we went to the fair Friday night. We saw the Peking acrobats-they were fantastic and we saw some performing baboons, no really they were performing baboons with the red shiny butts. The kids thought they were great fun too. We resisted the rides because of our Lagoon trip we told the girls we wouldn't do rides. Hannah had the hardest time. We saw animals and smelled animals galore. It was fun and on our way out to the car we saw a baby raccon in a tree. Not technically a part of the fair.

Saturday Kylee and Autumn got their long awaited computers from Computers for Kids. They got a refurbished pentium 3 computer with moniter and keyboard and mouse for $45. They didn't get to play on them when we got home because we had to run to the pool for the last day of swimming for the summer. We got home, finished setting up computers and the little girls were in game heaven. Lee Joe and I went on a mini date to port of subs and ate it at the park.

Sunday we had an Area Authority visit primary. So we had the Stake presidency, Stake primary presidency Bishop and his presidency all visiting primary and I had to lead music. Oh my. It was fine and the kids were all good as gold.

Today, the first day of school will be my last day of work at the school. I will be there a whole 2 hours since it is early release saying hi and see you around to all the kids.

There you have it with my swollen eye, stiff back and the highs and lows of our existence in Idaho. The good the bad and the ugly.(I think my vitamins and exercise and absence of children is helping my sense of humor)

today

If you want to find out if your kid has ADHD try this-give them a medication that is suppose to make them drowsy-they will get very excitable. If you want to calm them down, Give them something with Caffiene. Dylan had Dimetapp before he came over yesterday. That is why he was SOO hyper. I forgot the about the caffiene if I would have remembered I would have happily given him a soda. He is calmer today.
We had fun at the pool yesterday. THe pool we went to was really big. THere was hardly anyone there. My 4 oldest and Dylan had great fun on the diving boards. Dylan Amber and Kelsea all did flips off the boards. Kylee and Autumn had some great Attempts. Kailyn had a scare earlier this summer off the diving boards requiring a life gaurd rescue so she had no interest. She played with Hannah and they all had great fun on the huge water slide at that park. The pool was so big and empty I was able to swim some laps.

Amber has quite the schedule this year. Accelerated English, accelerated Math and accelerated Chemisty, Spanish 2, band and seminary. Kelsea got into a program to help her in accelerated classes this year so she will have accelerated English and Math and a tutoring class to help her manage those classes. She has the same math teacher this year. SHe has Health and orchestra and history with the better history teacher.
Kylee, I think has a good teacher. At her school the 4th grade teachers there are excellent. I think she has a couple of close friends in her class. Autumn has the same teacher Kylee had last year. I loved her. 1 of Autumn's 2 best buddies are in her class. The other one is in Gate. I am hoping that this year is good year. I think it will be challenging for the 2 oldest. I hope Kelsea can cope. 8th grade was very challenging for Amber.

I really need to clean house and pay bills today and I am having a HUGE procrastination problem today. I have a stove that has been pulled out and it needs lots of attention. It has been sitting in the middle of my kitchen since last night. I guess I should get busy since it is noon now and I haven't done a thing.

Leavitt Reunion Pictures

Kylee, Jaden, Hannah, Lee Joe, Loren,Autumn, Tyler paddling to the boat.

Amber and Verl on the Wave runner. This one had a pretty view.

Randa and Gwen. Brenda in the back round.

Pictures

I have to tried to download pictures 3 times now and it won't work. Hopefully Devanie can help me out. She is so helpful that way. I am ready to try and get DSL hooked it up. I can look into that once school starts. Yesterday we found a dead mouse-Socks trophy I suppose- in the living room. THeir was a dead bird when we got home from the Utah trip. Later I helped the neighbor across the street save a fledling dove. It probably won't make it though. It has a broken wing. A cat got it. Mine doesn't cross the street.
I had Dylan and Kailyn over since Melissa started school and Kelsea dressed him in Nylons and a skirt and makeup. He thought it was funny. We went to dinner with Grandma and did more school shopping. Today Amber and Kelsea got their hair cut. I am toting 7 kids around today and Dylan is in rare form-or should I say typical hyperactive boy form. we went to the park and the car wash as the girls hair was done. He was dressed in a dress and nylons today. I will take them to the pool to give the boy a place to exert himself. I am sure I will be ready for school to start by the end of the week. I am actually ready today. What I really want is a nap. Dylan is ready to GO NOW.

Leavitt reunion

We made it to the Leavitt reunion this weekend up in Donelly. We stayed in Lee Joe's bosses cabin(double wide 70's trailer with added snow roof). Up there at Darren and Carrie's cabin we met up with our hosts and Wade, Verl Brenda and Rachel and Loren, Jared Michelle and their 4 kids, Kim and Gwen and Creshaun and her 2 boys,Andy and Grandma. We visited around the camp fire then took Jared and Family to our cabin. THe next morning we had breakfast and took two giant tractor inner tubes and other beach stuff to the lake with 11 kids to the beach. My oldest 2, Rachel, Wade and many of the adults and GRANDMA rafted the Payette river. Kim was the only one who fell overboard on the last rapid. Kelsea and Darren were having a water fight but Darren had the unfair advantage hiding behind Grandma. Mandy and Jason and their baby Lilly showed up and Grandma Lay(Randa) made it at about 3. WHen Carrie came back we were able to ride the Wave runners they borrowed from some friends and all us women took turns giving kids rides. I guess Grandma Leavitt rode one the day before. She was quite daring this weekend. Randa decided to give one a whirl herself. All the guys got back and took a few rides on the wave runners before they relized they were out of gas. Amber and Kelsea each got one ride before they had to trailer the wave runners. We stayed on the beach from 11 to 7:30. We had dinner, We became a mosquito banquet before we hunted down the bug spray. Andy and Wade had discussions about growing mustaches and telling jokes about opera singers on the tiolet. We packed up to go home. The girls got to make smores with Reeses peanut butter cups and the verdict was very very yummy. We left there at 11:30 and made it home at 1:30am.

We are seriously tired today. Throwing 7 of us into the shower and attempting to make it to church by 9am. We all made it before 9:30. We are also pet sitting for 2 families this weekend. There was BYC for the girls, a general priesthood meeting for Lee Joe, A meeting with the Bishop for me, a seminary meeting for Amber and Lee Joe and I and I think it was the busiest Sunday ever. Somehow we all squeezed in a nap.

I was paid very high compliments from the Bishop and his counselor on 2 separate occasions today on our girls.

Girls Camp Recap

I wanted to share the goofiness of my girls. TO start with, before the girls left for camp a few weeks ago the YW president asked my girls to come to her house and record a CD for the girls in our ward to sing to during their skit. The song was Haikilau with lyrics about girls campy-lau. I went to pick up Amber and Kelsea and went into their basement and in it was a real recording studio and 2 sets of drums and a bunch of electric guitars. WOW. THey made us two copies for each of my girls and one for YW president for girls camp. So they cut their first CD. On our way out the YW president showed us pictures of her husband with long hair in an 80's band and then a picture of him with Eddie Van Halen. Of girls know nothing of that stuff and it was good laugh for them. I asked Lee Joe if her husband was active in church and he said yes. I don't get to know many people in primary.

So they went to camp, they did their skit in front of the stake. The YW president thought Kelsea might have had turrets or tics or something because everytime she looked at Kelsea she was reacting to shooing mosquitoes away. Kelsea is just really goofy like that. Before the skit they had a hula hoop contest. Amber and Kelsea won and I think Kelsea beat Amber. So they were to hula hoop in the skit. Amber and Kelsea hung out together most of camp. In the end when they gave awards Kelsea got the spaas award. Amber got the "she makes it look easy" award for her hula hooping skills. When the Jr leaders sang their song to the rest of the girls one of the lines was "we wish we could hula like the Lay's" I was pretty mortified when the girls told me how they started the testimony meeting. I guess Kelsea let one rip and couldn't stop laughing for a while. I suppose they leave quite the impression wherever they go together. I hope Kylee and Autumn are as much fun like that when they get that age. But nobody can beat Kelsea in this family for goofiness and giving us the best laughs. She is the only person that can get Amber to laugh out loud.

Lagoon a rama

We set a goal to leave at 6am Sat. We left at 6:30. Not bad for a family of 7 that got up 5:45. It is a4 1/2 drive. We got to Lagoon at 11:30. We started out in the water park but for us it wasn't the greatest feature since we have Roaring Springs here and I couldn't keep up with Hannah in the little kids pool. After that Lee Joe took the 4 oldest and I went with Hannah on the rides. All four girls road roller coasters and everything else and had a blast. I took Hannah on all the little kid rides and we road the train about 3 or 4 times. We cleaned out all our drinks in the cooler and had to go to the car to refill it. It was pretty hot but not the worst. Lee Joe and all the girls roa rattlesnake rapids as it was getting dark and they got pretty wet. but they didn't have to wait in line very long. Just before 11 Lee Joe and Amber and Kelsea rode the old wooden rollercoaster about 4 more times and Kylee had one more shot at it before it closed. We debated on coming home afterwards Sat night. Lee Joe decided we should stay. I didn't bring my camera because I thought were making it a day. We had a hard time finding a motel. We finally found one in Ogden right across from the temple there but it was one of the dirtiest motels-aside from the sheets and towels. We couldn't be that choosey at 1:30 am.

We left by 10 and the plan was to find Lee Joe's grandparents' grave. I wanted to hit a store before we left Ogden. Lee Joe wanted to wait until we got to the part of town where his grandparents were. After we past numerous Wal-marts and Smiths and everything else next to the freeway-we were out of drinks completely and he wanted flowers-. We could not find a store after we exited the freeway. Almost 2 hours later, instructions to a wal-mart we never found, we found a store like Win-co, but no flowers and minimal selection. Everyone in the store but us and some of the checkers were hispanic. We got back on our road to the cemetary . Guess what we found? a Smiths and an Albertsons! I had been wondering if people in that part of town even ate anything but fast food. So we found flowers finally. We found the cemetary no problem. Finding the grave took about 45 minutes even in the very tiny cemetary because we couldn't remember where to look. We found it. The headstone was very nice. If I had brought my camera knowing we were going to do that I would have taken pictures. Now I remember I have a picture phone. Sorry.

We made it to Temple square at the time I hoped we would be headed home. We toured the conference center. Lee Joe has not seen it in person before. The girls and walked around the outside when we drove to Connecticut 3 years ago. We toured the inside. It is beautiful and is amazing at the size of the place and how pretty it is. It is full of art and the roof is landscaped with trees and other plantings and all sorts of water features. We heard the organ. Amber was impressed(our organ player) as were the rest of us.

We walked temple square. It is full of sister missionaries from all over the world there to answer questions or translate in any language. My girls were impressed and enjoyed the visit there. We only made into one visitor center. I told Lee Joe we should save the other for our next visit because we were all exhausted by then anyways.

The ride home was full of strife from a bunch of exhausted kids. Hannah told us all day how she wanted to go back to Lagoon. This morning everyone slept until 9:30 except for Amber who had band camp at 8am. No rest for the weary-Kelsea went to Roaring Springs with a friend who had an extra ticket, Kylee went to the pool with a friend. I took the 2 youngest to Wal-mart. Lee Joe is side working tonight. Hannah is still telling me how much she wants to go back to Lagoon. I think we are going to take it easy tonight.

short and sweet, I hope

Have to be quick, We are leaving to go to Lagoon in the morning bright and early and we aren't packed yet.
Weds I played Volleyball again for the first time in over a year I think. I brought Amber. It was fun. THen I went to IHOP afterwards with the friends at 10:30pm. I was out till midnight. I was coming down my street and there were a bunch of cop cars that lloked like they were in front of my house. THere were 4 parked behind a red car that was parked in front of my house. It scared me at first because Lee Joe was also out late and the car was red-his car is red. Anyways I was able to pull into my driveway and in my yard the police officer was rewarding a drug sniffing dog in my yard. I walked in the house and Amber and Kelsea had been watching the whole thing. In the end they arrested one of the women and the other drove off in the car.
Kelsea got her braces off THursday!! I will post pictures of her pretty teeth later. Amber has another month. Kelsea only had hers on since October. She doesn't like the temporary retainer.

So spontaneously we are journeying to Utah because we have no other time to do it before school starts. I already bought the tickets to Lagoon at Costco so there is no turning back now. Lee Joe is getting the oil changed in the van before we leave. The other day I looked at the oil change reminder to see how close we were to needing one and at that moment the spedometer matched the mileage on the reminder-Creepy

I won something off a candy wrapper the other day! Do you think I should send in the wrapper to the nestle people? It will cost me .39 cents to claim my 48 cent prize. Hmm, why bother.

Amber and Tennis

Amber played really really well only having just started playing tennis this year.

punchline: Now we know why---->

We had fun

Here is catch up from last week. Mon I took the my 3 youngest to Wal-mart and then dinner at Port of subs and Mcdonalds. Port of subs is my FAVORITE right now. The headache did ease up but I felt like a sloth the rest of the day.
Tuesday it was so nice. I trimmed 5 bushes in the front and mowed and called it good. Devanie and I took the girls to the pool even though it was little cool. THey all had a blast and then we went to Carls Jr for dinner. SOme of the fun stuff there wasn't working so it wasn't as much fun.

Weds was perfectly pleasant as well. We took the girls to free lunch in the park just a little ways down the road from us and one of the libraries did story time. The girls all got pencils and a twisty dog or cat. THen they played on the equipment. At 2 we got in the car and went to the other park where the pool is down the road from us and had snowcones and then swam. We managed to get Sierra confident enough to hold her breathe and try swimming for rings underwater after she watched my girls. Hailey is so funny how all right she is doing her own thing. We came home and took it easy the girls had fun in the sandbox some more.
THen Devanie left Thursday morning. I did something with the little girls before everyone came home and we came back the oldest girls were home filthy and exhausted. Last year they were so cranky I was ready to send them back. This time wasn't so bad.

Lee Joe barely recovered from camp and went out with the elders that night and then Friday he took the 3 youngest camping and I took the two oldest clothes shopping. We also went to krispy kreme before we came home and in the morning we hit the mall. THe best deals of the weekend were a pair of Mudd jeans for Amber for $7 and pj basketball pants for $6. We found a pair of Adidas tennis shoes for Kelsea for $25. My purse handle broke while we were out so I got new purse too. Kelsea had a pair of pants, jeans and a white shirt. SHe bought a shirt and a cami. Amber didn't get as much because she is getting in between sizes right now. She bought herself a shirt. We will need to hunt for her some more. Kylee got two outfits even though she wasn't there. I found capri pants for her at old navy for $3.99. Autumn got a pair of pants.

Lee Joe came home exhausted. He napped some Saturday when I was making dinner. On Sunday he out napped me. He slept for more than 3 hours.

Other than that it has been real quiet. We have had free lunch in the park for 4 days now. Saves me from having to do it. I will have Kailyn for 2 days while Melissa is in Texas bringing Dylan home. It is 100 degrees again today. Kailyn can't swim because she has stitches on her ear. But the kids are having a good time.