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