Goodbye!

I would say all the good byes from the sound of music but I would rather not spell all those other language good byes. I am having a hard enough time spelling english words correctly. So we are leaving bright and early tomorrow morning. I need to get the oil changed. And a few more errands done. We still haven't told the kids where we are going. We will tell them in the morning. We won't be back until Aug 6. Then that leaves me one day to do the laundry and have the 2 oldest repack for their Utah trip the next day. We haven't been gone that long since my Connecticut trip when Hannah was 18 months old! This is the first time since our trip to Nevada back when we only had Amber and Kelsea that we will gone that long with Lee Joe too. He gets his first REAL vacation. He needs one. He has been leaving around 6 or 7am all week and getting home after 10pm most nights this week. Last night it was 11:00. He has been helping his very good buddy do dirt work around the house he is having built in Nampa. That is around 30-40 minutes from us. He is exhausted and keeps on going. I don't think we are going to come rested at all though.

SHHHH

I didn't post these-

I spent the afternoon and evening (till 10:30) getting skirts, aprons and bonnets made for the pioneer trek thing they are going on when we get back. Amber and Kelsea helped a bunch and sewed some too. They didn't want me putting these up on my blog so shhh! The bonnet pattern I used had a huge brim. They look more like flying nuns. These are their model-ish poses.

This week--

Well, we set up an aquarium this weekend. At first it looked awful how we set it up and today rearranged things ,I put a few more things in it and was trying to figure out why the water got cloudy. It will be two weeks before we get our first fish. It is already a costly hobby but once we get going on it should be spending next to nothing.

Kelsea and I went to get the new Harry Potter book on Saturday. She is reading it, I am trying to resist because there is too much on my to do list. The girls also got a Phantom of the Opera piano and lyrics book and they have been playing/singing it for 3 days now.

We are planning a special secret trip. All the girls know right now is we are leaving on Saturday and will be gone a week. So I won't be around to write and read everyones blog. And you will have to wait and see what our special tip is. Our hairdresser gave some huge hints to Amber and Kelsea by accident. So no spilling the beans. I told Kelsea that it is cooler than here. With the exception of Utah, Nevada and Arizona-that could be anywhere.

sort of bummed

We missed Ty and the crew out in Middleton. I am bummed and Kelsea is bummed too. Too many appointments Tues and Weds and it was still stinking hot. Today it cooled off. My big joke was it is cold with a high of 92! It was so pleasant today.
Kelsea had her first physical therapy visit on her ankle. No wonder I didn't want to schedule that appointment. Now we are in for it some more. 3 days of therapy a week for a month. Since I don't swear #&#%#%#&$(*&#&%)*$%#)($%?>":#$*#$&#$&%*(#&# Pretend those were a slew of a bunch of bleeps over horrible words people don't want to hear.

The latest

I am finally feeling better. Hooray! Almost 3 weeks of sick is no fun. I thought I might have lost a little weight and my neighbor says she thought so too. I stayed up till 3am Sunday/Monday shampooing carpets and getting other things done. Finally got the coolers out to the garage. I have also this week replaced and hung blinds in three rooms now and hung a new curtain rod and put our aquarium stand together. We have a ceiling fan in one of three rooms we need to hang one in. With this 100 degree heat we need them upstairs. So Kelsea is enjoying hers. I was able to finally disinfect both bathrooms. I think I am finally getting motivated enough or at least feeling well enough that the kitchen is about to get worked on again.

I got great deal on a camera today. I was shopping for a kodak camera so I could use my picture printer with it still. They had one on clearance at target for $139 it was origionally a 199 camera. Then they took another 30% off since it was the display model. So I got it for $99!!!
It is an 8.0mp I think my other camera is maybe around 4. Kelsea is taking photography this year and she will need a camera anyway so woohoo for me!! She still takes my camera all the time. She took my camera phone the other day and took pictures of arms and legs in positions that made them look like butts. You never know what she is up to next or what the backround might be on my phone.

where are the pics?

I tried to post some last night and blogger or my computer wouldn't let it happen. I will try again later.

It's late BUT--

Kelsea and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It is really not like us to see a movie just a few days into it's release but she has been counting down the days and she is counting down the days to when the last book comes out. She actually has read all the books and so have I . The movie was really good. What's not good is when you have read the book you know what's coming. And when it's over you realize all the important stuff they left out but over all it was a very well done movie. And we needed something like that to end this miserable week with.

I have not been able to watch movies in a long time. For one I am usually too busy. Half hour and one hour shows occasionally is all I have had time for in the evenings. And I hate getting interrupted watching movies during the day. I had to pause The Devil wears Prada about 10 times when I watched that a few weeks ago. They kids can leave me alone all day until I don't want to be bothered. But we are trying Netflix just for the summer. I remember now that I really like to watch movies. One of the really good ones we just watched was Stranger than Fiction. Movies are a great thing to do when it is 104 outside. When is the heat going to end!! Netflix is awesome because I don't have to leave the house.

Shrek the 3rd is in the cheap theatre now. So maybe we will head out to see that next week.

Amber's camp ended today. Unfortunately the time that the last day program was suppose to start was miscommunicated. I missed half of the program and only saw the group of drum majors do one of their 3 routines and missed the drum corp and saw 1/4 of the color guards routine. I did see one of Amber's fellow drum majors from her school get a trophy. And they mentioned how caring he was and how he informed them when one of the other drum majors (Amber) was sick and wasn't there. AWWWW. Amber helped him earn his trophy. Then Amber and Kelsea volunteered themselves to help at a scout daycamp a few weeks back. I guess they got some vounteer hours in but I had to drive them there and back. I don't even think it was our stake's scout camp. Hey! Where's my credit for vounteer hours? So in the end after I took Amber shopping for her party and took her to it and bought my really good friend a couple of cakes and ice cream for her birthday and took it to her because her husband is in China, and made a real dinner for the first time this week, I took Kelsea and myself to a movie. How's that for time for me! Lee Joe stayed home with the kids, collected Amber and got some more recovery sleep. He is still struggling to recover as well. Working out in this extreme heat isn't helping him at all.

Aren't you glad you aren't here at my house listening to me ramble on like this. My fingers are as chatty as my mouth would be at this hour. Good night!

reunion and aftermath

We left for the reunion on Friday. We met everyone and had pictures done at a pond down the road from Devanie's house. The kids caught some catfish and some mosquitoes caught my girls. I think Amber was the sweetest with Kylee in second.

Saturday was the big Lagoon day. We planned it right by going into the waterpark first. We all got tubes and had a good time. There was a line to get in for hours later. Of course that was the hottest time of the day. We cycled kids around and at one point I had Claire, Andrew, Hailey and Sierra. Claire started getting a tummy ache. But she was determined to go on the rides. She said when she was on the ride she was fine. Standing in line it hurt. I had her cool off in the fountain. I was hoping she wasn't overheated. But we went to where our stuff was and within a half an hour she was throwing up. She was sick the rest of the day. Poor thing. Everyone stayed busy and poor grandma spent most of the rest of the day nursing Claire and helping with Aurora. And Devanie spelled her off when she went with Nathan for food. We need to make a special trip with Grandma so she can have some fun.

Sunday the flu hit some more. Poor Devanie and then Sierra and Claire was still afflicted. We visited and packed and then in the afternoon the power went out. We left for home after our whirlwind weekend. I have some pictures but I need to locate the camera.

Monday I shopped and then Tuesday the flu caught up with Amber and I. Amber has had drum major camp all week. She couldn't afford to miss any time there but missed the morning and evening session. I was flat on my back all day. It was the nastiest flu I remember having for quite some time. I thought I was better Weds. Not so. Amber made it to camp all day though and came home with blue turf in her shoes. They were marching on the BSU football field. They are having a performance on Friday. Kylee caught the flu sort of Tuesday eveing and Weds. And Lee Joe had it Weds and missed work. He still feels kind of bad today but he is at work. The rest of the kids have watched movies and stayed home all week. Kelsea is pet sitting and will be babysitting today and tomorrow morning. We will see which kids have yet to come down with the flu. Friday and Saturday are our next days to watch.

My favorite show of all time is rebuilding a house 30 minutes away from us. Extreme Home Makeover is in Middleton. I am tempted to make a trip there to check it out and see Ty in person. I will let you know if we are flu free and time released to check it out. The other big drawback is it is suppose to be over 100 degrees the whole time they are here. We will see what see what happens. Pictures are coming!!