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.

What's up?

Oh I don't know. But then I remember what since today is the first day all week I am not grieved by an incredible sunburn. We went to Roaring Springs waterpark. The 3 youngest earned free tickets to go but they weren't as good of a deal in July and August so we went on the last day of the month. I wasn't as diligent as I made the kids about wearing sunscreen. But I put it on myself and them many times. We go at least once a summer and have come home sunburn free. So don't ever buy Equate sunscreen from Wal-mart. Banana Boat is the best. Kylee is allergic to Coppertone. With that lesson learned:
By the way, I would caption these but for some reason in Edit mode my pictures are a bunch of computer jargon. I need to figure out how to fix that.
Here is fun in the sun later to be captioned too much fun in the sun.

Lee Joe's birthday

Well.... Lee Joe had a birthday. He is getting old and crusty. Haha. I get to live the old part up for 3 months until I am right there with him. Sunday birthdays are tough. They wind up being uneventful but this one didn't have potential at this moment to be eventful. So for his birthday I made Jell-o. I don't make it very often, it's not hard just I don't know why so it really is a treat. And that was his birthday. The girls made tacos. He made homemade tortillas for them and there you have it. Not my usual birthday celebration at all. He left to go to Burley for a job. Leaving for a job here is a good thing. Just for Monday though.

So these migraines are taking a complete toll on my mental capacities. It is that or extreme stress-the stress can cause migraines so maybe it is both. I mentioned the pancake almost fiasco ordeal. I have had a hard time following simple instructions for recipes lately. I have done it several times in the past few weeks. I have never been like this. I messed up Jell-o. But not in a bad way. I forgot to add 2 more cups of cold water so it was almost jiggler consistency. It was still good so not the end of the world. I am having a hard time keeping my train of thought straight. I will say things totally messed up from what I was saying and have no clue what I just said. The kids are always wondering what I am talking about. I hate it. I read a about a study that was done and it said that it is possible that migraines cause some damage to the brain. If I could remember what I read I could explain it better and now I can't find it. That might explain some of this, I don't know. I am not old enough to be having this much trouble.

Some fun is in store. Lee Joe has worked all this past week. The little girls all earned free tickets to the water park here. We need to use them by tomorrow and it is finally in the 90's so we are going to play in the water tomorrow. I enjoy going there a ton even if I don't go on all the slides.

I am sewing and writing on the laptop and trying to do what I enjoy at home and I like the fact that June took it's time even with all the added yuck. Amber's been renting movies since she is 18 and can have her own account and has the money to do it. So we are enjoying those bennies from her. I hope things will keep a slow pace for the rest of the summer. But it might not. I applied for a job that would be temporary until I start back at the school. I am pretty indifferent about it. If it happens it is helpful. If not I can still do my at home projects.

Oh and one more thing. Kelsea was asked on 2 dates this weekend. She is so funny. She doesn't enjoy it much. She is totally like super excited for the new Harry Potter movie.

My girls have planned their first road trip. They are headed to Utah for the 4th of July still. I think I already mentioned that. Oh well. Got keep my brain working.

Yeah, Ok, that is life up here in my neck of the woods.

Dolls

I suppose this is about to be a doll making summer. This is my latest and many more are to come. I would like to try and sell a couple on Etsy. It was suggested to me from some friends on Facebook. I am working on an assembly line now that I have refreshed my memory. We will see how ambitious I get and how this turns out. But my girls are about to get theirs. 3 really want one. One may help me with hers. Amber is completely indifferent about it so I will wait and see if she has girls and make some for them.

What a change

Yep, life has changed. Some of it right now could be better. And some things I think are nice, like teenagers with licenses and spending money. I couldn't do much for Lee Joe for Father's Day but since two of the girls have been earning money, they all went shopping for their dad. Too Cute. And someone special helped too..(SHHH my mom helped with the coolest most enormous balloon, some flowers in a baseball looking vase and watermelon) Amber made her dad jell-o and the girls got him some WWII DVDs and cowboy hat he wanted. Why a cowboy hat, I don't know. I think a fedora would be much better. But I prefer to see him in baseball caps.

I still had a gift card to Cafe Ole so we went to dinner Sat night. I suppose that could be a pre-anniverssary dinner since our anniversary is Tuesday. And his birthday is next Sunday. Busy week but then not really because there is nothing we can do about any of it. So there you go.

I have been busy doing projects I have been meaning to finish and other ones I have been meaning to start. So maybe this is the summer to get things done. And the weather is nuts, but it isn't bothering me much because the temp is perfectly pleasant and cool. I haven't missed the pool because it hasn't been hot enough to swim anyway. I don't mind driving in this pleasant weather at all. It is still raining a little more than usual but not as bad as it was a couple weeks ago.

Kelsea had summer basketball and that just finished. It wasn't as hard as last summer and she still needed help getting to the Nampa tournament and to the one in Pocatello. This weekend's tournament was here at her school. I got to go to a few games and watch her play. She was playing Point Guard and was making 13 or more points on a few games but man, 3 games in one day!! Holy Cow. She played in 2 on Saturday. Now it's over so it was about right. She got a lot of experience. Much more confidence.

My poor oldest girls are having a little trouble adjusting. Amber is, I think, suppose to attend the singles branch that meets right in our church. Her friend wasn't there and her boyfriend is officially at BYU now so she came home early today. Kelsea has lost Amber and isn't adjusting well to the new YW president and that is a bumpy ride for her. This is interesting. Those two are pretty dependent on each other whether they admit it or not. I am just glad Amber will be here when she starts school. I don't think anyone is ready for that change to happen--the one where she moves out. Amber and Kelsea are planning a trip to Utah together with Amber's friend. Amber wants to see the BF and Kelsea wants to check out hot LDS college guys at BYU(not sure how I feel about that) She talks the boy crazy talk but doesn't act it when the guys like her so it's OK. The friend is a lot like Kelsea so it should be one nutty trip.

Autumn had a way awesome dream. I wish it was my dream or maybe it just being real would such the coolest thing. But she dreamed that I (me) got a check in the mail for a half million dollars..... EWWWEEEEE, yep, that would be super duper awesome!!!

Bummed

This stupid recession thing can go away now. I am sick of it. Lee Joe was so close to getting a job. Went through 2 interviews and a driving test, got his hazmat on his CDL and cleared the backround check and they decided he didn't have enough experience driving hazardous materials--well Duh, he just jumped through all the hoops and they knew what he was doing so several weeks of it looking like he was in and he's not and there has been nothing here for months. His work has dried up along with all the other people in town. He is getting stuff here and there. So anyways, I have been positive and hopeful for a turn around for months and months and months now and I feel like- well- just miserable. So there you have it, we have joined half of america in the misery of nothing. You look for work and even in all the states around us there is very little and this is when Lee Joe's work is always hopping. So along with half of the Lay family we are in need of prayers. Amber and Kelsea are making more than Lee Joe it seems like with their little jobs they have. I am still getting a check but if he can't figure it out I will be calling people around here and looking for something for the next 2 months.

One crazy lady

That's me. Lee Joe, Kelsea, Kylee and Hannah went to Pocatello this weekend for Kelsea's summer basketball tournament. She played 3 games on Friday and 2 on Saturday. They stayed at Kim and Gwen's and visited Grandma Leavitt on her birthday on Saturday with Jared and his family. I was home with 2 kids and Autumn spent the night at her friends house on Friday and Amber went to babysit. So I was home ALONE for awhile. I decided it was a great opportunity to tackle Autumn and Hannah's room while they were gone. I bagged up 3 bags of trash. Washed all their sheets and made thier beds. As a result of that cleaning frenzy that also involved the kitchen too, I was until 4AM. I can't remember when I did that last, It has been a long time. But since Autumn was back home at 10am the next day I didn't get enough sleep and it was gloomy and rainy so I got nothing done on Saturday. It wasn't a big deal though. I got some time with Amber and then some time Autumn on Saturday evening. It was pleasant. Everyone is home today back to all their squabbles.

Good news on migraines- the weather has been toying with me and I have successfully headed off 2 migraines this weekend with my new meds and knowledge. That is progress. I am ready for my favorite dry Idaho air. I really don't care if it warms up. We have been having Texas like weather lately.

I am sure everyone else out there hasn't felt the pain from the DTV transition. But we have. We do have a ridiculous amount of TVs in this house but we don't have cable and only one of the TVs we have was ready for it. We were able to get two converter boxes with the coupons but we still need two more boxes at least. I like to watch TV in my office and we get one spanish channel on it now. Amber's TV doesn't have any thing she can watch either. The other obnoxious thing is the remotes we need for the TV and the converter box. The stupid box doesn't have any buttons you can push on it so you have use a remote to watch TV. I don't mind the manual way of doing things--unlike men. The cool thing is we have 13 channels we can watch without paying for it so we feel a little more like we have cable. I am kind of silly because I like the company I guess of a TV even if I am not watching it, I have it on.

So I am rambling about nothing now...

Pancakes

Lets see. I thought I was going to have something fun for dinner. We had for dinner. I have this great, usually simple recipe for pancakes. First batch I mixed turned out OK. It was taking forever for the electric skillet to warm up. It took so long for the first side to cook. I flipped them and suddenly they were cooking so hot. I burned half the pancakes. SO I needed to make more batter, and Amber was bringing a friend. So I mixed up a new batch. So I thought. Then I put too much baking powder in it so I thought I would double it. As I went through the rest of the ingredients I added 4 eggs. I only needed 2. Ugh. So I tripled the recipe even though we are short on both flour and sugar. Still too much egg and slightly thin. I cooked many many more pancakes. And to finish the fiasco I dropped one nicely cooked pancake on the floor. So there were 5 burned ones, 4 really runny cooked pancakes, and one dropped one all made it to the garbage. I wanted to make cookies and it was delayed several days because I needed eggs, once I got them I was too busy or tired to make them. And then while making the mess of pancakes I discovered our lack of brown sugar and then the lack of regular white sugar and flour was low. I have some food storage that was given to us recently but I don't dare try using it yet because it is 11 years old. We will sample on something smaller and after tonight's very messy pancake making disaster--and the kitchen is a complete disaster, I dare not make cookies today. Maybe I will stick to scrapbooking tonight.

I went to the neurologist today. He gave some more ideas on medications to use with my headaches and variations of meds to try so I feel a little better prepared. I hope it will help with the next one and I hope it won't last 3 days. Other than 3 dr visits in 3 days there has not been much going on and I need some motivation to get busy on something. Well I say not much, it is AMAZING what freedom having 2 licensed drivers brings to me. And I was able to call them and tell them to get sugar, brown sugar, and flour at the store. Yippee!!!

Adjective Alley

The middle of the night title was about to be Frustrated but there was too much of a theme with my last title. Here I am in the middle of the night for the 2nd night in a row. I woke up with this torturous headache 2 days in a row. I had more success Friday kicking it with some migraine meds but they left me weak, thoughtless and listless--but pain free. Today was not so good. I took one pain medicine in the morning. I guess it took the edge off. I didn't have any more of the migraine meds I had yesterday so I had to wait until 24 hours had passed to try some new stuff. I was really bad by then, shaking and sick to my stomach and trying to get back to bed after eating for the first time at 1pm. I took the meds and waited 2 hours to take the next. They didn't work and my tolerance for these headaches is getting very low so I have been getting very distressed. This one if I had to gauge the pain was about a 9 when up and 7-8 while lieing completely still. I was slurring and my left side was a little weaker than the right. I took a different pill. It eased up with that and a hot pad after everyone hunted high and low for it. Then I woke up to stomach cramps so I took ibuprofren and at 8 I was pain free. And now it is 1:30am I still have some pain but now I am awake. So what the heck!!!! I really hope that 2days of headache is all I get. I was really close to going to the ER today. I think I will try to go to bed now. Hopefully, if I have a pain free day here soon, I will post some pictures of Amber's graduation.

Bewildered

That is a fun word. And that describes how I feel at this moment. Bewildered... At having a daughter that no longer attends public school. To have a full time job that I get to spend my summer home with the kids and it starts tomorrow--after lunch at McGrath's fish house with the staff at the school. And very bewildered about something else......Not that Amber's graduation should be over shadowed too much. She was one in 27 students with over a 4.0 for at least 7 semesters out of 450 kids. Ok, that is an accomplishment with the classes she took.

I am bewildered by something today and this whole story is weird. I came back from my lunch on the last day of school with seeing something that looked like and emergency. A man was laying on the ground. They had an umbrella shading this guys face from the sun and my doctor and the principal were standing there over this guy with the school nurse leaning on the ground talking to him. They had called 911 so an ambulance was on the way---2nd time in the past month. He was a dad that had an issue with medication and he was diabetic I guess. I am saying hello to our doctor-Amber's boyfriend's dad. He asks me if someone has called me and I say no. And he tells me that he was wondering if I would be interested in being a patient representative to a committee that the governor is forming for health care reform. I was like Ok... Lee Joe has been on about his rational national party so I was confused. But our daughter's boyfriend's father/friend/doctor said they wanted someone on the committee that had experience with no insurance and he felt I was very articulate. I say much more in writing than what comes out of my mouth. And sometimes what comes out of my mouth is inarticulate. I have to call someone at my doctor's office tomorrow to find out more. So, yes, I am bewildered. I was asked out of the blue to have a voice in a committee on health care reform formed by the governor for the state of Idaho. We will see where this goes. Yep, bewildered.....Oh and by the way, the ambulance showed up, the guy was OK but got in the ambulance to be taken to the hospital. It was all very strange. I am still bewildered...

Graduating child of mine

I seem to always fall short when it comes to getting information out and trying to think ahead. It happens when the kids are baptised and all other grand events in their little lives. I get a little wrapped up in a thousand other things and details and then later I realize what I should have or could have done. There is so much worry involved it overrides the creativity it takes to something right. So I am trying to get word out-yes it is a little late, about a little plan I have. I can't really afford to throw a party right now. I didn't get enough invitations to send to everyone I know. Then it was too late to do something economical. So I have an idea. For one was to use Facebook to announce this. And now my blog.

I want to throw a sort of "Snail Mail celebration" for Amber and just ask everyone to mail Amber something-a little card or whatever to congratulate her for accomplishing so much.

She is graduating with a class of 450. I thought was more like 600 but I guess that was couple years ago. She has been in the top 10% of her class. She has worked hard so I hope that everyone might want give her a well deserved pat on the back.

She will be attending Boise State University in the fall. She wants to major in chemical engineering and is being awarded over $5000.00 in scholarships her first semester.

To snail mail Amber: our address is 7109 Northview St. You should know what city and state. 83704. She will be required to reply to anything sent to her.

Amber's graduation is Thursday June 4. 7pm at the Taco Bell arena. Anyone who can or wants to come can.

She just graduated from seminary on Sunday. I want to say more but I have to work just 1 1/2 more days!!! So I still need some sleep I guess.

hmm...ummmm...

These are the kind of things my 16 year old daughter does just because. So here is a good laugh because I need one.

First off I want to say that I miss my sister. So here is a shout out to her!! And we don't get to talk enough and I hopefully I will be able to call long distance on my home phone sometime this week.

This weekend was great. Beautiful weather. We didn't do much and for us sometimes that is just a fantastic thing. The kids were off in all sorts of directions between helping my mom get ready and have a yard sale to other things.

I scrapbooked for the first time in years this weekend. I did Amber's little prom story into a scrapbook. It was so much fun and I loved how it turned out. It has been a long time since I made something and then enjoyed doing it so much.

We still have problem with Amber's senior pictures. We have been waiting for them for 2 weeks now and and now her announcements will be going out late. But I don't think too many people are coming for it anyway. I wish I could do more for her, she is so deserving. I don't know.

I had to take our big dog Buddy into the vet. He is growing all kinds of cysts all over and one is on the inside of his eyelid. The vet seemed not too concerned at the moment and that is a good thing. She was more concerned about a few of his other cysts. His quality of life is good and we are going to keep an eye on them. He is around 11 or 12 years old now. He is 94 pounds!! The car and vet trip was so stressful that he laid on the floor and panted for over an hour. We know he is very elderly, poor guy. Our little dog is 10 now but she barky and bouncy as always. Little dogs don't age as rapidly as big ones do. The vet trip didn't cost that much and I had them trim his nails too.

Today, at work, was a blended Monday Tuesday and it was a bit of a crappy day. It was a little frustrating but it will be OK. Friday will be here one day sooner. Summer vacation is 6 1/2 school days away. A mom and grandma are kind of out to get me still. Today was easier to deal with because some good things are going to happen I am sure by the end of the week. I am going to positive think it into action.

You know what the tooth fairy brought me?

I think everyone is now facebook addicted and no one reads blogs anymore. But I like more filler. So I will try to be the ever faithful blogger.

The point to this blog has to do with Hannah. She has a horrible time loosing her teeth. But she finally lost the tooth next to her top front tooth. She did it on her own. First of all that was exciting. And then it was dramatically sad when she was washing it off on our kitchen sink, with a bunch of dirty dishes in it, and she dropped it. Big tears and drama. But it fell in a bowl. We found it. All was well. She was excited all over again. She tells her dad that she doesn't want the tooth fairy to take it because she wanted to show everyone at school. OK. In the morning she asks her sisters "You know what the tooth fairy brought me" The girls ask her "what?" "Absolutely NOTHING!" She was pretty disgusted. I tell her "Hannah, Your dad said that you didn't want the tooth fairy to take the tooth isn't that true?" "I knid of did but kind of didn't." She replies. "Well dad had to keep the tooth fairy from taking your tooth last night." "Oh that is what all that noise was about." (he went on about health insurance kind of heatedly that night) . She showed off her tooth and the tooth fairy came last night and all was well once again.

Someone wrote their first piece of hate mail to the principal about me :( But all was made somewhat well again today. Within the same half hour the most difficult child in the school told his teacher that I was the duty that was the most fair. That like nearly floored me with shock. I would have never expected him to say that about me. So I took that as very high praise from him and managed to cope with the hate mail--a little better today. Not so great yesterday.

I wanted to tell a story that I have been meaning to share I can't give too many details. But I did work for the school several years ago for about a month. During that time there was a little that was very difficult. But it was so sad because we found out when he was really late for school that he had gotten himself up and walked himself to school down 2 busy intersections to be there. He was really too little to be doing that in his own. Somedays he had the same clothes on as the day before and his hands were so dirty like they hadn't been washed for days. We would get his hands cleaned up and find him some breakfast. One day I walked by his lunch tray and saw something on his tray. They were actual bullets for a gun. I stopped and walked back and went whoa!! I picked them up quietly and told him those were not things to bring to school and brought them to the principal. Before the end of the year he was in foster care. He was able to come back before the last day of school and he was so clean and looked so much better. He is still there. His circumstances are better, grandma takes care of him now and mom is still around. His younger sister is there now too. What I am getting at and how I am so touched is they had "adminisrtrative assistants day" And his class made some cards for the secretary and I. I was very emotional when I read his and this is what he said "Dear Mrs. Lay, I love it how you help evry body around the school. I bet you nobody appricates it more than I do you are one of my favriot actully you are my favoriot I appriciate it when you say the announcements you do a really good job" (Nothing beats little kid spelling) Anyways, when you know this boy's story, even though you don't know it as well as I do, These kind of moments, I think, can be the most meaningful. When you touch a kids life in a positive way, it may be one of the few moments that that child may have in their life. You never know. I try to remember that with the job that I do, even when all the kids do is drive me nuts. I am the adult here, I can handle it , I think........

Happily ever after Prom

Once Upon a time..... About a week ago.....There was a young maiden who waited and watched out the window for her young man to arrive so he could take her to his house to watch the Office and then go to a play. She waited and waited and was almost ready to give up, so she took herself to her room to rest.

(forgive me young daughter, I could not resist this pic)

Like I said, the wait was long, she was resting and everyone in the house was busying themselves with various activities when out on the lawn a trumpet sounded. It sounded as if it was announcing the arrival of royalty. Everyone was quite puzzled. So everyone had to come see what all the noise was about.

At the frontdoor stood a footman of sorts and he began to read his proclamation....
"Hear ye, Hear ye...
By the order of the Prince of Richland, all fair maidens, are requested to come forward and try on the royal shoe! The maiden who matches the royal shoe will please accompany the Prince to Live--slashed out Live---dance Happily Ever After......


Everyone was puzzled and then quite excited to try on this royal shoe. The house was full of young maidens and their mother, and a visting little boy. One by one the maidens lined up on the bench. The shoe was presented to each young lady--with the exception of one young maiden that could rival the future wearer of that coveted shoe.



For the first young maiden it was way too big, the second was a closer fit and yet it was still too big. For the 3rd young maiden, it ALMOST fit but yet still too big.

Before the last young maiden could try on the shoe, the other daughters told the mother She should try it on. It was a tempting offer and she jumped on it before her last daughter tried it on. The opportunity to possibly escape all the fair young maidens for a night was almost a dream come true. Besides, her Prince Charming was not as young as he use to be :) Alas, it did not fit the mother either, it was too small.

Finally, the oldest daughter had her chance to try on the shoe and it was just right. The father was turned into a hard hat when he tried to protest.

The shoe fit so now it was time to prepare for the Prom......As the footman and Prince were about to leave the rival wearer of the shoe showed up but it was too late. The Friendly woodland creatures witnessed the event and approved with much quacking.

The Fair Maiden, wearer of the shoe, was prepared for the dance by her Goofy Real Sister. Unfortunate for the Fair maiden because yes, they are related. Instead of singing a silly song and creating magic with a wand she worked her magic with a montage of very silly faces.

Besides the hair the Goofy Real sister also did the fingernails and toenails. Those fancy toenails are fake. The Fair maiden lost both of her toenails from a pair of past ill fitting shoes.


Goofy Real Sister was not alone in her preparation of the Fair Maiden, instead of mice working on her dress, The Bestest Mommy in the Whole Wide World added fabric to the back and sleeves and hand sewed 6 sets of appliqued flowers to her dress. The best magic was the back of dress was not attached with thread. It is a separate piece connected to the dress with adhesive velcro.....oooooooooh

So the fair maiden was beautified beautifully. She also had a little help with Auntie Devvy Cookie Lee. Those crazy eyelashes are not fake. They are hers.

So fair maiden was ready for the Arrival of Prince Rich. (his last name is Rich, okay)

He arrived and was still preparing for the magical night with another Prince.

The royal exchanging of the flowers commenced.

Properly flowered up, many pictures were taken by all. The paparazzi-otherwise known as The Bestest Mommy in the Whole Wide World, King Rich, Queen Rich and 2 of the younger fair maidens-kept taking pictures...Exhausting them before they left to take more pictures in the park to begin their night.

And Hopefully they pictured, ate and danced Happily Ever After at the Happily Ever After Prom....

They arrived very promptly before the curfew they were given. They ate great food, had fun at the dance and Amber did not loose her shoe at the dance but she did loose a fake toenail. It was too gross for the Prince to attempt to find and recover. Hopefully that does not arrive by another Prince on a pillow in the future. EWWWWW

They had a happy night.

The End....