Christmas is over already?

Every year seems to go by faster and faster than the one before.  This one was a blur.  Big events and interesting challenges have come our way this year. 

Lee Joe did come home.  He made it home a good week and a half before Christmas.  He had thought there would be more work for him here at home but was told he needed to go file unemployment.  Nothing ever goes smoothly around here.  At least that has been the case for all of 2011.  So he did.  He got some days at home, had time to fix his car and work a smidge on mine, then looked into Amber's car and there was some bad news there.  When Kelsea overheated Amber's car in October, she drove it too long in that condition and it needs a major repair now or a new engine.  Lee Joe was not sure what he was going to do for work.  But he made some calls and one of the calls he made had him going to work within hours of the call.  From 6pm to 6am.  That was two days of work before Christmas.  But since he has been working 80 or more hours for months now, he was not ready but went.  Then on Thrursday evening they told him they wanted him to head out of town for 3 weeks, Monday after Christmas.  Then he was really beside himself.  He didn't want to go but after talking to them at length he said he would.  So this is the Monday after Christmas and he has left to drive truck to Montana and then to Utah back and forth until they decide to send him home again.  That will mean he will miss the 4th birthday for this year-Hannah says he wasn't there for her birthday last year either.  And another holiday-unless he manages to be in Utah for New Years and I decide the drive to Utah.  We have to see if it will be something I can manage and see if the weather cooperates.

The girls wanted footy pjs.  So funny.

As far as Christmas goes, Lee Joe was home.  Amber is not, we are trying to figure out how these things work.  But it worked well enough.  We had Amber and Ryan over in the evening of Christmas Eve.  They came back on Christmas Day until they went to his parents house.  The girls were so fun Christmas Eve night.  All the girls wanted footy pajamas which cracks me up since they all wanted them and they are 18, 15,13 and 9.  I don't usually do the Christmas PJ thing, but we did this year.  They were so funny.

Kelsea got her Harry Potter movie. Triumph!

Kelsea wanted a few specific things for Christmas, but what made me laugh was that her favorite present was not one she asked for.  She got a Harry Potter wand that lights up on the end when you just wave it. She waved it on, off, on, off, on off.  Then when she put in it back in the box she opened, closed it, open, close, open, close.  Yes the child is ADHD and very easlily entertained.  She reminded me of when she was 5.  I loved it! 

Kylee and Autumn didn't ask for anything this Christmas.  I enjoyed all the smiling they did with what they did get.  Kylee is easy and happy with everything.  She was happiest with a pair of boots she got and an angry birds t-shirt.  Autumn is always quite reserved and is always thinking. I remember the Christmas when she was 4 and all she wanted was a carebear.  She looked at all the presents and asked which one was the Care Bear and almost everything else didn't matter.  This year she was all smiles.  Lee Joe even caught her sighing with contentment.   She has asked for a camera several times.  She didn't ask this year but she did get one. Hannah wanted this magic set something awful.  We saw it at Costco and she talked about it for several weeks.  She did the same with a Darth Vader alarm clock.  This Christmas was a strange one.  She got a Lego Star Wars Darth Vader ornament for the tree.  She wanted Star Wars stuff, lego stuff and is into angry birds.  But she wanted really pretty clothes and nice pea coats like all her sisters have.  She also got Star Wars wall stickers.  I think we will be painting her room soon.  And she loves giraffes.  It was a really funny year for her.  Her birthday is in a few days so there will be more.  But she still enjoys Build a Bear.  We did get her a bear before Christmas for her birthday, because the store is way too slammed after Christmas.  She did NOT dress the bear in Star Wars stuff.  She chose a very sparkly outfit.  So she is so quirky and she is turning 10 so things will be changing.  I can see the little girl leaving and see a little of the pre-teen setting in.  It makes me sad. 

Quite the beast! Love it!

Kelsea was in charge of shopping for me.  She did a great job.  My mom, Lee Joe and Kelsea all got together and got me this fantastic Kitchenaid mixer.  But I still need to try it out.  I was done with my baking when I got it.  I will have to try something soon.  I LOVE the show Merlin right now.  She got me the 2 seasons that are out on DVD right now.  I got a few other things I really wanted.  The sweetest thing she did was she made me a bracelet with some charms from my Grandma June.  I will take a picture and dedicate a post explaining the significance of the charms.  What she did with it is beautiful. 

I will post about the importance of these charms.

Lee Joe was so funny this year.  He complained when the girls and I got ipods in the past.  Now he started to complain that he didn't have one.  But the isolation in North Dakota got to him I think.  So he really wanted an ipod.  He did get one for Christmas this year.  We did pretty good when he was opening his other gifts, keeping it from him.  But one gift was a charger that plugged in the wall and in the car with a few different adapters you could use for other things.  That was the only hint he needed.  He started to go after the other present he suspected of going with that charger.  That was funny.  He did get an ipod touch.  We were all trying to get him trained up on it before he left.  Some of the aps will be really helpful for him while he is away.

While Lee Joe was home, he got to know the puppies.  He can be pretty impatient sometimes.  But they are so cute that he was really taken by both of our boys.  Speaking of the boys, they will be having a necessary surgery tomorrow.  So hopefully they won't be traumatized by the experience.  I think Yoda is finally past the trauma from the Parvo and shots experiences.  I just hope we don't have start all over again with him.  Dobby is just a super cute whiney baby when it comes to pain.

Still here...

In case you were still wondering if I am still here, yes I am. 

Puppies are growing and I enjoy them very much.  Except when they decide to run out the front door and take themselves for a jog without a people escort.  That happened for the first time today.  They are like having toddlers right now.  I am always cleaning up after their messes.  But they are 100% housetrained now.  They are very attached to me.

Lee Joe is in North Dakota-still.  He came home the first week in October.  He did not make it home for Thanksgiving.  For awhile I thought it would just be me and the three youngest and my mom for Thanksgiving.  But Kelsea didn't have to work at Tucanos and Amber and Ryan told his family they were having dinner with us because they knew there wasn't going to be many of us here.  So we had a nice low key dinner all together with all the favorites.  We watched Ryan's family launch rockets which has become their Thanksgiving morning tradition and it was something new and fun for us to watch.

Lee Joe WILL be home just before Christmas.  What he does next is still unknown. 

Kelsea has moved back home but with school and her 4 jobs and social life she is not home much. 

So I continue on as a single parent.  I haven't figured out what to cook for the 4 of us.  Especially when 2 hardly eat anything so it's like cooking for 2 and half.  We can always agree on pizza.  But I think that is getting old, cheap totinos pizza, pizza bagels, pizza rolls, papa murphys or pizza hut.  And half price happy meals on Tuesdays are great.  I think I fed the 4 of us for $6.00 the other night.

I don't like driving to seminary.  I am NOT a morning person.  I never have been.  I don't even like breakfast.  I will stop griping now because you don't need to hear me go on and on about it. Because I really could.  I don't like the cold right now either.  But I was reminded after I subbed on a really cold windy day this week that I really like being home again.  At least not working in the cold all the time this winter.  But the kids at the school are so sweet.  When I come back, they ask me where I have been and why I am not there everyday.  They tell me they miss me.  I get tons of hugs and they all love to say hi to me.  That makes my day everytime.

I have a new obsession right now.  I absolutely LOVE the show Merlin.  It is filmed in the UK.  It was on NBC here a few years ago and we loved it then.  Netflix has had it.  I finally got around to watching it.  There are 3 seasons of it on Netflix right now and the 4th is airing in the UK right now.  It is recreated/retelling of a young Merlin and young King Arthur.  It is a very well done TV show that plays more like a movie.  I can't get enough of it.  I usually don't watch things over and over but I have started rewatching the episodes again.

At the moment besides  getting ready for Christmas things are quiet-I say that but there is no dad, no extra drivers, driving to seminary and school, there is choir and honor choir for Hannah, jazz band for Kylee and basketball, and regular band for Autumn-things are boring.  My motto is boring is a good thing.  I am all for boring.  We had a our share of car breakdowns in Nampa-two weeks in a row.  yeah,  and a bunch of other super stressful stuff I can't share here.  But things are what they are and after all the tough things I think I have learned how to shrug it all off.  I worry less.  Or maybe I found some great supplements to help me out.  I don't know.  But I think I still think the driving to seminary is the thorn in my side right now.

I really love to write.  (Can you tell when I blog?)  You would think I would have more time now to do that.  Well, I am getting in the way of that and I am very frustrated about it.  I am getting wound up enough that I am about to get really motivated.  Once Christmas is finally taken care of, and the dogs stop messing up the house, I have clean clothes to wear, the kitchen counter is cleaned up, and.... and........ This is where the Nike logo means so much--    Just do it!!!! 

Puppy Recovery

We are happily in now in the fun part of puppyhood and the work of raising them to be well adjusted dogs has begun.

 Dobby sleeps in the funniest positions and is either in contact with brother or with one of us.  Yoda is very tolerant of Dobby's restlessness.  I have slept with Dobby.  And wakeup with him too.  He is constantly moving and cuddling.  Yoda is more aloof but does not like to be alone.

It's hard to get pictures of the boys at play.  They turn out like this.

 I think this is Yoda the weekend after Parvo.  Yoda and Dobby have been putting on healthy weight.  Yoda is very picky with his food and stopped eating.  I was worried and found some dog food for finicky chihuahuas and it was a hit.  But it was blended with the other two dog foods I have for them. Yoda loves to sit in the sun, if the flies leave him alone.  He had a day where he didn't want to be outside and the flies landing on him freaked him out so we went backwards in the housetraining. For some reason the flies are ridiculous right now.  But they are doing pretty well on the housetraining for being as young as they are.

Dobby is a fun loving super affectionate puppy.  He can't wait to say hi to everybody.  He has learned to fetch and picking up on training quite well.  He knows sit.  He is learning what outside means.  He has learned stay, come and leave it.  He is sharp.  Yoda is much more stubborn.  He takes a bit more time to learn as well.  He loves little bits of hot dog.  So he has also learned sit, stay, come and leave it.  He probably will either take longer to learn fetch or he just won't be interested. 
Kelsea did this Dobby but oh my gosh, he is so funny and cute.  Dobby lives up to his name.  The vets office has agreed.  My pups were the talk of the vets.  They said they were amazed at Yoda's recovery.  I took them to get what we are calling their first round of shots.  We are skeptical of the quality of the shots they got (or if they really got them) from the people we bought them from.  I took Dobby, Yoda, Spot and Sox the cat all together to the vaccination clinic.  We were there for over 2 hours but the puppies looked good and the vet tech that helped us said he heard about our puppies.  Dobby handled his shot fine.  I have had some issues with Yoda panicking when things happen too fast for him.  But the shot brought back bad memories.  He cried like he was getting hurt for a long time even after the shot was over.  Then they trimmed the pups nails.  The vet got one to close to the quick.  And he freaked out again.  So Saturday Yoda had some moments where he sounded like he was severely injured when I picked him up.  It has taken some work to get him to calm down.  He has become quite fearful.  But he was better today.  Spot doesn't mind playing with Yoda but wants her space from Dobby.  She is trying desperately to act the part of puppy.  But it is fun to see our 12 year old dog act like she is much younger.  The cat hates the whole idea of there being puppies in the house.  But she is starting to come around.  She is bigger than all of them so she can be the queen if she wants to.  I have had success crate training them and they have a wonderful night time routine.  We can put them to bed in a pen around 9 and they stay asleep until at least 7:30 before they need to go out.  I came to a conclusion last night.  The reason we got puppies must be because I have a little snoopy card thing on my vision board that says "Happiness is a Warm Puppy"  Now if only the rest of the things on my vision board would come true.

Other than that, this week has been a rough one.  One of our neighbors two houses down passed away.  I made a trip to Payette and back and now my car is fussing at me.  I had a bunch of other pieces of bad news.  I also miss my kids that aren't here.  Hannah and I are spending an awful lot of time alone together.  Which also means my household help doesn't really exist either.   You would think being home I would have lots of time to take care of things but not with puppies around.  But there is some potentially good news we got today.  We will have to see if it happens.  Lee Joe might be able to start working on a job in Burley over the winter.  That is 2 and half hours from us.  Much better than the 16 hours from home that he is now.  One way or another we are hoping he will be back closer to home soon.

Puppies and Parvo

I would like it if I could have events in my life just happen like they do for most people. I would like to say "We got puppies! Let the training begin." But things aren't that easy around here. As the course of the past few months-look back years-no that never happens. One way to look at it is Heavenly Father must really love me because he pays a lot of attention to me by giving me lots of character building experiences. But I would like it if he ignored me for awhile and paid attention to someone else. Then another thought I had was I must have been selected to save these puppies because maybe someone else wouldn't have.

Here is how it happened. In a previous post I shared how we had to put Buddy to sleep at the beginning of August. Our rescue dog that we had for 12 years, lived a long dog life with us. We still have Spot who is 12. Hannah said before we put him to sleep that we needed to get a puppy because that is the best way to get over the loss of your dog. I wasn't ready for that at all. But over the course of the month I found myself pet looking, just looking. Telling myself they are hard work and it was nice being down to one cat and one dog, 3 guinea pigs and several fish tanks. I did pretty good talking myself out of it. I was thinking kitten. But the kids weren't for that but they are easier I think.

The kids started school and I don't know what was up with the cat and the dog but since I am not working, they followed me all day. I was in my room, they were there. I go to the kitchen, they follow me there. Spot seemed depressed. So I was in conflict now. Then Kelsea came to visit and says out of the blue she wanted a puppy. And there I was pet looking again. Then there were some Chihuaha/Dachsunds that showed up. And there was another small dog but that one didn't pan out. So Kelsea had pictures texted to us and they were super cute. So we went to meet some puppies in Caldwell. We were offered two for a good deal. We were told they had their shots but needed round two on Sept 1st. But we brought home one. Kelsea liked the super active one. I was looking at the calm one thinking how much easier it would be to handle a calm one. But we left with Kelsea's choice and he was adorable. I almost wanted to turn around and go back for the other one. But we didn't. So the first puppy Kelsea named Dobby after the house elf in Harry Potter.

Dobby is a bouncy happy little guy. Full of energy. But Kelsea felt bad that I didn't get the other dog. She and my mom got together and Kelsea came home the next night with Yoda. Dobby was having some issues being alone. He seemed a little depressed that night until Kelsea walked in with his brother and he got real excited.

Yoda is really reserved and shy but what we soon found out was that he was getting sick. They ate a bunch of food that night before bed. Sometimes when puppies start eating new food they can get diarrhea. So I wasn't sure if that was what was wrong and if that was why Yoda threw up twice that night. Yoda the next day was looking for love and wanted to be held. I am not sure why but I was worried all day that something more was wrong. I talked to a couple of vets offices to get their input. It was either adjusting to new food and stress or they mentioned Parvo and I had read about it already and didn't want it to be that. They told me how expensive it could be to treat that and we should give the dog back. The people we got him from would not be able to take care of him, I knew. I was hoping it was stress. But that next night he started throwing up at 3 and didn't stop. He looked bad. I called the vet as soon as they opened. I brought the dogs. They didn't want the dogs to come out of the car. They tested Yoda and he was strong positive for Parvo. I had hoped so badly it wasn't that. The said he would be best to be treated in the vet hospital and they told me it could be $800 or more for just him. Who can do that? They brought up putting him to sleep. I really couldn't do that this close to when we lost Buddy. It was tearing my heart out what to do. (I am a ridiculous animal lover as well as thinking of my kids broken hearts as well as my own) The vet tech said he looked bad. With Parvo it's only a 50/50 chance they give you and Yoda was in bad shape. They gave me another option and that was giving the pups fluids under their skin. I would come in the morning and they would give them meds and fluids and there was no way to know how long it would take. The dogs needed to be quarantined in my house. Everything blanket or towel they touched would need to be bleached. The house would need to be bleached. Where they had pooped would have to be fenced off until the dogs got their shots. We would have to be extra careful entering and exiting that space where they were quarantined. The dogs couldn't be with each other either. Needless to say, after the three rough nights I had with seminary driving at 6am each day I was already exhausted but I did everything I was told. I didn't think Yoda improved much that day but I had to take him back that afternoon before they closed to get him and another antinausea shot. Then they found out they could give him a stronger antibiotic than the one they gave him that morning so they gave him that. The vet tech said she thought he looked better. So that gave me a boost. I had been in tears over the heartbreak of how serious it was and I wanted them to make it because it was already hard to ease the pain from Buddy. Dobby had been getting sick but he was caught super early so he felt like he was being tortured by having to be locked up in a room alone all day. Kelsea came home that night. She spent hours alone with Dobby and slept him that night. They were quarantined in her room. All Yoda did was sleep. The next day, more fluids under the dogs skin around their necks. Yoda did not throw up. That night I was told to try offering a little water to him and if that stayed down after several times he could have a little food. I tried to offer him water and he wanted more at first and then later I had to dropper him some water because he wouldn't take it. Then I tried to offer him food. He wouldn't take it either so I mixed it with some water and droppered that into his mouth. If he didn't take some food soon it wouldn't be good for him either but it needed to stay down. I made the mistake of leaving water in his pen that night so he had too much and threw up. I was upset over my mistake and hoped it wasn't a setback. But Dobby was not needing to go back to the vet because he was doing great but he didn't have the all clear to be released from quarantine. That was hardest for him. Day number 3 I only bring in Yoda. I don't think he is doing much better but he pooped all over his carrier on the way to the vet. She thought it didn't look too bad. She said she was amazed at Yoda how he was recovering and they were happy to see he was improving and that they didn't expect to see that but they knew I was doing everything they asked. So he needed to eat food and not throw up and stop having diarrhea and he wouldn't need to come back.

Yoda in quarantine on Day 3.

I couldn't get him to eat the food they gave me. He just sat where I put him on the counter and he wasn't interested at all so I kept giving him dropperfulls determined to help him get better. My third time that day feeding him, he left where I put him on the blanket on the counter in the kitchen. He was looking for something. He went to the bowl where I had the puppy food he had eaten the first night at our house. It was in water soaking for Dobby. He wanted that food. I gave him some and he ate it on his own! Every half hour I offered him more and more. I left Kelsea with Hannah and the puppies so I could run to Costco that afternoon. Kelsea texted me and told me that Yoda was barking! I nearly started to cry in the store. He was looking for attention finally! So we kept doing what we were doing. That night he kept getting better but he hadn't pooped yet and that would tell us if he needed to go back to the vet. This morning-Day 4 all indications is that he had recovered from Parvo and didn't need to go back. Today we have finally gotten to know out little guys. They have been played with, crate trained, some house training and loved a bunch. Yoda is little more dachsund looking. He is shorter than Dobby. Yoda still tires easily but also still has a very reserved. cautious and shy nature about him. But he loves to sit in your lap or cuddle on under your chin or on your shoulder. Dobby doesn't look like chihuahua or dachsund. He looks a little like a miniature beagle only brown and white. Dobby plays fetch and tug of war, and can squeak his squeaker toy and is quite the entertainer. He sleeps in the funniest positions and loves to snuggle up to people when he sleeps. Now we get to find out what Chiweenies are all about. But I never want to deal with Parvo ever again.

Sidenote-I totally offended the cat with our new additions and Spot is totally put out by her tiny little yard right now outside the pet door. Yesterday she wanted to play with Dobby. Today she is not sure what she thinks.

Reception pics

These are Devanie's reception pictures. Read the post below this one that tells about all this.

Guest book with toss bouquet. Part of my gazebo with the picture on it. The gift table with the paper flowers behind it.

I had a display table. Ryan made this fantastic lego Twin Falls temple. The goblets with lemon, gel beads and lights inside. My computer crashed so I couldn't lable the stuff I put here but I brought Amber's first white dress. One of the great flower arrangments. The wavy frames have pictures of Amber and Ryan on the day they got engaged.

All of us at the arbor with the lamposts. I never got to watch the slide show Ryan's mom made. The center of the gym with park benches and lamp post in the center. You can see the ceiling.

Not sure why these two pictures are so much smaller.

The dessert table. And the small square centerpieces with lemons inside. All the yellow tables had these and the gray tables had the larger flower arrangements.

To see more pictures that the photographer took of Amber and Ryan go to:

http://www.katejenningsphotography.blogspot.com/

Keeping a promise..Wedding

I promised a couple posts back that the next post would be happy but I broke the promise with the post before this. So here is the promised happy post. Blogger is barely pulling these pictures up and it is taking forever. So I can't post as many pictures as I would like to. It will take hours.

Amber and Ryan finally had their big day. Well they were super happy. I was bit of a basket case at times. Amber, Kelsea and I went to Twin Falls Thursday night and had a nice time together. Lee Joe had to wait for Kylee and Autumn to get home from girls camp and he came Friday along with everyone else. I enjoyed my two oldest girls hanging out together. We laughed at Kelsea's goofiness. And they were the silly sisters they have always been together. Amber put her dress on and we tried to figure out how they bustled her dress. I think the gal forgot to finish it or something. We watched youtube videos on how to bustle a dress but Amber's dress only had stuff on one side. So it wasn't going to work. Kelsea did Amber's hair and make-up the next morning and then we all went to the Twin Falls temple. You know, our family always makes for great drama. Lee Joe's recommend had expired. He didn't realize that until he was headed home. So as soon as he got back he had to chase people down to get his stuff taken care of. He almost had to drive in the mountains up to girls camp but lucked out because one of the people we needed came home from camp early. So that bit of stress was set aside. But at the temple we were waiting for Lee Joe's mom and dad and uncle to show up. They finally got there and we found out his mom and dad ran out of gas on the way there. But they had past their exit by 20 miles and were headed back when it happened. Lee Joe's uncle had gas on his truck and was coming the direction they were headed so they were lucky. The Other uncle we were waiting for didn't make it. His wife brought him the wrong pants since he had been working so he didn't come in. We were all there for the temple ceremony finally. I didn't have family but I had my great friend Mindy who came to be my person and support. I can tell you, I may not have expressed it well enough but her presence meant so much and helped me cope. What was wonderful was how happy both Amber and Ryan were the whole time. I don't think I have ever seen my daughter so happy.

I love these people. I have gained a son. He has called me mom a few times and it sure makes me smile.

Our friends are starting a new flower business together. This was beautiful. When I saw it, they had pretty beads and things on the flowers and it just added to the fantastic look of her bouquet. The flowers had been sent to wrong place and they got the flowers later than they had hoped. But you couldn't tell with how it turned out that they had been rushed.

So I had hoped to have all these great reception pictures. I failed, my sister in law succeeded a bit more than I did. A great friend from our ward was a huge help. They kept reassuring me all was well and calmed me down. There was tulle hanging from a circle at the center of the gym ceiling with icicle lights. There were lamposts and park benches and tulle hanging from the walls. There were lemons in some of the flower arrangements and in other decor. We stood in front of a beautiful arbor that had lights around it. I reused our gazebo corners. I spray painted them black and hung tulle in the back of them and had some pictures hanging from the front of them. The biggest job was getting the creases out of 64 chair covers and the thing that went wrong was that the AC stopped working in the gym. We had to open the overflow doors to get cool air from the chapel to circulate in the gym. I had three wonderful friends show up and manage the food and lemonade bar. I suppose with how hard it was for me and my poor little brain to cope, it all went well. The gym looked as I had imagined it would. I loved that the most. There was high praise for the reception. Before we had it close to being set up, I was given compliments. One lady asked if a wedding planner was setting it up and I said no. She said her son took pictures for a bridal magazine and she thought it looked wonderful. I had another lady say she had hired a wedding planner for her daughters wedding and she liked what we did. Another friend said later that she had been to many receptions and ours was by far the best she had been to. One of the friends that was helping with the food said when she saw it that it almost brought tears to her eyes and gave her chills. She thought it was beautiful. Ryan's grandma use to plan receptions and she gave the reception high praise. She may have been part of the reason I was in overdrive over it all. I am so glad it was well recieved. I am so glad it's over. I hope I don't have to do another one anytime soon. No, I don't want to be a wedding planner. I have just said that I wish I was a happy party planner. I would be nice if I could enjoy it more. But really, a week later, I just need more sleep. I am still trying to put 280 yards of tulle away and half of the 64 chair covers are waiting to get through the wash. Now where I am going to store all this stuff? I have 4 more daughters to marry off. But I am counting on a nice long stretch between weddings.

I quit

First of all, I quit trying to post a picture of Buddy for one. It wouldn't post so sorry for the boring word blogs with no pictures and it would have been even sadder to see. I picked up his ashes today. They are in the family where he was trained to stay. I do OK and then I feel sad again and the room is not the same. (update-posting the picture finally worked, editing this post here would make this post not work)
I am grieving still, for everything it seems. I know I am not alone but I feel very alone right now. Life is really beating me up all at once. It' so funny, I am bewildered by my sad emotions and then I review it all and the list gets longer and longer and I reminding myself that there are a lot of good reasons to be sad right now so I try to let myself feel sad instead of trying to put it away.

I quit my job. I needed too. It was for so many reasons. I love kids, I love quotes from kids, I love teasing them too. I work with some really fantastic people. But it was time. I need to take care of me. Because nobody else will do it for me. I still don't feel well and it all comes back to stress. According to doctors, I am allergic to everything that's green and have something going on in the vertebrae in my neck and ridiculous migraines but other than that nothing else they can find. So it's stress and most illnesses are triggered by that anyway. I am sad about leaving and so relieved at the same time. I don't want to play frogger with cars anymore and stand out in the rain and snow all winter long. But I did tell them I would sub. So I won't be gone forever.

Wedding post to come. I just need to be able to post pictures. Amber was beautiful.

I'm sorry, I am sad. This is super sad.

I posted last summer that I thought our dog might not be with us much longer. He did make it another year. Our dog Buddy became part of our family 12 years ago. We rescued him from the pound. He's 13 or 14 years old and a rather large dog. The past six months he has been in decline. July 4th he must have had a stroke or something. He never pees in the house but he did that day and couldn't get up for 24 hours. I wasn't sure what to do but when he has been bad it will usually pass. It took until later the next day though before he got up. Talking with Lee Joe, he wanted to wait until he was home before we did anything unless he went on his own naturally. I wasn't sure he could make it that long. But Buddy rebounded enough and we dealt with his issues. Then almost as soon as Lee Joe came home, the dog was unable to get up without a lot of help. He wouldn't even eat or drink, until we gave it to him.
We have had a short time with Lee Joe this week. Kylee and Autumn were at camp until Amber's wedding (a happier post to come) so we didn't want to do it until the girls were all home and we didn't want to do it before the wedding. So it was today. Lee Joe goes to North Dakota tomorrow. It was hanging over us while we prepared for the wedding. After much debate on how to deal with this we figured out what we do, we told the girls it was time. It was hard for us all. The two youngest have never known what it was like to not have Buddy around. Hannah wants him to live forever and everything to live forever. She has also had the hardest time with Lee Joe's absence. She has cried off and on all week as we have tried to prepare her for what needed to be done. Lee Joe struggled with admitting it was time. But I couldn't take care of it on my own. He finally admitted Buddy's quality of life was gone. I finally figured out what the dogs biggest problem is. I suspected it was the case, but he was suffering from dog dementia.

Be warned, the rest of this is the painful story of our goodbye.

We have no van so getting him to the vet was a dilemma but Amber's Eclipse has a hatchback. So we put his bed there and Lee Joe and I lifted the seventy pound dog into the back and he settled comfortably. The youngest three sat around him and Kelsea rode with her dad and the dog in the front and I followed in the car with our other dog Spot. I felt she should be there. They have always been together she needed to be there too. Amber left on her honeymoon but she knew what we had to do. We had talked to vet ahead of time. Lee Joe didn't like him being in a sterile room scared so I had talked to the vet about how to handle it. Buddy had walked around outside some. Lee Joe put his bed in the grass and Buddy laid down there. We are all crying. The three youngest made bouquets of flowers from Amber's wedding for him. So he was outside on his bed with flowers all around him and we were all in tears. Quite a sight for everyone that saw us there. They got him ready outside. We had then we had to wait for the vet to take care of poor cat that came that was badly injured. So we had more time to pet him and cry some more. Finally he was able to come out. He explained what we were about to see happen and needless to say, when it did happen it was hard. They let us have our time with him and then once they got ready to bring him inside we even had the one of the vet techs in tears. I am not sure if that family lost their cat or if they had watched us outside but they were crying too when they came out the doors. I really wish he could have gone on his own, that we didn't have to make that decision for him. Man, it hurts.

I will share the sad about the wedding so I don't have to post it with all the happy and good parts of it. I am sad when I realize that when I talk about MY family and MY genepool that could share in the event is my husband and my children, then my mom came to the reception and my niece and that was all the family I had. I am sad that my daughter is going to depend on someone else now. I have always realized how much my children mean to me and now I will have to share her with her husband and his family now. She has removed herself from me quite a but through the planning process of her wedding. I already miss her. I am sad that the photographer didn't get pictures of even Lee Joe's family that came to Amber's wedding. She was too wrapped up in getting pictures of Ryan's family. I am sad that my husband is leaving tomorrow morning and I haven't had any time with him to just be with him without all the chaos. I miss Kelsea too since she is living with my mom and am sad that the photographer took away her moment to give her sister her bouquet at the temple and broke her heart. I probably feel all the event emotional letdown combined with several significant losses in my life all at once and it feels unbearable right this minute. Not to mention the monster migraine that I can't find relief from and my inability to sleep for the past few days. So I will end this tale of misery. The next post will be happy. I promise.

Stressing out.

I remember my wedding was stressful. But it was more because there were more details to make decisions about that really didn't matter to me. My mother in law drug me around telling me all the things I needed to decide. I didn't care that much about what cups and napkins and plates we had but I picked some out. I didn't need fancy invitations, but I picked one out. I would have loved to have done the things we can do now with invitations. Lee Joe and I didn't have engagement pictures and having a reception in the backyard of the house I lived in at the time was fine with me. I also didn't need anything fancy to stand behind me when we had pictures taken at the reception. I liked the pictures at the temple just fine. My mom took care of ordering the cake. She was really disappointed with how it turned out but I remember the cake was really good. I never dreamed about when I got married or what I wanted that to be like. I am not sure why. I just always played house and had lots of "kids" with all our various dolls. I always had to have a boy doll at least. Well I didn't get a boy baby in real life. I did get married. I was fine with all of that. My sister was the same when she married her husband on our anniversary. She was way more low key than even I was. They went to the court house and was married by the justice of the peace. My family was there and mom was there and then we went to Olive Garden and it was done.
So here I am now putting on quite the production number. There is a grandma on his side that had put on receptions for years. But I am in charge of the big grand party-the reception. I have big plans that have engineering things to hang from the ceiling and trying to transform a gym to look like something else. Like a tent in a park under the stars. So far all the funny little things I have worried about have been perfect. Chair covers to fit the church chairs. I am renting table cloths from a friend that are exactly what I needed and she has the right amount. I had to dye two dresses for my girls and they turned out to be just right with the white ribbon staying white. It is all coming together. Now I am just starting to worry about the stuff I have no control over. "What if no one shows up?" I know His family will and I know a couple members of our families are coming to the wedding. The shower Kelsea is throwing for Amber is worrying me even more. I am telling myself all is fine. It's hard to calm myself down. ( Just in case you didn't know- I seriously have a bunch of anxiety disorders. I am not even kidding. Social anxiety is the worst one. If I had list of other anxiety disorders I could tell you the rest. )

Here is something good to come of this. So Amber had a boy on a mission she was waiting- for sort of. I have been friends with his mom. There were so many things that happened before he left on his mission that really there was a big unknown as to where those two really were. They were told to break-up and they did. They were told not to communicate at times and they stopped and everything they were told to do, they did. It was not by me. So when Amber met Ryan and things started to progress I wondered where things would go. The boy on the mission's mom started to catch what was happening and then I found out she really did want Amber to be there when her son came home and she had plans. They were wedding plans. I was floored. I see this mom regularly where I work. When the engagement did happen, the mom was devastated. She was aware of what was going on, we had talked about where it was headed but she was angry and hurt and was upset at Amber and at me. Everyone started to hear how upset she was at Amber. I kept hearing stories of how this was carrying on. I was distressed. I was happy for my daughter but this was difficult. My boss said when I told him how upset she was "Consider that a compliment." I was taken aback wondering what he meant and then I thought about it some more and it made sense. I had more decisions to make on how to handle this. I would give her so much power if I let all her carrying on get to me. I thought about conversations to have and things to say because I was worried what people would think. But the feedback I got was positive from everyone. Then I realized that people knew me well enough and knew Amber well enough that there would be no harm done in the end. That was hard to sit back and wait it out. Whenever I saw my angry friend, I did my best to be as kind as I am and not let it consume me-it still did all the time but there was much less effect if I hadn't had the better perspective. That was my decision, to let her part play out and I would have a daughter that is getting married to the person she was meant to marry.
Since school is out we have had several weeks now to have some space from this friend. Last night I knew I would see her again at a big bar b q. I was so worried about going, not sure of where she was with this whole thing. She did get an invitation to the wedding. We have looked past the slights knowing(hoping) that it would pass. I didn't know when it would. So I calmed myself down, went to the thing with Amber and Ryan and the first person that greeted us was her. And she offered me hug! She shook Ryan's hand happy to meet him and she came and talked to me several times with interest of our wedding planning. It is such a relief! The one thing I am so glad about as difficult as this was, was that I didn't compromise myself . I know she didn't handle the engagement news well and as the principal told me "take it as a compliment." I stayed kind and I do not have any regrets on how I handled any of this. I just hope I can be as wise in the future. There are still four more daughters to marry off.
And geez people- I know you are out are there reading my stuff, even if I don't know you, you can comment.

Summer Fun

I have been trying to make sure the girls get to have a summer in between the all the running for wedding stuff. The wedding has taken over my life and there isn't much time left. But a few weeks ago we had coupons to go to Wahooz so the three youngest and I had a great time.

We came home and this is what the kids looked like after miniature golf.


One of the girls put these googly eyes over their eyes when we got home. We had a great laugh over it.

I had my first nightmare over the wedding reception. I dreamt that people started coming and I didn't have everything set up, then I realized I wasn't dressed, Kelsea and Kylee's dresses were still white and hadn't been dyed yet. I didn't know where Amber and Ryan were and there was a strange Christmas themed musical number for the ring ceremony. It was strange and one of those dreams where you wake up with a ton of anxiety and then you are super relieved that it wasn't real. But the anxiety still lingers. Of course I have anxiety of this over some duration at least a few times every day.

I wish I was a happy party planner. I think it will all be fine and will try to remember that whatever doesn't go well, well that is just a given for weddings. I won't sweat it but I would like to make sure I did the best job I could.

Empty Nest

In this picture is a nest in my lilac tree. Just below the dead lilac flower you can the beak and head of the baby bird.

We discovered the nest in the lilac outside my bedroom window weeks ago. We though maybe the babies had already been raised and left. But it has been so cool so far this summer that we were excited to find 3 babies. We watched the ma and pa bird take turns feeding them from our window. It was quite a site. Last Saturday I woke up to the most incredible noise. They would call for there parents and then they would squabble with each other and then a parent would show up with a worm and they would all freak out. There was the strong bird that sat on top of it's siblings, the reason for the squabbling. Then it was on the edge of the nest flapping it's wings getting ready to fly. One time he fell out of the nest but didn't fall far and got himself up in the nest. So in my mind because he was the dominate bully bird I called him a he. The other two were girls. Just because that's what I decided. They were squabbling and Hannah came out and thought something happened and it was funny watching them all get still and quiet until a parent came back. That night we had a rainstorm and we watched them in the rain. The next morning it was way to quiet. They were gone, sort of. I listened for the parents, they didn't come. But I heard one of them call nearby. I knew one was close to flying but I wasn't sure about the other two. We hunted outside after church. I found one on the patio. He wasn't flying from me but running. I tried to get it to back towards the nest. It flew up to the broken gazebo. That was the he bird. I hoped he might fly back to the nest and shocked me when he flew to the neighbors house. We have had to watch the cat by the way. She has brought in more fledglings than we have cared to have to rescue. So we found bird number two in the garden. But she couldn't fly but she could run from us. We found bird number three stuck between two boards in the garden calling for it's parents. We didn't think it was ready to go yet. So once it was pulled out it was put in it's nest and so was number 2. Number 2 called on the from the branches. Bird 3 was in the nest and bird one had sat on the peak of the neighbors house and then was gone. Later they were both out of the nest. The parents never came back. I couldn't find 2 but three was on the ground calling. I thought she was up higher. I might have stepped on her, I am not sure but she already wasn't mobile enough anyway. We put her in a container hoping to take her to the rescue place in the morning. I heard bird two outside Amber's window in the front. This is where I found her.

We let this one be. And soon it was gone.

But within hours of putting this one in the bucket, when checked on, it was on it's side close to death. Lee Joe tried to help but there wasn't anything left to do. It was the weak one. It was the one in the bottom of the nest and I guess when they decide they are to leave they all leave at once ready or not. Nature took it's course-science calls it natural selection. The little thing died in my hand wrapped in washrag. That was the only thing left to do. I learned something when I was looking up what to do. Many times birds do leave the nest before they can fly and spend a few days on the ground. That explains why the cat brings so many in. Also why these three did what they did. I didn't know that before. I love the internet for learning things like that.

I have contemplated this empty nest thing. Last summer was overwhelming. I had 6 girls coming and going trying to moniter and keep on the right track and make summer memories with that we couldn't do the summer before. Making sure they got along. This summer is dramatically different. I thought the changes were coming in August. Amber getting married and Kelsea going to college. But it's all happening now. Lee Joe is in North Dakota until the wedding in August. Amber went on a trip with Ryan's family to Yellowstone and South Dakota for a week. She is always gone when she has been home. She is always busy and gone and somewhat grumpy. She starts a new job that will be full time the rest of the summer doing research at BSU. Not very many under grads get in so it is great she got that job but she doesn't know if she has to sacrifice marching band to do it. I will be sad if that happens.
Kelsea moved in with her grandma so she has someone there with her. Kelsea is feeling the "I am 18 and I want freedom." And she is not going to Uof I by the way but going to CWI (new community college) instead to get some classes out of the way and make her decision of what to do when she is ready. Good news she wants to stay close to home but she doesn't want to be home. For those two, they don't want to do anything family like. But I get up every morning and see her empty bed and her room still has almost everything in it. But I am feeling the loss and the pain of my little birds leaving me and unlike the robins, I am not shoving them out and running away. But at the same time I am ready for them to be independent (they don't want to do a thing around here anymore). I guess it's worse because I am without a spouse as well. The younger three want new rooms and are itching for them to go.
So I am learning what that empty nest thing is all about. I have enjoyed my kids so much that it is painful that it is happening. I feel like we have missed out on some important family time since the past two summers have been financially painful there have been no trips. But at the same time certain things get easier and so with that I am finding it easier to let go. I am doing less laundry. Food is lasting longer as well. We fit in a 5 passenger car now. All this means is that a new chapter in my life is about to begin.

Wedding anyone?

I have thrown nice parties but always at the cost of my mental health. I need to plan the party of all parties-Amber's reception. It is difficult for to come up with ideas and when I come with good ones, Amber shoots them down. I persist a little and then she likes my ideas later-after the grief of having to start over again and then really I don't have to. Coming up with a menu is painful for me. I don't mind the decorating but I need a co-operative couple to work with me there.

I have dresses for the girls. Amber's colors are yellow and gray. I looked at every reasonably priced store around us around Easter to try and find Yellow dresses. Yellow is hard to find and when you find it the material is weird, the cut is wrong or it's too casually summer. Or it has no straps or little straps. But there were all these fantastic white summer dresses. SO many that would be perfect. So I found two perfect white dresses for Kelsea and Kylee. I need to try dying them (scarey) I will try it on other white cotton first. I found yellow dresses for the younger girls made out of the same type cotton fabric. They were perfect.

Me-not so much luck. I don't like short skirts. I look absolutely dreadful in yellow. I found a dress I hate, but will work and fits, today. It looks very 'mother of the bride'. It was less than twenty dollars. It is my "when all else fails" dress. Hopefully I will find something in July when the winter stuff comes out. Something with a long skirt and in gray. I really don't want pictures in that dress but it is the best I can find. Maybe if I can lose twenty pounds in 2 months I will look much better. But I think I have to actually try to achieve that and I haven't started trying hard enough yet. I am stress eater and am doing plenty of that.

Pictures

To summarize with Pictures

This one is getting married. They are so cute. We are so happy. And stressed. Wedding in August.

This one made it to State for tennis. She played mixed doubles. She didn't place. But she was given the title of Miss Tennis for the senior class.

Then she graduated!! She is headed for the University of Idaho. It's up in Northern Idaho in case you didn't know. I still haven't been there. She leaves in August, the week after Amber.

This one is waiting to get her Perfect Attendance award at her assembly. Her youngest sister earned that award too and then they missed the second to last day of school for Grandma Leavitt's funeral. :(

But they got to keep their award.

This one earned a 3 sport award and a hardest working reader award. She has worked hard. I was pretty worn out myself watching her. She made it to city in track and then went right into volleyball to finish the year.

This was the beginning of our last Hurrah. Taking a spontaneous trip to Utah to go to Lagoon. The last time we were all together as a family on a family trip. It later became the last time we would travel in our van.

I will sincerely miss road trips all together in one car. My favorite memories are traveling all together listening to them act goofy and entertain each other in between the squabbles.

But we did make it to Lagoon without the van. Hannah was "So flippin excited!!" She adores her cousin Sierra.

I am trying to get over my aversion to taking pictures of myself. I am sure my kids would like to remember me someday. Now, Lee Joe has officially left for North Dakota to work like a crazy man. He will be back next week but will be busy and back again for the wedding in August. We are about to celebrate 21 years together but it is looking more like we will just have to remember it has been that long because we won't be together to celebrate it.

And since this has become a blog of changes and departures. Here is the goodbye to our van. I can't say it was always loyal- dumping the transmission twice with terrible timing and in the middle of nowhere both times. I can't say it was dependable either since it pick and chose when it would let it's left blinker work, which was mostly not. Only one window rolled down and the headlights only worked on bright, but that's OK because nobody could tell they were on bright because they were so dim. But we had many great memories travelling across the country in it. It was great for bringing home bikes and stuff for the house. It was the car I picked and enjoyed driving after years of cars I disliked very much. I am sad it has a new home now with a man who will bring her back to life but not in my care.

We has just been talking that with the coming changes that we could downsize to a car. It came a little sooner than we expected. We had to frantically find a car in less than a week. We found it. Now I need to take a picture of what I am driving now. It's a 5 passenger car. I did get to pick this car. So it's not too bad. I have a 2002 Mazda 626. Picture coming soon.

So come August, Lee Joe will come home long enough to see his daughter marry-we will gain a son.

She will move out, he will leave again. The next week I take Kelsea to college. Our family of seven will be a family of 4 for awhile. I had a feeling I could loose both of those girls at the same time. The time has come. I am prepared. We have one bathroom we share for showering, believe me we are all ready. The 3 youngest will all have their own room. I will have a 9th, 8th and 4th grader with 2 in college and a son in law. It has all happened way too fast.

What happened?

I do like to blog. You probably thought I gave up. But this time of year is so busy there is no time for anything. This is the first evening I have had without something on it in weeks. I am feeling exhaustion. Life has been nuts with good news and some super stress moments. The stress moments seem to last weeks. You wondered where I went and well, so did I. So I will organize my thoughts and I will probably get back on this blog thing next week because, well, here is this weeks run down-My van lost it's transmission for the second time since we have owned it. We were having our last family Hurrah to Lagoon. We have not been anywhere in literally years to have fun together and almost came to a halt this weekend. We were past Twin Falls going to Utah when there was no warning, no noise it just stopped going 75 miles an hour. At 10:45 our family of seven was on the side of the road. Pondering what to do and feeling this might be the beginning of a long and miserable night,we called the closest family member that lives around Twin Falls. Jared figured it all out "You are doing what? GOing to Lagoon with the family and you will be coming home when? tomorrow night? Here, I will bring you my Durango and you guys can go to Lagoon and do you have towing on your insurance? My friend here can figure this out." By midnight we were loading up in a Durango with all our stuff and on the road to Lagoon. Jared stayed to get our van off the freeway and we would worry about it later. We were exhausted after our long night. But a quote from Hannah on her way to the entrance. "I am SO FLIPPIN EXCITED!!" The nine year old with no fear road roller coaster after roller coaster. She rode the rocket launcher with all her sisters but did not like the Samurai. I did enjoy the fun moments how my five girls entertain each other in the car and keep us laughing on the way there before the breakdown and then it all resumed again once we were on the road. Devanie takes great care of us as well when we stay at her house. We love visits there. Now we are trying to take care of the van problem. We could enter into car ownership. With just the 3 girls at home this next year and the other two doing their own thing. But it means an end to the time I treasure, which we have not had enough of, and that is time in the car with all my children at once.
Sadly Lee Joe's grandma passed away last week. She was one special lady. She will be missed. Her funeral is this week. We are trying to figure out how to get me a car, sell 3 vehicles we own to help that cause, figure out how the two jr high girls will take 3 finals so they can miss a day of school and if it's possible to get the recent grad to her tennis party-she made it to state and missed her last day of school and the senior celebration because of it. As well as we need to get Lee Joe ready to go to North Dakota for five months. He is suppose to leave Saturday. I am done with work at the end of this week. So this week is super stressful. It will work out I am sure. It always does. But I was already exhausted before all this took place. Next week I will probably be sleeping all week to recover. Some people thrive under pressure. I do not function well in high stress mode. I am just telling you what happened since Friday. There is so much more to share and tons of pictures.

Power

This is on my mind today. I am trying to put my thoughts into words to share. I am struggling to say how I feel. I am dealing with a situation where someone I know is mad at me for reasons only they can justify. I didn't do anything. I have been upset and distressed until I realize I give this person too much power in my life. Especially since there isn't anything I did. So when I thought about it and realized I could choose whether to give her the power to upset me. Or I could choose to take that power back to myself and know there was no wrong doing done by me and let them have their unhappiness, it brought me so much peace and I settled down. But I have had to tell myself that a few times to find that peace again because there has been several days of minor drama. People only have the power in our lives that we give them. I can let this person upset me because they are unhappy or I can choose let them be unhappy and I can move on because their unhappiness is not my problem to fix. That led me to also realize that I need to feel my feelings more sometimes rather than trying to feel everyone elses. I know that is what makes me the person that I am with a tender heart and full of empathy. Why I save mice and fledling birds and mother 500+ kids everyday. But sometimes I have to let myself feel what I feel. I don't need to justify my feelings or answer to anyone how I feel. And that self is happy right now while this other person is not. Needless to say, we don't need these kind of people to take our energy from us. They don't need to waste our time consuming our thoughts. Because letting it go brings so much peace. There is a lot of personal power in that. What I feel is so big and I still don't feel the hugeness of what I am trying to say is coming out right here. I guess my blog readers will have to come out and tell me if you get what I am trying to say. I will leave it at that since in my last mouse blog, I was going to wait to blog more and my next blog will shed some light on what is going on.

Mousecapades

I don't what it is with us. I am telling you that we have some ridiculous mouse stories. I have lots of news to share other than this. But this is good. I must share. We have a cat. She is the coolest cat ever-Until she brings creatures home and lets them loose in our home. Our home is home enough to enough creatures. She has brought in so many fledgling birds that after the 3rd that I had to take to the bird rescue place, I thought I should start giving them monetary donations since we keep them busy. It's one thing to take a bird in a box to the bird rescue place way down to the middle of nowhere. That is the easy part. But that bird didn't just jump in the box because we asked it to. Socks likes to find mice. She brings them in as playthings then gets bored and lets them go. They aren't dead yet! It is a family effort with cool whip bowls as we try to capture the scurrying little things that we didn't invite in the house. But there was one that met it's death by the accidental stomping under Amber's shoe. She taught that mouse a lesson about crawling up human legs. Oh wait, it won't remember because it died instantly. Then there was the cute baby mouse that was too cute and little that it was captured and put into a hamster cage as a pet for time until it died from some sort of health issue. So now you know how silly we are with uninvited creatures into our home, I will tell you my current story. Lee Joe is in his Semi these days more than our cars. As a result we have two cars that get him home. Our KIA is spending a lot of lonely days that has become weeks out in Grand View. But where he parks it is in a fenced area in the middle of a field. The car wasn't that lonely when he got home a few weeks ago. He found several mice. As he was chasing the mice out of his car he found a nest, with 4 babies. This is the man that takes some of the mice brought home by our cat and kills them by means I will not share. I will keep this blog G rated. So yes, this manly man found 4 uninvited baby mice with their uninvited mama in his car. Mama was hiding under the car somewhere and since he couldn't get her and reunite her with her babies and put them elsewhere, they came home with him in the car. Then he let mama find her way back to her babies and then he got the hamster cage we had and put them inside. He brought them inside to rest on our fireplace covered by his jacket. I was surprised to hear we had new visitors. Because he covered them with his coat I also kind of forgot they were there. I had checked on them once. But then I was cleaning house over spring break and I took the jacket off and I look at the cage and the plastic lid has a hole in it. 'Was that there before?' I ask myself. I don't know. Did she chew her way out? I hope not. It wasn't even an hour later when Hannah says "Mom, I think there's a mouse under the stove or it's a dust bunny. I can't tell." She's looking trying to figure it out. I just resign myself. Oh yes, mouse has escaped but I know she wants to find her babies and I don't want to hunt under the stove for her. Then I am near the front door and I see something move out from under the stove but it looks like part of a leaf is sitting on the floor in front of the stove. I just keep going along wishing Lee Joe was there to catch his mouse. Grumbling at what I am going to need to do to get mama to her babies. But I am not going to do it now either. Fifteen minutes later Autumn comes up the stairs and says " Mom! There's a mouse?" "Where?" "Under the bookshelf." OK, now it's time to catch this mouse. We hunt for bowls and I call all the girls I have home to come help me. We have a piece of posterboard, A handle to my swiffer and a couple of girls with bowl in their hands to try to catch her. Back and forth and she goes under the shelf, under the fish tank. So I try to pull the bookshelf out. I am hoping she doesn't totally run off. But a picture frame fell off and landed on the floor right where she was. We didn't know if it hit her. But she was beside it. She was probably deaf now because it was crazy loud. She was OK and not a super fast mouse. I think it took ten more minutes and we caught her. She was reunited with her babies and we put a larger variety of food in there. After that scare I think she realized she was safe and there were no more escapes. She is cute. Not a house mouse. I looked her up and she was a deer mouse. And then I read that they can give you a terrible illness. And I couldn't wait for her release. I couldn't change her nest bedding but it got REALLY smelly. So I was ready for their release. Everyone where I work thinks we are crazy. But the deer mice were released back into the wild last weekend. Lee Joe dug a hole and had a piece of wood to cover the hole for protection. He said he tried to slide them carefully out the cage but the mama kept trying to run back in. But they were stocked with seed in their new home and they are not in mine any more. So here is my blog on our silly mice drama. I will let this sit a couple days or at least till tomorrow before I share the really fantastic and drama filled news I am so excited to share. Many of you already know but I have to really "Talk" about here then just blurb on Facebook about it.

HA!!

So you would think that since I have a new laptop that I would really get with it on posting a blog. I guess no such luck. I have yet to take a picture of my new little friend. I love my laptop. It is white with flowers. Super girly, which I have never really been. I can get it out of my system real quick with any one of my 5 girls. But anyways my next post will have pictures of the laptop on it.

I have a couple of quotes of the week for last week. So there are some kindergarteners I have been working on trying to get them to stop tackling and mauling each other on the playground. One little boy I have talked to over and over. The minute he hit the grass he tackled the boy that was closest to him. So I asked him "Why did you do that, we have talked about this over and over." very remorsefully he says "I lost my mind for a minute." That was a good one. Then a few minutes later there are more kindergarteners playing tag. Tag is fine but the rules are they need to play somewhere else other than on the equipment. I know, what a kill joy I have to be. So I ask them "Guys, where are you suppose to play tag?" Someone is "it" so I know it's tag but they tell me "We aren't playing tag. We are playing tomatoes." I see. "If you are playing a game where someone is it, you have to play it over there." Kids are funny. It's not tag if you just call it some other name. But someone is always "it" and the "it" is trying to make someone else "it". A bunch of the grades try this one. I have heard lots of new kinds of names for tag. But tomatoes, OK..... :) It really makes me laugh.

Kid updates--Kylee is playing basketball right now. She is on varsity but man there are some excellent players on her team. We were super happy for her the other day she made a 3 point shot and they were her first points of the season. Her team is amazing. They have beat every team they have played by at least 15 points or more. They just dominate. This is the last week and next week is tournament. Kylee had her honor band concert this weekend. Everybody went but me. I have this yucky bronchitis/pneumonia thing going on. It hit me hard and fast this time. Or maybe I just knew what I needed to do since I just had this crud in August, the first week of school. Either way, blah. Big news for Kylee-she can take drivers ed the beginning of April. "WHAT!!" Oh yeah. But when I look at the next school year I realize I lose my helpers. Both Amber and Kelsea may be gone.
Kelsea went to Portland with Orchestra this last weekend. She is about to get super busy. She just started tennis. There are two out of town trips with Tennis and then she is going to U of I for one of their Vandal weekend thingys. Kelsea got in to U of I. I am not sure if I mentioned that. She will be headed north when she goes to school. I am not sure how I feel about her being to far. Amber was a super easy adjustment going to BSU. Kelsea will be so far. Well, she wants to go and we will see if she likes it. She could always change her mind if she wants. Nothing is set in stone. Good life experience for her. She graduates in May-of my goodness. We need to get her senior pictures done. She will be 18 in just a few days. So I realize two of my birdies could fly away from the nest this year at about the same time.
Amber is looking at internships for the summer. Did I mentioned she just turned 20? I feel old. But she is still home right now. It is just weird. Autumn keeps telling her to move out. She wants her own room really bad. Amber is real involved in Band. She is in Kappa Kappa Psi fraternity. It's a band thing. She has been traveling a lot for that. She tried to get VP I think in the fraternity but she didn't get it so now she wants to try for treasurer and she wants to try our for drum major. She is getting ambitious. She has new boyfriend. He is a very nice young man with a lot in common with Amber. He is a return missionary and in his junior year at BSU. There is so much more cool stuff about him. We will see where this goes.
Autumn has changed a lot. My favorite saying about her lately is "She is so jr high." She is outgoing more than she has ever been, silly and sometimes just persistently annoying. But it is the age. She will be 13 the week after Kelsea's birthday. She is most excited to get onto Facebook and she WANTS HER OWN ROOM! She can't wait for her sisters to move out.
Hannah is her funny self. She has come up with comics with her friends and little parodies to songs. I should just start recording her. It's hilarious. She has several songs she has made up about bacon.
Lee Joe has been doing some over the road truck driving lately. That's better than being laid-off like he was for 2 and half weeks in Feb. But the good news about that is-unemployment. We can get that now. Couldn't get that when work dried up with his business. So things weren't too bad.
About my health, I am going to save that for another blog day. I have made some discoveries and have had some frustrations. Not many answers and have helped myself more than any doctor has helped me yet. I will leave it there for today.
As far as things in my house, keeping the attitude positive. I am ready for good things to come our way. They already are.