More Pics

This is what took place from our trip to Eastern Idaho to the 1st week in June. I think that amounts to about 3 weeks.

Our butchered Lilac-poor tree. Our irises

Jared,3 of his and Sierra -----------------Sleepy Babies induce sleepy men


Monday after the trip to Eastern Idaho

Winning runner-up and the Kelsea(y) s at City Tennis

Poi and Marijana won 5th and The Kelsea(y)s won 2nd Kylee as Mary Todd Lincoln

Hannah is the blurry one-3rd in and in the next she is far right.

Hannah had two dances-two costumes

I know these are blurry and they were at the dress rehearsal but the camera decided it didn't like Kelsea during the performance so this is what I got of Kylee and Autumn's dance.

Fake before and after pics

My worst behaved heathens. Try sitting with them for a two hour dance recital. No wonder I prefer to go alone at times to these things. Kelsea was the dorky camera person.

I'm bummed

Besides the fact that you guys already know I feel like crap AGAIN. Irritating as, well, you know. My sister, my best bud since she has been here, is moving back to Texas. She will be going back to the outskirts of Houston. We are all sad and she will be moving at the beginning of July and I just found out 2 nights ago. It is a bummer. I will get to deal with my mom on my own again. It has been a huge help having Melissa here. My mom has not been telling me stuff. There are problems between her and my brother again. By the way, the cancer test came back negative but she didn't tell Melissa hardly anything. I guess that means they are still trying to figure out what is wrong(?)

Kelsea is going back to the doctor tomorrow. Her cough is still really bad. She threw up several times last night from coughing.

Other than that, it has been pretty peaceful. We got Mario Kart for the Wii. I have been playing it as much as the kids. That is a pretty good thing to do when you feel like crap and can't breathe. I am trying to convince myself of that as everything else around here stands still. But apparantly we have had a record 4 nights in a row of dinner being made! That was shocking to Lee Joe. I think I am going to make dinner again tonight. That might be record breaking.

We had the Mia Maids over last night for YW. We called it "fake sports" night because our other plan fell through and they played Mario Kart and Tennis.

I found Hannah a Junie B Jones chapter book on Tuesday and helped her start reading it. She finished it this morning and just loved it. She said last night that her life has changed since she started reading chapter books. That gave Lee Joe and I a good laugh. I looked it up today and found out that it is a 2nd grade level book.

And I believe our dryer and our left blinker in the van are afflicted with the electrical virus. Sometimes they work great and some days they don't want to work at all and you never know what you are going to get.

Spot is going to the groomer for the first time tomorrow to get beautiful. I should have some great before and after pics to share.

pics from new camera

Seek and find-how many guppies can you find in these pictures? The red one is our fantastic male we raised.


Our bunny Pepper looking more like her name. A rose in our yard. I wish I could say the rest of our yard looked that good.

Sleeping Hannah and Socks while everyone except for Amber was in Burley. She is too old to sleep with mom anymore I guess. And Hannah is one wild sleeper. That hand was in my face at least 6 times during the night.

More pics to come.

What's new?

What's new-same old- guess who is getting sick now? I guess it is my turn to catch the cold thing. It is not that bad though. Hannah is acting droopy today. Kelsea is STILL hacking up a lung. I have been putting off the return visit to the doctor. I think I am pushing for a week rest from the Drs office in my hopes that the cough will pass. Hannah sees the eye doctor again this week. HAHA! Kylee needs to see an eye doctor too now. My fish have recovered! I lost one fish and a frog to the ich. Then they were getting some other illness due to how compromised they were from the ich. I saved the gourami and he looked horrible. Now they are acting healthier than they were before.

Needless to say, Summer hasn't been too bad. Kelsea, Kylee and Autumn and Lee Joe went to Twin. Kelsea's games were in Burley. 5 games in 2 days! They only won one game. Kelsea was so hammered and beat up after that much B-ball. I super cleaned our upstairs bathroom. It is reorganized and all the old stuff is gone. I cleaned out a hall closet and part of our room. I got a cheap desk for Lee Joe's work stuff and cleaned up the living room some. That is a great start! It seems like more than a year of neglect. I still have a monster paper trail to conquer. Amber and Kelsea each filled up a paper bag of paper from their own rooms. My goal is to finish all the little unfinished projects around the house this summer.

Anyway, Monday was slightly warm enough to send some kids to the pool. I had Amber take the 3 youngest. I was able to put more laundry away. So it is far different and very pleasant than the entire school year. Kylee Autumn are doing a basketball camp this week and that will be it for them. I decided not to do summer music due to my need for kindergarten chase recovery. Amber and Kelsea started their summer school today. Amber left this morning with 3 of her sisters so it was just Hannah and I until 12:30. We went to the cheap theatre last night and saw Horton Hears a Who for FHE. It is cooler today but I should be able to work on the backyard and get it healthier. It looks pretty bad.

I got a new camera. I love it but now there is hardly anything going on to take pictures of. Oh well. I took pictures of my guppies. I will post pictures soon, I promise. I haven't even loaded the software from new camera yet.

They are free!

I have yet to determine if I like that news yet or not. But school is out. It doesn't feel like it because it has in the 60's and 70's for like two weeks now. I think Janika took the hot weather back home with her. It is not going to warm up so there is no swimming anytime soon. Bummer. But I am not complaining all that much because is very pleasant outside. I haven't run the air conditioner or the heater in two weeks. 97 was the record high a couple days ago and that happened last year. So it is lovely but the reality it is summer hasn't hit yet.

Kylee and Autumn have been at an advantage or disadvantage (depends on the perspective) being the 3rd and 4th children. Expectations for them aren't as rigid as say the first born and the struggles aren't a standout as our 2nd born. But they deserve some recognition. Autumn has had extreme difficulty getting her work done on time but her teacher has been wonderful and knows she will get it done and her perfectionism and complicated thinking processes get in the way. We call it Autumnism. She got straight A's!! And Kylee is so laid back she has a little bit of lazy streak in how laid back she is but she pulled up all her grades and made the honor roll as well. She only has 2 B's!! She is finally reading at grade level. She has been slower than they would like her to be. It is not about comprehension for some reason, it is all about speed in reading. So they have done very well. I won't know the official grades for Amber and Kelsea for a week or two but they both did very well. Lee Joe and Amber went to talk to the assistant principal and a teacher about her history grade. It was a B and she got a C on the final but she has pulled off A's in harder classes and he has been inconsistent I guess but I wasn't going to fight that kind of battle. If Amber has issues with her grades she needs to learn how to speak up with the teachers. Instead she tries to work harder in the class to avoid confrontation and then shrugs her shoulders when that doesn't work. Dad saved her grade this time again and now she will have an A after writing an essay in 30 minutes this morning for a missing grade in that class to bump it up.

At 8 o'clock tonight I could watch TV in my room(not that there was much on to watch but that didn't matter) with few distractions and just be there without an appointment or schedule first thing tomorrow either. No homework, no activities. Just AHHH! Yep, that's nice. I am blogging tons aren't I?

Hmm

The dryer has been very tempermental. It reduced itself to only working on the timed cycle, after twitching the dial back and forth, around 40 minutes and half that was damp dry. After giving up on keeping up with the laundry due to obnoxious dryer, not enough time to do it and Lee Joe not having enough to time to even blink at it, it has decided it had enough rest and works on all settings today. Hmm. I have clean clothes in my room again and there are rags and towels for dishes and showers. Hooray!

I am going to have to do some serious picture posts of the last few months. Kylee and Autumn got their hair cut today and it is enough to donate. They look so cute. Then we topped it off with Autumn getting her ears pierced for the 2nd time. The first time at 8 they kept getting infected so we let them close up. 3 of my 4 girls with ears pierced have had to do that. I let them choose at 8-the age of accountability I thought-to get them pierced. They have been more successful at ear maintenance at least a year or more later. Kylee's were the only ones that stayed healthy the first year.

I went back to the Drs office AGAIN today. I have been there at least once a week for 3 or 4 weeks now. I was there 2 times on Weds last week. It was Hannah's turn and she has a UTI. poor thing. She is on antibiotics now along with Amber and Kelsea finishing theirs.

Thursday is our last day of school!! Then summer school starts for the two oldest on Monday. They have not had seminary or a zero hour class all week so Amber and Kelsea are getting some decent rest. Lee Joe is taking Kelsea to her basketball games in Burley on Friday and Saturday and taking Kylee and Autumn along to stay at Jared's house so they can play with Jaden and Tyler. I might have a real quiet weekend with Amber and Hannah. We'll see. I am ready for it.

So scary

So my anxiety and depression levels have been at a higher level the last couple of weeks then they have been for awhile. Then what happens is I get some news and I run away with it. But this would normal I guess before the first baby bird leaves the nest. Amber told me her science teacher nominated Amber for a full ride scholarship to a college in Ohio-Case Western Reserve University. We were checking things out and she is excited at the prospect. It is a nomination though and not a given. But I started to think about it. Before I haven't had big issues with where she was going to school. She was talking BSU and that is right here. I said if she went to school on the East coast all my family is there. But something hit me. Ohio is far away and she knows no one there and then all the little quirky things about Amber made me worry and then I went through it all again. It is going to be an interesting year next year. This year the baby is in school and next year is the last I am given for sure with my oldest.

Time for--

Ok, it is really late and I kind of messed myself up a little today due to too much sleep but this past week was frustrating along with crazy busy and I am behind on the laundry for it. The dryer is still not my friend right now. It is still grumpy.

Lee Joe and I went to see Indiana Jones Saturday night. After the little girls dance recital. It has been months and months since we have done anything together.

Kelsea's illness has mutated into an annoying cough. Annoying for her anyway. She is finally asleep. She was too sick for basketball summer league tryouts but made the JV2 team without tryouts. Her really good friend who is just awesome on the court made varsity but has the option to play for JV1 so she is not too intimidated. Kelsea had a tennis party this week and the 9th grade party-they are treated like the seniors leaving the jr high. She had the awards thing that day and then basketball practice Fri and sat.

Amber was not so busy for once in her life. She helped me pick up little girls when I wasn't already at the school, which I was for 3 days out of the 4 they were there this week.

Kylee had a basketball game where the 5th grade girls took on the 6th grade and the 5th grade either won by one or tied. I think they won. She had a thing on Friday where she dressed up like someone in history and did this project so Thursday night I was getting her costume together for Mary Todd Lincoln.

The 3 youngest had their dance recital on Saturday. Hannah's dance was rescheduled to Weds. Weds was an exhausting feat of super crazy scheduling all day long. Lee Joe had a class he had to go to after work so I was on my own. And I was to bring dinner to a family in our ward and forgot until the craziness began but I made it to the store and we had a hot dinner along with that family and I crashed and burned Thursday afternoon. I almost missed the basketball game for Kylee. I voluntered in Hannah's class on Friday and then came back for Kylee's thing in the afternoon. I am voluntering for field day on Monday afternoon. This is the last week of school and I am ready to be done now but it is another full week to end it all. I wish I could say summer will be restful. I am sure it is not. I spoke to another mom that has twins Kylee's age and they are her last of 6 I think. And she says every year when school starts she thinks she will get a lot done and then when summer starts she thinks the same thing and then it never happens. And she wondered why she always thinks that and I told her it would all be lost if it wasn't for the hope of getting somewhere even though it doesn't quite seem to happen. But that mirrored me completely and her youngest two are 11 and it hasn't changed for her even with several of them out of the house and the two youngest able to care for themselves.

So someday I hope that will happen, I will have an office I can walk in. And a garage that isn't booby trapped by things I put in there. My pictures will be printed and in their albums. I will have my camcorded events on videos and transferred to DVD. I will be able to find important papers in 30 seconds rather than an hour all stressed out over not finding whatever it is. I will have clean clothes in my room I don't have to hunt for. Someone else will groom my dog and she won't stink. My flower beds will have flowers in them and there won't be dead flowers on the rose bushes and the iris' and my van won't have popcorn on the seats and fast food garbage all over it and I will be at least a size 12 which is skinny enough for me because I will have time to exercise and be at home to do it. But you know all those things can wait because mommyhood is a temporary time I remind myself and when I can do all those things it will be because no one is left at home to share my time. And I will complain because it is too quiet. There will be no daughter to pound on the piano and play beautiful music even when you are trying to sleep. There will no goofy banter between a certain red head and every other person in the house. There will be no 3 little girls rolling around on the trampoline while their bedrooms should be condemned disaster areas. And when the laundry decreases, we can wlk on the floor of the bathroom/laundry room and there are not hundreds of socks to go through there will be no special moments looking at the small clothes that were passed down from sister to sister that remind me of special memories together when I can remember them wearing those things. It is hard when things go so fast to try to slow it down, to do more fun things, and to just sit as they do what they do and remember this time is so short. So I do complain. I am an extreme introvert forced into and an extroverts world everyday for the sake of my children. But I try to reflect later and tell myself I wouldn't want to change it, I just want to slow it down a little. Or learn how to cope with myself better. Or at least not have eveything explode on the same days of the week. But those things don't happen to just accomodate me. I take deep breathes and wish all I really had to do was enjoy them. When I do that, it all feels so much better. And it really is worth it. So I think I have reflected plenty.

More bragging rights

I shouldn't have so much to say on the kids but they are the life I have right now. Not room for much else at the moment. Sometimes watching what they do, good or bad, is the reward for sticking it out and having my life have to do everything with them. I am grateful for what they have been able to accomplish and that I am raising good kids that try hard to be that way. Not all healthy at the moment but that too will pass. And then when there is burn out, you find out you were still doing good even though you are soo ready for a vacation from mommyhood for a little bit.

Kelsea had a 9th grade award assembly today and she received a 3 sport award and an MVP in tennis award with her friend that played doubles with her. She didn't get any awards for grades but that is OK. She is still doing great.

The house of sick and ich

We had a good run for Kelsea anyway. I don't think she missed much school all year until Friday. She was sick the day of the tennis match. Was really sick on Friday and much more afflicted on Saturday. She was running a fever and her throat was sore and her head hurt. The glands in her neck were so swollen all the way down her neck I could see it and she couldn't move her head at all and that scared us. Since it was Sat night on Memorial weekend we took her to the ER. She is on antibiotics. They said it was either strep or mono. I was hoping it was not mono. She spent the weekend sleeping and having cold and hot spells. She stayed home half of Mon. We went back to the doctor today and ruled out Mono. Hooray for that but she is still pretty sick even though she is at school.

We had sick kids on Sunday other than Kels. Hannah and Autumn stayed home and then on Monday Kylee stayed home. I have been tired and feel totally burned out. Just put some sick kids in the usual run around and that kicks my butt.

And the fish are sick. Lee Joe bought fish at wal-mart. I have been waiting to get fish until I had all the other issues taken care of, things were going quite well and now the fish have Ich. I have lost a gourami, a frog, and a black skirt tetra. A neon tetra is dying today but my two biggest fish are recovering. And the other gourami is an unknown as to if it will survive yet. I have to do water changes almost everyday and have been treating the tank daily as well. My guppy tank has something wrong with it too. Nothing has changed except for the high number of babies in the tank. I think I lost a cori but I can't find it dead or alive. I lost two of my males and a half grown baby and another algae eater. I have one male left and it is the one we raised from a baby. But we have lots of females and out of all the babies they all seem to be females. Fish are not pets, they are a hobby.

We had a bar-b-q on Monday to celbrate my sister's graduation from BSU. The weather held out all weekend. It was suppose to rain all weekend and it didn't until we needed to fire up the new Bar-B-Q. We finally got one this weekend. And the Bar-B-Q works great even during a thunderstorm. We had it under the gazebo and the guys sat out there in the rain and my brother cooked. We call him the master of the bar-B-Q and he did a good job. But now after cleaning the house all weekend it is a fresh disaster. But we had a good time and good food.

I would say more if I wasn't so overwhelmingly tired for no reason.

good news!

Sports are over as of today-until summer basketball tryouts next week. Who said they could do that? Anyway My Kelsea and Kelsey Alder played doubles tennis today. It was cute. They are called the Kelsea-ys. They did fantastic considering it was the first year they played. They came in 2nd. They did have the potential to win it but their set,round or whatever you call it when they were tied 3-3 kind of fell apart on them. And they lost. But played great. In their games today it was 4-0 4-0 4-3(barely pulled that one off) and then 4-2 and then 3-4. They got a fancy red ribbon. So much has happened I haven't had time to get the pictures on the computer yet. I am working tomorrow. My poor house is suffering from neglect.

So sad

They lost but put up great fight. Kelsea didn't play as much but the coaching was different that game. I think there was too much importance on two of their key players and our shots weren't going in. It was 45 to 38 I think. bummer. But they were runner up. But it was still a big bummer.

Back

We went and came back in record time to Eastern Idaho. We left late Saturday and came home late Sunday. All the kids were hammered. Kylee and Hannah didn't make it to school. Autumn came home at 1 and Amber missed her first class of the day which is a zero hour class. Kelsea gets the award for the day for making it to seminary, school and tennis! I have pictures of a few exhausted girls I need to post.

We have had some follow up with the doctor for both Amber and Kelsea on their issues. Amber does not have a wart but an angry mole on her chest so she is on antibiotics. We still have reason to be concerned for Kelsea. A little bit. He gave of information on benign hypermobility syndrome and with that is marfan syndrome which is what he think she might have and so we are going in Weds morning for an echocardiogram for hopefully ruling things out.

Needless to say I was sick Sunday evening along with Amber. We both didn't feel great yesterday and I was super sick this morning but I have been able to kick the headache by late morning but they sap my energy. Needless to say besides the running of the kids there are a lot of other extreme stressors going on and I tend to react with ailments more than any other way. I am just glad this week isn't horrible. I could take it easy for the first time in weeks today.

Kelsea was to have a tennis match today and it started to downpour buckets about the time they were to play. I went to the park to rescue her and her friend. I was going to watch. They have their city tournament on Thursday and the forecast is not looking so good. But the championship basketball game is Weds night so wish her luck.

Pictures of our trip are coming.

sniff sniff sneeze

The neti pot is still a fantastic invention but when the car is almost yellow from pollen it is hard not to be affected. The lilacs are in full bloom right now and my eyes are itchy. Lee Joe is having trouble too and he usually is mildly affected. Lee Joe and I have had to have our bedroom window open at night and that doesn't help.

I would like to say that mothers day was wonderful but for some reason everyone was so tired and dragging to our 9am church. Hannah cried going to Primary that she wanted to go home. That hasn't happened in a long time. She stayed with me and I felt the same. I think we should have all stayed home and rested. But we didn't. We weren't able to get the Bar b Q I was hoping for. They looked at them though. I got a large glass shell thing to go with my beach theme in my living room and our neighbor down the road is going to take pictures of my girls as well. I got a nap though before we went to my moms. Lee Joe made dinner. I think I had something flu like though why I felt so bad. Lee Joe has it a little and Autumn was feeling awful last night. She is home today and Lee Joe and I are still having waves of it.

We went to my mom's and I gave her all the framed pictures of us all. We were able to go back to the park on Saturday and get pictures of my brother and his daughter and a real ALL the grandkid picture for my mom. The last one she got was when my nieces were babies and Hannah wasn't here yet. Saturday kicked my butt. Kelsea had a game at 9 out in Meridian. They won. Scored a 3 point and another basket. 3 of our really good players were gone with their traveling basketball team and our girls still did well. There is another red headed girl on their team and I noticed last week she would not pass to Kelsea. She did it again that morning. But the 2nd game in the afternoon was too intense for her to be selective. They won it.It was an intense game and Kelsea was on it! She scored 9 points and was an awesome rebounder and intense on defense. She had a great game that game. Their team is in first now going into tournament this coming weekend. We did pictures in between games. Her 2nd game was at 5 so when I got home I had to get busy to get the pictures in to wal-marts one hour and had a couple more frames to get. But I did it. At 9 I left wal-mart and I was so tired walking to the car. Kelsea went to the SND on Sat. Amber didn't but we made her bring Kelsea home. She knows this one boy that goes to another school likes her. He is another Matt. She was dreading going because she thought he was going to tell her. He did and danced with her 5 times. She was overwhelmed with that kind of attention. She is so funny about it that we all laugh at her. But she is nice to them and isn't mean so I am proud of her for that.
Hannah's recital on Friday was so cute. She wore this ballerina tutu. I need to download those pics still.
This week is full and so is the next. I have an auxillary training meeting on Thursday. We will see if I go. Amber has a concert tonight. There are like 3 things now around 7 on Weds. A mother daughter thing for Activity days on Weds is an unknown if it is at 6 or 7. I got a sub call today but couldn't go in. I will be in 3 days this week already. Hannah has a field trip in the morning on the half day I am working in the afternoon. But I don't have an afternoon dace class tomorrow. I don't know if that helps that much this week though. Instead of continuing this blog I need to put my dryer back where it goes so I can use it. It is still having issues. I need to post more pictures.

School is almost over! Then we have summer school but I will have my evenings back. Oh YAY and I have a licensed driver so summer school won't be nearly as bad as in the past couple summers.

I forgot, I know whose class Hannah will be in next year. I am so glad we live in this school district and my kids are at the school that they are in. Hannah will be in the 1-2 GATE combo class next year. But I was surprised because she tested as not just gifted but highly gifted and the highly gifted kids can go to another elementary school. Her IQ is 143! So I had to decide between regular classroom, GATE at our school or GATE at another school. We choose our school and in 2 years-only 2 years-the other two girls will be in Jr high and I can decide if Hannah needs it then.
I can't believe it. My 4th daughter told me she felt like she had a pulled muscle in her chest because it was sore. I asked her where it was and it dawned on me she is 10. She is growing. And now the other one hurts too. I am about to have 4 daughters in bras. 4 daughters on their way to PMS!!!!!!!! Someone save us!!!!

I'm hiding

With the exception of my blog, I am really not THE most social person in the world. In fact I am quite content at times to stay busy with my family and seriously enjoy those times when I don't have to be anywhere but home. I am all for good neighbors that are helpful and are great examples of service BUT--sometimes I would like to come home from a hectic morning and not be bothered for a little while. I have a nieghbor that is starting to make me feel hunted at times. There have been so many times I just get home and she is either at my door, calling me when I set foot in the door or running across the street before I get in the door. With requests like-I found a dead a bird, what should I do. I found baby squirrels what do I do with them. I have mentioned these in the past. This week she had a crisis. Her husband fainted in the doctors office. She needed to get him. OK. I watched her girls-a 12 year old and a 9 year old while she got him (30 minute trip) and then she needed to take him to the ER for tests. He was 100% OK. That was fine, I didn't mind. I took the girls with me to take Hannah to her dance class. The girls played. But I never got my shower that day and I had exercised the night before and was exercising again when she brought her girls over. Tuesday night was crazy, everyone was some where. Kylee ran the mile at school and had an asthma attack. I had to go see her in the nurses office. She was OK in the end. At 5 Kelsea wasn't home. She always calls and I was calling all over trying to find her. I thought something might have happened to her. I didn't remember her asking me the night before if she could go to a friends house to play guitar hero after tennis. I left my 11 year old and 6 year old at home while I took Autumn to dance. And so on top of what already was going on and no husband in sight I was wore out. After dropping kids of at school the next morning I came home and tried to sleep. She called me 2 times in 15 minutes just after 9. I was trying to sleep so I didn't answer. Usually those calls are sales people anyway. So I was up and wanted a shower since I was very gross but didn't call her back right away. I was in the shower when there was knock at the door. So when I was ready and cleaned myself up, I called her. All she wanted to know was what I used on my tree to kill aphids. The next day I was gone all morning taking Kylee to the orthodontist, getting my mother's day pictures and lining out subbing for Friday. I got home around 12. I was home 15 minutes and she was at the door asking me if she bought the right stuff. Everytime I come home I am paranoid that it's her if the phone rings or if there is a knock at the door. I finally had just over an hour to pay my bills the other day and she came over with her girls to see the rabbit. Now if I came over there and she was in the middle of something she lets you know if she doesn't have time for you. The typical call or visit goes like this-"is there band tomorrow" I don't know Kylee isn't in band. I tell her how to get an inexpensive computer "I have a problem" don't ask me call the computer people. "my transmission is doing this what did you do" I had it flushed but I am not a mechanic. "can you're husband help me dig up a piece of concrete." You have a husband but apparantly he can't lift a shovel Ok, its large paving stone. "can you help me move my sofa's around?" The 2 oldest and I go over and I about broke my finger moving it. "Do you want my rabbit? my husband is allergic and went to the ER last night and I don't want to drive to Kuna to give it back. " Like I need another thing to take care of but I am a ridiculous pushover. And now there is bunny poop in my family room. I am too nice to say anything other than my complaining here and to my husband.
And we have a neighbor down the road that does the same thing to Lee Joe. He watches for Lee Joe's car and comes over and chats forever. Now Lee Joe is rarely seen by us some weeks. this guy came over today in the less than 10 minutes we were home in between a dance recital and going out to dinner. We were half way loaded up in the car and I started it to get us all out and the conversation lasted a record 30 seconds.

Not that anyone needed to really see my antisocial ways. But I am hiding in my office while Lee Joe is gone with the girls mother's day shopping so I hope I am not detected. I am hoping for a bar b q for mothers day. Our freebie died last summer. One with an ignition that I can light when Lee Joe isn't home without using matches. I am firephobic.

I have been SUPER grouchy all week long. I recapped enough of the week for you. There is too much to report here and I am too negative for it to be productive anyway. My rejoicing in this-Two activities ended as of tonight. Amber is done with tennis and Hannah is done with Tues afternoon dance. I now have my days open and Amber can pick the girls up from school. Woo Hoo! The rest of the month is still a killer. I already have 4 days of subbing in the next 2 weeks.

As requested-

An Ariel moment

More pictures-just below is the origional and then the enhanced picture.
In the 4th picture, it was not the best one but it was funny.
Kelsea was in rare form that day and all the pictures of her by herself were silly.
It is a beautiful park and we saw baby geese on Sunday too.

My amateur photography

There is a beautiful park here and my sister, her kids and all of us went down there Sunday so we could take pictures for Mother's day. I doctored the pictures up a little. Our family picture does not work well this way though. I have a bunch more I did yesterday but I need to all the silly moving to get where I can find it.

Prom and then some

I am glad that this pic is small enough that you can't see that this picture is kind of blurry. But aren't they a cute couple? Prom is tonight. My baby is gone on her hot date. They played tennis earlier in the day and had subway. This was cute. Her date doesn't have his license STILL. So mom was in the car with him when they picked up Amber. Mom sat in the back while he drove them to the park. She brought them their food and left. When they came home, dad (our doctor by the way) sat in the back while the date drove Amber home. Then Amber's friend curled her hair and I fixed the fancy pins in her hair and she got ready in 20 minutes. They are off to dinner at a very fancy restaurant called the Mona Lisa. Prom is at a winery in Eagle. High school prom at the winery? Then they are going to the boy's house they are double dating with and watching a movie in his fancy home movie theatre room.

Tennis recap-Amber lost a match Weds and won on Thurs playing doubles with a good friend of hers. Kelsea won her match on Mon. She played 3 times on Thurs. Won a singles match, lost her doubles match and couldn't finish her 3rd doubles match. Basketball-they lost their first game today. 3 players were missing and 2 are the very high score players. But they won their last game. Kelsea started the first game, didn't the 2nd. Had 2 points in each game. And did her rebounding fight for the ball thing.

So here is my recap of today,I will not review the past week. Lee Joe worked until very late today. I got Kelsea to her 11 o'clock game. I decided not to take Hannah to her dance class rehearsal. That got done after 12. I took some ibuprofren for a weird headache neck pain thing and then I was able to clean the living room, vacuum, clean the fish tank, and water and fertilize the front lawn and pick up the boutineir (SP?) for Amber's date before Kelsea's 4 o'clock game. Kelsea's game got over at 5. We looked for little rubber bands at the dollar store. Did you know that the dollar store only carries ponytail holders and no other type of rubber band? So we go home without anything and Amber is leaving at 5:40 and it is about 5:15 and I need to fix her hair and she is not even dressed or even has her make-up on. Somehow with even Kelsea's help she is ready with the exception of one safety pin when her date arrives. I take some really bad pictures and struggle putting his flower on his lapel. I don't know how to do it. But Lee Joe gave some tips. He couldn't touch him though because he was greasy. It's on. More bad pictures. They leave. I then goof with the bad pictures and then go to wal-mart to shop and to pick up some prints. They don't look much better then the ones I printed off my little camera printer or any better than the ones I printed off the computer. Kelsea did some stuff with friends. I had hoped to be off the hook when Amber left but that was not the case. The little girls spent their entire day at the house. Lee Joe got home from working at about 10. Kelsea's home from her stuff after 11. Who knows when Amber will be back. She is a good girl out with some great kids so we aren't worried.

Lee Joe just redid our neighbors driveway this week. It looks really good even after some kids wrote their names in the concrete and he tried to fix it after it had hardened quite a bit.

The busy bit me

I think the busy stuff is getting to me or it is the lack of sleep. I worked at the school this morning and got the call at 7am. I did plan on doing the yard, going to the store-like one ounce of milk left and everything else was gone-and doing the laundry, Lee Joe has no white socks left in his drawers and I have to keep hunting for clothes for Hannah. I have lost my nice black belt somewhere. I worked instead. Lee Joe bought a dump truck and gave me heart attack or just made me frustratingly speechless.
I somehow was going to live two separate lives tomorrow morning. One was taking Kylee to the orthodontist at 9 am and then trying to figure how to do visiting teaching before Hannah got out of school. The other life I was going to live was making sure Lee Joe followed through on going to the War hawk air museum with Kylee at 9 am. I didn't figure out the conflict until 9 pm tonight.

Needless to say I don't have pictures to post yet since it will take like 45 minutes to download them with the kodak software of the camera and then save them to a CD and load that CD back onto the computer with the HP program so I can find them on my computer. And I will be doing the Tuesday thing. One less thing was suppose to happen with Honor choir being over but Capital decided to fill that void for me with an awards ceremony. Amber is getting something I don't know what.

Good news

I should be looking at my lesson for tomorrow but I am doing what I do best-procrastinating.

Today was fun. I need to share some happy news. Pictures posted after the weekend though.

Amber had a tournament. I didn't watch because I was busy for one and two I bring her bad luck. So she played 3 times on Fri. Won, won, lost. Early this morning she played again and lost but they were in the championship bracket and their coach was proud of them. I is a grumpy old man sometimes.

Kelsea had two games today. Both were blow outs. They won by 20+ points each game. Kelsea scored 4 first game-2 free throws and fast break. And she scored 2 in the second game and it was an outside shot she doesn't usually try for. She was a rebounding monster when on the floor.

I spent late Friday and several days this past week and all my free time today painting pinewood derby cars. Kylee's was Lightning McQueen instead of Sally from Cars. Hannah's was Fillmore. And Autumn raced Mater from our last time racing for another group last year. The weigh in was at 5. Lightning and Fillmore were still getting their finishing touches at about 4:45. Lee Joe got home at 4:30 and fixed up the wheels. He poked around with the wheels and we made it there around 5:20. Our cars were weighed. Racing began. End results-Our Bishop, a big scouter, won 1st. Fillmore took 2nd! Lightning McQueen took 3rd! Mater and the Seed-spitter(past pinewood derby super fast racer of ours) tied for 7th. I think there were about 20 cars or more. Not much more though. Fillmore also won an award for Most Colorful and Hannah did a goofy dance and was so happy. Autumn was disappointed for Mater but she won a trophy for best paint job when she raced him last year and Kylee was heartbroke over her car. So I told Autumn she couldn't feel too bad. She was a little disappointed but recovered well.

The only update-my brother got his stuff worked out and no prison for him. I talked to my mom on the phone and no mention of her health as of yet. I need to see what she finds out this week. She will have some more test results back and maybe she will tell me something then.

I must find my lesson. I have had it awful easy this month.

I want to put a title but I can't think of one. So far this week I got better and then went back downhill again. Another engine showed up in my garage and now it smells like diesel. We inherited a young bunny from our neighbors because the dad is terribly allergic to it. It is a very sweet and cuddly thing. More care though. But it is darling. Spot was trying to mother it. She likes it. The cat keeps watch on it. Looks like an overgrown mouse to her I think but the bunny should be around 9-10 pounds full grown. That is bigger than Spot.

And other news, my mom may have cancer. We are not sure if it is uterine or ovarian. My mom is vague. My sister has been able to get stuff out her but my mom hasn't told me anything. She is weird like that. My brother violated his probabtion and has been going to court and may have to go to prison. It is wait and see but that hasn't helped my mom at all. I am really bothered about all that right now.

We have the big music week concert tonight. I am excited. I have always hoped to see one of my kids in the big high school orchestra and Amber is in it tonight. She gets to tune the whole orchestra to her oboe. Kylee and Autumn are where and Amber and Kelsea started years ago in the elementary honor choir. But I am always relieved after the big concert that some of those things are done. And there is a pine wood derby Sat for our ward so today I need to finish painting Fillmore from Cars-the VW van with all the graffitti on it. Kylee is suppose to have Sally but her car looks like it would be a great Lightening Mc Queen. I will be up very late painting cars tonight. But Fillmore is looking good. I will take pictures and post them probably next week.

I CAN TASTE!!

I can taste again, I can taste again, LA LA LA LALA, I can taste again. I ate real food today, It was great I say, La la -la- lala.

I think I am feeling better. HOORAY! I had Port of subs. WOO HOO.

I even scrubbed the tub, the bathroom and the kitchen cupboard fronts and scrubbed the kitchen floor on top of the usual Tuesday run around. My house is pretty clean. I exercised last night and walked while Hannah was in dance today.

I think I should go to bed now. I am a little loopy.

Feeling better--

Feeling better after something like 5 days of progressive illness leads to a disaster house. Thanks kids and hubby! Now I am ughing and sighing over the disaster today. My mouth is still sore but nothing like Saturday or yesterday. I had a sinus headache this morning to add to it but the neti pot worked its magic and I am afflicted with that no more. Who taught me English? The kids did sort through the laundry but there are still some rags, dryer sheets and laundry baskets in the family room. It is time for a crack down!
It stinking snowed flakes again today but it wasn't even that cold. It is so strange.
I think I am yet again putting off the inevitable. My house needs some love.

More yuck

I am not the only sick one. Kelsea and Hannahs mouths are full of canker sores too. That kind of explains Hannah's tiredness as well. She lost a tooth again. It was hanging there forever and the other tooth is half grown in behind it. She hit her mouth on the back of the sofa and out came that tooth finally. But I think that is how her canker sore started and it is still there. Today 3 of the girls are grumpy. One stirs up the youngest two into screaming crying frenzies.

Kelsea's team won bith games today. First game was 48-17. Kelsea scored 6 points. 2nd game got close. I think it was 28 to 24. Kelsea scored 2. That was a tough game. That was all we did besides me being ridiculous getting anything done still. I started my sheets last night. And they didn't get done. Sometime tonight I hope to have a made bed.

Get this. There is a youth fireside tomorrow morning at 8am before our stake conference at 10. Amber is playing piano for it.

Not much else to go on about. oh wait, one more thing-I had chips and salsa. I knew it was stupid. It hurt alot.

I'm tired

I don't know why but I am starting the sore mouth exhaustion thing again. Food has no flavor when my mouth is like this. Hannah has been exhausted too. I haven't felt like blogging and getting to and from the store is ridiculously tiring. I did work Mon and Tues and that tends to put me there-intothe sore mouth exhaustion thing- but my two days at the school were rather uneventful. For once! There are still little dramas but no angry parents, only 1 car ran the crosswalk light, no 911 calling fax machines or anything else. So no excuse right now except maybe some stress. But that happens every day. Who knows. But the forsythia is blooming(the time when my allergies are THE WORST) and I am breathing like a champ with minimal sneezing, sniffing and nose blowing-that is a rejoicing moment for me.

Amber is like her sister or actually sets the example for the duct tape wearing child. She wore a mustache all day for mustache day at school yesterday. She was so excited because she has a collection of mustaches and now she got to show them off. What a weirdo. I don't have any pictures of her though. I never saw her in her mustache. She won her tennis match this week. This time her last name in the newspaper was Loy. I guess we will see how many ways they can mess up her name.

We are into the big end of the year project thingys now and I have to take Kylee to the public library afterschool so she can find a biography of someone. She just got done with a project of a family immigrant. She did one on a Lay ancestor that was charged with petty theft and sent to America to be an indentured servant.

I have to go find some kids at the school that belong to me.

Bush man

We should just call Lee Joe the bush man. On Saturday he did some work that he owed our neighbor for the hot tub that is still on the sandbox. He wanted some bushes out and his water line checked before he did the real pay work on their driveway. Then he took out two more giant bushes they decided needed to go. Then he went to their neighbors yard and took out a few of his bushes. Then the neighbor across the street wanted theirs up and I finally talked him into getting rid of three in front of our house I have been wanting out for several years now. It really looks like there was a bush robber in the neighborhood.


I finally got outside and cleaned our back yard and even cleaned out one of our sheds and finally mowed for the first time. I have three trash cans filled and four giant trashbags. I was exhausted at the end of the day. But now the back yard is so nice to look at. Sort of. When you look past Lee Joe's collection of things he brings home. It is bad when the neighbors say that whenever they need to get rid of something they will ask him because he will take it off their hands. They speak the truth. I did find a home for the organ so some things are leaving.


Amber came home from her trip toasted red. She only won one match the whole time she was gone. But the kids she played were really good and she was having back problems.


YW was kind of funny today. One of the advisors and I were not sure who was teaching today. One of the leaders was on the calendar. But things got all turned around on the 5 th Sunday two weeks ago. So the other advisor called the counselor and she said we were suppose to teach. But we are not prepared. That was a half hour before church. OK. We get to church and we all see where things got turned around but we hope maybe the other advisor was prepared. She prepared a lesson. But when she was shown which lesson we were to teach-she had prepared the next weeks lesson. So really no one was prepared. So a lesson was put together. Two people gave it, but it was very spiritual in the end. So all was well.

Yucky yucky YUCKY!

There is a good reason why I don't work in an office. Sitting at the computer doing data entry is a pain in my butt. Especially when you are sitting in a worn out office chair. We are behind and I am trying to get all of Lee Joe's business junk in order to hurry up and file our taxes. I hate taxes. There is really good reason why I won't do ours. YUCKY YUCKY. I spent all afternoon and this evening and last night working on it. I worked on our personal stuff a few weeks ago. I guess it will really pay off when we can claim so many losses that we won't owe. That is about where it is at. I will have to hunt a few more things down though. Boy we are pushing it this year to get it done. It would have helped if Lee Joe tried to do any of it because it is all his stuff and he hasn't been all that busy this week. i think he leeps trying to run away from it all but I made him sit down and tonight and get his paper trail organized a little. I told him he owes me a really comfy office chair and fancy TV when the fun money comes in. He is all for it because I did what I did. We will see if it really happens though.

And life has been super quiet and manageable otherwise the last 2 days. There have been friend visits the past 2 days for 2 of the girls. I even made a REAL dinner on Thursday along with laundry. I didn't get much done today and now it looks like I didn't do a thing this week when I really did. The jet dry leaked out of its compartment and all over the inside of the dishwasher and it is so foamy that I have had to try to run the rinse cycle about 4 times now and rewash the dishes in there which means the rest of the dishes aren't getting done. I am not worried because there is nothing on the schedule tomorrow except what I put there. Can you see my Saturday happy dance?

Amber hasn't been doing very well on her tennis trip. She has played 4 matches in 2 days and lost all of them. But she pulled a muscle in her leg and that is really bothering her. And she says it is hot there.

I should sleep now but I am kind of waiting for Kelsea to get home from babysitting. Since I really am not talking to anyone really I should end this blog. Nothing like practically talking to yourself. Those who know me know how much I have to say when I am super tired.

What the heck!!

Kelsea's modified and now reversable Duct tape dress. She wore it the last half of the day today and got a ton of attention and then she walked home in it. What a goofy kid. She is in the process of making another one right now.

I forgot a cool detail

We were given a spa/hot tub from our neighbors. Lee Joe is going to do a little work in payment for it. Now we have to come up with a home for it in the backyard. It is sitting on the sandbox right now. And then a bunch of other stuff to get it all figured out since we haven't owned one before.

Prom!!

So the saga continues-- I might have told you we got wind Amber was going to be asked to prom months ago and how we bought a dress and then word got all the way back to the boys mom that we already had a dress.

Yesterday was the day he decided to finally ask Amber. And a monkey wrench was thrown into his plan because Lee Joe picked up the car and that was where the finally was suppose to take place so here is what happened. He left roses in all of her classes starting in seminary with a note attached to each one where or what to do next. The last one though was going to be a surprise so he had to make a new plan. I got a call at 3 asking if he come put rose petals and Hersheys kisses in her room or in the house I said sure but I had to clean her room first. She had a tennis match and was stuck at the school for awhile. So I came back home after picking up the girls and frantically got her room much less embarrassing. His mom brought him over and they she helped take the roses apart he threw rose petals around her room and kisses and he made a note and had a gift. Of course her room is a new kind of mess. It was so sweet. So anyway she did get to see it before the Honor Society induction ceremony. He was going to be there too but we played like she never went home. I am terrible liar so I think I blew that somehow but I am not sure. He looked completely tortured. Amber is leaving for Kennewick WA for a tennis tournament so she wasn't going to be at school or home until late Sat. So this morning at about 4-5 am Lee Joe and Amber went over to HIS house and took our big roll of newsprint and some spray paint stuff and rolled it around the car he will drive when, if ever, he gets his divers license. On it was great big YES and another sheet of newsprint on the ground with another big YES. You would think they were going to married or something. I called his mom to find out what happened and she said he was SOO excited and so happy. They took lots of pictures he had a big thumbs up in one so it was cool.

In the meantime, I am not sure what happened yesterday because it wasn't suppose to be as busy as it got at the end of the day. It snowed yesterday morning and it was gloomy so I couldn't get moving. Hannah went to her friends house after school and she saw Horton Hears a Who with her friend. So I didn't have to do the 11 pick-up. But I didn't start cleaning house until really late. I am cleaning for the piano teacher to come over. I get ready to leave to get the kids and Amber's prom date calls me and now I am in a new state of panic because I must clean her room. I get out the door the 2nd time and Hannah is dropped off. I get her into Kelsea and then I can leave and the stop light is flagging, I am already late getting the girls so I am frustrated. We get home and the piano teacher is waiting. I am throwing things in the trash and getting another trash bag of stuff around her room to put in her closet and throw all her shoes in the closet and sweep and make her bed. Throw all her laundry in my room. I call them and tell them it is safe to come over and I have worked up a sweat. The little girls are done with piano so they are late at the church now for activity days. They get dropped off. I am still doing dishes-Amber can't do them, besides the fact she is not home but she is still recovering and Autumn is gone. The prom date comes over and we do that. Once they leave I get Amber's clothes together and go to the school. I finally get to see her play but they lost. We brought her home. (We pretend that didn't happen remember) I take Lee Joe to the church for scouts, he is carless. Amber goes to the school and I collect all the stuff I need for YW where I am not going to be. I got to calls for girls needing rides. We leave early, Get 3 girls to the church, head back to the school again for Amber. I visit. I get home and then pick up Kelsea at the church. We get home, Lee Joe made dinner! WOO HOO. Everyone is just sitting down to eat and it is 8:40. Oh but we are not done yet. Lee Joe has to go back to the church. I have to take Amber to the store. At 9:30 I am home and have to fill out several field trip forms and find money for them and I think around 10 I am completely wound up, full of anxiety and exhausted. The little girls finally get to show me these beautiful porcelain dolls they were given at activity days. I think somebody donated their personal collection to the girls. And then at 4 this morning 3 of us were up. But today is much better. I have to go now and pick up Hannah and her friend that goes to another school. And maybe I will really get something done today. UMMM..our taxes still need to get done. And laundry is filling up the bathroom again.

Don't ask...

Don't ask your child -the one that couldn't cut her own meat until she was 10, could not hold a fork correctly as a teenager, and has tremors that get worse after fighting a migraine with Exedrin migraine-to cut an onion. She might try to cut her finger off.


Don't worry, it was only a flesh wound.



She might have needed stitches but scars create character. Not really.
Needless to say she got out of cutting the onion duty. And everything else. Darn, I should try that sometime. I could get out of a lot of crap. Or just everything will become crap because I wasn't able to do it. Never mind.

I guess I am use to it now

Since school started again I have been pretty calm with all the chasing. An few moments here and there. My house isn't clean, it wasn't during spring break either. Actually it was on Monday but it didn't last long enough. We are having our last friend party for awhile on Sat for Autumn. As well as Kelsea has 2 basketball games on Sat to go with conference.

Amber has had 3 tennis matches this week. Thank goodness for her drivers license!! She lost her doubles matches on Tues and Weds but won yesterday. Made me sorry I missed it.

Kelsea had 2 basketball practices. She hurt her foot and leg on the trampoline on weds so that interfered with her participation at YW. They played soccer.

Kylee and Autumn had dance, piano choir and honor choir this week-3 more weeks of honor choir! The 3 youngest were invited to a birthday party where they got to ride horses so that was great fun for them yesterday.

Hannah is in 2 dance classes. Don't ask me why-because she can? I suppose I am indulging my last few months of a young one at home because one class is during the day. I volunteered in her class today and brought her little boy-friend home with us. They are playing the Wii.

So yesterday was interesting. After school all 5 went somewhere. Amber at her tennis match. Kelsea had to get a ride for basketball so she left early. The 3 little girls off to their party. And it was our stake temple days Thurs and Fri and I actually took myself to the temple. Lee Joe was doing asphalt until after 7. I wasn't home until 8:30 when I brought Kelsea home after the temple.

By the way, the neti pot is wonderful invention. I read last night that it also referred as a nose bidet. Anyways I had 2 days of sinus headaches 2 1/2 weeks ago, because I wasn't using it. But I got rid of them both by 4 in the afternoon. That is pretty good. I am usually seriously afflicted with allergies right now and I can breathe. I have a clear head and more energy. I think I have been fighting a long term sinus infection. I started to get a headache yesterday morning. It was milder but after a little sleep and two rounds of the neti pot it was gone by 10 am. So I am happy! How long have I been miserable with that? Way too long. I still need allergy medicine but it is way more effective. And I can be symptom free more than just somewhat relieved. So if you want one, Wal-greens carries them now.

I am a irritated about something but I need more info before I get really off on it. But Kelsea told me that her seminary teacher was curious why there are so many very athletic LDS girls that go to Fairmont and was asking them something about them to try and be much more sensitive girls and nurturing or something like it. There are some very good athlete girls in the 9th grade at their school. But it doesn't make them any less capable of being good mothers in the future. And they have plenty of time to do that in the future. Let them have fun and enjoy sports if that is what they like. It doesn't make them less capable to mother to be in competitive sports. Amber and Kelsea both need sports as their outlet. Amber has never played pretend. She likes to do physical things or play piano and it helps Kelsea expend some of her hyperactivity and it helps her focus on other things later. I am not too worried because our stake president is a father to 6 girls and the 5 oldest have been heavily into basketball and all his girls also play piano or violin or guitar. I am real happy about that. And is his fault(sort of) we are still doing basketball right now. Our last stake president was a father to 5 boys and there is a big difference.

So there is my long post for the week.

I was had!!

So I barely remembered it was April 1st. Oh by the way that is our kitty's birthday. No joke on that one. She is 5 now. Anyways, I was slow to get breakfast and Lee Joe was home. I turned on the water at about 11am and I got a shower. But I was slow to react. Sluggish nerves had me moving in slow motion. I think-I am getting sprinkled on my arm a little. I am getting sprinkled on my side, maybe I should move-as I squeal and move away from the water as it continues to spray the stove, and the wall and the papers next to the stove, far away from the sink and the door and the other wall and the floor in front of the stairs. Lee Joe laughes hysterically standing beside me but no where near the spray of water. Someone has taped the sprayer. Somewhat of a traditional April fools joke so I think I am an idiot. And then I am afraid to turn on the water again even though I have removed the tape from the sprayer. My instincts are working much better now since my side is wet. There is tape on the faucet too. We thought it was maybe Kelsea or Kylee being the guilty party. I pick up Hannah from school somewhat drier now and she tells me Autumn announced in the car that drove to them to school what SHE did. And that was our April fools day. Good thing the dead battery in the van was on Monday the 31.

I am so excited!!

Lee Joe bought a scratch ticket and we won a $100,000!!! Great timing!

pics

Amber B-day, Kylee violin solo, Kylee singing solo, Hannah Playing Guitar Hero afer dance, Kelsea b-day, Kylee 3rd on top, Autumn 1st on bottom in honor choir, Autumn's birthday.

Our new thing

Since PBS was playing the Complete Jane Austen on Masterpiece theatre that is our new thing we are saturating ourselves with. Amber and Kelsea got Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice for Easter and we have watched the PBS versions and have been renting other DVDs from Netflix. I guess now we really need to read the books.

Look what amber did

Amber chopped her locks. We are sending her hair to locks of love. Kylee and Autumn have about an inch to go. We are waiting till the first of june anyway so we can put their hair in a bun for their dance recital.

Easter's over!

I guess the bright side is I am kind off in April from birthday parties-not really-Autumn's friend party has to happen in April. And Easter is over already. I never got the Easter decor out but I think I have only put the Happy Easter outdoor thing out for the past 3 years. We did eggs Saturday night-like close to 9 and I need to remember to do them at least on Friday because the girls go to church with dyed fingers. They enjoyed their baskets and they looked for eggs from the Easter bunny early Sunday. Church is at 9 and Amber and Kelsea were playing oboe and violin in sacrament and all of the rest of us but Hannah were singing in the choir.

We went to my mom's house after my nap and the oldest 2 played again at the senior home. My mom made a fantastic dinner for us all. We watched Enchanted.

Oh yeah, Friday was Autumn's big day. I volunteered at the school and saw Kylee get her award for the solo she did and Autumn and Kylee were recognized for being in honor choir. We went to Build a Bear after school and she picked out two outfits at the Children's Store. We took it easy until everyone came at 7 for her family party. She got a bunch of tinkerbell stuff and a really pretty dress from my mom, a game for her nintendo gameboy and a movie from my sister. She enjoyed her birthday a bunch.

And the dryer is working again. It is still kind of unknown if the dryer is tempermental or if there are fuse issues. We are taking it super easy today since it is raining and it is not necessary to over do anything anyway. I don't mind the kids being home. I like not having a tight schedule.

I did change my blog so it didn't take up so much of the page since I like to say so much when I blog. And because it was time but I am not sure if I am super happy with it yet.

Happy Birthday Autumn!

It's Autumn's birthday she is the big one ohh. 10. We are going to PAR TAY since Autumn and Kylee get out of school early.

I am screaming

SHRIEK!!! My dryer isn't working!! That amounts to mountains of laundry disaster in my home. And the dryer isn't that old. I hope it is just a fuse. We have an ancient fuse box so it is not easy to find out. Washer works though so I don't know.........

No blog from me

That was funny. I accidentally pubished the title with no blog so it was for real. Anyways, it has been more than a week since I blogged. Some sort of absent record without a trip involved. I didn't feel like blogging in my grumpy voice. But I think I am a little grumpy still.

Amber went to Lewiston last weekend. It rained a lot. But she got to play mixed doubles 3 times on Friday with a boy she doesn't know. Won 2 lost 1. She played on Sat. Won 1 lost 1. Being on varsity gets her name in the paper but they didn't spell her name right. She was Amber Lacy.

Kelsea had her birthday. She had friends over Friday night and some slept over. We had our family party Sat afternoon. She only wanted a new TV. She had my old ancient one from my teenager days and needed pliers to change the channel. I told her that TV is so retro now. She said yeah right. Everyone pitched in and she got one. And she got a DVD player too. She thought the big box was a joke and maybe had duct tape inside. But it was for real. HAHA. Lee Joe wasn't working but somehow blew it and was not home when everyone else was here for her birthday. My mom, sister her family and my brother and his daughter even showed up. We waited and hour and he wasn't even close to back so he wasn't here. I was furious and Kelsea was hurt. That doesn't help their occasionally bumpy relationship. He realizes there was no good reason for him to do that after he asked me like 10 times the plan for Saturday and was not home for anything I told him I needed him there for. There was time after her party for him to do what he did. More issues to work on. He did go to the little girls Honor Choir concert that night. He realizes he has only been to like 2 or 3 of those concerts in like 7 or 8 years of honor concerts. He came this week to the kids math night. He has helped with dinner a few times.

Kelsea has had issues with electronics lately. She had her phone stolen and I got $65 in charges reversed on my phone bill and she still has no phone. Then later Saturday-her birthday-she pulled her camera out of her backpack and the screen was shattered. So I have to send it in to get it fixed and she is taking a photography class so that is a pain. She is using one of my cameras right now but one of my cameras is tempermental(it might work it might not) and the other one is really hard to take decent pictures with.

Seminary is such a pain. We have a car pool. One of the moms is a nurse and works in the mornings and her son is not the best at letting anyone know if he is going to seminary or not. Yesterday Amber went to pick him up and she watched them pull out of the driveway when she got there. I asked him last night if his mom was driving today and he said yes. It was after 6:30am when we realized she wasn't coming. Seminary starts at 6:30. So we call the boy and he said his mom is working. So we all frantically get the cars defrosted. The rain froze on the windshield. And it froze the doors shut. I got Kelsea and our other girls to seminary really late and Lee Joe picked up the boy and Amber got him to seminary even later. They already have 11 tardies. There is construction at the intersection now and that is the most direct route from the other girls house. Then we have to get the kids to school by 7:35. With the price of gas it is pain. I am so glad spring break is next week.

The weather has been depressing and wet. Today it is finally sunny. I am glad. Amber may get to have her tennis match after school today. Kelsea has her first AAU basketball practice. And Lee Joe is working.

Autumn will be 10 tomorrow! We will probably go to Build-a -Bear after school tomorrow. The little girls get out early. We have to wait until after Spring break for her friend party.

I am SOOO looking forward to next week. If I get a ton done that would be great but just being home and not running around is a true vacation for me. HOORAY!! And Amber has a drivers license so if she gets an itch go somewhere I don't have to do it!!

Another B-day week

I am still recovering. Just full of snot now. Like you wanted to know that. I can breathe now. I had a chest pain and had hard time cimbing stairs without being seriously out of breath. The pain is gone in my chest along with the short of breath thing. It is all sinus now which has become the norm for me. I am still a little run down but able to do what I need to.

I haven't done much this week. I think I spent my whole day yesterday in the car. I have so much to do. Kelsea is having a friend party on Friday night. The girls have the activity day leaders and girls coming to visit their rooms and have snack thing today. It was great incentive for bedroom cleaning but I need to get busy on the rest of the house. There is stake YW standards night tonight and Amber is leaving tomorrow for Lewiston for a Tennis tournament.

We have had some success with guppy breeding. We have 1 full grown male and 2 full grown females. We have 2 babies that are getting bigger. We had a ton of new babies this weekend. But fewer now. Lee Joe and Autumn watched one of the females give birth and then watched her eat several of her just born babies. Who knew guppies were cannibalistic. I think we know now where some of the babies went.

I am putting off the inevitable yet again. I am all for the self cleaning house.

I just found out that Kelsea made the AAU team!! AAU stands for Amateur Athletic union. It has the potential to get Kelsea on the higher level teams at Capital. It is so competitive. More busy though. 2 practices a week and 2 games on Saturdays for about 5 weeks.

sick

Well I won't complain too much because I am no where near how Janika and her babies have been. Our prayers are with them. But I am having my turn of being sick and have done nothing for 3 days. It is slow going this morning but I may accomplish something today. Unless I don't get off the computer.

Kelsea tried out for AAU basketball on Saturday and she did pretty well. But her sick crud hit her on the 5 on 5 thing and she struggled with chest pains during it and felt real sick the rest of the day. Our Stake president is the assistant coach and wanted her to try out really bad. We will know by Weds if she made it. I think she did though. We had a conflict a couple weeks ago between her and the Young Mens pres. It has caused quite a stir. Actually the Young mens pres is really physical with many of the youth and too much so with the girls. He is really rough. Kelsea fights back but ran home from church that day in tears. He has apologized. And the bishop is involved. He is a great guy, just too touchy.

Amber is still on the varsity tennis team, she is in the top 9 girls. What is crazy is she has only played tennis since 9th grade and there are some girls she beat out that have had years of lessons. She was taught how to give a mean serve and was so excited about it. She hates playing doubles though. But her admirer is on JV so I am sure he is bummed. Kelsea is going to try tennis herself for sure now. Amber spent all day Saturday at an ACT prep class.

Kylee and Autumn are having another big choir weekend. Kelsea is going to be 15 on Saturday. The next Friday is Autumn's birthday. Why is Easter so early this year?

Hannah hurt her ankle really bad jumping off the swing yesterday. She can walk on it OK today but with quite a limp. I was afraid I was headed back to the doctor's office and the x-ray tech would get to know ANOTHER one of my kids. I got through my whole childhood without ever getting stitches or spraining or breaking anything. I never went to the ER-oh yeah once when I was 4. I fell head first down a firemens pole and chipped my tooth and hurt my forehead. The worse thing that happened was I lost my both my toenails in highschool to weird accidents. That was excruciating though. My kids are driving me nuts with this accident prone thing. Shesh.

Much better.

I feel much better today. I had so much accomplished yesterday and I found the floor again in the office today and traded a desk for a table and cleaned all the dust out from my CPU. Kelsea has a place for her computer now in her room besides the floor. But I still have giant stacks of papers I have been going through continuously. It just multiplies faster than I can file anything. It has been so sunny and it is slowly warming up that the spring cleaning thing is goin on I think. WOO HOO! But I just don't even want to start on the yard yet and Lee Joe has accumulated so much junk it is starting to look like a junk yard in the back.

Hannah got her new glasses today. They look so cute on her and she likes them a lot. I need to get pictures of her in them.

UGH!

So, I am mad at so many things at the moment today that I need to change my attitude so things will go more smoothly and one thing that is making me mad is how stupid my computer is acting. There are too many things to rant about so I won't.

Kylee may get her braces off in a few months. She has not had them on for very long either so that was good news.

I worked the past 2 days and last night Kylee and Autumn had a choir concert. It was a good concert. Kylee sang her solo on Saturday. She sang "Scarbourough Fair" She did a beautiful job. The music teacher told me how proud she was of Kylee because that was the best she sang it.

Amber kind of made varsity on tennis but they put too many kids on varsity she she may get bumped down to JV but she doesn't care. Either way works for her.

I need to get my clean laundry out of the bathroom so we can walk in there again. I am starting to find the clean surfaces in my house. I need to distract my anger elsewhere before I call my cell phone company about all the charges whoever stole Kelsea's phone charged to my phone. It was about $70 in charges.