August so far

Pictures the day that they happen!
Discovery Center

Kylee and the giant spirograph

Autumn's turn


The pretend store ---------Hannah hammin it up

Autumn playing with the register and putting stuff away.

The swing on a pulley is a favorite

More science fun

More tie dye -my shirts-one for Lee Joe if he wants it--- And Kylee's shirt(looking at the past post I don't think this is a round two shirt I need to find hers still I guess)

Amber's marching band shirt-their music is Toro ----Autumn's shirt

The rest of Kelsea's are at camp and the girls tie dyed their old undershirt tank tops and I think they have gone along too. Amber did a couple at a friends house we have yet to see.

Hannah's shirts

Thank goodness

I saved Lee Joe's life, he saves mine in the course of one week. Lee Joe called his buddy he works with. He has good buddies. He asked his friend if he would come by and check out my van. For a big clunking scary breakdown it was an easy fix. He came by at about 4:30 and at 5:30 he picked me up and took me to the van. He replaced the pulley with a new one and had the belt back on. He wouldn't tell Lee Joe how much the pulley cost. So my van is up and running. HOORAY HOORAY!!! The 3 girls and I got to go to the pool last night since it was super hot. I mowed all afternoon it seemed like. Sitting in the water was great. I was able to take them to the Discovery Center today like we planned and have dinner at Sizzler. Autumn almost ate herself sick. We came home and they swam in the neighbors pool for an hour. They have really enjoyed this week. I will post pictures.

It happened

The one big thing I can't handle myself when Lee Joe is gone is car trouble. I got a great dose of it a couple of hours ago. I thought the last two issues I had were slightly troublesome. This one left parts on the road. I was pulling out into a usually very busy road after finally depositing an already very late pay check that was overnighted to us. I pulled out and clunk -no power steering at all. I was trying to get out before a pick-up pulling a trailer. I could barely steer and managed to get myself into the middle lane out of the way since I had no clue what just happened but the car was still running. I had to wait for all the traffic to clear coming the other direction so I could pull into that parking lot. As soon as I came in there parts were on the ground inthe parking lot. I called Lee Joe and tried to tell him what happened. It was a tensioner pulley that came off and its spring. I was shaking so bad but it was just me in the car. I had to take the belt off the engine. I could walk but it was a little far. He told me I could try to drive it. Just watch for all these lights and the temperature. I drove it through a neighborhood to the next busy street I had to cross and the temp was really high. I crossed that super busy street in time to pull over and turn the car off. I called Lee Joe again and he told to me to wait awhile to drive it again. I waited about 10 minutes and got it to another corner and turned and had it almost to the church before I had to turn it off again. I sat there long enough to get it into the church parking lot and walked the rest of the way home. He is having his buddy come check it out but it was a bolt that held the tensioner pulley onto the car that decided it was done so I am hoping that really it was just that bolt. It could be minor repair but a big headache to fix but boy it gave out in dramatic fashion. I am hoping I am only carless today. We will see.

We had some friend drama last night with Kylee. One if her "friends" called at 10:30 and told her she didn't want to be friends with her anymore and than asked her how she felt about a bunch of other girls. I need to take care of that today but Kylee is very depressed. How sad is that?

Just the 4 of us

Well 4 is still a big number but in this house it feels like half of us are gone. As the 7th one looking at 6 I suppose it is true. OK Whatever.

The difference in Amber and Kelsea getting ready to go somewhere at 6 am is so funnily different. Amber must have been up at 4 or 5 am and she was up and down the stairs for an hour. She woke most of us up but she is independent enough to get herself up and get through her routines and I can wait around until I am needed. Then a friend came over at 6:15 confused about the departure time so Amber got a ride with her. Yay for me. But when they leave I always get sad.

Kelsea tells me the night before that she is getting up 5 minutes before we have to leave. She had all her stuff together the night before, somehow found her sunglasses at 1:30 am by accident. They were between her bed and nightstand. I woke her up for about 10 minutes before she got up she was ready in about 10 minutes and she groggily got out of the car at the church and tried to find the nearest spot to deposit her still half asleep self. Barely a smile to be seen. Again sadness as I drove away.

But I recovered quick. I would like to say it is quiet but the 3 little girls are getting short tempered with each other lately. Tuesday is great day to find deals. I decided we would got to the matinee to see Wall-E. Amber and Kelsea have been to many movies lately and it was the little girls turn to see something that wasn't in the dollar theatre. There is a ceramic painting place outside the movie theatre and it was 2 for 1 day. I have been wanting to take them there during the summer for years now. They loved it. We were there for over 2 hours. And we had free dinners for all three girls at Applebees so we went there for dinner and had a really good dinner. So they feel pretty special. They have not complained about all their home time. Amber is the worst at thinking she has to do something all the time. So we had a great day of great deals. They were just amazed at how long we were gone doing stuff. Apparantly they have been very house bound this summer. We have free passes for the Discovery Center so we will be doing that this week too.

My poor hubby

Lee Joe wanted to go check out the Ocean on Sunday since it is so much cooler than where he is and it was a nice and relaxing place to be after 6 days of work. He didn't take off his glasses so the ocean decided it wanted them so it swiped his glasses with one giant wave and they were gone. He was so frustrated and upset. He already had to replace $500 worth of tools after he borrowed some and they were stolen out of the car. So today I was trying to find him an exam and a place that will get him glasses as soon as possible. The closest place is an hour from where he is working. He did need a new pair anyway but that was not the way we would have chosen to go about it of course. He is a little discouraged right now.

Amber was off to camp at 6:15 this morning. Kelsea is off tomorrow. So it will only be 4 of us for the rest of the week.

So here's the update(4:02 my time-3:02 Lee Joe)-Thanks for the offer Thomas. Lee Joe will have his new glasses in a few minutes. You gotta love the internet and cell phones!! Lee Joe was working and unable to figure out where to get glasses. He called me and let me know what town to look for an eyeglass place. I researched on the internet. Found one place in that town that did glasses quick. No lenscrafters for 70 miles. Called them, made an appointment, researched on mapquest where it was, told him how long it would take him to get there, told him how to get there, and he called me on the way in to ask me where it was again. Told him, he found it, and he will have glasses today. 10 years ago nothing like that would have been possible. So cool! He still can't live without me. So there you go!

This week-

I tried to get this as fast as I could. The evidence that Byron was here.

Our first family tie-dye experience

Colorful blobs and whoops-we tie dyed our hands too.

Kelsea's hand. Autumn with her shirts.

Hannah's shirt. Kylee's shirts.

Amber's shirt Kelsea's two

We tie dyed and had fun with that. All the girls have had endless rounds of water balloon fights. There are little balloons all over and they have had to clean that up numerous times.

I did not have so much fun getting our paint sprayer in working order so I could help out Amber's friend with his Eagle scout project. I got it working and then one of the fittings broke right after I was so happy. I chased the thing around. Had a nice guy at the paint sprayer repair place take the broken part out of the sprayer and the hose and tell me where to find it because he couldn't find any. I found the part for one dollar! I love cheap repair jobs. So I got it together. The next day after rinsing the shirts I decided I should check it to see if it was going to work with the hoses and sprayer attached. The hose was leaking and the sprayer was leaking. I found an O ring and fixed the sprayer but couldn't find one for the hose. I took it down to the service project shed, I was already a half hour late. I thought I should try turning the hose around and it worked. I took care of painting the shed in 2 hours. He helped too. The big work is always getting the sprayer working and tearing it down afterwards. So YAY I did some service-the thing worked and they were so happy to make quick work of getting it painted. I have still been cleaning house. I need to get at my unfinished projects. I found it ironic that I could help paint a shed but my kitchen has been unfinished for over a year now. I need to get at it.

The girls start leaving for girls camp Monday. Amber leaves Monday, Kelsea leaves Tuesday. It is Amber's last year of camp!

By the way, I tried twice to get a link to other blogs going, I did it twice but my computer or internet connection has been stupid and ridiculous. I thought I needed an update but it sounds like from some research I did that our provider is doing so well at getting people on their plan that the connection gets sluggish due to so much traffic. I can't fix that unless I change providers. Go figure.

Visitors?

So I got a call last night from Randa saying she was on her way. I thought she was leaving today. But I didn't see her until about 1:30. We started tie dying shirts just before she got here. And she was here for our tie dying. Then she said Byron was flying in at 2. Darren was picking him up. She told them to meet at our house. I met Byron for the first time for about 5 minutes. Then they were out the door on the way to Eastern Idaho. I tried to make sure Byron was driving when they left because Randa was REALLY tired even though she was trying to act like she wasn't at that moment. I don't think she got much sleep. I have a picture of Byron getting in Randa's car once I remembered to take the picture before they were gone. That was the briefest visit ever.

Woo Hoo

For the first time in who knows how long, gas hit 3.99! Under 4 dollars! Hooray hooray! I hope it keeps going down. It was sitting at 4.11 for awhile before I left.

wedding pics

The view at my Aunt and Uncles new house


The river and the flag that came home with my cousin from Iraq


Would you jump in the river so these guys can save you? Cute flower girls.

Aren't they cute.

The bouquet

My cousin and his mom the bride With my aunt and uncle

Dancing crazies. My cousins Siena Questa and Tracy someone I don't know

Saying goodbye to the Navy man. Hanging out

Trips are fun but home is nice

So here is the verbage that should precede the pictures but if I get really on the ball this will be behind the pictures.

We wanted to leave around noon on Friday. My mom's health is still not great so she moves at a turtles pace. We sat around ready for the longest time. We left after 3. At least we gain an hour on the way. We stopped a lot for my mom. Amber drove for my mom about a couple hours into the trip. My mom insisted on bringing her car even though we had room for her. We got to our Lodge at about 10 that night. It was a nice place to stay. Saturday was almost a waste. My mom waited to call my aunt, I don't know why and she tried to give me the phone to call. She gets weird sometimes. I told her to call and then she waited even longer and when she did everyone at my aunts was gone and she was going to get us in an hour. It was longer than that and I could have thrown some kids in the pool. And once we made it to the house everyone was working on getting ready for the wedding because it was that close. It was the first time we had seen this house because they just built it. I mean my uncle and aunt built it. But everyone came back from shooting and shopping and I met my Aunt Lynda again who I knew from 12-16 in Alaska and met my grown up cousins I played with back then. Get these different names-Questa, Alita and Siena. They are the sweetest young ladies and my aunt is very irritated with them because none of her 5 children have had any children yet. Her oldest Amanda(who was not there) is close to my age and Questa and Alita are around Melissa's age and their son Barton(not there either) is just days younger than Matt. Siena is in her last year at college. A few brief introductions as their frenzy began and then we had to leave ourselves to get dressed.

The wedding was at a remote lodge in the mountains. It was outdoors next to the river. My cousin that got married is a Navy Seal so he was in uniform and so was 3 of his 4 groomsmen. It was a beautiful setting I got a wonderful seat for picture taking. They had a nice dinner. Needless to say it was not and LDS wedding. There was lots of wine and champagne and beer. So it became quite a party later on but Kylee caught the bouquet. They had a DJ and most of my girls danced and my cousins danced with my girls and they all enjoyed the girls a lot. I have another cousin Brandy that I met a couple of years ago when we went up to Washington the first time. She likes her wine and the more she has the louder and louder she gets. She has the shyest most softspoken husband you would ever meet. It is so funny. She told everyone he was a trained dancer. His mom was a dance teacher and he has had dance lessons from 5 to 21. My cousins wanted him to dance he just chewed the side of his finger and shook his head. It was the most remarkable thing you could learn about him. The wedding was great and then kind of rowdy. We left when it was getting to be enough of it for us. The funniest thing I have ever heard Kelsea say was that she was "comtemplating" "falling" in the river so that the Navy Seals could rescue her. She said "you know it would be good training for them" So that was the running joke for her and Amber for the night. "Are you ready to fall in the river" So there was no falling in the river but we heard Sunday that one of my cousins buddies fell off the roof of the lodge. Now only a drunk person could do that. Sheesh.

Sunday we went back to my Aunt and Uncles house. My cousin and his new wife came back and hung out then packed their bags so they could go to their honeymoon the Bahamas. My uncle was even jealous of sending them there. We were suppose to leave that afternoon. I got really tired about the time to leave. My uncle told me he wanted us to stay and everyone was going to just chill. My mom had work on Monday but she sounded like she wanted to stay so we stayed and since many of the people that were at their house were gone there was room for us. 3 girls and I stayed in their RV. My mom and the 2 oldest stayed in the house. My cousin Tracy gave me swimsuit and we got in their hot tub. That was nice. We had great food and visited more with my cousins and aunts and uncle. We left after breakfast and are finally home this evening. It was interesting because my mom made it sound like I booted her from driving her car-I did not. But after Amber started driving on Friday she drove my mom everywhere her car went. Amber drove her all the way home too. My mom got on my nerves a little bit so I suppose her own car was a good idea because it was not that bad.

Away we go

We are leaving for Washington hopefully at noon to go to my cousins wedding. I will get to see more family I haven't seen since we lived in Alaska. It is about 70 degrees where we are going. I plan on taking lots of pictures. Maybe someday you will get to see the pictures I take.

Beautiful day!

So we had the nasty storm early in the day yesterday. No tornadoes are awful damage. My neighbors new gazebo blew over. Mine is in a really protected area so it has never done that. Today is beautiful! It is in the low 90s and will be tomorrow too.

Happy news of the day-3 kids went to dentist. No cavities! And they were told not to brush their teeth so vigorously. That's a switch. On the way home I wanted to go to this new store next to Kohls called Joe's a sporting goods store because I wanted to see if that had some really cute flip flops in my size that were on sale. Coolest thing EVER for me. NEVER happens! They had only 2 pairs left and the first one and only pair I thought they had at first was MY SIZE. Size 11 are really hard to find in shoes that I like. Most of the time I look forlornly at shoes because they are rarely a size I can wear or if they are they don't fit right because my feet are ridiculously wide as well. So that was nearly a retail miracle. That made my day.

What didn't make my day was going to the car shop to fix the retarded blinker and my burned out bulbs in the car. I went late in the day and they want to keep the car overnight. I am carless. I hate being carless. But I realized I would be fine if they got it done early enough tomorrow. I can still get ready for the trip. I will survive and the church is an easy bike ride away for activity days and YW today. It is not the end of the world. I am slow at switching gears though-not car gears ,just rerouting myself to the unexpected.

I finished my first Jane Austen book Persuasion. I liked it. I am going to read Sense and Sensibilty next. I am still plugging at the dejunking the junk piles with my errand running and appointments.

Lee Joe put in an 18 hour day yesterday. Man he is a work-a-holic but he is trying to make his time really worth it down there. It is like 110 degrees with humidity and some nasty big biting horseflies.

My sister is having a little bit of difficulty adjusting to being away from everyone again. She got really sick from the heat when they moved into their new place. David is happy as can be though. He knows the whole town almost.

Stormy day

We are so lucky here that it hardly ever storms in the summer. This summer has been pretty quiet and it gently rained yesterday a little bit. It is super windy right now and dark and gloomy. It was clear and sunny an hour ago. It is trying to thunderstorm so our big dog keeps barking. A storm blew through at about 3 this morning. He told us all about it so I had to go turn the TV on for him so he could sleep.

I am doing better. I am sure some of my issue was anemia and it gets me kind of down easily. I am taking all my vitamins. I exercised yesterday and on Saturday later and so I am coming out of it.

Kylee went to the eye doctor yesterday and needs glasses. She is nearsighted. It will be about 3 weeks before she gets them. I have 3 in glasses now.

Of course it is hard to tell what I have been doing the last few weeks. It is time for regular house cleaning and there are loads of laundry again. But I am tackling all the junk spaces and that is getting better. My niece Ashlee was over yesterday and Hannah's little friend Christopher so there was a lot of playing going on yesterday.

So I still need to get some pictures posted.

the bumpy road

So here is when things get bumpy. I miss my husband. I miss my sister. So I am OK then I am not OK. I couldn't get a hold of Lee Joe until pretty late yesterday and didn't talk to long. And then today he had to cut things short and missed talking to two of the girls and didn't call back. Hannah has been missing her dad and as a result has had 2 meltdowns. The 2nd one was in the middle of night and I already couldn't sleep. I am pretty sure the full moon is doing it's job. And then she was in bed with me and that child is the most restless sleeper and needless to say there was very little sleeping going on and a lot of tossing and turning. My niece went to church with us for first time so there was no getting out of going even though it was a nice idea. I did get a nap to make up for it today and I actually made a real dinner.

My sister got to Texas with all of David''s family out of town at a Purina convention is Boston. And their house they were going to rent was far from ready. But it sounds like it was not a good place to live really so another house in town was on the market. They managed to get out of the lease they signed on the other house and get most of their money back so they can live in the new house but with no utilities turned on over the weekend they have to wait to actually settle in. But they have a nicer house now.

Lee Joe will be getting more hours this next week making the trip down there a little more worth it. He was concerned this week that he wasn't getting enough hours but I guess that changes with their location this next week.

I am done kidsitting. I have super cleaned our living room on Saturday. The oldest 2 went and saw the 2nd Chronicles of Narnia movie. They really liked it. I think Kelsea loved it. She wants to see it again and now she finally wants to read the books which I have from when I was a teenager.

We are going to Washington for a wedding next weekend and I just found out tonight that I have a parking light out on one side of the car and a headlight out on the other. And the blinker that is tempermental when it decides to work is hyperactive. I guess I need to get that fixed before Friday. At least I will be busy this week so maybe I won't be to bothered by everything. We have appointments and a trip to get ready for. I am going with my mom but I am hoping she doesn't back out at the last minute and I am hoping if she goes she won't be difficult. I wish I had something funny to say but I am still a little to down to be funny.

A breather and then

So after 6 straight days of nonstop cleaning and moving and moving and cleaning. I needed a rest. So Weds would have been my day of rest but I still had running around to do since I didn't get to that stuff for those 6 days. But I was hammered still. Something was wrong with my right hand and wrist along with the aches and pains. Thursday I did not do much. I watched 2 movies-Miss Potter(I loved that one) and August Rush-it was very good and the girls have wanted to watch that one over and over which surprises me. Friday I was down in the dumps most of the day and then around 4 I rebounded and folded laundry then super cleaned my room. It needed it! I got rid of a pile magazines and all the stuff that does not belong in there but has found it's way there and I even repaired some clothes and stuffed animals that have been in there as well for awhile. I am still kid-sitting for my friend until tonight or tomorrow and House sitting ended Tuesday night. We went to the pool Tuesday night and Kelsea took the 4 girls to the pool yesterday. Amber had friends over to watch Enchanted yesterday afternoon. Kelsea went to her friends house this week so it has felt a little more like summer for everyone. Then one of them had to bring up that summer is half over. One of the girls said seeing the school supplies at Wal-mart made her ill.

I will post pictures again soon. I will hopefully continue my quest to purge the dirt and disorder from my home. And when the office gets tackled again and it is a presentable space it will be a job well done. Of course I plan on finishing the unfinished projects around here as well and that hasn't started yet. Anyways purge purge purge!

the pics

Over 100 drum majors from the northwest. Can you see Amber?

They were a lot of fun to watch in that big group.

A clean bedroom floor and new play area-Look you can walk through these two spaces. Of course they don't look quite like that today.

Our hung up bikes-more for Lee Joe to see. The well packed moving van. A lot of the high stuff like the chairs got a rope tied around them. Just enough room left for bikes and a lawn mower. David padded the aquarium before they left. I inherited all their fish-minus the two that jumped the bucket and committed suicide. I need to take some to the fish store because our tank has too many fish with theirs. I lost my giant snail yesterday. How do you know when a giant snail is sick? It is just dead now. That was before the new fish arrived.

Today I went to the piano teacher's house with all the kids and we swept their walk way and back patio. Cleaned up all the pine cones under their 4 pine trees and I trimmed the trees some. Lee Joe was suppose to do that someday but he is not here to do it so I did what I could and with a bunch of complaining and squealing girls(at spiders and ear wigs) we filled up about 8 bags I have some small logs for firewood I guess. Ice cream cones when we were done was their reward. I am still very very tired.

And Lee Joe's update is he is working almost 10 hours a day. He is sharing a room with 3 other guys-maybe 4 now. He is in Westmorland Ca. It is mostly desert and palm trees. He is looking into a gold mine there. He went to a ward there and someone told him something about it and is going to get him an application so he can find out if it is worth trying for. He is going to see what kind of opportunity that might be but he doesn't like it there and if he were to work there it would have to be great pay so he can come home and visit. We are having a hard time keeping in touch by phone. It is a very complicated situation but I have set him up with an e-mail account and he can access our blogs so that might ease some pressure off our phone usage at least until we can get a better thing going.

OWWWW

My body hurts, I am VERY tired. We were all up to 1am so we could say goodbye to Melissa, David and Kailyn. Dylan is already in Texas. The trash truck came early today and we missed it. That is so bad for us! I think it could be time for some rest.

busy busy busy

I have found ways to fill my time in Lee Joe's absence. I have not stopped since he left. I do have pictures to post and Lee Joe is now a reader of my blog. So this will be a good way to keep him up to date.

I have found a place to hang all the bikes for the summer. I have created a playroom for the girls-that was a big job. You couldn't walk through that part of the garage a little over a month ago. We have cleaned Autumn and Hannah's room and put away clothes that we had in laundry baskets in my room for way to long. I have super cleaned the family room. Washed all the base boards, windowsills and floors and shampooed the carpet and put all toys in there in the playroom.

I spent the better part of the past two days loading Melissa's moving truck, directing the guys and cleaning her house. I have very good spatial skills when it comes to packing a truck. It was like playing tetris with boxes. Since I am an oldest child I am really good at being bossy and taking charge around my people that are related to me. They were really OK with my bossiness. And since all our men around here are afflicted with a form of ADD-my brother and David were medicated as children. I used my experience of keeping them focused "we need the washer and dryer" mentioned 10 times. "We need the sofa" 15 times "now we need the freezer" 8 times. It got done and mostly loaded before I left. The next day there is still little stuff all over. I pulled all the little stuff out of the garage. I showed David we can put stuff in the rabbit hutch and we get real creative getting all the little odds and ends in the truck. It couldn't have fit their stuff more perfectly. My kids helped clean until one by one they hid in the closet under the stairs either to avoid work(Amber and Kelsea) or just because it is a cool closet(the rest of them). I buffered the conflict between my mom and David. My mom can create conflict for no reason. She was annoyed with him and it was all very silly. I came and she felt she could leave once I got there I guess. So now I am realizing how tired and rambly I am but needless to say by tomorrow I will probably feel really lonely because my sister will be gone and we are so comfortable around each other and I will feel pretty alone at that point. My mom is to off her rocker to compensate. Now she has more fuel to her fire to complain about David for a long time. I am the only one that will be here to hear it besides my brother and he doesn't listen to it. I got some fantastically large and colorful bruises on one of my legs for all my hardwork.

When I picked up the little girl we have been taking turns watching from my friend last night, she offered her piano music to Amber to borrow. Amber came home with tons of music and has been playing piano when she gets near it and some of the pieces are just beautiful. Amber loves to play church music and there is this gigantic binder full of different arrangements of hymns and they are beautiful. She is having her first week of summer this week.

He is out of here

So Portland didn't work out. We were both disappointed in that because it was alot of things positive. He left for Southern California this afternoon. He was suppose to leave Weds night but there was too much left to do. He left today very stressed and so was I. He has already had few car issues once he has hit Ely. Mostly overheating and a messed up tire. Very fixable. Hopefully he gets down South in good shape. He will be there 6-8 weeks. He was driving me nuts before he left with all sorts of running around. Even after he left he called and asked me to get some money for gas for this guy that is helping him out. I was about ready to pull my hair out. With him gone in the red car it leaves Amber carless. We are both kind of mourning the absence of the car already.

When Lee Joe leaves I usually get all motivated. I don't know if it is because I can just keep doing what I am doing late into the night or if I just like surprising him when I get home, I don't know. It is probably both. I am working on turning the back half of the garage into a playroom for the girls. I have been watching the daughter of a friend of mine this week. She is the same age as Autumn but is a little less mature. But she has played and played and played with the girls nonstop for 3 days now. A friend of ours is taking her for a few days and then we get her back so I kind of feel like I can super clean the family room in her absence. When she is here all the girls get really sloppy even with all the toys in the garage. Now I need to get motivated to lose some weight.

I am not really belly aching here. I am just stating the statistics of this week and coming weekend then I will make my point-So I am pet/house sitting for our piano teacher who lives about 3 miles away until Tuesday next week(our piano lessons are free because he likes that we pet sit for him in the summer in return). It isn't far but with the stupid stop lights on the way there and the traffic it can 15 to 20 minutes to get there. A daily visit is required. I am babysitting again here shortly until Thursday. And my husband just left for a long time and my sister is leaving around Monday. I have to teach on Sunday. I was trying to tell a friend of mine that was asking me for a favor to teach on Sunday(She knows I am already teaching last hour) that I wasn't sure I could help her out. And she wasn't quite getting it. I am trying to learn still how to say "no I can't" with no explanation. Just trying to say"that doesn't work for me" and leaving it at that. I haven't quite done it yet. There are a lot of times I can be supermom but it is OK sometimes not to be.

I get to go watch what Amber learned at Drum Major camp in the morning. One of the head director people was impressed with how loud she is. She is REALLY loud. Kind of hard to miss. Hopefully I show up before the show starts. Last year we were told the wrong time and it was almost over when I got there. I never saw what Amber learned. I might get some pictures this time too. I am sitting here and it is late. I am rambling because Lee Joe is not here to hear me ramble. I ramble to the vacuum of the bloggissphere. Invented word. Before I invent a whole new dictionary of words, I should go to bed.

Life with a Lay

Do you ever feel upon occasion that you might be tumbling inside a dryer? When it comes to income and my husband's manner of making decisions and info from people he knows well and other little journeys. We are in something on the inside of a dryer. He was going to go to Seattle to help my uncle with his driveway for a week and then the California job showed up. And then there was an ad in town for an Excavating Supervisor in town. He talked to the guy months ago about the same position. He is set to go to Southern California for a really great paying job offered to him and today he got information on a job in Portland (6 hours away) that pays twice as much as the California job. It was info passed on from one person to another to another. So NOW he is waiting to hear from the guy with the Portland job to see if he can get that. If not the California job is still set to go. I am in dysfunction sitting here trying to get his laundry done so he can leave who knows what day and in what direction but I suppose this is a nice problem to have if it means being able to provide well for us for at least a few months because that is as long as these jobs last but maybe they will bring more opportunities. That is what living with my husband has been like for years and years now. It is not good for me though because I prefer consistency and he is consistently inconsistent. Now I can't say that word anymore because it just sounds wrong in my head. So anyway we tumble on.

So funny

Comment of the week. At the water park we are all sitting together on a little grass hill. One of the older girls is laying on her stomach with her arms under her head. Youngest daughter tells older daughter "Ewww, you have whiskers in your armpit!" We start LAUGHING and youngest daughter asks what's so funny.

Everyone is leaving

More sorrow for me. My sister and her family is leaving next week. And now Lee Joe is leaving for far southern California(the guy called it Mexico). He will be gone Weds night and it is suppose to be 6weeks long.

Well

We got wet on Thursday. I think it hit 103. It was nice to be someplace wet. My sister and I visited all day while the kids did their thing all together. I love that my kids get along so well when we do these things. We sunscreened everyone so well we had some really minor sunburn spots on some if us. Nothing painful. One year I sunscreened the kids not so well. One of the girls had bad sunburn under their eyes and on the sides of their nose. We also didn't do it often enough. But we did great this year.

The 4th was uneventful for the most part for me. But Lee Joe and Amber and 2 of her friends "rafted" the Boise river on a giant inner tube. They had 5 people on the tube. They had a nice float. We cleaned some house and recovered from our long day at the waterpark. Later Lee Joe took the 5 girls and my niece down the greenbelt on bikes to the park where they were launching fireworks. My sister and her husband and I dropped off the 2 youngest and their bikes at the greenbelt and then watched the fireworks at a less busy location-at the mall. One other truck was there and he even remembers the Boise River Festival days of watching there. So we had a great far away view and didn't hit any traffic on the way out. We picked up the two youngest once they got back to where we dropped them off and after that was a little firework launching since it was already midnight. Nobody got to bed until after one. My niece stayed the night and the 4 little girls have played together all day long. I have not done anything worthwhile today. Tonight the rest of the fireworks are getting lit off. Tomorrow we are having our big guy birthday party get together. So there is our rundown of the past few days. I did not take one picture. Shame on me.

The weather the last two days has been perfect summer weather but it won't last. It was only a high of 90 today.

We are getting in a monster batch of raspberries right now. Everyone can envy us.
But don't envy me for being the mom of teenagers. We had a little teenage drama yesterday as well.

Too hot

I had hoped it wouldn't happen with the slow warm up but it is HOT! I don't like really hot at all. Yesterday it was hot with humid. I like humid with hot less. Today is Hot I don't want to go anywhere. Tomorrow is suppose to be 102. I think our plan is to go to roaring springs water park tomorrow with my sister and my niece. The girls get out of summer school early tomorrow. It sounds like the perfect day to get wet all day.

Finally

When I read a book, all is lost. I read until 2am last night. I still had 50 pages to go. There was a thunderstorm at 6am so Buddy, our big dog, was barking at the thunder. He woke everyone but Kelsea. I had to be somewhere at 9am so I did it to myself. I was a tad grumpy today and here I sit after 11 blogging. Silly me. Anyways. I did finish the book with endless interruptions and was disappointed that the book ended the way it did. The author died before she finished the book and the "editor remarks" at the end were unsatisfactory. I sound like someone from the book now. But reading at the end of the book it said there was a movie done of it and how they ended the movie was satisfactory. So now I need to rent Wives and Daughters from Netflix. It was a Masterpiece Theatre mini series so it would be like getting 3 separate movies. I love the internet though for finding out these things! I might read more of her books. Most of the other stuff she has written is much shorter. So that is my book analysis. Goodnight.

Feeding the Jane Austen fad-

Take the Quiz here!

Thanks everybody

Thanks to everyone that called Lee Joe on his birthday. He acts like it is no big deal and gives me a hard time when I think my birthday is a big deal. But I think it means more to him that he even lets on. Last year I got him the fish tank and ran all over even though I was really sick trying to find the bast deal. I didn't have that in me this year. I didn't know what to do for him at all. So Saturday was quiet and low key. He worked for 2 hours in the morning. He was home after that. We watched 27 dresses. I liked it a lot and the main character is little like myself. A caretaker of all and loosing oneself in it. But it was a good movie. We Bar b qued some chicken for dinner. I made a bunch of jell-o then bought some cake-too lazy to make anything. I got him his 2 presents I was giving him that day. He asked if I was getting him a shirt or hat. I said no. He got basketball shorts and a tie. He did not think that was fun at all. So I gave him the present I was going to give him with Matt and David on their combo birthday we do. It was an electronic football game. It was a $100 game I got for $3 after Christmas. He liked that a lot. Then at 8:30 we went to Barnes and Noble with the 3 youngest. The 2 oldest were at the mall and target. So he also got himself a book he picked out. I got 3 books. It was buy 2 get one free. I got 2 Jane Austen and another book that takes place around the same time period in England. Sunday we read. The 3 youngest are reading like mad for the Library reading thing. Lee Joe was even amazed.
Summer school is out on Thursday! Hooray!
Dylan and David left for Texas today. I am bummed about that. Melissa will probably be gone next week. So sad. Manic Depressive moment.

just AMAZING!

I didn't have a plan yesterday when I got up. I have not accomplished much all week long anyway and there is no excuse except it is summer and I don't feel like doing much. I am driving myself nuts.

I decided to tackle the new shed that was impassable. I bought some shelving stuff early last week and have not started anything. But trying to start this project took awhile. I could not find one of my 3 hammers I have bought for myself. Found one that wasn't mine and muddy from Lee Joe. Then I couldn't find my drill. Yes my drill that Lee Joe relocates and looses for me. I finally found that. I had to buy screws because all the ones I had wouldn't work for the brackets I bought. So after what amounted to maybe a two hour delay in finding lost things and required stuff I hung some shelving in the shed. Then all the rubbermaid containers full of holiday stuff, fabric, and stored hand me down clothes and shoes were neatly stacked inside. That emptied the back half of the garage. So in the process the back part of our garage, which was worse than the shed, became clean and orderly and spacious. I went to the next half of the garage and tackled our DI/garage sale pile. I filled up a rather large TV box of girls clothes to overflowing and the carpet shampooer box to overflowing with adult clothes and I am going through the rest. It is so spacious in the back that it might become a play area for the girls and a place to store their toys. All that is so amazing because it was awful. Everyone was astounded. But Lee Joe has to do his tools and the stuff he made a mess with the last time I made it possible for him to park in the garage to do a tune up during winter. All that stuff is still on the floor. And there are two engines in the front and a mess of stuff from the 3 he took apart and then had to junk. So basically there is a long way to go. I get so frustrated because everytime I clean something up or put something away or do something landscaping-ish in the yard, he thinks it is an invitation to mess it up within hours or soon after I have taken care of something and I am not kidding! I have watched the stuff on Oprah on hoarders and I try hard not to be one. But Lee Joe tries harder to be one and make me one by all the crap he is bringing home all the time when there is an empty space. He is in his own way starting to slowly see it. He is working on it. It took 2 days to clean his truck and he has plans for more. I am letting go of more and more because it is overwhelming. When the swing set that sits in the front of the garage that we had the first year we were here goes away he will have finally let go. I am proud of the shed because it is necessary and useful stuff in there only. There is pile of get rid of stuff in the gargage because I have been purging. It just hasn't left the house yet. I have yet to work it through the kids that they are even more ridiculous hoarders than me. I can't make them get rid of something they are attached to because of my own childhood demons and how many times I left everything behind maybe to see it again in a few years. That is the source of my issue but they don't have that excuse. BUT it is a work in progress and some of the progress is pretty happy stuff to see. Kelsea cleaned and reorganized her closet yesterday(Yes I have one that will do that!)She says she has 32 pairs of shoes! I have NEVER owned that many shoes. I did not buy all those shoes for her either.

Today is Lee Joe's birthday. I need to find the jell-o and make it.

Going for a walk

Our favorite street and where we would love to have our house or any of the bigger houses would do on this street. It is around two corners from our house. There is almost always baby ducks on this street in the spring.



A couple of things have come up this week for Lee Joe. My uncle wants my brother and him to come to Washington to help put in his new driveway. And the trip to Ely came with a job offer for Lee Joe to work in Mexico on a Ducks unlimited project there in two weeks. Things to think about and contemplate. Then if this guy gets the Ely job Lee Joe could work for him there too which would start after the Mexico job. They are offering some really good money and the jobs he is getting right now are small and now there are two people that owe him that are in default.

Wedding

My Sister and her real husband now. Melissa's son and their daughter.

Before and After

A puppy dog makeover

The latest

I told you my sister and I were very close. David and Melissa were finally going to get married this month and needed to do it before they move. I asked her on on Friday when they were going to get married. She says "Oh yeah, David made it for Monday at the courthouse" So I thought that was great and was trying to remember that. It took until Saturday night for me to put what Monday was for us. Monday was OUR anniversary. So we spent our anniversary watching my sister marry her man. Just with us it seemed like a big wedding party in the courthouse but it amounted to my mom, Lee Joe and I and our 5 girls and Melissa's 2 and of course Melissa and David. It was a woman judge that married them. We thought she looked familiar but when I look back at the pictures I took maybe she just looks like Martha Stewart. It was very nice and we all went out to Olive Garden afterwards with all the kids and my mom and brother. It was such a nice time. Then Melissa and David brought Dylan and Kailyn to our house so we could go to a movie together. We watched Get Smart and all of us laughed through the whole movie. So we had a very nice anniversary and I share it with my sister now. We thought that was funny too.

Yesterday I took family pictures of Melissa, David and the kids. The weather was so nice yesterday. The temperature was perfect with a little cloud cover. The California fires haven't touched us with smoke. I got some nice pictures. Kelsea went on a raft trip with friends and the police department yesterday. Amber and Kelsea went to birthday parties last night and Lee Joe went to Ely to get a bid package for a duck pond with Jared. I had the 3 little girls all day and evening. So once the ones that were off for their evening activities, I took the 3 youngest and their report cards to Chuck E Cheese and those 3 got an insane amount of tokens and had great time. Afterward I picked up Kailyn and Dylan to stay the night.

This afternoon and evening is our biggest obligations for the week. But I still consider it quite peaceful. But that doesn't mean I have gotten anywhere on the laundry or the house cleaning. But there will always be laundry and housecleaning no matter how hard you work at it. So there you go.

Not much-for once

I am going to say there isn't much going on. The most events we had were 3 basketball games thrown at us that we found out about just hours or the day before it happened. Kelsea was still having trouble between her cough and her sunburn. She blistered all over her stomach. That should teach her. Anyways, Weds was her best game. Sunburn was recovering and peeling and the cough was mild. She made 3 out of 4 free throws. She would have been high scorer because they count free throws differently in summer ball to save time so she made 6 points in a game with a high score of 30. The 4th free throw was the most critical, it would have tied the game and she missed it but it was a super high pressure moment. They lost by 3 even though the refs didn't count our last shot. The refs stunk really bad. I guess their summer season is over and we are both relieved.

Summer school has gone on, Amber says they have 9 more days. Lee Joe and Autumn are fighting their colds. We have been using record amounts of tissue. Kylee felt bad for bit but seems well today. I am still battling sinus issues like always. It got hot! I tackled some of the paper trail in my house and am trying to fight what could become a new anxiety disorder. What would you call a phobia of paper? I almost freaked out(not really) when I had to buy toilet paper, paper towels and tissue today and I realized I was bringing more paper into this already inundated house. I see newspapers, bills, junk mail, store receipts, coloring books and all of that and I calm myself down and tell myself not all paper is bad. If only I could figure out a way to make toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates and super soft tissues with all the paper that is already here! That would be the thing wouldn't it? Hmm something to contemplate. Apparantly I have had time to think lately.

I watched a movie today while I battled a headache and sorted and put laundry away.

Amber is playing clarinet with the Boise Institute college kids and some friends at the Morrison Center tomorrow. They are putting on "Joseph Smith the Prophet, a musical presentation by Rob Gardner with narrators soloists and a 100 + choir and orchestra" "Guest performance by soloist Linda Adams and pianist Del Parkinson" We are going because Amber is there. I don't know much about it. Amber's friend and her mom are going and they are Catholic so that is pretty cool.

I guess that is it. It was nice to look at this week on my purse calendar and have almost nothing on it. Even though we still had basketball, piano, YW, I went visiting teaching and a couple of playdates. I just didn't put anything on the calendar but it was refreshing. So really that is not much compared to usual.

Hey!

It is wonderful thing to have oxygen inhaled through the nose. Especially while sleeping. The neti pot had a struggle with the cold symptoms but helped me kick the sinus headache I had this morning. 3rd day in a row with that stupid headache. But I am gladly on the mend. I wish Kelsea was done with her crap though. I am thankful I didn't get that. I have been on my stationary bike 3 days in a row now.

Spot is beautiful now and smells so much better. We have been able to add new fish to both tanks. I got some little panda coris for the guppy tank to help the schizo lonely cori in their and i got another male. We were down to one and all the babies we are getting are female. I got another upside down catfish in the big tank to help the big shy one we have and I got 2 honey sunset gouramis. They are my favorite bigger fish. Our giant snail laid eggs on the lid of the filter box and they are hatching. That was weird. It sounds like we will be giving some giant snails to some fish stores soon.

It really feels like summer now. It hit 90 today. I like 80 better though. Of course I didn't get enough done when it was cooler.

Lee Joe took 3 girls to an air show in Nampa on Sat. The rest of us went to the pool with my sister and her kids. Kelsea was a dork and sat out in the sun for 30 minutes earlier that day. Got toasted and then went to the pool and toasted other parts of herself and Sunday and today she is a miserable flourescent pink red head. Big mistake. She has been lectured up one side and down the other. And she is paying a painful price for her silliness. She also had a basketball game today and it was tougher than just dealing with a puke inducing cough. So their team lost and we had like a 5 hour notice that they had a game. It is so stupid, BUT I saw Connie Skogrund again today-Health and the Volleyball and Basketball coach from Dayton.

Lee Joe spent 2 days cleaning out his work truck. You should have seen the piles and piles of stuff he pulled out of the truck. It was crazy. He is a Lay product. It makes me nuts.

We didn't do much for Father's day but we did Bar-B-Q and he got some shorts and a Father's day shirt and hat. We also have our anniversary in few days and his birthday so I kind have take all that into consideration when we hit Father's day.

This week is so calm compared to the the whole past school year! We actually cleaned house today. But even Kelsea noticed how fast things get messy when everyone is home. I got more laundry done. The dryer has decided it works today along with the blinker. We will see how long they last. I have enough hormonal females in this house. I don't need hormonal appliances and cars to go with it. Ugh
I thought this would be brief. Perhaps I don't know myself all that well yet.