Never A Dull Moment - Cat Tales

As previously stated, I live in the strangest place on earth and I love it! There really never is a dull moment out here. Did you ever watch Lost? Sometimes I think my little part of the neighborhood is like the Island. You know how they were always seeing strange unexplained things? I see strange unexplained things every day. And I really thought we were living on our own little Island when we first moved in and Lost was still going strong on TV every week, except for the 6 month breaks between seasons when you forgot everything that was happening. Back then they were flashing through time and getting nosebleeds. When we first moved in our house, we were all getting nosebleeds and I swore it was from the big strange humming tower behind our house. Anyways, I just thought I would tell you that if your cat is missing its tail, it's in my backyard:

And it's not every day that you find a tail in your back yard and then look up to see a stage coach and a plastic buffalo driving by:

Summer Ketchup

Here is this weeks Summer Fun Chart. I didn't even make one for last week. Zac was at Scout Camp all week and Steve was there with him for 2 days. Emily and I were pretty much invalids all week long. Emily because of the huge hole in her foot. Me because I am stupid. The Saturday before last I bruised the ball of my left foot. The next day I decided it would be a good idea to wear heels that put all of my weight on the balls of my feet. By the time we got home from church my foot hurt so bad and I could not walk the rest of the week without a limp. Yesterday is the first day it wasn't killing me and I am now limp free. You would think that without being able to walk, I would have some extra time on my hands and I could get a post or two done. Well, think again. So here is a little summer catch up.

On 6/15 we took Zac to the orthodontist. His orthodontist is near our old house and so we went to the park by our old house and had lunch. Here is a picture of the kids playing in the willow tree at the park. They could not leave the park without paying it a visit. They played in this tree every summer day for I don't even know how many years.

On 6/16 the girls and I went on a hike. Zac wasn't with us because he went to see the new Pirates movie with a friend. The girls and I were a bit overdressed for the occasion, we found out. Before we left for our hike, we were at home with all our windows open and a cool breeze was blowing through our house. It was pretty cool in our house so we were all wearing jeans. And two of the girls were wearing long sleeve shirts. I tried to get them to change those before we left but they refused. Well, by the time we got up on the side of this mountain, we were all very, very hot. And by the sounds that were coming out of my girls mouths, you would have thought they were on a death march. It was one big complain fest. So I found a shaded spot and we sat down and we had us a little chat.

I told them to remember how long it takes us to drive from Missouri to Utah. I told them that the pioneers, they walked from Missouri to Utah. I also told them that the pioneers hardly had any food so they walked all day long and were starving the whole day. I told them that if they think they are hot, the pioneer girls had to wear dresses with sleeves that came down to their wrists and skirts that came down to their ankles. And a lot of them didn't have clothes to change into so they had to wear the same stinky dress all day everyday and by the time they got to Salt Lake their dresses were all worn out and they probably would have loved to have the clothes my girls were wearing. We also had some complaining about shoes hurting feet so I told them that some of the pioneers didn't have shoes and the ones who did didn't have very good ones and they were probably full of holes. I also showed them the nice clear road carved into the side of the mountain that we were able to walk on. I showed them all the growth on the part of the mountain without the road and told them when the pioneers had to go over a mountain, the just had to go tromping through all that stuff with their shoeless feet and their big old dresses getting tangled on everything. I also told them that the pioneers had to make that long walk because if they had stayed where they were, they would have been killed. And I told them that even with all those hardships the pioneers hardly ever complained. I told my girls that they were lucky because they were walking up the side of that mountain for fun but with all the complaining they were doing, they were making it anything but fun. After our little chat, they walked the rest of the way up the mountain and then back down complaint free!

On 6/19 Steve's Aunt Callie and her family were in town from Colorado. We had them over to our house for dinner along with his Uncle Harold and Aunt Connie who live here in Salt Lake. It was fun visiting with them and getting to know them. The last time we saw them was at Steve's grandmothers funeral and that was right after Steve and I were married.While they were here, everyone was entertained by watching Addy trying to catch an escaped chicken. After a while, she looked up and saw everyone watching here so she really started putting on a show.
On 6/21 we went to the library for the most hilarious reptile show. Usually when I take the kids to things like this at the library, I sit and read a book. But this guy was crackin' me up, so I watched and enjoyed the whole show.

Addy holding Goldilocks after the show

Em and Goldie

Aubrey and Goldie

On 6/22 we took my mom lunch at her work and ate and visited with her

On 6/24 Steve took Emily and Aubrey and their friend Ellie to the Blaze game.

That same night my mom and Addy and I went to the airport to pick up my sister Kristy and her kids. They have been living in Russia for 2 years and they are moving back to the states. They will be with us until August and we are so excited to be able to spend time with them. They were only here for a few days and then on Monday Kristy flew out to Virginia to look for a house and her kids went to visit their other grandparents. They will all be back this weekend though. Along with my sister Farrah and her family from Dallas, my brother Sam and his wife Teresa and my Granny Snow. Next week will be a SUPER FUN TIME around here. Here is a picture of Kristy and the kids at the airport after more than 24 hours of travel. Kristy, you are the bravest person I know! I can't imagine making that journey by myself with 3 kids.

The kids all sitting together in a rare moment of calmness. Zac had just made it back from Scout Camp and he was a little sunburned.

6/25. Last time Kristy and her kids were here, we roasted hot dogs over the fire in our back yard. Tia wanted to do that again so we did. It was fun, although a little warm for a fire. But that didn't stop the kids.

We also had s'mores, because what is a fire without s'mores? Somehow a chicken got a marshmallow and we had quite the entertainment watching them all fight over it.

On 6/28 I was outside and I noticed a dead bird in our backyard. I called Steve and told him about it so he could take care of it after he got home. I have killed, skinned, and cleaned a chicken with my bare hands, but somehow the thought of scooping this bird up with a shovel and disposing of it was more than I could handle. Later that day I was in the kitchen and heard a knock on the window and this is what I saw when I looked out. I guess she wasn't bothered by the thought of going anywhere near the dead bird.

That same night we headed back to the old hood. My friend Julie was in town and we had a backyard BBQ with our friends from our old neighborhood. It was fun getting together and seeing everyone again.

As you can see my garden is growing. And that black stuff I put down (twice) is really doing a GREAT job of keeping the weeds out. I really have a strong dislike of yard work and gardening and being outside when it is hot. So I think I am just going to pretend like I didn't plant a garden this year and if any fruit actually springs forth from this tangle of weeds, it will just be a happy bonus.

The $70+ Pokie That Was More Than A Pokie And My 800th Post

First of all:

HAPPY 800TH POST TO ME!

To you?

TO ME!

To you?

TO ME! TO ME! TO ME!

TOOOOOO! MEEEEEEE!

OK, now that we have that outta the way, on with the post.

See this child:

She is in big deep doo doo trouble. She has this problem with refusing to wear shoes when she goes outside. And that my friend is a real problem where we live. We have pokies everywhere. When I was growing up we called them stickers. My girls call them pokies. Call them what you may, we have an over abundance of them here. I have pulled about 8 bajillion pokies out of feet since we moved in 2 1/2 years ago. About a month ago Emily got about 20 pokies in her feet, all at one time. I got most of them out. But there was this one that I just could not find. I figured it would work its way out eventually. Well, it didn't. And it got so swollen up about a week ago, it was huge! We kept soaking it and I kept thinking it was finally about to burst forth from her foot, but it never did. I finally called my dear nurse neighbor to look at it and tell me if she thought it was something I could lance and take care of myself, or if I need to take her to a doctor. My neighbor was so nice. She came and looked at it and then tried to help us lance it, but when she cut it open instead of anything bursting forth, there was no liquid in there like we thought there would be. So I finally gave in yesterday morning and took her in to see the doctor.

I was really ticked off with our doctors office. We made the appointment at 9am for a 9:45 appointment. We had all just woken up so we quickly ate and then showered. I had all 3 girls with me because the boys are at scout camp. I could not possibly take my children out in public without bathing first. So by the time we got in the office, it was 9:50 exactly. We were 5 minutes late, which I did not consider to be a problem being that I have never been taken back anywhere close to 5 minutes past my appointment. We got inside and the receptionist was on the phone. We waited for about 5 minutes and then she had to check the lady in that was waiting in front of us. By the time she got to us the clock on wall said 9:56. She told me she would have to check with the doctor to see if she could still see us today since we were so late for our appointment. I told her we were only 5 minutes late when we got there and it wasn't my fault she was just now checking us in. She still had to check with the doctor. **** (that's me being highly irritated remembering it). The doctor graciously said she could still work us in. I paid my $35 copay (we have crappy insurance) We were at the doctors office for a total of one hour. We saw the doctor for a total of 90 seconds. I kid you not. She came in, asked what was wrong, glanced at her foot and said we would have to go see a podiatrist. Great. I figured it would take forever to get in with a podiatrist and we are about to have a bunch of company and we are going to be going and doing and Emily needs to be all healed before then. And I would have to pay another $35 copay and a podiatrist visit would probably go towards my huge deductible and so I would have to end up paying that full bill, whatever it came out to be. And with our fantastic insurance coverage each person can only go to the doctor 6 times a year so why not waste 2 visits because a kid can't put on a pair of shoes before she goes outside???

As soon as we took our second round of suckers from the reception desk (I was gonna get my money's worth outta that visit) and walked out to the car I called the number for the podiatrist. I had to leave a message. We got on the highway and started making our way to my mom's office to eat lunch with her. We were almost there when the podiatrists office called me back and said if I could come right now, they could get us in. Woo hoo! I flipped that car right on around and took her in. We went right back and didn't even have to wait for the doctor.

He glanced at her foot and said, "That is no sticker". Turns out it really was a sticker/pokie that got infected with the W. virus (Emily says I cannot under any circumstance put on my blog what it really was on her foot). And so that was a huge W. on the bottom of her foot. Funny because her brother told her that's what it was. Guess boy genius was right. The doctor removed it and now she has a huge hole in the bottom of her foot.

It is now a federal offense for any person to walk outside of my house without shoes on. It carries a swift and heavy punishment. Already Emily has broken that law. She broke it about an hour after we got home yesterday. And tonight we had to go somewhere and she actually had the audacity to ask me if she had to wear shoes. I'm about to superglue a pair of flip flops to her feet. You see this huge weed below? We are surrounded on all sides with these. Its as tall as me. They grow in our grass and we mow them down and believe me, they are not pleasant to step on. Not to mention the millions of goat head pokies we have that make our bike tires go flat every other day. PUT ON YOUR SHOES EMILY! PUT THEM ON!

Summer In Full Swing

It's official! It is finally summer. I was so looking forward to summer this year. I had had it with school. I had had it with homework and waking up at 6:30 to make 5 lunches. And homework. And bedtimes. And rain. And cold weather. And now it's here! School is finally over. My internal clock still wakes up at 6:30 on the dot, but I just hit the internal snooze button and go back to sleep. The weather is improving. We did not observe one bedtime at all last week. BTW: I no longer miss bedtimes. We are back on track with those. Kind of. I love my kids. They are home all day now and I am glad. But when it is 11:00 at night and I am still hearing a chorus of "MOM! MOM! MOM!" Cannot. Handle. That. So I sat them down Sunday night and told them they had a bedtime free week last week and I hope they enjoyed it because bedtimes were comin' back in style real quick like around here.

If you've been around here for a while, you might remember my weekly "Summer Fun Charts". The above chart is from last week.

This is what I have decided about this summer and its fun:

1. Gas is too dang expensive.

2. I don't want to be putting dang expensive gas in my van every 2 days.

3. We have everything we need for Summer Fun right here in our little town.

So it's like this. We are staying put. Right here. All summer long. Mostly. We have a community pool that we joined. We have a library with story time and other events. We have a new park down the street. We have friends galore. And we have 20 walking/hiking trails. All of it within 5 miles of our house. My goal is to drive as little as possible this summer. We live in a beautiful place and we need to take more advantage of it. That is why I was so excited to pick up a little brochure at the library that lists all the hiking trails in our town. I decided that the kids and I are gonna go on a different hike every week this summer. Last week went well. Here is a little recap.

The kids have had fun playing with friends. Here is Addy with her friend Blake. As you can see, she is still picking out her own outfits. And doing a fine job of it.

This is the hike we went on last week

It was fun but it started raining on us

Last Friday we went to the park with friends

And here we are. Summer Week 2.

Today was flag day. We had a little lesson about the flag, the Pledge of Allegiance, and why this Nation is so special. Then we had our own little flag ceremony in our front yard.

Tonight we went to the library for a bird show.

So far this summer, I have been working my children's booty's off. And they have been doing so great at getting their chores done and working hard. I am posting a picture of their chore charts because people have asked me about them. Well, here they are. A lot of the stuff on them is really basic. I made these charts a few years ago because I was just so tired of asking, "Have you brushed your teeth?" a hundred times a morning. I have different charts for the school year, and different ones for summer. The chicken chores and the "Focus" are rotating chores. For chickens the kids rotate between feed, water, straw, and eggs. The focus is their thing they do that week to help me. It is also a chance for me to teach them life skills. They rotate between dishes, laundry, cooking and free week. The "All Together Now" chore is just for the first 2 weeks of summer. Every room in our house needs a major clean out. And we are having a big family dinner here this coming Sunday. So we are working on a room a day for 2 weeks to get ready for that. My favorite chore on the chart is "Chore of Mom's Choice". When the kids get to that, they have to come ask what chore of my choice is for them. And it is whatever needs to be done at that moment. Sometimes it is take out the trash, clean the sliding glass doors, clean your toilet, clean my toilet, give Addy a bath, clean out the fridge. Whatever I need done at that moment. Like I said, I posted this because people have asked to see my chore charts for my kids. This one is messed up at the bottom because it has something from the morning chores, just ignore that (the first section is morning chores, the last section is evening chores). If you want to see it larger, click on it. Hope it gives you some ideas. I will say this. Giving the kids chores and making sure they do them is not easy. It takes a lot of work but it eventually pays off.

Flashback/Flashforward Friday - Sweet 16

Flashback: June 3, 1995

Flashforward: December 28, 2010

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABE! I love you! Thank you for making the last 16 years so fantastic. Maybe we will get to see each other for more than 5 minutes today! I'll keep my fingers crossed. I ♥ U 4ever! Love, me

Last Thursday

Last Thursday, May 26th, was a very fantastically fun filled exhausting kinda day. It started for me at 6 AM. I was already tired from planting this garden the day before and not finishing until dark. Then I woke up to find my hard work destroyed. The girls and I worked on it Thursday morning up until we could work no more because they simply had to go in and get ready for school. We got the garden fixed and this is how it looks now that it has been white trashed up. After that I spent the next hour and a half running around like crazy trying to get ready for the rest of the day.

That morning was Aubrey's 2nd Grade Program. Addy and I went to the school to watch it. Aubrey did a fabulous job.

After the program the kids went out to recess and invited the parents too. How could we turn down that offer? Addy and I went out to recess with Aubrey and her friends.

We went straight from the school to the park across the street. Emily, along with all of the other 5th graders were walking over to the park for a picnic and games. On the way to the park they were cleaning up trash, just in case you were wondering about the gloves.

Addy had fun playing unsupervised at the park while I was in charge of a game.

There were 4 different game stations. Like I said, I was in charge of one of them. I was planning on doing a water game, but it was too cold so I had to come up with something on the fly. I found this fantastic website with games. It gives you all these options you can select to narrow the games down. I was able to select no cost or supplies, the age group, that it was for outside and how long I wanted it to last. I found some really fun games that we played. You must check it out! Click here. CLICK IT, I say!

The kids really had fun playing this finger grab game.

By the time the park thing was over, it was less than an hour before school was out. I was so tired, I just wanted to go home and sit down. And I did not want to have to get up again to go pick the girls up. So I checked them both out of school early. They were so excited. We came home and watched the American Idol from the night before. After our little rest, we ate dinner and then got ready to head out to the girls soccer games. Emily's was first. She played an excellent game as usual.

Then we made a mad dash for Aubrey's game. She also played a fantastic game.

By the time we got home that night, we were all exhausted. But there was someone even more tired than us. Poor Steve. Last week was a hard one for him. He worked long hours all week. On Wednesday morning he left for work, worked all day AND all night long. He got home around 8:00 Thursday morning, just as the girls and I were finishing up the garden repair. He slept for about 3 hours then headed back to work. He thought he was gonna have to pull another all nighter, but was able to make it home around 11:00 Thursday night. Here's to a crazy Thursday!