The Case of the Missing Postage Stamp

On Sunday it will be Teach's 22nd birthday! She has been the kind of girl who just loves birthdays. In fact, she reminded me that we needed to have a party and eat cake for her even though she wouldn't be here. I have to tell you that is a little stressful for me.

I have been trying to figure out how to make her first birthday away from home a happy one. So today I made a little flier with detachable address labels and dropped it by her old work with a comment to please send her a birthday card. I also took a little stack to Curves for her friends there. Drama Queen passed her address around on Facebook with the same plea. We are hoping that tons of her friends will respond by sending her a card.

That's when I got the bright idea that instead of putting all of our birthday wishes into one box, the kids could each send her a separate card in the mail! I happened to pick up these bright pink envelopes cheap when Xpedx went out of business here in Salt Lake, and I've addressed about a dozen of them today. Then Drama Queen made individual cards for each kid and adult to write a little message and then mail. Here's the one she made for Princess.

I had about half of them ready to go to the Post Office when I had to leave for Scout's softball game, so I left them sitting on top of the calendar waiting to be stamped and placed in the mail box. While I was gone, the Dog Walker called me and asked if he should drop them at the post office when he took Crafty to dance. Their studio is right by the post office.

"Sure!" I replied. "There's a brand new sheet of stamps in my purse that I just bought." Then I hung up my cell and went back to keeping score. About 15 minutes later he called me again. "Mom," the worry was evident in his tone. "Don't these letters need stamps? I put them all in the box and then I saw that they didn't have stamps so I grabbed one out but the rest of them fell in."

It was terribly difficult to have this conversation and still keep track of the advancing runners, not to mention the balls and strikes. "What?!" I was beside myself. "I told you there were stamps in purse!" He disagreed and the conversation went back and forth while he argued that he thought I put the stamps on even though he could clearly see that I hadn't. Finally I told him that he caused this problem and he'd better figure out how to get those letters back or Teach would never get them. Then I snapped my phone shut before he could say anything more.

OK, I confess, I hung up on him. Five minutes later he called me again. "The post office is closed, Mom. Nobody is there." I sighed. "Did you go inside?" He admitted that he had. "Did you knock on the door?" No, he hadn't knocked on the door. So once again I hung up and left him to his own devices.

Scout struck out. This was not a good day.

A couple of minutes later my phone rang again. "There isn't anyone there," he lamented. "Yes, there is," I insisted. "I was in the post office a few days ago and there was someone in the back long after things were shut down. Just yell that you need help through the slot." He snorted, "You can't yell in the post office!" I assured him that if there was no one there then no one would hear him yell anyway, so go ahead. Then I hung up the phone again.

About 10 minutes passed before my phone rang again. "I got them back!" I could hear the pride in his voice. "There was a lady back there and she came out to the box outside and helped me get all the pink envelopes out."

"Was she angry?" I couldn't help but ask. "No," he answered, "she was really nice." He paused, "She just reminded me to put the stamps on next time before I mail the letters and then she went back inside."

I smiled to myself. There truly are some good people in this world who are willing to help. Sometimes you just have to be persistent to find them...and maybe a little autistic as well.

More Baseball

It had been threatening to rain all day. Yesterday the rains cancelled Burrito's baseball game and Scout's softball game so we were watching the sky carefully, but the website still said all games were on, so at 6:10 we headed for the park.

I sat for a minute in my car while Sport warmed up with the team, then when the time was right, we headed for the field. I was smart this time. With the menacing clouds I wore my jacket with the fingerless gloves tucked in each pocket and I carried a fuzzy blanket to ward off the cool weather.

I grabbed the scorekeeper's book since that has become my unofficial job. I actually love keeping score, it helps me concentrate on the game. There were still puddles near the dugout and under the bleachers, but none on the field. Hopefully the rain would wait until the game was over.

Sport started the inning in Right Field. He typically moves around and plays every field in the outfield and occasionally third base. Coach put in the third string pitcher to begin the game. Before long he switched to our second string, but not before the damage was done. The other team had scored the maximum of 6 runs and retired the side.

Our boys were undeterred and they came back with a couple of runs when Thomas, one of Sport's best friends, smashed a home run into right field. Top of the second inning and coach wasn't messing around anymore. Down by 4, he put in our first string pitcher. He immediately struck out three batters in a row.

The Orioles gave us the same treatment and we were back out in the field. Even Sport went down with a strike-out. Somewhere along there my sweetie showed up with the camera and the sky continued to darken. Jack took down three more batters including one that dribbled the ball up the middle. Once again our boys went down 1, 2, 3.

Top of the 4th and the raindrops started falling. I hid the scorebook under my blanket, desperately trying to keep it dry and still record each ball and strike. But Jack was a pro and struck out another three in a row. Their pitcher walked a couple and we managed to pull in two more points. The score was 6 - 4 and their coach brought in a new pitcher.

The rain really started pelting us and the umpire called a five-minute break to see if it would let up. It was past 8:30 and the lights were coming on. A beautiful complete double rainbow caught everyone's attention.  I stepped into the dugout with the boys. Nobody wanted to quit, we could still win this thing!

The official called the boys back to the field. We had one out and our second batter grounded out to first on the next pitch. That made two. The third boy managed a walk and then Sport was up. The rain just wouldn't stop and we were all shivering on the bench. The Orioles coach had his outfielders doing jumping jacks to try to keep warm. None of their boys had hoodies.

Sport was up. The driving rain made truly seeing the ball impossible. He hung in there for a ball, then a strike. He sent the third pitch up the middle. On any other cold wet day it could have easily gotten by the pitcher, but not today.

Even though time hadn't expired the umpire called the game. Coach was upset, but mostly with himself I think probably for holding back that first inning. By the time Sport and I walked to the car the rain was gone. Crazy Utah weather!

And unfortunately one more painful loss.

Memorial Day Weekend

I'm sure you all had an amazing Memorial Day weekend! Ours started on Saturday with my 30th high school reunion. My sweetie and I left the kids home and drove to Manti by ourselves. It was a nice quick drive in Teach's car (that thing loves to go fast!).

We arrived a few minutes early and decided to drag main until more cars showed up at the church. The banquet was nice and the program was short. It was for all of the decades from the threes...1943, 1953, etc. including my year 1983, and all the way to 2003. Then all of the classes separated for their own individual meetings. Ours happened to be at the high school in the lunchroom. Boy, the school sure has changed in 30 years! It's much bigger and everything looks different. I hardly recognized the place.

We stayed much longer than planned. It was fun to see old friends again. My two best friends were there although we don't have much in common anymore. None of my friends are living the crazy life I am. Most of them are empty-nesters just waiting for grandkids. We headed for home after 10:00 and arrived shortly before 1:00 AM. Thank goodness for a flashlight and a good book! I read us both home safely from the new books I got for Mothers' Day.

We dropped into bed and rolled out around nine. My sweetie made Belgian Waffles with fresh strawberries and whipped cream while I packed coolers and made preparations to leave right after church. Unfortunately we got out of church at 2:00 and didn't hit the road until 3:50, but it's all good.

We stopped for a few minutes at the cemetery in Nephi and placed flowers on my grandparents' grave and got back on the road. We arrived in Richfield and checked in at the Hampton just before 7:00. By 7:15 we were all relaxing in the pool. The Dog Walker bought some big blowup toys and the kids had tons of fun playing with them.

By 8:30 we were back in our rooms munching sandwiches on homemade sourdough with strawberries and banana chunks. (Yeah, for a minute we tried to be healthy!) Then the Drama Queen broke out the chocolate and a card game and we were silly and giddy for over an hour. We sent the girls to their room around 10:00 (the boys were sleeping in our room) and I read to my sweetie until after midnight. That was probably a bad idea because I never sleep well in a bed that is not my own.

We got up around 8:30 and ate their free breakfast before packing the van and hitting the road. We stopped at our family cemeteries. First Aurora, then Axtell and Centerfield where Grandma is buried. Then we went to Ephraim and visited my mom's grave. A stop in Spring City for my sweetie's grandparents' grave and we finally rolled into Mt. Pleasant.

We visited with my MIL for a bit and then we took her with us to the cemetery and my FIL's grave and another set of grandparents' and then to the park. We made a quick stop at Terrel's for doughnuts (the best in the state!) and got back on the road. The traffic in Spanish Fork Canyon was ridiculous and we got home much later than we planned, but we still had one more cemetery to visit. My sweetie's half-brother is buried in West Valley.

Then we drove to Applebees for dinner. It was a fun and extravagant ending to our wonderful weekend. What did you do?

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Guest Blog: The Case of the Stolen Truck by Bossy

Pictures from the broken ball joint tow

Sorry for the suspense, I was just so emotionally drained on Thursday after I typed that up for Mom.

So Wednesday afternoon, Gamer and I were at work and had just realized the truck had been stolen.

In order to file a stolen vehicle report in our city you have to file a written report.  Gamer and I were both at work and Taco had a ballgame so we didn't get home until nearly 8pm.  When the officer came out to take the report and we had another problem...

 Because Mom and Dad are awesome they financed the truck for us, so the registration and title was in their name.  Mom had signed over the title last month when we thought we had paid it off. (Credit Union had doubled some payments and we wouldn't really be done until October.)   But legally we couldn't file a report because the state didn't recognize us as the legal owners since we hadn't updated the registration.   Mom was a Sport's ballgame and wouldn't be home until 9pm.

I went over to Mom's house and got her "Bossy's truck" file.  I parked myself on her couch until they got home.  Somewhere in that 30 minutes the stress overwhelmed me and I started to cry.  A very concerned Baby Doll, Scout, and Curly kept coming by and whispering not to bother me.  At 8:45pm the doorbell rang, I struggled to compose myself while Dog Walker answered.  It was a female officer from our city.  She was looking for the owners of a black F150 found abandoned in another city.

I quickly tried to explain the situation and how they located my stolen truck before a police report had even been filed.  She had heard some of this over the radio earlier, so she worked with me to make sure I got the address and could get the vehicle towed.  The other city had confirmed it was in "non-drivable" condition.  Just after she left Mom and Dad came home.  At this point all the other little siblings knew the truck had been stolen.  Poor Sport was very upset by this news.  He just loves cars.

It was nearly 10pm by the time I had the address of where the truck was Dog Walker went with me and I was glad, it was not a nice part of town.  I was very relieved to see the truck still had tires and looked like a truck.  I did an inventory search while Dog Walker listened to music and looked tough.  Once again Roadside Assistance was on their way with a flatbed. They had taken the aftermarket cd player we had under the back seat, his Metallica CDs, all of Gamer's change, and most upsetting to him they found the keys to his bedcover and stole his fishing tackle.

While we were waiting for the tow truck, a car stopped in the road next to the truck.  I was in the truck and freaking out and Dog Walker was engrossed in his music in my van. Had the thieves come back to finish dismantling the truck?  The car turned into the driveway across from the truck.  A lady got out and started yelling at us for blocking her driveway.  I got out of the truck and immediately asked her if she had an idea how my truck got to the end of her driveway.  I quickly explained the truck had been stolen sometime last night and asked if she had seen anything.  She apologized for yelling and said she had called the police this morning when she went to work at 5:30am and it was there.  I thanked her for reporting it, told her the tow truck was on the way and we would be hanging around until they were there.

We finally got the truck home around midnight.  Gamer and I barely slept that night worrying the thieves would come back and take it again.  They still had a working chipped key.  Thursday Gamer stayed home from work to deal with the insurance and police report. We hadn't filed a report because the truck was recovered and they wanted us to file online in the morning.  (To make matters worse the city's computer system had gone down the day before and we didn't get the report in the system until 18 hours after it had been recovered.) The tow drive pointed out that they stole the catalytic converter and totaled the engine.  The mechanic has it safely in his shop, we won't know if they took anything else until he meets with the insurance adjuster after the holiday.  By the end of Thursday, there was no better way to finish the night than watching Burrito play baseball.


 

A Day Out with Thomas

Remember a few days ago when I won four free tickets to see Thomas the Tank Engine from the Utah Mom Blog? Well, yesterday was the big day!

My sweetie is supposed to have Fridays off and since all the kids were still in school, it was easy for us to schedule early and not have to answer any questions about why we were only taking the little kids. We don't get many opportunities to be the "young" family anymore and it was fun to pretend.

We left the house about 11:30 and after Curly asking me about 25 times if we were there yet (and Baby Doll even asked a few!) we arrived about 12:45. Heber is a beautiful little pastoral town on the other side of the mountain from here. It reminds me a lot of my hometown. But I digress...

We got our wristbands and tickets and moved into the gathering area.  We could already see Thomas on the tracks, just waiting for the next group to load. Our tickets were for 1:30, so we had a few minutes to enjoy the booths. We started out in the gift shop and we succumbed to the t-shirt display. Baby Doll chose pink, of course, and Curly opted for the blue. As we entered, we were also given a sheet that required 4 stamps to be turned in for a free gift on our way out. So we acquired our first stamp at the gift shop.

With only 15 minutes to loading time, so we waited for a clown to make balloons for the kids. Then we decided to get in line to have our pictures taken with Sir Topham Hat. Baby Doll was a little nervous about this guy who didn't look quite real, but I finally convinced her to get in the picture frame. That was stamp #2. Then we headed for the loading line.

The kids were so excited to get on a real train! Curly wanted to walk between the cars (just because he could), so we finally had to just stop and say, "This is where we are sitting!" The trains were not crowded (thank goodness for Friday!) and we were able to sit right by the window.

After anticipating for a few minutes, the train headed out and the conductor stopped by to say hello. People were so friendly! They waved at the train from cars and backyards. The kids waved right back. They loved it! We saw cows and sheep, fields with sprinklers, horses, and kids jumping on a trampoline. When we got to the end of the line we changed seats to the other side of the train so we could see that side and rode back to the station.


After we got off the train, my sweetie snapped some pics of the kids next to the steam engine...those things are huge! We had a quick granola bar snack and then headed back to the festivities. The kids were so excited to play in the Imagination Station (Stamp #3) where they had Megablocks and little magnetic Thomas trains and tracks.

We watched a magic show after that and the magician gave Curly a wooden coin. He was so excited trying to figure out where he could spend it until I sadly reminded him that it wasn't real. We entered another tent where they were reading Thomas stories and scored our last stamp. When the book was over they started a movie. Curly wanted to watch but Baby Doll was ready to go so she and I went to the face painting booth. She got a pink Thomas tatoo and a tiny Thomas painted on her cheek. Then we went to the coloring booth. That's where Curly and my sweetie joined back up with us.

It was almost time to go. We turned in our stamp cards and we scored some awesome stickers! As we headed toward the entrance and out the gate, the kids were reluctant to leave. We decided it was time for one more picture with Thomas since he was at the station. So we walked back inside and took more pictures. Then Curly noticed the little yellow train cars. He really wanted to ride in one and he finally convinced his dad to ask. Yes, just climb in! The four of us and the driver filled the tiny car and we rode about half a mile out the track and then back to the station.

By then it was about 3:30 and we hadn't eaten lunch so we convinced the kids it was time to go. But that didn't end our adventure. We decided to eat at the Train Stop. It was so fun! They had little model trains that ran around the ceiling, outside furniture shaped like a train, and the prizes in the kids' meals were engineer hats! We took our time eating and enjoying the place (since it was pretty expensive), then we settled back in for the ride home.


Thank you so much, Utah Mom! We had an awesome time!

Free Screenings

I know you are all on pins and needles about Bossy's truck, but she has promised to post the sequel on Sunday.  Sorry, but you know how these grownup kids are...they don't have to obey me anymore and that was the best I could get.

It's the same thing with husbands. At least that has been my experience. Oh, I think if I really told him what to do he would do it, but then I would never hear the end of it, so I've learned over the last 30 years (yes, we have been married 30 years in September!) to choose my battles wisely.

Like last time I visited with my OB/GYN, he reminded me that at 48 it was time for the mammogram and the colonoscopy. I'm not really excited about THAT part of growing older. Nor am I excited about the expense of hospital and doctors' bills either. You know my gall bladder surgery last week? Just the hospital visit was about $4000 and that doesn't count my trip to the ER or the surgeon or the anesthesiologist or all the other people who had to have a hand in it.

That's why I was pretty excited when I received an email for free Skin Cancer screenings from the Utah Health Care group. All you have to do is call for an appointment and they will fit you in during their clinic on June 1 from 9:00 to noon.

I'm seriously thinking I should call. I have very fair skin and I tend to peel and burn and then peel and burn again. I also have quite a few moles. I had one of them removed about 5 years ago because it looked to me like it was changing and even though it turned out to be nothing, it was still scary.

My brother-in-law spent a lot of time water skiing and he had a huge spot on his back that they removed a few years ago too, but.his happened to be a very aggressive skin cancer that could have caused some real damage if they would have ignored it.

And my sweetie's grandpa got a patch on his nose just from working in the garden!

So this just might have to be one of those battles that I talk to my sweetie about...because I'm looking forward to the next 30 years and I want to have him right here with me!

**I received a small fee for sharing the important information on this free clinic.**

Guest Blog: Our Vehicle Saga by Bossy

It started two weeks ago. While driving to school, Gamer turned the corner and the ball joint gave out on the truck. The front end hit the tire and the truck came to a horrible stop. Fortunately we decided to pay for road-side assistance so it was easy to call our insurance and arrange to have it towed to our wonderful tire guy, Clayton. They kept it over the weekend and it was a pleasant surprise Monday when the repair was much less than expected.

A couple of days later, Gamer noticed a strange rattling, so he took it back to Clayton and was told there was something wrong with his exhaust and the welds were suddenly breaking. It was another Friday and I begrudgingly called our mechanic to schedule to bring it to him on Monday.  

On Gamer's way home from work on Saturday, the truck suddenly stopped and died. Fortunately it was as he was turning onto our circle. He tried to restart it, and finally pushed it off the street on the side of our house. On Monday we called the mechanic and rescheduled for him to come by rather than the truck come to him. The soonest he could come out to our house was Tuesday afternoon. We hid the keys on the truck so he could have access while we were at work. Around 5 pm the call came, the engine had no oil and the motor had siezed. We could rebuild the engine ($4k) or find a used engine ($3k). The truck was deemed un-driveable. Gamer didn't want to make a decision without talking to me so he told the mechanic we needed to talk about it first. 

After I got home we drove to our favorite car dealership to walk the lot and see our options. We couldn't find anything cheaper than repairing the truck. We also realized the value on trucks had risen since we purchased it. We looked online and our truck was worth about 3k more than we paid. We decided we would fix it. 

In the morning, we scrambled to get everyone to work and school with one car. Gamer commented about how the truck was already gone and who told the mechanic we wanted to fix it? We tried reaching the mechanic to get more information about the repair, but it went to voicemail. I called Mom and Dad to see if they had talked to him already. Around noon we finally heard back, and the mechanic hadn't picked it up. Suddenly we realized the un-driveable truck must have been stolen.

To be continued...

part 2

The Big Leagues

Remember way back in March when we signed Curly up for baseball? He was so excited to be playing in the Big Leagues like his brother! Well, it just so happened that my sweetie came home early today to take me to the doctor (all is healing nicely, it just takes time...) then we hung around together until it was time for Curly's ballgame. Turns out it was his last game of the season!

I was wishing I would have grabbed the good camera, but I did get a few cell pics I convinced Sport to take for me. Curly has loved playing baseball! His favorite part of t-ball is being the last batter and hitting a home run!

After Curly's game we went to Sport's game. They lost 9 - 7 and they were pretty disappointed.

Then I spent the rest of my evening building a castle. Crafty has had this assignment for weeks now, but for some reason she spent most of her time planning and just looking at her pile of supplies. She was afraid to do anything because she thought she might mess something up! So now she had to do all the work in about 48 hours.

Over the years I have become quite a pro at duct tape. When Prima Donna was a 6th grader we covered her castle completely with duct tape and it looked pretty good. Crafty remembered that and decided she wanted to do the same thing with hers. So that was my job, to help with the duct tape. I also made the flags for Princess's castle and we recycle those every year. These are the third towers they have been on.

I think it turned out pretty good.  I just wish we could put the whole thing in a safe place until Sport is in 6th grade. But what would that teach us? Maybe to start a little sooner?

It would definitely save us $10 worth of duct tape!

Piece of Cake

Me and little Baby Doll - she can eat just fine...

I keep thinking I should be fine. It's been almost a whole week since my surgery and gallbladder is an easy surgery now, right?

You would not believe how many people have told me that! Just because it used to be terrible, doesn't mean it's a cake-walk now. My doctor still cut me open in three places and let's face it, I'm getting old and I don't heal all that quickly.

I guess I'm grousing a bit because the weekend is coming...and not just any weekend, Memorial Day weekend. That is not really a problem except that it happens to be my 30-year high school reunion on Saturday. I was hoping to look good, not be dragging because I just had surgery.

It's funny, I haven't eaten much of anything for the last 10 days because every time I do I manage to get sick to my stomach and I'm STILL gaining weight! How does that happen?

I talked to my friend at Curves today and she told me it is because I'm not being active and my BMI is probably going crazy too. This is not what I needed to hear today. After Princess's concert, I went to basketball. I wore jeans, assuming I would not be able to play, but my awesome friends agreed to play half-court so I could stand there and throw up a shot every now and again. I think it was just what I needed to help me remember that I like being active and it's time to heal now.

I'm hoping the doctor agrees. I have my appointment tomorrow at 2:00 and he has promised to remove the bandages and check the stitches. Then I'll be fine. I have to be...after all, gallbladder surgery is supposed to be a piece of cake.

...if not, I'm planning to go eat one...

A Winning Day!

Despite the fact that I am still a bit under the weather from my surgery, I had a wonderful winning day!

The first thing that happened was that I sat down at my desk to read my email and I opened one from Utah Mom. It read like this, "Hey! You won the Day Out With Thomas tickets. Congrats! Cindi."

Yay! Curly was SOOO happy! He just kept telling everyone over and over that he was going to ride on the REAL Thomas train. Life is just so simple when you are four.

Then I got to email with Teach for a little while and she told me this awesome story:
 

This week we have witnessed miracles within ourselves, but one of the coolest missionary experiences I've had so far happened on Friday night. We had just finished walking from a less active member's home and we had only 30 minutes, but we weren't close to any other investigators and I knew that we weren't meant to be in the area where we were. I was just praying to know where God wanted us to be for the last 30 minutes of the night. I imagined the park down the road and it just felt right. So I told Sister Gentry, she agreed and we headed to the park. When we got there they had a baseball game going on and there were a LOT of people and I had no idea who we were meant to talk to. I prayed that the Lord would let us know who we were meant to share the message with and we started forward. I saw a lady putting something in her car. I felt that I should contact her so I headed over. I went to pull a pass along card out of my bag, but my hand found a family history card. I had to hurry so I just though 'whatever, that works' and headed over. Turns out family history was exactly what Marianna needed. She opened up to us and told us how much her son loved family history and he would love a new/free website that would help him. We were able to give her a personalized copy of the Book of Mormon and get her phone number so we could follow up. She said that it was the perfect day for us to meet her. She had story after story of family issues that had occurred that day and she simply needed comfort. This was such a blessing to meet her. We were able to continue to work hard until the end and we were blessed for our obedience.

Cool, huh!? 

And it's not over yet! About 1/2 an hour later I got a call from Clayton at the Tire Store. Last weekend was their Customer Appreciation Days. It was an easy way to feed the kids since they were giving away hot dogs, chips, drinks, and donuts. They also had drawings and I WON! I got this awesome cooler!

Then, to top it all off, one of my best friends brought in dinner for the family. She made chicken enchiladas and they were so yummy!

It just doesn't get any better than that.

The Spider

Twenty years ago when we lived in our first home, we bought Bossy, Gym Rat, and Drama Queen a swingset. It was expensive and my sweetie sunk it two-feet deep into concrete so that it wouldn't tip when they were sailing as high as the fence.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long before we decided to sell that house and get a bigger place. My sweetie had invested about $200 into the swingset, so he dug up the concrete and loaded it on the truck and drove it to the new place. That swingset is still in my backyard and it still gets tons of use.

So several years ago we were in Sam's Club when we saw a brightly-colored teeter-totter. It was pretty heavy duty so the older kids could even use it. They also had a spider-like set of monkey bars that I knew the kids would love. Sadly, we couldn't afford both so we chose the teeter-totter.

The kids loved it so much that near the end of the summer we decided that we wanted to get the spider even though it was still a little beyond our budget. Unfortunately, it was no longer available...until now!

Last time we were in Sam's, we didn't hesitate, my sweetie got one of those flat-bed carts and we made the purchase. It took him several hours to put it together, but the kids have loved it! Even my Girl Scouts thought it was a hit.

Hmmm....maybe it's finally time to replace that swingset...

Girl Scout Sleepover

This seems like so long ago, but I didn't want to miss telling you about our Girl Scout sleepover. I had planned to write about it last Saturday night, but if you remember I ended up in the Emergency Room until 3:00 AM and I never got around to posting about it.

I've probably told you about our sleepover before. It's an annual tradition for us and we always have it in May. I used to plan it over the Memorial Day weekend, but that conflicted with my MIL's plans for the family so I moved it earlier in the month. We like to have the girls over the same weekend as our guys are gone for the Fathers and Sons camp out. Then we get to have the house all to ourselves to do girlie stuff.

So the girls arrived around 6:30 and we had pizza from Dominoes for dinner. Shortly after they finished eating, we moved the party to the backyard so we could tie-dye t-shirts. I had already arranged with a friend to have our troop number put on them after they were finished, so they will become our official shirts. Drama Queen came home for the weekend to help and she suggested that we didn't want to use the dye on the table since it might stain. What do I know? So I agreed.

Her thought was to put the shirts on the grass after the girls rolled them and put bands on them and then just spray them there. That worked pretty well until we had all 15 done and then the girls started walking through the grass in their bare feet! Suddenly they were covered with dye up to their ankles! I think their feet were dyed better than the shirts!


They played in the backyard until it was almost dark and then they helped us tie a quilt for charity. Princess had some fun games for them to play and the Dog Walker set up his Karaoke machine before he left. One of the girls brought ice cream for a treat and we also had cookies and other junk food to keep their tummies full.

They watched a couple of movies and didn't sleep at all. I finally got to sleep about 3:00 AM.

The Drama Queen and I got up about 8:30 to make our traditional strawberry crepes. The girls loved them (as usual). We had an awesome time!

But you should have seen me at the hospital on Saturday night trying to explain to every doctor and nurse who worked on my just why my hands were such a pretty shade of blue!