Time for a Nap

Such busy days lately!

My sweetie headed for Boston this afternoon for work. I sure wish I could have gone with him this time, but I was also happy to visit my doc for a Cortizone shot in my back this morning. Those 3 bad discs are so not fun.

After picking up Baby Doll from kindergarten, I took a two-hour nap and that seemed to help. She hung out with the Dog Walker since he didn't have class or work today. He even took her to Seven Peaks and they spent an hour on the water slides!

I arranged for Sport to leave football practice half an hour early, so when I picked up Curly we were able to drive straight to the Bees game. We missed the first couple of innings, but we did see the big home run in the 5th or 6th inning that allowed the Bees to win 3 - 2.

There were so many little kids there! I think we all left during the 7th inning stretch so we could get them to bed for school tomorrow. It was the Read Today free ticket night so the kids were also presented with a book, coupon for a MacDonald's Kids Meal, a color-changing pencil, and one of those huge annoying foam fingers.

We only had six free tickets, so it was the Dog Walker, me, Sport, Scout, Curly, and Baby Doll. Since we got there late and all the parking lots were full, I ended up paying $20 for a lousy parking spot. I was so annoyed!

After the game we headed straight back to play volleyball and then homework, cleanup, blog, and soon bed. Since Curly and Scout have band at 7:30 in the morning, it will be another short night.

Good thing I had that nap today. I'm thinking I might have one in my future for tomorrow too.

Scout is Seeing Red

Last week Scout told me she had been having trouble seeing the whiteboard from the back of the classroom. I thought about just asking her teacher to move her to the front, but with our history of bad eyes, I decided to take her to the eye doctor instead.

She was nervous, a part of her hoping for glasses and a part not wanting the hassle. It wasn't long before she received the verdict... glasses! But only for seat work, she could still dance without them if she wants, play softball; anything active.

The first pair she tried on were sort of like Harry Potter glasses without the tape to hold them together. For a 10-year-old girl, I thought something a little more fun and playful would be better, so she tried purple. They were cute, but nothing like the bright red ones I suggested next.

She took one look in the mirror and a huge grin covered her face. Red it was!

She must have asked me 10 times over the course of the week when her glasses would be ready. The "I don't know" answer didn't seem to appease her. Then this morning I got the notification. Her glasses were ready.

Right after school we headed for the eye doctor. The same thing happened. She put on those red glasses and the smile was huge.

Now she wants to dye her hair the same color...

Reunions and Birthdays

Did you go to your last high school reunion?

We went to my sweetie's 35th reunion last night in Moroni. It was at a little restored Opera House and quite cozy. There were about 36 people in attendance, but remember, we went to small high schools. About two-thirds of those 36 were his classmates and of those 25, 6 were among his very best friends.

After dinner, they passed around a trivia quiz with 20 questions about random things from 1981 and their class officers and royalty. Some of the answers we were able to google, and others we just guessed, but by the time the final scores were tallied, my sweetie was in a 3-way tie for 1st place.

Eating ribs, but not today, I forgot to take any pics.

We were all excited, thinking the prizes would be great, but he ended up with 2 bottles of joint juice and the privilege of being in charge of the next reunion!

Then to add insult to injury, it was his birthday today and he turned a whopping 53 years old. He was supposed to travel for work this morning, but they moved the trip back to Tuesday, so we were able to celebrate after all. My sweetie insisted on doing all the cooking and we enjoyed baby back ribs, homemade rolls, with veggies and salads from the garden. The food was so good I only felt a tiny bit guilty for letting him be in charge.

Maybe we should just let him do all the cooking for the 40th reunion too. The food would probably be better; I've still got 4 years to convince him it would be a good idea.

Girl Scout Awards Picnic 2016

We managed to survive our Girl Scout Awards picnic. It was actually so fun to have all of my girls except Princess there and mostly wearing their scout vests and being happy that they share that sisterhood.

We had sloppy joes, chips, and salads with Brownies for dessert, of course.

Baby Doll loves that her little cousin is in the troop and they were so excited to bridge to Brownies so they can earn some of the "big girl" badges. We bridged all 5 of the older girls to Ambassadors. The only one not moving up was Scout and she just moved last year. Most of the ranks take 3 years to change.

Prima Donna earned her last three patches as a girl and we presented her lifetime membership from the foundation.

I wish they would have had that when Bossy was a girl in scouts. I couldn't afford her lifetime membership when she graduated from high school even though it was half price. When Drama Queen and Teach came along, we were prepared and we had the money available. Then the foundation picked up the costs for Princess and Prima Donna.

The last lifetime membership I paid for was $175 at half price, so it's a big deal. But now they can be leaders without ever having to pay membership again. Someday I might even cough up the money to buy one for myself.

Randomness

I sure feel scattered today.

It's like I can't feel finished with anything. I hate that feeling; you know, where you run from project to project and nothing gets done? Not even your blog post?

All week I've been trying to prepare for the Girl Scout Awards Picnic. Buy the awards, prepare the awards, buy the food, prepare the food, gather the vests and all the tableware... did I forget serving spoons? The picnic is at the church pavilion, so it's not far away, but I just want to feel like I'm on top of things.

Curly is getting baptized next week and I'm trying to get everything together for that. Today they brought over his white jumpsuit. Yesterday I bought him a new white shirt to go with his new suit that needs to be hemmed. And I haven't even begun to think about food for that one.

And my sweetie's birthday is on Sunday, so I grabbed ice cream and stuff to make coconut pecan frosting while I was at the store buying ice and a little fridge for Grandpa is keep his insulin in. He is all moved in now and enjoying the luxury of a king-sized bed.

Princess and The Frog are seeing Newsies at the Capitol theater and Baby Doll was all upset because she forgot her blanket to sit on for the Teddy Bear Picnic.

Then there is football and Cupcake Club, Tupperware orders to deliver, homework, Youth City Council for Crafty, dance; it just never ends.

Anybody know how I can lose 20 pounds before my sweetie's high school reunion on Saturday night?

Riding the Course

Tuesday should have been Curly's first pack meeting for Cub Scouts, but instead he was at a mandatory dance rehearsal for production team. Remember when Princess was Mulan? Well, this year they are doing Peter Pan and Curly was cast as one of Captain Hook's pirates. Scout is also a pirate and Crafty is Captain Hook!

But I digress...

You probably remember that I'm a den leader for the Wolf Den, so I had to go to pack meeting anyway. Our Cubmaster had arranged a bike rodeo with the city and she was pretty disappointed with the number of kids, so I ran home and picked up Baby Doll (and the Cub Country patches I left laying on my desk...).

Baby Doll has only been riding without training wheels for about a month, so I was a little nervous about her ability to make the tight turns of the course, but she handled it like a pro. She is definitely not a spoiled youngest child. Her problem is that she is way too worried about other kids breaking the rules.

When Does It Get Easier?

Do you ever have one of those days when you just really don't want to get out of bed?

It's the first week of school and you probably remember that the Dog Walker has Autism. He doesn't like change and a new semester is definitely all about change.

We set his schedule back in April, but shortly afterward, they changed the time on one of his classes except that we didn't see it and the time change conflicted with his work schedule. So yesterday we were trying to fix the problem and of course we had already bought books and everything...

We did finally get him approved for a different class although that took me a half hour on the phone with the department and an exception. Then last night after I picked him up from work at 11:00, we were trying to get disclosures and stuff done for Crafty and Sport when they discovered they needed notebooks. After a bit of persuasion, the Dog Walker took Sport back to Walmart so he could buy what he needed. They got home just before midnight and we sent the kids off to bed.

Finally it was time to print stuff for the Dog Walker and make sure he was ready for classes.

He wasn't.

He needed a flash drive with at least 64 gig and he needed it today. So I sent him back to Walmart at 12:30, but he couldn't find what he needed. This morning he was beside himself so my sweetie took our backup flash drive and dumped 92 gig of pictures from it so the Dog Walker could be prepared.

I kept telling everyone that things would slow down after Princess's wedding. Remind me again... when does it get easier?

Back to School

It was the first day of school for these two cuties. Crafty is beginning her first year at Bingham and Sport is an 8th grader. He wasn't technically required to go today because it was the 7th grade orientation day, but as a PTSA Representative for his school, he got to help the "sevies" learn how to open lockers and find their classes.

Princess and the Dog Walker also started back at UVU today. She was so excited about her Jazz class. It's been a while since she has had the chance to dance. Twiz goes back on Wednesday and Prima Donna starts next Monday.

It's a good thing my dad is moving in with us this week because with everyone finally back in school, I will be alone for the first time since 1984.

What am I going to do with myself?

Birthday for Chips

It's a Sunday afternoon in August, so you know what that means... right! Another birthday party!

This time, Bossy and Gamer's little foster son, Chips, is turning four. We planned another barbecue in the backyard and made a cute cake that looked sort of like a watermelon. By 6:30, everyone was here except Princess and The Frog. They had a family party on the other side (that's a weird thing for me since none of my in-laws have family close except Beauty).

Gamer as Thor

A new bike!!

After munching on hamburgers, hot dogs, and baked beans, we got down to business. I loved the way Chips opened his gifts. Each one was the best gift he had ever been given and he was so excited for all of them, even the clothes.

Bossy and Gamer finally presented him with a little two-wheeler bike and he couldn't wait to climb on and ride it around the basketball court.

After gifts, my sweetie and Gamer put the mailbox up. Did I tell you that Prima Donna hit it with the car a few days before the wedding? My sweetie got it mostly ready yesterday, but we didn't think it would be a good idea for the mail carrier to not have anywhere to put the mail tomorrow.

Besides, Gamer makes a pretty good Thor.

Stake Luau

Yesterday was our Stake Luau. Princess and The Frog joined us as did Bossy and Gamer and their family. Except that it wasn't that easy.

I took most of the kids over at 6:30 and my sweetie held back and picked up Curly from football at 7:00 before he dropped him at the church and then headed back to the park to pick up Sport. We got plates for all three of them so they could have some dinner although we needn't have worried, there was plenty of food.

We took several dozen cookies to share and stacked them with all the other offerings on the dessert table. My kids ate more from that section than they did from the shredded meat, rice, macaroni salad, and chop suey. It's a rare day when they have 50 different choices of treats!

There were kids' games and Curly made me a lovely macaroni necklace. 

Hula lessons and then some pretty famous Polynesian dancers finished out the evening. Love spending time like that with my kids... and about 800 of my best friends and neighbors.

Boot Camp Birthday

Master General

Today was the big day of the Boot Camp Birthday for Curly. It was so much fun! We had 21 kids here and I got to be the Master General (is that a thing?). We started with stretching and exercises and by making ID badges to go in the lanyards.

Opening gifts

Then we split the kids into 3 groups with one group learning to march and salute, one group running the obstacle course, and the third group on the shooting range. The Dog Walker set up the obstacle course with tires, a balance board, the spider bars, mini trampoline, and a few other things. I think it was the favorite with the kids.

Sport ran the shooting range with nerf guns and soldiers for the kids to shoot at. He even had a shootoff because he was planning to give away 3 prizes and he had 4 kids tied for 1st place. All the treat bags had soldiers, so it was no big deal that one of the kids didn't get any.

I was up until about 2:00 AM last night making each child a small drawstring bag out of camo fabric, then we filled them right before the party with army ducks, tootsie rolls, a pen, and soldiers. Curly was spoiled by his friends as usual.before we ate creamies and cupcakes.

It was a great party.

Loving Her New Life

Princess came over today to spend some time with us while her new hubby was at work. It was so good to see her!

We went to the Social Security office and waited for about 1/2 an hour to get her new card issued. She was very excited to make all these changes official. Each time she wrote her new name, she giggled a little. It was so cute.

Then we went grocery shopping together. I loved listening to her talk about setting up her little house and putting things away. It hasn't even been a week yet, but it's clear she enjoys her new life and wants to live it to the fullest.

Baby Doll convinced her to Snapchat a few selfies for me while they made a cake for Salsa's birthday celebration on Sunday. I sure miss having Princess around to do all my baking and sit up late at night with me telling stories and secrets.

She starts back to school on Monday which will mostly keep her in Utah County, but I will get to see her tomorrow when she comes back over to help me with Curly's birthday party. I have to admit that giving up Princess has been much more difficult than when Teach got married. Teach had already been on a mission and out of the house for a long period of time. Princess has never been gone from the family for more than a week.

It's been a week...

In the Fast Lane

I hadn't intended to talk anymore about cars, but I just can't resist this story.

So today Prima Donna called me. She was on her way back home from Ogden so she could get the plates for the Honda Civic she drove off in yesterday, leaving plates, registration, everything laying on my desk. Anyway, she was near West Valley when she informed me that a light had just come on and she thought it was the oil light (remember, not reporting that problem before ruined her other car).

I figured if it had just come on she was probably fine to drive it the few more miles home and then we could put some oil in and all would be well. Moments later she called me again. A bunch of other lights were on and she was losing power. I told her to get off the freeway.

She did.

Right out of the fast lane and into the left emergency lane.

Of course it was nearly 4:00 and rush hour traffic was already whizzing around her. She was getting pretty nervous (as she should be!). Twiz and I had been over to the community college working out some kinks in his registration so he agreed to go with me to save her. I immediately called our mechanic who hopped in his vehicle to help with her rescue.

Problem was that she didn't know exactly where she had parked. We made the first pass through the 7200 south exit and we couldn't find her. So we decided to go for the belt route exit. We finally saw her then, but she was directly across from us and we couldn't get to her.

As we got off the freeway for the second time, Twiz suggested that we better not ignore our own flashing fuel light or we would be in the same spot that she was in. We quickly found a Maverik and got back on the road. Our huge circle was now taking us all the way to 5300 south.

Prima Donna texted me that the mechanic was with her, but she was only marginally less nervous. An Incident Management truck had also stopped, but decided she was in good hands and left again.

When we pulled up behind her, she inched her way along the wall and climbed into my car. Now for the hard part. Even with our hazards on I didn't feel safe going from parked to the fast lane before someone smashed into us, but somehow Twiz managed to get us home.

A tow truck pulled the car (that we purchased yesterday, remember) to the shop and we are now waiting on the verdict. I'm guessing alternator.

Cougar Finally Died

About a year after The Beast graduated from high school, he bought himself a 1999 Mercury Cougar. It was 2005, so to him, the car was new and sporty and after he added a head-banging sound system, it was perfect. He paid $3500 for it.

He made payments for about a year when the engine blew. He still owed lots of money on it, so he took out a new loan and had our mechanic install a new engine. He rolled the two payments into one, but it was still barely all he could afford with his pay from Blockbuster Video.


Now let's jump ahead a few years. The Beast decided he had graduated from the Cougar and he needed something a little more grownup to drive (he bought a Pacifica...).
The Dog Walker was a sophomore in high school when The Beast gifted the car to him. Dog Walker was ecstatic and he drove the car all over town, but mostly to the high school and back. The Beast told him then that the car was on its last legs and would likely die before the school year was out, but it didn't.

It just kept running like it could go forever.

But it didn't.

Today we signed the title over to our mechanic so he could dispose of the Dog Walker's beloved car. Honestly, it is the only car he has ever had, so we are all a little sad about that. Fortunately, our mechanic had a little red Honda Civic he was selling. So today I put a car out of its misery and bought another one. I hope it gives us more than 10 years, just like the Cougar did.

Planning Another Party

I told you we sort of skipped over Curly's birthday, but we made up for it yesterday with the family and now we will have a friend party for him on Friday. He was so set on having an Army party that we are having a Boot Camp Birthday. I've been thinking about it all day.

This morning I got up and called our local Army Recruiting office and told them what I was doing. They were happy to donate 50 lanyards and 50 pens plus a branded T-shirt for our Drill Sergeant. Then the Dog Walker and I ran down to Walmart and picked up some camo fabric so I can make drawstring bags for the kids to take home with their other goodies.

Just one more quick trip to the dollar store for some toy soldiers and I think I'm good. Princess already agreed to come over on Friday morning and make some of her awesome cupcakes. I just need to buy a box of Creamies (and prepare everything) and I'm done.

Oh wait, I was going to make an obstacle course, so I need to find some boards and borrow some old tires from our local tire store...

Happy Belated Birthday, Curly!

Curly is such an amazing boy.

He turned 8 on Friday and he was content to have us spend most of the day setting up for Princess's wedding. He only complained the tiniest bit, so today we tried to make it up to him by having a big family birthday party!

We gave away the rest of the cupcakes from the wedding this morning so no one would be able to complain about more cake. The kids all came over about 6:00 and by 6:30 we were serving hamburgers and hot dogs in the backyard. (Wedding stuff crowded us out of the living room although Drama Queen has managed to take care of most of that for us today.)

The little kids played Curly's new game while I frosted the cake. His life is all about football right now so of course he wanted a Denver Broncos cake. It was tricky using the hat as a cake topper. I didn't want to get frosting all over it, so I tried to put down plastic wrap first, but it was pretty slippery. I don't think I will ever try that again. It just wasn't that successful, but he loved the hat and the chocolate cake.


I think his two favorite gifts were the huge box of 120 crayons and the package of mechanical pencils.

We didn't see the newlyweds, of course; they are enjoying a couple of nights in a hotel downtown.
And you know us, we have a party of some sort almost every weekend.

Just Married!

Just Married!

It was a beautiful, glorious day for a wedding. Princess and The Frog were married this morning in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and sealed for time and all eternity. They were so happy!

At lunch

After the ceremony we took some pictures on the temple grounds and then later some of us got together for pizza at the Brick Oven. By the time we were finished it was off to the church for final setup and more pictures before people began to arrive.

Good-looking guy!

We had a steady stream of guests the entire time. So many people love my sweet Princess. She had friends from school, dance, Distinguished Young Women, Youth City Council... and The Frog has dozens and dozens of cousins! His family has lots of friends too, in fact, one of their neighbors was a guy I worked with at Eyring. It was so weird to see him again after all these years.

After a couple of hours of hugging and smiling, they cut the cake, danced, tossed the bouquet and then headed out the door.

Our seven hours of setup took only one hour to tear down. Thank you so much to all the willing hands who helped us. I'm sharing cell pics today, but I promise to share more later.

Crafty, The Beast, Beauty

Cutting the cake

Selfie!

The line...

Time for happily ever after. :)

The Night Before the Big Day

This is it.

The night before Princess gets married. It's 1:15 AM and of course I'm still awake. We spent most of the day at the church setting things up for the reception tomorrow night. We got there about 3:00 and left just after 10:00. Building a tree wasn't easy, but it is so fun and whimsical. Drama Queen outdid herself this time.

Tables are set, food is all prepared and ready for plating. It should be a good and relatively easy day (until the kids are gone and it is time to clean up!). I didn't quite finish binding their second quilt that we made at the shower, but I think they will forgive me if it takes a few extra days. I only have one more side left to finish, but unless I manage to do it in the morning before we head to the temple, it's going to have to wait.

My boys have weigh-ins for football in the morning. Curly has to be there at 6:45 and Sport at 8:15. I'm glad they were early because if they miss them they are suspended until after the first game, and they would be devastated if that happened (so would my sweetie...).

Here are a couple of sneak peak pics of the reception, and I'm off to bed.