Lack of Blogging

Yeah, life is crazy. We are trying to decide which Internet provider, it any, to use. So, right now, we don't have Internet at home. I run to the library now and then to pick up emails. Hence, serious lack of blogging.

Quick run down of our past couple of weeks...

• My sister and her family got into town the day after we got back from Girls Camp. Yippee. Was it fun!! The kids and I went back and forth to Provo a few times. We all went to church together, took family pictures, ate lots of food (I think Mom and Dad went broke feeding all of us!) and sewed purses. Of coarse, I walked out of the house without my camera on our big weekend together. I will find a way to get pictures of all the fun sometime.

Sidebar: Chris takes the laptop to work on Thursdays and Fridays so I am without my own computer at the library right now. So, I can't share any pictures!!!

• Oliver got declawed on Monday. Sense we decided that he figured out he was getting declawed and ran away, we didn't tell him about it this time. We told him he was "going on a kitty field trip, to a day spa, to get his nails done." It worked, he is declawed!!! He is home recovering nicely. He seems very happy to be home, AGAIN. Poor cat. Keeps leaving and coming home. He is so sweet.
• We played with our friends the Tinneys on Monday. We love them. It breaks our heart to live away from them when we were only down the street before.
• I got a steroid injection into my foot. It always hurts like the devil for 24 hours, and then all is well. And, now, all is well.
• Emily, Josh and Dana's oldest, spent Monday and Tuesday night with us. We had so much fun. I sent her home VERY tired. I wasn't about to put the cousins to bed when she was over :) What kind of aunt would that make me??? Dana said that Emily kind of performed poorly (sucked) at her tennis lesson the morning we brought her home! Hee hee. We took her swimming on Tuesday and to our Elders Quorum Party on Tuesday evening. It is so great to be close to family.
• Bought a new game and borrowed another. We found this awesome game store in SLC last Saturday. We learned to play a new game and fell in love with it: the game and the game store!! The game store is called Game Night Games. The game is called Puerto Rico. It is great fun. We all play it exept Kat. She seemed to have not picked up the gaming gene in the womb. We also borrowed a game from Josh and Dana, Killer Bunnies. It is pretty fun, but a game of sheer luck. I like to actually deserve to loose before I loose :) Which can be quite often with Ali and Luke!
• I have been reading a lot. I know, suprise, suprise. I am well on my way to reading/rereading all the Newberry winners. I have ready four or five over the past couple of weeks. I also finished the last Eva Ibbotson I will ever read. I started out loving her, now, not so much.
• Got a blender. Our blender broke while we were in Dallas and we never replaced it. Now we have one and we have make our two favorites: orange julius and salsa. Mmmmmm.

Well, that is about all I can think of right now. I have to go buy some torilla chips so we can have chips and salsa and orange julius for lunch!!

Family Reading Challenge and Giveaway

Visit the Well Read Child blog to get all the details of this fun summer reading challenge!!!

Oliver

Well, Oliver has come home!!

The kids and I are currently in Provo, Utah, visiting my parents, sister's family and brother's family. We got a call on our cell phone around 12:30 pm. It turns out, Oliver had been right around the corner the whole time! The family that found him had been out of town, but had been taking care of him. I called Chris to run and pick him up, but he didn't answer his cell. 67 missed calls later, he called me back!!! Silly boy.

So, he is back home and the kids and I will see him tomorrow!! I will post new pictures then :)

Nana's Memory Card

OK, my mom loaned me her camera for girls camp. She was worried I would damage my new one up in the mountains. THANX, MOM!!! She rocks.

I wanted to take you on a walk down the memory lane that I found on her memory card...it all starts two years ago.

Two years ago, Nana and Papa took a road trip to Dallas and Indy. Poor Papa only has pictures to remind him of the trip since he got heat stoke in the beginning and doesn't remember most of it.

Here are my sister and her hubby, two years ago. Aren't they cute?

Here are two of my beautiful nieces as they looked two years ago.

Here is my brother and his wife. Also their beautiful daughters. Their oldest daughter is show with Grandma Great and her Sister. Didn't go far enough back to find hair on my brother!!!

This iron, of coarse, is the love of Papa's life.

This is the kids and I two years ago. I hardly remember Ali looking that young.

Above and below: long, lost relatives. So long and lost no one has ever told me about them!

I hope you have enjoyed our trip down memory lane. Thank you Mom for letting me use your camera and enjoy these memories...

I LOVE YOU!!!

Summer Baseball

My parents, Nana and Papa, came and got the kiddos for me last Monday night. They took in one of Luke's games that evening. They took these pictures with Nana's camera, which she loaned me for camp. After downloading the pictures I asked, "Where the heck did Papa stand to take these pictures? the field?" To which Ali answered, "Yes, the field."

Ending June, Welcoming July

We got the spirit stick, hurray!!

Seriously, no one told me anything about spirit sticks!!!
Doing a little embroidery up on the mountain.

I can not believe July has arrived. June forgot to tell me she was winding down.

We finished girls camp last week. It kind of felt like a wedding or some other big to-do. You work and work and work some more, and then, it is suddenly all over.

Last Tuesday, I got up at 4:30 am to make the final preparations for camp. I just have to tell you, that I am not an outdoors type of girl, at all. The closest I usually get to the outdoors is to allow bugs and lizards into my house. Most of that was done in Texas. Ugg. Anyways. It took hours to pack the coolers just to head up to camp. And, I am getting more OCD in my old age. I packed the coolers by food group and by the day that they would be used. Then, I typed up what was in each cooler; placing a tag on the cooler itself and then a master on in the menu/recipe folder.

We had planned to meet at 7 am at the church. I was a few minutes late and I had to get some real food before heading up the mountain. When I got there, Debbie, our YW pres, said she had bad news. Bad news? hit me with it. Everything to planned, packed and ready to go. (We loaded up the night before.) OK, she was right. It was bad news. Our cook had a family emergency and wasn't going to make it right away, if at all. No swearing on church property, right? I can plan and shop for food, but cooking in the great outdoors is far outside my comfort zone and abilities.

Luckily, Debbie's husband finished work early on Tuesday and headed up the mountain to spend the balance of Tuesday and the bulk of Wednesday with us. He was handy enough to bring a book about cooking outdoors. Ha ha. He does love camping and has done it a lot. But, not much dutch ovening. We did make a great cobbler for our potluck dinner that first night.

Tuesday was filled with setting up camp, decorating, getting the lay of the land and working on not running, screaming off the mountain. I truly missed the mountains while we lived in Texas. You will never feel closer to your maker than "high on a mountain top." :) I froze Tuesday night. Duh, no one told me I had to strip down, change all my clothes and then get into bed. The next 2 nights were much better.

Wednesday morning brought a crazy breakfast time. Not only were we new at cooking outside, but stuff takes so much longer to cook at high altitudes. There are flag ceremonies every morning and evening. I think we were on time 2 out of 6 times. We suck. Wednesday the girls worked on certification. Yup, they hate that part of camp. There was also lake time in "leech lake." Yes, there are leeches, I saw them.

Wednesday evening was the stakes "spiritual experience." Let me tell you, it was an experience all right. All it all, it was to teach the girls to listen to the still, small voice and to stay close to the iron rod. That part was great. It was just the hour before the 5 minute experience and the 3 hours after that we trying. I won't go into detail, but there was a lot of singing of hymns, sitting on tarps placed on the mountain and feeling like we were being held hostage. But, I can tell you this: it was a bonding experience. We will never sing, Spirit of God, As Sisters in Zion or Child's Prayer without thinking about our "time" on the mountain.

Thursday was workshops, crafts and lake time. By Thursday afternoon I was like, 'time to go home already?' Thursday evening was our testimony evening around the camp fire. It was nice, except for all the fire and smoke :). I cannot believe how strong the girl's testimonies are. But, they have to be strong to survive all that Satan throws out at them. I really wanted them to think about their testimonies while at camp. Everything that I planned was leading up to that testimony experience. I feel that we succeeded in that area.

All in all, it was amazinglying terrific. I over planned in all areas: food, activities and stress. I could pull off next year much easier.

July, what do you have in store?

Oliver is still gone. And looking at my blog makes me sad. I loved him so much and so instantly. I suppose there is a slight miracle he will still come back to us, but not much of one.