I have Survived!

Well, I survived the Vegas TDY! Richard got back in the afternoon on Saturday. The last week went much better than the weeks before. I guess after you get in the groove of things, it isn't so bad. I really loved not cooking for 2 1/2 weeks! Isn't it funny how you change your expectations on housework and eating when your hubby is gone?

Morgan is part of a program at the school called "Tiger Talents". They meet after school once a week and work on songs and dances. They had a performance on Tuesday.

She had a solo to sing for part of the song "Footloose". I figured out how to record a bit of video on my camera (my camcorder is way too outdated to put video on line) so here is a few seconds of her performance:

She has a performace this week for the city's tree lighting ceremony. She has really loved being part of this organization.

Wednesday, Rylan went rock climbing with the scouts. That seemed like a lot of fun. Why do the scouts get to have all the cool activities?

Thursday, Morgan had her orthodontics apt. SHE GETS HER BRACES OFF!! She's very excited to get them off in Dec. I'm a little stessed about the retainer thing. Apparantly it's not something you just wear for a period of time, but after a while, they suggest you wear them at night for the REST OF YOUR LIFE! They said that she wouldn't be ready for phase II before we moved so I think I may buy an extra retainer so that when we move and she loses it, we'll be covered. I'm really hoping she won't even need phase II since we've made room for the rest of the permanent teeth to come down straight. I'm crossing my fingers at least. She was so excited to get the braces, but she is REALLY excited to get them off!

The twins also had a fun POW WOW at school. They choose Indian names and made outfits and drums and other crafts.

Bradly's Indian name is Brave Bronco (he's a Boise State Bronco fan because of his Uncle Jered and cousin Isaac)Addi's name was Rainbow Rose

Here's there kindergarten class. Aren't they soooo cute?! I love this age!

I've been working on the downstairs bathroom and hoped to get it done before Richard came home. The shower head had not been installed right and water had ran down the wall. It curled the tape up and peeled the paint off the sheetrock, so I ripped it off, put joint compound on, re-taped, and layered the compound on top. It ended up looking great. I ran out of time and will have to paint today. We've almost got all the little "projects" done to put the house up for sale.

Sunday was a Thanksgiving dinner at my Sister in Laws. We had 38 people in her house!! It was crazy but a lot of fun. ... And good food!

That's about all. We're getting family pictures done by our awesome private photographer this week on our way to my parent's for Thanksgiving. Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving! I'm grateful to all of you who have become our lifelong friends, and provided so many experiences for our family!

My Crazy Week

Well, it has definately been a crazy week! Monday I watched the kids that I babysit. They were picked up close to 4:00 because the little boy had a Dr.'s to see if he had Strep or not. Of course, he did. I didn't have to watch the kids Tues and Wed because they didn't want to get the baby sick. Tues. morning was a Federal Holiday, which in UT means SAVER'S sale!! I have become a true Saver's addict and find the cutest stuff for so cheap. Every federal holiday is additional 50% off. I get so many clothes for the kids and rarely pay over $3.00 for anything. I found a great deal for a Christmas present for Rylan, but he often reads my blog, so I'll tell you about it after Christmas. Tues was volleyball for Morgan and Scouts for Rylan. He is my babysitter when Richard is gone, but he really needed to go to Scouts so I took all the kids to the gym. That was definately not fun. Wednesday was a 1/2 day for the kids and Morgan complianed of her throat hurting. She's had strep before and she felt is was strep so I took her in at 10:30. I hate it when my days gets broken up like that. She didn't have strep on the rapid culture so I took her back to school (for the hour and a 1/2 that was left).

Wed. night my CO2 alarm went off. I opened the windows and it went off and I thought I would watch to see if it would go off again or not. Around 11 at night I was working on a quiet book and realized that my head was really buzzy and I had a headache. I figured that I better call a friend that works for the Fire Dpt and see if he had a tester. He was working that night and told me to call the Fire Dpt from my town. I called and told them what was going on but that I didn't want ANY firetrucks or sirens. I had 5 sleeping kids!! So they showed up in an ambulance, but thankfully with no sirens. They went through everything and it all checked out. We're thinking that the steam from the showers set off the smoke detecters (it's all the same system).

Thurs and Friday were 1/2 days as well, so I had 7 kids for both those days. Friday, I also decided to rip up some sheetrock mud and tape that was damaged by water around the downstairs shower. Hopefully I can get that re-taped and mudded before Richard gets home! Fri was also a parent's mtg for Rylan's baseball team. We decided to just get fast food for the day.

Sat. my SIL called and wanted help putting up crown molding in their dining room. Richard's brother was down for a game and brought his son. The kids had so much fun and were really good while we spent 7 hours putting up

the crown molding!

Elly really enjoyed her ice cream treat!

And here are the Bob the Builder Wanna Be's! Sorry about the picture! Rylan was taking it.

In other great news .... I saw gas below $2.00 a gallon for the first in over 4 years. YEEEEE HAAAAW! So nice with a Suburban now to fill up! Well, you can wake up now. The book is over. Sorry for such a long posting. I knew it was going to be a loooong week! Sorry you had to endure it too. See ya next week! Kim

MY NEW THEME SONG: PLEASE LISTEN

If you have internet fast enough, could you please listen to my music playing right now to get the full effect of my week. .... I will pause now for you to listen.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Did you get it?! Yes! It's been quite the crazy week! Richard has left me for Vegas for TDY and I'm a single mom with 5 kids now. I was in charge of Super Saturday, however, somehow that ended up with me being the sole person to put together that day. I made Olive Garden soup (3 batches) the night before and ordered bread bowls. We had apple juice mixed with Sprite. I did have 3 other ladies teach classes, but I ended up being in charge of the other 4. I had to set up and take down. My oldest watched the kids alllll day long and I came home to another lovely mess to deal with. I had things broken, a closet door on the floor, and a little girl who obviously had a corn dog for lunch with ketchup and mustard, and no one bothered to clean her up afterwards. It was caked all over her hands, face, clothes, and my furniture!! Rylan had baseball try-outs a 1/2 hour after I walked in the door and then we had a church Thanksgiving dinner at 5:30. I slept sooo hard that night!

Here is a picture of some of the crafts that we did:

It actually turned out very nice and I think the ladies had a lot of fun. I'm so glad! I couldn't believe how many people in our ward had never done a Super Saturday. I had heard a lot of negative criticism before we had the event, and most people didn't want it to last very long so I thought tentatively it would be from 10-12:30 or so, but I didn't get home until 4:00. We made soap, salt dough ornaments, bracelets, quiet books, glass blocks, and Family blocks. I'm soooo glad it is done. It is a huge project to put together.

Along with my theme song, I have a crazy week this week. It is Morgan's last week of Volleyball, and the kids have 1/2 days from Wed. on due to conferences. That means that I will also have the two kids I babysit for the rest of the days, and that makes for a looooong day! Especially when I won't have some one come home to lend an extra hand!! Now you know what will be running through my head over and over and over again for the next few days. Here is a picture of Morgan at her last Volleyball practice:

Sorry it isn't a very good picture. It's hard for me to get action shots. She seems to really love it and will miss doing it, I'm sure.

In other news ... I got my haircut short. I've been thinking about this for quite some time now but I've been growing it out for about 8 years now! So I got sick of growing it out and having it the same length for the last 5 years. Here is a picture of the "new" me. I'm still getting used to it, but I like it:

Hopefully you don't end up seeing someone take my head and put it with some random pictures. I have several friends concerned with the security of these blogs. I agree, but I figure no one could care less about an image of me. So, if you see my head with a Nazi flag, or burning a bra, or on a stripper pole, please know that my image was stolen! LOL

Have a great week, ya'll! Kim

Spooky Halloween Fun!

We had a lot of fun this Halloween Week!!

First of all, it was Red Ribbon Week. There were themes for each day they could follow. Monday was Hippie Day and Tuesday was Crazy Hair Day. Don't they look crazy? The two kids in the back are the kids that I watch before and after school. Wednesday was Disco Day and Thursday was Hip Hop Day or wear you costumes. They didn't have school on Friday so they had their class parties on Thursday. I was asked to the class party with another mom for Morgan's class. It was a lot of fun. We ended up having all the 4th grade classes combined so we had 60 some odd kids to entertain for an hour and a 1/2. We ended up doing it "carnival style" and set up 8 different stations. I was in charge of Pin the bow on the Frankenstein. I was so busy with that and doing a Haunted Mad Libs story with them while they ate their treats. I didn't get any pictures of Morgan's class party. I did sneak in and get a picture of the twins in their kindergarten room.

Addi was a lion-It looks like she took off her Lion's Head

Bradly was a vampire

Elayna was Mickey Mouse; Morgan was a dancer and Rylan a baseball player. Later Morgan wanted to wear the scary make up so she decided to be a Zombie Dancer.

Here's a picture of the kids minus Rylan and including the ones I babysit for before they went to school. They look so cute!!

It's been a crazy week for us! Friday night was our Ward's trunk or treat and then we took the kids Treak or Treating. This was the first year since moving here that Richard could join me! It's so much easier having another set of hands! I'm in charge of our Super Saturday here (day of crafts) so I've been running around getting supplies for that. It will be next Saturday. Richard is leaving TDY for Vegas next week (be gone for 2 weeks) so I've got to put the finishing touches on that and put it together without his extra set of hands to help! Rylan should be able to babysit on Saturday.

Next week Rylan will be trying out for a new baseball team on Saturday. It's hard to leave our original baseball team here, but they want to participate in a tournament in New York and we just don't have the extra funds for that. Rylan's best friend's dad is putting together a team that will have some incredible opportunities (2 of the coaches played MLB) and he called to "recruit" Rylan. He promised Rylan 3rd base position and pitcher. It was a hard decision, but we decided to go with this new team and leave our old one. They will be including a membership to a baseball training center, have several clinics (one on the mental aspect of the game, one on running agility, one of hitting, etc), and participate in 5 tournaments. It will be nice for me because the coach lives a few blocks from our house and will be able to take Rylan to practice for me. Try-outs are this Sat and they start practice in Dec. Isn't that crazy?!!! It will be really good for him though.

Well, you know by now that we have orders to Rapid City, South Dakota. We are excited and trying to prioritize options for moving. We have decided to put the house up for sale in April. It could take a year to sell it with this economy!! Other than that... things are going great! November should go fast! Richard will be gone to Vegas, get home for a few days and we go to my parent's house for Thanksgiving until the end of Nov! He'll be heading to Korea faster than we'll be prepared for! Love to all! Kim