Last days of Summer 2015

Well, the summer is coming to an end for all my kids.    

But until then, we've been cutting, cutting, cutting. 

 With all the fruit we've been getting from Birch's, we ended up getting a dehydrator.  We eat as many as we cut, so it takes a bit longer to prep than I thought.  And I haven't worked out all the details that might change the length of time the fruit is drying... but it is so yummy! 
 We are all loving it.

Katy is preparing for Senior pictures with Aunt Priscila. We tried on MANY dresses this week and found a few lovely ones.  She has a friend coming over to help practice make-up and hair today and tomorrow.  So excited!

Mom is excited if I think about it in baby steps.  Look, Senior pictures.  Look, new class schedule. Look, you need all my financial information for scholarship paperwork.  

But if I think about how she won't be here next year.... sadness.

Jacob is having a wonderful month.   Swimming, friends, sleepovers, cousins and food.  What more could a boy ask for!  That's him on the rope swing.  

My new phone/camera - is a lower quality than my previous phone.  That's ok.  It's a choice I made, and for the most part, I am enjoying not being on my "phone" all the time.  But I miss the camera from the Nexxus.  Guess I'll have to start carrying around a real camera, now. 

 Whoa... that feels so old school.

Emily and Becca, both have their own devices - not for calling or texting yet, because they are always with us!  But they have email, google hangout, Pinterest, and Spotify. 

It keeps them real "busy".  

Let me know if you need their contact info.

Amanda is off to camp this week.  It is the first time she's been gone 5 nights.  She's been to this camp before (twice) but as a jr. camper and it was only for 2 nights.  She was SUPER nervous this past week and kept worrying about it.  Sometimes, alternating between tears and laughter.

So Darren talked with her about Philippians 4:6-7

Which means one day we were driving home and she says, "I'm really nervous about camp."  Then proceeds to bow her head, put her hands together and say, "Jesus, give me peace." 

 I LOVE that Amanda!   

Once I dropped her off, she still needed hugs, but she found her friends and she was off.  She did stop to turn around and wave to me.  My heart be still.

Claire has turned into a great swimmer this year!  Her favorite is the mermaid (dolphin) - but she's getting better at freestyle and back stroke, too. Claire also decided to get a pixie cut as well, she wanted to match the sisters.  She looks a little like Fantine. 
 It's just hair.  It will grow back.

This is how I feel, too.  Every time someone asked for a pixie cut....

Darren has started a new client, who lives on the East coast.  So his mornings will be starting 2 hours earlier, which just about coincides with the new school year.  No one wants to get up early.  

We want to soak in the last few days of summer!!!!

We got to visit with a friend yesterday that just moved out of the city, onto their own little farm.  We sat in the hammocks and talked in the shade.  All the kids want to move to a farm now.  We are pretty sure the ratio of work:hammock is something like 3:1 or 5:1 maybe even 10:1.  

They don't believe me.

Hope you enjoying your last days of summer, too. 

Cotton Candy and Polka Dots

If you were lucky enough to make it to our house during the holiday - Amanda probably already showed you Emily and Becca's newly decorated room.  But if you missed it ...

Here are a few things we learned on this group project...

It goes faster with scratchers and scrapers than picking at it on and off for a few months or so. (But they did enjoy listening to Adventures in Odyssey over and over and over ....)

Here's what everyone else was doing on October 19th... 

I didn't realize how long we had been working on their room!

Apparently, Katy likes to bake when she's frustrated...

 yummy for us.

If mom doesn't really like mint green walls as much as the girls - 

you'll probably have to repaint.  Probably.

Having the right music is always important.  

Plus notice how mom is letting them put the circles wherever they want.... 

not necessarily where mom would have put them.

FYI -The triforce CAN be represented with polka dots.

******

For Christmas, we gave the girls bulletin boards and the promise to finish their room over Christmas break.  With one more trip to IKEA for the little shelves and 2+ hours of hanging things...  I think we are done.

Becca's side

Emily's side

Well, we still need to repaint the chairs... that red just doesn't go with our color scheme.

But that will have to wait until a drier, warmer month.  

Maybe done isn't the right word...

Getting Around Levi

A family friend offered Emily and Becca a chance to meet her horse, Levi.  It took about an hour to get there, so I had lots of time to go over the "mom rules" with them.

#1. DO NOT EVER walk behind the horse.  They are large, strong animals and will kick you. Hard.

#2.  Again, do not walk BEHIND the horse.  I don't want you getting kicked.  Walk around the front

 if you need to get to the other side. 

#3.  Remember to use a soft voice, 

so we don't spook the horses. 

#4.  Walk in front of the horse, NOT BEHIND... 

or you will get kicked. 

Before we could meet Levi, we got to muck out his stall.  

The girls were so excited to wear boots and use a manure fork!  

While Mrs. Debbie went to get some wood chips, the sisters waited patiently for her return.  

 It's hard for these sisters to stop dancing even when they aren't excited...

But we finally got to meet Levi.  Mrs. Debbie showed us how to brush him, she showed us how to clean out his hooves and she taught us to keep our hands on him and talk to him,

 even when we walk behind him.  

What?  Did she just tell my little 8 year olds they could walk behind this huge animal!  "Keep your hand or your arm on him, so he knows where you are.  Talk to him, so he knows where you are.  Stay close to him, in case he kicks it won't hurt as bad... as if you were farther away." 

NO!  No she didn't just tell them to do the exact opposite of my years of watching television horses had taught me.  You NEVER walk BEHIND the horse.  And here was Mrs. Debbie, so patient and kind with the girls. Answering all their questions.  Telling them what she was doing and why.... and she broke the only rule I knew!!!!

I kept my mouth shut.  Obviously, I didn't know as much about horses as Mrs. Debbie and I trust she knows what she's talking about.  So I kept quiet and wanted to walk in front of the horse to get around... but the way he was tied - I couldn't.  

Unbeknownst to the girls, I made a pact with God.  Do not let this horse kick me and I'll honor Debbie's directions.  Fair enough?

So I kept my forearm on Levi's side and bravely walked towards the back end.  Then another question popped into my mind.  How much bottom contact was I to have?  Did I have to slide my hand across the whole thing (like I was innocently doing on his side) including the "business" part or could I just touch one cheek and then the other?  Remember, I have always stayed far away from the aft end of a horse... we'll especially when the horse is on TV.  They don't usually do close ups from that end. 

It worked.  All my bones and internal organs stayed in tact.  Levi did not kick me. Yeah, now we can ride!

As the girls used a stool to saddle up, I was so happy for them.  The only thing an 8-yr-old girl would have loved better was if this horse had sprouted wings and flown them to a unicorns field in the sky.

Becca and Mrs. Debbie

Emily's turn

Even mom had a turn.  A short turn.  As I used the stool, I realized how tall Levi was.  As soon as I got on, I was sure the saddle was slipping to the left and I was about to be hanging upside down - like in the cartoons, on TV.  Mine was a short turn.  

Then we headed back to the stable to take off the saddle and brush Levi some more. There was even talk of braiding his mane and tail... wait his tail.  Like the tail that is BEHIND him? 

 Surely that means you take the tail and pull it to the side and braid it.  Surely that does not mean stand behind the horse (without a hand on his bottom) and pull his tail... I mean brush and braid his tail.  Surely the only rule I knew must be enforced with tail braiding.  

Nope.  

Emily brushed, braided, then unbraided, brushed and braided again.  Look how brave she is.  Doesn't even know she's in danger.  I am so proud of her.  But I did not braid the tail.... 

um, Becca needed my help up at the mane.

Thanks Mrs. Debbie - We had a great time with you and Levi.

Guess what the girls want for Christmas...

  

Sick Break

Well, I think there's no better time to get sick than when you have an extra 6 people in your house.  That way someone else can hold a crying child or make dinner or run to the store for more meds or caffeinated drinks for the mommies.  And now there is a reason to have the TV on 24/7. 

We actually have 2 strains of bugs running through thehouse right now, thankfully it remained within the host family and not the guests.  So here I am, fighting off the yuckies.

In the first corner, weighing in at stomach flu, throwing up and diahrea:  Emily and Becca.
In the second corner, weighing in at painful ear infections: Jacob and Amanda. 

So far, Becca dropped out of the fight after 36 hours... and Jacob and Amanda entered the fight a day or so late, but definately not nearly as dedicated to the pain.  Emily seems to be the last one standing... I mean last one crying. 

Emily got a shot of Phenergan last night and seems to be doing better.  She was pretty dehydrated, but she is doing her best to drink all the pedialyte I keep giving her. 

Maybe tonight I'll get to sleep all the way through til morning, without anyone else waking up and crying or throwing up or crawling into my bed.  Maybe.

Jedi Training Academy

Ever since we saw Luke get his light saber from an older Obi-Won, haven't we ALL wanted our chance to wield a real light saber.

How many things would you have broken as you swung that light saber around the living room? Your mother's trinkets, lamps, small animals and older relatives would have been cut in half. Better leave the force to those who are trained in it's ways.

Now that Emily and Becca have gotten that chance, we'll have to keep a better eye on Claire. They were trained by "real" Jedi... to fight the evil foe.





Where could something like this even take place? Putting young girls out to fight the Dark Lord.

Only at Disneyland, where dreams really do come true.



Emily and Becca with their Jedi Training Academy certificates.

May the Force be with You.