We're off. . .

Well, the Pity party went fantastically well! The ward activity was a total success, kids and adults had a great time and "The Singing Bee" was a hit. I know I will use that program again. The Roadshow is coming together and the best part is that in 2 weeks it will all be over! Yeah! The t-shirts I made for our upcoming Grandpa Camp arrived, and just in time. .

Tomorrow night we are getting a hotel in Omaha to prepare for our flight early Tuesday morning to LA. I think we're going to cruise around Hollywood and hit the beach until we can get into our hotel that afternoon, then it's 4 days of complete craziness. The best part is that this is one vacation where the children have no choice but fall right to sleep. . .they are so exhausted!! I'll take lots of pictures. . .and post when I'm back! Have a great week!!

Pity Party, My Place, Right NOW.

Every now and then everyone needs a pity party. It's good for the soul. So, if you're not in the mood, you don't have to keep reading, but hey, maybe my "stuff" will make you feel better about yours. . .Here's my Yeahs and Boos over the last couple of weeks.

Yeah: I love to serve.
Boo: I'm in charge of our "roadshow" for Church and the person that's helping me was just called to be the new YW president, so who can blame her for being crazy right now (her own words). I have to twist people's arms to participate and give me SERIOUSLY only like 15 seconds of their time, while I'm putting in hours and hours. . (and hours, and hours.)
Boo #2: I'm also in charge of the Karoke/Singing Bee/Don't forget the lyrics for our Ward Activity next Friday. Fun stuff, but busy work stuff.
Boo #3: On Sundays, I really have no time to get anything done at church (let alone, feel the spirit) once the Amen is said for the closing prayer in Sacrament Meeting. I'm the Primary Music leader (Jrs, Srs, and nursery), and the Secretary. **There are a few "goose-bump" moments when the kids actually sing with me.

Yeah: Whitney's arm isn't broken
Boo: She took a fall at church, then had a bad night, and still wouldn't even pick up her arm the next morning so. . . 3 hours at the Doctor (1 hour with the Dr., 1 hour with x-ray, then another hour with the Dr reading the x-ray films), to get sent home with a sling. . .then one hour after, Whitney is moving her arm all over and acting like absolutely nothing is wrong.

Yeah: We're going to Disneyland for Grandpa Camp 2007!!
Boo: We decided (Ok, I did volunteer) to make/design shirts on Cafepress for Grandpa camp. This was WAY too many hours. But they're cute shirts.

Yeah: We'll have a beautiful lawn next spring.
Boo: I hurt my wrist holding up the huge bag of grass seed while I was throwing it all around our yard. (note: a hurting wrist is NOT a good thing for a dental hygienist.)

Yeah: I don't have cancer.
Boo: I found a lump and had a couple of stressful weeks with Midwife visits, mammogram squishes (with extra squishes since I found the lump), ultrasounds, thinking it was fine, then having my Midwife want me to see a breast specialist, wait a week (read: stress), then find out it's fine. This was a huge relief. It's amazing the tricks your mind can play on you when you're in the maybe it's this. . .or maybe it's that phase.

Yeah: I have a job.
Boo: I have a job. I'm working 20 hours a week again.

Yeah: I'm married and have 3 kids.
Boo: I haven't had much time to be a good mom or a good wife lately. I HATE that.

Yeah: I'm not pregnant (can you image all of this AND being pukey??)
Boo: I'm not pregnant.

The official end of summer

Labor Day evening it was still pretty hot out and we decided it was a perfect night for a big last hurrah water gun fight to celebrate the end of summer. My neighbor Tammy brought her kids over too. I got plenty wet then decided to protect myself behind the camera. Matt, however, was left on his own.
Time to go by some more squirt guns on clearance at Target!!

Get on the bus!

Here's the official first day of school pictures. The girls got new backpacks this year and I am so OVER the "wanting to buy a new backpack every year since they are over whatever character thingamagig they desperately needed last year", so we went with a non-highschool musical, barbie, whatever, and found some really cute ones. I hoping these will last at least a few years!!




When we bought our home, we thought, "Oh, that's so nice having the school so close". It's literally two houses, the crosswalk, and you're there. Once we had kids in school we thought, "Holy crap! This is SWEEEEEEEEET." It's a fabulous school, but one thing that's not so fabulous is it's OLD, and it doesn't have air conditioning. I know, it's cruel. But hey, I didn't have air conditioning in any of my schools. (I think the high school had a few areas that were air conditioned). So, the school system has had all of the schools on a rotation of sorts for remodeling. This year is our year. Not only are they putting air conditioning in but remodeling several areas, fixing the parking lot, playground, etc.

So, what this all means is that my kids actually get to ride a school bus out to the temporary school site. They actually were excited to ride the bus. We'll see how excited they are when it's -10 and snowing while they're at the bus stop. Here's how it went the first day.

Here's the bus stop crew. (It's just right down the street)There they go

And here they come

Sum sum summertime.

Here's Molly hiding out with Sam (Whitney is definitely their chaperone!!)

A few weeks before school was out, Molly got invited to a birthday party for a couple of boys in her class at one of the local pools that has a "splash park". It's a separate part of the pool that is designed for smaller kids and lots of slides and fountains, etc. The awesome thing was they had the whole thing rented out so they said, just bring the whole family. The girls had a great time. (Thank goodness Lincoln was not hit by the Utah/public pool/nasty bacteria=2 weeks of sitting on the toilet "stuff")

Be my idol.

The girls were just a little excited about going to the American Idol concert. I even managed to convince Christy to come with me (ok, it didn't take TOO much convincing). The girls made some signs up the night before to take to the show. . .

It was a pretty good show. I will say that Blake is still (by FAR) my fav, and I'd definitely get his CD when it's out--the kid is talented. As for the rest, I think a summer of touring actually did them some good. I didn't find myself cringing too much and even Sanjaya sounded "ok". He did a ridiculous version of "The way you make me feel" by MJ. (And not ridiculous in a good way)(Yes, in some way too tight red pants.)

One other fun thing they had at the show was the TV guide red carpet. They gave you a little card and you could go get your pic taken on the "red carpet" then go online and see your picture. Here's how ours turned out.

p.s. a few days after the concert, American Idol was having auditions in Omaha, and as I left for work that morning Madison said "MOM, how can you go to work when American Idol auditions are right up in Omaha??????"