Mosquitoes, The Other Heads Visit

I hate that it's been so busy, but I can't remember why. We are getting eaten alive because of the river being high. I have lots of mosquito bites, and so do the kids. I need to be better at putting bug spray on everyone. Oops.

We had pack meeting Tues. night. It was a little rough trying to keep Lewis from being loud, running away, or throwing sand at other kids. James had to go to an interview for his temple recommend.

The Heads got here last night. James had to fog, even though he didn't really want to. We had dinner together and watched an episode of Speechless. Hopefully, today we'll go to the fair.

I'm hoping that today goes smoothly. I have lots of packing to do for our trip tomorrow, but I still want to take the kids to the library activity. We're going to a wedding and baby blessing. More on that later after it's happened.

1 more week till the blog is public! I'm starting to get really nervous about it. I still worry too much about what people think.

Heads Visit, Fogging, Decorating, Party

Sam and Jesse and their girls came to see us last week! We had a really great time going to the dinosaur museum, playing games (even me!), eating pizza at the park, and playing in the yard with some giant barrels James got from work. It's always fun to hang out with siblings. Our kids are getting to be good friends, too. Lewis and Lizzie need some work, but Katie and Charlotte are self-proclaimed "besties".

James has to fog a lot more since he has his own area that gets lots of complaints. He was exhausted coming home from work yesterday, so I was glad that it was too windy for him to fog. Fogging is what people think mosquito abatement is, but it's actually the last resort. This year is really wet and gross with tons of flooding thanks to our stupid late winter. Oh well.

I made new curtains for the kids' rooms this week. I'm also almost done with a sheer curtain for Katie's loft bed. I put together 3 IKEA tables for a new Lego table for the boys, so that looks nice too. It has taken a ton of work for them so far because Legoes just get everywhere. It's fun to spend a little time rearranging and redecorating. I like that everything gets deep cleaned in the process.

We have a ward party tonight. Hurray! I really hope the weather cooperates.

I have ONE recipe left for the new blog. I am so relieved to take a break from intense cooking and photo-taking. I'm also really looking forward to posting about other topics!

Busy Summer Days

It's been such a crazy week. I'm starting to think that might be my life for the rest of time.

Saturday, we went to a birthday party for a friend's son. It lasted 3 1/2 hours and had 2 pinatas, lunch, 2 bouncy houses, and dessert. It was really fun, though, or we wouldn't have stayed that long. I love it when other parents throw really good parties. It's not something I'm very good at. I gave the boys haircuts, and we somehow got everyone to bed on time.

Monday, we cleaned the Church and got frosties afterward for FHE (with Cherissa and Tayson). James had to go fogging, so he left right from Wendy's.

I didn't go to yoga on Tuesday because of a terrible headache. I did get my temple recommend renewed, which was great. We are going to a wedding later this month, so it's especially important! James filled in for someone who cleans the temple, so he was gone from 9-11.

Wednesday, I tried fixing the leak in our sprinkler box, but no luck. I did stay out in the sun too long and break a screw. I wish I could be better at fixing things, but I'm just not. I don't have a ton of patience for it either. I also tried to put up the pirate ship flag, but our staple gun mysteriously doesn't work. Ugh. James had to fog again, so he was out late for the third night in a row. It does mean overtime, but what good is overtime if you are too tired to spend anything or never home?

Things are going well with the weekly schedule. Today we go to the library and get our pickup order at Walmart. It has seriously been such a lifesaver. We had to get 5 items on Tuesday at Walmart (like underwear and shoes, not available through pickup), and it was really tough to be there with all the kids. I'm so glad our Walmart has pickup! I'm not even stressed about grocery shopping anymore. :)

Joseph is at Cub Scout Day Camp today. I can't believe he's already a Bear!

Head Reunion, Summer Break

Thursday night was actually pretty fun. We went to the nursery to get yard stuff and finally used the gift card my neighbor gave me a year ago. We then got a rock chip fixed on the car with a free promotion and then went to dinner at the buffet. We never go there anymore because the older kids are expensive for how much they eat.

Friday, we left around noon at had a pretty uneventful drive to Albion. It was a pretty fun time at the Head reunion with the usual campfire, meals together, cousins playing and swimming, the candy toss, auction, etc. Of course I got barely any sleep the first night, but everything went pretty smoothly. It was great to see the older kids again after a few days at Grandma's. My favorite part of the reunion is always talking to the relatives while the kids play.

We returned home on Sunday all completely wiped out. It was also uneventful.

This week, aside from doing more laundry than normal, feels like the first real week of summer. The weather is finally hot and dry, and we've settled into a routine.

Every day stuff: working in the yard/garden, reading time for the kids, regular chores, sewing in the afternoon when Samantha sleeps, reading for 1 hour after the kids go to bed before I watch TV.

Weekly stuff by day:

Mon.: bubbles, FHE
Tue.: Scouts, the park, yoga/party
Wed.: cooking class (taught by me!), sand and water
Thu.: library, date night
Fri.: art project, movie night
Sat.: finish yard work for the week, adventure
Sun.: Church, board games

I forgot how good it feels to be outside before it gets really hot. I do really want the yard to look nice this year since I did nothing for the last 2 years. Plus, it's nice for yard work to double as exercise.

There are definitely moments already where I feel like I'm pulling my hair out, but that also happens with only 3 kids at home.

Rex(burg) Reunion, 2 Kids, Emma and Joseph's Birthdays

We had an uneventful drive to Rexburg on Thursday, and it was a busy time the whole time we were there.

Friday, the kids did some superhero activities outside before lunch. We had dinner with the Lees. It was freezing outside, but I think it was worth it for the s'mores at the end.

Saturday, we went to Green Canyon to swim, had lunch, and went to Victor to the Heads'. Then, we went to the location of a future reunion spot to plant trees. After getting back to the barn, we had some pizza for dinner.

Sunday, we went to Church as we normally do. I still really like 9:00 with little kids because it gives plenty of time for lunch afterward and naps. I was really exhausted by this point due to not sleeping well for the previous week, so I took a nap too.

Board games happened every day, and I even participated in some. I really like fast-paced, trivia, word, or team games but not really strategy games.

James and I drove home on Monday so he could work this week. We left the older 3 kids at the barn. Tomorrow we leave to meet up with them. It's been nice not to have fighting going on, but it is oddly quiet and weird without the kids. There's still plenty to clean up and too many diapers.

Projects this week: fixed the sprinkler system, put together a bookcase for the kids, made a doll outfit, went grocery shopping using pickup. (I LOVE PICKUP!)

Mara and Ricky had their baby on Tuesday night! Her name is Emma Mae, and she has bright eyes and very dark hair. I'm not sure when I will see her because I don't want to expose her to my germy kids. I'm certain by the 4th of July, though.

Joseph is 9 today! We will give him his presents when we get back from the Head reunion in Albion, which we leave for tomorrow. James is taking a half day at abatement so we can get there not too late. I'll be glad when travel is over for a while.

Pickup, Packing, Awards, Rain

The boys went to the Fathers and Sons campout on Friday and didn't spend the night. James had a meeting the next morning along with work at mosquito abatement. Since they were gone, I tried Walmart grocery pickup for the first time. Another customer caused a lot of problems for them, which caused me to wait for a while, but I am really glad I did pickup! I got the girls in bed and put everything away without feeling burned out from already having been in the store for 2 hours. Despite the wait, it was still a good experience, and I was really impressed with how easy it was to find everything on the website that I needed. If things are as fast as they say they usually are, doing pickup should save me an hour of time every shopping trip. I can also buy as much stuff as I want without worrying about fitting it in the cart, waiting in the checkout line forever, or trying to do self checkout. Staying with 2-week shopping trips should be pretty easy too. I was worried that I'd have to switch to every week because of how much stuff we have to buy now. It's also been hard to find a time to go without kids, so I think pickup is going to solve all of my grocery shopping stress. :)

Now, if only someone could invent teleportation so I can get rid of my travel stress. I've been packing all day so far, doing laundry, and trying to keep the kids from destroying the rest of the house. I haven't slept well in the past week due to slight illness and more than slight stress. Ugh. Doing one long trip wouldn't be any better than two trips back to back, but I'm still dreading leaving after school today. It means a really late arrival and possibly very grouchy kids tomorrow.

On a happy note, Joseph got two awards this week. He reached all of his goals for 3rd grade and received a gold medal. He also won the quiz bowl for third grade. He was really excited to show off both of his medals and plans to take them to Rexburg with us. What can I say? He is a regular nerd like his parents.

Last year was so hot and dry, but this year has been different so far. We've had nothing but cold and rain over the past week, and it shows no sign of letting up. That's a good thing, because one of our sprinkler zones needs some work, so we haven't starting watering the lawn yet. Sometimes I hate that our neighbor has such a perfect lawn. It makes ours look bad even though it's not that bad. However, we still have the gathering place for all the neighbor kids because of how fun our yard is. I guess I'd take that over perfection any day. I always know where my kids are.

Fighting, Busy

The kids have really been on a roll recently. I don't know if it's the warm weather or James being gone at mosquito abatement twice a week, but they are driving me insane. I'll be glad when James is down to one job, because doing both is stressful for all of us. I try to stay busy so I don't get lonely, and that works for the most part. However, it doesn't help the kids at all. It seems like they are constantly at each other's throats. Kenny and Katie are especially bad, but that's nothing new.

The blog is going well, and so is the sewing. As for my weight loss goal, I've decided to use stickers on my calendar and not weigh myself until Samantha turns one. That's only a few months from now. I'm at a point where the scale is just causing me a ton of stress. Slow progress is still progress, but I am too impatient to be happy with it right now. It's still a struggle not to eat when I'm not hungry, but I keep on going anyway. I guess that's the story of my life. Honestly, my eating habits have been a struggle for my entire life, so I can't expect to change everything in just a few months. It might take years to get to a really good spot where being healthy doesn't take so much thought. I have always envied thin/skinny people, and I don't think that will ever change. It just doesn't come naturally to me.