Rounding out Summer...

PLEASE BRING ON THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR!!!! okay so it's obvious where my thoughts are these days...i have 13 more days till school starts again and quite frankly it cannot come SOON ENOUGH! Being on the downhill side of summer is never my favorite-i am one of those "lets get on with it already" types--

We have done quite a few beach days-we had beach house week last week of July with Sandra's side of the family-always fun to visit with cousins & see families growing! I've met lots of friends at CDM and Newport--i even ventured into the waves myself--i know pick your jaw up OFF the ground.."christina went IN the WATER?!" yes. i did. I caught some sweet waves-then was quickly humbled by a trasher--good times! Every time I drove home back from the beach it MUST be accompanied by Guns N Roses--its just the Hales way.

We had lots of fun with Kristi's family in town-a couple sleepovers--so crazy seeing the "older cousins" becoming "older" and the changes they all go thru. I am glad she brought the crew down and had so much fun! I LOVE that ALL of Jons family gets alone so well and we can always count on each other and have fun with each other with NO DRAMA--sometimes that's hard to do in families these days.

Jon continues to have pressure sore issue's which leaves him stuck in his bed upstairs-not the most fun but helps to keep it from getting worse. He's pretty much spent the WHOLE last 4-5 weeks IN BED--poor guy. It's still only at stage 1 of 4--so we just keep plugging along with life.

I am CRAZY BUSY with my new company and LOVING every minute of it. I am extremely thankful for the opportunity and the blessing it will be to our family in so many ways.

Well this will be an interesting school year-my schedule looks like up at the CRACK OF DAWN (well not really, but for a sleepy head like me-645 mine as well be!) get child #1 off to Jr High-meet Kristen at Turley fitness (new 24 hour gym WHOO HOO)work out for an hour (while my sweet child #2 & 3 get THEMSELVES dressed and breakfast made & out the door by 8am to walk to school-I know im SOOO LUCKY i have GOOD CHILDREN!!!)then I will return home and get myself ready for the day and get child #4
to Kindergarten by 1045am and then i am FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE till 3pm--can you feel my excitement!??!?!? I havent quite decided which breakfast joint I will be solo celebrating at!? iHOP, Coco's, Dennys?!?!?

I have been doing a tradition with my girls on the FIRST day of school i make sure i have a fresh batch of my killer chocolate chip cookies ready for them when they walk thru the door (i will pick up Rachel & the other 3 will walk home together)--they ALWAYS remind me and are so happy that i follow thru with that tradition--

Usually with Jon home I have him incharge of Anna's homework, while I help Sarah with hers. Rachel does her own by herself (besides I dont think im smart enough for her homework anymore!??! thank heavens for google.com when im stuck-so i SEEM smart! HA) So this year Rachel will be in the afterschool homework club thingy-so hers will be done before she even gets home, then i will take sarah and anna while jon continues to take Anna. Hopefully that system works. My girls are SO GOOD about just coming home, grabbing a snack and getting to their homework right away so we are done. We usually have it all wrapped up by 330pm--FABULOUS!!!!!!!

Im ready for us to be in bed by 9pm and up and at 'em in the mornings with a routine--I love that we have dinner every night by 6pm, girls do their dishwasher chore, scripture reading is done nightly after dishes--monday nights FHE's are rotated between Me, then Jon, then Rachel & then thru Sarah. I love that we have family prayer each night after scripture reading--these things make life simple and make mom happy.

Bring on the school year!

Rachels Firsts....

Today was Rachel's first experience at the Temple as a youth-she was there to participate in Baptisms...I completely forgot about telling her how she needs to dress, how she needs to bring extra clothing items, get an interview, questions that are asked, why she's doing this----of course leave it to me to wait till the LAST hour to cram all this information in right!? oops.

So i am on the cell phone & she's fighting me about why she has to wear a dress/skirt-why cant she wear shorts? if no shorts how about just pants--whats wrong with flip flops--on and on --poor thing i had to take a DEEP breath and start over..she kept thinking the "dress code" were our "family rules"...i know..i shouldnt have waited till the last hour..

Then began the conversation of "okay where do i change, how do i do that, will anyone see me, where's the key, i put it in what pocket, what if it falls out in the water, but im all wet, do they give towels, where does the wet jumpsuit go, question after question!! again..i know why did i wait till the last hour...

The bishopric counselor came-& she completed her interview and all was well.

She was happy to see that she was NOT the ONLY one wearing church clothes to the temple EVEN THO we told her OVER and OVER and OVER again-the temple is the Lord's house---we wear our BEST!! not shorts, no flip flops, etc etc..GOOD GRIEF!!!!!!!!!!!

Jon was able to talk to her after our "crammed discussion" about why we do the baptisms--& she felt great.

She also spent the day preparing for Girls Camp which starts for her on Monday--it will be quite nice to have some quiet in the house-she is SO good about playing with the girls doing fun things but when she's BORED...then she even better at pestering them-especially sarah--drives me bonkers--thats usually when i yell...okay enough-everyone's bored out to the pool!!!!!!!!!!

I gave her the list of things she's suppose to bring for Girls Camp-told her to put it all on her bed and then i'd check it off with her--she did manage to get everything off the list checked-WHEW!! it is WAY nice having kids that can do their OWN packing and take care of their OWN things---after she went downstairs and we got all the zippers zipped and ties tied for her luggage and sleeping bag..i wrote a nice sweet "i love you" kind of letter and tucked it into her sleeping bag so when she unravels her bag--she will see my note to her--
i figure that will make up for the cramming of the temple discussion earlier and put me BACK on track for the mother of the year award--right!??!

On my way!

I have just joined a new company. It is called Nuriche (nourish). www.Nuriche.com

Essentially it is THEE most convenient way to get ALL of your recommended fruits & veggies everyday. None of us are able to get what is recommended on a daily basis. This is a new product line that started in Dec of 08.

The product consists of a powder that contains 30 fruits, 30 veggies plus all the needed enzymes and probiotics your body needs. You just add water and boom there ya go! The most important part is that they take the fruits/veggies from the farms and pulverize them so they are liquid then they heat it at 80 degree's for just 30 seconds to put it in a powder form this makes it THEE MOST live whole fruit/veggie possible. (anytime fruit/veggies are heated or frozen it takes out the good nutrients) but by doing the heat at ONLY 80 for ONLY 30 seconds it makes it a live whole product. So that when you add the water, its as if YOU went to the same garden and picked out the fruits/veggies yourself and ate them. This product has NO chemicals, preservatives, fillers etc. Its all healthy & organic and live whole food.

Everyone, including myself, that have been using it has REALLY felt a difference in energy levels, vitality, clearer thinking, AND a bonus everyone on it is losing weight-like 30 lbs!

Id LOVE for you to try it and just give me your feedback on it!! Feel free to go to the website and look around.

www.mynuriche.com/Hales

on the MEND!!!

I have spent 2 weeks in my room...thank goodness I have a laptop to keep me sane! I had gone to Urgent care on day 3, tested negative for strep. Back to my regular Dr on day 8, still negative for strep & told to take 1g of tylenol with 800mg motrin, back to a new Dr on day 10 & given a Zpack antibiotic. By day 12 I could tell an improvement but day 11, 12, 13 REALLLY tired -maybe from my body trying to fight that RAGING HORRIFIC sore throat I had for 10 STRAIGHT DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!
Today I am feeling better after being on the antibiotics and more rest...THANK HEAVENS!

Sadly Jon has come down with a Stage One pressure sore on his back. About the size of a dime. It is quite painful and requires him to stay out of his wheelchair and in his bed ALL DAY LONG. He is able to keep working on his laptop which helps to keep him sane and feeling productive. We have to keep watching it to see if it heals or progresses to Stage Two. He will most likely be confined to his bed for several weeks.

The older girls have been gone since Wednesday night with Jons parents on a house boat at Lake Powell, they will get home late sunday night. I am SURE they are having tons of fun!!

Sick mom makes for creative girls...

I have been up in my room for 8 days now with this terrible sore throat. I went to the dr's a second time only to hear that its still just a viral infection. He did tell me to up my tylenol dosage to 1g 4xs a day and my motrin to 600-800 3xs a day-SWEET! Hopefully this will manage the pain.

Since I am stuck in my room (REALLY dont want to share this with anyone especially jon!) the girls have had to entertain themselves here at home. One day Rachel decided to go all fancy and put a clean white table cloth on the dining room table and completely set it all fancy shmancy including salad plate, bread plate, etc etc--i thought they got a photo of it -but they did not! I was quite impressed.

They also decided to use my fabulous flip video camera and made "A Cinderella Production" in which Anna was Cinderella, who had mean step sisters Sarah & Becca while Rachel was the fairy godmother and film director. Again IMPRESSED! They LOVED doing this--

They also gutted out their rooms. They decided at 8pm last night to take that on (UGH the mother in me kept saying! My summer plan was to go thru their rooms and gut it out get rid of clothes that dont fit, toys they dont play with etc). They did a good job, but the bulk of it ended up in the hallway with the rest of it being "auctioned off" to anna & becca which really just meant it ended up on the floor in their room too. Dang.
They all surprised me this AM and had gotten everything out of the hallway to the trash and cleaned up the younger 2 girls' rooms.

Im beginning to think i need to be sick MORE OFTEN dont ya think!? I am lucky to have older girls that can make their own breakfasts, lunches & dinners when duty calls. I am lucky to have girls with wild imaginations & dont do too much fighting. Right now they are all in the piano room listening to youtubed songs while dancing--good times!

This wednesday the older two leave to lake powell with gma & gpa to go on a house boat the Goodman family has rented. They are WAY excited! The younger two have a couple of bday parties to go to-so they will have fun as well. Jon and I are going to a murder mystery party on friday night (note to self my inhouse babysitter will be in lake powell-better call for a "real" sitter!). Jon is going to be "Bond, Matt Bond-a devishly handsome rich man" I will be "Countess Alice de Ville-a stunning, weathly widow"! Should be fun-its a black tie affair so we will get to be dolled up-we have been to two of these that our friends put on-seriously SO FUN!

I hope to be on the mends-or atleast functioning with the good dosages of meds! I am done being stuck in my room-i am ready to be at the beach or the movies--thank heavens for my laptop to keep me connected to the outside world!!!

sore throat, sore throat, sore throat....

That has pretty much CONSUMED my life the past 3 days! I am on day FOUR of this retarded sore throat deal. It seriously feels like its sunburned and being scraped with sand paper at the same time. I keep myself loaded up on motrin, halls drops, and LOTS OF SQUIRTS of chloreseptic....bugged.

Ive spent the last days upstairs in my room-I REALLY have to stay away from jon so that he does not get this. Thank goodness I have laptop to keep me company-I would be going crazy. The girls have been good about staying downstairs and keeping themselves entertained. Of course I still manage to keep the laundry going, making dinner (sort of-sometimes its which drive thru!?) etc. I tend to walk down every 3 hours to have the girls pick up the kitchen and put juice away, plates, cups etc. When will they learn huh??

Over the weekend I helped my friend Amy move from one house into another. I am grateful for a time in my life when I am able to help others. There have been many years of me needing to nurse a baby, change a diaper, or as of late see to the needs of Jon. I am grateful to be in this time and season that allows me to help others. It's good for the soul!

I have been TRYING to upload my blog from WAYYY back in 2006 to www.blurb.com but it seems to keep crashing on me etc. So I just give up on it. But I am determined. I have been doing a blog each year and would like to compile it all into a hardbound book as a journal for our family from each year. This idea motivates me to keeping up the blog.

Swim Meets & Sweet Becca!

Summer is still BUSY with swim practices and swim meets for all four girls-thankfully they are all together which makes sports SO NICE! I have to volunteer for SO MUCH because we have them all on the team which requires LOTS OF LONG hours at the meet. A typical meet starts at 5 (but you have to be there at 430) and ends at 9pm or later--geesh! Atleast the snack bar is grub. It is always fun for me to meet new people and get to know them-I was the "scorer" at the meet & the announcer was hilarious and made the meet go by fast. He got a kick out of embarrassing me as I was scoring too--good times!

Thursday was Becca's 5th bday. I love this little girl-she is just TOO CUTE with her dimple and all. Our friend Russell has taught her that when anyone asks her "how come you are so cute?" to say "because i have a big dimple!" She continues to carry some sort of blanket around with her. I love that she does, Jon doesnt care for it much! One time my dad talked her into throwing IT AWAY!!! she did. I told him when she wakes up in the middle of the night, i'd be calling him. He said "i hope you wont be calling me bad names!?" Of course in true mom fashion, my mom made her ANOTHER blanket-YES! both my dad and jon were thinking.."WHAT?!" so funny. She has been using that blanket, only a few weeks ago left it at my friends house, so jon sweet talked me into having kristen "hide" it in our small garage. It has remained in there, but becca managed to find another one. Surprisingly she isnt as attached to this blanket but we shall see. She loves to just SNIFF the fabric-I have TRIED to just use a little small piece, but nope wants the whole thing. Its pretty funny.
We took the family out to dinner (our tradition) and then she got to open her gifts from gma/gpa. Why are bday squeals from 5 year olds oh so cute!!?? We also gave her the gift cards for toys r us and target. The next day me and the 3 other girls went with her to toys r us to pick out gifts-it was so fun to watch. They would each try to persuade her to pick whatever they brought to her. We kept loading it into the basket, then we told her there was only enough money for 2 so pick your two favorites-best way to do bday gifts EVER!!!! She got her balloon and bday crown from toys r us as well--I still need to take her to Target (this will be just me and her tho, that was wearing taking ALL OF THEM!!)

FUN weekend!

We had a fun weekend--Saturday we took off to my parents to hang with my bro Brian and his family, clay was there & russell was there..David my cousin came down with his family from Las Vegas too-so fun to see them all! It is weird for me to sit back and relax (since we have older kids) and watch all my younger siblings, cousins chasing kids, changing diapers, filling bottles etc--i love where we are!! I dont miss those days that's for sure!!

Sunday we did church, and then we took off to Todd's house to hang with jons parents and uncle mark. So fun to hang with so much family all the time-we are really lucky to live so close to everyone. We got to "see" Todd's new guns--so fun!

Monday we again took off to OC--Im beginning to wonder why we live here in Riverside!? Chad was down for the evening-he was surprised that we would all pick up and just come down to see him-that's what I love about jons family-everyone is always so willing to drop everything to come visit.

This week we have Swim Meet (tonight), family portraits (tomorrow), jons Dr appt (thur) no plans friday & im still working on saturday's plans!

Being that it was Fathers Day weekend - I think about my own Father and the things I have learned from him. He is a hard worker. He has worked since he was 8 years old. He had two papers routes. He worked so his sister could serve a mission (who served with my mother & that's how they met later on!). He has ALWAYS been thee most generous man i know! All throughout my life he has helped those in need. He is an honorable man. One of thee most honest men I know as well. He adores my mother & I believe that is the greatest gift you can give your children!
I have married a wonderful husband who is the Father of my children. I married him because he had many qualities that my own Father has. I also married him because I ADORED his father and thought if he is anything like his Father-I will be blessed!

bedtimes...better mornings...too much stress!

I am not a fan of bedtimes, my girls keep switching beds to sleep in, Rachel & Sarah like to keep everyone giggling - I start out at the "nice mom" then end up turning into the "mean mom"! I think by the end of the day having everyone home I am just done with it all! I hate going to bed feeling that way...I guess some nights are better then others and I have to remember that. Rachel has been on my case about "her" bedtime being that she's "12" now and it is "summer". Jon & I will talk it over with her and we will come up with an appropriate time. She likes to just stay down stairs and draw, read or play her Wii.

This morning has been a little easier then last night. Woke up, got ready for the day and ran to Fresh & Easy to grab some cereal for the crew here. They had Trix and Coco Puffs for 99 cents each-not the "healthiest" cereal but for 99 cents-Im game! Brought that back home for the girls and told them after cereal starts chores. So they did their required 2 pages of school work,

dishwasher, cleaned their rooms/made bed, brushed teeth/hair and got dressed. Surprisingly nobody complained and they just got it done. They are now all sitting on the couch playing the Wii together. I love that ALL four of them can play at the SAME TIME!

I am under a lot of stress right now. Cant really say what it is about until it all comes together but Ive been under heavy stress for about 7-8 weeks now. Some nights it is hard for me to go to sleep and some mornings I wake up and cant stay asleep! I do my best to not let it get the best of me, but sometimes I do fail. Grateful to have another "day" to do things differently. Most days are good though! I am in a situation which is completely out of my hands. I know it will all come together, but it is all the before stuff that is rough. Again, it's hard for me to really say till it comes together.

Looking forward to the weekend. We will be heading down to my parents house to hang out with family for Fathers Day. Just a simple bbq/swim type thing. My cousin David and his cute family will be visiting from Vegas so that will be fun!

Today I need to figure out somethings for Jon for Fathers Day. Wish me luck!

beach day, swim meets, fevers oh my!

Sunday Sarah came down with a fever and slept the day away, tuesday becca came down with a fever and slept the day away, today wednesday anna came down with a fever and has slept the day away---time will tell when rachels turn will hit, or mine or jons..yikes!

We headed out to CDM today--the clouds were out, i was a baby and FREEZING! of course the sun decides to show itself 30 minutes before we had to leave...nice. the girls had a blast ( even tho anna just slept on the beach-poor thing!) we met tons of our friends there and have decided my usual "cove" spot will be where we will go from now on-i LOVE that its secluded and we feel like we have the whole beach to ourselves! I am at a time in my life where my kids are bigger so all i have to say is "girls get your swim suits on, find a towel, flip flops and hop in the car" 5 minutes later we are out the door. I felt bad for all the other moms with tiny babies and small children who spent 2 hours just getting their car packed...i remember those days and are THRILLED they are so far behind me now!! I love having our four girls and im so grateful we had them all before jon got hurt. I know that we could have more children even now, but i also know that would throw me over the edge--not cute. People need me here!!! So four will be our number for us. I LOVE that they are all girls and LOVE that they are all so close to eachother, hardly fight YET-im sure the days are coming of clothes borrowing without asking, make up using, boyfriend stealing...good times!

After the beach we headed home in time to turn around and head for the swim meet. I had becca and anna stay home with dad. I had to keep score for the meet-which we SLAUGHTERED the other team (yes im THAT competitive!!) and the girls had a blast. The meets tend to be LONGGGG we got there shortly after 4 and didnt get back into the car till 815!

Hopefully my girls will ALL sleep in tomorrow...we shall see. All in all a great day for us-time for me to go feed jon since he didnt get any dinner with me being gone-poor guy, wonder which fast food joint he will choose!

some family funnies...

tonights family prayer...sarah had to "excuse" herself becuz she needed to break wind..so we were laughing about it--i finally got everyone settle down to say prayer..only to start and then moments later have my cell go off vibrate style on the leather couch..nice.

sarah was sick allll during church-i dont understand how they can all be hyper then as soon as i say its time to get ready for church begins the "oh why do we have to go? are we staying the whole time? can we just do primary? im not feeling good, i feel tired, my tummy" geesh...as usual i spiritually yelled them all to church anyways with enough time for me to repent before i took the sacrament! apparently sarah really was not feeling well THIS TIME..i told her to just roll down all the windows in the truck and sleep in the back..she did..two hours.

we came home and she slept the entire day away--we headed to our friends house for dinner/birthday celebration-fun times! tons of people from the ward were there which is always fun to visit with. all the kids ran around and around the ungated pool..shocking no one fell in..more shocking that i didnt get to push anyone IN the pool!

Monday morning began our first day of summer! Started off with telling the girls their morning chores which included picking up their rooms, making bed & doing the dishwasher duty. They all SURPRISINGLY did it all without any complaints! I decided since swim practice was cancelled we could go on another hike. We had gone on one on saturday after their chores and they LOVED it-more then i thought they would! So they were excited to go again monday. We went with our friends and it was a little harder then the saturday one-but fun nonetheless. after the hike we all hit up the slurpe machine--good times! Rachel got invited to a birthday party for one of her friends from church. It was an overnighter but we have a family rule of no overnighters, so we let her stay till she called us which was at 10pm --right on! while she was gone jon was in charge of FHE which was on emergencies and what do to--they remembered what we had taught them before, fire: get on the floor crawl out and call 911 at the neighbors, earthquake: run outside to the light pole (our family meeting command center!) if mommy or daddy are hurt, call 911, wrote down our friends, neighbors phone numbers--talked about stranger danger--it was a good FHE..of course jon likes to tell me if any of those things happen--to "just walk away and save myself" vs trying to rescue him--good grief!

today becca woke up with a headache and fever-she just stayed mellow all day--SO NICE! she's too cute to be not feeling good-hopefully its just what sarah had and she feels herself in the morning. The older 3 went to their swim practice, rachel hung out at her church friend's house, & everyone else just layed low watching movies--a nice summer break so far! Later on they all ended up swimmming this evening which for me means GREAT no baths cuz chlorine kills! We had our usual del taco for dinner and all was well.

Today we received their school workbooks which reminds me i better go rip out their answer sheets in the back before they realize they are there!! I have asked them to do their "morning chores" which also include 2 pages from their school workbooks-they seem excited to do it-especially because its only 2 pages!!

Bdays, Graduations, Summer Oh My!

Let us begin with Anna's 7th birthday. She went to school wearing the tshirt that gma had made for gpa's 60th bday-so it was a black tshirt that said HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY! too funny. She wanted to make sure everyone knew it was her birthday i guess! She came home after school and we opened up her gifts which was a gift card to Target, and a gift card to Toys R us. We all as a family went to Chili's for dinner-so grub! I dropped everyone back off at home, then Anna, Becca & myself took off for Toys R Us. They walked together thru all the aisles trying to decide what to get. Anna decided on a Baby Doll that does all sorts of things, a highchair to put her in and a stuffed spotted dog. We then went to Target where she picked ANOTHER baby doll that does all sorts of things. Took the loot home and began the FOREVER untying, undoing of all those lame plastic wires that keep the toy to the stupid cardboard. Patience! The next morning she was able to take homemade cupcakes to her class--too fun. Anna is such a lovely little girl. She is very sensitive to the Spirit. She once cried when she was 4 in Sunbeams because she said "I am just thinking about Jesus and it makes me happy!" So they were happy tears. How touching! When we have FHE and discuss spiritually sensitive things, she is always teary. She is very loving, kind & gentle. She is my ONE and only child that looks most like ME! Big brown eyes and somewhat dark hair. I love having Anna in our family.

Friday morning was Rachel 6th grade promotion. It was interesting to see the different degree's of excitement from the parents. You had the ones like us who came to show our love and support. You had those that came with gmas, gpas, cousins, neighbors! You had those that had outrageously huge balloons, those that even came with the boat blow horn. It just made me chuckle.
She was in the 1st seat on the front row-talk about GREAT position for her to be in so we could see her! She has been an excellent student & received the Mega Skills Award (which they said is given to someone who really every month could get a student of the month award because they are so good in every subject). She was also given the Prestiges Presidential Award! She was one of the 1st original students to JFK when it first opened 7 years ago in 2002. Kind of special for this 6th grade class. They were also the 1st 6th grade class since it opened to get to go to Science Camp. The ceremony was simple & quick! I then went to her classroom and checked her out for the day. She wanted ice cream so I took her to get ice cream. She had a graduation party at a friends house from 1230-6pm then another end of the school year party with the Mutual kids at 6pm, it was round the clock party time for her!

Summer has official begun! Last night I told the girls, when you wake up please try to be quiet and get your Saturday morning chores done. This AM they did just that. I did have to "rehelp" them but they never complained (SHOCKING) and just got their work done. Once we were done I took the girls on a hike & they LOVED IT! Becca at the beginning was quite nervous, holding my hand the whole time. After a while she "got brave" and was able to let go and be on her own, a BIG kid. I loved that we were able to do that together. We were all bummed that Jon could not join us as the hike was not workable with a wheelchair-but fun nonetheless. I took pictures the whole time and kept posting them on facebook via my cell phone so he could feel like he was on the hike with us-he loved it!

We have no real plans this summer, other then LOTS of beach time, LOTS of swim meet practice & races, movies etc. I will need to get a calendar out and get some things organized. One thing I do plan on doing is renting a big dumpster for like a month and going thru EACH room, EACH drawer, and EACH cupboard. Im SO ready to dejunk again! I love that feeling!! I have also ordered books from Barnes & Noble that the girls will work on each morning. They will have to do their morning chores, a workbook page & the older 2 girls have to teach piano to the younger 2 girls then we can play the rest of the day away. Hopefully this helps to KEEP ME SANE!!!

Rachel turns 12...

Rachel turned 12 on May 22nd. Fun day for her-I sent 4 large pepperoni pizza's to her class to enjoy. Then we went as a family to Olive Garden for dinner- GRUB! The waiters/waitresses all sang to her-she was embarrassed which made it even more fun for Jon and I! We came home she opened up one gift card to Justice (clothes store) and one gift card to Michaels (colored pencils). She also got a cute sewing basket that Aunt Katie put together for her. Gma and Gpa got her a VERY nice gift...a sewing machine complete with a few patterns and material. Rachel loves to sew--she seems to be NOTHING like me! HA She is very much her daddy--
This morning Rachel received her Primary advancement award from the bishopric. She had to walk up to the front and recite an article of faith. She chose to do #10! She nailed it and I was a proud mama--trying not to cry my head off!
Today was her last day in Primary-I had the primary kids sing "Goodbye, Goodbye" instead of Hello, Hello--it was cute...and off to YW's she went. Poor Becca cried for about 10 minutes after Rachel left--soooo cute! Her Beehive leader came over today to introduce her to all that YW is about--
Rachel has grown into such a lovely girl. She LOVES to be creative. You can find her drawing, making origami, creating anything out of EVERYTHING which leads to me saying "rachel can you pick up what you created here!!", she is sweet to becca & anna, she loves to read-and reads BIG BOOKS!, she loves to play the flute and her latest is the mission impossible theme you can hear throughout the house flute style!, she enjoys volleyball and currently the swim team, she has AMAZING confidence in herself, she is good to always include everyone, & continues to always be smiling..just like when she was a baby.
It is great to see her growing up and moving into this next phase of her life!

Rachel's 1st Mutual activity & American Idol Season 8 Finale

Rachel had her FIRST mutual activity-they went in the spa at one of the leaders house. She had a BLAST! I took photos of her leaving and then recordered her on the video camera as I drove her there and then as she walked into the house. I drove home quietly thinking, wow we are at the next stage of life for her. She's amazing. I will post more about her on her actual 12th bday on Friday.
American Idol was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am still HIGH from watching the show!!! The guy who won is the person I wanted to win--Kris Allen. I LOVED that he's from a small town, married and humble!
Life has been good-I have been busy with some things-but all is well!
The girls have their first REAL swim meet this Saturday 9-1230pm. Jon is coming with-which is GREAT! He doesnt get to come to a lot of things, but since it is SO hot right now outside..he is able to come. The girls are SUPER excited about that.

Sunday Simpleness...

We had a good weekend, Rachel had TONS of fun at her 12th bday overnighter. We have a family rule of no sleepovers at anyone else's house and we rarely do them at our house, but decided for their 12th bday's they could have one here in our home with their friends. She had about 7 girls here. They were a lot of fun and were really good. They first swam in the pool, then I picked up pizza for them, then they went on their scavenger hunt & returned back with a bunch of items, one of them being a cake mix WITH frosting-SCORE! So I whipped that up and they DEVOURED that along with rootbeer floats. Then she opened up her gifts, one of them being a hot pink pillowcase where each of the girls signed it so that's a fun memory for her. Then they went on to play hide n seek in the dark, along with taking a twin size mattress and sliding down the stairs with it-classic overnighter stuff! By 1am I told them time to limit the madness to ONE room--so they giggled in the tv room and finally fell asleep. Jon & I were out just after 1am-so we slept good!!
Rachel woke up and made them all french toast-what a hostess in the making huh! They all left by 11am and Rachel cleaned up the mess they made.
We then drove to OC & I took Rachel to Claires Accessories to use up one of her gift cards. She has changed SO much, she matches now, like to use a purse, keeps her hair down instead of pulled back into a ponytail-she's really a cute girl.
We then hit the Orange Stake Talent show..it was longgggggg. Some of them were pretty funny--I recorded some good ones. Grandpa was dressed back in the 50's...he ended up looking like Jack Nicholson! Even his own grandkids didnt recognize him-pretty funny! I love going back to that Stake, we both grew up there and have such fond memories of it and everyone there. It is always like going back "home" when we go to any of their functions-it's like we never left. I kept thinking, I wish I brought my still camera so I could go around taking pics of everyone to share with all my old Orange stake friends!
Sunday was good-we shockingly made it before the Opening Prayer-which NEVER happens, and sadly church is at 1130!! Today was Rachel's last day in Primary..sniff sniff. Next week they will sing her favorite Primary song and off she will go to YW's. This Wednesday they have invited her to go in the spa for her first activity. We are extremely sad that there are ONLY SIX YOUNG WOMEN in our entire ward. We grew up with TONS of youth. We will see what happens.
Enjoyed the rest of our Sunday-we watched Freaky Friday on tv as a family. We hadnt seen that movie-so it was fun to be with just the girls & Jon.
Gearing up for another school week-along with a 4th grade school project looming, it's due next friday-I need to make sure we stay on top of that. I wish the school wouldn't give homework for the last month of school!

1st Swim Meet--too cute

Yesterday the girls had their 1st Swim Meet (it was a practice one but still!). They all had fun, it was too cute to see Becca working her hardest to get to the other side. I was incharge of getting 150 kids in proper placing for their race, it was 4-almost 8pm..HELLO long time, but I managed to do it correctly with no mistakes-WHEW!

My back is definately on the mend, Im feeling better and the muscles are not as sore as they have been. I have been taking the 800mg motrin with a muscle relaxer before I go to bed and it seems to really help, only it takes me longer to wake up in the mornings! Good thing my 3 girls that are in school are self sufficient enough to get dressed, eat breakfast and head out the door by 755am without any help!

A couple of nights ago when it was hot, Jon asked the younger two, Anna & Becca to roll up his pants so he could cool off. Becca was fascinated by Jons hair legs and kept rubbing them asking Anna to check it out. As they were both walking out the bedroom Becca said "wow Daddy has hairy legs Anna!" Then Anna replied, "Ya I know and someday when you get married and have a husband he will have hairy legs too!"
So funny....

Rachel is excited to have her birthday sleepover celebration with her friends THIS Friday. She's invited 5 or 6 I believe. Hopefully the other 3 siblings can have a fun night at grandma's house. It will be VERY low key-which I like! She just wants to go swimming, spa, pizza & the Wii-EASY!! Her real birthday is next friday-but she has a swim meet that next morning, so we opted for this weekend instead. She is definatley turning into a young lady, although she is still little in some ways, like still hates to take a shower!!! We are working on this...

Rough weekend...

Saturday I ended up messing up my back doing the food run, I still drove to OC to my sisters house to hang with my family--it was pretty miserable for me tho..came back home to see that Anna had somehow contracted pink eye!? what on earth!
SO sunday was spent as much as i could in bed, with drugs and anna with pink eye--the girls gave me their homemade cards and jon wrote a nice letter. I love that all my girls wrote in their cards "my mom loves to cuddle with me" - it makes me happy to hear that.
There were a couple interesting points..anna in her card said "Please dont brake up with dad"...um nice! And then Rachel's said "I know you are a "single" parent and it is hard but it makes you strong." Interesting to see things from their point of views.
I talked to them to reassure them I would never leave and that I love their daddy. Life would be terribly sad & lonely without him!
Hopefully tomorrow is a better day for my back & I can drive Anna down to the Dr's to get her a prescription poor thing. She's kind of had it rough with sore throat and now this---
This tuesday is a practice swim meet-hopefully everyone here is healthy enough to make it-including me!

Sad news for Rachel...

Well Rachel did not make the cheer squad for her soon to be Junior HS. She is upset and cried for a good hour. What's a parent to do...sniff sniff. It is definately a learning experience/growing experience for her. We are so proud she even tried out-that takes a lot of self confidence!
Tomorrow is my BUSY saturday mornings, I have to take care of Jon in the morning from 730am-1015am, get the younger 3 to swim meet practice by 9am, then drop rachel off for her practice by 1015am & pick up the other 3 by 1030am, then rush to go do the food run get back in time to pick up rachel by 1130am and then hand out all the food-GEESH its a nitemare every saturday-but somehow i make it happen!
Tomorrow the plan is to go to my parents to swim, clay, russell, heidi & her fam, brian & his fam will all be there, then Rachel will babysit all the grandkids while the adults go out to dinner for moms day..should be fun!
Im excited for Mom's day-jon and the girls do a fun/good job of making it so wonderful for me--they are such sweet sweet girls, im so lucky to have Jon and the four girls.
Anna told jon on sunday she was going to sit ALL thru sac meeting with her hands folded..sure enough 1 hour and 15 minutes she did! Never made ONE peep! So this evening jon walked with her to Kohls and she got to pick out a cute sunday dress and a new pink shirt-she LOVED it--she's so sweet.

Wednesday Funny's...

Becca was at my friends house whose walls are painted a plum color.
Becca: "Um how come'd you paint your walls purple?"
Tracy: "Because I like purple. Why did your mom paint your house yellow?"
Becca: "My mom didnt paint it yellow, it come'd like that!"
Tracy: "No, your mom painted it that way."
Becca: "No, she didnt."

Becca came outside to the truck after I brought him back from his Dr. appt.
Becca: "Where'd you go?"
Jon: "To the Dr.s."
Becca: "Oh, can you walk now?"
Jon: "No."
Becca: "When are you going to walk again?"

Too cute huh---I cant believe she'll be going to school here soon in a few months.
Life is going well, Rachel is grasping her cheerleading stuff-it's been fun to watch her here at home and be "judged" by her sisters and myself. Anna's comment was "Oh, wow Rachel, it was better then I expected!" Too funny.

It was super warm today-which helps Jons pain level to be at a lower spot. I spent the day cleaning up the upstairs-WHEW THREE HOURS LONG! I need my house cleaner back for sure!

The girls continue to do their swim meet practice. They have their 1st meet next tuesday-that will be fun. Hopefully it is warm and Jon can go. It is 3 hours long tho so we'll see if that is something he's capable of doing or not.

I went to a R/S activity where we talked about the symbols on the temple. It was really neat to see so many on the SLC temple. I was aware of the ones on the Redlands temple here, but not of SLC. Very intriguing!

Anna just came down suddenly with a sore throat and low fever. Hopefully she doesnt throw up during the night as we've had the flu going around the school. Time will tell!

Trying to be a little better...

at keeping a journal for our family. Life has been good. We are all healthy. Summer is ALMOST here. We have about 30 or so days left of school. We are excited to not have ANY homework once summer comes!
The girls are currently all in Swim. They are conditioning right now and then will be competing in Swim Meets-this is a first for our family so very exciting! Rachel is currently on a special volleyball team that is geared towards 8-9th graders but was asked to come play because the coach sees some potential in her abilities-OH YA!
The girls are all doing very well in school, last month they didnt miss ONE day of school-so they got to have a special party at school with their teacher and classmates.
Jon is busy trying to secure employment. No word on the book as of yet. He is waiting to see if he can get a teaching job at the local college here. We shall see! It wont start till September so we have lots of waiting time.
The food run continues to go well. I have more help on a daily basis now, I decided I just couldnt do it all myself. It works out quite nicely now-although Saturdays are my days and its very hard to try to get Jon ready for the day, all 4 girls at swim practice AND the food run all between the hours of 9-12!! But with help I miraculously make it happen!
Rachel's getting older, cant believe she'll be in YW's NEXT MONTH! She's going to have Cheer tryouts next week-we'll know by Friday if she makes the team or not. Im so proud of her for even wanting to try out- I was never that brave!! She is also doing lots of babysitting-which she loves and enjoys earning her own money.
So life is good, we just keep on rolling!