Beach, Beach & MORE Beach

We sure have had lots of beach time! We went on Wednesday to the beach house that Jons Gma rents every year the last week of July right on the sand on 17th street.

Jon got to go with this time..Tim his cousin LUGGED him ALL the way out to the water in his wheelchair SO NICE of him-the girls REALLY wanted to Jon to see them ride all the waves..he was surprised at how far they went out and all the mad skills they had! The girls LOVEDDD having dad there!! Rachels almost caught on to doing a 360--
We went again on Friday as well! I was trying to leave on Friday from the beach, but Rachel stayed in the waves for 45 minutes nonstop to get some last minute riding in--that girl is crazy!
Sunday I was incharge of the ENTIRE 2 hours of Primary.

The 1st Sunday of the month I get the whole time to do singing time. So I made footprints, one said Baptism & had little footprints with things like honesty, tithing, loving family, prayer etc that led to the other footprint labeled baptism. With each little footprint was a primary song they had to figure out what the footprint clue was-it was fun and SO fun to sing OTHER songs besides the ONE song we are stuck learning that entire month. As fun as it was...after 2 hours of nonstop I was ready to go home and NAP FOREVER!!
Tuesday again more beach time with our friends the Blackmuns back at CDM my fav spot-followed by dinner at the Hales. I made my homemade chicken pot pie & everyone loved it--i fed 16 people i think!?!?
Thursday was volleyball--

always a good time however I think Im ready for some city league play at this place
come October..

Saturday my sister Heidi came over with her 2 little ones one of them who ended up in the ER!?!? HELLO! Sarah tossed a water balloon at his head which resulted in him getting a gash in his head from hitting the corner of the spa spillover..OOPS! Never a dull moment in Heidi's life for sure---
Sunday we headed to OC to celebrate Bdays for the month of August--which they had this AWESOME costco chocolate cake..

man..still thinking about it GRUBILICIOUS!!!
Its now monday...I MADE ALL my kids do the house cleaning, being at the beach all the time, the house kind of gets out of control-we are good to pick up and put stuff into a basket, but once the baskets start PILING UP its time to get in gear!! So i DUMPED all the baskets into the living room & made them sort out toys, trash, clothes & blankets-then they all had to put it all away, then i made them dust ALL the downstairs (they each had their own room)& i had to "pass them off"--THEN i had the older 2 sweep & mop the wood floors...can you say FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now its the end of Monday, Ive paid my bills online, taken out the trash, got dinner going & working on FHE my day is successful. Oh DANGT! i JUST now remembered to give jon his medicine that was SUPPOSE to be given at 3pm...its now 5pm..so I am humbled & not as successful as I thought I was!?!?! rhghhghg it never ends huh!!

The cleaning fairy...

is NOT REAL!??!?! what the heck?!?! so upset about that...the cartoon image should have clued me in huh...

we've had a good week, the usual-beach day on tuesday followed up by the glorious frozen chocolate banana (thanks blackmuns AGAIN!)


got a new phone AGAIN becuz mine had water damage ALREADY!?!? what in the world..so bugged..spending MANY hours on facebook...SO FUN catching up with old friends!!!

this week will consist of more beach days (wed) followed by a bbq at the blackmuns pad--FHE with Dan & Jenny Limburg tonight (hope i can get this darn heater replaced in time for the spa!??!), my moms bday bbq on saturday--

i finally looked up when the girls start school......august 25th---im SO HAPPY!! we'll start gearing down for backpacks and CLOTHES..i told them once i get alllll the laundry done they will realize they already HAVE clothes! girls.

last week we had a family come while we were at the beach and spent 3 HOURS in my backyard, pulling weeds, working on the pool and picking up-it looks FABULOUS now!! i just like to sit out there and look around--so very very very nice of this family...

my microwave went out-i swear if its not one thing its ANOTHER EXPENSIVE thing..robert and mark replaced that and the new one is up and running..two days with no microwave is TORTURE enough for us! sad huh.

Jon will start medicare sept 1st-

which will relieve a LOT of financial stress for our family--HALELUYAH!! we're excited about all the benefits that come with that..

lastly i spent my entire sunday doing this...

WHEWWWW thats overwith!

Jon was asked to give a 45 minute fireside talk to the Orange Stake YW's girls camp--we went to that last night (Robert, Sandra, Venessa Frutos & myself)--jon did SUCH a great job! I was impressed!! He was hilarious too--which surprised me because his not a huge fun of comedy relief in talks..but he was FUNNY! his talk was on surviving trials..which includes Prayer, Persistence, Priesthood, & Patience.

The past week for me meant keeping the kids OUT of the house so he could concentrate..which is always hard to do..we spent time swimming at our friends pools (the resorts i like to call them!) We have a pool in our own backyard, but our resort friends have massive slides! We did our weekly trip to the beach-meeting up with our friends the Blackmuns-who treated us to frozen chocolate bananas and a TO DIE chocolate covered cheesecake of which im STILL thinking about-we shared it between the adults..no one could eat the WHOLE thing by themselves...too rich!

We've been having fun catching up with friends via facebook (ie the beach, our friends the wagners, sheldon came for a visit, hooking up with the limburgs at our house for FHE next monday).

Im LOVING my new cell phone!

I called Sprint & used my "mad skills" to get this phone for free & get a bunch of other "hook ups" & a cell phone bill DROP for the family-Robert YOU STILL OWE ME DINNER!! HELLO!!!
Im also texting like MAD-jon laughs everytime my text ring goes off--

Well today I think we are heading to "our beach"

this is the big hill we have to trek down-i usually put all our stuff on the boogie board and pull it down and up the hill...it works great!

Fun Few Days!

Saturday we had an ALLL day party 2-830pm for a ONE year old, granted his mom was 43 when she had him-so bring out the GOOD STUFF which is exactly what they did--check out this video of what my girls did the ENTIRE time--


Today my 2 older girls got busted for "fighting" (scratching etc) my girls NEVER fight like that...but the summer switch has been turned on so look out-geesh! They got grounded with no tv & no computer for today & i followed that one up with some MAJOR chores--moms happy..kids not so much..

Later we went to our friends house to swim--how fun is this!


I know jealous huh---it was awesome!

Now a facebook fan...

Well Im moving on from blogger to facebook which allows me to use my blog in it--fabulous! I have a TON to catch up on -so here it goes (janet your welcome!HA)

First we have Anna's 6th bday on june 11th:


I cant find my smaller red camera that has more photos of anna's little "friend" party-but i did a quick last minute invite a few friends over to the park for cupcakes-it was the EASIEST party EVER and very fun! i let them each decorate their cupcake and we played duck duck goose only it was happy happy birthday-too cute! we were over & done with in ONE hour-highly recommend!!

June 15th it was now Daddy's Day:
Here are some photos of the loot he got--



becca drew the photo of jon in his wheelchair-it made me teary eyed...its saddens me to think this is the only way she'll remember her dad--she was 1.5 years old when the accident happened..

June 18th is when our good friends the Rassmussens who were moving to UTAH (UGH) the very next morning - can you tell im bitter!!! \



They had a daughter Meghan who was right in the middle of my two younger girls & they were all friends--sniff sniff.

June 25th we are onto Becca's Birthday:





I feel bad that she often gets left out of things since she's my 4th-no friend bday party for her because EVERYONE MOVED TO UTAH-again frustrated that too many of our ward families up and moved to utah!! Rachel felt bad and made her a homemade pinata-my girls are seriously SO clever!!

July 4th was CRAZY! It started out with me playing volleyball till after midnight (my usual thursday night escape), then Jon was really tight all night long, which kept both of us awake till about 5am-then my Sarah came in to wake me at 610 to go run the 5k at the ward function-so got up and ran that with my 2 older girls..scarfed down some pancake breakfast, brought some home to jon-then hung out in my room allll day watching dirty jobs on tv with jon--relaxing! We all watched the fireworks on tv and by 920pm we were all asleep--nice.

July 5th we headed to my moms for swimming & a bbq-while there i checked my mail to find an email from a friend who said she just spent 300 bucks to hop on a plane to see jon & myself at the 80's Orange Stake Youth Reunion! DANG i only brought my swimsuit and cover up!!! so ran to my sister house who hooked me up with some cute clothes etc-made it to the reunion 2 hours late (i know so stake dance style huh!)and had TONS of fun visiting with so many old friends from when we grew up in the stake..our stake was AWESOME and everyone was and still is close to eachother--ive yet to see a stake with such strong connected youth. We still continue to have families move out of our ward..rachel is now down to being the ONLY girl in her primary class, and in her boys class there is only ONE boy..depressing..im on the hunt to find more kids! where are they!? they cant ALL be in utah!!

July 8th headed to CDM (i take the girls EVERY tuesday)-i called one of my friends to meet up with us-so so so fun! Jons gma lives one house away from the sand in CDM-so i always get a guaranteed parking spot (the driveway!-which makes it nice for my ginormous denali!) a clean bathroom, we sit right in this little cove area ALL by ourselves away from the crowds, rocks for climbing to find crabs, the waves are perfect sizes, its safe etc--








she's lived here since the early 70's i believe-i like this beach the BEST because its clean, family friendly, not too many binki's everywhere and CLEAN language for the children--
my girls have really picked up their boogie boarding skills & sarah is the master body surfer now--they even taught their new friend how to boogie board-too cute!
For some reason I've had some CRAZY experiences while at the beach, 2 weeks ago it included a young lady who THOUGHT she was still in Europe & lets just say used seaweed as "cover ups"!! what in the world?!?! lovely...
Yesterday at the beach the girls came SCREAMING that a "bird was floating in the water!!!" of course i thought they were OVERREACTING assumming it was some small dinky bird like a sparrow-NOT it was a HUGE pelican!!!!! it looked like a turkey--seriously oh so wrong...it kept washing up then going back..so i had to go into survivor mode and use this BIG stick that anna found to get it OUT of the water and ONTO the sand FAR AWAY from children..it was the event lets just say..i FINALLY got it in a good spot--i turned around and apparently had a HUGE audience of like 50 kids!--my friend said everytime i would move the bird allll the kids would scream "ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh" too funny...i get back to my seat and a huge wave comes to drag that dumb bird back out AGAIN stick and all! DANGT! so off i go AGAIN to "rescue" the already dead bird...i get it in a better place


to turn around to an even BIGGER crowd complete with parents wanting to know what kind of show i was putting on -GEESH! hello-where was the lifeguard--isnt this his job!?!?!



after we're done with the beach-we get back to gma's house to "hose down" we've been hosing down for many many many years as the family has come to the beach...good times!
After the beach we always head back to the Hales & I bring enough food to feed everyone from my Albertsons run, the girls all take a quick bath-my girls are SO tan right now they look like they are already wearing swimsuits! gotta love their mamma's skin!

Okay so now Im caught up-Ive been SUPER busy just trying to keep kids entertained here for the summer...its been a LONG summer already...when does school start again? I should have that date memorized!!

Trying to stay afloat!

Yikes Ive been busy! Like the title im just trying to stay afloat right now--
Ive been able to sell all 20 tickets to see Wicked WHEW--Ive sent out the letter Rachel & I put together to help her raise her funds to go to DC (we're up to 2290 out 3500) THANK YOU TO THOSE FAMILIES THAT HAVE DONATED TOWARDS THIS---SO THANKFUL!!!

I have been CRAZY busy with this food run I keep doing 5 days a week-for the past couple of weeks it hasnt been as much food as we typically get-but WOW have things changed!! we've been getting about 35-40 boxes PER DAY--here are some photos of that..





there are many many many families that are just plain struggling right now financially--Im really blessed to be able to feed my family & excited that I can help feed all of these other families (we're up to 40 families now)-they are all so grateful & are so kind to give me hugs & thank me for the hard work Tracy & myself do each morning-its a WONDERFUL way to start your day like this everyday i have to say!! i SO LOVE IT!!!
they continue to donate money towards my gas which I am so thankful for considering gas is 4.35 a gallon!! GEESH!

Here is a COMPLETE meal that was all free from my daily food runs-is this awesome or what!


On saturday we had Nathan Espinoza & his mom mow our FOREST in the backyard-it looks HUGE now that the tall grass is all gone-Jason Scoville started the ordeal by weed WHACKING the heck out of it first--thanks guys for bringing my backyard back!!

School is out this thursday at 12noon--its just been busy with activites..i'll be glad when that is all over---Anna had her graduation today-it was oh so cute--her teacher told us that she just loves anna & that she is just the sweetest little girl--

Kristi is in town from Utah-so we'll be playing lots with them-including the BEACH come friday-WHOO HOO i love having older girls that can just hang at the beach so i can SIT at the beach--the next day we'll be with my family for Dad's Day, followed by hanging with jons family on sunday for Dad's day--so busy busy week followed by a busy busy weekend!

Jon is doing great--i took him to the dr to get a prescription refilled & his blood pressure was 107/82 which is great! he's usually 75/50--so that was fun to hear! He hasnt been able to work out as much due to life just being so busy over here-i continue to work him tuesdays, his mom thursdays & his dad fridays-we're in the works of trying to find someone or a few to work him out for an hour monday/tues/wed so that he has a good system down--he really is doing good though-still waiting to see if we get any bites on his book..he's currently working on ANOTHER website that can be extremely useful to the public-so most of his day is spent behind the computer working on that--he continues to work as the duty to god cordinator & has an entire database he built from scratch (of course!) to keep everyone & everything organized-its quite impressive!!

Well its been a VERY long day & started with little sleep--off to bed!

Moving right along...

Life has just been busy (with little stuff) school almost over (on the 9th), family portraits taken, Dance Festival entire script to write (22K people are coming to see this), $3500 needed to raise to send Rachel to DC (have 2120 raised), 14 more Wicked tickets to sell, Annas Kindergarden graduation...all of this to be done before the end of the month! YIKES!!

Here are some photos of flowers i ALWAYS have in my house (usually 3 different vases filled with fresh flowers)from the food run...


its so fun to have these in our home!

Kristen's son Noah was blessed so we went to the "after party" im sure there's a MUCH MORE spiritual name for it-but you get the drift...here is a photo of a couple who knew almost all of jons family-

it was fun catching up and seeing who we all knew--The guy was Kim (Loveridge) Bytheway's best friend in HS..hmmm..wink wink!! He also knows Chris Anderton our BIL--I know both me & jon were in the photo to but we didnt look as cute so we cropped ourselves out of it!!

Here is a quick vinyl lettering that Lauralee did for me I SO LOVE IT!

Its for Annas K teacher, this is her last year (married having a baby)so we wrote all the kids names around an apple...SO CUTE!
this one is of sarah's baptism photo...again just oh so cute!


Rachel has already moved on from bfriend Cole..life of an 11 year old oh my! I knew it wouldnt last long--do they ever in the 5th grade?!??! Im just glad school is almost over so the boy drama can cease till sept!!

Life has been good..just busy!