I love...

Summer vacation!!! I love having the kids home and not having to make lunches every morning, not waking kids up in the morning, not being SO worried about bedtime, and being able to hang out more and swim, swim, swim! Oh, how we love the water!
Yesterday Teeny Bopper went swimming with a friend at a neighbor's, Sweet G went with a friend to Carson Jr. High pool, and so I took the little 3 to play in the water at Mesa Riverview. It is just a little place that has water shooting up out of the ground and a big cement ball in the middle with water spraying out. No one is ever there so we usually have the place to ourselves. I sit in the shade mostly, but can't resist getting in a little bit.
Every time we go DH asks me, "Are you sure that's what this is here for?" I think he thinks it is just decoration. I have to point out that they wouldn't post "Water Play Rules" if it wasn't for playing in and I remember reading about it before it was even built. Living in the Valley of the Sun isn't quite as bad when we get to play in the water. (it's still kinda bad-don't get me wrong there!)

ConGRADulations!

Well, my first sixth grade graduation was today. It was a very nice affair all in all. I just still can't believe I have a child THIS OLD. How can this be? I still feel 21... She is also catching up to me in height. In fact, with her Sunday shoes on she is taller than me. Alas, I always knew this would come.
Teeny Bopper gave a great speech, and received some very nice graduation gifts from her school. A $25 gift card to Deseret Book being one of them. Ooooh Aaaah
I hope she posts her speech on her blog, but I wanted to post how proud I am of her and what a great young lady she is turning out to be. Of course, we all have our moments, but she has incredible potential and my greatest wish for her is to be faithful to the Gospel and to gain a strong testimony of her own. This will get her through the storms that are to surely come. I love you, Teeny Bopper! You are my oldest and first pride and joy and I think you are one dynamite new SEVENTH GRADER!!!!! (I'm going to go crawl into a hole somewhere now and try to figure out where the last 12 years have gone.)
*BTW, this is a picture of TB, her teacher, and 2 of her sisters.

A new Super Hero is here!

Let's call him "Captain Plunger" or "Happy Plunger Man". His alter ego is otherwise known on this blog as Dr. Destructo, and he has a fascination with our toilet plunger. Not the clean sink plunger, the nasty, yucky toilet plunger! What's up with that?!? This morning as I am making breakfast I hear whinnying behind me and turn around to find Dr. D riding around on the plunger like it was a horsey, sound effects and all. (which is also very boyish, right? sound effects for everything?) I thought about letting him ride it while I went to get the camera, but I just couldn't. I took the disgusting thing away as fast as I could and photographed it later. He went off to find his real stick horse and was fine. I honestly think he did it just to get a rise out of me. I thought he was too young for that but I am changing my mind. I think he totally knows what he's doing! 19 months old and smart as a whip!
Which brings me to another topic... Who photographs their toilet plunger besides crazy blogging, scrapbooking people? It's an interesting phenomena I am happy to be a part of. :)

Sister Missionaries for dinner

So on Sunday I signed up to feed the sister Missionaries dinner on Wednesday, which would be today. Well, that was like 3 whole days ago, and you don't expect me to remember THAT long do ya? Good, because I didn't. Nope-it totally slipped my mind. But I believe the Lord was looking out for His missionaries because here's how the day went down (and NO, I don't believe it was coincidental). :)
Morning: as usual, nothing big going on. (not much house cleaning either, let me tell ya) Although I was wondering what to have for dinner since we basically had no food (meaning besides some canned veg and dried beans which technically do count as food but you know what I mean!) and was informed that we had no cash to buy anything for a few days probably. So...
Afternoon: I go through some papers on top of the microwave and find a Mystery Guest check that I hadn't cashed yet. I decide to cash it and use some of it for groceries for the next couple days. I pick up the kids, drop them all at home and head to the bank and store by myself for a little down time. I take my time at Fry's and look around at the home stuff as well as pick out some food. The steak was on a SUPER deal, so I decide to make fajitas for dinner with a boatload of meat and some other stuff I already had at home.
I pull up at my house at approx. 5 pm (the time we were supposed to have dinner with the sisters) and the Missionaries pull up right behind me. As soon as I recognized who they were it all came flooding back to me. (the clipboard passing, taking the pen, signing my name, etc.) Whoops!! The house looks a bit more "lived in" than I usually like for company, there is NO dinner ready, and no one is prepared for the occasion. I did by some MIRACLE put makeup on while I was waiting to pick up the kids after school in the car. They come smiling up the driveway and after greeting them I had to spill the truth that I totally forgot they were coming. They graciously came in and helped me prepare fajitas which were done in a flash and they shared messages with my kids who were literally rapt with their little presentation. (they did run around and scream like banshees while we were cooking, however)
Anyway, they were DELIGHTFUL and wonderful and it was a great experience. I believe I found the money for dinner, got home at the perfect time, had a quick and plentiful meal in mind, and was able to pull the whole thing off because the Lord loves His missionaries and made up for my shortcomings. This strikes me as a tender mercy and a sign of His hand in our lives. Not only did His servants get fed (what turned out to be a very tasty dinner, BTW) but we were fed by the Hermanas who came and taught us. (Spanish speaking sisters)

What a great day.

My Mother's Day post

I wish every woman out there a Happy Mother's Day! My post today is only to include a link to my Dear Husband's blog posting of the day. He is my pride and joy and keeps me laughing. This post will make you laugh too. Thanks, honey, for making my job easy today. :)

Pictures, per request

OK, OK. I'll post a few pics from our adventures this weekend. I know it's shameful to admit, but I don't have very many!

Brief Updates

A lot has happened over the last week, so I'm going to just give brief updates of what we've been doing. Last Friday and Saturday was DH's and Dr. Destructo's first Father/Son campout!! DH has been looking forward to that thing for months. Or I guess I should say years, as he hasn't had a son to take on an outing for years. DH's brother and his son went with them and I think they had a good time. Dr. D was a little young so he didn't love it as much as I'm sure he will next year. But while the guys were gone...us girls played and played! It was a strange, liberating feeling to be without my little guy for a couple of days. My great friend Shauna had arranged a day of fun for us on Saturday (National Scrapbooking Day), and my SIL got to come with us. First we cropped from about noon to 5:30, then we went to Shauna's mom's for a lovely dinner, and then we went to a show at the Mesa Arts Center that introduced us to a new favorite music group. Jordan Bluth was there as well as Due West, which you have GOT to check out! They were fabulous!! I'm not surprised if they hit the big-time very soon. Go to YouTube and check out Due West. On their website you can download their song "Gravity" for a couple of weeks for free, and it's a great song.
So anyways, after the guys came home, we had a pretty normal Sunday. Then on Monday DH and his bro took a business trip to Mexico and left us girls home to party again. Shopping at Trader Joe's, chick flicks, and yummy snacks all played a part in there somewhere. Since the kids were in school and we only had the younger ones at home we played "Day Spa". :) It was so much fun!!! We pampered ourselves and enjoyed each other's company like very girly girls.
All in all it was the best weekend I've had in a while and I have to thank Shauna and my SIL for everything. I love you guys!!!