Rough Morning

Today hasn't started out so well. Sammy just doesn't want to go to school. I made her mad. It's my fault she is crabby. I don't understand "this". I don't even know what "this" is! She is on the floor screaming at me and I truly don't have the energy today to deal. Sammy hasn't felt good for about two weeks, we all have head colds, we all need to feel better. So I took Megan to school and came home. Called Nate in the driveway, just to hear his voice. It gives me courage:) and headed inside. And scooped up my little girl and gave her loves and listened to her concerns and held her some more. And I got her to go take a long hot shower, because for me that solves a lot of problems. Then I came out to the computer and read Polly's new blog. And shed a tear. And realized that both my girls are so vastly different, but both sent to me from God. I have much to learn from both of them and I need to appreciate the differences in them. I love them so much that my heart aches when they aren't with me. So tender mercys? Polly started blogging last night and got me through my morning today. Thanks Polly.

Seriously, So Icky

Yesterday after work I wandered across the street to bug Diana. To my amazement, she invited my girls to spend the night. Who am I to argue? So Nate and I went on a date. We headed over to Texas Roadhouse. We had a short wait so we went in to sit down and I sat down next to the HUGE barrel that holds all the peanuts that people eat and throw the shells all over the floor. That alone kind of gives me the heebies, I don't like to crunch when I walk. But as I am sitting there, a woman walks up to the barrel, takes her gum out of her mouth and goes to throw it in the barrel. She then sees that it is not a garbage receptacle, hesitates, and then puts her chewed up wad of gum in there anyway! I looked up at her with my jaw hanging open and my eyes as wide as they get, she glances at me and walks away. Seriously! Who does that?
On a happier note, the people watching was fantastic. We saw this guy. But the guy we saw didn't look nearly as cool;)It was fun. We then headed over to 31 flavors and got butt-loads of ice cream. Yummo!

Seriously, So Blessed

Have you ever read her blog? Too funny. Anyway...thanks to Nate I (we) made it to church early this week. And we got soft chairs!!! That's worth it's own blog post. But we sat behind a Dr. in the Dental Profession and he turned around and started asking me about school and I told him I was all done and we went back and forth and then he told me he wanted to talk to me about a job! (how 'bout that run on sentence?) He asked me to come in today and I did and got a job offer in an Orthodontic Office! And Ortho is what I have wanted to do since school started. (Or oral surgery, but I tried that and was bored). I start next week!!! And it works around my work schedule at Copper Canyon Dental. I will do two days there and three at Brooks Orthodontics. Yipeee! I told my work today about the new job and they were all soooo nice and happy for me. And either Nate or I will be home with girls in the morning and then they will be on their own for only about an hour after school.
In these tough economic times with so many people looking for work, I feel Seriously So Blessed to have two jobs. And two jobs that work together beautifully. And two jobs that coordinate with Nate's job so that we can be here for our kids. Seriously. So Blessed.
So...if you need your teeth did, give me a call.

And, kind of funny. I ran into work today to pick something up. Just in my shorts and regular clothes. It got crazy busy while I was there so I did a little sterilizing and then they asked if I could assist. So I threw on the Dr.'s lab coat and assisted real quick. It looked like I was wearing nothing but a lab coat. The patients probably thought I was crazy.

That makes cents...

I got paid today! WooHoo! Poor Sammy had a sore throat today, so I kept her home from school. Since she didn't get to go learn today, I thought I would throw a math question at her....she's a numbers girl and loves to figure things out. I asked her...if I got paid ____ dollars, how much tithing would I owe? She thinks..."ten cents! No! twenty cents! No! ten...I can't do church math mom! It's too hard!"

And by the way....luckily for me I do owe more than 20 cents, I owe at least 35 cents.

CATastrophe

So I love cats and seem to have a lot of drama with them. I've rescued them, taken them to the vet when hit by a car (expensive!), witnessed my neighbors's cat get hit by a car with my car full of little girls. And then again last night....I must be a bad luck charm. I took the girls and the dog for a walk last night. We have a main street the intersects our subdivision. We crossed that on our walk, there is a park on the other side. I noticed Marge, our neighbors cat that thinks she lives at my house, the SISTER of the cat we saw get hit by a car, trying to follow us. I chased her and hissed at her so she would go home. I'm so nice. We went on our merry way, the girls played at the park and it was getting dark so we headed home. My girls were on their scooters so they got ahead of me. They were at the main road waiting for me when I hear BLOODY MURDER screaming coming from both of them and I knew what had happened. Poor Marge had been waiting for us and when she saw the girls she ran to meet them. Granted, the truck tried to miss her. Granted, the truck was exceeding the 25 MPH. Poor Marge got nicked, rolled into the gutter and luckily took off running. I took that as a good sign. I was standing there trying to comfort my kids, and I was literally melting from the heat and adrenaline. Where you think your skin may just give up and slide off. We headed home, looking in bushes for Marge. Couldn't find her anywhere. Turns out she hopped our fence and came in through our dog door and was waiting for us. She has a scrape on her ankle and a slight limp. I'm so grateful my kids didn't see her get smeared all over the street. Too bad we can't teach intelligence to our cats.

First Day of School

My girls have been extremely excited to get back to school. I feel very blessed to have both my kids in love with school. I don't think they slept well for a good week before hand because their excitement was out of control. They both got the teachers they wanted, and they both have friends in their classes!

We somehow managed to incorporate a lot of blues and greens into Sam's wardrobe this year. (Her entire outfit cost me $3!!!!)

Megan and her best friend Allie
And a quick thumbs up before heading in! Always a good sign!

I just picked them up after day three. Sammy barely made it in the door, collapsed on her bed and is fast asleep. All the fun and excitement caught up to her. She is making new friends and made three on the first day! Hallelujah!!!

In the 6th grade they start getting them ready for Jr. High by having them switch teachers for different subjects. So Megan now has her first boy teacher. She had her first switch today and is happy that she ended up liking it. She wasn't too sure about it before hand.

This will be the last year my kids go to school together until high school.

Christopher Creek

We went up to Christopher Creek a couple weeks ago to escape the heat again. I often forget that Arizona has areas like this. It's like being back in Utah.

And I have to add....if I was a single mother, my kids would NEVER experience weekends like this. I'm so grateful to Nate for all his hard work when we go camping. I don't think he ever stopped.

World class fire wood gatherers. Unfortunately, when we were out gathering wood, Nate set his ax down and forgot about it. He went back the next morning, but someone else had found it.

Poor Sadie hates being on a leash. And she is so stupid she kept getting caught on every stump and rock in the camp site.
So cute!

Nate teaching Megan how to start a fire without a lighter.

So, our saga of the hamburger buns. The night before we left we were packing up the food in the kitchen. Using plastic bins we didn't fit the lids on tight. And Sadie got our hamburger buns and ate them. On the way camping, we stopped by the store to get more. We got to the campsite and unpacked and decided to go find fire wood. I threw the bag of buns, still in the grocery bag, on the picnic table, not thinking a thing of it. And those cute and innocent squirrels got them! By the time we finally ate our hamburgers, we had invested about $100 into buns. But the were delicious!

We lucked out and got to the lake right when they were planting fish. Megan caught one with her bare hands! (But we found out that is illegal so she quickly put it back)

Nate and the girls found a natural teeter-totter and had a great time. This was a nasty case of it's all fun and games until both the girls fall off at the same time and land on those big rocks right under them and scrape up 40% of their bodies. But it was fun while it lasted. Right after we left the lake it started to rain. As in monsoon. But pretty cool. As we drove down the mountain towards our campground it stopped raining and we knew that it would hit us soon. We were all under this aluminum pop up when it hit. I ran for the tent because all the windows were open, Nate and Sam went to the car and Megan and Shannae were still out there. I looked out the tent to make sure everyone was taken care of when I saw them. And lightning struck right above us! You could feel it and the thunder was so loud it make me scream. And the dog. I started yelling for Megan but she was glued to the spot. When she made it to the tent she told me that she was so scared her feet wouldn't move. Mine too. And it rained and rained and rained. And of course I had to go to the bathroom. But don't worry, I was able to hold it. It was nice when the storm was over, the temperature was perfect.

That night around the campfire we were having fun telling stories. And there are these really gross bugs flying around, kind of like a beetle. And one landed on Shannae. And Shannae doesn't like bugs and she let out a blood-curdling scream. Like in a horror movie. And I think she scared the skunk that was lurking in the bushes. Megan kept saying she could hear something, but no one believed her until we could smell it. He moseyed his way through the camp site and finally left. We decided it was a good time to call it a night.

All in all....we give this weekend a thumbs up.