We've survived three weeks and just finished week four!

Week four has gone by in a whirlwind of activity and excitement!

Monday, June 13

Monday was full of fun and sunburn!  We joined forces with Yajaida's family and headed to Lake Loveland for some fun in the sun.  The kids played in the water and sand for hours.  Yajaida's mom and I visited off and on - I was primarily watching the bigger kids play while she was caring for their seven-month-old.  When we couldn't understand each other, due to language restrictions, she'd call for one of her girls to come translate for us!  Poor Daniella, 12 or 13, kept having to jump out of the water to tell us how to talk to each other!  We grilled burgers on my little grill and ate chips, watermelon, and other snacks.  The kids borrowed toys from the other beach-goers to dig ditches, build castles and running rivers.  By the time we were done playing at the beach I was looking a little sun-kissed.  I didn't realize that I was burnt until much later.  Sydney went home with Yajaira for a sleepover while the boys and I headed to Sam's Club to buy an umbrella for our next trip to the beach.  We bought the umbrella that creates a small shelter - I'm thinking that's my best bet for sun protection.  We grabbed a few other grocery items - mainly fresh fruit that smelled to delicious to pass by.  Shane and I made fajitas for dinner - which is one of those meals that the grownups will eat, but the kids won't touch.  Some meals are just worth it!  The boys slept super hard that night.  Spencer was sad that he didn't have a sleepover - he was appeased by some video game time with his daddy.  Shane and I were startled awake by the phone at 11:30p - it was Sydney, calling to report that she too, was burnt!  

Tuesday,  June 14

I picked Sydney up after nap-time on Tuesday.  She had Yajaira come over so that they could go to Activity Days together.  They are fun friends.  I worked Tuesday night, and looking back can't think of anything remarkable about the evening other than it being busy, not with check-ins but with reports and other paperwork I needed to catch up on.  I worked with Laurie for the evening.  I think we may have sold out of rooms that night - which is always good!  I do remember laughing that I now am the proud owner of a key to both the General Manager's Office, and to the file cabinet full of employee files.  I already had a key to the file cabinet, but the GM never locked it anyway.  Apparently there were issues with people getting into the files, so they decided to lock the office up as well.  I still think locking the cabinet was the easier option, but hey, I'm not the boss!

Wednesday, June 15

On Wednesday we went to the library for one of the Summer Reading Program activities.  There was a magic show, staring Ann Lincoln.  She happened to be the same magician we had seen when Sydney and Spence were little and Shane was still working at Webroot.  The show was fun and exciting.  The kids were laughing hysterically at Ann's antics.  At the start of the show she kept dropping a penguin beanie baby and yelling at it for not staying where it was put.  The kids loved it.  She did various types of juggling and even did tricks with fire!  She put the fire sticks in her mouth and the kids were awestruck.  She explained that it was safe for her because she was a stunt person like the ones on TV or movies.  Later that night, Spencer told me he wanted to be a stunt person too (no surprise there!)  Ryan was terrified by the "snakes in a can" - the springs covered in fabric.  He got so nervous about them that he covered his eyes!

     Earlier in the morning, before the library, Mom had called and mentioned she might need forms for the hotel - Dad's back was acting up and she thought they might need to seek treatment.  Sure enough, she called mid-magic show and informed me that she was ready to get some help for Dad.   She gave me some names and numbers and I started making phone calls.

     When the magic show was finished, we stopped by the local market, grabbed some iced push-pops and food, then headed to Parish Park to play with friends.  Sarah Nye, with her two boys, and Janeil Padilla, with her three kids, played with us for a couple of hours.  More phone calls were made, and after consideration, it was decided that Dad would head to the emergency room at the Medical Center of the Rockies for treatment.

     After the park, the kids and I headed home for nap time.  After nap, we did our usual chores until Shane came home.  Then we headed to Loveland to get the hotel arrangements for the parents finalized.  We hung out at McDonalds in the play area until the parents made it to the hotel and got Dad into his room.  We were all excited to see the Grandparents.  We reminded the kids several times to be soft and more careful so they didn't hurt anyone.  The boys are both getting heavy enough to cause injury to anyone not expecting a flying child to land on them!  We had some grilled dogs/burgers from the hotel for dinner - then Shane brought back Chick for Dad - who was nodding off while eating.

Thursday, June 16

We joined the parents at the hotel for breakfast, then hit the town (not super hard) while Dad rested in his room.  We went to the Ford dealership in Loveland to see about getting repairs made on the parent's truck.  We then shopped the Goodwill store where we found some sweet bargains.  When the kids were shopped out, we headed back to the hotel for some swimming.  They played in the pool and hot tub to their hearts content, or their stomachs - we stopped for food.  After the kids were cleaned up and dressed again, we headed out for a feast of local fast food restaurants.  Here's what the menu looked like:

Sydney:  3 burritos from Taco Bell

Spencer: 1 burrito from Taco Bell, 1 McDouble from McDonalds and an order of chicken nuggets from Wendy's.

Ryan: 1 taco from Taco Bell and chicken nuggets from Wendy's 

Sara, Mom & Dad: 1 meal each from the Chick

Yeah - we went to four restaurants, what of it?  Stop judging me!  Just kidding, the whole thing was pretty funny and the restaurants were very near each other.

After lunch it was time for me to head to work for a few hours.  Grandma kept the kids while I drove down to the hotel - poor Grandma with three grumpy kids!

     Work was busy, drama was plentiful.  The first issue I had was a guest who had been double charged and was upset about it, he called in backup in the form of the HR department of the company he was seeing.  The second issue I had was a group wanting to go out to dinner, but the cab company 1st, didn't send the cars on time, 2nd ended up only having one car to send and 3rd still came to try to take only part of the group to their destination.  Overall, I didn't feel like I got a whole lot done.  I spent the whole evening trying to wow guests into loving the hotel and holding hands to fix issues.

Friday, June 17

We tried to get out of the house early so we could maximize our time with the grandparents.  We had breakfast at the hotel in the morning.  Grandma was at the Ford dealership waiting for repairs to be completed - which took longer than expected.  When she returned, we took the kids to the pool to swim until contentment!  We had a lunch of reheated leftovers and sandwiches, then packed up to head out.  The grandparents took Sydney and headed home to Florissant.  The boys and I headed home to take a nap and get our bags packed for our trip to the mountains.

     After nap we all hustled around the house packing and cleaning - emptying trash and washing dishes so that the house would be funky smelling at our homecoming.  Shane arrived home a bit earlier than I had expected and I hadn't finished packing yet.  He gave me a hand, we loaded up and hit the road.

     We debated taking I25 or E470 and ended up just sticking to I25.  It was slow in places.  There was the normal traffic in Denver and slower than usual traffic between Denver and the Springs.  It made for a long drive.  We stopped at Rudy's (a BBQ joint) and had some of the tastiest sandwiches ever!  Yummy!  From Rudy's we headed to the grandparents house, where Grandpa was still a bit out of it from all of the medications/painkillers he was on.  Although, he did seem to be coming out of the fog later in the evening - only to realize that he wasn't able to remember any of Tuesday night into Wednesday.

Saturday, June 18

The weather in the mountains was nice and cool.  We started the day with some super tasty blueberry pancakes with fresh blueberries and prepared by Shane!  Shane spent several hours riding the mower around the parents yard, spraying weedkiller and weedwhacking.  I grilled up burgers for lunch - they turned out tasty.  The girls (Mom, Me and Sydney) headed to Woodland Park for some shopping.  We scoured the Woodland Park Goodwill for any great finds - Syd ended up with a super cute dress with tags still on it!  Mom had some great finds too!  We stopped at Walmart to pick up supplies for Father's Day gifts and headed home.  Mom baked pizza from Papa Murphy's while Sydney, Ryan and I worked on our Father's Day surprises.  After pizza and crafting, we watched a movie in the basement - Master of Disguise (I think.)  I read while everyone watched - there was plenty of laughter, but I'm pretty sure the adults felt that they may have lost some IQ points from the experience.

Sunday, June 19

Happy Father's Day!

We had a Father's Day breakfast of scrambled eggs, french toast, bacon and fresh fruit.  The dad's opened their gifts and seemed pleased.  After breakfast everyone started getting ready for the day and packing up to head home.  We had plenty of mess to clean up, and most of it was left behind for Grandma (sorry Mom!)  We had leftover pizza for a snack, then hit the road.  We stopped at Rudy's (yeah, it was that good) for gas (weird) and sandwiches to go.  The line at Rudy's was so long that people were waiting outside - and that's saying something!  We stopped at Arby's for some value sandwiches for the kids, then headed out.  We hopped onto the freeway and headed north to find ourselves facing a traffic jam.  We jumped off the freeway and did some creative driving north, which ended up not really saving us any time, but made us feel good that we were still moving. We stopped at Roxbury Park before heading home, the kids played for an hour or so, I laid on a blanket and read while Shane took a little snooze.  When we got home we unpacked our bags, opened mail (which had letters from the grandparents) and basically took it easy for the rest of the night.

Into Week Three

Week three was filled with highs and lows.  The start of the week was hard again, but it did start to get better as the week came to a close.  Although, today (Sunday) was plenty rough.

Monday, June 6
There wasn't anything really memorable about Monday.  Normal house cleaning, hanging out, nap time, getting ready for work and leaving.  That was Monday in a nut shell.

Tuesday, June 7
On Tuesday, neighbor John came over looking for someone to keep the kids overnight.  It was their wedding anniversary an their sitter had flaked out (at least that was his story.)  I suspect he hadn't arranged any plands and was just telling me a story to get some help - it's pretty common.  I told him I couldn't do it because I was working, but when I called Shane and mentioned it, he agreed to watch the kids.  He said he's a sucker for people celebrating their anniversaries.  Shane ended up coming home early because he was running a fever.  He still didn't cancel on John.  I left for work and Shane was home alone with six kids.  Those extra kids make me feel like my own are fairly mild.  I ended up at work very late that night, I didn't get home until one.  We were oversold and things were a bit of a mess.  I was exhausted.

Wednesday, June 8
I was dead tired from getting home so late - the kids were up before six.  I yelled at them to get back in bed - they were up again playing tag and screaming.  I drug myself out of bed at seven - the house was torn apart.  The kids had gotten into the pile of stuff in the basement that I had just sorted out to get rid of.  I was furious.  I got the kids dressed and sent them home at eight.
     Shane was still feverish and achy.  I suggested he see the doctor - he is anti-doctor.  He spent the day in bed or on the couch.
     I made toasted cheese sandwiches for dinner - Sydney learned how to make them herself and was very proud that she cooked the last few entirely on her own.  She's getting so big!

Thursday, June 9
Thursday morning Shane woke up feeling marginally better.  He drug himself into the office and went by he employee lab in the afternoon.  He tested positive for strep and had to go home.  It's strange to me that the hospital won't prescribe something for employees who test positive for contagious illnesses.  There was a bit of a back and forth with the local doctors office trying to get Shane into be seen.  Dr. K ended up letting Shane come in for the last appointment of the day.  He came home with a prescription and was wiped out for the rest of the day.
      That morning was a bit of an adventure.  We had plans to go on a scooter ride and picnic with a few other sisters in the ward.  I was planning on being at the meeting place at ten, only to discover that we were supposed to be there at nine!  I felt so bad that we were late!  We could have been there at nine if I had been planning on it.
     By the time we got to the trail-head, the temperature had dropped ten degrees.  It had also started to drizzle.  The area of the trail we were going to travel was closed due to flooding so we took a different route.  We went about four miles with our herd of children along the Poudre River Trail.  The kids were exhausted by the time we arrived at the park to play.  We had a small picnic and the kids played on the playground.  They seemed to have had a good time - I enjoyed the exercise.  Two of the sisters made the trek back to the parking lot to bring cars to the playground - so the kids wouldn't have to drag themselves back the four miles to the cars.  By the time we reached the playground we were comparing the trip to the Pioneers, trekking across the plains.
     When the kids were hungry for a snack that afternoon, Sydney made toasted cheese for everyone!

Friday, June 10
Shane was home again, taking his prescription and waiting to feel better.
    I got the kids ready for the day, trying to come up with a plan for something fun to do.  I called Janeil Padilla to see if they wanted to play - she was getting ready to take the kids to the dollar theater in Fort Collins - bingo - fun activity!  We loaded up the car,  invited Sydney's little friend Yajaira and her sister Brisa along and headed to the Padillas.  Shane came along for the ride - he needed to see an investor in Fort Collins to discuss some investment interest he has.
  We went to the dollar theater and watched Rio.  Ryan could not sit still!  He was all over the place!  I ended up texting Shane to come and get him.  After Ryan left, the movie was easier to watch.  When the movie was over the kids started playing tag outside the theater - Spencer promptly fell and scraped his arm and jammed his tumb.  An ice pack and some bandaids were required.  We took the kids to lunch at Arby's (yay for dollar menus) and then headed home.
   Sydney invited the girls to stay for a sleepover.  I took the girls with me to the Greeley Mall.  They played in the play place while I had my hair cut.  We went to Sam's club and bought next weeks groceries and headed home to make pizza.
     Shane ended up doing all the work for dinner.  The pizza came out great!  He added some fresh basil to the pizza sauce and it was tasty.  Penny and Mike Laspina came over and played cards with us and had pizza.  We've learned how to play a game called Hand and Foot - I guess it's popular in the ward.  We ended up with an entire untouched pizza and extra dough.  Penny fried up the dough into some fry bread and we had something similar to sopapillas for desert.

Saturday, June 11
Shane surprised us all by making scones (or something like them) for breakfast.  They were tasty.  We had strawberries, whipped cream, honey butter and cinnamon-sugar.  Tasty!
    We made a treat with the girls before we took them home.  They had a good time dipping rice crispy treats into melted chocolate and then putting sprinkles onto them.  We tried dipping bananas too.  They were tasty - but very messy.
     We took Yajaira and Brisa home and headed to Fort Collins for the "Taste of Fort Collins."  It's an event that you pay to enter, there is live music and booths with food, games and other items.  We had never been to one of these events.  After paying to get in, I realized that it was kind of like paying to get into BBQ Daze.  The event description said there'd be all sorts of things ranging from $1 to $8 - but they proved to range from $6 to $9.  You can't bring any outside food or drinks in.  I felt hustled.  We quickly spent all the money we had and were discouraged by the lack of free or cheap activities.  There was one area like a carnival - with carnival pricing.  We purchased one punch card and took the kids on a couple of rides.  Their favorite was these giant clear beach balls in a big kiddie pool.  Each kid gets into a beach ball, it's blown up and then closed.  The kids roll, run and tumble around on the the pool.  I almost forgot to mention the complete stranger who walked up to me, flipped me the bird and proceeded to cuss at me for some unknown reason, then stopped and walked away.  We could have stayed at the event all day/night, but I was ready to leave.  The heat and the crowd combined with the expense and energy required to maintain our family was too much.
     After the event, I stopped at the Fort Collins Goodwill to see what the store was like.  It was the largest Goodwill I've ever seen.  It was also the most disorganized - like a giant garage sale.  I was told the mess was the result of the giant sale event they were having that day - $.99 jeans and half off of everything else.  We found a few pairs of jeans for the kids and a couple of shirts.
     We headed home to have a leftover pizza for dinner, then put the kids to bed.  We all slept hard!

Sunday, June 12
I made french toast for breakfast this morning, it had been Sydney's request for few days in a row now.  While I had breakfast going I threw dinner into the crockpot - pot roast!  Yummy (it turned out great!) As a result of some morning drama - primarily revolving around putting shoes onto someone's feet - we ended up going to church late.  We were there for second and third blocks.  Sydney gave a talk on repentance during sharing time.  She did a really great job.  After church Sydney passed off two more of her Articles of Faith.  She's so excited that she's getting closer to having them all memorized.  Spencer was kicked out of class today and had to go to his dad's class.  He was being disruptive (I don't really know any details.)  He was really upset when he got home and had to take a nap - which is the standing rule regarding any child who gets in trouble at church.  We had our pot roast dinner, followed by a watermelon for desert.

Week Two of Summer Vacation

So, I'd have to say that week one was more fun, and less stressful than week two of summer vacation.  I'm hoping that week three turns out better than this one!  Sydney has a new hobby of checking the mail every afternoon at three or three-thirty.  She is very anxious about getting mail and loves writing letters.  The stationary that I ordered for her arrived and she's been writing letters ever since.

Monday, May 30
Monday was technically a holiday - Memorial Day to be precise.  Although other families had plans to BBQ, or play at parks, our family had a day pretty much like any other.  Shane was home from work for the day and I still had to work that night.  Shane spent the morning sorting through buckets of random junk in the garage - I watched enthusiastically.  It's not that I didn't want to help - I'd already spent hours upon hours over the last few weeks sorting through the junk in the garage.  Shane was left with the piles that I didn't know what to do with.  We considered making plans to take the kids out to play at a local park, or even just hosing them down in the front yard - but they just kept picking on each other.  They ended up earning an early bedtime - not so holiday-ish.

Tuesday, May 31
On Tuesday, I was really hoping the kids were going to be better than they had been on Monday.  Those little turkeys had pecked at each other all day long and I really needed them to be a little nicer.  Sydney voted to spend the day in her pajamas and was reluctant to get dressed later when we needed to go to the elementary school to drop off our belated teacher appreciation gifts.  The principal, Mr. Dillehay, was really sweet and enthusiastic about the gifts we dropped off for him.  Mr. Worley, the computer teacher (proclaimed by Spencer to be one of the best ever) was also very gracious about the gifts.  Mr. Worley loved the t-shirt we had given him and had all three of the kids sign it with a permanent marker, which made them all feel pretty cool.  I went to work Tuesday night and the kids hung out with Daddy - and stayed up way too late.

Wednesday, June 1
Wednesday was spent cleaning the house.  That's pretty normal after my working Monday and Tuesday nights.  The house is generally pretty trashed by then.  The kids were still in a funk - picking on each other and doing a good job of pressing my sanity to its very limits.  I can't recall if I took the kids out to a park or not - Wednesday is kind of a fog for me.  I do recall how the evening went though.
     Shane arrived home to find everyone in an awesome mood (sarcasm there.)  I decided to take Ryan to the market to buy new bike tires for all the bikes in the garage - a costly endeavor.  Shane took the big kids to get a bunch of crappy sod from the Schneider's house.  Layne had called Shane about the sod he was pulling up from the backyard and Shane thought it was a good idea to go and get it.  (Please note, that I made every effort not to comment on this situation.  I really didn't want hand-me-downs from a family that completely ignores us in general.  It seemed to me that it was a convenient way for them to get rid of some trash - Shane did all the work!)  Shane spent the evening placing the sod in a neat rectangle outside of our bedroom - there is now a very small patch of lawn in my backyard.  I couldn't force myself to work on the project - I was too disgusted with the whole situation.

Thursday, June 2
I trimmed the boys hair in the morning, then packed things up for a picnic.  During Spencer's haircut, I put water on for a cup of tea (herbal of course - which I have to keep explaining to the kids - they all think I'm a sinner.)  I apparently turned on the wrong burner, burning a pot holder and melting my expensive kitchen sheers.  Sad times there.  I was determined to do something fun, since we hadn't had too much of it the previous two days.  We packed towels and snacks and headed to Loveland.  I told the kids up front that they would need to be good to go to the park.  We left early in the morning to try to avoid the 90* weather.  We stopped at New York and Company to make a return - which should be a simple process.  For some reason the computer system wouldn't process the return correctly and kept trying to give me three dollars instead of sixteen.  The kids were trying, not very hard, to be good, while the service ladies called tech support to help resolve the issue.  Although tech-support didn't do anything, the computer seemed to work out it's own issues and issued the refund.  We left from there to Ross's Dress for Less where I was looking to buy a pair of shorts with the money from NY&C.  Sydney and Spencer started punching each other when they thought I wasn't looking.  I reminded them again that they needed to be good to go to the park.  Sydney started picking on Ryan when she lost interest in picking on Spencer.  Soon Ryan was throwing a fit and kicking me.  I decided that we weren't going to the water play park.  I didn't break the news to the kids until we reached the car.  You can imaging the crying that followed the announcement.  None of the kids could dispute that they were being monsters and didn't deserve to go, they were just sad about it.  We headed home.  Once the crying subsided I decided to stop at a less exciting park to have the kids burn off some energy before I put them all down for a nap (which they all really love to do.)  The mean kid syndrome continued at the park.  We stayed for about thirty minutes then came home for nap.  When Shane came home I was in time-out.  I had put myself in a time-out and informed the kids that I was in trouble and should be left alone.  I just felt like I'd had enough of the fighting and it was making me a little crazy.  The dinner I had planned on making didn't work out - ingredients had been consumed on either Monday or Tuesday while I was away from home.  I proposed to Shane that we grill at a park to keep the house cool.  He agreed - we bought dogs at Hay's Market and went to a little park I had stumbled across in Johnstown when I got lost looking for a ward member's house.  We had a good time at the park, then promptly brought the kids home and put them to bed early.  I went out for a run - which was a shock to my lungs - and spent the rest of the evening coughing up a storm.

Friday, June 3
Friday was the great day of basement cleaning.  The basement isn't even close to being done, but I spent the entire day cleaning and sorting through junk.  The pile of things to sell or donate is enormous.  I'm so excited for it to all go away - the question is when?  The kids spent the day helping with the work where they could and playing games/watching videos.  We grilled dogs for dinner to avoid heating up the house.  After dinner a little girl, Brooke, from kindergarten, came by and invited Spencer to the park to play.  The kids went out to play and I went for a run.  Day two of running was much less painful for my lungs than day one had been! Shane and I watched a movie after the kids went to bed, then we did our own thing.  Even though I had spent the whole day cleaning, I ended up cleaning the master bathroom Friday night as well, along with the front of the house.  I finished reading Empire of the Summer Moon that night - finally!  It was a slow read for me - a non-fiction about the Comanche nation.  It was super interesting though and reminded me of Dad and his love of Louis Lamore books.  As I was reading, trying to get through my last few pages, (it was now after midnight, 12:24am) and my phone started to ring.  I didn't recognize the number so I answered it - thinking it may be an emergency of some kind.  It turned out to be one of my coworkers, who saw that I had called earlier and was returning the call thinking that it was his sister.  I still had to wonder what his sister was like if they regularly called each other after midnight!

Saturday, June 4
Johnstown BBQ Daze!  We woke up early and had our own pancake breakfast - since $5 per person is steep for pancakes at the firemen's breakfast. The bigger kids were in the parade on the church float - which has been kinda lame every year.  I know, that's mean to say, but the other churches in town seem to put a lot of effort into decorating and designing their floats.  Ours generally, if lucky, has some streamers, and a large paper poster/banner.  The kids toss out candy, to the delight of the children along the parade route.  For Ryan, who wasn't on the float, it was like Halloween in June.  He made out like a bandit.  We had a good time watching the floats, tractors, cars and horses going by.  Ryan got plenty of practice at waving, saying hello, and throwing kisses (which landed him loads of treats.)  After the parade, we hung out at Letford Elementary for a while with other ward members while the kids all had popsicles and played on the school equipment.  We went to Parish park to check out the festivities - which seemed mostly to be booths and overpriced carnival food.  We ended up going for lunch at Ajuaah (a new Mexican restaurant next to the dry cleaners in town.)  Ryan was so tired he kept trying to go to sleep on the bench at the table.  We came home for a nap, then headed out for power grocery shopping.  Shane helped plan the menu for the week - and we headed to Sam's Club.  I bet Shane that I could get all of the groceries in ten minutes while he ate something in the food court with the kids.  I made my timer, although I ended up in the checkout line for about five minutes.  We stopped by WalMart, this time racing each other.  Shane and Spencer headed to electronics for a computer cord of some kind while Sydney, Ryan and I headed off to grab the few grocery items we weren't purchasing at Sams Club.  Syd, Ryan and I even stopped for cookies at the bakery and made it to the car well before the other boys were back.  We ended up waiting in the car for a good five minutes for those slow-pokes!  We headed back to Johnstown to find a park to watch the fireworks at dusk.  When we finally did find a park to go to, we realized the mosquitoes were out in full force and we were without bug spray.  I was ready to pack it up and head home when one of Sydney's best friends, Anesia, spotted us at the park.  Her grandma lived across the street and they were having a party to watch the fireworks.  They invited us over and shared the bug-spray.  We ended up having a great time.  We got home late and put some exhausted kids to bed.
**At 12:48am (technically Sunday morning) there was a very loud pounding on the front door.  It scared me profusely!  The knocking continued - I got out of bed and told Shane he had to follow.  I peeked out the window of the door and couldn't make out a person, but I did see a reflection off of a flashlight at the corner - the porch light was on, the person was just standing out of line of sight.  I asked who was there, and the person announced that it was the police - I cracked the door and poking my head out discovered a police officer who seemed to be surprised to see me.  He was looking for a Bernadette Hernandez, this was her last listed address.  I explained that she didn't live here, that the name was familiar and I had received mail for her that I sent back.  He apologized for bothering me and left.  I am still curious what the whole thing was about.  It startled me so badly that I had a hard time falling asleep.

Sunday, June 5
It was fast and testimony meeting today at church.  The first half of the meeting was bizarre.  There was a woman I'd never seen before who told stories about her issues with her mother.  Another sister told a story about going to watch a friend be baptized at another church, where this same sister said she felt more loved and welcome at the other church.  This sister also said that her member son decided to be baptized at this other church at the end of the meeting she attended.  At was so strange!  I kept wondering when the bishop was going to just close out the time for testimonies and share a message of his own.  While I was pondering on the strangeness of the meeting, some guy I also had never seen before got up to speak.  He ended up preaching about all sorts of random things for a good ten minutes.  I was watching my watch and dying to leave the meeting when I started to get the distinct feeling I needed to share my testimony - which was in direct conflict with the feeling I had in the car on the way into church earlier.  As I was about to stand, another sister, Allie Thornbrue, got up and shared a beautiful testimony.  I was waiting for the feeling that I had been having to subside since she had brought the proper spirit back into the meeting, but it didn't.  I started to go for the stand and about five or so other people all headed the same way.  It felt good to share my testimony, although I was a bit teary.  I felt the Spirit strongly, along with some other conflicting emotions.  I ended up going to the restroom to cry for a few minutes and was okay after that.

Well, that's our week so far.  It's time for me to get dinner going.  The meat I pulled out of the freezer yesterday to cook today was still frozen when I checked on it earlier.  I've had it soaking in the sink to defrost - time to make it into fajitas!

Summer Vacation Is Here!

So, summer vacation has started and so far, it's been a mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Monday, May 23
We started off the break fairly painlessly.  We played at the school playground for a little while - although it was still pretty muddy outside and the field was a bit soggy.  We had a picnic in the front yard for lunch.  Spencer cracked open a watter bottle, held it up high and said, "This is the life!"  I had a good chuckle at that one.

Tuesday, May 24
It was raining cats and dogs on Tuesday, which prevented us from much outdoor play.  In the morning I needed to go to the dentist, so the kids played at the Padilla's.  After the Padilla's, we stopped at the market, bought snacks and ice cream, then dropped by Domino's Pizza to grab a pizza for lunch.  After lunch we made train cars out of cardboard boxes and art supplies.

Wednesday, May 25
Sadly, I needed to go back to the dentist for a barrage of fillings.  The kids didn't seem to mind though, since they had the pleasure of playing with the Snell family.  After playing at the Snell's, we brought Caylee Snell home for a play date.  Although Sydney suddenly had a rotten attitude, she made a bargain to have Caylee stay for a sleepover.  The kids played in the backyard for hours - at one point getting soaked by the neighbor kids, directly behind us, who sprayed them all down with a garden hose!  The kids used up a good portion of Spencer's water balloon collection during the battle.  The laundry mountain grew profusely that afternoon.

Thursday, May 26
Feeling inspired to get out of the house myself, I loaded up the kids and headed down to Boulder to meet Shane for lunch.  We dined at "the Toad," a pub popular with Shane's crowd at work.  The kids chowed down on cheesy fries and stared at the plate of nachos we ordered for them with an air of disgust - they went mostly untouched.  During lunch I wondered out loud why I had thought it might be a good idea to take the kids out when they often seem to be ungrateful for special treats.  (I think it's possible they are quite spoiled.)  After lunch, we stopped at Sandstone Park in Longmont to play for a while.  Ryan displayed some skill with a soccer ball that I wasn't aware he possessed!  After the park we came home for a quick rest before the day continued.  Penny came over in the afternoon.  She and I ran to the market for groceries, Sydney came along and was very sweet.  We returned to the house to hammer out two gallons of butter-cream frosting and two batches of fondant that Penny would be using to decorate a graduation cake for a friend.

Friday, May 27
I endeavored to take the kids out to blow the stink off on Friday.  We went shopping in the morning and then stopped at Roxbury Park on the way home.  After nap-time we headed to Longmont for a sleepover at the hotel.  The kids went swimming in the pool at the hotel and ate dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings - a special treat selected by Shane (just not something I enjoy!)

Saturday, May 28
We had breakfast in the cafe at the hotel - the boys were excited to see Mrs. Karen.  My boys have always loved on Karen and she seems to really love them back.  Our morning plans almost went off without a hitch, until I realized that I had failed to pack any shoes for the day other than the boots I had worn for work - ugh.  Instead of wasting the same money on gas to drive home and back south, we stopped and bought flip-flops at Sears in the mall - which is almost entirely dead at this point.  There are hardly any stores left - only a few of the major chains and a couple of hodge-podge stores being run by local merchants.  We finally headed south to the Butterfly Pavillion to redeem our Groupon for an annual pass!  I discovered that the deal was one of my better bargains lately - it was less for the pass than it would have cost for a single visit normally!  The kids had a good time checking things out.  Syd, Spence and I all held Rosie, the tarantula - a first for all of us, except Syd.  Ryan watched with a look of fear on his face!  The kids left disgruntled about the visit because we hadn't brought any change to use in the penny presses - which we didn't know were there!  We then headed down to Grandma Maggi's for a surprise visit.  We ended up staying all evening, grilling steaks as a birthday/mother's day treat for Maggi.  We played games and the kids ran themselves ragged in the backyard.  It was one of the funnest visits we've ever had - everyone seemed to be in good spirits and the fighting was minimal (which is a great feat!)  We ended up getting home well after midnight.  I'm not sure if the kids slept in this morning - all I know is that I was too tired to notice anything!

I Don't Want to Forget!

Shane did another sweet something for me two weekends ago. We were out for a date on Friday night, knowing that I'd have to be up by five on Saturday to get ready for work in the morning. We ended up being out much later than we anticipated and I was really dreading getting up in the morning! When the alarm went off at five, Shane rolled out of bed and headed to the kitchen - making breakfast burritos (one of my favorite morning meals) for me to have before leaving for work. He said that he felt bad that we had stayed out so late on our date and that if I had to have that long of a day with so little rest he thought he should too!

Some days I feel like the luckiest girl around!

Funny - "I Am A Front Desk Agent"

I am a Front Desk Agent

I have advanced degrees in Accounting, Public Relations, Marketing, Business, Computer Science, Civil Engineering, and Swahili. I can also read minds.

Of course I have the reservation that you booked six years ago even though you don't have the confirmation number and you think it was made under a name that starts with "S".

It is completely my fault that the blizzard shut down the airport and you have to sleep in a warm king-size bed while 5000 of your co-travelers are sleeping in benches at the airport. I am sorry.

It is not a problem for me to give you seven connecting, non-smoking, poolside suites with two king beds in each, four rollaways, 3 cribs, and yes, I can install a wet bar. I know it is my fault that we do not have a helicopter landing pad.

I am a Front Desk Agent. I am expected to speak all languages fluently. It is obvious to me that when you booked your reservation for Friday on the weekend we're sold out that you really meant Saturday. My company has entrusted me with all financial information and decisions, and yes, I am lying to you when I say we have no more rooms available. It is not a problem for me to quickly construct several more guest rooms. THIS time I will not forget the helicopter landing pad. And it is my fault that everyone wanted to stay here. I should have known you were coming in, even though you had no reservation. After all, you stay at our brand of hotel all the time, 300 nights a year, and this is only the first time you've ever been to our city.

I am a front desk agent. I am quite capable of checking three people in, two people out, taking five reservations, answering fifteen incoming calls, delivering six bath towels to room 625, plunging the toilet in room 101, and restocking the supply of pool towels, all at the same time. Yes, I will be glad to call the van driver and tell him to drive over all the cars stuck in traffic because you've been waiting at the airport for 15 minutes and you've got jet lag.

I am a front desk agent, an operator, a bellhop, houseman, guest service representative, housekeeper, sales coordinator, information specialist, entertainment critic, restaurateur, stock broker, referee, janitor, computer technician, plumber, ice-breaker, postman, babysitter, dispatcher, laundry cleaner, lifeguard, electrician, ambassador, personal fitness trainer, fax expert, human jukebox, domestic abuse counselor, and verbal punching bag. Yes, I know room 112 is not answering their phone. And of course I have their travel itinerary so I know exactly where they went when they left here 9 hours ago, and what their cell phone number is.

I always know where to find the best vegetarian-kosher-Mongolian-barbecue restaurants. I know exactly what to see and do in this city in fifteen minutes without spending any money and without getting caught in traffic. I take personal blame for airline food, traffic jams, rental car flat tires, and the nation's economy.

I realize that you meant to book your reservation here. People often confuse us with the Galaxy Delight Motel, Antarctica . Of course I can "fit you in" and yes, you may have the special $1 rate because you are affiliated with the Hoboken Accounting and Bagel Club.

I am expected to smile, empathize, sympathize, console, condole, upsell, downsell (and know when to do which), perform, sing, dance, fix the printer, and tell your friends that you're here. And I know exactly where 613 Possum Trot Lane is in the Way Out There subdivision that they just built last week.

After all, I AM a Front Desk Agent!

Fun Site

This is a fun site my girlfriend ShaLa showed me! Check it out!

http://soytuaire.labuat.com/

It's not in English - but that's never stopped art before!