Life as I know it.

Today we had a fun end of the summer BBQ at our house for our MOMS club playgroup. I had bought "How to Host a kids Party" Safari addition, last fall for Bug's birthday this year and then he decided not to use it. So we used it for our end of the summer party, it was fun. It comes with a tape that tells a story about an animal preserve and a missing lion cub, then it gives you a place to go look for a clue and a skill to practice (game). When the kids run off to the suggested place they found a paw print then came back to listen to the next part of the tape after leading a merry chase around the house they found the missing cub in the bathtub. Then the kids went out to play and I started up the grill and cooked up burgers for everybody and we had a nice BBQ. After everybody headed out we headed to my old work and picked up all of my stuff and dropped it off at my new location. I am definitely not going to miss commuting out to the valley. My new location is 3-4 minutes fr

Bug and his fellow pirates "Arrggg Matey" We have been celebrating Bug's birthday week, since Mon. I love birthdays and never feel like a single day is enough so we draw the festivities out for a week, with little things. So on Mon Bug and I went out and lunch at Red Robin and got his free kids meal and they sang him happy birthday, then Tue we met Don at the Spaghetti factory for dinner and Bug's free birthday meal and they sang him happy birthday, on Wed I had to work so Bug hung out with daddy all day. Then on Thur I took the day off and we went to Silverwood Theme park for the day. Also Bug got his big birthday gift that day, a new Netbook. He has been using Don's old laptop for the last year and has been asking for something newer, that worked a little quicker. On Friday, his actual birthday I had to work again, so he went and spent the day running around with Uncle Martin and then had his 1st football practice in the evening. It was so cute to see him runni

My friend Brenda's little girl celebrated her 1st birthday today. We ended up running a little late, because we had to run and pick up my car from the shop today (it is finally fixed from my little accident last month, when Don was out of town.) They had it at a local park between her house and mine. It was a nice party, Brenda had one of her church friends and her 3 girls and her mother and sister came up from California for the weekend and then Bug and I. The kids just ran around the playground and Lady bug showed what a monkey she is trying to climb up all the slides. Then they brought out the cake ( a lady bug shaped one for her) and she did a pretty good job of tearing into it. She was a little hesitant at 1st but she did good once she started going.

I know it is almost time for school now that we had our "getting ready for school" homeschool get together. My church has quite a few homeschoolers, so last year we started getting together as a group once a month. It's a nice opportunity to talk things over, get encouragement and discuss different topics. We have had topics about different types of curriculum, local field trips, how people schedule their days and various other things last year. Today was an especially large group and we had a local gal that sells various homeschool curriculum and games come out and show us some different options. Also it was a chance to see how many of us there are and get to know each other a little better. Also to give those who are thinking about homeschooling in the future a chance to see what it's all about. There were some very interesting games there, but I am trying to not but anything else until we have gotten started with our year and tried out the new curriculum that I bou

This morning we went and picked up one of Bugs friends Ev and went to the last summer of the movie program and saw Imagine That. Bug and I had already seen it at the drive-in back in June, but it was cute enough we decided to go see it again. After the movie we went to drop Ev off and ended up staying there and playing for an hour or so. It was nice to have a chance to visit with Kelli (Ev's mom) since I hadn't seen her much this summer, since she was at our house for 4th of July. The kids had fun playing whatever downstairs while we visited. Then I had to take Bug over to his friends L & L's house to play, so that I could go to my dentist appt and get my teeth cleaned. They used some ultrasonic cleaner, which did a good job, but made a horrible sound. I plugged my ears the whole time, but that only works so well , when the sound is coming from inside your head.

Today we had a fun playdate for Adventure Kids, our school age playgroup for my MOMS club. We got together at our friend Angie's house and she taught the kids to make Pizza Pinwheels and fluffy peanut butter dip. The pin wheels must have been good, the kids gobbled them up quickly and the peanut butter dip was fabulous. Bug really enjoyed making it and we had all sorts of things to dip in it. Bug liked the strawberries best and I liked the apples, but there was also oreos, graham crackers and a couple other things. Afterwards the kids all ran around Angie's big back yard and played some sort of boy/fighting game, while the moms got to chat. Afterward Bug and I headed to a dentist appt for me at a new dentist. My friend Brenda told me about this dentist awhile ago and I am just finally getting around to getting in. The whole office is very nice. Everybody had to stop in and way Hi or introduce themselves, the dentist sat and talked to me for quite awhile about how my teeth are a

We had our girls weekend away, for my work this weekend. One of the gals from my work has a lake place over in Idaho and plans a weekend away for everybody from the salon. Of course not everybody goes (there are about 20 of us at the salon) but i think we ended up with 11 of us total. I slowly worked my way that direction on Friday and ended up getting there around 5 or so. It was a rainy evening so half the gals were inside and the other half were huddled on the covered porch. Everybody was drinking and talking and having a good time. It cleared up some in the evening and so we even had a fire and took a moonlight dip. On Sat, Stephanie wanted to go for a run, so Kathy and I decided that we would walk, we ended up walking 6 miles and Steph went 7. She caught back up to us around 1 1/2 miles from the trailer and walked the rest of the way with us. It was a beautiful walk, nice woods on either side, although there are some pretty trashy houses around there, but what else would you expec

Yesterday we went on a really fun outing with our MOMS club to take a tour of Cold Stone Creamery. We got there a little late, because we stopped in at a K12 get together and had a drink (it was at a coffee house). I got a chance to ask if they were changing over to the new math this year. Which they aren't so that made me feel better about my decision to drop K12 this year and go a different direction with our homeschooling. Anyways at Cold Stone, they broke the group up in to 2 tours and they then took them through the back and showed them how to make the ice cream, then showed the their super sized fridges and freezers and how to make waffle cones and cups , then let them have taste of the ice cream they saw being made (see pic.) After the tour was over the kids got to order their own scoop, with whatever they wanted. There servings are always so huge, even though Bug got the smallest size he still tossed half of it away. But it was delicious while he ate it. Later in the aft

I got the call the other day and we are officially licensed foster parents. So now we are just waiting for the call. We have decided to start out by taking a child that we think will go back, instead of looking for one that should be adoptable. That should take the pressure off us to some degree, to find just "the right" child and get us back into helping mode. Then if it works out that the child becomes adoptable, we will be at a better place to make that decision. The room is ready now where are the calls?

Today we went to the kid's movie special at one of our local theaters and saw Night at the Museum 2, with one of Bug's little friends. It was a rainy day around here so it was very busy there and we saw loads of people we new. People from Moms club, ex member's of MOMS club and people from church. The movie was good, we had seen it before at the beginning of summer at the drive-ins, but it was the 2nd feature so it was after midnight when it started. So it was nice to see it while I was more awake. After the movie we brought Bug's friend E home with us and they played for most of the afternoon. We are putting up a fence in our backyard and re-doing the yard, so there is a huge pile of sand back there so they played some game using that and ended up filthy. They had a good time though and that's what counts. It was weird to be home all day and have Don there, I am on vacation this week, (we were supposed to go camping with some friends of ours but it didn't work

We had a fun day of play, today. We started out this morning at our Adventure Kids play date (the school age playgroup for MOMS club). It was a neat Amazing Race theme, with different pit stops along the way. The kids were broken down into teams of 3 and had to do a scavenger hunt, put a puzzle together, blind taste testing, dress a member up in a silly outfit and a bunch of other things. The kids had a blast and Bug's team came in 2nd so he was thrilled. After that we went to his friend R's house for a play date. We haven't gotten a chance to see them since school got out so it was nice for them to run around together. Unfortunately he is going to be at school on Mon and Bug will be on Wed so they won't be in the same class this year. But we are going to try to sign them both up for Friday half day class, so then they will have time together. In the evening we went and picked up my uncle Martin and headed over for Bug's foot ball assessment. He is going to play fla

After church today we went and did a little grocery shopping and then headed over to have lunch with Don. He has about an hour layover on Sunday's, so we try to meet up with him and have lunch and visit. Bug loves to swing on the bus like it's a jungle gym. After that we headed downtown to the Children's Museum to get Bug's party booked and make sure of all the details. Bug got to stay and play for 30-45 min. Then we headed home to make dinner and get ready for Movie Night. We watched the Cat from Outer Space, Don was thrilled apparently he remembers watching that with his grandpa when he was little. I don't remember having seen it before but it was definitely cute. I love those old 80's Disney movies, we have been collecting them lately. We have: Flight of the Navigator, Candleshoe, Escape to Witch Mountain, Return from Witch Mountain and this one. If anyone can think of any other great 80's Disney movies please let me know and we will check them out.

Bug in the cop car, we told him it's always better to be in the front then the back. Today we spent the day downtown at Kid's Day. It is a fun and free event that they hold every summer downtown. It is essentially lots of booths, some having to do with kids, some not. But every booth has to have a free activity for the kids. Bug got to make a bunch of different art projects, got a ton a free give aways, including toothbrushes, Frisbees, a new shirt, etc. It was a lot of fun. My friend Brenda was supposed to come with us, but she had had a bad day and decided to just rest at home. We also found a place to have Bug's B-day party, we were going to have a Harry Potter party here at the house, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that it was going to be a lot of work. So all day I kept throwing ideas of other party places at Bug and he was like ya ya, but I want my party. So towards the end of the day I mentioned that the local Children's Museum has parties a

Bug and his buddies at today's performance This week was our church's VBS, Bug has been having the best time. It has an Australian theme and he has made, boomerangs, and Digeradoos and lots of other fun thing. He has also learned a bunch about Peter, his life and ministry. Today they had their family fun day and we got to watch the kids sing the songs they have been learning and then followed that with a great BBQ. After that Bug played out in the field with his friends having a water fight. He came home soaking wet, which is a fairly new thing for him. He used to never get wet at things like that prefering to stay out of the way. It's funny the changes they make as they grow. . Bug belting out one of the songs he learned.

Bug enjoying a drink after warming up Yesterday we went and tried out our new local pool. It was a lot of fun but very crowded. It has a nice play area for the little kids, with fountains and slides and stuff. It also has a diving board and bigger slides but we didn't get to try out any of those since the lines were so long. Here is Bug warming up after swimming in his cocoon . My Bug coming out of his cocoon. We had a good time, it says no outside food or drink when you come in, but they don't have anything to eat there (unless you count a couple candy bars behind the cashiers). So we ended up leaving to have lunch and then coming back. But before we left we noticed the rule wasn't enforced, since on one side of us were people eating McD's and on the other side was a girl eating a family sized bag of chips. So we did bring some snacks and drinks with us when we came back. It was too crowded to actually be able to swim around, but it was still very refreshing, since

Last night we had a break in of sorts around here. The boys stayed here last night before heading home this morning. So around 1:15 am my husband heard knocking at the door and the door bell ring. He figured maybe the boys went for a middle of the night burger run and locked themselves out, so he got up to answer the door. Instead of the boys standing there, it was a girl asking for Alyssa, (the teenager who used to live next door). My husband explained that she didn't live around here anymore and told the girl to go home. He comes back to bed but he's laying there and thinks he hears something so he gets up to investigate, but doesn't see anything so he lays back down. Well this happens 2-3 more times and on the 4th time he rushes back into our room to get his cell phone and says "she's in the car". Well this gets my attention so I get up to find out what's going on. I come into the kitchen and he's on the phone with 911 and I look out the window but