Catching Up

I've gotten so behind in posting that it would be very easy to just throw in the towel.  So many blogs have gone untouched in favor of Facebook, and even I am guilty.  But some really outstanding people are still blogging, and with their example - I will not give up!

Some of the happenings around here lately (and not so lately since it's really been a while).  Hopefully I'll get some longer posts with pictures done about some of these things:

-We had a GREAT summer.  Lots of swimming, sun, outdoor concerts, library programs, friends, and enjoying the long daylight hours.  We even got to go to Schlitterbahn (local water park) for the first time.  Actually we got to go twice since Cathy (Jeff's mom) gave the kids two family passes for a joint birthday present.  BEST gift ever!  We absolutely loved Schlitterbahn, it is a great water park - the absolute best I've ever been to.
It was a hot summer.  But honestly it never really bothered me.  Saying goodbye to summer, was very hard and I still miss it.  But I'm happily embracing fall clothes, and being able to wear jeans again.

-Every one of the littles turned a year older.  We're very nearly done celebrating - only one more "kid party" to go for Sable.  She's been 5 since August, but we're still working on getting that party in.  It WILL happen!

-Rome and Capri are back in public school.  We loved home school last year, but after LOTS of thought and prayer I decided that this year it was needful for them to go back.  They agreed and have been loving their new school, Prairie Point Elementary.  We were redistricted and the kids were really excited about it.  Their old school, Graden, had a good staff (for the most part, the front office staff is AWFUL) but the building is the oldest in the district and you can really tell.  The bathrooms are deplorable and instead of renovating them - they renovated, you guessed it, the front office.  Nice.
So far Prairie Point has been a success with both kids liking their teachers and the school in general.  I felt strongly that this year I needed to have more time with Sable and Oz.  That has been a real success as well.  We're doing home preschool and Sable loves it.

-Capri and Sable are back at Diane's School of Dance where they are always happy to be.  I love that school and wish I could have gone there myself as a kid.  The women who run it could not be kinder and the kids all learn and have fun.  It's a great place to dance.

-Rome has been taking Golf lessons and he LOVES it.  I saw that there was a golf clinic he could sign up for and immediately emailed my Dad to see if he wanted to sponsor a budding golfer (AKA, pay for classes).  The response was that it was a done deal and the easiest decision my Dad had made all week.  I kind of figured that would be the answer. 

-My parents made their annual trip to KC and we all had a blast.  They spoiled us rotten as they always do, paying for everything and making us all feel extremely loved and adored in general.  We even hit the KC Renaissance Festival together.  It was a great visit and we were all VERY sad to say goodbye.  I love my parents, and I'm not saying that to suck up.  I miss them on a daily basis, and so do the rest of the family.

-We went to Arkansas for the first time to visit our friends the Sperrys.  They are an awesome family and we were so excited to get to spend time with them.  One of Jeff's best friends Alex was going to be DJing a dance at the church for a friend's birthday.  It was an 80's themed dance and he invited all his friends to come and relive the past.   It was such a blast, Jeff and I burned up the dance floor.

-I was released from the Primary Presidency and given a new calling.  I'm now the "Ward Food Storage Specialist".  I had to laugh, specialist?  Try food storage novice/needs to get her own in order before she tells anybody else to do so.  And so I did get my own in order by clearing out 1/2 of our basement play room and setting up new shelves.  I got everything organized and can now see what I have and what I need.  The calling is going well, and I've learned a lot.  If I help nobody else get their food storage going, at least I've got my own.

-I repainted the dining room and got the trim and window painted.  It looks so nice and I'm really happy to have it done.  Now on to my own bedroom and bathroom.  It's a monumental project and may just kill me, but I WILL do it.  I'm actually going to be painting the shower tiles.  YES, it can be done.  YES, I know it will look like painted tiles.  But if you saw my shower tiles (hunting dogs, I'm serious) you'd understand.  Until it can be totally replaced, it will be painted.

-Jeff and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary.  ELEVEN years.  That's a lot right?  I'm happy to say that we are still in love and are each others best friend.  That's all the mush I'll burden you with.

-Capri had a "Paul Frank" birthday party the other day.  It was a houseful of screaming girls and went absolutely wonderfully.  I think the noise level indicated that everybody had a great time.  One thing we did was a photo booth.  I hung a sheet and organized all the dress up stuff.  The girls (plus Rome) all got dressed up in tons of different things and then I took lots of pictures.  It was a blast and they all loved it.  Then we hooked the camera up to the big screen TV and watched a slideshow of all the pictures.  It worked out really well and we may just have to do it again.

A little sneak peek of the photo booth.