Charlie

 Meet Charlie!!

 Emily struggles with finding friends to play with. She wants a BFF so badly. Joseph always has people to hang with and places to go. I felt it was time to get her her own puppy to love and be loved by. Since I will not be working I will be able to take care of him during the day. I feel like having a little someone to love and be loved by too. I surprised her and she was so excited. Charlie is a Chocolate Lab and is 10 weeks old. He has a very sweet temperament. I better go sleep so I can get up at 4 to let him out. I love seeing Emily so happy!!!

No More Subbing

     I really like subbing. I LOVE the kids and I like making some extra money. (Not a lot of money, but some). It does help me avoid my life too. I get to do all my errands when I get home and by then the day is about done. I also am not home until an hour and fifteen minutes after my kids. A lot of stuff happens during that transition time. The sub system went to Kelly Services and I was supposed to go down and get hired on by them, but I felt like I shouldn't do it. There are days when someone calls me to sub and I say yes even if I don't want to. It's hard for me to say no. I have decided that my kids, especially Emily, need me. Emily needs me there to help her with the frustration the day has caused. I am also free to help her with homework. (not an easy task). I get stuff done during the day that I used to ignore and be free to help my kids. So, if I don't go get hired by Kelly Services, no one can call me. I will need to cut back on things (after my Cancun trip of course). I feel such a peace since I made the decision last night. I will also miss all of my little fans at Windsor. I truly adore those kids and having them wave and say hello or get excited when they found out I was subbing. The other night, Emily was so overwhelmed and was having a massive "meltdown". By the end she was sobbing, "I want my daddy!" She sobbed for so long and begged for her daddy over and over. There is nothing more heart wrenching than that. I can hardly bear it. That is something I just can't fix for her. I think not subbing will help me focus more on my broken hearted baby. She is a lot of work, but I adore her!!!! Back to being super poor (after Cancun)!!!! Goodbye subbing, hello operation Help my Daughter.

Back to School

 Today is the first day of school. Emily carefully picked out her outfit, woke me up at 6:00 a.m. to do her hair (Umm....not cool!), accessorized, and made sure she wore her sparkly Tom's.

 I can't believe Emily is in 6th grade this year. I hope she makes some friends this year and behaves herself. (Oh please, please, please!!!) She has a very nice teacher this year so hopefully she feels like she has an advocate. Last year she called her teacher "The Devil". It was a rough year. I hope this year is positive and that her social skills bloom.

 For Joseph's first day he wore his Stud. Co. (otherwise known as student council) shirt. He is in student council this year and has already been going to school for a couple weeks, preparing for this assembly and other things. I went to watch his assembly.

 Joseph did such a great job. He even showed off some of his dance moves. I love watching him take such a big part of his school. He truly is a hard working kid. I hope he enjoys all of his adventures in student council this year.

This is also a first day for me. I was able to come home to a quiet house ( YAY!!!) and start meal planning and focus on myself. I feel very good about getting healthy. It will be a long journey with many road blocks, but I will keep moving forward. I will update you with my successes. I need some motivation sometimes. So, happy day of new beginnings!

Last Week of Summer

We had such a busy fun week to end our summer. First, my SIL came for a short visit. Since we can't go down to California for her baby shower, we gave her all of her stuff. My brother and SIL have been married for over 13 years. They have wanted a child for so long. This little nephew of mine is a miracle and blessing to our family.

Then our favorite family arrived from California for five days. They got here on Monday evening. We got the kids settled and my friend, Jamie and I went to see the move "The Help". We have both read the book and loved it. The book was better, but the movie was pretty good.

The next day we went to the mall for a while and had a nice lunch. The kids went in the wind tunnel and they were all laughing so hard!

Next stop for the day was bowling. We bowled two games and I was the biggest loser on both!

The girls gave each other make-overs!

That night Jamie and I went to park city for a little adventure. We ate at The Red Banjo Pizza Parlor. It was so good. We got to sit out on the balcony by ourselves.

The next part of our adventure was going on a haunted tour. It was fun and the history of Park City is very interesting. Jamie likes haunted things a lot so this was a special treat for her. This is one of the most haunted houses in Park City and above was our guide.

The next day we went to Seven Peaks. We both forgot cameras that day. The kids had a lot of fun and it was quite relaxing for the moms.

Later that day, one of our good friends, Ronda stopped by for a visit. She was passing through on the way to her brother's from California. We had a nice visit. Then our game night began. Christopher, Christine, Jamie and I had so much fun. Christopher tried to put clothes pins all over himself. What weird kids I have. Christine just put a couple on her.

The next morning Dennis went to Krispy Kream for the kids. The moms enjoyed it too.

Next stop for this day was the Utah County Fair. The kids got their faces painted. Joseph supported breast cancer awareness. Emily was a bunny.

We saw lots of fun animals.

They had wristbands for rides and could ride as many rides as they wanted all day!

The most exciting part of the fair was the bull riding. It was seriously so fun! When we got home, Jamie and I watched 8 Seconds. It is a true story of the famous bull rider Lane Frost killed by a bull. Good movie and it went great with our day.

The next morning, Jamie and I went to this salon and had an hour massage each. It was WONDERFUL!!! After that we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese for some fun.

That night Jamie took me to see "The Sound of Music" up at Sundance for my birthday. We had a delicious BBQ dinner up there and our seats were perfect. The Sound of Music is my all time favorite movie. I have seen it on Broadway and this play was even better than that. Maria had an amazing voice and all the actors were terrific. Such a treat. Thank you, Jamie!!!

They sadly left on Saturday morning.  Joseph had the busiest week of all. He had 10 hours of football practice, student council everyday, and then two parties on Saturday. Emily decided to get bangs for school. She is not used to it and is struggling with liking it.

So, there it is. The summer has now ended and the most wonderful day of the year is in just a couple days.

Summer Fun!

I didn't do as much with Emily this summer as I wanted. I guess I didn't feel too well this summer. When we do do stuff, we had fun! Her sweet friends went along on our adventures. Joseph was gone pretty much the whole summer. He just does his thing. Christopher too, but Emily needs my help to get things done.

We went to Classic Skating and tried to skate. Nadia did great. Emily and Sasha struggled a little. They all fell a ton, but had great fun!

We also went rock climbing and the bumper boats at Trafalga.

We also had some yummy food!

We went to a lot of movies.

Got a cute hair style.

We had some fun at Chuck E Cheese!

Then we took a fun overnight trip to Park City!

They played Barbies on the way there.

First stop, Color Me Mine! It was so much fun and their pieces came out so cute!

The condo had bunk beds for the girls!

We found a super fun park that we played at.

The girl's made these super cute hair bows for school and for sale.

Then I made a spa for them. We had facials.

Then came pedicures. I didn't know you couldn't put soap in the tub so it bubbled out all over. Then I painted their toe nails.

We also did a lot of swimming!

These girls have also been to Seven Peaks, collected food and took it to the Food Bank, played and played and did some cleaning too! Thank you Nadia and Sasha for sharing our summer with us. Hopefully next year I can do stuff more often. Happy Summer!