party at my house

I'm having a party at my house. It starts now and ends when we are finished. The funnest part of the party is trying to figure out who all the school supplies belong to.

Yes, I just bought school supplies for 5 children.

As I was saying, party at my house. You can shred packaging, rip open containers, and figure out who needs this and who needs that. Then once you have figured out who needs the pink eraser, the white eraser, the scissors, the pointed scissors, the pencils, the red pen, the yellow highlighter, or two highlighters, the headphones, 4 folders, 2 folders, and so on and so forth, then you can write each child's name on every individual thing I have just bought.

It's a party, so why are you looking at me like that?!

It'll be fun, I promise! I'll even find the school supply list to make it easier to try to remember who is going into what grade, so the correct names get on the correct supplies.

OK, so maybe the party isn't tonight, but at least the supplies are purchased. Oh and if you really are bored tonight and want to write names down, come on over...we'd be glad to have you!

what a week

This week sure was a long one. I had to drive to Sioux Falls every day this week for job training. The training was awesome. It was on one of the curriculum's I use with my job called Parents as Teachers (PAT). Wonderful curriculum and I learned so much. The trainers were hilarious and amusing. Even though the days were long and it was lots of sitting and listening, they were able to keep us laughing and learning.

I also learned on my long drives every day that road construction in South Dakota is treacherous and lengthy. Over half of my drive was spent beside orange cones and heavy machinery.

I came back to the office and had tons of work to complete, which I'm not even sure I got completely finished. I was high strung and full of anxiety when I got home. I'm trying to play catch up at work for a week missed, plus I'm having knee surgery on Monday, so I will be out of work for 3-4 weeks. I'll be glad when the surgery is done and things are mended, then hopefully I can try to lose a few (many) pounds.

Tomorrow is Honey Days in Bruce. We're thinking of taking the kids there tomorrow to see the parade. We've never been to that parade and have heard good things about it. I'm anxious to see it.

roasting marshmellows

We spent last night with family. Good food, fun conversation, and roasting marshmallows around a fire were the highlights of the night. The kids had a blast.

Daddy helps Zack roast a marshmallow.
Auntie Lindsey helps Miss Devin with her marshmallows at first, then Devin got the hang of it and took off on her own.

Jayden wasn't too sure what to think. He preferred to eat his marshmallows plain without being roasted.

Shawndra devoured hers. She also liked hers to have less brown on it.

Joseph and Dalton would have eaten the whole bag if we would have let them. They loved the marshmallows.

Finally, Zack gets to taste his marshmallow.

blog annoyance

As you can see, my blog background has changed and I don't think it's changed for the better. The place where I always get my blog backgrounds has had some troubles with photobucket and had to make changes, which caused me to lose my background. I have temporarily put this one on to break up the monotony, but do plan to change it when I find time. Maybe tomorrow! In the meantime, I hope it's not too annoying or hard to read. Believe me changes are coming soon.

finally getting cool

After an entire week without central air, I'm very happy to report that I'm feeling like my old self again because my house is cooling off. As of 5pm tonight, the new central air was dehumidifying my house and cooling it down.

This morning I woke up and the humidity in here was terrible. The banister going downstairs had beads of water on it, the floors were sticky, papers looked like they went through the wash because they were so damp, clothes felt sticky and the animals were lounging around being hot and miserable. I couldn't even do my hair today because of the humidity.

I'm just one happy girl, very tired, but definitely happy to have central air again.

I hate being hot

Beware: post below is a pity party for me. You've been warned.

I'm hot. I'm always hot. On a normal day, I'm hot. I'm hot at work, I'm hot when I'm sleeping, hot when I'm sitting. I'm hot.

I hate the heat. I don't hate many things, but heat is one thing I cannot stand. Especially in my house or vehicles. Those are the two places I can be safe from the heat. Until recently.

I came home on Thursday night and my house was 85 degrees. It was sweltering hot. I felt like I was going to choke on the air it was so stuffy. I messed with the A/C, flipped the breaker back and forth, messed with the A/C again, and for some reason it fired up again. I can't make the house cold, but I can make it more comfortable.

On Friday while in Sioux Falls, the A/C in the truck broke down. It was 93 degrees outside and no wind. I had a headache all day anyhow and then when the truck's A/C went out, it turned almost instantly into a migraine. Driving home, sitting on leather seats, in a black suburban with all the kids and no A/C is torture. The wind was loud and hot, although the breeze on my face felt pretty good. However, the only thing to fix the headache was a nap in a cold house when we got home.

Saturday we went to town in the car because the car has A/C. Well it would only be right to have issues with the A/C in the car then too. I've had issues with it in the past freezing up and not blowing out cold air all the time, but now it's getting worse.

So here we are on Sunday and now the house A/C has been froze up all day. It's currently 80 degrees inside my house. We tried the windows open, which didn't help. It's hot in here. It's stuffy. And I'm getting crabby.

In fact, so hot and miserable that I went to work! At least work has A/C. So right now when it's freaking hot outside, I have no where to go that's cold. And it sucks. I hate it. I hate being hot.

And of course, money is tight right now. Tighter than we've ever had it. So fixing all these problems with the A/C is virtually impossible right now. And it sucks. I hate being hot.

some hail tonight

I love storms. I love the thought and anticipation of the storm arising. Especially when it's supposed to be a big storm or the threat of severe weather. Now, I don't want people or property to be hurt or damaged, but a good storm with some heavy rain and winds is right up my alley. Tonight, we almost got missed, but did manage to get some of it.

Initially the rotating clouds made me a bit nervous as to what's to come.

But we only got a few sprinkles and then a few rain showers. The next storm had more storms popping up behind it and we could see we were going to get something. We ended up getting some hail.
Which made the lawn look like there were white cotton balls lounging around. The sound of the hail bouncing off the roof and windows was awesome.

I ran to the front of the house because I knew the road was flooding and then I got a few neat pictures of the splashes of hail going into the flooded road.

Once the storm ended, everybody came outside. Our road is the highlight of Volga because of the flooding.

The hail was about the size of quarters. Shawndra is holding a few of her prized pieces after they'd been on the ground for 20 minutes.

Because of the flooding, people come out to see our road. Children come out to play, adults stand in driveways and watch, and cars attempt to drive through it. It's always fun to see who will be venturing out and how early because everyone watches them try to make it through the entire road. Down towards the middle of the picture is where it gets really deep. They usually turn around there and come back.

When the storm was over we were greeted by a rainbow and some beautiful pink and purple clouds as they left our area.

here they are...a few of my favorites

one crazy happy family

We are one, great big, crazy, happy family

that is used to a little someone throwing fits...and we all have our own ways of dealing with it.

something new

Did you notice a new little something up above? A little sneak peek as to what we finally received today!! That's right, our professional pictures are in my hand and let me tell you, I'm in love. What do you think of the little sneak peek?

screws

My step dad had surgery today on his arm from his motorcycle accident. The break was falling apart and his hand was falling into his wrist, so the surgery was very needed. A plate and screws were placed in his arm under the muscle, so he shouldn't lose any flexibility in his wrist. This was awesome news. The doctor said his bones were very smooth and they fit back together perfectly. The recovery after surgery today has been rough on him. The pain is intense, but he is receiving pain medication through a pump. Hopefully in 6 weeks he will be good to go, or at least better than he is now.

Ironically enough, while he was in surgery today, I was being told the news of my screws. You know, the ones loose in my head. OK, not really, but it sounded good!

I've had knee pain for many years after my last knee scope. Well a good month ago, I fell down the stairs because of my dog. Seriously! Anyhow, my knee hurt, but I dealt with it, except I have lots of pain when sitting and then going back to standing, or stairs, or carrying things, or stretching my legs. I finally drug myself to the doctor today pretty much knowing I am going to need my knee scoped again due to torn cartilage. The doctor agreed and sent me to x-ray because that's the process in order to get an MRI.

He finally called me back to his office and while he was pulling up the electronic x-rays, we were talking about the different ways I can make the pain recur. He guessed there might be something else going on. About that time, he got the x-rays pulled up and that's when he seen it. Apparently I have fractured or broken a piece of bone on the right side of my knee. It was goofy looking and he's not exactly sure what happened. There was another piece on the other side of my knee that looked like a calcium deposit or a bone chip, but again, not sure.

So I asked him, what does this mean? How do we fix it? And he then tells me depending on how healed it is, they will have to go in and put a screw in it to hold it together or possibly rebreak that spot and then put a screw in. Ugh. Not what I wanted to hear. I expected the x-rays to be normal and to then get scheduled for an MRI. Instead, I have abnormal x-rays and an MRI scheduled for Monday.

As the doctor said, this means we are possibly dealing with 2 separate issues.

4th of July

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. Our family kept busy over the days preceding the holiday and today. We lit off fireworks from our house on Saturday night. The kids had so much fun. At one point, I heard Dalton say, "this is the best night ever!". I love hearing stuff like that come from their mouths.

Jayden initially had fun with the snaps that pop. He threw them down in the driveway. He even got to the point where he held a sparkler. Shortly after he got scared and I took it from him. It was a hot and humid evening and we thought Jayden was sweating so bad his shirt was getting wet. Then we realized he had had an accident!

Devin absolutely loved the smoke balls. She danced in the radiant colors and squealed in delight. Some of the fireworks the boys lit off were loud and she covered her ears.
Joseph was more into trying to blow things up or starting them on fire. He piled all the old used up fireworks in one spot and then would put another new one on top and light it. Of course we didn't have any "big" fireworks because we kept it simple and as safe as possible. After a few attempts, he realized he wasn't going to be able to blow anything up.

Dalton loved the bottle rockets because they whistled and then popped. Half of our fireworks never worked which was really frustrating. Here he is imitating what the bottle rocket will do.

Like I said, the kids loved dancing in the colored smoke. The white smoke smelled really bad.

Dalton did a great job lighting fireworks. He put several packages of jumping jacks together on numerous occasions and then lit them. He would proudly smile and say, "that was 10" and walk away.

Jayden spent most of the time covering his ears. He later threw tantrums and screamed. Hard to believe that cute face was capable of turning not so cute.

I'm questioning if I have a future police officer on my hands? She looks pretty serious.

Or maybe it's just the mouthful of sunflower seeds in her mouth. Or maybe she's getting ticked because she couldn't get the gun to go off. Neither could Shawndra.

One of our blue smoke balls took off rolling down the driveway while it was lit and it left blue circles all down the driveway. That was very funny.

Shawndra had fun with the sparklers at night. Between her, Devin, and Joseph, I'm not sure who liked those more!

We went to the parade on the 4th. That was fun, but once again, Jayden covered his ears the whole time. He's not crazy about loud noises. I think this years parade was better than past years. We then headed to the Uncle Sam Jam and stayed for about an hour. I have some cute pictures of that too. I'll post later about those. It was so hot we left fairly early. We finally ended the night by going back into town for the fireworks display. All 8 of us ended up sitting in the truck because the mosquitoes were so bad.