Sale of the Century

The 6th graders around these parts have a week-long trip to an outdoor camp each fall. Our family will be sending TWO 6th graders, which means we are responsible for TWO fees of $250. Yeah. For those who are having trouble keeping up, that means $500 smackers. We told the girls they would have to work a bit to help offset costs.

During one phone conversation with my mom, I happened to mention how obscenely expensive the camp is. Leave it to Grandma to come up with a brilliant plan: a jewelry sale! She headed up to the Galt flea market to stock up on necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and headbands at wholesale prices. I threw in some of my bracelets and handmade reversible ribbon headbands.

Mom walked the girls through the process step-by-step--advertising, overhead costs, price points, sale ettiquette. The girls went through the neighborhood handing out flyers, sent emails, and set up for the sale. They labeled the items, took money, and made change. They even did a little bit extra selling of water bottle carriers at Andrew's baseball game (with a lot of help from Syndey!).

And so, in about 14 hours over three days, Emma and Leah earned enough money to cover the cost of one camper! I was amazed and impressed and incredibly grateful to Grandma for the brilliant idea and the loving execution. I am also impressed with Emma's and Leah's work ethic and willingness to help out in their own behalf. I know they will appreciate and remember this experience so much more because of the part they played in getting themselves to camp.

{I think they will also remember those "America's Got Talent" and "SYTYCD" performances Grandma inspired during down time! Wink, wink}

Thank you, Grandma, for saving the day--
and our bank account!

Just for Grandpa

Andrew's second double of the evening!

Sounds of Summer

For your viewing pleasure.....I give you a selection from the fab Summer Band concert.

Parents just don't understand...

...how being able to attend a summer band concert is a big deal.

...that their grandkids love it when they goof around with them.
...that being together for the 4th of July was so great, we had to celebrate the holiday twice.

(Public Square ~ Clague Park)

...that free family bowling is worth dealing with the grumpy bowling alley employee.

...that it is possible to have the perfect BBQ, and that sometimes too much is a good thing.

...how lucky their daughter is to have known her father for 35 years of his 60-year life. And counting.

...that they can make fairy tales come true for their grandkids.

...we are all questioning the worth of future visits to CiCi's. Well, maybe not the kids.

...just how much we love them!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog posts...

I usually try to blog in chronological order, but there has been so much excitement around here lately that I have kind of been overwhelmed and hence avoiding it all together. But tonight's events are just so blog-worthy I can't let it pass by.

Today was a long day, spent mostly outside. In fact, the kids and I spent the better part of 12 hours either in the garage or on the front lawn. In the hot sun. And so I don't really know what I was thinking when I allowed the kids to start watching SYTYCD at 8:30 pm. (Yeah, I know it was two hours long, but here's a tip: fast-forward through the judges' non-comments and you can bust it out in an hour.) Brooke and Andrew's inability to sit still or stop giggling through the show should have been a clue. But we powered through and by 9:30 we were ready to head upstairs for prayers.

It should have been quick and easy. But here's where things started falling apart. Brooke and Andrew (yes they are the stars of this story) are currently sharing a room while Grandma is here. The earlier horseplay and silliness warranted a warning that if the two of them could not settle down quickly, they would have to be separated. This sent Andrew into some sort of tailspin about who would be the one to leave the room. He then started insisting that he would sleep on the floor in the hallway (?). He was able to drop the whining and crying long enough for a prayer (barely) but picked it right back up when he decided he needed someone to lay with him. Sorry, Señor, but that is not going to happen at 9:45 at night.

In the midst of all this, the phone rings. And the young voice on the other end asks for Brooke. What? Huh? Why is Brooke getting a phone call at 9:45? What is this, 5 years from now? So it's Brooke's friend, asking if she can come over tomorrow from 5 till 8. Let me clarify those pronouns. She, Brooke's friend, was asking Brooke if she, Brooke's friend, could come over. This was not an invitation, but I think, a babysitting request. I explain to Brooke that we have plans tomorrow (pizza and movie night at the Chatty's, y'all!), but if she wanted to come to Andrew's baseball game that would be fine. So the friend says she'll call back. What? So that means that Brooke has to stay up even later to wait for this phone call?

Apparently our plans don't mesh with the friend's babysitting needs, and so during the second call she tells Brooke we're off the hook. There's one problem solved. Now, even though every fiber of my being is screaming for PJ's and some major couch time, I return to Andrew's room to put out the next fire. As I listen to him cry, I kind of feel like I might join in. I told him that I am sad that I let him stay up late to watch TV and he should not repay this great privilege with crying. I said, Look, dude, I can't do this anymore today. You just have to go to bed. On your own. I then made a general announcement to all within the sound of my voice that I was done being a mother until 6:30 tomorrow morning and I better not see or hear any more from any children until then.

At this point, any normal, non-Mormon person (yeah, I just admitted I'm weird) would have promptly gone downstairs and opened any form of alcohol available. Wine, beer, Nyquil, whatever. Anything to take the edge off. I, however, am not going to go that route. I opened any carton of ice cream available. Chocolate, cookies and cream, whatever. Anything to take the edge off. You can say what you want, but I felt a heckuva lot better after that full bowl.

Comfortably numb. Enough to get me through the next few hours till I'm back on the clock.

Open door policy.

After years and months and weeks of waiting, we finally had a major home improvement. A new patio door. (Insert huge sigh of relief here.) We have been dealing with a broken screen that fell off just about every time we used it. We were missing half of the outer trim which allowed wasps to become uninvited house guests. And the door was just generally a piece of junk.

On Installation Day, the workers promptly came, struggled to get the old door out, finally did get the old door out, and then realized they needed some more materials and lunch. They just left a gaping hole in the wall. Talk about letting nature in.


But a couple hours and one lemonade stand later, we can now enjoy a beautiful new patio door. The best part? Built-in mini-blinds! Like in between the two panes of glass, so they will never be touched by grimy little human hands, and I will not have to ever ever clean them. And there is lovely white pristine trim outside. And the screen works!


Thank you, American Greetings and your little yearly bonuses, for making this possible. Now if you could throw a little more moola our way...we still need to replace the rest of the windows, and the siding and the gutters...

Because if you have to spend all day getting on each other's nerves, you might as well get paid for it.

The kids had a lemonade stand last week on a day we were stuck at home. They made two big signs, a pitcher of pink and regular lemonade, and dozens of their world famous chocolate chip cookies (and didn't eat any dough!). Customers included friends and their dad who contributed a $20 bill, people who stopped to give money but didn't want any goods, our two favorite young women in the ward, and one fine elderly gentleman who simply threw money out the window.

With just a little bit of effort, each child came out $10 richer.

I mean, when life hands you lemons, there's just one thing to do, right?