- Robby had already left the house this morning to get a new tire for the mini van. The tire had been losing some air, but surprisingly it had 2 nails in it plus a bubble (I think). So hooray for that tire, it did pretty good only losing air once a week with two nails in it.
- That tire is like the suburban-it just keeps going....well, not so much today. I didn't use it while the kids were gone on their mission trips so when Robby started it afterwards, it was dead dead. We thought just some driving around would help, but it still stutters to start so that might be tomorrow's project.
- And since we are on the subject on cars, tomorrow will be a week since we heard that Reagan's new to her car wasn't going to happen. Hopefully soon, they haven't forgotten about us and will find another one that will work for us.
- I didn't have a huge amount of things on my list today-but I did discover that my dress for tonight had a spot on it. This was after I had already washed it and ironed it the other day so who knows what it was. Ironing is not by forte by far-it is even harder without an ironing board, but I got the job done.
- Anderson and Graham went to play basketball this afternoon. With their basketballing and Reagan's pickleballing, we are a pretty athletic family. Who knew?
- Keaton and Campbell went with me early this afternoon to help plate the desserts for Josh's rehearsal dinner. The cakes were in their pans, and we had to put them in cups and them top them with their toppings. I knew not to wear my light blue dress, and the girls had on their dresses so I was the cake scooper and was a sticky mess!
- Soon Robby and everyone else showed up at the rehearsal dinner-it was a beautiful venue, and the evening was perfect. Chuys were for supper, and as soon as it was over Reagan headed out to play pickleball. Anderson and Graham decided that they were going to go as well so they are currently off playing pickleball in their khakis and polos.
- The rest of us are back home trying to thaw out since it was chilly at the venue. And since we had a Thursday night event, it feels like today is Friday so I think that I will be confused tomorrow on what day it is.
July 25, 2024
July 24, 2024
- Robby had McDonalds for breakfast for the early risers this morning. I think that only included all of the boys, but they all snagged some form of breakfast. Graham did wait to eat his until after he ran his 4.5 miles this morning.
- I walked just 2 while he was out running, and gracious it was a little bit warmer today. Bentley was ready to come in the house today, and I sure was.
- My list today was a bit shorter than it has been in a few days so that was nice. I even managed to read a little bit more today. This afternoon Campbell had to go to a friend's house so I let her drive to Nonna and Pops' house to drop off a shirt.
- She did well, but I think she is concerned that she is not going fast enough so she tried to speed up a bit today which I am not ready for. After Nonna's we went to the library, and from there Graham drove. He also did well-I only quickly encouraged him to brake while pressing my foot in the floor to brake and grabbing the door handle.
- The rest of the afternoon was quiet inside the house, but Anderson played with Whitman outside. I believe that they played Sports Golf.
- Later in the evening, they played some other game on the couch cushions in the bonus room. While they were fixing things after their game, Anderson reported that he found 3 cups, 2 plates, and a spoon. I guess that is where all my dishes are going.
- Reagan went to meet her friends at pickleball, Keaton is in her room, and the boys are all in the bonus room. I think that the ice cream is gone so it will be a fairly quiet night around here.
July 23, 2024
- I think that I could say that we all seem to be back in a routine after everyone's week gone and Whitman and my week here. It is kind of nice to be back in our little pattern-even if it is our crazy summer routines.
- This is the second day in a row that Graham has woken up early to run. Of course the last two days that he has done this, the weather has not been horrible like it was a few weeks ago when he was running at noon and it was 200 degrees outside.
- Whitman has started on some of his new school for next year. It is a brand new language arts program which I am super excited about. Today was really the first real day, and he didn't hate it. This is a program that says it does not go by grade level, so I could have probably bought Whitman the level below this one. However, I can already tell he is going to do great-the only problems he will have is with spelling.
- Each day this curriculum has me dictate 2 or 3 sentences for him to write down. They have crazy words in them already like "peasant," "autumn," and "daughter." He doesn't have a chance at spelling any of those correctly, so we will do those sentences but we will still press on with our other spelling.
- Everyone but Whitman went to eat lunch today with the church group. They said that even though they ordered online, it took nearly an hour to get their food. I don't think they cared though since there were quite a few people there to visit with.
- When lunch was over, the boys went to play basketball. They played until after 5, and the girls went to TJ Maxx and shopped about that long. Reagan found a few more dorm things, and then she went to the bonus room to put them up and was surprised at all of her collection of things. (And really, we haven't gone overboard at all.)
- Reagan went to Bible study tonight and then a movie so she missed out on the spaghetti that the rest of us had for supper here. When supper was over, I spent a good deal of time buying textbooks for Reagan next year.
- Now I'm going to find me a snack and possibly a tv show to watch-since everyone has been home, I just can not get into reading my books. I am not sure what is wrong with me right now, but I just can't read!
July 22, 2024
- This was the first day with everyone back home and chores and some school work to do, and getting back into the swing of things was a little bit difficult for my people. Hopefully, over the next two weeks they can start getting used to the idea that school starts soon.
- During the morning, Whitman did start his new language arts book. Today was an easy day, so I can't really tell how it is going to go. Though I think that it is going to be a perfect fit for him.
- This afternoon Campbell, Graham, and Anderson had dentist appointments. They all had cavities to be filled-I think Anderson had the most (4), but Graham's was the deepest. I wasn't sure that Campbell was going to get out of the car at the dentist-I thought that she might just refuse to go in. She really dislikes the dentist and having to have a filling sure didn't help her love or lack there of of them.
- Keaton had a dress came in the mail today which fit, so the Dennies are pretty much ready for Friday night's wedding. Outfitting all of us for something is fairly difficult which is one of the reasons that we have never had family pictures made.
- While all the bigs were leaving for Raymar Bible study tonight, Whitman and I played his new game again. I then made him supper before I took a short evening nap.
July 21, 2024
- This morning my alarm went off super early, but that was kind of nice because after my shower, I climbed back in bed for a few minutes before having to start waking everyone up. I was a bit stressed when I noticed that I didn't run the dishwasher last night, but I was happy when I opened it to find that we didn't have many dishes yesterday-I'm not really sure what or how we ate though.
- We made it to church in plenty of time. Last week all of the youth were gone on their mission trips, but this week they were all back. They sat right in front of us, and they were all there today. Obviously, this is a good thing, but it so stressed me out when someone comes up looking for a seat, and then there is no room for them so they have to make the walk of shame back out to find another seat. With the pews, you could always squeeze someone else in, but not with these new chairs. Robby and I even moved over a seat today trying to give someone some room so they could avoid the no seat walk of shame,
- After big church, we headed to Sunday school. They had cookies for a big snack today which made all of the kids happy. Church had gone long, so Sunday school time was kind of short. Then we were finished, but our big kids were upstairs chatting with their friends for a while.
- Lunch today was at Nonna and Pops' house. They had pork tenderloin, and we also celebrated Graham's birthday. I think that he was pleased with his birthday present's-cash! We stayed there chatting for a little bit, and then came home.
- Robby turned on the news to watch about Biden not running again for president-lots of history making moments happening lately. We both also snoozed some. Keaton and Campbell were going to leave at 3:10, but about 3:05 a friend called me. I chatted for a while, and then realized it was past time to leave with the girls.
- I went upstairs, and they were both sleeping soundly. I tried to wake Campbell up, and she promptly told me that we didn't have to leave until 3:10, and I told her that it was 3:18, and she still didn't seem to care. Once they did get up, we were soon in the car, and they were only a few minutes late to their Bible study.
- A bit later, Anderson and Graham walked to the car. I asked about Reagan, and they said that she said she wasn't going. I was confused because at Nonna's house she had mentioned her friend's were coming. I text her, and she was going, but I guess she was asleep too when the boys asked her. We need to do a better job about alarm setting and communicating on these Sundays.
- The Wilsons came over this evening. We made a fancy supper of grilled cheese, but we did top it off with ice cream since this is National Ice Cream Day-though Tony agreed with me that I think National Ice Cream day rolls around fairly often!
July 20, 2024
- I woke right up at 7:20 this morning and could not go back to sleep, so I wandered into the kitchen and started folding the 5 full laundry baskets full of clothes. By 8 or so, I had the dishes emptied and all of those clothes folded. That was a good feeling; however, I am well aware that the kids' rooms still look like they are leaving for a trip tomorrow. Even Anderson's area is full of clothes.
- After the laundry was taken care of, I did pretty much nothing for the rest of the morning. I tried to nap some, but never really went to sleep for long. Annie came over to play with Bentley around noon so that helped reverse Bentley's depression some from everyone leaving her last week.
- This evening Robby and I had a few errands-we came home with milk which the big boys seem to guzzle right now. For example, last night we had chicken for supper, and they said that was a good milk meal. I don't think that is right, but at least they are getting their calcium.
- We also came home with supper for everyone-2 pepperoni pizzas, 3 tacos, and 2 wraps. Since these were all mystery shops, the kitchen was full of people circling while Robby had to take pictures of all the food.
- We also brought something fun for the boys' room: an air conditioner. Even though it was not over 90 today, it still got up to 82 in the boys' room. That's just too hot, plus they have all of their devices on which just generates more heat. Our real air was working hard and blowing out cold air, but it just can't keep up with rooms in the eaves of the house.
- After eating, we worked on the air conditioner. It was surprisingly easy to put in, and it fits perfectly right by Anderson's bed. They shut their door, and it quickly cooled their room to 68. I'm sure Graham will have to start wearing a parka, but I think that they will both enjoy this air conditioner.
- Last night we started Whitman's new board game, but it was late, everyone was tired, and we weren't really sure of the rules. Tonight though, Whitman and I had studied up so we knew exactly how the game worked-Whitman, Robby, and Anderson won the game this evening, but I bet that Whitman will want to play again very soon.
July 19, 2024-Mission Trip Week (Las Vegas, Austin, and St. Louis)
- Ah, it is so nice that all of my people are back under my roof. However, even though it was just a week, Whitman and I will have to get used to having everyone home again. We had our own little order of things, and even though all things are better with all our people, it is still different.
- Whitman and I woke up drove to Pinnacle Mountain this morning. We charged up that hill and gracious, it is a little steeper than I remembered. I thought that it was just rocky the last little bit, but nope-that whole trail is rocky.
- The Central High football team was coming down the mountain as we went up, so there were lots of people coming down to give us lots of time to take a few breaks-and we needed it. I have never been so relieved to see those numbers on that trail.
- Whitman pressed on, but he did need some encouragement. When we made it to the top, we sat that cooling off a bit, but the weather was absolutely perfect today for the middle of July. Then we trekked back down the mountain-that is when I knew that I am not as spry as I used to be. My knee and ankle would hurt every other step down. Whitman started to get tired and stumbled three different times. but we made it!
- Unfortunately, Whitman gave our last adventure a 2 out of 10. Oh well, you can't win them all. The coke that he drank on the way home surely helped raise the score some. We got gas, and then went to Nonna and Pops' house to eat lunch.
- After lunch, I hurried home to make Texas Road House rolls-they were not perfect, but they were the best that I had ever done. I then cut up quite a few veggies-green beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and carrots to roast with some air fryer chicken. I ran like a crazy woman doing this while tracking everyone on their way home.
- I was at church a little bit before 4 when Campbell and Keaton came in-they had a wonderful time on their trip. Their favorite part was when it flooded and the girls had to do all of the work at the civic center.
- Robby and Graham pulled in about an hour later. They also had a good trip and were glad to be home safely. We then had to frantically rush to Benton to return a rental car before racing to the airport to pick up Reagan and Anderson.
- We made it to the airport right as they were landing, but we were inside waiting with everyone else by the time that made it down the escalator. They both enjoyed it all as well though Reagan was a bit disappointed that she wasn't able to go to the homeless village that Graham worked at.
- We came home and as the kids unpacked and laundry started, I worked on supper. The kids ate, and the Wilsons brought over cake. We visited while Robby told all of his stories.
- When they left, we started to play Whitman's new board game, but it seems to be pretty complicated so we will have to study up on that and play tomorrow.
- Right now the girls are pretty tired, Graham is already asleep, Anderson is showering, and Whitman could probably go another few hours before falling asleep!
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