October 31, 2019-Disney Trip Day 3

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I slept incredibly well last night, despite the little gnats that had snuck into our cabin when we opened the doors and the incredibly hard mattress. I must like a hard mattress because I didn’t stir until Campbell’s fit bit started buzzing around 6. From then on, I never went to sleep, but I did rest some until my own alarm started going off at 7.

My girls popped awake. I did have to braid Reagan’s hair which took a few minutes. We still walked out the same time as the boys were started stirring outside their cabin. We headed down to the beach to watch the sunrise. Once we made it there, the Crafts were not far behind us. 

Watching the sunrise turned into playing in the ocean. That was the plan though-the boys already had on their bathing suits while the girls soon returned to  our cabin to put on their bathing suits. 

The weather was perfect especially this morning. At the back of our cabins is a gate which crosses a road. Then you walk through a small parking lot and arrive at the beach. It was perfect because we were able to walk back and forth easily. 

The kids had so much fun playing in the water all morning long. It warmed progressively up during the morning. Robby and Casey ran to a store to pick up some sand toys which helped with the sand castle competition or two that were had.

My big 4 all enjoyed pushing the limits as much as they could with getting deep into the water. After you made it past the crashing waves, the waves were fairly calm. They had fun jumping the waves. Campbell did enjoy that but she also enjoyed playing with her buddies. Keaton loved having her friends to make sandcastles with. Whitman loved the beach but he also loved floating in the water. Of course, when he grabbed his life jacket and asked to put it on, I sure did not hesitate! 

Anderson didn’t feel too great yesterday, but I do think that he is feeling better today. He went back and forth between the cabin and beach-probably not because he didn’t feel good but because he enjoyed that freedom.

Around 1, those of us that were still on the beach headed back to the cabins for our lunch. Robby, Whitman, the girls and I all went to the showers to rinse off. Then it was time for a load of laundry before we pulled out our lunch items. 

It is kind of handy to have to the car right in front of the cabins. Yet, we are still packed to the brim. With our bags out, it has become a bit easier to find things in the car. However, the car is now hot so I want to climb around the car as little as I can.

At lunch Whitman asked for a roll up and a sandwich. I just gave him half of a sandwich. A bit later I walked back in the boys’ room while Robby was taking our first load of laundry, Whitman was making himself another sandwich. I guess a morning at the beach made for a very hungry boy.

The afternoon was fairly restful. Keaton, Campbell and Graham walked to the playground with the Craft girls. They got pretty hot out there playing in the sun-Campbell’s face is the most burned this evening. I tried to do pretty good on sunscreen, but it is obvious who I missed sunscreen on.

I ended up laying on Robby’s bed when he brought the laundry in. I told him that I just wanted to sleep for 5 more minutes. Before I knew it, those 5 minutes were over. We folded the laundry, and when I went to put it up, my cabin was full of little girls playing and giggling.

Before too long, the Heltz pulled their big rig into our little front yard. They came over for the afternoon and evening. As soon as they parked, we all headed to the beach to play. It was low tide so there were a few less waves.

The kids didn’t have too long to play because a cruise ship was supposed to be leaving the dock and would pass by the nearby pier. We all walked to the pier and instead of walking up the steps as we should have, we climbed over rocks. 

Now, the climbing over the rocks is not what caused Robby to drop his phone. I watched him do it-his arm bumped into the railing and down went the phone. He calmly said, “and now I dropped my phone.” We looked down and there were rocks. It took a minute but I did spot his phone. Wes and Robby jumped over the rail and started climbing to the phone. Wes grabbed it and all was well. Robby will live a few less years after that scare though-not only would that have been his phone gone, but also his main credit cards and both of our drivers license. 

Once we were all safely on the pier, we waited and waited for the ship to pass by us. We all finally enjoyed waving at the Norwegian Sun as it passed by on its way out of the dock. It would have been nice to be getting on that ship tomorrow, but Magic Kingdom will suffice just fine.

When we returned to the water, Robby had some people take our massive group picture. Now, as they were doing this, they told him that they had seen sharks just a bit ago. They said that they were little-only 3 foot, but this did slow down our water playing. That was perfectly fine with me-everyone is a lot easier to watch when they are not in the water.

The kids were able to have another sand castle competition. They worked and worked until it was time to come back to the campground for supper. Wes had grilled hot dogs for everyone. We all ate in our front yard until the kids finally decided that they wanted to celebrate Halloween.

Everyone had candy to pass out and the kids went from cabin to cabin (just mine and Robby’s) getting candy from all of the adults. They didn’t have too much candy, but they did have just enough. Soon after everything was picked up, the Heltz headed to their campsite back near Orlando.

The rest of us found our flashlights and headed back to the beach to look for crabs. Whitman was about to have a meltdown because he could not find a crab. Finally, he found one. It reminded me of the time that Reagan was little and so wanted a butterfly to land on her. Robby spent a good while just praying a butterfly to land on her shoulder. One finally did and eventually too Whitman found and caught a crab on his own.

We didn’t stay out too late tonight because everyone is pretty beat. Beach days aren't easy and this was supposed to be our relaxing day before Disney begins. Ha!

Before our crew went to bed, Robby did pass out their Halloween boxes. They had boxes full of candy from us. They also were able to open up their candy from Grannymom. Now, as we were on the beach today, my kids went nuts because they saw a helicopter in the sky. I think they just have a few more things on their list to find. 

The girls, Graham and I had showers tonight in the bathhouse. They only had three stalls so I had to wait on the girls to finish before it was my turn. We all left clean and with a lot less sand on our bodies. However, I am sure that by the time we went to bed, most of the sand was already back on us.

We met in the boys’ room to get a drink and help figure out laundry. I packed them up and then we went back to our cabin to do the same thing. Soon we were all climbing in our beds and playing on our ipads for a few minutes. We were in bed about an hour and a half earlier than yesterday. It was a super perfect day at the beach for the Dennies.

October 30, 2019-Disney Trip Day 2

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I was sure last night that WHitman was going to end up in our bed. He was sleeping inches from me, but the first thing I knew this morning was not him climbing in bed, but Robby telling me that the shower was open.

I took my shower, and by the time that I was finished people were coming in and out to brush their teeth and get ready. We really do have the unloading at night and the repacking at hotels down. It didn’t take too long for most everyone to get ready. 

Now, Whitman and Reagan are the slowest movers in the morning. It takes him 5 minutes to put on his shoes and takes her a crazy amount of time in the bathroom. While I was waiting on the slow pokes, the others headed down the breakfast.

We made it in time to grab something to eat. Now, I don’t mean to complain, but every place should have strawberry yogurt (not banana) along with some type of flavored bagel. I can get by without flavored cream cheese, but at least throw a raisin in the bagel. They did at least have meat for Robby which made him happy. He had a bagel topped with sausage and eggs. He called this his “back-up breakfast.”

We only had about 5 miles this morning before arriving at the Chick-Fil-A headquarters. Traffic was pretty bad getting off of the interstate because everyone was going there. The campus was huge and had immaculate grounds. 

We arrived a few minutes early and quickly found where we needed to go. We first took our picture with a statue of Truett Cathey followed by another one beside a billboard. Then it was time for the tour to begin.

We watched a short film before walking around some of the campus-we saw a model of the first restaurant (not enough time or that would have been or lunch stop). We saw some of Truett’s car collection plus his office. 

Whitman asked two questions on the tour. Of course, this always makes me incredibly nervous because you have no idea what he is going to say However, they were both great questions-Who old was he (Truett) when he died? and “What was the first car in his collection?”

As we left, we walked through the gift shop and bought a surprise bag which was a letdown. Robby did win a plastic cup because he had the most likes from his instagram photos of the tour. That was fun and so were the free sandwich coupons that they passed out as we were leaving. 

From there, we loaded up and headed down south to Florida. The first car activity was checking to see how many things were left on their scavenger hunts. Whitman still needs quite a few (13ish) while everyone else needs around 3 (those being the helicopter, yellow slug bug and a horse or deer crossing sign.) 

Then we turned on our redbox movie. It seemed to be a Halloween-y movie to get everyone in the spirit of tomorrow. The kids watched some of it until Robby had to get on a work call. At that point, we stopped ever so briefly at a rest stop. 

There we also switched drivers. I drove through the misty rain until lunch time when we stopped at Taco Bell. We figured that we would need to save our sandwiches for supper tonight. This was the free taco day, but unfortunately we were there a bit too early since it started at 2. 

Whitman was adamant that his taco come with lettuce, so he indeed received a taco with lettuce and devoured every bit of it. None of my other people had any lettuce (mine didn’t come with lettuce so I didn’t have that option). The food killed hunger, and we were soon back on the road. 

The rain dried up even though the sky was still overcast. They finished their movie-which led to Graham screaming at least once during the movie. He would be a great person to take to a haunted house!

There was a stop for gas, a Redbox, Walmart and bathrooms. It was all one stop so that didn’t add too much time to our trip. A bit later down the road, Robby and I swapped drivers, however, we picked the wrong stop to swap so we added some time back to the trip. 

We passed out snacks and drinks for everyone and continued on. It didn’t take long for us to notice that it was definitely warmer in Florida. I put Robby’s coat up way underneath a seat because I am pretty sure that he will not need it again until we return to Arkansas.

Robby ordered a toll road pass for this trip and our upcoming Florida trips. It does make it nice that we do not have to stop and pay at the these toll roads. Tonight we were on and off of one a few times trying to avoid a giant 45 minutes delay. 

The GPS doesn’t change where to go based on wrecks. Thankfully, Robby caught a highway sign about a delay. We pulled out our phones which both then said different ways to continue down the road. We did end back up on the slow road for about 10 minutes before things finally cleared out.

The last hour and a half of our drive was what seemed like the longest. We finally made it to Jetty Park Campground. It was dark so we weren’t able to look around too much. We did quickly spot the Craft welcoming committee. 

The girls were all glad to see each other and hugged like it had been years. We unloaded a few things before heading to the Craft campsite. They had their grill fired up, and we threw our hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill. Soon they were cooked, and we were enjoying our supper while the Crafts were eating theirs. 

After we ate, we came back to our cabins to do a bit of speed unpacking. We have two little cabins each with a sink, potty, double bed and bunk beds. They are perfectly quaint and plenty of room for us-once we got settled in. 

We had to make the beds which took a few good minutes. Then the Crafts walked by, and we all headed to the beach. It was very dark by now. This was really the first time that my kids have ever been to the beach at night. There was so much squealing and screaming as they were chasing the crabs. 

Whitman had little interest in the crabs at first. All he cared about was scooping up sand. He will be in heaven tomorrow playing in that sand. Most everyone had a flashlight on our walk. It didn’t take too long for the kids to become brave and start picking up the little crabs. It was so very fun.

We walked and walked along the beach-maybe even a mile. By the time we finished everyone was pretty sandy especially Whitman. The boys walked to the bathhouse to rinse off while the girls just decided that being sandy was fine and went to our cabin.

It took a while to get everything situated in our little cabins. I worked on the blog while Robby unwrapped cords. Soon everyone was settled in, and we were all headed to bed.

October 29, 2019-Disney Trip Day 1

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Robby woke me up a bit before 8 this morning to tell me that he was leaving the house. He also added that Anderson was not yet awake. He was wearing a pair of pjs that I needed to wash before we left this morning, so that was needed information.

I slept until 8 since there wasn't too much to do this morning. When I did wake up, I wondered around the house for a bit looking for anyone else who was awake. None of the boys were awake. Now this was odd. I did most everything that I could do early while waiting on those pjs to appear to start the wash.

I was just about to text Robby and ask when I should start waking them up, when they did start coming down the stairs. First Anderson, then I could hear Graham talking to Whitman. Graham walked down the steps holing all of the stuffed animals that Whitman wanted to bring. 

They had their breakfast while I continued getting things ready. I guess that there is no good time to leave for a trip. I prefer to leave first thing in the morning so when you go to bed everything is ready to go and you just leave. Since we were up for a little bit before leaving this morning, it did make things a bit crazier in the house.

At 10, the boys had their last construction class. This one was a tour of the Materials Lab at the Highway Department. While they were taking their one and a half hour tour, I was back at the house throwing last minute things in the car, making beds, folding towels and running around like a crazy person.

We had mostly packed the car this weekend and last night. We have stuffed something in every nook and cranny of this car. It is on the verge of ridiculousness or genius. I am not sure which, You name it, we probably have it with us. Now, I am not too sure if we could find it, but we still probably have it.

Soon, it was time to rush off and pick up the boys. We loaded up, locked down the house and zoomed off. We were a few minutes late to get the boys but that was fine because they got out of their class about 15 minutes later than planned. They seemed to enjoy the tour today and really enjoyed the class.

The first thing that was passed out was lunch. We had made lunches at home-a bagel for Reagan, hot pockets for the middle 4 and a roll up for Whitman. Robby and I didn't get much of a lunch though we did have some cookie butter and crackers.

After lunch was properly distributed, it was time to pass out Grannymom's scavenger hunt. For the next 30 minutes the kids were searching for all kinds of things. Reagan searched and searched for road kill while Campbell and Keaton were magically seeing all of the things pretty quickly. Whitman was just worried that everyone was going to get a prize. He didn't want to lose and be left out of a prize.

The car was pretty noisy until we finally passed out ipads, and then it was silence. The silence lasted for a while. We stopped just after Memphis for a bathroom/gas stop. From there, I did some driving. Not much really happened while I was driving. I did do quite a bit of searching for a firetruck and deer crossing sign to help Reagan and Graham on their scavenger hunts.

Before too long it was dark, and we were hungry. Since tomorrow is a ChickFilA tour, today we ate ChickFilA. I am not really sure what happened but after we ate our food topped with lots of sauces, we still had over a dozen sauces leftover. We may have to come up with a meal on this trip to use our extra sauces. 

After we ate our supper, we finished the RedBox movie-Toy Story 4. Reagn and Anderson had not seen the movie. Reagan said that it was her favorite Toy Story movie. I told her that possibly since she is older now, she gets more of the jokes. This Toy Story movie is my least favorite-well, I think. I can't really rememeber much about the other ones. 

Robby drove the last leg of the trip into Atlanta. We did have to stop fairly soon for a bathroom stop, but that was fine because we were going to have to get gas before we arrived at the hotel. The evening was fairly quiet. The kids played on their ipads while Robby and I listened to a church service. 

Soon we were pulling into the big city and finding our hotel. Reagan and Graham walked in with Robby. That helped the rest of us look like not so many people when we all came in. Whitman and Reagan had showers, and soon we were all in our spots trying to go to sleep. Currently, Whitman is rollinng around like a rolly polly. I am not sure he is going to sleep anytime soon.

October 28, 2019

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  • This was a fairly regular Monday morning around here. I didn't wake up until about 7:55 which left me scurrying around waking everyone up. They grabbed their breakfast, and we did some abbreviated reading before starting on school work.
  • Whitman still took all day to do his school, but he seemed more focused. Anderson has bits of his math that I do not know how to do (example-what is the square root of 34,345,330?) I don't know how to do that and really can't get motivated to figure out how to do it. Reagan also had some math today that I just skipped. It was an extra thing, and she was a bit shocked when I just told her to skip it. 
  • Meanwhile, Graham has some math that I find fascinating and can't for the life of me commit to memory. This being the third time that I have done it (Reagan and Anderson), you would think that I could remember. It is all about highway numbers-if they are odd then they are run north and south. And three digit highway numbers tell if they bypass/loop or connect to something else based on their even and oddness of their first digit. But for the life of me, I can't remember that, but just like Reagan and Anderson's math, I am not sure why I would ever need that today. I can just look it all up on the maps on my phone.
  • After lunch today, we did some straightening of the house. There was one catastrophe when Graham broke something of Anderson's. It was not a big deal but to Anderson it was a massive deal. It took a good while for everyone to get calmed down again. I worry that they might someday come to blows-though minutes after all of this they were again happily playing their devices together. Boys!
  • We did run to Third Realm today for some jumping. We haven't been in a few days, and I guess the kids have lost some of their stamina. They were finished fairly quickly and ready to leave! We then ran to Kroger to pick up a last minute thing and then to Academy for one more last minute thing. I have decided that might be one of my new favorite stores.
  • Next up was picking up Dairy Queen hamburgers along with more gas for the car. Once we came home, we worked on finding supper for everyone. After we ate, we did empty out the fridge. 
  • Then came showers and some work in the garage for Robby and me. Packing up the van tonight was like packing a giant jigsaw puzzle. We were able to complete the puzzle so that was a win. 
  • Tony and Shannon came over to bring us some of Shannon's yummy chocolate chip cookies. I will happily ride to Orlando with those in my lap. I am having to guard them carefully so they make it out of the state at least.

October 27, 2019

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  • Another Sunday of singing in big church for Campbell, Keaton and Whitman. This time they sang upstairs. I made it up there just in time to see them walking in. There were a lot fewer kids than last week, but they still all did great.
  • Campbell rocked her solo today. You could hear her super well, and she seemed very confident. Whitman did wave at me during the first song, but he stood still and sang his heart out. Keaton, of course, was as cute as she could be singing away.
  • We didn't have to teach Sunday school and that along with pastries did make for a good morning, despite having to go to a meeting during that Sunday school hour. We had fun though, and a break was nice.
  • After church, we headed to Grannymom's house for Sunday lunch. It had been a few weeks since we had eaten together. It was nice to be back in a normal routine. 
  • Then we ran to Walmart for what we thought would be the last time before our trip. It wasn't the last time since I already have a list again! The next stop was Nonna and Pops' house. It was time to celebrate his birthday just a few days late.
  • He had actually bought his own birthday cake, and seriously, it was better than anything that I could have made. The kids really enjoyed it. It was super rich and after eating some cake a few cookies that he also bought, we were almost in a sugar coma.
  • This afternoon there was more packing, hair cutting, and even a bit of sewing. Reagan has wanted the sleeves of her shirts rolled up, so I have had to tack them all up. That is just about the extent of my sewing skills.
  • Soon most of us loaded up, to head to life groups. Robby took the big kids-Anderson, Reagan and their other Lawson Road buddies to their life group. First he dropped me off at our group. In between drop off and pick up for the others, Robby came back to the adult meeting.
  • We had supper and dessert there, and when it was over we hurried home to get back to the littles. Most of the evening was spent in the kitchen-rice krispy treats-and picking up the house-my girls have forgotten how to pick up anything at all!

October 26, 2019

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  • We had set our alarms for 8 so we wouldn't sleep in to long but so we could sleep in some today. We were awake by 6:30 and out of bed at 7. Needless to say, we were one of the first folks at the Saturday clinic.
  • After debating about taking Whitman to the doctor and after asking him a zillion times if his ears hurt, we decided to take him. He was adament that his ears did not hurt him, but since he can't really hear anything right now, has a nasty cough and is still snotty, we decided to take him. 
  • Robby dropped Whitman and me off at the doctor while he ran to Sams to pick up one more food item for the trip. Let's quickly discuss food for this trip, for some reason we are acting like there are not grocery stores where we are going. We have never, ever taken as much stuff as we are taking on this trip, and this is not nearly as long as some of our trips have been. It is crazy! On my behalf, it is hard to not buy something here when I am sure that elsewhere the price may be double. 
  • Anyway, when we left the doctor Robby was back and waiting for us in the parking lot. Whitman had one ear that was full of fluid and other was indeed infected. Before the pharmacy opened at 9, we ran to Trader Joes.
  • The people lined up at the door like they were giving away free stuff. We just stayed in the car and waited. You would not believe how quickly the place filled up. We bought a few things-including tonight's supper which was orange chicken and fried rice. It was definitely a keeper, and we will buy it again.
  • Then it back to the pharmacy to pick up his presciption. I will say that I am not thrilled about having to take medicine while on a trip. We have done it before though and will certainly do it again. When I asked if it had to be refrigerated, she said that it does but offered me one that did not have to refrigerated. She did add that it was not as good, so of course I told her that we had an ice chest, and it would be fine. 
  • Back at home, we kicked things in high gear. The car was mostly packed last night, but there was some rearranging-breakfast items needed to be accessible and together. Anderson packed his bag which then required a Walmart trip later in the day. Robby made cookies for the car. I made apple crisps to use up apples in the fridge. There was school to pull out for when we get back along with two shirts to finish.
  • Now, we are officially ready-Robby, Reagan and I still need to pack, but we could honestly leave the house with 30 minutes notice. However, since we have a ChickFilA tour in Atlanta on Wednesday, there is no reason to leave early. It is kind of killing Robby that we can't leave early. I do feel that there were be another Disney trip or two upcoming that we can leave early for.
  • This afternoon Robby, Campbell, Keaton and I headed to Walmart. We bought Anderson's last few things, one item for Campbell and another box of cereal. We needed this box of cereal to wedge the other breakfast items into their spot. Seriously, I would love to take everything out of the car and line it up so people could see just what all we are taking. I'll post more about all of that on the way, but yep, it is ridiculous. One thing I do know is that we are very, very good packers. (Now since I have said that, I will probably forget my bag or something important!)
  • Reagan had spent the night at Kaleigh's last night. They didn't sleep any, but did go for a jog around her neighborhood at some point this morning. I am sure that Reagan was exhuasted today. She didn't snooze any, but was pretty quiet and spent the day in her bedroom.
  • This evening some kids had Dairy Queen hamburgers for their suppers while the rest of us had the orange chicken. It was delicious and we finished it off. We will have to buy 2 bags if the whole family every eats it. 
  • We watched the Hogs while we ate our supper-the delicious supper made the game a bit better. I ended up sleeping for most of the second half and all the way to the kids bedtime. It was a wonderful nap which I am going to make even better with some ice cream for dessert.

October 25, 2019

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  • Whitman usually doesn't want to leave the house, but this morning I remined him that we were seeing a play, he was ready in no time at all. Today we were seeing the Wizard of Oz at Wildwood. 
  • We left pretty early, and I thought that we would arrive before most other folks. We did make it before the others in our group, but the place was full and parking was still crazy. After parking, we had to hike to the theater in the rain which made for a cool start of the morning.
  • The kids all enjoyed the play-it might have been a tad on the long side. Whitman soaked it all up. After the play, everyone came back to our house for an abbreviated homeschool day. The kids all had reports about different countries.
  • Reagan talked about Canada, Anderson spoke about Australia, Graham about North Korea, Campbell talked about Djibouti, Keaton told about Panama and Whitman about Eqypt. They all did great-especially since we really never practiced them. Plus, I had not heard anyone's reports-I did read them all though.
  • The boys were a bit bummed that the kids couldn't play outside today during the rain. But they didn't have too long to play because there was a party for the little ones to go to. Before the Crafts left, Whitman came up to me and said that he had washed his hands because he wanted to touch the baby. I told him to go for it-he patted Gabriel on the hand. Then I picked Gabriel up and let Whitman hold him. He was so pleased with himself.
  • Robby and I dropped Keaton at a birthday party, then we dropped Reagan and her friends off at their birthday party. For the drop offs to work out well, we did have to drop Reagan off a bit early-like 40 minutes.
  • That was fine with them, and it gave us time to vacuum the car, run to Kroger, pick up a free taco from Tacos for Life along with pizza for the kids. After we ate, Robby and I did the first round of packing. Gracious-I am not sure that it is all going to fit.
  • Campbell went with me to pick up Keaton from her party. Then it was back home for more work for me along with an incredibly late bedtime for my people.  

October 24, 2019

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  • I know that today is Thursday, but I have been thinking that it is Friday all day long. That made for a pretty perfect day. "Living like it is Friday" should be my new motto. 
  • Not surprisingly, I was scurrying around this morning to wake everyone up. I will say that the kids are starting to wake up in a better mood the last few days. I think that we are finally catching up on our sleep...except that we are about to get all out of routine.
  • School went fairly well this morning. Graham and I did have it out over the circuference of a circle. Gracious me, he is just like me! 
  • Whitman finished his work fairly early today-he was super focused (for him) today. I do get tickeled at him-every time that he finishes his work earlish, he asks Anderson if he is done. Then he will do a little dance when he beats Anderson. Now today, this all happened a bit after 12 so there was probably no need to do a 'I beat you' dance especially since his other brother had been done for at least an hour.
  • We had our lunch and then I had everyone help around the house some. We can clean this place up in a short amount of time, but we can also trash it even faster. I am not sure how well a maid would clean this place, but sometimes I would like to see.
  • There was more packing today-I am not sure that I will ever be finished packing. Honestly, I should think of getting a side job packing people. Robby and I will have our car so packed down-there will be something shoved in every nook and cranny.
  • This evening, we went downtown for Trick or Treating at the museums. It was quite fun-some of the places went all out (like the Mosaic Templer) while others seem to just get smaller each year. Now I will say that the kids came home with pounds of candy. More than they ever need! 
  • One of the highlights was the haunted house. Whitman knew it was pretend, but by the end him and Graham could not wedge themselves any more between me and the wall. He even let out a yelp at one point.
  • Once at home, there was lots of candy sorting before and after our bbq eating. We ate way too late but then topped it off with a few pieces of candy. The kids had a great time and even though I was a bit concerned about missing Halloween, I am now done with it-I feel like I can check off the "Halloween" box.

October 23, 2019

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  • I walked into the living room this morning as I always do in the mornings and said, "good morning boys." Except this morning when I looked around, there were no boys. It was already about 7:45 so I really needed at least someone to by stirring.
  • Maybe the house was still quiet and all of the kids were still sleeping because after the kids late bedtime, Robby and I were in the kitchen at 1. I was quietly emptying the dishwasher while Robby was chopping meat with his cleaver-needless to say, he was much, much more nosier than I was. 
  • I was able to stir everyone this morning and not only were all teeth brushed and breakfasts eaten before we left, we were also able to empty all of the trash cans plus pack lunches. We don't get up early, but when we do start moving we can move pretty quickly. 
  • We had Bible study this morning, and I do think that most of the kids told their teachers that they would be out the next two weeks. I do think that they are pretty excited about our upcoming trip-Reagan even asked for another shirt tonight. 
  • I had a hair appointment while Sara and Candice took my kids to the park to play. Today they went to Fellowship. I met them there afterwards, the littles were on the playground and the bigs were playing soccer on the field. 
  • Afterwards, we went back to Academy. Campbell had town a whole in last weeks shorts-the whole is hopefully mendable. Keaton and Reagan also needed shorts so that was all easily accomplished. 
  • Anderson needed shoes and that was not as easy. The first shoes that he liked didn't have his size. The second didn't either. I had been crawling all around the floor moving boxes of shoes looking. He really probably should be a wide, but there aren't many wide choices. Finally, he found a shoe, the correct size and was pleased.
  • By this time in our shopping trip, the kids have stayed together but have spread out all over the store. Reagan was busy looking for her shoes. She quickly found them, but they did not have her size at all. I sent a picture to Robby and there is not store of any type nearby that has the same shoe. Nor was their any online place that could get them to us before the trip at a reasonable price. However, Nonna and Pops are out of town and can hopefully pick them up for me in Conway on their way home. Crisis averted.
  • Back at home, there was some packing along with some doing of nothing! Then it was time for church tonight. We ate at church so that made our afternoon a bit shorter. Robby helped in my class tonight.
  • In our large group tonight, the leader said, "the first person to walk to the stage can have the dollar in my hand." Her hand was clinched so no one was really sure if she had a dollar. Whitman, who was sitting on the front row, looked around, slowly stood up, and very slowly walked to the stage with his hands in his pockets. The lesson was about faith-Whitman had to believe, or have faith, that she actually had a dollar in her hand. 
  • She did and he was super pleased to leave the stage a dollar richer. He might have even did a dance as he walked off of the stage. That made it a fun evening for sure. 
  • After everything was over, we came home for ice cream and a bit of pre-trip talk with the kids. We showed them some pictures of the upcoming accomadations. Then Robby and I worked on seeing what exactly will fit in the car-this shelf here, that shelf there. 
  • Finally, we ended our evening in the bonus room surrounded by boxes, bins and bags and going over our trip menu/grocery list. Traveling is a lot of work, but really the planning is just as fun as the actually trip-well almost!

October 22, 2019

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  • It was school morning around here. Not only are we trying to finish up school, but the kids are also cramming in school work that we would normally do on our trip. (Don't tell them, but since I made them start their school work earlier, they actually did more than they would have if we would have taken it.) We are also busy working on reports about different countries for this Friday's homeschool day.
  • As soon as school was finished, Reagan and I went to church to help with the child care for the convention. Reagan wasn't too thrilled about being in the baby room. We just had one baby, but she held him and even fed him. Now she was pretty careful not to get spit up on her after seeing me get drenched a few times with spit up. 
  • Back at home, the big boys went to their construction class. Today they talked about electricity and radio frequencies. They have had a lot of neat and different opportunties the last few weeks between this class and trail life. 
  • When Reagan and I were finished at church, we ran to the outlets to see if we could find her some shoes. We had no luck, but I did get a pair of blue jeans so it was a win for me. Then we all met back up at Third Realm this afternoon. Everyone jumped for a while and afterwards, we headed off in our own directions. 
  • Robby took the kids home while I took Reagan to her practice. This might be her last practice-she has super enjoyed soccer this year. I ran to Walmart to pick up some trip things-Robby looked earlier today at my pile of packed bags and declared that maybe we should take two cars!
  • Once we came home, Robby made pancakes for everyone's supper. Then I worked on Cambpell's drawers and did some more packing. Robby's evening was spent checking his meata. He cooked two pork butts today-one is done, has been chopped and put away however, the other one (larger) is still happily cooking away outside. 

October 21, 2019

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  • I set my alarm to go off early today, but quickly decided that that was ridiculous. The storm kept us up for about 3 minutes last night. Despite the crazy lightening and thunder, after we both went to the bathroom, we slept like babies through it. 
  • This morning we didn't have long to dally. The oldest Heltz arrived at 8:20, and we all walked out of the door. Our little homeschool group met up at the Arkansas FoodBank for a morning of volunteering. 
  • Our task this morning was to 5 pounds of apples in mesh bags. There were 3 pallets full of apples-the boxes on each pallet were about almost as tall as me. It was quite a task. When I saw it, I first thought that there was no way we would come near finishing.
  • However, the kids did super. They worked so incredibly hard. The hardest job was actually bagging the apples but there were also weighers, bag openers and counters. I heard no complaining at all.
  • About 10:45 we stopped for a break. They had popcorn and water for us. After our break, we realized that we didn't have much left to do at all. Just as few boxes left and we were done and home we went.
  • We had our lunch back at home before we did a little bit of school reading. After that, I jumped in the car to keep kids for a conference at church while the kids worked on their chores and a report for Friday (or maybe I should say, while the kids were supposed to work on their chores and a report for Friday.) 
  • The boys had Trail Life tonight. They came home talking about all that they did-they learned about treatment of burns and hypothermia, learned how to tie a knot and how to make a fire. Then they used the fire to roast some s'mores. Of course, that all made for a good evening.
  • Back at tbe house-Campbell and Reagan worked on their clothes switchover. Well, they don't have any to switch but it is more of a clothes clean out. They also, along with Keaton, made a snickerdoodle bar which we have completely devoured. I did some packing as well-I am getting it finished,,,,kind of! 

October 20, 2019-Happy 13th Birthday (Party) Anderson!

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  • It was a fairly normal Sunday morning around here-there were tears. No, not from me but Whitman. He doesn't enjoy hearing that we are going to church. Honestly, I do understand the feelings sometimes, especially when I start thinking about his Sunday morning behavior. I think that his behavior has gotten worse in church lately. However, he is sickly so I will give him that-this week only.
  • But, his behavior on the stage this morning when the chidlren's choir was singing was excellent. He kept his hands down, didn't shout and did not do the Dab. Actually, he really sang. He does love to sing.
  • Campbell and Keaton were also in the choir. I knew that Campbell was singing in a duet, but thought that was next week when they sing in the other service. However, it was today plus her Duet wasn't there so it was just her. She did super great, and I think that she was relieved to finish half of her duet-ing. They will do the same thing next week upstairs in the other service.
  • After church, we went to Sunday school. The other first grade class was making a big craft. Meanwhile, my group was coloring a coloring page. They were happy. I was happy. Recycle bins everywhere were happy. I think that maybe less is more....or maybe I am just lazy.
  • When Sunday school was over, a stream of boys started coming and going from our room. Today was the day of Anderson's birthday party at Raymar. We hauled quite a few of the boys to Raymar after church. Robby took our people and Alyssa and Brody in his car while my car was filled to the brim with smelly boys. Actaully, they weren't smelly, but they were entertaining.
  • Robby had already made one trip to Raymar to bring a load of stuff. By the time that we arrived (I drove slowly), he had the grill on. I set everything up while the boys played ball, and Robby grilled burgers. We had quite a meal-hot dogs, burgers, mac and cheese, baked beans and chips. 
  • After we ate, there was a lopsided game of kickball. Robby and I picked teams and tried to pick them evenly-I don't know how well any of these people play kickball. It did work out that Anderson's team won.
  • Then it was time for oreo delight and candles for our almost 13 year old. Anderson opted to open his presents once we got home. He received a handful of cards-most of it was cash along with a few gift cards. I think that he was a pretty happy boy with all of this!
  • When the party was over, we cleaned up, loaded up and headed home. It took us a while to unload the car and put everything away. When I finished with all of that, I started on my last 4 shirts. I have enjoyed making them but gracious, I will be happy to take a shirt making break for a littel bit.
  • The Wilson's came over to help us clean out our fridge. We still didn't even make a dent in it. Well, we did put a dent in the oreo delight. I think that might possibly be my favorire dessert right now. 
  • After the Wilson's left, it was time for the kids to head to bed-we are still working on that earlier bedtime. But maybe one more bowl of ice cream first...

October 19, 2019

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  • Another busy day around here. I feel like we mark two things off of our lists and add two more things to them. It is a busy time at the Dennie house. Don't get my wrong, it is still lots of fun, but I am a bit tired!
  • The morning started off at Raymar to help with the football concession stand. Robby headed that way first while I was right behind him after dropping of Laynie and picking up Reagan. Reagan and Anderson were able to get credit to help with their camp for working today, so that was very good. 
  • We enjoyed working the concession stand, but not nearly as much as Campbell did. Seriously, that girl loved passing out the food and working the computer. Reagan and I enjoyed straightening the place up a little bit-don't tell her but she has the organizing gene just like me.
  • After the games were over, we ran home for a little bit. Robby and I loaded the car for tomorrow's birthday party. That took a while so when we were finished, it was time to head to Reagan's last soccer game.
  • She has had a great season. I think that Reagan has improved so much, and her team was such a good team. The girls worked together well, and the coach was so encouraging. It was a pretty perfect first real soccer season for us.
  • All of the grands and Jason were at the game. The weather was pretty perfect during the last game. Our original plan was to go to Walmart afterwards and have a quite night at home. But that wouldn't be any fun, so we called the kids on the way home and told them to clean up and put on their costumes. 
  • We went to Spook City in Benton. They had spots to trick or treat, and the kids ended up with a bucket full of candy. Reagan didn't do much trick or treating except where the candy was really good. And after a while, Whitman said that he was done. He could have cared less about getting any more candy. So I would just take him to get more candy when they where they were also passing out good candy.
  • Whitman had a cold a bit ago but now he has one again. He is super snotty but without fever. Tonight he was in more of a fog than usual. I told Robby that he has until Wednesday to get better or I will be taking him to the doctor. We can't have any sick people next week.
  • After the buckets were full of candy, we went out to eat Italian. We split most of the meals that we ordered, however, we ended up taking home one full order that we never even touched. That might be due to the massive rolls that they kept bringing to our table before we even had our food. We were stuffed by the time that our food arrived.
  • Then there was that trip to Walmart that didn't happen this afternoon. We divided and conqured and were quickly headed out of the store and headed home. At home, it was shower time for everyone and then to bed. 
  • Our goal is to work on moving up the bedtime around here. We have been going to bed too late and so have the kids. Hopefully, we can catch up on some sleep this next week!

October 18, 2019

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  • I again had toyed with the idea of skipping school this Friday. However, after I heard a few too many people complain and grumble about school, I decided that we were going to do school today and migth even tomorrow. (Yes, I did calm down and decide that school on Saturday was not a good idea at all!)
  • The boys started off the school morning wrestling on my bed while they waited on the girls to find their breakfasts. So as you can imagine, that didn't end well and everyone knew how I felt about the issue. 
  • After our morning reading, everyone started on their school work. Graham had finished all of his yesterday so he was finished early. However, Reagan had a long day-she had to take a part of the ACT test plus she had new math-scientific notation. I had to figure that out real quick so I could explain that to her. Gracious, I sure hope that her math gets easier and not harder!
  • At lunch time, Robby stopped his work to help make beans to put on the grill. Then we worked on Mac and cheese followed by some oreo delight making. We had dishes everywhere and made a huge mess of the kitchen. 
  • While I worked in the kitchen to clean it up, I had the kids clean up the house. They worked fairly well-my goal is just that things look better than when we started. I do think that we should work more on how to do chores correctly, but who has time for that?
  • At 3, we loaded up for the Children's Library. They had a science program today. First there was a paper airplane contest-Reagan won. She admitted that she had know idea how to fold an airplane! After she won, she had to go to the front to talk about her plane. 
  • They also had a spaghetti and marshmallow tower building challenge. Keaton's group won. Anderson and Reagan were in a group together and they should have won, but theirs fell at the last minute. Campbell, Graham and Whitman's group ended up being second place.
  • We really needed to leave at 5, but that is when they started making ice cream in a bag so of course we stayed for that. The kids enjoyed shaking the bags filled with ice to freeze their ice cream. It was a fun little class.
  • Afterwards, we zoomed home and arrived just as the Pennington's arrived at the house. Robby had everything ready and perfect at the house. The McGuires arrived soon. For years the kids have dressed up on Halloween so most of my folks found something to wear. I guess Reagan and Camryn were too cool to participate. I asked her what she was and she was quick to answer that she was a "Geyer Student" as her sweatshirt said. 
  • Our supper was delicious-baked beans and pork tenderloin made on the grill. They were both delicious. Then there was Pioneer Woman mac and cheese which was also pretty good. And who can pass up Oreo delight for dessert. 
  • The kids enjoyed playing, and the adults enjoyed chatting. It was a pretty great evening. 

October 17, 2019

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  • This morning's breakfast wasn't as yummy as yesterday's ChickFilA. Anderson did come in our room right at 7 to ask if he could have the leftovers from yesterday. We groaned yes, however he didn't eat them since the bicuithad a bite taken out of it.
  • We did our reading this morning-I have not moved up my timeline of when I want to finish our science and another textbook. I had wanted to finish them by February, but now my goal is by Christmas. Though my history textbook reading is still moving slowly.
  • Graham and Keaton worked on today's school work and tomorrow's as well. Campbell started working on tomorrow's. I am not sure what happened because she just had a breakdown this morning. I think she got a little bit overwhelmed with what all she wanted to do. 
  • We finished up all of the Magic Band decorating before lunch time plus Campbell designed her last shirt. All of this crafting made Anderson decide that he wanted one more shirt. I do have one more that fits him so I guess we will make his tomorrow...or the next day. Things are busy this weekend, but surely I will have some downtime.
  • Grannymom and Grandpa came over this afternoon for a little bit. Whitman was happy to show off his cupcakes that he made a few days ago...possibly even a week ago. When they left the kids worked on grabbing their lunches as we did some afternoon ready. 
  • Then it was chore time followed by a bit of finishing school. Campbell and I did leave for my volunteer work. She has been begging to go. My plan was to start at the top and take folks each time, but my bigs have no interest-don't worry, they will eventually get their turn.
  • Campbell worked the entire time that we were there. We sorted clothes and put them away and then we bagged up diapers. I was super proud of how hard that she worked. She never complained or stopped working.
  • Then we drove home for just a few minutes before it was time for me to drive to the other side of town. I just looked at the drive from one place to home to the next was a 50 minute drive! I took Reagan to her soccer practice-she doesn't have too many more before her soccer season is over. 
  • Robby had planned on going to the grocery store tonight but work got in the way of that. He had supper for us when we got home. Everyone ate, showered and then there was a bit of downtime for most, but I put Campbell and Keaton to work wtih me-trip packing!

October 16, 2019

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  • Robby ran to pick up our ChickFilA breakfast this morning. It was free because of their receipt day the other night so of course we had to partake! I had half of my breakfast this morning and the other half tonight for supper. 
  • We headed off to Bible study and were a bit later than usual, but still there in plenty of time. I had thought that the morning had gone well-folded laundry, emptied dishwasher, had a good breakfast. However, we left Campbell's book at home, Graham didn't pack his lunch, Whitman wasn't wearing underwear (thankfully, there were some in the car) nor did he have a coat.
  • After Bible study, we went to a park to play for a little bit. I thought it was a bit chilly, but the kids didn't seem to mind. They didn't really play on the playground equipment but spent their time playing 4 square and football.
  • We did run by Academy on the way home. The stop was about as expected-it sure wasn't fast. We did find shorts for Campbell, something for Reagan but then we started looking for shoes. Reagan needs new shoes before Disney and so does Anderson. My children have expensive taste and unfortunately I do not. Neither were able to find anything.
  • When we were walking out I did find a rack of 10 dollar Nike shoes. I thought that I had struck gold. However, try as we might, I couldn't squeeze Anderson's foot in any of them. Urgh!
  • Once at home, we did a tiny bit of reading before I sent everyone off to work on their chores. Keaton and I finished their chores before I started working in the attic for a little bit. Before too long, it was time to grab a bite to eat for supper.
  • We decided that since most everyone had ChickFilA for breakfast plus some for lunch or snack, then they could just eat leftovers or sandwiches for supper. Then it was on to church for the evening. 
  • Wednesday nights are crazy-I am always glad when they are over. We listened to our book on the ride home, and then once we made it home we celebrated that the day was over with some ice cream!

October 15, 2019

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  • Once again I didn't wake up for my treeadmill, and I so enjoyed my extra sleep. Tomorrow I do plan on waking up early, but we shall see! My extra sleep made me have to scurry around this morning waking everyone up. Thankfully, all of the boys were already awake which only left the girls to wake up.
  • School went fairly fine this morning. I do have to eat my words from yesterday because Whitman finsihed before noon today. He even zoomed through most of his math. It all just seemed to click with him today, so hopefully it will stick for Thursday.
  • The boys left for their construction class right after noon. They are still enjoying it and say that they are busy the entire time that they are there. Tpday they worked on laying bricks. They woud have been able to watch a sidewalk being poured but the rain prevented that.
  • Meanwhile, the girls and I worked on their room along with Keaton's clothes. We even bagged up 6 large trash bags of clothes to take to someone. I am getting rid of this stuff around here-one bag at a time. Life on the road here we come! Kidding, kind of, no, not really!
  • The girls, Whitman and I went to the library for the homeschool little class. We were the only ones there which is always odd. The littles enjoy it. They made candy corn garland today. Most of them made two sets of garland. I have hung up 3 in the house but don't know where else to hang any!
  • We met the boys at Third Realm for a little bit of jumping this afternoon. When we finished, Robby took most folks home while I ran some errands with Keaton and Campbell. It was supposed to be soccer night, but the weather prevented that. 
  • We went to Sams for my flu shot. My people had theirs yesterday, and since the minute they were given their shots someone in this house has been complaining about their sore arm. I have little sympathy for them, but I do hope that mine doesn't hurt me as bad as they think theirs hurts!
  • We also picked up some things from Walmart, yes again, plus a quick trip to Hobby Lobby along with picking up supper. We are focusing on Disney plus the friend's meal and birthday party coming up so no one here has thougth about what to actually eat in this house.
  • Once at home, there was lots of unloading of the car along with a tad bit of Disney preparation and Shark Tank watching before bedtime. 

October 14, 2019

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  • Monday morning and nothing too exciting. I did wake up fairly early to turn my alarm off so I just barely woke up in time to wake all of the kids up to start on our school. I have just over a hundred books checked out from the library and am trying my best to finish as many as I can before our trip. Hopefully, I can get that total down to 90ish since tomorrow we will go and check out a few more. Enough about my library book obsession...
  • School went very well. Whitman and his avoidance of doing math has started to drive my bonkers. Once he finishes his math, then he flies through everything else. He doesn't miss any math questions so it isn't that he doesn't get it though it may still be harder for him. 
  • At 12, I ran upstairs with Keaton to go through 2 bins of clothes for her. She ended up filling a laundry basket of clothes. Currently, her pants and shirts drawers are overflowing, and she will have plenty of clothes.
  • Right after lunch, Robby did take all of the kids to get their flu shots. We weren't really too sure if it was going to be shots or the flu mist. We only knew that Anderson would get the shot plus another shot that he was due. Bless, it was shots though. Keaton was pretty weepy, and Whitman wasn't too thrilled, but Robby bribed them with Sonic drinks so all was well. Now I am the only one who still needs my flu shot.
  • This afternoon we went to Third Realm to jump. The kids had lots of fun playing dodgeball with some big kids. The boys were incredibly sweaty when we left. Frm there, we ran to ChickFilA for our supper. They had a good deal tonight. 
  • Then it was to Walmart. My list is pretty long but we were able to mark a few things off tonight at Walmart. People needed shoes, shorts, shirts plus there were chips, cereal and candy to buy. The kids weren't happy about our Walmart stop, but I loved it and could have stayed longer!
  • Once we made it home, we worked on some Disney pins and packaging candy for later in the week. Then we settled in to watch Chariots of Fire. We listened to a book about Eric Liddel. I will say that the book was much better than the movie. The only thing that made the movie good was the popcorn that Robby made!

October 13, 2019

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  • As soon as I rolled out of bed this morning, I started folding laundry while listening to Robby make breakfast. Once everyone was ready, we ate our breakfast-biscuits, gravy and sausage. This was the first officially chilly Sunday morning so finding shoes and pants was a bit difficult. Whitman's pants looked huge on him, but I rolled them up, and they became at least decent.
  • Church was a bit different this morning and due to the Barnabas project, so was Sunday school. The kids that were there were able to make little goodie bags for all of the teachers which was neat for them to be able to do.
  • After Sunday school, we loaded up to meet some other folk at Otter Creek Elementary to spend the afternoon working there. We started off with lunch-chips and cookies were good, but the sandwiches weren't too impressive to me. 
  • Then we started off to work-one group repainted a basketball court's lines. My girls helped with painting a four square and hopscoth. Anderson and Graham helped there, but also helped the rest of us in the flower beds. Whitman spent some time on the playground, but he worked super hard and for a long time scooping mulch into wheelbarrows. 
  • We worked until nearly 4. I did take the boys at one point for a Sonic run. I do think that they enjoyed picking up 26 drinks. It was a super fun afternoon, and a bit tiring, but we enjoyed seeing the kids work hard.
  • Once at home, I pulled out school for the next week and then joined Robby in the living room for a little nap. We then sat around trying to figure out what to have for supper when the Wilson's wrote. We grabbed some spaghetti sauce, noodles and frozen meat along with our leftover bake sale desserts from yesterday and headed to their house.
  • We had a great evening chatting with the Wilsons and stuffing our faces with our buffet dinner-our thrown together meal plus their thrown together meal. We stayed out too late for a Sunday night since everyone had to have showers when we came home. 

October 12, 2019

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  • I woke up at 6 to go to the bathroom which is not the best time to wake up. Then I couldn't go back to sleep because I was having such crazy dreams-friend got kidnapped, riding in a car with Trump, and going to a bbq. I did finally get back to sleep but then didn't have too much time to snooze until it was time to get up for breakfast.
  • Today was the annual fireman's breakfast down the road. We tried to get some more takers to go with us, but the boys were the only ones that we could convince to go. Well, Anderson was th eonly one that for sure wnated to go. Whitman said he did until it was time to leave and then decided he wanted to stay home-we convinced him otherwise. (He still isn't 100%.)
  • Before we left, I did see a dozen deer run by. We usually see a couple or even 5 but 12 is quite a bit. I guess they are getting ready for hunting season. 
  • The fireman's breakfast was pretty crowded this morning, but we did see lots of folks that we know including the both sets of grands. Anderson and Whitman did enjoy looking at the firetrucks and making the horn sound. I do believe that was the highlight of Whitman's day.
  • We did run by the church down the road on the way home because they were having a bake sale. We bought an angel food cake along with some brownies. Tonight during half time we ate some of those along with some no bake cookies and leftover cupcakes-all of our desserts were delicious.
  • We didn't do much once we came home. I did have everyone go through all of their shoes plus 3 bins of shoes in the attic. Then we just stirred enough to eat lunch before heading to Reagan's next to last soccer game. This one was in Benton so we just took Anderson and Campbell. No one else wanted to go so that was fine with us-they will get (have) to go next week.
  • Reagan's team did super and won 3-0. Reagan always plays on the side opposite from us. Since the fields are huge, it is always hard to see her well. She continues to improve and did great today. She plays midfield, but just about almost had a chance to score today. We told her that we just wnated her to knock someone down today. She didn't do that but did kick the ball right into a girl's face.
  • After the game, Anderson went home with Nonna and Pops. He managed to run by Dave and Busters on his way home. I am sure that he loved that since none of us have been there. We ran by Sonic and Starbucks on the way home-a drink for Campbell and Robby and drink for Reagan.
  • We didn't really do anything else after the ballgame until the Hogs game came on. I guess my busy shirt making evening last night wore me out. Everyone ate supper on their own, and then we topped off the game with our dessert buffet. 

October 11, 2019

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  • If you remember, I had debated about doing school today, but my list has been slowly marked off so not only were we able to do school, but I also snuck in a nap. This was our 4th day of school this week, which meant no spelling! We do our weekly spelling lesson in 3 days so today was just a wee bit shorter.
  • Actually, it was about an hour shorter for me. By 11, I was in Whitman's closet changing his clothes to winter items. Then I even printed out vinyl for one more shirt. Reagan and Graham did most of their work for today yesterday so they had little to do school-wise today, so their mornings were as relaxing as mine.
  • Robby, Reagan, Keaton and I went to the new Newks for their preview day. We tried it out, and the food was pretty decent. Both sets of grands were there too, so that made it fun. Keaton and Reagan enjoyed a bit of extra attention.
  • Afterwards, we ran to the grocery store for a little bit. We needed to pick up a few things which turned into almost a shopping cart full of stuff. I did buy a few things for the trip-well, not that much-just 3 things of ziplock bags. 
  • Back at home, I had my nap and then finished 3 more shirts. Two for Robby and one for Anderson. Robby's shirt has "#BROKE" written on the front of his. The O in broke is a mickey head so it is super cute. 
  • Robby ran to pick up super for the kids plus he picked up Tazikis for the adults. He seriously, was super dad tonight because he took 3 of the Craft kids plus our people to Menchies and Chuck E Cheese tonight while Traci, Candice and I set up a shirt sweatshop in the kitchen.
  • We worked from 6:30 until almost midnight. We made 23 shirts, and oh, my some of them are super cute. I do believe that we should go into business-not really, shirt making is a bit tedious. However, we had a lot of fun. 
  • The kids had a blast too. Robby was telling me about how calm Whitman was this evening whil they were out and about. It was midnight when we were tucking him in and soon noticed that he felt a bit warm-thus the possible reason for his calmness and even the possiblereason for his afternoon nap today. Hopefully, he was just cozy warm and not cozy fevery. He still got some tylenol before going to sleep. We don't need any sick people around here. 

October 10, 2019

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  • I hit my alarm a bit too long for the treadmill today. I should have gotten up since I never went back to sleep, but I enjoyed my quite time before the craziness of the morning. Soon we were all in my bedroom, eating breakfast and reading about Napoleon and Jupiter.
  • Graham finished today's school work and then went right to town on tomorrow's school work. He was still finished with it all by the time that his two more distractible brothers finished theirs. He has bought a game which he was hoping to arrive in the mail tomorrow...however, it looks like it will arrive Saturday.
  • I did keep Whitman by my side as much as I could today. If he is actually doing his work, the only thing that slows him down is math. The other stuff, even phonics, he speeds through. But keeping him by me during the school day is a challenge-he will go off to use the restroom and won't return for 20 minutes. He will sharpen a pencil and will later be found sitting on the steps. 
  • I was able to start working on Whitman's clothes changeover today. Most of his clothes that he has in his closet still fit, but I still drug out some new ones. They all look huge right now but I am sure that soon they will be the right size. He was tickled with my finding him some new feetie pajamas in the bin of clothes.
  • We did some more reading this afternoon-North Korea and Brazil. Our homeschool group is planning a report day about different countries. The kids have chosen their countries, but we haven't started yet. I thought that our meeting day was a week from tomorrow, however, I just figured out that it is the next Friday. That makes me so incredible happy-one more thing off of my "must do immediately" list.
  • There was some working on Disney shirts this afternoon. I even made one more for Reagan tonight. I was about to do one for Anderson, but was distracted by trips to the bathroom. Bless it! Robby bought me my favorite caramel apple cider which didn't set well with my stomach at all! At all! I will finish Anderson's shirt tomorrow and also have two more to make for Robby. 
  • It was Whitman's turn to cook supper for us today. After Third Realm this afternoon, he came home and iced the cupcakes that we had made earlier in the day. While Reagan was at soccer practice, Whitman and I worked on his meal. He told me that he had to get up about 20 times while cooking/. I explained that is exactly how cooking is.
  • When Robby and Reagan came home, we ate Whitman's meal-chicken nuggets, edemame and mac and cheese. I also added fries and baked beans because they were in the fridge. It was a success especially when we ate his cupcakes. 
  • We finished the evening by watching the Bates before heading to bed. Tomorow is the last day of school for the week plus massive shirt making evening with the Disney folks. (For them-not for me. I have just a few more and will be done. We already have more Disney shirts than days there.)

October 9, 2019

(click here for today's pictures)

  • My Campbell and Reagan woke up at 6 this morning to watch the sunrise. Though they quickly discovered that sunrise wasn't until nearly 7. Since my kids have all been calling the sunrise the sunset, I would have to assume that Reagan looked at the wrong time. They tried to go outside but determined that the bonus room window would be the best option. 
  • When I went upstairs at 7:15 for the treadmill, they were setting at the window cuddled up in blankets. Glad they had some sisterly quality time. Graham talked about getting up in the morning to see the sunrise. I am not so sure why my people would ever want to get up early! I sure don't.
  • I did a little bit of cricut work this morning before my shower which wasn't probably the best idea. Not surprisingly, I left little time for my shower and had to rush to leave the house on time. The kids can often be slackers but they did pretty good this morning.
  • Bible study is good this year. I am kind of enjoying Exodus. I will say that dropping the kids off each week is a bit of a hassle, but not horrible. It doesn't seem like there has been any progress at Immanuel so I woul dhave to assume that this won't be our last year at two locations.
  • Before Bible study started, Graham, who was so excited about bringing his snack, smashed his fingers in the car door. Anderson and I were still in the car and Graham was climbing back in. He shouted that he couldn't get his fingers out, and we jumped to try to open the door, but he opened it before we could get there. Bless, he wasn't as bruised up as I thought that he would be, but he was pretty shaken by the whole thing. I stayed with him while the others walked to class. He eventually recovered and headed in with the others.
  • Afterwards, we went to a park. All of our buddies were there along with our class. My kids said that they really enjoyed it and asked to go back to the park next week. I am glad that they had fun with their friends.
  • From the park, we zoomed on home. I had a list to accomplish and thankfully, I did. We did some school reading, I read to Whitman and to Campbell and Keaton. Then the boys and I worked on their closet and their room. I moved some drawers out of the room to put in my attic. I am trying to clear the way for one of Whitman's Christmas presents.
  • I even finished in time to do some of my shirt making work. Then we headed to church to eat. Well, that was the plan. I had no food at home and no plan (I think that I said that yesterday.) Robby ended up meeting us at ChickFilA so that made for a good end to the day. 
  • Church tonight was not as crazy as last week, so that was super nice. The kids can get pretty wild on Wednesday night. After church, we came home for some ice cream before staying up way too late-the kids, not so much Robby and me.

October 8, 2019

(click here for today's pictures)

  • Tuesday and gracious me, there isn't enough hours in the day. I have even been talking about skipping school on Friday so I can get some stuff done. I am still doing my best to check off my list so we can do school. Honestly, skipping school just for me to catch up would make me crazy, but it might just be necessary.
  • School went pretty smooth this morning. I did our morning reading, and we finished a few library books. We actually returned 50+ books today from the library. We only checked out about 30 so we did pretty good.
  • Whitman took forever to do his school today. When he leaves my bedroom, where I am, he just gets so distracted and doesn't finish anything. I know that he wants to be with the others, but being near me would work so well. Maybe he will one day figure it out.
  • At 12, Graham and I did some speed cooking. He has snack tomorrow so he dipped some oreos and chocolate chip cookies in white chocolate for his class' snack. We were slinging chocolate all over the kitchen because at 12:15 we had to leave the house to get them to their construction class.
  • Amber drove them today. They were able to sit in some big machinery and even honked the horn. There was a simulator that they enjoyed. The boys came home saying that this was the best class yet. Also, Anderson said that the lady told him that he was "very mature." 
  • Meanwhile, the girls, Whitman and I went to the library. We went to the homeschool class. We were the only ones there for a bit. We made exploding monsters which they all enjoyed. Well, Reagan is a bit old for the class and tolerates it since her siblings enjoy it. However, I do think that she liked making the craft today.
  • Then it was to Third Realm for a bit of jumping time. The boys met us there, and we ended up staying for over an hour. Next up, we rushed home for me to make some supper. Supper is hard to make when you have no plans and no idea what to make. Life is a bit wild right now, but some day I am going to make a weekly menu or at least a plan.
  • I did find food for everyone before loading up with Reagan to take her to soccer practice. I dropped her off and then ran to Walmart of a little bit. When I got back, I drug my lawn chair to her field to watch her practice. I didn't realize that it was cold out there!
  • I was so glad when they called practice a bit early because it was dark-I was freezing! We hurried home where I did some work on the computer for a bit. Robby was gone all day and when he did return at bedtime, he brought Hurts Doughnuts for everyone. It was a sweet end to a busy day!

October 7, 2019

(click here for today's pictures)

  • Monday school around here-I had spelled out exactly what I wanted everyone to do because there had been some slacking happening. It did help some, and everyone seemed to be on top of things. I got in late tonight so I didn't have time to list specifically what I want for Anderson to do tomorrow so I hope that he gets it done quickly.
  • My list is fairly long these days so I was squeezing in everyone second to do something productive. I will say this, I think that I need a few more hours in the day. Ha! It will all get done-maybe not today, well, definitely not today since there are only 3 minutes left in this day.
  • We had our lunch, and then the kids and I worked together again. We have read so many library books the past few days that I will need a wagon to get them all in the door. Seriously, it is a bit on the ridiculous side.
  • This afternoon we ran to Third Realm after working on the boys clothes. It is time for clothes switchover. I do love doing this because their rooms are pretty spotless when we finish, but I also hate it because it is just a lot of work. My goal this week is to just finish the boys. Hopefully that can happen.
  • After Third Realm, the boys went to Trail Life while I dropped off the girls and headed to Bunko in Sherwood. The guys stopped at Dairy Queen for their supper while I fed the girls leftovers. 
  • Robby made it home around 8ish, and everyone had a snakc before they finally went to bed-much later than usual. I however, didn't make it home until much later than usual for a bunko. It was a busy day, but tomorrow will be just as busy!