- Robby and I were up early this morning-early for us on any day of the week but especially early on a Saturday. I was afraid that no one would be awake when we left the house, but by the time that we left, Anderson was awake.
- Soon Whitman came down the stairs. He said that he wanted to take a nap with me so I jumped back in bed for a second. I did get him out of my bed by offering breakfast. I poured his milk, and then Robby, who was on the other side of the house, said that it was time to leave. By this time, Whitman had decided on waffles so I handed Anderson the box of waffles as I walked out the door.
- When I returned, Whitman was sitting at the bar still eating his waffles that his big brother had made for him. There was a new Dollar General down the road, and since this was the grand opening, Robby and I went.
- They were handing out 10 dollar gift cards to the first 50 in line. Robby and I were probably about 46th and 47th in line. We used Robby's gift card today plus a 5 off of 25 coupon so we spent about 10 bucks for 25 dollars worth of goodies. We will go back and do the same thing with my gift card and another coupon later.
- I had even had a dream about the Dollar General grand opening except that they were giving away cinnamon rolls. In my dream, I watched a man stumble over chair after chair carrying away a huge tray of cinnamon rolls. They didn't have cinnamon rolls there today but they did have Little Debbies and some cokes. I think I would have liked cinnamon rolls better.
- Back at home, after I emptied the dishwasher, I went outside to help Robby with the garage. We worked out there for quite a long while, The garage is really a never ending process. We also did a bit of bike repair on Keaton and Campbell's bikes. They came out and joined us for a bit and were quick to ride their bikes around as well.
- Robby owed Graham a movie from the Super Bowl so today was the day that he cashed in on it. They went to a movie around lunch. While they were gone, Keaton, Campbell and I made cookies. I also tried to clean the grout on my bar but it didn't work as well as I had planned. My kitchen smells like bleach but it doesn't look like bleach has been scrubbed on the countertops though.
- Once Graham came home, I put him back in the car along with Anderson to meet Cash to ride go-carts. Then they met us at the pool. This has been a busy day for Graham who said that he was exhausted first thing this morning. The big boys actually ended up spending the night at Cash's house tonight so I know that he really will be exhausted!
- Everyone had lots of fun at the pool. The girls, except for Reagan, could have stayed longer. It was fairly windy tonight so it was coolish-much too cool for Robby or I to swim. This greatly disappointed Whitman because he wanted to practice!
- After we dropped off the boys, we headed to David's Burgers. I don't remember that last time that we ate out there. When we lived on Gamble, we ate out a lot, but we don't eat out that much anymore. We do have quite a few pizza mystery shops, but there isn't a lot of going out to eat except for when we are on a trip. I thought my burger and fries were excellent tonight. The lady even gave the kids ice cream cones and Robby and I little samples. Our samples had tiny little spoons which the girls thought were the cutest things ever.
- Once at home, the girls were delighted to see that Mr, Tony had left a surprise toy at our house. I believe that he was cleaning out his garage. When Whitman saw it, he exclaimed, "Oh my!" Everyone had a few rides on the driveway tonight. I may have taken more than my fair share of turns-which is quite obvious to me now since my legs are already sore!
- When everyone came inside, we started on our showers for the evening. It didn't take long at all to run through them with two less kiddos. Campbell and Whitman passed out the cookies that we had made today while the laundry washed and we listened to fireworks all around us (people still think it is the 4th out here).
- The boys went walking with Robby this morning. Graham only made it around one time before he went in because his knee was bothering him. Now, his knee didn't seem to bother him any other time today.
- Keaton was the last one awake today. It was nearly 10:30 when she showed up downstairs. When Reagan came down before her, I started to worry that Keaton might be feeling a bit under the weather. Instead, she was just very well rested when she awoke.
- This morning was filled with chores, a Jr. Ranger book, Whitman's school, reading, and a few math problems. Now, when we spend most of the morning leisurely doing these things, I start to wonder how we are able to fit a full days worth of school into the morning. I do realize that I am going to need to start waking up a lot earlier this year. It will be a bit tough to get in seventh grade and kindergarten.
- Right before 12, we loaded up and headed to the pool for two hours. Our buddies were leaving at 2 so we just stayed 2 hours. That really is plenty for me, but it almost seems wasteful not to stay longer since you work so hard to get there and unload from it.
- Whitman practiced on his swimming again today. One minute I will think that he has it and the very next minute I am convinced that he will never learn how to swim. His "swimming" right now is very entertaining. He dives down to the bottom of the pool, then pushes himself up with his hands (it is just the 4 foot section) and then does it again and again. The only way for him to understand that won't work is to play "the floor is lava" and then he was able to swim a bit better.
- After the pool, we went to Dairy Queen. Today was my first day to drive through for our blizzards. It was incredibly easy, and I'll probably be doing that from now on....but we do know everyone inside the restaurant, and they know us.
- From there, we came home and unloaded the car. I ran on the treadmill and while I was upstairs the neighbors all came out so the kids spent a good amount of time playing outside. The boys had to be called in when it was time to head to their basketball practice.
- Robby took them and then ran to Kroger. My chicken spaghetti was in the oven for tonight's supper with the Wilson's and the green beans were on the stove. I was sitting looking at a magazine talking to Whitman when the lights went out.
- I didn't do anything at first, but then I did put the beans in the warm oven. The Wilsons were soon over, and Tony fired up the grill to cook their bread. Robby had just left the store when the boys called. Their power was out so Robby ran to pick them up.
- We ate supper-the food was still warm and the bread was grilled to perfection. Then Robby hooked up the generator so we could have some lights and fans for the evening. We started upstairs in the bonus room where the generator power is easiest to get to, but soon had to move the party and the cords to the living room.
- The evening was so fun. I am not sure that Robby thought it was as fun as I did, but the kids will never forget it. We all hung out upstairs while they played games. They even did a bit of hide n seek in the dark upstairs. Later, everyone moved to downstairs. Tony even played the guitar while Whitman danced. It was just a good evening.
- When the Wilson's left, we got the kids settled in downstairs with fans blowing on them. Robby plugged up the fridge inside and refilled the generator with gas. We were just walking down the hallway to our room when "pop" on goes the lights.
- We moved the kids back upstairs. Then Robby picked up the outside stuff while I tried to work on the inside stuff. There were blankets, sleeping bags, flashlights, miles of extension cords, fans, and plenty of other things to pick up! It didn't take too long and the rest we will do in the morning.
- Robby was just about to get in the shower after all of this but saw a huge spider. He killed it with a shoe, and then noticed many, many tiny spiders crawling around everywhere. I grabbed the bug spray, and he went to town spraying. It was quite an adventure as well!
- The house is cool again and spider free right now! And since we have already had ice cream, I guess that it is time for bed!
- Even though I stayed in bed as long as I could, Campbell and Whitman joined me trying to get me up. Campbell needed help with the computer, and Whitman needed someone to pour him some milk. I suggested his big brothers to help with his milk, but they were upstairs.
- The morning wasn't too eventful. The kids worked on their Jr. Ranger books. They did some reading or at least, I hope that they did some reading.
- While I was on the treadmill, I am pretty sure that nothing productive happened. When I finished, it was then chore time. It didn't take long for everyone to finish their list. Then we worked on making our lunches. We have a ton of lunch meat leftover from the lake. However, try as I might, I can't give it away! I only had one taker at lunch today. They made paninis, spaghetti, grilled cheese but practically nothing with lunch meat!
- When lunch was finished, Whitman and I worked on riding his bike for just a few minutes. It was too hot to work too long. Then the Heltz girls came over to play for the afternoon. I pretty quickly kicked them out of the house since Robby was on a phone call.
- They all played outside for most of the time. The neighbors came down along with a 5 year old boy they are babysitting. Whitman enjoyed meeting and playing with a new buddy. The others played kickball, shot fireworks, played tether ball and hung around outside all afternoon. I did let them get popsicles and passed out 1 oreo per person. Yes, just one oreo since I didn't want to have to open another package!
- Candice came and picked up her crew around supper time. When they left, we picked up, and soon afterwards Robby had our supper heated up-leftover pizza. We ate and then the kids started running through the showers.
- After Whitman's shower, he told me that he almost "pooped in the shower, but I sucked it back up." I encouraged him to sit on the potty for a bit. Afterwards, I flushed and as he watched it, he started shouting, "Oh no, oh no, it doesn't fit!" and yes, we had to flush twice.
- Once everyone was through we their showers, we watched a little bit of the Bates before sending everyone off to bed.
- Graham was ready to go walking this morning. He was in our room around 7:30 asking when they were going to go. I reminded him that this was a holiday! By then though we were awake so Anderson, Graham and Robby soon headed on their walk. I did the laundry and dishes while they were gone.
- When they arrived home, Robby took the girls for their go around. Surprisingly, Robby said that Campbell complained the least of everyone. However, when they walked in, her face was bright red matching the color of Robby's shirt.
- I had already told Whitman that he would go on his walk later in the day, but when Robby came in with the girls, he told Whitman to put on his shoes. He wasn't too thrilled about going and told us that he just wanted to go on a short walk. Campbell walked with them, and they were all rewarded with popsicles after their walk.
- When they came in, everyone loaded up to go to the pool for the afternoon. The Heltz and Kamps were there. The kids swam until lunch time. They had hot dogs, chips and lots of desserts. Everyone had plenty. The kids just love the picnic at the pool.
- Robby and I even got in the pool a little bit today. He let Whitman swim some. That boy goes so deep in that pool that he wastes all of his energy doing that. I am beginning to think he will ever get it!
- We stayed until 3 and then headed to Grannymom's house for a little bit. Robby worked on some pictures while we played dominoes, Candy Land and even started another game. From there, we headed home for dry clothes.
- After my shower, I sat down on the couch with Whitman to do his reading book. Then I showed him a movie on the ipad and snoozed during the entire show. It was the best sleep ever, but when I woke up, it was time to leave.
- We then headed over to the Wilson's house for supper and fireworks. Their neighbor and Tony had both made some meat and Shannon had a ton of dips. There were plenty of desserts, and everyone was stuffed when we started the Baggo tournament outside.
- Keaton was on my team with their neighbor lady. We did decent-now, we could have done much better but we could have done much worse. Reagan and Graham lost to Brett and Layne in the finals.
- After the tournament, it was time for fireworks and homemade ice cream. The fireworks were good but by the end, the kids were playing in the yard barely glancing up at the fireworks. They all fun though. It was after 11 when we made it home, so it was showers and bedtime!
- I try to never miss an opportunity with the kids to instruct them about something. We are currently listening to a book on tape where the neighbor is an alcoholic, and it is destroying his family and life. That isn't the main part of the book, but it is in there. So yesterday on the way home, I stopped the tape and once again discussed the benefits of alcohol (few), the dangers of alcohol (many), our view on it and the Bible's view on alcohol. Since I have a wide range of ages, I am sure that my littles hear more than they need, but my bigs need to hear this stuff now. All of that to say, I realized that even Whitman is intently listening because tonight as he was holding his drink, he said, "Let's just pretend I am drinking alcohol."
- There wasn't walking this morning because Robby had to scurry off to a dentist appointment. He was less than thrilled to be having a root canal, but also a bit thrilled because hopefully this will help his constant tooth pain which has been nagging him for a year or more. (And if you are keeping track of our no-spend month that would be air conditioner repair, root canal, and filling up both cars with gas in two days! We possibly should have "spend month," and maybe we wouldn't spend anything.)
- My morning didn't start off great. I put my contacts in and kept having trouble seeing. I would struggle to see anything. The clock, my phone, far or close, it didn't matter. I would have to really focus to read anything. I was convinced that my eyesight had just become poor overnight. They say that happens when you turn 40. I was getting a bit bummed, but I was about ready to call the eye doctor. I decided to take them out and try another pair. When I did, I realized that I had two pairs of contacts in. Yep, I forgot to take them out last night and put my new pair right on top. I was extremely relieved!
- Early this morning the girls wrote about going to the pool. I still had 4 people asleep at the time so we didn't make it to the pool until after 11. My big 3 weren't crazy about going to the pool, but I didn't give them much of a choice. (We are going to to the pool tomorrow too so they will probably love that as well!)
- Reagan was the last one awake this morning and was just able to do her math before we left. She was actually still making her lunch while the rest of us were sitting in the car waiting to leave.
- The pool was pretty full this morning. The kids all had fun though despite the crowd. Whitman constantly wants for me to swim with him so he can take off his life jacket. He is fairly close to getting the swimming thing, but gracious he scares me. I swam with him a little bit today, but the last hour, I always want to dry off and not get wet.
- On the way home, we ran by Dairy Queen. Reagan and Anderson ordered the new blizzard-a cherry blizzard with soft serve ice cream and a star popsicle on top. It looked really pretty, but I don't think either one of them were very crazy about the blizzard part of it.
- The kids finished their chores and put on dry clothes when we came home. At one point in the afternoon one neighbor was out so the girls and Graham played with him. Then the other neighbors came out for just a little bit, and they played with them. I was in the bonus room for most of this. For the first part, I was finishing a puzzle upstairs. I did finish it but am missing the very last piece. I have looked everywhere. Then I did do some treadmill time while the kids were still outside.
- Robby came home with supper, and everyone ate. Campbell helped me make some cookies tonight. She was anxious to get in the kitchen since Keaton had made chocolate dipped Oreos and decorated them for the 4th earlier today.
- After the kids' showers, we settled in to watch a tv show and eat a few cookies. The Wilson fam came over with Sonic shakes for all of us. This caused much delight at our house. Soon the living room was littered with empty Sonic cups. Whitman was too engrossed in his movies so he didn't even try his. I worked on some of it and then Robby finished it off. It was a perfect treat to our day.
- The boys were anxious to go on their walk with Robby this morning. They didn't leave at the crack of dawn or anywhere near it, but it still must have been pretty hot because Anderson and Graham both came back nasty and sweaty.
- I think that everyone slept well downstairs, though Campbell did come to me complaining about her ear in the middle of the night. I told her that we would get drops in the morning, and then when I woke up I felt incredibly guilty about that. I am pretty sure that she still slept well. I think that she may have a touch of swimmers ear so hopefully it will get better soon.
- The air conditioner repairman was here bright and early. It took him a bit to figure out what was wrong since it was working well when they turned it on this morning. He did eventually figure it out, and thankfully it was a low cost fix. Low cost is a relative term especially since this is supposed to be a no spend month! Oh, well, I guess that the air fix will be much less than Robby's root canal tomorrow.
- At some point this morning, Robby did take Whitman on a little walk. He didn't think that he could keep up with the others. Now, while Robby was gone with Anderson and Graham, I heard the chime from the door. I knew it wasn't the walkers back, so I jumped out of bed. I met Whitman walking back in the house. He told me that he was looking for Robby because he forgot what he said to do. I was afraid that he was going to go and try to find him somewhere on the street.
- The kids had to read and do some math problems today, but I let them do chores right before we needed to leave to meet our buddies. I guess they were rushed because nothing was done with excellence. I was pretty frustrated on the way to the pool, and I am sure they will be a bit frustrated in the morning when chores will be done early in the day.
- We met all of our buddies at the pool around 1 and stayed until 4. They all had fun playing despite the heat. I worked with Whitman on his swimming. He has no fear and would try to dart out of my arms. I didn't let him stay out of his life jacket for too long.
- Once we made it back home, the kids vegged for a bit. Around 5:30, Campbell, Keaton and I left for the library. They were having a bracelet making class. We all made a 4th of July bracelet. Campbell and Keaton were very meticulous on the beads that they used. Their bracelets turned out really cute.
- On the way home, we stopped by Nonna and Pops' house to pick up a few things. Then on our way home, we almost hit ourselves a precious baby deer. I had to brake pretty good for the momma but then the baby came running across the road. I thought I had hit him at first since I couldn't see him since he was so close to the car and my basket full of books tumbled into the floor.
- The kids were outside playing with the neighbors when we came home, and Robby was inspecting the Wilson's new ride. Everyone else had already eaten so the girls and I ate and then they headed back outside to play.
- Everyone stayed out until after 9. They came in hot and bug bitey. Everyone had their showers and then they were finally able to sleep in their own cool beds!
- Since waking up this morning meant the end of the weekend getaway, Robby and I were in no hurry to wake up and get moving. Whitman joined us bed at some point in the night. Whenever he is in bed with us, I must not move at all and wake up so incredibly stiff.
- When we did start stirring, we quickly put on our clothes and started passing out breakfasts to the kids and loading up. It didn't take long to gather all of our stuff from the house. Robby did work on filling up the ice chests which took a while. We did go with 4 ice chests, but only came home with 3 full ones!
- Campbell and Keaton rode home with Grannymom and Grandpa. When we picked them up, they mentioned that their car ride home was quiet. We also had already discussed how our car ride home was quiet.
- On the car ride home, we did watch as our van rolled over to 100,000 miles. While discussing this, we realized that our van has also been to 48 states. Not too shabby. Robby's car has 350,000 miles so hopefully the van can get half as many!
- When we made it home, the kids really helped unload the car and put everything away. Robby said that when they had almost finished working on the car, Anderson told him that he wanted to cut the front yard. Robby got the lawnmower out for Anderson, and it didn't take too long for Anderson to mow the front yard.
- When he had finished that, Robby got out the big mower, and he mowed with it some too. Of course, Graham wanted in on all of this. He mowed some too until it was time for Robby to cut the boys' hair.
- We are not really sure why Anderson volunteered to mow. We assume it was due to his work on the mission trip. Hopefully, some of that will stick around for a bit. As for his sister...bless! Tonight at supper, we were having leftover breakfast items. She said she didn't like breakfast at supper and didn't want anything. That was fine with me-more for the rest of us. I did make her set there and watch us eat.
- Then Robby told the kids that he wanted to try to start walking each morning. Some days he would walk with the boys and other days the girls. Reagan must have thought that this was a punishment because this news nearly caused her to start crying. I like to think that the child is just plumb exhausted...at least that is what I hope it is!
- We had planned on going to the pool this evening, but the afternoon rain shower and lingering booms of thunder made us skip. We will go tomorrow though. Candice wrote tonight just as the kids had gone out to play with the neighbors. Robby and I walked down to their house for a bit. On the way home, Robby did say that I couldn't walk on Lawson by myself much-especially at night!
- While we were gone, Whitman went outside with the others. I think that the fireworks or the other kids caused him to get a bit spooked. Keaton even wrote me saying that he was scared. We were almost back home when she wrote, but he was sure happy to see us!
- Tonight, all the kids but Reagan are sleeping in the living room. Reagan is in her bed. Unfortunately, when we came home the upstairs air wasn't working. We hoped it was just having to work really hard to cool off the upstairs since Robby had turned it off. That wasn't it! Since it wasn't cooling it down any, we hoped that it was the Entergy thing where they can turn off your air. That wasn't it! Then Robby tried the flipping all of the breaker switches hoping that was it. That wasn't it either! A repairman is coming in the a.m. so hopefully, it is an easy (and cheap) fix!
