Update from home

While Rick, Jani and Jase are off touring the church history sites, I am home with the five youngest.  We started off our week by picking up some microwavable kid friendly meals (corn dogs, taquitos, top ramen) so that I wouldn't have to do much cooking.  I did cook a couple of nice meals too (mainly for me since the kids would rather have the afore mentioned items.)  We also have a library only a few blocks away and I have made trips there every other day to get books and movies for the kids.  I also got some outside work in.  Our flower beds were overgrown with weeds and so I went and pulled weeds for about an hour every morning before it got too hot. 

It has been extremely hot -- up to 110 degrees!   The bad thing about the heat is that the kids can't spend much time outdoors unless they are in the pool.  The kids have spent hours and hours in the pool.  Jaiden and Janelle have the coolest tan lines that show the shape of their swimming suit including the oval in the back.  I have gone swimming every day too but not nearly the extent of the kids -- usually just so I can get in 45 minutes or so of swimming for exercise.  Of course that is difficult when swimming with the kids because they just want to play and are constantly jumping all over me.  I usually end up having to get my exercise by pulling them around in the pool.

Jenna loves the pool too an so I have brought her in several times this week.  Josh has gotten braver and has finally made his way into the pool (he even made it away from the ladder) but not away from the side.  He clings on for dear life.  But at least he is clinging on the side from inside the pool and not outside the pool like he has been doing all summer. 

So besides swimming, the kids have played a lot with the neighbor boy, Boots.  He always helps to keep the kids happily occupied.  The younger kids play house and do their whole dress-up-and-dance-to-music-thing in the basement.  Boots and his sister also set up a slip-n-slide over at their house and invited our kids over a few nights to play on it, which was nice.  The kids have still gotten bored with the long summer days with no place to go, however, and they've had way too much screen time with the Wii, computer games, and movies.  I am tired of hearing, "I'm bored" or "What can I do?"

Wednesday night I had an appointment.  It is very difficult finding a baby-sitter on a Wednesday night, especially with it being girls' camp for the girls in our neighborhood, but I finally managed to find someone.   So that was nice to get a little time away from the kids and since the appointment got out early I was able to go shopping for an hour before going home.

Friday I brought the kids to the splash pad.  Luckily it was overcast and so I wasn't sweltering while watching them.  Jenna didn't quite know what to think about water unexpectedly shooting from the ground and so she kept a safe distance.  We came home and she kept signing and saying "si-ing pool -- si-ing pool" and so since we were all already in our swim suits we decided to hop in and take her for a little swim before her nap.  She actually got two swims in this day since I took her again later in the evening. 

Saturday morning I picked up our Bountiful Baskets filled with fruits and vegies and then came home and bathed all of the kids.  They had a primary party at the church so I was able to drop the four primary kids off and then go grocery shopping with Jenna.  She was so good.  At the store they had someone dressed up as a giant chicken.  Jenna was so excited and went running right towards him.  I had to grab her and put her back in the cart but he saw her and came over.  She kept waving excitedly and then put her hands over her eyes, yelling "Boo!" as she flew her hands open.   It was the cutest thing and the store clerk and bagger were both laughing.  The "chicken" played "peek-a-boo" back and Jenna giggled.  She even came away with a chicken hat!  

Jenna has been napping fairly well but she isn't going to bed well at night for some reason.  She is also teething (or has something else going on in her mouth) because she keeps sticking her fingers in her mouth and saying "eeet" (teeth) and crying.  Last night was especially difficult because she would not to go sleep at all.  She FINALLY fell asleep at around 11:30 p.m. and I was so exhausted!   Let's hope she sleeps better tonight!

Today is Sunday and Sundays are always hard with Rick gone all day and the kids unable to do the things they normally do to entertain themselves (swim, play with friends, play the Wii...) and so they end up running around the house and often start bickering and whining.  Today was no exception.  This morning the kids were whiney and bugging each other.  I can't tell you how many times Jaiden has started bawling today.  I was also getting really irritated with Josh who kept bothering Jenna and making her scream.  So I wasn't too thrilled when the Primary President called and asked if I could substitute for the Sunbeam class.   Now instead of one difficult four year old, I had SEVEN difficult four year olds!  But it made me feel a little better about my Josh since he was actually one of the "good" kids in the class!  I am glad that I ended up subbing the class though since there just so happened to be a cute little four year old boy visiting the branch today and he was deaf.  So I was able to interpret for him during sharing time and sign the lesson.  But I have to applaud the teacher of that class -- it is not an easy one!

So anyway, I have survived the week and my accolades to Jared who has been a TREMENDOUS help during the week.  There has also been much less laundry and dishes than usual -- and I have the computer all to myself!   But I miss my family (and their help) and we are all looking forward to my parents' arrival tomorrow!