Dearest Children, God is Near You

Hola, peeps! Hope your weekend went well! Mine is plugging along quite well! And, I've already lost 5 lbs. Sure, I'm still way up, but 5 lbs is good, right??

We slept in today. And it felt SO good. I don't think I got out of bed until 9am. hehe. And the kids wanted to go in the pool. But we had work to do. First off, laundry. We'd separated it into piles last night. And found the butter that Boxer ate. Did I mention that? I guess he puked it up in the dirty laundry pile in the laundry room. Nice, huh?

Anyway, I told kids that once their chores and their rooms and their laundry was done, that they could get in the pool. Oh yeah, I'm totally playing up the pool angle. For as long as it will work. hehe.

They worked for a long time. A really long time. But they got it done. And the house looked a lot better. And at 10:45am, Tom and Eme and Joe and Jim were able to get in the pool. And I even got in for a little while to cool off.
Eme and Tom were fighting horribly, so they got kicked out a few times, and even had to do extra chores before they could initially get in. Sigh. Bickering is HORRIBLE.

At 11:30am, I ran Joe over to our meeting location for Louann to take Joe with her and Christian to the water park. He was SO excited! And I headed back home.

Jake had woken up at 11am, and was in a good mood, until he had to start on his chores. He was getting grouchy because I was making him do the chores right. Go figure. But, instead of rising to the "bait", I decided to try another tactic. Each time he started to get "hot", I told him to grab a popsicles and sit on the couch with Boxer for a few minutes. Worked like a charm. He came back and was in a good mood again in about 5 minutes.

He had to mow the grass (just by the fence is the only grass we have, but it's tall), and wasn't too pleased about that. But the popsicle and dog combination seemed to get him through it. Whatever works, right?

He was finally able to get in the pool too. Amanda and Kari came over, and their kids swam too. And I got in and out, to cool off. And had a TON of fun. And yeah, spent WAY too much time in the sun. hehe. It didn't hurt, so I didn't really think too much of it. Mistake...

We cooked up some hot dogs around 2pm, and had watermelon and popsicles too. Really, it was a fun afternoon. Jake was having a hard time playing nicely in the pool, and got "kicked out" around 2:45pm. There were just too many little kids, and I think he was getting over-stimulated. He went inside and watched a movie, and finished off his laundry.

Once his clothes were in the dryer, I had Kari and Amanda supervise, and I drove Jake over to the Youth Center. He was gonna go on a field trip at 7ish that night to the on post movie theater, and see the Pirate Movie. For free! Nice Fieldtrip, huh? hehe.

I dropped him off, and told the staff that I'd just picked him up from the theater around 9. Because it's closer to my house than the Youth Center. Works for me.

I headed back home, and played with the girls until almost 4pm. Everyone got out, and I realized how red I was. Oops. They all headed home, we all changed, and settled in for the evening. Kids did another round of chores, and then went to play with their friends. Eme and Kayleigh played in the front yard, and Tom played at Noah's house.

Jim and Joe watched a movie, and I watched an episode of 24. Then chatted with my mom on the phone, and we bought tickets for her and my dad and my Aunt Sue to come and visit in July! Yes! Plus, Aunt Sue is gonna stay for a bit over the summer, so we didn't get her a return trip. Just a one way.

I ended up with all the kids back at my house around 6:30pm, and Kayleigh and Noah helped Eme and Tom pack for camp on Monday. They're going too! Should be a good time! I printed out the packing list, and they got their suitcases all packed up. Thank goodness for friends help!

Check out my lobster-ness...

So it's now 8:27pm. I blogged about yesterday. I blogged about today. Kids are packed. They have a few needed items, but mostly they're done. I may make a quick trip to Walmart and grab the last of the stuff. And some Aloe cream. Because I'm in pain. Can I wear my swimsuit to church tomorrow so I don't have to have underclothes on??? OK, so maybe not...

Click on the link below to got to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

4shared
box.net

Awe, precious little baby!!! Love the blue baby kit, too!