Salmon River

Meet our new gal. Her name is Clementine. She joins our flotilla as boat number 4. 4. 4 years ago we didn't have any boats....

We decided that since Clementine had a name, we should name this one, too. We like either Maude or Mildred. We are not settled on one yet.
But, both girls behaved very well on our week long river trip this year.

And, So did all of these guys.

Unfortunately, the new camera battery that I bought, did not behave, so these are all the pictures you get this year. What a dissapointment.

Fifth Grade Graduation

We kicked off summer with 5th grade graduation. Times 2.

That's right. Next year I will have a high schooler, two middle schoolers,

and 2 elementary schoolers. Caleb and Libby will be leaving their elementary

school for the middle school down the road.

(Yikes! I may not be ready for this!)

This year it was a bigger deal because the principal who has been here longer than we have is taking a position at another school in our district. It was also a farewell for him.

Libby was one of the students chosen to read a poem for the principal at the ceremony.

We are going to miss our 5th grade teachers.

Luckily we have a few more coming up in the grades!

Maid Service For Under $10

I know they should do it anyway, but sometimes my kids just need a little extra incentive- especially when they have friends over. The beauty of this system is that everyone participates.

I don't really care who I give the money to as long as the jobs are done.

This is a great system for kids ages 3 to about 10 years old.

Start with a big jar.

Write all the jobs you want done on slips of paper.

They cannot be "Clean the living room," but. rather they should be components of a larger job. Therefore, "clean the living room" becomes:

"Put away things that don't belong in the living room"

"vacuum living room rug"

"sweep living room"

"dust living room"

Each job is worth a quarter. The amount of money each kid makes is determined by the speed they work.

Jonah quit when he had 2 quarters. He's 5. I guess 50 cents was enough for him.

One of the friends decided she wanted a dollar, so she did 4 jobs.

Eventually, everything got clean.

And then we had ice cream.

What I Did Do Last Week

So, I really did get in my car, drink a few Dr. Peppers, stop at the store to pick a few things up, and drive to Idaho. I even wore a bra on the trip- but then I changed into my swimsuit and I was wet for the rest of the week.

Our oldest was at camp for the week, the 2 youngest were at Papa and Grandma's house, and the middle children, Sebastian and I, and our friend met up with some other river nuts in Idaho and had ourselves a grand week long adventure drifting down the Salmon and Snake rivers.

We had a great time. It was sunny and warm to hot the entire time. In the evenings, warm breezes blow down the canyon. By 9 pm, you might think about pulling off your swimsuit and putting on pants, a tank top, and maybe a sweatshirt.

Immediately after we pulled off the river, we began talking about what we should tweak for when we do it again next year- and making sure that 4 of our 5 kids are available the week we do it.

I Ran Out Of Mustard

I know, you can hardly fathom why this is a problem, right?

Last summer, our local grocery store ran a promotion where you spend $50 and get a coupon for a free picnic- complete with hot dogs, buns, katsup, amd mustard. Well, if you split your order into $50 chunks, you get that many coupons. You follow? That means that I got at least 16 bottles of mustard last summer. One bottle of mustard is not needed for each pack of hot dogs. I had mustard for a long time. Sadly, I don't anymore. My hamburger was kind of plain at dinner time....

What A Weekend

Sometimes, you count your lucky stars when you finish a weekend like this.

Saturday we went to the funeral of my best friend's dad.
After the funeral we drove for an hour to see a friend. He is a quadriplegic. We went bowling. I lost to him.... When we got home at 1 am, I sighed, glad my drowsy self had made the drive safely. I went into my 370* bedroom and decided to open my window. The thing with wood windows is that they are usually hard to open. Other times, though, they may just fly open at the slightest pressure, nearly shearing the top of your finger off completely. OWWWIE! I cried for a long time- loudly.

Sunday we got up early and drove 2 hours to go river rafting. The river is LOW. and there were a lot of rocks to get stuck on.
At one point Sebastian got out to push us off a rock and didn't make it back in. We actually ended up running him over when the raft went over another rock and he had no choice but to go under the raft. The view from the inside of the raft was scary. He swears he was no more hurt than the scratch on his arm. Sometimes he's just macho, but maybe he is telling the truth. Just after that we got hung up sideways on a rock and dumped my 19 year old niece. She floated a long time before she was able to make it to the river bank- and waited even longer for us to get off the rock. Some of us were a little traumatized.
Again, I was glad when my sleepy self made it safely to our driveway.

I may just stay in my pj's all day and refuse to go anywhere or do anything. I need some time to recover.

My First REAL Day Of Summer Vacation

Here I sit in my pajamas, having just eaten a bowl of corn flakes. I need a shower, the kids are running amok. Ah, heaven.

Up to this point it has been "Go, go, go." The first week that school was out is always VBS. No sleeping in, schlepping kids back and forth, home for lunch. Not real relaxing. The next two weeks, the girls and I went to Disneyland with my mom. We had a lot of fun, but I was awake at 6 am everyday because I wasn't sleeping at home. We dropped into bed around midnight each night. We got home and had another week of VBS- the ones my kids count on in a neighboring town. I drove the kids there and then found something to do for 2 hours. By the time we got home and had lunch, the day was shot.

So, even thought I do have a ton of stuff to do today, I think I'll sit for a while in my pajamas and savor the slow.


Enjoy my very favorite summer time song.

First Things First

So, while it wasn't THE first thing we did on our trip to LA, in my book it was the most important. I got to meet my blogging buddy, Julie (whom I refer to as Julieinthepurplehouse), her husband Marshall and her 3 cute kids, and also Frizzy, Bird, and Yaya. Who I only read occasionally, but who will be a regular now.

On the night of the now infamous "Couch in the Road" we met up with Frizzy at her mama's house. Thank goodness for mama's. Actually, we had suggested dinner out- you know, to make a clean escape if it was weird- but Frizzy had us come over for pizza and a swim in her mama's pool. Smart woman. She knew the girls really needed that break. The Central Valley had been over 100* all day, and according to me, "Anything over a hundred is just stupid."

So while I chatted merrily away with the adults, my children swam gleefully around in the pool hovered nervously around the edge of the pool and tried to follow the conversation, my children kept taking insane risks in 8 foot deep water. I finally put my suit on and got in the water with them. Believe it or not, I was better able to focus on conversation from inside the pool than outside.

Of course we had the requisite "Blog Buddy" picture. Princess Kat has some rules- and number 1 is, "NO HIPS". I think I would aim a little higher still.... (For me, ladies). We were laughing and being silly about who should stand in the middle. My mom, since she was the oldest, me since I was the only brunette, or Frizzy. we decided on Frizzy.

Later in the week we were graced by Julieinthepurplehouse.

We hung out at the pool and watched her children drown in the regular pool
splash around in the kiddie pool. Marshall was great. He played with the kids so we could hang out and talk while my girls drowned in the regular pool swam like little fish in the 4 foot water, surprising even me.

Then we went upstairs to our unit and had some Linner- you know, not quite lunch, not quite dinner- and hung out some more while the children tried to play hide and go seek in all three of our rooms.

It was all going well until Pocket Edward made his appearance. He got a little rowdy and we had to actually threaten to call security to have them removed from the premises a lot of fun until they decided it was time to get back on the crazy LA freeway system and head for home.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E! (And Shamu, too.)

And, you should look at the pictures of my dad's car. My mom did always say that I got my sick humor from my dad. And he did laugh.

A Funny Thing Happened On My Way To Disneyland

Actually, It was pretty scary.
It was late, I was tired. It had been my day to drive- my mom had taken the afternoon shift, but I had had the morning and night shifts.
We were on our way from Sacramento to San Francisco- because that's totally on the way to Disney (look on a map), and it was really late. We were driving on a really dark stretch of freeway and we were the only car in the area. I was scanning the overhead signs to make sure I didn't miss the freeway interchange I needed.
Suddenly, my mom started gasping-
And I screamed. Because right in front of me was a HUGE white thing. And I had no time to miss it. And I hit it. And it was loud. And big. And scary.
I pulled to the side of the freeway, turned off my car, and promptly began to hyperventilate.
Turns out the police knew it was there.
Turns out they knew it was a couch.
Turns out that when we left 15 minutes later, the police still had not arrived to remove the tattered remains of the white sofa.
There is minimal damage to my dad's newish car. Sorry, dad.


Here's where it gets funny.
The next night we were driving into LA when my mom suddenly changed lanes.
"Why are you driving like there's a couch on the road?!"
"Slow down, you never know when a couch is going to jump out at you...."
"Wow! Your car looks like sh*t! What did you do? Hit a couch in the road?"
We had the WORST case of giggles as the ridiculousness of hitting a couch on the road hit us.

Next Thanksgiving when someone starts talking about some freeway incident, I'm going to blurt out, "Couch in the road!" And watch while mashed potatoes come spewing out of my mom's mouth while the company scratches their head and tries to figure out why that is so funny.

Busy, Busy, Busy, Part 3

Dateline: Saturday, June 20th
Time: 9pm
Event: Haircuts

Karen, the afore mentioned wonderful friend, cut the girls hair. It has been long promised that as soon as the girls were done with the recital, they could cut their hair- but only if they cut enough to donate to locks of love. So, right after the party, the girls got their much anticipated haircuts, and some little girl somewhere will get a wig and a morale boost as she goes through her treatment.

Busy, Busy, Busy; Part 2

Dateline: Saturday, June 20th
Time: 6:45 pm
Event: Surprise birthday party for Abigail

Since we were dancing ALL DAY on her birthday, and have had a whole mess of other things upon us or pending, I just didn't know when I would be able to have Abby's friends over for her birthday. Or so she thought...

SURPRISE!

And let me just take a moment to thank the 2 best friends a girl ever had.

Karen, Thank you for getting everything ready for us and for receiving our guests.

Andreena, thank you for the fabulous cake, even though I couldn't wrap my brain around the simplest question such as, "What flavor?"

Busy, Busy, Busy; Part 1

Dateline: Saturday, June 20th
Time: All. Day. Long.
Event #1: Ballet Recital

Skippers!

A couple of weeks ago when it was SO HOT here (About 90*) A girlfriend and I pulled our kids out of school early and headed for the beach.

Aah, I could get used to that- but our long stretch of nice weather is taking a break because now it is 55 and raining again...