Another, Mothers Hope...

As soon as my friends in Allen caught wind of the benefit walk my Utah friends were doing for me they got busy planning one here in Texas.

I honestly don't know what I would do without all the support from my family and friends. There would be many many days that I would just stay in bed feeling sorry for myself.

I know that this blog is reserved for the family, but this day was a family event.

It made a HUGE impact on my children. They knew it was special and they helped make it special. I am grateful for the lessons they are learning as we all go through this experience together. It truly is shaping their character as much, or more so than it is shaping mine.

My family and my friends and of course God, motivate me to survive. I wouldn't have ever gotten this far without all of them. Honestly, what would the be the point?

So this is for you, all of you. With the most sincere thank you from the very very bottom of my grateful, humble heart, a million times over, and covered with sprinkles.

A Mothers Hope Walk

I know that this blog is reserved for my family happenings and the "lighter side of things". But my Caringbridge blog doesn't support video. I had to post this somewhere.

My sister and two of my wonderful friends sponsored and organized this walk for me to help out with the ever growing mountain of medical bills.

It is so humbling to me and I cant even find the proper words to express my thanks to them. So I put it to music and made this short video of the pictures they took.

There are many faces I recognize and love, and there are many faces that I don't recognize. But I love them too, for sacrificing their time, and money, and giving me and my family a gift worth far more than the monetary value.

Amy, Christi and Karen, you will never know how much this means to me. I have seen and felt miracles and wonders that are beyond measure or comprehension. Thank you for being the angels who delivered yet another one into my life.

I love you all!

As usual I made a typo in the video. I tried to fix it but it only reloads the old video. I need to carry a dictionary in my pocket. I guess iMovie doesn't have a spellchecker.

Happy Mother's Day! 2010

This free digital ecard personalized with Smilebox

A little of this, and a little of that...

Although life has been speeding right along, there isn't much to report. We just seem to go into these little ruts of the day to day, and life seems to fall into its little rhythm. Although, I cant say that life is really routine any more. I think the different day to days, is our normal.

Lets see, I last posted just before Easter. We did have a wonderful Easter holiday with Scott's parents in Arkansas. As is our Easter tradition, we load up the car and take the 6 hour drive to Fairfield Bay Arkansas, where we stay at the same condo every year. It is fun and the spring in Arkansas is breath taking. There seems to be a million bushes and flowers that I only ever see there, though I have to say, I don't do too much touring of the spring countryside. My observations are only based on my small neck of the woods, but it is beautiful none the less.

Bailey took this picture while we were in Arkansas and actually one 2nd place with it at her school photography contest.

This old barn was the perfect backdrop for a cute picture op in Shirley.

The towns there are small and quaint. We always crash the little town of Shirley's Easter Egg hunt. They know us by now and the kids were even in their paper this year. So funny!

The kids had fun hunting for eggs, but I think their favorite part was the fire engine ride they got to take. Never in a million years would anything like that be offered here in Texas, so they were thrilled to get a chance to take a spin on Big Red! Even though there was no Dalmatian.

Gavin and Kylie loving the Fire truck!

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Since then we have just been trying to finish up the school year and move into the lazy days of summer. I have to say that I am excited. I get tired of the routine, and pine for days of just taking it easy all day, and not having to ride kids about homework or bed time.

The twins have started their first swimming lessons as well. I was a bit worried that Gavin would not take to it very well, since he is like a little monkey in the water, and absolutely will strip the swimming suit from my body, before he lets go of me even for a second. I had no worries about Isabelle, who learned how to swim last summer in Destin and has always been our little fish.

So wouldn't you know it, they both prove me wrong and Gavin has been the brave one and Isabelle has cried the entire length of both lessons so far. UGG! I haven't hit the panic button yet, because she is more skilled in the water than Gavin and at least he is getting some good one on one with the teacher while Isabelle pitches her fit, but I told her today that it was the LAST time she was going to act that way at the pool. I almost cant blame her though, the water is chilly. I know that is what is making her miserable. She likes things cozy constantly. She isn't into stimulation and I'm sure the cold water is putting her over her limit on how much she can tolerate. Today her excuse for not swimming was that her "forehead was tired".

I'm crossing my fingers that she will settle in tomorrow and be a little trooper like her little brother.

These little lazy but crazy days are just a day in the life. Its what being a mom is all about, sometimes it is exhausting, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love these four little munchkins that I somehow was put in charge of. They say the funniest things and teach me more than I could possibly ever teach them. I constantly marvel that they were given to me.

Well I better go...Gavin and Isabelle are at it again!

Down on the river of the hanky panky, where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky...

So this last weekend we went camping. I absolutely love camping but I haven't gone in a few years.

I was just lamenting to myself how, I hate that I cant do the things I used to love. Like camping and snowboarding, and water skiing. I was boo hooing about not being able to teach my kids these things and show them what I love. I'm just a boring couch potato now.

So when we got the opportunity to go on a ward camp out, I jumped at the chance, knowing that I would have a lot of kids there to help entertain mine. And quite honestly, that I would have someone there to do the COOKING! That is the most work! (I truly have become the laziest thing on earth. I constantly look for a free meal even!! so sad)

Anyway, we loaded up the tents, the dog, and sleeping bags. We left the stoves, brought the cannoli, and of course the MATTRESSES! I cant camp like I used to, on the hard ground. I've not only become lazy, but I'm a sissy! We ended up taking as much junk as we usually load for a three week trip to Utah, and drove the WHOLE 25 minuets to the camp ground. It was a trek!

There were no gators, or monkeys in the trees, but it was super fun to be getting back into the wilderness (Texas style) again.

Since this was the twins first ever camping trip I was really excited about them being able to go. They are getting super fun as far as travel and adventures go. They are lower maintenance and more independent so it is just fun family time, less care giving=more fun, if you know what I mean.

Not ten minuets after we got there, Gavin had already fallen in the muddy water and was covered from head to toe in wet grime. I then realized that I had forgotten my CAMERA! A travesty! And when Scott told me we forgot the tarp to lay the tent on, I decided that I would make the 25 minuet trek back home to get the stuff.

While I was at home, retrieving the goods, Scott called and told me he had broken a tent pole. So I stopped by Walmart to pick that up too.

I had loaded Gretchen up with me, so that Scott could set up the camp without worrying about her wandering off. She was acting really funny and I thought maybe she was just nervous about what was going on. After all it was her first camping trip too! For years, at least.

I gathered up all my stuff, went to Walmart, and as I'm getting back in the car I could smell this terrible putrid smell. Like the kids had left a cup of milk, or rotting meat in the back seat. I had kinda gotten a whiff of it on my way to the store, and I was thinking that maybe a fan or exaust system was going out in the car. I had just had the car cleaned, so I knew there wasn't any food or decomposing carcasses in there!

As I got on my way, Gretchen settled in and we hit the road, the whole 17.1 miles to the campground. I pulled up and started unloading the car, when I saw a smear of something gooey and brown!

Isabelle had been climbing around in the car, so I immediately checked her shoes for dog poop. They were just covered with mud, so I kept at my work.

I'm smelling this fetid smell even stronger so I decided I'd better start investigating. I climb into the back of the car, look over onto the seat and what do I see??? Yep you guessed it. POOP!

I wanted to kill the dog. She pooped in my CAR! Luckily I don't leave home without an entire economy size bottle of antibacterial wipes, so I got the poop cleaned up really fast. But then I felt like I could smell it every where I went. I felt like I couldn't get my hands clean! It was super gross. After a half of a bottle of Lysol wipes, I finally felt satisfied with the cleanup.

The only thing I can ever do when things like this happen is laugh. REALLY, is it just me? Am I really the Griswold mom? Are these things normal?? At the end of the day, after my frustration runs out, and I sit and reflect on my luck, I can only laugh.

After the poop incident, the camp out was a blast. My kids sat around the camp fire and ate strawberry, coconut, and regular s'mores. Because I am the coolest mom ever, who bought every variety of marshmallows I could find. PS. the coconut was a hit.

Can we have s'more, please??

They all took turns telling their own ghost stories, which was absolutely priceless. And Gavin BEGGED the entire time if we could start our camp out and get in the tent to go to sleep.

Finally Gavin got to "camp"!

HE was so cute. Isabelle, was super cute and wanted to explore, and I didn't hear any kid complain about bugs or being cold. They had a blast.

The only thing that was a pain, is that since MEN planned the camp out, we were the very farthest campsite from the bathrooms (no offense, men. You did great) and we had to drive our cars to the bathroom. Luckily though, I didn't have any kids wake up in the night for potty breaks.

GRETCHEN, however, could not stop going potty. I think it was all the dropped food and marshmallows. She was sicker than a dog.

I finally confined Gretchen to my chair. I knew she was going to be sick after scavenging around the campfire for all the scraps.

Finally about 1:00 am we all settled in and went to sleep. We had a restless night, but I didn't expect anything different, and woke up super early.

Although it was a lot of work, and super tiring for me, I am already excited to go again.

Though I have to say, Gretchen will be staying home....