Boating and Back to School

The kids wanted to do some boating this week, but Brittney had to babysit for the neighbors on Tuesday and Courtney had to work on Wednesday, so we went both days to accommodate everyone. Such a hard life when you have to go boating twice a week to keep everyone happy.

Pineview:

I liked the way this pic of Curtis skiing came out...






Wow, who is that really white lady with her nose in a book? She's frightening.


Willard Bay:





Josh started back to school Monday. So far, so good. He's made so much progress reading over the summer. Some things just clicked into place for him. I hope he can keep up the momentum and really keep doing well this year. His brain is organized about like my teenage bedroom... it's all in there, but can he find it when he needs it? It's been interesting to watch and try to figure out what's going on in there.

I started back to work yesterday. This year is the first year where I have really felt like... hey... I've got it under control! It's going to be OK! I've got a few new ideas, I'm feeling semi-organized, I might make it. I, however, have enough experience now to realize that this feeling will last exactly until the bell rings for school to start. It's easy to feel like smooth sailing when it's just me. Once you add in 38 little turkeys who have varying degrees of antipathy toward anything resembling work, all bets are off. It feels good to get back into a schedule, though. If I have to.

Park City

Park City overnighter with the Rasmussen family. Good times. Courtney was working, but otherwise I think we had everyone else there.











We went up and went through the little Olympic museum and watched the ski jumpers jumping into the swimming pool. Brittney thought that looked way fun, so maybe she'll have to give it a try.





This has been such a fun summer. I really am sad to see it winding down. I'm hoping for a Bear Lake day next Sunday, then there's our annual Labor Day trip to Lava Hot Springs. So all of the fun isn't over yet. Trace Adkins tickets for October. Still fun things to look forward to. I'm looking forward to school starting again, but I have so much work to do that it's a little daunting.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

July is such an epic month. I love it. It's better than Christmas. You have holidays and parties and fun, but without all the stress and expense and cold weather.

Josh went to baseball camp for 3 days. He liked it enough to go without complaint, but didn't love it. Eh. He's on a golf kick right now and wants to go golfing. Which kinda stinks cuz that's a sport we all hate, but whatever.

The weather and our schedules finally cooperated so that we could do some boating this month. We've had a faulty battery, a blown trailer tire, and Sean rebuilt the carburetor and made some minor adjustments to it; I'm hoping that's it for repairs and we can just play with it now. I'm ready for a trip to Bear Lake. I think that sounds fun.








Our family Pineview trip went well. I had a good time; hopefully everyone else did, too. The weather was just about perfect and the wave runners were a blast. Our tube popped a huge hole, so that was a bummer, but it was pretty freaking hilarious when Sean, Max, and Curtis tried to get one more ride out of it. I was pulling them around, but they were a sinking ship. Wish I'd had my camara.



















Going to the Pioneer Day parade in Bountiful and fireworks afterward is a really fun tradition in Sean's family. Then we did fireworks and homemade ice cream at Cami's house the next night. So, starting with the big camping trip and ending with the fireworks, and everything in between, pretty much the whole week of the 24th ends up being one big party for the Chamberlains.





Courtney and I went together to get tattoos for our birthdays. Mine went through several incarnations and different drawings before the artist and I came up with the final design. I really love it. It's a tribal butterfly and heart on my ankle. I have 2 more tattoos that I want, maybe 3, but as I was getting this one I thought, "Ya know, maybe one's enough." It hurt! You know, like it does when someone pokes you with a needle thousands of times. But now I'm back to considering a few more. I'm not one that would want a ton of ink all over myself, although I can appreciate the art of it on other people, so we'll see. Courtney got stars on her shoulder, and they are really cute.

If I were into getting something bigger, I would totally get this one on my bicep. I love it.



Heather is here visiting, and it is so good to see her. So happy to get to hang out and annoy her in person instead of just over the phone. We had a little family party Sunday night. David was cracking me up.





Sean and I went to the Bee's game last night. I love baseball. The weather was cool, and it rained, but our seats were under the little overhang, so it was just about perfect. Not too hot, and we didn't get wet.

Summer is speeding by so quickly and I still have lots to do. The big project is the upstairs flooring. I think that we are doing wood laminate, like miles of it, and doing it ourselves. So that could be cool, or it could be a hot mess disaster. We'll see which, I guess. I have to start on all the prep work, though. Blarg. It will be worth it when it's done. Unless it's a hot mess disaster, in which case I'll cry.

Playing Catch Up

I really have not been in the blogging mood for a while. I think it's because I've been so lazy. I had to walk all the way downstairs, and I had to think, and stuff like that. Too much effort. So now I have to catch up.

Hmmm... Let's see. So Josh played some baseball.



Lexi watched some baseball.



Father's Day was pretty low-key. Dennis came over for dinner and we just relaxed pretty much.

We went to Disneyland. We found out the DVD player was broken at the start of the trip. It was the longest drive of my life. Josh and Lexi slept a little while on the way down. I think on the way back all they did was bug each other and say, "Are we there yet?"







I feel like I should record stuff about it so I can look back on the memories fondly someday, but it seems like so long ago and so much effort. Let's see if I can do a short version. We stayed at the Stratosphere the first night so we went up the tower and checked out the incredible view. You couldn't pay me to ride that roller coaster thinger up on top.





We went to the beach and ate at Knott's Berry Farm.



We did Disney. We loved the rides, hated the crowds, stood in line for everything, including food and restrooms, ate way too much, walked a million miles, Lexi cried a ridiculous amount. We started with Pirates of the Carribean as our very first ride, which she hated, so she refused to ride anything willingly for like the whole day after that. Josh was super brave and rode scary rides, but only wanted to do them once. His least favorite ride was Small World; he thought it was so boring. Lexi refused to have her picture taken with any characters, which was fine with me because then I didn't have to stand in line to meet any of them. My favorite part of Disneyland was ice cream time every afternoon. I'm worse than the kids, that's for sure. I'm the junk food instigator.











The kids loved the hotel we stayed at in Las Vegas the last night, the South Point, and probably would have been OK to just have gone there. Yeah, my family likes Las Vegas just as much as Disneyland. Not quite sure what that says about us, but whatever.

The day we got home, Courtney took a shower, threw her clothes in the washer, packed them back up, and took off to go camping with Curtis and his family for 3 days or so.

I went on a field trip with Josh to Dinosaur Park. As usual, didn't take any pictures. It was fun to see the rocks in the museum donated by Grandpa and Grandma Chamberlain.

Sean and I went to garage sales for the first time in forever last Saturday, and we had such a great bargain day! I love days like that. We bought the following treasures: the frame for a go-cart that Sean is going to build for Josh (at least that's his plan... he may end up building it for some future grandchild) $5. Six DVD's, mostly new in package, for $10. Some tools/widgets/whatsits that only Sean knows what they are, a couple bucks for all of it. Some assorted t-shirts for Lexi and an orange deer hunting jacket for Josh, all cheap. Ten or so VHS movies, 6 paperbook romance novels, and a duffle bag, free. The lady said to load anything we wanted up and take it because she was hot and wanted to be done with it all. I tried to pay her something but she wouldn't take it. She was choosing the best novels for me to take, and she's like, all whispery, now those have some sex in them. And like the dork that I am, I said... That's OK, I like sex. Ha! Nothing ever quite comes out of my mouth the way it's supposed to. I hate people who think their crap is worth so much money, and it's 12:30 and mother freaking hot, no one is buying their stuff, and they act like you are trying to swindle them when you offer to pay a reasonable price for something. Like, this lady had a brown skirt she wanted $3 for and I was like, $1, and she acted all put out but then took it. Lady, ain't no one paying $3 for that stupid brown skirt. Only reason I did is that I have some weird weakness for brown skirts, so I buy them and then never wear them. Seriously, I have 3. Used to have 4, but I finally took one to the DI after it sat in my closet for 3 years. So, the big garage sale trauma, though, was that a lady had this primo slow cooker and a set of really cute Mikasa bowls that I wanted. She wanted $40 for both. I offered $25 for both. She wouldn't take it. So bummer. I know she didn't sell them for that price, so I wish she had sold them to meeeeee. So Sean had to hear me lament about it all day, and then during the week... Gee I sure wish I had that serving bowl from the garage sale. Heh. Ima hit the sales again tomorrow morning and see what I can dig up this week. Wow I had a lot to say about garage sales, I guess.

Went shopping for trailers. Found one I want. It's nicer than my house.

Courtney had her 19th birthday. Curtis took her to breakfast and then they went car shopping and played around. Courtney, Brittney, and I got pedicures. Tried to talk Curtis into one, but he said, "No thanks, pedicures are for girls." I even told him he could choose whatever toe polish color he wanted, but no sale. We had Navajo tacos for dinner and chocolate pie for dessert. I love my Courtney. She is super fun, always happy, is always up for anything, and will do anything I ask. She and Brittney are my bestest buds.

I finished reading Steven Tyler's memoir Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? last week. I had to skim some parts of it because I just don't care about the technical aspects of the music or his sexcapades, and his rambling crazy thought process was exhausting at times. It was an interesting read for sure, but it made me like him less, I think. It's interesting to me to read artist biographies and memoirs because of that touch of the crazy that makes them able to do what they do.

We put up the pool in the backyard, got the boat ready to take out, planted a bunch more flowers (they were 50% off and I couldn't resist). My potato plants are giant, tomatoes are looking good, we've had some peas but we just eat them as soon as we see them, apples on the apple tree... Can't think of anything else.

June goal review:
Major fail on all counts.
*I have done only one of the deep cleaning projects I have in mind. I have been very, very lazy.
*The only exercise I've done is walking in Anaheim, which was totally cancelled out by all the crap I ate.
*I most definitely am not on a good schedule.

July goals:
*Enjoy my summer while it lasts

Looking so forward to the rest of the month! Pineview extravaganza coming up, and Heather and Peter coming to visit! Yay! July is made of so much win.

So Happy It's June!

I kicked April's butt, and May kicked mine. That month sucked hard core. But it's over now and I'm feeling so much better. I hope it lasts. I struggle with sort of an anxiety induced depression from time to time, I guess, and all of the various crap going on in May just ramped it up. I started going to a therapist a few weeks ago to help me figure out how to untwist my brain and change my thought processes so I don't get so anxious when things start to worry me. Both times I've been there I've run into former students of mine in the lobby. That's an awkward scenario right there. I just want to say, "So, what are you here for?" We're sitting there trying to make conversation, pretending we're not in the lobby of a counseling center.

Ok so May. Hmmm... We went camping over Memorial Day weekend. We stayed Friday night and Saturday night, and when we woke up Sunday morning I officially declared it the Worst Camping Trip Ever. It was wet and cold and windy. We couldn't have a campfire either night because it rained the whole time. Our quickshade canopy tried to blow away in the wind so Sean and I had to go out and wrestle it to the ground and try to dismantle it in the rain. The trailer had technical difficulties right and left (please, trailer, last one more year!). And then when we woke up Sunday morning and it was snowing, I said that's it. We didn't even stick around to make breakfast. I walked up to the bathroom (the one in the trailer was no longer working-- one of the technical difficulties) and by the time I got back 5 minutes later Sean had thrown everything in and the kids were in the car. We were so out of there.







Brittney and Kylie bored and freezing:


Lexi's birthday was on Memorial Day. I think she had a good one. She wanted sandwiches for dinner and cupcakes, and she got presents. She is pretty darn silly, as a 4 yo should be.







We went bowling with Scott & Wendy's family and mom on Saturday night. That was fun. The kids were all cute. David loved bowling.



The weather has been so nice the last few days!



I was out working in the yard Saturday and Sunday, and got such a bad sunburn. I never learn. But I got burned in spots where I didn't think about. The back of my neck and shoulders because my hair was pulled up and my shirt had a low neckline, and then the small of my back because my shirt would ride up when I was bending down. Who thinks to put sunscreen under their shirt? Not me. I still have quite a bit to do out there, but I want to wait until it cools down in the evening. Sean keeps talking about what we need to do to the cabin and I'm just trying to get my first yard worked on before I worry about a second one.

This Friday night is the John Michael Montgomery concert. We aren't really sure if we should count on actually going to it. This is the third time we've had tickets to see him... both other times the concert was cancelled. I'm hoping it will actually happen this time.

This is the last week for Josh's baseball, unless they play some make-up games for the ones that got rained out. It's been fun, but the city rec season is too short. We need to find him something else next year, or at least a camp. Just when he really gets into it and starts really loving it and wanting to practice, the season is over.

Well, that's about it.

May goal review:
*I did not start on any home remodeling projects.
*I did not finish reading Outliers, but I did give it back to the student.
*I did some exercising and lost a little more weight.
*I survived.

June goals:
*Clean.
*Exercise.
*Get on a good schedule.

Catching My Breath

Life needs to have a pause button. I need a few moments just to breathe. I wouldn't want to fast forward; life goes by too fast as it is. I don't want a stop button, obviously. I surely don't want to rewind. It's been a couple of weeks I wouldn't want to live over again. But a pause button, that would be nice.

Mother's Day was great this year, even though I have a well-documented hate of the holiday in general. We went out to dinner with Sean's mom and siblings, and had dinner at my mom's house with my family. The kids and Sean made me breakfast and gave me everything I wanted (concert tickets, flowers for the yard, a trip to Yogurt Stop, and a girls day of my choice and homemade cards). The only thing missing was my beautiful oldest daughter, who went to Texas for 10 days to visit Levi, an old friend-ish type person. I missed her greatly. But she's home now, thank goodness.

Sean planted 8 tress in our yard. I'm very excited to get some shade, and now maybe I won't have to look at my neighbors anymore. Our houses are too close here.

I can't even think what else has happened. I have been in a fog for a few weeks, but I'm feeling better now. I have a few more weeks of school and so much to do. I hope I can focus and get it all done.

April Goal Report:
I kicked April's butt! I did so well. I very rarely get to say that, so it feels good. Of course then May came along and I had a nervous break down, so maybe I can only have one good month at a time.
*I did not gain any weight, and I in fact lost weight. Nothing dramatic or anything, just a good healthy amount that I feel good about. I modified a few small things and I'm going to slowly lose these pounds and keep them off.
*I got flooring bids.
*I did yardwork. I planted stuff.
*I not only hung the picture frame I wanted to get on the wall, I got another one finished that I've had forever.
*I put down the fiction temporarily and finished my diabetes book (well, all but a few chapters) and finished my diet book. I started Outliers, but didn't finish it. I needed the distraction of some fiction the last little while.
*We all stayed out of the doctor's office pretty well.

May's Goals:
*Get started on home remodeling projects.
*Finish Outliers so I can give it back to the student who lent it to me before school is out. Oops.
*Keep exercising and losing weight. I lost a few pounds due to stress, so I don't expect to keep those off now that I've started eating again, but I don't want to gain back anything that I lost pre-freak out.
*Survive.