All good things must come to an end......

....Oh how the mighty have fallen.....



...... parting is such sweet sorrow.....



.....what AM i going to make for dinner...



....who is going to do my laundry....



......chuck thinks he will loose weight....


Any guesses as to what has happened in the phoenamenal household??

yup.

You guessed it.




Halmoni/Oma/Mom has headed back to Georgia.

Back to reality:)

~the mom

First set of visitors, first round of pictures

SO we had a great time with the Cz's when they visited. As I think back on all we did I can't believe they were only here for 7 days!

A few highlight pictures on this and the next post--apparently Blogger can only handle so many pics at once.

SO on one of the days they were here we went on a little hike. We chose a shorter ones on the list that still had a promise of a view. And so we started out...very chipper and ready for a little walk/hike.....


J and I stopped on the way as the kids charged up the hill. We wanted some pics of the pretty flowers--never mind we were getting winded...the flowers were really pretty...



We timed this a little poorly. It was getting hot and we were quickly going thru our water. No big deal. We had plenty and figured there wasn't too far to go...we knew we weren't hiking to the top of the mountain. Heavens no.



SO on we went. R and J go a little over heated and realized the fruit shake they had for breakfast wasn't going to be enough so they began the hike down for some shade and cooler air.




The rest of us charged ahead for what promised to be a short distance to our destination. But definitely not the top of the mountain. No my goodness, no.


We finally reached out destination and were rewarded with some great views and really cool mountain formations:


and we quickly realized that we hiked as far as the trail would take us...yes, er, no we didn't go to the top of the mountain...but we went as far as we could go and much farther than we had planned on. Honestly i don't think i would have attempted the hike had i known how high we were going.


In the picture below...look for the blonde band of rock across the mountain. Follow it to the right until you see it get dark....yeah...that dark spot waaayyyy up there.

Yeah. That is where we ended up.

The dark spot is the indentation of the rock formation the kids are sitting in above.




Everyday i drive home i see this mountain and can't believe we hiked all the way to the dark spot...thanks E for inspiring us to keep on keeping on!


Until i am can upload some more pics!

the mom

Good Grief Charlie Brown!

Boy are there a lot of things i want to post about--pics from three weeks of visitors, stories of funny conversations, and general life stuff....

But right now we are too busy living this phoenamenal life to post anything! (that and the fact i am again computer-less and would have to do multiple steps to get pics on this computer....I know. I know. My life is tragically hard. Or I am tragically lazy. Don't answer that rhetorical question. It is rhetorical which means you don't answer it. Got that. Rhe-tor-i-cal....dont answer.


Anyway, all of that to just really say "HI! we are still here!"

Maybe tonight i will get settled down and post some pics.


Enjoy your day!
it is warm enough to swim in our pool...most of the kids did just that the other day.

And not a cloud in the sky and no rain expected until....Oh, probably August!

Bye for now,
The Mom

Summer is Calling

Summer is calling. Yes, it is. I can just imagine the carefree days. I can just feel the sun baking my face and the cold splash of the pool. I can just taste the strawberry-and-blue-cheese salad the Mom makes on summer nights. I can just hear the crickets chirp as the sun goes down. Ah! Can't wait!

Plus, I finished my online writing class today. Now I really hear summer calling!

Bye,

Twinkle

I love this library!

This week marks an important event in our local library's year.

I have been waiting for it for a month or so.... saving up for it for weeks........


Wishing the hometown library would have a similar event...

It is their annual "Food for Fines" drive.


That's right...bring in a can of food for the local food bank and the library will wipe your record clean...fines? over dues? (who, me?) Erased, erased, erased!

Oh Happy day!

there is a small catch--you can only get up to $10 off your fines...but I am sure I haven't gone over that....I think. With 5 card users, i like to spread the wealth, the books, the charges, the fines...so hopefully that will add up for me ( or subtract down for me...however you want to look at it. But i am an optimistic person and so I will stick with the 'add up' analogy.)


So next week I will be taking my over due books in my "Friends of the Library" bag (never know..that might help too) over to the local library to celebrate amnesty week.






What a great day...it should be a holiday...maybe i'll give the kids the day off....

or not.

still tho, with a clean record, just think of all the books we can check out between now and our return to the east???

Yippeee!

~The Mom

Snake ATTACK!!!!!!!

CHILDREN: DO NOT READ!!!!!!!


If you do not love snakes, do not read!!!!!

Are you sure you want to read this?

Well...okay.

Here it is:

So me and my friend were riding around the circle and a house was TP'd (toilette-papered).

And I said: "Hey Em (this is a nickname, just to let you know) look at that house it got TP'd!

Em: Isn't that cool?

Minnie: I know. We got TP'd too. (I thought she meant the house.)

Em: Look how it's mouth is open.

Minnie: What are you talking about, Em?

Em: The snake's right there!

Minnie: What?! A snake!

Em: Yup, isn't it so cool?

Minnie: Awwwww! Awwwwwwww!

Em: What's wrong! Ohhh! Are you okay?

Minnie: Awwwwww! Help!

Em ran home and got the Mom and her mom saying, "Mom! Mom! Minnie got bit by a rattle snake! Mom, help! Help!

The moms came running to me. They got to me and said, "Minnie, are you okay?

So, they took me to the hospital and now I just have a little limp. Just kidding! The snake was already dead! So, what really happened? This:

Minnie : Let's go get the moms.

Em: Okay!!

So, we biked to the moms and they came with us and took pictures.

The End

Revolving Door

This is a quick post today....2 weeks ago the Cz's arrived to a whirlwind -relaxing trip.

They left last Wed and David and Kelly T. from florida arrived with their 2 older girls for a wonderfully relaxing and culinarily exciting visit.

They leave today and Ken and Rachael B arrive on Thursday.

Sorry for the lack of posts these days, but the revolving door has been spinning fast here out west and boy are we having fun!

Off to change sheets!

The Mom

The Cz's Vacation Recap

Okay, folks, so I think we need a little update. First, the Cz's visit. We had so much fun with you girls!!!! What did we do? I think the better question would be: what didn't we do?!

We watched Newsies, Leave it to Beaver, Court Jester, and Enchanted, ate at the Golden Corral (don't ask for details) and Joe's BBQ, went to a fancy charity-dinner, stayed up late talking about everything and nothing, slept in late, hung out, went on a hike up Wind Cave trail, nearly froze to death in the pool, took pictures, shopped like CRAZY, and sang our hearts and brains and vocal chords out.

It was a fun week.

And I don't think we went to bed before ten o'clock any of the days.

Thanks so much, Rachel and Emily and Mrs. Cz, for coming out!!!!!


Pics coming soon!

~twinkle