Lord's Hand in July 2009

7/30/09~ And we're off. We are leaving for Bear Lake this morning. We are just waiting for my brother Itch's kids so they can ride in the RV with us. It's a good thing we had to wait for them or the kids would've had Big D talked into leaving last night and it wasn't helping when my sisters called and said they were already there. Sometimes, I tell you what, sometimes.

7/29/09~ Trying to get ready for Bear Lake; I didn't get out of bed until about 11 a.m. and then after my shower at 3 p.m. I got back into be for another hour. It a productive day if you ask me. My kids are the ones to blame for it all. They jumped on me in bed this morning so what else could I do? I had to wrestle with them like and angry bear trying to fight for its berries by the river. And then after I got out of the shower Bug was laying on my bed waiting for me so we could "talk". Of course, that turned into a repeat of the morning conflict once all the kids realized I was back in bed. No, it was more like 'on' bed.

7/28/09~ We had our first person come and look at the house. I don't think she was too interested which is a bit of a blow. I think my house if fabulous and I think everyone should feel the same. It's been a bit of a humbling day.

7/27/09~ I made it to the gym today. I think in the past month I've been two maybe three times. We've been running around all summer and it's reeking havoc on my workout routine. It's funny how fast you lose it if you don't use it. I am wore out and I didn't even do anything that strenuous. I hope I get back into it quickly, I can't afford to just nap every day all day after I go to the gym. I have decided to take this semester off from school to help get everyone settled after the move. I don't know exactly when the actual move is going to take place. If I had my way we'd do it before school started but I'm afraid it will happen right when everyone goes back. I didn't think it was fair to make everyone move and then be distracted with school. Someone needs to help everyone unpack. Plus, it's a bit more important that Big D can focus on his schooling. He's almost done. If every thing goes according to plan, which it never does, he should be done next year. YEAH!

7/26/09~ Big D's niece Annie came into town. I haven't seen her in forever. She looks so much like her dad. I wish she knew how beautiful she is. We had a nice family dinner over at my in-laws. That is the best Sunday to me: church, good dinner and good conversation. Papa Ray likes to rub it in that he is retired now and he doesn't have to get up and go to work the next day like everyone else. Grandma Ellen has until the end of August before she gets to retire and I think she's a bit nervous. Papa is a mover, he doesn't sit still. Just in the week since he's been retired they've repainted their house, started filling out papers to go on a mission, and took Kathy to a tri-atholon. Grandma says she's looking forward to going to work tomorrow so she can sit down and rest for a minute.

7/25/09~ My Aunt Patty's family is in charge of the family reunion this year. They did a carnival theme which had to take a ton of time to get organized. They had a cotton candy machine, snow cone machine, face painting and tons of games. The kids, big and small, all had fun. Brook helped out with the face painting on his kids. TT wanted a motorcycle on his forehead so Brook painted him a crown. It was so hot that he got a sunburn in the shape of the crown, it was hilarious to everyone but TT. Next year my Aunt Colleen's family is in charge and they announced we are going to play Survivor. I think that's a great idea for a theme I can't wait.

7/24/09~ We are having a camp out in our backyard. My mom's family reunion is tomorrow so family from out of town need a place to stay. We started doing it a couple years ago just because I didn't have enough room in my house to accommodate everyone and now it has turned into a sensation. We start a fire in our fire pit and roast hot dogs and marshmallows, and of course end up stinking like fire the rest of the night. All the kids roll all over each other through out the night on the trampoline, it's great fun. This year we didn't have as many people but just as much fun.

7/23/09~ Our dryer gave up the ghost. We've known it was coming for awhile now and like everything else it waited until the best possible time to die. I have been trying to do our laundry from Boston and camping, we are talking mountains. So now I've hauled it all over to my in-laws, which I'm pretty sure they are excited about, and I get to sit over there all day until my Mount Everest is clean. I'm thinking about throwing half the cloths away just to save some time and torture. I mean come on who needs that many cloths?

7/22/09~ We've started cleaning and packing. We've decided to try our hand at renting our house out. If it all works out then in about eight years when our current home is paid off we can either sell it and pay our new house off or we can take the rental $$$ and use it to pay our new house payment. That is if we survive renters for that long. We figure if we just don't like renting we'll put it on the market and sell it. Hopefully we can at least wait until the market goes back up so we can get top dollar out of our home. That is the plan today anyway.

7/21/09~ Brook, Andy, Lowell, Big D and I all went to the temple. Rae was going to go but I think it was just too soon to leave the baby, maybe next time we missed her. I love hanging out with my family, we are hilarious. I think I laughed the entire way to and from the temple and believe me I needed it. I never remembered buying a house being so stressful. It was nice to get away from the real world, meditate and laugh.

7/20/09~ Our offer was accepted, YEAH! Now I have three months to sell my home, oh crap. That is a lot of work in not very much time. Plus, we start school in a month, oh crap. I am going to sit out a semester to get every thing settled but I still have to worry about Big D and his schooling. He isn't going to be any help once school starts, not that I blame him. I have to make this transition as smooth as possible for him so he can focus on his classes. I don't think I realized what I was getting myself into. They say that moving is stressful on a marriage, I guess we're about to find out first hand.

7/19/09~ We put an offer on the house across the street. It's funny how not excited I feel when reality creeps in. I've been so excited to get every thing moving, we've been working on this since about April or May. This whole time its really just been a dream, but now it feels more real and I have to ask myself, "Is this the best thing for my family?" I know I've wanted the house for years, but that doesn't mean my family has wanted it. At what point am I being selfish?

7/18/09~ We went boating, again. Apparently when you let your kids celebrate their birthdays for an entire week, the hubby thinks he gets too also. I almost snapped my ankle when we were bringing the boat in. We were coming into the dock and going a bit faster than I thought. I put my foot out to stop the boat before it hit the dock and it folded and popped. Now I'm limping like an eighty-year-old. It's a good thing in happened at the end of our day.

7/17/09~ Happy Birthday Big D!!! Big D has been working funky hours all week. He ended up getting all his hours in in four days and was able to take today off. He went golfing and boating, I hope he feels just how special he is to all of us.

7/16/09~ We had our Primary activity today. We did a little bike parade down to a ward members house where we proceeded to play games and dig for gold (rocks painted gold). I think we picked the hottest day of the week to do this parade, but I think all the kids had fun and no one passed out for heat exhaustion so we're good. I'm so glad it's all over with, one less thing to worry about especially when all I want to do is focus on the house.

7/15/09~ We have been doing 4H all week and I am really enjoying it. I do feel a bit guilty because I am suppose to be helping teach to sew, but I don't have a clue, so I am more like one of the students. I am really having fun learning how to sew though. I sewed a pair of PJ bottoms all by myself, yeah for me. Bug was a little ticked when she walked in and saw that I had them all done. She thought I sewed hers and now she had nothing to sew, but I didn't.

7/14/09~ Big D has been working nights this week. I forgot how hard that is on the family and him. Yesterday he was gone from 9 a.m. to about 4 a.m. Poor Bear kept asking when daddy was going to be home. I'm sooooo glad he doesn't have to do this all the time.

7/13/09~ The kids started 4H today. They are all excited to sew their pillow cases, Bug gets to sew PJ's and model them at the fair. I am just hoping to be able to pick up some sewing tips, I'm clueless. I went to the gym for the first time in about a month, it's amazing how fast you get sent back to square one, it wiped me out for the rest of the day. I think some of it was that it was my first official day to relax after all that traveling and my body screamed, "STOP".

7/12/09~ My first Sunday back, it's nice to know they haven't fired me from Primary Secretary yet. It was my turn for Sharing Time and the lady who was suppose to conduct didn't show up so I did that too. I feel like I have to pay a penance for being gone the last three weeks. It sure is nice to be home again, I think I've said that before.

7/11/09~ We went boating today, YEAH! It's only our second time all summer to go boating and I think Big D is more excited than anyone. He invited Brook and Andy to go with us but they needed to clean Andy's house out for the new renters moving in so Big D volunteered all of us to go help clean so they could go boating with us. First off, isn't he such a sweet guy, and second, I sure love him and his child-like excitement. Poor Bud, he's still a bit traumatized about the rafting incident. He had a hard time relaxing and enjoying the trip. The first chance he got to get out of the boat he jumped, if I remember right that's what got him in this state to begin with. He'll get over it, we just have to be patient and keep taking him out on boats.

7/10/09~ Man we come home and hit the ground running. We have a ward party tonight, that I have to help with. Plus, we are getting together over at my mom's house to weed her garden, it's more like a jungle. It's nice to be missed though, I've had almost every one of my siblings call and tell me how glad they are that I'm finally home for a bit. I have to be honest I'm pretty happy to be home too. I am a creature of habit and I love routine, until I'm bored of it, but until then I love it and I love being missed.

7/9/09~ Our last day, YEAH! I am so excited to go home and have a rest from all my vacations, well at least for two weeks. Big D and Brook took everyone down to the gravel pits to ride four wheelers and 50's while I volunteered to stay behind and start packing up camp. It is so nice to have some piece and quiet for a bit. I don't even mind that I have to work while I enjoy it.

7/8/09~ My brother, Brook, and his family joined us in Island Park. It's a good thing he decided to come up or we would have had to go home, Ann has to get home for work. So Ann took Brook's truck home and Brook will ride home with us in the RV. We took a wet ride out to Big Springs. I say wet because it rained on us on the way there and was scorching hot on the way back. But the clouds did wait until we were to Big Springs and all huddled in the restrooms before they opened up and decided to dump on us. It was rather comical, half of us trying to stay dry and the other half rotating through the potty.

7/7/09~ We took a four wheeler ride over to Uncle Tim's new cabin and had lunch. His wife, Julie, is an administrator at a culinary school, she is an awesome cook. I was a bit disappointed when we got there and found out we were having hot dogs, really!?! Big D took me back to this place he found for me to take pictures when we were up there for Christmas. I wanted to take some pictures of it in the summer, it's not as pretty in the summer.

7/6/09~ We went rafting again, this time down the Henry's Fork. It is a very slow shallow river and Bud needs to get back in the boat before total phobia of water sets in. I felt bad because Bud could not relax and enjoy the ride. Every time he saw anything sticking out of the water he had to make sure everyone knew about it. He did get out of the boat a couple times and help push or pull in some of the more shallow parts. I think his adventurous side is coming back.

7/5/09~ We left Montana and headed to Island Park for our family reunion. I love being in the middle of natures goodness. It is so refreshing to be in such raw surroundings, as long as I have my RV with a working shower and toilet, good times.

7/4/09~ Today we went to the pond by our friends house. We took Kinnzi with us and she did great in the raft, it's a good thing we didn't take her floating down the river yesterday she wouldn't baled too. Just like at the water park we got blown out of the pond and had to hurry to load the rafts, and the kids, before they blew away. The fireworks were uneventful, no kids got burned this year, yeah! Actually it's kind of a bad thing being uneventful, now I don't have any funny stories to share.

7/3/09~ We floated the Madison River today. We had ten kids and five adults. We managed to cram everyone into five rafts & tubes. It was a bit nerve racking to have some of the little ones in boats by themselves so we tied four of the five together in a long train. About half way down the river there is a huge pylon sticking out of the water from an old bridge, you know where this is going don't you? We wrapped around the pylon and Bug yelled, "Bale". Needless to say, Bud chose that moment to start listening to his sister and jumped over board. The river is only knee deep through out most the river, but fast moving. In the spot Bud chose to bale it was only ankle deep and he raked his knees on the rocks. He was freaked out the rest of the ride down the river. I think he layed on my chest most of it. Bug got a stern talking too after that one. Auntie Ann slipped on some rocks as we were pulling out and really cracked her knee pretty hard. It's all swollen and leaking fluids, gross. We call her hop along now.

7/2/09~ We took the kids to the same water park we went to last year. I think it is so awesome that it's free. We so need something like this back home. It wasn't too crowded that it was annoying. We did have to pack up and run to the cars because a thunderstorm blew in, that's Montana. Bug tried to have a water fight, which only worked until I got in the water. I guess it was her way of getting me to enjoy the fun too, the little stinker. I found a sewing machine for my mom. It wasn't as nice as the one I found for her in Boston but it will do. My mom has always wanted one of those antique sewing machines that don't take electricity. I don't know their technical name. I found one for her in Boston for $185 in mint condition. It was going to cost us between $300 and $500 to ship it home, so that was a no go. In Montana I found one close to the same condition for $325 and I talked them down to $290. I think she'll like it.

7/1/09~ We left for Montana today, YEAH! Our first trip in our Yukon, still a little nervous about the wheels. My sister Ann is traveling with us, she hasn't traveled with us since before her mission. We have estimated our travel time to be three movies long. I think the kids will survive, lets hope the dog does as well. Kinnzi is super excited to be going with us this time.