Making Money....and Burning It

This past Friday and Saturday we had a garage sale. It's an annual thing for us. I just can't stand the clutter and holding onto things that we're not using. Blame it on my Army childhood. We made $600! We even sold our broken down, 18 year old car. There were people lined up outside waiting to talk with Robert about the car. It didn't deter them with they found out it didn't run. Saturday morning Adam sold doughnuts and lemonade. After the sale, he stayed outside on the driveway to sell more lemonade. Doesn't he look cute in this picture? In two hours, he made $15. A lot of nice people stopped, bought lemonade and then tipped him. He was very excited.

In other news, the boys and I got into a car accident (my first) yesterday afternoon. We were coming home from the pool when we got sideswiped. We are okay but the van has a big dent in it. Luckily no one was hurt. Adam was quite unnerved and upset. You know, he's our little worrywart. A few cars stopped to make sure we were okay. Then a friend drove by. He used to be a police officer so he made sure we had called the police. After he drove away though, I wished he was still an officer because he would know what to do and he would make sure we were fine. It was a bit humiliating standing out there, talking to the police, in my swimsuit. Robert has taken the van and is having it checked out right now. Hopefully, it won't be anything too major or costly and that we can still drive it until the repairs can be done. A month ago we had two, working cars, and now we're down to zero. Goodness--when it rains, it pours. It's tough, sometimes, because we try really hard to live frugally, but then stuff happens and it feels like we just can't get ahead.

Matt's Party

Matt had a birthday party this past Saturday. The theme was anything Super Heroes. He couldn't decide on which one so we went with all of them. It actually made it much easier for me. So, we had Batman invitations, Spiderman napkins, Transformer cupcakes, and the party favors were Incredible Hulk and Ironman. Initially Matt only wanted boys at his party, but I told him that only one would come because the other boy in his primary class was out of town. So, we decided to invite the girls from his class, too. We ended up with six kids--4 boys and 2 girls. We had planned on doing all the games and activities outside but it was raining. It never rains during the day here. So, we had to adjust our plans and bring everything inside.

We had a Mr. Freeze (from Batman) dance game. The kids had to dance around while the music played and then freeze when it stopped. Eventually it led to jumping on the couch.

We built a spiderweb out of yarn so the kids could pretend to be Spiderman. This was a big hit. We had built one outside the day before. We left the outside one up because the boys like playing in it.

We also did an obstacle course so they could use their "super powers". Our other activities included a candy hunt using their "xray vision", getting super hero tattoos, and decorating their bags. I think the kids had fun. They all know each other really well, so they have a good time together.

Matthew turned 4

Matthew's birthday was on Thursday, the 18th. He's been talking about being 4 since March, when his best buddy turned 4. We spent the day playing, going swimming, eating dinner at McDonald's (of course), opening presents, and having cake. YAY--I'M 4!

Adam always loves to help--and Matt is kind enough to let him.

Matt loves anything sports. So, we got him some soccer cones and a new t-ball set. Here's Adam trying it out. We played t-ball for a good hour that evening.

Legos.......

The junior college here has a "Kids College" during the summer. They offer a bunch of week-long classes for elementary students. Adam took one this past week called "Lego Train". There were about 12 kids in the class. They built a track, two trains, and the surrounding city/setting. Adam really enjoyed it. He was the youngest in the class but he did well. On Friday, we got to go see what he and the others had built.

Dinosaurs........

HELP!!! I'M BEING EATEN ALIVE! AAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

We've had a very full week. Last Saturday, since Girls' Camp ended early, we went up to Hays, KS to the natural history museum at the university there. It's a great museum for being in the middle of nowhere. (I've heard Hays, KS is the exact center of the U.S.--north to south and east to west). It had tons of dinosaurs. The boys have been on a bit of a dinosaur kick because of the "Night at the Museum" movie and Matt got a package from his Nanna full of dinosaur stuff.

This is a picture of Matt walking next to the T-Rex. Matt looks tiny. This dinosaur would move and roar. The boys loved that. There was lots of hands-on stuff for them to play with. It was a fun daytrip.

New Calling

I got a new calling on Sunday. I'm back in the Primary presidency. I think this is the fourth time I've had this calling. The pres. and I got together today and after awhile I thought to myself, "Man, I've had these same discussions many times". It feels very familiar. It will be fun.

Girls' Camp

Where to begin? Sometimes I feel like my blog has become one, big run-on sentence from my planner--"and then we did this, and then this, and then this, blah-blah-blah". Most of the time I don't have anything intelligent or witty to say, just what's happening. So, here we go again. I left for Girl's Camp on Wednesday--got up to Scott Lake at 1pm. There was a bit of a drizzle throughout the afternoon, enough to wear my rain poncho. We got things started--some games, walks, certification, tinfoil dinners, smores, and then the DOWNPOUR began. It was raining so hard and so fast that everything began to flood. Within a couple of hours, we had about 5 inches of rain everywhere, including inside the tents. So, we decided to get the girls up to the church bldg. in Scott City (about 15 minutes away). We got everyone there by about 9:30pm. Then the second round of loading up everyones' sleeping bags began. We got those to the church, basically put them all in the "wet" pile to take the the laundromat. And then the third round of finding and bringing everyones' buckets (we tell the girls to pack all their stuff in a 5-gallon bucket so it will stay dry in case it rains). Everyone got the buckets by midnight, except for me. Mine was MIA. Oh, well--earlier when we were decided to go to the church, I had the feeling to grab my contact stuff, wallet and phone. It wasn't really that big of a deal because someone lent me a pair of shorts and another gave me some socks. The YW did great, playing games, eating popcorn and hot cocoa, while us leaders washed and dried stuff and decided what to do about camp. All the sleeping bags were dry by about 1am (it cost $50 to dry everything). So, we got to sleep in the church (a first for me)--the girls in the gym and the leaders in the RS and YW rooms. We knew the forecast included thunderstorms everyday and knew the ground wouldn't dry out enough, so we had to end camp early. Thursday we spent the day doing the rest of the certification, service project (cleaning the church after we dirtied it up), skits, and testimony mtg. I was pretty impressed that even though we were only at camp for 32 hours, we were able to complete everything, minus the hike, and the YW really bonded and felt the Spirit and enjoyed themselves.