1st Babysitting Job

Tonight Hannah had her first "Official" babysitting job! She was so excited about it. I dropped her off at Angie's house, so that Angie and Jon could go out to a movie and dinner. She had a great time and is looking forward to many more babysitting jobs.

Thank you for being brave and allowing Hannah to have her FIRST job with your family!

EFY

Yesterday, I helped drive Sarah and her cousins down to San Antonio for EFY. There were 14 kids total and 3 cars that went to San Antonio. They were all so excited! I am sure that they will have lots of fun. Sarah is rooming with her cousin Mattie. They have interesting girls who they get to share a bathroom with. It was very clear that both of the other girls have never had to share a bathroom with other girls. The joys of having to learn to share with others. This should be a great pre college experience for her.

Friday night Clyde and I are driving back to San Antonio. We will meet up with Sarah Saturday morning to bring her home. I am going to miss her this week!

Can it get any worse????

I know I seem to be complaining lately, but my week just doesn't seem to be getting any better. I am looking forward to tomorrow's Stake Enrichment Night. I am also looking forward to ending my week in the Dallas Temple on Saturday morning at our RS Temple trip.

I finally had a moment tonight to check my e-mails, when Georgah came crying. She has a hermit crab named Queen Lucinda. I call her Queen Lucy. Lucy came to our family last summer after the Sandra moved to Ohio. Georgah has Lucy's cage on a table near her bed. She often talks to her. She takes good care of Queen Lucy. Well, tonight Lucy decided to leave her shell and try out another shell. In one corner of the cage there is old skin. Actually, it looks like her claws are laying there. The rest of her body is upside down in another shell. We had hermit crabs years ago when Sarah and Hannah were 4 and 2. So, that was 10 years ago. I really don't remember this happening. I am hoping this is very normal. I sure can't handle another death of a pet.

There is a faint light at the end of the tunnel. . .

For the past 4 years I have been seeing Dr. Ronica Holcomb. She is my amazing Podiatrist. About once a year I go in and have injections in a nerve in my feet. It hurts for a few days, but usually I am good for a year or so. The past several months I have had major pain in my toes. I don't wear my high heals anymore except for Sundays and even the size of the heals I have cut back from what I wore years ago.

So, today I went back to she Dr. Holcomb. I told her I have jacked up feet and need help. I told her of my pain in my toes. Yesterday, I couldn't walk anymore because I was in so much pain. The did x-rays. I have been diagnosed with having hammertoes! How do you fix hammertoes?? She said my case is really bad. The best option will be to have foot surgery. I told her that I leave in a few weeks to go to St. Louis for Rebecca Nucci's wedding. So, surgery isn't an option for now. I received a shot in the joint of my 2nd toe. This should get me through my trip to St. Louis.

I go back next month to schedule surgery. She said that she will have to shave off part of the toe and than basically break my toe. She will place a pin straight down the toe. It will have to stay there for 1 month. I will be in a boot for that month! After that I will have to wear an Orthopedic shoe for about 2 months! Basically I won't be able to wear a shoe on my left foot for 3 months!!! I am not looking forward to this. However, if it fixes my feet problem and I can leave pain free in my feet. I will suffer for 3 months.

Great Shampoo Deal!!

Tonight I found this great deal off another blog. I went to Kroger and bought 3 Herbal Essences Shampoo, 3 bottles of Herbal Essences Conditioner, and 2 bottles of Diet Coke. My total before my Kroger card was $22. I scanned my card and it instantly took off $6 for buying 6 bottle of Herbal Essences and I also gave them 3 coupons for Herbal Essences totaling $9. My final cost was $2.54!

What makes this even of a better deal is that there is a coupons for FREE Manicure or Pedicure!! What a deal!!

I'm so lonely, oh so lonely. . .

Clyde was gone most of last week for boy scout camp. He came home for 1 1/2 days and left again. He is now gone to staff Wood Badge. Clyde comes home on Saturday. The girls are enjoying their new found freedom of not having to go to bed at a certain time, so Clyde can get up in the mornings for work. We are all sleeping in and I love it!

I am however missing Clyde this year. Clyde is almost always gone for 2 weeks in the summer with either troop camps or district training camps. I will be glad to have him home again. Maybe I am just missing the adult conversions.

I love the fact that Clyde is so determined to help other Boy Scout Leaders get the training that they need to have a great troop, pack, or crew. I am also grateful that he is doing what the General Authorities have asked ALL Young Men, Bishoprics, and Stake Leaders to do. They have asked for all these leaders to get FULLY trained and that means WOOD BADGE trained. They have also said that once you are trained to help others get the training they need. I am so grateful that my husband is listening to the authorities. I think it's comforting to know that my husband has the same training that President Monson and the rest of the General Authorities have.

I also am grateful that Clyde works for such a great company. Clyde is allotted 4 weeks a year and I think most of them are given to Boy Scouts. I did get 1 full week of vacation!! We had a great week. A week full of memories that we are still talking about and will be talking about for years to come!

I think what I miss the most is how Clyde is always happy and trying to make everyone else laugh. This is a picture of us being silly at my sister's house.

Sewing, Sewing, Busy, Busy

The past several weeks have kept me very busy. I have sewn and sewn and sewn. I made 42 place mat purses for the Sandi. Sandi gave these purses to the volunteers from Cub Camp. I also have embroidered 26 t-shirts for our Boy Scout troop. I also embroidered a 2 headed shirt for Clyde to use for Wood Badge. This 2 headed shirt has 5 inch tall letters on both sides of the shirt. Each letter took about 30 minutes to sew. I also did 3 more Troop 933 shirts for the bishop to take to Wood Badge. I have fixed 2 dresses for Sarah to take to EFY. Clyde needed his Venture Boy Scout pants hemmed. SO, I hemmed them as well. I have curtains I have wanted to make and for some reason I can't seem to get behind the machine AGAIN!! lol

On the 4th of July, our family drove down to Edom, Texas to pick our annual blueberries. This was the first time Clyde was able to come with us. We loved our time together as a family. Since than I have made 2 batches of jam. During this time Target had corn on sale for .10 cents a cob. So off I went to get a great offer. I purchased corn and now we have frozen corn on the cob and kernels.

I thought that since we didn't have any major plans for this summer we would have a quite summer. Boy, was I wrong!

Lock Up Safe and Sound! (For how long????)

This past week has been one not to forget. Last Sunday Rebekah lost a very good friend. Her friend was one that she played with for hours and hours. Her little friend would sit on her head and let her walk around the house. Her friend became a family friend as well. Her friend was known as STAR!

Last year Rebekah wanted to have a hamster of her own. She worked out a deal with her dad. Rebekah worked off the money she needed to get her own hamster. We bought a cage that Bruce can't get into.

Star was a great friend to Rebekah! Last week, some how Star got out of his (cat proof) cage. Well, we found him. Bruce wanted to be his friend. Bruce hasn't figured out that cats and hamsters can't be friends. We called on our friends the Carlson's to help relieve Star from his pain. After church Brother Carlson assisted with this small task. Star was placed in a beautiful silver box. I gently carried Star home where Rebekah has picked a beautiful shaded spot under the trees in the back yard. A small hole was dug and Star was placed inside. As a family we stood around the hole and each said a few kinds words.

Rebekah so loved her Star. She said he was a great friend. Rebekah looked up to her dad and asked if his grave could be dedicated? How sweet was that. It was another "ah-hah" moments for us as parents. She understands something in the gospel!! Clyde very lovingly said, "I'm sorry we don't dedicated pets graves, but if you would like to say a prayer you can." So, Rebekah said a sweet prayer.

So, now starts a new life of new hamsters this week. The Carlson's had 2 that they were done with. Brett gave them to Rebekah to help easy her loss. I think we got them last Wednesday. By Saturday one had gotten out of his cage. We looked and looked. No hamster! Sunday we looked and looked, still NO hamster. Monday morning I had Hannah clean her room top to bottom. She heard a noise in her closet. The hamster had started a nest in the back of her closet. We were so happy to find that Bruce had decided not to make him his new friend. He is LOCKED UP!!

Yesterday, being Monday remind you just hours after Hannah had found the missing hamster, Rebekah was playing with her new hamster. We left to go to Jennifer's house for lunch. Rebekah remembered to put her hamster up, BUT forgot to close the cage!! So, we came home 2 1/2 hours later to find a missing hamster! Boy had I lost it!! Another hamster on the lose. We have searched and searched. Tonight after a meeting, I heard Bruce in the pantry. He was trying to get behind the door. I looked behind the door and what did I find?? The missing hamster!! Safe and sound! I quickly put Bruce in the garage and caught the hamster. The hamster in his cage locked nice and tight. I wonder how long it will take before we have missing hamsters again???

Finally!

I finally have enough pictures, paper, and stickers to start our Walt Disney World scrapbook. I have been purchasing things over the past few months. Last night I pulled out the table from the garage and set it up in the den. I dragged out all my pictures, paper, stickers, etc got to work. I have 3 pages done. I think this project it going to take me forever. I have so much I want to put in it. Hopefully, it will all fit into one album!

My time with Georgah and Rebekah!

Since everyone is gone on their camping trips, it leave just Georgah and Rebekah home. Yesterday we went to see Horton Hears a Who. What a great movie!

Today we took Hannah's flute to have it tuned up and ready for her band camp. After that we went to Chuckie Cheese. Tonight we are going to dinner with my mom, Heather and her kids. We are going to try Double Dave's Pizza. Tuesday night kids eat FREE!! Who could ask for anything better??