Saturday, July 08, 2006

We picked up little gifts for the kids at Big Lots. Stacia got a wooden magnetic puzzle. Arielle got a hat box. Nolan got a Lord of the Rings game. Jared got a tool thing with all sort of little things on it. Zander got a model. Here he and Mike put it together.


LEARNING 2 WALK

This a.m. Stacia stood up all of sudden by herself. She was fine until she raised her arms over her head in a "ta duh" moment. She fell back on her bum.
SATURDAY

Mike took me out on a date today. We went to a new restaurant in town: “The TX Roadhouse”. He’s been working lots of late hours the past few weeks, so we had a lot to talk about. The funny thing is that this place has about 300 employees running back and forth. After about the 20th time of being asked if everything was ok, if we needed anything etc….I looked at Mike and said, “I want to respond, yes, can you quit hovering”. LOL

We took my bike tire in to the shop today. They’ll have it by noon on Monday. I can begin riding again on Tuesday. I really lost about 100 miles due to the last couple of weeks. Ah well – I guess my goal will be the end of August and not the end of July…but then we’re traveling in August so I think my goal will be to finish the miles and have the elliptical before Mike deploys.

We stopped at Big Lots. I’ve never been in one of these. We got each of the kids here at home a little something. They’ve been such troopers with the older boys gone. They’ve stepped right up and taken on extra jobs. We also looked at a few used cars for sale. My personal favorite was a red, rag top mustang…. Oh was it nice. Mike says I am having a mid-life crisis. He liked the Honda or the Altima. We ended our time out with a run to Sam’s club for milk.

We got home in time to receive a call from the boys. They are safely in Anchorage and had a great week in Hoonah. They’ll be playing with friends this week. Jamin cracks us up. He had heard we were going to watch Star Wars and evidently we were talking to long so all of a sudden he said, “So are you guys going to watch Star Wars now?” We like to watch this at home because Mike zips by the violent scenes.

If you read this morning about the secret of the organic diapers….it’s too late. Mike found out that I was bidding on organic diapers. We were pricing the diapers and such at Sam’s and I said "$19 for a box and those will last 3 weeks. Ok $6 - 7 a week. $390 a year and then diaper wipes will be..." Mike said "Wait - you'll still need diaper wipes" and I TOLD him "you don't want to know about this". He said he DID want to know what I was thinking. I told him I'm considering organic cotton wipes and he said "You're right I don't want to know what you are doing.” We laughed and agreed that I’d have disposables here for when I’m gone. ::::snort:::: I'm rarely gone without Stacia.

I won 2 auctions of organic diapers - and liners – while we were out. They are fitted and have gathered waists and legs. I think some are snaps and some Velcro. They came to $1 per diaper.....now I need to get wraps or covers or whatever. I am going to get a few Fuzzi Bunz to check them out. At this point ($1 per diaper) this WILL save me money even though I beginning now instead of at Stacia's birth.....frankly I don’t think I could have found the time to keep up with it right after she was born. That eclampsia AFTER birth was a killer. I was drained.

I’ve still not slept – and I’m Stacia is awake too…so maybe we she’ll be really tired and sleep well tonight.

The girls leave Spokane tomorrow for a Kids camp. Their theme is “Jedis for Jesus” and it sounds cool. They’ve made solar systems and will have skits with the Star War characters…thus our yen for Star Wars, I guess. LOL Less than a month until I have them all back in the nest for a bit of time.
LOL.

I woke up this a.m. (actually after 1 hour of sleep) and felt that I had not blogged “forever”…it’s only been ONE day! I’m not sure why it feels like it has been forever.

Thursday, after we picked up the van we went to the pool with Becky and her family. The kids had fun…Jared helped me watch Zander so that I could stay in the kiddy pool with Stacia and Becky and her kids. Near the end Michaela and Zander were having a blast in the big pool. Regardless, it was fun to get some Mom talk in. I’m sad when I think of them moving in September.

Friday began with produce co-op. What a hoot! I usually have so MUCH food and this time I have barely anything. I can see what a huge difference having young men in the home makes. Josiah and Jamin have called several times but I’m always at the pool or something and miss their call. Waaaa!!! The last update we got was “Porshe and Jamin are in the plane; I’m waiting to fly out”. This came via Jared. I said “Porshe and Jamin are in the plane? What does that mean?” Jared said he got the sense that they were flying out of Hoonah 2 at a time. He also said it seemed that the kids weren’t real excited about this and wished they had taken the ferry out. They loved the ferry ride in. The boys and Porshe will spend the next week in Anchorage. Porshe has lots of family to visit with and the boys are staying with their old youth leader. He has plans to take them Halibut fishing, Salmon fishing, overnight camping/fishing…are you seeing a theme here? I’m really, really hoping they get some Halibut to replenish my stock!

After produce co-op I headed to Albertsons to buy a few things that didn’t come in on the truck. Then Stacia, Nolan, Arielle and I headed over to Adrienne’s house to pick up some honey. We visited there a bit.

The rest of the day was spent receiving SAGE orders over the phone, researching organic chocolate/carob chips, doing some laundry, preparing for company and researching cloth diapers. These things have come a LONG way since I bought my first batch over 21 years ago. Shhhhh….don’t tell the boys and Mike but the organic diapers look really good to me….and they are sure to give me no end of teasing over this. I’ve been blessed with two friends that have let me see and borrow a couple of types. Adrienne loaned me a Bumpkins all in one…..I’ve been using it and washing it over and over and can see that more than one diaper will be needed to make this endeavor successful. Friends on line have been a great help as well – I had no CLUE there were so many really easy options available these days. Becky has some fuzzy bunz she’ll let me try. I hear of this brand quite a bit. I think I’ll get some variety. We’ll see…..

We had Ch. Candidate David Blevins over for dinner. The family watched *Secret of NIMH* while I slept…which was GOOD because Stacia woke up and didn’t go back down until 6 a.m. What is UP with this little one? I’d best see if she is cutting another tooth. I’ve heard Mom’s tales of her sleepless nights with me, and I’ve had sleepless nights with the other 8, but this one really does this quite often. LOL Maybe this was the “mothers curse” that Mom bestowed on me? I did spend a lot of time on eBay last night checking out diapers, and read some articles from a link a friend sent me from *Unless the Lord*….

That’s it for the past two days. The van hasn’t died since we got it back but we are dealing with Ford now to see what they are going to do about this. If they can’t say for SURE what is wrong and fix it; Mike thinks they need to give us a different vehicle. They seem to think extending our warranty would solve the problem????