It's a 4 Ring Circus!

this peanut

Aunt Nan returned my Peanut Shell sling the other day, and wouldn't ya know, we discovered that even my 6 year old still fits in it!  (Ava was the first to try it out, and you can see that she is clamoring for another turn!)  Sorry for the unflattering shot of me, but I was straining to breathe with her cutting my neck off (note to self -- sling it over my shoulder next time!).

cuties

I love this little muffin so much, it hurts.

 

And some more cute little muffins hang out around here . . .

rainbows, dahling, rainbows

{my little Kool-Aid faced monkey with her rainbow-painted fingernails}

Didn't have the best week ever, but we're still hangin in.  We are making some progress with Delaney's anxiety issues, but not hearing anything new about the school issues.  I'm waiting to hear some more from her teacher before I decide whether to leave her in the K12 program or not.  Sadie needed to have some bloodwork done this week before her routine checks coming up.  It took us four tries on three different days (first two couldn't get the right authorizations at the closest lab, went to a different lab, then couldn't get her veins to cooperate on the 3rd try -- but got a hole in each arm, then let's just say she wasn't much in the mood on the 4th try, but at least we got the blood they needed!).  Mind you this is in the midst of various other doctor appointments for Delaney, and our "regular" crazy routine.  I think that about sums up what I'm willing to put out on the internet.  ;-)

Lucky for us one of our longtime homeschool friends is having us over to celebrate a birthday this afternoon, and we will all R E L A X !!  I think I'm finally figuring out how to take some of this in stride, but it has been an exhausting couple of months.  Yeah for Friday!

the ups and the downs

This has been one of those busy seasons of life for our family.  I haven't really been sure exactly what I wanted to write about it, either.  Delaney has been having some profound struggles and we have been working as a family to figure out solutions, being stretched all along the way.  I think I am getting better at not completely shutting other people out as I hunker down through a difficult patch, which I guess is an improvement!  There have been some great things happening along with the hard things, too.  Ava and Sadie continually surprise me with their eagerness and capability when it comes to their schoolwork.  Josh has been enjoying his start into Boy Scouts.  All of the girls are thorougly enjoying their time at dance class.

Another interesting tidbit is that we are awaiting news about a home we are trying to buy as a short sale.  Still in the neighborhood but already has most of the upgrades we were wanting to do to this house, so it would save us a lot of labor.  It is on a much better lot, so that would be nice, too.  We probably won't find out if we get it for another two months or so.

I am really looking forward to General Conference this weekend.  I was reading an address from the last one that was timely for me.  "We cannot and we must not lose focus on the things that matter most."  I think that Heavenly Father gives me that test over and over.  Maybe I'll pass it one of these days.  ;-)

view from my beach chair

Took a quick trip to Ft. Lauderdale over the weekend with Ryan.  He bemoaned the lack of big waves.  I bemoaned the humidity.  It was still nice to see a new place, esp since the kids were home with Mee Mee.    :-)

when it rains, it pours!

I know, I KNOW, I haven't been on here much in awhile.  So many adventures, so little time to write about them all.  I think I may try to schedule Fridays as a good day for blog updates.

Little Miss Sadie lost her first tooth last week.  Lucky girl, the Tooth Fairy brought her $3 since it was her first and it was so cute and all.  :-)

When your area has been in a severe drought as long as ours has, you get a bit excited about rain.

After the week I've had, this makes my heart SING!

Daddy is workin' late tonight, so the girls and I are going to make cookies and watch HSM 2.  Josh is on his own, unless I decide I can't stand HSM and challenge him to some Wii time instead!

what's that ya say?

Overheard this conversation and had to write it down for later!

Background info is that for Josh's birthday, he got a Wii game system.  Set it up last night, and he just received a few new games for it this morning.  Needless to say, it's new and shiny and lots of fun.  I took the younger two girls for a bath and told them they could play again after they were clean.

As I was getting Ava dried up and dressed, she started to get antsy to get back downstairs and was beginning to throw a fit.  I told her that if she continued, she would have to play in her room by herself instead of getting a turn on the Wii with the other kids.

Then Sadie says from the tub, "See, I used to try that too, and all it does is get me in trouble!!"

Of course, the joke is that she actually does STILL try the fit-throwing too, which is probably why her memory was so fresh on that little life lesson.  ;->

hair did

Finally got time to get a haircut/color -- with the whole possible allergy thing, it's been since March!  Good-bye, grays . . .

This picture reminds me that we are gettin' on the ball with the house renovations.  One of the first things to go is going to be that hideous plaid couch and its friend, hideous plaid loveseat.  :-)

Sadie baby

Awwwwww.

Kodak Gallery is making me either delete my old pictures or buy something from them (cheapskates!), so I'm going through old pics and found this one.

Man, that kid had some wild hair!

doctor's orders

My doctor has again informed me that I need to DE-stressssssssssssssssssssssss.  Turns out I wasn't allergic to any of the 20 or so things that people with burned-up eyelids normally are allergic to, so??  Long story short, I am back to slowly adding beauty products back into my life.  Next up, gotta go get my hair done!  And also, most if not all of my dermatological issues can point back to pent-up stress.  Either that or I am depressed and don't realize it.  :-D

So the doctor says I have to relax (and exercise and rest and all of the other stuff you're supposed to do), so I'm thinking that something like this is in order:

ASAP.