Turning him loose...

And today turning "Roger" loose.  (Name courtesy of Austin)

Photo Catch-Up

I was just looking through some pictures and thought about the fact that it has been forever since I was on here updating the Blog world.

So here we go...

We went to the State Fair before leaving for our trip to Indiana.

Here's my little Cowgirls.

And they had a fishing pond.

Here's Austin in the super cool blow up balls on the water.

Good morning from Lake of the Ozarks

This is what an 80 mile long lake looks like without another boat on it!

Having a tasty lunch time beverage at the lunch.

Tyler Mae and her "Go Fast Hair"

Beautiful sunset after our fish dinner.

Good morning from Wilson Lake Kansas.

Tyler learning about binoculars.

Austin swimming at lunch.

Girls playing dress up...great looking outfits. :-)

Poor Ty had an abscessed bug bite that got really infected and then burst through the side of face. :-(

We found this awesome salamander in our basement, caught it and have been petting (aka torturing it) for days.

Camping in Wyoming

This was the first time we have ever tent camped with the girls.  While it had it's challenges, it was also extremely fun.  On the last day we caught two toads which lead to the seven kids that were being completely entertained while we packed up boats and camp sites.  We ended up having 18 people, 3 boats, 3 dogs and 7 tents...it was amazing.  Like a little homestead of canvas.

Here's our tent site when the first 8 got there.  Aren't the big cottonwood trees just awesome.

And here's Little Goose and I floating along on the tube behind Grandma and Papa's boat.

A Small Break

I am taking a small break from frantically cleaning and cooking to sit down and take a deep breath.  Whew!  We are going camping this weekend, back up to Glendo Wyoming.  The word "camping" used to mean roughing it when my friends and cooking over fire.  Well with two kids and a boat in tow, camping has taken on a whole new light.  I have been cooking since I got up this morning to make three home cooked meals a day for my family for three days while taking into account that we will either be on the water or on dirt.  The prep work has been enormous.  Here's the GIANT tent (it's 10'x16') Joe picked up for us, since we have to fit us and the girls and Ty in there to sleep.

I did take one additional break today to take the girls to swimming lessons.  Tyler behaved exactly as you would expect a two year old on her very first ever swimming lesson with just the teacher and not me in there.  Shy at first and then when she figured out that it was just a game, she was fine.  Although she always has that DiFabio "I am smiling" look on her face when in a challenging situation.  And then there's Austin...sigh...I am not sure if I screwed up or if Joe did (I vote Joe because I am bias) but while we at the lake a few weekends ago I took Austin in the lake with me and was trying to show her that her life vest would hold her up and not to be scared so we could work on treading water.  So I held her at arms length by her life vest and was telling her to run in place (which in my defense she had just worked on THE DAY BEFORE in swimming class).  Well Austin panicked and lost her cotton picking mind, screaming and hyperventilating and what not.  I was trying to get her to calm down and see that I still was holding on to her and there was nothing to be scared of and Joe reached over the boat and drug her back in.  Now I am not sure if I scared her into therapy or if Joe gave her an easy way to quit, but guess who now acts like that at swimming lessons too.  It is completely humiliating to see a kid that everyone there knows who used to be able to swim from the teacher to the wall now stomp up and down and throw things at her Mom...all the while I try not to actually eat her face off.  Currently my jaw is actually sore from gritting my teeth today.  After the last failures I decided today that I would be the "nice Mom" and comfort her, but no she threw a fit until the teacher allowed her to just hang out in a floaty ring and watch her sister with the teacher.  Sigh  Sometime I wish that it wasn't a big deal to me that she learned how to swim because after today's behavior she doesn't deserve to go back, but I can't just yank her out and say well then fine. Did I mention that swimming lessons are over a dollar a minute, so it cost me $70 for both of them today only to now have a headache. :-(

Here's the only super cute picture today from lessons, especially since Tyler has her "DiFabio Smile" on.

To answer Anne....

Yes Joe had the girls by himself Saturday night and Sunday morning which was an absolute first.  I think before this I haven't left for longer than groceries without them.  Joe decided it would be nice to make it exciting for them by taking them to their first 3-D movie where they watched "Planes" and then out to Freddy's for dinner.  I guess they only had minor meltdowns without me but from the sounds of it, they definitely tried to push the envelop in doing things that they just wouldn't have if I were at home.

Here's Daddy's little girls before the start of the movie!

Good morning.

Good morning Blog world.

I spent my first night away from the girls this weekend.  One of my friends had their Bachelorette party up in Denver and we all stayed at a hotel up there.  It was super fun to have 14 girls all running around downtown Denver, of course we're getting old so about 3 hours into the night the complaining about hurt feet in high heels took over the shrills of excitement.  And it has been a long time since I ate breakfast at 3AM at a dinner, made me feel pretty old. ;-)

Here are Kelley, Carri and I are at dinner before our feet really starting hurting.

Yesterday while Joe was sitting in the first IRS meeting for our audit and I was feeling completely helpless at home, I decided that I would help our karma bank in honor of him.  So the girls and I dropped off 9 cases of water and a box of Jimmy John's sandwiches to the relief workers in Manitou who are helping dig out the city from the recent floods.  Unfortunately after major fires like we have had any rain can cause flash floods and it's wreaking havoc on poor Manitou.

This is what a portion of their streets look like.

Most of the businesses and homes have basements, all of which look like this.  Muddy volunteers helping to haul it out of there.

Pee and Perspective

I walk around the house laughing, repeating the quote from Big Daddy - "It smells like urine in this joint. Good job!".  Between Tyler learning how to use the little potty and Austin learning how to not wear a pull up to bed, the place definitely smells like the men's room at Wrigley field.  Of course in every effort to combat that smell, I mop at least once a day and days like yesterday even take to wiping the walls down with bleach...anything that can possibly help.

I always like to share my points of perspective just in case someone else needs some also.  Our household is buzzing with rushed nervousness about the upcoming Monday audit and getting all of our ducks in a row to fight a fight we can't possibly win.  So I think both Joe and I were starting to become self absorbed with our current situation when I got an update on Facebook that one of my friends from high school had just had their little baby girl.  What fantastic news.  First couple of pictures look completely normal, a little bitty smash face and everyone either crying or smiling at the arrival.  Then the next picture showed her with the velcro on her temples (like both of my daughters had to have for their Baby Ray-Bans so they could be under the UV lights).  Then the next days pictures show her with oxygen on...again not that surprising, we live at nearly 7,000 feet in altitude so a lot of babies get oxygen.  Then a plea from my friend for prayers.  I knew at that moment something had turned.  Well it turns out she was showing all types of symptoms of just not being well so they started running tests.  She has Hirschsprung's disease and went in for surgery yesterday to have 20% of her intestines removed.  Apparently the blow to the heart to have a 3 day old operated on wasn't severe enough so they were also told that she has Down's Syndrome   Now keep in mind my friend's wife is in her 20's, this is her first child and all of that would have been difficult enough...I know because I have been there, a new baby is hard, labor is hard, healing and mending is hard, but doing all of it while struggling with the emotions that must come when you hear that news must be even harder.  Her little 6 pound frame made it through the 4 hour surgery yesterday and has started the long road to recovery.  I cried for a while yesterday, not just because I know my friends have shed enough tears and it was my turn but also for believing that the IRS was a big deal.  In the scheme of things, the IRS doesn't even get to be a deal much less a big deal.  I kissed my kiddos and continued scanning receipts with a new found ease.