Parenting Dilemmas...

The morning started out with Alex acting absolutely crazy about anything and everything. It seems that is has been a crescendo in behavior over the last week. We were trying to get everything together so the kids could go over to mom's and then go with her to Cherry Hill with Treyden, Trevan, and Kiara. Matt and I were taking Addy to a urology appointment at PCMC at noon. They were going to be doing the nuclear testing to see if she still has ureteral reflux in her left kidney. Of course I also had tennis lessons at 7 and Cassy had to go to registration at Mount Ogden before we went. Anyway, Alex was having a million tantrums about everything and anything. I finally gave the ultimatum....get in control or you are not going to Grandma's. Another tantrum.... YUCK! I hate following through and trying to shape my kids into better people! It is so hard sometimes! So we hopped in the car and then we had to take Kennedy to Mike's house and then drop the kids off at my mom's. Cassy called to see if friends could go to Cherry Hill or if they could babysit Alex. Sammy could babysit. Dropped kids off at Mom's, Alex furious and trying to hit my head, Addy is sad too because she would rather go to Grandma's than the doctor. We pick up Sammy, head home, drop them off, then head for Salt Lake. Speeding, now with all the drama we are going to be late. Ten minutes late, no problem, Matt still not there, but he is close. Addy sits at the desk in the waiting room and colors pictures. Makes me think of her going to kindergarten, she is getting so big! Matt gets there and they call us back. Addy was SUCH a trooper (a little less dramatic than her older sister when she had the test). Unfortunately, she still has the reflux. We will test again in 3 years, hopefully she will outgrow it by then. Head to McDonald's (for being such a trooper) and then meet up with everyone at Cherry Hill. I dropped Addy off and took Cassy home with me to get Alex (I am hoping he has learned his lesson and that by missing out on Grandma's and most of Cherry Hill, & by paying the babysitter $20 of his own hard earned money he will still grasp the lesson even if I take him to Cherry Hill for an hour.) On the way home someone runs into the back of my car... Call the police and wait, then head back home, grab Alex and head back to Cherry Hill. What an exhausting day! The day was redeemed when I won my first singles tennis match that night.

The next morning Alex and Addy both started throwing up, so that was probably what was behind the bad behavior. Who knows?

Addy is trying to get me to go help Connor (who is having some Lego dilemma) and she just said to me, "Do you want him to be tough like a missionary or a total scrag?" Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

Fun with Friends

We have had a fun and excited last couple of weeks! We had the Barney family here to visit us from their new hometown of Austin, Texas. It was so fun to see them again and to spend the day with them! Their kids are a little more shy and reserved than our crazy crew, but they warmed up to each other and had a great time. We went swimming at the Ostermillers pool while Cassy helped with kids camp at Gabby's (she joined us and swam afterwards). Then we headed home and just hung around for a little while. The adults decided it would be fun to have the teenagers babysit and we headed out to dinner at Zucca. Yum...the food was good and so was the company.

We also got to see Josh and Brigid. They were in town before they headed up to Jackson to run the river with some friends. We had a tight schedule with friends here form out of town, my 20 year high school reunion, and our Bear Lake plans, so we met them at my dad's favorite "The Eastside Diner". The food is actually pretty good. It was fun to catch up with them and made me realize we need to head out to Ohio and visit them sometime soon.

While we were at breakfast, Connor made plans to ride to Bear Lake double seat belted with the Draper crew. We were all supposed to go up Thurs night, but I had scheduled a last minute haircut and highlight (very vain) before my reunion. I was just going to let it go until Cassy was sitting by me at dinner and let me know that my roots were "very brown with tons of gray." I had to call in some favors and get a hairdo with a substitute hair lady. Unfortunately it coincided with our Bear Lake sleepover.

Connor went up to Bear Lake and we headed up the next morning to spend some time with the Drapers and the Summers at the beach before we brought Connor home. While we were there the Drapers had a change of plans, so they invited Connor to stay and Cassy also ended up staying with Brooke and another friend April. We went back up on Monday (after my reunion)and took the tiki. The boys had fun cruising around the bay like they were warriors. The wind picked up and they had to really figure out how to row in order to make it back. The weather was off and on, but we had a great time at the beach and the pool.

Over the weekend I connected with my old high school friends at our twenty year reunion. We had such a great time! Friday night ws alumni night at Bonneville and we ended up being kicked out at about 11 or 11:30. We ended up just visiting in front of the school until about 1 am. That was my favorite part of the reunion because I was able to reconnect with lots of close friends from as early as elementary school. It made me realize how much I missed all of them and how close we all were. It kind of makes me emotional when I think about it because I hope my kids can have friends like the ones I had. It is so much easier to make wise choices when your friends are making good choices. The next day I golfed with Tif, Traci and Suzy in the golf tournament. We did pretty well and had a great time. The best was when Suzy took a shot at Dave Blake as the guys were all coming to watch us finish our hole and make us nervous. Afterwards there was a family lunch. I took Alex and Addy, but we didn't stay long. That night we went to the Eccles conference center for the couple dinner. We had fun. Matt put "David Lee Roth" on his name tag, he said it was because he was married to the lead singer of "heart" in reference to my senior picture which was a very standard early 90's back lit fro!

All in all it was a great weekend and a fun week full of lots of activity.

24th of July

Matt had the day off for the 24th of July, but he was going on a long bike ride, so I decided to take the kids to the parade with my Mom and Pam and her grandkids. We got there and found great seats. The parade was pretty good, but a bit slow at first because I swear they had a block between each entry in the parade. The kids hounded my Mom for food and toys from the vendors, and then cried when they saw the next vendor had something better (a little embarrassing). We had to leave a little before it was over because we were heading over to meet the Gloeckner girls at St. Anne's Homeless Shelter to serve some food to the homeless. The kids had a good time and hopefully learned a little about life for others less fortunate. The patrons enjoyed seeing the kids serve the food. Addy was serving the dessert, Alex was pineapples, Connor was coleslaw, and Cassy was mashed potatoes. Addy could hardly keep her fingers in the gloves they were so big! At one point someone called Alex a "mam" and he was not happy about it. Luckily the next guy said, "Thanks, little dude!" That night we had Grandpa Cola over for dinner to celebrate the holiday.

I so hope that my kids understand how important it is to serve others. I feel like we are always going over this. The other day I was saying something to Cassy about possibly moving so that the kids could attend some better schools and have better influences in their lives, when she reminded me that life is not always about serving people who are homeless and sometimes it is about befriending people and being kind to people who don't have a lot of kindness in their lives. I just hope that my kids can do this and still remember who they are.

The Blondies plus 1 Brownie Camp Out in the Back Yard

Alex keeps asking if we can sleep outside with Biscuit, but it is usually on a really windy or rainy day. The other night he lucked out and the weather was perfect. Matt was trying to get out of it by saying we should do it when we had it planned out ahead of time. But my motto is more the "no better time than the present", so Alex, Addy and I started to make preparations. At first I thought we could just sleep on the lawn and keep it simple, but then the idea of waking up to a snake warming itself next to my body in the night started to make me nervous so we opted to do the tent. We haven't used that thing in a couple of years. It was fun to get it out and brought back lots of camping memories of us putting it up in the middle of the night using flash lights. Luckily this time we just turned on the outdoor lights to the house and put it up in no time. Once we had the sleeping bags arranged, Matt (who had come out to stake down the tent) plopped on the sleeping bag and thought he might stay. Although, he would not let Biscuit in the tent and she was one of the main reasons Alex wanted to sleep out, so Matt was kicked out so that Biscuit could come in. And in she came, she thought the best spot to sleep would be right on top of me, breathing her dog breath right in my face. Eventually we were able to get her off and into her own spot and she snuggled in with us for the rest of the night. Connor also joined us once the work of putting up the tent was done and he stayed the night. Totally fun! I could have used a little pad for a cushion, though!

One more year of being in his 30's....

We had lots of fun celebrating Matt's birthday this year! He was out of town at a Capital Reef Classic Road Race until the evening of his birthday, but when he came back we celebrated with cherry pie and homemade ice cream. Jake and Crystal McMillan came over to have some pie with us. Part of the fun was the surprise gift we bought for Matt. I asked my mom and Wayne and Madilyn to go in on his gift this year. Usually our birthday money is earmarked for family expenditures, like vacations, trees, or a grill or something. But this year I wanted to get something that would be just for Matt. He has been wanting some dr. dre headphones, but they cost $300, which is a serious splurge and not something we usually do. With everyone pooling money we were able to get them as a surprise. Right before we gave them to him, Addy asked if she could tell him about the restaurant (we were taking him to Five Guys, his favorite, that just opened in Ogden), but he thought she said "wristwatch", which isn't something he would be overly excited about... Anyway, he was expecting a wristwatch and was so surprised to see we had bought him the headphones. It was totally not on his radar at all, the best kind of surprise!

Then Monday night, we celebrated with his family and everyone went to see Harry Potter at the Junction. It is the final movie and we were especially excited to see it after our movie marathon! Before the show we all met at Five Guys (another surprise) and it was kind of crazy because they were having the horse and hitch parade for the 24th of July and the streets were all closed. Good thing we planned on dinner or we would have been way late to the movie! All in all it was tons of fun. Every year Matt's birthday rolls around, he gets into a funk that he is getting old and that this year he was going to be in the best shape of his life. I think this year he has done it. He has been riding his bike quite a bit and lifting weights as much as possible. He looks great, to the point that people keep asking him if he has lost a ton of weight (some have even suggested 60 lbs). It is so funny because he has always weighed about the same give or take 5-10 pounds or so. He gets so offended:) I am lucky to have him for my husband and my kids are so lucky to have such a great dad. He would do anything for anyone and is always trying to show us how much he loves us through little acts of service. Happy 39th Honey!

The Visa Glitch

I ran into a website this week that gave out some more detailed info on getting a visa to live in Spain longer than 90 days. I knew it would be a long and difficult process, but apparently there are some costs that I didn't know about. It cost their family of four almost $6000 to get the visa! Some of the unknowns are international health insurance (about $2,000 for our stay with a deductible of $10,000) and lots of fees for papers and translation services. I am feeling overwhelmed by the cost. Plus you have to have all of your ducks in a row before you go (rental agreement, airline tickets, etc) and you still don't know if they will give you the visa or not. It is making me feel stressed. My gut feeling is telling me to wait until February to go and then stay in Spain for 2 months, then move on to the other Schengen countries I want to visit (Italy, France) and then end in England and come home around mid May. Unfortunately we have already made some pretty solid plans with my mom and Wayne for December in England. My mom is out of town, but hopefully I can speak with her more about it today when she gets back.

Summer Reading

So far, my summer reading has mostly been comprised of reading and studying travel books and blogs and searching for places to stay for our European Adventure. I think half of the fun of going somewhere is the planning. I do hope to leave enough "holes" in the calendar that we have time to just explore and find little treasures on our own, rather than running from place to place. Although, I do like to have an itinerary and some things planned out so that days aren't wasted standing in unnecessary lines and chasing our tails trying to figure things out. It is a lot of work putting a trip of this magnitude together (although it would be much easier if we didn't have a budget:)! So far the best travel guides I have found are the Rick Steve's European Guide Books (one for each country). I feel confident about planning the apartments, hotels, campgrounds, and homes, as well as the airfare and some of the entertainment, but I am feeling uncertain about costs related to getting around. I don't want any expensive unknown costs popping up! Hopefully I can catch up on my book club books while I am lazing about in Spain for three months while my children are in school!