What's my name again?

My 402nd post. Sheesh! That's a lot of ramblin'.

But oh how I have missed my blog. I can hear the rusty squeak as I sign in, I wasn't sure I'd even remember my password. Phew! Good work. That's what my piano teacher (the totally awesome Sarah) calls 'finger memory.' I have very little of it, apparently.

I really am surprised how much I have missed writing this summer, but I feel refreshed (well, maybe not refreshed, but an urge anyway) and ready to start 'er up again. If you didn't know, I took my kids out of school four weeks early, and will not return them to the far away desert until they are a week late starting in September. Yeah. We milked this summer for all we could. It has been non stop fun; most days. We had a month of the entire family together, then six weeks without Peter, then he'll be back next week for another month. At which time we will all be on our *GULP* 35 hour trek to our other home. We've had graduate student renters in our Big Blue House this last year, and again this year coming up, we have a family moving in in a few weeks. I CANNOT tell you how coming home to my OWN house has made this a perfect summer. I feel SO happy, blessed, and lucky to have a home in two places. If I'd known it would have worked out so well, I might not have whined quite so much all last year. Okay. You're right. I probably would have...

So what the heck have you been doing all summer, you crazy woman? Well. Since you asked:

The Zoo
The Bean Museum
Tucano's
Soccer Camps
Baseball Camp
Swimming Lessons (taught by the worlds greatest teacher, Miss Stacey. Want to teach your kids to swim? She's your gal. I'm not sure where my chicken-children went, but I'm glad to see them go!)
Lagoon
Dinosaur Museum
Weekend to Wolf Creek, UT w/the Sinema's
Piano Lessons (yep, that includes me. Don't get your hopes up, I still super stink.)
Hikes
Camping
MANY play dates with long lost friends
Manicure/Pedicure
Lot's of wonderful company and visits from family, SOOOO fun
Weekend to St. George, UT w/ grandma and grandpa
Cove Fort
Scera Pool
Lazy days at Minky's house
A Lot of PBS
Summerfest parade/fireworks
a whole LOT of cub/boy scout activities
Annual shopping fest 2011 (thanks Kath, couldn't have done it without you!)
Lot's of skyping with daddy
Cafe Rio
Zuppa's
Tubing the So. Fork of the Ogden River
Rafting on the Boise River
Five days, five kids in Boise, ID (sorry Beath's, hope you recover soon, we sure had fun though! :)
Great Grandparents
Two Enrichment's
And much, much more...

Well. As you can see, there has been a lot going on. We made a list of things we wanted to do this summer. There's a lot not on here, like Chuck E Cheese, etc. But we have made a HUGE dent in the list. I think the kids have had SO much fun. It has been really busy, and really fun. It has been a great grounding couple of months to help them feel like they have a home here. That they are Americans, with a family, friends, church, scouts, etc, that love and support them. What a treat for all of us.

Oh. Don't get me wrong, we've had out 'less great' moments. Here are a few:

Chach pooping in the pool at the hotel in St. George. Classy.

In the middle of pack meeting, for cubs this last week, my kids were going NUTS. Chach dug through my purse until he finally came up for air - and at the top of his lungs said, "What's this?" Like 5 times before I looked to see what he was asking about; a tampon.

Church on my own, with five kids. Oh mama. Last week, while visiting in Boise, they were so wild, I finally dug an entire box of bandaids out of my purse and handed it over to them. They were very entertained, although I am still pulling out wads of used bandaids. Ew. This was, of course, while Giddie was trying to climb into the new born baby's infant seat in front of us over and over and over.

Many near misses, and "I HEAR POOP!" from Chach while driving the miles and miles of road. (He "hears" poop and potty when he has to go. I like it, just go with it.)

I have been less than stellar, as well. There may or may not have been a lot of yelling over the last several weeks. But, as I tell them, I always ask nicely first. If they would listen the first time... What they hear, "meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow"

More than my fair share of children's arguments. Nothing more to be said of this, if you know it, it stinks!

Anywho. There we are. What have you been doing? Was it fun? Can I come too?