Hello Monday again..

Wow....what a speedy weekend....With scout day camp over with, life seems to be getting back to normal, you know the routine.....busy, kids, work, church,naps, etc etc.

Kati and I had a great date night. we went to a movie and just chilled.Kati is now hooked on Taco Bell chalupa's. It was nice to spend some one on one with her. We also have done some birthday shopping for her. Can you believe she will be 12 in a few days.

This week she is bagging candy for my boss, A little job that will earn her a bit of money. She is a hard worker when she puts her mind to it. She went to the local youth dance at he community center on Friday night, It's a once a month dance, where I don't think much dancing goes on. It is a nice social evening for her to catch up with the kids from school.I wouldn't be suprised if all they do is text each other all evening.

I am still having to hound her about the condition of her room. So I am planning a great big shock for her...She will not know what hit her. Stay tuned for that episode.
William and I have had a bit of time together too this weekend...We went shopping for his school supplies, and his money was burning a hole in his pockets. He earns extra money for helping with my coupon addiction. Actually, Kati has helped also this past two weeks, I think she sees it as easy money, although they do have fun, and it gets the job done faster. Well in most cases it does, they try to be the first on to lob the paper into the car, Most times it hits the back seat, sometimes it flies right over the top, This past week William almost lost an eye, with Kati's bad aim and powerful arm.

I must brag at this point........

I scored huge with mars candy. I have 220 full size candy bars, twix, mars bar, snickers and 3 musketeers, cost me nothing.zip, zilch, nada......yes. NOT A PENNY. All I have to do now is figure out where to hide it. This house is not like my Utah house with plenty of storage space. Nooooooo, We have a years supply of canned dog food under Williams bed. Water in my bedroom closet, Kati's bed is still up for grabs though, but I hesitate putting anything else in her room...see story above..

I have Hit a great deal with baby wipes too, By the time I am done with this deal I will have close to 250 packs. Cost...14 cents each. I am going to spread that out until December when the coupon expires.

OK, enough bragging...Back to life with the kids...William got a CD of a kids story book in a kids meal from Wendy's. He just loves the TREE HOUSE MYSTERY collection ,So we put the roof down on my car, reclined and listened to the whole CD and watched the stars. It was awesome. I think we will do that more often.

Folau has been really busy at work, they are very short staffed, so he has been filling in a lot.

I have booked a few days away this week for Kati's birthday...We are heading down to Corpus Christi, a couple of hours south of here. Hopefully Folau can get some fishing in and rest a little bit. He still walks around the house in heavy winter clothing, and I catch him turning off the air conditioner when he can sneak it...You gotta love him. And me, well I have been putting a lot of thought into getting fit, so I bought a pedometer with a coupon. OK, so don't rush me, it's a start.

What a fantastic day....

I had the best day, I know the boys did. I am talking about being a walking den leader for the scout day camp.....oh where to begin... Well, The morning at home was quite rushed seeing as I knew I had to get a zillion things done before we left, But the kids were great and helped a lot. Kati was hard at it, mainly because she wanted to relax after we left and do her own thing. I have no idea what her fixation is with eye wear.


Here she is with a pair of frames on her face, no lenses...


And off to day camp we go....

I was not happy to have to wear tennis shoes, The last time I wore any kind of footwear other than flip flops or sandals was last year at the scout camp. The nice weather in Texas means NO closed shoes. We had to wear them for day camp for safety reasons and for the fact we were walking through long dried pokey filled grass and deer poop. Not to mention all the bugs and fire ants.
Moving on.....


After a delayed flag raising ceremony it was off to the pool,


They had a brief splash and cool off seeing as it was 98 degrees in the shade.

Then it was onto the slingshots...


Next up was archery...



Lunch time...



Because the camp this year is all about AMERICAN HERO'S, the boys wrote letters to a soldier or soldiers in Iraq. These will be sent after camp is over



Off to B.B shooting...






Sports was next... the boys played basketball Frisbee

crafts, I liked this one...



Last but not least, was Wilderness games....


Here they are waiting for instructions....
By this time we were all a little bit tired, but it was fun to see the boys running around with flashlights, exploring and having a good time.
We signed out and headed home, minus 2 misplaced lunch boxes, but all is well....I am actually thinking of signing up next year for the whole camp, not just one day. I had on my pedometer for the day, over 5590 steps....wow, I wonder what that translates into miles.

Off to day camp.

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This week is Williams scout day camp, Tue - Friday. He is so excited and I am too.. I went last year as a walking den leader and loved it, although it was super hot. Last year they had it from 10-4pm, this year it's 3pm-9pm, we shall see if that makes any difference. So we waved farewell to them in the local CVS parking lot, and I will be picking him up in about 30 minutes. I have the privilege of going with them tomorrow, seeing as it is my day off. I am not looking forward to the heat aspect and the fact that they will be swimming and i will be watching, other than that I am thrilled.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I just bought some gift vouchers off the Internet, 14 x $25 certificates to various restaurants for $2 each. I am planning my one on one dates with the kids and Folau, I am so excited about all the money I get to save. I also booked a few nights in corpus Christi for Kati's birthday next week. This will be a nice few days away as a family. It will give Folau time to fish and eat, and rest. We are so blessed to be able to do so many things together.

Nothing to do but relax.

Today was a day of rest and relaxation. I must say I do laugh at Folau, this is how he sits around the house when we have the air conditioning on. We only have it down to 77 degrees, which is not cool enough for the kids and me, but Folau feels the cold and has to wrap up. When he isn't home we have it down to 74.....brrrrr

I called Kati out of her room to help me fix dinner today, this is how she emerged. I have no idea what she was doing in there.

what a saturday....

Ran errands in the A.M and with nothing pressing on the agenda I took a lovely nap..

Woke up to the sounds of thunder, Very loud and VERY close..

I love the sound and smell of rain and we are in such desperate need of water down here so It was nice and refreshing for the kids and I to sit out on the back porch watching it pour.

Our grass is so dried and yellow, we have major watering restrictions at the moment. Folau stayed inside telling us more than once we will be struck by lightning, but it was so nice and cooled down quickly to the mid 90's.

Out of the blue came the brightest flash of lightening and loudest clap of thunder at the same time..

It was getting too close for comfort so we decided to head indoors, just then we noticed a house a few houses down the street on fire...

The last bolt of lightening had hit it... within minutes there were Firetrucks, paramedics, police, and many many emergency vehicles up and down the street and blocking access to the danger zone.

Thank you Lord for protecting us, and please bless those who are affected..

Friday already

Wow, this week has flown by.....Wednesday William and I took cousin Louie back to Houston, Kati wanted to stay behind and chill. As much as I wanted her to go with us, I could understand her being the only pre teen in a house full of 'kids' .

We made great time, and arrived at 7:30 ish, ate and watched a movie..

Woke up to the beautiful sounds of Eve at 8:00am and then the day began..

We all went to a lovely beach in Galveston, OK, so not aqua blue seas and white sand, (that would be the south pacific).... but a great beach none the less. we pulled the cars onto the sand and had a fab afternoon.




We flew kites, ate, swam, ate, relaxed, ate, swam, get the picture?



Packed up around 6 ish and headed home. What a great day.

Because the boys took a micro nap in the car on the way back, they were up playing forever.
Not that we minded too much, Mike, Karen and I watched 'The nanny Diaries' and called it a day by 10:30pm.
I was relying on EVE the alarm clock to wake me up at 8 am so I could get on the road by 9. A three hour drive, and I had to be at work by 2 pm. No worries....

My phone rang at 10:15 and woke me up. eeeeeeeeekkkkk. Sorry, I am not pleased with the way I left the guest room but we were on the road back to San Antonio by 10:30am.
With no delays and no tickets, (but I was trailed for 5 miles by Highway patrol after I slowed down from 85 to 74) We made it back at 1:35, enough time to change clothes, grab a diet coke and head off to work.

So, there goes another adventure...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Kati had taken to doing the night shift of watching TV and chilling, then sleeping in until the afternoon hours, this is going to be a tough one to break.

Tuesday.....

Yesterday was a good day...I went to TARGET and did a bit of couponing.
I bought 30 cans of dog food, 30 bottles of joint juice(good for my arthritis) and 10 miscellaneous items for the kids and school It all cost me 12 cents....no joke....




I took the kids to the 'dollar movies' in the evening, Monday night being 50 cent night. Brothers Bloom....errr not the best movie I have ever watched, thanks for that Hollie, but Race to witch Mountain was a good one.



Do you think they will notice us sneaking in treats?




Work went fast this morning, Hurried home and now we are ready to head out to Houston..We plan on hitting the beach tomorrow....fun, fun, fun...

Playing catch up..

I have missed a few days, so here is a quick catch up. The weekend flew by. I don't feel like I got much done, But I am very rested. We went to the pool again, and had an early night on Saturday. I watched a great DVD...Lost in Austen...about a woman trading places with Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice, Very funny...

We have an Sugar Ant problem in the kitchen, it came on all of a sudden, and they are a real nuisance. Folau (being the hunter he is) set about poisoning the colony outside and sealing all the entrances to the kitchen. I must say he did a great job, haven't seen an ant since..

Church on Sunday was great. We have missed the past 2 weeks, due to a funeral and then being in Houston last weekend, so It was nice to be back in the fold so to speak. I did my Sister Friendly during sharing times....For those of you who don't know what that is......Once a month 'sister friendly' comes and teaches the children from the FRIEND magazine. It can be anything from stories, quizzes, songs, etc. I usually can adapt the same lesson for both the older and younger primary. This month we talked about the BEATITUDES.

I took a nap after church, and then had to go into work for a couple of hours seeing as one of the girls is on vacation and some baking had to be done.

Kati and I worked in the kitchen together, and had some mom/daughter time. I can't believe how grown up she is getting. I wish time would slow down, I want my kids to stay with me forever.

After work.....

Great afternoon at work, then picked up Pizza and went to the pool..... nice way to end the day.

Late start.

So, slept in....I will be running around like a headless chicken trying to catch up....

Nice day with the children.

It was another hot one.............

Here we are at the end of the day, I am glad to say we all had fun. We finished off the day with a movie...Transformers...

The boys laughed and chatted most of the way through the 2 and a half hour show. I enjoyed it too.

Kati and I snacked on the Milano cookies we snook in.