Grrr...

OK, so how many times do you have to ask them to clean up their room? and if they don't what do you do. To give a little background, we have gotten the girls new kittens and yes, we had the discussion that it was going to be their responsibility to feed, clean up after and love these kittens. Caley, pictured below, haha can you find her amongst all the.... fun? and excuse the nudest, I can't seem to keep clothes on the girl! Caley has become quite the cat lady. She just loves them... I hope to have pictures up soon. Princess Shay Shay and Bernese, live in the girls room, eat and take care of business in the loo off the girls room... eat, sleep, hide from the dogs... you betcha... in the girls room. So, back to the picture. Caley has taken to these kittens and I think its great. But, BUT, she has taken to spending alot more time in her room, which wouldn't be so bad except that she shares her room with Ken and it always looks like this. When asked to clean or even just pick it up (I'll clean it) she just can't do it... total mind block I'm not even sure if she hears me. I have a similar problem with the family room and other spots in the house but the bedroom has to be the worst. And, its everyday! She's also taken to changing clothes about 5 times a day, not to mention the in between nudity and forgetfulness to put on any panties... here's funny to end on... last Sunday we (the kids and I went to visit a new church) We all enjoyed it very much. Jack wasn't so sure of the nursery but that was to be expected. We all got home, feeling very good that we may have found a new church, I was asking the girls what they did in there class and Ken was demonstrating the dancing and singing they did... and I glance over at Caley in the chair. Of course in her favorite new dress, knees bent, feet in the chair and NO PANTIES! I about died...

Well, my intentions for doing a blog a day have not been very successful lately and as we are getting ready to depart for our very first week long camping trip to the Oregon coast we won't be blogging for another week, realistically more like two. But, I can say I'm taking my blogging in a snap so I can learn more on how to blog more successfully and I will be full of sand and fun photos to share... ta ta for now, C

Summertime fun...

Just wanted to share a few snapshots from a BBQ we went to a few nights ago. We went to Jeff and Trish's house for dinner (Erics brother, his wife and family) and as you can see (well kinda) they were busy filling up their pool. That task has been a long process as it had to go through major surgery before any water could be held. At about 1 foot of water the kids couldn't resist anymore and had to hit the ice cold water that comes straight out of the hose. (New faces to the blog, my niece Mara in the gold top with McKenna and Caley and my oh so cute nephew, Nick showing off in the hose)

Jack worked on mastering the stairs on their back porch. And of course, had to do it all by himself.

And last but not least. My husband giving us the best laugh we've had in a long time... sitting out under the apple tree I glanced over noticing that he was wearing two different shoes. Just making up for a stunt I pulled way back when we were on our 3rd date. It happens to the best of us babe! Need I say more?

HEATWAVE!

My goal with this blog is to be here everyday... if not every other day to log our lives and goings on. The last week and a half I've been solely working on keeping us comfortable in the major heatwave we've had. Actual all time record breaking numbers for this part of the country. This little pool has been our home for the last week or so. All five of us and an occasional wiener dog have lived in this pool, best buy of our summer.


It all started out one weekend it was supposed to start warming up with 'severe weather warnings' being shouted out all over the news so we decided to take up living outdoors. Sleeping under the stars, creating our own little drive in. We blew up the camping beds covered them in sheets and pillows. Hooked up our little TV from the living room and installed the portable DVD players. Eric's brother in law and kids came over and brought the latest Harry Potter DVD. We were set! First night, in the middle of the movie we felt... what? A rain drop? Nooooo! It couldn't be. I think the skies just had to remind us that yes we did live in the NW. We were looking to the skies and yes a thunderstorm was brewing. I didn't think it would amount to much but with 5 kids under the age of 6 we better pack it in so in we went. The next day not a cloud in the sky and it was getting warmer earlier so out comes all the gear! Beds, bedding, TV and swim suits. I haven't paraded in my swim suit since I was a kid... ahem, not a pretty picture to say the least.


Much to our surprise our neighbor comes knocking at our door and hands us a gently used air conditioner and helps us to install it in our kitchen window. Holy Cow, someone is looking out for us! we turned that puppy on and it didn't stop for a whole week. Honestly I'm not sure we would have made it if we hadn't received such a generous gift out of nowhere, I can't tell you how thankful I am. I actually told Eric after the first night of trying to sleep, "we may have to go find a hotel to stay in". He looked at me like I was crazy but I think down deep he may have thought I was on to something. :) You know growing up in the heat of CA all my life and enduring the high temperatures down there, the heat that we have been living through here in WA is so much more intense. I've been in hotter temperatures down there but when it got over 100 degrees here... I don't know, life was much harder to handle. I'm not sure if its the humidity or maybe I just have to accept the fact that I'm getting older and need the pampering a bit more than I used to??? The picture below is of our drive in movie camp out... it was quite cozy and fun!

Then it hit! 100 degrees plus, and it wasn't cooling of at night. I think one TV report said it was 85 at midnight on those really hot nights. We packed everything we needed that was out in and started transforming our house into three small rooms. Our generous gift was precious but she just wasn't cut our for the whole house. So when Eric went to work I started renovating the house. The living room (picture below) was rearranged, stripped and this now was our drive in bedroom for the 5 of us. Our thickest sleeping bags got nailed up to the entrance to the family room to cut off that huge room and another was hung at the hallway down to the bedrooms. All we would have to do was endure the heat when nature called or we forgot to grab something we couldn't live without. It wasn't pretty but all 5 of us stayed pretty comfy for the next few days. Poor Eric having to try and sleep through us watching TV at night and get himself up at 2:30 to get off to work. Neither of us slept very well all week, but I felt especially bad for him.

All in all, it was fun, maybe not in the thick of it all but looking back its a good memory that will stay with us forever.

I think today was the first day back to the 70's and 80's. The beds came down, toys getting picked up, girls bummed they have to go back to their regular beds in their regular bedrooms. Tomorrow morning starts the "getting back to normal" phase before this weekend. Next we start packing up for a big camping trip we have planned for the Oregon coast. The next few weeks will be busy ones but... lots of fun blogging stuff ahead. Goodnight.