It is now a little before five a.m. and here I am. I have been awake for about an hour and finally decided that I should just get up since I am obviously not going to be able to go back to sleep.

I had a busy day yesterday. The morning was just the usual stuff; get up and get the kids ready and off to school. Then I picked up my good friend and her daughter and we went to work. (She is the one who is having stress right now. Her car broke down last week and her oldest daughter just got married.) Yesterday the students had early release and went home a little before two. At two I had a grade level meeting that was still ongoing when I left a little before three to take Jared to scouts. I came back and went immediately to another meeting for ELL (English Language Learners) teachers. After that, I went back down the hall to the first meeting that was still not quite over. Then I hurried and picked Jared up from scouts, dropped him off at home, and went back to the school. After that, I made some copies of papers for my parents for open house and typed a letter for them which I printed out in English and then Spanish. At 4:30, I took Tyler to his counseling appointment and dropped him off and went back to the school for open house that started at 5:00. After the open house, I went and picked him up, bought a couple of pizzas, and headed back to the school to pick up my friend. (Alex normally has scouts at 6:00, but it was cancelled this week.) Then I went to my Alex's open house at his school and left there a little before 7:00. Next, I dropped the pizzas off at the house for the kids to eat and my friend and I (and three of the boys) went to Heber to pick up her car. It was kind of relaxing to just drive and visit. I don't get to visit with my friends as much as I would like to, so it was a nice chance to get to just unwind and talk. I have always enjoyed driving, but don't do it as often as I used to since the gas prices have gone up so much the past couple of years. We got back into town around 9:30ish. I got the kids off to bed and was actually in bed myself by a little after 11:00.

The exciting news I found out yesterday is that my younger brother, Chris, and his family are moving from Bullhead City to Winslow!! I can't wait! That is only about a 90 minute drive from here. I will get to see them more often. He called and talked to Erica. This is great!

Well, it is a little before six. I better get busy and start getting ready for the day.

July-August 2008; Summer fun!

Wow! I have been busy! I did have my nephew come and visit for a week. He and Tyler had a nice time and got along with each other most of the time. I took them to Holbrook to see the dinosaurs and the trains and we did a bunch of other stuff as well. When Michael went home, I went to my 20 year high school reunion. It was nice and I was happy to get to see people I hadn't seen for such a long time. I did end up in the hospital there with pancreatitis, but that is another story. After that I went to the Mayo Clinic for an appointment about that very thing. I have surgery scheduled for October 10th...the day before my birthday. Maybe that will turn out to be a great present if it will stop these attacks. I was in the hospital here after that, but my enzyme levels were not high. I still felt horrible, though. A fun thing I did was take my six kids to Big Surf. That was both fun and horrible at the same time. Mostly, it was fun, but the horrible part was that I had to cram myself into a swimsuit in public. That was not a pretty sight. The good thing about that is that you can always find someone who looks worse than you. I saw a lady wearing a bikini with the whole, "I've had a bunch of kids" look going on. I know that look, because I see it every day. However, I do have the presence of mind to not display such a gross sight to the whole world. Ewwww!!! Need I say more? So...yes, I did try to hang around in close proximity to her. Somehow, only Tyler and I got really sunburned. We all used sunblock, too. Tyler's was pretty bad, but I actually had blisters from mine. Nothing like cultivating the ol' skin cancer. I actually felt sick from my sunburn for a couple of days. I took a few pictures and sometime I will have to figure out how to get them on here. They loved all of the water slides, but I think the wave pool was everyone's favorite part. The waves are big enough that you can actually surf on them or just ride them in to the shore. Zachary (my five year old) was a natural at that. He caught every single wave and rode them all the way to the shore. We had a great time.