And the punches keep coming.

I won't lie. It's been a rough week. The bad news just keeps coming. First some family stuff, then the horrible earthquake and tsunami that hit Samoa and American Samoa. The devastation from the islands just keep coming in. Those islands had little to begin with and now have nothing. Damon and I are grateful that his family members are safe from the initial blows, but now have a hard long process of rebuilding to begin. The quake in Indonesia is hard to take too, but that one isn't so personal.

The fam at TafaTafa beach. This side of the island was hit hard. This was a great beach with a tiny little village and one small road to get in and out of it. I can't even imagine what is left of it right now. The whole area is at sea level. Time will tell.

The kids and I have only been to the Samoan Islands once, but we completely loved them, except the roaches. Samoa is a small independent nation where Damon's parents grew up. We have such fond memories of the islands and their unique beaches and simple lives. Our hearts go out to the victims and their families.

The last blow came today when we found out that Noah's 4th grade teacher was being forced to leave the school due to low enrollment. This news isn't as life changing as the above mentioned, but still hard. All the 4th grade classes have 30+ kids. I guess that is considered low.

In all situations I feel like my hands are tied behind my back and I am helpless to help. I sent emails to the school board. Damon made phone calls. It won't change the decision that was already made before we were told. I really want to help the people of Samoa, but how? I just don't want to send money. Who knows if it will get there. Again I feel helpless.

I really hope the rest of the week goes better. Noah will have to say goodbye to his teacher because Friday is her last day. That idiot in office thinks that longer school days and school years will help our kids. What will really help is smaller class sizes and more one on one time.

Enough on my depressing soap box. One should not blog in an upset state of mind.

Field Trip #3

I know all I am posting right now is field trips, but life is pretty boring and I don't feel like getting up on my soap box right now. There must be something wrong with me. I will try to be a better blogger in the weeks to come.

This Thursday, since summer has refused to ebb, we went swimming at the pool with our friends. It has been over 100*F for the past few days and I am really quite sick of it. We had a great time at the pool except it was almost to hot to lounge by the side of it. I had to get in a couple of times. It is nice to see that Lily hasn't lost her swimming abilities yet. I was worrying about that. We had some extra girls with us today. I was watching my friend's twins.

Scotty had a blast pulling the girls on the noodle. The girls thought it was so fun and at one time had Scotty pulling all three of them. We were glad to be at the pool for so long. It definitely made us tired for the rest of the night.

I was able to go to choir practice for our Christmas concert in December. It's been a while since I have had to sing for long periods of time and man was my voice tired. It was fun though.

Today Damon had a free day off since he had to work on Labor day in China. We had a nice morning, went to the Temple, went out to lunch and then picked up Lily from preschool. We then went to Home Depot and Costco. It was so fun to have him around. We even had time for a quick game of scrabble. I beat him by 30 points. It was a great day!

Stay tuned for some exciting posts for next week.

Field Trip Thursday #2

We are still trying to adjust to being in school again. This week was a little easier. The kids are getting up and ready on time. This week it is the parents who are having a hard getting up and moving. Maybe next week we will all be on the same page.

Mom's field trip Tuesday involved going to the beach with a book, towel and no kids. It was a great morning. The only downside was that it wasn't long enough. 1pm just comes by way to quick when I am out having fun. My friends and I still managed to have a good time.

The field trip we went on today was to McDonald's. It wasn't one of my personal favorites, but the kids like it and, truth be told, it requires very little effort on Mom's part. We met our friend's, the Shoff's, there and stay for about two hours. Not many casualties and a good time was had by all.

I am so excited for Survivor to start tonight. It is down in Samoa and was filmed on Damon's Uncle's land. It is so beautiful down there. I can't wait to see it on TV. YEA!!

Field Trip Thursday #1

I can call it the first field trip Thursday since it is the first one of the new school year. Since it is still pretty warm here we decided to go to the beach. We want to enjoy the beach as much as possible before the weather turns cold.

It was a great day at the beach. The water was warm. It was to crowded and it was nice and sunny. Noah and Adam both caught some great waves. Lily is getting a little more adventurous about going out in the water and would go out a little ways without me.

I love my new piano schedule and not having to teach Thursdays. It is so relaxing to enjoy field trips with the kids. I hope the kids enjoy it. If you have suggestions on what we can do send them my way. I am always in need of new ideas.

First Day of School!

The kids had their first day of school today. It wasn't as joyous as I thought it should be. Adam was so excited he couldn't contain himself. Noah was so miserable he made me grumpy. Lily was indifferent and hated being told she had to get up and get breakfast because she now had a time table to follow. To tell the truth, I wasn't as nearly as excited as I thought I should have been. I had lots of fun this summer and enjoyed not having a set schedule. After all the paperwork I had to fill out today, I almost want school to be over again.The boys didn't like carrying all their loot to school with them. At least they didn't have to carry it home again.

We had to be out the door by 8am to pick up some last minute stuff for school. I am glad Staples opens early. After parking way far away from school, I probably live closer than where I got to park, running down the hill, meeting both the boys teachers, running back up the hill carrying Lily, and getting Lily to school on time I was exhausted.


My friend, Dianne, and I went out to breakfast and then I went home. I sat and enjoyed the silence for an hour and a half. I did the dinner menu for the month, made a shopping list, sent a long email to Damon, who is not here right now, and found out that BYU went up in the rankings from #20 to #9. Then it was time to get Lily. My quiet time was over.

Speaking of BYU, I was pleasantly surprised Saturday night after they beat Oklahoma. Honestly, I was expecting a slaughter and they managed to pull out a victory. It was such a treat. Good job Cougars!

When the boys got home from school I asked them how their day was. I had been agonizing over this whole Obama speech thing to the school kids all weekend. Should I have my kids go to school or shouldn't I? I read the speech while they were gone. So I asked them about it when they got home. Noah said, "We watched it for 5 minutes." Adam's class didn't even watch it at all. I thought that was smart. After reading it I can't imagine any K-3rd grader actually still paying attention after 2 minutes. Honestly. I asked Noah if the president inspired him to work hard and stay in school. Noah said no, that was my job. That's right. So I worried over nothing. I still thought the speech was a little bit annoying. How many times does one have to say, "If you quit school you quit on your country." His sob story about having a rough start was a bit annoying too. To his speech I have to say "Whatever."

It was a good first day of school. I am sure as September rolls on we will get into our same old routine.

Girl's Disney Weekend

Way back in May I suggested to some friends that we should run in a race that they have at Disneyland. They quickly agreed, which surprised me. We had the race this past weekend and had lots of fun.

We decided to go up to Disneyland Friday afternoon, before traffic, and have some fun. We went to California Adventure and went on Soarin, which was Erika's first time, Screamin', again, Erika's first time, the Toy Story ride, which I got the highest score on and Screamin' again. So much fun. Dianne and Erika haven't been to Disneyland without there kids so it was great.

We went to dinner at Rainforest Cafe. We ate some yummy food and ended it with a volcano. We had to hurry through dinner because we had to check into our race before 8pm. Check in was at the DisneyHotel so we walked around there a bit.

We went back to Disneyland and went on Pirates, watched some of Fantasmic, watched the fireworks and went on Space Mountain. So fun. We walked back to our hotel from the park where we had bunk beds. So funny. I kept laughing because I felt like I was at camp.

The next morning we got up and went to the starting line. We had Mickey ears on for the race. It was so much fun. The characters were out and some of the rides were going. It was Dianne's first race ever so we were so happy for her. There were 4000 people in this race. We all finished somewhere in the middle.

We did some shopping after breakfast and then drove home. We decided we couldn't put off returning to our real lives to much longer. Thanks to my hunky hubby for watching the kids so I could go have some fun. Thanks to my friends for being willing to go on my crazy misadventures with me. We should do it again.

Next up...Labor Day and First Day of School (secretly jumping up and down)(not really secretly though)

The last hurrahs of summer!

Summer is finally coming to a close. It is hard to believe that summer is winding down since the weather is so wretchedly hot. It's also my 100th post. Pretty amazing. I didn't think I would keep this up, but I have really enjoyed doing the blog. We have had a fun last few days despite the heat.

Last weekend Damon was going to be really busy with Luaus so I took the kids up to Mortensen Manor for some quality bonding time with their cousins. They ate sour dough waffles, played with the chickens, ran amok in the basement and went swimming. Lily is swimming all over the place and went of the diving board all by herself. It was amazing. They loved it and I enjoyed not having to entertain them all the time.

Monday we went to the pool with our friends, the Shoff's. We tried to stay cool and relax. Even being outside in the morning is hot. We have all gotten nice and brown this summer from hanging out at the beach and the pool so much. It will be kind of sad when school starts.

Tuesday we declared it "Mom's day" and we got two sitters and sent all the kids to the Shoff's. Erika, Dianne and I went and saw, "Julie and Julia". It was cute. I liked it better than the book. We had a leisurely lunch afterwards. I think we all enjoyed being out.

Wednesday was lesson day. I had so many piano lessons. The boys had theirs too so the piano was going non-stop. I was also thrown a bit of a curve ball in all my careful planning so that had to be addressed too. It all worked out though. Adam also got his two front teeth pulled out. He looks so different and his smile is different, but he is still our same Adam. To make everything all better we went to Jamba Juice.

Today we spent another rather hot and humid day at Sea World. The crowds were small and the kids were good. We didn't see any shows, but saw all the fun animals and went on Journey to Atlantis. Adam and Hayes got drenched, but I didn't get a spot on me. Adam was prepared. He wore his swim suit. We fed the sea lions and I got yelled at for having the dolphins do tricks. We came home hot and exhausted and had breakfast for dinner. Who doesn't love that?Stay tuned for Mom's last hurrah of summer!! Now that should be a good post.