August 12: Went out to dinner last night with daddy. Went to Red Lobster - Yummy! We used the gift card mom gave us months ago. It was nice. We ran some errands and took our time. Very weird. Anyhow, not doing too much so far at home. Charles gave me the okay to paint Liz' room. I'm looking foward to that. I made reservations to go scrappin on Friday. Since I have Friday off of work anyhow I'm going to make a day of it. Don't know when I can do that again. I'm having trouble falling asleep. I am so tired in the morning and on the way home from work but come bed time, I just cant fall asleep???? And it's not like I'm taking a nap or anything. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

August 10: Kids were so wound up this weekend. They were bouncing off the walls and driving us nuts! But relief came around 9pm tonight when my mom came up and got the kids for the week. Yes - the week! I'll pick them up Saturday! Wow! A whole week without any kids - Well, I still have Charles (daddy) but at least he can put himself to bed! Man, what am I going to do? Will my reality live up to my fantasy? Doubt it, but at least it will be quieter.

August 7: Haven't journaled in a while because I have been so wrapped up in life events that I havent had time. You can read about how our vacation went on the camping page. Lately I've just been trying to keep under the radar at work. I may be looking for a new job in a year. Yuck. The only other thing keeping us busy is the pool. The pump is getting air in it so it's been off since July and we haven't been able to swim since mid July. That's no fun cause the kids were really liking it. Especially Liz. Charles has been digging holes all over the pump area trying to track down a crack in the pipe but no luck so far. We took the Kia in to be fixed. Looks like it was a fuel pump realy and an engine relay that were failing. so they got replaced and we haven't had too much of a problem with it since. So our quest for a new vehicle has ceased for the time being. In light of both our work loads being very small - we might wait a while longer to replace that piece of garbage. Van went into the shop today too. Inspection and to have a possible tie rod replaced. I dunno. There is a noise in the front and it isn't driving right, so the guy will look at it for us. No word on the camper yet. I really want to go out for Labor Day. Even if we do get it back before then (which I seriously doubt), I think it will turn into a hassle since Liz starts school that week and the camper will need serious cleaning and airing out. Oh well.

The vehicle saga continues...We found a nice used conversion van on Friday but with vacation coming up this week we just don't have time to persue it. Plus we don't want to hear how much they WONT give us for that stupid Kia. Luckily Charles is now able to us his dad's car for a few days till vacation starts. We'll start really looking when we get back. Gotta go, lots to do...

July 1: For some reason we are suppose to be stuck with that stupid Kia! We have gone to I don't know how many car dealerships to look at the vehicles we want and they are either thousands of dollars over what we want to pay or they are sold before we even get there. Okay. stop...breath...rethink strategy...Start over. Bummer

Have a lot to do this week. I got some work to finish in a hurry, so limit my computer time :(
I've got the house to clean and get organized. I need to make an eye appointment for new glasses. And the most important are those long overdue doctor appointment(s) to make and go to. (I'm gonna do it today - tomorrow at the latest!). I also have to prepare for vacation. Stuff to do for FCRV and inventory our cloths for HOT weather. I really need to go shopping for cloths (for myself)! I can't believe how long it has been since I've had new stuff. Well I guess that is mostly 'cuz I don't have the money for new cloths. Gotta go.

June 23: Damn Kia! Stupid car started acting up again on the way to work. Wanted to stall as we were on the Parkway! I had to run a red light to keep it from stalling after I dropped Charles off at work. We really need to get rid of it! We owe thousands more than it is worth though. Saw so many we liked but can't make out on a trade - ARGH! So frustrating! @#$*^&*#!

Before the whole car thing got me down, we had a nice weekend. Friday we went to pick up our beef that was ready. We got home and found out that the camper place called to say that our camper was fixed and ready to be picked up. That's 2 weeks early! Yeah!

Saturday I got to sleep in. It was my birthday and daddy made a cake and Liz put sprinkles on it for me. We had it for lunch. We picked up the camper after breakfast and it was a little cheaper than we were quoted. Gotta love that! We went to a wedding that evening and the kids did pretty well.

Erin has been super cranky these past several days though. CJ can't seem to get rid of his diaper rash. It reminds me of what chicken pox looks like but only on his bum. At least it isn't bleeding anymore. Still has diarrhea. This small rash on his cheek has me puzzled too? Drew is okay just runny poop now.

Sunday we went to a picnic that my Multiple Club had. It was fun and well organized. Gorgeous day too. Daddy finished putting the wall paper up in the bathroom. Well, the top half of the wallpaper anyhow. He can't do the bottom till we get the new sink. Who knows when that will be. It does look nice though!

I missed my dad coming in this weekend. I already had these things planned when I found out he would be in. Would have liked to of seen and visited with him though. Next time.

June 18: Had a great weekend. Didn't do too much except work around the house. Erin was in a great mood! She was so happy and laughing at everything it was wonderful. Ended up going to dinner with FIL and family on Sunday as a last minute thing. Was nice and kids were good. Didn't get my tacke box yet - maybe for my birthday?

June 13: Had tornado hit close to us last night. We were waiting to go the parade and didn't know about them till we were leaving. It just rained and we heard thunder in the distance but had no idea. Lucky us. I'm so tired lately, going to bed late and getting up extra early to go to work. Can't wait for tomorrow! Wanted to go scrapping tonight but I'm too dang tired. Maybe Sunday. Daddy wants me to weed the flower beds on Saturday. Yuck. Anyhow, that's all we got going on this weekend. Don't get too many of these free weekends. Father's day is Sunday so maybe I'll bake a cake or something. Maybe I'll accidentally buy him a Tackle Box that I'll not be able to return so I'll be forced to keep it for me and my SB tools/embelishments? HUMMM. Any of you Peas out there know what I mean! Sont; worry daddy will get something nice too. He always does!

June 12: Camper place called, they looked at the brakes and said that we're looking at over $300 now to fix the brakes and that is just on the driver side. They wont really be able to work on it for another couple weeks and they have to order parts. He said maybe it'll be done by the 4th of July. Yikes! They really need to have it done before we need to leave for vacation the following week!

June 11: You can probably tell that I redesigned the web site once again. Hope you like it. The weekend was nice. Glad we didn't take the camper. The cabin thing went real well. The kids all slept and there wasn't much fussing around. of course CJ was confined in the pack-n-play while Erin & Drew shared the twin bottom bunk. Liz slept on the top bunk. She wasn't too sure at first but now she wants her own. Like I couldn't see that coming. Of course it makes sense and we hope to do that someday. Liz told us that if she gets a bunk bed than she and Erin will both have a place to sleep and it wont take up as much room as her current double bed. Smart as a whip that one is. Well gotta run. Physical Therapy tonight for Erin and going to a friend's brithday party.

June 6: Going to Maryland today for our nephew's graduation party. The camper is waiting to be fixed so we had to cancel our camping space and reserve a no-frills cabin. This should be fun. No potty or kitchen - just a double bed, a bunk bed and a microwave. Hopefully things will be fine. I'm praying for nice weather for his party.

The babies had their Early Childhood Intervention evaluation in early May and the coordinator agreed to have a speech therapist for them. Erin will be 2x a month and each of the boys get it 1x a month. Erin will also get Physical Therapy (PT) for her feet. She turns her feet in when she walks and it makes her trip when she walks fast. So we will do PT until she can see her doctor on June 18th and see if we can get her an Orthopedic consutation and monitor her for possible AFO's (feet support). on the 21st, they had a session with each therapist to go over what we will be doing and both therapy's started the last week of may.

Liz played soccer again and once again had a great time. Daddy helped coach when asked. I think he likes it too. We signed her up for Fall and Spring sessions. She'll be on the U8 team (Ages 6,7,8) so she'll play with bigger kids now. She does better when the kids around her are playing seriously and not goofing off. She got her soccer picture taken. She her photo page for a look at my big girl!

My dad had his shoulder operated on again. He really tore it up good this time but he is doing better. He'll see his oncologist for his 6 month check-up soon. I think that will go fine (hope so). Out of the blue, Charles' mom went into the hospital and ended up having to have a heart valve replaced and a bypass done all at once. She's doing better now but had us all really scared for a while.

Spent most of the end of May looking at a replacement vehicle for the Kia. Our choices are slim. The only vehicles that will fit 6 people are Vans and a few SUVs that offer a 3rd row of seats. We already have a van so we don't want another one so that limits us to the following... Expeditions, Durangos, Surburbans and the like. OF course it has to be able to tow a camper. Not a fun experience. We found a lot of vehicles tha we could get fairly affordable but that stupid Kia isn't worth what we owe so we are looking at a $3K loss. So add $3000 more to the price of any vehicle's asking price and it makes it difficult to afford. Grumble Grumble Grumble, I hate that car!!!

Had our teacher conference with Liz's teacher and it went great. She is smart. She scored well on her readiness test. The only problem was on the part she didn't want to finish. Nice. Turns out she knew the stuff, she just got bored and tired and didn't want to do it. Other than that, she is ready for 1st grade! Wow, I can't believe she'll be that old. But it's nice to have actual adult like conversations with her. Since she was 2 I could talk to her like an adult and she'd respond like it too. Now, she responds a little too much like an adult. She got to go to the Zoo with her class and enjoyed it a lot.

We went camping for the first itme this season over memorial day weekend with some friends. Started off bad when the brakes on the camper locked up and smoked about 10 miles from the campground. Luckily we have great friends who we able to come help make a temporary fix to get us to the campground. Did I mention that it was in a monsoon? Yes, a torrential rain storm, so the kids were stuck in the van for 4 hours longer than we planned. Not fun for them at all! Setting up in the rain sucked too. And we got the van stuck in the mud when trying to put the camper in position. So after we got it up and ready to put the kids to bed, at 10pm the babies were now wide awake and ready to play. I think it was midnight when we finally got them down. The rest of the weekend went by pretty well. They loved being outside and playing with new friends. We wont be able to go camping again till campvention since we have to wait till mid June to get the camper fixed.

That was May in a nutshell.