The Last Hurrah

During the school year we have 'stay up late night' on Friday nights. We let the boys stay up late, maybe an hour or so past their usual bed time. If I am feeling really sneaky I will start the bed time routine very early and they feel like they had a stay up late night and the get to bed pretty close to on time.


On Tuesday Daddy decided it would be fun to have a stay up late night on the last night before our first school night of the year (the two older boys started on Thursday). Daddy wanted to go to a movie, but I didn't want to spend the money and I definitely didn't want to take Lucky to a movie but we wanted to be together. We watched a movie at home, with all of the candy, popcorn, and soda that any amigo could ask for! Daddy went all out on the treats.

Wednesday morning I realized that the boys would not be able to play with their best friends very often once school started so we went to play at their house.

We had macaroni and cheese, as usual. We always have that for lunch when we are together. Whenever I buy mac and cheese I buy a few extra boxes in case we have the Morty's over because we will need two boxes. I think it is safe to say that Mrs. Morty does the same thing at her house. :)

Ned and Morty Jr. were so bored! They were fighting like friends do so Mrs. Morty let them play the X Box. They loved that and we didn't hear much from them for the rest of the time.

As we were leaving all of the kids sat on the front bench for a picture.


The children all started racing to and from the fire hydrant up the street.




Dusty's shorts fell down when he was running. Ned and Little Girl Morty helped him get them back up.

On his way back to me he lost his shorts again and they tripped him. :(
He was okay, a little scratch on his arm, but that was the end of the fun.

It was a good day. A great way to end the summer!

Sundae, my favorite day of the week!

When I was a little girl we were only allowed to have ice cream on Sunday night. I don't know if my parents did it to save money or if it was so we could be healthier. I remember my brothers and sisters and I would have my dad mix our chocolate syrup into our vanilla ice cream... our own version of soft serve. I looked forward to that night all week long.

Fast forward 20 years and I still love Sunday night. I don't have ice cream every Sunday (I eat it whenever I want it, which is less and less the older I get) but I do have this strange need to make something sweet. I was talking to a friend on the phone this evening and she was getting ready to make brownies, so I must not be the only one. What is it about Sundays? I wonder if it is from my childhood of Sunday evening indulgence or if it is because if I have a moment with nothing to keep me busy I just have to bake. I really need to find something better to do with my time, I guess.

Well, if you will excuse me, I need to go and make some peanut butter cookies... ala mode!

The Whole (Long) Story

For those of you that want the short story: A very nice woman ran a red light and hit us. We are all fine.

For those of you that want the whole story (really, just for me so I don't forget): El Guapo met us for dinner at IHOP (kids eat free night!) after work. He had bishopric meeting about 45 minutes later so we decided to run over to switch out our movies at Blockbuster. We took my van (Ford Windstar) and left his car (the "Hooptie") at IHOP.
We were in the right lane going straight through a green light. El Guapo was driving. I saw a white SUV coming pretty fast and braced myself. I saw the car slow down a little bit and thought we were fine, but then it sped up again, I braced myself again and waited for the impact, I knew it would not be too bad, but it was still a bit scary. We checked on the boys and they were all fine but Dusty was silent and staring. We asked him if he was okay, he still just stared and I noticed he was pale. I know what you are thinking. Pale? How can that boy get any more pale? Well, he was, I didn't realize how much color he has in his face until that moment. He is actually quite pink normally. :) He turned out to be fine. He was just scared. He was the only one in the very back seat and, I imagine, saw his short life flash before his eyes.
Luckily a police officer was right behind us and pulled over with us. We (me, El Guapo, the woman that hit us, and the officer) all got out of our cars. The woman that his us, Bethanne, was very apologetic. The police officer asked us if everyone was okay. We said we were and the the officer asked if there was anyone else in the cars. We told him we had our three kids in the car. Bethanne said, "You had BABIES in the car!?!" She was distraught.
I went to check on the boys to be sure that Dusty wasn't in there crying, wanting me to hold him. He was not crying, I think he was still in shock, but he did want me to hold him. I was a little hesitant to let him out of the car because I didn't want to make Bethanne feel worse by seeing the kids. But, I wanted to hold Dusty, so I did. Ned wanted to see the damage so I let him out too.
Just as I thought, it upset Bethanne. She immediately started crying and saying, "Your babies! I am so sorry. You had babies in the car!" Obviously this woman was remorseful, and needed to know that I forgave her. I walked over with Dusty on my hip and hugged Bethanne. I cried too. No one cries alone around me. It's my rule. I reassured her that we were fine. She said, "But you had kids in the car!" She rubbed Dusty's back as we hugged.
Bethanne told us that she was so deep in thought that she had noticed the red light but it just didn't register in her mind. Haven't we all done something like that before?
As the officer did his work we all chatted as if we were watching our kids' soccer game or something. We talked about her three kids and what she is going to do with her time now that all of them will be in school all day this year. She wants to "do something good, like volunteer." Did I mention she was nice? She already volunteers at a local hospital after a softball game she plays each week. She goes to hold crack babies. Yeah, she's really nice! She told me later that she felt that she really needed a hug at that moment when she saw the kids and that she felt like the Lord provided that for her through me.
When everything was done we said our goodbyes and Bethanne started to cry again. I gave her another hug and we all left.
I am so grateful that we were all safe. I am grateful that she took responsibility for her actions and did not drive away. I am grateful that the police officer was right there so we could get things worked out so quickly. I am grateful for the immediate feelings of forgiveness and for a husband that felt the same way. I am grateful to have met a very nice woman with such a love for service. She is a great example.
It is amazing that I walked away from the experience on a high. It's funny how things sometimes work that way.

Wordless Wednesday-Playing Bumper Cars

Technical difficulties

We are back from our fun trip to Utah. I returned home to the phone, internet and cable not working. My internet will let me on for a few minutes now and then, but not long enough to post anything good. Sorry. I hope it will be fixed tomorrow and I can post some of our fun pictures.
I am also sorry for not commenting on your blogs. I plan on visiting and commenting as soon as my internet gets fixed.

Busy, busy, busy!

We are in Utah for a little while. We are having a fun, busy time. I will write more later, but here a few pictures of the highlights so far.

Boys are disgusting!

Happy 4th of July! I hope you have had a fabulous day.

Our ward has an annual breakfast and baseball game on the 4th of July. We went to the church to eat breakfast but we came home before the game (El Guapo had to go to work and I did not want to deal the children by myself while they played in the dirt and complained that they were too hot) but we went back for the BBQ lunch. The only one of us that really enjoyed themselves was Lucky. He loves animals (really any living creature, we have found him with a fly that he happily caught in his hands) so when he saw two doggies there he was in heaven!



Lucky decided to share his chips with one of his new friends.

He took turns feeding the dog a bite of the chip and then taking a bite for himself... of the same chip. Gross!!!

Speaking of disgusting things -- I have been meaning to show you how Dusty eats his spaghetti. It is his favorite food. He shovels the noodles into his mouth. He has actually been very good about using a fork lately, but sometimes he regresses and uses his hands.

Dusty saw me loading this video and said, "Make me dinner, I want misasghetti!"

When we ate spaghetti the other day Lucky thought that Dusty was so silly and started to mimic him. At first he pretended.

And then he really went for it.

Boys can be very silly and disgusting... and I would not trade these moments for anything!