Spring has come and brought some chaos with it.

It’s been awhile since I have gotten a chance to write. I feel like I barely have time to breathe- things have been so chaotic lately - for the last month at least. First I was madly trying to get ready to go on our vacation to Disneyland. I came home from disneyland to a mile long- to do list. Somehow during that week we were gone spring came and all the work that comes with it. All of a sudden the garden needed tilled, fertilize, and planted, the flower beds needed weeding (and a lot of it), the annuals needed planting, and the jungle in our yard we used to call grass needed to be mowed.

Since I went to all the trouble to plant a garden, grass and flowers- watering was also on the list so the plants would have a chance at growing. I anticipated this need when putting the yard in and insisted on installing a sprinkler system. It has worked pretty well for the last 6 years but for some reason this year not so good. The timer had blown a fuse, a solenoid (or something like that) was broken, this took blowing 5 fuses to figure out. My little drip system that was supposed to water my flower beds was gushing instead of dripping and the water was spurting up about 50 ft into the sky instead of gently dripping onto the roots. So that needed a major overhaul. It didn’t’ get it, I lack the time, skill and patience for such a job. But I did plug up al the drip holes and installed a head to the end of the line that hits one bed. That worked pretty well, all the flowers in the bed are getting watered - it only took three tries to get it in right, the first two times I put it in backwards and watered the street. It takes real skill to install it backwards not once but twice. Luckily the third time I got it right and didn’t have to dig up the pipe and start over. I changed a few things around in the garden and the other flower bed too, now I just have to cross my fingers and hope things grow.

School was also in spring mode and all the teachers decided to throw one more project in there for the parents to do while their kids cheered them on. At least that is how it works at our house. We also had end of the year programs, track meets, and field trips to take care of. Throw in 10 dentists appointments, 2 orthodontics appointments and 2 Dr. appointments and 6 soccer games and a birthday party the schedule starts getting full. All of this also had to be done to the tune of the Mexican Clapping Song, Hedwigs Theme, Supercalifagious, Piano Reviellie, Slavic dance and Matador. All of which needed to be practiced (or pounded as we like to refer to it) over and over again because the Spring recital was also last week and the boys were a little behind in their preparation.

I was trying hard to get these things taken care of during the week and a half I was home before taking off to Ohio and Michigan, but I’ve had to finish them up the last two days. I also had to try and squeeze in the extra 12 loads of laundry I brought home from California. Usually this wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but since my dryer takes at least two if not three cycles to dry it seemed to take an awfully long time to find my floor in the laundry room.

So there you go, my excuse for not writing, I have been a bit busy. It is just one of those things - it seems like when it rains it pours. Today was a prime example. I woke up to a house that could easily be confused with a disaster zone. I had a sink full of dishes which I thought would be good place to start, getting to it was a chore because the thick film of spilled lemonade and soggy cereal all over the floor caused my feet to stick with each step. I finally got those taken care of admit the dozen or so phone calls I receded.

First the school called to tell me my kids needed to pay for lunch. They said I owed 7.25. I am not sure how this could be since I paid $18 three days ago. Math has never been my best subject but according to my calculator 9 lunches at 1.75 was only 15.75, which is less than the $18 I paid. It became even more confusing when I learned Dallin had gotten free lunch the last few days for being a lunch worker. The lady kindly offered to go through her records with me and compare notes to see where the money had gone. She asked me if the kids where sneaking school lunch- and throwing their home lunch away. Well I know Anna doesn’t throw hers away since she brings it home largely untouched everyday, but as for the other two I guess anything is possible. I had to just remind her that since I didn’t go to school with them I couldn’t be sure but since my kids don’t like to eat much of anything and would rather skip lunch to get more recess time I wouldn’t guess this was the case. Except maybe on the days they were serving Granny B cookies - then I wouldn’t put it past them, those cookies are so good. Anyway I promised to send a check to school and got back to the dishes, just in time for my next phone call reminding me that my den had the program for pack night tonight and I had forgotten to bring over the list of awards my den had earned. I hate coming up with a pack night program.

Well I took my kids to play group at 10:00 since I have been feeling very guilty for abandoning them the last few days, or weeks. I have felt so busy I haven’t taken them to the park or even sat down to play a game of Mario cart with Ryan even though he has begged me too since the day he got it 3 weeks ago. So we went to playgroup and then hit the grocery store and the bank on the way home. Arrived home in enough time to put the refrigerated groceries away and grab the sandwiches I had made earlier this morning for the kids to eat in the car. We picked up Dallin from school and drove to Provo where I dropped them off at Aunt Tess’s house. She watched Dallin and Ryan for an hour then dropped them off at the dentist. Meanwhile I raced back to the school to watch Taylor’s dance program. Which was great (more about that later) and then grabbed Taylor and Anna out of the crowd and whisked them to the car to take them to the dentist. I had to call the school on my way to let them know I had taken the kids so they wouldn’t get worried when the didn’t show up back in class. The receptionist was probably annoyed at me but oh well - my dentist has a missed appointment fee I didn’t feel like paying for being later than I already was.

So we made it to the dentist, just as Dallin and Ryan were finishing- Taylor went in and got a tooth pulled while I went in the billing office to make the dentist next mortgage payment. While driving home I was feeling good about making it there on time and getting that all taken care of when it occurred to me that it was 3:10 and Taylor was supposed to be at piano lessons at 3:00. I tried calling the teacher but the phone number I had was disconnected. At first I thought I just dialed wrong - it is kind of hard for me to look up the number and dial it while driving. But it really was disconnected. I had Rick call her for me and got home in time for Dallin’s lesson.

I had just enough time to put the groceries away, mop the floor, make dinner (which was ordering pizza from Dominoes - I am really into this online ordering thing where you can schedule it to be ready anytime y ou want) and clean the bathrooms before taking the kids to track practice. I was cutting it a bit close but figured I had enough time to get the girls out of the bath tub and get them dressed before picking up our neighbor we car pool with to track. It would have been fine except that the girls had drained all the water from the tub and were sitting in there naked rubbing Vaseline all over each others bodies. Vaseline doesn’t come off that well. So they got to get in the car all slick and shinny. I used the 10 minuted drive to the track to come up with a game for the pack night program
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I had promised myself I would get the numbers and patches sewed onto the scout shirts before pack night this month. Taylor has 3 months left in scouts so I decided it was about time. Well I started in on sewing them and realized just how inept I am at such things when I noticed I was sewing the sleeve together. It is pretty much a lost cause, my sewing stinks and when we got to the church I noticed the patches I had gotten on the shirt were in the wrong place. I think I might try stapling them on next month.

Anyway I have finally finished my day and don’t have a whole lot planned for tomorrow. I think I just might take it easy tomorrow, I have been looking forward to having enough time to eat lunch and get a drink. I have been to busy to drink much lately for fear that I will have to go to the bathroom - I was afraid I just wouldn’t have time to do that. Maybe tomorrow.