Sunday Summary

Yes, the Sunday Summary is back!
1. William spent 2 days going around town trying to find a job. No luck yet. He was slightly disappointed when his first choice (the library) wasn't hiring. Then on to the two bookstores, 3 grocery stores (including, gulp, Walmart), dollar stores, hardware stores, ice cream store, comic book store, garden center, etc. Do you see what is missing from the list? Yes William, next week you will have to start applying at fast food!
2. Temple trip with the youth this morning, including my youth.
3. Lucy joined the Jazz Band at school.
4. They increased tuition at William's school almost $600 for next year. Yippee, just when Rachel decided to go there next year also.
5. Pioneer Woman has changed her site. Sorry, but I don't like it. It doesn't feel like a blog anymore. It's like all big time!
6. I read everyone on my blog roll this week!
7. I taught English lessons. I have been a slacker about this lately.
8. I have completely recovered from our Florida trip.
9. The school board announced next years school calendar and they have finally given us a Fall Break.
10. Okay, here is the big one...I talked to a friend that works at our local bank and asked him if he thought they might hire me. And the scary part is that he said they had been discussing hiring someone. YIKES!!! We will see where this goes...

I survived!

14 years ago, after 13 hours of labour, I gave birth to twins.


And I have lived to tell the story...



Happy Birthday Lucy and Rachel!!!!

Orlando part 2

Now that I am not suffering from motion sickness and sunburn any longer I am going to give you some tips to have fun in ORLANDO. We had lots of fun. The kids had more fun than me, but they like to spin and get wet and have dinosaurs spit on them and drop down 75 foot water falls in a log boat.

Tip#1

Just go to Universal. As in skip Disney. I know, sounds like blasphemy, right? But listen, if you are looking for thrills (and who isn't?) Universal has better thrills, less people, and faster lines.

Tip#2

Don't go around a holiday. Take the kids out of school if need be. Also, if you are at all adverse to the idea of heat, humidity and sunburn(yes, I am lily white and burn very easily) avoid summer.

Tip#3

Only take kids that are old enough to walk and ride for 10 to 12 hours a day. You are paying any where from $60-$100 bucks a day per person for tickets. I would not waste that on a 4 year old. I would not put the rest of the families day in jeopardy by dragging a pre-schooler along.

Tip#4

Drive your car to the park. It may be $11 to park, but it will save you money and be much easier cause in the car I would put:

• complete change of clothes for EVERYBODY
• Cooler stocked with food
• sunscreen
• towels
• did I mention clothes?

Tip#5

Here is what you should carry into the park

NOTHING

Let me explain. You don't have small children with you, right? so no diapers or that sort of garbage is needed. Wear pants with good pockets and in them stick a cell phone, your park pass and some money. And you are done. Free yourselves people! Oh, and don't buy any junk. My kids did a little shopping. They had to carry it. Or the girls put it in their pocket since they bought charms for their charm bracelets. Now in the interest of full disclosure my mother did carry a duffel bag, er, I mean, a purse in with her. And she did offer to carry stuff for the kids. I tried very hard to STOP this, but kids are sneaky around grandparents. And my mother did complain many times about how heavy her purse was.

Tip#6

Wear crocs. They will dry right away and not give you blisters. Do not wear socks if you plan on riding water rides! Actually I would personally suggest never riding water rides because, Yuck, it gets you wet. And the Jaws ride gets you wet if you are in the second row on the far side. Let others load first and you will hopefully not get wet. Our kids did not get wet. Adrian and I did. It was gross.

Tip#7

Use the single rider line on every ride that has one. It moves way faster and half the time you end up on the same car as several of your family members anyway.

Well, that is all I have time for right now. Remember to arrive early, stay all day and have fun.

Doesn't my new Top look Hot?

I need to send kudos to Carrie for my new header. Isn't it wonderful? I know she is probably wondering why I haven't mentioned that she made it for me. SORRY!

She has a header making business called Sweet Faerie Designs and I'm sure she would be glad to make all of you a new fancy header like mine... Go and visit her!

mickey mouse kicked me in the bootie

I planned on blogging each night of our trip to Orlando. I know you are all desperate to hear every detail of the Hale family spring break fun. It took us about 10 1/2 hours to get there. It was 640 miles. The trip was uneventful, unlike this one. Harrison threw up once. Only one person throwing up is uneventful on one of our road trips.

Day 1 was at the Magic Kingdom.


While I didn't actually see you there, you must have been there, right? Every human being on this blessed green planet must have been there!

The masses of humanity were stifling. Overwhelming. Exhausting. Hence my lack of posting. I was SOOO tired by the time I crawled, er, road the (worst) shuttle bus back to the hotel that I wanted to cry. I think maybe I did cry. I know I took Tylenol pm. I would like to tell you how much fun we had. Riding rides and meeting beloved Disney characters. But I can't. See, I get a wee bit of motion sickness so I decided that I was going to ride Space Mountain first thing when we got there and then spend of the rest of the day recovering. Well, I did ride it first thing. When the line was only 20 minutes. I rode it. SO did my husband and all 6 of my children. And my father.


I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE!!!

I'm not kidding. I was never able to force my eyes open during the whole ride. I must have ridden Space Mountain 50 times as a kid growing up and visiting Disneyland. I have become the worlds biggest wimp. I spent the rest of the day quietly congratulating myself that I didn't pee my pants while being SCARED TO DEATH.

My 7 year old couldn't stop grinning as we got off. She thought it was great. She proceeded to ride EVERY ride that she was tall enough to ride at The Magic Kingdom, Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios, and The Animal Kingdom. Yeti? what Yeti? She isn't scared of no stinking Yeti.

But her mother is. I rode the Jungle Boat ride. It felt like we were going to capsize. Yes, I was nervous!

Day 2 Islands of Adventure:

Then the next day I was thrown for a loop on The Cat in The Hat ride. And then my husband dragged me on the Dr. Seuss train thing. It is like 5 stories up. I know it is for little kids. I was mortified. I had to keep my eyes CLOSED the whole time.

And then I made a big mistake. After waiting for the kids to ride every uber scary coaster in the park I am really wanting to sit someplace cool. Cause I am hot. And sunburned. I say "Let's ride Spiderman. It is a virtual reality ride," I think, sit still, close eyes and I don't see anything and can just enjoy the air conditioning.

Has anyone ridden this mortifying, out of control death trap?

First, Spiderman jumps on my head. I scream like the little girl I am. Molly laughs. Like the little girl she is! Then we spin. and spin. And get blow torched. And spin some more. and then I want to throw up. and then it rains on us. and then they throw in some pout of control spiraling. and then I want to throw up and die. Yes, I kept my eyes closed most of the time.

I never recovered from Spiderman. I am not sure I have recovered yet and I rode it Wednesday afternoon.


And then Jaws spit a tidal wave of water on me and I was soaked the rest of the evening. But I will have to tell you about that later.

I do have lots of wonderful things to tell you about the trip. I will be visiting this subject a lot. But you won't see many pics cause I forgot my camera. It wouldn't really have mattered if I had brought it cause I wouldn't have carried it into the parks anyway. But I promise to tell you all more, later.

fun monday

Today's Fun Monday is being hosted by My Husband Calls Me Weird

Her challenge:

1.) I don't know about you, but my family is great at creating strange words that only we know the meaning. Some were created when the kids were first learning to talk, others came about when our tongues were twisted and the word came out funny. Either way, the words stuck and we still use them in our daily conversations. What created words does your family use?! Please share the story behind the word if you remember. If you don't have a made up word then tell us about the unspoken way you communicate with someone. Do you and your significant other have a look that means "This party is boring, lets split" or do you have a look that your kids know means their butt is in serious trouble? Please share!! And a picture of the look would be very entertaining!
OR/AND
2.) In honor of St. Paddy's Day, please share your worst green beer story!

I am going with number one cause we don't drink alcohol. We are pretty exciting on St. Patrick's Day!

Oh, I lived for years in Chicago and the Chicago suburbs. They put dye in the Chicago River and make it green for St. Patrick's Day. I have seen that.

And my brother's name is Patrick.

And I have been in St. Patrick's Cathedral.

But here is our weird word. Rachel got our really funny one. I will probably think of more during our 600+ mile drive to Orlando tomorrow.

Several of my children have had a butter obsession when they were toddlers. When Ella was small we started keeping the butter under the table on the bench and passing it in secret. If she saw it it was suddenly a plate of butter and that was all she wanted. So we would spell it.

"Please pass the B-U-T-T-E-R."

Night after night after night.

So one night I was tired of spelling it out and decided that a shortened version was going to be enough. Everyone knew what you wanted the minute that you said please pass the B. So I said

"Please pass the B-U-T-T-."

Well, it sounded fine to me, but my children thought I was C-R-A-Z-Y!!!!

So now when there is bread or potatoes needing a little embellishment I regularly get asked to pass the butt. teehee hahaha

YA, KID, REALLY FUNNY.

Now check and see the other players

Janet (from the planet of)

Sayre

Ms. Cellania

Mariposa

I.T Guy

Karmyn

BeckieSwampAngel65

KaytabugLisa (the Food Snob)

Min

Alison (RDH Mom)

Hootin' Anni

Sandy

Dungarees Ablaze

Arkansas Songbird

Nekked Lizard Man

FayeAoj & The Lurchers

Courtney

Lisa's Chaos

Heather's Recipes

Ann

Sauntering Soul

Peter

My4Kids

Amanda

Swampy (The Queen.)

Jettied

Irish Coffeehouse

Tiggerlane

Karisma

Gattina
WE

Where art thou, Cynthia?

Have I fallen off the face of the earth?

Am I stuck in an elevator? (Oh my heck, I shudder even typing that idea!)

Am I protesting Blog 365? Err... How about Blog 265?

No. It all started when I was having some problems getting my pics to load onto blogger. Then I discovered something that I hadn't noticed in a while.


MY HOUSE



MY BASEBOARDS



MY LAUNDRY



MY CEILING FANS



THE BATHROOM GROUT



I discovered that even thou my children are big and basically self sufficient, my 46 year old house is still in the toddler stage. It is quite shocking, I know! So I have had to clean up all of my houses toddler messes.

dust
dirt
grime
urine splatters on bathroom wall(?)
general untidiness

And guess what? I have less of a desire to find a new house. This one is pretty nice. When I clean it. And guess what else? I found time to completely clean out the pantry, move the old microwave cart/unused craft junk out and buy, put together(by myself), and then fill up new shelves. I moved all the board games out of the top of Lucy's closet and into plain sight. So now we can easily play them. I also rearranged the living room furniture. And SCRUBBED the bathroom edges. You know where I mean? It is all shiny white again. Like when it was new. I don't think it has been shiny white since it was installed. I really need to do this more than once every 3 years!

So in conclusion I just want to let you know that I have missed you all, but I am so freakin' happy in my clean house that I plan on cleaning more. and more. and more.


Please send help...

I am cheating. This is a picture of the apron that I received from Meegan at 3Birds. This is the picture that she took. I nabbed it from her blog because I do not have any pics of it yet on my computer and I am worried that I will not get one posted if I don't do it right now. I wanted everyone to see this and let Meegan know how much I love it. She also sent 2 hand knit dish cloths and a very cute little bag filled with the greatest buttons. I am so inspired for the next swap to be a more awesome crafting partner.

Ella keeps trying to steal this because she loves blue things even more than I do!

Thanks Meegan!

Apron swap

Here is Molly modeling the apron that I made. And while I was taking the picture Harrison got into the action. Somehow he poked Molly in the eye by mistake.
A closeup of the pocket detailing. I love this fabric. I think blue is a great color. I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Random...

Two quick things before I go to bed tonight.


1) I got a box in the mail today. My totally awesome sassy apron swap partner, Megan sent me a way cool apron plu other cool stuff. Pics coming later.

2) I got Bandit fixed last Thursday. He still acts like a crazed male dog. He is staying out all night. Will this ever go away? I know he is harmless now, but he is still whining and driving us crazy!

Cool Gift

This Christmas our kids received a very cool gift from my brother's family. Each of the kids were given a Tis Best gift card. The Tis Best gift card is actually an eco friendly print out. Here is a picture of all of the printouts.When you receive a card you simply go to the website and pick a charitable organization to donate to. Here are Rachel and Molly looking at the 100's of choices that they offer. Do you feel passionately about pandas? Trees? Sick kids? If there is a reason to donate money, Tis Best has that group covered.
Are you wondering where the Hale kids sent their donation? As you can see here Molly likes animals. Cats to be specific. She looked and looked under the animal category. There were no cat specific charities but then she found this one that really caught her fancy:

Canine Companions for Independence® is a national nonprofit organization
that enhances the lives of children and adults with disabilities by
providing highly-trained assistance dogs and
ongoing support to ensure quality partnerships.

The rest of the kids sent donations to the following groups:

The Alzheimer’s Association

Save The Children

Autism Research

Make A Wish Foundation

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

We thought this was a great present. It was fun to spend the afternoon checking out these charities and trying to decide which one was closest to their hearts.

Thank you Uncle Pat, Aunt Jen, and Trevor