What about a nature hike?

 Our cub scouts went on a guided hike through Minto Brown.  I saw parts of it I'd never seen.

 Roland wasn't there, he was at Track practice, and so was Molly.

Here we are walking over a pond on a fallen log.

What's the down side?

So we're pretty much having the summer I dreamed of for years...i.e., one with the money for gas, and some modest summer activities.  I've been driving to swim lessons, Molly's in a summer theater camp this week, and Roland and Lillian started football last night (track wraps up this week).

The downside is that I am exhausted!  Summer days are SOOOO long.  Last night, when we all got home from football (some of us went to the library since it was so wet at the park) we ate dinner.  Then the kids turned on the movie while I was bathing Anthony.  I made my feelings clear that I did not want everyone to stay up.  But Jack was cuddling his dad (whom he has been ignoring lately), and I was overruled.  So I said 'fine' and went to take a bath.  But Jack heard the bath running, ran upstairs and commandeered the bath.  He ran out almost all the hot water, I took a lukewarm bath after Wesley put him to bed, and then we stayed up late (to me now) to chat, since we still hadn't had much of a chance.

Jack dumped the contents of a bottle of soy sauce into the formula container yesterday.  It'd be a lot more fun to just burn the money.

Some people who live at my house are pretty cute!

What does Jack really mean?

Jack is sick today.  One of my chief complaints about most of my kids is how sick they get.  And by that I mean 'not enough'.  Now I don't want hospitalized children.  I don't have that mental illness...but my kids (except Molly) never ever slow down when they are sick (unless they have strep or the stomach flu)(both are rare fortunately).  Adults would love to take it easy when they have a bad cold, but here, the kids just get much crankier, much less able to deal with life when it doesn't go your way (and it usually doesn't), and much snottier (both meanings).

Today, an auto insurance agent called.  I wanted to talk to him, he had a great quote for me, and I needed to give him some information.  Jack is on a campaign against the fish.  I hauled him away twice from the tank, then went back to searching for the relevant documents.   Finally, I noticed he was at them again, this time with a ladle, trying to catch them.  I pulled him away again, and he hollered.

Here is the transcript of what we were thinking:

Me:  Jack, will your villany never stop?  I wish you would stop it with the pets.  First you hunt our poor elderly cat all morning, now you are at the fish again.  I can't believe you didn't kill them yesterday when you threw all the junk drawer contents including batteries into their tank.  If you loved me, you would stop the mischief for just 2 minutes!

Jack:  Mom, why do you hate me so much?  I feel terrible!

Me:  How is your cold relevant to the jeopardy you are placing the fish in?

Jack:  I feel so horrible, and the only thing that can POSSIBLY distract me is to try to ladle the fish out of the tank.  I hate you!  Life sucks!  I'm too tired to go to bed, don't put me to bed, oh no!  BED!!!!!!! HELP!!!!!

Jack:  Sleep thoughts.

The end.

What happened with the camera now?

Well, my little digital point and shoot has finally quit for good (I can hardly blame it, the working conditions were execrable!).  It's funny how something like that can really make me stop blogging.

But blog, I have missed you.  I keep composing blog posts in my head.  They don't do much good there.  The person I most communicate with in this format is future me.  Future me is sad present me isn't doing the memory keeping future me enjoys so much.

Here are some pictures of the Country Kids' Relays (or Jaycee relays as I remember them).  The kids try out at school, the 4 fastest boys in each grade (at the 100m) are on the boys team, the next 2 are on the coed team, and that was our Roland!  He'd never qualified before, but all the work in Cross Country and Track paid off.  They've been running it for 39 years here in Salem.  I have never once needed to go before, but now I have!  They invite all the elementary schools in the area, and each grade has 3 teams (boys girls coed),  so it is quite a long event.  Luckily you can show up around when you're supposed to, and they'll only be running an hour or so behind.  Wesley, Molly, Grandpa Wes and I went down to the stadium while Grandma Ev watched the little kids (who I will be forever grateful were at home).  We watched pretty much all of the 3rd grade races while we waited for Roland's turn.

Before each grade, there is a parade of schools.  The runners, and coaches march.

The kids get their own special jerseys as school representatives.  Roland got an awesome start (he led off), the girls and Carter, his other teammate did great, and they took 2nd.  (In their heat, they just award out of heats).  They took 5th out of all 40 or so schools.  We were so excited and proud.  I yelled so loudly that I got a headache and almost fainted.  I'll need to work at moderating my sports excitement.

Roland was really proud and wanted to relive it for days.

Did he get it?

My cousin Jenne kindly reminded me that people read this!

We've had a busy and exciting May, which I no doubt will catch up a bit on.  But....

Wesley got the job.  He is starting as the director of the Monmouth/Independence Branch of the YMCA on Wednesday!

Much rejoicing throughout the land!

Did you go to Great Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend?

We did, had a wonderful time, and I'll post more about it soon!

Would it hurt to try?

I enjoy many sewing and crafting blogs.  Naptime Crafter's has a giveaway for a cruise voucher!  I had to blog about it for an extra entry!