The REAL back to school shopping

Well we all get new books, pencils, and back packs when we go back to school, but my girls know that they aren't truly ready to go back to school without a new haircut and a manicure. We went on Wednesday and got our nails done followed by a trim for Lily. Now everyone's ready for a great new school year. Let's hope the do as well in their classes as they did w/ their hair and nails!!! (If you open the picture of all 3 girls you can even check out Charlie's high lights-a first for her)

A Great Weekend

One of the great things about Shawn's mom moving closer to us is that we can see them for long weekend. Grandma and Grandpa Camp came up this past weekend to see us and we had a great time. Lily started the weekend off with some great art work- feel free to click on the picture of her and check out our sheets AND her face. (Those would be our 600 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets...) and we finished the weekend with Grandma's homemade lemon meringue pie. It was so tasty. In between, I loved showing off my new classroom, checking out patterns for the girls (I can just imagine the Christmas dresses now and learning how to hem pants. (I had hoped Mom would just do it for me, but she thought I should really know how) Anyway, it is so nice to have them close enough for weekend visits. Welcome to the Midwest!!!!

15 Things you don't know about me

We all have stuff that makes us quirky so I decided to make my own tag game and list 15 things you might not know about me- and if you're reading it now than consider yourself tagged- you can either life a reply w/ 15 things people might not know about you here or else let me know that you've listed it on your blog.
Here Goes:
1) I have lived on the East Coast, West Coast, and Hawaii
2)I played the flute in elementary school
3) I played a promiscuous girl who gets pregnant my senior year in High School (The play was tittled "The Devil Inside"
4) I SANG in 2 musicals- and got a part in a 3rd- which I didn't do. (No I never could sing, it was required- the musicals were in 1st, and 6th grades, and I was looking for a speaking roll only in the 7th grade musical- and backed out when they asked me to sing)
5) I'm pretty good at softball (this still amazes Shawn every time I catch anything)
6) I don't remember my 1st "REAL" kiss
7)My name was supposed to be David- but when I turned out to be a girl, my parents named me after a girl on the tv show Laugh-In because they were out of time.
8) I have been to Italy and Canada, but I have never been to Mexico
9) I never would have dated Shawn had I known he was 2 years younger than me, I was hooked by the time I asked his age.
10) My initials are MMM, and my brothers initials are CSM and SCM. If you put them together to make a square and each of our initials appear twice. And no, my parents didn't plan it that way.
11)As a child I has cats, dogs, fish, a hamster,a chameleon, and a rabbit for pets. The most I had at 1 time was 2 cats and a dog
12)As a teenager, I snuck out of my house twice (sorry mom) Both times I was so scared that I snuck back in w/i a half an hour
13) in 6th grade, I decided that 13 was my lucky number b/c I was born on the 13th, road bus 13, was in classroom 13 and my address was 130 (so almost 13) and I would turn 13 the next year.
14)I planned to be a writer when I grew up- as well as a teacher
15) I always planned to live on the East Coast- and taught my children to say soda, sneakers, and lollipop so that they're ready when we move there...........some day?

The Days are Just Packed

Not only are we busy trying to get all the girls ready for school, but we're busy trying to set up my classroom as well. We've spent many hours at preschool already this last week, with more coming this week and next week in between conferences, swim practices, paino lessons, etc. It's a daunting task but one I'm enjoying.

Locks for Love

Emily by nature is a humble girl. She is, however, aware that she has beautiful hair. She decided a few weeks ago to donate her hair to Locks for Love, an organization that uses donated human hair to make wigs for cancer patients. Emily shared how happy it made her do know that someone would be able to have hair because she cut hers off. Then, as almost an after thought added, "And you know mom, they're REALLY lucky to get my hair, because it's so beautiful."
At least she's kind, if a bit vain. She say her goal is to grow it out again so that she can donate again. I just love how cute she looks- and knowing that the hair brushing struggles will be far easier

Still the Princess

Lily attended princess dance camp and had a great time. She danced for almost 90 minutes. Towards the end, she was tired and did NOT want to sit for any more pictures. That makes the last picture my favorite. Such a pretty princess with an evil step sister scowl!

The Last One Standing.....

Well it's been an interesting weekend. It started off with a bang-or rather an unpleasant smell. When the alarm went off at 6 Friday morning there was an unpleasant smell in our room. Lily had gotten sick in the night and then crawled into our bed.This was not such a big deal as both her sheets and ours needed to be washed anyway. Lily was her perky self all day so we didn't worry.
Then, Saturday night, Shawn got a call. Would we be willing to meet w/ a stake councilman before church on Sunday? He of course said sure- and wiyhin about 10 minutes Lily threw up. I cleaned her up and she was again her perky little self. She even had a snack and went sweetly off to sleep. The rest of the night was uneventful until 3:00 a.m. when Emily woke me up to let me know that she had thrown up. I cleaned up what needed to be cleaned up, gave her a bucket and sent her back to bed. She was sick again around 4 and then she was achy and tired and needed tlc. When I really got up around 7:00, I herded Charlie into the shower. We decided that just Charlie and I would go to church since I had to teach and that Shawn would go to his meeting and then come home to watch the sick ones.. Church was uneventful, but upon returning, Shawn was very sick. About 30 minutes ago, Charlie was VERY sick- her reply AFTER being very ill? "Gee Mom, I must have what Lily had because I feel great!!!!! (I still gave her a bucket and sent her to lay down). Now, I am the only one to escape illness so far, and, when you add in that even the cat threw up today, I have cleaned up some pretty nasty messes that Shawn has slept through... or pretended to sleep through
I am doing tons of laundry, taking care of Lily who is again her chipper little self and playing maid, nurse, and servant to my sickies........Hopefully I'll continue to stand.

Off to the fair

We spent several days at he fair this year. Charlie went with a girlfriend and then we went as a family and also with some girl friends. We all had a great time. Lily joined her sisters and Shawn in the traditional ferris wheel ride and they all had a great time riding the rides, playing the games, seeing the animals, cheering friends on in the twlent show, and, Shawn's favorite- sampling the fair foods. Take a look at all of our adventures by clicking on the slide show- there's even one of me- sort of!!!!

The Princess

Lily has had a great summer. She has loved dance class and swimming lessons, her birthday and the 4th of July. In the end though, it's been all about her bei ng a princess. From wearinf her princess dresses to sleeping in her princess bed, she's knows what she is. And if you weren't aware of her princess status, than you should be because she is going to princess dance camp this week.

Relay for Life/ Breaking Dawn/Charlie

I know that we need to allow children to make their own mistakes and learn from them, but I am obviously having trouble learning from my own!!!! I went to Walmart about 11:30 Friday night to get the final book in the Twilight Saga. Excited to read, I stayed up until 3:30. Then, I got up at 6:30 so that Charlie and I could be ready for her to go horseback riding with a friend. We got home at about 9:30 and shawn let me nap from about 10:30-2:00- when I started getting ready for the Relay for Life. We had team pictures, opening exercises and several other things to do before I went home and got ready for walking and put the kids to bed. (Exhausted from our trip to the Mall of America the day before, everyone but Emily and I fell asleep infront of a movie) I walked about 2.7 miles from 11-midnight and spent about 25 minutes in jail (my team mates kept paying for me to go- they thought it was funny.....) and went home to shower (it was very sticky out) and try to sleep. Of course I really had trouble sleeping and was REALLY tired when Vanessa showed up about 4:45 so we could walk again. We finished at 7:00 a.m. ( and walked 8.8 miles in 2 hours!!!!) and found out that we raised $79,000. Not bad for our little town!!!

Still, I fell alseep at church, napped ALL afternoon, and did a total of almost 13 miles (I would have hit 1/2 a marathon if I hadn't gone to jail.)...... Kudos to everyone who came- Renee for being our chair, Vanessa for walking a 1/2 marathon with a baby in tow- , David for walking a whole marathon, Sue for walking and relighting the luminaries all night long, the Asays for walking with 4 kids and the Flatts for walking and being so cheerful. Also a big nasty tththththhttppppp to the Asays, Andersons, and Flatts for throwing me in jail twice. You're all going down next year!!!!

Day at the Mall of America-and then some

While I am very proud of myself for learning how to create a blog and add the pictures, I'm embarrassed to admit that I forgot that each new picture added goes in front of the last. So, of course the pictures are all in backwards. Sorry!!! Anyway, we went to the Mall of America today because Charlie and Emily were being honored at the Gathering of Champions as Academic All Stars. sounds really special until you realize that for some reason, this year instead of just choosing 1 or 2 kids from each class, their school went crazy and chose tons- Still it's fun for the girls- especially Emily who has been dragged there every year for Charlie. (You have to be in 2nd grade to be an All Star, so this is the 1st year Emily could go). Anyway, after the girls received there awards, we took them to the Rain Forest Cafe where they really enjoyed themselves- After a great lunch (they have fabulous lettuce wraps) we did some back to school shopping for Charlie and played 18 holes of mini golf (we have coupons if you're heading that way....). Sadly, we could not get everything we need at the MOA, so we then headed for the outlets on the way home. We wore out all 3 girls and they napped until we hit the outlets. We were luckier at the outlets but still need some stuff for the girls for fall. They do, however have the ever important big black boots they needed. Watch for the post on Rockband to find out why......... Have a great weekend and enjoy the pictures.