a blended life

Beginning of the school year? Bring it on.  Hannah started kindergarten this week. It feels like two steps backward from where she was. She used to go to preschool 4 hours a day. Now kindergarten is 2.5 hours. And a very useless 2 hours. She came home from her first day and said, "All we did was sit on the rug. BORING." I have a looming suspicion that school and Hannah will always have a love/hate relationship. I think we're in for a long road, folks.  Hannah can read quite a bit, do simple math, put on an entire family home evening, do her own hair, sell eggs to the neighbor's without help, bark orders at the household on any given topic, and is allergic to bees. Her favorite show right now is Baby Story. She would watch it for hours if I let her. When the baby comes out, she gets emotional and says, "Isn't it so cute, Mom? I was cuter though." She was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up at kindergarten. Her answer: a delivery nurse. S...

A few weeks ago we had a family Lagoon day--and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it :).  These pics were taken by my sister and dad since my camera was still MIA. Did I mention it was in the car the whole time? Typical. If you don't know what Lagoon is, it's an overpriced amusement park with mildly entertaining rides and an absolutely disgusting water park. Actually we had a fun day and my attitude wasn't nearly as bad as I'm making it sound. The pictures kind of speak for themselves so I won't laboriously travelogue each one. We went on August 7th. Yes, I am slow this month.  This ride made me super nauseated. Plus also I lost my sunglasses on it--even though they were in my pocket.  Here's someone else's picture of the ride. I *might* have closed my eyes for some of it.  One of my cute nieces and a piece of ham: The last time you'll see these sunglasses: I love Leah's look here...

I promise I haven't forgotten to blog. I've had some fun trips. Some of them are undocumented (a church youth group trip to Camp Williams--and I don't have proof that I actually did a free fall rappel. True story). Some of them are heavily documented by my sister. I've been missing my camera for two months. I just found it tightly wound around a screw under the front seat of the car. At least it wasn't stolen, but I did miss out on some great shots. I've been extremely exhausted. Lagoon, Seven Peaks, nieces and more nieces, long car rides involving vomit, sleepless nights, elevation changes, migraines, church lessons, teenagers, and school projects to finish the summer semester. This makes me tired just writing it! School starts for Leah on Tuesday. She is a nervous wreck. She hasn't made a new friend since kindergarten and the two friends that she claims don't get along with each other. We need help. Hannah and I start school next week. It's...

You know how people go on fantastic vacations and post pictures that make you drool and you feel like your life is boring? This past week was my turn to have that fantastic vacation. Granted, it only lasted one night. But my life is beyond boring and I'll take what I can get.  I went to southern California with a friend...who is dating a family member...and I will probably get in trouble if I go into any more details.  Here is a picture of Laguna Beach, a place as beautiful and exciting as everyone makes it out to be. We ate some delicious Italian (gnocchi) and splashed around in the waves while the sun was setting. Then we walked around the little tchotchke shops and ate ice cream and listened to live music on the street corners. This is so dreamy I can't believe I actually did it.  Here's what Laguna Beach looks like: Here are my excellent photography skills: Two teenage boys, one playing mandolin and one playing bass. I don't know if I ca...