Random Bits of Life....

Today is the last day of school!!! The best part is that the boys will have their same teachers next year. They have K/1 and 2/3 classes so they will just be the older kids in the class next year. I LOVE their current teachers. Each one is perfectly suited to their personalities. What a blessing!

I think the girls got the memo too. It certainly feels like summer. The temperatures are warming up daily, grass and trees are green, the days are long and sunny and I think we are all ready for a break from homework. Swim team started on Tuesday night. It's been warm enough to swim, but the water nearly froze me to death when I spent a half an hour swimming with the boys on Memorial Day. I swear the water wasn't warmer than 62 degrees. The only way I could stay in was because I was numb after just 60 seconds after diving in. Here's hoping to some warmer nights or that they purchase a pool heater! They will begin their Monday- Friday morning practices on Monday. Their meets will be every Wednesday evenings through June and half of July.
So I ran to our neighborhood Wal-mart to buy swim diapers for the weekend this morning and grabbed a watermelon and headed to the check out. The watermelons were priced at $4.99 there while I knew they were selling for only $3.50 at the Super Wal-mart down the street. When I asked the checker if they would honor the lower price, she said nope. They can't compete against themselves. Huh? I was really surprised when they said no since it was their low price to begin with. Strange.

I have the Scripps National Spelling Bee on as I type. (The girls were up to their old tricks as I listened and typed. And no, I don't think chicken bullion cubes are tasty Kaitlyn.) Anyway, these semi final rounds are on ESPN. Man those kids are AMAZING! I have no natural spelling abilities. Seriously. I'm horrible. Thank heavens for spell check and even then I still get things wrong. How in the world can these kids spell these insane words. I haven't heard of any the ones they have asked the kids. There were children as young as 8 competing. Oh my! The kids seem so composed and collected, but they show shots of their parents who often look as if they are either going to throw up or pass out. The commentators talk about possible issues with the word in hushed tones reminding me of watching a golf tournament. They even have Erin Andrews there interviewing the kids. Too funny. They showed one boy even totes around 30,000 words to read and study where ever he goes. Now that's dedication! There is even an LDS girl competing from Fresno. She's still in here during round 6. She said she's read the dictionary SIX times!

(Josh's How to Be A Pirate Entry)

This morning as I went through the boys back packs and all the random things they brought home I found Josh and Matt's daily journals. Those were serious good reads! I loved each page. It is always fun to read things from their perspective. Though after reading their 'inventive spelling' I'm not sure a trip to Washington DC to spell competitively is in the future.

(Matt's last journal entry)

Matt finally lost his other front tooth last week. That thing hung on forever! The poor thing had a hard time biting into anything since it was so wiggly. Sadly the Tooth Fairy didn't arrive on the first night, or even the second, so she left him not one dollar but two when she finally made it on night number three. What a patience guy!The other night when Rich was on call. (He's been on call every other night for a week or more now- painful for him and me!) I had gotten the boys to bed, but decided to let the girls play upstairs while I straighted up the kitchen. I didn't realize that I had stuck my wallet in the swim bag and left it on my floor. Oops!I came upstairs to find they had emptied out their PJ and blanket drawers and there were 'stickers' as the girls called them covering various bags, on the wall, on their shirts and carpet. These so call stickers were really stamps. Oh no! They had stuck an entire sheet all over the place. As I gathered my 42 cent a piece stickers, they began modeling MOST of my shoes and all the clothes they could grab. Such funny girls!There was some good news though. After I tucked them in bed, I discovered Matt had left three of his stuffed animals on my bed for me to sleep with since I was alone that night. What a cutie!

I am having a sort of freak out moment today when I realized the girls have learned how to open the fridge and freezer. This is bad. Very bad. So far I've wiped up spilled pizza sauce Brynn bit open on the carpet, mopped up yogurt courtesy of both of them, picked up carrots the girls tossed on the ground and just wrestled a bag of Popsicles out of their hands. I think I need to go buy a bungee cord soon. Or a huge padlock.

I turned on the morning TV yesterday and realized that Kathie Lee Gifford is working on the Today show at the same time they air Regis and Kelly here. Funny to see them competing against each other now. That's business for you. Also, Pat Sajak was a co host with Kelly. I've seen him before and I think he's great. He could really do a talk show instead of a game show and do really well. He's smart, funny and fun to listen to. I never imagined him to be that way before I saw him fill in for Regis. One more thing- I had to laugh when I saw him because there is a dad that walks with his kids from school each day and he looks just like Pat. Seriously they could be brothers.

One last crazy story. So the kids and I were driving home from cub scouts on Wednesday night and stopped at a gas station for some drinks to go along with our Little Caesars pizza which we were taking to the hospital for Rich to eat with us. There next to the gas pumps was a car that was seriously smoking. Seconds later two fire trucks pulled up and followed by a number of police cars. I didn't know what was going on other than it looked like the car had been on fire. Not a good thing at at gas station. When I went in to buy our drinks the fire alarm was going and they had to shut off all the pumps. (Great idea BTW). It was then that I found out the cause. This lady was trying to jump her car and switched the jumper cables putting the red on the black and the black on the red. Mega mistake, though I had no idea it would cause an explosion in your car. Poor lady. I think that qualifies as a very, very bad day!

Happy Summer!