The Past Week

Another week gone. I've had lots on my mind and plenty to blog about but I have been the queen of putting it off and now I can only remember half of what I want to say. I hate that. Just a bit of what's on my mind.

-Perspective. On Friday I'll be attending another funeral. It will be the 4th one, just this summer and 3 of them untimely deaths. Lives not fully lived. It reminds my of how much work I have to do in my life, how much I have to work on myself. About how much I'm not in control of the plan. I'm not even sure how to describe my feelings and I've thought about it a lot this past week. So much sorrow for each of these families. A young grandma (in June), a two week old baby (a couple weeks ago) and a young 39 year old mother (the funeral this Friday). Every one of them cut short from their turn on earth. I do have a testimony that they live and that we will see them again but with hurt that they are feeling right now, I'm sure that's hard to hear. I have a hard time watching people hurt, I want to take it all away, in one quick swish of my hand. I know growth comes from pain so all is not lost but still, funerals are hard. There is always, always something to remind me of my many, many blessings.

-I had a major (not good ) first while I was doing hair yesterday. I was giving someone highlights and adding some lowlights to cover up the old highlights. Her natural hair color is red so the color I had mixed up was really blood red. Anyway, I go to shake the bottle downward and the top flies off!! Color goes all over her face, down the cape, onto her arms, some on her pants and splashes on the floor. For the first few seconds I stood there completely stunned and just stared at the mess of color. I started cleaning fast, mostly trying to get it off her face and avoid all her clothes (mine too). It was a huge, huge mess and I was so embarrassed! Who goes to get their hair done and gets splashed on like that? When Nathan walked around the corner and saw the mess he said, 'Man, it looks like you shot a rooster through the heart and it got all over.' It was so random, a rooster? The floor did look like I was getting ready to cover up some sort of crime, it was awful. I wanted a photo because it was so unbelievable that I made such a mess with just a couple ounces of color. Of course I let the client, not the blog, come first so, no photo. We did joke together about taking one but I didn't have the heart to tell her I wasn't kidding about wanting that photo. Milo said I had pretty good odds since a catastrophe like that was 13 years in the making. Good times cleaning up that mess.

-Dane is now eating more dinner (his least favorite meal) thanks to the Olympics. I heard him telling Nathan that he will be so strong one day. He's going to do the pommel horse and that's was why he was eating his chicken. We haven't watched men's gymnastics for days so I thought it was pretty funny that he's been thinking about it. He asked Nate if he was going to be in the Olympics too and his response was, 'No, I'm going to be a pretty tall guy so I wont be able to do it.' I love to overhear their funny conversations.

-Reed has been fighting a cold or teething, not sure which. He has a runny nose, cough and watery eyes. The poor boy. And because of all this he's been waking up at night again. Oh this hurts. I love to sleep and now that he's been taking it away again, I have been dragging in the afternoon. I want to give in and take a nap. Like everyday. But with all the kids still home I don't get one as often as I'd like. Here's hoping this cold goes away fast, I want my sleep back!

-Speaking of all the kids being home... we are at T minus one week until school starts. It's bittersweet for me. I love having the laid back schedule of them being home for summer but as we get closer to school starting I get antsy for the daily routine and structured schedule (I'm actually more productive with deadlines and commitments). Such an oxymoron. And this is awful but summer would be so much easier if they didn't have to be fed so dang much. I swear we are just over breakfast, onto begging for 3 snacks before lunch. Onto lunch and before nap time is over Nathan (the worst offender) is working it for a snack or something else in the kitchen. And by then it's time to think of dinner. Don't you think that's too much kitchen time? When my mom was here I told her if I didn't have to be in charge of meals my day would go so much smoother. I know when school is in that only takes away the lunch meal but notice it also cuts out at least 10 snack times. I can't wait!

-Last week we had our county fair. It was blazing, really blazing hot the two days we went out there. Kathryn clogged both days or we might have skipped it all together. She had a mild wardrobe malfunction...no tights, leaving her underwear sticking out of her leotard underneath her skirt. Not too bad but enough for us to smile in the back of the crowd. My mom raced back from Kyle and Heidi's for the 5 minute performance and then had serious issues with out humid heat (it's not really humid, just much more so than Vegas.)

The kids have wanted to do this little tractor pull every year. We always miss the sign up time and they always make sure we know how disappointed they are and that they missed out again. I was determined this time around and we made it. It was well over 100^ but both boys insisted on jeans like cowboys and Nate even sported his hat. I drew the line at the bandanna he wanted to wear around his neck, ha!

Dane was one of the youngest kids out there and didn't move his tractor to the end but he worked as hard as he could. It was so cute to see him pushing with all his 35 pounds of might.

Sibling rivalry? Nathan could not stop watching her. He did win the race but missed the finish line by just a foot or so. Maybe if he hadn't been so concerned with her tractor driving.... The kids had so much fun as we just melted in the sun. The Hawaiian Shaved Ice stand was worth every penny we spent there!