Until the St. George Marathon, which is why I was up before the sun on Saturday to complete my final LONG run in my training regime.
Me, thinking to myself about how afraid of the dark I am...
The trail head, you can't even see it, it's so dark. 
22 Miles later a brilliant sky
And me again, feeling triumphant. Conquered fear of dark, and fear of running 22 miles!
So Wilco is Darin's favorite band right now. (He can edit this if I'm wrong about that). Anyway, when he saw that they were going to be in Denver in September, he bought us tickets immediately. I've been teasing him about his need to go to rock concerts at this point in his life ever since, but he promised it would be a good time. And I will admit, it was fun. Thanks for making me feel 19 all over again. Except for the time that I turned to him in the middle of a song and yelled in his ear, "Did you leave the pull-ups somewhere where Jordan (the babysitter) will be able to find them". And he replied in the affirmative. We wouldn't have yelled that to each other at a rock concert 10 years ago! 
Sarah and Scott were there too. Scott was on a frisbee golf tour with the end destination being the concert, and Sarah even flew out "sans" kids to kick up her heels at the concert too. Kind of funny if you ask me, but it was fun.
Seeing Darin in an apron working side-by-side with his sons is a highlight for me each week. For that reason alone I will carry on the tradition!
Who knew you could actually make Orange chicken. It passed the kids test which was to see if it would taste just like the restaurant. It actually did. I have to admit even I was impressed with a recipe that works just right.
Having country appropriate dresses for our Chinese week was a definate bonus in my opinion. Thanks to aunt Rachel who was in China this spring Jane and Ruby were sporting adorable outfits!
"Me and my sister. She's all potty trained, let's get a picture of that."
"The chocolate chip. It is delicious and I find it beautiful as well. I hope I captured both emotions."
THESE BEAUTIFUL PINK SHOES...
You just might have thrown a tantrum yourself!! 
And I have to admit a certain level of pride in my daughters. At least in this instance they were girls who knew exactly what they wanted. And that kind of determination just might be a trait that I am actually kind of proud of.
Oh happy day we wore pink shoes all afternoon long...and took them to bed with us when we went to sleep.
Here are our boys going off on their first day of school. Too bad it's taken me two weeks to get these pictures posted, but you know how it goes. Aren't they adorable? All grown up and in the 2nd grade and kindergarten. We couldn't be more proud of them. They are loving it, as is their mother!! Happy Back to school to the rest of you...
George waiting to go inside. The kindergarteners got to be the last ones to go inside as their parents usually need a little bit more time to say good-bye. The kids all seemed fine, but I saw more that two moms wiping away tears as the kids all got up to go inside. It was hard for me to be sad when George was so excited. He could barely sleep the night before he was so ready to go! We love this guy.It's been a rough one so far, and we've only made it to Wednesday. Here are a few of the highlights. Starting with today:
I picked George up from school and explained to him that today would be our big day to become members of the library again. We had banned all library uses from the Earnest household until we learned how to do it better. It's not supposed to be like Blockbuster where you pay to rent stuff. It's supposed to be free, but it was costing us a pretty penny to be members of the library, so we quit. But I realized we should join again. So we went. Lost library books and lots of money in hand to get our name back on the good list. It's nearly noon and I have three kids with me. Maybe it was a bad plan to begin with, but I'm never one to realize such things ahead of time. I should have had a feeling though as this was the conversation George and I had on our way into the library:
"Mom, what would you do if I ran away?"
"I would call the police."
"No, I mean, what if I didn't want you to find me."
"I would call the police and I would make them find you."
"But what if I had left to go and find a better world. What would you do to me when you found me?"
"I would tell you I was sad that you didn't like us enough to stay with us."
"But mom, it's just that I had to run away to find a better world."
(I think he wishes this week were over too.)
Well, that was the end of the conversation since we got to the front door of the library, but it was a weird conversation that left me feeling sad. So then, within my first three minutes of negotiations at the front desk, one of my girls is crying so loud in the other room that the entire library turns to see who that child's mother is. I will spare you the gruesome details (she had fallen off of something she already wasn't supposed to be climbing), but finally as we are leaving the library, here is what I had agreed to, two books and three movies, got it?! So I had handed that stack to George since the girls were requiring all of my limbs to get them out of the front doors. I get them to the car, turn back to see if George is behind me, only to see him walking towards me with two books and ONE movie!
We aren't even out of the library and we have already lost stuff. No wonder I had canceled our membership for so long! I have to go back into the library tell the lady who already thinks I'm crazy that we have already lost something, and should it be found, could they please just re-check it in for me. It was terrible. After a search of all the places George had been, we find the two stray movies. And of course for the rest of the afternoon no one wants anything to do with the items that were so vital to their happiness while at the library!
That was today. Not that bad you say, such things happen to all of us. I know, but it's just I was already tired from the other two days ahead of this one. But I'm going to skip Tuesday (the day Darin reminded me that there is always the possibility that he should do a 12 month remote assignment) because we can only handle so much wallowing I realize.
But Monday was the worst.
My gym just got bought out and did away with childcare. It was my sanctuary. My 55 minute Hawaiian escape in the middle of my day, and just like that, without even consulting it's members, do away with child care. So now that school has started again I have been on the search for a new place to call, "our gym". On Monday I decided the girls and I would test out the YMCA. I had heard good things about their Kid Watch program, so I thought we should go see for ourselves. I'm getting the girls out of the van and of course they don't have shoes on anymore. I'm climbing all over the van getting shoes on, unbuckling girls, making sure no one runs into the parking lot to get hit by a car, grabbing my purse and running inside. I have a passing thought, "don't lock the doors." That was the thought. But I was so annoyed at the thought, almost to spite myself for such foolishness, I push the lock button on my door, shut the doors and go inside the gym. We enjoy a twenty minute orientation session. The girls get to play on the outdoor playground. It's finally 11, so it's time to go get George, so we head out to the van. I'm rummaging through my purse on the way only to realize there are NO keys in my purse, ANYWHERE. I instantly know that they are locked in the car, and that's why I had had the thought in the first place. Tears are right behind the surface of my eyes. I instantly feel so completely sorry for myself that I just want to melt into the asphalt of the parking lot. I turn the girls around head back inside and have to tell the lady who just spent the last twenty minutes with me that I'm back inside because I'm locked out of my car. Of course, Darin can't be reached, he's in class. We have no other sets of keys at home,
I've lost them all.
George is now in need of being picked up in ten minutes, and I'm fifteen minutes away, IF I COULD GET INTO MY CAR!! I start dialing phone numbers trying to solve all the problems. Anyway, the problems did all get solved, and we did get home as did George. But it still just leaves you asking the question, "Why?". Why me, why today, why at the YMCA?
Anyway, enough already. The Back to School Picnic and ward Chili Cook Off have huge shoes to fill if they are going to try to put a pretty bow on the package that was this terrible week. And it's only Wednesday. I think George has the right idea. And I should re-question him tomorrow about what would HE do if I was the one who ran away in search of a better world....
Until tomorrow, since I know it will come. Good night.
We were all sitting outside one night admiring the Wiley's then partially completed deck when suddenly someone said, "Where are the kids?". Look where we found them... Oliver actually required goggles to play in the mud. Ruby just required lots of dirt!! At least they were having fun. Aren't these the moments that stay in a kids mind for the rest of their lives? My kids will say something like, "Oh yeah, we always used to play in the mud at the Wiley's house". When in real life, they only did it once. Oh well, I'm happy for them for that one time when we all forgot about them, they had fun...
Had to throw this one in of Ruby learning to play Guitar Hero. Thanks Wiley's for showing us such a good time!!
A perfect day at Bear Lake has to be wrapped up with a homemade raspberry shake. For those in the group who don't like raspberries, they have about fifty different flavors to choose from. This was all of us sitting in a covered wagon, eating shakes and telling pioneer stories. What a day!
Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Z for an excellent week at Aspen Grove. It was our first year, so we weren't sure what it was all about. But I think after being there for the full week, we'd all be happy to go back. We had lots of fun. And who can forget about how they take the kids, ALL the kids, including the youngest for nearly 6 hours a day. Yes, that's what I said, 6 hours of free time without any kids. We had a great time. I hope we'll be back again in the years to come. It was truly memorable. Thanks everyone for making it fun. I love you all!
So we've been in Utah for the past two weeks. Then the first day of school was Monday. I have more pictures than I know what to do with. And I want to post them so we won't forget how much fun we just finished having. But since that is overwhelming, I will start with answering the questions from being "Tagged".
Jobs I've Had:
1. Receptionist at BYU's Conferences and Workshops
2. Minor Landscape designing
3. Babysitter extraordinaire!
4. Worked the merchandise cart at Twin Palms in Pasadena, CA during High Schools. (Thanks to Nancy for that job.)
Movies I'd Watch Over and Over:
1. Room with a View
2. Stranger Than Fiction
3. I really don't like watching movies more than once...
Place I've Lived:
1. Boston, MA
2. Silver Spring/Kensington, MD
3. La Canada, CA
4. San Angelo, TX
5. Bitburg, Germany
6. Colorado Springs!!!
Favorite TV Shows:
1. Flip That House
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Designed to Sell
4. Real Estate Pro
5. The Office
Favorite Food:
1. Indian
2. Mexican
3. Italian
4. Anything that I don't have to make myself!
5 Places I'd Rather Be:
1. Tahiti (I've never been there, but it sounds good to me)
2. Hawaii (I've never been there either)
3. Almost anywhere all by myself for a few hours
4. The South of France (I have been there, and I'd go back anytime)
5. San Angelo (I only had one kid, lived in an apartment, had one car, life was SO simple, that's what I'd go back to, but not really, it just sounds so easy now!)
