Catching up on real life...

So much is is going on! A quick sum up and I will go into more detail in the next few days.

1. Just got back from visiting friends in Utah and a family reunion at Lake Tahoe. Must have been a good vacation -- I added to my tan and my hips. :)
   
2. My brother, Clint, deployed to Iraq today.
3. Had our first Triple Trio rehearsal of the season this morning. It feels great to be back singing with my friends again!
   
4. Morgan missed the first week of school, but had her first day as a second grader today.
5. I am drowning in dirty laundry and hoping it takes less than a week to actually unpack and get things around here back to normal.
   

Sleep deprived...

We absolutely LOVE the Olympics! Ken and I have been staying up late, often until 1:00 am or so, watching TV. My eyes ache and my head is in a cloud, but it is so worth it. It has been so fun snuggling on the couch together every night and cheering on team USA. Luckily our kids are good sleepers and didn't even wake up when I was screaming for the 4 x 100 swimming relay. :)

Peace of mind...

A few nights ago I had a dream, no, a nightmare. One of those nightmares that was so scary that you wake yourself up. In any case, my family was in a situation where I knew it was not safe and I knew we had to leave immediately. I was in a panic because our 72 hour kits were not complete. We were not as prepared as I wanted to be.

I woke up with the determination to complete our 72 hour kits. We had most of the stuff we needed, but I needed to assemble it all. On Saturday (and then finishing up today) I put those together and I must say I feel so much better. I think the reason I had not finished those up was because I was overwhelmed. There have been many an enrichment night on the topic and I have also done research on the web and it was almost too much. Then when I was at my parent's house this spring my mom gave me a list that Ann Shelton had assembled. It was basically one page long -- that I could do. Now I just needed to figure out how best to adapt that to our family.

I ended up doing a smaller bag/backpack for each of the kids with just the basics. It contains food kit for 72 hours, water bottle (I know they would need more, but I figured that is what they could carry), t-shirts, sweats (they could be easily cut off for shorts in the summer), underwear, socks, and shoes. I made a little bathroom kit (hand towel that has a tie to go around their waist with little pockets) for all the bathroom stuff like soap, toothpaste and toothbrush, brush and comb, shampoo, and lotion. Then I put in a quart size ziploc, a safety whistle, solar blanket, wind-up flashlight, tealight candles and lighter, small rain poncho, hand/foot warmers, hand sanitizer, tissues, and chapstick. I also printed out a recent family picture, printed their name and birthday and circled their face in the picture. On the back I listed Ken's name and cell phone number, my name and cell phone number, and then taped a copy of their insurance card. I laminated that and a list of family phone numbers and put it in their bag. I thought that information could be helpful if, heaven forbid, we were separated.

Ken and I have a similar bag with all the above mentioned stuff and in addition we have a family bag. In this rolling duffel bag I put a regular blanket, coloring books for the kids, card games, notepad and sharpie, insect repellent, sunscreen, first aid kit, batteries, more candles, water tabs, plastic sheeting, extra garbage bags and ziplocs, clothes pins, duct tape, hammer and nails, screwdriver, pliers, leather work gloves, and braided cord. I also I have another bag of extra food to supplement our 72 hour supply (I especially liked the individual cups of peanut butter and the tuna pouches). I am sure other things that I will continue to add, but I think this is a pretty good start. The last part of my project is scanning in all our important family documents and burning a CD for our kit (and another for a safety deposit box).

So in case of having to quickly evacuate our home we could just grab our 72 bags, a couple cases of water, our emergency cash, and our external hard drive and we could be on our way. I feel so much more at peace. I am grateful for church leaders that encourage us to be prepared. I testify of the words in the scriptures are true. "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear."

Almost giddy...

I am so excited about the Olympics! I love watching the world come together in this way. Go team USA!

SYTYCD finale

I could not be more pleased with the results! Congratulations Joshua! Woo hoo!

SYTYCD finale...

I always have mixed feelings when my favorite show comes to an end for the season. I am excited to see who wins on So You Think You Can Dance, but I hate that I have to wait for next summer before any new shows. Since Will is out, I think that my vote is going to have to go to Joshua (if I actually voted anyway...).

So I am having some friends over to watch the finale at 7:00 on Thursday night . I would love it if you wanted to come to our SYTYCD finale party (or to watch all the dances on Wednesday night). Just let me know if you want to come. It is always more fun to watch with a friend or 7. :)

A pain in my...

Last night for our family home evening activity we decided to take a family bike ride. It was a beautiful Colorado evening -- luckily with not too many mosquitoes. I had not been on a bike for a very long time, but I took comfort in that saying. You know, "it's like riding a bike," well I figured they must say that for a reason. :) We decided to head over Settler's park (about a mile or so away) and took off along the Firestone Trail. I do not have a bike (I want one of those old lady beach cruiser type bikes) and Ken was very kind to let me use his shiny, new mountain bike.

We rode to the park and to our very pleasant surprise, we saw our friends the Allens and Wasdens there. The kiddos were so happy to have some friends to play with and the grownups had a great time as well. It was almost dark when we left, so it was a race to get home while we could still see and be seen.

I thought that I might be a little sore this morning because it had been so long since I have ridden a bike. Sad to say, the only thing sore was my seat. You would think that with all the padding I naturally have, I would be protected from skinny, little bike seats. Apparently not.

It was a blast...

Last night I went with some of my friends to the Breaking Dawn release party at Borders. We had a great time. First we went to dinner/dessert and the headed to the bookstore. Thanks so much to Tirsa, Kris, and Brandie for doing the legwork!

The raffle drawing for the first wristbands was rather fun. My ticket was off only one to get to be the first one to be able to buy a book. It was really cool that Kris and Jane won! The line went really quickly (and there were less there for the Harry Potter release last summer) so by just a few minutes after midnight, we already had our books and were headed home. Ken used all his powers to persuasion to keep me from reading all through the night.

I am thankful to Joette and Brandie for bringing their cameras...

Ken is glad...

...that I finally finished Breaking Dawn at about 10:20 tonight. It was a fun read and I really enjoyed it. I lose myself so completely in another world that I really have a hard time staying aware of reality. I even forget people's names and struggle to figure out who and where I am. My total lack of self control is rather annoying at times. I literally could not function until I had finished. I guess Ken knows me well enough by now that he knew the shortest way to having me back was to let me finish my book -- he brought me my lunch on the couch and kept track of the kiddos so I could read. Thanks sweetheart!