Great Adventure: The Beginning

 I know, I didn't post Mardi Gras pictures.  that will have to wait!  I have something much more exciting to post about!  Yep, a super fun adventure, to somewhere I never visited before!  Dan was in Germany and it seemed silly for him to have all the fun.  So it was decided I would join him for fun and adventures when his work ended.  there was fun, and there was adventure!

Sunday after church Rylee and I drove to my brother's house.  His lovely wife had offered to watch Rylee so my mother in law would have one fewer child.  Since Rylee is the only one not in school, that seemed like a great idea. I am so grateful to my mother in law who was willing to come out and babysit the kids for 2 weeks for me.  I'm a lucky girl!

SUNDAY:

Rylee sacked out 15 minutes into the drive ans slept 2 hours.

I enjoyed lovely scenery like this.

I listened to "Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter" while I drove.

MONDAY:

We got to Andy and Kera's house and shared our Mardi Gras Booty with the kids.  Emma was quite pleased.  We spent the night and Kera drove me to the airport Monday morning.

Except there was a little problem.  Look under the car.  See that?  We stopped for gas a couple miles from the airport and noticed that.  Kera pulled forward to see if it was us.  It was.

  This is where the oil went.  Well, the oil that wasn't sprayed all under the car and down the road.  Bad stuff here!  No, there was no warning.  no, we didn't run over anything.  no, there wasn't a light that came in.  It just happened.

I had to call a cab, who charged me $20 to drive me 3 miles to the airport.  I did not leave a tip.  $20.  Sheesh.  I did make my flight on time.  Kera got the van towed, and got home, and I felt horribly guilty for abandoning her to run off to get on a plane to Germany!  But that's what I did.  I made the flight to Atlanta, and the connecting on to Stutgart.  My parents came on the trip with me (DAN invited them!!) and it was nice to hang with them on the long flight.

 Check out my dinner!

 I was excited about it!

TUESDAY:

I'm sorry, this just kills me every time I see it!  Best sign ever!

Most adorable bathroom signs ever!

 Best Book of Mormon Ever!

We drove to Switzerland and visited my aunt and uncle who are serving a mission in Bern.  They fed us dinner.

And we posed on their couch.  I'm pretty sure I was not ready for this picture.

My aunt and uncle have a plethora of clocks.  And by that, I mean like 10. All very cool like this one, which is bigger than it looks here.

My mom and her sister.  Aren't they cute?

On Wings of Angels

Dan got to go on a vacation.  Oh no, wait.  He got to go to work over in Europe, doing field exercises. So it was suppose to be work, except he got to do it somewhere especially cool.  Even more exciting, for him, he got to use his mad Russian skilz.  While Dan was off having fun, I got to stay home and take care of everything.

Somehow, without him here, everything became exponentially busier.  I don't know why.  Okay, not entirely true.  Having to take 4 kids to 2 separate karate classes 4 times a week is a lot busier than usual for me. (Dan and I usually divide the labor on that one!) It seemed like I was always running from one thing to another. I didn't have time to sit down or relax or even watch the Olympics!  It was insane. While the kids weren't particularly horrid, neither were they spectacularly better behaved than usual.  As a matter of fact, one of my darling daughters is going through a phase where she is significantly more obnoxious, and another is incredibly whiny and slow to get anywhere. And my lone son spends most of his time sighing deeply and rolling his eyes at everything the girls do.  So, par for the course.

Add to that the news that Marian not only has Aspergers, but ADD as well, and then the possibility that Dan could suddenly be out of the Marine Corps, and there was a wee bit of extra stress going on in my overly filled, yet curiously inefficient brain. (How'd you like that sentence?!!)

So, 4 weeks of going it all alone.

However, I know that I was not alone.  How do I know?  No one locked them self in the closet, or curled up under their blankets sucking their thumb. No bodily harm was inflicted.  No one went stark raving mad.  No one screamed incoherently at her children at all in 4 weeks!  Oh yes, there were times when it was nearly intolerable.  For example, Tuesday night, I was making dinner. Delaney was in a puddle on the floor crying and sobbing because I put mushrooms in it.  Rylee was howling that she wanted to eat right NOW.  Callie was reading her homework assignment to me.  Marian was trying to talk over her sister to ask questions about HER homework, and Joshua was blaring away on his trumpet in the living room.  And you know what?  It wasn't horrid.  I mean, it was because you could not hear yourself think, but it was more funny to me than awful.

That's how a lot of things have been.  I have seen how not-fun things are, and not been bothered by it.  Many many times in the last 4 weeks.   I know that I have been born up on wings of Angels during this time.  I don't know why I have had so much divine help, but I absolutely know it has been there.

And I am incredibly thankful.

I slacked

I know, I haven't blogged in forever.  I have been busy, you know!  And I haven't taken as many pictures, since I have been busy.  And uninspired.  But now, I shall regale you with some of the photos from the last 2 weeks. 

We attended a birthday party with a fun bounce house.  The kids really just wanted cake and ice cream.  And then someone in our family had a birthday.  I was not very good and I did not take photos till after it was all over.  Bad mommy.  But there was cake and ice cream.  And, someone lost some teeth and now speaks with a little lisp.

Enjoying the cake and ice cream. 

Yeah, Rylee is cute! 

 And she loved the bounce house.

This kid cracks me up!  She's posing and yes, she picked out her outfit! 

And someone stole the camera and got a photo of me! 

Ooooh!  A surprise picture on the camera!  I don't even know who took this one.  Probably Delaney. 

Delaney wanted a layered lemon cake.  I could not find my round pans.  And hmmmm... a 9x9 square pan makes a very thin layer.   Thus, a sizable 4 layer cake!

A birthday phone call. 

Posing with her new doll in their matching jammies.  One happy birthday girl! 

Missing one on top and one on the bottom.  Can you say, "Adorable?!!!"

Driving in the Fog

Rocking the Pink Hair!

For Christmas, we got some hair chalks.  The girls are not allowed to have colored hair at school, and none of them were willing to risk it not coming out.   So the hair color chalks have sat around for a bit.  Today I needed something to distract Rylee with, and it worked.    

She was very excited to try coloring her hair pink.  She said pink.  She definitely said Pink!  Once I was done she claimed she wanted red instead.  Since it took me 10 minutes and she watched me pick up the chalk and watched me apply it to her hair, I'm pretty sure it was color remorse, since she had ample opportunity to shriek, "I wanted Red!" before I was done.

Anyway.... it was pretty easy.  The box came with no instructions.  I had ordered them online with a coupon or groupon or something.  It also had no name brand or anything to google.  So I just went with it.  It did not go on dry.  So we wet her hair and it worked great.  However it was easier to dip the end of the chalk in water and then apply it.  I just rubbed it on her hair and it came out nice and vibrant.  I'm very sad that the pictures do not show the bright color.  It really was a dark pink, almost violet.  Rylee loved it!

The chalk itself was fine. It did not leave residue on my hands and did not feel like chalk at all.  Once on the hair, it gave it an odd texture.  It was chalky and made the hair feel thick and... chalky. After coloring the front of her hair, I finally got smart and put her ponytail in first.  Then I colored the hair.  It worked much better.  Combing out the hair with color in it was harder and made Rylee cry.

We shall see tonight if the color really does wash off.  If it does..... you will probably see some more experiments with more girls using these!

This is what the hair chalks look like. 

This is the top of Rylee's hair.  It really is darker, and much more vibrant in the light. 

She is loving it, but still wishes it was red. 

I only did a little in the back, since there is less to press against when applying it.  Still, super cute!