I Can Explain

I have had one of the busiest weeks of my life and I can explain it all. These pictures are from the park on Thursday... of the community sippy cup. Clara, Elsa and Lucy were all drinking out of Clara's sippy cup so I thought it'd be funny to take a picture of each of them with it. Friday was spent working trying to finish up the taxes I'd agreed to do and getting stuff for the ones I still had to do. About 4:30pm, I went out to Queen Creek to help Lisa with a video she was making for her dad's 60th birthday. Fortunately, we figured it out and then went to McDonald's (which reminds me, I created my FOF post but was waiting to add pictures before publishing it... obviously that didn't happen). I got home at almost 900pm and decided to go out with Genny and her friends. We had a little Girls Night Out to celebrate her 30th. We had appetizers and pizzookie at BJ's (they watched a movie before that). Mmmm, good stuff (and HUGE in case you can't tell by the picture). It was fun and even though I didn't get home until almost midnight (I think) I was glad I went. I worked for a little bit and then went to bed.

Saturday morning I had to be at the Church at 730am for Little Philmont, yet another Scout training. I got there at 745am and it was actually really good. Sometimes the trainings get a little redundant, but this was my favorite yet. A guy in our Stake spoke about how and why boys are different now and I loved it. Not only that, but a friend that used to be in our Ward gave me a fabulous idea for Singing Time. The training was until Noon, afterwhich I had to go switch cars with Jason at work and then go get Clara at my mom's. Clara and I came home and I started to work when I got a call from Lisa needing more help. We spent over an hour on the phone and still had some problems. I was so frustrated for her and wished we lived next door so I could go help her. I was determined to do whatever we needed to make this work because I know how much time she spent on it.

I got ready (lately, "getting ready" has become quite the novelty) and we were off to my Uncle Hank's 60th birthday party. He's my dad's older brother and sometimes I can't believe at how much they are alike. It was a fun party and we don't see my dad's family enough, so it's always a treat when we do. At the party, I found myself in the middle of a miracle. A picture with my mom and Angela and BOTH of them have their eyes open. A picture with one having their eyes open is special enough, but this? This is fantastic!
Auntie Angela loves Clara, but sometimes she has a hard time minding me and giving into temptation. Angela gave Clara a sucker when she first got there and a few hours later, I told her not to give her anymore. Moments after that I saw Angela looking at me as if she were in agonizing pain. What caused her such pain? Knowing Clara wanted a sucker and that she didn't need one. Of course Clara won and got the sucker and then I think she stole one of the twins' suckers. I took a bunch of pictures of her as she ran into the kitchen thinking she was so sneaky and this is probably my favorite, devilish little face and all.
The margharita that a few unnamed family members were salivating over (yes, it had alcohol and no, they never would've touched it, but it sure was funny how they were eyeing it).
Lisa and Clara. She kept calling Clara her little friend when we were at her house Friday and it was so cute.
The birthday boy.
Mr. Grumpy. Jason was unusually grumpy and he still hasn't told me why. Regardless, he was able to make the video come together. Lisa's neighbor helped her get it on his jump drive and with that and the program that Jason installed on my computer, he got it to work and play from our computer onto the TV. It was so neat to see pictures of my Uncle throughout his life, especially the ones with my dad in it. I love hair from the 60's!! I was also in awe at how much Steven looks like my dad when he was younger. So Steven, just look at dad if you want to know what you'll look like when you're older. :)

They had a giant teddy bear that Clara loved to hug and jump on.
And here's Uncle Tom, my dad's younger brother. The last time I saw the three brothers together was Thanksgiving 2003 so I made them get together for a picture (held hostage by Angela). Uncle Tom loved Clara. He hasn't had little kids around for a long time and his grandkids don't live here. They had fun together.
After the party we rushed to Sprouts (luckily, there was one close to their house) and got there about three minutes before they close. I grabbed some stuff for a salad. Once home, I worked, imagine that! On top of working, I had to do the bulletin (this was the first week I was supposed to do the tri-fold) and prepare Singing Time. What I didn't get done that night was finished the next morning (mostly the Singing Time stuff).

My friend is the primary chorister and she had a baby so I told her a long time ago I'd sub for her when she had her baby and Sunday was my first week. It actually went okay, especially when compared to my fears. The song I'm teaching this month is We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet.

After church I made a spinach salad for dinner and called my Uncle to confirm that Jason left his phone at their house. But not before I took a picture of my sweet baby. Since I was in Primary, Jason got to take Clara for the whole time and his quote was, "I didn't even enjoy church at all." because he was in the halls most of the time. I couldn't help but smile, since I did it by myself up until a month ago.

We had dinner at Ryan and Kathryn's and we all brought something to give my mom a break for their 35th anniversary which was Monday. The dinner was fantastic (salmon, asian bbq chicken, spinach salad, squash and zuchinnin, rolls and baked potatoes). I love my mom and dad. Obviously, they've been through a lot together and they've set a good example on how to never give up. I get emotional thinking about how significant that marriage was 35 years ago. 9 kids, 5 kid-in-laws and 9 grandkids later, their rich posterity continues to grow.

Do I even have to say what I stayed up until 2:30am doing that night? And, it continues!