LIFE

Gib passed his Board of Reviews and has achieved the rank of Life Scout! A 20 mile hike in one day this Saturday and he finishes the hiking merit badge as well. Boy Scout Camp is next week. A week off, and then Philmont. Home for a few days and then EFY. Home for a few days, then a couple days of high school orientation. Then Centerhill Lake/Waterworld Weekend. And then we prepare to go back to school. This is truly the calm before the storm.

Taryn is putting in 4 days a week in her summer volunteer job at Adventure Science Center and is now giving the Sci Bites - the demo/presentations. Each day she does a little something different and she's enjoyed almost everything, but if she never sees the Jelly Bean Stand again, I'm sure she won't mind a bit. She is turning 17 this month without alot of fanfare. She even signed up to work on her birthday! What's this?! The day after her birthday she goes for her senior photo shoot.

Mariah has been going to Volleyball camp this week. Her hand hurts tonight. She has been icing it. I guess she did alot of serving and bumping with it today. I think she needs to hit the ball a little higher up on her arm so that doesn't happen. Maybe a little pain will be the incentive she needs to perfect the move. After volleyball she played all day at a friends house. It was very quiet around here.

Indy had the first half off work this week, but goes in for the rest of the weekend. We hope it's a big tipping weekend! She has alot of time to make up for. Her arm still hurts from the Chickenpox shot they gave her yesterday. I am annoyed they didn't do it when she went in for the TB test and college physical 2 weeks ago. I planned on any shots needed being given then during the 2 weeks of jury duty. We are also annoyed that she had to take off 8 days of work for the jury duty and her panel never even was called...which is nice, but still, she lost alot of money that she needed to be earning for college. I don't like it when Life messes with my plans.

Somebody's Gonna Get It!

Over the weekend, we got notice that Mercer wouldn't allow Indy to register for classes until we got a little issue with her immunizations cleared up. The note said her first MMR was given prior to 1 yr of age. I didn't think much of it, and set her up to go in today to get a booster. After much confusion at the dr's, they determined that she got her first MMR at age 1 and 9 days to be exact. Our records confirmed the same dates. Gee thanks people. So they wouldn't give her a booster. But they did decide to give her a booster of the chickenpox vaccine instead. She was not a happy camper. Could they have decided to do this the 2 weeks she was off work for jury duty and not carrying heavy trays of food with a sore arm? Nooooo, of course not, they had to wait until today! So she got a copy of a copy of the school immunization certificate with the pediatricians signature from 2002 on it that we are supposed to try to float by the university in hopes that proves immunity to MMR and allows her to register for classes at Orientation in a couple weeks. This better work!

Also this weekend, Mariah and Mike went on a Girl Scouts Father & Daughter canoe trip. They had a good time. I enjoyed Mike's realization that it doesn't matter who is in front of the canoe....they always think they are doing all the work!! Apparently both Gib and Mariah, at about the same age, have accused their dad of sloughing off at the rowing....hahaha! Their poor little arms were probably falling off while they're thinking "dad is probably taking a break back there napping away while I'm about to die of exhaustion!"

Gib and I have a little deal/contest going. We both get rewarded, unless (ooh, I get to use italics twice!) he doesn't uphold his end of it, and then it's all consequences of Biblical proportions for him. I didn't bother threatening myself because I KNOW I'm gonna make it to the finish line, but if it makes him feel better he can come up with a dire consequence. I told him to come up with the reward part of our deal. So the deal is this: Grammy and I are reading the Bible in 90 days in a study group at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd. Gib needs to read the Book of Mormon this summer to prepare for Seminary, so we should support (read: compete with) each other in this worthy endeavor. I gave him my neato autographed series BOM Readers I bought last year at Sunstone (and sadly haven't read yet) so he could take them on his various trips and not fall behind. They have different sections of the original BOM bound into paperback books small enough to fit into your back pocket with these really cool introductions about what you are about to read. Perfect for backpacking at Philmont for 2 weeks. Scriptures would weigh alot, but a couple of the readers would be great; each one has about 100 pgs. These seems more readable to a 14 yr old too than looking at this huge book of scripture thinking, man I have to read this whole thing?! So, the next day, sure enough he had started reading one, I was so pleased. So I said, when we finish, we will treat ourselves to a night on the town...your choice of where we go. But if you don't, (I was influenced from reading alot about Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac at the time) you will become as a slave unto your sisters. He kinda sorta hemmed and hawed, but I'm calling it a deal. A slave to your sisters or free food and a movie, bud...think carefully here! Remember how twisted and evil those girls can be!!!

Our Life Leading into the Weekend

Gib prepping Indy for her Patriarchal Blessing

"Go on now Champ, lead with a....prayer, yeah that's it"

Mariah & Mom headed out Friday for to go bargain hunting. We got everything on sale except this cute hat! Mariah scoped out 4 cute t-shirts and a short-sleeve hoodie for less than $40 from Platos Closet. She got a pair of capris for back to school on sale plus 40% off at Justice. Everything except the hat, a pair of volleyball shorts and 1 t-shirt is coming out of her back-to-school clothing budget and going into the closet and won't be seen again until next August (sniff-sniff). That's OK, we'll be bargain hunting again at Platos to grab the good stuff before it flies off the shelves in August. (p.s. Riah's not wearing one of the new t-shirts in the photo - just the hat!)

So Gib, Mike and Mike's measuring tape says Gib

is 1/16th of an inch taller

Talk about splitting hairs

Here is Mike's project of love for my friend Jo Anne and their kitten Oliver who will someday grow up to look alot like Chino The roof is cleverly designed to be sleeping cradles. The pagoda has a secret exit at the back corner down by the sling. Mike told Aimee Mei that the house is only for the kitty not for Aimee! I wonder how long that instruction will stay with her. He tried to reinforce the tube at the bottom with a 2x4 to withstand her little body climbing aboard for a higher look.

Pixie is no doubt bummed that "her" new kitty condo went away. She had plans for that thing. Back to sleeping next to mom's mouse pad. Sigh.

First Things First

Once you have your theme, set the stage, etc., the rest will follow!

This is the comforter set we found online last night for Indy's dorm - it is really silver & black which is exactly what she wanted. We were excited to find @ Overstock! We started making a shopping list by going through a nifty checklist I found online, and compared it to the measly housing checklist Mercer gave us. Mike would have liked to crossed off every other thing and enjoyed making fun of me the whole night as I went through the Target college dorm catalog I saved from last year (boy was that smart). Good thing he didn't see the Pottery Barn one! So Indy said she would resolve it by taking my list and whatever SHE crossed off, the equivalent money would go to her college clothing fund! Haha that was funny.

O-8 is the Jury Duty final report. Can you believe that?! She had to take off all that time from work and they never called her panel in at all! She tried to pick up shifts but only ended up with one when somebody got sick. We were able to use that time to get the medical stuff taken care of and the health forms signed and mailed to the college. Check! Indy moved her dentist appt up to August - Check! We determined that she would have gone in for an eye exam in October and we can probably push that to December and just order an extra box of contacts to get her through until then - Check! Now we just need to get that poor girl some iron in her!

Then her laptop arrived. We had a productive day. All this college talk has made Mariah all too aware that her oldest sister is leaving soon and she wants to know where she is moving to. Taryn and Gib will be on the rebound from Explosives camp and Boy Scout camp and Indy doesn't want to arrive at college orientation as part of a family circus. Can't imagine why not. But Mariah asked Indy if just she could go. Indy said yes, so now we just need to hear back that they have room for one more in the younger crowd's scheduled activities of the day (which I'm sure they do) and Mariah will be smiling big as she taps away after inheriting Indy's old laptop!

This Just In!

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Cha! Cha! Cha! I am excited! Well, as excited as one person can get who has only eaten Cream of Wheat for brunch and Wheat Thins for snack, and whose head still hurts and whose shoulder muscles are in lock-down and who is still in her jammies is wearing sunglasses....but all that aside, the good news of the day was delivered in the mail a few moments ago.

My blood work came back and I am still a SUPREME BEING!

Cholesterol level - 116
Triglycerides - 45
LDL - 57
HDL - 50 (that's something I could bump up, but hey, who wants to live forever?!)

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol-levels/CL00001

Today's Headlines

Indy's Jury Duty has been 0 for 6! Two days left to report... will she have to go in or not? And Indy receives Patriarchal Blessing tonight!

Taryn completes day 2 of Adventure Science Center Internship. Summer day camp assistant counselor and jelly bean stand operator were the order of the day. Despite access to jelly beans, the report on that assignment, in a word was: "boring".

Mariah oriented to middle school. Her locker will not outsmart her (unless there's a 1 in the combo then she is in big trouble!) She even made it into the Locker Olympic Finals! She can find the cafeteria from any given location. She's good to go.

Chrissie struck by a Killer Migraine yesterday. Wears sunglasses in the house today, contemplating the unfairness of a hangover without having committed any of the sins to have earned it.

Lynda takes advantage of cooler temperatures and a drop in humidity today to amend the soil on the second level of the terrace and plant several new perennials.

Gib experiences the calm before the storm. In one of the rare moments of nothing on the agenda he does.....nothing!

Sideline Story: Gib will probably end up at the pool with Lara's son Brett. We're all pretending Gib is already 14 so they can go by themselves. The scoop from other moms: Gib is quite the favorite at the pool and is the Leader of the brat-pack and the Resolver of Disputes. When one child was about to push another into the pool, a mom was about to get up, but Gib saw it, pointed to the kid, and said "Stop that!" very authoritatively. And that was that. The moms decided they need do nothing when Gib is around, and can relax. Gib is On Duty. I even get texted to see if Gib can come down to the pool!

Mike prepares to don the Troop Waterworld Chef Cap! The heat in the kitchen will go from blazing hot to ai-yi-yi faster than you can say "hey let's have wraps for breakfast, lunch and dinner four days in a row!"

Sideline story: Mike and Gib went to a funeral yesterday. I went with them for the part before the service began, but had to leave early to get Mariah. The funeral was for the mother of a scout in Gib's troop. She died from breast cancer. The father is also very active in the troop and Mike knows him quite well. It's sad to realize, because we've both lost parents to cancer, what this young man and family are experiencing right now, but it's important to be able to give that moment of loving support. I was going to return to pick the guys up after I got Mariah. Before I could get home, I knew I wasn't going to make it, so I had my mom get Mariah and called Jo Anne to get Mike and Gib. Thanks Jo Anne!

Report from the B.O. Zone

Wow, if it wasn't for the sunscreen, I do believe right now I'd outstink Gib after his 20 miler this weekend! When he got in the truck, I took a precautionary sniff and I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't any B.O. Not sure how that came to be. I guess he crossed alot of rivers. I've been outside from noon to 4 pm digging, planting, and mulching. In high heat and humidity. Not the best of plans, which my neighbor pointed out. Kind of fun to stand up and watch the world tilt though.

Gib had a great time on his hike. Came home with a bit of a battle scar from a fall, and a couple blisters. A few new items on his shopping list before Philmont, which means this is a successful preparatory hike. I was wrong about the hiking merit badge though. I saw a 20 miler on the calendar and thought it had just been moved up a week, but no, he has to do it too....ALL IN ONE DAY! Ouch. Then he will have completed the merit badge.

Taryn just got back from her first day at Adventure Science Center where she will be a volunteer and Education Intern for the summer 3 to 4 days a week. This means she won't be working part-time at all, so no moula unless she babysits. She will be a volunteer working at various stations around the exhibits and as an unpaid Education Intern (for her Senior Project) giving science presentations. This month it's teaching people about Astronauts spacesuits and Rat Basketball. Apparently rats have learned how to play basketball. They score for food. They have the exhibit there and Taryn says it's fun to watch.

Mariah went to her first day at middle school orientation. She mastered the lockers, learned her way "somewhat" around the school, played games and "stuff like that". She almost had her first babysitting job for a 15-20 minute preschool pickup run while a baby was sleeping and I was gardening out front for a friend down the street, but then the inlaws came back from shopping. She was disappointed, but the lady gave her $10. We went back to return the money because it was more than $1 a minute and I didn't know the people who had showed up, we hadn't been told they would, and mom wasn't answering her cell (scary!). Turns out it was the guy's sister and she looks alot like him so I didn't take them down and we agreed to let Mariah keep half the money even though she really didn't need to be paid at all for 5 minutes. Mariah would have preferred to actually babysit.

Indy has been gone, gone, gone. I have resorted to looking at her facebook just to see her face. Well, I get to see her for about 10 minutes if I'm lucky before she is off again. This has been a fun weekend for her to visit with some friends. Tomorrow begins her second stint of jury duty. She was lucky last week and her panel didn't have to show up. I doubt she'll get that lucky again.

Mike has been making a kitty condo for Jo Anne. It looks like a Chinese Pagoda. It's so cute! It's almost done. I will put up a photo when it's done. All of us chipped in for hours and hours on Saturday and Mike is still working on it a little bit at a time. It should be done soon. Our cats think it is for them. They will be disappointed when it disappears.