since i last posted

Since last Tuesday, when I posted last, our week has been a whirlwind. We'll start with Wednesday in which we began the day with dentist appointments. All 5 @ one time. We occupy 2 chairs @ a time and we were there for 2 hours. All is well with the Wardlings teeth. Penny puts on such a show. The hygienists all get a kick out of her visit. Of course the hygienists pass along loads of goodies to take home.
Late Wednesday night, Grammy and Papa came to town. They spent Wednesday night and Thursday night with us. We went to a park close by and had a picnic dinner. Ricky and his Mayra came to the park and ate with us and later we were joined by Clyde's other brother Rusty and his Lauren and their twins.

Friday morning when Ed and Becki left, they took Erin and Jacob along with them for the week. Josh and Libby stayed with Grammy and Papa over spring break and so it was now Erin and Jacob's turn. They are having a blast with Grammy & Papa @ the beach. Then mid morning, we had more company...Maylee and Jared came by for a visit and spent the night with us. They brought along their new addition...Oola. Stay tuned for more to come on the adventures of Oola in the Brown house with the Wardlings. We went to Libby's talent show (which I will post photos of soon) and then we checked the Wardlings out of school and hit the Emerald City. We ended up @ a history museum downtown. (Again, I'll post pictures soon.) This was one of my favorite works of art in the museum. The museum itself is a converted church and so they kept the stain glass window. I just thought it was very pretty.

After the museum, we hit the fountains, where the Wardlings had a blast getting wet. They ran in and out of the sprinklers until they were nearly soaked. They had such fun!

The talent show, museum, and sprinklers didn't only wear out Miss Penny....Jared was asleep before we made it home.

Saturday we went by Sister D's costume shop for some vital pieces of Clyde's trek wardrobe. I just love being in the costume shop. There are so many works of art that Sister D has created. She is such a wonderful gal!! Speaking of the trek, I finished my clothes and we are doing the packing tomorrow. We leave Thursday morning. It is supposed to rain every day.

push-me-popper

Yesterday morning, Penny woke Clyde and I up dressed as Bat Girl. She was so lively and energetic all dressed up @ 6:15am. She was so funny growling @ us and kicking her legs. The funniest part were her poses. What a funny Wardling!!

Last evening was the day to mow the yard. It was some thick grass after the rain that we have had. Clyde ended up having to mow it twice just to get the grass where it needed to be. Penny was the ultimate helper. She got out the push-me-popper & mowed the yard with Clyde. Jacob and Josh both took turns mowing the grass with Dad.

Here she is today...on her last day of being a 6th grader! How oh pretty! Congrats on finishing the 6th grade Erin!!

Below are some pictures of the rain, the water depths, a primary activity that the Wardlings had on Saturday, and our garden growth. (The first couple of photos were swiped off of a local news stations blog.) We have nice green beans coming in and tomatoes have begun to grow. I love watching plants grow! We planted a few more rows of g.beans yesterday. Our sunflowers were broken off due to the rain, so we have re-planted a few of them as well.

darth vader s.o.s.

Clyde sent this Darth Vader picture to me today and I thought that it was kinda funny.

I have been busy as a bee sewing up some of the necessary clothes for the upcoming trek. I must admit that I am less than thrilled about a few aspects of the planning process and events for the trek. I must get into my head all the positives about going...a few days with Clyde, sleeping in tents, eating dutch-oven prepared food, pooping in the woods, and getting to have the Pioneer experience. I have done some research on the era and am just trying to prepare myself emotionally for those 3 days. I have compiled lists upon lists of the necessities that will be required to take along with us. I am trying to think of anything and everything for EVERY situation so that we are ready. Clyde is alot better @ adventures like this than I am. I am a planner, and am uncomfortable with 'going w/ the flow' in nearly all instances. Pray for us!



After I typed out my LONG post on the most recent weather adventures of last week and posted it, I realized that I posted it to the wrong blog. I have a separate crafty blog thing, that I do not maintain as often as this one. I was so bummed. I tried to copy/paste it to this one, but no luck. I think that I am still blog challenged. Anyway this is it from my other blog. Happy reading.

not so quiet on the eastern front

Holy crow did the sky open last night. We had a 40% chance of rain and let me tell you, it dumped on the Emerald City. There was flooding. We are lucky to have the brown house up on a hill (not fun to mow...my poor Clyde) but good for the rain flow. It was raining so hard that we even lost power for 5+ hours. When it was time to leave for church, we ran to get into yellow and made it as far as the end of the street. The rain was coming down really hard. I turned around and headed back to the brown house and there we waited for about 10 minutes, until there was a slight break in the rain. We made it safe and sound to the last pack mtg. for the summer. (Even the church, we lost power for about 30 seconds.)
The scouts practiced tying more knots and lashings. I love how Josh really gets into it and concentrates so hard on the task @ hand.

The younger scouts put on a skit for us. We were asked to take out my sisters dog, so after church, we headed to her place. They still had power. We fed and pottied their dog and raced home. (Well, we were being safe, so not really racing.) Still no power. It was funny to hear the Wardlings asked about fans and the refrigerator. Our kids sleep with fans on for the noise and Josh said that we just needed to go buy a new fan. We laughed and tried to explain that our fans work just fine, when there is electricity and we had none. The Libby asked about the refrigerator working. Again, it was just funny. One of our neighbors stopped by to check on us, while another one broke out their generator. Clyde started a movie on the laptop and by the time that the Wardlings had quieted down, the movie started and the power came back on. We learned alot about preparedness...1- make sure all cell phones are charged...@ all times. 2- have plenty of candles, flashlights, batteries, lanterns etc. c- have ice in the big freezer to help preserve the food in it. 4- have stuff to do with kids. 5- we need a rain barrel. I also thought that we really need some type of sand bags for the back of our house. We also come to the conclusion that we'd rather be without power in the cold than in the heat. At least in the cold, we can just add clothing to stay warm, but when your hot, your HOT and SWEATY here in the south.

I was so worried about my wee garden during the absolute down pour of rain. About 30 minutes into the rain, the water was puddled in the garden beds. I ran to get our tarps to cover them. Jacob didn't understand why I did it, so this morning I told him it was to preserve the food that we are growing for our family. It made me think of all the farmers that have lost crops due to storms. Luckily our garden is small and we have time left to replant. Plus the plants were just beginning to sprout, so nothing really would be lost. However if it were later in the season, we'd be in bad shape. Clyde and I were soaked to the skin after putting tarps over the garden. I really appreciated Clyde's help in covering them up. The rain was cold. He even went out while we were @ church to empty the tarps. What a sweetie! He said that the rain puddles in the tarp went up to his wrist. This was 1 bed this morning. Two of the tomato plants looked squished, so I tied them up. They weren't broken. The ocre is coming in nicely and again I am glad that they are just sprouting, otherwise the water in the tarp would have flattened the plants.
We are due for 2 more days of rain. I'd say the drought was over.

summer fun

Clyde, along with the head soccer coach from his school, took the boys and girls soccer teams to see a professional game here in the Emerald City Saturday night. They all had such fun. Right as they got into the stadium however, Josh got knocked hard in the head by a soccer players stray ball. The ball hit Josh way hard in the head, knocking his glasses off and making Josh see stars. It was terrible.

Libby came home with this sweet jersey signed by the goalie.

Here are my Wardlings enjoying themselves @ the game. Erin, Penny and I hung here enjoying a disc of the Gilmore girls. We ran out and got ourselves some yummy snacks to enjoy the shows.

For family nite we watched "The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian." We had such a fun night hanging with one another eating some popcicles. At the end of the movie, there is this awesome song by Regina Spektor called "The Call." Oh I love it.

Then on Monday, we got together with Plus One and her family for some slip-n-slide fun. Oh the Wardlings had so much fun! Ah-summer fun is here...

On a total side note...we have been blogging now for 2 years. Happy bloggaversary to us!

new moon trailer

The New Moon Trailer is now available to see here. Clyde and I watched the MTV awards to be able to catch a glimpse of the trailer. Clyde was more excited to see the new GI Joe movie trailer than New Moon. How funny was the Eminem butt thing?! :)