Sunday, June 21, 2009

Back to normal

I say that because we just spent a week with Vince's parents and our niece and nephew. This was just a short time after we returned from vacation, so life hasn't been "normal" for several weeks now. But that's about to change. My in-loves left Saturday morning after spending the entire week cramming in as much fun stuff as possible. They hit the Chapel in the Hills, Old MacDonald's Farm, Reptile Gardens, Watiki water park (3 nights in a row), the 1880's train, Custer State Park, the dinosaur museum in Hill City, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, Deadwood, Spearfish Canyon and Devil's Tower. I think that's all. Maybe. The kids had a blast with G'ma and G'pa and Alex and Bryanna. I spent several of those days with them just to hang out and help a little with the kids. At night, Vince, Sam and I would head for home and leave all those kids in the hotel with 2 exhausted grandparents. I talked to my MIL a little bit ago and they were close to home and starting the laundry. My girls have been sleeping a lot since they left. I think they were worn out too. We really had fun.

It has finally gotten warmer here. It has been raining every day here for several weeks and I'm pretty tired of it. It's really green though. Today it was in the 80's and Audrey wanted to have a lemonade stand. We had some fruit chiller tube things too, so she decided to add that to her wares. She said that she was going to have a "lem-pop stand" since she was selling both. She comes up with some silly stuff. She sat out there in her star-shaped sunglasses waving at cars and made $14! She kept saying, "I'm rich!!" It was cute. People were driving by and then making a U-turn to come back and buy some lemonade. One lady even gave Katie a tip for being a good assistant. She promptly used her dollar to buy a couple of popsicles. She's like her mama. That dollar bill was burning a hole in her pocket! After Audrey got tired of doing the lemonade stand and we put everything away, she asked me what else she could do to make some money. I told her that she could do some chores around the house. She said, "Nah. I know! I'll paint some rocks and sell those!" So, she scooped some rocks out of our neighbor's driveway and proceeded to paint them. Whatever makes her happy. It kept both girls busy for a while and Sam was napping so I actually got some quiet time to read my book next to my painters. Audrey wants to buy something with part of her money. We'll see what she decides on. She put some in her bank to save and kept some back to give to charity, and a couple bucks are for the collection plate. Vince and I have decided that she needs a regular chore to do for an allowance. She likes to help with the dogs, so we are thinking that she can be the official pooper-scooper. We are going to get her one of those fancy scoops to make it easier. I'm not sure how long it will last, but she does like money so maybe she'll stick with it.

I have to give a couple of shout-outs to some friends today. The first is to congratulate my friend Craig and his wife Jaime on the birth of their baby girl Tatum. She sure is a cutie! Hope you guys are getting some sleep. Keep sending those pictures. And tell Jaime that I don't think it's fair that she can look so good just after giving birth. Not a hair out of place!

The other is for my friend Sheri, who knows me and my family far too well. For our birthdays, she sent one big package for the year (she said it would be easier that way and I have to agree) including some yummy lotion, M&M's, goldfish crackers, Twizzlers, and a set of 4 water guns. LOL! Snacks, candy, and weapons--is that fitting or what?! The night that we got the package I had a not-so-nutritious, but oh-so-delicious dinner of Twizzlers and M&M's. I did go run the next morning, so there! Anyhow, we thank you girl. You rock!

V and I have been having the car discussion lately. Trying to decide if we should get a different car. We like our Explorer and it's nice to have the 3rd row for when we have company, but it sure would be nice to have a little more room and less miles. We just rolled over 72,000. On the other hand, how often do we actually use the 3rd row? And if we traded now, we would end up not getting what we owe for our trade-in. We also don't really want to make a bigger payment. We like our low one, thank you very much. We have looked at several things. I really liked the idea of a Suburban, but am also really scared of the MPG. Vince says it's like grocery shopping when you're hungry. We just had company and were wishing for a bigger car so we didn't have to take 2 everywhere we went, but now that everyone is gone we won't need that bigger car. For the moment, I think we have decided to keep this one and just make sure that it's running well. Need to get that cracked windshield taken care of too. Dang South Dakota winters. The salt and gravel that they put down really does a number on your vehicle. Soooo, I'll keep you posted on that. As if you care.

What else? Nothing I guess. Just need to get the girls into bed. They really need a bath first, but it's past their bedtime already, so we'll hold off until the morning I suppose. Gotta hit the Wal-Mart in the morning. Ugh. Our Wal-Mart is HORRIBLE! But it's the cheapest store around. And when you spend over $300 on groceries every 3 weeks, cheap is good.

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