May Monthly Mashup

Some snapshots from the chaotic end-of-school-year month.

I let my Small Fry skip school on May 1st to join me for lunch and the new Avengers 2 movie on opening day.  I was the only female in the theater!

I took some of the kids to a local carnival in Kearney.  I love our small town!

Ryan surprised me with a Mothers Day celebration in Kansas City.  He took me to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, The Capital Grille, before we headed to the Marriott Hotel.  We slept in late since there were no kids to wake us up (and no early-morning seminary!) and at brunch at Ginger Sue's before getting back to our usual lives as Mom and Dad.

Lindsey and I went on a "date" together that included bowling and lunch at Corner Cafe.  This Sugarplum Fairy makes me smile.

And since everyone else was getting a special day with me, I took Bella out for her own Mental Health Day.  I bought her a new collar, dress, leash and toy.  

OK, to be honest, there was a house showing so she needed to be out of the way.  We roamed around Petsmart, since it's one of the only places I can take her.

Ryan and I went to dinner with Webbs and Napiers one evening, and left Lindsey in charge of the younger boys since Bryn and Brevan both had plans.  She called us constantly, asking when we would be home because the boys would not stop arguing.  At about 8:45, she called us crying and said "I just can't do it anymore!"  We told her to put on a movie and fall asleep near the boys.  We laughed so hard because she has always been the opposite of a Night Owl.  At 9:00 pm, she's OUT.

A couple cute pictures of Lindsey with her friend, Reagan.

This one was taken on a fancy bus they took to Jefferson City for a tour of the state capital building.

This was taken one evening when Reagan slept over and the girls were being silly.

And this one was taken on the day THE GIRLS WON FIRST PLACE IN THE SCHOOL TALENT SHOW!  These funny, creative girls came up with a ventriloquist routine that had the crowd roaring with laughter!  I was proud of Lindsey for being brave and original.

{picture from Christine goes here}

Christine and I were especially excited that both Lindsey and Chloe were in the top 3 winners of the talent show so neither of them had to feel badly.  Talk about creative - Chloe played the Jaws theme on her cello while wearing a shark costume!

After getting out of bed one morning, I looked behind me and wondered how I had managed to sleep with these 3 taking up all the room.  Good grief, we need a bigger bed if the kids and dog are going to weasel their way in at night!

School ended and summer began!!  The last few weeks of school are so CRAZY, so we were excited to spend our summer days relaxing and sleeping late.  I made these cute shirts for all the kids to wear since I don't know whether they will be going back to Kearney schools in the fall.

I let the kids invite friends to lunch at Pizza Ranch on the last day of school.  Logan invited his adorable friend, Vanessa, Brynlie invited a couple friends from school, and Lindsey was thrilled that the Napier clan joined us.  After lunch, I took Logan and Vanessa to a Disney movie at the theater while Brynlie saw a different movie with her friends.

Lindsey thought it was smart to jump on Parker's back while at the restaurant.  Parker thought Lindsey should get off his back and leave him alone.  Thus, the bag of ice on the head and the tears in the eyes.

I love attending Royals games, especially when they are winning most of their games!  At this game toward the end of May, Ryan and I invited Christine, Josh, Pete and Jeni to use our extra tickets since our kids don't really care about baseball.

Ryan found this new Barbecue joint in Kansas City that has delicious food.  It just happens to be inside a bar.  So our kids got their first (and hopefully only) bar experience when we took them out to lunch on a Saturday afternoon.  The food was great, but doesn't come close to the perfection of Oklahoma Joes.  I'm sure going to miss the BBQ perfection in Kansas City when we move.

In the month of May, there were only FOUR days when no rain fell.  You would think we live in the Pacific Northwest!  June has continued to be rainy, and we are all wondering when summer will finally arrive.  When the sun is shining, we get outside and enjoy the Vitamin D rays!

Life in the country is full of surprises.  We have an entire family of bunnies living in our yard, deer wander through the backyard daily, and this snapping turtle thinks our swampy grass is a great place to hang out.  

{notice the kids still wearing pajamas.  In the afternoon.  Summer is awesome.}

The pool is open again!!  We've gone swimming a few times when the sun decides to actually make an appearance.  The kids are thrilled I didn't force the to be on the swim team this year.  

Ryan has even joined us at the pool a couple times so he can get a break from the office!  Notice his attractive beard in this picture.  For a couple months, he embraced this backwoodsy look because it make everyone giggle.

May had a lot of dance.  A LOT.  There were all the practices for the competition team since Nationals is coming up soon.  There were all the extra practices for the recital that was held the beginning of June.  And there was this awards night, where Brynlie performed many times and was presented with the award for BEST KICKS.  All that hard work (and money . . . so much money . . .) is paying off!  Bryn comes alive on stage and absolutely loves everything about dancing.

My parents went to Lake Powell.  Without me.  So I stole a few photos of them off Facebook because their happiness makes me happy.  Plus they went fishing??  I'm glad that was documented or I would have never believed my parents could enjoy catching fish.

When it rains in Missouri, it pours.  

After one of the [many] storms we've had lately, my friend Jenn's yard looked like this:

I felt so awful for their family.  Their entire basement flooded with 6 1/2 feet of water and almost everything was ruined.  While cleaning up, we found this ruined picture that made us laugh.  If you can have a good day while cleaning mud and throwing all your possessions in a bonfire, then you are a saint.  Jen (purple shirt) and he husband, Steve (next to her), are two of the most positive people I've ever known.

OK, we staged this photo while spraying off some salvageable items with bleach.  The yellow shirts we all wore said "Mormon Helping Hands" on them.  I thought we might look a little silly and pertentious until I drove through their neighborhood and realized that most flooded houses had a church crew that were wearing similar shirts.

Some of the ruined items just broke my heart, so I sneaked them into my car to see if I could salvage anything.  I took her kid's blessing outfits to a dry cleaner (who was able to get them almost completely white again), I cleaned up many of their Christmas decorations (although I had to throw away many of them), and I literally cried when I saw her photo albums covered in mud, so I came up with a plan.

Christine jumped in to help that evening as we researched how to save the photos from being ruined with water and/or mold.  We cleaned off hundreds of photos, allowed them to dry, then put them in new albums.  

Being needed and having a project helped me put life in perspective and stop worrying about the many areas of life where I have no control.  I hate not having a detailed plan for our move.  I hate that our house hasn't sold on my timetable.  I hate trying to keep my house spotless while strangers constantly walk through our house and critique everything.  I hate being in limbo. 

But I have faith that everything will happen when the timing is best.  If Heavenly Father told me to prepare for a move to Utah, I need to trust that He is in charge of my life.  So I wait.  And clean.  And try not to scream.