Wading Pool, Hair Cuts, and Slurpees

Evelyn knows about Slurpees. She knows. I got her one after a short(ish) trip to Home Depot since 7-11 shares the same parking lot. Now she begs for them, every. single. day. Slurpees take me back to my college days with Miekka as my roommate. We often sought out slurpees on those days we were hot and bothered. Something about an ice cold lemonade slurpee that made it all better. Saturday I treated all the kids to their first slurpee. They are converted. Deliciousness is part of our life and only a mile away. 

Phillip gives the most thoughtful prayers I've ever heard a child utter. He has the sincerity, the empathy, and insight of a much older child. Monday he prayed that all the younglings would get baptized at 8 years old just like him. He prayed that all those in Satan's grasp would return to Jesus and make better choices. After his prayer we had a discussion about those who follow Satan. He wanted to know if I knew anyone personally. I listed off a few folks I know. He came back and said, well...at least Uncle Jared is serving a mission. I had to correct him, that Jared was still not ready to leave on his mission, that he still needed to make some life changes. Phillip immediately started bawling, huge tears tracking down his cheeks. He was certain Jared was following Satan. Nothing I said or did would console him. We called Jared right then and there. Jared heard the story about why Phillip was crying. Jared was able to finally get Phillip to stop crying. I am not sure that Jared knows how big of an impression he makes on his nieces and nephews. Jared told Phillip there is still hope for a mission and he is working hard to realize that goal. 

Phillip is working hard to earn his Bobcat award. He loved pack meeting this week. The pack invited a police man to come and talk about his line of work, show off his equipment, and radio his contact at head base. It was all very exciting. We all attended the meeting just because it sounded cool to learn about a real live policeman. I think it's cute that Phillip calls himself a scrub scout! Phillip was challenged by the Dr to stay dry at night. He has a calendar to mark wet or dry each night. I moved him to the bottom bunk since waking him at night is almost impossible, crawling up into the top bunk was also waking up Everett. So far he has marked 3-4 dry nights out of 10! Progress is progress. 

I ordered a wading pool off Amazon this past week. The kids came home on Tuesday to find a lovely pool of water waiting for them. Clothes littered the floor as the kids rushed to swim. The older kids soon had a veritable whirlpool going as they swam in a large circle. The pool kept them busy and entertained for the rest of the days that week. The little girls quite enjoyed swimming during the day while I worked on weeding the rocks. We had a couple days this week where the high was under 90! It felt like fall...who knew that 90 degrees could feel like fall. I took advantage of my newly tuned up bike this week. We explored our neighborhood after sending the older kids off to school. Discovered how close we are to Freestone Park! The first time we happened on it the girls were more than happy to take a break and play. Since then we've stopped there 4-5 times during our morning rides. 

Our ward is heavily involved in a year long service project for Project Humanity. One project the RS is heading up is making freezer meals for families with special needs children. Every Tuesday and Thursday groups of ladies meet at someone's home, bring recipe ingredients, then we put the meals together. I hear we've made about 60 meals to deliver around to anyone with a need. I helped out at the Godard's house to make chicken divan casserole. I totally forgot about that recipe, it smelled and tasted so good as we prepared it. Jacob Godard was home from school, he happily amused the girls while I helped. One sister served a couple's mission to the Azores islands a couple years ago. We enjoyed talking about Portugal! I made the same casserole last night for dinner! Yum. Sister Godard added chard to hers, it was divine, gave the casserole a little crunch and tang. 

Saturday morning the kids had practice for their Primary Program at 9 am. Justin and I dropped them off then went to pick up a shelf I found on a FB sale page. The lady was away from her phone so we visited Home Depot for garden gloves, weed spray, and citrus tree food. Once at the pick up location she mentioned the two large shelves were also for sale. We bought those instead of the dinky one I originally promised to buy. Score! The two shelves are large, heavy, and perfect. We went home without the shelves since there was no way to fit them in the van. I picked up the kids while Justin picked up the shelves. We went out a post-Primary program slurpee run! The kids were ecstatic to pick their own flavors and mix them up. Took some muscle to move the shelves and all the stuff in the way. I spent a couple of hours moving stuff around in the garage. The kids all got hair cuts around 3 pm. Amelia requested short hair, she chopped off a good 6 inches of hair! Her new style looks to cute and flirty. We have a hair dresser in our ward who offers $7.50 kid hair cuts at her new salon. Pretty good deal! Amelia and I headed to Women's Conference at 5 pm. We watched and listened to the speakers. I loved having Amelia tucked in next to me, loved smoothing her glossy hair. I loved Sister Eubank's remarks to be articulate in our beliefs and SHARE them! President Uchtdorf said when worries about what you think others think of you the remedy is to "Remember who you are!" After conference Mia and I found a french fry restaurant serving french fries with gravy and squeaky cheese. Sounded strange and good at the same time. It was in a strip mall next to Target. Mia ordered the cheesy bacon fries, she shared some with me. We topped off the evening singing songs in the van and eating Cold Stone ice cream.   

Sunday Justin went home teaching. This is momentous. He finally has a companion who will make appointments! Josie ate 3 pancakes for dinner and a bowl of yogurt. Not sure she actually ate the yogurt. Most of it ended up in her hair and on her face. She was miffed at me for taking photos of her while she was trying to tell me all about her mess. We are cracking up that she tries to say binky now. Her word sounds like banky, and sort of like stanky. She can also say shoe, my favorite word.