Scary day

I took the pups in for their dew claws at 11am. We made an appointment to check Corde's hormone levels to see why she was so thin for later that day. She went from 147lbs pre-pregnacy to 106 the day she had them and in 3 days lost another 20lbs!! She was 82lbs today.

Took her back at 3pm and they saw the blood from her uterus and knew there was an infection. They ran it through and saw it was a massive infection and that she was lucky to be alive. They took her back for emergency surgery.

They weren't sure she would survive surgery with her weight as it was.

I left the office with out my girl and quite upset.

I just received word from her dr that she has made it through surgery. Although she is majorly medicated she is still trying to walk! They are very hopeful that she will make a full recovery. We will talk about bringing her home on Friday.

New puppies update....

Went to her vet today to give her the clean out shot and an overall assessment ect...

There really is still another puppy in there!! now we have to wait for that to come out too!! I don't think it will be alive but she isn't contracting still...

I will keep updating..

Well 2 hours after the the shot she finally produced her last puppy. This one was also not fully developed. So our very tired mamma dog can finally rest.

New Puppies!!!

What a day! Corde is exhausted and so am I.
(the details are mostly for my benefit so I have them saved somewhere)

Her temp dropped Saturday afternoon meaning we had 2-12 hrs before she began active labor. We had a b-day party for Joe's dad at 2! So we hauled her with us to Red Robin and I checked on her every 20 min. No puppies. Thank goodness my car was saved!

We chill at home the rest of the day hopeful they come soon. With Joe gone in Seattle I am not sleeping well so 930 rolled around and I was dead tired. I put the older girls in charge and went to sleep. At 11:30pm I woke up in a panic. Ran down stairs to find she was beginning!!!

3:35am her first puppy was born. It all went smooth and with out complication! She is a brindle and 23.56oz .

A short while later like 5 min (I was laying on the couch at this point) she came to the edge of the caged area whining. I went to her and saw blood. I had just figured it was from the placenta from the pup she had just had. I wish I had known better...

3 hrs later she delivered a full grown good size still born. It was her placenta that ruptured causing her to suffocate and delaying the birth. We both cried. It was a very sad moment.

At 6:50am a healthy girl came tearing out feet first. I helped her along and she is also a beautiful brindle and 21.84oz.

At 8:25 am a baby (no gender) came through who had stopped development quite some time ago. Corde was ok with this one.

8:37 a baby boy came literally climbing out. He is the biggest so far weighing in at 25 oz He is also brindle. I began thinking "I hope we get some other colors soon!!"

After I wrote this I went upstairs to find another puppy!! She was tired and hadn't started cleaning it. I thought we were going to loose her. I rubbed and rubbed and finally she screamed.
9:35am 22.72oz

They all came pretty much every hour after that.
F - 12:10pm 22.12oz
M - 1:45pm 21.87oz
M - 2:45pm 19.12oz
M - 3:19pm 22.22oz

At 3:19 we had 8 living and 2 that hadn't made it. She still looked too big. I felt around and felt another puppy. An hour later nothing. She just slept. No contractions nothing. I called the after hours vet. They said to watch her for another 20 min. If no contractions then bring her in.

So at 4:40 we were in the car. Got to the office and waited another 30 minutes!!! Finally the dr comes in. She immediately starts grilling me on how thin Corde is and saying how we should do all these tests ect... like I am negligent. I tell her I have already discussed my concerns about her weight with HER dr and they were going to run blood tests after she had the puppies. UGH!

They do the x-ray and she says it showed 3 more puppies!! They also wanted me to run a blood panel on her in case her levels were off ect... At this point I had had 4 hrs of sleep in the last 48 hrs. I called Joe he said to wait. I was concerned about how skinny she was and how she had dropped so much and so fast. He said to call our friend who breed dogs. She suggested that they give her a calcium shot and see if that helps induce that labor and help her with her energy. But also that the dr is correct in being concerned.

The vet was concerned not knowing my dogs history ect that she could kill her if she did that. I think they just wanted me to pay out the nose... I finally gave in. Of course all her tests came back normal. They gave her a shot of pit to induce labor and sent us on our way. ( I wasn't going to pay more for the dr to not watch her like a hawk) We get half way home and she has a pup in the car! I was in the left lane going straight at a red light. As soon as I heard her licking I gunned it through the light and turned right in front of the guy next to me and stopped the car got out and tried to save it. I think this puppy was dead before he was born.

We made it home and finally at 8pm she had another pup. He was hard to get out. He will be the largest of the litter when he is grown. 23.21oz. He wasn't breathing but was trying. I worked on him for 30 min when finally he cried out. That was the sweetest sound in the world. I want to keep him.

I waited til 11:30pm for the last pup. None came so I called it a very long day and went to bed until it was time to feed them again. We are keeping them separated to sleep so she doesn't accidentally squish them.

Last day in NYC (Day 10)

Today was going to be a great day!!!

The forecast was for 65! In NYC!! We stepped out and it was cold so we figured it would be best to bring our coats. WRONG!

We we late meeting our friends the Johnsons in Central Park for brunch. But it was all good. It gave us a great table!! We had brunch at The Boathouse. Yes the one from 27 Dresses!!! I love going to places from movies I love. The food was sooooooo good!!!

We made our way to see FAO Schwartz and then onto Chinatown. I shouldn't have worn my black boots... I had anticipated sitting more... It got REALLY warm and humid. We had to haul around our coats ALL day. We did tons of window shopping in Chinatown. I was hoping to find pearl earrings but no luck... We had such a great time visiting with them. It had been nearly 7 yrs since they moved back east. After Chinatown we had to say good buy to the Johnsons. They had to get back to their son's awards night. We headed for Ground Zero. Here's how the night SHOULD have gone...

Ground zero then heading over to the Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty in the day light/sunset then catch it at night on the way back seeing some of Staten Island inbetween and Manhattan all lit up. Once back in Manhatten meet up with my friend Phoebe from 4th grade for dinner and then catch a late night show of some sort or dessert somewhere then head back to the hotel.

Here's what really happened. Saw Ground Zero then decided to high tail it up to see Wicked on the lottery. We raced and went the wrong way on 51st then had to turn around and race to get in the lottery in time(all this time in heels) only to find the play just getting out! It was an early show on Sunday! My feet were dead. I was sad we missed both the ferry and the show. My phone died so I couldn't call Phoebe. We had dinner at Heartland which was great!!! We headed home and found a place with yummy cheesecake. We got a piece to go and got on the train and called it a night...

At least now we have a reason to go back to NYC. To redo that night...

Now we are home with wonderful memories!

Sorrento, Rome , the air and NYC (Days 7,8 & 9)

We had free time in Sorrento until 2pm. We walked through the shops on the main street then found our way onto the back streets.

I am SOOOOOOOOO glad we did!!! I found shoe stores!!! Happy shoes stores!!! We also found some last minute gifts for those we had not found the perfect gift for. But mostly it was all about the shoes!!! Well and all teh other things I had found for me. I had done very little shopping for myself. A pair of gloves in Rome and a necklace and bracelet in Capri.

I saw these ADORRABLE boots but at 89 Eruo.. I walked away. We found another store and I found these way cute heels. They were hand made Italian leather and they were half off!! 30 Euro! Since I was sure I wasn't going to find another pair I snagged them. I LOVE them!!!

We continued shopping. I bought a bag of Italian chocolates, earrings, a Christmas ornament, lacy boy shorts and the boots!!!!!!!!!!
Joe made me try them on and that was it. I was in love. They are changeable with cable knit on the inside that can be rolled down to any point or they can be all the way up and be knee highs!

We headed back to the hotel and stopped for lunch. On the way we stumbled upon these old ruins of Sorrento! To look down gave us vertigo! They were way cool!! We got back to the hotel for the group picture and loaded the buses to go back to Rome to head home.

Once in Rome a large group of us decided to go into the little beach town for dinner. We loaded the bus and scared the driver I think... Joe explained to him in his broken Italian that we were looking for a good place to eat. The driver called his son who spoke English and they recommended a place and the driver went out of his way to drop us there. We all tried to tip him but he wouldn't hear of it! We all arrived at the restaurant but it wasn't open for dinner yet so everyone left!!! Joe and I decided to return. We were SOOOOOOOOOO glad we did!!! The atmosphere was great. Very romantic. The food was fantastic! A guy came inside selling roses. Joe bought one! (I saved it) Dessert was the best tiramisu I have had!!! We meandered through the little town and found our way back to the bus stop where others had gathered. We went back to the hotel to repack all our bags so they would fit everything for the international flight.

We woke bright and early then sat in the airport FOREVER. Our plane was an hour late taking off. It wasn't late arriving. It sat there as long as we had sat there... 10 hrs later(and 4 hrs of sleep in flight) we landed in NYC. We got a cab to our hotel and we got ready for a night on the town. I felt great until we sat down to eat. Thats when the jet lag hit me. I felt dizzy and REALLY tired. We ate but went right back to the hotel where I crashed.

Isle of Capri!! (Day 6)

We woke up early for Capri. 5 am to be exact... And NOT because we had to.... Riina had told Paul (my regional manager) of the dinner story and how she wanted to get him back. Paul suggested an early wake up call and proceeded to the desk to ask for one! Thus at 5 am the phone rang.

We sort of went back to sleep. Got up in time to rush up for breakfast and get on the bus to get on the boat. Then we waited around for the boat....

Capri was worth it!!! What a beautiful island!! Our new guide Gino was awesome! He was fun and just great!

We started out on a quick bus tour to the city of Capri. The roads are so narrow that the passing cars nearly touched! We walked through Capri to some beautiful gardens which are part of a monastery there. On the way we saw THE hotel of Capri where the elite suite (which had its own swimming pool) was 2600 Euro PER NIGHT! INSANE!
The view of the cliffs and ocean were amazing (there aren't enough "cool" words to describe Italy)
There was a road that leads to the beach. I was glad I didn't have to make that road. (go see the pic)
We then had some free time to do what we wished. On the way back through the city I found a cat! He was noisy and was happy to be getting some attention.

We got back on the bus and headed up the island to AniCapri (Upper Capri) Where we had more free time. We wandered in and out of shops hoping to still yet find me some shoes. No luck. But I did find a gorgeous knee length leather jacket to die for!! I wish I had bought it but it was 150 Euro... We asked a shop keeper where to have lunch and we were directed to a little place up the hill. We found 2 of our group also there so we sat with them. They had sat with us and Riina and Justin the night before at dinner. We got to know them better and had the most fabulous meal!
It was time to head back down to the pier for those who wanted to go on the boat tours. We chose not to and spent the time wandering the shops along the pier. We wish we had rented a scooter and rode around the island.... it looked ominous so we didn't. It ended up being a beautiful day and a missed opportunity. We ran into Justin and Riina who had found the most wonderful chocolate treat EVER invented! I have no idea what it is but I wanted to buy the whole platter and take it all home.

We all piled on to the dock to await the boat. Then chaos struck. A goods ferry was leaving port and last minute trucks were driving down the dock to get on. This would have been all well and good except there were close to 300-400 PEOPLE standing on the dock at the time!!! We all had to back up against the wall or fear being pushed into the water! It was crazy! I got some good pics of Joe freaking out!

Once we were back in Sorrento we cleaned up and headed to the farewell dinner. It started out simple.... appetizer samplers of cheese stuffed eggplant, fried zucchini straws, potato crochettes, and rice balls. The offered 2nds to those who wanted it. Then came pasta. Ravioli and manicotti. It was all very good too! We were all prepared for dessert when out came sausage and spinach. MORE FOOD!!! Finally dessert arrived. Through all this a poor, sad lived man wandered through and played all the cliche Italian songs us American's associate with Italy. He serenaded a few and finally left.

We headed back to pack to go back to Rome the next day. The staff was ill prepared for my husband as were all in our group... We entered the lobby and headed for the elevator. It was full so I waited. Then the look of shock was on all those in the elevator as I found myself being hurled towards them! Joe had pushed me into the elevator. He then followed me in and the lady at the desk was yelling at us as the doors closed. I heard someone say tilt... The elevator didn't move. The doors wouldn't open. We just sat there. Finally it moved and we went to the basement. Floor -1 Joe got out. Still the elevator didn't move. Justin got out. The elevator didn't move. We all got out and were met by one of the staff and directed on how to get back up. LOL!!! He will never live it down...

More Rome then onto Napoli, Pompeii and Sorrento! (Days 4 & 5)

We have been having SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun we have not had time to update the blog!!!! We only get internet in one room of the ENTIRE hotel so we run out of battery!

Day 4
Rome It was another free day! We saw TONS!!!!!
-The Mouth of Truth
-The area of Trastevere
-The Sistine Chapel
(just to name the highlights)

We began our day with the hopes of me finding shoes as we wandered the streets of Trastevere. We stopped just before the bridge to Trastevere so we could go to the church of Santa Maria where the Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth) is home to. And no D - we did not re-enact Roman Holiday... there is a time and photo limit to keep the line moving and a guy there to make sure...
We crossed the river and saw some cool ruins which were part of Tiber Island. We made our way through Trastevere. Beautiful area!! We saw a cool fountain and went to take a picture if it with Katya's horse. We were stopped by some guys who were clearly NOT sober. They were really nice and wanted to talk soccer with Joe as he was wearing the wrong kind of jersey for their liking. They wanted us to come back at 2 to smoke some dope! lol! We told them our religion so they invited us back to have drinks. lol! Yah we didn't find them again. We went into a bunch of stores adn stopped at all the street vendors. No shoes... got some cute tights though! Tried one last store. It was a department type store and found these cute gray heels for 7.50 Euro! We looked around a bit more. Went to check out and the lady rung them up then said oh I'm sorry wrong price and she rung them up full price! Now had the tag been shoved in the shoe I would not have objected but it was attached to the security tag! The manager came out and said the same thing so I left them. Sad huh?! We had lunch (more pizza) one had anchovies hidden by zucchini flowers! GROSS! We got more gelato to take the yuck out of our mouth and bumped into more friends from our group! We left them and made our way to the Vatican. We got off the bus and promptly went the wrong way to the Sistine Chapel. Turned around and went the right way. After an hour or so of wandering the surrounding buildings (not by choice) which were filled with the most amazing art work of paintings, stone ect... we found ourselves inside the Sistine Chapel. It was so much to take in! We starred at all the paintings of the stories from the Bible. It was crazy! To think someone laid on their back to paint all of them... it was... yah.... We made our way through the maze the other way and headed outside. I had wanted to make it to St Peters Bascilla but it was getting late and I wasn't sure we would make it. Plus there was a pyramid to see too! We went to find a bus ticket. No luck. We wandered 2 blocks and finally found one. As we made our way back to the stop our bus passed us. We figured no big. We had been taking the buses and there is always another near by. 30 MINUTES LATER our bus comes again! Needless to say we didn't see the pyramid. We headed back to town to finish the souvenir shopping we had begun the day before. We stopped to have dinner at an outdoor seated restaurant. We were placed next to an older German couple. We had a great time talking about traveling ect.. Dinner was yet again wonderful. We walked slowly back to the hotel to take in more of the sites at night and to delay the packing of the bags... We came to a square where each corner of the buildings on each corner had a huge carving. They were beautiful!

Day 5
We headed south to Sorrento going through Napoli (Naples) and Pompeii. The country side is so beautiful! You see villages far of on the rolling hillsides in the colored stucco everywhere. Our tour guide had a really thick accent and apparently never bothered to find out how English words were really pronounced. She would speak them how they would phonetically sound. So not only did we need to translate that but it was heavily accented too! It was hard to take in what information she was offering. Once in Napoli CRAZY took on a whole new meaning! There were cars and people everywhere you looked just going. Not really watching where they were going but somehow no one was dying! Roads that in the US would be for 2 cars were filled with 6 plus scooters! The lights (we were told) were more like guidelines. You only stopped if you had to. We were headed to the capitol center when we were stopped by a political demonstration! We were redirected and missed capitol center... We climbed the hillside and stopped for a picturesque view of Napoli. It looked just like a travel magazine!

We made our way back down and headed to Pompeii. There we saw the ruins from 79 AD. 79AD!!! It was unreal!*Taken from Wikipedia - Pompeii is a ruined and partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples. Pompeii was destroyed, and completely buried, during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in 79 AD. The volcano collapsed higher roof-lines and buried Pompeii under 60 feet of ash and pumice, and it was lost for nearly 1,700 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1748. Since then, its excavation has provided an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city at the height of the Roman Empire.*
Go see the pictures! Truely amazing. Actual hollowed out molds of real people were discovered and plaster was poured in to make replicas of how people were when they died.

We finished heading south, got to our hotel and it is amazing! We have an ocean front view!!!!!!!!!! So beautiful!!!!!! Because we filled their hotel they thanked us by a free welcome dinner that night. They served fish... luckily we were sitting with our friends Riina and Justin and he doesn't eat fish either. So they special made us pork! The staff at this hotel were so wonderful and accommodating.

Joe was getting more bold in our friendship with Justin and Riina. Riina was an exchange student from Finland. She returned and married her host brother. They divorced years later and she is now dating Justin. She is 3 yrs older then him. He asked Justin - "So how long have you been interested in older European women Justin?" Riina gasped and immediately threw her napkin then her fork at Joe!!! It was great!!!! We sat and talked with them the rest of the evening. She vowed to get him back at the end of the night.

Italy!!!! (Days 2 & 3 of our trip)

It is SOOOOOOOOOOO amazing here!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even describe how great it is!!!!!
( I have added albums of our days - TONS of pics! Just skim or look at them all if you want!)

I love how Joe has described the first part of our time here.

November 7, 2009
Got up and packed and took the trains to the airport. That was quite a chore. Sat around the airport for like 4 hours. Did a lot of reading and listening to my Italian tapes. Then some old Turkish woman who looked just like an old Russian Babooshka came and asked to use our cell phone. She wanted to make a call to Turkey. She didn’t speak a lick of English. I finally communicated to her that it cost too much money for me to call Turkey on my cell phone, and she went away, lol. The flight to Italy was quite long. Jen slept ok, but I maybe got in 30 minutes of sleep. I mostly read and listened to my Italian tape.

November 8, 2009
Arrived in Italy about 7am local time. We found our tour bus, but they only had 1 bus and were expecting 50 ppl, but we needed 2 busses as we had 90 ppl. So we sat around the airport for like 2 hours waiting for our second group to arrive and the tour ppl to get their stuff straightened out. When we all finally got on the bus we were missing 1 person. Turns out it was someone whose bags got lost, so when we couldn’t find her we just left. Poor Girl. The busses took us to our hotel, but the rooms weren’t ready so we unloaded all our bags into 2 rooms. One of the guys had to argue with the cleaning woman about how she couldn’t clean the room with all our bags in there. Then we got on the bus, with no time for lunch, and headed out. This was about 11am local time. So many ppl were tired and sleeping during the tour. We got out several times. We walked around the coliseum, and walked by a soccer field that was all dirt and mud and pools of water from all the recent rain, but ppl were still playing on it. These adult teams with some pretty old ppl playing too. That was really funny. Then we got out at the Vatican and saw the front of St. Peter’s Basillica. Then got out one last time to look at some square, I forget the name. Then they dropped us off at our hotel, and we took our bags to our room then went out and explored Rome. That was way cool. We went and saw this church down the street, then I bought Jen an orange rose from a roadside florist. On the way to the church we stopped at a bakery and Jen got a truffle. Then we wandered up to this other church but didn’t go in, saw the Laundromat, then back to our hotel. I got in another 30 min nap then we went to dinner. We sat with Paul and Sarah which was fun, and had a great dinner. Bread, soup (minestrone kind of), mashed potatos and meatballs with peas. Then this weird dessert in a shot glass. Some kind of custard. Jen says she thinks that the alcohol wasn’t totally burned off because she felt a little tipsy. I didn’t taste any alcohol in it. After dinner we went back and took a bath. The towels smelled like vinegar, and they weren’t incredibly absorbent. The toilet is like a 5 gallon per flush thing that splashes when you flush. And the beds are about like box springs. But with the windows open we can hear Rome, which is all scooters and crazy European sounding police sirens and cars driving by. It’s so awesome to listen to.

Day 2
The flight was pretty uneventful. I got some decent sleep and felt great when we got to Italy. We got to the airport and had to wait for the other group. We loaded the buses and headed to our hotel in Rome. Once there we dumped all our crap into 2 rooms and headed out to see parts of Rome. We started out on a bus tour of Italy since the rooms weren't ready yet. We saw all the major points(The Colosseum, Arch of Constantine, Santa Maria Maggiore, Altare della Patria, St Angelos Castel, St Peters Square at the Vatican and Piazza Navona) and made notes of what we wanted to make sure we saw better with our free days. Once the hotel was ready for our group we took our stuff to our room and we headed out to see Rome on foot. We saw some beautiful churches and were able to actually witness a baby christening!!! That was pretty cool. Found a yummy bakery and had this great chocolate treat. Have no clue what it was called but I want one again! We had to head back to the hotel for dinner where we stayed till they kicked us out of the dining room.

The next day(Day 3) was a free day in Rome!!! We just wandered all day! Some of the best things were
-Trevi Fountain
-The Spanish Steps
-The Pantheon
-Basilica di San Giovanni
-All the things we saw the day before only at night!!!
-Tons of soccer stores
-Great food
-GELATO!!!!!!!!!!

We bumped into a couple in our group Riina and Junstin. They are from Colorado. We had lunch with them and enjoyed a few of the sites then split into our own directions. I had hoped to find them at the Pantheon so we could get gelato together bit we didn't see them. We did quite a bit of shopping at the shops for soccer jersey's. I think Joe found 5!!! (I'm keeping a tally for my shoe revenge) It rained off and on all day. It wasn't too cold so it was pleasant I guess... We wandered the streets of Rome as night fell. We found our selves in front of the Colosseum with all teh lights glowing. It was breathtaking. We walked around that whole area again seeing all the buildings lit up. We found the restaurant that a student had blogged about. It was perfect!! It reminded me of what JP's would be like if they were in Rome 20 yrs in the future. It felt like home. The food was excellent and we told everyone about it when we came back.

ITALY Here we come!!!!!!!!! (Day 1)

So with all the craziness of getting ready for our trip I completely forgot to do a blog about Cali!! Not to mention the first snow AND Halloween! I will add them on the airplane and post it when we get to Italy.

For now I will update on our trip so far.

We headed out Thursday morning for NYC! We have had a blast!!!!

Thursday we got to our hotel later then we had wanted to and got settled. We decided to stay local and have dinner at the Pine which is adjacent to the hotel. AMAZING FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We then went back to the room to watch the REAL kick Ohio's butt!!! It was an awesome game!!!!

Friday we had a leisurely start and spent the entire morning walking Central Park! What a great way to spend the day! We had lunch from a side walk stand and later on hot chocolate (which I promptly burnt my tongue on...)

After we saw all we wanted to see of Central Park we headed to the 5th Ave area and did some shopping. Got the kids great gifts and I got a new vest! I LOVE it!!!

We headed to Times Square did the whole site seeing thing and had dinner at Chevys. Not fancy but delish!

Now we just finished repacking so we can head to Italy!!! We are SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited!!!

Enjoy the slide show!

Bear Lake

For this years choir tour we decided to make it way low key and way fun. Usually we go somewhere far and exotic (Caribbean cruise, Hawaii, ect...) This year we stayed in a couple homes up at Bear Lake. The original plan was for me and Joe to take the motorcycle up there but when we found out Zi-hyun and Anja would be with us and that Zi-hyun would not be going with us to Cali we decided that the girls should go with me.

We had a BLAST!!!!!!!!!!!

We headed up and stopped at the spring up Logan Canyon. We met the rest of the choir and gang at the Pickleville Playhouse where we had a fantastic dinner and watched an amazing cast put on Annie Get Your Gun. It was awesome!!! One of the leads is my brother Bradley's best friend so my parents and Brad and his wife Janelle met us up there too!




We stayed the night with my family in some of Janelle's families cabins then spent the next morning with them at the lake. At lunch we said goodbye and headed to where the choir had a spot at the North Shore.




We got there just in time to eat and play! Anja and Zi-hyun took the canoes out for a while then we all piled in Shauna and Rusty's boat and had our turn on the 3-man inner tube. THAT was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUN!!!!!!! I wish someone had gotten pics!



As we were packing up to head back to the cabin to make dinner we decided to make a potty run. The car got stuck in the sand!!! Laron and Jim had to come and help pull me out. Again no pics... :( it was pretty funny though!

Once we were back at the cabin a began to prepare for dinner. I was in charge of that nights dinner to feed ALL of us. As I got the chicken going I went to locate the rest of the ingredients only to find that they had been left behind, at home, in my garage!!!! We all silently prayed as Kathy and Jen ran to the ONLY store that they would have ingredients that would work. The returned triumphant much to everyone's astonishment. The store had exactly what we needed in the exact quantities we needed! Dinner was delicious!


Dessert was cobbler and it was heavenly! While it was busy cooking in the dutch ovens we had bells playing and a mean game of Apples to Apples going.

It was a great night!!!

Sunday we woke and went to the church in the area to sing for their meeting. It was awesome and they were all so impressed that they have asked us to come and perform in the Paris, Id Tabernacle concert series! After church we headed back to clean and pack and head home.

Us girls stopped at a market to get our raspberry shakes. They were way yummy!

WE stopped at the Ut Id border for a photo op when we heard someone on a bullhorn talking to us. We looked around and saw it was a cop! He wanted to know if we wanted him to take our picture!! It was so awesome!!!



We made it home, unpacked, washed and packed again so we could leave in the morning for Cali!

Brynn's 7th Birthday!

Brynn wanted a Hawaiian birthday. I found this WAY cute idea for cupcakes but for weeks could not find the things I needed for it.

They day of I still hadn't. I took Anja with me and we went to the stores to try and locate said items. No luck... so we improvised. We made up an entirely different cake and it was just as good!




We started out by listening to Hawaiian music and the kids just danced and played. Once everyone arrived they all went for a swim. I lowered the hot tub temp so it was perfect for swimming and playing in on a REALLY hot day.



After the kids were exhausted and starving we made fruit kabobs. The kids had a blast making those and eating all the fruit. Then cake and hawaiian ice creams (thery were in REAL fruit shells!)



More swimming then presents then everyone got to go home.



It was a great party!

Time Flies...

...When your life is INSANE!!

I can't believe it has been over 2 months since I last blogged!!! As usual it has been crazy in the Eames house.

The kids have been super busy with soccer and dance and school. They are now all in this years Christmas show at the OBT. X-MAS MEN!!

Katya - began Irish dance lessons and loves it! She is doing well in school and has been chosen to participate in a talented and gifted program for those with high reading and English scores. She is really excited!

Taylor - is LOVING being goalie. She loves her soccer team and has also been taking private futsal (footworking tricks) lessons. Tay also got glasses! Not sure where my kids are getting it... Joe and I both don't have glasses. Well just 4 days after she got them she was reffing a tether ball game (she couldn't play as she had broken her thumb playing tether ball just the day before) She got whacked in the head with the tether ball and her glasses broke! *sigh*

Brynn - is just plugging along. She hasn't found anything besides acting that she really enjoys doing. Except torturing her brother. She is doing well in school and really likes 2nd grade.

Ryan - is finally done with soccer! Woo hoo! Tuesdays were killing me! He is really excited to be in the play with "real X-Men"

Since my last blog this is what has happened.

• I placed my last student!!!!!!! We're going to ITALY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
• B-day party for Isaac Platt in Sugar house
• G-pa Eames took the kids to teach them to golf and we lost Katya
• Anja came and we had SOOOOOOOOOO much fun with her!
• All my foreign students arrived
• Celebrated part of Brynn's b-day at the OBT (her party will have a blog)
• Took Anja and Zi-hyun to Bear Lake with me for the choir trip(look for its own blog too!)
• We all (except zi-hyun :( ) went to Las Vegas and California and had a BLAST!!!!!! (separate blog)
  
• Anja and I went to the Great Salt Lake for sunset
• We had Zi-hyun's birthday at a Korean restaurant
• One of my students ran away back to Thailand
• We also celebrated G-ma Eames b-day and Anja's b-day and Zi-hyun's with the rest of the family
• I took the exchange students to Park City. They LOVED the Alpine slide!
• Celebrated my sister Melissa's b-day
• Took the kids to the zoo again this time with G-ma Eames
• Canned 10lbs of chicken and some pears
  
• Made Halloween gingerbread house
• Went with Ryan's class to the zoo
• Been looking up places to eat and see in NYC and Italy!
• Joe and I went on a diet for 11 days. Lost 9 lbs! We are doing it again!

So been busy to say the least. Watch for the other blogs. They will have pictures

Another month has past

And the Eames have stayed busy. What else is new right?!

Ryan turned 5 on July 2nd! He will start Kindergarten This week!!!

We had Ryan's Ben 10 party. I had all these great plans and then it RAINED! Right as the party started of course.... so I had to superhumanly fast put up the walls to the gazebo and move everything else inside. It was crazy but the kids all had fun!


We never made it camping. Too many other things going on and schedules just didn't match up with our friends.

We spent the 4th at Riverton Days. It was a very nice relaxing day and we just did what ever we felt like! On Sunday we had Ryan's and my brother Steven's family party. We had such a great time!!! We BBQ'd and just sat and ate and talked then opened presents. After, we made a fire and made s'mores til it was dark and then did fireworks. The kids had a blast! I love how my family is growing and my kids have all these cousins!

Ryan went to the Instacare AGAIN.... this time he was "quietly" eating his PB&J sandwich while I was in the shower. Next thing I know I have a million screaming girls telling me Ryan's head is bleeding. SO I get out and throw on my robe, come down the stairs to find him laying in a tiny puddle of blood with a gaping gash in the back of his head. He was rocking back in the chair, it fell out from under him and he hit his head on the back. 3 staples in his head and a Popsicle and sno cone later all was well.

Joe's office had thier summer BBQ. We had great food and played a wild game of wiffle ball.

I went to my sister Sarah's band camp concert. I love going up to East Canyon every year to hear them. It amazes me how little time they have to rehearse but it sounds as though they had rehearsed for months! I got home just in time to go out for girls night at Chili's. I love my friends... I got another girls night for Joelle's b-day the next day too!!! Saw the Proposal! LOVED it!!! Definitely buying that one!!!!

We went up to Logan on the 19th for my newest nephew's baby blessing. We almost didn't make it but I am so glad it all worked out and that we got to go. It was so good to see family and be there for Brad and Janelle.

I took the kids to the zoo and we met our friends Joelle and her son Kaleb there. It was so much fun!! We had a great time just seeing what we wanted to see and let the kids just do whatever. No agenda. It was nice.

Well it has been a week since I began this post.... Will life EVER slow down?!

My niece Leah celebrated her 4th birthday at Chuck E Cheese then back to my sister's house where the rest of the family joined us for cake and ice cream.

We FINALLY made it to the Oquirrh Mtn Temple open house. It was so wonderful to take the kids there and to tell them of special ordinances they will get to participate in soon. The temple is so beautiful inside. Def in my top 10!

We are teaching RY to ride a 2-wheeler w/o training wheels. It is going well but as to be expected is full if crashes and tears. He will get it I just know it!

Last weekend Joe and I went on a much needed reprieve. We took the motorcycle up to Park City for 3 days and rode all over the Heber Valley. It was so beautiful and relaxing. I needed the break. We had a wonderful time reconnecting after the crazy last few months we have had.

In amongst all of that I found time to place 2 more kids bringing my total to 10. 1 more and we go to ITALY!!!!!!!!! To help that along I went to Cedar City over Pioneer day with other CETUSA coordinators to find a few more host families and finish filling the schools down there. It was a fun trip and I met a ton of great people. If you have any connections down that way let me know!

Marina is from Spain. She will be with a remarkable retired couple in their beautiful home in Fruit Heights.






Maria is from Brazil and will be in Midway with the family of a Spanish teacher at Park City High.

We picked up Zi-Hyun from the airport and have begun to get her all settled for college at SLCC. We are excited to have her home!

Ryan began Kindergarten!!!! He is so excited to be at school and looked so grown up all ready to go. He is in Mrs Cleggs class and has friends there already! He got to go to school on the motorcycle with Dad. (I was at SLCC with Zi-Hyun at her Orientation.) We are on B Track this year. Katya is in 6th grade and has Mr Stirland. She really likes him. Taylor is in 5th and has Mrs Bowser. Tay is happy with her teacher so far. Brynn is in 2nd and has Ms Peterson. She says she is really nice. Eventually I will get a free min to meet with them. I was working the Kenney Chesney concert on Back to School night. I think this year will be a great year! All 4 are in school together. Its exciting!!!!

My exchange students have begun to arrive. Most of them will be here this next week with 4 arriving on Saturday! I am really excited to see what this year will bring as I include all these kids in my life.

My choir has begun rehearsals again. We will go on our local tour this year to Bear Lake. We will perform a couple times up there in various places, see Annie Get Your Gun at the Pickleville Playhouse and play on the lake.

Anja arrives this week to be with us for a month. We will go on vacation over Labor Day week. Sadly by the rules of Zi-Hyun's visa she will not be able to come with us on our vacation. We are sad that she can't come...

So life is ever still crazy but we are enjoying every minute of it!!!