Saturday, and it was also my birthday

My oldest three kids came back from church camp on Friday. By the end of this week I was TIRED. It's been a long time since I've been pregnant and had six kids 10 and under. Clearly it was back in my younger, more energetic days.

The energy I had during the second trimester has officially left the building.

But, despite it being my 37th birthday, I managed to pull it together and we all went to Grand Lake for the day with church family.

The kids had an awesome time!

They swam........

They cannon-balled.......

They stared blankly into the blue abiss, afraid to set foot........

They jet-skied....................

Then decided they were brave enough to go in after all......

And they slept all the way home.

I got a birthday pedicure from my sister in law, Cassandra. She works in a salon

and I got the full-foot-spa treatment. She gave me glittery purple princess toenails.

And Panda Express.

A purple, princess pedicure and Panda Express!

Try saying that five times fast!

It was a great day!

Monday Musings

At the dinner table...........


Me: "Travis, are you going to have a little brother or sister? Is there going to be a baby?"

Travis:  "A Puppy!"

Me: "No. A baby."

Travis: (Blank stare.)

Missions Trip to New Mexico

Last week Brittany, Tyler and 23 other teens and adults from our church went to Jicarillo Apache Indian Reservation  in New Mexico to do some house building.

They really enjoyed seeing how different the landscape is compared

to the Southeast and even Oklahoma.

I bet there are some coyotes somewhere howling

to this moon.

Oh! Don't step on the cactus!

Brittany and McKensie

They put on a carnival with games and face painting

in the evenings for the kids from the

reservation.

Tyler, Jack and my nephew, Devin

 

 

 

This is the base where they were laying concrete

to build a Hogan. They said sometimes up to four

families lived in a one room house this size.

Here is a hogan that they were helping to remodel.

It's roof had been damaged.

This is the church that hosted them. They slept in the sanctuary.

Brittany is part of the youth drama team and they performed several

skits for some evening services they did for the

people of the reservation.

Thursday was their last day. They went to Albequrque for the day and stayed

in a motel that evening before the 13 hour drive back on Friday.

This is the Gondola they took up the mountain, looking at Albequrque down below.

The whole group!

Overall they had a terrific time. They did lots of hard work, moving, mixing, and sifting tons of concrete, putting on a carnival, skits and church services and just showing the love of Jesus to those at the reservation.I'm so proud of them!

A Canada Unit Study

Every Friday for two hours in the afternoon we do some geography. This year we've been studying Canada.

I made a 13 week outline covering one province or territory per week with an activity for that week, related to that province if possible.


Here are some resources I had been collecting knowing eventually I wanted to do a Canada unit........

 

We checked everything else out from the library.

We started off with a map of Canada and each week labeled the province, capital and other various surrounding aread and landforms. We also labeled a map with the time zones and Native American groups.

Other things we covered were........

-Canadian National Anthem
-timeline of major Canada events
-french words and song "Alouette"
-french numbers 1-10
-flower, flag and bird for each province and territory
-other wildlife
-various worksheets from the Canada unit book
-history of food and types of food from Canada
-fun facts about Canada
-a history of logging
-books about the government, currency, imports/exports, etc.
-several library videos on the culture and history of Canada
-Canada map scavenger hunt

Then, we finished it off with a Canada meal!  We had.....

Brie en Croute

(I used pecans instead of almonds, omitted the parsley
 and put brown sugar on top
of the nuts and cheese. It turned out great!)

Poutine and Canadian Bacon

Fish and Shrimp

Wild Rice and Succotash

and...

Oh. Sweet. Deliciousness. Nanaimo Bars.

These are of the devil. I could not stop eating them!

Monday Musings

Thomas: "Mom, coyotes can hear really well. They don't even have to go like this...."

Rooty, Tooty, Fresh and Fruity

Tuesday I had to go in for my one hour glucose test. I had to take Bailey and Travis with me since David had taken the seven oldest to the lake. They stayed for two days and some of the kids caught their first fish! But....I missed it because I had decided to stay home with the little guys instead of running my pregnant self ragged trying to keep up with them at the lake in 95 degree weather.

Anyway, needless to say, I didn't pass. Well, I was actually borderline at 132 since my doctor goes by the 130 scale instead of the 140 scale. So, when I came in at 132 the nurse practitioner said that since I was borderline she would let me make the call to come in for the three hour test.

I was like, "Oh, please don't leave it up to me? How can I make that decision?" On the one hand, I don't want to take unnecessary risks with my unborn baby, and I know there are some sugar issues going on because 1) I DIDN'T pass the test and 2) there is serious emotional BREAKDOWN when I don't eat.

I decide to go on and take the three hour test. Which I did this morning.

I had something to eat at nine last night and had to fast until I got to the lab at 8:45. So by the time I drank the sugar coma in a cup it was nine.

Finally, after four blood draws, three in one arm and one in the other, looking like I have illegal recreational activities, and being forced to put up with The View on the lab TV, noon finally came so I could leave.

David came with me and right before I was done he got a phone call that he needed to run into work. I told him that he was taking me to IHOP, because, well, FOOD. And I had a Groupon.

The Groupon I got for free because last year I had bought four tickets to a childrens museum that ended up closing before we could use the tickets. So Groupon had refunded me the money which I used to snatch up the IHOP coupon, so it didn't cost me any more money. Score!

I'm adding this in, because why not include all the mundane minutia of this experience?

I went in with him to work because I had to sign something, but after about fifteen minutes there, I was starting to sweat and my hands were getting shaky.

I thought I was going to swoon and faint like Scarlet O'hara, except that I wasn't wearing a hoop skirt and frankly, my husband does give a .....

Well, anyway, we got out of there and headed to IHOP but it was 1:30 by the time my food actually arrived. So, after 16 hours with no food, I was about ready to eat the napkin.

Instead, I had four whole wheat pancakes with banana, two scrambled eggs, three sausages, three bacons and hash browns.

It was about the best food I've ever eaten.

And, praise God, the test results already came in and I passed!