I am exhausted and ready for bed.  We have had a busy, but good day.   After church we went out to eat.  We haven't been able to that in a few months, so it was a nice treat.   THen we came home and tried to all take a nap.   Tommy couldn't fall asleep so after laying down for a while he got up.  I slept for about 1/2 hour.

Erik got grounded since he wasn't listening.   He had a tough day today, but then he had no sleep, so it is understandable.   He finally went to sleep and slept until supper time.   He really needed it.

Tommy helped me paint a board for the Bean bag toss.   I am working on making the carnival games for the blosk party.   The rest of the afternoon Tommy went to his play at his cousin's house.   They went swimming.   While Tommy was gone I worked on drawing the design on the board for the game and started painting it.   It is uncle Sam holding some ballons which is where the holes will be for the bean bag toss.  Josh is going to cut those for me.    I will finish it up later this week.  

Josh, Adam and Charlie have been hanging out at the house all day.  That is so nice!  I had started to miss having them all around everyday.  They are planning a camping trip.   5 guys want to go camping for two days by them selves.  I of course am way over protective and nervous about it.   And I told them there will absolutely be NO GIRLS there.  If I find out there was, they will be in trouble and I will be making some phone calls for sure.  I do feel I can trust Joshua.   He is growing up so and like hubby said I should let him go since in year he could move out and join the army.  So I guess he can handle camping without an adult.  I will call him on his cell of course and check in with them.  It is so hard for me to let him grow up....he is my baby. 

My SIL, BIL and family brought Tommy home and stayed for supper.  My SIL helped me paint some more on the game until it got too dark.    I jsut finished washing up the dishes and now I am going to fold my last load of laundry and head to bed.  

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Hotel Rwanda was a good movie....disturbing to say the least.   Somethings in life you just can't put your mind around since your life is so different.  I certainly take my safety for granted.  

Time to get ready for church...Erik's home from his sleepover, but asleep on the couch, he is tired.   But he will be going to church with us. 

Off to read for a while......Later!

AAAAAH......hubby is giving Tommy a bath so I have a few minutes to type and check email.   So nice of him!   We have had a busy evening.   I made homemade pizza for supper.   My niece Kristen came over to play.   Alston my neighbor Noah came to play with Tommy as well.  First we played in the wading pool.   Then we got dried off and into dry clothes and everyone had ice cream.  After Ice Cream it was outside to play in the sandbox and baseball.  Kristen went home shortly after that.  Tommy and Noah came inside and had juice boxes and scooby snacks while they watched Scooby Doo on TV.  Tommy loves Scooby Doo. 

Josh, Amy, Charlie and Charlie's GF went to the movie.  Erik was invited to sleep over at a neighbors house.  So it is quiet around here with only Tommy home this evening.  Erik has been doing so well socially for the last few weeks.  We are so happy about it...and Erik is much happier too.  I usually wouldn't let him sleep over when we are going to church in the morning, but about 5 boys were staying over and I didn't want him to miss out.  He really need the social opportunities.  So if he missed out this Sunday on church, I guess it will be ok. 

I love summer and I love all the children in and out of our house.  I hope my kids will have great memories of their childhood.  Erik told me the other day he was never leaving.  He was going to live with us forever.  I told him he had to move out by age 30, that is our limit.  LOL!!  Josh is in no hurry to leave either.....I am glad they are happy in their home. 

I don't know what I will ever do with out a house full of kids.   Well Tommy is done with his bath so I am going to go read him a few stories and get him into bed.  Hubby rented a movie from the library so would like to watch that before going to bed.  Good Night!   Hope you all had a great day!! 

WHEW!!  We are all done with errands for the weekend.  I am not leaving again today!  I went alone to get groceries at Aldi and Cub.   DId ok budget wise, but not as good as I would like.   I spent $91.00 for groceries for a little over a weeks worth of food.  But I did buy about $12.00 in hamburger.   I called the rest of the fam from the store and warned them I was coming home.  They were all out of bed to help carry in groceries, except for Erik.   They stayed up really late with the sleep over. 

Then all three boys went to run the last of the errands with hubby and I.  We went to the library.  The boys picked out the movie Taxi to watch.   I got two books to read....YEAH!!   The Shopaholic & Sister and The Great Husband Hunt.  I will let you know if they are any good.  Tommy got the complete 1st and 2nd season of Scooby Doo so he is in heaven!  

Then we hit Sam's for plates, instant breakfast and paper.  Hubby wants Erik to drink instant breakfsast since he is concerned about how skinny Erik is and the lack of eating he does sometimes.  So that will easily bump up his caloric intake for the day.  

After Sam's our hunt for shoes for Tommy continued.  We finally found a pair of nike mid-tops that seemed to provide the level of support he needs.   And they were on sale...so I was under my $40.00 budget for his shoes.  I have never ever spent that much on shoes for a little one, but I guess considering his extremely flat feet I better get used to it.   Erik and hubby both have flat feet as well, but not as bad a Tom's. 

Then it was off to get school supplies for Erik and Josh.   That was about 65.00.  Erik needed a $20.00 calculator this year.  The calculator for next year is $95.00 ARGH!!  I hope Erik can not lose it when we have to buy such an expensive one next year.   Josh is still using his we bought in 8th grade.  It is a graphing calculator.  This is where we are so lucky.  Erik will need alot of help with his math and stuff and Josh is very good at it.  SO Josh will be a big help in the next few years.   Josh is taking Calculus his year in school. 

I am very tired after all these errands I think I will lay down with Tommy and start one of my new books from the library.   Hope everyone is having a great Saturday!!

Quick hello before I get running with my day.   I have to get groceries this morning, library and run other errands.   So not too relaxing today.  I also have a fair amount of laundry to get done.

Last night Erik had a friend sleep over.   It went pretty good.  Erik gets so excited that is he so loud and yelling.  We had to ask him to quiet down afew times.  BUt at least he wasn't loud in the middle of night.   I am sure they were up all night playing games.   Summer will be over soon enough.  

We went to famous footwear last night but couldn't find any shoes for Tommy.  We will look at the mall today.   I am also planning on buy all of Erik's school supplies today.  I will take Josh with and he can pick out what he might need as well.  

TO DO:

Make Grocery List
Get Groceries - Aldi and Rainbow
Bread Thrift Store
Sam's Club - Paper Plates, Comp Paper, and Instant Breakfast
Mall - Shoes Tommy
Target - School Supplies, Bike Tubes
Library - Return Books/Movies
Laundry
Make Carnival Games for Block Party

Probably not going to get another book finished this month.  So this is what I have read in July and my ratings.

July

Drowning Ruth - Christinia Schwarz - 4/5

The Queen's Fool - Philippa Gregory - 4/5

Desert Flower - Waris Dirie - 3.5/5

The Covenant - Beverly Lewis - 2.5/5

Mrs Kimble - Jennifer Haigh  - 4/5

Rating Scale Used -(From the Bookies WebSite)
5 = Highly Recommended / Another "Classic."
4 = Recommended / A good read.
3 = Okay / An average book.
2 = Would Not Recommend / Less then satisfying.
1 = How did this get published? / Poor.

Tired, tired, tired......but it is my last day of work!   YEAH!   I have three meetings today so I will be out and about all day.   I am off to woodbury, than Lakeville and then St Paul.   All really fun families to visit so should be nice.   I hope to not even make it to the office today.   I will do the paperwork from these meetings on Monday. 

I tried to finish up paperwork last night about immunizations for Erik, but we don't ahve all the info.  Hopefully his mother can come up with the last dates I need.   He wasn't living with us when he has those shots so we don't ahve records.   Once we get these dates I will have complete records on immunizations for all three boys.   Time is ticking on Eriks since we can't pick up his schedule without the dates. 

This weekend we budgeted to take the boys school shopping.   We have Erik's supply list now so we will get all of that this weekend.   Tommy needs a new pair of tennis shoes. I have to buy him a more expensive pair, no more cheap Target tennies.  Which he will hate since the Target ones usually light up.   But the Dr said I had to buy better shoes since Tommy is very flat footed and it is causing his ankles to turn in and causing some trouble when he walks.  We are thinking of going with some high tops to hopefully help with his ankle turning in.   I am hoping to find a pair that meets the Dr's requirments at Famous Footwear for under $40.00, at least that was how much I budgeted.   We will see.....

I actually need to get groceeries this weekend.  I speny my day off with Erik during the week getting his braces so I didn't make it to the store.  I will hit Aldi tomorrow morning before we go to the library and buy school supplies and shoes. 

Well time to head to work....have a great day!

Just waiting for time to go to book group!   It has been a good day.  I got everything on my to do list done today!  Always a good feeling.   I even got two walks in today.  I just got back from my last walk.   It is so beautiful out.   I am debating buying a new treadmill for the winter or not.  Mine is broken   Hubby got me one when I was pregnant and my kids have killed it.  I work late two nights a week so I could use the gym here at my office.  I am just so unsure of myself and hate for anyone to see me work out!   And I could walk at the mall one time on the weekend.   Not like my kids don't always want to go to the mall.  We will see how it goes.   If I can avoid spending the money I will.   You know how frugal I can be.

Well time to get ready to go to book group!   I hope everyone has a great evening.  Let's see if I get home any earlier tonight!   

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.