Day #6, Day #7

Lawsy...our days have been bo-ring this week. Not much excitement at all. Day 6's big adventure for the day? A trip to Sam's Club with all 5 of us. Whoop-dee-doo. I will say that my kids all jumped at the chance to get out of the house when I said I needed to go to Sam's for a few things. They know I'm a sucker for the Sam's Cafe, so we lunched on hot dogs, drinks, & pretzels before I did my grocery shopping. Please...where else can I feed 5 of us for under 10 bucks? I decided to steal my friend Chris' idea and pay my kids a penny for every page this summer. Reading at least 30 minutes a day (which always ends up being longer than that for my 2 big kids - once they start, they just keep going) is part of their daily to-do list, so writing down how many pages they plow through each day. I was unsure when I offered it up just how much they would actually make, but even Seth is getting through 60-70 pages a day in that 30 minutes. Not too shabby. That night my mom had arranged a family baptisms for the dead session up at the temple, since it was Kenzie's first time going. Kevin, me, Sydney, Sarah, Tyler, Mackenzie, Nate & my mom all went up to the temple and did baptisms and confirmations for 67 of my mom's family names that she has done family history work for. I gotta say...it was probably one of the few times Kevin & I will both be there inside the temple with Syd before she gets married, so that was sweet. After the temple Syd went home with the Barlows for a sleepover, and that was the end to our exciting day. Whoop.

Day #7
I woke up with much angst about yesterday...I knew it would be fairly uneventful as far as going and doing with the kids, but the big event for me was Sydney's doctor appointment at 2:40. I don't know why, but I was nervous. After getting the news of needing a brace, etc. 2 weeks ago, I decided to make an appt for a 2nd opinion with another specialist, just to make sure we are on the right path with the right brace, etc. The Spinecor brace that Syd's doctor prescribed is much newer and a very different type of brace than the traditional scoliosis braces. I can't explain why, but despite how appealing that one is, and how much I WANT Sydney to have it, I still felt like we needed to get more info or another opinion to weigh it all out. But I was nervous. Thursdays are babysitting days for me, when I tend my friend's 2 girls. So Mara & Ella came yesterday, and it was war all day between my 4 kids over who got to play with them. To put it mildly, those girls are very loved at our house, and I have to pretty much set a timer for who gets to play with each of them at what times. Kevin got off work early to come home so I could take Syd to her doctor appointment (I barely slept last night, which means that whole thing & the quandry I am now in is a separate blog post itself). Sydney went babysitting last night, annnnd that was pretty much it. We made forts, and Seth never got out of his pajamas yesterday. Holla.

I am leaving town today for a quick trip to Utah with my sis for a friend's wedding, and to spend some time with the one and only Angela Webb. I have not coped well this first week of summer, and have decided that summer sucks without the Webbs. My kids miss them dearly, but most of all I hate not having Angela here to lunch with, to hang out, to borrow kids when my kids are bored, for sleepovers for my kids, or to call and say, "hey, I gotta go to Sam's/Target/Walmart, you wanna come with me?" I know. Waaaaa.