Emergency Room

The next day of our mini-vacation we were packing up to go to Slide Rock- a natural water slide north of Sedona when Lily fell off the bed and bit through her lip. Gushing blood, we rushed her to the ER where we spent the next 4 hours getting her stitches on the outside and inside of her mouth, and tetanus and tetanus globulin shots. Our other kids were so patient, but put off to know that we would be going straight home instead of to Slide Rock. However, it turned out for the best for us, not Lily, because we met a lady and her daughter at the ER that said that Slide Rock was closed that day for e-coli contamination.

So our poor Lily is all busted up with a huge lip. It is a good thing we have NG tubes at our disposal because she can't really pucker to suck her bottle. She is taking it all really well, but hopefully that will teach me a lesson to keep her at ground level.

Lava River Cave

Since we had to go up to Flagstaff two weekends in a row, we decided to stay over night when we went to pick up Siena and make a mini vacation out of it. Spencer found some ways to amuse himself on the 2 1/2 hour trip up there by trying to see if he could yank off his dinosaur mask before I could snap a picture.


When we got there we packed Siena's stuff in the car, had lunch, and then listened to her concert. They did a great job on four difficult songs. We were impressed.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the lava tube. It isn't advertised by Flagstaff, but I found out about it from reading my friend's blog. I guess it is a well kept secret. The entrance to the tube is steep and difficult to climb down or up, so I only took Spencer and Lily a little ways in just to get the idea, but people were looking at me like I was crazy for even trying. Then we went back to collect pine cones while Siena and Paul made their way to the end about 3/4 mile in and then back out again. They said it was awesome and truly dark down there when they turned off their flashlights.

Montezuma's Castle

When we dropped Siena off at Music Camp in Flagstaff, we stopped by Montezuma's Castle on the way back home. It is a cliff dwelling of the Sinagua Indians who lived there around 1400AD. It really is amazing that people lived up in those cliffs. You can't really tell from the picture, but it was pretty high up there.

Siena's Back!

Siena has been gone during the last two weeks to girls' camp and to Curry Music camp at Northern Arizona University with only 20 hours at home to wash clothes and sleep in between the two camps. We missed her a lot, but we are so glad that she had such a great time and was able to learn so much.

She came home from girls' camp with a load of new songs to sing and memories to tell.

Then she came home from NAU with a lot of new flute skills and confidence at having spent a week in the college dorms.

We weren't the only ones glad to see Siena again. Her cat missed her so much. She would walk around the house whining while Siena was gone and would come into our room and wake us up during the night. Now she is quiet and happy.

What have you done today?

It's 6:45AM and Paul and I have already completed a 5K run! What have you done today?

This was our first 5K so we are pretty proud of ourselves. We've run it on the treadmill to get ready for today, but this is the first time that we had to keep our own feet moving one foot in front of the other. Paul finished in 32.11 and I finished in 34.32. That is better than I thought I could do. Needless to say, I am not a long distance runner. Just ask my college roommates. That was the last time I ever tried running much and they used to laugh at me for my lack of stamina. Nice, eh? Anyway, now I have to go shower, I stink!

Flat Stanley

Our friend, Kazden, had a Flat Stanley assignment so his dad sent him around the world via e-mail. With such a quick means of transportation I hear he was able to travel to places far and wide. While he was here we took him on a breakfast picnic to the park. We have to go early here in the summer because it gets too hot, so we were back home by 9am.

We also took him to see Kazden's old homestead.

Then we took him outside to watch us swim, but he jumped in when we weren't looking so we had to quickly teach him how to float on his back. He loved the swim, but he was never quite the same after.

It's a good thing we had to e-mail him back or he might have been wrinkled past repair. We are so glad that he could come visit because we really miss Kazden and his family. Too bad they didn't come, too. Maybe next time.

Book Bling Winners

I decided to let each of my kids pick a name out of a bowl to determine the winners of my Book Bling contest. Drum roll, please... and the winners are... Deborah, Luz Nelsy, and Kathy!!!
Thank you all for your comments and friendship. Let me know if you have a favorite color or any preferences and I will get them to you ASAP. I hope you have many happy hours reading and using your Book Bling.

Love Thy Neighbor, Hate Their Trees

Can I even begin to express how much I hate our neighbor's trees? Not even a little. They are the worst trees to plant near a fence line, unless you just want to tick off everyone nearby. Unfortunately for us, they lean into our yard more than their own and the leaves, seed pods, and flowers dirty our pool and destroy our pool filters. Each year Paul risks his life and "limb" to climb up and hack off everything that hangs onto our side. They are fast growing trees so it gets more dangerous each year.

I didn't get a picture of Paul in the trees, but here is the result of his labors.

Usually, I'm the one who removes all the debris, but this year we did it together. It was much faster. First we cut it up and moved it to the side yard so it wouldn't kill the grass.

Then a few days later, I had to move it again for bulk trash day.

Here is just a tiny section of the leaves left that I still had to clean up with the blower/vac.

All in all, it took at least 5 hours to do all that and I still have more leaves in and around the pool to clean up. Multiply this times every year, times every wind storm. It is such a pain.

Boot Camp

About a week after my triathlon, I started the Body Core Boot Camp. It was two days a week at 5:30am which is quite early for me. I am a night owl to Paul's chagrin since he normally gets up at 5am to get ready for work, while I am sleeping until the absolute latest I can to still get the kids up and ready for school. However, since I was already in workout mode for the triathlon, I decided I should try to keep on going. I was afraid of the idea of boot camp, but it turns out that I loved it. It was extremely hard; harder than I ever pushed myself on my own, and I was sore in places that I never even knew there were muscles. OK, I'm exaggerating there. I don't want my gross anatomy professor to think I never learned anything in his class, but you get what I mean, right? Our friend and fitness trainer, Michelle, is spectacular at her job and whipped us into shape (better shape). I was sad when the month was up. However, to toot my own horn, I came in second place to the biggest loser which was based on weight loss, and improvement on the 800 meter run, push ups and sit ups.

So... when she started her next round of classes I really wanted to do it again and I wanted Paul to start with me. After harrassing him for a solid week, he finally succumbed to the pressure and decided to go with me. Because of work and the fear of the summer heat, we signed up for the MWF 5am class. That's right... 5am. That means we have to get up at the crazy hour of 4:40 A(freakin')M!!! Last year, I would never believe that I would get up that early to EXERCISE of all things. However, I have found that exercising that early in the morning actually does free up my day for other things. If I am not too tired to do them. It used to be that I would put exercising off for mid-morning, find some reason I couldn't go, plan for afternoon or evening and then be too tired to do it. Now it is over and done with before I even fully wake up!

Anyway, I got Paul to agree to do this and the night before it started he was pushing a mountain of laundry with his feet when his knee cap popped out of place. He was rolling on the floor writhing in pain like I had never before seen him experience. I thought we were bound for the hospital, but after a few hours of icing it, he decided to still try to go to boot camp the next day. He did everything slowly, but he still did it. On the second day of training, his knee came out again while sprinting and he fell- well, not just fell, but went flying into the rocks and bushes. He really needed stitches, but he just kept on working out with blood streaming down his leg for the next 45 minutes. After a few days of rest, he is back and pushing himself harder than ever and showing me how it should really be done! It is impressive how hard he works. With two bum knees, he really overdoes it sometimes. It shouldn't be a surprise though because he does that with everything in his life. It is one of his traits that most endears me and frustrates me at the same time.

Here's a picture of his knee three days on the mend.

Wish us luck that that is extent of our injuries.