"I'm so glad when daddy comes home. Glad as I can be......."

Yay!!! Dan comes home today!
Our week as we were living it seemed to take forever, but when I look back on it, it seems to have gone by so fast. Grandma and Grandpa invited us to go out to dinner and a movie with them last night, which was a wonderful and welcomed break in our routine. It was nice to have someone else to have the kids "deflect"off of. THANK YOU!! I don't know how single parents do it. I can cope for a couple of days {or a week}, but I can't imagine doing this for months or years.
To go along with my sisters "things I am thankful for"...... I am thankful for a husband; wonderful kids, who tollerate my "crazyness" when dad is gone; for family who cares and loves me...... I could go on, and on, and on, but I will stop here for now. Gotta go clean up the house.

My mind has been put at ease.......

I have been stressing because I hadn't heard from Dan to know if he made it. I had all sorts of weird fears in my head about what could happen to him { he had to have $250 in cash to buy his visa into the country and had to be bills that were printed after 2002. The bills we got were 2004, but what if they decided not to accept those because of our economy and detain him or something! I know, I know a little bit extreme.... but you never know}. I was having a hard time getting Skype to let me "on", so he could try to call. But I woke up to a nice email from him letting us know he was safe and with his parents. WHEW! So I can sort of function again and not sit by the computer just waiting for some sign of him.

"It's so hard .... to say GOODBYE" (can you tell me who sings that)

I took Dan to the airport this morning, so he could start his adventure to Africa. I hate saying goodbye to him, and this time was especially hard. Probably because he is flying WAY out of the country to go visit his parents in Nairobi, Kenya.
We were going to make this trip together, but because of how things worked out, it was better that I stay here. So instead him and his brother, Chris, decided to go since neither of their spouses could accompany them.
What a great adventure, though. They are going to go on Safari for 3 days, see the orphanage the church and his parents are helping, and getting to take in all the culture of Africa.
Even though it will be hard (since we can't really communicate with each other very well) he will experience a once in a life time trip.
Tell your parents we love them and are glad they are serving the Lord and helping spread the gospel through service and love. We love you, and will miss you tremendously. Come home safe and tell us all the cool things you got to do!

The Crazy Fanatic Lady.......

The first weekend of Nov. was the football championship game. Yes, our cool little team made it to the championship game. It was on a Sunday, which I was NOT happy about.

Here's where the story started. ...... a couple weeks before the "Big" game we found out that it was going to be played on a Sun. I was not happy, and poor Dan got an earful about it on a daily basis. So, finally he said "Honey there is NOTHING I can do about it. If it's making you this upset email the people in charge." So I did. With in about 10 min of me sending my first email Dan had multiple messages on his phone about the email I sent. Here is what the first email said (it was sent to the league pres. and the reps from Brighton)......



Hi,
I am a concerned mother of a football player and cheerleader. I was made aware that our team, Brighton White NFC 9 yr olds, will be playing on Sunday Nov. 2. Since when do we play games on Sundays?! I was under the assumption that our league plays by CHSAA rules, who DOESN'T allow their games to be played on Sundays. Now, I don't know how religious any of the board is, but our family spends our Sundays worshiping God and spending time doing activities that help us remember Him. It is the one day of the week where we try to make different than the rest. Am I now supposed to tell my children that football comes first and foremost over our worshiping Him and "keeping the Sabath Day holy"? I DO NOT appreciate how YOUR decision will now be affecting the standards that we have tried to instill in our children. This subject has put a strain on our family. We have also tried to teach our kids the importance of finishing what you start, and that they are part of a team. If this is where the league is going our family will not participate in the capacity that we have been (my husband has been coaching or on a coaching staff for 3 yrs and I was asked last minute to help coach the cheerleaders). I have heard other parents complain about this as well, but I may be the only one to keep you in the loop about how upsetting this is to at least our family.
Sincerely
my name
my email
my phone#

Needless to say, no one called me. They all called Dan to find out what was going on. It went through the league like wildfire. Apparently I managed to offend a bunch of people ( I don't think it was me as much as it was their conscience.) I won't go into the gory details. Lets just say that Dan was put into an interesting position (he totally backed me 100%, but just not the email etiquette I was lacking), I left the house in an angery rush and drove around most of the evening.
I came home, calmer and focused. The next day with the help of my etiquette adviser I wrote another email to the above mentioned people. Here is the 2nd email...........

My husband read my email last night and brought to my attention how offensive it could have been if someone had sent it to me. Let me first apologize for the way it was worded, it was never my intention to offend any of you or challenge your religious beliefs. Those who know me know that I would never intentionally offend or upset anyone.

I am concerned that the games are being played on Sundays and I wanted my concerns heard. I apologize if I didn't go through the right chanels, but I do think it's a big enough issue that it should be brought to the board's attention. I have had discussions with many other concerned parents, and I wanted to share those concerns with the board.

Again, I realize that my email I sent to each of you was tactless, and I hope you can accept my sincere apology for any offense I've caused you. I respect the time and effort you put forth volunteering to provide our kids an opportunity to participate in football and cheerleading.

Sincerely,

My name

We still played on Sun. and took second place. But hopefully the league will think about next year differently.

What are you opinions of my emails?

Catch up...... (Blogger is making me underline everything AGAIN!)

Well Cabo was AWSOME! All I can say is .... "Hurricane!?..... What Hurricane!?"

This is a picture I took as soon as we got to our hotel room. As you can see, it is hazy and a little windy. I'll take that over totally blowing and raining like I thought.

Here's what it looked like the rest of the time we were there. This is a picture of the marina/Pier.

Another picture from the hotel pools. The only residual effect of the hurricane was the huge waves. Don't swim in this ocean. This is from the 7th floor.........

which has this bridge to get across to the restaurant on site The pictures below are from the view standing on the bridge.

This was from our balcony the last day we were there.

Here was what our schedule was......

1st day- Left Denver at 7:30 AM. Land in LAX around 9am. More than half our party got on the next plane to Cabo, while the rest of us didn't leave until around 2:30PM. So, Dan's boss bought the 11 of us that were left a day pass to the Admirals Club (The nice club that you get to walk through the cool frosted glass doors. Or like the Tina Fey commercial for American Express). We watched the Texas/OU game and ate alot of Chex mix, cookies and little muffins that were FREE. Dan's boss smuggled in a couple orders of nachos from On-The -Border. I got to start reading the books I brought. (i jumped on the twilight band wagon. Discussion Later) Left LAX.Our only detour because of the hurricane was instead of flying down the coast to Cabo, we had to fly like we were going to Arizona and then come across Mexico into Cabo. We landed. Got our stuff to the hotel. Had to get FOOD! We ate at a place called the Shrimp Factory. So we ate lobster and lots of shrimp. Met everyone else at Cabo Wabo (Sammy Hagar's Club) It was sooo busy because he was there that weekend, because it was his birthday and he was going to perform on the Mon. night we were there. So we went across the street to Hemingways. We watched everyone enjoy themselves and then called it a night.

2nd Day- Got up, when we wanted to. Ate breakfast, when we wanted to. Hung out at the pool, for as long as we wanted to. Do you see a pattern? At the pool we played some water volleyball with the "Farmers" people that were there. Dan is such a trooper because I know that laying out in the hot sun is NOT his favorite thing to do. But he does it for me. I love him for that! The pool side bar did have some football games on, so every once in a while he would go sit under the shaded bar and watch some of the games. And, of course, I read. I finished twilight that day and started "New Moon". That night we had reservations at Lorenzillo's. I had steak and lobster, YUM! One thing about Cabo is that everyone is so layed back. It took us 3 hours to have dinner and then they don't bring you a check unless you ask for it. On the way back to the hotel, we eyed a DQ so of course we had to stop and get some ice cream. I know.... not very "mexican".

Day 3- Dan had to be up and out of the hotel room by about 6:30AM so he could meet up with everyone that was deep sea fishing that day. So I slept. Then I just repeated the day before. I did hang out with a wife of a District Manager that I knew, even before Dan started working for Farmers. Like I said before... repeat of the day before. Suntan, pool, volleyball, read. Dan didn't get back until about 4:30/5Pm. Out of the 7 guys that went, Dan and 2 other guys were the only ones that didn't puke most the day on the boat. They did catch a bunch of fish! One 165 lb. yellow fin tuna, one 80 lb yellow fin tuna, a Marlin (Catch and release, but the guy that caught it has an official certificate that he caught it) and a bunch of Mahi-Mahi. I will post a picture of that later. When you catch fish there, the hotel will prepare it and cook it for you. So that night at the "Farmers" dinner. We had some tuna and mahi-mahi. It was SO DELICIOUS! I am not a fish eater, but when it is so fresh from the water it is yummy. That night after dinner, we went with most of the group to hang out in town.

Day 4 - Got up and had to leave.

I had a great time! Especially because I got to hang out with my hubby almost the whole time! (We missed the kids, but really...... it was nice to have a little vacation)

Bummed.... VERY bummed

Dan and I are going to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico this weekend (Thanks Farmers). He came home yesterday and asked me if I knew that a hurricane was headed right for there. It's right on the tip of the peninsula. So I have been frantically looking at the weather forecasts to see how that is going to affect our get-a-way. Not looking so good. I was hoping to come home all bronzed and beautiful, but I don't think that rain and wind help me with that dream.

WHY NOW NORBERT! (what a stupid name for a storm. It's a stupid storm anyway cuz its ruining my vacation.) Keep you updated.

More Trauma...... ( I don't know why blogger is making me underline everything, sorry)

Well, Dan has been out of town since Sun. (he got back late last night). So our/my week has been very tiring. Me, and kids were getting on each others nerves throughout the week. Well the day finally comes when Dad is coming home, and just hours before our missed and loved dad/husband gets home, I end up in Urgent care with #3 ( I have decided to not name kids, I am in a paranoid state. So the are numbered by birth order). I was too nervous to go to the ER again (that would be 2x in 2 weeks) because I didn't want a "file" to be started about , "Why have there been so many accidents in the Lewis household".

Here's what happened...... #4 and #3 are jumping off the half wall onto the couches. I put an end to that, so they have to go find something else to do that's CRAZY. They start racing around through the kitchen, around the stairs into the dining room, back into the kitchen. That is the loop. #3 and #4 are very competitive and start pushing each other to get ahead, #3 starts taking #4's beloved blanket and teasing #4 to come get it. According to #3 he was just running SO fast and bonked his face into the dining room chair.
I was trying bake some cookies and make dinner, so all I heard was a big thud and a blood curdling scream. #3 ran into the kitchen to get sympathy. At first I started giving him the lecture about how silliness spoils, but as I was watching him cry his cheek started to literally blow up like a balloon! So in my exhausted state I started freaking out. I have seen swelling before, but never that quickly and to watch the color change in his cheek within seconds! I called Aunt that lives close by on my way to urgent care, to check on the kids I left at home. I called #1 to get the cookies out of the oven and to turn it off.
To shorten this down...... #3 was checked out and x-rayed. No fractures to be seen, but wake him in the middle of the night to make sure he doesn't have a concussion. Ice often and give ibuprofen for swelling and pain.
The pics below don't do him justice. He looks like he is trying to smuggle food in his cheek for later.

If you look to your left you can compare cheeks and see some of the swelling. He wouldn't take the cookie out of his mouth.

#4 had to have his picture taken too. His "trauma" is healing nicely.( posted before)

#3 is so funny while getting examined. He was happy to tell everyone what happened and to check out the x-ray machine. NO MORE TRAUMA AT OUR HOUSE, PLEASE!

Football Homecoming.....

So here are the sashes and ribbons I made for the cheerleaders. (The picture is on it's side) All the girls were the homecoming queen.

Here's another pic of them hanging on a hanger. I put Velcro at the bottoms of the sashes in hopes they will stay on.

This is just SOME of the banners I made for each of the boys.

Here's what they looked like all rolled up. I was going to drive around to they boys houses during practice and hang them on their doors, but I came to my senses and just gave them to their parents at practice.

This is what they looked like with the boys names and their number.

This is right before the game. Getting all FIRED UP!

Some random practice shots.

Cheerleaders holding the banner for the boys to run through.

The game was GREAT! We beat the other team by a bunch ( I can't remember the exact score). Everything went well until after the game, when the head coach from the other team tried to pick fights with our coaches. It was a good lesson for our kids to see what a sore looser looks like and to never act like one, EVER!

My week........ ( the highlights of each day)

Sat (9/20) Wake up and start getting kids ready for football, soccer, cheer. 10 min. before leaving for soccer, Jake gets his foot slammed in a bedroom door (Jayla trying to get her bros. out of her room) . Dan takes older 3 to soccer game; I go to ER to get stitches for Jake (5 in all). Get home in time to shove a chick-file wrap in my mouth and head off to football with the rest of the fam.

Sun. Get up and get stuff and kids ready for church. Go to 2 hours of church, leave early with my Fam and another Fam in the ward. Change and hook up with other said Fam. to go to the Broncos game (don't judge me!) Enjoy and bake in the sun at Broncos game, but I WAS at the Bronco game, and watch them beat the Saints.

Mon. Get kids to school, drop little one off at Aunts house and go volunteer at kids school. Pick up Zach and then Jake. Get home, try to get some things done. Pick up kids, get them home and turn into drill sargent barking orders "Get at least half of your homework done!", "Go get ready for cheer/ football!", "Come on! Hurry! We are on a time schedule here!", "Lets Go!" Leave for practices. Come home, eat dinner, do homework, bed.

Tues. Finish homework. Get kids to school. Run over to church and set up for HFPE (put everything I needed to set up by the door last night). Get home and shower. Pick up Zach. Feed the boys lunch in the car on the way to my eye appointment. Get new contacts. Go on a hunt for Cheer stuff for homecoming (yes our little league has their own homecoming) Hit Michaels, JoAnns, and Hobby Lobby. Pick up kids. Get home and get last minute HFPE things together. Dan gets home just in time for me to leave to attend HFPE (blog more about that later).

Wed. Get kids to school. Watch nephews for a couple hours. Get some things done around the house. Take Jake to Dr.'s to get stitches out. Cancel piano lessons for kids. Pick up kids. Then the drill sargent starts, again. Repeat of Mon.

Thurs. Get kids to school. Make sashes for cheerleaders for homecoming game Sat. (blog more later), and bows. Try to put the house back together. Pick up kids. Have a nice afternoon, no homework because there is no school tomorrow. Our quietest evening.

Fri. Get up and put the house in order before the 4 "tornado's" wake up. Watch my good friends kids. (she still had to go to work, bummer) Kids played all day, i made 19 individual football banners. Picked up my mess and the other messes. Time to go to practice. Uncle Dave came to watch kids so Dan and I can go out (as late as it may be).- THANKS! -Tanner spent the night at a friends, so he only had 3 kids.

Sat. Get up and go to target to get all the snacks needed for the day. Pick up Tanner. Get all kids ready for football/ cheer and soccer. G'ma and G'pa took Zach to soccer and Dan and Tanner head to football (the games overlapped). I finish getting ready and help Jayla, and then we leave. G'parents bring Zach and Jake to football-THANKS!-. Got home, and ate lunch, and got some house work done. Picked up Dan's dry cleaning. Got ready for R.S. broadcast. Met mom and sis. at stake center to watch the broadcast. -THANK YOU GUYS!-

Sun. Jayla and I got ready and went to church. Dan and boys stayed home; Dan had to pack for his trip to L.A.. Went to church for and hour and came home, ate an early lunch and took Dan to airport. Went over to friends house to watch the Bronco game they recorded. Came home and tried to get ready for tomorrow and the rest of the week without a husband (he gets home basically Fri.)

One day I will miss this chaos. So for now, I try to enjoy it and relish the moments before I become obsolete.(some days I am better at this than others).

FYI...

Here is a cool site i found for a General Conference kit

more funny things said....

Zach at lunch. He just opened his yogurt. I am in the other room.

Zach- Mom can you get me a spoon?
Mom- I'm in the other room. You can get it yourself.
Zach- I really wish the Incredibles were here. Then Elasti-girl could stretch and get me a spoon!

He did get his spoon.

(This is not my toilet)

Random...

So as is other posts I have stated my lack of being organized, and having a messy house. But I do fixate on weird things. I spent most of the morning yesterday cleaning toilets. Not just "cleaning" but REALLY cleaning. With so many boys in our house I hate not being able to get into the nooks and cranny's of the toilet ( I swear boys don't look where they are aiming, or maybe they do and that's the fun of it). So I literally took apart the toilet to get into those corners. I got 2 of the 3 toilets taken apart and cleaned and then put back together before I needed to go get child #3.

Other weird things I fixate on .........
Baseboards
sliding door tracks

More Crafting/creating

We had football/ cheer pictures on Sat before the game. I wanted the cheerleaders to have cute matching bows. So Fri. I frantically sewed these together. (Thanks Mar for the ribbon you sent a couple months ago!) I found these cute little football beads at Walmart. I just sewed and glued them onto alligator clips. They ended up looking like the bows you stick on presents. Oh well. I hope the girls liked them.
We won the football game so now we are 1-1.

Then here is the pillow case dress I made for Jayla. In these pics the ribbon is too long, but I have shortened it after the pics. I couldn't just use the shape of the pillow case cuz it was to wide under her armpits. To fix that I made it more like an A-line shape. When I have more time I want to sew the same celery green ribbon around the bottom hem.

All About Zach...

First was his soccer d'ebut. He has been anticipating this for weeks now. He woke up that morning and was so excited to find out that all of us (Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Ellen , Uncle Jason, Mom and Dad, Tanner , Jayla and Jake) would go and watch HIM.

It is the 3 on 3 with no goalie. Here he is practicing before the game (they practice 1/2 hr before the game with no practices during the week)

This was during the game. He is one of the smallest on the field and one of the youngest but is one of the most resilient. He kept getting knocked down, but would hop right back up.

Here's the half time oranges.
He was so much fun to watch! After the the game he asked me..."did you love watching me mom!?"

Zach started preschool as well. He is in the Colorado preschool program, so its FREE . Yah!

The school district renovated the old Hospital so the lower level has 4 brand new prechool rooms and a head start program.

When I took him in, he of course made himself right at home. He was building this tower, when one of the kids came by and kicked it down (we will be watching that kid carefully!) Zach yelled at him to go away and proceeded to tell me that he will NOT be playing with that kid. I don't blame him.

When I picked him up (he goes for 3 hours) he said..."Thanks mom for letting me go to school! You are the best mom ever! You are beautiful!" I will take those comments happily.
He can't wait to go back tomorrow.

Look what I made......

I made Jayla some pajama bottoms! Ya me! I found this pretty floral pillow case($3/love finding bargains-it is Waverly) and wanted to make something from them. My first idea was to make those cute pillow case dresses ( check here )
Before making that I remember seeing a cute pattern for making pj bottoms/lounge pants (check here), so I made those first. And I did it! Forgive me if I gloat a little. I made these using a template from some of Jay's current pj's. I didn't want them dragging on the floor, so I made them a little shorter. The waist is just a draw string type, so there is a lot of room to grow. The legs are wide cuz, I just did a straight leg. I think she will like wearing these for a long time since they will look cute as capri's.
My next project will be the cute dress, and making me some lounge pants, and the boys some as well. No dresses for them ;)

What my kids say.....

Setting- Driving in the car (as usual). Tanner was staring out the window.
Tanner- "Mom, I can't wait for Jesus to come again."
Me- "Really, how come?"
Tanner- "I think that when He comes He'll make gas prices go down"

So there you have it. I couldn't really say anything except... " Your, probably right, Tanner."

Update......

We had our first football game last Sat. To make this short.... we got our butts kicked. But on a good note, we had the best cheerleaders out there! I would have taken pics, but between calling out cheers and dealing with 4 girls (between the ages of 6-9)who were too hot, hungry, and thirsty, I never got to pull out the camera.

Unfortunately, Dan has had a set back in his recovery. He was on the field coaching, when the ball got kicked in his direction and suddenly had a bunch of little football players running at him. He tried to "hop " out of the way and something popped in his calf. He made it to the side lines, and then dropped to his knees. I ran over to him, being the concerned wife, and trying to figure out what had happened. Of course he said it would be fine, so the rest of the game he limped around trying to coach. When we got home, he finally told me how bad it really hurt. I called the surgical clinic that did the surgery. I got the answer I figured I'd get... Ice, elevate, and stay off it. If it gets worse call back, otherwise they'll get him in on Mon.
So Mon. came, I took him in. Diagnosis.... He tore his calf muscle, but not where he had surgery, on the opposite side of his calf. Nothing to be done but take a lot of ibuprofen, pain meds. if it gets unbearable, and crutches unless it feels better and can put weight on it. They'll see us in 2-3 weeks. If it hasn't repaired.......SURGERY, again, YA!

What makes this so sad was that just the day before this happened Dan was saying how great his leg felt, he was staring to walk with out so much of a limp. Now we're back to square one. I feel horrible for him because he has a lot of traveling this month, so he won't be able to take it as easy as I would like him to. Oh, well... we'll/he'll deal with it.

I do have to give some props to the G'parents and Aunt Ellen and Uncle Jason (and dog cousin Roxy). I don't know what I would have done with out them at the game. They totally took care of Zach and Jake.

We are going to have some scheduling conflicts, hopefully not many, because Zach is starting Lil' kickers. It's the 3 on 3 soccer for the little kids. He wanted to play something and I didn't think it would be fair to tell him "No, you can't do anything because football/cheer take up our lives!" It works, though, because he has games on Sat. mornings with Practice 30 min before the game. So no practice time during the week. I am excited though! So far he is the only one of our kids that shows a strong competitive spirit. I will have to take tons of video and pictures to post.

Are we happy to start school............
YES!
Our first day was Aug. 14.

Jayla is now in second grade in Mrs. Lori Kohls class. She was nervous about her first day and who would be in her class, and following her mothers footsteps, worried about what she was going to do during lunch.

Tanner is now in 4th grade and was excited to start school because his teacher is Mr. Jeff Tufano, the only male teacher in the school besides the P.E. teacher. Apparently that's a big deal, especially to the boys. In true Tanner fashion, he wasn't nervous at all, and told me he knew what he was doing.

I took the kids to school and showed them where their class rooms were (we missed back to school night because of football and cheer). Jayla was immediately put at ease because she noticed that her friend Isabelle was in her class and sitting right next to her.
Tanner had no problem finding his class and doing his "thing".

I was ready for school to start because I have found that I deal better when there is a schedule, which school helps fill. I miss the kids a bunch, but love that they are busy. It is amazing how having 2 gone makes a difference in the house. Starting Sept. 8 I will be down to just one at home. Zachary is starting preschool this year and will go 8:40-11:40 Mon. -Thurs. WOW! It is kind of exciting to think how much I can hopefully get done with just one at home. I won't have just one for long though, because I told my neighbor that I will watch her baby girl when she has to start back to work, probably Oct. We think it will only be 3 days a week, but then I can get a baby fix and then send her home.
It's amazing how much my life is changing. I am no longer the cute young mom, I am now the older, still don't know much , taxi mom.

Funny things my kids have said...........

Jayla- Mom, why don't Disney Princesses have moms? (Can you think of any that do? I could only think of Sleeping Beauty, all the rest are step moms or evil witches. OOHHH wait, Mulan has a mom, but can she really be classified as a princess?)

Zach- Barney Stinks!
Dan- Why does Barney stink?
Zach- Uh, because, Dad, he's a dinosaur and is in-stinct!


Just a few things to think about.

So I am horrible at following through. I am referring to The Laundry Room post. I have added a few things there, ie. a big cork board for calendars, lonely socks, school things, etc. and a new row of hooks, that things actually stay on. But, due to the clothes that are continually needing washed it is still somewhat of a disaster! I am now working on getting a laundry schedule, always easier said than done.

Football has started for Dan and Tanner, which means that cheerleading has started for Jayla and I. Yes, I said I. I have been roped into being the cheer coach for Jayla's cheer squad. They, of course cheer for Dan's team, so I figured...... I am going to be there anyway so might as well be useful, right?! We have 45 min. practices 3 times a week (they coincide with the football team practice schedule, just not as long as their 2 hours). Another reason I agreed is because I only have 3 girls, including Jayla. My only stipulation was that Dan not make me the Team Mom. He values my sanity too much (his sanity reflects mine, if you get what I mean.) There is one other girl who has a brother on the team and the other girl is the football players age and goes to school with most of them, including Tanner.