Stapley Pool

July 16th we were invited to a customer appreciate party by JB Water. They fed us subs and rented out the Stapley pool for us! I definitely feel appreciated! They are a great company who takes care of our water distiller.

Our whole family was able to go, and we all got in the water but mom. But that turned out well, because our thin-blooded little man got out to sit with Nana after only 30 minutes in the water. It was 115 degrees that day, probably 100 degrees that night, and he was COLD! Very silly boy!

Cabin Trip July 2009

We were able to take our friends the Richardsons up to the cabin the 10-12 of July. We had tons of fun with great friends!

I drove our van with Jennifer and the kids up Friday morning. I did so well, not speeding, watching blind spots, cautious of other drivers. I even had water squirted on my leg and feet when Emily's sippy cup of water that had pressurized on the trip up squirted on my foot as I was driving. All was great until I got into Prescott Valley. The speed limit changed from 65 to 55 and then there were the cameras a few seconds later! I was slowing down, but I was going about 67, and I got flashed by the speeding camera. As of yet, I haven't received a ticket, but I know its coming soon. :( The bummer part is I was going with traffic, so either they catch all of us, or none of us, right? We shall see.

Friday we played around the cabin, set stuff up, started the Clam Chowder/Potato Soup, and played with crafts.

The Robs arrived at 9:30 that night, and we sent the kids off to bed. Emily was so tired after playing all day with her friends that she had a fitful night and didn't calm down and really sleep until 2:30. So I was up really late that Friday night. Poor girl, me and Emily.

Saturday we set off for an adventure. We played in the park, walked in the dry creek bed and went looking for pinecones. Then we saw a flyer for Mary Poppins at the Fire House in Groom Creek. I knew the general area of the Fire House, but not the exact location. So on with the adventure! We ended up not finding it, but we decided to go "off roading" and cut through the "wilderness" back to the cabin. It took longer than we expected, and Robby ended up carrying Nathan on his shoulders most of the way, but we had a great time looking at nature up close. That night the Richardsons watched our kids for us so that we could take a walk for a little date. It was wonderful. We walked up Old Miner's road and found the old mine up there. Robby didn't have his flash light, so he was sad he couldn't explore. We saw a deer on the road walking up, and she was beautiful. I was sad because the kids couldn't see it. But the time alone was great, and we were able to enjoy nature at the same time!

Sunday we packed up in the morning and then set off for another adventure. We decided to take the kids up to the mine, and this time Robby remembered his flashlight. He walked in to explore and said the opening goes in about 100 ft. At the very end there was a mail box that had Geo Cash stuff inside, so he put our last name and the date, and that was exciting for Robby to play the "I was here" game. We got lucky and saw a deer on our walk up this time with everyone, and she just stared at us, but then again she was across the creek on the other side far away! In the afternoon it started raining, and so we sent the kids outside to play while we finished getting things cleaned up. I love the smell of rain in the mountains! There is nothing like it. Plus it dropped the temperature by at least 10 degrees, and brought a great breeze into the cabin!

The trip home was great, no incidents! Both kids fell asleep on the way, then slept all night long! We can't wait to go up again in a few weeks with some more friends!

Still here...

Yes, I'm still here. I have so many things to post about, so now I'm just trying to figure out what to do first! But I hope to post tonight all that's been happening her at the Sandling homestead!

To hold you over until then, here is a picture of the family at Stapley pool the other night. I like this picture because everyone is smiling, and you can't see my pastie white body! (as Robby calls it-LOL)

Funny

I saw this on a friends blog and laughed my head off (yes, I'm tired!) I had to stay up long enough to say I was STILL on my computer on 7-8-09 at 10:11:12!

Free Book

I found a site today that offers a FREE 5 x 5 inch hardcover book. http://www.memoryescape.com/. The offer is good until July 19, 2009, so get to it! The promo code is ONPFREEFIVE. Yes, they are small, but they are great for gifts, or just having as a brag book to carry around! I got mine today, and decided to put the pictures that I created for the book here on the blog.

For the 4th we went to a 4th of july breakfast that our ward had. Yummy pancakes, eggs and sausage. Then we vegged all day until 4 when we got ready to go over to Living Word Bible Church. They had an indoor bbq and then fireworks were at 9 that night. They are a client of ours, so we went to make sure all their computer stuff ran without a glitch, but we really just ending up talking and hanging out with the people there! We had lots of fun and the kids loved being so close to the fireworks when they went off. Emily got a little bored with them, and asked for the noise to be turned off. Silly girl, that's not something that's in my power! Nathan just stared at them with wonder. We couldn't figure out if he was amazed by the show, or completely exhausted and trying to fall out of his chair!

Contest Winner

I entered the layout I posted in my last post on http://grahamlikethecracker.blogspot.com/. Jen had a contest to win a coupon for a free kit of hers in her store. Well, I won! So I was able to choose one of her fabulous kits! It took me forever to decide because I love all of her work, and couldn't decide because I wanted them all!

One Flag

Here's the first of many pages I plan to do for our 4th of July celebration. I'll let you know more about it later!

Cuteness that is Emily

Emily wanted me to make her hair like Cinderella in the bath tonight, but we ended up with this. She was ok with it after I showed her the picture, and we both had a good laugh.

We have been going to the library for the summer reading program, and I read a new book to Emily each night and she wants to get into bed early so that she doesn't miss me reading to her. She loves books and loves being read to and looking at the pictures, then making up stories later from that same book. Here is her with one of her new library books that we got yesterday!

Bubbles!

I love the line from Finding Nemo..."Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles...my bubbles!" Well, tonight, Nathan learned how to say bubbles! He was so cute. He says bub-buzz-so cute!

I usually blow the bubble while they're in the bath, and daddy went and showed me up tonight with the battery operated bubble blower that blows HUGE bubbles! I was able to get some great pictures, and even got Nathan to say bubbles on video! Way too cute!

Rain, Rain Came Today!

When Nathan woke up from his nap, we ate watermelon, and then it started to rain! So of course, being from Arizona, where it never rains, I sent the kids outside to play in the rain! They had so much fun getting wet and playing in the water! We were out there for more than 30 minutes and it rained and thundered and rained some more! Gotta love monsoons, even small ones!

Juicy Watermelon

Mom got the kids a watermelon yesterday, and so we cut it open today and let them each have a slice. Then of course I had to take a picture! The kids both love watermelon, so they devour it during the summer!

Old Family Recipe

We were having a quick bowl of chunky chicken noodle soup (from a can) for dinner tonight, and Emily was listing all the ingredients in the recipe. She started out by saying, "This is an old family recipe...you pour it out of the can, and add milk and all the stuffn after that." Gross on the milk, which we don't do, but everything lately to Emily has milk in it. I didn't even know Emily knew what an old family recipe was, so that's what shocked me!

I had to keep myself from laughing, because it really is an old family recipe...I grew up eating chicken noodle soup from a can!

Emergency Room

Wednesday night I got a call from Kathryn and she told me they were taking mom to the Emergency Room. Kathryn told me mom was suffering from chest pain and throwing up. I quickly jumped in the van, and off to Banner Gateway I went.

I got there and mom was really restless and uncomfortable. She said her upper stomach hurt and the pain wouldn't go away. I found out that about 9:30 her stomach started hurting, so she just ignored it hoping it would go away. It only got worse, so she decided to go downstairs at work to the potluck to see if food would help. That aggravated it more and she decided to come home from work. As soon as she got home, she threw up. She tried to rest, drink water and take it easy, but the pain only got worse. Jessica called to see how mom was, and notice mom didn't sound well. So Jessica quickly went over to mom's house, and when Kathryn got there later they called Dr. Bair in her ward and he told her to go to the ER. So that's when they called me.

We got there about 6:45, and mom was finally seen about 7:30. In triage they thought it might be her gallbladder, so they started working on getting her a room. Then we got to sit and wait, and wait, and wait for a nurse and the doctor. They finally came in and decided to do an ultrasound, so she got moved to another room. More waiting. Another nurse came in and started pain medicine and mom was able to start to calm down and relax. She was then taken for an ultrasound, and then more waiting for the results. Michael, Jessica and Allison left about 9:30, and Kathryn and I waited for the results and diagnosis. Mom was able to get some sleep, even with them coming in every once in a while to check on her. The results came back at about 11, which said that she has gallbladder disease, which caused gallbladder stones, and that she would need surgery, so the doctor was going to talk to the surgeon and get his opinion if she should have emergency surgery, or do it as an outpatient surgery. More waiting. About 11:45 the doctor came back in to tell mom that the surgeon suggested outpatient surgery, prescribed a pain medicine if the pain came back, and started the release process. We left the hospital about 12:15, and Kathryn drove mom home with me following them. We got mom into bed, got her comfortable and told her I'd be back in the morning.

I got home about 1, and fell into bed about 1:30. Long day, but I was grateful I was there to help mom and be with her. Her consult is set for July 15, and I pray that she doesn't have any more flare ups before she can have her gallbladder taken care of!