this past week

I don't know why, but I just love taking pictures of my kids in the car like this. I just know that one day (WAAAAAAAY down the road ;) ) when I look in the back seat and don't see five(+) cute little faces staring back at me, I'm going to miss it and wish I had taken more pictures :)

We've had such a great week, I wish I had taken pictures of everything because I've already forgotten most of what we did.

Monday was supposed to be my OB appointment, but they had called that morning to reschedule.... I hate it when that happens. We ended up just kind of bumming around all day because of the screw up in the schedule. For FHE we cleaned out the car together. Exciting huh :). It was a good day.

Tuesday was interesting..... my Dad's Aunt (does that make her my Great-Aunt?), Nana's sister, Elaine Ferguson Sorensen pasted away and Tuesday was her funeral. I had tried to get a sitter for that day as well, and that didn't quite pan out, so of all the insanity, I took all five of my children all the way down to Provo for a funeral. The funeral was great. I loved hearing all the stories about Elaine. I loved what I knew of her which was really only seeing her once a year at the reunion, but I really did feel a special closeness with her. So it was fun to hear what a great mom and friend she was. I laughed a lot.... she was a funny old lady! Blowing straw wrappers at strangers in restaurants :) lol. Cute. Her husband had died only 6 weeks ago, so I guess a lot of people saw her death coming soon, just because they were so close (I love that about them too!), but she had really been in such good health that it really was a surprise. She was a sweet lady and I was glad I could be there for her funeral. My kids on the other hand...... Well, I shouldn't say all of them, Luke and Noah. There. Singled them out. They were awful. And I really don't know why, but they just did terrible. I ended up spending most of the funeral out in the foyer (at least I could still hear the talks, I was SO ready to leave). I'm glad my Dad could sit with the good kids. Note to self: do not take 5 children to a funeral that is an hour away. We did stop for ice cream on the way home, with Steve and my Dad... that was fun. But the rest of the evening was just torture because I was exhausted and thanks to all the sitting (in the car and at the funeral) my kids were not.... bedtime was awful. Steve saved the day by picking up Nate for me though, so that i didn't have to keep them up till 11:00.... that was nice.

Wednesday we had our Dr. visit. I was a little frustrated because I was unable to get a sitter, so we took all of the kids with us, but they surprised me. They did SO GOOD and it was just SO NEAT to have them all there to hear our baby's heartbeat. They all seemed interested (Luke and Noah...... they pretend well :)). It was fun. And Dr. Thackeray is always so patient when we have kids with us... very friendly to them and makes them feel welcome. The baby's heartbeat sounded great.... everything seems to be fine! 25 weeks and counting! I love that we are more than halfway, this pregnancy has been long.
After the appointment we headed on over to Nate's parents' house (that's been one of the good things about having our doctor so far away... it's close to Grandpa Russ and Grandma Ruthie, so we get to see them more often than we probably would). Nate's Dad has been really sick lately so we didn't really get to see him, and he was actually admitted to the hospital the next day. It's been really difficult for Nate dealing with it all. He is doing better though and hopefully will continue to do so. We did get to walk over to a small park with Nate's mom though, and had a lot of fun talking and showing her all of our "cool tricks" on the playground. It's fun to have one on one time with Grandma Ruthie. With so many grandkids it doesn't happen all that often, but we sure enjoyed it. I wish I had taken some pictures.
I was totally energized for the rest of the day probably because of the nice and pleasant Doctor visit, and I went nuts cleaning the house that evening. Even the bathroom got a sample of my cleaning bug! It was fabulous. And it was a really good thing because that night we got some pretty crappy news from Nate's work. Somewhat stressful, and I'm glad that I had a clean house for the next day's FUNK that took over my every thought. I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father had something to do with the motivation to clean, because honestly, I don't know what i would have done had my house not been in the condition it was that day.... I'm just grateful!

Thursday let's see, we went out for our Thursday lunch with Nana in the afternoon. Sat around a lot (the funk!). And then we picked up Nate and got some better news about his work (still not my favorite, but good enough). Then that night we got to have a really fun barbecue with Chris and Stephanie (it was kind of our game night, but it's been a while since we actually played any games), and Chris and Meg and their kids (they came up so that Chris could look at Nana's electrical problem.... so nice of him!). The kids had a blast playing with the Taylors. Hopefully everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did :) It was fun to have company and fun to show off Nate's grilling skills (again :)).

Friday was a good day. My visiting teacher ALMOST stood me up at the park that morning. She was only a half hour late and like I keep telling her.... she got me and my kids to the PARK at 9:00 in the morning!! It could only be a good thing. It's been a while since we went to the park because I don't go anywhere in the mornings and it's too hot in the afternoon and evening. So they had fun regardless :) But she did end up showing up and just like the great visiting teacher that she is, she had an awesome message that I totally needed to hear, listened to me go on and on about what was on my mind, and then offered (I should say forced :) but she was really nice about it :)) to watch our kids that night so that Nate and I could have a night off. It was definitely needed. I usually don't take those offers simply because I feel stupid that I NEED a night off, and can't handle my problems on my own, but for some reason, I took it. So after the park I raced over to the church for another funeral. This one was for an old friend from my ward growing up. She was only 29, but had suffered from a brain tumor at the age of 13, and then many other problems before a stroke 3 years ago and then a lot of ministrokes following that. She was definitely not in the best shape. But she was a sweet girl. I really think a lot of Katie knowing what she has gone through in her life and still managing to make people smile. I have a lot of funny stories about Katie that I hold very dear to me. The things at the funeral were so good for me to hear. It really made me think twice about all of the "problems" I have to deal with, and realize that I really don't have it so bad. I need to follow Katie Ford's example and be tough. I'm glad Steve was willing to sit with my kids so that I could go. I'll miss her.
After the funeral we picked up Nate and then headed home to get ready for Charlie to come over. We got to tend my nephew Charlie (we started trading babysitting with Brent and Sarah for temple dates.... they have one 1-year old, and we have 5 crazy kids.... not a very fair trade, but we don't have to mention that!). Noah was so cute with Charlie. He totally calls him "babies" even though they're like 6 months apart, and he was bringing him toys and things in the beginning.... it was really cute (of course I'll leave out the part about him getting greedy and taking everything back later, and kind of losing the friendly attitude). Luke was pretty cute with him too. I think overall Charlie gets a little over-stimulated when he is over here :) But we're learning to give him some breathing room. And it seems like he is actually getting a little more comfortable with us and enjoys himself a little more here :) That's been fun for us.
Then Nate and I went on our date. We got to go see Transformers. Such an awesome movie!! Everyone keeps complaining about how full of action it is and how it's kind of too much "in your face", but I LOVED it. I could definitely do without the dumb love story and all the stupid porny shots of Megan Fox (maybe that's just because I'm sick of hearing about how hot she is from Steve) but that's just me. Nate and I really loved the spontaneous break, and it was definitely appreciated. I have an awesome visiting teacher. Heavenly Father has a way of blessing me with visiting teachers. It's great. They were very complimentary of our kids as well, which was nice. I'm glad my kids were on their best behavior. It's always like that in the beginning though right :) still kinda shy around them :) jk.

Saturday was a special day. I totally spent the ENTIRE day getting things ready for Sunday. And I'm not talking about ironing clothes (which I really should have done). My new calling in the ward is "Sharing Time Specialist" (don't you love how they make it sound so official! This ward is good at that), basically I do Sharing time for the primary once a month. Very easy. But this week I wanted to make it really fun and I went all out making a game for them. It really shouldn't have taken me as long as it did, but I put a lot of work and thought into it. I was also in charge of making a poster for our Enrichment Night in September (I'm also on the Enrichment committee, and I LOVE it), and thanks to an elaborate idea by one of the ladies in the committee, I was busy with that the other half of the day. I get really stressy when I have so much to do and in such a short time (you'd think I'd learn and stop procrastinating). But it went okay, I was pretty happy with how they both turned out. I didn't get out of my pajamas until that evening.

Sunday was crazy. I was a little bummed that I was only left with 15 minutes to do my sharing time so basically we got through about 4 of the questions, and then had to end early with the idea that we would "finish it next month". Somewhat of a let down. And frankly I was just way too nervous for Primary. I need to work on that for next month too. And then the poster I had made needed to be pinned up to a bulletin board in the RS room, but turns out our ward's spot is on the chalk board section of the wall.... didn't know that..... so I really didn't get to hang it up either (taping tissue paper with a bunch of things taped to it would definitely be a disaster if you ask me). They were both slightly a let down if I may be so lame to say so. Next week though. And it will be fabulous. The rest of Sunday was different than we had planned as well. The baby blessing was cancelled, so we weren't hanging with family. We decided to improvise and at the last minute invited Brent and Sarah over for dinner (bbq of course), and ended up making it a fun night where we spent time with family afterall :) It's nice to get one on one time with different family members. Maybe it's weird, but I prefer that over the large group activities. It's easier to talk. The kids did one of their little "shows" for us while we ate. We only had one injury, but it was fun that Brent and Sarah were okay with humoring them with us :) It's a regular occurance in the Maynes household.

So on to yesterday (and actually the whole reason I even started this post if you can believe that!) We had an AWESOME day yesterday!! We had made plans to go swimming with Nate's parents at their neighborhood pool a while back and had had it on the calendar, so when we cancelled it, we knew the kids would be bummed. So we decided to just go swimming on our own. We found out that Murray City Pool was pretty cheap so that was our destination. The kids bounced around the house all morning just totally excited to go swimming!! I love that they love to swim, I'm just ashamed we don't do it more often. (thanks to Pam I have a swimsuit that fits now) So anyway. We went swimming. The kids had a blast. I have to give Sydney (my 8-year old neice) a big hand for all her hard work with "teaching Charity and Kelly to swim". They were so funny when I would show them something with swimming "no mom, that's not how sydney does it!". I mean it's not like I taught swimming lessons my whole High School career or anything :) They did know quite a bit though, so I gotta hand it to her :) Noah was funny in the pool. He was pretty uneasy and had to hang on to me pretty tightly for the first little bit. But then when we let him walk around in the 6 inch deep water, he just thought he was all that and a bag of chips! I have to say he was very good at keeping his balance too!! Only a few tumbles and gulps of water for him. What a cutie. Luke and Brad wandered around for a while and then spent the last hour going on the water slide over and over. It was so cute to see their little freaked out faces as they came around the bend and into my arms. They totally loved it though. HA! The girls had some fun on the slide too..... they were a little hesitant until they realized how shallow it was at the end (apparently me catching them isn't comforting enough). I'm really glad I had left Noah's shirt on him and that I caked on the sunblock on everyone else so much that day! I got completely fried!!! My shoulders and back are still in excrutiating pain. Nate got a little too, but he had a shirt on and he's much less of a whiner than I am so I really don't know how bad his is..... maybe I should be a sensitive, loving wife and ask how he feels for once. At least the kids were spared though :) And luckily they have all tanned pretty good this summer to begin with.
After swimming we went and got a bite to eat at Rumbi Grill. That place is pretty good. I think we all liked it. And the kids were so exhausted all they did was eat (well, and spill their drinks), but it was a rather pleasant, uneventful restaurant experience.
That night we had been invited by our home teacher (who actually lives next door to my visiting teacher so they were invited as well) over to their home for dinner (a bbq of course). They were so awesome!! We just felt so good to finally feel like we have some real friends out here. They were way laid back, and it was just so relaxing. It's really been a while since we did anything with neighbors. We've missed it. The kids had a blast running around the two yards, doing just about anything their hearts desired. They have a zip line, teepee, trampoline, "forest", and well, you name it. The kids were in heaven. It really was a nice relaxing evening. I loved it.

And that was our week. I now know why I don't do this every week.... I've had to rack my brain to remember all of it, and frankly, it's just too long. But since I've been such a photo taking slacker, I figure I need to at least still keep up the journaling. I don't know what's happened to my will/obsession to capture every moment on film. I'll blame it on the pregnancy for now.... hopefully it doesn't take the whole 3 months to get it back though. We'll see. Anyway. Sorry for the longer than ever post. Hopefully you fell asleep early and didn't have to read it all :)

I kept meaning to get a picture of all of them together during one of the breaks or something, but didn't. These were the only time I even got the camera out. But how funny that all four of them were so close together for a second. None of Noah :( bummer.