the boys

Luke decided that he and dad should wear matching shirts. Joel joined in with a football shirt, too. Seth joined in just to be with the boys :-)



Look at how HUGE Joel is! Even on his knees, he's taller than Seth.



Seth wanted me to keep taking pictures of him posing with the phone. He was holding the phone, saying "CHEESE!!!!" He's such a funny little kid!!

time's flying

The days are going by so quickly lately because I've been so busy. I've had to chuckle to myself many times when people whine about having to get up "early," meaning somewhere around 6 or 7 a.m. My alarm goes off most mornings at 4 a.m., and I'm up and getting ready by 4:30. "Sleeping in" to me is sleeping till 6:30! I have a friend who has to get up at 3 a.m. almost every morning to get ready for work. So the 7 a.m. whiners get no sympathy from me.

I'm working from about 6 a.m. to noon most days and then going home to work some more. Both my paying job and my house "chores" are easy, but time consuming.

We are doing some fun things sometimes -- park days with other families from church, track meets, boating on the lake, going for walks, playing in the little backyard pools, reading, watching "The Partridge Family" :-) Tomorrow is the annual summer picnic for the Down syndrome group. Joel begged me to make deviled eggs. I'm REALLY wishing my mom lived up here!!!!! She's the deviled egg queen -- she actually thinks they're EASY to make! It'll take me the whole morning tomorrow to make those things :-( But the reward will be eating them (I'm making extras for us to eat at home) and having Joel happy with me (he's in the "teenage attitude" stage, I'm afraid -- not as bad as he could be, though).

Here are a couple cute Seth pictures:

Notice the little Seth finger on my chin pulling me closer to him :-)


Luke taught Seth to say "na-na-na-na-boo-boo!" HILARIOUS!!!!!!!

work, work, work

A little over a year ago, I started working for Hallmark so that we would have a better chance at paying the American Express bills. I started out with one store (Barnes & Noble), then added a Safeway, and then a Walgreens. After Christmas, I switched from Safeway to Walmart. That was a little too stressful for me, so my supervisor let me switch back to Safeway. A few days ago, my supervisor's supervisor volunteered me to take another Walgreens (that's store number 4, in case you lost count). My supervisor is stepping back from working the merchandise to just be a supervisor and asked me to take her two Walgreens at the end of June. Now the grand total is six stores. The idea of that is a little overwhelming, but the reality of it won't be too bad because I'll divide the work over four days. It's a huge compliment that my employers recognize that I'm a hard worker, good at my job! Of course, I attribute that to how I was raised. My parents have always been hard workers and taught me, mostly with actions but also with words occasionally, that being diligent is a very important characteristic to have.

Another lesson that my parents taught me was how to win over grouchy people, especially at work, by being kind and respectful and by doing my best at everything I do. A smile and good work go a long way in making people a little happier. The managers at Barnes & Noble didn't want me there at the beginning, but once they saw how well I got the job done and how pleasant and respectful I was to them, they changed their opinion. Now they all greet me with a smile and are always completely helpful and cooperative with anything I need from them. I have another one of those situations at one of my new Walgreens. I'm pretty confident that I'll succeed, but it's a little daunting to walk into a place where I know someone is going to try to dislike me.

My kids aren't quite so happy about my working all these hours, but the schedule will balance out a little better once we get all the stores re-organized. Summer is also the time for store revisions, so I'll work fewer hours once those are all finished. It's good for all of them to have to take care of themselves a little more instead of expecting me to be everyone's maid :-)

first summer track meet

Last night was the first track meet of the summer. Luke competed in three jumping events (high jump, long jump, and triple jump) and two running events (50 meters, 200 meters). He isn't an Olympic athlete yet, but he's trying his hardest.


Seth gave me a grouchy face for a picture, but he really loves going to the track meets. He's only grouchy when I don't let him run all over wherever he wants.


Seth ran the 50 meter dash, too. He doesn't understand "stay in your own lane," so I run with him. Apparently, we were running so fast that we were just a blur to the camera :-) Or maybe the 12-year-old photographer didn't quite hold the camera still :-)


Joel and Makenzie can't compete in the track meets this year. Joel's foot is healed, but he can't run for a while yet. Makenzie hurt her knee back at Christmas time, and it's still bothering her. So she's can't run either. They still go to the track meets to support Luke and Seth (forced sibling support -- they'd both rather stay home and watch t.v. I don't blame them for that, though -- I would, too! But if I have to go, they have to go!)