Chapter 74: DELAY

You know when you see that word at the airport everyone just kind of sighs................................*sigh*, ugh, so we have run into a delay for our Road Trip to Maryland, the engine in Kari's van decided to blow a rod and ruin the whole engine :( sadly Kari was already packed with every inch of space used and filled including the car top carrier. But Happily (if you can call it that) it happened near Salt Lake and before we got 1/2 way across the country. So we are having to postpone the start of our trip until Tues. morning and Kari buys a new van (fingers crossed). She was saying that this had better be the only glitch we have this trip and I whole heartedly agree, all in favor say I......................................"I". (okay done).

Although we have to delay I am still super excited to be able to go on this Road Trip and I cannot wait to see Erin and Taci and to see Alesa playing with her cousins again. I also am (call me crazy) excited to show my kids the country and spend some real quality time with them!!!! (I may change my mind 2 hrs. and 27 min. into the trip, give our take 1 hr. and 59 mins.)

Hey, can you hear that????? That is the sound of my tan calling me all the way from Ocean City Beach.....................I am coming, coming, coming, please wait for me, me, me!!!!!

Chapter 73: The "F" word

I Hate it, hate it, hate it with a passion. When I hear it my skin crawls and makes me shudder. I hate to hear it on T.V., I hate to read it in the newspaper, I hate to hear it uttered by my neighbors and I especially hate to hear it from my own kids' mouths, because that only means it has invaded my home!!!!


What word is it???? Well it's that nasty, vile word, the word everyone hates.......................
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FLOOD

Oh yeah, sorry you had to read it hear too, but it happened again. But unlike the other times, I actually looked at this flood as a blessing in disguise!!!!

Wait -- what????? I know those reading must be confused, because I just said I hated fl..... flo...... floods (augh, it is even hard for me to type it out!!!) But yes, this time it was a blessing. I was sitting on the couch watching T.V. and all of a sudden I hear a massive amount of water flowing, my first thought was that the kids had turned on the hose and were having a water fight, but something about the sound caused me to further investigate. As I went into the kitchen I could see water now dripping from under the sink and when I opened the cupboard, all I saw was a wall of water. I immediately tried to turn off the water valve underneath the sink, but I don't know if it was the 500 knobs that are under there or the fact that I had water shooting everywhere, but I could not get the water turned off. So as I was running downstairs to turn off the house water, I am screaming at Kennadee to call her Dad and tell him there is a flood, I finally get the water shut off and thankfully Scott is on his way home. As I come back upstairs to assess the damage and clean out under the sink so we can figure out what happened, I am amazed at the amount of water that had accumulated all over my kitchen floor, and I am immediately struck with the thought, what if I hadn't been sitting right there, what if I had been gone to the store or worse.................what if this had happened next week, when I would have been on my way to Maryland!!!! It really is a sobbering thought of how something as simple as a burst pipe from your kitchen faucet can bring about so much damage to your home. Scott the ever-faithful handy man was able to repair the damage and get us back in working order in no time. But for once in my life I am very, very thankful that the "F" bomb came when I was here to hear it, and face it head on.

Chapter 72: Can you guess who???

Hello my name is Benjamin Franklin, my parent's were Josiah and Abiah Franklin. I was the eigth out of ten children my mom gave birth to. I have lived in Boston which had over 7,000 people living there, Boston was found in 1630 ten years after pilgrims had landed in Plymouth, it was the biggest town in the British American colonies. I made a stove called the Franklin Stove in 1741 and then quit that business, I also made the Poor Richards Almanac. In 1748 I made an electricity experiment with a kite and a key, when a storm came by I let the kite fly out, later I touched the key and I felt quite the shock. In 1775 I was a member of the continental Congress and had advocates seperation from England. After all that I officially signed the constitution of the United States of America.

(this was a school assignment that Bradley did while I was in Maryland back in March of this year. I think the thing that impressed me the most was not only that he had to read about Ben and memorize his paper, but he and his Dad came up with his "costume" and then he had to perform his memorization as if he was part of a wax museum for the school.)

Chapter 71: The Cure All

Well what can I say???? Today was one of "those" days, it started off good but then quickly fell apart. We went from Melt Down to Nuclear Reactor in a matter of seconds. I had two kids who couldn't calm down enough for me to even reason with them, and then another kid who thought he was "helping" by yelling and bossing everybody else around. Needless to say ---- I had lost all contol in this household. I felt like a Mime on the street: I appear to be talking, I am showing you what you need to know and yet no one can hear, no one can understand my hand signals and even though I am desperately trying to get your attention, they all just seem to ignore me and pass by. This is the time where I wish I could just google "help" and a magic cure would appear, I would then give out the appropriate doses and calm would return to my home. But NOOOOOO I guess google doesn't think sanity is that necessary.

So what does work, what is the magic cure.................?????

A NAP!!!!!

aaaahhhhhhhhhh the sweet sound of sleeping!!!!! I have to say for a few *cough, Bradley, Kennadee, cough* they did not think they needed to take a "baby" nap, but after one look of my "evil eye" and they were putty in my hands. Another more stubborn child took to coming out every 10-20 min. claiming to have had a nap, but the "meanest mom" in me would calmly turn him around and put him back in his bed, I should say that he did this until dinner time, but I stuck to my guns and kept reminding him that if he wanted to get out of his bed, all he had to do was take a nap. After the majority of them took their naps and had gotten up, it was "A whole new day", all of a sudden being asked to do chores and get along with their siblings, didn't seem like a big deal. In fact, my kids were acting and behaving so well, and even saying things like "Thank you" and "is there anything I can do to help you?" and "your the best mom", that I really thought that maybe I had fallen asleep and I was now dreaming, but Thank Heavens, I was in the real world to enjoy this moment. I even took all 4 to Wal-mart so they could spend their b-day money and we didn't have 1, oh yeah I said it, not 1 argument, not even so much as a slight whimper or whine, and when I told them "NO" on wasting their money on something dumb or to sugary, they just simply put it back and went to find something else.

Mothers of the world I am here to testify that the Miracle Drug we so crave has been in the palms of our hands this whole time, it is just simply the power of NAPS!!!!!
(I am hoping this is really the case and that this Miracle Drug does not come with any nasty side effects!!!!!)

Chapter 70: Can I just ignore it????

Seriously, can I just forget today and go on as if it didn't exist??? Well maybe I could but I guess there would be one sad little girl :(

I kept telling Lainee that she could not turn 5, because I didn't want her to grow up, and yet as so many of my children do, she ignored me and decided to go ahead with her birthday anyway. She received a phone call this morning and I could hear her talking excitedly and when she came into my room I asked her who had been on the phone to which she replied "Dad, he called me all the way from work, to tell me Happy Birthday!!!" :)

Well alright, if you must ignore my wishes and go ahead with your birthday, then I guess the least I can do is grin and bear it.

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY Lil Lainee!!!



more pics to come!!!

Chapter 69: There's 180 days of..........

"sung to the tune of Phineas and Ferb"

There's 180 precious school days,
and summer comes along just to end it,
so the annual problem for my generation,
is finding a good way for kids to spend it.

Like maybe cleaning their rooms and
fighting each other or
jumping on the trampoline.

Blaming everything on somebody else,
or giving poor Sophie a bath.

(duh, duh, duh)

Utah Summer Games,
Road Trip to Maryland
and slurpees to freeze up our brain.

finding all sorts of bugs,
wherever we go camp,
and driving the mother insane!!!

as you can see,
there's a whole lot of stuff to do,
before School starts this fall.

So stick with us cause King Kronicles
are gonna do it all,
So stick with us cause King Kronicles
are gonna do it all.
(MOM!! Bradley and Zachary are fighting again!!!!)
*sigh*

Chapter 68: Memorial Weekend

YAY!!!!! for the first camping trip of the year!!!! This being said I feel that I need to mention that I have learned a valuable lesson:

I really do NOT like dirt, in any way, shape or form.

And the thing I learned about my kids this trip:

that they are dirt magnets, in every crease, nook and cranny.

And although I may not like dirt, I do like to spend time with family, and watch my kids explore and go on adventures and laugh and have fun with their cousins. And above all I love the fact that at night when their dirty little bodies are all tucked in, they were NOT in my trailer!!!!!! :)

The weekend was spent up in the Uintahs with Grandma and Pappy, Scott's cousin Mark and Freda Daniels and their kids, and then throughout the weekend we got visitors from both sides of our families, Great-Grandma Horrocks, Uncle Eric and Aunt Jolene, Scott's cousin Mindie and her two girls, Grandpa and Grandma Merkley and Aunt Veon. And Freda's parents who I just adore also came up. Freda's Dad came in and helped teach the sign language class that Kari and I took in High School, it is fun to "try" and communicate with him although I mostly just have Freda do the signing and I just pretend to know something every once in a while.

We stayed in a spot that the kids appropiately named "Pine Cone Valley" that also included a spot in which they "made" a dirt hill called "Devil's Hill". Bradley said they made like 6 slides going down this hill and believe me, they spent allllllooootttt of time on that hill, which was nice for me, because it just gave me time to cozy up by the fire and read my book!!!! (Good for me, Freda and Megan like to read too.) We had some yummy dutch oven food too, pot roast, creamy potatoes, pizza, peach cobbler!!!! But the weekend's top pick of funniest moments belong to Zacky and Grandma. One night the kid's decided that they would tell scary stories, it was Zacky's turn and you could tell that he was really getting into it, so as his story is getting really intense I just reached over and grabbed his arm and yelled BOO! he jumped and started screaming and I also made Megan and Bradley scream too, we all laughed and laughed and when we were done laughing Zacky just picked right back up from where he left off and finished his story.

Grandma Daniels on the other hand was just sitting by the fire minding her own business when out of nowhere the firewood popped and a red hot spark landed right on her neck, she cries out "I think I'm on fire!" to which the rest of us, just started to snicker, we were all there and saw it, I just assumed she had flipped off the spark and didn't realize it, but nooooo, it really was still there and she kept trying to get out of her chair, still amidst laughter from us, until she yelled "Help, I can't get out of my chair!!", by this time we are all crying, and yes it is because we are laughing hysterically, so she finally gets out of the chair and the spark fell down into her shirt rolled all the way down, then finally fell out onto the ground. As if watching this unfold was not funny enough, my wonderful mother-in-law then makes us all smell her hair and jacket to prove that she had indeed been burned and it really did smell like burnt hair, Robin I did feel really bad that it had to happen to you, but it was sooooo funny to watch!!!! So thanks for the laugh!!!

Sooooo when's the next camping trip?????