This week has been super busy. I went up to my sisters house for a couple of days and then yesterday I did the grocery shopping and picking up around the house. Today, I will continue my battle with the house to get it organized and picked up but I believe this will be an ongoing process. I am going to start painting our hutch. I will post pics plus pics of the tree house which they worked on last night. I am going to do my kitchen in a Parisian cafe theme so that should be exciting! I am going to do laundry and see if I can find a place for the kids to sign up for tennis! Lots going on as usual, and nothing that is earth shattering. (which is not a bad thing:)

We celebrate our 13th anniversary today!

Do you ever feel like you have eaten so much junk and garbage that you just feel nasty??? Well about a month before we moved, I quit working out because I was too busy and then as we ate up the food we just went to eat so we didn't have to buy anything we couldn't take. And since being here, I have eaten so much junk(comfort food) and I just feel all yucky, so my sister-in-law Camille, and I, are going to do a Detox diet for 3 days to rid our bodies of all the sugar, processed and synthetic stuff in our bodies. I can't wait!! Then it is back to working out. I don't think I will sign up at the gym till the fall but I am going to start running. We(Paul, Aaron, Camille and I)are going to run some races. We are going to start with a 5k and work up. Aaron really wants to start with a 1 mile fun run, hahaha which is actually probably more up to my speed but...

So here is the Detox that I am going to do. I took a hot bath(over 98') and drank tons of water, which is supposed to purge your body of toxins and soaked in a seaweed powder(hahaha) then tomorrow I will do a water fast. Which means all I can have tomorrow is water, as much as I want. Then on Tuesday I can have fruit as long as it is fresh, and water. Then on Wednesday, I can have raw vegetables, and water of course, as much as I want. It is supposed to revitalize your body and be a big energy boost. Then I am going to try and cut out sugar except for once a week(one treat a week) and try to incorporate alot more fresh veggies and fruit. So if you have any really healthy recipes you want to share, let me know!!!!!

Wish us luck!!!!!!!

Well, on Thursday I came back home from my brother Aaron's house and my sister-in-law Camille came home with me. What a riot. We had 11 people in Big Red(my expedition) and it was crowded!!! It was a great time. We have just hung out all weekend and have gone swimming everyday. Yesterday, Paul started working on the tree fort. He also took the kids swimming twice and Camille and I shopped for home decor stuff for several hours. Here are some pics of the tree fort. Some are of just the frame for the base and the second ones are of the base done. Pretty cool!!!!

This is a picture at dinner one night. Very crazy with 9 kids!!!


This is a picture of just the frame for the tree house


This is of Paul helping Ethan up to the base. At some point there is going to be a ladder that goes up a trap door(that they have already left open on the base)


This is Ethan, Connor and Paige up on the base

Ok. There are many things I do in my life that are worth laughing at. It is not something I am proud of, I just embrace the fact that that is who I am... so these are this weeks funny moments

1. Camille and I went to Costco to get a few things. Of course they had all these samples so we walk by one and it was lobster dip. I hate seafood. She says "This is the best dip ever, you should try it" I thought "sure why not, I don't like seafood but sometimes dips don't taste like seafood" so I picked up a cracker with the lobster dip spread on top. We started walking away and I took a bite, she looked at me and said "Isn't this so good?" I had taken two chews and couldn't chew anymore, I started frantically looking for somewhere to spit it out, it was NASTY. I knew if I swallowed it that I would just throw it back up, my throat was already beginning to close up and I had to hold back a major gag reflex, in the mean time my sister in law is doubled over laughing at the look of disgust and panic on my face. I found an empty box and spit it out. She said "you didn't just spit it out did you?" I had to!! Unless Costco wanted to clean up throw up! That was the worst dip I have ever had. I think it is probably one of grossest things I have eaten. It is probably one of those things you just had to be there for.

2. I sent Fathers Day cards off to my dad, father in law and grandpa. I sent disney money for my dad. What is funny is that I sealed up his card and then realized I forgot to put the money in it. So I slit open the top and put it in and then taped it up and sent it. My mom called today laughing and said that I forgot to send the money that I talked about in the card...which means I opened up the wrong card and put the money in it...I have no idea which one but someone got extra lucky...My parents were totally laughing(cuz it is typical of me to do something like that)

3. Paul was holding our 1 year old nephew Grant and we were getting ready to eat. Grant started crying so in my mind I said to Paul "What did you do pinch him" but someone else said something and i didn't say it and got distracted. We were getting ready to say a prayer over the food and so I turned to Paul to ask who he wanted to say it and instead I absent mindedly said "Are you gonna pinch the baby?" He looked at me and Camille looked at me and all 9 kids looked at me and were confused. I meant to say " Are you going to pick someone to pray" but still had the previous thought in my head. It was really funny.

So this week I went to Georgia to visit my brothers and their families. I had a great time. I stayed with Aaron and Camille and their 5 kids and Eric and Miquela came over every night to eat and visit. We had a great time! I got to experience hot dog pizza and hamburger pizza, HAHAHA and the kids loved it!!!! It brought back so many memories. I just have to say: I have the coolest family!!! So here are pics of my brothers.


This is my brother Aaron, who wouldn't just smile for the camera. I will post pics of his wife and family later. I forgot my camera and these are the lame pictures my camera phone took...











This is my brother Eric, he just turned 37!!! This is his wife Miquela, they have been married for 3 years and they have the coolest cat: chainsaw!!!

Camille and family came back home with me for the weekend. Aaron is going to come up Sunday to get them so we are going to have a great weekend!!!

As a by-note, I went and saw some of the most beautiful houses. My brother helps build these beautiful homes. They start their homes in the upper 300's all the way up to these amazing million dollar homes. So if you ever move to Atlanta and want to be in good schools with high quality homes, they custom build homes and they are amazing. Look these up at this website: www.haymorecontractors.com

Well here is the man of the day!! I kept trying to catch him when he wasn't paying attention

It is Father's Day tomorrow and I wanted to pay tribute to the father's in my life. First is the father of my children. Paul is wonderful father. Today, he took the boys to see the new Fantastic 4 movie, then as he was putting up a fan in Matthew and Ethan's room, he let whoever wanted to help him help, and explained how it all worked. Then he took all the kids swimming. After dinner he read to them out of the current book we are reading(Danny, Champion of the World) and then came up with a game of "Poachers" to play with the kids. He got the idea from the book and he played the keeper and the kids had to get past to get to the toy room. They played this several times with all the lights turned out(in the book the pheasants are only poached at night). That was just today. When he comes home at night, he likes to be the one to put them to bed so that he can spend time with them. He tells all of them elaborate stories that he comes up with. They beg for him to tell them more, they absolutely love his stories. He is so good about reminding them to say their prayers and to remember to help me out. He is a super hard worker so that he can provide for our family. He has a funny sense of humor and often sends people into fits of laughter with his quick wit. He is concerned with mine and the kids welfare and tries to make sure we have what we need. He inspires me to try harder and supports me in the endeavors I want to try(ha ha for the most part.) I am grateful and blessed to have him in my life.

The other father I would like to pay tribute to is my own father. He is a man who inspires me each and every day to be who I am and accept the things in my life that I have experienced and embrace who I am. I have seen him continue to grow and change over the last 15 years and it gives me hope that as I fall short in my life that I can pick myself back up and try harder. His tender love of my mother is unfounded. He taught me to respect my elders but particularly my mom. I would never dream of raising my voice to her or being rude in anyway without having to deal with his wrath. There are so many things about him that I admire. He has been asked many times to do things that were out of his comfort zone, whether it was with the Navy, work, or church in which he overcame his weaknesses and they are now his strengths. I see him trying in all areas of his life to improve. He taught me to be aware at all times of the things around me, to pay attention. He accepts me for who I am and encourages me to grow in my life, whether it is educationally, spiritually, or whatever I am interested in. He is teaching me how to grow old gracefully, and how to play no matter what my age is and that you are never to old to have fun. He taught me how to work. Though it may not sound like much, I am eternally grateful for that. The things that are super hard, I feel like I can do with perseverance. He taught me to never give up and to work to overcome challenges. There are just so many things that I can't even name...so many memories such as Saturday dates, chopping and hauling wood, cleaning out the chicken coop, washing cars, going to the beach, going to Disney World, many vacations in the RV, working in the garden, taking me to college, Yellowstone, camping, fishing, riding in his VW Bug, watching and going to the movies, drives in the car, catching Poco's puke in my hands on one of those drives, riding in his truck, listening to his talks at church, his nickname for me, our little men, right before I got married, there are just too many to list but they all mean so much to me. Thank you Dad, for these priceless memories.

To these wonderful men, I thank you. You have touched my life and have given me so much that I feel forever in your debt. I feel so lucky and so blessed to be apart of your lives. I love You. Happy Father's Day.

This is our family room. It is a bit of a mess and there isn't any decorations up yet but you get the idea. This is one of the rooms we painted. Paul picked out this color and it turned out much better than the color I picked!
This is a shot from the cul-de-sac we live in. We have beautiful trees behind us in which the boys and Paul have plans to build a tree house. I am sure we will keep you updated with that once it starts.

This is my sister Amber. She came down today to help me. I got more done today than any other day! She was fantastic. We got things organized, another room unpacked and some normalcy to the chaos. Thank Heaven for Sisters. I am lucky to have a chance to be by her!!

Thank you Amber!!!

Now that I am back to blogging, I thought I would share with you some of my other blogs that I read. Their page layouts and weekly events are interesting...so if you want ideas or a good read, here they are:

www.thehenrichsens.com
www.smoochmonkey.com
www.the-bates-family.blogspot.com
www.the-campbell-family.blogspot.com
www.singlelensreflections.blogspot.com
www.jessicasandberg.blogspot.com

and for good recipes:
www.heymikeylikey.com

Ha Ha, in typical Ginny fashion I have initiated our stove into the world of my cooking. I got out my little skillet to make myself a grilled cheese sandwich. The kids are in bed, Paul isn't hungry and I thought I would make myself something to eat that I could enjoy without interruption. I put my sandwich together and put it on our beautiful black flat cook top and waited. I puttered around the kitchen and started to smell something. I glanced over thinking it was probably time to flip it over and I see the flattop smoking. I didn't think much of it because a little crumb would make it smoke and walked over. To my utter dismay I saw that I had turned on the wrong burner and was nicely melting our spoon holder that holds spoons and forks while you are cooking so as not to get drippings all over the stove. I quickly grabbed the spatula/flipper thing to scoop the melted mess off the burner, which I did successfully, and in the process started melting the spatula...sigh! My mom would call it one of my "Anne of Green Gable" moments. I could only laugh at myself.

Today we went to our new church ward. It is much smaller but the people seem nice...of course. The kids went to their classes and all seems well. I do have to mention that I wanted to leave about 10 minutes before Paul did to give us time to correct any missed turns. Paul firmly declared that he knew were to go. Within 4 minutes of starting off he went the wrong way on the highway and it was several miles before we could turn around. Needless to say we were late, which means walking in late and trying to find a seat while everyone turns to watch. There wasn't a lot of seats so we had to split up between two rows. Every once in a while, I really want to say 'I told you so...' I didn't, but I sure wanted to !!!!

We started reading "Danny, Champion of the World" by Ronald Dahl to the kids before bed. It is a really cute book. I am reading "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which so far is good. Paul is reading C.S Lewis "The Chronicles of Narnia" and has just finished "The Horse and His Boy"

We are still having phone troubles, but other than that we finally got the dish worked out which is good so that Paul can watch the play offs!

We spent a productive weekend unpacking. Paul spent Saturday putting beds together. The kids helped out putting stuff away.

This weeks goals: to find the library and to go swimming and continue to unpack!!

Well, amongst all the chaos of the week, Matthew celebrated his 11th birthday. I can't say enough about him. He is sweet, kind, caring, sensitive, funny, handsome...and the list could go on. On Wednesday, the movers arrived to deliver our stuff. I made Matthew his birthday breakfast of breakfast pizza and he patiently waited all day to open up gifts until Paul got home. He didn't complain even though I didn't get to pay much attention to him because of directing the movers, and not once did he complain about the lack of celebrating. When Paul got home, he opened his gifts, blew out his candles and headed to bed. He was cheerful and accepting of the situation. He is thoughtful of others, he loves to read and swim. He comes up with all sorts of fun games for him and his siblings to play. He patiently plays with Paige when I ask him and still loves to play the playstation. He did super well in school this year. Again, he was commended for excellence on his school TAKS test and received the Mary Tippin Service award to the school. It is an honor that is awarded to only one student a year and their name goes on a plaque at the school that remains there for as long as the school stands. He volunteered in the library twice a week and helped his teacher straighten up at the end of the day every day. His teacher was quite teary eyed saying goodbye to him and couldn't say enough about what a joy he was to teach. His thirst for knowledge and good behavior always wins the hearts of his teachers. He is an absolutely amazing kid. I wouldn't trade him for all the world, we are so lucky to have him in the family. Happy 11th Birthday, Matthew, it is not every day that his young man turns 11!

Well we have moved and we have a new computer so I am back to blogging!!!! It is about time. There has been so much that has happened in the past 2 months and I feel like it is all past and gone. But the long and the short of it is is: We are here and I plan to blog almost daily!

Today has been unpacking boxes. We arrived a few days before our stuff and we painted some rooms. I am going to post before and after pictures as soon as I find my camera cord for the computer. We painted the dining room, family room and the kids' rooms. Down the road we will paint the living room and entry way and hall. The kids are "helping" by unpacking their rooms. There is packing paper everywhere and general chaos but it keeps them busy so that I can get some stuff done. Most of my time has been spent with getting the basic stuff set up. We still don't have our dish set up(they were supposed to come yesterday but didn't show) and our phones got hooked up today, with a few glitches, and I obviously got the dsl working with only a few minor problems. I will be sending out our new email, phone and address soon. I don't want to post that on the Internet however.

We also got a new bedroom set and the armoire came cracked so we are having to get that taken care of. There seems to be a huge amount of bugs so we are going to have to set up service for that...but other than that...we are here. I look forward to blogging like I usually did before the big disaster of erasing my past year of blogging happened...until next time Namaste!