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*I will add pictures but it's not cooperating right now*
So FYI, I constantly blog in my head. Seriously. Sometimes it keeps me up at night thinking 'I really should blog about that!'. I'm such a dork, I know. =o)

Our lives are plugging along. Not a ton of exciting things but at least we're consistent! First of all, we are getting started on our house. We went out last Tuesday and staked out the perimeter of the house. It was so fun AND informative. We made a few changes afterward, like widening the garage and expanding the laundry room so there's no jog in the exterior walls. Making the garage bigger totally broke Adam's heart and making the laundry bigger totally broke mine. I made the changes in time for Skinny to take the plan to get bids at a couple different places. I am actually in the process of redoing it now that Skinny has had someone look at it because of some changes that needed to be implemented. I think it may be a continual process for a while but it's good to know that it gets us somewhere! We met with the surveyor yesterday. I had heard that the survey was pretty expensive and holy moley is it ever! Estimate is $2000-2500 just for the survey of the lot, $500-1500 for lawyer fees, and another $2000 if we have to have an engineer do the DEQ submittal. Plus the state has 60 days to review the DEQ submittal once we get it submitted and if there's something they don't like, we have to change and resubmit. Pray for us that the government decides to cooperate! I'm hoping to get our houseplan redone today so that I can get a materials list and start getting bids from lots of places for lumber, windows, concrete, etc. According to my book, the bank likes you to have bids from several different contractors, even if doing the work yourself just to see what would happen if you got injured or sick or whatever. It's definitely gonna be a learning curve!

I am now watching the Bender bunch every other Saturday while Crystal's at work, at least until Skinny is done this fall. I had them last Friday and Saturday because their daycare was closed. The older kids have so much fun together and they play pretty well. I almost never know there's extras, except that I have to make twice as many sandwiches at lunchtime. =o) Keira, however, has decided that she doesn't like Sarah. It's kinda funny. Sarah really just wants to play with her and be her friend but Keira wants nothing to do with her, doesn't even want her in the same room! She lets out this ear-piercing shriek every time Sarah comes in the room, gets closer than 5 feet, and especially if I hold Sarah. Gramma Jo Bean says that she does the same thing with her dog. I pretty much think that's hysterical. I am trying to tap into my pre-kids creative side and come up with activities for the kids to do while their here. It helps me have a break while they're entertained and it gives them something to look forward to! Friday we decorated birdhouses. Nothing fancy, I just bought the $1 balsa wood birdhouses from Joanns and let them go to town with washable markers. Once they were done, I gave them a quick coat of polyurethane. They loved it, although I did have an itsy bitsy problem of Porter and Kamber coloring all over themselves. Really all over. Porter even colored his junk red. (What is it with kids coloring all over themselves?? Sarah draws all over herself every time she gets a pen. Crazy kids!) On Saturday, I made edible playdough. It's pretty cool stuff. It has peanut butter, oats, honey, powdered sugar, flour, etc in it. Kind of like an eggless PB cookie dough. Then I set out bowls of sunflower kernels, chow mein noodles, chocolate chips, raisins and the like for them to work with. They all dug in and started making stuff, except Sarah. She picked up her hunk and just started eating like it was lunch-time, that silly girl. They had a great time, though they did gross me out a little when I served them lunch since they were still playing and they crushed their Cheese Nips into the dough. Truthfully they didn't eat much of it and I'm actually kinda glad because I think it would gross me out to watch someone eat something they had just played with for an hour or so. YUCK.

Monday we got to go to Lewistown to see our friends the Allens. Rachel and Shiloh live way out in the DC area so we don't get to see them much. We got the news that they would be visiting Shiloh's family for the week and the boys made a plan. When we first arrived, they were getting ready for a horse ride. Shiloh's mom asked Paige if she would like to come with her while she took care of a couple things and Paige came over and asked if that would be okay. I said yes, that she's a friend and Paige hopped right in and left. I couldn't believe it!! She is always so shy and reserved around people she doesn't know, and especially when she's out of her comfort zone. Jan must have that special touch! Me and the rest of the kiddos followed down to the office after the riders left. Paige was there playing hide and seek with Mariah, the daughter of one of the employees. They were obviously fast friends and I was shocked again at Paige being so outgoing! They added Porter to the mix and kept on playing. It was fun to watch. Once Adam, Rachel, and Shiloh were back, we all headed to Shiloh's parents house. They just took us in and took care of us: made us lunch, gave my kids snacks, cleaned up after us and the whole deal. There are few places in this world that I feel that comfortable and that's saying a lot! We got to take our kids swimming at the Lewistown pool. They were like little fish! Watching baby Harper 'swim' with Shiloh was pretty fun too. It was also nice that Rachel and Shiloh's sister Arielle were taking as many pictures as I was. Don't know what it is about swimming but I just love pictures at the pool! All the boys went fishing after we went swimming. Adam caught 2 fish, one of which Porter reeled in. The funniest thing about it was that when they got back we asked Porter lots of times what he did while they were out fishing and his only answer was 'Nuffin.' Must've made a huge impression...lol. Paige and Shiloh's nephew Jordan played so well all afternoon that I didn't see Paige for hours. At one point they must have been playing house because Jordan's mom, Jill, heard Paige call him sweetheart. =o) They fed us an awesome dinner of kabobs and then we had to reluctantly head home. We got home around 11 pm but it was worth it. I even managed to stay awake the whole time due to Mountain Dew and copious amounts of good chocolate.

So on a final note, congratulations for making it to the bottom of this post! Just to satisfy my curiosity, will you please leave a comment? It doesn't have to be anything earth-shaking, a period, asterisk, or something will do. I'm curious if anybody actually reads this thing. =o)