Guest Blogger: Grace FUN AT THE WATER PARK!

 Hi! My mom had today off work,so we met my mom's friend Lynn and Brynlie and Carsyn at Carl's Jr.! Then we went to the water park in Highland! It was SO much fun! Here, me and Brynlie are jumping off a cement bench.

We have been BEST friends since before we were born!

 We are going to put ALL of these pictures in our friendship book!

This is the waterfall that led to the river we could play in! Thank you for reading my post!

Mess

About 3 months ago our basement flooded. For, oh, I think the 4th or 5th time. Each time has been a different reason. THIS time it started with a broken pipe leading to the upstairs sink...which when uncovered and fixed, led to us noticing that the basement shower had been leaking for a significant amount of time.

You know how when you're super bugged at a mess, but then that mess winds up being a blessing? Well, here you go. The sink-pipe mess lead us to discovering the shower problem...which WOULD have gone unnoticed and made an ever bigger nightmarish mess if not caught when it was.

SO my poor husband ripped out the flooring and walls AGAIN, and has been slowly working on getting it put back together AGAIN. Poor Jillian has been sleeping on a mattress on the family room floor, and has all of her belongings spread, stuffed, and basically relocated all over the house. Not fun.
But progress is being made, and we hope to have her moved back in within the week.
And I've mentioned before, but will again, that I'm sincerely grateful for a husband who isn't afraid to dive in and fix things that need fixing.

Blindness

Some of you have heard me whining the past week about not being able to see. It's been a LONG six days. It all started with an ulcer on my cornea. Went to the eye Dr. He gave me drops and said I could not under any circumstances wear my contacts for at least a week. Gasp!

I got my first pair of glasses at the age of 5. First pair of HARD contacts at age 10. Was declared legally blind, unless wearing the contacts. It was a miracle a decade later when "gas-permeable" hard contacts were invented...they were much more comfortable and could be worn for longer periods of time.

The past 2 years I've been having significant trouble with the contacts, however. Constantly battling protein deposits, fog, other things that make them hard to see out of. But whatev. Andrew has been suggesting for years that I get lasik, but I just could not justify spending the money. There are always 10 other things more important to buy that we really NEED.

After being given the no-contact-sentence last week though, I did some googling and saw that in order to even get a CONSULTATION for lasik, you have to be contact-less for 3-4 weeks. Three months in order to have the actual surgery. I thought "well, I have to go without anyway, so I'm going to make an appointment for a consult."

My appointment is for August 2nd. My eyesight is getting worse every day, due to the lack of hard-contacts reshaping my corneas. In the last 6 days I have:
1 Lost my cart with purse in it at WalMart. I pushed someone else's cart around the store AND PUT STUFF IN IT for 20 minutes before I realized my mistake. There was a tense sprint around the store retracing our steps (Grace was with me) before we found it. Thank goodness we live in happy valley and everything was still in-tact in my purse.
2. Fallen down in the garage tripping over something I could not see with my glasses. All the way down.
3. Just tonight put an entire cart of groceries on the express lane at Smith's. The checker got grouchy with me, and Grace and I frantically bagged our groceries praying that no one in a bad mood would need the express lane before we got done. I explained to him that I couldn't see, but he didn't care. We both left the store in tears.
Not to mention sitting here with my computer inches from my face, not being able to read, watch tv, play the piano, drive, missing the Harry Potter movie (of course I have tickets and am going anyway, but I won't be able to see it), struggling at work to do the most simple things. I wind up in tears every night. I fee like half a person. And it's only been 6 days.

I'm going to my eye Dr. on Saturday again to get (hopefully) a clean bill of eye-health.He'll also upgrade my glasses prescription to match my new, ever-worsening eyesight....but if he gives me the green-light to put the contacts back in, I think I may give up on the lasik. Sigh. We need a new fridge instead anyway.. And a washer-dryer. And....the list is still ever-growing.

However, on the bright side, everyone has gotten quite a few good laughs at my expense, we had a talk on Sunday about spiritual blindness that took on new meaning for me, and  I am super-extra-grateful for my old contacts that were bugging me and getting foggy all the time.

Hogwarts

We're off and running in another summer of "Hogwarts" at our house. Posters are up, points (stickers) have been awarded for good deeds, jobs, practicing, reading, etc. There are 5 contestants this year: Jillian, Ryan, Grace, Tanner, and Paige. Tyler does not live at home, and therefore is exempt. Tanner and Paige are 2 of Ry's friends whom I love and adore just as much as my own flesh and blood.
It's been a tight race so far between Tanner and Grace. They both want to win the house cup. Which is an actual mug that has the names and years of past winners painted on it. There is also a Goblet of Fire that can be won. Grace is convinced that Paige is going to win by the sheer amount of reading she accomplishes. Grace is trying to even the odds by practicing her piano lessons constantly. Jill seems to be half-heartedly competing. Tanner is keeping up a steady pace in ALL of the areas. Ryan, so far, is the only contestant who has LOST house points by being naughty. Beware: it can happen to you too. The headmistress is always watching.
Meanwhile, in years past, I have published "The Ditty Prophet", a newsletter that chronicles our summer activities. Years ago, I had the older kids write articles for it. Last year, there was no newsletter. This year, I asked Grace to take over, and she has done an amazing job! I gave her a quick desktop publishing lesson, and she took it from there. She's published 2 so far, even addressing them to the members of our family in true Potter-style: Jillian, mattress on the family room floor; Ryan, 2nd bedroom on the left; Paige and Tanner, houses in Highland (or as the last edition, 1st and 2nd chairs at the  Ditty kitchen table).
Competition ends at the end of August; right before the new school year begins. Stay tuned for house-point updates!

7-4-11

 We got up at the crack of dawn to attend our 17th year at the Provo Balloon Festival.

 It was windy and raining when we were trying to do our sparklers...

 No matches needed. Mr. Macho here saved the day with his blow-torch.