This last week was intense!

Monday was a nice quiet at home day before the whirlwind took over.

Tuesday - I had to go clean for a client, take her to lunch, finish the cleaning and then take her to the grocery store and bank. It was the slowest grocery store trip I have ever taken! Even my grandmother goes faster than that, but this lady is probably ten years older than her! I got her back about 2pm and then I had a slew of errands to run before Dad and Mom left town with the only working vehicle that I can drive. Across the bridge to WA to pick up some sewing supplies for projects to work on during the week, small things to pick up at Walmart, groceries to pick up last minute, gas station, etc filled the rest of the time and I got home much later than I'd wanted to!

Wednesday - Dad and Mom were gone before any of us even thought about waking up! The animals had to be done, house cleaned, etc (and we managed to get in some weeding in the flowers beds) so that we could be ready in time to be picked up for the games. I baked cookies, but did not start them in time, so they weren't ready to take with us! Oh, well! My sisters' guy picked us up and we had one stop to make before we went to the park and started Badminton and Volleyball. Later in the evening when it was cooler, we played a full game of Frisbee! It had been awhile since we'd played, so it was good to be running that much again! Plus, my team won! Woohoo!

Thursday - Well, honestly, I don't remember what we all did on Thursday. But, I did laundry, sewing, vehicle research and talked to an incredibly sweet friend for almost 2 hours among keeping the kids under control, and life moving forward for those of us that were home.

Friday - There was an extra game planned, so we spent the morning cleaning and I did more sewing and laundry before we again got picked up for the game. This game was the most exciting I have ever been to: there was a fire! We saw the column of smoke, and then went back to Volleyball until we heard sirens and noticed the smoke column was larger and quite black. So, we ran to the edge of the park, but couldn't see enough, so we ran down to the main street where quite a crowd was gathering already in all the parking lots, the used car lot was rapidly pulling vehicles off the lot and the deputies were closing the streets down. We watched for awhile before we decided that we did want to play Volleyball, so we walked back to the park and started a game. We also played Mafia while we waited for the weather to cool down a little and tried some different variations to change it up.

Saturday - We had to get up very early to get ready for a hiking/fishing trip to Elk River. I barely had enough time to pack a picnic lunch and hustle the kids to get ready and miraculously, we left only seven minutes late! Once we had arrived, one of my sisters and brothers went with the fishing group, but my two sisters and I went with the hiking group to see the waterfalls. After we were joined by the fishing group, we headed to the last fall and went wading. Rolled up the pants, and into the water we went. Some rocks were slippery and some were sharp, but we had a lot of fun anyway. For the most part, we stayed out of the water fights that were going on. After eating a picnic lunch, and stopping at the Inn in town for huckleberry shakes, we headed home.

Sunday - We slept in because everybody was *exhausted*!!! After quite a bit of confusion, we packed another picnic lunch and headed to Waha Lake with my future brother-in-law to meet up with his siblings. We waded around in the water until a snake showed up, then we dangled our feet in the water on the other side for awhile and talked while the people with licenses fished. After lunch, we played a version of Volleyball for a circle, and then went home to get ready for Dad and Mom's return.

Those few hours at the Lake were the most peaceful few hours I've had in quite awhile!

~am