Bonus

I've been conducting an experiment the last year to see how much time I can save by eliminating showering and exercise from my daily regime. What I've found? I can save roughly one hour a day. Multiplied by 365 and that's a whole lot of free time on my hands!*

Another bonus: We went to the rec center and my smell must have cleared out the place. We had the entire pool to ourselves!









*I'm kinda joking. Um, not about the exercise part, though.

My new favorite thing to do.

I'm not an artist and never have been. I never did well in art class when I was in school. I always thought it was cruel to force unartistic kids to take art and risk botching their GPA. (I guess artistic kids could have the same feelings about English class.) But on a whim a couple of weeks ago, I went out and bought some acrylic paints and canvases and--waddyaknow--I've had a blast experimenting.

Noelle loves Cinderella, so I tried to paint a few scenes for her this week. Let me tell ya, painting faces and hands, it's harder than it looks. Basically I just kept drawing and erasing and drawing and erasing until the sketches resembled humans more than aliens...but I'm so proud of the lips. I can't tell you how badly I was shaking while I painted the lips.

Fun, huh? Anyone want to come over sometime and paint with me?

Happy 4th of July!

Fletcher Family Tradition dictates that bright and early on the 4th, we head out of doors and make our way to IHOP. (Below is a picture of my gluten-free, delicious, bacony breakfast.)

Noelle, being her usual awesome self.

Isaac, decorating his pancake.

Laura and Lincoln, being very grown up and polite and boring.

A rainy day parade.

Isaac with wet socks.

The rain finally cleared and the girls enjoyed the outdoors at a barbeque.

Noelle rode her first horse.

(Shoot. Why do all my kids love animals so much? I'm going to end up living on a freaking farm someday. ) *

The boys stayed indoors and enjoyed some virtual fun.

Luckily the fireworks lured them back outside. Yay for glowsticks and popcorn and friends underneath a lit-up sky!

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

*I have nothing personally against farms. I hope it didn't come across that way. I'm just not an animal person. Not even a little bit.

Yucky

Yesterday morning I woke up with a cold sore on my lip.

I think most people don't like getting cold sores, but I especially dread them because mine are always enormous. Today it is ten times the size it was yesterday (about a half inch now) and my entire upper lip is swollen to the point where it hurts to talk. Or eat. Or smile. Or even think about smiling.

All my life I've been getting them, though I haven't had one for about five years now. They come on in times of stress or illness or when I am simply run down. So I am not surprised I have one. I've been dreading June for a while now. Lots going on this month.

My first memory of getting cold sores was when I was in first grade. It was a pretty severe case that covered both of my lips. It was so bad, my mother served me runny Cream of Wheat through a straw three times a day. I missed two weeks of school.

From then on I panicked whenever I knew one was coming. I usually missed school for a few days and hid from the world. My embarrassment was made worse when I was in junior high and a boy in my ward announced at a youth activity, "Don't kiss Jennifer! She gets cold sores!" I had no intention of kissing anyone back then, but that single comment made me more paranoid than ever.

The first day of starting high school, I woke up with a honking one. I knew I couldn't miss school so I put a band aid over it and told everyone I ran into our entertainment center and had to get stitches.

Many times when I was in hiding, I would cry piteously in my room and think all sorts of over-dramatic things like, "I am a monster!" and "No one will ever marry me!!!"

I didn't get any cold sores at all when I was in college. But a few months after I was married, I did. I remember waking up in the morning thinking Steve would shrink away in horror from me. But he hardly noticed and the only thing he ever said about it was, "I miss kissing you. I can't wait till that thing is healed."

Now, after all these years, I can laugh about it more. I'm still grossed out and afraid of grossing out others, but within a week it will be mostly gone and who really cares after all? Not Steve. Not even my kids, whom I thought would be afraid of me a little, at least the littlest one. Instead Noelle occasionally points to it and says, "Mommy owie?" and then she plops herself in my lap. Lincoln prayed yesterday that "Mom's lip would heal fast" and Laura said something like, "We don't care if you look gross. So long as you make our food and clean the house for us."

So that's that.

(Laura's comment triggered in my mind all sorts of retorts, but that's a topic for a whole other post.)

Thank you, Cubscout Daycamp

For supplying Lincoln with a new and improved wish list.


A catapult.

And an archery set and target range.

...Neither of which our neighbors would appreciate. (Dad would probably add "a bigger yard" to the wish list, and once that actualized I'd be on board, I think.)

What we've done this week (with all four kids home--yikes!)

Let's just say we've gone through a lot of sidewalk chalk.

And Laura has been making a lot of sandwiches. (By the second day she asked me in a very exasperated tone if sandwiches were all we were ever going to eat for lunch. The answer was, in fact, "YES.")

Celebrate!

Here's a picture of Noelle filling the sibling void just a few hours before we picked up Laura and Lincoln on their last day of school:

She's been especially lonely this year. I hope she won't need therapy someday:

Here are some pictures documenting our "Last Day of School" Celebration. As usual, we went all out. We saw some statues (every kid's dream):

Fountains. (But then I forgot to bring swimsuits, which made everyone sulky.)

But, AHA! There was a playground!

On a side note, I like taking pictures of clocks. Then you always know later what time it was when you took the picture...so long as the clock was working properly at the time.

(Now you know the exact time Laura and Noelle were walking in this picture. See? Interesting, isn't it? No? Okay, moving on...)

I should have bought the kids ice cream cones. It would have looked more celebratory, and it also might have kept Isaac from pointing at all the smokers.
Happy summer, everyone! Here's Isaac and Noelle doing the "School's Out" Celebration Dance: