MONDAY, MONDAY...

Hi Friends,

I fell behind on blogging this weekend -- just got busy. On Saturday, my good friend,Shirlene, brought her son, Brandon, to stay with us for a few days while she and her husband go on a trip. Brandon is Cameron's age and we've known him since they were both in second grade. He really is part of the family -- especially acting as a big brother to Nate and Isaac. So, we were thrilled to get Brandon for a while this summer as he's turning 18 soon and might decide he's too cool for us at some point:-) But for now, he prefers us to a vacation with his family, and we scored free entertainment for Nate and Isaac. It's a win-win situation for both families. Brandon and the boys are currently at the park playing with a bunch of neighborhood kids.

Yesterday we ALL went out to the land to celebrate Father's Day for Bill. Yes, me and the kids and Brandon + Bill. My husband wouldn't let us buy him anything for the day, so I thought at least we could all go to his favorite place. The kids all helped him with a few projects, we had a picnic lunch, and then we just sat and enjoyed nature. I did make the walk up the mountain to our future homesite, which was pretty good considering I haven't walked up the stairs at our house for several weeks. But even though I spent most of the time in the trailer or under a huge awning and covered up -- the time outside really wiped me out. The next time I go along, we decided we'll go later in the day -- more like for dinner and the sunset as I'm a vampire.

But what was important was that Bill had a good time. And the kids did, too. On the way home, we stopped at the sand dunes on PCH. It was a lot of fun to watch Brandon, Nate, and Isaac rolling and somersaulting down them. Molly did sand angels. And Cameron watched from the truck with me and Bill. We didn't make it home until after 9 p.m. at which point SuperMan (or in this case, SouperMan) insisted on making minestrone and bread for dinner. He never takes a day off. It was a great dinner and we all stayed up way too late. Almost everyone slept in today.

I'm off to work on a few things around the house. Not sure how long I'll last today... I ran out of my Ambien (sleeping pill) yesterday and refused to send my dear husband out on Father's Day to Walgreen's. I thought I could live without it for a night, but I ended up not falling asleep until 5:30 a.m. I had about 4 hours of sleep, so I'll be glad to have the Ambien tonight...

Have a great day:-)
Much Love,
Michele