HiP HiP HoORaY!!

Three cheers for C! She tried out for cheerleading again this year and made it!! It was so much less stressful this year! This year the coach posted the new team on a school cheer blog. I will never forget how sad I felt and how devasted it was orginally for her, as she searched on the list for her name and number. All the while, the coaches, and some of the girls who made the team were standing there giggling and gloating. C cried herself to sleep for 2 days. Then, three weeks later, we got the call from the principal that C's score card had been put in the reject pile, and they were adding her to the team! She makes such a good cheerleader. She is physically strong, and so energetic! Her first assembly is next week and the first football game is in 2 weeks. I guess, I will get out my megaphone again!

July....It came in warm and went out like an Infereno!!

YOU KNOW YOU LIVE SOME WHERE HOT, WHEN YOU CAN REALLY COOK AN EGG ON THE STREET!!!

I have been so busy this month, that I am doing a post in dedication to the fun times we had with family and friends in the month of July.

July started out with a camping trip to Overgard with Ty and CC, (my brother and sister-in-law) Mike Piazza and his son, my father and mother in law, and 7 dogs for the 4th of July!!!

Here is CC and I enjoying a relaxing moment by the fire!

The men caught crawdads and we boiled them and ate them. Here they are sucking the heads off!

Here is Mike fishing.

We took the kids into watch the 4th of July parade in Overgard.

The kids had a good time riding the quads.

JULY 9th - C's friend Ginny came for a visit from Arlington, Washington. We took her to the lake and she enjoyed a ride on the tube.

Ginny and C had a good time. They went to the Queen Creek Monsoon Madness Mud slides and came home covered in red mud! Needless to say, there underwear is no longer white:D They did pedi's, went to the movies, and had slushies!

July 16th- My brother Brent, his wife Jessica, and my neice Bailey came from Utah to visit us. I warned them of the heat, but they came and we had a fanastic time!

Here is Bailey and M wishing that they could fill the bikinis. But don't grow up too soon girls!

Day 1: I took them to Chandler Mall and the girls bought school clothes. Bailey and Maddie got matching shorts and t-shirts. After Jessica and Brent treated us to Chili's for lunch. For dinner that night, the kids stayed home and swam in the pool, and the adults wento out to all you can eat sushi. Mike and Brent tried chicken feet.

Day 2: We took them up to the lake and we tubed and played in the water. We had a good time. The lake was the perfect temperture and we enjoyed a relaxing day swimming and boating.

July 29th. THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??? i guess if it is so hot outside, we might as well be inside learning!

My body parts are talking to me...

I got up to run this morning at 5:00 a.m. It was already in the 90's so I crawled back into bed. Now I am having runner's remorse!

If only it was this easy!

"Kiss my Grits"

C was invited to a really fun Murder Mystery party last weekend. She was assigned to be "Miss Jade" the hair tonic salesman. We decided to be a hair tonic salesman she needed to be "ALL ABOUT THE HAIR!" My neighbor Tiffani does hair and used to do hair for the Phoenix Sun dancers and cheerleaders so she came over and did C's hair. We decided to go with the "Beehive" hair do from the 60's. Remember Flo from Mel's Diner?Well, here is my C as "Miss Jade" or "Flo"

C won the prize for the best dressed and most enthusiastic, and guess what? she ended up being the murder! SO as Flo might say "Kiss my Grits!"

Our Heaven on Earth...

Our favorite little piece of heaven on Earth is Lake Powell. We decided to take a long week end for Father's Day and head to the lake; Mike could fish with the girls and I could study for my final and read a good book. Saturday, brought rain and wind, so we decided to take the girls up to see Rainbow Bridge, since they have never seen it. The lake was a little higher this year so we docked our boat, and hiked the 2/3 of the mile up to the bridge. C and M walked all the way to bridge. (Directly under the bridge is Indian land and the children were not allowed to stand under the bridge because the land is sacred to the Indians) However, they thought is was pretty cool! On the way back to Wah-Weap Marina, we docked at Dangling Rope, and bought ice cream for the girls....A family tradition carried on from Mike's family, although, Mike and I were looking forward to the traditional bomb pop! which they unfortunately no longer sale:(


Sunday:
Brought fishing and wind and some relaxing. M caught the first fish a small bass and then a blue gill. T caught a nice striper! I caught a nice nap!












after some fishing and Mike not catching anything... C decided to waterski
and the girls wanted to tube with their dad, and then we went exploring and looking for new canyons, another family favorite!














Monday:
We found a nice beach and the girls played in the sand, and I got stung by a scorpion. If you have not experienced this pain, I can tell you that a spinal tap for a C-Section hurt less! Here is a picture of us trying everything to help the pain stop. (We squished up an Excedrin tablet and rubbed it on the spot and I tried the urination thing that they do with sting ray bites, and let me tell you that worked!!! We finally ended our beach excurision and went to find a benadryl.


A trip to Lake Powell is not complete with out finding the perfect cliff to jump from. (Years ago, I witnessed my brother in laws and husband jump from pretty high cliffs) But.... I will not let the girls jump higher than a 2nd story house boat. In the one picture, you can see C doing a toe toucher while jumping off the cliff.

PUZZLED

A couple posts back, I mentioned that M and I went garage-saling. We bought this ridiculous puzzle that had 1,000 pieces. Buying from a garage sale means there is no guarantee that all the pieces are in the box, I told M; but she insisted that we buy one. So...her and I tried and spent lots of time on the puzzle. When C and T returned home from girls camp, C wanted to try putting the puzzle together. So...as the week has progressed, we continued to work on our puzzle. Infact, it was therapeutic to walk away from my master's homework and continue with the puzzle. Yesterday we finished the puzzle, and to my amazement every piece was in the puzzle! It's our little trophy, and it helped keep the girls entertained away from the computer and TV.

Has it really been that long?

Time Flies when you are having fun. M and I celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary yesterday. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was a new bride. He called me around 9:00 and said "Hey it's official, we've now been married 20 years."

Me in my wedding gown.

M and on our wedding day. (the girls were laughing at my puffy bangs and M's longer hair. Infact, they were laughing at my brother David's hair and they started singing "I want my mullet back")

M and I went to Hawaii for our honeymoon.

He surprised me with 20 long stemmed red roses, a rose for each year, and for dinner we went to the Melting Pot. The Melting Pot was so Yummo! We were going to go somewhere exotic and far away, and romantic for our anniversary. But we have decided to wait until October and go on a cruise. I am so busy with this master's class this summer, that I didn't have enough spare time. Pretty pathetic huh?

Where has 20 years gone? Let's see...We have 3 daughter's, 2 dogs, and have lived in 5 states. Through the years, we have laughed, cried, worried, fought, and loved. Our friendship and love is better today, than it was 20 years ago. There is the old saying: "That love is like a violin, the music only gets sweeter with time!"