Tired

I am so tired.

(This pretty much looks like

how I feel at the end of the day)

Thankful

No matter when we are praying, whether it is at night, at meal time, or just because, Mallory's prayers always start out the same. Dear God, Thank you for this food.....

Fundraising

Jack came home with his first school fundraiser. Argh! I really don't like these things. Most people would probably be more willing to just donate 10, 20, or 50, dollars to the school than to sift through a magazine filled with stuff they really don't need or want. I really don't like going to neighbors, friends, and family to ask them to look through the book while we are standing right there and ask them to make a decision about buying something. Talk about guilt tripping people into buying stuff.

So I'm going to get you to buy stuff you don't need by taking a different approach...lol. There is a website you can go to, to look at the stuff Jack is selling for his school. This way you can look at it at your own leisure without someone staring over your shoulder pressuring you to buy something. I really don't care if you never look at the website or don't buy anything. I just feel guilty not putting forth any effort when they send these things home.

The website is www.believeholidays.com It will ask you what school you are supporting. Scroll down to Jenks West Elementary. It will send you into the "catalog" section of the site. If you find something you CAN'T live without let me know and we will order it.

Gymnastics

Mallory started gymnastics today. Hopefully that will help her get her wiggles out. She seemed to really enjoy it. She got to go on the balance beam, bar, spring board and did some tumbling.

At the end of the class they each got a tootsie roll. On the way home, she said she loved gymnastics because she got a tootsie roll. Glad that is what I'm paying for her to enjoy...lol . I took the camera but of course the batteries were dead, so I don't have any pictures to post...sorry. We will make sure all cameras are ready to go next Wednesday.

New Life Ranch

Every year our church goes on a Labor Day retreat to New Life Ranch. It is about 2 hours outside of Tulsa, in Colocord, Oklahoma. We have went three times. Every time we love it. This was the first year Dalton and Avery were able to come along and it made it even better.

We got in about 8:30pm on Friday. Just in time for square dancing! The kids danced a little then went and ran around with all the other kids, while Matt and I talked with some friends. On Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast and set out for a full day of activities. We did wacky relay races, canoeing, kayaking, blobbing, swimming, archery, horseback riding, skits, and we got to sleep in a cabinet(cabin) as Mallory called it.

The theme for the weekend was "Going Retro", because our church is celebrating its 30th anniversary in October. Everyone was to come to dinner dressed up in their 70's or 80's outfits for Saturdays dinner. We all dressed up in 70's outfits we wore for the parade this July. After dinner there were skits in the chapel. Our family was asked to help out, so we ended up performing two skits in front of the whole camp....the kids did great and loved it! To close out the night we had a campfire and hayride.

Sunday we had a small church service in the chapel and then went out to the creek for baptisms. After the baptisms we ate lunch and packed up to go home. The kids didn't want to leave and continue informing us they want to live at New Life Ranch.

We can't wait until next year!

(more pictures of our weekend on Flickr)