No sickness

Today Owen woke up and said he felt "GREAT!" AND he ate a good breakfast. We celebrated by going to the Stampede Days parade in town. Jo was actually in the parade for her 4H group. They had a float where they were roping, barrel racing on stick horses and sitting around a "campfire" made out of lights and dry ice. She had tons of fun. We enjoyed seeing all of the floats, horses, cheerleaders, flags, and old cars. And for being a parade where they weren't supposed to throw candy, we sure ended up with a LOT of candy. One negative to that whole experience was when I didn't do so well in my second attempt in a week to parallel park. I guess I got too cocky after my last attempt. Luckily, it was a trailer that I hit. It was just the hitch, and you couldn't even tell on the trailer; but you can see a little crack in my bumper. But, it just blends in nicely with the crack where Nathan thought I was over farther than I was. And it balances out the crack in the front where the bumper collided with the pheasant.

After the parade, we came back home so the kids could run off some energy in the sunshine while I made treats for Family Home Evening with Nathan's family up at his sister's new house. I got them done in just enough time to head up. She used to live about 1/2 hour away, but now lives about an hour away. We loved going to see her house. It's out in the middle of nowhere. We could let our kids run everywhere. The only threat was her dog and the chickens (neither one is really a threat). It was fun to get together, celebrate some birthdays and Father's Day, and visit and eat some good food.

When we got home, we had just enough time to get the kids bathed and read. We started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone tonight. My kids are all getting old enough that reading a book like that can keep their attention. In summer reading at the library, we have a goal to read 1/2 hour a day as a family (along with individual goals). We just started it tonight, but I think it might actually work this summer. The kids really got into the book.

Today was one of those days where I felt like I was busy all day, but I don't feel like I accomplished a whole lot. I guess I wanted to get more done on the remodel, but it was nice to take a break for a while and enjoy other things going on.

1. I am grateful that we are all feeling better. I'm grateful that we were all able to eat normal food and that we're all getting our appetites back. You know it's bad when Owen only eats 2 bites of something and says he's done.

2. I am grateful that we were able to get together with family. Everyone on Nathan's side live pretty close together, but we don't get all together too often. It was fun to be able to see almost everyone. And it was fun to explore Tara's new house.

3. I am grateful for Chickens in the Headlights. The kids and I started listening to it again a few days ago. I love that it's a book that the kids think is hilarious, but one that Nathan and I can appreciate, too. We all listened to it on the way up to FHE and we were laughing so hard. We even had to rewind it at one point to hear it again.

4. I am grateful that the day was sunny today and the kids were able to play outside for most of the day. It made getting them to go to sleep much easier.

5. I am grateful that Zoey's caterpillars came today. For her birthday, Jo and Owen gave her a butterfly garden. We saw one in my niece's classroom last time we went down to Utah. The kids were all fascinated with it and are excited to see the butterflies go from caterpillar to butterfly all in our living room. My kids were about done with the day when we got home from FHE and we were trying to rally Zoey to take a bath. While the other kids were bathing, Zoey and I looked at the caterpillars and she was able to re-group and get a second wind. It was perfect.(I know, I know. We had a fun day with plenty of picture opportunities and the only picture I got was of Zoey's caterpillars. I forgot my camera everywhere we went. So, that's it. Sorry.)

How I recognized God's hand in my life actually had to do with the caterpillars today. The kids were all distraught when we opened the caterpillars and they had packaged it upside down. None of the caterpillars were moving. On the instructions, it says to give them a few days to start moving, but my kids were afraid that they were all dead tonight. The company guarantees 3 perfect butterflies out of the 5 caterpillars. They say that if, after 1 week, the caterpillars haven't moved, you can send them back and get a new batch. I had visions of my kids plastered to the cup of caterpillars for a week as none of them moved. Then having to wait for another batch to arrive. I was worried. Then, I saw one caterpillar start moving and that helped the kids, but they were still concerned. Within about 5 minutes, we saw all 5 of them move a little bit. My kids (and I) were much better. I'm so glad that we didn't have to wait the "few days" to realize that our caterpillars all made it. Now if the rest of the experiment can go as well.