Argh..... This week has been so busy that it isn't funny. We were very frustrated when word came down that we wouldn't be able to move when we expected to. Some time ago, we were informed that we would be able to move at the beginning of July and while we were hoping that date would be moved up, we were pretty sure it would stay so we weren't happy when they told us that it was being moved back to mid August! Carey requested a meeting with the woman in charge of maintenance & cleaning crews (and his boss, so he had to be careful with this one. We were then told that the person who had made this decision not only did not discuss it with the group to finalize it, but that she didn't have the authority in the first place! So my stress level went up when it didn't need to. Bah. This woman has been messing a lot of stuff up. It would be nice if she would pull her head out of her ass and do her job properly.

We did get away this weekend though and went camping with my family. Everyone was there; my parents, my brother and his family, my sister with her toddler (and annoying significant other) and us. The only one missing was my youngest brother. I have no idea where he was. Although it rained we still had a blast. James loved the fishing pole we gave him for his birthday and excitedly went off fishing with his Uncle Charlie. He was very disappointed that didn't catch anything. Kathrynn had her first birthday and received lots of cool stuff. We brought her cake in with us although we also made one for James in the fire with my cast iron dutch oven. It was lightly burnt around the edges because it was hotter in the coals than I expected but it was still edible. James had chosen a black forest cake, so I dumped several cans of cherry pie filling in the bottom, heated it up, and and then dumped in a chocolate cake mix over it. I used Cherrybrook Kitchen's chocolate cake mix. This is a very decadent, rich cake, made more so by the chocolate chips in it. I like buying Cherrybrook's mixes because not only are they really good (if a bit expensive) but because I don't have to worry about using eggs in the mix. When you cook with children, they always want to taste stuff and I don't want to have to worry about them getting sick by digesting a raw egg. So far I've only tried their cake mixes, and their frosting mixes, both of which I highly recommend. Pics will be coming soon. We had to use a disposable camera because Carey misplaced the digital after confiscating it from the kids. While I was disappointed that several pics I would have liked to take couldn't be done since we had limited shots, although I do admit that I didn't miss not taking a shot of my brother's fiance's white ass; she mooned us twice! It's a good thing our family is as crazy as we are so we weren't really offended although knowing us, I'm sure we'll never let her forget it. I think her only saving grace was that she's 8 months pregnant so she's forgiven most faux pau. Mister James came home after his extended stay even though he was disappointed to do so. Our little monkey switched spots with and was very proud that he was considered a big boy and that he could go.

We awoke Monday morning to discover that the roofers had started on our building; I was hoping that they would wait until after we moved. It isn't conducive to sleeping children and they were awake rather early because of it. It's a good thing that Kitty at least is a sound sleeper and I didn't have to put up with her fussiness. It's a huge pain in the bug. There are platforms and barriers everywhere, and Deedee has already found several nails. Thank goodness that she didn't find them with her feet. They roofers did have a ton of tarps all over my plants so I had to move them around. While the greenhouse effect would have been beneficial at first, a week plus without sun would have in the end killed them and I have invested too much money in them to lose them now. I'm looking forward to our harvest.

James was excited that he got to go shoe shopping. I bought him new shoes only a month or so ago and he's already outgrown them. He literally had no shoes while we were camping but his Aunt Jamie gave us some money to pick some up for him. James was actually lucky enough to have found a pair late Saturday afternoon high up in a tree. They were only a size or two too big on him but unfortunately they were obviously girl shoes. While it's easy for a girl to get away with wearing boy shoes, it's not so easy to excuse a boy wearing girl shoes. So off we went to Ross and I was able to pick up a pair of s hoes as well as sandals for him. He was quite excited the he found a pair of black converse with white skulls on the toes. He loves them and calls them his pirate shoes. LOL I also got James' invitations done (it's amazing what you can do with Word, Paint and an hour of time) and handed out. We have finally settled on July 1 for his party. He's been bugging us about it for weeks so we don't dare not do it. His gramma Sue wouldn't stand it and already gave him his give; a large pirate ship by Playmobil. He absolutely loves it and he had a blast helping me put it together yesterday. We were going to wait until his party, and use it for decorating but in the end he did so well helping me clean the living room that I got it down as a reward. My friend Bernadette came to help me get stuff picked up and packed yesterday. I was very thankful for her help although she did have one thought provoking idea. The kids had dumped a bunch of jelly beans on the floor, in an area where it was actually quite clean and I hadn't thought anything of letting the kids eat a few of them as I picked them up. However, she wouldn't let her small daughter have one because her husband said that if there is mold anywhere in the house, you could be sure that there would also be spores in the carpet. That really got me thinking so no more eating things off of the floor, at least until we get moved into the new place and I don't have to worry about them ingesting icky mold. I've long since given up on trying to keep their food spotless. After Deedee was yanking up onions by the hand full last summer and eating them by the handful, dirt and all, and she had no serious side affect I wondered what the point really was?

Even though we got a lot done yesterday, instead of celebrating last evening with a nice quiet guilt free evening watching a movie with my husband, he stayed out for a couple of hours with a friend. He had called his friend to ask a question, only to be informed that his friend was quite drunk and walking home. Since this was early evening, Carey was quite concerned and asked what had upset his friend so much only to be informed that someone that they had both gone to school with was shot to death late Monday night. Carey was very upset over this and I didn't blame him wanting to spend time with Dave while they grieved a lost friend.