Half way through two weeks without Dad

This summer has been quite busy. Things generally have mellowed out a bit. When I now get up in the morning and say "Hey guys, want to go to the park?" They say "Naw, we just want to hang out here." Great...I can catch up on the laundry or read my book.

But, I have included alot of photos lately without many words. So, I'm going to try to attempt to catch up a bit.

Tara asked the other day why we haven't been to the dentist in a while. (It's only been a few months, but she really wants braces-crazy, I know.) I told her it's because our dentist no longer takes our insurance and I haven't found a new one that does.
The next day I saw a note written on my dry erase board "find insurance dentist". Her handwriting has improved so much I thought someone else had written it. (I have her practice a little bit everyday.)
She began swimming lessons last week. We got some goggles and she is a pro at getting in the water (with no shaking), bobbing up and down, blowing air out through her mouth and nose. She even could go all the way under the water and fetch jacks on the steps. This is a huge improvement.
We've had some friends over to play and some have had younger sibilings and Tara has been so sweet and kind to them, taking care of them and helping. This "mother hen" mode is very unusual for her.
One night before bed she told me that she cries everytime someone says the word "die" or "death" and just got really upset. It led to a very lengthy conversation talking about life after this earthly life. We covered questions I thought she already knew the answers to. It made me realize she was just afraid of the unknown. It was difficult to make it through the conversation...many tears were shed. But, it has led to an evening discussion every night where she asks me "Mom, tell me something else I don't know."
Also, she has been, on her own, making her bed and combing her hair without being asked. I'm really pleased with the way she is growing up.

Emily is a ravenous reader lately. We started with the library summer reading program which required 12 hours of reading. She started out every evening reading to me...then one day I saw her just reading in the middle of the day in her room "Just for fun", she said. Soon after that she had a book in her hand all the time.....in the car, while others were watching a movie, and she even wanted to take it into the bathtub, NO WAY! She's reading big chapter books. One evening I was putting Jacob to bed and she kept running in and saying "oh no, Justin's been kicked out of the show" then she went away then came back in and said "they didn't realize he didn't have money for the costume" back and forth" now he's earning the money and back in the show." She was so excited about the characters in the book and was anxious to tell me exactly what was happening.
Emily won an award from the Knox County Public Library for her entry into the Create a Monster competition. I'll try to get a photo.
She's taken swimming lessons too....she mostly tiptoes bobbing around for an hour and calls it good.
It's been fun lately for her and me and hair. She lets me experiment with curlers and braids... and bows. In the past she has run when I come near her with a brush. She even let me put a Poofy pony tail on top of her head that looks like a fountain. She's got just the right bounce in her step to pull it off like a pro.
We recently saw "Mamma Mia"...well, the edited version...my version where I skipped over everything except the songs. She thinks Colin Firth is just as dreamy as I do . Yeah, I finally have my chick-flick watching companion for life. Tara's more into the sci-fi...Gene has less and less ability to endure that genre as the years go by and Jacob will only watch Phineas and Ferb.

Jacob is pretty much the same. Loves playing Mario on the Nintendo game cube and watching P&F whenever he can. He's moved up to Emily's old 1st grade math book.
He's in the mode of "Mom, how do you spell......?"all the time. It's good that he's asking. But, Tara always knew how to spell.....is a pro. Emily just sounded it out on her own and wrote whatever she felt like. But, Jacob has to know how to spell it right...won't even try on his own.

Gene has been at scout camp this past week. He left on Sat. the 11th and came home Sat. the 18th about noon. He called Tues. night and said he had the night off....he got home about 10:30, took a shower and fell asleep immediately. He woke up, took another shower "just because he could " and was back to camp before I got up. Saturday he unpacked , fell asleep and then took us to a movie. Ice Age 3, Dawn of the Dinosaurs . The kids each got a free coupon book for completing their summer reading. One of which was a free dino sundae and Brusters....So, after the dinosaur movie, we got a dino sundae. FUN!
Gene spoke as a high councilor and Tara and I sang a pioneer song in church with the YW and Activity Day girls. Gene then took another nap, packed for Chicago, played bingo with us and was gone again.

Last week I spent every evening except Mon. at the church. It was very unusual. Tues. was a class on food storage, Weds. was the YW pres. meeting and volleyball activity. Thurs. was scrapbooking session and Friday was a Memorial service for a sister in our ward who passed away. The kids did a good job all those hours playing by themselves and being patient. We miss Dad, but we are managing ok.