AUGUST

This month was all about The 2012 Summer Olympics in London, my Summer Peak Program ending and Sierra going off to college! She started packing the first week...

and of course with packing comes organizing and throwing out or giving away stuff!

My Summer Peak program ended on the 9th of August, the kids had requested a pajama party. So after reading time and our daily walk we had a party outside in the park. I brought them ice cream sandwiches...which they loved! I wore the PJs Doug made for me.

Well as you know Doug and Sierra like YELLOW...so when I was browsing Walmart 1 day and saw this material I knew I had to get it for them! Doug made us each a pair of jammies :)

We taped the Summer Olympics and watched them at our leisure through out the first couple of weeks in August. We mostly watched swimming and gymnastics, archery and kayaking. FAST forwarding, races, triathalons, mountain biking, horse jumping...We did watch the volley ball teams especially when it was USA vs USA!!!

The Women's Gymnastics team got GOLD!!!

Then all to soon the 16th was upon us and it was time to take Sierra to college. That morning we packed up her car and the truck and we drove to CSU. Here we are following Sierra.

Our first View of CSU. We parked and Sierra looked at the map and realized we needed to go further East. Here is her car all packed. Notice the cute coed :)

Doug waited in the truck while Sierra and I went inside and so she could check in and get her key.

Checking in, signing her contract and getting the key to her room

THE ROOM

So While Doug and Sierra were bringing in her Refrigerator. A man approached me with a sort of golf cart and he loaded the rest of the stuff in the truck and took me around back to the elevator. Then while I moved the stuff up to her room. Sierra and Doug traded for her car and a group of coeds brought all the rest of Sierra's stuff up to her room. It was slick to be done so fast! THE STUFF

Stuff and the sink

The shower

The loo

Her half of the closet

Then we went to lunch. We drove around until we found this cute little buffet. It was a decent price and delicious!

Then we went outside and Doug told Sierra how to get back to campus,we hugged and said our goodbyes and then she drove off. I felt jipped! I wanted to get a picture with her,to walk around campus and see where some of her clasees were. Doug wanted to go! I was so upset....I was getting some ice and we realized Sierra left the chocolate she made. So I made Doug go back to her dorm so I could give it to her and say a "proper goodbye" and get pictures. It still felt anti climatic when I left but there wasn't this huge hole in my heart like before.

A last LOOK...

I kept it together until I came home and I saw her room stripped down...

then I sat and her bed and cried!!! She called me that night all excited and that helped A LOT!!!!

So now it is just the 2 of us again!

A fire and tinfoil dinners and Skipbo..I won twice!

JULY

So normally in July for the 4th we go to Nebraska and light fireworks. This year I had the opportunity to work in the Peak Summer program so we stayed home. We watched the fireworks from a little unknown park not far from our church.

The Summer PEAK program focuses on helping the kids work on improving their reading level through providing books and teachers to read with and a way to measure their progress through taking computer reading quizes to see how well they can remember what they have read.
My phone gave me a warning that I had to many pictures on it and I should remove some. I ignored the warning and the next thing I knew my phone wouldn't work... finally we drove to the cricket store and the lady had to reset it for me BUT I never backed up my info so I lost all my numbers. SO BACK UP YOUR PHONE INFO!!!! But thank goodness she got it working again :D

Doug's nephew was in town and he lent Doug his bow tie from Graduation. Doesn't he look cute! :D

So Sierra started this month putting things in order in preparation for college. She went through her wardrobe and thinned it out. In the process she found she had quite a few tee shirts and she wanted to keep them but not wear them anymore. So she began a project!
7-7-12 Sierra cutting her tee shirts into squares for a memory quilt!

7-9-12 Planning a pattern for the quilt....

7-24-12 Sierra sews her quilt squares together...

She got the top all done. More to the quilt later!

We have known for years that the dryer would die, it started by making a small noise and as time went on it got squeakier and sqeakier until finally 1 day we put it out of its misery because we were afraid it would burn the clothes. We had avoided this PROJECT because it meant MAJOR moving of furniture and food storage items to accomplish it.

The laundry room and food storage that needs to be moved

The cabinets that have to move Thank goodness I was at work when they started... here is what I came home to.

Food storage in the front room and on the counters

The cabinets moved

Doug and Sierra unhook the dryer

While we had the room cleared we decided to re-do the floor using left over linoleum from the bathroom.

It turned out beautifully! Thanks honey!

That night we heard noises in the driveway and sure enough our RACOONS were back. Here are the pictures Doug took of them in our tree.

The Mom was out of the tree first and she stood on the sidewalk and growled and hissed at us until all her kids were safely across the street!

Sierra before their performance. Every year the youth in our Stake (which consists of our church's 7 wards, or units) get together and they plan a play and work on it all day and then perform it that night for friends and family. ( Play in a day) This year the theme was Disney movies but set in a certain time period and event. Sierra's group got the movie Rapunzel set in London during the 1880s with Sherlock Holmes.

Sierra did such a cute job...with lots of expression and humor :D

Sherlock just jumped on up Big Ben

Sherlock had to rescue her from Big Ben where the witch kept her.

They confront the witch and Sierra is about to slay her when she says wait aren't you my mom. And they lived happily ever after! Cheesy but cute :P
7-18-12 Sierra got her wisdom teeth out. I had to work but Doug waited for her until she was done and out of sedation and then he texted me when she was done and then when they were home.

She was a little swollen...

BUT that did not stop her from her planned garage sale with her friend....what a trooper!

more to come....