Welcome to Dana's blog!

We're back........

Completely exhausted, but home safe and sound. We left on Thursday to go to the ILs and went nonstop. We got out there Thursday night adn went to the county fair cuz FIL was judging sheep. The kids did some rides and we wondered around and DH and Mat stayed for the truck pull. Dh was happy cuz FIL gets him in for free!LOL Friday was a bit more laid back. We were supposed to go out on a pontoon boat, but set up to go to MIL's friend's pool. First, we stayed w/GFIL while GMIL got her hair done and Joey played w/him while Mat and his big cousin walked up town to get donuts and goodies. I know Mat loved that cuz we don't walk anywhere (there is no where to walk out here!LOL).  And we went to Pizza Hut for lunch. And I don't know how MIL does it, but she always gets away cheap there! The waitress dropped off the bill and it was $10.61 for the 5 of us! I know Joey is free and Mat's cheap, but the 13yo cousin must've been as well! They certainly don't make money off of a crew like that!LOL However a NASTY storm ripped thru while we were in there and caused more damage than some previous storms. We headed back to their house and I can't remember what we did!LOL The events at the fair were cancelled (tractor pull and pedal pull (which the boys were to be in!)) cuz of the storm too. FIL did leave with FIVE (including Joey) of the gkids and took them somewherea nd wound up at the fair and they watched an auction! I'll admit to being a nervous wreck that he had Joey there. He's THREE! ANd FIL has a tendency to get distracted. But the others (8,8, almost 12 and 13) watched for him and all was well. He also took them all to eat at a local place. He goes there EVERY DAY. I'm sure he was partially in his glory w/that many gkids (2 namesakes) there as well. Saturday was JAM PACKED! We got up and had a huge bfast and then went had to take care of some things cuz GILs were out of power and their big freezer had defrosted (nothing in it, but it needed cleaned up). An uncle was there handling things so MIL was a bit relieved (still upset). Then MIL said she needed to go to Dillard's. Bad move!LOL I have been trying to get to Dillard's for a month or so!LOL We were supposed to go to Fitz's (sp?) rootbeer and watch them make it (Mat's all time fav is root beer!), but since I spent so much time shopping, we couldn't. I'm not sure we'd had had enuf time anyway. I did get the kids 2 matching shirts for next year and me a new nightie (WAHOO!) and a cute shirt. Then off to the City Museum in St. Louis. OMW! That place is PHENOMENAL!!!!!!!!! It's a renonated old building into AMAZING playstruces/places for kids. INSIDE AND OUT!!!!!! Caves to crawl thru, turtles and fish, and logs to crawl thru and the outside is stories of stuff to crawl! It's all recycled stuff and so neat to see how creative they are! Two small airplanes perched up on rebar that you are to climb (rebar) to get too, etc. Mat and I were about to the 2nd story outside when my flip flop fell to the ground! Thankfully it missed the lady pushing the stroller underneath!LOL It was foam and wouldn't have hurt, but still. So Mat had to shimmy down and get it and bring it back up!ROTFL! And we left there and went to the local place to eat (again!LOL) and then to the championship softball game that a niece was in. SHE WON! It was 9 our time by then adn the kids were POOPED so they got showered and Joey put in bed. The other SIL called and was bringing her 2 over.  So we let Mat stay up and play. Meanwhile DH and SIL and I decided to go to the demolition derby. I had never been. What an experience! Totally wasteful on 100 different levels, but it was pretty fuN! I got mud slung on me by a car!LOL We waited until they stopped charging ($10/head) to get in adn it was the 'mini' class. Smaller cars like corsicas, shadows, even a metro!LOL There were 16 cars and a 57 yo lady won!!!!!!!!!!! The crowd went nuts when they announced that! And (I'm NOT bragging here) 3 of Dh's cousins (3 brothers, their BIL and nephew)  were 3 of the 24 cars in the grand finale (you have to be in the upper part of previous heats that night to qualify). They all did really well and one got booted after about 30 min (it was almost an hour for the last class!), but the other 2 were the ones left standing! They were so funny. They'd go bang the snot out of one car and then move on the to the next. Very methodical. But their cars were both in pretty good shape so the crowd was yelling "Line 'em up", which apparently means they run into each other head on until one car dies. The nephew won! I'm sure it was very exciting for him. But it was 2:30am our time when we got home!!!!!!!! We went to church on Sunday, ate and loaded up the silage chopper and came home. EXHAUSTED! Mat had VBS last night and I thought it started at 6:30. We got home at 6:05 and ran in and used the bathroom adn left. It started at 6!LOL But that's OK. I came back home and unpacked what DH had unloaded and did stuff around the house. We picked Mat up and ate and all went to bed. I was so tired that I slept thru my exercises this morning !I almost never do that! So I got ready adn the kids up and ready adn off to the morning VBS we went. I helped in the kitchen adn I really needed to go to the grocery and was going to take all 5 kids, but we got stuff cleaned up and it lasts until 11:45, not 11:30 like I thought so I ran to the grocery adn got my stuff and cups for VBS and to the library and then back to pick up the kids. I did take them thru the bank and they all got suckers!LOL My neighbor called on the way home saying that she was making lunch for us! I thought that was GREAT considering they are still chip and sealing the road (well they aren't really using sealant, which means the rocks are just running off into the ditch, but that's our tax dollars hard at work....) and I was blocked in her house!LOL So we got home about 1:45. I"M TIRED! DH wants me to weed the garden tonight, but Mat's doing a modifed school day and I'm going to weed tonight when it's cooler out. I'm hoping to lay down a bit as I have a huge headache right now.