Let's catch up on life with a listity list, shall we?

1) We've had a steady increase in showings on the house over the past month.  We had a second showing 2 weeks ago, which unfortunately didn't really come to anything, but it did give us a little hope that someone else might find our home to be as lovely as we think it is. We're averaging about 2 showings a week.

2) Stupid meth heads. I have a horrible cold (we all have colds) and Aaron has been to 3 pharmacies that refuse to sell any pseudophedrine without a prescription.  Walgreens would've done it if and only if we had filled a prescription there in the last 6 months (which, we have not). So for future knowledge, fill a prescription at Walgreens once every 6 months so you can get decent medicine when you have a cold. Ridiculous.

3) I did not post last week because it was filled with all kinds of awful stuff. (see photo below) There were good things that happened too, but I was too consumed by the bad to blog. Yep. That's poop on the carpet. And the photo is evidence of how I discovered the poop. Don't walk and look at your phone at the same time or you run the risk of stepping on a land mine and having your plans for the day blown away.  The worst part is that this wasn't event the worst of the mess. Corbin had not pooped in 3 days. There were 11 more of these just like it and they were all on the carpet, and Corbin had taken every baby quilt from the basket and covered them and stomped all over them, smashing them deep into the carpet.
I cleaned up most of the piles, then took a break.

When I returned, I discovered this little scene.
There was MORE poop on the other side of the room! How is this possible?!
What is that white stuff?   That would be a tube of Desitin that had been squeezed out carefully onto each of the piles. Like frosting on top of a half dozen poop cakes.

Oh, did I mention my HOUSE IS FOR SALE and I am constantly cleaning and scrubbing everything instead of living my life?  This all went down 24 hours before a showing. We spent one very hot day with all of the windows open to air da place out. HUGE thanks to Kasey for loaning me her carpet steamer.

4)  Corbin had a birthday!

To be frank and honest, we had unrealistically high hopes that age four would be less exhausting than age 3.  Like I said, our hopes proved to be unrealistic.  I will say that even though most days I am still somehow surprised daily by Corbin's wild antics, the kid also makes me laugh every day and melts my heart every time I tuck him into bed and he furrows his brow and says, "don't go", and every time he takes my face into his hands and says "I wubve you, Mom. You're my best friend." He is a character of multiple personalities. They are all extreme and I truly love them all.

5) School is OUT! Wahooooo!!!  We have an exciting summer planned, and I am SO happy that the children are mine, all mine, for the next 100 days.  Bucket list coming SOON.
After school, I had the snow cone maker set up so we kicked off summer right with a sticky icy treat.  We learned that Bryles, a boy in Reese's class at school, lives 1 street over, so he came over to play and celebrate with us for a little while.

One really cool thing that Reese's teacher, Mrs Snieski did to celebrate the end of school, was host a "beach party" for the class.  Reese took a towel and wore a hat, sunglasses, and an inflatable pool tube to school. Mrs. Snieski gave each of the kids a giant beach ball, and they all autographed them for each other, like yearbooks.  I added a doodle of our family to her ball and Reese was tickled.

6) Our Quincy graduated from Kindergarten! How cute is that little awkward toothless smile?!

The kindergarten celebration ceremony was absolutely adorable. The kids sang along with Tobias Funke (ahem, I mean Mr. L the music teacher). 

 This really deserves a post of it's own, too. (when will I ever catch up?) but I will say how proud we are of Quincy for how hard she worked this year. She is a great student, a kind friend to others, and Mrs. Rogers said Quincy is a treasure to have in her class. Quincy, you can read! You did it!
We ended the evening at Quincy's restaurant of choice: Chuck E Cheese (which is probably where we all picked up this awful cold) and let the kids stay up ridiculously late. It was a sweet day of celebrating our VERY sweet girl.

7) I just took out the trash, and when I walked back into the house I discovered this. Because it's totally normal to find a gallon of milk on the floor under the table. Silly boy.

8) Last week, our Relief Society enrichment activity was partnered with the compassionate service committee. There is a sister in our ward, Beth, who puts together really incredible quilt tops from donated fabric from sisters in the ward. Once a week a group of ladies in our relief society meet once a week to tie them. For our monthly enrichment activity, Beth brought all of the quilts that have been completed and put them on display in the cultural hall. There were 4 quilts set up on stands to tie, or you could work on a project of your own brought from home (I made chore charts for my kids). With the 4 that were completed that night and the rest that have been finished over the past several months, there were a total of 75 quilts that will be donated to the NWA Children's Shelter. Every child that goes to the shelter receives a quilt to keep and take with them wherever they go after their stay in the shelter.

When I was growing up, my mom's ward had the same tradition and the quilt stands were set up at every enrichment night for the sisters to tie while they visited. All of the quilts were donated to the IOOF home in Gilroy.  I remember my friends and I finishing and tying quilts with our moms at the end of many of these nights while they cleaned up from the meetings.  I love seeing that this sort of humanitarian aid happens in Relief Societies around the world.  I don't meet with the quilting group, since I have children home with me during the day, but I have donated batting and sheets and Beth turned them into something really incredible. These aren't just standard patchwork square quilts. They are intricately assembled masterpieces.  I know that the children who receive them will feel wrapped in the love of the sisters who made these quilts at a time when love and comfort is most needed. 

9) This is my friend, Pam Guest. She's a little nutty and she knows it and I just love her. Pam has had a few strokes and now only says a handful of phrases, but it really isn't very difficult at all to communicate with her because she's pretty good at getting her point across.  Pam spoils my children every holiday with loads of candy. She is first to arrive at every baby and bridal shower and comes bearing gifts and doting affection for the woman being honored. In addition to complications from her stokes, Pam underwent a double mastectomy over a year ago. In spite of hardships she and her family have faced, one thing is sure. If you are Pam's friend, you're her friend for life.  She'll let you know when you've made her mad, but she'll still smother the children with love and kiss your face every time you get close enough.  Aaron has been the Guest's home teacher for over 7 years and through these years I have grown close to Pam and I am grateful for her friendship.  This pic is from the Relief Society luncheon that I helped organize a few weeks ago. The decorations were really cute (thanks for helping with that Katie!) and I wish I'd taken a picture of them, but here is one of Pam.  If it weren't for Relief Society, I really don't know if we would have become friends, so I'm grateful to Relief Society for the opportunity to develop this, and many other friendships.  

One noteworthy thing about Pam are that she is the official "tooth puller" for my kids.  They run to her on Sundays and show off wiggly tooth and she doesn't even hesitate to reach right into their mouths and wiggle them.  She's pulled out teeth for both Reese and Quincy, now, and she always sends along two crisp dollar bills for them. Pam, we "love you, Honey!"

10) This little guy is crawling!

 He also just made the switch from being carried around in the bucket seat to occasionally riding in the "big" seat at the grocery store. He loves our Sam's Club run because there is always a banana waiting for him at the entrance.  I won't lie. I love the compliments we get on Soren's red hair everywhere we go.

11) I look over at my glass jars display and find something alive has been placed in them.  Thank you for the new bug catcher, Grandma! Hopefully, Corbin will use it more than my decorations to house all of his "pets".

12) Cole and Corbin. I've never known to kids to have more fun every time they're together.

13) For my birthday, I asked to go out to a movie, guilt free.  Usually, when I go anywhere in the evening, I try to have the kids in or at least almost ready for bed, to ease chaos for Aaron. This was Aaron's pathetic attempt to prove that I shouldn't leave him home to care for all four kids at once. LOL! Yes, those are size 5T pajamas on Soren. I love the look on his face. "Don't leave me with him, Mama! Don't do it!" hahaha!  Don't get me wrong. Aaron is a great dad, and he did just fine with the children, as always, but it's still fun to tease that he tries to sabotage all of my attempts to leave the house empty handed. Nice try, honey!

 14) I officially do not like having layers in my hair and therefore live in this hat. Also, hats are awesome, because why do your hair when you can be super gross and shove it under this hat and get away without washing it for at least one more day?

15) We had some of Aaron's coworkers (from his old team) over for dinner. It was pouring rain that night and Aaron was worried that the pork wouldn't cook, so he moved the grill up against the house to protect it from the downpour. The grill did, in fact, get hot enough to cook the pork. It also cooked the house and melted the vinyl siding. Oopsie. Good thing he's cute.

 Another funny thing that happened that night was that our friends left right as I was summoning the children down the hall for bedtime.  Corbin had misplaced the stack of books he'd been reading during dinner and was melting down quickly. Our friends left through the garage to avoid getting totally soaked in the rain. JUST as the garage door closed, Corbin ran into the kitchen and shouted, "Hey! That BLACK GUY stole my books!"  We're 90% sure they didn't hear us.

16) Our dear little Quincy. Couldn't care less that her clothes are on backwards.

17) This is what I found when I opened the freezer for some ice cream on Sunday night.  This kind of deed warrants major demerits around here, particularly on a Sunday night, when we can't run out and purchase a replacement. Aaron, you tease!

18) There is a Bluth family reunion happening up in here in the evenings after the kids go to bed and that makes me insanely happy.  

19) I finally broke down and bought a Blendtec blender.  I don't regret it at all. Reese has been helping me in the kitchen a lot lately, and we love using the new blender.  This morning we made mangoes and banana blueberry baby food for Soren.  

20) wow, 20? I should finish this up. 

We braved the ward campout. 

We went to the campout Friday night and then came home around 9 and slept in our own beds.  I thought I were awesome until I saw all of the young families setting up tents with their toddlers and felt like a total wimp for not attempting, let alone really even knowing how to camp. I did, however, give Quincy her first lesson in using a porta-potty. "Ok Quincy, listen up. Rule #1: go put your shoes back on. Never go inside of one of these things without shoes on your feet. NEVER. Rule #2: don't touch anything. No, not that. NOTHING. Rule #3: That is NOT a bar of soap and that is not a sink. Ahhh no, what did I just say about touching anything?"

I took hardly any pics of the girls because they were off running around with their friends and having fun the whole time. It was a great night. On Saturday morning, Soren and I woke up with fevers and colds and stayed home. I was immediately glad that we had not camped out, because my entire body ached and I probably would've chalked it up to sleeping on the ground and not an illness, which continued to get worse as the day progressed.  Aaron took the big kids back to the campout for breakfast, and then to help clean the church.  They cleaned windows, wash bathrooms, and dusted pictures and Aaron vacuumed. It's really good for them to help clean the building occasionally to remind them to treat it with respect the rest of the time. 

21) We have tenants in our grapevines! 

22) One of life's great simple pleasures is bathing your baby in the kitchen sink. 

 23) Sunday's afternoon nap was brought to you by Time Out and the Number 4.

24) We took an evening walk around the Cooper Mildred Glass Chapel.  Reese took this picture and I think it is really cool.

25) Corbin's end of the year preschool family picnic was adorable. He made me a turkey and ham sandwich and fed Soren his first chocolate chip cookie.

 See you next year, Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Schaefer.

26) Oklahoma. No words. Growing up out west, I would see footage of flooding and storm damage on the news but couldn't really fathom how bad it actually was. It wasn't until we went to Joplin after the tornado and saw just how desolate and tragic the destruction was that I felt actual fear of what mother nature could do in an instant. wowza. We continue to pray for the families affected by the tornado last week.