Thursday, July 21, 2011

July is Flying By

Sunday night was a rude awakening for the Brown family. We pulled into the driveway after driving home from Cali and opened our doors to the sticky 108 degree evening. A bit of a shocker since we'd had a 40 degree temperature climb over our 7 hour drive from Carlsbad. Yes, we truly left 68 degrees at 11:30 am. But the icing on the cake was coming home to a warm house and being welcomed by a giant scorpion coming out of the bathroom sink after I washed my hands. Nice. Home, sweet Arizona home.

Really, I guess I was happy to be home (mostly). I love going on vacation, but after a good long one, I'm usually also happy to be back home. I love my house. I feel happy and safe there. I love having my kiddos around me and sleeping in my most comfy bed and showering in my awesome shower and eating out of the fridge instead of a cooler. Don't get me wrong - beach camping is super duper fun and we all love it - but it's a heck of a lot of prep getting ready and a ton of laundry and de-campifying after it's done. Thankfully, the house cooled down over the next hour and the girls and I got to go over and visit my ailing Grandpa Harry who we thought was likely going to pass sometime that night. We'd been getting the daily updates all week while in Cali and were hoping he'd make it until we got back. He'd stopped breathing a few different times that day and was so tired and weak. He got wide eyed and slightly smiled when Rowan came by his side and squeezed his hand. It was very tender. Rowan has a special place in his heart. But then he closed his eyes and just rested so peacefully, like he was hardly breathing. He perked up a tiny bit over the past few days and so far is still hanging on. What a good, long life my Grandpa Harry has led over these last 95 years. My grandma is still hanging in, too. She'll be 94 next month. I hope he is comfortable and peaceful during his last days.

The kiddos are all getting excited for school to start again. Teacher assignments came yesterday, followed by a bunch of texts, calls and emails to all their friends trying to figure out which friends got the lucky draw and which ones didn't. I think for the most part, all our kids are pleased. We shopped till we dropped (or at least I almost dropped) on Tuesday stocking up on school clothes and new backpacks and vans and the like. Easton and Rowan were amazing, I have to say. We were seriously gone for 5 hours (including our lunch break at Paradise), but I couldn't even believe how great they did. Afton bailed and stayed home with Grandma Cindy (she hates to shop) so she could finish her Harry Potter marathon. She was trying to finish the last 3 movies so she could go to the final one with Grandma Cheri and be all caught up. But they are 2.5 hours each and I think she was done after 5 hours of Mr. Potter.

Barrett is heading to Stapley - a 7th grader - holy cow. She was a little bummed about having to miss her orientation on August 5th since she'll be at Youth Conference, but I told her that I couldn't imagine she'd be the only student at Stapley out of town that day and that we figure out another time for her to find her classes and meet her locker:) I think she'll survive.

The two olders are off to Snowflake for 5 days (spending the 24th of July weekend with their best buds, the Bauer girls) and Ry is getting ready to embark on his week long backpacking trip to the Trinity Alps in Northern California this weekend. I know he is so excited. He and his buddies have had the trip planned for a year and a half. Half the excitement is the anticipation of it all. Oh, and all the fun he's had procuring the remaining necessities for his trek at REI and the like over the past several months (like new boots and fire starting things and a portable rocking camp chair and lightweight backpacking lantern - just to name a few).

So the littles and I will be holding down the fort. Lots to do this coming weekend and I'm sure we'll be busy, but it will be so odd having our numbers shrink to 3. I'm still working out a bunch and feeling good, although my knees feel a little tired lately. Not sure why. I can't really afford tired knees now that the Rim 2 Rim is only 2 months away. There are too many stadiums in my training future for that! Running at the beach was fantastic...so cool and breezy. I thought about going outside yesterday morning (I walked out just before 6:00 fully dressed in my running attire), but I stepped out and felt the overwhelming sticky heat and complete lack of breeze and thought better of it. So Tony Horton and I worked out together via DVD and I just worked up a mean sweat indoors. It was all good. I did force myself out for a 4.5 miler today and was soaked head to toe when I got back. Crazy hot. Crazy, I tell you.

Not that it's any crazier hot than every other summer for the past 39 years, but still. I guess I forget and get a cruel reminder each year. Funny how that works.

I'm looking forward to Sunday, too. We've been out of town the past 3 Sundays since they did all the ward boundary changes, so we haven't even been there to see all the new faces. I'm sure that so many will be gone this weekend, too, but it will be nice to be back, even if I do have to teach this week :)

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