"Don't Say It's a Fine Morning or I'll Shoot Ya"

(Name that movie!) That's how I've been feeling the last few days.
No, I didn't get lost in a pile of dirty laundry...though some days I feel like it.  I'm lost in the small matters of life, that right now seem like big matters, even though I know better.

My sister-on-law came and stayed with us, so I got to spend time with my newest niece!  It was a blast!  Even though the day she arrived, my refrigerator died.  She was very understanding about my lack of preparedness when it came to food.  We went to the beach a lot.  Bellows was probably everyone's favorite, except the babies.  They always appreciate Ko' Olina the most.  We went to the Dole Plantation just to enjoy a Dole Whip, and then strolled over to Wiamea Bay and stayed until dark.  We spent an evening shopping while Shawn took all the kids to gymnastics :).  And spent a lot of time talking and enjoying each other's company.

 About that refrigerator.  It still doesn't work, of course, though it is still sitting in my kitchen.  I am STILL living out of a cooler.  We will get another one.  Soon.  It really impacts how my day goes though.  I don't want to go shopping for very much food at a time.  I have to go buy ice every day.  I have to plan meals carefully, and if I don't, often I'm scrounging in the pantry, short on time, trying to come up with something edible.  There are plenty of other little problems like that in life at the moment, but that is the most annoying right now.  Mostly, I'm just overwhelmed by a very long to-do list that crept up on me out of nowhere.  Shawn's schedule just changed to 11 hour days 5 days a week too. Whatever happened to 3/12's?  Those were nice, *sigh*.

In other news, my mom-in-law is coming for Fall Break (a school break unique to Hawaii I think?) so we're planning more beach/pool/water park time. :) And, I'm very excited to watch General Conference.  It's usually somewhat relaxing (even with the kids) and always uplifting.  It will help me to calm down and stop stressing over little, temporary things that I won't remember in a year (or probably even 3 months from now!). 

Baby Lorenzo can stand up (for 5 seconds at a time or so)!  He also has two teeth on top to match the bottom two.  He's a very busy fellow.  He sneaks outside if anyone should happen to leave the door open, got to the top of the stairs several times before I managed to get a gate up, makes a run for the bathroom occasionally, and is always after the bookshelves.  I take this all to mean he's quite normal. 

Life in PICTURES

 ART time with neighbor kids.  Had a hard time finding a pic without other people's kids in it.  Turns out all kids love art.  Who knew?

 One of our more recent beach adventures.  Paradise Cove :)

 Yeah, he pretty much froze in this position for the entire time.  At least he wasn't screaming this time.  That would be normal for a beach trip for him.

 Pinewood Derby car testing.  Making sure it's fast enough!

 Oh look, a picture I don't HATE!  Taken by the up-and-coming photographer, Demetri.  So glad I don't have to develop rolls of film anymore with tons of random photos taken by kids.  On the other hand, now they take hundreds!

 Our Easter egg hunt.  He's just waiting till it's over now so he can eat the candy.

 Olie was a little more into finding all the eggs.

 Dad hid Demetri's eggs really really well.

 It took forever.

Xander, cleaning up.  Actually, he thinks these are balls and throws them all over the place.

For the most part, this is in chronological order.  Homeschool, Beach, Pinewood Derby, Easter.  Yep, that's what we've been up to.