AHHHH! Update!

Well, I finally have a spare second to update our lives ......... remember with 11 of us there's never a dull moment so...... there's a ton of updating.
Let's start with the bad news and work our way to positive.
Last weekend on Saturday we needed to make a dump run. Tyler and his friend were in town (hanging out with some GIRLS) Ashley was working our shaved ice shack. Brenden was sick. I loaded everyone else and went to the dump. Greg helped me unload the pick up bed trailer. We had some old metal roofing in there and we had to separate all of it at the dump. I stood at the side and took out a bike tire rim, Greg was at the back and I thought was taking off the tarp. I tried to get the bike tube off the rim but couldn't so, all knowing Angela, threw the rim to the pile of scrap metal. As I did I caught Greg out of the corner of my eye almost to the pile with some of the roofing. The bike tire rim turned to the right and was going pretty fast because I had thrown it pretty hard. I could see it and Greg were headed in the same direction. I yelled, "Watch Out Watch Out!!!" To late, it hit Greg right in the side of the head bringing him to his knees. I ran over to him and touched the back of his head to hold him still to check out any damage, sure enough, there was a TWO INCH cut above his ear on his head. I felt horrible!! Greg has never even had stitches (yes, at almost 18 a boy has made it this far) AHAHAH! my stomach ached in pain for him! I ran to the suburban to find something to put on it and found a clean diaper - turned it inside out and put it on his head. I then of course ran him to the hospital. The nurse and doctor gave him a hard time about being hurt and told him to be good so his mom wouldn't smack him again. (it didn't help me feel better, but, it made Greg laugh enough that he wasn't angry with me) They then teased him about wearing a shower cap around town that was pink with lace. Long story short, Greg now has 4 yes 4 staples in the side of his head. One of his best friends keeps telling him that "girls dig scares and now you can get a pity date!"

As for the rest of the kids - Heidi is finished with track. She did pretty good for her first time.
Tyler is graduating to high school (that is after summer school) (man am I feeling old.... sniff)
Brenden starts middle school next fall! He still seems like my baby boy (sniff)
All the rest are doing fine with no huge news to report. Oh' I almost forgot.... Howard and I almost divorced this last weekend. No it's not a joke, it's true. Natalie (his youngest from his first wife) is 7 1/2 and pees on the floor regularly. She did it again on Friday. It's been going on for 4 years and I can't take it anymore!! It's not because something is wrong with her or any logical reason that you might think. You can even tell her to go to the bathroom and she will walk right past the bathroom and go sit in front of the TV and pee on the floor! Just to get the attention. It drives me crazy not to mention I am really tired of renting a professional carpet cleaner. The room always stinks and it's just disgusting! So, I talked to Howard about maybe sending her to live with his sister for a while or something (counselling hasn't helped at all!) he doesn't want to, yet his solution is telling her "now you shouldn't be doing that" No consequences or anything. I am to the point with all of the problems with her that I just want out. I don't feel any love towards this child and can't make myself. I struggle with finding the positive with her when she continues to give you the negative. (this isn't the only regular behavior problem we have there are a lot) also, she isn't allowed to ride the bus anymore because she has been stealing things from other children's backpacks. Anyway, I told Howard that I felt it best for her (and me) that I remove myself from the relationship so that she doesn't feel the negative that I feel towards her. We stayed up until 2 am figuring out how to divide everything and what kind of visits he would have with our girls. Very odd and friendly division of things. By morning I started pulling wedding and other pictures of us off the wall. Then got on line to try to find a job again. Found one on the other side of Idaho. Then Howard came to me crying asking what would we need to do to stay together. I cried to and we talked about how much we really loved each other and how we promised when we got married that we wouldn't let the kids split us up. He asked if some day, when she moved out if we could remarry. I felt the issues would still be there just not daily like they are now. Long story short, we decided that maybe if we put the Lord more forward in our lives we would be able to get further faster. I guess one thing this showed me is how much Howard loves me and how deeply we feel for each other. Doesn't make stuff with the kids change, but what more do we do?

Changing the subject........
If you didn't know, we opened up a shaved ice business a couple of years ago and bought our first "shack" last year. This year we decided to expand and so we found a guy that would sell us his by taking payment (these things are pretty pricey!) So we bought it on Monday and I just finished painting it on Wednesday night. I spent some time cleaning and bleaching it all down yesterday and today I will have to finish so we can get it opened. I have been on my own with it because Howards been busy after work driving tractor. We are going to put it in Oregon. We will be the first Tropical Sno dealers in all of Oregon. We have been dealers for a year and they are a great company. We love dealing with them and the products are the best. We researched all the companies for about a year or more before going with this one. One of the other positives is that they are out of Draper, Utah so they are close enough to drive to pick up stuff. (or send my ex- too- Thanks David! I know you are reading this just waiting for the could you do me a favor call!)
Tyler and Heidi are going to work in shifts at the one we have in small town Idaho and Ashley will run the one in Oregon. Dumb thing is we pushed her to hurry and get her licence so she could drive herself, now we found out she can't drive in Oregon at all because she is only 15. In Idaho the kids can get their licence at 15. So, this we be a fun filled summer of driving kids every where.