Happy Birthday to my Sunshine Girl!

(I know I said I wouldn't write for a while but, I didn't want to miss Hailey's Birthday)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET SUNSHINE GIRL!!

I call her my sunshine girl because when she is around it is if the sun is always shining!

Today she is 4!

Sorry

Sorry for this little note but, there is so much going on in my life right now that I feel I can't keep up with this blogging. I read back over my blogs and it's as if I should have been writing in my journal instead. I am really having a hard time with some things that are going on and feel I shouldn't share them here. I need to figure out some major life decisions - I am having such a tough time! I am grateful for all the friendships I have been able to reconnect. Please don't loose touch. Maybe in time I will be able to share more but, as for now, I just need to think things out! I am sorry but, thank you all again for being my friends!
-Ang

Random pictures of things going on.

Here's some random pictures since I haven't posted any for a while.

This is Tyler and Howard in the play they did back in Feb. Tyler is in the back on the stairs and Howard is in the front left. One of the guys came here from Sweeden to be in the play and as their good bye gifts he made every one a shirt. Tyler's says "cool breeze" and Howards says "old maid mail man". Part of it was inside jokes and part of it had to do with things they said in the play.

This is the boy Hailey is going to marry. (the one on the left) His name is Jaxon. Hailey's hair was pulled back so, that's why it looks like she doesn't have any hair. She had a sleep over with Jaxon because he's moving to Utah. Brenden said he needed to sleep with them and watch over his sister! Hailey was so funny - she said "don't worry we're not going to kiss!" I wasn't worried until that's what she said!!

This is the new shack we just bought. This is the before picture! It needed soooo much work!

This is the after picture! YAA! It looks so much better. Howard was so busy driving tractor and working at the post office. I had to paint it myself so it took 2 days - my poor back killed me when it was done! My friend Summer does vinyl letters and stuff so I had her make the stuff you see in the window. (if you need anything she is very inexpensive and good - just jump on her blog and talk to her) Anyway! Glad to have it finished it's just not going as good as we hoped. We still need to invest another $3000 into it before we will really start seeing money like we want. We are thinking about taking it to Reno for Hot August Nights but, it's like$2000 to just be a vendor! (for those who are not big car fans it's the biggest car "show off" in the U.S. My dad and bro James have been able to show off their cars in the "cruise". I think it takes like 3 or 4 years of waiting to even get picked to have you car picked to be in it. But, it's hot that week and could make tons - but, that's a ton to put out front to just hope you'll make it back!

Last night I wish I would have remembered my camera for the scout camp thing. We made dutch oven stuff. I found a fun recipe for "Pepsi Chicken", BBQ ribs, campout potatoes, and sticky buns. The Pepsi chicken was a hit with the boys! I thought it would be a great way to teach them that cooking could be fun. Funny thing - it worked! They all asked if I would give them the recipes so they could make it for their families.

FYI the chicken you just put the chicken in the dutch oven cover it with bbq sauce then put pepsi (or you could use rootbeer) in the dutch oven til it almost covers the chicken. Cook for about half and hour to and hour (depending on your heat).

Well, it's Saturday and finally stopped raining - I need to go so my garden is not taken over completely by weeds.

Always Running!

That's what I feel like that I am just running in circles half the time - so much is going on all summer long! We are booking events for the summer with the shaved ice shack (this is to pay for 8 kids school clothes, missions, colleges, and everything else these guys need!) I said 8 kids in school because Hailey is going to start preschool this year. She can't wait! Abby is not going to do well without her sidekick. or is it that she is the sidekick? They do everything together and if they notice they haven't seen the other after a few minutes they start asking where they are. I am glad to see them so close.
This year we will have so much going on even when school does start
Greg will be a senior - he doesn't do sports or anything but we are hoping starts making some life plans this year.
Ashley will be a sophmore- at least she listens to me- she knows where she needs to go to college because of what it offers for her major. She is on a spirit team - kind of like the kids who run around pumping everyone up for games - mostly football. The whole town literally shows up to the games. Stores even close so they can attend. Pretty fun!
Tyler will be a freshman- AHH! I can't believe he is going to be in high school! my how the years have ran by me! Tyler is going to summer school so he's not happy about that, as for him, he normally does something during the year with sports. Mostly just having a possy of girls follow him around. Not even kidding - everytime I see him at school or any school event he has between 3 and 10 girls trailing behind him. His best friend loves it because he loves the attention from the girls!
Heidi will be in 8th grade - she does track and cross county. She totally gets that from her dad! Her mom hated sports and as for me - I am not one who enjoys running at all!
Brenden will be in 6th grade which here is middle school. He can't wait it's all he can talk about. He is starting to finally feel like he's getting older. Tyler's not real happy about it. It's almost funny!
Melanie will be in 5th grade - she just reads and reads. No friends or sports just loves to be alone with a book. I guess that's how her mom was.
Natalie will be in 2nd grade- Natalie just likes to go to school. She hates doing the work and doesn't like sports. I think she just likes to play outside all day.
Hailey like I said will be starting preschool this summer she is also taking swimming lessons. She says she can't wait. She also wants to start golfing lessons. This of course makes Howard so proud! He will finally have a golfing buddy! Hailey already has a boyfriend who says he loves her and of course she loves him and is planning the wedding. She wants cake and flowers in her hair! It's so funny! We have a couple of weddings to attend in the next few months so I should put flowers in her hair.
Abby- she just cracks me up! All the kids want to be bigger than they are but her. If you ask her if she is a big girl or a baby she will tell you that she is mommy's baby! She is even working on potty training and she wants to still be my baby!

Well, I'd better run the kids are waking up and I have to run out to scout camp today and help them cook. I am a cooking merit badge leader.

What a weekend!

We took the kids out on Saturday night and went camping for the weekend. We went up by Sumpter Oregon (this was our second choice - our first one we drove all the way up there to find about 3 feet of snow!) We had a good time camping - I always feel so much better when I am out camping. Though I had some flash backs of girls camp- waking up to see Marian up in a tree (what a leader!) Then there was the time when I took some rope and wrapped it around the porta-potty when Tamara was in there. I was so afraid that I would get it done to me after- serves me right!

Well, we over all had a great time then to come home with a message from one of my sisters that she is getting married in the fall. And after a few of us showering our water pump went out - seeing as we don't use any water but, from our well. That sucks! We sent the older two to shower at the high school gym about an hour before school started (at least we got a couple more down) The guy is coming out today to fix it - PRAY IT WILL WORK!!!

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.

Like Father Like Daughter (with lots of mom in there too!)

I have to share a funny story ......... now as for the lovely Abby........ she at 20 months loves to put on make up - mostly lip stick- and it's normally worn from check to check and nose to chin!

Yesterday I had to cater a branding for some friends - maybe that didn't make sense but, they were branding their cattle and they wanted me to cater lunch for them. I hate the smell of the branding so, I only came at the end with lunch. Abby saw all of this going on (with "baby cows"), she wanted to ride the calves. I was more ok with the horses but, she really wanted to ride to calves. The family that was doing it had some young children that they were letting so, Abby asked if she could. Now Abby won't go to anyone! Yet, she let the dad take her over the fence and help her ride. Maybe I need to explain a little of how the riding went down. They had guys on horses one with the front legs of the calf roped and one with the back roped. After the shots, branding, and tagging they would let the ropes loose and of course the calf would take off. As they were letting the calves take off they were letting the kids ride the calves. One guy would be on each side of the calf and each had an arm of whatever child was riding. When the calf took off they would help the child stay with the calf for a few seconds. Abby was a little nervous at first but she loved riding - she was very upset that the other calves were to big for her to ride because she wanted to keep doing it. I wish I had brought my camera! She is very much her father's daughter when it comes to the cattle!!


I just had to post this picture - this is what she does when you tell her to give you a cheesy smile!
Got to love the "morning" hair!