What's Going On?

I haven't blogged in a while.

I don't know what's happened, but I think it has something to do with:

1. It's summer.

2. Four children are now at home every day, and they think I am their cruise ship director.

3. Harper climbs out of her crib and comes downstairs every morning at approximately 5:56am, on a good day, greatly cutting into my "sit at the computer with my coffee" time.

We've been busy little bees around here, and summer is already kicking my hind-quarters. I was unprepared for the schedule upheaval the month of June has brought. Brandon and I went out of town for a few days, and returned to a heavy work week for both of us. Throw in swim practices, babysitters, rabies vaccinations (still), a wicked toothache, and a couple of kids with fever, and you can kind of understand why blogging has taken the backseat lately.

And did I mention that we're only about 3 weeks in to summer, and I'm ready for school to be back in session? Dane and Aidan have developed a love/"I'm going to try to kill you or just maim you really bad" attitude toward each other as of late, and it's giving me glimpses into our future 10 years from now. The other day Dane came running in the room crying and sobbing, pointing to an already-nasty-looking bruise on his hip, reporting "All I did was punch him three times in the stomach and he threw me into the wall!" Meanwhile, Aidan, in the other room, is screaming "HE WAS TRYING TO KILL ME!" Apparently, this is what happens when I task my boys with hanging their clean clothes up in the closet. MAYHEM, PEOPLE.

Aidan and Emerson had their last soccer games of the season last Saturday. I, as I have been the past few weeks, was with Dane at his swim meet, while Brandon took the other three kids to the soccer fields. Emerson came home boasting about her "medal and trophy and Emerson pizza, no Harper pizza." And Aidan declared the season a success, finally winning "the big trophy".

I had every intention of posting a picture of Emerson and Aidan at the soccer field with their trophies, but it is now creeping precariously close to my bedtime, and I am just too lazy at the moment to transfer the picture from Brandon's phone to Mac, edit it, then post it to the blog. Picture an unkempt-looking Emmy with hair in her eyes, and a red-faced Aidan, both smiling proudly with their new trophies.

When we weren't breaking up wrestling matches in the closet, shuttling kids to athletic activities, or subjecting ourselves to multiple series of rabies vaccinations, we were finalizing preparations to send Brandon off to Kenya. Brandon left Monday evening for Kenya, where he is leading a group of students on a trip to visit and work with a missionary team we support. He'll be back in 16 short days. You can follow along for updates on our church's mission blog, though updates may be short and sporadic due to iffy internet connections. Please pray for Hot Brandon and the rest of the group that are in Kenya this month. And while you're at it, a prayer would not be wasted on the wrestle brothers or their non-sleeping sisters. Or their mother.

And while the husband is gone, the wife will play. Words with Friends, that is. Brandon left his droid with me, and I have found out just how addicting WWF is to play. I may have to get a smart phone just so I can play Words with Friends.

And completely unrelated to any of the above unrelated tidbits of information, I love checking out my blog stats. Someone googled "heartwarming father's day stories" and instead were probably directed to this unfortunate story involving little boys and public bathrooms. I hope it warmed your heart.