Busy, Busy

Sterling was called to be the Ward Clerk right before he went TDY. I was called as Primary 2nd counselor. Then the 1st counselor was released. After a while a second counselor was called. Mind you, we dont' have a secretary due to the ward being so small. So for a while it was Amy Niebuhr (Primary President) and myself running Primary. Of course we have a teacher over each class then a pianist (Rebecca Seamon...whom Ster and I went to Salzburg for the first time ever with)and a Music Time teacher (Mari Lazenby...the bishop's wife).

Before the new 2nd counselor (Vanessah Braithewait...recently moved here)was called the president went back to the states to visit family. So for a week or two I was the only Primary presidency member here.

Amy has been in the states for about a month and will return in a few weeks. In the meantime Vanessah and I have been switching off, weekly, who give the Sharing Time lesson. The one not doing Sharing Time does the conducting.
Vanessah has a four month old son. Mari has a one month old daughter she has to bring because the bishop is busy. Rebecca has as
I have a 10 month old son, whom I have to take with me to Primary most of the time because 1. Ster was gone for a month then 2. came home to have to learn how to do his calling. He's been so busy learning to be Clerk and get things in order because they were chaotic...and busy helping in Nursery. With the lack of ward members and our nursery leader always going on trips due to wanting to see more before she moves back to the states this month. So Sterling would help out in nursery when I could not find someone to help in nursery. And the nursery grew so huge and the young ones crying the entire time that the adults in nursery could not handle it. To fix the problem, I, being in charge of Nursery have decided we have to have three nursery teachers. And that when the nursery is full and difficult the older nursery kids need to be moved to another room. So I divided up the nursery to junior and senior classes. Currently four kids in each class but three kids will be added in just a month.

Then, Sterling is required to attend the bishopric meetings every morning. The bishop usually picks him up around 10:30a. Church starts at 1:00p. So I get the boys ready by myself and get them to church. Since there is not parking at the church I have to park down the street. If I am lucky there will be a spot available close otherwise I have to park way down the street. If I am really lucky Sterling meets me in front of the church and I drop the kids off to him.
I need that because I also carry a big, somewhat heavy, diaper bag with me. It carries all the boys' needed things for church and also my Primary binder. I need my binder at home during the week to keep track of primary information for when I email stuff out to parents or teachers. Then I need it at church each Sunday to know all the info still.
I am in charge of doing the monthly primary newsletter and email it out. Also, making the assignments chart...which children is in charge of prayer, scripture and talk each week....and emailing reminders to parents.
Sister Braithewait goes to the ward council meetings so I don't have to. But when Amy gets back from the states I am hoping to pass on the primary assignment responsibility to Amy or Vanessah. I do too much.

So Sterling and I have a crazy day every Sunday! And when church is over I hang out with Luke and Ty in the primary room waiting for Sterling to finish his duties there...usually 30 minutes after church ends. Then we finally go home, thankful it's all over. And we make dinner...usually something fast and simple. Then Sterling and I eat dinner watching a movie or show while we ignore Luke, if he's not passed out on the couch. And Tiberias falls asleep right after church every time. He is cranky all through the 2 hours of Primary because he's ready for a nap! No fun.

And during the week I have Amber Monday-Friday 7a-5p. She is in between Ty and Luke age-wise. Having three so young that long each week is hard. I can usually get Amber and Ty to nap at the same time. But it's still a rough day. I make sure to atleast take them all out on a walk, if not to play at a park, daily. I have a double stroller that seats 2 kids. And Luke is old enough to walk or ride his tricycle. He usually rides the trike.

Doing school with Luke is hard when I have Amber because she's too young to do any of Luke's school work or games. So if I do school with Luke it has to be done during Amber's nap. And I usually have a list of things I want to get done while Amber is asleep.

When Ster came home from TDY he was on crazy shifts. And it kept being changed, even in the middle of the week. He even had to work a few 12hr days. But last week he was finally put back on days...working 7a-2p. Of course he doesn't get off until 2:30 most of the time.

This week is Independence Day celebration week, pretty much. So Carla has work off for two weeks actually. And I may have to watch Amber one day this week.

Last Saturday Sterling and I took the boys on a 45 minute drive up to Ikea. We bought a table and four chairs for my craft/sewing area for the upstairs spare room. We bought a giant car rug for Luke's birthday. We bought a few other things we felt we needed. Then we decided to drive an extra 40 minutes or something to get to a cool castle in Slovenia. We had fun! It was a beautiful day!!
We went through the castle and even bought a few souveniers. Luke wanted a Slovenia flag and Ster bought it for him. So we also bought a snowglobe that has the castle on the base.

Today is Independence day! This morning we went shopping on base. We bought a comforter set because we needed new bed sheets and the sale going on got us a whole comforter set for half the price of a sheet set. It's beautiful too.
We also shopped for Luke's birthday party. He turns 3 years old this Thursday!

For dinner today we went over to our friends the Mangle's home. They have the Braithewaits, Lazenbys and Carla&Amber Wright over. They barbecued a delicious meal. A wonderful Independence day meal of ribs, chicken and beef, corn on the cob, potatoe salad, chips, watermelon. Mmmmm.
The kids played and we all sat and socialized. I, of course, took a few pictures.

Sterling worked in the back yard...moving the chicken's fence back so it only takes up half the yard instead the whole yard. He also moved the tv ONTO the wall and built a shelf. He put the shelf up and put the dvd player and other things up there. Now there is more floor space in the living room. But now we have some rearranging of furniture to do.

I worked on getting my craft station together upstairs. It's coming along nicely...yay!

Tiberias is taking a nap and it's almost 8pm. We plan to take the boys out for fireworks tonight. They start at 10:10p. Hopefully Luke will wake up enough to enjoy the fireworks. We've never had a good celebration for the 4th since we got married. We've never had a good view of fireworks for the 4th of July since we wedd either! So I'm excited to be doing stuff this year.
We wanted (I really wanted) to hike up to the old church on the mountain (a small hike) to view the fireworks. But it is turning out to be rainy and cloudy on the mountainside. So we are just going to drive over by the base and get out of the car to see the fireworks. Hopefully Luke will enjoy them.

Tomorrow I start making Luke's birthday cake. I'll make the cake tomorrow then have two days to decorate it. It's going to be a cute train cake...hopefully even cuter than the awesome cake I did for his 2nd birthday (fishing).

Thursday night at 7pm we are having a birthday party at a park. We will have cake, Klondike ice cream bars and cold water. I handed out adorable hand made train invitations to 7 kids. With sibblings and extra kids we could have up to 14 kids at the party. We bought Matchbox cars to hand out as party favors at the children leave. It is a late party so we don't expect all the invited friends to come. But we hope we have a good turn out.
Luke will get his big gifts from Mom and Dad at home...a bicycle! And the car floor rug. We'll probably wrap up the Cars beach towel and give that to him at the park.
It will be a quick party. We'll start the party with the cake and ice cream then let the kids eat and run around playing for about half an hour. Then open gifts. It has to be late because it's hot outside and it has to be a short party because kids will be heading home to go to bed.
I will be video taping Luke open his gifts this year. I am excited.

Then on Saturday we get on the ship for our cruise! We'll need a day or two to pack and get ready for that.It will be amazing!!!