What Stinkers!

Clarissa - "Mom, can we go out for Breakfast?"

Me - "No, not today."

Clarissa - "But why?"

Me - "I don't have any money"

Clarissa appears to have accepted that explanation and walks out of the room, only to return about 5 minutes later.

Clarissa (raising her voice somewhat) - "Gayla Bursiaga, you have LIED!"

Me (caught a little off guard) - "About what?"

Clarissa (visibly holding my wallet) - "You have money, you LIED!"

Jonathon (interjecting and always having an answer) - "Clarissa, Mom has to have that money for gas!"

Clarissa - "We don't need gas!"

Jonathon - "If we don't have gas, we don't get to go to the restaraunt!"

(Thanks Jonathon, I think) - What stinkers they both are but how I do love them!!!

Short and Sweet

Without going into alot of details.....Jonathon is home from camp. He had a horrible migraine last night and threw up at least 4 times. I am so glad to have him home even though his stay at camp was short and sweet.....well, not quite sweet.

Camp Pics - 1st Day

Here are some pictures of Jonathon's first day at camp. In the groujp picture, he is in the wagon w/ his cool shades on. The other one is a great shot of him socializing and NOT eating. Oh well, he seems to be having a blast! God is good!

MORE LATER!!!!

Lazy Days of Summer.....I think not!

Who said that summer days were lazy days? I have yet to find a really lazy day this summer! We have been so busy and time seems to be flying by! This month we have anjoyed a super 4th of July parade!

We also had a pretty interesting Fireworks display that began very late. This is Jonathon....waiting patiently.

Clarissa has been attempting to ride her bike without training wheels. As you can see, she decided to arm herself for the task at hand!

And yesterday, I sent Jonathon off to church camp at Fort Lone Tree. He has never been away from home for more than one night. This time he's gone for an entire week! I'm so proud of him! He was excited to go and was the first on the bus. I must say, he did better than his Mom. I miss him to death and can't wait until Friday because we get to go there for family day. As hard as it is for him to be away, I know that God has something special planned for him on this trip. I just hope God takes these days and speeds them up! This is Jonathon as he was getting ready to check-in and board the bus. And those are raindrops on the windows, not tears. Although I felt like adding my share at that time!

So I guess after Jonathon returns and we head into the final stretch of summer break, I will hope that we can find a few days to be lazy.....because so far...they've been crazy!

There's a new Chef in Town

Tonight I was getting ready to prepare dinner and announced (like I have on previous occasions) "Is there anyone who would like to help me cook dinner?" and my 11 year old son took the bait!!!

So, went through the routine of emptying the dishwasher so that we could refill it. He has been emtying the dishwasher for some time now but I've never had him load it. So, we had Dishwasher Loading 101 and he passed with flying colors! From there we put on our potatos to boil and I found a biscuit mix for him to make. In the meantime he prepared his meat and got it to cooking. It was so fun watching him add seasoning to the meat because it didn't take long for him to find his own flare! Before we knew it, dinner was ready and he had prepared, with supervision, all of it by himself!

I was so glad to see his eagerness and enjoyment in what we were doing. We managed to have a great conversation, which I know for many 11 year olds is not their favorite thing to do, and had some good laughs. He's growing up so very fast but something tells me that the years ahead are only going to get better and better.

I must return to the kitchen because I think I have clean-up duty but I wanted to sneak away long enough to share with you that there's a new Chef in town and he has the makings of a mighty fine one at that! He leaves for his first Church camp on Monday so get ready, the blog next week may be a little "wet"! Gotta Run!

Time Flies

I can't believe it! June is almost gone! Summer seems to fly by so very fast. It gives a whole new meaning to "Time flies when we're having fun!". We've spent the last month enjoying vacation, having our water balloon wars, going to vacation bible school, and swimming with friends. Jonathon is trying his hardest to grow up and has found great interest in a particular young lady. It has been quite fun to watch this part of him develop and we have found ourselves as parents having to move to a new level as well. Listening, listening, listening and not talking, talking, talking. Clarissa is having to discover some new friends because Jonathon is moving on with a new phase in his life. This week during VBS, she boldly called and invited several children from her school. I was so proud of her. And even though only one showed, it has been so good to watch her reach out and develop new relationships and make friends of her own and not friends that are shared by she and her brother. I've heard the sweetest things come out of their mouths recently. Two of my favorite are "I love our family!" from Jonathon and "I'm so glad you're my Mom!" from Clarissa. Well kiddos, I love our family too and I'm so glad that I get to be your Mom!

What will July hold? We'll have to find time to delve into school clothes shopping (more fun for some than others), Jonathon will leave for church camp (his first time away), Clarissa will attend soccer camp, and I will continue to try and get my house in order so that when August arrives, we can start the year off organized. We all know that it won't stay that way!

Whatever the next month brings your way, I encourage you to find time to have fun. I have to say I believe that we have had more fun this summer than we have in a while because we've taken time to be silly with our kids. I am discovering that time flies too fast!

NEWFLASH.......A little birdie says that the water balloon war has expanded into new territories (as of last night). I believe two victims were dampened, others might have been hit by stray droplets. Could you be next?

Just a Tease

We're back from our wonderful vacation to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon! We took lots of pictures and have lots of stories. I'll do my best to get those posted on Flickr soon! Here's a tease of what's to come!



Our Wonderful Hotel



My beautiful kids at the Grand Canyon


We found some interesting folks there!


AND....we celebrated Jonathon's 11th Birthday AND and an early Father's Day!

We are exhausted but can't stop talking about it! I'll get busy soon!