Megan came home from the hospital on Monday!!!!  Yay!!!!  We were considering something like a jail-break by then so it's especially nice that it didn't need to come to that!  Cali and Chey had a half-day of school on Monday just for 7th graders to get used to the junior high.  Afterwards, they walked to a friend's house and continued to look forward to all the fun in 7th grade.  Beth and Ben had open house at Sage Creek where they got to meet their new teachers and see where their seats would be.  Mariah had cross country practice, as usual, but afterward, went to her assembly orientation.  That night Kevin gave everyone a Father's blessing.  We were so grateful that we could be at home for that and not in a hospital room.

Tuesday was the first day of school!!!  Yes, Megan did go to school.  She walked slowly and came home a couple of hours early, but she gave it a go.  She so desperately wanted to be there and attend her classes on the first day of her senior year.  We were so happy she made it!  This year, the Skinners have two in high school, two in junior high, and two in elementary school.  If Savannah weren't on her mission, we'd have two in college, as well!  (Not that we'd want Savannah anywhere else!  We're so happy she's on a mission!)  Sarah's college semester doesn't start until Sep. 12 and as luck would have it, she didn't work Tuesday, so she felt the loss of her siblings keenly.

Tuesday night my Relief Society presidency met with the Bishopric and got a list of the sisters who will become new members of our ward in September.  I spent some of Wednesday making "Sister Survival Kits" (the brain child of my 2nd counselor) to hand out when visiting the new sisters.

We spent an hour and a half Thursday evening making visits and then another six hours on Saturday!  Oh, and a couple hours Thursday morning meeting with the sisters who are leaving our ward.  I also met with the current Relief Society president of our new members on Thursday and again on Friday.  By Saturday night, I was wrung out pretty thoroughly and ready to pack up and move to Australia!

I still might.

The good news is that we haven't offended anyone yet--that we know of--and the reception to our visits was (mostly) positive!  Also, my family has been wonderful with the time I've needed to be away and they are super supportive--as has been my presidency.  Now I just need to decide on people for five different callings, prepare their first lesson for Relief Society next week, and completely revamp visiting teaching.

Australia is calling!

On a different note, school has been going pretty well for all my kids.  Beth and Ben seem to like their teachers, and, apart from tearful phone calls from Ben on Friday when he thought he had forgotten his lunch, have been having good experiences!  Cali and Cheyenne aren't too sure about junior high.  They had a really great experience last year for 6th grade and junior high is a lot more impersonal than anything they're used to.  Cheyenne says she does not like it.  Mariah had a little bit of experience with the high school last year, having taken a couple of classes there at the end of her school day and is mostly just relieved to not have to go back and forth this year.  Megan seems content with her classes, though maybe a bit worried about English and Creative Writing.  Mostly she is just restless, having been so active and so busy and now unable to play tennis or run, she comes home and needs to take a nap.  Her senior year won't be what she thought it would be and we are all trying to come to terms with it as we do love the sports so much.

Friday night Cali and Chey went to a birthday party for a friend and Sarah, Megan, and Mariah went to see a movie!

Saturday, Mariah competed in the Grass Relays with her Cross Country team.  For this race, they do run it as a relay team and they also have to jump hay bales throughout the race.  It's pretty fun for them.  Mariah ran on the varsity team and they placed 5th!  Mostly they were excited to have a large team flag this year to display proudly!

Also, by the way, you know Mariah is trying to shoot 10,000 free throws this summer.  On Saturday, she MADE 47 in a ROW!!  I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that.

Today Cali and Cheyenne turned 12 years old and started Young Womens.  There were banners on our house this morning welcoming them to the program and the bishop called them to the front and talked about how he remembered when they were born.  It was sweet. 

Maybe I will hold off on Australia a little while longer.

 

 

What I thought was the stomach flu for Megan on Sunday, worsened until she could barely walk from one room to the next without curling into a ball in pain.  I took her to the hospital Monday afternoon where they diagnosed acute appendicitis and scheduled surgery for Tuesday morning.  They took her in around eight and were done by nine and the surgeon said everything went well.  The appendix had been leaking, though, and her stomach cavity had been full of infected fluid.  She was started on antibiotics that day and is still at the hospital and still on antibiotics--six days.  Her intestines weren’t working for at least four of those days and she is only now able to eat just a very little bit.  We are all discouraged and tired and just want to bring her home.  We haven’t even broached the topic of whether all her senior year sports activities will now never happen.  Right now we don’t even know if she’ll have the strength to start school--which starts on Tuesday.  She wants to show Mariah around as it will be her first year at the high school and Sarah showed Megan around when she started.  Will she miss out on that, too?  Probably.  She will return to full health, we know, and we are grateful.  It’s just so hard to see her suffer and struggle and cry.

Enough!  If only I could turn things back to normal by strength of will alone.

So, I spent most of my week at the hospital.  The other kids have borne it well.  They have pitched in around the house and I’ve come home to a clean house everyday!  Sarah also fulfilled my promise to the younger kids to take them to the pool this week by taking them herself.  She even stopped for shaved ice afterwards.  They had a great time!  Kevin came to be with Megan for a large part of Friday and Saturday and I was able to finish laundry and move Beth and Ben’s clothes into their new dresser and take the kids shopping for new school shoes (another promise I had made for this week).

The ward has been wonderful.  Megan’s had multiple visits and we’ve had dinner brought to us three times.  At church today, everyone has asked about her and how she’s doing and how the rest of us are doing. . .

. . . and they are going to change my ward.  I found out this morning and it was like a kick to the gut.  No!!  These people are holding me up!

But we went to the meeting tonight and it will be very good.  We will lose some people, but almost double our size.  So, there will be more people to hold me up.  :)

I can’t think of the work involved, yet.  I need Megan home.  I need to somehow figure out how to support Megan and still make it to the orientations for my elementary students tomorrow.  Will I be home for the first day of school?  Do I go to the hospital or do I stay home?  I need to make it through the next few days and then we will look again at the responsibilities of a Relief Society president.

I did read three books this week!  Megan and I also watched all six hours of Pride and Prejudice. Darcy is always a balm.

So!  This week was not what we thought it would be and it has not ended how we wanted it to end but the sun will come up on a new week tomorrow and we will continue on and somehow make it through another one.

No trips this week!  A summer week at home.  What do the Skinners do?

Sarah worked every day but one at Funfinity.  On her day off, she went hiking with a friend!  She's not sure how far they went but they hiked for four hours.  I'm thinking she went pretty far!  She also played games with friends and had a movie night with Allyson who leaves for college next week.  Sarah wishes she left yesterday!

Megan worked also, but also started her first week of practices with the tennis team.  Right now, she's playing challenge games to determine her place on the ladder.  She hasn't lost yet!  She also met up with the Cross Country Camp on Friday afternoon and didn't get back until Saturday around noon.  Mariah was already there and they ran so much that they don't think they'll be able to run ever again.  Today, Meg is sick.  :(  But I don't think it's related.

Mariah ran every day and part of that was at Cross Country Camp which started Thursday.  They spent all Thursday at the Provo Rec Center, came home to sleep, then left Friday morning for Shadow Mountain Camp where they ran and set goals and ran and listened to motivational speakers and ran some more and spent the night and woke up and ran some more.  Oh yeah, and they ate sometimes, too.  :)  Mariah also kept working on her free-throw goal.  So far this summer she has shot 7,300 free throws.  Holy cow.

Cali and Chey read (over) ten books this summer, so I took them for a promised meal at McDonald's.

Also, because of Chey's braces, we got invited to a free night at Seven Peaks Water Park on Thursday.  Cali and Chey had two friends there because their families are also in braces and they invited another friend with an extra ticket.  They had a blast!  Sarah and Megan came too but got cold pretty quick.  Bethany and Ben were unstoppable!  They had some friends there, as well and they were in the water and back in line and in the water and over and over.  We were all cold by the time it was over but Beth and Ben, even shivering uncontrollably wanted to stay forever!  Kids and water.  I tell you.

Speaking of kids and water, Beth had me promise last week that this week I would take them to the Spanish Fork pool, so we did that on Tuesday.  Cali, Chey, Beth, and Ben and I went together.  Guess what?  I got to sit in one of the pool chairs and read my book.  I've been waiting my whole life to be able to do that!  I didn't have to worry about a baby or a toddler.  There are perks.  The kids had a terrific time, too.  We might do it again this week.

Other than the pool and Seven Peaks, Beth and Ben have had friends over every day.  Ben is also a big BIG fan of playing on the iPad.

I managed to get another hike in with my friends.  This time we had a group of six of us!  The pictures make it look like we climbed a mountain (which is cool) but in truth, we drove to Squaw Peak Outlook, and walked across the mountain.  It was a fun hike and . . . beautiful.  Summer is so awesome.

On Monday morning, Sarah, Megan, Mariah, Cheyenne, and Calianne left for YW Camp.  There was much hustle and bustle and then . . . quiet.  Bethany and Benjamin were quick to invite lots of friends over and noisy things up again, but still!  Five girls at young women's camp?!  How fun is that??  I was invited to go since I was a member of the YW presidency up until April and they all still love me and how could I miss going when so many of my girls were there?  I had to do some accounting work before I could go, though, so I did that Monday and went to camp Tuesday.  In the meantime, Kevin and I took Beth and Ben out to dinner at Denny's.  Fun times!

Tuesday I took Beth and Ben to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's house.  They had a super fun week sleeping over every night (Kevin, too!), buying new clothes, riding the merry-go-round at the mall, watching movies, going out to eat, and playing on Grandma and Grandpa's slip and slide.  Grandma loved having them and they loved being with Grandma!

It was great to see the rest of my family when I got to camp and be with the YW who I love and the presidency that I love!  That afternoon, Sarah and I were the leaders who volunteered to go on the 4th year overnight hike.  Five girls went with us including Mariah!  We went about 2.5 miles but we were carrying heavy packs at a high elevation, mostly uphill.  That's my excuse for why it kicked my butt!  The rest of the girls did great and wondered why I was panting so hard?  We cooked over tiny stoves, went on a night hike (no packs, yeah!) with the rest of the girls and leaders, and then returned to sleep in our tiny tents in Moose Meadows.

The girls in our ward were up at the crack of dawn, stuffed everything back in their packs, and rousted Sarah and I from our sleep to hike back to our ward camp before breakfast.  Yum!  Pancakes!  After breakfast, our ward took its turn at the ropes course where, among other gospel-related obstacles, we got to climb a pole, walk across a tightrope cable, and zipline back down!  So fun!

On Thursday, the girls did a service project in the morning then we hiked to the lake in the afternoon for some canoeing.  We were pretty hot when we got back so a water fight ensued where Calianne succeeded in soaking completely our bishop and ward clerk.  Don't mess with that girl!  After dinner, we performed skits in front of all the girls in the stake and ours was the best.  Megan was in charge and had run the girls through several rehearsals and it rocked!  That girl has theatre in her veins!

Everybody at camp got hats and you could earn stickers for activities.  Cali and Chey were very good at it!

Megan was the YCL who decorated the cabins.

Lots of deer!

Putting in the last piece!

Narrating the skit!

Part of the skit

After the testimony meeting which lasted until midnight, we woke the next morning to clean cabins and head home!  Sarah did a great job as a camp leader, Megan did great as a youth camp leader, Mariah did great loving and cheering the girls around her, Cheyenne and Calianne did great interacting with all the older girls and staying involved.  It really was a great camp!  What a blessing to experience it with my girls!