A Little Update (OK, Not So Little)

OK, so I've been a little busy lately. Actually, a lot busy. I'm not complaining or anything because I'd rather be busy than not have enough to do, but then I'm not the kind of person who ever has nothing to do. That mentality is completely foreign to me. However, being busy can have its drags as well, especially when life throws curve balls right in the middle of it all. So, here is a little update of what the Simmons Family has been doing! (I will post pictures later.)

1. Brad and I have been working on the remodel business as usual but also our new Shelf Discovery roll-out shelf business. We entered a local home show and were featured in our paper. That has helped us really get the business started and we are excited about that.

2. We also stuff CD's at night for a little extra cash to keep things rolling.

3. I picked up a part-time, temporary job at National Marketing Resources. Ali's husband, Ryan, called me up one day and asked if I would be interested, and I felt good about doing it so I did! I work every morning in their processing department and then have a few hours to do any cleaning, accounting, etc. that needs to be done here and then on to the evening routine. It has been hard; my mornings are typically my most productive time. But, I have really learned a lot that I can apply to our businesses and that has been a great blessing. I only have three more weeks left and I have to say it will be nice to not need to rush off every morning. The other benefit is that it provides me with the capital I need for #4:

4. I have been working on starting a community children's choir here in town. Last year Jillian came to me and asked if she could join a choir but I couldn't find anything so I decided to do it myself. I plan on having it ready to start in September.

5. Soccer. I guess this ended a while ago but it consumed so much of my time that it is worthy of being mentioned. Once again I coached Jillian's soccer team this year. It is an intense two months but I really enjoyed it.

6. Summer school. Both Jillian and Logan did summer school this year. I don't think I'll do it again; it made the days so long. For some reason summer school starts earlier than fall/winter school and it gets out at the same time, making the day so very long for the kids. I would often pick them up after I got off work so that they could go play. However, having a place for them to go every day worked out well with my schedule.

7. Swimming lessons. We were supposed to start that today but it got postponed until tomorrow. I'm glad about this one, even though it will take up my few hours of free time in the afternoon. Only Jorja and Logan are taking lessons this year; Jillian is skilled enough now that I don't worry about her around water anymore. Hopefully we will see good improvement in the other two.

8. Along with summer school in June, Jillian signed up to be in the High School Musical Jr. play. It was also intense, often with practices every night, and she was exhausted by the end, but she really had a great time and I don't regret her doing it.

9. T-ball. We signed Jorja and Logan up for t-ball this summer. Most of the first month was rained out so the season finally finished up last week. I loved watching them play! This was Jorja's first experience playing a sport and she absolutely loved it. She was the most enthusiastic about going and I have to say she just "fit" doing sports. We could tell she really loved it.

10. Community garden. Heather Condiff, Kim Thorne and I have combined our efforts in doing a community garden. I have to say it looks more like a jungle right now than a garden. Seriously, the weeds are a good three feet tall. Our summers have turned out busier than we thought they would be! My goal is to do a little weeding on it this week. Our home garden isn't much better and I've barely been able to even keep the lawn up. I have to admit our yard usually goes for a week or so looking like white trash but then it gets some TLC and all is better for another week!

11. The curve ball: my car died. Almost two months ago we had a HUGE storm here that dumped 5" of water in about 4 hours. Brad and I were going on an overnight stay away from home and I was driving our kids over to Kim's house. Because the A/C didn't work in my car, the windshield was foggier than I thought and I didn't see how deep the puddle was and the car stalled in the water. That was the beginning of the end. It has been a major drag not having a car but we have worked it out. Our friends, Shaun and Shelly, have let me borrow their car since he will be out of town for the next two weeks. Yippee!

12. Curve ball #2, being sick. I got some kind of crud last week and it knocked me down for a good five days or so. I think my body was revolting.

Ugh. I always end up writing a ton when I want to do a simple post! Oh well. I did include a couple of pictures! We had an extremely humid spell here for a while. It was not fun. Every morning our windows would be all fogged over. It was pretty crazy. Take a look!

Check out how it was dripping down the glass! Crazy.

So, yes, I've been busy but life is good. I have a lot to be grateful for and I feel like we are being watched over. We have such a wonderful support system here and I am constantly humbled at the kindness of others. So a big THANK YOU to you all!!