Friday, I had a pretty good day with my eldest daughter, although it started off kinda rocky we had plans to go thrift store shopping and we always look forward to our rare days alone together. Unfortunately, the night before we had planned to go, her cat, Max got out of her apartment while they were barbecuing and went missing. (She lives across the street from us) She didn't tell me until the next day and I got really upset. Usually, I'd just react by pulling my shoes on and go help look or something, but for whatever reason it struck me as thoughtless... (perhaps because I have been having such struggles with these kids keeping the gate closed for Shiloh. We have somewhere between 7 and 12 kids between the ages of 11 and 19 all running in and out of both our homes on a constant basis. After Shiloh's accident, I thought for sure that the kids would be more careful of these things but here it is, just 2 months later and they are forgetting to close doors, I've been walking circles around the house for days closing the gates, re-closing the garage door, that sort of stuff... all the while reminding them over and over.  Angelica's cat is 6 months old and he never goes outside, so to me this was a huge deal. ) We both got upset and before you know it, we're both crying and yelling...  We got over it and went to search for the cat for about an hour and then did our shopping ... Max did finally come home last night at about 11:30 and she called me right away, thank goodness he's alive and just fine. She said he stunk and was hungry. Then Saturday I put in 8 hours working on my cob art studio and came in, baked a cake and fixed pizzas for Johnny's birthday party. Little monsters all had a blast, but stayed up til 2 a.m.!

Shiloh needed me up at 8 this morning and being Father's day, I wanted just a little enthusiasm out of theses kids. I managed to get the 5 extra boys out of here by 11, roused Joshua (our 15 yr old), Tiffany (17) and Johnny (12 tomorrow!) And the eldest, Angelica(18) was already gone for work. We gave David his cards and his gift, a new cowboy hat with a pretty feather hat band (I'll try to get pics) and I drug in yet another piece of old weathered barn wood and made him a new hat rack. (basically a grayed plank of wood with an old nail in it... but with my mode of decorating, it fits! LOL I did manage to get out and work a bit on the cob house today, but not much. That's ok though, I'm sore enough after rolling boulders and squishing around in the mud yesterday!

Tonight we had steaks on the grill. Yummy dinner! I hope the kids will be nice to us tonight and sleep off their weekend! I thought lazy days of summer...wish I could convince the kids to slow down to that kind of pace. This Thursday Tiffany, our 17 year old goes to Sanfransisco Art Institute for 6 weeks. She earned a fully paid summer scholarship program! Huge achievement for her and I am about as proud as a parent can be! She'll be studying acting and photography. But for the first time in her life, she'll be away from home, in the big city, unsupervised the entire 6 weeks. She'll be sleeping in the dorms on campus and I know they will be okay, but it's huge for us. San Fransisco is 5 hours away!

So if I'm a mess, don't be surprised!