What do you think?

Wes and I are having a "friendly" little disagreement. I'd like to get some outside opinions.

For several years, our little town put together sports teams with coaches. We would play a neighboring town that is larger, but still pretty small. Our children attend the same schools. A few years ago, they got a new sports director. He told us we could no longer put together our own teams. That if we wanted to play the kids there, we had to sign up down there. And of course pay a non-resident fee.

I came to terms with it, even though it is a major pain in the hiney.

Then there was a new development. This spring when Spencer played baseball, we got his schedule and discovered that he was playing teams from two other cities that are about 30 minutes away. Our children do not attend school with them. They are larger cities than ours. They got to put together their own teams, they did not have to sign up in another city and pay a non resident fee. What the?

I totally think that is discrimination. Banning all cities from putting their own teams together and joining your league? Fine. Letting some do it an others not? In my mind that is discrimination.

Wes thinks he is totally justified, that it is ethically wrong, but that just like any company, he has the right to choose who he wants to work with. He said he doesn't want me to go down and tell the sports director I think he is discriminating against us. He doesn't want me to embarrass myself.

What do you think? Be honest. If you think I'm a total idiot, I can take it.

Saving some $$$!

I should have shared this with all of you months ago, but I totally forgot. I know that most of you are thrifty like I am, so I wanted to share a great website I found.
They are a sponsor on my Creations by Kara website. They are called CityDeals. You can find their button on the right side:

They seriously do have some amazing deals! You just click on the button and you can buy all kinds of gift certificates for up to 70% off. We've bought them for Taco Time, Gloria's Little Italy, and a few golf courses. They ship fast and you use the gift certificates just like cash. (Make sure you check the expiration date though.) They have both local and national deals, just type in your zipcode for your area.

If you click on their button from my website, I will also earn a little money. So if you do decide to buy some gift certificates, will you pretty please use the button on my website? Don't feel at all like you need to buy anything, all I'm asking is that if you do, you will do it through me. Since you're all my friends and family and stuff. :)

Where we are spending all our time and money

We are finally replacing our deck! Woohoo! It wasn't built right, and two winters ago it started leaking into our house and ruined our wood floor. We wanted to replace it last summer, but instead we spent the money on Little Angels, our adoption agency in California. We decided we shouldn't go another winter with water leaking into the house, so we're biting the bullet.

Here is a picture of the totally ugly and dysfunctional deck. Not only was it leaking, but without a cover, it was so hot back there we could never enjoy it anyway.

Here it is after being torn down.
Notice the lack of tar paper? Yep, that would be why it was leaking into our kitchen under the wood floor.

Wes and the boys have been hard at work.

With additional help from great friends and family, this is the progress we have made so far:

Not too shabby for a couple days worth of work, huh?

Someone Please Tell Me I'm Dreaming and it's Not Really August

Wowser, summer has flown by! I can't believe the boys start school in a week and a half. I am totally not ready for them to go back. I know a lot of mom's can't wait for the first day of school, but I am never ready. Every year it seems like summer vacation gets shorter and shorter. This one was no exception danggit all. :(

Here is a few highlights from our pathetic, um I mean relaxing, summer.

In July, Spencer's little league team took second place in the state tournament. Woohoo! They were a great group of boys and it was a fun experience. He didn't pitch this season for the first time ever, which was a bummer for him, but made the games much less stressful for me. The last game was a really tough loss, but I was so proud of him for showing excellent sportsmanship anyway. Here are a few of my favorite action shots:



We went to the city carnival, which has become an annual family tradition. I think the boys' favorite part this year (except for the snow cones of course) was the helicopter ping pong drop. Here are Justin and Tyler anxiously waiting for the helicopter to take off so they can race onto the field with a hundred other kids and risk life and limb to fight over ping pong balls:

And here they are with the prizes they won. Ah to be a kid again and be totally motivated by sugar. Oh wait, I guess I still am. Especially if said sugar contains chocolate. ;)

Justin played T-ball for the first time. And in case you can't tell by the huge grin on his face, he totally loved it!

We discovered that our stop and waste was leaking and needed to be replaced because it was causing our foundation to settle because thestupidexcavatorputitrightundertheporchfootings. Oh, and just in case you were wondering why our grass is such a lovely shade of yellow; that is actually on purpose. Turns out that hours of backbreaking labor tearing up sod and replacing it doesn't actually get rid of orchard grass. It will grow up through the new sod. We have to kill every last blade, then tear it out and start over. Fun times.


Then there was the trampoline that after 7 years of use finally took it's last breath. It is a kid magnet for the entire neighborhood and is used on a daily basis, so it had to be replaced.

We all got together for my dad's 60th birthday. (or maybe 59th? Sorry dad, I'm really bad with numbers) All of us were there except my brother Aaron, who got the time wrong and was at a church meeting. My sister was going to photoshop him into that gap on the right, but she hasn't yet, so you'll all just have to pretend.

As soon as pictures were done, Spencer found a snake in the grass. He showed it to all the little cousins. I thought this picture was cute:

The boys took swimming lessons and made huge strides this year. Their teacher was amazing!




That is pretty much our summer in a nutshell. I know you are all dying of jealousy wishing your lives were as exciting as ours. :)