November 13, 2008

Last week my husband's ex-wife went on a cruise with her husband. His four kids stayed with us for the week. We actually survived. I wasn't looking forward to having all seven kids for a full week. But, it actually worked out very well. His kids are accustomed to staying with us on the weekends, so it was an adjustment for them to have an earlier bed time during the week. But, they soon got use to the routine. Jon is such a wonderful husband. He made most of the dinners every night. Man... we sure went through a lot of food!!

We are still trying to rent my home, located in Herriman. No such luck yet. But, we did manage to move my hot tub to our home in Roy. Yeah!! Jon hooked up the electical and it works like a charm.

Today is Thursday and we have all of the kids this weekend. My daughter wants to have a friend sleep over on Friday night. So instead of seven in the house there will be eight kids. Remember the show "Eight is Enough". That will be us on Friday and Saturday. I get overwhelmed, at times, with so many kids. I hate messes... it causes me to stress out... and with so many freaking kids there are plenty of messes everytime you turn around. So, this weekend will be stressful for me.

Everyone always tells me that I need to enjoy the moment because before you know it they will all be grown up and moved out of the house. I do need to enjoy more of the "moments". But, I am really looking forward to the day when they are all grown up and out of the house. Jon and I would like to move to the carribean when all of the kids are finished with high school. We would like to live there for 7 to 8 months of the year and then the rest of the time here in Utah, visiting with kids and family. Which, I figure we would probably see them more often if we were to do that. My parents live about 4 hours away and I see them maybe once a month... but, it is "hi how are you doing? Great... gotta run." So, instead of dreading the kids growing up, we are actually looking forward to it.

We may eventually have to move back to Utah... after the kids are older. It will all depend on circumstances. Each of my kids have a 50% chance of getting Huntington's Disease. Their father has the disease, and it is hereditary. So, if any of them develop the disease and need me here to help them out then I will move back for them.

The "Brady Bunch"

On September 12, 2008, Jon and I were married. In doing so, we combined his four children with my three children, and became the "Brady Bunch". Of course, the Brady Bunch only had six children, and together we have seven! To say the least our house is now a bundle of chaos and non-stop activity.

The kids are: Jordan, age 14; Joshua, age 12; Jessica, age 11; (Jon) Nick, age 10; (James) Cole, age 9; Jadyn, age 7; and Jaxon, age 5.

Yes, all of their first names begin with J. How cool is that?

We recently took all of them to Lake Powell and spent four days with my sister Yvette, her husband Matt, and their four children. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work with so many kids. I'm not sure if we will ever get another invite from Matt and Yvette, but we did have a good time.

I will post pictures of the wedding and the Lake Powell trip to this blog as soon as I can.

I'm sure that our family is going to have many adventures as a blended family... both good and bad.