Must...Blog...

First of all, my sincere apologies go out to all my loyal followers (if there are any left) for the lllloooooonnnnnggggg delay in my writing. I wish I could give you some fantastic, outlandish reason for my negligence, but there truly is none. To be honest, it's not that things have been crazy around here, rather they have been un-crazy. Of course we've had the usual happenings such as everyone getting deathly ill at roughly the same time, too many kids doing too many activities at the same time, and parties coming out our ears, but as for normal, everyday life, everything has really fallen into a nice smooth routine.

Sidebar: My comma key is missing so I have to push the little squishy button and it barely works so I'm getting really frustrated. Anyone who knows me will understand why I simply CANNOT compose this post without use of the all-essential comma!

Because I have about 2 months worth of "Hiester" to update you on, perhaps I'll just give a bulleted list (of sorts) of the highlights...

* Wesley turned 18
* Wesley graduated from Sanger High and is enrolled at Fresno City. We threw him a huge birthday/grad party, where we presented him with his first-ever mode of independent transportation: a cool, yellow scooter. He's working on getting his license, but practices the driving regularly. After the first week, he had a minor wreck. This was to be expected. He was dismounting and touched his inner calf to the "Burn Warning" sticker. His reaction was to squeeze the handlebars, which sent the bike shooting forward. It then crashed into the playhouse on our back patio, catapulting Wesley over the front of it. This was a little over a week ago. He has a pretty nasty burn, but not a scratch on anything else... including his dignity. You gotta love Wesley!
*Our neighbors gave us 3 mutant zucchinis from their garden. The process of figuring out what to do with the monstrocities led me into a baking frenzy/ domestic deluge. (Dictionary.com really comes in handy :)) I ended up not only making zucchini casserole, oatmeal chocolate chip zucchini cookies, zucchini bread, apple zucchini bread, and chocolate zucchini bread, but I also became inspired to make fabulous gift baskets for the kids' teachers at the end of the school year. I bought cute bushel baskets and filled them with all things apple. (Get it? Teachers? Apples? See the symbolism?) Each basket included apple lotion, apple soap, an apple candle, dried apples, homemade apple bread (which is to die for!!!), homemade apple butter, homemade apple sauce, and homemade apple jelly. Yes, Marianne Hiester has discovered canning! From the apple baskets, I proceeded on to make my own personal supply of strawberry jam, blackberry jam, and pizza/spaghetti sauce (my own concoction). Oh, the madness has not ended! I'm simply out of fruit! I have resolved to never buy jelly from the store again! Mwa-a-a-a-a! So now that I'm a bakin' fool, you can all look forward to the fall and holiday seasons. Goodies will be a-comin your way!
- ---Count the commas! That was torture!----
*The baking and canning may sound domestic, but something much more extreme has gotten into me: Starting in August I'm going to be homeschooling Kurstin and Elissa. It's way too much to get into here and now, but we are all very excited about this upcoming endeavor. I'm optimistic, but realistic, about the whole thing. I think it will be really good for all of us.
*Last week Robben experienced his first camping trip- sort of. We stayed in a "rustic" cabin at Camp Fresno for 4 nights- sort of. We each had a bed (with our own sleeping bags/bedding) and we had a toilet and cold water. All the cooking was done the traditional camping way. I can say the trip was an experience... I'm not sure I'd call it a success. We had a good time and it was relaxing- sort of. Wesley couldn't go because he had to work. Tyler had pnuemonia in both lungs. Elissa was in the process of getting Valley Fever (I think), and so was feverish, fatigued and wretching. And Robben was too interested in being "side" (which means outside) to be concerned with any sort of sleeping or any activity that might be construed as relaxing. We met all of our neighbors and dined and played together. Each night about 20 people would get a volleyball game going, so Ally was in 7th heaven, and Kurstin really improved some of her skills. We brought the pooch, Lily, who probably would have been in a state of bliss if the other pooch, Andy, had accompanied us. But he got into it with a skunk the day before we left, thereby disqualifying him from the Hiester camping experience. The trip was cut 12 hours short by the event of Robben hurling curdled milk and bbq all over our bed, rendering us bedless. Between that and the propane in the stove running out before my white chocolate carmel mocha was the appropriate temperature, I decided it was over. I marched out to the volleyball game with my luke warm drink and announced that we would be cleaning up and leaving as soon as they were finished. Nobody complained. We packed up, cleaned up, and loaded up, and we were out of there by 11:15 pm. The only other snafu was when Robben puked yet again on the way home, causing him to have to be stripped naked and the windows to be rolled down the rest of the way home so that the rest of us didn't wretch at the stink of it. Nothing like a little family vacation to make you appreciate HOME!!!
*Finally, and most importantly, Robben got hair! It's white :)

I think that's it for now. If I go too much further, this'll never end. I should say one last thing: today, June 30, 2009, is the 5th anniversary of Carrie's death. As is our usual custom, we headed out to the cemetery with some new flowers and then went to dinner at her favorite restaurant: DiCicco's. It's good for us all to celebrate her life on a regular basis, and I hope her memory is vivid in each of the kids' minds and hearts.

By for now... I hope to be back in less that 2 months ;)