Pali

My Amanda...oh, that girl!  She is so crazy, sweet, fun, kind, smart...and I can't believe that she is already in the 5th grade!  Kinda freaks me out actually!  The 5th graders at her school have the opportunity to go to a 3day camp in California near Lake Arrowhead.  The camp costs $335...yeah, holy crap!  At first when Amanda asked me about it I just KNEW that there was NO WAY that we could afford it, after all living on med school loans doesn't really leave any $$$ left over!  The school had some opportunities for the kids and parents to earn funds to go to the trip, but since I had little twerps with me all the time most of the options just wouldn't work for us.  But Grandpa Nelson came to the rescue...I LOVE my Dad!  He told Amanda that if she worked hard and tried to earn as much money as she could he would pay the difference.  So Amanda started selling candy bars at school.  For over 3 weeks she brought her little insulated bag to school packed full of candy bars, sometimes the neighbor kids would stop by in the evening to buy some candy!  But even with all that I was SHOCKED when we finally tallied it all up: she made $116 selling candy bars for $1 each. Wow!!!  I guess the dentists around here should be sending us Christmas cards this year! ;)

I tried to stifle my inner terror at having her not only SO far away, with strangers, NOT in contact for 3 days and 2 nights!  I did a pretty good job, and the other three kids were kind enough to keep me PLENTY busy while she was gone! ;)

We had to get her to the school to catch the bus at 5:30AM...

um, I am NOT a morning person! 

My AWESOME friend Kristine was kind enough to get up

that durn early and come over to sit at my house with my

other three sleeping kiddos...she is the BEST!!!

Here is Amanda FAR too happy and excited so

early in the morning! ;)

Around the corner from our house there was a lot

of road construction going on, while the roads were nice

and quiet I guess.  This cement mixer was going,

Amanda erupted into GALES of laughter

and told me to look at what it said since some

of the letters had fallen off...

SO FUNNY! 

 I happend to have the camera out, and since we

were stopped at a red light I caught it on film.

Here she is luggin' her big old bag full of clothes,

sleeping bag, pillow- and her little backpack

with her stuff she wanted on the bus.

Mostly she needed to bring her new book

on the bus, she REALLY wanted to read it!

We waited in line for her to get on the bus

to leave.  I tried not to embarrass her, but

I am sure that I hugged her a bit too much

but most parents were doing the same!!! ;)

Amanda had a BLAST at Pali,

she disected a squid,

climbed up a 50ft what-cha-ma-callit

and across on some kind of rope bridge

(with a harness on of course),

{shriek}

and all kinds of other fun stuff!

I am hoping to get some pictures from her

teacher and I shall update this if I do!

Basically my Amanda rocks...

I am constantly so proud and always amazed

that I am blessed to have that brilliant girl as MY daughter!!