Grandma & Grandpa Carlson come to visit

It what we all look forward to each summer... the annual visit from GRANDMA AND GRANDPA CARLSON!!!  This year they came on July 7th and stayed until the 17th!  The time always flies by too fast and this year was no exception!  I usually forget to document their time here with photos (I didn't do too much better this year, but did manage to get a few shots of our time together!).  One of the big goals I wanted to accomplish was to get a couple of months of freezer meals prepared.  We wanted to get that out of the way quickly so we pretty much did that on the 2nd day they were here.  We spent all day long on Saturday making about 2 months of freezer meals.  The next morning (just before church) we opened up the freezer to admire all of our work only to find out that the freezer had quit working and none of our meals were frozen!!  We panicked!  So we quickly cleaned out the freezer out in the garage and moved all of our yummy meals out to the garage (and took some of the misc. things that were in the garage freezer over to our neighbors - the Rigby's).  We called a repairman who came and fixed our freezer (to the tune of like $350!)  With the freezer back in working order, and completely cleaned out... mom suggested we do another cooking day and fill it back up and have 4 months of food!  I really didn't want to... at all!  BUT.. I also knew it would help us out tremendously with a consistent routine (especially during the busy fall months with photography at its peak) and also with our monthly budget.  So... back to the kitchen we went for round 2 of freezer meals!  I'm proud to say that those 4 months of freezer meals actually lasted us until the 2nd week of JANUARY!!!
Our dishwasher was also on its last leg (and had been for sometime!) so generous g & gpa took me to Lowe's and we picked out a new SUPERB one!  It's a Bosch brand and had very high user ratings!  The first time it ran, I had to put my ear directly ON the machine to see if it was actually on or not!  It is sooooo quiet! and yet so powerful that we don't even have to pre-rinse anything!  I absolutely love it!!  Our van also broke down while they were here... dad told me that he felt bad for me because everything seemed to be breaking down around us!  I jokingly said (although I was serious, too) that Heavenly Father just waited until he and mom were there to help us out because we always paid out tithing!  I really don't know how we would have come up with the extra money for all of the repairs! Our budget is so tight (down to the penny each month) and unfortunately doesn't allow for any unforeseen expenses!
Some of the other things that we did: Dad and all of the boys went to the movies.  Mom and dad and I all went to Savers on a little shopping spree and also hit some garage sales :) and the majority of our time was spent getting set up for HOMESCHOOLING!!  It was a blast!!  I sure wished we lived closer!  Although, I DO LOVE the undivided attention we get each year when they come out!