My Daily SAHM Life.

Some of last week in pictures.

2012-01-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd snap a picture a day and do these posts once a week. But I struggle. Some days I'm busy and forget, other days there isn't anything that seems picture worthy.
But here are a couple of highlights.
It finally snowed! This has been the most unwinterlike winter that I can ever remember. But it did finally snow. Not a lot. Just enough to try out the boots and gloves, throw a few snowballs and build a tiny snowman.

I went to visit Heather at her new house. Which, BTW, is completely unpacked and organized even though they just moved in 3 weeks before my visit. Because "Team Heather and David" is a whirling dervish of energy.

And I went with Crystal to her prenatal appointment, where we got to have a peek at baby Nash just because Crystal asked. lol Her doctor is such a softie!

Still a boy. hee! Two more months till new baby head sniffing begins again!

I am soooo hooked!

2012-01-24T10:30:00.000-07:00

I want to make a book every stinking day!
Who knew it would be so much fun?!?!
I finished binding this one last night. It's purposely devoid of images because I'm going to use it to journal all the quilts, crafts and sewing projects that I make. I want the art in it to be MY art, pictures of the things I make.
Before you get bored looking at my pictures...if you want to see how the truly talented do this just go to Youtube and search for "remains of the day journal". You'll see all kinds of inspiring video "flip throughs". I love watching them.
I'm already planning two more journals. One for our trip to NC last summer and one for Crystal to use as a baby book.
But for now, have a look...

I seem to like having bits of things sticking up over the top. When I see them in other books, they make me want to investigate. lol

The embroidery is from a pillow case that was my Grandma Laura's. She's the one who inspired my love of quilting.

Scraps of some handmade stationary that my friend Paula gave me 20+ years ago. That's almost vintage. Right? I can't wait to start collecting vintage papers to use in my journals.

Thanks for looking!

Last Week in Pictures

2012-01-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

Saturday I spent most of the day helping Emily put together the pages for her journal and binding them into the cover. She wasted no time beginning the journaling of super secret tween type things so I can't share the pages here.

While we sewed, Jaxon spent hours playing with the waffle blocks that are 20 years older than he is. he loves them! He made an impressive "animal train" at one point.

Sunday was family dinner.
Time for a new picture of the baby boys. Dexter is trying hard to catch up with Oliver now that his "failure to thrive" issue has been corrected. And he just might do it soon! Look at that beautiful round head!
Oliver was masked up for a superhero party that they went to before family dinner. And not too happy about picture taking.

Monday I spent some time assembling the pages for my journal and binding them into the cover.
I'm loving it! And, like Emily, I couldn't wait to get started using it. I'll share the pages later when they're full of happy faces and memories.

Wednesday I sent the kids back to school after their 4 day weekend and then I had a little thrift store me time. yay! I have a plan for decoration the mantle and I needed a pot just like the one on the left below. I also found the one on the right which is all wrong for this project but....well, you see my dilemma, right?

So I got them both. :)
Thursday I went with Jaxon's class on a field trip to the firestation across the street from his school.
Nothing like 25 kindergartners to liven up a firestation. They were all most excited about seeing the firemen's pole. It was a fun field trip. They were full of energy and enthusiasm. And they do and impressive Stop! Drop! (cover your face with your hands) and Roll!

Thursday was also Crystal's 25th birthday. Roger and I took her out to dinner. Blue Iguana again! lol Can't get enough of that place, but I swear it was her choice! Who am I to argue?!?!

I'm not a huge fan of knick knacks myself, but Crystal likes them. We gave her this Willow Tree figurine (The Guardian). I knew the minute I saw it that it was perfect for her and the journey she's on right now as the guardian of our sweet Nash.

The last week in pictures

2012-01-15T16:11:00.000-07:00

Heather didn't want me to make a quilt for Oliver. Maybe it has something to do with taking 3 years to finish Maveryk's? Anyway, I made a diaper bag instead. Not the traditional luggage type bag though. It's a sling bag in fabrics to match Oliver's nursery theme.

That giraffe fabric is sooooo soft and snuggly. There's enough left to make something else for his nursery soon.
Kenzie was sick all day on Saturday, she thought it was food poisoning, and had to leave Sunday morning to go back to school. :(

Speaking of school, Jaxon had lots of catching up to do after his pink eye induced 4 day weekend. I love how serious he is when he's focused on his homework.

On Tuesday I got hit by the plague. I guess Kenzie didn't have food poisoning after all. :P I spent the next 36 hours mostly in this position.

(Note to self: You should really get the mantle redecorated now that you took Christmas down.)
The good news is, I got a lot of reading done in my book club book, Some Sing, Some Cry by Ntozake Shange and Ifa Bayeza. Which was my pick for book club and is admittedly difficult to read. I hope I haven't sabotaged book club before it even got off the ground. Even though it's a hard read, I'm enjoying it.
When I was feeling better and solid food seemed wise again I made a run to the craft store. I thought I might treat myself to lunch at Rumbi Island Grill. I love their fish tacos. But there's a Jimmy John's right next door to Rumbi, and I had heard it's good so I stopped there for a sandwich instead.

I was not impressed. Now I feel ripped off for my fish tacos.
I went to lunch with friends on Thursday and Friday but forgot to take pics. You'll have to trust me, it was lovely.

First "Remains Of The Day" Journal Cover + Bonding with Emily

2012-01-09T08:20:00.001-07:00

I made my first journal cover yesterday. I love it so much!

There's a little surprise fabric flower when you open the cover.

This will be our family journal. The first one for 2012 anyway. As fast as this family is growing, I suspect it will take several journals to document a year.
The fabric choices were mainly based on a color theme, but really fit the family theme too. They are from
~Jaxon's nursery set that I made for him.
~Dish drying mats that I made as a gift for Christy.
~A lined basket that was a gift for Kayleigh when she was a teenager.
~A leftover square from a quilt I made for Tukker.
~Fabric from a quilt that Heather made for her inlaws.
~Ribbon from Jaxon's birth announcements.
Lots of good stuff!

Emily has been asking if she could do a sewing project but she didn't seem to have a clear purpose for one. So I suggested that she make a journal too. One to keep her memories of 7th grade and pictures of her friends.
We had fun working on this project together.
She and I have a difficult relationship sometimes, so it's pretty awesome when we find something that we can be happy working on together.
We did have a blast digging through the scrap basket and sewing our covers.
Here is hers. Just her style!

She did a lot of the actual sewing herself. Slowly gaining confidence for using the sewing machine.
Today we will make the signatures. Yay!

signature n.

a. a sheet of paper printed with several pages that upon folding will become a section or sections of a book

b. such a sheet so folded

Week in Pictures 1/1-1/6

2012-01-07T13:14:00.001-07:00

I finished Dexter's quilt!

I think he likes it.

After a holiday full of slightly too delicious food, I was so happy to see a baking sheet full of fresh veggies going into our dinner!

Jaxon had as much fun helping me UNdecorate as he did helping me decorate last month.

Roger and I took Kenzie out to dinner at Thaifoon to celebrate her 19th birthday. *sigh* 19.

Pinkeye = 4 day weekend for Jaxon. Gah!

You'd think the eye drops are made of battery acid the way he protests them.

My Word Of The Year

2012-01-06T15:57:00.001-07:00

NOTE
verb

to write or mark down briefly; make a memorandum of
to make particular mention of in a writing
to observe carefully; give attention or heed to
to take notice of; perceive
annotate; supply with critical or explanatory notes

Raising a half million kids taught me to sort of skim the surface a lot of the time. It's just not possible to absorb every single detail of every single day when you're in the thick of it. There are a great many things I have forgotten. And sometimes I'm sad to have forgotten them.
And there are times in my life when I feel overlooked, skimmed over, not noticed. And it's painful.
So my hope for this year is to take more notes. Literally and figuratively. To be PRESENT, NOTICE, PAY ATTENTION to my life and the lives of those I love.

My new obsession with journaling should be a very useful tool in this endeavor. Dontcha think? ;)

December 2011 as practice for my new obsession*

2012-01-06T15:30:00.001-07:00

*VERY long post with MANY pictures. Don't say I didn't warn you!
I used to be a scrapbooker. A VERY long time ago.
The older kids have decent scrapbooks up until their early teen years.
Emily has a couple of years.
Jaxon's has...umm...a picture of the positive pregnancy test and the ultrasound that showed he was a boy.
Oy!
I seriously dropped the ball.
Then came blogging. I thought this would be a great way to easily keep documenting our family's day to day life.
I planned to blog faithfully and then have a printed book made of the blog posts every year.
So far, not one printed book.
Nada, zip, zilch.
Blogger, my family is counting on YOU to safeguard those memories. Don't let them down!
At least it's here though, if the kids want to thumb through their memories. Right?
The problem with that is that I also like to collect memorabilia of our experiences. Maps of places we've been, brochures, scraps of this and that. Know what I mean? And there's not a great way to incorporate those bits and pieces into the blog. I suppose I could scan them in and post them. But I don't.
For a couple of months now I've been kind of itching to go back to pen and paper scrapping.
The kids just love going through those old books. Lately it has been so much fun to look through them and compare the grandbabies now with their moms at the same ages and stages.
But I just can't get into doing it like the old days. It was just too cutesy, trendy, expensive, time and space consuming and frankly, kind of stressful. Making pages that match pictures. Keeping it all in order and keeping up. ugh!
I know that digital scrapbooking is all the rage now too. But even that is still kind of more of the same to me.
I have friends who do it and love it and are really talented with it. But it just isn't me.
So then I thought maybe journaling would be the way to go. Hmm....much more intriguing to me.
I was busy, busy, busy getting ready for Christmas so I kind of put it in the back of my head for a beginning of the year project.
And then...THEN! I stumbled across this blog.
I stayed up till 1 or 2 or some crazy time in the morning reading through her blog. Very cool lady with a seemingly very cool life. But I was especially intrigued by her homemade journals. Just GORGEOUS things that I wanted so badly to reach through the screen and just start digging through.
I noticed on the sidebar that she has some online classes available for learning how to make those amazing books! So I signed up for the Remains of The Day classes. And then proceeded to go crazy because I didn't have time to take the classes till after Christmas.
But I had been inspired enough by what I did see to start a little practice run using an old photo album I had kicking around. I used it for sticker storage WAY back when I did scrapbooking.

So in between the chaos of preparing for Christmas (BTW I failed miserably at keeping Christmas calm and simple this year. Miserably. Christmas day was awesome but the weeks leading up to it? Not so much.) I proceeded to makeover that little album to test out the style and see if it felt as right to me as it seemed.
I stole moments here and there to get it ready to become our December 2011 book.
I finished it today.
And I was right. This style is totally ME. Kinda messy, kinda random, kinda scrappy and just so visually tempting to me. And there is also fabric and sewing! Jackpot!
I CANNOT wait to make an actual Remains of the Day journal. It's going to be so much better than this!
I've already tried my practice book out on two of the kids, Emily and Crystal, and they seemed to love flipping through the pages and discovering the tucked away things. Maybe they're just playing along with mom's latest thing, humoring me, but I think they really did enjoy it.
And now I'll show it to you. Ready?
Click on the pictures to enlarge, if you're so inclined.

my shabby, scrappy December 2011 family journal

It's a little messier than necessary. LOL But I love it and it was so much fun. I'm glad I did a little test run because I learned a lot.
Not the least of which is that computers have been the ruin of my handwriting skills. But I'll soon be back in practice. :)
Okay, I'm off to begin the real thing now! The family probably doesn't really NEED dinner. Right?

Goodbye 2011 - In Pictures

2012-01-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

We ate. (Sorry, honey! Somehow this is the only picture we have of you that night)

We made silly party hats.

And we ate.

Bad news: Our camera broke 10 days before Christmas.

Good news: We got a much nicer new one.

It takes panarama pics. There's probably a correct way to use it.

I'm learning.

Froggy fingers!

Newly braced face!

Babies slept.

Expectant mommies napped.

Men crafted!

Good times were had by all.

Kid Trees

2011-12-08T09:19:00.000-07:00

Roger and I decided to let the kids have their own trees in their rooms this year.
While our new house does not have a perfect window for the family tree, it does have window seats in the kids' bedrooms that are the perfect place for small trees.
Here is Jaxon's "Bus" tree.*

I wanted them to make some of the decorations for their trees. Jaxon helped me make a garland for his out of torn strips of checkered fabric. He loves making stuff and did about 1/3 of the garland by himself before I started helping him so we could get it done by bedtime.

I made a couple of checkered flags for the topper. We added shattterproof red balls and then he decorated the rest of it with his own toy cars (and planes lol).

*The Disney Cars movie came out the year that Jaxon was born. He first saw it when he was about a year old and his name for the movie and for the character of Lightening McQueen was "bus". We have no idea why. I've watched the move a thousand times by now and I still can't figure out why he calls it Bus. Still! And he can't explain why either. He just says there are two names.

Emily is all about bright colors. And I think her tree turned out exactly right for her and for her room.

I helped her make a pom pom ball garland while we watched a movie last night.

And she made a tutu style tulle tree skirt by herself.
Then we just added pink, green and silver shatterproof ornaments. She really wanted some orange ones, but we couldn't find any. Maybe next year.

Her tree is especially pretty at night ...

I'll get the rest of the non-tree decorating done today. I need to get on to that pre-Christmas to do list!

It's a hot Christmas mess over here.

2011-12-06T22:26:00.000-07:00

The Christmas decoration bins have finally found their way up the stairs. They have been stacked in towers around the family room for a few days.
And the tree in the family room was put up a couple of days ago. Just erected. There hasn't been time for decorating yet.
But our calendar seems to be dead set against letting us concentrate for any length of time on getting the decorating done.
Today I finally just let Emily and Jaxon decorate the tree while we waited for Roger to get home from work.

My Mom is coming to visit tomorrow. Maybe I can rope her into helping me get the rest of the decorating done.
Here are our special ornaments for this year. In honor of our summer vacation. Which I will eventually finish blogging about. ugh!

My silly tree decorators...

We had a quick dinner once Roger got home and then headed out for some Peppermint Mochas from Starbucks (chocolate milk for Jaxon!) and a trip to Thanksgiving Point for the holiday lights display.

cute parachuting reindeer

very cool kinetic ice sculpture

We even bought a pair of 3D glasses which Jaxon totally loved using to view the light displays.
We paid $8 to drive through this roughly 1.5 mile display. As bitter cold as it has been this week, I was happy to pay it and sit inside our warm vehicle, snuggled up to hot cups of mocha.

So we went to this funeral the other day....

2011-12-05T14:58:00.001-07:00

A Tongan lady who works in Roger's department passed away quite suddenly a couple of weeks ago.

Fane Sovaleni

She has worked for the company since before I quit working there 14 years ago, but I barely remember her. I think she worked in a different department then. Roger thought very highly of her though and let me know right away that he would like for us to attend her viewing.
We waited nearly a whole week for the obituary to show up in the paper and then made plans to go.
As soon as her family found out that we planned to attend they asked her supervisor and Roger (her manager) to speak at the funeral.
The time listed in the obituary was 6pm until midnight at the Tongan United Methodist Church.
Roger talked with some of her other coworkers and they decided to meet there at 7 pm.
Roger and I arrived before the others. I'm pretty sure we were the only people there never to have set foot on a Polynesian island. And there were a LOT of people there. But no one seemed to notice us or think that we looked out of place. lol
Someone pointed us in the direction of the chapel where we went in to sit and wait for the others.
We thought that there was a church service going on when we walked in and then about 20 minutes later we were told it was a prayer. !! This prayer went on for about 45 minutes and then the viewing began.
Roger and the supervisor spoke, theirs were the very few words spoken in English during the entire service. They were each given a fresh flower lei as they left the podium. Along with the declaration that they "are Tongan now".

Fane's coworkers had taken up a collection for her son and Roger was asked to present that to him. After the coworkers had a chance to speak with Fane's son, it was the family's turn to each say a few words of farewell to Fane. Some of the younger family members expressed themselves in English. The older family members mostly spoke in Tongan. And then the family began to line up for the viewing. The very first mourners were quite grief stricken and emotional at the casket. As we sat there hearing words we didn't know but still somehow understood, some of the congregation began singing and others joined in. When the mourners at the casket got louder with their crying, it seemed that the singers increased their volume as well. As if to provide a sense of privacy to the grief stricken. It was a very moving thing to witness.
At the end of the line of family there were 4 or 5 women who were wrapped from head to toe in what looked like sheets of fabric made of dried reeds or grasses, the edges trimmed with flowers and feathers (?). You could see their faces but this covering went up above their heads and all the way to the floor. I was so fascinated by them and curious about the meaning of their dress.
As we left the chapel we were met in the hallway by a couple of Fane's female family members who approached Roger and the supervisor to tell them how honored they were to have them there. This caught us off guard since Roger felt so honored to be asked to speak and to be welcomed into this private time of grief for their family.
Even more surprising, a few moments later Roger and the supervisor were each given a beautiful quilt!

We were just so stunned. I'm still not sure what to think of it. I never would have guessed that Fane's "bosses" would be so highly regarded.
It was just a far more beautiful experience then I ever would have expected a funeral to be.
And then as we said our goodbyes and offered our condolences, the quilts had to be handed off to myself and the supervisor's companion because one take home container full of food after another began piling into their arms as we headed for the door.
We were only there for about an hour and a half and I swear it was the grandest display of kindness and generosity I have seen. At a funeral!
Afterwards I told Roger that I was sitting there the whole time, from the prayer when we first arrived all the way to the time that we left, just wishing that I had an interpreter to explain each custom to me. To translate the emotional words that were spoken and the beautiful songs that were sung.
It seems so strange to say, but I am so glad we went to that funeral.
And my thoughts continue to be with Fane's son. He seemed to be in his late teens or early twenties, and the only child to his parents who have now both passed away.
I suspect that he will be well cared for by his very loving extended family.

P.S. If you are reading this and you know about the customs and traditions of a Tongan funeral, please share! I'm especially curious about the girls wrapped in the straw/grass fabric.

Maple Glazed Sweet Potato Crisp

2011-11-26T10:49:00.000-07:00

I apologize for this picture. I didn't take the time to snap a picture on Thanksgiving, so this is a picture of the reheated leftovers. It was a beautiful dish fresh out of the oven and an almost perfect copy of a Sweet Tomatoes menu item that I have been enjoying this month. This will be our sweet potato item for the next few Thanksgivings at least. It is soooo good! I just want to post it here for safe keeping since I made it up and I'm afraid I'll forget how I did it.

Maple Glazed Sweet Potato Crisp

serves 8

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a deep dish pie plate or 8X8 inch baking dish with non stick cooking spray.

filling:
4 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 large apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup dried cranberries
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
3 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup pure maple syrup

topping:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut in small pieces
2/3 cups chopped pecans

Place first six filling ingredients in large bowl and toss to coat evenly with the sugar and flour.
Place filling in prepared baking dish.
Drizzle maple syrup evenly over sweet potato mixture.

Place first 6 topping ingredients in food processor. Pulse until the mixture is crumbly and no large pieces of butter are visible. Pour into small bowl and add pecans. Stir to combine.

Sprinkle topping mixture over sweet potato mixture in baking dish.
Bake 30-40 minutes until bubbly and topping is golden brown. Sweet potatoes should be soft, but not mushy, when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife.
Cool on wire rack for about 20 minutes before serving.

Make a note!

2011-11-25T09:02:00.001-07:00

I've had this idea for a memo board/message center thing floating around in my brain for a long time. We finally got it done this week. It turned out exactly how I imagined it. Actually, Roger made a suggestion mid project that made it even better than I imagined.

It's really big. 20 inches wide by 45 inches tall.
We had most of the stuff on hand, it was just a matter of making the time to do it.
We started with a piece of bead board 20in X45 in.
We attached two pieces of 3/4 in X 3/4 in. hemlock along the long sides and then four 18 1/2 inch pieces of the same hemlock to divide the sections.
The inside measurement of the cork board section is 12 inches from top to bottom.
The inside measurement of the steel (for magnets) section is also 12 inches from top to bottom. In hindsight, we should have made that just a 1/8 inch bigger to accommodate the pre-cut 12X18 in. piece of sheet metal that we bought at Home Depot. Ours needed a little extra persuasion to fit into the opening, if you know what I mean.
The inside measurement of the calendar section is what is leftover which is approx. 18 inches from top to bottom.
We used an air nailer to attach the frame to the bead board. Wood glue would work too I'm sure but I don't have the patience to wait for glue to dry once I get going on something.
It was at this point that Roger suggested adding a piece of decorative trim that we had leftover from an old project. Adding this made a great place for pens and note paper to live. We added two 2inch pieces of hemlock to brace that decorative piece which we added after painting.
Hopefully the pictures will help explain that.

This was before we added the small 2 inch pieces.

We caulked all the seams with paintable caulk.

Then I got all the paint supplies out and had Roger start the painting while I cooked dinner. I told him I'd take over when dinner was done. Wouldn't you know it, dinner took so long to make that the painting was done by then! ;)

See the small blocks in that picture? Those will help brace the piece of decorative trim.

We painted the main piece first, and then added the decorative trim and painted it, so that the pockets would be painted on the inside too.

I used E6000 adhesive to glue the sheet metal on.

I used the same adhesive to glue the corks into their section.

130 of them! It took a small eternity it seemed.

Most of the corks are from a private reserve. And there are a couple dozen others. Some from our summer vacation. :) Don't judge us harshly on our ~~cheap~~ fine taste in wines.

The calendar is hung with a clear plastic hook which I glued to the frame. We can easily change it out for standard 12X15 inch desktop calendars from the office supply store each year.

The magnets are made from the bottle caps from some brand of beer that Roger has been buying lately. Sessions? I think that's it. I thought the Rock, Paper, Scissors graphics were kind of cool.
All we had to buy was two 8 foot pieces of hemlock ($15.xx) and the 12 X 18 inch piece of sheet metal. ($4.xx), both from Home Depot. We had everything else. So our total OOP was about $20.
You can buy unused corks from homebrewing and winemaking supply stores at about $7.xx for 30 of them. We like The Beer Nut in Salt Lake. Or you could ask your wine drinking friends to save some for you. Maybe you know someone who works in a bar or restaurant? OR you could just use actual cork board.
To hang the board, we installed D-ring picture hangers like this onto the back of the memo board and then wall anchors and screws into the sheet rock to hang it on. Plus a strip of Command Strip velcro stuff at the bottom just keep little people from pulling it away from the wall.
If I had to do it again, I'd make the whole thing about a 1/4 inch narrower just so that the corks would fit more snugly into their space. I'd make that space about 1/2 inch shorter from top to bottom for the same reason. But, then again, corks come in varying sizes so it would be hard to say exactly how big to make it unless you could measure your specific corks. As it was, I just spaced them out a little to make up the difference.
There ya go! A pretty place to tame the paper chaos that usually resides at the end of my kitchen counter.
Linking up to a party. It's been a while.

My thrifted stuff put to use.

2011-11-18T09:17:00.002-07:00

I think I'm broken.
I wanted to say this was an "after". Done. But then I started putting things together and taking pictures and before I knew it, I had a new list of projects in my head to make it even better. gah! No wonder I never get anything done. Maybe there is no "done". Maybe "done" is just an illusion to keep me doing things.
Anyway, remember my thrift store goodies from a few weeks ago? I put most of them to good use right away.
Most of these...

plus a couple of cheap-o flower vases, got a coat of spray paint and became top 'o the cabinets decor.
I go back and forth on whether or not I ever want stuff on top of the cabinets. On one hand, I hate that it collects dust. Especially kitchen (greasy) dust. Blech! But on the other hand, I think it looks so empty and blah up there without anything. So, we were here for a year without anything up there and now we have stuff up there. Who knows, I might decide to take it all down in another year. But for now, I like it.

That rectangular platter is new. I felt like I needed something white-ish as a back drop to the colorful stuff and I couldn't find any DIY ideas that I liked. So I ordered this platter from JCPenney with a coupon deal. I paid about $15 for it out of pocket. And about $15 total for ALL the other stuff for this project. In the end, I call that a frugal solution.
The jute wrapped bottle is an old pickle jar.
The bird was purchased from Tai Pan Trading a few months ago. Our realtor gave us a gift card at closing when we sold the old house and one of the things I bought with it was that little bird for our front porch table. I brought him in for the winter. He seems happy there. :)
The fruit plaques on the wall are from the old house. I forgot all about them till I started digging around for stuff for other projects. So they went up as part of this project as well.

I don't love the skinny purple vases. But I really felt like there needed to be a third something on each of those cabinets. So I grabbed some cheap-o clear glass vases and spray painted them.
I'm keeping my eyes open for other options (something shorter and maybe square) but these will do for now.
I like the colorful thing we have going on in here now with the plate wall and these new additions.

What do you think? Colorful, fruit sort of theme. But not like a tacky granny. Right?
(Please pay no attention to the fingerprints and counter top flotsam in that picture. Thanks!)
And the stack of picture frames from that thrift store trip?

I spray painted all the non silver ones and finished the gallery wall in the family room. Finally. Almost a year later. And now it looks like this...

I filled the empty frames with scrapbook paper that coordinates with the family room, until I get photos to put in them.
Now I just need to get the dresser that goes below these frames painted.
You can see a high tech mock up of the dresser in it's future home here.
But my friend Sharon has given me new motivation to get it done soon. Spray paint! You know I love me some spray paint. :)
New ideas:
~Spray paint the knife block in one of the colors of the cabinet stuff.
~I might spray paint that orange-y red tea pot. I like the darker red better.
~Add lights above the cabinets. There is an outlet inside the cabinet above the microwave. The other set of cabinets will be more tricky. But I think we could do it pretty easily. It will involve cutting holes in the cabinets, which was too scary to think about when we first moved in. But not so scary now.

In case I haven't rambled on enough...here is where I got the inspiration for the top of the cabinets stuff.
We went to the Parade of Homes in our area last August. And decor-wise, my very favorite house was actually one by our builder. Here are a few pics. See if you can guess why I loved the decor so much. :)

PURPLE!!! LOOOOOVE!

See the big chunky stuff on top of the cabinets? Love it!

Look closely at the picture below. I thought this was GENIUS! They filled the tops of the cabinets with big pebbles. It matched the backsplash in the kitchen. But you could use something else.
When we were house hunting I noticed that in some open floor plans you can see the tops of the cabinets as you go up stairs. And it bugged me. Not pretty. I think this is a great solution!
They had some kind of foam or something below the pebbles. Probably because just filling it with pebbles would be a heavy load for the cabinets.
If we had ended up with a floor plan like that, I definitely would have done something like this to hide the exposed cabinet tops from view.

Can't get enough purple!

P.S. As I was writing this post, I received a phone call from Heather. She and David made an offer on their first home and the offer was accepted. They are under contract! Hooray for them!

I'm so proud of them for all they have accomplished in the past few years.

Maybe they'll let me spray paint some stuff for their house. ;)

42 Down

2011-11-07T09:34:00.000-07:00

I kind of forgot all about my birthday until 2 or 3 days before.
It was a low key (but just as awesome as last year) birthday for me yesterday.
There's nothing like a handmade card to start a birthday off right. Emily helped Jaxon make this one for me. She wrote the words on a different piece of paper and he copied them onto the card and added illustrations. All in purple of course. He's always very mindful of my favorite color. :)

Roger took me out for a lunch date. And Emily babysat as her gift to me. :)

We had lunch at Sweet Tomatoes where my meal was free because it was my birthday. I've been kind of obsessed with Sweet Tomatoes lately because I can make good Weight Watcher's choices so easily there. And they give you a coupon to come back in the next few days every time you go! They're like crack dealers luring you back for more.

After lunch we went to see Crazy Stupid Love at the dollar theater. I'm a cheap date!

Really cute movie. I loved it.

We celebrated my birthday with the rest of the family during our regular weekly family dinner.The kids planned everything this week. So I didn't have to do anything except be here.
First up though I HAD to get a picture of Dexter on the kitchen scale. He lost a lot of weight right after he was born and struggled to regain it during his first month. But the problem seems to be solved now and he's finally above his birth weight. I just wanted a pic to document how we've been checking his weight each week at family dinners. Soon he'll be too big for the limit of my scale.

141 ounces.

Dennis and Christy were here.

I didn't get pictures of everyone else but Kayleigh, Richard, Dexter, Crystal, Heather, Tukker, Maveryk, Oliver, Emily and Jaxon were here too. And Roger and I of course.

We just enjoyed a yummy dinner that the girls prepared and visited.

Upside down Dex.

Heather's family gave me a new dress for my birthday. Love it!

Dennis and Christy gave me a gift card that I am pretty sure I am going to use to buy myself some brown boots. I love my black ones so much, now I need brown.
I also received flowers and some lovely scented handmade soaps too.
I also had dozens of happy birthday wishes from Facebook friends and one anonymous text message late last night. Hmm....
I'm a lucky lady and it was a fabulous birthday.

An "after" among the "befores".

2011-11-05T08:55:00.000-06:00

Roger was out of town on business all last week.
When he is away I like to paint stuff and put holes in the walls. :)
This time I did a sweet little surprise for him in our bedroom.
I bought a couple of chairs off of KSL last month. The fabric is all wrong for our room. But they are Ethan Allen chairs. Sturdy and comfy. So they will get slip covers. (What color though? I can't decide.)
Anyway, I felt like we needed something on the wall above our chairs so I decided to do a gallery wall there.
The subject is US.
I love how it turned out. He says he does too.

The antique mirror and our monograms are from the makeover I did in our old master bedroom.
The smaller frames are spray painted thrift store frames with wedding photos, a few lines from our wedding vows, places we've spent time together (Subway Art style) and a piece of scrapbook paper with one line from "our song".
The big "Est. 1998" (the year we were married) sign I made using the tutorial found here. I mostly stumble my way through all things computer related but this tutorial really helped me make good use of a program I didn't even know I had before last week.

So the gallery wall is the "after" part of the post.
The "before" part is the chairs that need slipcovers. Seriously. What color? I don't want white. Yellow tones would disappear into the wall. Brown tones might disappear into the carpet but we're sort of leaning that way anyway. Maybe a print with purples but that's tricky. Roger doesn't seem to like prints. Hmm...
The hope chest needs to be refinished or painted. I love it and it means a lot to me, so it's staying in the room. But the color needs to change.
The lamp is really too small but it was a gift to me from Roger's mom and I really love it, so it stays too.
It's sitting on a half finished project - a hat box that was previously covered in a Christmas-y print. It just needs another coat of spray paint and some kind of other fluffy embellishment. Maybe a fabric flower or something.
The bedroom is finally starting to feel cozy. It's such a big room. This is not a complaint. I'm just not used to dealing with so much space. Especially in a bedroom. And the super high vaulted ceilings made it feel kind of cavernous.
But it's definitely coming together now.
If you have any ideas for me on those befores, PLEASE leave them in the comments. :)

Costumed Cuties!

2011-11-02T11:13:00.000-06:00

We had our usual Halloween festivities around here. We got started a little late because someone *cough*me*cough* messed up on the time on the Facebook Event page. oops!
I absolutely love the way Facebook keeps me in daily contact with the family and in touch with all the little things that go on with them. you know, the little things you might forget all about by the time the weekly family dinner rolls around? So much fun. Anyway, it's great except when you post the wrong start time for the family function. :P
But they all got here and we had lots of fun together.

Emily as Elmo

Jaxon FINALLY agreed to actually wear a costume! In fact, we bought it a couple weeks ago and he's worn it for short periods of time every day since then.

I helped in his classroom and then they had a little parade around the school.

Bride Caydance and Pirate Athena

Storm Trooper Dallas

Kenzie surprised us and came home for Halloween! Hooray!

She couldn't stay away from the chili and the cute babies.

She's still here today and we've been enjoying just hanging out together.

Kenzie and Dexter

Heather and Oliver

The whole box of crayons!

Heather, David, Tukker, Maveryk and Oliver

Jaxon's not a very scary vampire is he?

He sure loves these new babies.

Crystal, Derek and baby Nash

(YAY!!!! I got to name another grandbaby!)

Pumpkins Carved

2011-10-31T07:26:00.000-06:00

At the very last minute!
We just did them last night.
It's not what it used to be when there were six kids at home and the pumpkin guts covered the entire kitchen by the time we were done. But it's still fun.
Emily chose an Elmo pattern of course. She is all things Elmo these days. She has taken Elmo as a nickname and even has most of her teachers calling her Elmo.

Jaxon went with a classic jack o lantern pattern.
His description: "Creepy monster eyes and pointy top teeth."

Think he had fun?

Roger had the camera and apparently got a little distracted by Jaxon's bat finger puppet. I just found these pictures this morning.

So the pumpkins are carved and we're ready for the big night!

The kids and grandkids will come over tonight for chili, corn bread and hot chocolate. Good times will be had by all. :)

Family Fun Day

2011-10-28T16:32:00.000-06:00

Kenzie came home for a visit weekend before last. We spent a couple of hours at Hollywood Connection using some discount passes I bought a couple of months ago.
We started with miniature golf. That's always good for a few laughs.

I mostly just enjoyed the very eclectic musical selections that were playing that day. Beat It by Michael Jackson stands out in my memory. Can't think of the others now. But I just remember wondering who in the world put that playlist together.
Jaxon felt shy about golfing at first. But Roger took some time to teach him how to do it.

Within a couple of holes Jaxon was having a great time and had developed a golfing style all his own.

The girls got a little goofy.

Emily got a hole in one on the 18th hole! She won a prize for that, some extra points to use in the arcade.
Emily really wanted to go skating. Which might have been fun, potentially broken bones aside. But we had to be back home in time for family dinner. So there wasn't time for skating. (phew!)
We played around in the arcade for a while.

This is how much Jaxon loves playing on the video games that move.

Not so much.
After that we had time for a few rides, which made me a little queasy. That's weird. I usually have a stomach made of steel.
Then it was home to family dinner.
We also had a quick babies in pumpkins photo shoot. Which Oliver and Dexter enjoyed about as much as Jaxon liked that video game.

The flames behind the babies are kind of creepy now that I look closer at it. ha! I promise no babies were burned in the making of these pictures.
It was an awesome family day. I was especially happy to be able to spend so much time with Kenzie that weekend. I miss her like crazy. You'd think her college was across the country instead of just two hours away.

3 Kid Free Hours

2011-10-26T20:08:00.000-06:00

That's what I have four days a week now. Only 2 on Fridays.
Today I spent them at a couple of Thrift stores. It was so nice to be all alone with my own thoughts and ideas and no one needing to be taken to the bathroom!
Here's what I got...

That table is from Bombay Company. It's been HORRIBLY beat up and abused. Shame on them. But LUCKY ME!

Very little of it will stay the color it is now. Stay tuned to see where it all ends up!
Oh! I also got this. I second guessed buying it.

And I really wish I hadn't bought it.
A) It doesn't fit where I wanted it to go.
B) I know it's kooky but I REALLY don't like fleur de lis and avoid it most of the time.
B) Jaxon thinks it's his own personal rocket ship to fly all over the house and scratch up walls and furniture with.
Eh...can't win them all.

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet/Slower Than Molasses In January

2011-10-25T16:26:00.000-06:00

Bullet:
Today was "Superhero Day" at school for Jaxon. In about 15 minutes, and without a pattern, I whipped up a Super Jaxon cape.

The emblem is too low. But he didn't seem to notice or mind.

Molasses:
No less than 31 months ago...okay it was actually more than 31 months ago...I purchased the fabric to make a quilt for the baby (Maveryk) that Heather was pregnant with at the time. I gave her the fabric at her baby shower and planned to have the quilt done shortly after the baby was born.
Great news! 31 months and another baby (Oliver) later, I finished the quilt today!

I had to enlarge it from crib to twin size after the first year or so. I planned to hand quilt the entire thing which might be the daunting thought that caused me to procrastinate so much. But I gave up on the hand quilting thing about a month ago. DONE is better than PERFECT they say. I just tied it and hand quilted only a random 16 of the puzzle pieces rather than all 96 of them.
And now it's done.
I also put all the kids on notice that I won't be committing to any more quilts for the grandbabies. Apparently no matter how much I want to do a thing, as soon as I commit to it, I lose interest. gah!
That said, I have already purchased most of the fabric to make a quilt for Dexter. Maybe. ;)

Family Dinners These Days

2011-10-24T07:49:00.001-06:00

We're still doing regular weekly family dinners.
Our group is growing so fast we had to upgrade from the supplemental card table to a supplemental 6 foot table. And we'll still need that card table on weeks when everyone shows up!

Last night we celebrated Dallas' 6th birthday. He requested "banilla" cupcakes with chocolate frosting and white sprinkles and "banilla" ice cream. Being the super awesome grandparents that we are, we obliged. I was busy helping a neighbor so Roger made the cupcakes. And they were delicious, even though "banilla" goes radically against my chocolate grain. Dallas is new to the family, I clearly need to work on him and develop the love of all things chocolate.

We gave him a Star Wars costume. He's a big fan of Storm troopers but I have no idea about these boy things. So I just went for a white "trooper" something or other costume and he seemed pleased with it.
Right away he told Jaxon to get his Transformer costume and play sword so they could "fight".

Heather brought over her wii and Just Dance 3 game. This was the adorable result.

I think that the "Best Wiggly Butt" award goes to Miss Athena. She's so stinking cute!
Having everyone here (8 kids under the age of 6!) makes for some crazy fun family time. I wouldn't miss it for the world. Especially this part.....

Remember When...

2011-10-22T11:17:00.000-06:00

I posted nearly every day? About kids and cooking and goals and thoughts about all the little things I didn't want to forget and all of that?
I miss that.
Even if I'm the only one.

Outer Banks Summer Vacation - Day 3

2011-10-09T22:30:00.001-06:00

The kids and I slept in and woke up to breakfast prepared for us by Roger. Yum!
This day was committed to the beach!
Jaxon was in absolute heaven in the world's biggest sandbox. That boy loves nothing more than digging in sand.

He wanted NOTHING to do with getting in the water. This was as close as he would voluntarily go.

At one point I picked him up and carried him in, thinking that I might be able to rinse the thick coat of sand off of him and maybe he would decide that he liked it. Bad idea. Very bad idea! All that accomplished was having the first three layers of skin around my neck completely "sanded" off and my ear drums assaulted by the screams of terror. Roger saved ~~me from~~ him from me and as they made their way back to the sand Jaxon told him to "Run!". LOL
So, he stayed a safe distance from the water for the rest of the trip.
The rest of us enjoyed the water though.

BTW This day in the sun corrected Roger's farmer tan as well as Kenzie's milky white complexion. As for the rest of us, adequate sunscreen was utilized. lol

Emily was scared to go very far out in the water until she made a friend in a girl her age. Then she hung out with her for a little while. The tide kept moving them farther and farther down the shore until she looked up and thought that we had moved our blankets and chairs away from her. Silly girl!
It was a great day. Just playing and relaxing and enjoying each other's company.

Jaxon's mermaid sculpture

These two seemed to form a bit of a new bond during this trip. They went from being mostly annoyed by each other most of the time, to actually wanting to spend "sister time" together. It's nice to see.
We made a trip to the fish market on the way back to the house. We picked up some local shrimp and scallops which Roger grilled along with some steaks for dinner.
Before dinner Roger and I took a walk to the sound end of our street. The street is about a half mile long with the ocean at one end and the sound at the other, and the house right about in the middle of the two. The sound was as pretty as the ocean, but in a more quiet, peaceful way. We met up with a local family that was catching soft shell crabs off the dock. We chatted with them for awhile about crabbing and the best place to buy local seafood and wines.
I thought it would be fun to bring the kids back to do some crabbing there another day. But they didn't think that sounded fun at all, so we never did.
At the fish market we also picked up this locally made rum cake.

We told Jaxon it was Pirate cake and he ate every bite of his dinner to be able to have some.
Then he ate his cake and some of everyone else's with enthusiasm and speed!

So funny. Truth be told, the cake wasn't really as good as you'd expect. I guess it's all about the packaging and marketing when you're 5.
By the end of this day Kenzie and Roger were really feeling the burn so I started making sightseeing (versus beach) plans for us to do for the next couple of days while they healed up a little.

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

2011-10-07T16:33:00.000-06:00

Having pulled my lard butt back on the Weight Watcher's bandwagon this week, and having a TON of bell peppers on hand, I was inspired to make some stuffed peppers for dinner last night.
I went to Pinterest for some inspiration and found this recipe for stuffed poblanos.
Here's my version.

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

serves 4

9 Points Plus per serving

28 ounces canned diced tomatoes

1 jalapeno, seeded

2 small onions

3 cloves garlic

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup yellow corn meal

7 oz can diced green chilies

5 oz. shredded monterey jack cheese

(I know this is a weird amount. It's what I had on hand. You can adjust, just remember to factor the points plus value if you do.)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

3/4 cup water

4 bell peppers

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place the tomatoes and their juice, jalapeno, one onion, 2 cloves of garlic in blender and puree until smooth.

Pour tomato sauce into 9X13 baking dish.

In medium bowl combine: remaining onion (finely chopped), 1 clove minced garlic, black beans, corn meal, 1/2 of the shredded cheese, cumin, green chilies and water. Mix well.

Cut the peppers in half lengthwise and remove seeds.

Stuff pepper halves with the filling and place stuffed peppers in the baking dish, on top of the tomato sauce.

Top each pepper with a little of the remaining cheese.

Cover tightly with foil.

Bake 45 minutes.

Remove foil.

Bake 15 minutes longer.

Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Each serving is two stuffed pepper halves.

What we thought~

I thought the corn meal was an interesting flavor instead of the usual rice that you find in stuffed peppers. These were very filling and had great flavor.

Emily actually said more than once that she really liked them. Shocking!

Jaxon didn't have any, he's been sick and not eating well.

Roger had his reheated after an extra long day at work and he said that he liked them a lot.

WIN!!

I was especially lazy and didn't prepare any sides. But a nice salad would be perfect.

The Best Thing That Happened In September

2011-10-07T15:32:00.000-06:00

On the 28th I was honored and thrilled to be present for the birth of grandbaby #8!!!

Dexter Patrick (after me!) was born at 8:27pm, weighing 8 lbs 7 oz and he was 20.5 inches long.
He is so adorable, of course!
I'm so very proud of Kayleigh. She's my girl with probably the lowest threshold for pain. But she was determined to have an unmedicated birth and that is exactly what she did. She had a good friend coaching her through the labor and delivery. And Kayleigh was just an absolute Rockstar through it all.
I've attended the births of a few of the grandbabies now and it just never gets old. I can't wait for the next one in the Spring!
Thanks to Kayleigh and Richard for letting me be a part of that experience.
Of course I was so twitterpated with my new grandbaby that I totally forgot that I had my real camera in my purse. So the first few pics I have of him are from my cell phone. But still treasured.

(That last, better quality one, is from someone else's cell phone. lol Maybe Richard's Mom's?)
And within a day or two Heather went to see Kayleigh in the hospital and the newest cousins got to meet each other for the first time.

Dex on the left, Ollie on the right.

I melt.

Outer Banks Summer Vacation - Day 2

2011-09-14T21:11:00.000-06:00

It's going to be time for our next vacation by the time I finish blogging about this one!
We all slept late since the day before had been so long with the traveling. We had breakfast at the same hotel restaurant where we had eaten dinner the night before. Not as impressive. Oh well.
We had a three hour drive to the coast ahead of us and even with the sleeping in, the kids dozed off for a while.

Please don't flame me for the horrible seat belt usage displayed here.

The very first thing that caught my attention was how green and lush and beautiful everything was. It was a welcome change from the dull, brown days of August here at home.
There were gorgeous blooming trees all over the place. Beautiful!
And there were new kinds of farmland to see. The tobacco fields are always a favorite of mine. Although it wasn't quite late enough in the season to smell their rich, earthy scent. As much as I despise smoking, I love the scent of tobacco harvest.
There were fields of sweet potatoes and what I think might have been peanuts.
And lots of fields full of the plants in this picture. Lush and green and dotted with white and pink blossoms. I couldn't figure out what was growing there and I was determined to ask someone as soon as I got a chance. But I forgot. Now I think that they are cotton plants. If you click on the picture you can see the ball shaped things... cotton bolls, I think. Anyone know for sure? Anyway...it was fun to see crops we weren't used to.

We stopped at a rest stop in Scuppernong which happened to be next door to the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. There was an interpretive boardwalk that I could not resist. So we took a stroll to stretch our legs and see what there was to see.

There were hundreds of dragonflies. Hundreds! In a hundred different colors. Which I thought was amazing and beautiful. Jaxon didn't notice them at first. But then a huge butterfly flittered by his face, which freaked him out and then he started noticing all the dragonflies and rapidly dissolved into screams of terror. So Kenzie hurried him around the rest of the boardwalk and waited for us at the visitor's center. ugh!

Pictures including Jaxon were taken BD (Before Dragonflies)

There were these giant black and yellow striped spiders too.

And lizards with electric blue tails!

All kinds of pretty flowers to see.

Mushrooms growing from tree trunks. Not at all surprising considering the humidity which kind of took us all by surprise when we got out of the car, even though we fully expected it. lol It's a shock to the system to begin breathing moisture.

Cat tails, which Emily calls "corn dog plants". LOL

The only animal we saw was this little squirrel that came rushing through the tree tops and then trying to make like a limb so we couldn't see him.

What a great way to break up the drive! So glad we happened on that rest stop.
We all piled back in the car and within a few minutes I saw an image on the GPS that strikes fear in the heart of this scared of the water girl...

Yikes! I used to have nightmares about driving on a tall bridge and not being able to see land on either end of it. The bridge just went on and on and on and got higher and higher and higher. *shudder* I'm pretty sure that nightmare was the result of traveling on bridges like this during my child hood.

Gah! But, you know what? I was just so thrilled to be there this time that the bridges didn't even really bother me. And before we knew it we were in the Outer Banks! We had some time to kill before we could check into our rented beach house so we grabbed a bite to eat and then checked in and grabbed some groceries and settled into the house.
Within minutes Jaxon found a stash of toys and got busy doing what he does best.

We still had an hour or so of daylight left at this point and I knew there was no way I could let the sun set on that day without getting my feet into the ocean. Even if it was just for a few minutes.
I know it sounds corny but it's a spiritual experience for me to be not just at the coast, but IN the ocean. It's just amazing and powerful and larger than...well, everything.And that moves me.

See? Can you hear it? Feel it? The ebb and flow. Water rushing out and crashing back in...ahhh....I could just BE there all day every day.

For The Last Time

2011-09-07T16:38:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I did something that I will never do again.

I sent my last little 5 year old into his kindergarten classroom for the first day of school.
For the past few days Jaxon has been a little more independent than I'm used to. He has actually chosen to stay downstairs by himself while I'm upstairs working on a chore or some other task.
He didn't sleep well the night before his big day. He came into my room several times during the night asking to be tucked back in.
That morning he was very calm. Usually he would be asking tons of questions about what to expect. Always needing to know exactly how something unfamiliar will play out. Always needing lots of reassurances. But there was none of that. In fact, he seemed completely at ease until about 20 minutes before it was time to go and then he only asked if I was going to stay with him for a few minutes. I told him that his teacher didn't want parents to go into the classroom today but that I would wait on the playground with him until the teacher took him inside. He was fine with that.

We arrived at the Kindergarten playground about 10 minutes before school was to start and he went off right away to play with the other kids.
I almost never cry over these first days of school. There's always a lump in my throat that makes my "Have a really great day!" sound just a little froggy, but they never seem to notice.
I'm proud to say that he didn't cry either. I (and anyone who knows Jaxon at all) was expecting tears and a death grip. I got neither. Huh.
I guess he was just suddenly...ready.
He followed his class into the building and I waited. Just a few minutes. I knew there was a chance he'd come flying back out the door looking for me and some reassurances.
But no. He didn't.
So I climbed into the truck and thought about calling Roger to tell him how it went. But the thought brought tears to my eyes so I decided to tell him later.
I spent my first kid free hour drowning my sorrows in some fried and frozen type medication.

And then I went home.
To a clean, quiet house.
And did some chores without my little shadow constantly checking in on me.
It has been 20 years since I've been at home without a kid or five or six.
This is going to take some getting used to.

Waiting for Oliver

2011-09-02T10:58:00.006-06:00

Heather was sooo ready to have that baby. She finally called me on Tuesday to tell me that that was the day.
Jaxon and I picked Tukker and Maveryk up from their house and the waiting began.
We grabbed some lunch. I stuffed them full of junk food, sugary drinks and courtesy cones. That's what Grandma's do, right?

And then we hung out there for awhile so they could work it off.

Then we went home to play and wait some more.
After dinner I thought we'd settle in for some snuggle time and watch a movie.
While we waited.
Unfortunately, I chose the wrong movie for quiet snuggle time. I had no idea that Tukker and Maveryk can't watch Happy Feet without dancing!

It was getting pretty late for the little people at this point. And we were still waiting for the call!

It was a strange experience for me to not be at the hospital for all this waiting. It's the first time I've not been there (At least at the hospital and sometimes in the room!) when a grandbaby was born.

Finally I got a text from Crystal with the proof that the waiting was over. He was here!

I showed the cell phone pics to Maveryk and Tukker.
Tukker: "Now Mommy can pick me up?"
Maveryk: "My baby is so toot!"

YAY!! Time for bed! lol By this time all the little people were pretty much melting down.

The next morning was fun.

Lining up little colored plastic plates of food...

And bathing and dressing three little energetic kiddos...

I have to say...these 48 hours made me think often of the season of my life when I did this routine with more than one little one at a time every day.

I also thought often of the times we spent with my friend Paula and her family back then. All those lunches of hot dogs and mac n cheese lined up on colorful plates. And tossing dirty kiddos all together in the bath. Sweet memories.

We got to go see Oliver on Wednesday. I don't know who was more excited, me or Tukker and Maveryk!

There are pictures of them holding their new brother. And Jaxon held his new nephew even though he had said the day before that he doesn't like to hold new babies because "they're just too tiny". Those pictures are on Heather and David's camera.

But I did make sure to get a couple of pictures of me with my beautiful baby and her new baby. :)

I'll tell you what...if they could bottle the smell of a newborn baby's head, it would put the pharmaceutical companies out of business. It would surely cure everything.

Baby Oliver had a little breathing thing that they wanted to monitor a little longer which meant one more night at Grandma and Grandpa's house for Tukker and Maveryk. YAY!

When Grandpa got home we had some dinner and then the little ones loaded up in Jaxon's truck for a trip to the park. (I know, I know. Mav should not be riding in the cargo area. He CLEARLY weighs more than 25 pounds. Go ahead...call me the crazy Grandma. Whatever.)

We spent a little while goofing around the playground...

Action Jaxon!

Climbing Tukker!

Grandpa goofing off with Maveryk.

Emily let Dad join her in her self portrait this time.

Grandpa set up this iron man shot! Muscle man!

Em. Not too grown up to play.

After the park we trucked back home for an ice cream treat that , believe it or not, the little kids thought was too messy! ha!

We had an early bed time that night and then spent the next day, yesterday, playing around the house until it was time to pick Emily up from school and deliver Tukker and Maveryk to their house to bond with that baby brother.
I forgot to take my camera with me so I snapped a cell phone picture of Emily meeting her new nephew for the first time.

So, what did I do last night? I picked up Subway sandwiches for Roger, Emily, Jaxon and I for dinner, collapsed into that tub in the picture up there, filled it with bubbles, had a nice glass of wine and then went to bed early.
I love those kiddos like crazy cakes but the season of my life in which I manage three little people on a daily basis is clearly over. I really am a grandma.
Can't wait to see them again! :)

Big steps

2011-09-01T12:41:00.000-06:00

I'll get back to the vacation blogs soon.
Life has been moving full steam ahead since we got home.
The day after we returned we had a big family farewell to Kenzie. She was heading off to college a few days later.
Took lots of pictures for Kenzie to hang on her dorm room walls...

I had to get pics of the grandbabies wearing their souvenir Outer Banks t-shirts.

Even the ones we can't see yet...

And the daddies-to-be couldn't be left out.

Maveryk had a real bonding moment with "Grandpa Rog" over a dozen rolls of smarties

And then a few days later we got up very early, I made Kenzie her favorite breakfast (German Apple Pancakes)
And she hit the road...

I almost made it through without crying until I looked back at the door and saw Emily fall apart. :(
So we cried, Emily and I.
Kenzie made the two hour drive just fine and we delivered the rest of her things to her the next day. We didn't get to visit long because Kenz found a job the minute she rolled into town and had to work that whole day. Then the next day she came down with strep and had to get herself to a doctor.
Just like a grown up. *sniff*
Three days later Miss Emily made her big move to junior high. She's attending the charter school near our house. She wasn't too sure about the whole uniform thing but I think it's going to be just fine.
She looks so grown up. It's crazy.

She obsessed non stop for a week about all the things there are to be nervous about in junior high. Her biggest worry was not being able to get her locker open. So she practiced the technique hundreds of times on a combination lock we have.

I let her choose her own fabric for a school bag. This one was perfectly her.

On the first day of school she opened her locker perfectly the very first time that she tried to open the correct locker ;)
Today is the 4th day of school and as of this morning, she has not been able to open it by herself again. Luckily, there always seems to be a helpful student or teacher nearby to help her.
She insisted that I walk her to her first class even though there didn't seem to be many parents in the building at the time. And she stood outside that class afraid to go in almost to the point of tears.
Which had me on the verge of tears.
But, as is often the best course of action as a parent, I sucked it up, gave her a kiss and a hug and gentle push into the class.
And she loved it. She talked my ear off for a solid hour when she got home that day.

So...with those two off on their big new journeys, I just have the first day of Kindergarten for Jaxon ahead of me.

I wanna share more....

2011-08-26T21:45:00.002-06:00

about our vacation. But I'm too busy holding my breath and PRAYING IN EARNEST that hurricane Irene will just get over herself and not do any damage to the wonderful people and places we were so fortunate to get to know last week.

The beach at Kill Devil Hills. And the Avalon Pier which we KNOW could not withstand too much of a beating! Charming and fragile as it is, with it's swaying with the gentlest waves.

The Waterside Theater on Roanoke Island. It's already been so close to destruction so many times in the past century. What a tragedy it would be for them to lose such a treasure!

The Currituck Lighthouse in Duck. And the wild Spanish mustangs in Corrola. Though they have endured many of these storms in the past few centuries. Makes you wonder if the silly humans could learn something from them!

The Bodie Lighthouse... so close to being restored and open for visitors.

Hatteras Lighthouse which I STILL want to climb! Some day!

The sweet little fishing village on Ocracoke Island and it's lighthouse.

And the ponies with ancient bloodlines who live on Ocracoke.

It's somehow more tragic to hear of these things in places that you know.
Move along, Irene. You're not welcome there!

Outer Banks Summer Vacation - Day 1

2011-08-25T08:37:00.000-06:00

After a ridiculously highly sustained level of anticipation (at least on my part) we FINALLY got to take our big summer trip to Outer Banks, North Carolina this month.
I lived in North Carolina until I was 11 years old. Even though we did not visit the area where I grew up, there was still a little nostalgic pull for me when I first considered planning our vacation there.
The night before we left I read a Disney story to Jaxon. It was Goofy Goes to the Airport. At the end of the book there are a couple of pages of pictures related to the story and we always go through them with Jaxon telling me what they are. That night he pointed to the flight attendant picture and I told him that the flight attendant helps us while we're on the plane, like getting us a drink or a snack. He said, "Like brussel sprouts?". What? Haha. Something like that little man.
I hardly slept the night before our flight because I was so excited. Jaxon must have been excited too because he had been doing GREAT at night for the prior couple of weeks, but that night he woke up twice. ugh!
The big trip started at 5:30 am with a shuttle (Thanks Heather!) to the airport.
Things went very smoothly and we were on the plane before we had a chance to stop and realize how tired we were.
Jaxon was absolutely terrified of flying. Take offs and landings were especially hard for him. He held tightly to the arm of the seat and the parent sitting closest to him, trembling and saying things like, "I don't want to do this! I want to get off! We're tipping!" Etc, etc. Not much crying at all. Just sheer, raw panic.
We had an especially helpful flight attendant who distracted him for most of the second landing.
Once we got to cruising altitude he was pretty much okay on both flights to NC.
I'm pretty sure that we wouldn't have gotten him onto the plane at all if not for the fact that he was carrying a back pack full of "surprises". Huge source of courage that turned out to be!
Two of the items in the backpack were Lego kits. Is that what they're called? kits? This was our first move into the world of Legos.

Here's what I learned about Legos. He LOVES them. Told every single person who spoke to him, including the pilots, all about the presents his mom bought him for the trip. lol However, they are NOT as wonderful for plane and car trips as my trusted friends had advised. 4 hours of picking up tiny little pieces that fell from the tray table onto the floor kept us busy in ways I did not really enjoy. ugh! But, they made him happy and helped him pass the time. So I guess that counts for something. And now we know he loves them. So on the Christmas list they go.
We flew into Raleigh, North Carolina which, in hindsight, wasn't the best option. Norfolk, VA would have been closer to our final destination. Ah well...We grabbed the rental car and headed for our hotel which was practically made just for me! Gorgeously decorated in purples, brown and chartreuse. Chartreuse! I couldn't believe how much I liked that with the purples and browns. Roger, not so much.
We had dinner at the hotel lobby restaurant. As such, I didn't have very high expectations. In my experience those restaurants usually aren't very good at all. But we were blown away. It was fantastic!
Roger and I shared two entrees, as we did for most of the trip, so we could try more things. Because it's all about the food, right? Or is that just me?
We had Shrimp and Grits and a Peach Barbecued Chicken Sandwich. Both excellent!
Note to self: Find recipes for "Red Eye Gravy" and Peach Barbecue Sauce. Immediately.
When we travel we like to try the local wines and Roger likes to try the local beer so we shared a bottle of Childress Viognier . This label is owned by a Nascar team owner. I bet my brother is familiar with him that way. I'm not a Nascar fan but his wine was pretty good. ;)
After dinner we were all so ready for bed.
We had a long drive to look forward to in the morning.

A little more sewing

2011-08-08T08:34:00.000-06:00

When we first started vacation planning I began scouring the internet for a simple to make luggage tag.
I found a few that I liked and "pinned" them for future reference.
Yesterday I did a quick review of those pins and a little thinking and came up with my own design. By the third try I had it just right!
What do you think?

It just fits a business card.
Coordinating interior and exterior prints.
WAY more attractive than the scraps of fleece we were previously using to quickly identify our bags among the hundreds circling by on the luggage carousel.
WAY more durable than the paper ones we usually hurriedly tie to our bags at the airport ticket counter.
Now I'm wondering if I should
1) Post a free tutorial
2) Make some for my sadly neglected Etsy shop
3) Figure out how to make a tutorial for sale.

Option 3 really appeals to me because it requires less of my hands on time with the actual sewing. But then again, how many hours would it take a non-techy person like myself to figure out how to actually do that?!?!

Something to think about. Because, you know, I'm running low on things to think about.

Super quick sewing project

2011-08-04T16:12:00.000-06:00

I'm a "making" fool today!
I made this reversible sling bag. Perfect size for everything I'm gonna need while we're on vacation. Plus room for a little shopping!

It takes 2 yards of fabric, less than an hour, and this super helpful tutorial. I did top stitch around the strap. Just because.
I love it!

Emily likes it too except she thinks my fabric is "weird". So I'll make one for her from her choice of fabrics for school, in lieu of a backpack. It will hold a 3 ring binder with room to spare.

Girly? Me? Hmmm...It could happen.

2011-08-04T12:13:00.000-06:00

I've always said what a bizarre twist of fate it is that I, only sister to a single brother, went on to have six daughters. I'm soooo not girly. At all. Not a tomboy really either. I like beautiful things. I've just never been into fashion, shoes, fussy hairdos, jewelry, make up, etc. You know, girly stuff.
But lately I've been moving ever so slowly towards it.
I'm sure all those daughters would have appreciated it if I'd taken an interest a little sooner. Like around the first prom date maybe.
Oh well...better late than never.
In anticipation for our vacation to the beach I've been thinking about ways to wear my hair up.
Which I can actually do now that that blasted pixie cut has finally fully grown out. Did I blog about that? Probably not. I knew right away that it wasn't the cut for me.
Anyway...this morning I studied video tutorials to learn how to make a "messy bun". That says BEACH to me!
And I think I figured it out. But I also wanted a pretty thing to put in my hair.
So I grabbed this fabric that was cut off of ~~Shorty's~~ Kenzie's prom dress last year.

side note: The nice little Asian seamstress at the dress shop said I was silly for wanting to keep the scraps. According to her, those of us who like to sew are too quick to hang on to little scraps of things and then we never use them. I'll show her!

I used it to make myself a hair pretty with the help of a neighbor who gave me some hands on tips and the pictures and tutorials to be found all over the internet.
What do you think?

Maybe I need some new shoes now, huh? ;)

Twenty Six

2011-08-03T07:34:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday to our oldest daughter, Amber!

We love you and wish all the best in life for you.

As always.

Love, Dad and Trish

Other fun stuff we did in July

2011-08-02T18:02:00.001-06:00

We did a jigsaw puzzle. To be more accurate, I did a jigsaw puzzle.
Emily was heavily involved in assembling the frame and then lost interest, only to return at the very end insisting on putting the last piece in place.
There was a puzzle within a puzzle. There were 71 differences between the picture on the box and the fully assembled puzzle. Jaxon wasn't very interested in actually putting the puzzle together. I think it was just too many pieces, he normally loves puzzles. But he did spot nearly every difference in the two pictures DURING the construction.
I totally loved it. I had forgotten that I like jigsaw puzzles so much. Roger was out of town on business, so I worked on it pretty much the entire day with a short break to grab some take out for dinner. :)

Last Friday we went to see a movie in the park.
Emily wasn't with us because she was babysitting her niece and nephew. So it was just Roger, Jaxon and me.
First we had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack which I thought was just okay. But it certainly got me even more excited for our vacation. Imagine! Seafood that was caught that day!
Wait, where was I?
Dinner at Joe's. We sat on the patio so Jaxon could play in the play area they have there.
A pirate came around making balloons. And Jaxon actually spoke to him. Ha! Maybe he USED to be scared of people in costumes?

A blue parrot (?) and a red sword. All any boy pirate needs, right?
After dinner we grabbed some dessert at Cold Stone. Have you tried their Strawberry Basil? I thought it was kind of tasty with some almonds and chocolate mixed in. But the entire staff thought I was nuts for actually ordering it. Apparently it's not a big seller.
Off to the park in South Jordan!

We saw Mega Mind which Jaxon had seen before, but Roger and I had not.
In Roger's words, "Conditions were perfect. Lying down on a blanket, warm and comfy, in the dark, under the stars."
So, he fell asleep.
But Jaxon and I really enjoyed it.
We've never done the movie in the park thing before. I loved it!
We will definitely take more comfy pillows next time. Maybe if I hadn't given Roger mine, he'd have stayed awake.

We also celebrated two grand daughter's birthdays in July.
Athena turned 3 at the end of June but her party was a little delayed. We have a hard time with scheduling parties since she and Jaxon have their birthdays within a few days of each other. Her party consisted of cake and ice cream at the park.

I didn't make her cake this time. But it sure was cute! Kayleigh got it at Target.
After cake and ice cream, those of us with kids all went to Jump Around Utah.
Roger hadn't been there before so he had fun jumping around with all the grandbabies and Jaxon. I did too.
Unfortunately my camera batteries died pretty much as soon as we got there so I didn't get many good pictures.
We had a lot of fun though and we loved celebrating Thena Bean's big day with her.

Just last weekend it was Miss Tukker's 4th birthday.

Heather told us that Tukker wanted a scooter so that's what we got her. I think she loves it!
Her party was at the house where they were living until the next day. LOL They've moved somewhere else, temporarily, while they look for a house to buy and wait for baby Oliver, due very soon.

This was a fun party too.
I did make the cupcakes for her but I cheated. A LOT. It's been busy around here so I just prettied up some chocolate cupcakes with little toys. Maracas, clappers and tops.

The kids played in the kiddie pool and sprinkler attachments while we sat and watched them all having so much fun together. How lucky are we to have each other? There's always someone and something to celebrate.
Speaking of things to celebrate! We also found out last week that we are going to be having ANOTHER grandbaby. That's THREE on the way, if you're counting. So happy for Crystal and Derek.

And also Derek's son, Dallas who is getting added into the list of grandbabies now. I think it's time.
So, here it is August 2nd. Only 27 days till school starts and we're about halfway through our Summer fun list.

We probably won't get to everything before school starts. But I think we can knock most of them out before the nice weather ends. It's weird that most of what's left is things we can do here at home. Maybe we can get to one or two of those tonight.

Dino Park (round 2), Bees Game and Fireworks

2011-08-02T10:55:00.001-06:00

It's just about impossible for Roger to get a whole day off of work for us to go do anything. Even weekends are spent, at least partially, working from home.
But he took a day to spend with us after his business trip to Kentucky and we went back to the dinosaur park in Ogden again. He didn't come with us the first time.

Jaxon was still afraid of the mechanical dinosaurs.

I challenged Emily to a swinging contest.

She won.

After the dino park we headed back to Salt Lake for a company sponsored Bees baseball game. The kids had never been to a professional baseball game before. I'm not sure that they loved it.
Jaxon mostly crawled around on the ground around his seat. And Emily spent most of her time trying to maneuver into a better seat. I'm not sure why since she didn't seem to be that interested in the game anyway.

But I thought it was a fun way to pass the time.
And after the game I heard Adam Levine sing to me about how he Moves Like Jagger, the earth moved, lights flashed....hehe fireworks! It was awesome.
I do LOVE a good fireworks show from directly beneath them. I think that was my favorite part of the summer so far.
Video. Sideways. WHY do I always do that?!?!? Sorry.

Liberty Park, Tracy Aviary and Memory Lane

2011-08-02T10:04:00.000-06:00

My mom joined Emily, Jaxon and I for another day at the park. We love the days she comes to spend with us.
This time we went to Liberty Park.
Our first stop was at Tracy Aviary. I haven't been there in a few years. We used to take the older kids fairly regularly. They have really made a lot of improvements over the years. I was impressed. The kids had a good time checking out all the birds.

Bald Eagles have been Emily's favorite bird since she was very little.

I can never remember the name of this bird but it's long straight eyelashes remind me of Lily Belle last time we saw her.

This peacock followed us around for a little while. I thought it would freak Jaxon out but he didn't seem to mind. Then some little girl started chasing after it and it ran away. Who lets their kid do that?!?! I was so tempted to say something to the girl and/or her mother. But the mother had already attempted to run me over with her stroller in the gift shop on the way in so I had the impression that they really didn't care what anyone else thought. grr!

Flamingos have always been Crystal's favorite and Emily enjoyed them too.

We were there just in time for the bird show so we sat and watched that and learned a bit about some of the birds.

After the bird show we decided to go grab some lunch. We ended up at Coachman's. I haven't been there in MANY years but it was a pretty popular place to go when I was in high school. Not so much for the food. But the kids knew it would be pretty easy to buy (or have someone else buy for them) cigarettes from these vending machines that are still there.
Vintage!

Of course it's been against the law to sell cigarettes in a vending machine here since the late 80's. Except maybe in bars? I'm not sure.
Anyway, it was funny to see the same old machines selling candy now.
I don't clearly recall the decor of this place back in the mid 80's but it's hard to imagine that it's been updated.

It's kind of charming in its outdatedness though.
After lunch we went back to the park for some playground time.

Jaxon played in the sand for a little while. He didn't care for the playground equipment much because all the kids were wearing "weird clothes". That is to say that they were in various states of undress and swimwear due to the close proximity of the splash pad.

After the sand box had lost it's appeal we headed over to the Seven Canyons Fountain where Emily and Jaxon spent a great deal of time sending pine cones and plastic balls down the streams over and over and over while my Mom and I tried to find a shady place to sit. It was getting HOT by then.

We ended the afternoon with an ice cream cone before dropping Nana off at her house and heading home.

Living Planet Aquarium

2011-08-02T09:11:00.000-06:00

We made our second attempt at the Living Planet Aquarium late one evening just about an hour before they closed. It was a good time to go. We almost had the place to ourselves.

Kinda fun to compare this pic of Emily and Jaxon with the one I took in the same place a couple of years ago.

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to the aquarium was to see the penguins.
I gotta say...I was a little disappointed. It was a fairly small attraction and really not set up well for kids. If the penguins are diving in the water I guess it would be fun for them. But if they're not then the water level is too high for the kids to see the penguins up on the rocks. At the very least, they could have built some sort of elevated platform so that it isn't up to the parents to hold 40 lb children up at shoulder height to be able to see them.

We saw some frogs that Nana would like. Well, except for that whole poisonous part. But they sure are pretty to look at.

Another BIG deal for Jaxon. He actually touched this lizard. Gecko? I forget now. Anyway, he is usually not at all interested in touching animals.

And Emily and Jaxon's favorite part of most any attraction...the gift shop. Oy!

Float Preview Party and 80's Movie Night

2011-08-02T08:39:00.001-06:00

I took Emily and Jaxon and one of Emily's friends to the Days of 47 Float Preview Party.
Emily and her friend took off together to do giggly preteen girl things

while Jaxon and I checked out all the floats. After about the third float we looked at, Jaxon noticed the seat for the driver. After that it was all about finding the secret driver's seat in every float.

Herriman was represented by several floats. At least 3 or 4.

Jaxon called this one and the one with the big panda on it "Kung Fu Panda Floats".

This one with the fisherman was my favorite. See the video below.

The ones with moving parts were especially fun to see. The fisherman was the best in my opinion.

Jaxon also asked a woman in a clown costume to make a sword for him. This is HUGE. Jaxon does not like people in costumes. At. All. Unfortunately this clown didn't know how to make swords so she offered to make him a gun.
Which he immediately used to slay a dragon.

We left the float preview party and made a visit to the Sweet Tooth Fairy where we had a little treat and then brought home a baker's dozen of my little friends/enemies for later that night.

We drove Emily's friend home in the long and winding nonsensical path that only a 12 year old who has never driven herself anywhere can lead you. Sooo glad though. If she hadn't taken us on that adventure I wouldn't have driven by this sign which made me laugh out loud. In fact, I drove back the crazy way just to get this picture.

One good reason to belong to an HOA I guess.
That night Heather put together a Mom's (myself and Christy) and Daughter's (Kayleigh, Heather, Emily)plus one brother 80's movie night.
We watched Footloose and Emily developed a little appreciation for "old guys" like Kevin Bacon.

Heather helped Jaxon draw a seahorse which he has had proudly displayed on his bedroom wall ever since.

Good times, and many cupcakes and other assorted junk food, were had by all.

A little more "yarden"

2011-08-01T11:13:00.000-06:00

I knew I had missed something.
We also planted a forsythia this Spring.
At the old house my best friend, Paula, gave me a forsythia as a house warming gift when we moved in. It took YEARS to get it in the right spot so that it would grow and bloom every year. I just love that first bright yellow blossom to welcome Spring. Hopefully this one will be happy right here from the start. When it gets big enough I'll be able to see the pretty blossoms out the kitchen window.

Lilies have a special meaning to our family. For a couple of different reasons.
Crystal gave me two lily plants for Mother's Day last year, just before we moved here. When we got settled in, we planted them near the rock wall in the backyard. That first year we had some SERIOUS erosion problems back there and tons of dirt washed down the wall and pretty much buried the lilies. I thought for sure that they were goners.
But this spring they came back! I was so surprised. And they were beautiful!

I think we're getting the erosion problems under control now. The neighbors at the top of the wall did their landscaping finally. Just grass so far but it helped a lot. And Roger has been meticulously planting ground cover plants in all the little holes to get some root systems in place to help hold the soil back. The rock wall is kind of two levels and he has also planted wildflowers on the ledge. You can see some of them in the background of the tree pictures from yesterday.
Things are coming along nicely.

Our "Yarden" so far.

2011-07-31T19:21:00.000-06:00

I wanted to do a quick post about what's happening in the yard and garden this year.
I'll get it all down here while I rest my aching back and sip a nice cold cherry limeade

Make one for yourself. I'll wait. Feel free to sub a little cherry flavored syrup for the rum if you like. ;)
Sooo...due to the HOA rules around these parts, we weren't able to have a nice big square foot garden like I wanted to have. So we settled for a little one here at home. Tucked neatly outside our family room window. I call it "the small garden".
Here it is on July 4th, about 5 weeks after we planted it. This is after I pinched off a bowl full of greens. Chicken wire protects it from the deer who visit.

And our first harvest of greens. Spinach and mesclun mix. Also one little radish that I pulled just to see if they were ready. I'm terrible about having faith that something is growing where I can't see it! lol

A week later I pulled the rest of the radishes. They were crisp and spicy and delicious!

I was able to go to the small garden and pick a salad for dinner another time or two. One night we had only appetizers for dinner. The basil for our caprese salad and greens for a citric balsamic dressed salad came from our garden. It was so yummy!

Yesterday I pulled out the rest of the spinach and greens. I got a half of a gallon bag of spinach and a full gallon of the mesclun mix greens. We'll enjoy those this week!

And now our small garden looks like this.

The carrots are coming along slowly. I think I didn't thin them out enough. On the left in the back we have a red cherry tomato plant...determinate...and a yellow pear tomato plant, indeterminate and attempting to take over the world! In front of those there is a row of beets that I planted just to see if the seeds from last year were still good. They are! So I pluck a few leaves off of those to add to our salads too.
I replanted spinach, mesclun mix and radishes in the empty squares today, so we should get another good round of salads before the first frost.
The small garden is just basically a snacking/salad garden for us to enjoy here at home.
My neighbor friends talked me into joining the community garden in our city. It's about 5 or 6 miles away. Traditional row gardening, I MUCH prefer square foot gardening. $40 for a 10 X 20 foot space. Oh boy! I was skeptical. I don't love heat. The thought of having to make the extra effort to get in the car and go to a different place to care for a garden wasn't super appealing to me. But I knew I wanted to GROW SOMETHING and eat it so I signed up. And here is our little rented, closest one on the left, space when I first saw it in May.

I was sick as a dog with some kind of plague in May. Luckily the weather was slow to realize that it was supposed to be planting time so by the time I was well and the weather was cooperating, it was the end of May and we planted!
A rough list -
12 roma tomato plants
12 pepper plants (red, yellow, PURPLE, habanero, jalapeno, hot banana)
1 cucumber plant - I forget the type. something that is supposed to stay smallish. I was freaked out about planting vine-y things that would block the trenches and then the water flow to the plots below us.)
a whole row of beets
a whole row of bush beans
okra - I've never grown okra before and it was a full six weeks before I could clearly distinguish between the weeds and the okra starts.
onions
garlic

My hope is to grow most, if not all, of the ingredients necessary to make enough homemade salsa to last us till next year. Fingers crossed! We are completely out of what I made last fall.
Here's how the "big garden" looked on July 4th.

I was still skeptical. The ground is hard as a rock. Just awful. you have to water first to be able to pull weeds. And the weeds are INSANE!!! ugh!
But we kept going. Have to give it our best try to know if we will want to do it again next year or put a fence around our yard at home and have a few grow beds there. (expensive!) So we kept at it. A couple of hours of weeding each week. Maybe that's not a lot? It seems like a LOT compared to the square foot method. Our small garden has had exactly ONE weed this whole summer.
Roger and I went to the garden today to stake up our tomato plants and pull MORE weeds. And we had a very satisfying surprise.
A few hot banana peppers were ready to harvest.
And about a pound of beans!

But the big surprise was the beets! I knew they were getting close but you know how I am about things I can't see growing under the ground. LOL
This is just about 1/3of the row.

I cooked about half of them as soon as we got home. They are soooo good! I'm so excited that I'm going to plant another row in the next day or two. After all, I have those seeds from last year that are still usable. And I'll plant some carrots and radishes where I'm pulling up this row of beets over the next week or two. So fun!
So here's the big garden today, after we weeded and harvested.

I meant to take a picture of the entire community garden area to show the WAIST HIGH weeds. ugh! But I forgot.
I know it's getting pic LOADED in here but I'm gonna go on. I won't blame you if that cherry limeade is all gone and you're getting restless and moving on. ;)
Before I get to the yard stuff, here are a few close ups of the garden

Fully loaded tomato plants.

Cucumber plant with teeny tiny prickly little baby cucumbers. Yay!

And a PURPLE bell pepper. *squeeeeeeal!* I tried to grow purple peppers once before with far less success. But this one looks great!

And the okra plants have some tiny sort of triangular shaped points on the plants that might be okra pods! I don't know. I've never done this before. Guess we'll see. :)

Well, that's where we're at right now! It'll be fun to see what happens throughout the rest of the summer.
Who knows...we might just do it again next year!
Maybe it's like childbirth and by next Spring we will have forgotten how hard it was and just be excited to do it again.
Even though we can't have a big garden here at home, we're still growing things.
At the old house, I thought it was fun to have pictures of the trees we planted when we planted them and again years later for comparison. So I dragged Roger out for some pictures today and Jaxon was happy to tag along.
These are the Bradford pears that the builder planted last year.

Jaxon is standing next to a little evergreen shrub that Roger planted this year.
Here's a Japanese Maple planted this Spring. We hope it will grow to shade a little bit of the sun we get from the south. Because we really like sitting on the front porch. But I have that issue with heat. ;)

In the backyard we planted a Mimosa. We had one in the old house that was in memory of the baby we lost and I was sad to leave it behind. So it was high on the list of trees we wanted to plant here.

And we love the purplish pink flowers on Eastern redbuds in the Spring.

We also planted a maple tree this year but we've had a drainage problem in that corner of the yard and it has died. We'll replace it soon and I'll plug the picture in here.
We bought a big pot for the front porch too. After more than two decades of filling pots with pretty annuals every Spring and then watching them shrivel up and die because of my aversion to heat, we decided to fill it with succulents instead. And I love it! They're even blooming! I wasn't really expecting that. We only have to water it once a week and it's thriving on my neglect.

Click the above picture. You've GOT to see all the interesting colors and textures up close. I love it!
That's all that's been growing on around here lately. ;)

Still loving my Blendtec

2011-07-31T17:08:00.000-06:00

I haven't said it lately, but I still love it! I've been using up fruit that's a little past it's prime to make delicious popsicles!
Threw in chunks of canary melon, a few wrinkly but sweet peaches and a handful of blackberries and the juice of a lime and within a minute I had over a quart of delicious fruit puree.

The puree is so thick that the sticks stay up all by themselves until they are frozen solid.
No sugar or artificial colors or flavors!
Good enough for breakfast!

A couple of days later I made another batch with apricots and strawberries.

These were a little too tart so I tossed in a banana and a little honey.

I love that on a hot day, the kids can have as many of these cold treats as they want.
Lots less guilt inducing than the freakishly blue, red and orange colored "fake" popsicles we've also been having. ;)

Fringy Summer Scarf - maybe?

2011-07-20T18:20:00.000-06:00

Maybe you are someone who would chop the top half off a brand new tank dress to make yourself a skirt.
And maybe you'll put the red skirt on and find out that you don't really have anything to wear with it. Except maybe a blue shirt.
And maybe blue and red go just fine together but you decide the ensemble needs....something.
And maybe you happen to have a HUGE PILE of various t-shirts from company sponsored charity events hanging out in your closet. And maybe one of them just happens to be the exact same color of red as your hacked skirt.

Maybe you remember a little thing you "pinned" a while ago.
So maybe, while the kids are waiting patiently to leave for some summer fun, you grab your rotary cutter and scissors and go a little crazy on a few inches off the bottom of that shirt.

10 minutes later you might have this.

And maybe you kinda like it and your 12 year old and her friend say it looks kinda "pioneer-ish but cute".
So you load up the children and head to the Days of 47 Float Preview Party where you notice several people noticing your fringy summer scarf.
Maybe they think you've dressed especially for this patriotic occasion. And you're a dork.
Or maybe they think you're pretty clever with your funky fringy summer scarf.
Maybe?

In case you think this is ~~not dorky~~ kinda clever and want to make one for yourself: Cut the hem off an extra large t-shirt. Then cut a 5 inch strip off the bottom of the shirt. Using scissors make 1/4 wide fringe a little more than halfway into the band. Then give a good tug on each of the fringy pieces to make them skinnier and well... fringier. Then stretch the whole thing like it's a giant rubber band. Then decoratively loop it over your neck.

RAOK. lunch, shopping and Jungle Jim's

2011-07-19T23:24:00.000-06:00

For our Random Act of Kindness we decided to share our breakfast muffins with a few neighbors.
Pumpkin chocolate chip, wrapped with care...

...and delivered to smiling neighbors.

Then we were off to lunch at Arctic Circle where Jaxon was more interested in the play area than his lunch. Of course.

And Emily assumed what has become her natural position ever since she bought herself a Zune.

Next stop, the Walmarts for a birthday gift for Thena Bean.

Pretty nice play structure, right? But that's not what we got her. ;)
We got her a very nice Rapunzel dress up (the girly Athena loves her dress ups!) and a cute summer outfit that Jaxon chose for her.
While we shopped, Emily...well...you know...

The plan at that point was to go to the Living Planet Aquarium. Alas, when we pulled into the over stuffed parking lot and glanced toward the door we saw that that day was a special day dedicated to every home schooler on the planet. Good grief! The line wrapped around the building and they were still getting off buses! No thanks.
Plan B was around the corner at Jungle Jim's Playland. Site of at least two dozen of our family's birthday parties over the years.

Jaxon loves these things. Like the ones outside of grocery stores and such. But he will not climb on one until you promise NOT to put a quarter in.

He liked these jeeps because they don't leave the ground and they move very slowly.

He didn't mind the bumper cars with Emily. But they got a dud car that kept getting stuck against the wall no matter what Emily tried to get it to move.

Last ride of the day was the Merry go Round which, in the end, was too fast for Jaxon and he was shouting that he wanted off of it. Anxiety much, little man?

I gotta say, I think we're over jungle Jim's. Just didn't feel like much fun given Jaxon's anxieties about the rides and Emily's reluctance (anxiety? It's an epidemic!) to approach the employees to ask them to start the rides she wanted to go on. Which is the method of operation on slow days at Jungle Jim's.
Last stop for the day was a haircut for Jaxon.

You know, at his "special salon" where they practically put on a circus act to distract him and charge double the price of an ordinary salon but we have to go there or he'll freak out about getting his haircut because he has some anxiety issues. Have I mentioned? oy!
After a quick dinner at home we went to see Cars 2 which we all enjoyed.
It was a busy day! We checked three things off our Summer Fun List in one day!

Heber Valley Railroad

2011-07-11T09:52:00.001-06:00

Roger and I took Emily and Jaxon to the Heber Valley Railroad yesterday.

It was a nice day, not too hot. Thank goodness!
The railroad offers a few different trips and we chose the Provo Canyon Limited. It's a 3 hour trip through the mountains and near Deer Creek Reservoir, with a short stop at a park in the middle.

The ride itself was fairly slow and lazy which was kind of nice. We saw a lot of wildlife and wildflowers. There were a lot of people enjoying the reservoir as we traveled by which made me feel especially lazy as we rolled sleepily along the rails.
Emily brought a book along and pretty much read the whole time. Jaxon had a few small toys that he played with when he wasn't enjoying the scenery.

Roger and I just relaxed and enjoyed the ride,

occasionally snickering together over the guy across the aisle from us who never.stopped.talking the entire time. He was with a woman and they seemed to be on a first date. I felt sorry for her by the end. And I can't say for sure that she wasn't mute since I never heard her voice at all.
The trains are very old and not in the greatest condition. But that was kind of charming in a way.

I'm not sure who was responsible for this single purple light bulb in the car we rode in, but I like them already. :) Obviously more fun than the person who installed all the red and blue ones.

The regular price for this ride would have been $100 for the 4 of us. I got a deal on the tickets and we paid $40 - I think? I'm glad we got the deal we did. If we had paid $100 I'd have said it was overpriced for what it is. But $40 was okay.
If they included some narrative about the history of the trains or the scenery, it would be worth more.
We arrived back at home to a great thunderstorm.
And some of the kids and grandkids came over for dinner and family game night. Everyone brought a large pizza to share so we could get right to the games without too much cooking or cleanup. I did make a dessert pizza that has been on my mind since I saw some blurb about it on Food Network.
It was as fantastic and diabetic coma inducing as I imagined it would be.

I didn't think to take a picture until we had devoured half of it.
Regular pizza dough, milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips (Which completely melted and became a yummy kind of glaze. Awesome! And I don't much care for white chocolate usually.), sliced almonds, coconut, peanut butter chips, marshmallows and then some caramel topping drizzled over the top of the warm pizza.
YUM! You should try it.

I did it again.

2011-07-10T07:20:00.000-06:00

True fashionistas look away.
Tawnya, that means you.
I took Emily clothes shopping yesterday. Which can be fun. Or boring. Depending on how indecisive and/or picky a preteen can be at any given moment.
So I had some free time to try on a few things for myself. And I hated them all. Every single one. Perhaps if I had gone up a few notches in price point I might have had more luck. But the budget is what the budget is.
Our last stop was at Walmart. After searching EVERYWHERE else for a swimsuit top for Emily that didn't cause her Dad and I to want to throw a blanket over her maturing body the way that her current one does.
While she tried things on I passed these $9 dresses hanging on a rack.

Not really my thing. But I saw something else in them.
So I brought them home and cut off the stretchy tube top parts. Ta-da! More comfy skirts.
Then I asked my goofball husband to take a picture of the finished product this morning. Oy!

Note to self: Learn to use the tripod and self timer.

Sugarhouse Park with Nana

2011-07-09T12:01:00.000-06:00

We spared Nana the long drive last week and met her at the park near her house.
We had a picnic complete with super juicy nectarines...

Jaxon played on the playground for a bit and then we fed the ducks, geese and seagulls some bread that we brought along.

The kids had a lot more fun feeding the birds that I thought they would. Jaxon was super amused by them.
On the way back to the car my little cheeseballs insisted on posing for some pictures.

By the time we were ready to go it was HOT out. So we made a quick ice cream cone run with Nana before we let her go.
It was a fun afternoon. I'm really enjoying the time we get to spend with my Mom on her days off. It means a lot to the kids too. Love you, Mom!

Root Beer Floats and Fireworks

2011-07-08T08:53:00.000-06:00

Since we went to a big professional fireworks show on 7/2, we decided to stay home and keep it low key on the 4th.
We enjoyed some root beer floats.

FYI Diet Root Beer foams up a LOT more than regular.

Thanks to some new more lenient fireworks laws in Utah, we didn't miss out at all. There was quite a show to be seen from every direction right from our front porch.
Jaxon did not like the bigger booms of the aerial fireworks at all. He stayed on the porch with me to watch the smaller fireworks that the neighbors across the street were setting off. But he ran inside whenever the loud pops and bangs of the big ones started.
Many of the neighbors got together on the street behind us and coordinated a really impressive show. It went on for almost an hour.
Here's some poor quality, sideways video of the new legal fireworks.
Why do I automatically turn my camera sideways to take pictures? I have no idea. I just think it makes things fit in the frame better. Not so much for shooting video. It just hurts your neck to watch. LOL Oh well, I'll work on that.

Timpanogos Cave

2011-07-04T13:23:00.000-06:00

First day that the temp was to reach 100 and we headed for the mountains and a cool cave!

Only 60 degrees when we arrived at 9:30am.
The hike to the caves is a mile and a half on paved switchback paths that gain over 1000 feet in elevation.
It's not an easy stroll by any means. A great workout in fact.
And Jaxon was a trooper! He didn't complain at all the whole way up to the cave. We took a few resting breaks and then he just kept on climbing.

Emily spent the first half of the hike telling me about her plans to be more active. She doesn't care at all for sports so we talked about some of the other ways she could be more active. Hiking, dance, biking, etc.
About halfway up to the cave I think she might have been mentally crossing 'hiking' off her list.

Inside the cave it was a wonderful 45 degrees. It felt great after the climb up.
Emily was busy taking pictures with her camera. She has become very interested in picture taking and editing lately. And she developed quite a rapport with our guide. He talked with her a lot about her plans to become a forensic scientist and told her that he thought that was a really great and ambitious goal.
At the beginning of the tour I thought we might have gotten a "dud" for a guide. He seemed a bit monotone and generally lacking in charisma. LOL I was wrong. He was very intuitive to what the group was interested in and he picked up on the names of some of the members of the group without being told. He was great!

Jaxon was totally captivated by all the beautiful things there were to see inside the cave. He especially like the places where stalactites and stalagmites had almost become columns. I was surprised by how interested he was in what the tour guide had to say. There are some pretty narrow places to squeeze through and Jaxon was meticulously careful not to touch the cave walls at all.

It was so cute and the tour guide noticed how careful he was being and thanked him for taking such good care of the caves.
There is a section of the caves where they turn off the lights so you can see how completely black it becomes because of the lack of natural light. I worried that this would freak Jaxon out completely. But I was wrong about that too. He was very brave. I did have to stoop down next to him and he had both arms wrapped around me, and his nose pressed to mine the entire time while he listened to our guide tell us about what it's like for cave animals to live in total darkness.
Roger took over the picture taking while we were in the cave. About halfway through the caves he captured the precise moment that Jaxon's patience with this particular adventure ended.

Taken down by a single drop of water to the eye.
Ever heard a five year old express his displeasure with a situation while trapped in a cave with a dozen strangers? No? Lucky you!
He did manage to get past this enough for us to finish the tour.

"underground lake"

"cave bacon"

"heart of Timpanogos"

The trip back down the mountain was easier on the heart and muscles but MUCH harder the the knees! Oy! I think Roger and I might have been the bigger complainers on the way down. LOL
By this time we had all worked up quite an appetite.
As soon as Jaxon was buckled in he ate a couple of crackers and passed out.

We drove up the canyon a little further and enjoyed the picnic lunch we had brought with us and then headed back home to the heat. And some ibuprofen for those of us with middle aged knees!

There are not 104 days of summer vacation

2011-07-03T17:44:00.000-06:00

if you are a student in a year round school. Phineas and Ferb have it lucky!
Emily's last day of school was Friday July 1st and she and Jaxon go back to school on August 29. What is that? 58 days of summer vacation?
We better get BUSY having some fun!
My friend, Terrah, inspired me to make a Summer Fun list to keep us on track. I think will work so great for us to not let the summer slip away without making the most of it.
She linked me up to this cute printable list and I've been busy filling it up with summer plans.

While I'm looking forward to all of these fun things to do as a family, they are mostly just serving as a way for me to pass the days until we go on our big summer vacation.

The planning is happening and the days are being counted!

Our very first day of summer was yesterday. We had Kayleigh, Richard, Caydance and Athena over for dinner. Then a little outdoor fun and ice cream treats before heading for the local fireworks show.

It was a great night.
I love hearing the BOOM BOOM BOOM of the fireworks.
And I loved hearing the following conversation:
Richard - "Thena, what's your favorite color?"
Thena - "Orange soda."
awwww....................
And NEXT summer? Maybe we will get 104 days. Emily and Jaxon are going to a charter school and will both be on a traditional schedule. I'm SOOOO looking forward to that after all these years of kids on different schedules. We'll need a double list next year!

To finish June, now that it's done.

2011-07-01T17:59:00.000-06:00

I almost got caught up before the calendar page was turned.
Roger chose to take a drive for Father's Day. We drove up to the place where we usually camp to see how much snow was still there. The road was closed before we really got to a lot of snow, but the river sure was raging. We expected it would be.
It was a nice drive though and we stopped in Park City for some lunch at The Blue Iguana. How many times did that make for the month of June? Three?
This time doesn't count though. Blech! This was our first time eating at the Park City location and it was awful.
My beloved Amarillas mole that is always THE absolute perfect balance of creamy sweet heat when we eat at the Salt Lake location, was something like country gravy in Park City. Not that I don't like country gravy. It's great on biscuits. Not so great on my chile verde enchilada. Roger's regular menu item was a disappointment too. And the salsa had a faint soapy flavor. BLECH!!! We'll never go back to that location.
But our boy was sure cute.

Another fun thing that happened around here in June was that we "grew" some butterflies in the Butterfly Garden that the kids got for Easter.
Jaxon had fun checking on them almost every day as they made their journey from caterpillar to butterfly.

We kept them around for about a week, feeding them drops of sugar water on crumpled up napkins.
The life cycle of a butterfly is surprisingly short and I wanted to spare the kids, especially Jaxon, from seeing how it ends so we let them go in the back yard.

It took about 15 minutes for all 5 of them to finally be free. And even then they hung around the backyard for a little while so Emily and Jaxon could see them fluttering around the yard.

And then they were gone. That was a pretty fun thing to do. I'm sure we'll order more caterpillars again next year.

And there was a wedding!

2011-06-30T07:36:00.001-06:00

On the 10th of June Kayleigh and Richard made it "official".

(Just look at those adorable grandbabies of mine!)

The fact is that they became a family a long time ago. Raising my two beautiful grand daughters and cooking up a handsome grand son that we will all get to meet in a few more months. (Named, in part, after me!)

But we all came together to celebrate them on that night. And it was beautiful.
There was food, there was laughter, there were a few tears, there was a cake of course...

Papers were signed...

Parents were proud and happy for them...

And there was dancing!

Dancing to lots of 80's music. Which took me back to when this bride was my baby and it made me smile.

Ogden Dino Park with Nana

2011-06-29T12:37:00.000-06:00

This was our first time going to the dinosaur park in Ogden and we brought Nana along for the fun.
This was probably the warmest day we had had yet but it was still pleasant to be outside.
What a fun place!
We checked out all the dinosaur facts inside the building first.

There's a little museum area with lots more than just dinosaur stuff too. There was a whole gem section that I thought was just beautiful to see.
Also inside the building is a room with a few robotic dinosaurs just like the ones we saw at the zoo a couple of weeks before. Jaxon REALLY wanted to see them. From afar. He stood at one end of the room and refused to go inside.

Then we made our way outside to walk among the dinosaurs. Really just lots of life size statues along a paved walking trail.

I spotted this groovy mushroom beside the trail.

Emily was a big fan of all the photo props

And Jaxon's favorite part was at the end when we got to the playground where he couldplay in the sand to his heart's content. This kids DIGS sand. I think we need a sand box.

Good times were had by all.

Our summer has been off to a late start here in Utah. But in that short amount of time there have been a SAD number of tragedies. It's really been getting me down. Today I grounded myself from news feeds on Facebook because it just makes me too sad. A great many of those tragedies has been drownings. Our rivers and streams are FAST and FLOODING everywhere. So dangerous. This trip to the dino park was the first time I had been close to a river this year to see exactly how fast they are. Even with a fence and some distance between us and the water, it gave me butterflies in my stomach just seeing the water. See for yourself...

Shudder! Be careful out there, my friends. VERY careful!

Our latest graduate!

2011-06-28T11:10:00.001-06:00

Kenzie graduated from high school the first week of June. She had some "senioritis" for the last semester and was SOO ready to just be DONE.
And done she is!
She graduated with honors for Health Science Concentration and she will be off to college in the fall.
She has been working full time for the past few months as a CNA in addition to finishing out that last torturous semester of high school.
She ultimately wants to become a midwife. She'll finish working for the summer and then get on with pursuing that goal.
There were a few siblings...

and a few parents...

plus her Grandma Bea present to see her receive her diploma.

And then we all went together to Blue Iguana for lunch.

It was a great afternoon and we're all so proud of her for doing so well.
We had a huge bash the following weekend to celebrate her graduation.
I made these awesome centerpieces.

Tons of friends and family came over. And we proceeded to have such a fantastic time together that no one thought to stop and take pictures. :) Great times!
* My June posts are all out of order, but at least they're getting done, right?
And now for more photo fun from graduation day. Thanks to Dennis for sharing the great pictures!

My wardrobe needs a makeover.

2011-06-27T14:06:00.000-06:00

I'm just not a clothes horse. Just not.
Comfort matters most to me.
T-shirts and yoga pants work for me.
But there are times when I try not to look like a bag lady. And one of those times is coming up in 46 days. If you're counting. And I am.
I need vacation clothes! And there's no vacation clothes budget. So I need to get creative.
After my shower today, I pulled this dress out of the closet.

Pardon the towel on my head.
The dress is okay. Not great. It's comfortable.
Except it's kinda short. I don't know why but I'm just not loving my knees lately. Is that weird?
Plus, I have to bend/stoop a million times a day. It's not comfortable to worry about flashing your backside.
And aren't empire waistlines supposed to be slimming? I saw a picture of myself in this dress from last summer. I looked pregnant. That's why I put it in the closet and haven't worn it again.
So...I cut the dress in half right above the elastic at the empire waist and made a skirt of it!

It's actually a little too loose. So I plan to take it in a little in a few weeks.
I'm working on taking off a few of the pounds I've put back on.
I have to wear a swimsuit in 46 days people!!!

FIVE is fun!

2011-06-27T11:50:00.000-06:00

We celebrated Jaxon's 5th birthday last night.
Lots of family and friends really delivered on a fun party for him.
We had a BBQ and his favorite cupcakes (grasshopper!) and ice cream.

Every present he got was a favorite:
Bakugan which he recently discovered through his next door neighbor friend, Jacob, who he thinks is pretty much the coolest kid ever. Next to Caydance.
KungZhu pets were a big hit. He says that they think he is their Mama. LOL
A cool transformer costume that doubled as pajamas last night.
He got a very cool trainset from Nana, Steve and Verna.
So many other fun things too!

Kenzie had to work yesterday so she took him on a special birthday date earlier. They saw Cars 2 and had lunch together. She also bought him a car from the new movie. He barely put it down for the rest of the day.

After he had opened all his presents we sent everyone outside for his big birthday surprise...

Just like Dad's real truck!!! He was so excited that he lay across the hood for a minute or two.
And then took the other kids for short rides.

It was a great party and he was a very happy boy. He's loved by lots of really great people.
Last week we went to the doctor for his kindergarten check up.
Despite appearances...

everything checked out perfectly. He got the last of his immunizations and he's all ready for Kindergarten in the Fall.
So hard to believe that we are already at that point.
He's a sweet, tender hearted boy.
Caydance is his favorite person (Shhh! Don't tell his other neices!)and he says that they have to get married some day because they love each other. That's against the law in most states so we'll have to work on that.
I suspect that Kindergarten will open his eyes to more possibilities.
He does have a bit of anxiety about being alone.
We're currently working on getting to sleep by himself. After stories and snuggles I inch my way further and further from him. Slowly over the course of weeks, months, I am now sitting in the hall, halfway between his room and ours, until he falls asleep. Which happens quickly as long as he knows that I'm there. This can be exhausting at the end of a day when I just want to become one with my own bed. But I know all too well that these days will soon be gone. So I sit there on the floor, my head against the wall, sometimes dozing off myself and waking up a half hour later with a kink in my neck.
He's my shadow all day long which can be a bit draining on me at times. But most of the time, he's a fun little sidekick.
But then, if we're outside and other kids are around, he's all too happy to break free and do some exploring.
Every kid he sees is "my friend".
His favorite food is chicken nuggets, much to my dismay.
His favorite color is "all the colors in the rainbow".
He loves to pretend. Anything he might be holding in his hands at any given time can become a car or a robot or a plane. And he'll happily spend an hour giving these imaginary things their own voices and personalities.
He's smarter than we can take credit for. Almost daily he surprises me with the things he knows.
He's incredibly observant. When we are driving in the car he always notices the tiniest things around us. The car we just passed with it's gas tank lid open, a tree with some item caught up in it's branches, recognizing places that we've driven past only once or twice before. So observant.
He concentrates deeply. I often have to call his name 2 or 3 times to pull him away from whatever is holding his attention.
He's cautious/wary of new things. He takes his time to check people, places and things out before he will warm up to them and explore. But he does warm up and then he's a charmer.
He's five.
Incredible!

Hogle Zoo and Blue Iguana

2011-06-22T10:11:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago we convinced Roger to take off from work a little early and join us at the zoo.
Summer hadn't settled in yet so the weather was just right for the zoo in my opinion. I'm not a big fan during the hottest days.
And the animals seem to share in my opinion. They were more active and enjoyable in the mild temps. Just like me!
The zoo is featuring robotic type dinosaurs right now and calling it "Zoorassic Park". Jaxon likes dinosaurs so I thought he'd love it.
It wasn't as big a hit with him as I thought it might be. This picture pretty much sums up his opinion of the dinosaurs.

He was terrified of them. Refused to go any closer than about 20 feet of any of them.
For the first half of our trip through the zoo he held tightly, nervously, to my hand.

He did enjoy the dinosaurs that did not move or make noises which he called their "roars". As in, "That dinosaur has a different roar. I don't like his roar".

In the end we all had fun seeing the animals. The real ones

And the not so real ones...

After a couple of hours at the zoo we were starved and went to our favorite downtown restaurant, The Blue Iguana. yum! (The one in Park City? Not so much. But that's another blog post.)
We were treated to a serenade at our table on this visit. So fun!

Jaxon was so shy that he kept his back turned to the singers the whole time. Even when the nice lady handed him her instrument to inspect. But he enjoyed the song.

While we were waiting for our food, Jaxon practiced writing his name and mine on his paper place mat.

As we were getting ready to leave, Jaxon was still finishing his french fries. At one point he had his head turned away from the table and the server came by and picked up his plate. I wish I had captured the look on Jaxon's face when he turned back around to find his plate missing. Total indignation. And then quiet tears.
It was sad. A funny kind of sad. lol
I guess I should have been guarding those last few fries for him.

crickets

2011-06-21T16:05:00.000-06:00

Is anyone still here?
Sooo....It's finally summer and we've been doing stuff. Lots of stuff. The more stuff we do, the less time I have to blog about it.
But all I can really focus on is the BEST.EVER vacation that we are taking later in the summer. Nothing else holds my attention for more than a few hours. I just go back to the planning and the dreaming and the anticipation.
But that's not fair.
I read a book recently, The Happiness Project. A little tidbit from that book that sticks in my mind these days is...
The days are long, but the years are short.
I don't remember now if it was something the author said herself or of she was quoting someone.
But it stuck.
It's so true.
And so, I'll be back soon with posts about our days leading up to the BEST.EVER vacation that is yet to be.

This and That

2011-05-28T22:17:00.000-06:00

Long time, no blog. Again.
It doesn't look like things will slow down anytime soon so I might as well get some stuff down here while I have the chance.
Let's see...
I mentioned a while ago that I was going to try to grow a square foot garden inside of a dog run to keep the deer out. Unfortunately, that plan never got beyond this...

Turns out that the best place to have a garden in our yard won't pass the HOA's approval unless we install a vinyl fence around our yard. Which is A) not something we want to do. And B) would make the dog run unnecessary anyway. So we sold the dog run for just what we spent on it and decided to join the local community garden instead. We just got things planted today. So delayed because of this late Spring we're caught up in. We also planted just a small box in the backyard mostly for salad greens, snacking tomatoes and fun stuff for Jaxon to experiment with. Hopefully these solutions will work out.

The newest grand sons are well under way.

Can't wait to meet them this fall.

Last weekend we participated in the Great Strides National Walk Event for Cystic Fibrosis.
It was a perfectly gorgeous day sandwiched right in the middle of days and days of rain. Great timing!

The walk took place in downtown Salt Lake City which is becoming a place that I really enjoy exploring after all these years. Go figure. We were walking at a pretty brisk pace that day so I didn't get a chance to snap many pictures (With my new Mother's Day camera! Did ya notice the improvement in pics lately?) but here's just a taste of the beautiful weather we were treated to.

At the end of the 5K walk there were some guys handing beautiful red roses to all the ladies.

There was a card attached that explained that children with CF sometimes call their condition "Sixty Five Roses" because it's easier for them to say. So sweet. We were happy to help support the event.

Roger and I had a date night last week. We saw The Hasty Heart at Hale Centre Theater. Great show! I seem to be getting mushy in my old age because this one had me crying at the end too. I think this is the second one in a row to reduce me to tears. Oy!
Before the play we had dinner at a favorite restaurant downtown. The Blue Iguana. Yum!
Right outside the restaurant, beside Capitol Theater, there is a new art installation. I'm not sure I really "get it" but it's interesting anyway. Roger said he had read about it in the paper recently and I was able to track down the article online. The piece is titled "Sway'd".

Huh. You never know what you'll see downtown. LOL
Speaking of that...a few days later we were downtown again and I noticed this building as we were walking a different route back to the car.

Hmmm...I wonder what they manufacture there? Donkeys?

We've had a couple of small projects going around the house.
When I had my very first house built 17 years ago, I had this idea to make a curtain rod for the master bedroom out of a tree branch. I'm not sure why it never happened. But Crystal recently moved into her own place and she was looking for curtain rod ideas. While looking for some ideas for her I was reminded of the tree branch idea and I decided to go for it. So we found some branches at Crystal's new place and brought them home. After some trimming and planning we had them just right. Roger helped me get them up on the wall and I sewed some crushed voile panels to hang with lengths of ribbon.

I love how they turned out. I think there's a fun contrast between the rustic branch and the silky, breezy curtains. Softened up our bedroom windows really well.

We've been in the new house for almost one year so naturally it was time to tear something up. :)
This thing had to go!

I've never had a pedestal sink before and I never will again. What a pain! No place to put a bottle of hand soap. And it was originally installed just a fraction of an inch too high so it was constantly pulling loose from the wall no matter how many times we had the builder come and fix it. ugh! So we had it ripped out and replaced with a vanity and granite counter top to match the rest of the house. So.much.better! I didn't think to take an "after" pic though. Trust me. It's better.

Emily is off track so we've been trying to find some fun things to do. This week we made paper flowers. I can't believe we've never done this before. So easy, cheap and fun.

We'll hang these in Emily's room for a fun bit of color. But we might use them to decorate for Kenzie's graduation party first.
We had a couple of failed attempts too. Emily wanted to make one without trimming the edges. Just the straight edge of the paper. Even crumpling it up didn't help.

And I thought this polka dot paper would make a fun flower.

Not so much. It was thicker and stiffer than the solid colors. And it's only printed on one side. duh!
Oh well. As my Dad used to say, you win some, you lose some.
This orange one is my favorite.

Well, that's a bit of what we've been up to. Yesterday we went to the zoo and out for dinner but I'll save all those awesome pics for another post.
Bet ya can't wait! ;)

My Daily SAHM Life.

Some of last week in pictures.

I am soooo hooked!

Last Week in Pictures

The last week in pictures

First "Remains Of The Day" Journal Cover + Bonding with Emily

Week in Pictures 1/1-1/6

My Word Of The Year

December 2011 as practice for my new obsession*

Goodbye 2011 - In Pictures

Kid Trees

It's a hot Christmas mess over here.

So we went to this funeral the other day....

Maple Glazed Sweet Potato Crisp

Make a note!

My thrifted stuff put to use.

42 Down

An "after" among the "befores".

Costumed Cuties!

Pumpkins Carved

Family Fun Day

3 Kid Free Hours

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet/Slower Than Molasses In January

Family Dinners These Days

Remember When...

Outer Banks Summer Vacation - Day 3

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

The Best Thing That Happened In September

Outer Banks Summer Vacation - Day 2

For The Last Time

Waiting for Oliver

Big steps

I wanna share more....

Outer Banks Summer Vacation - Day 1

A little more sewing

Super quick sewing project

Girly? Me? Hmmm...It could happen.

Twenty Six

Other fun stuff we did in July

Dino Park (round 2), Bees Game and Fireworks

Liberty Park, Tracy Aviary and Memory Lane

Living Planet Aquarium

Float Preview Party and 80's Movie Night

A little more "yarden"

Our "Yarden" so far.

Still loving my Blendtec

Fringy Summer Scarf - maybe?

RAOK. lunch, shopping and Jungle Jim's

Heber Valley Railroad

I did it again.

Sugarhouse Park with Nana

Root Beer Floats and Fireworks

Timpanogos Cave

There are not 104 days of summer vacation

To finish June, now that it's done.

And there was a wedding!

Ogden Dino Park with Nana

Our latest graduate!

My wardrobe needs a makeover.

FIVE is fun!

Hogle Zoo and Blue Iguana

*crickets*

This and That

crickets