Last Christmas we gave my brother Calvin a Festivus Pole. He appreciates a clever gift, and it's a challenge ever year to come up with something clever. Luckily, we had a bunch of aluminum poles lying around from a old chain link fence, and even luckier, we have neighbors who have an engraving business. So I had them engrave the pole with "A Festivus for the Rest of Us," and Calvin seemed to appreciate the gift, and promised a Festivus party sometime during the summer.


That day was today. They even had made up little Festivus gift bags for us that looked like aluminum poles. We had dinner, and then we had the Airing of Grievances, which included things like "My kids leave Otter Pop wrappers all over the lawn," "Why am I the only one who can put the toilet paper roll back on the roll," and "Who served this dinner (buffalo wings) without passing out Wet Naps?" We all had a good laugh at the grievances.


Next on the agenda was the Feats of Strength. The first Feat was to, as a couple, ride the Tote Gote on a lap around the block, chug a can of Root Beer, and ride another lap around the block. The fastest time won. This is my neice, Kassie, and her husband getting instructions from our Host.




And off they rode into the sunset . . .

Lane & I came in dead last. Big surprise. The second Feat was a game of "Streetball." This is a game that Calvin & I and our Luck Drive neighbor children played way back when. Since Calvin lives on a hill, we went down to the local elementary school to play. The cheating was rampant, and we all laughed and had a good time. It's nice to be able to be silly now and then.

Finally we sang a Festivus Anthem that Angie wrote and had dessert. A good time was had by all.

Festivus

July 31, 2009

Substitute

Substitute - One that takes the place of another; a replacement.
July 30, 2009

I just wanted to prove that I do drink something besides Dr. Pepper. I even went all day today without one, but I did have 2 vitamin waters. This is my collection of empties that I have aquired by my computer. Truthfully, though, some had been refilled with plain water. To me this picture mostly represents my pure laziness in letting this many bottles accumulate before I did anything about it.


I had to go back to work today for a few hours at the end of the day, and when I came home at 6:00, not only had Lane and the kids prepared a delicious dinner, but they had also arranged to eat it outside on the patio. It was a nice day today, not too hot, so outside in the shade of the patio it was just perfect. I love summer days like this!

Weakness

It appears that I am on another all-food-all-the-time streak. I wonder why I'm not losing any weight?

Weakness - Something of which one is excessively fond or desirous.
July 29, 2009

I remembered today not to get a Dr. Pepper. I was so proud of myself! I had the 32 oz cup in my hand, ready to fill it with ice again, when I remembered my goal and put the cup back and got my citrus Vitamin Water instead. I even ate pretty well for breakfast and lunch. And then . . .


We had dentist appointments today. I hate the dentist. Not the dentist personally, of course. He's fantastic. I hate the concept of the dentist. I hate that chair that lays so far back I feel like I'm going to fall out on my head. I hate that crazy, orange-hued light above the dentist chair. I hate the sound of the suction thing. I hate EVERYTHING about going to the dentist, but I am a diligent mother and I see to it that we all go faithfully every 6 months. We all had good exams, no cavities. When we were back in the car, Jack informed us that we always go out to eat after the Dentist. I'm not sure that's true at all, and I think mostly Jack was wrangling for a dinner out. But after surviving another trip to the dentist I was all for a little reward. So Lane, as the driver, got to choose and we went to JCWs. The burgers there are so huge that a kiddie meal more than fills me up, so I got my usual kiddie Ranch Bacon cheeseburger (yeah, that's healthy) and then, of course, I had to get my Dr. Pepper. For anyone who doesn't know, JCWs has, by far, the best Dr. Pepper around. It was a delightful reward for the punishment that is a dental visit, so I am justifying it that way. And, as the Gone With the Wind fan that I am, I can always say, "After all, tomorrow is another day!"

Hungry

Hungry - Experiencing a desire or need for food.

July 28, 2009

The boy is hungry ALL THE TIME. Seriously. I don't know where he puts it all. He'll devour every crumb at dinner, and be back 20 minutes later declaring that he's starving. I can't even imagine having more than 1 son. Keeping him fed is a full time job. Luckily, he isn't picky and he'll eat almost anything I put in front of him, including my arm if I don't get out of the way fast enough.

For dinner tonight I tried out something new with my left over chicken from last night. I bypassed the typical day-after enchiladas or haystacks for a change. I made a buffalo sauce and simmered the chicken in that for a while, then spread that on a warmed tortilla, sprinkled a little mozzarella cheese on top of that, and drizzled some ranch dressing and called it a wrap. It turned out really good! Naturally, Jack has dibs on those leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Really, it was good enough to make again.

Tonight was Pack Meeting. Jack got 6 more activity pins, his compass point emblem and a belt loop. He needs to have his Arrow of Light ceremony sometime, since he earned the award months ago. There just hasn't been a good time to hold it yet. It looks like September might be our next best shot, and he'll technically be out of Webelos then. I hope it isn't the same week we are on our cruise, but given our luck it will be. Hey - Lane's the Cub Master, so I guess he can move it, right? Oh well, if it has to be October I guess that's ok. too. We'll fit it in eventually.

Scrumptious

I found out last night during my nightly walk around the yard with Lane that the blackberries were ripe. Our blackberry bush is very overgrown and very thorny. Thorny isn't really even a proper description. The thorns are more like spikes, really, or maybe nails. Every year when I've gone out to pick the blackberries I return all scratched and bloodied. So last night I picked what blackberries I could easily reach and Lane agreed to get the rest in the morning. So this morning he donned his chain-mail and went out to pick the blackberries. Overgrown as it is, we got a good bunch of blackberries, more than I've ever had before in a single picking, and I got enough to make up a batch of jam. I've always before had to mix my few blackberries with strawberries, but this time I did straight blackberries. And what a mess it made!

So while my jam was "jamming," I proceeded with dinner prep. Tonight is our FHE dinner with Grandma, so I had planned on having Lane grill up some chicken. So I made up a marinade of fresh lime juice and zest, a little olive oil and some fresh herbs. I used basil, thyme and oregano. That was quickly done, so I went ahead and made up some bread, but didn't take any pictures because it was the same garlic and herb bread I've done before.

I then moved on to the pie. Taylor wanted a strawberry pie for her birthday yesterday, and I had intended to make it yesterday, but my strawberries turned ugly on me so I had to go get some more today. I wish that someone had told me years ago that pie was as easy as . . . well, as easy as pie. Now that I've discovered that little secret, we've had pie quite a lot.

My crust even rolled out quite nicely on the first try. Yeah, it usually takes me 2 tries.

Scrumptious - Extremely pleasing to the sense of taste.

July 27, 2009

Almost nothing in the world (except for corn on the cob) tastes like summer more than strawberry pie. Stop it! My mouth is watering again.

Joy

As the Meanest Mother in the World, I have meticulously spent the last week or so telling Taylor that due to all the costs involved in getting her into school, clothes, fees, etc., we just couldn't afford to get her a fun birthday gift, so we were going to get the fancy calculator she needs for geometry for her birthday gift. As the Dutiful Daughter that she is, she played along nicely, trying to understand the hard realities of family finance, trying to be respectful. Only once (and I tormented her with this DAILY) did she express dismay that school supplies are just not an acceptable birthday gift. I did my very best mom lecture on how life is full of disappointments and lots of other kids would be grateful to get a fancy calculator! So the day of her birthday she moped around. She moped while we got ready for church, she moped after church. Finally at dinner time I told her I was going to wrap her gift. Her response was why bother? She already knew what it was. I replied that at least it would make it a little bit exciting to have a pretty package to open.


So I went off to wrap her gift. I wrapped up the make up she had asked for, and signed the card from the family, on which I wrote a 7 digit number. I took her the little gift and the card, and she, still moping of course, took it and commented that it was a pretty small calculator. So she opened it up to find that it was the make up instead and made some remark about at least it's more exciting than a calculator. I pointed out the card. She read it, set it aside, and informed me I was standing in the way of her TV show. I asked her to read the card again. She read it again, smiled at the Far Side cartoon, and again set it aside. I asked her to read it again. Finally she noticed the number, but apparently didn't get it because Jack yelled out "It's a cell phone!" And she responded, "whatever." So the rest of us kind of smiled and started to laugh, so she got really excited that it was for real.

Joy - To fill with ecstatic happiness, pleasure or satisfaction.

July 26, 2009

Continuing on in my Meanest Mother in the World role, I had hidden the phone, so she had to go find it by calling the number. Naturally, Jack found it before she did and she is just so thrilled with the whole thing. We went over the rules and stipulations involved with having a phone, but I think she is up to the challenge and I am hoping this is a good opportunity for her to demonstrate her ability to be responsible.

But more importantly, how in the world did I get old enough to have a 14 year old?

Finally, when I went down to bed last night, I found Addie's best baby, Iddy, neatly tucked in for the night on my bedroom floor. When I asked Addie this morning about it, she told me that Iddy wanted to have a sleep over. How cute is that?

Play, Rich, Steep

Play - To take part in a game.

July 25, 2009

Tonight was Taylor's birthday party, so the rest of us were banished to the basement. We didn't have a whole lot to do, there's nothing good on TV on Saturday nights, so Jack and Addie played Lego Star Wars on Playstation while I balanced the checkbook and paid bills. How's that for exciting? And by "played," of couse I mean argued and fought.

Our group that made the hike so early on a holiday morning.

The valley view from the G.

Steep - Having a sharp inclination; precipitous.

July 24, 2009

My extended Walker family has a family reunion breakfast every year on the 24th. This year an invitation went out to all who were interested to hike to the G before breakfast. I hiked to the G a few times in high school, and it wasn't a bad hike, so I dragged Taylor and Jack along and we met up with the few other Walkers at 6 am and off we went. For reasons that are unclear, Calvin led us up a very steep trail to begin the hike. I'm not sure if he forgot what he was doing, or if he wanted to make it faster, but I burned up every ounce of energy I had climbing one steep section after another. The hike I remember was a lot of slight inclines with a few sharp ones here and there, and this just wasn't THAT! Part way up I thought I might have to just sit and wait for everyone to come back down, but with some encouragement I persevered and made it to the G. Nearly everyone else continued on up to the top of the G itsself, but I wasn't feeling so great so I just stayed where I was. I'm very proud of myself for sticking it out, and am anxious to go again, so long as we stick to the other trail. My apologies to all seasoned hikers for my weakness and shame.

Rich - Containing a large amount of choice ingredients, such as butter, sugar or eggs, and therefore unusually heavy and sweet.

July 23, 2009

My new baking mentor, Nicki Wilson, put this recipe (peanut butter truffle brownies) up on her blog and so I had to try it out. It turned out so good! It is super rich though, so even a sweet-aholic like me can only manage a small square. A big glass of cold milk washes it down nicely, though. A link to Nicki's blog is on the right side where my blog list is. It's called Shirley's Swirleys.

Learn

Learn - to acquire experience of or an ability or a skill in.

July 22, 2009

Jack likes to cook. He almost always helps me if he's around. Today was his turn to help with dinner again. You'll notice the girls never remind me it's their turn to help, but Jack always does. Anyway, he reminded me this morning that it was his turn to help again, but after I got home from work I had to take him and Addie to library class and then after that he went to his friend's house, so I didn't expect him home in time to help with dinner. Believe it or not, he came home from his friends house at 4:45 just to help me (we eat at 5:30). I was well into dinner prep by then, but he was just in time to stuff and roll the enchiladas. Yeah, yeah, I know. Enchiladas again. I had been looking in the freezer for something the other day and I found a dish of cooked and frozen sweet pork that has been in there for who knows how long, so I decided we would just have that for dinner today. I took the time to warm up the tortillas so they were easy to roll (I usually skip that step because I'm lazy), made up the lime rice and the pico, and everyone was happy. I made some creamy enchilada sauce as well since we've learned we prefer that kind over the tomato base kind. I filled 2 pans with enchiladas and we didn't have much left over.

I finished up that cross stitch. I'm still all gung-ho so I've got another one ready to begin. Christmas is coming, you know!

Countdown

Tonight as I was getting ready to go up to Pack Meeting, I heard a helicopter outside that sounded terribly low. So I peeked out the window and Life Flight was landing at the intersection right by my house. I ran outside to see what was up, and it turns out a little boy in our ward had been hit by a car. I had been downstairs so I hadn't heard the ambulance come. They loaded him in the helicopter and off they went. I have heard since that he is doing quite well for having taken the impact that he did, and we are all praying that things continue to go well. His parents are with him and other ward members have stepped in to take care of the other children. It is comforting to see everyone join together for a common cause. Lane is Cub Master, and after conferring with other members of the committee, it was decided to postpone Pack Meeting for a week. A fun evening of water games had been planned, but everyone was feeling pretty somber and more concerned with this little boy than having Pack Meeting. So they had a short discussion of bike safety and then a prayer and called it good for a week.

Countdown - The counting backward from an arbitrary starting number to indicate the time remaining before and event or operation.

July 21, 2009

Today is the magical 60 day mark before our cruise. It is at this point that I will start doing little things, here and there, to get ready. I have started, but not completed, my "Fun Pass" online. Around August 1 I will start my little pile in my bedroom of things that I don't want to forget, such as sunscreen, water wallet, Lane's Hawaiian shirts, stuff that I won't be using until the cruise. It warms my heart to see that little pile start to grow as the time grows shorter. I have my shore excursion for our first stop all lined up. We will be going to the Mayan ruins at Uxmal, but I don't have anything set for Cozumel. We have already been to Tulum, plus two trips to ruins on the same cruise might be a little much. We did the stingray thing in the Cayman Islands. Suggestions, anyone?

I thought I had put up my recipe for Pico de Gallo, but it turns out I didn't so here it is for anyone who is interested:

3 large tomatoes, diced

1 medium onion, diced

Cilantro - to taste, I don't measure it. Use fresh if you have it, put dried will do in a pinch

The juice of half a lemon (or a lime, which I prefer)

1/2 t minced garlic (I usually use 2 cloves because I love garlic)

1 t salt (I use coarse ground sea salt)

2 peppers - I use whatever I have on hand, sometimes just a bell pepper or canned chilis if that's all I have.

Mix it together and and serve

Pout

We went for a picnic tonight for Family Night in American Fork Canyon. We went up early, around 4:00 because the place fills up really fast, and Addie immediately set to work getting as dirty as she could. We washed her off once in the faucet before this picture, so this is dirty round 2.

Pout - to protrude the lips in an expression of displeasure or sulkiness.

July 20, 2009

No one would play with her, and we had to keep bringing her back from the river's edge, so she was sad.

She was positively filthy after a little while. She would use a sharp rock or stick to dig in the dirt, and then she would rub her face and eyes.

Addie, Jack and cousin Sager exploring the picnic area.

I picked my first tomato last night. It is decent sized, perfectly round and evenly red. I haven't eaten it yet, but I am looking forward to slicing it up and seasoning it up with salt and pepper. The neighbor even brought over some cucumbers I can slice up as well. He also brought 2 huge zucchinis, so I guess I'll be baking zucchini bread. My freezer is so full I don't know what to do with it. That is a subtle warning in case some zucchini bread should show up on your porch.

Request, Replicate

Replicate - to duplicate, copy, reproduce or repeat.

July 18, 2009

I used to cross stitch all the time. I forget who turned me on to this addicting little activity, but it was during my sophomore year at Snow College. The first thing I stitched was a Jordan River Temple which I sent to Lane on his mission. He kept it the full 2 years, and it is currently hanging in my sewing room. So over the years I have done a ton of stuff, but have not done much in recent years. I got back to it to make a gift for someone, and I was reminded how much I loved doing it, so after I made the gift, I started on this one for my mom for Christmas. Don't tell her.

Request - Express the need or desire for; ask for

July 19, 2009

All Lane wanted for his birthday this year was a banana cream pie. The sad thing is that his birthday was last Sunday. But in my defense, he spent his birthday weekend fishing and then all week long it was just one crazy day after another so I got it done today. I've never made one before, but it turned out great and every crumb is gone, inluding all the leftover pudding.

We had no Mythbusters to watch today, so I had my kids watch Ferris Buhlers Day Off. They liked that ok, but had fun at my expense pointing out all the huge hair and funny clothes. Then after that there was still nothing to watch so we got out my DVDs of The Wonder Years. That was, hands down, the best show ever on TV. I cry every time I watch the series finale. Why don't they make more shows like that?

Loaded

My apple trees are FULL! I knew good things would come from all those gorgeous apple blossoms this spring. Now if we can just keep them from getting wormy . . . See how low the branches are to the ground right now? They might be touching the ground in September!


In the background Lane is watering our newly-planted raspberries. He is tending to them very carefully. They have a few tiny raspberries on them, and one died. Mmmm . . . anticipating some raspberry jam next summer.

Bring on the applesauce! I LOVE to can applesauce. It makes the whole house smell so deliciously autumn-y. AND the great thing about apples is they will last until I get around to canning them, not like tempermental peaches that need to be put up almost immediately.

Loaded - Filled with a great quantity

July 17, 2009

Imitate

All good meals have green onions in them. They are a staple at my house. Can you believe I used this WHOLE bunch on dinner tonight?

All good meals also involve garlic. I almost never use less than 3 cloves in anything, so beware of that if I should ever bring you food. This is the prep for tonight's dinner.

Some of that eventually turned into pico de gallo. Tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic, salt & pepper . . . Isn't it pretty? I have been know to just eat the pico with a spoon.

My chimis getting ready to go in the oven. This is one of our favorite dinners, and a great way to use up left over chicken.

Imitate - To copy or use the style of.

July 16, 2009

Sometimes I think I'm Cafe Rio. This is my own version of a chicken chimi, pico de gallo and cilantro lime rice. So, so good, and it works for both summer and winter meals.

Chimis

( I don't really measure stuff, so this is my best guess)

Shredded chicken (I just use whatever is left over, about 1 1/2 chicken breasts is about right for our family)

Shredded cheese - I don't know how much, 1/2 c maybe?

Green onion

About 1/2 t dried oregano or 1 t fresh

1 t ground cumin

Salsa - enough to hold it all together

Combine all that and put it in a tortilla. I prefer to use the big flour ones, but since I couldn't find any in my freezer, I used the smaller corn ones. If I have the flour ones, I put the filling in and fold in all the sides like a chimi should be, but since I just had the corn tortillas I just rolled it up enchilada style.

Brush the tortillas with melted butter. And I do mean butter. Margarine has no place here. This will make them all nice and crispy. Bake at 400 for about 25 minutes.

Then for the rice, I just cook my rice on the stovetop, using chicken broth. My no-fail-super-fluffy rice is on another day's blog. I also add some lime zest to the rice while it's cooking. While I wait for that to get done, in a small bowl I combine the juice of 1 lime (see, you really do need that Pampered Chef citrus press - $17.00 and worth every penny), about 1-ish T sugar, and some cilantro. When the rice is done, pour that over the hot rice and mix it together. I also add some green onion, but that's just me.

Add a nice green salad, and it's a quick, easy, delicious dinner.

For those who are not yet aware, Walmart has their school supplies out. I know this because I went to Walmart today to fill Lane's prescription, thinking it was one of those $4 deals, and get more low dose aspirin for Addie. They said it would take about 20 minutes to fill the prescription so I went wandering. That is just never a good thing to do at Walmart. So I found that the school supplies were out. I love when they put them out so I can stock up on EVERYTHING I might use during the course of the year, but I didn't know they would be out so soon and felt overwhelmed and unprepared. I hadn't checked to see what, if anything, we had left over from last year. So I just bought whatever I thought we might need. This includes 25 boxes of crayons. Yes, 25. We go through a lot of crayons and since the kids are forever telling me of a birthday party they were invited to about 30 minutes before the party starts, it's beneficial to have crayons on hand. I got tons of pens - black ink only. I have an aversion to blue. Filler paper, spiral notebooks, composition books, I got it all. They were out of those Bic mechanical pencils that I know Taylor likes, so I'll have to get them on another trip. So all that added up to about $30, which isn't too bad for everything I got, but I wasn't planning on getting anything. So I went back to get the prescription only to find out that it cost $30, it wasn't one of their $4 ones. Bummer. Once I got home I remembered that I had forgotten to get AAA batteries, after stomping around the house last night looking all over the place for some. We have 3 full and 1 part package of AA batteries, but no AAAs. Typical.

Cool

Jack was in charge of dinner today. That means he was supposed to plan the meal, as well as help prepare it. He planned it all right, but then got involved in a big Wii game with 3 of his friends, and I didn't have the heart to make him stop. So I made his dinner. He wanted his favorite, potato casserole. Not exactly summer fare, but we all like it and if there should be any leftovers, they warm up nicely for lunch the next day.





Just as chicken dishes must be served with rice and beef dishes must be served with potatoes, all potato dishes must be served with carrots. Always fresh, never EVER frozen, and steamed in the microwave for about 6 minutes is just right.

Naturally, my pictures are in the wrong order again. This is my potato casserole just before going into the oven. Its a little extra creamy because I had a little extra sour cream, but not enough extra to do anything with so I just threw it in. But isn't that the genius of casseroles - just throwing stuff in?

Just in case you need to know how to make potato casserole:

8 potatoes, baked and cut into chunks.

1 stick of butter. Yes, you heard me. Butter. No margarine, please.

1 can cream of chicken soup

8 oz. sour cream

Grated cheese. I don't know how much. Just till it looks good.

Combine all the above and put in a casserole dish. Sprinkle top of casserole with crushed corn flakes. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Yeah, it's funeral potatoes. But this way it is a meal, not a side dish. No hash browns. Real, Idaho russet potatoes cut into large chunks. It is easily hearty enough for a meal, even with Jack in the house. We usually even have enough left over 1 or 2 single serve lunches. But it has to be real baked potatoes. The hash brown short-cut takes away from the filling-ness of this dish and makes it a side dish, not a meal. And as stated above, carrots must always accompany this meal. If I had more time today I would have also made some cheddar biscuits and I was out of salad. So we had cantaloupe.

Cooling - Giving or suggesting relief from heat.

July 15, 2009

So after spending time in the hot kitchen preparing dinner, I needed a cool drink. This has become a favorite summer time drink at our house. It is just a half of a lime, pressed in my handy-dandy Pampered Chef citrus press (which no home should be without) and ginger ale. I always toss in a cherry just for kicks.

Demolish, almost

Almost - Slightly short of; not quite; nearly.

July 13, 2009

Tomatoes (almost, and tomato) in July! I've never had tomatoes this early! We had to plant our garden in pots due to the back yard demolition (see POD below) and everything is doing so well! Maybe I'll have to stick with the pots. And, as a very important bonus, no weeding! We had a bunch of cinderblocks left over from yet another back yard demolition project, so we leveled out a spot and laid the cinderblocks into a sort of "patio" for the pots. Other than the fact that we have to hand water them since there is no working sprinkler in the area, it is working out very well. Next spring, if not earlier, Lane will get back to his favorite yard project of all: sprinkler moving. Don't let him kid you. He'll say what a pain it is to move sprinklers around, but really it's his favorite thing to do. All winter long he tells me of some new plan or another of how things would be so much better if that one sprinker was moved about 2 feet one direction or another. I have always teased him since we've been home owners that the first sign of spring isn't the robin redbreast, it's Lane digging holes in the yard and shopping for new sprinklers.

Demolish - to tear down or break up

July 14, 2009

Ah, the demolition. My parents hired someone to build this terraced sort of retaining wall. There is 2 levels of it, and it goes 2/3 of the way across the yard. The long way. Perhaps once upon a time it was well constructed, but it has been falling down for about 2 years now. In fact, Lane knocked some of it down with a tiller. So it's coming out. Parts of it will go down with a good, swift kick, and other parts are incredibly tough. He's trying to bring it down with a sledge hammer, so it will be slow going but this is the small section he brought down today before he got too hot and tired of swinging that sledge hammer. We'll get it down eventually, and by we, of course I mean him. So many projects . . .

Tedious, Task

Tedious - Tiresome by reason of length, slowness, or dullness; boring.

July 10, 2009

On top of my desk I have a basket. Into this basket I toss anything to be filed, such as receipts that I have entered into my checkbook register but need to be kept, bills paid neatly marked with the date and method paid, pay stubs, bank receipts, as well as other things that need to be filed away for future reference. Also in this basket goes all the Maceys receipts and box tops to be saved until next school year. Unfortunately, after that it gets very ugly. I have found 3 credit cards for accounts that I no longer have, 2 party invitations for parties that are long past, my long list of user names and passwords for online account access, the birth certificate for a cabbage patch baby I know nothing about owning, the user manual for my old camera, the install disk for a printer I no longer own, instructions on registering Taylor for 9th grade, a box (ok, a half box) of colored pencils, 2 dice and an assistant scoutmaster badge (WTH???). I don't enjoy filing, and so I typically only tackle this basket when it gets so full that it all starts to slide off it's perch on my desk hutch onto my computer keyboard. I think I have about another 2 months before it reaches that point. I hate filing . . . HATE with the white hot passion of a thousand suns, hate.

Task - a function to be performed; an objective.

July 11, 2009

So I used my free time today to get caught up on a few things. I decided to go clean my sewing room (see POD, Procrastinate). Turns out, under that huge pile of stuff was an almost-finished Christmas pillow. I know, I know, Christmas was 6 months ago, but as it turns out, Christmas is also 6 months away. So we'll call it a jump start rather than a lost opportunity. I got the scrapbooks all caught up. By caught up I mean that all the non-photo stuff is now in the books. I do the photos on the computer, which as it turns out is about a year behind. But since that is stored on the computer and not piled on my table, it doesn't count as part of the mess.


Lane and Jack went with Lane's parents down to the cabin for the weekend. This left the girls and I home alone, so I asked my neice Kassie to meet us for a girls-night dinner at Rib City. Yum. Last night to celebrate Lane's birthday he and I went down to Good Wood in Orem. He loves the prime rib there. I'm not big on prime rib, but I got a chicken dinner that was really good and ended up bringing most of it home anyway, the portions there are huge.

Picnic

Picnic - an informal meal eaten out-of-doors.

July 9, 2009

Tammy and her family are leavning in the morning, so we got together for one last picnic at the Discovery Park. Her kids and ours love to play there, and so we've always had a picnic there when Tammy and her family come over from Colorado. We grilled up some hot dogs and Grandma and Tammy brought some salads and watermelon and we all had a good visit while the kids played. Last year all the boys had a sleep over at Grandma's house, and the girls slept here. This year we switched so I have all the boys and they have the girls. The boys are having a good time. They are upstairs playing playstation and/or Wii and I'm downstairs with the door shut. They are being good, really, not making too much noise or anything. My kids always look forward to Tammy's family's annual trip over and it always goes by way too fast.

Panorama

Grandma Wilson, cousin Levi, cousin Joey, Taylor,

cousin Monique and cousin Madison at the

Native American exhibit at Heritage Village.

Addie liked the baby animals at the petting zoo.

Jack and Addie made arrowhead necklaces at the Native American exhibit.



Addie, cousin Quinn, and Jack looking at a buffalo skin
being tanned at the Native American Exhibit.


Panorama - An unbroken view of an entire surrounding area.
July 8, 2009

Since Lane's cousin Tammy and her family are in town, and his sister Michelle is up in the big city from her home in Aurora, we all went together to This Is The Place State Park and Heritage Village. Lane and I took our kids and went about 2 years ago (or was it 3 years??) and it was so fun. They have added quite a lot since the last time we were there. Now there is a nice train that goes around the perimeter, which cuts down on all the walking. The price of admission also incluces up to 3 crafts/rides per person. The kids made rope at the Brigham Young home, arrow head necklaces at the Native American exhibit, stamped leather, decorated canvas bags, and had a pony ride. The weather was really nice, not too hot with a nice little breeze. We had a picnic at the park and everyone had a great time. The park closes at 5 or we would have just kept on going. I highly recommend a trip there for everyone. I'm ready to go back! They have some fun activities throughout the year that would be fun to go back for. A yearly pass is quite reasonably priced, and pays for itsself in only about 2 trips.

So as I was complaining to Lane today on the drive up to SL about the whole playstation mess, he had to confess that he was the one who made the mess. He's better than me - I always blame that kind of stuff on my kids. Considering how hard he works for our family, and the fact that he drove us all up to Heritage Village today on no sleep, I guess I can forgive him for a little mess, which, by the way, is still not cleaned up. Shamefully, I stepped over it, too, to get to the computer. Now I know where everyone gets it.