Rock the boat baby...

The boat has been getting a little work done on it. Here is the boat right after we got it back from Auto Trim Design. The boat used to have a maroon strip running along the side and they covered it up with a huge vinyl sticker. Now the strip is cherry red (like the truck and the Tahoe.) Merril decided it also needed the windows tinted. (That might be a little over the top but whatever.) Please don't look at the trailer!! It looks soooo awful and next weekend's project is new cherry-red paint for the trailer and the trailer boards being replaced.

So here's Merril working on the stereo wires. I'm sure he knows what he's doing in there. He has 8 speakers and 2 sub-woofers. Um yeah, that might be a little excessive seeing as it's only a 20-foot boat. That's a speaker per 2 feet of boat. But again, whatever. He said I don't even have to listen to the stereo when I'm in it. I'm sure it will sound terrific!

Here's me putting the upholstery back in. Seriously, there's no other way to reach those nuts. My other arm is in the hole reaching back up towards the top of that grey side panel. They're a beast! The boat manufacturer must employ a group of skinny, 10-year old boys to reach spaces like that because my arm barely fit and there was no way Merril was able to get his arm up there. Merril's was making me laugh so my face is all red. :)

And VOILA!!! Merril stayed up late on Saturday and finished the stereo and put most of the upholstery back in. A guy named Therol Judd (I think) did the upholstery and did a really nice job!

Here's just another picture of the seats. There's some wires still hanging out but we're close to being finished with the interior!

Here's Juliet just doing what she does best, looking sweet. She loves to stand in the bow and look around.

Soooo dirty...

Juliet knocked over a bottle of bubbles and watched it roll down the driveway. She wanted to chase it and army crawled down the driveway and in the process, got very dirty. This is her at the bottom of the driveway, triumphant!

Now she's just playing with the bubble blower.

I bought a sad-looking hibiscus at Lowes the other day. It didn't have any tags on it so I didn't know what color it was until it finally bloomed. We have yellow!

Here's Jacky, the kazoo boy. He wanted to ride his bike and play the kazoo while we were playing outside.

Here's one of Juliet in the stroller. She was confined so she wouldn't get so dirty.

And here she is in the middle of a teddy graham mess. She'd gotten really quiet and content and I was just thanking my lucky stars from the other room. Then I walked out and realized she'd found her own snack (left out by the Jackster) and proceeded to eat as many as she could before I discovered her.

Also, we worked on the boat a lot this past weekend and got so much done! I'm late so I'll post boat pictures later!!

A whole week!

I'm usually better about blogging but the kids and Merril were sick and I got an infection from nursing Juliet and felt like I had the flu for a day. (Except for Maxine which has miraculously been immune from virtually every cold Jack has brought home from Nursery.) So here's some pictures that I meant to do earlier but didn't get around to doing.

This is Maxine during the graduation program. They sang songs and said the pledge of allegiance.


This next one is of Merril feeding the kids with chopsticks. Merril likes to take leftover sticky rice, warm it up and crack a raw egg on it. He adds a little soy sauce, stirs it up and eats it for breakfast. (Sorry if we made any stomachs turn out there in the audience. Sorry Grandma Campbell) The kids all thought it was especially yummy and took turns eating his rice. (I like my eggs with a little more flame under 'em but to each his own.)






And lastly, with Jacky being sick, I'd find him asleep around the house. Here's one on the couch. Poor kid. He's feeling better but still coughing. That should resolve itself soon.

Oh, one more thing! To those living in town, I just registered Maxine for some summer craft classes at the new community center through the college's continuing education. They're every Monday in June and July at 10:30 a.m. and last for an hour. They're $1.50 per class for ages K-6th grade. (Maxine loves to make crafts and it's something to do during the summer.) Just thought I'd let you know. Have a great week!

Alvin and the chipmunks...

In a throw back to Beka and her nesting birds, we were looking outside and saw some chipmunks. I saw one about a week ago and figured it was a fluke but today the kids and I watched 3 separate chipmunks play in the back yard. They've made their home in a rocky slope that separates my yard from my neighbors. The rocks have lots of good places for them to hide and make their home. As long as they don't eat my garden, I think we'll get along fine. Do chipmunks eat carrots?















I apologize for the quality of the pictures. I was shooting through a window and had exhausted my optical and digital zoom. They spook easily so I didn't dare go outside.














This one's standing on his hind legs. I think they're cute.















Also, I took some pictures of my garden. It's looking pretty good considering all the wind we've had. I was going to build some sort of wind protection this year but got lazy.














I thinned my carrots but it looks like I need to do it again.














Here's my peas! They're so cute but I always get them in too late. Hopefully I can get a few pods before they totally roast.














I'm usually not so picture heavy. Lastly, Maxine's swim party for preschool was today. There was pizza and water fun. Somehow those things always go together.



















Here's Juliet waiting for some pizza. I picked the cheese off for her. Alvin, Simon, Theodore! Doo, doo...doo, doo, doo, doo!

Call at 4:00 a.m...

When the phone rings at 4 a.m., that's never a good sign. Merril's Dad got up for work this morning (truck driver) and went to the truck yard to get his truck and drive off except it wasn't there. Someone had stolen his truck over the weekend. I was thinking to myself, "Who steals a whole truck??" It might not be as common as general car theft but I'm sure it still happens, I just never thought about it before. His truck is an older Kenworth, navy blue with a rather classic/clean design, squared off with 6" straight pipes. Mark loves his truck. I could hear the sadness over the phone as he said, "It's gone. It's just not here." Mark called the police to file and report and Merril left to go be with his Dad. Ah, but to top it all off, the truck only has liability insurance on it. Merril and his Dad have been making phone calls to all their buddies to keep the eyes open and faxing flyers to fueling stations. What a bummer.

On a lighter note, Maxine was eating an apple yesterday and said that her bottom teeth hurt. I reached in and sure enough, she has a loose bottom tooth. Yikes! That made me feel old. I thought I'd have at least until Kindergarten before I had to worry about that. So I'll probably be taking a lot of pictures of her before it falls out because her toothy grin is going to be not so toothy. So in memoriam, here's a picture of Maxine at 18 months when her teeth were a little newer. I forgot how much hair she had. Doesn't Merril look like a kid?

It's just like riding a bike, it's easy...

Maxine has never been what I'd term "athletic". What she doesn't have in athletic ability, she makes up for in stubbornness. Most of her friends have been riding bikes without their training wheels for a while now and she was always too afraid to take them off. Anna, who's staying with us for the week, wanted to get her bike and ride it yesterday. So we got her bike and she was riding it around and Maxine said she REALLY wanted to take her training wheels off. So I put Juliet and Jack down for a nap and we took off one training wheel. She rode around like that for about 15 minutes and then we took the other one off. She was pretty shaky and crying, so I asked if she wanted to take a rest but she wouldn't give up. She started the adventure in flip flops and a skirt but the outfit evolved into pants, tennis shoes and gloves. So I ran behind her for an hour, trying to help her get the feel for it. Then, Juliet woke up so I had to go inside. Maxine insisted that she wanted to stay out and practice. She practised starting off a million times and went a little farther each time. She fell a couple times but she started to get really good! We came outside and helped her practise some more and then I went inside to start dinner. She kept at it and by the end of the day, she looked like this:

She still needs to learn to brake a little. I can't believe how fast she improved! She went from scared and sobbing on her bike to singing and confident in one afternoon!

In this picture, she told me that she loves to ride her bike more than anything else! The wind was blowing so her hair is in her face a bit. The wind actually helped because it'd push her and help her get started.

When Merril got home, we all played outside until dark.

He got new biking shoes so he was trying them out. Maxine kept yelling at him because she was afraid he'd "crush her bike to little pieces." Looks like a clown bike with Merril riding. Looking at the pictures now, we might have to invest in a bigger bike because that one looks so small. So yeah, I'm very proud of her and her stubborn streak. :)

P.S. Merril told me while reading my blog that I'd misspelled 'practised'. I went to edit my blog and ran spellchecker and it didn't catch it. So I looked it up online and found that 'practised' and 'practiced' are both considered correct spellings. Kind of like 'grey' and 'gray' are both correct. Who knew?

P.P.S. Funny thing. Maxine's friend, Jocelyn, learned to ride her bike without training wheels the exact same day. Her Mom blogged an almost identical post. Click here http://amyhummel.typepad.com to see it.

Poor Anna...

We're watching a friend's daughter for the week and so far it's been just fine. Today she didn't eat very much breakfast and mid-morning she said her tummy didn't feel very good. So we had a little snack and decided to go to the McDonald's PlayPlace because the wind was blowing. So we ordered food and the kids are playing, except for Anna. Then she says, "I think I'm going to throw up." So we run to the bathroom and nothing. So we hang out for another little bit and she says the same thing. We run to the bathroom and still nothing. So we pack it up and head home with me a little wary and watching the rear-view mirror every couple seconds. We get in the door and no more than 2 minutes later, she heads to the toilet and...well...you know. I feel so bad for her because it sucks to be sick and her Mom's not going to be back until late Friday. I just hope she starts to feel better soon. She and the kids are watching cartoons in the living room, the best perk of being sick.

Other than that, I had one of those 'duh' moments. Juliet was pretty fussy over the weekend and I just figured she still wanted to be held all the time from being sick the previous week. So on Monday, she yawned and I saw an extra tooth. Woops! She's exceptionally happy today because her tooth is cut and done now. Had I noticed earlier, I could've at least thrown a little Tylenol her way. Sorry baby.

In happy news, we're starting up work on the basement again! I'm calling painters to get bids this week. (I might still paint myself, depending on how expensive it is.) Then it's finish carpentry, lights & switches, and then carpet/tile. Merril thinks we might have it done in a month! (I'm a little pessimistic (realistic) so I'm thinking 1-3 months.) Yeah! It'd be nice to get Juliet out of the closet. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Can you imagine coming across the plains with a wagon full of kids and being pregnant or having an infant? No, I have much to be thankful for.

What did you get for Mother's Day??

For the first 4 years of our marriage, I never received anything for Mother's Day, simply because Merril stated, "You're not my mother." I was a little bummed but got over it quickly because I couldn't disagree with his logic. A few years ago, Merril asked, "Why don't I get anything for Father's Day??"

I replied, "Well, you didn't get me anything for Mother's Day, so I returned the favor."

"Hmm." he says.

I add, "Mother's Day comes first every year so when you're ready for a Father's Day present, I'll be waiting." *grin*

Since then, I've always received some type of gift for Mother's Day and rather appreciate it. Never jewelry because I think jewelry is just a cope out when a real gift can't be thought of and jewelry commercials are so condescending. (But that's just me.) So I awoke this morning to a new shower caddy (because mine was super old and peeling) and (you'll never guess) a motorcycle stand! Basically they securely hold the motorcycle so it can be cleaned or worked on. I just think it makes the bike look sexy with the back up like that. Rrrrrrrrrrr.

Sweet Jacky...

Today Jacky toddled into my room and I said, "Good morning Jacky."

Jack with an injured look on his face said, "I don't like it when you call me Jacky. My friend Jon calls me Jack Jack and that makes me happy."

Me, "Okay, I won't call you Jacky anymore."

Jack, "That's very nice of you."

So the influence of the bros is already upon my 2 1/2 year-old son. He won't even let his Mommy call him Jacky anymore. Oh well, I knew it was coming sooner or later. Jacky never was a very masculine nickname anyway.


Merril snapped this picture the other day when Juliet wasn't feeling well and had a fever. I laid down with her in an attempt to get her to take a nap but I fell asleep first. She was playing with my hair as I fell asleep and that's why my hair is pulled over my face. She was so beat down from throwing up and was hardly eating but she's back to her usual self now. I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Oh I almost forgot!! I've been eating a little dairy for the past week and a half with no noticable reaction from Juliet! I've just been having skim milk on my cereal to help but I usually sneak in a little cheese and a few bites of ice cream too! I've had some chocolate too! Wahoo! I got sassy and had a huge peanut butter sandwich and she totally broke out in a huge rash all over her torso. So I'll hold off on the peanut butter and relish in my single scoop of ice cream. It's soooooooooo good. Yeah!

Green with envy...

Ever since Amy and Beka have started smoking the edges of their pictures, I've wanted to do that so bad! My program, PhotoImpression, does lots of stuff but not that. But I downloaded a program and voila! I've just messed with a couple photos so far and I don't think I'll do it to every picture I mess with but I think it's fun! I love this picture of Juliet. Looking at it again, I would've done an oval instead of square. And lightened the opacity. Maybe next time.

She looks so old to me. I'm just waiting for her to say, "Can I have the car keys?"

My Dad turns 60 on Saturday. Seriously, I never thought he'd make it. But I'm excited that he's still alive and able to celebrate his 60th birthday. I can't believe it's Wednesday tomorrow. We celebrated Cinco de Mayo on Monday with margaritas, fajitas, home-made guacamole, and chips and salsa. I like to celebrate little holidays. Anticipation is one of my favorite emotions and it goes with holidays so well. There's always something to look forward to. It was so nice outside tonight that we porched it while the kids played with the neighbors. Nice. Well, I'll stop rambling and head off to the dishes. Cheerio.

First feels good...

As I've mentioned earlier, Merril has been hitting the gym a lot and gotten into really good shape! Merril and his brother, Jared, are training for a marathon in the fall. On Saturday, our ward had a mini triathlon and Merril asked his brother if he wanted to come and race. Jared agreed and the two boys battled it out. Jared has always been faster than Merril, a lot faster. They used to mountain bike race together and Jared has never lost to a younger brother, until now. Merril came in first place overall in the triathlon and beat Jared by 4 minutes. There was a 2-mile run, a

















7-mile bike, and a 200-yard swim. Merril's in the foreground in red shorts and a black shirt. Jared is in the background in a grey sweatshirt and red swim trunks. This was the transition from run to bike. Merril's final time was 45 minutes and 56 seconds. Jared finished in at 49 minutes and 45 seconds, I think.

Here we have the kids with hot chocolate. Always a crowd pleaser! From left to right: Maxine, Stephanie, Elizabeth and Jack.














Here's my sister-in-law, Emily, with her sleeping baby, Caroline. Caroline is like 2 months older than Juliet so they'll be pals.




















Here's Juliet and me but she was refusing to take a nap. She was a tad on the sick side and rather grumpy on Saturday.














And here's the podium after the swim. 1st and 2nd place. Merril's never come in 1st for any race so I was pleased and excited for him. Not bad for 30.

What is that smell? Oh...it's me.

The kids are in bed and Merril's not home from work so I thought I'd read blogs for a bit. As I was enjoying a little quiet time, I started thinking, "What is that smell?" Then I realized, the smell was me. I smell of vomit and poo. (Left to wash hands) Okay, now it's just vomit. Jacky had a really nasty diaper right before bed and I forgot to wash my hands after changing him. The vomit is from Juliet. I had Juliet in the baby backpack while I was shopping at Wal-Mart. We were out of everything and I didn't even leave for Wal-Mart until 4:16 p.m. and I knew she wouldn't just sit nicely in the cart for a long trip.

So we were doing really well, I scored a parking spot in the very front of the lot, the other two kids were behaving and Juliet was content to ride on my back and then I felt my leg getting wet. I looked down and piles of vomit hit the floor and Jules coughed from behind me. I pulled off the backpack and the whole side of it was soaked. I found a paper towel dispenser and cleaned up the mess and wiped off the backpack, myself and Jules as best I could. I strapped her back on and she continuted to be a little angel for the rest of the trip. Unfortunately, my leg and sock are still a little stinky. Other than that, Wal-Mart was great.

This last picture is something I was working on for a relative's blog contest. I don't actually have Photoshop so I couldn't do the cool black vignette on the edges, like I envy in all of Beka's photos. So this was as close as I could come. Mostly, I just like the blue egg. Well, some groceries are still waiting to be put away!

So we're like pioneers, eh?

Today, we ran out of bread so instead of going to the store, I decided we'd make bread. I pulled out the bread machine and had an inkling for wheat bread. I dug into my food storage and retrieved a No. 10 can of wheat. I threw the wheat in the vitamix blender and watched it turn into flour. So while we measured the rest of the ingredients, I took the opportunity to talk to Maxine about food storage. I said that we have food storage in case of an emergency or times when we might not be able to afford food, etc. I also said that the pioneers used to make their own bread and sometimes grind their own wheat. So we loaded the bread maker and turned it on and as Maxine watched the dough mix, she said,

"So the pioneers didn't go to the store for bread??"

I said, "Nope, they made all their own bread."

Max-"So we're like pioneers, right Mom?"

Chuckling as I watch her stand over the bread machine, "Yep, we're like the pioneers."

The big 3-0!

On Wednesday, Merril turned 30! I was just going to have a party with family today (Friday) but Maxine said that Daddy needed to have a party ON his birthday, not a few days after. So on Wednesday at noon, I started calling people to see who could come and eat cake and ice cream. Low and behold, lots of people showed up! This is a shout out to all the people who made it to the party on such short notice! Thanks guys!!

We had fun decorating the house and put up streamers! Maxine and I made a banner on the computer and Maxine wanted to make a birthday crown too so here's the king and his princess and prince.

(25 minutes later) I just got back from towing Merril home. He's been working on his truck, trying to figure out why it takes so long to start. He's tried dozens of internet and mechanics suggestions and the latest was last night. But something didn't go back together right because the truck started running weird and oil leaked back into the fuel. (I think, something like that.) Anyhoo, Merril called and asked if I could come get him. Bummer. We're just hoping he didn't blow the engine. Rebuilding the engine doesn't sound cheap or fun.

Well, I better go. The older two are outside playing in the hose and laughing. A lot. :)

Eye strain...

My family had a family reunion last weekend and my family needed a family picture and I was nominated to take it. It was kind of intimidating for me because I feel like it's my responsibility to produce a good picture from 21 individual faces. So thanks to digital editing software and 3 hours of post-production work, we have this:

I had to swap 2 heads, one set of eyes, Jack's whole body and the pants of his cousin, smudge the corners of a mouth to make it look like Grant's smiling a little and then ran it through some noise reduction software. Ta dah! I'm sure it could've been done faster but certain things took quite a bit of tweaking to make them look right. I have lots more pictures from the weekend but this is what I've been working on. But here's some pictures from the reunion. Daddy hiking with Juliet and Max and Jack walking up some stairs. Woosh!

First Lake Day...

Aaaaahhhhh...I've been dreaming about it for weeks and we finally went to the lake today! It was 86 degrees and warm. The water was a chilly 61 degrees but the kids got in and played up to their waists. I LOVE THE LAKE! Something about spending time at the lake mellows me out. I can still feel the mellow at 9:57 p.m. We only stayed for an hour because the wind started to kick up and didn't even bring the boat because it's still being reupholstered but it was wonderful! The kids look so cute in their new swimsuits too! Juliet wasn't even going to get wet but I made her wear her swimsuit anyway. Her swimsuit has a little tutu and it's so sweet! Merril was feeding her popcorn in this shot and the look on her face cracks me up.
Merril's outside polishing the wheels on the Tahoe. He bought new valve-stem covers and they're black with a red Chevy emblem on the top. They were $10 bucks for the set and are so...Merril. He loves to pimp out a car. (Megan, I know they'd totally be lost on you but I think they're cute!) Happy Spring!

The Parent of the Year Award is in the bag!

Merril's out of town today with some friends so the kids and I decided to go to a park opening near our house. The city was giving away free hot dogs and drinks and we thought it'd be a fun outing. So we arrive and I get Juliet situated in the stroller and see a member of our ward. She says hello and asks if she can do anything to help. I say, "No, I think we got it." I push Juliet up on the sidewalk and let go of the stroller to walk back a few paces and shut a door on the Tahoe. Just as I get the door shut, I hear a wack and a crying baby. I hadn't locked the stroller wheels and the stroller had rolled back off the sidewalk with Juliet still strapped in. The stroller fell on its side and Juliet had hit the pavement. I pulled her out and she has a wicked goose egg on her forehead and road rash on her cheek just below her eye. So I hold her and say over and over again, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, baby." So she stopped crying and we played at the park and ate our hot dogs. Random people would come to goo at her and then say, "Who did that to your little face???" and I'd have to say, "Mommy did." So we're at home and I nursed her and gave her some Tylenol and a little Neosporin. But the rest of you should just give up now because the Parent of the Year Award is mine dude.

She loves the tub...

Juliet loves to try and "grab" the running water as the tub fills up. It always cracks me up because I remember my Dad used to say the same thing about me. She loves the tub and lately discovered how to splash. She seems so surprised every time the water hits her in the face but keeps splashing away.

Other than that, we're getting the boat reupholstered. These are the before pictures. How do these stories always start out? Merril knows a guy. He said he'd give us a good deal on the job if Merril would take all the pieces out and bring them to him. Some of them took more than a smile to extract from the boat. Parts in the bow required me to stick my arm in the big black hole and reach up to get off the nut. Unfortunately, I was orientated in such a way that the rest of my body sunk into the hole and then I was stuck and Merril had to come rescue me. But the pieces should be back in about a week and then we'll need to clean hull and put it back together.

Let's get out of here...

Merril asked if I wanted to go for a motorcycle ride today. I said, "Sure." So we got a babysitter for an hour, put on our gear and set out. It's the first time that we've ever ridden separate motorcycles. Until now, we've only had the one streetbike. He recently purchased a Ducati to fix and re-sell so we took the Ducati and the Yamaha FZR. (For all the non-motorcycle enthusiasts, the Ducati is the red one on the right and the FZR is the black one on the left.)We rode for about 35 minutes, stopped at a store for a snack and to hang out and then rode 35 minutes home. It was a little windy but the temperature was just right. It was a fun little ride and date.

I have a little love affair with motorcycles because it's something that I do ALL BY MYSELF, an entertainment not easily come by these days. There's no room for car seats, diaper bags or little containers of Cheerios. It's wind, the smell of french fries from the burger place I just passed and a little moment of freedom all wrapped up in a neat little package.

To smell the lilies of the field...

I seem to have been sick a lot this winter and about a month ago, I got the flu with the kids. Symptoms seemed to subside except for a plugged sinus on one side. Waited a week or so to see if it would clear up on its own. No luck. But that's not the worst of it. I've lost the ability to smell anything! I've been relying solely on Maxine to tell me when someone's poopy because I can't smell anything at all. I can't smell people smoking, popcorn, bleach, Merril's man smell, nada. So last Friday night, I went to the new InstaCare in Hurricane. There wasn't a single patient there so I was wisked right in! I was prescribed antibiotics and sent home. I've been taking the anitbiotics for about a week and seen little change. If I sniff something really hard, I can almost "taste" the smell in the back of my mouth. (I don't recommend doing that with a poopy diaper. They taste terrible! But it's the best way to gauge if my sense of smell is coming back.) So I've been without my ability to smell for about 2 1/2 weeks and I miss it.


So this morning, I started nosing around the internet to see if there are home remedies to clear up sinuses and came across one that involves drinking diluted apple cider vinegar. I drank it an hour ago and it was so nasty I could barely gag it down. But I'm happy to say I can almost smell the top of my baby's head, the body spray I'm wearing, and the poopy diaper that needs to be changed on Juliet. Unfortunately, I'm supposed to drink it 3 times a day for 4-6 days. But if I can smell the sweet aroma of bread baking again or my dirty toddler, it'll be worth it! Have a happy conference weekend!