Juliet turns 2...

My baby turned 2 last Wednesday. Since I was leaving for girl's camp at 8:00 a.m., we decided to do cake and candles on Tuesday night. Then I left for girl's camp and everyone seemed really old when I got back. I was only gone for 3 1/2 days! It even took a few seconds for Juliet to remember who I was. (That or I looked really scary after 3 days without a shower.)

So we had some cake. I don't remember why Jack and Maxine are pointing at Juliet.

Cake is yummy.

On a side note, I have about 5 bird nests on the corners of my roof. They're not pigeons or a nuisance so I leave them be. They're some sort of finch I believe. I've heard the babies chirp for a few months but they're finally big enough to stick their heads out a little. I noticed these guys while I was putting stuff in the boat. I made chirpy noises and they'd open their beaks.

I started talking and they all shrunk back and wouldn't come out again. Silly birds.

Also, the cool weather that's continued throughout June has given my garden a good head start. It looks fantastic but it'll some to a screeching halt once it heats up. I have a lot of tomatoes that have set and looks like it'll be a great crop. I have the hardest time keeping spider mites away! Anyone have any sure fire tips!! I keep buying pesticide but wish I could find a recipe for insecticidal soap so I could make it at home. And I'll share my tip that I tried this year. A friend of mine told me that her farmer in-laws always plant two tomato plants in each cage. They set twice as much fruit and I've been amazed at the bounty. Somehow, they don't seem to grow twice as much foliage. It's been really helpful for my garden since it's small. I have mounds of green tomatoes that will be ripening soon. Yippee!!

Safe Recall

In the interest of full disclosure of the facts: The gunsafe in question has a factory defect in the locking mechanism that when the safe is tilted(for example at the angle where the balance point of a handtruck that is being used to transport the safe is found) the electromagnets can allow the door to swing open causing a security risk and incurring the potential wrath of spouses and others. Plans are being made to have a locksmith repair this factory defect as soon as possible! Thank you for your interest in the matter. Posted by Merril

New room...

I have new switches...

I have a new smoke detector.....

I have new lighting....it even works!!

I have new furniture.....okay, a gun safe isn't really furniture but you get the idea.....

And now I have a new hole in the wall......

Sigh......Merril and I were moving the gun safe into the room and the door wasn't locked shut and while we were turning, it swung open and crashed into the wall. It's a heavy door. Merril's solution was to hang a picture. I just shrugged it off because it'll take a piece of sheetrock, plaster, sand, texture, prime and paint. But it'll have to wait because I'm leaving for girl's camp at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. No cell phone service, no wi/fi and no kids for 3 1/2 days. ;)

On a side note, a heard something scratching inside my dryer vent yesterday. We had mice a couple of weeks ago but I was pretty confident we'd killed all of them. I was a little ticked that one was caught in the dryer vent and grabbed my traps. I loaded them with peanut butter and pulled the dryer out. I carefully pulled the flexy tube off the dryer and peered inside. I didn't find a mouse. I found this:

The bird flew out at me and I screamed like a school girl. It perched on top of my laundry room cabinets and I yelled to Merril, "How do I get it out of here???!!" Merril said, "Open the front door and turn off the light in the laundry room." After a minute or two, the bird flew out of the laundry room to a picture in the living room, flew to the chandelier and then out the front door. He perched on the house for a second or two and then flew away.

After climbing on the roof, I discovered the vent cap had blown off so I got a new on and screwed it on. I feel really bad for the bird because I heard it on Sunday but we were leaving for Merril's Grandma's missionary homecoming by 8:30 a.m. and I didn't have time to worry about "mice" at the time. So the bird was stuck in there for a day and it just wanted to get out. Hopefully my new vent cap keeps rain and birds out!

fish update...

I've had a number of inquiries about the fish that splatted on the garage floor. He's still alive and kicking. I mean swimming.

I have real carpet!

Here it comes...

Are you ready?

Wahoo!

The basement bedroom looks fantastic with carpet! I think it even looks bigger!

I plan on doing a little wiring this weekend! I can do the closet light and switch and the outlets. I don't have 3-way switches so those will have to be purchased later. YEAH! Now I just need to think about moving everything and getting a bed for Jack! I'm so excited!

KF...

In the earlier ward triathlon blog post, I mentioned that a man in his 70s fell during the bike portion and broke his leg. Everyone just called him KF and he was the organizer of the triathlon. The coolest, most active old guy I ever knew. Merril and KF had become good friends because KF was always in Scouting and Young Mens. He never let his age slow him down and he and Merril did a 50-mile hike with the Scouts last year. This is the only picture I have of KF and it's during the 50-miler.

He was taken to the hospital and underwent surgery on his leg. Surgery didn't go well and his body started shutting down. He made it through surgery but was taken to the ICU. They decided to take him off life support last night and he died at around 10 p.m. When I found out about it, I couldn't really believe it because if ANYONE was going to pull through, it'd be KF. I guess the Lord just wanted his faithful servant back because he was awesome! Rock on, KF!! I'll miss you.

Carpet's comin' on Friday!!!!!!!!!

Okay, painting my ONE basement bedroom took forever. While painting, I went to the carpet store and got carpet ordered. The guy called last night and said he could come on Friday and install it at 8:30 a.m!! I installed door knobs and door kicks today. Painting is finished, more or less, and here are the pictures to prove it!

Juliet just woke up from a nap and was a bit grumpy for pictures. It looks like a real room!!

My fan is ordered but probably won't be here until next week. Next job is outlets and switches, which will take like an hour and it will be finito! I'll have a 4-bedroom house!

Bock, bock, bock...

I'm a chicken. A big, fat chicken. Merril and I have been throwing around the idea of a 4th kid. I've been sweating about it for months. Juliet will be turning 2 next Wednesday and I figured if we were going to have another one, I'd better get going. I had an appointment today to get my birth control device removed. I cancelled it. I really believed that if I had the appointment, I'd feel better about the whole deal and relax. Instead, I've been FREAKING out!!I just couldn't see how I could manage another kid and stay sane. I'm not completely ruling it out, it's just not happening right now.

When you were a kid, did you ever use eeny meeny miney moe to decide between 2 candy bars? After getting to the end, did you ever pick the opposite of what the game told you to do because you decided you really wanted a Kit Kat instead of a Snickers? The game was just a way to help you decide what you really wanted. My appointment helped me decide what I REALLY want, or rather, what I don't want. So for now, we have 3 kids and I'm feeling good.

Ward Triathlon...

Last year, Merril won a ward triathlon.  He was training for a marathon at the time and was in really great shape!  Merril was invited back this year to defend his title.  This time, Merril was in less than optimal shape.  

There's a 2-mile run, a 7-mile bike, and 5 laps in a pool(200 yards).  He was 2nd after the bike portion but got passed in the pool by two 16-year old twin boys.  He placed 4th overall.  Not bad for sitting on the couch since the marathon.  That's not true.  He plays raquetball a couple times a week with his BFF, Jared.  

When the kids saw Merril, they ran down to him and helped him finish the run portion.

Here's Merril after the swim portion.  His time was 48 minutes and 22 seconds, a little more than 2 minutes later than his 1st place time.   

He placed behind a lady, who was clearly in really great shape, and the two 16-year old twin athletes.  Not too bad at all.  

Unfortunately, the 70-ish year old guy who organizes the ward triathlon, fell during the bike portion and broke his leg.  He had to be taken to the hospital and have surgery.  He's an awesome older gentlemen and I'm sure he won't let it slow him down.

Been mad at my keyboard...

So the other day I sat down to look at blogs and moved my keyboard. The whole underside was soaked with water. Upon further inspection, it appears that someone (Juliet) dumped a cup of water on the keyboard and it leaked out the bottom. Needless to say, my keyboard stopped working. I was still able to surf from any pages on my Favorites List but I couldn't type a new http address or login to anything. Merril nabbed one today and it's felt like ages since I was able to type. Really, it's been 3 days I think.

Other than that, I've been painting like mad, ordering carpet and ordering a fan. The painting is almost finished. I still need to go back and fix a few spots and I'll post pictures when it's done.

We also got a new goldfish because our other one died. I went to Petco so the kids could look at all the other animals they have. It's our little zoo. So we bought our 13 cent fish and headed home. We put it in the tank and it was dead this morning. A little cheesed, I decided not to go back in case there was a fish disease in the tank at Petco. So I went to Wal-Mart this time and on the way to purchasing it, Maxine dropped the bag with the fish. A little bugged, we paid our 13 cents and took off home. As Maxine was getting out of the car, she dropped the bag again. From the other side of the car I said, "Did you drop the fish again?!?" She started sobbing and said, "I'm sorry!!!!" When I ran over, the bag had popped open the the fish was stuck in a corner of the bag with a teensy bit of water left. I ran it into the house and put it in a cup. After all that shock, he might be dead tomorrow too. We'll be going for the record, 3 fish in 3 days.

Adventures in painting...

After priming the walls and ceiling of the room downstairs with a roller, I decided that the doors, trim, and closet shelves needed to be done with an air sprayer.  So I finally rented one today, received my 5-minute tutorial, and started to work.  I think I got some primer on the trim and not just my face and arms.  I finished priming the trim and the closet shelves.  After the kids go to bed and the primer is dry, I'll go paint the the closet.  The air sprayer is sweet and works like a dream!   

So how was your trip?

Well, I'm glad that's over.  Disneyland was a lot of fun for Maxine.  Not so much for Jack and Juliet.  Jack's favorite part of the day occurred when two birds landed near our lunch table and nibbled crumbs by our feet.  Sweet.  Jack wasn't a big ride fan except for "It's a Small World."  Juliet had fits of unhappiness.  She wanted to play in the stroller but only when it was stationary; moving was not allowed.  She also did not want to be held as we walked or want anyone else to sit in her stroller seat as it was being pushed along.  So she went from ride to ride yelling and screaming if she was being held or in the stroller.  As long as we were sitting by the stroller and she could play with it without moving, she was great.  

But there were moments of happiness squeezed in between the screaming and meltdowns.  King Arthur's Carousel was a big hit.

Jack said the only thing he wanted to do all day was meet Mickey Mouse.  I love the look on his face.

I think Juliet's favorite part of the day was devouring half a bag of cotton candy with me while we waited for Merril, Max, and Jack to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. So we did okay.  I think the trip would've been better if it'd just been me and Maxine at Disneyland.  Jack and Juliet just got too tired.

The kids were worn out after Disneyland and slept like logs.  The next day we went to the beach.  It was a little chilly when we first got to the beach (probably 70) but the kids forgot about it after a bit.  Maxine collected shells and posed for the camera.  "Concentrate Danielson!"

Jack drove his toy trucks in the sand.

Juliet frolicked in the surf and sand.

Merril surfed.

When we go back to California, I want to hit Sea World.  I remember it being a lot of fun too!

I just wrecked my car again, I'm goin' to Disneyland!

There's a song about Disneyland, called Dizz Knee Land, by a band called Dada and Merril sings it often.  It's a silly song in which a delinquent does all this crazy stuff and says he's going to Disneyland.  Examples, "I just robbed a grocery store.  I'm going to dizz knee land!  I just got cuffed again.  I'm going to dizz knee land!"  I'm guessing they had to spell it dizz knee land so that Disney couldn't sue.  

ANYWAY, we decided to go to Disneyland today.  I know, pick your jaw up off the floor.  Merril's less than thrilled, I'm indifferent, Maxine has enough excitement to run all the way to California.  I like Disneyland, truly.  I'm just not a big fan of taking kids to Disneyland because I'm going to pay a lot of money to have a rough day.  But Maxine has waited, patiently.  We always said, "Maybe next summer because Jack's a baby.....maybe next summer because Mommy's pregnant....maybe next summer because Juliet's a baby."  Well, we ran out of excuses.  It's time.  

Ward BBQ...

Went to a ward barbeque a few weeks back and a lady in the ward takes pictures.  She sends out an email with a link to download the pictures.  I nabbed these.

The pictures I have of me and Juliet usually include the side of my arm from holding the camera myself.  It's easier to get Juliet to smile for a person instead of saying 'cheese' in her ear.

Here's a rare one:  Merril and me in a picture without the timer being set or instructing Maxine to, "make sure and get both of us in the picture."

There were a lot of cupcakes at said barbeque.  I saw Jack nab about 4 and stuff them in his mouth before I could run over and stop him.  However Juliet would simply eat the frosting and leave the remnants on the table.

Sorry I haven't blogged as much lately.  I've been priming the room in the basement.  It's primed and ready for paint but the priming took 4 days and frankly, I wish I were done. Instead, I have to spend another 3 days to actually paint the room.  Seriously, painters don't get paid nearly enough.  I'm still looking good to make my goal of finishing by June 17th, Juliet's 2nd birthday.  *sigh*  

Painting the Sistine Chapel...

Okay, so we're not painting the Sistine Chapel but I feel really bad for Michaelangelo and my ceiling isn't nearly that big.  *funny side bit* At the exit of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, there were a ton of souvenir places selling prints of the finger of Adam reaching for the finger of the Lord and Merril said, "Those are nice."  I said, "Yeah but we just saw the original."  He said, "That scene is in the Sistine Chapel?!?"  I was like, "Yeah.  That's the reason we came to the Sistine Chapel, to see the finger of the Lord!  I'm sorry you missed it."  It had taken us nearly 3 hours to get to through to the Sistine Chapel so there was no way we were going back.  Which means I'm going back to Rome some day so Merril can actually see it next time.  

Anyhoo, I'm painting the ceiling in the basement.  Correction:  I'm priming the ceiling in the basement.  Seriously, I've decided that ceilings don't really need paint.  They're good with just primer, right?  The thought of covering the whole ceiling again with paint just makes my neck hurt.  The primer makes the ceiling look like a real room though!  Hee hee!

Hey, does anyone know if I'm supposed to seal those hair-line cracks in my cement floor before I put down carpet or tile? 

Electrify...

Today, I feel like a major obstacle (mostly mental) has been surmounted in the basement project.  I had an electrician come and wire the breakers and connect the breaker box to the panel on the outside of the house.  Here's the breaker box with the wiring half finished.  The electrician had to run and get more breakers at this point.

Here's the box all wired up!  Outlets, switches, and light fixtures will have to be wired up before we can flip the breakers on.  I'm so excited!!  

I could have light by this weekend....if I bought some lights and put them up.

New bicycle!!

For Mother's Day, Merril said he was getting me "the best Mother's Day present ever!" Mother's Day arrived and I received a bicycle!  The gift was actually the brainchild of Maxine.  Merril was fishing for Mother's Day ideas and casually asked Maxine what I might want.  She answered with "a new car."  Merril said that probably wasn't going to happen but was there something else I might want.  She said, "How about we get a bike for Mommy?"  Merril said, "Actually that's a pretty good idea!"

Before now, we've never had enough bikes to ride together as a family, either Merril or I would have to stay home.  But today, we took a trip to Maverick and bought ice cream and Reece's Peanut Butter cups.  I rode my bike to Young Women's the other night too.  

So I asked Maxine, "What should we get Daddy for Father's Day?"  She said, "I can't think of anything."  Bummer, me either.

Waiting for oatmeal...

Juliet cracks me up.  She has an overwhelming abundance of personality.  However, yesterday morning she woke up on the wrong side of the bed.  Here she is waiting for her breakfast.  
"Seriously Mom, are you done yet?"

Can-O-Rama!

Our family home evening consisted of teaching the kids the importance of self-reliance and food storage.  Then we canned some food!  The sealer we borrowed from the cannery was slick!  It wasn't completely automated, like the one at the cannery, but used a torque wrench to seal cans.  I had to lean all my weight onto the wrench to get enough torque to seal the cans.  Merril, on the other hand, could just stand there and do it.  Merril's holding the first can off the assembly line.  

Maxine was good at writing the date on the labels and affixing labels to the cans.  She'd also write on the boxes.  Jack was good at touching all the wheat that went into the cans.

We canned a bag of wheat and then put the kids to bed.  Merril and I finished the bulk of the canning on Monday night.  I went to Wal-Mart and purchased different kinds of noodles, cornmeal, and cream of wheat to can.  I finished canning those up Tuesday night.  We ended up canning 115 cans of food.  Harmons was having a sale on Morning Moos milk so I bought 6 cans of regular milk and 2 cans of chocolate milk.  I also bought some salt, honey and crisco (for oil). The only thing left to purchase are some buckets for the sugar and a 55-gallon drum for water.  I've heard that canned sugar can take on a metallic taste so I decided plastic buckets are going to be the way to go.  

I also bought a ton of soap and toothpaste.  In an emergency, I want to be as clean as possible.  Merril and I estimated that we have around 6 months of food storage.  We figure that's a good start for now!  My next task is to learn how to use my pressure cooker to bottle some chicken, beef stew meat and hamburger.  Yikes!  

Canning madness...

I picked up the sealer from the cannery today and bought a bunch of food and cans.  All told, I left with 50 lbs of beans, 50 lbs. of rice, 150 lbs. of wheat, 15 lbs. of apple slices, 50 lbs. of oats, 25 lbs. of dried onions (I like onions), 50 lbs. of flour, and 37 lbs. of milk alternative.  I'm still going to Wal-Mart and buying a can's worth of cornmeal, cream of wheat, and a bunch of different noodles.  I'll be canning 108 cans worth of food.  Juliet's excited.It's not everything we need but I figure it's a good start.  I asked Merril what he'd like to have in our food storage and he said a .30-06 rifle.  Ummmm.....okay.

Public Service Announcement...

When cannery assignments come up for our ward, I always want to go but that means a sitter for 4 hours for 2 or 3 kids.  Then I found out that the cannery lends #10 can sealers to ward members!  I just thought I'd pass on the info.  On Monday (May 4th), I'm borrowing a canner/sealer from the cannery and sealing a bunch of #10 cans for food storage.  I have to have it back by Thursday morning.  And if you have anything you feel like canning, you can buy the #10 cans at the cannery and bring it over.  I think they're $.71 for the can, lid, and one oxygen absorber.  

I'll be doing wheat, flour, beans, rice, apples, carrots, macaroni, oats, onions and whatever else I feel like throwing in a can.  I get the feeling we'll be canning for family home evening.  ;)

Tribute to Grandma Maxine and butter...

My Grandma has been dead for over a decade but I still remember her crazy outfits and amazing garden.  She was a fabulous soprano and even sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for a number of years.  She'd take me and my sister with her to our great grandmother's house in Idaho for 2 weeks each summer.  She went to Idaho each summer to escape the heat.  These terrible pictures were taken with my first camera using 110 film and flash bulbs.  Geeze. I remember one summer we went out to a Pioneer Village place.  People dressed as pioneers demonstrated how the pioneers would wash clothes and make butter.  This is my sister, Jessica, on the left and cousin, Cherise, on the right.  Sorry ladies.This awful picture is me.  I must've been 9 or some other awkward age.  We're washing clothes with homemade soap.  The evening closed by the pioneer woman pouring cream into a mason jar and passing it around for the audience members to shake it until butter appeared.  She pulled freshly baked bread from a dutch oven and we buttered and ate it.

Anyhoo, on to the point!  The kids and I went to a historical site in our home town and that got us thinking about the pioneers.  I told Maxine about my trip to Idaho as a youth and how we made butter with whipping cream and a mason jar.  She made me promise that we'd try it when we got home.  

So I got out a mason jar, filled it with cream and we started taking turns shaking it.  It got really thick and after 10 minutes, I was starting to doubt whether the two of us could shake a mason jar enough to make butter.  I sat on the couch and started whacking the mason jar on the couch cushions.  After a minute or so, the contents in the jar suddenly changed consistency and there was a big lump of butter in the jar with whey.  I was like, "No way!  We actually made butter by hand!"  I drained off the whey and added a dash of salt and made some toast!

Here's little Maxine with the jar and butter.  Thanks Grandma Maxine for the great summers!!

They don't get paid enough...

We've been working on a room in the basement.  The idea is to get the room finished, move the office downstairs and move Juliet out of our closet.  Yep, I said closet.  My walk-in closet is her bedroom.  She sleeps in a portable crib.  The goal is to move her out by her 2nd birthday.  People have had to endure greater hardships, like crossing the plains.  Juliet's sleeping in the closet just makes it more difficult to access my wardrobe after 8 p.m.  At least I have a walk-in closet for her to sleep in.  Without it, she'd be sleeping in the laundry room or pantry, or worse, my room. :)  

Anyhoo, I was caulking in the basement on Saturday and realized that painters and caulkers get paid far too little for such a job.  Every single seam needs caulk.  Every shelf in the closet, every baseboard, every jam for the doors and every corner in the room receives caulk, so as to match and create a room that will match seamlessly with our upstairs living space.By the second tube, I started to get pretty good at it.  (BTW, I don't have a bubonic plague hand, I'm just wearing one black glove.)  I'm almost finished, just a few seams left on the doors.  The closet, baseboards and wall seams are done.  My next step will be priming and then on to paint!!  

Having a great day and then WHAM!!!

Yesterday we spent our first day at the lake.  The weather was calm and warm, the water was a little chilly but I still got it up to my waist, the kids played contently...quite the perfect day.  In fact, on the way home from the lake, Jack let out a contented sigh and said, "What a perfect day for going to the lake."  Merril and I looked at each other and smiled.

So we got home and I backed the boat in, for practice because I need it, and then Merril unhooked the boat.  Jack jumped out and I opened the garage and started to back in.  I was watching low in my mirrors, scanning for Jack and making sure I didn't run him over and WHAMO!  By watching for Jack, I neglected to watch to make sure the garage door was all the way up and smashed it.  UUURRRGGGG!!!  Merril was able to push the panels back a bit so the door can still go up and down and the damage is done.

I was so mad at myself for such a dumb mistake and luckily for me, Merril didn't have any snide comments.  All he did was give me a hug as I bawled saying, "It'll be okay, babe."  My total Zen-like state from the lake was ruined.

So I had a garage door guy come look at it today and it could be anywhere from $400 to $1,000 to get it fixed.  The manufacturer doesn't make this particular door anymore so even though I only need to replace the bottom 2 panels, the whole door might have to be replaced.  There's a chance he might have leftover door pieces in his warehouse but he'll have to check and see.  And then they have to be painted.  Great.  

On a happier note, I wanted to thank everyone who's helped me get excited about food storage!  I just put in an order for canned cheese and butter.  I know what you're thinking, how good can this butter be??  It's real butter and cheese.  They just stuck it in a can!  How crazy is that??  It's totally shelf stable and doesn't need to be refrigerated until you open it.  And the really crazy part, it tastes and looks great!!  Amazing!

Classic procrastinator...

Yesterday was tax day and in true procrastinator style, I didn't get addresses on the tax envelopes until later last night.  The post office by my house was closed and so I had to drive 15 miles into town to the main office to make sure my stuff was postmarked by April 15th.  This is my receipt for the postage.  Notice the date and time at the top.  Yep.  
If you've never been at a post office near midnight on tax day, it really is a fun place.  People are generally making jokes about "death and taxes".  One guy put his taxes in the bin, stepped back and said, "Wait, there wasn't a stamp on that one!!!  Oh, well.  Nothing I can do about it now." and walked out.  God bless America.  Luckily, I'm getting a return this year!  Wahoo, more basement money!