Had ourselves a little family vacation...

So last Wednesday at 2:00 p.m., Merril called and said, "Want to go to Lake Powell for the weekend?" My response, "Uhhhh, sure!" It didn't end up working out so we went this weekend.

By Lake Powell, there's a magnificent slot canyon called Antelope Canyon. Merril's been there a bazillion times with Japanese tourists and arranged for Maxine and I to go for free! It was really a sight and not somewhere I'd want to be during a flash flood. It was crowded but we scored some super awesome amazing pictures. It was really neat!

Our little family decided to camp on a secluded beach. We loaded everything into the boat and took off. We drove around for a while and had a hard time finding a beach because the lake was so high. But we ended up finding a nice place to camp.

The next day we loaded in the boat to head up to Rainbow Bridge. It's took us a while to get there, maybe 2 hours. On the way, we took the boat up Cathedral Canyon. It was a deep canyon, but skinny. Merril was able to reach out and touch the sides as we floated along.

Cathedral Canyon is fairly close to Rainbow Bridge, which is the largest known natural bridge.

We stopped at a marina near Rainbow Bridge for some ice and paid $5.25 a bag. Incidentally, they were selling like hot cakes.

We drove back and fished. Which ended in Maxine catching 2 catfish and general frustration among the crowds. So we had tacos for dinner instead of bass or trout.

We even did the early morning skiing on the way to the floating toilet. (Merril wanted me to point out that only he did the skiing. I drove the boat.)

We lazed around camp.

We played in the water.

We took in too much sun and were ready to come home.

Jack's new/old bike...

Jack learned to ride his bike this summer without training wheels. Quickly, he was ready to move up to the next size and we decided to take one of Maxine's old bikes and give it a makeover. I'm so bummed I don't have a decent before picture. If you look at this old picture of Juliet, you can see the bike in the background.


Basically all you need to know is that it was very pink. Since it was a D.I. special, the tires were done after Maxine so Merril invested in some new tires and black grips. Jack picked the colors for his new bike, decided which part got painted which color and he and Merril took it all apart and painted it. He is supremely proud of his new bike!

Maxine's Musical...

Maxine was in a junior musical this summer. It was Seussical Jr. and she was a who and an offstage voice.


The whole cast was made up of kids, not a single adult, and they did a pretty great job. She had a great time but worked really hard on it. For the entire month of July, she was at rehearsals for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. Frankly, I was exhausted by the end of it but she loved it. (Sorry about the weird blur faces.)

Juliet attended every performance and all the kids still sing the songs a lot, annoyingly. But it was a great thing for her this summer and we'll probably do it again next year. :)

What a rager!!

So Merril came in the house this morning and said, "It looks like we had a rager in the front yard." Eyebrows raised, I ask, "Why?" He says, "Well, the kiddie pool's still out there from yesterday, lawn chairs are tipped over, trash from otter pops, and a bunch empty cups." I reply, "It must have been a good one, I don't remember a thing." :) (Kids make my life messier.)

Sunshine and happiness...

Our fair city opened its first splash pad and my kids have been begging to go! I thought it was going to be super crowded around lunch time but it wasn't too bad. We took lunch and ate and played. Good times were had by everyone, as you can see.

I love this picture of Maxine. The buckets were a big hit.

Jack kept playing in the water but stopping to pose for me.

Fun.
Fun.


And more fun.

Happy Summer!

4th of July Fireworks...

Okay so we saw some fireworks but that's not what this post is about. I got a call Monday afternoon from Merril, who had taken the 2 little kids shooting.

Merril: "Hey babe, um I just rolled the Scout."

Me: "You rolled the Scout? Are you guys okay?"

Merril: "Yeah! The kids had seat belts on but we need the air compressor."

Me: "Is the Scout okay?"

Merril: "It caught on fire after that!"

Me: "Yikes!"

Merril: "I put out the fire with sand."

Me: "All right, I'm on my way!

So Maxine and I loaded up some snacks, cold waters, the air compressor and a whip flag and headed out to the sand dunes. I arrived at the trees at the sand dunes and found my children laughing and playing in the sand but looking like this:

Merril looked like this:

The Scout looked a little worse for the wear. The windshield cracked.

This dent became more dented.

And the hood got squished and smashed the air cleaner.

Here's the 3 of them in front of the rolled Scout. Jack wouldn't smile.

The Rescuers:

More details: So Merril was on the ridge of a dune and turned to go straight down but the front tire sunk in and the whole Scout slid sideways. Juliet said that Merril said, "Here we go!" The Scout rolled twice. Merril, who wasn't wearing a seat belt, held on for one slow revolution and then stepped out of the Scout. Juliet told me she closed her eyes tightly. I asked if it was because it was really scary. She informed me in a matter-of-fact tone that she closed her eyes because there was sand everywhere. Injuries were very minor. Something fell out of the Scout and bonked him on the back of the neck/shoulders. Juliet has one teensy bruise on her hip where the seat belt held her in. Merril's forearm got scratched somehow. Otherwise, everyone escaped just a little shaken.

The Scout landed on its tires so Merril jumped in and drove down the rest of the hill. The Scout started on fire because battery tie down broke loose and the batter cable was contacting the body and sparking. Merril threw sand on it and duct taped the cable and it was all fixed. I arrived with my little air compressor and snacks, we aired up the tires and drove home.

All the kids rode with me, incidentally.

Later Merril asked me, "Are you mad?"

I replied, "No I'm grateful, the kids had seat belts and no one was hurt."

(If he'd rolled the Jeep, instead of the Scout, I would've been mad.)

Kids, be safe.

Wahoo corn!

The first year I did a garden I planted corn. The wind constantly blew it flat and it struggled. My soil ph was too alkaline at the time as well, not helping the situation. Let's just say that I failed at growing any corn but grew nice fall corn husk decorations for the front porch. I gave up for a few years. I renewed my determination to grow an ear of corn. I have a long, skinny grow box and decided to grow 5 small rows instead of 2 long rows side by side, hoping for the best fertilization.

(My phone camera has a scratched lens, resulting in blurriness on the left side.)

It seems to have worked out well! We picked our first dinner's worth of corn on the cob. The ears are small, maybe one ear equals half of a regular ear, but they're tasty and the kernels are fully developed. I was so worried about the corn not fertilizing and growing decorations again.

There's enough out there for another dinner as well! So I finally grew some edible corn and am so excited to boil the little cobs tonight!

SHUT THE DOOR!

I'm so sick of telling the kids to shut the door this summer! So I devised a plan. We got a swing hing and replaced one of the hings on the front door. It won't close the door completely so it latches but it will gently swing the door closed. It's enough to keep $50 worth of air conditioning floating out the door every afternoon and the hair on the top of my head from being pulled out. (I'm exaggerating but you get the idea.)

Just an observation...

Have you ever noticed that a girl rarely has Jr. attached to her name? I've seen Robert Downey, Jr., Dale Earnhardt, Jr. but rarely if ever a girl? There's no Evelyn Wells, Jr. or Susan B. Anthony Jr. Weird. If you think of anybody, let me know.

Happy Birthday Juliet...

Because I have awesome friends, Juliet had a birthday party today! Juliet has a friend in sunbeams that almost has the same birthday. Her Mom, Val, asked if I wanted to do a party together! I agreed and it was fantastic.

Juliet wanted a pinata for her birthday and Maxine wanted to do paper mache this summer so we killed 2 birds with one stone. (You can say it, the princess head is a little creepy. It's more motivation to smash it.)

Here's Val concentrating madly on the cake!


There was water and slides and general birthday happiness. Maxine and Jack even said they had a great time.

The best part, in my opinion, was when Val's older daughter put the smashed pinata head on her own head and started doing funny things for the kids like cartwheels and somersaults.

Happy Birthday Julie!

Sleeping outside...

I remember sleeping out on the trampoline all the time as a kid! I thought it was great fun, especially when my Mom would forget to turn off the sprinklers. So the kids asked if they could sleep outside and I said sure! Around dusk, Maxine started to get scared and didn't think it was a good idea anymore. I assured her that she didn't have to but Jack and Juliet were still enthusiastic about the idea.

Around 10 o'clock, Jack and Juliet started to get scared and Maxine had braved up by then. So I said I'd sleep out on the trampoline with them. Big mistake. I must be getting older because I'd wake up constantly and my shoulders would hurt or my tailbone was asleep. Looking over at the kids, they were all asleep like logs. Around midnight, the wind kicked up so the sound of my neighbor's wind chimes and sliding garbage cans kept me up the rest of the night. At 5:30 Maxine got up to use the bathroom and the other two woke up. By this time it was getting light out and the kids weren't afraid anymore. I said, "You guys can do whatever you want but I'm going inside to my bed." I slept inside until 8 o'clock but felt like I was dead all day long. The kids weren't much better. By midday, it looked like a crime scene at our house, bodies lying everywhere. We still had fun. :)

My theory about Fast Sunday...

I am fairly certain that during Fast Sunday I do not consume less calories, but rather divert calories to a different part of the day. :)

Straight from the UK...

Tonight...The Stig rides a bike...

His identity will never be revealed...

(If you don't get it, then you just don't get it.)

Summer fun...

Yea! Summer's here and we've been doing our share of lazing around. But there are a few things we've done so far!

Maxine decided she wanted to make a solar oven. She'd seen one on PBS and took off with the idea in her head. She made one and we tested the temperature of water in the oven and a control water on the ground next to the oven. It was in the morning and her plans are slightly flawed but her water in the oven was 10 degrees hotter than the control. I have plans to make a different solar oven tomorrow or Friday and cooking dinner in it. :) Pictures to follow.

And Jack learned to ride his bike today! There's a girl across the street that learned to ride her bike last week. I guess Jack decided he'd waited long enough. (For some reason, there's no audio from my crummy camera phone video.) :)

We also have plans to pull taffy this summer and do a book discussion as well as swimming. Are you doing anything fun and interesting this summer?

Feeling a little productive...

For a Personal Progress Project, I decided to learn a new skill of decorating. Ohmigoodness. It is not my strong suit. So I settled on a budget of $50 and set off to the back of stores like Ross and TJ Maxx, looking for stuff to go on top of my kitchen cabinets. I wandered around and hated everything. I came home frustrated because I wanted the top of the cabinets to look nice and be a reflection of ME but not like I stepped into Tai Pan Trading. (That's hard to do, btw.) I decided on orange, yellow and green for the color scheme and found some flowers that I liked and went from there. I also wanted to keep my punch bowl and cake stand up there because they're kitcheny. :) This is what I've got so far.

The pictures for the picture frames are ordered but haven't arrived yet. The frames are up there so I can get an idea of how it'll look done. All of the pictures are of my family in eating or of orange food.

Also, the oval orange sign is going to say Jamie's Cafe. It just doesn't yet. My kids came up with the name. (I love orange, it's almost red but not.)

There's a grassy bush thing on the left and a vase full of fake oranges, lemons, and limes. This experience has taught me something: I loathe 90% of all fake plants. URG! Silk plants look so fake to me. I went with the grassy thing because it looked real and the other green thing has a variety of succulents in it. (It seriously looks genuine!)

Moving on, I decided to make the curtains that I've been thinking of making for 3 years. Their main purpose is to black out my bedroom windows at night. They work great. I had all the fabric for those so final cost was zero. I don't think they're particularly cute but they do the job.

I bought those blinds because I liked the bamboo. I didn't realize that they filter, NOT BLOCK, sunlight. I'm pretty sure my neighbors could see in at night as well. Sorry neighbors.

My garden is looking good. Especially the peas. (left) The tomatoes are looking healthy and I've got carrots and onions doing well. I tried lettuce this year. Turns out, I struggle with lettuce and the chipmunks like to eat it.

The peas are plentiful! This will be the first year I'll have a pea harvest. I usually get them in late and they burn up before crop but not this year! I've got hundreds in there!! We've eaten a couple dozen of the early ones and they are fantastic!

Merril and I got the grape trellis built today. The grapes aren't tied to it yet, maybe Monday. For now, they're just hanging out down by the bottom. I have lots of little grapes on them! Hooray! This will be my first year for a grape crop!

I tried corn as well this year. I can already tell the wind is making them lean Eastward more than they would otherwise. And something from the squash family planted itself in the corn bed. I have no idea what it is but if it'll plant itself, I'm going to keep it and see what it is.

And then my blackberries are going to produce some fruit this year! Yeah!

The prophet said to plant a garden and I really get a kick out of watching and waiting for my food to grow up. I really, really, really, really do.

I got called to jury duty...

Well, I got a summons in the mail calling me to jury duty. I tried to get out of it by sending back a reply saying I have 2 small kids at home and I'm the primary caregiver. That didn't work. So I sighed, resigned to my situation, and took off to the courthouse.

The other prospective jurors and I waited for an hour and then got called into the courtroom. I was called into the jury box for a DUI case. I was asked to answer a questionnaire (My name, occupation, affiliation with any religious and civic groups, etc.) and also answered a follow up question about whether I knew any other jurors. Which I did. After all the jurors had answered questions, the attorneys talked in chambers with the judge. Afterwards each attorney had the opportunity to throw out 4 jurors each. I was one of them and was excused to go home. I guess I was too much of a wild card, or something. So I got paid $18.50 for 2 hours of sitting around and answering questions. Not too bad. I'll probably go buy a new pair of shoes. :)

My trip back East...

My Mom invited me to a girl's weekend in New York City. I accepted after Merril bought me the plane ticket for my birthday. I went with my Mom, my sisters, and a few other cousins and relatives. We took the red eye to JFK and took right off. We went to the Empire State Building,

St. Patrick's Cathedral,

and looked at Grand Central Station. We went to a show that night called Anything Goes, a show about love, set in the 1930s with lots of swing music and tap and ballroom dancing. It was great!

The next day I did a session at the Manhattan Temple, which is so small but beautiful, and then headed off to visit my friend, Emily. We hit a museum but mostly just gabbed and played at the park with her two cute girls. I took this picture of them before I left and headed back to Manhattan, where I hooked up with my family again.

The next day we went to Hoboken, NJ to visit Carlo's Bake Shop where they film the show, "Cake Boss" on TLC.

That was super fun!

There wasn't a line so we walked right in! There was general mayhem that accompanies a lot of people in a small space but I loved looking at the shelves of pastries.

I bought 2 chocolate strawberries, a chocolate mousse cake, a berry tart, an M & M cookie, 2 sugar cookies and a chocolate almond biscotti. I spent $21, which is fairly average pastry shop prices. I took some of it home to my kids but I ate probably a 1/3 of my purchases.

Then we walked around China Town and Little Italy back in Manhattan for a while until it was time to catch our plane home. I fell into bed at 4:00 a.m. and woke up at 7 to give my kids hugs and presents. Wahoo! Fun times!

We're jammin...

No, we're not listening to Bob Marley but I did make 28 cups of strawberry freezer jam yesterday.

It's Jack's favorite. I like to think I'm saving money by making it but I don't really think that's the case. But this post is actually about something else: my obsession with saving money and reusing items. It might be a disease or at least a clinically treated neurosis. :) For example, I saw a bag of compost on the side of the road all shredded from falling out of the back of someone's truck. I totally stopped and carefully eased into the back of the Jeep so I could take it home. I've picked up 2 very nice beach towels, a swim noodle, and a kid's play tent as well over the years. I also save things that might come in handy someday. I wash and save sour cream containers to put beans in after I cook them and then freeze them. The size of butter tub I've been using lately is the wrong size but I've still washed and saved them. Yesterday I found a use! I didn't have enough plastic lids to go on my glass jam jars. (I wash and save the lids from mayonnaise and miracle whip jars because the lids screw right onto regular mouth mason jars perfectly!) I started covering the jam jars with aluminum foil but wasn't satisfied. Instead, I took the previously mentioned too-big butter tubs and cut a circle. Then used the plastic circle underneath a regular mason jar screw band. Now they can be stacked in the freezer!

I just like to save money and keep stuff out of the landfills if I can. Hopefully it never takes over my life.

I love technology...

Technologically, I feel like we, as a society, are quite advanced. So it irks me when things take longer to solve than I feel it should take. For instance, the BP oil spill took 70 days to cap. 70 DAYS! I scratched my head, dumbfounded, while day after day barrels and barrels of oil spewed into the ocean and a solution eluded us. Really? Someone hasn't figured this out after a day or so? Ridiculous.

However, I'm pleased when technology surprises me. My cell phone was "misplaced" around my house and Merril wasn't home to call it. So I run to my office computer and Google "can't find cell phone, call it" and up pops a website called "Where's My Cellphone?" A free service that allows cell phone users to enter a phone number, select the time to call (Now!, 30 seconds, 1 minute, etc.) and hit enter. The website says, "Your phone is ringing. RUN! Go find it!" After finding my phone and answering it, an exaggerated game-show host voice says, "Thank you for using Where's my cell phone!" and hangs up. Of course you can donate but it's not required.

So, with so many good technologically advanced tools in the world, some things just shouldn't take as long as they do.