Lake days...

Last year, I blogged post after post about going to the lake. I thought it got a little boring after a while and made an effort to exclude the lake from my blogging entries. It's the end of August so I think it's fair to make one blog entry for the summer!

We love the lake! It's how I get into my Zen state of mind for the week.

Jack was extremely pleased because he just pushed Maxine in the water. (She's the big splash in the background.)

Juliet was excited that she and Jack got to share a soda.

Maxine was excited that no one was bugging her.

I'm a little sad that lake season is coming to an end. I'll miss the lazy evenings with my toes in the warm water but I'm excited for Halloween. :)

500 Days of Summer...

I was excited when I watched the previews for the movie 500 Days of Summer and then was bummed when it didn't initially come to my town. I learned from Shelly that it came to our town late and that she'd seen it and liked it! Yeah! My SIL called me up the other night and said she was in town and really wanted to see it. We had both previously watched the preview together and commented how fun it looked. So we went and saw it and I thought it was delicious and clever. It was the Sundance Film Festival's Official Selection for 2009. I really liked it! So you should go see it before this independent film skips town. :)

BTW, our lonely towel was reunited with its rightful owners. And who said blogging never amounted to anything! :)

I want to come home!!

About a month or two ago, this towel ended up in our boat. It really wants to go home. Does anyone know who it belongs to?

It's a nice, large beach towel from Target and frankly, I want to keep it for myself. But I can tell it doesn't want to stay with me. Please help us find its home!

And on a side note: I purchased a replacement DVD remote off Ebay since my original remote has been lost for over a month and I want to navigate DVD menus. It was $8 and free shipping so I felt pretty good about it. I guess I should've just purchased a new DVD player because now my player will only play DVDs when it's upside down. It makes an awful noise and skips when it's right-side up. *sigh* How dumb. I really want a DVD recorder but they're more expensive so I'm trying to hold off and save my pennies so when this DVD player bites it, and I mean really bites it, I can buy a cool recorder. Forget it. I'm just going back to VHS.

Weekend hangover...

I've taken 2 naps today. Why? Because I'm hung over from the weekend. I'm not hung over in the traditional sense but I've spent the last 2 nights in a strange bed with my kids sleeping on the floor at a reunion. I'm always paranoid that my kids are going to wake up other people's kids. Jack woke up and wimpered a bit because he couldn't find his blankie in the dark. So I sprang out of bed and stumbled around to try and find it as fast as possible. Such sleep leaves me feeling a little worn out after 2 nights.

Other than being a little sleepy, we had lots of fun. We played ping pong as a group, I think it's called "around the world," and the game starts with a group gathered around the table. A person will serve the ball and then put down the paddle and rotate around. So everyone is hurrying to hit the ball, set down the paddle, and make their way to the other end of the table to pick up that paddle and hit the ball and continue around. We usually start with 6-8 people running around. If you mess up, you're out. Once it's down to 2 people, one person will serve, put down the paddle, spin a 360, and then pick up the paddle to receive the ball. Just watch, it's fun and funny.

Merril's little sister, Megan, won that round.

Merril was resting for a bit with the kids. Maxine, Merril and I all played. Merril and I both won a couple of times. Woops, I didn't fix the red eyes.

We went swimming, played way too much Wii, gabbed a lot, and ate tons of food. There was also a talent show and an auction. We were each given $500 of play money and all who attended were asked to donate some items. We chose to donate a selection of candy bars. Maxine bought some colored pencils and a notebook. Jack got an activity book and I bought some bracelets. We pooled our money at the end because Maxine really wanted to buy some playdough. She paid $630 for it. Fun fun!

The grudge match...

Since Merril's car got stuck in his heat, he was able to compete one last time in a heat called the grudge match. Everyone who got stuck or got their car running again can compete for a chance to advance to the final round. Merril is red car #3.

The blue car #57 ended up winning the whole thing in the final heat.

So he didn't win but he had lots of fun. The derby was long but the kids did okay. Grandma C. helped out by taking Max and Jack to ride some rides between heats. Grandma G. was busy holding kids and making sure they didn't fall out of the stands. We had friends and family all over the stands. We had family and friends in the pit crew too! Thanks to everyone who showed up to support Merril!

I didn't take very many pictures of Merril because I was filming but I snagged a few of me and the kids. We made team shirts!

They were red and said things like, "We crash for cash!" and "Daddy is car #3!"

The derby got over at 11:00 p.m. so it lasted for 4 hours. There's a lot of silly down time that doesn't need to be there. We all felt it could've moved a lot faster. It took me 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot afterwards. Hee hee. All the kids fell asleep while waiting so I was content to just take my time.

Yesterday, (Sunday) I realized that I didn't even get a chance to buy a funnel cake with all the crazy derby stuff going on at the fair. So we celebrated the closing of the fair with funnel cakes and they are so delicious!! It's just pancake batter drizzled in hot oil until golden brown and then topped with chocolate or carmel sauce, powdered sugar, or whipped cream. Oh.....SO.....YUMMY!

This is for you Jared...

Merril competed in the demolition derby last night and his BFF, Jared, was unable to attend because of a reception. Merril didn't win the derby but had lots of fun! I just wanted to hurry and post a bit of video before church. This is from the heat that Merril competed in. He drove and smashed and then got stuck under another car. Merril was also able to compete in the grudge match but I'll post that later. Merril's is the red #3 car.

I apologize for being so cliche...

It's the 1st day of school and so I have to do the traditional post. We all woke up early and had plenty of time to spare. Maxine surprised me by skipping all the way to the bus stop and yelling, "I'm so excited for 1st grade!"

We took a picture on the lawn together courtesy of Jack. That's the reason the picture's slightly crooked and I didn't care to fix it in photoshop.

I think it enhances the realness of the scene. ;) But I've tried to take advantage of the free time and cleaned bathrooms and oiled the wood cabinets. We just finished lunch but I still get the feeling it's time to pick up Maxine. With Kindergarten, her bus would get to the bus stop around lunch time. I still feel like that's the case and keep thinking, "Isn't Maxine supposed to be home by now??" Nope, I've got 3 1/2 more hours. But I have specific instructions that I'm supposed to be waiting for her on the front porch.

I'm starting to sweat...

No, our A/C is working just fine. It's about the derby. I've been a little nervous since Merril's demolition derby dream became more of a reality. But I'm struggling through and just asked that he mount a fire extinguisher within arm's length so he could put out any miscellaneous fires in the cab. Do I really think he'll catch on fire??? No. I've just watched too many movies. They've taught me that cars blow up at the drop of a hat. :)

Other than that, we're just getting ready for Maxine to start school. I put some money on her lunch card so she could get milk to drink with her sack lunch. We also took some pictures together and put them in her bag because she frets about things.

I've always been really excited for her to start school but I'm just now realizing that I'm losing my biggest helper with the kids. She entertains them, she helps them get drinks and tells me when someone's poopy. Very important stuff. I hope I can survive without her.

We had to get them, they're red...

What's better than one demolition derby car???

Two, of course.

Merril will be competing in this year's demolition derby at the fair. It's coming up in a week and a half so if you've ever wanted to see Merril get pounded, now would be a good time. (Come on ladies, I know you're out there!) Car #2 is up for sale so if there's any men out there wishing to fulfill a boyhood dream, now would be the time. It's competition ready and the Starsky and Hutch racing strip comes free of charge. 1st place is $3,000.

The demolition derby has sold out for the past couple of years but tickets are still being sold here and look for ticket purchase. Children 5 and under are free.

But you may be asking yourself, "Where did Merril buy demolition derby cars?" He found this pair on Ebay in Louisiana. So Merril and his buddy, Brent, drove to Louisiana and back over the weekend. Nice. One thing's for certain, he definitely ambitious.

It's so caliente!

My garden has never produced in huge numbers. I've always had 1 or 2 tomatoes at a time and that was enough to keep me from buying tomatoes throughout the summer. This Spring, a friend told me to plant 2 tomato plants per cage. You get twice the tomatoes but not twice the foliage somehow. This summer, my tomato plants are going berserk and I felt inclined to make some salsa!

Maxine, my huge helper, is always ready to help in the kitchen. We put Jack and Juliet down for a nap and started working.

The bounty-I have lots of cherry tomatoes as well. I threw them in too. Is "threw" a word?? One green pepper came in from the garden too.

Since it's 105 outside and my A/C is always struggling to keep up, I decided to put the water bath canner outside on the grill's side burner. The sledge hammer was an essential support because the canner was HEAVY with all that water. All the heat stayed outside! I'm never canning inside again! That was the best!

The result: 4 pints of delicious salsa! I spent $.47 on another green bell pepper and $.32 on jalepenos. The onions and tomatoes came from the garden. I already had the lids so I think $.79 for 8 cups of salsa is pretty worth it!

This is my favorite canning book! Every recipe for canning you could ever dream of or imagine from spiced apple chutney to habanero jelly. If it can be preserved in a bottle, you'll find a recipe for it. Plus a complete guide to canning if you've never done it before. Can you believe it'll be August tomorrow????

A fun weekend...

We spent time at my parents cabin over the Pioneer Day weekend and had a great time! My parents have some fake deer in front of the cabin and my little kids love to ride them.

Maxine and her cousin were "fishing" off the deck.

This is my Aunt Maxine (right) and my Great Aunt Gwen (left). Gwen is the funniest lady you will ever meet and really reminds me of my deceased Grandma. It was great having her there.

We hung out and told stories.

But mostly we gabbed over a card game called pinochle (pronounced pee-knuckle). Don't worry if you've never heard of it before but my Mom's side of the family has been playing it since before I was born. I learned to play when I was 7 or 8 but haven't played for years. It was a great weekend!

And today, I got very ambitious and installed a ceiling fan!!

It took FoReVeR to get the ceiling fan ordered and shipped. I could've had a fan a month and a half ago but I wanted to it match the upstairs fans exactly. It's currently fanning me because it gets hot in the downstairs office. (No A/C just yet.) I'm pretty sure I installed it correctly but there's always the creepy feeling that one of those fan blades is gonna come whippin' off and hit me in the back of the head; or worse, poke another hole in the wall. Haa haa haaaaaa um yeah.

Productive streak...

I feel like I've been cleaning out closets and organizing a lot lately. Yesterday I bought 5 bicycle hooks for the garage and now my side of the garage is spotless. I've cleaned out under the fridge and the stove and cleaned out my linen/sewing closet. Why, you may ask? We've lost the DVD remote. By we, I mean the kids. At least I suspect the kids. I would just program the DVD player into our universal remote but it's old and their aren't any universal codes for it. I wish the player would just die so I could go get a new one but alas, it keeps on tickin'. So I've looked behind the TV, in boots in my closet, in all the cupboards in the kitchen, emptied all the toy boxes, searched under all the beds, felt down into all the cracker crumb regions of the couch but I just can't find it. Any suggestions?? :)

Alarming...

I rarely wake up with an alarm anymore. Jack is usually up by 7 or 7:30 a.m. and that's early enough for just about everything we need to get to. The other morning, my brother-in-law was graduating from Police Academy and we wanted to go. We needed to drive for a couple of hours to get to graduation so I needed to be up by 6:00 a.m. to get me and the kids ready. I DIDN'T SLEEP A WINK!! I know my alarm is going to go off, I just obsess constantly about the time. 2:36 a.m......3:04 a.m......3:17 a.m.........3:41 a.m. and so on. It's so annoying because I really need to be sleeping because I'll be getting up early. When I was waking up for school, I never had a problem sleeping all night long; I'm just out of practice. Next time I need to set my alarm, I'm going to have to do some serious Zen relaxation activities right before bed and visualize myself sleeping all night long. You are getting very sleeeeeepy......

Temple Open House...

Sunday after church, we drove to the South Jordan area of Utah so we could go to the Oquirrh (pronounced O-ker) Mountain Temple open house! Maxine was very excited.

Maxine has always wanted to go inside a temple and the open house provided a perfect opportunity. The temple was very pretty inside and Maxine's favorite part was the chandeliers. For more information about LDS temples, click here. If you haven't been yet, the open house only runs until August 1st. It's free but reservations are required and can be obtained here. There are free cookies and water afterwards too! :) This temple seemed significant to me because the city of South Jordan will have 2 temples. It's the only city in the world with 2 temples inside the city limits.

I wish I had more pictures but I forgot my camera and I forgot to take pictures with my phone. The only picture of the trip was of the kids in the back of the Tahoe. Merril's brother and his two girls came with us too so we used all 8 seat belts. I tried to get the picture off Merril's phone this morning but it didn't happen before he left for work. I'll try later!

Sparkles...

Fireworks always present a fun opportunity to mess with the settings on my camera. I wanted to capture the sparklers and in doing so, the kids came out fuzzy. I still think they look fun.

Juliet liked sparklers a lot.

Jack, not so much. He carried around a sparkler but didn't want it lit.
And a 4th of July first: no one was burned in any way this year!! Sweet!

AND...my hole in the wall has been sanded, textured and primed. I just need to paint it, and it'll be as good as new!

We hope you had fun too!

Weekend of camping and hole repair...

Last weekend, we drove about an hour to some sand dunes and camped. We took the 3-wheeler and Merril's dirt bike. The dirt bike broke down but the 3-wheeler ran like a champ! Maxine learned to ride by herself. (I know, I know. She's in flip flops, a skirt, with no helmet. Serious riding apparel. I promise we made her change later.)

Then the kids played in the fire. (We're starting a responsible parenting trend. Feel free to join in!)

And then Jack decided to be a moose.

Then the kids went to bed but some very nice people unloaded their 4-wheelers at 9:30 p.m. and continuted to buzz around until 2:00 a.m. Luckily, we are all heavy sleepers and they didn't drive over our tent.

The next morning, Merril was getting bored and decided to pull wheelies on the 3-wheeler.

This is the only picture I got of Juliet; she still has hot chocolate face.

Then we decided to go for a hike to see some Native American pictographs. The desert turned into lush forest for a bit and was a nice little hike. Only 1.5 miles round trip.

The pictographs were neat and then we headed for home.

On a side note, I'm finally starting the hole in the wall project. My colors are so awful in these next two pics but I'm tired and almost done.

Step 1: fix the hole.

Step 2: Spackle it. My spackle is pink. It dries white later but I feel like it's girl spackle because it starts pink. :)

Next...sand and texture. Happy 4th of July!!

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!