Wednesday, August 31, 2011

August 28

Underfoot

  • Joy School and music class were on his schedule. He loves to wake up for Joy School and get ready. His favorite day to wake up is Sunday because he gets to eat sugar bombs (cold cereal) before church.
  • Underfoot is learning how to react to situations. He will laugh, cry, yell, or hit. Some times being 4 is hard because there is so much to express.
  • Hurricane would not go to bed one night. After 3 trips to our room, we locked him out. Hurricane came to the door and cried until we heard Underfoot come down the hall and gently and sweetly encourage Hurricane to go back to bed. Hurricane went with him. Underfoot tucked him in, and they fell asleep. I’m glad they have each other.
Hurricane
  • Hurricane has been my buddy this week. He will stay up late and sit next to me as I do different tasks. He usually wants to be on my lap.
  • Hurricane loves to laugh and make faces. When he is made if I make his same face he will start to laugh. I hope his laughter stays in my head forever.
Sweetheart
  • Sweetheart participated in jury duty selection this week. He was chosen as a juror while the selection was still being made. Then he was excused. It was a criminal case with 17 meth drug and racketeering charges.
  • Sweetheart listens to books during his commute to work. He listened to Unbroken:A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. The book sucked him in.
  • He is the weed warrior as we have had monsoon rain. He attacks any weed that shows it’s sprout face.
Mama
  • At our family reunion in July, my extended family teased me for being the canning queen. My weeks are filled with preserving food. The food adventures were Zaycon 40 pounds of hamburger and 1 1/2 bushels of Hatch chiles. Sweetheart roasted the chiles on Saturday night as I washed and prepared them. This week I’ve peeled the chiles. I repacked the meat from the 10 pound tube to 1 pound containers.
  • I went with a friend on Friday night to watch The Help (very good) and ate sushi (Yum!).
  • I got sucked into Unbroken (my favorite quote) too and listened throughout the weekend.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

August 21

Funny: So on Saturday afternoon (after working our guts out in the morning) Mama and I decided to take a few minutes for ourselves. We figured that a good John Wayne movie (McLintock!) would keep the boys’ attention for a few minutes. About half way through the movie Underfoot came to tell us that Hurricane had gotten out some food. Before this Hurricane had “gotten out” the milk and spilled it all in the frig. We went in the kitchen to find a 5 gallon bucket of wheat everywhere.
He scooped out cup by cup 1/2 of the bucket and was enjoying the feel of the wheat in between his fingers and toes. It took us about 30 minutes to vacuum it all up. Hurricane had fun with the vacuum.
 The chickens will enjoy the wheat.

Underfoot has some dental challenges. On Monday unfortunately he had 3 cavities filled, a root canal, and a silver crown put in. The cavity started in between the molars and wasn’t identified until the tooth was awful.

Apparently we are awful parents in the area of dental hygiene (which has improved significantly since the verdict with flossing 2 times a day). The dentist said that these things (children with cavities) some times happen. Underfoot likes to show off his new pirate tooth. He will open his mouth and show it off. So we have met our child’s dream of being a pirate.

Mama and I started to take a Strengthening Marriage class this week. The class is free except for the baby sitter. We thought that it is a good idea to take advantage of a free class that will make our marriage stronger. Mama got tired of not baking because it is so hot and has baked up a a storm of bread, muffins, oven roasted tomatoes with garlic, doughnuts, roasted veggies to make into a sauce, and pie - sweet potato and pizza.
Sweet Potato Pie

She is tired of the heat and needed a creative outlet. Food is where she can find that outlet. Even though we have had temperatures of over 100 degrees, it has brought tranquility to her soul and enlarged my waistline.

Mama did baskets on Saturday morning. I sprayed for weeds and put down pre-emergent. We’ve received a lot rain this monsoon and the weeds are very intense. I went to a shot gun shooting tournament in the afternoon with the men in our congregation. I shot 15 out of 20 clay targets. It was fun. The gun I shot was a Winchester 1100, which I am told is a 1100 dollar gun. It was a lot of fun. After the shoot I did a little work to Fred. His AC works but not very well. Hopefully I can fix it.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

August 14

Underfoot: On Friday my friends A and W came to my house. They slept here. We watched a movie that night. We watched the Heavens of Oz (Wizard of Oz). But they left (their parents came at 11:30.) We ate supper and popcorn. I picked up the trains. I dipped strawberries and cherries and bread (pound cake) into chocolate (fondue.) It was yummy. I got my head shaved this week.

Hurricane: Hurricane likes to use the spray bottle to squirt everyone. He giggles when he gets someone wet. Hurricane frequently will say, “I show you something. I show you something.” He then climbs up onto his horsy rocking chair and has at it for a while.

Mama: On Friday, I put up a tent in our front room to have a movie night. The boys loved being in the tent, but when it was time for bed, they went and crawled in their beds instead of sleeping in the tent. They didn’t want to sleep in the tent.

I made a killer cherry pie - crust and all. It was my first pie crust that wasn’t like paper mache. I was pretty happy with that. Later that week I signed up for a contest to go to a pie tutorial in Oklahoma. My odds of winning were 1 in 1150 ish. Needless to say, I will not be going this coming weekend to Oklahoma, but it was fun to dream for a minute.

L4 decided our chickens needed to range. The ladies have not eaten our garden but have scratched around our backyard. I have decided that I want grass instead of dirt, rocks and weeds. We started by clearing out the weeds. I’m still not use to the heat and working in the heat. I guess I don’t have to earn my living in the heat at this point so I enjoy the air conditioning. We (all four of us) worked hard weeding, picking up rocks, and picking up weeds. After we sweat so much that clothes dripped (I don’t sweat that much usually), we stopped and took cold showers. We were wiped out the rest of the day. Earlier that morning we had gone to our community clean up and Bountiful Baskets. Back to the grass... To get grass the weeds need to be gone as well as the rocks. It will take us ages it feels like but by small and simple things great things are brought to pass. I think we might opt for some fake grass and some real grass.

Hurricane decided this week that he was done using the high chair and would like to sit in L4’s lap during all meals. This is irritates me. L4 responses with, “He won’t always want to sit in my lap.”

I also read a great article on modesty and more the do's instead of the don't of modesty.

L4: This week I had a long board meeting. It seems that the HOA is much like being a parent. Sometimes it extends mercy. Sometimes it cracks down. In all cases it has to treat the homeowners like children. Establish the rules. Enforce them. Try to understand and keep peace.

In my personal study I’ve been reading in the New Testament. I’ve learned a lot about the life of the Savior. I am grateful for this experience, as most of my personal study has been devoted to the Book of Mormon.

Today in Sunday School a man recounted an interesting story. As a recent convert, he was interested in genealogy. At a family reunion, his extended family questioned him as to why he would join the Mormon Church and why he would want to have his deceased grandmother baptized vicariously into the Church. He then recounted to them the Angelic visitation that his Grandmother had in 1924. She had shared the experience with him when he was a small child. As an adult he was introduced to the Church and was greatly moved by the similarity between his grandmother’s visitation and Joseph Smith’s experience with the Angel Moroni. The two accounts gave nearly identical descriptions of the Angelic visitor.

His extended family, which included several pastors from other faiths, were dumbfounded. At that point, his aged great aunt began to smile as she recalled the experience. She indicated that his Grandmother’s story had made quite a stir that year.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

August 7

Underfoot: My mom was a little bit mean to my friends because she kicked me out of her bedroom. I have the choice to not let them in. I went to all kinds of places at the Bike Park (a local bike awareness event at the school on Saturday morning). I went on the lines and to the waterfalls. Joy School is great because I learned a song about never hit or kick or push. I drew my friend J.’s face.

Hurricane: I go to lessons (refresher swimming lessons). Hurricane likes chips on his plate. I played trains. I like trains. I played trains. I built the train station. (Do you think he’s a bit obsessive about the trains?)

Mama and I celebrated our wedding anniversary on Saturday. We got a sitter for the boys and went to the temple. After that we went to a fancy steakhouse in town. We had dessert at The Melting Pot. In all we were gone for 10 hours. It was nice to be able to talk about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we’d like to go.

Author Switch: We are trying to to have each person participate in our weekly letter. L4 said his life isn’t as accomplishment-filled since he got a steady job and works Monday through Friday with Saturday chores and Sunday church. I told him he needed to get a hobby. His response is when would I do that? Any suggestions?

While L4 was hard at work, we had swimming lessons, the beginning of Joy School, a music class, and  neighbor children who came for two different days. This was smattered with doctor’s appointments.

Throughout the week, we have received different videos from my parents and youngest brother who are attending the 22nd World Scouting Jamboree in Sweden.

The boys watch the videos over and over again.

By the way, I doing a blog series on pioneers today. I even made the button.

Photobucket

I read a book called The Pioneer Women. The story is a love story but also a journey.  I believe that I am a country girl at heart and living in a HOA with neighbors close on all sides is a little much for me at times. This book brought some interesting conversation for L4 and I about what we'd like for our family's future. Maybe just maybe homesteading one day was part of the discussion.

Underfoot said to me one night before going to bed. “This is NOT a cold wheel, but a HOT wheel. See right here.” He was pointing to the flames on the underside of the car. Something clicked for him. It was darling. Another thing he has started to say is, “My Grandma made that for me when I was a baby. It was delicious.” Usually we are at supper and it the meal we are eating. He then says, “She made it for you too when you were a baby Mama. I was there.” Another chuckle.

We hope this finds you well and happy. Drop us a line to let us know you are alive.