4th of July at 103 Degrees

It had been above 100 degrees for the past 8 days, so we opted out of the (lame) parade downtown, out of the chalk art at Ann Morrison Park, and out of parks, barbeques, or outside picnics completely.  We went to a matinee movie, McFarland USA, at the discount theater, and then took Terry's mom out to dinner.  

We loved the movie.  It was fun going together.  Terry and I aren't big movie watchers.  I think we still have been to less than 10 movies at theaters in our whole marriage.  We're probably getting close to 10.  We definitely don't average 1 a year, maybe 1 every 2 years.  It was a cool inside and a real treat.  We ate protein bars and drank water.  What weirdos!  

We went to Applebees at about 5:00 that afternoon.  The place was practically deserted.  Maybe we were the only whimps that bailed on all outdoor activities.  It was nice visiting with Felice.  We got home at about 8:00 and I was wiped-out.  I don't know what it was, but I went to bed by 9:00 and didn't hear anything all night.  Terry said it sounded like our neighbors were launching rockets at about 11:30, but I slept through everything.  

It wasn't a traditional 4th of July.  The only thing patriotic I did was put our flag out, but we had a cool day.  

Fathers Day Family Dinner

All the kids went in and bought their dad a FitBit for Fathers Day.  It was the perfect gift for him and perfect timing.  Five of us are doing the Meltdown Challenge and working on healthy habits.  As our coach, Terry needs to be on top of things.  

We invited everyone over for a healthy celebration dinner.  I did baked chicken, some fruit and a salad.  Stace brought a quinoa salad that we want to post on our new blog with healthy recipes (that we haven't started yet).  Krystle brought some avocado humus with snap peas that were Terry's favorite.  Our dessert was frozen yogurt.  

There was a lot of visiting and the kids ran around.  Hadley pushed everyone to help with her blanket.  In the end we had a fun for all!

The kids table

She just got her ears pierced.  She earned it by reading books.

Kids on the patio.

 

She looks like trouble.

 

Our best behaved grandchild, Brynklee.

A couple of the fathers.

Hadley's finished blanket.

The only shot of the other dad, Mike.

Bry and I-guy on Fathers Day

Easter Sunday

We invited all the kids (minus Ty in Oregon) and grandkids over for Easter breakfast and the morning session of conference.  It ended up being a good idea and the start of a new tradition, I think.  We started at 9:00, and everyone seemed to arrive just as more hot waffles were ready.  I wish I had taken pictures of the food.  This was the menu:

• fruit (pears, nectarine, grapes, fresh pineapple, strawberries)
• egg casserole (with sausage and hashbrowns)
• bacon (thick sliced and turkey)
• waffles (regular and spiced ones that are like cookies)
• maple syrup and buttermilk syrup
• yogurt and granola
• chocolate milk, orange juice, apple juice

Everything worked out great.  Nothing burned.  Nothing spilt.  And Stacey said pineapple is suppose to make you go into labor so she ate up and took home leftovers.

Stacey had brought conference Bingo Cards and that kept the kids tuned-in for about half an hour.  They played with toys and goofed off afterwards.  It was a little noisier than church, but not much.

Hads in her Easter dress (with matching sandals).

The boys rough housing.

Usually they're more like this.

I-guy brought his monster pillow that we gave him for Christmas.

Cute couple with a photo bomb kid.

I just started the blanket for the little girl that might be here next week.

It seems like I never have pictures of Maycee.  I wonder if her parents feel the same way.  Poor 3rd child.

Coloring

I think everyone had a good time.  It was good being together.  Terry and I spent a quiet afternoon watching conference and snacking.  I think this is the 2nd time we didn't have an Easter dinner.  Today we didn't even miss it.  (The last time was on a Spring Break trip to Portland and for some crazy reason, we couldn't find a restaurant.  We finally ate at a dirty Red Robin.  This was much better.)

Our 17th Valentine's Day

We were suppose to go out on Friday night with a couple that Terry home teaches, but plans got moved to Saturday.  Then, since it would be crowded at every dinner location on Valentine's Day, the guys decided to have dinner at home.  Then, they handed the phone off to the wives to work out a plan!  Something went askew there.  I ended up making dinner and the other wife cleaned her house and made dessert.  After dinner we played cards, checked out some military bases on Google Earth, and came home at 10:00.  It wasn't what you'd call romantic, but we actually did have a great meal and a great time.

Day Before Valentine's Day

Friday the thirteenth, a full moon, Jr. high registration, and a Valentine's Day party all converged on the same day this year.  Wow!  There was a lot of love and happiness, sugar and sweets, and ENERGY!

My 6th graders created a "love board" where they all contributed cards that had something they love printed on them (ice cold milk, Taylor Swift, basketball).  I'll have to get a picture. 

They didn't have to bring Valentines to everyone this year, but they had to do something for everyone in the class to share their love.  One boy who is always drawing in his notebooks, drew a little cartoon figure for everyone in the class and signed it.  He could be famous some day.  A girl gave everyone a ruler with a "You Rule" sticker on it.  I gave everyone a Blue Sky Bagel.  That's sharing my love. This girl (and her mom) went all out, and I love it:

Gumballs and a Hershey kiss.
It says, Blow Me a Kiss Valentine!

The silver behind it is actually a tall bucket with a dozen red, white, and pink tulips in it from a boy in my class.  I came home with flowers, chocolates, candies, homemade caramels, and heart shaped cookies to share.  It was not a good day for a diet, but a lot of crazy fun.

P.S.  This is Terry and my anniversary of the day we were sealed.  That's a big celebration of love!
  

Chuckie Cheese at 10 AM

I have five very cute grandkids.  They were all at Hudson's birthday party at Chuckie Cheese.  Everyone had a great time for 2 1/2 hours.  Hudson was one big grin, with a mohawk.  I was impressed with the event organizers there.  It was a perfect party for a 5 going on 6 year old.  Pizza, balloons, games, rides, cake, giant furry cartoon characters, prizes, a crown, gifts of Legos, guns, and trucks.  Who could ask for anything more?  

Huds and Tanner don't look like little kindergarteners anymore.  They're just kids.  It sure happens fast.

I had never been there before.  I must not have been a very good mother.  Thank goodness "the village" helped me raise Ty and he wasn't video game/arcade game deprived.

 

Not an April Fool

This was the first day back from Spring Break.  A Monday.  I spent it with sixth graders.  Not one person mentioned a prank.  Not one.  Not all day.  I wonder if this holiday is fading away.  Pretty soon it will be like May Day.  When I was young, some people left little bunches of flowers on doorsteps.  I even danced around a Maypole once, with ribbons that braided a pattern around the pole.  Not any more.  Not in a long time. 

Happy Easter

I feel like an Easter Scrooge this year.  I did get my colored eggs and bunnies out, but we didn't have any jelly beans or peeps.  The last couple years my family has gotten together and for a spring picnic and an Easter Egg Hunt for the little ones.  This year, nobody even mentioned a get-together.  I also thought a lot about what we could do for our grandkids.  I didn't get anything else done.  I just thought about it.

Easter was not dismal though.  I thawed out a ham that I didn't cook at Christmas and made a jello salad, a tossed salad and dessert.  Bry and Amee, Tanner and Isaac came to visit for a couple hours.  They brought us an Easter gift - a beautiful "Blessing" frame.  We even got plastic eggs with candy inside.  I delivered cupcakes with green coconut and jelly bean eggs with my visiting teaching partner, and we went to church.  I love the Easter hymns.  I love to see the girls in their Easter dresses.  I love it when our ward choir performs.  But this year, the very best, was Cody's talk on the atonement.  It was touching.  It was honest truth.  It was humble.  It was powerful and memorable.  (Even though it was memorable, I want to get a copy of it.)  It was a happy Easter.

The Oscar Party!!!!

My friend throws an amazing Oscar party.  She spends all year preparing and collecting.  This year was the 20th anniversary of her first party.  I've only been going for about 15 years.  It's always one of my favorite days of the year.

The excitement started earlier this year with the pre-show starting at 4:30.  We also moved to a new venue - upstairs.  This year we all had soft seats, the TV had DVR capabilities, we had the whole dining room table for food, and drinks were no longer relegated to the treadmill.

Every year we:

• have boas to wear
• get gift bags like the stars with trinkets and bling
• pick boyfriends and collect kisses every time we see them or hear their name
• bring food to match our favorite movie of the year (This year's winner made a football field with veggies for Silver Lining Playbook.)
• play movie trivia games and match movies to bottles of wine
• collect many, many prizes for picking winners on our ballots (Prizes are also awarded for not picking any winners.)
• offer opinions on all dresses, hair styles, make-up, and acceptance speeches
• critique the host, presenters, and musical numbers
• catch-up on Hollywood gossip from one attendee who reads Star magazine weekly
• laugh - a lot!
• and then head home with a bag full of books, DVDs, movie tickets, marquee night lights, glittery feather pens, and every kind of movie candy you can imagine

It is an award winning party!
  

Happy Birthday to Me

I left early for school today because I needed to stop and buy birthday treats to share with the class.  Some years I've made my own cupcakes, but it didn't happen this year.  Fred Meyer baked instead.  This was our first full day of school.  I always have my class go the computer lab and fill out a resume and apply to work at Swain Inc.  I take a resume picture of everyone on the first day of school and send them to Walgreens so that I can pick them up after school and have them on the bulletin board before Back-to-School Night.  That's tonight. 

Walgreens had the pictures ready, the bulletin board looked great, I had my presentation ready and copies of everything on their desks just in time.  I had left just after 7:00 that morning (Ty had called which put me behind), and got home at 8:00, to an empty house.  Thanks to my friends, there was a little cake on the table, and gifts from my parents, Terry, and Brent.  I had a little private celebration.  I opened gifts, read cards, and ate cake.  Then I went upstairs to get ready for bed.  It really was a great day....just not what you have in mind for your birthday.

August Birthday Bash

Terry's family has an abundance of August birthdays, so one of his sisters decided to host a family party for just the siblings, their spouses, and his parents.  There were 12 of us in attendance, including a surprise appearance by Reed and Carolyn who just drove up from Salt Lake after their stake conference.  Of the twelve, five of us have August birthdays.  We got to celebrate with good food, good company, good pumpkin cake and ice cream, and as always....a good old sing-along.  I think it was fun for all!

I didn't do a very good job with the camera.  There really were 12 people there, and we really did have fun.

Back to School Lunch

Those of us that are heading back to school this week took advantage of our last week of freedom and went out for a five hour lunch adventure.  We started at Red Robin where all of us cleaned our plates.  Tanner even had a second helping of apple slices and Hudson downed two root beers.

Our next stop was at Office Depot where we bought school supplies.  The boys have new notebooks and pens with shark tops.  When you squeeze their heads, their eyes pop out.  They were so cool, we bought a fish one for Hadley and a monkey one for Bryan. (It was Tanner's idea to get Bry one, because he likes monkeys.)

Next door to Office Depot is Cabellas, so Tanner took us over to show us around.  We checked out the big fish aquariums and all the "stuffed" animals, but the biggest draw were the guns.  Hudson said, "I want a gun.  I don't have a gun.  Can I get a gun."  We were passing through the real gun department on our way to see some more animals that were back by the shoes.  When we wandered through the toy section, the boys played with every gun they could find.  They didn't even notice the toy trucks or plush animals.

When I finally dragged them out of Cabellas, we made a stop at Cost Plus for red Chinese take-out boxes for their teacher gifts.  We also bought Pez dispensers and a package of Fruit Stripe Gum to share.

We started to make our way home, but stopped at Tully's park to run around for a while.  Goofing off all afternoon is something that is coming to an end.  We're going to make this an annual event.  I can't believe I have grandkids heading off to school!  It's going to be an exciting day. 

Saturday

We delivered a birthday gift to Amee on Saturday.  Her birthday was Wednesday and I was in Utah.  We stayed for several hours and painted leaves on the jungle tree and covered another pink wall with primer. 

When we finished we delivered a birthday gift to Stacey.  Today was her big day.  Bry and Stacey's mom was coming to babysit all four kids while the guys took the birthday girls out to dinner.  The grandkids were a lot of fun, but I was glad we didn't get that call.  We dragged ourselves through Winco and collapsed in front of the Olympics again.

Quick Family Time

Bad grandparents.  I had in my mind that Hadley's birthday was the 16th.  Terry didn't have anything in his mind.  We didn't check until this morning, and it was Thursday!  I won't forget again.  Hadley's is the 12th; Hudson's is the 16th.  I'll forget someone else's, but not Hadley's.

We wanted to run her gift over to her, but the McClures were at Mike's work party all afternoon.  They thought they would be back at 6:30.  We decided to get together with Bry and Amee and the boys for something to eat, and check out the house that is almost theirs.  We wanted to talk with them about how we could help.  We met at Souper Salad which worked out well for the kids, the health conscience, and me, the dieter.

We then went to deliver the gift, but even though we were an hour and 1/2 late, the McClures were still partying.  We got caught in a big downpour, huddled under their porch.

We decided to go over and check-out Bry and Amee's list of house projects.  It's going to be nice having these two families in bordering subdivisions.  The kids will go to the same school, but they live in two different stakes.  They're all close, but not too close.

We finally got our belated gift over to Hadley, our pinkalicious girl.  She got an outfit with a pink shirt, and a Dora doll with pink pajamas on.  (We'll have to make her some clothes to wear during the day.)

It's great having so much family close.  We can squeeze in good times without any plans.

The 4th of July - 2012

There was not much enthusiam in our house for fireworks, a barbeque, or any celebration.  Terry and I talked about it a lot, had a lot of ideas and options, but not much enthusiam.  We ended up doing yard work and running errands until mid afternoon.  So that we were not complete patriotic Scrooges, we put up the flag and met Bry and his family to check out the chalk art at Ann Morrison Park.

Not the best, but my favorite chalk art was of a colorful cat.

Terry doesn't like crowds, none of us liked the heat (especially Amee who had Isaac snuggled up in a pack, with a blanket over him because she didn't have any baby sunscreen), and we had to park and walk a long way.  The river floaters had the right idea, but we had no enthusiam so that didn't happen.

We decided to go get something to eat.  Downtown had free parking and no people.  Our first choice of restaurants was closed for the Fourth, so we went to Old Chicago and had a quiet, relaxing meal.

At the restaurant and in the elevator.

We came back to our house to just hang out for a while.  Everyone found treats in the freezer.  We had put banana cake, lemon cupcakes, and peanut butter cookies in there so we wouldn't eat them.  It was a hot day and everyone enjoyed frozen food.  Tanner thinks that treats are only candy, so I found some sour gummy worms for him.

When it got dark, Bry and Amee took Tanner to see the fireworks.  They had a place on the bench to park where you have a view of the whole valley.  Tanner was pretty excited for the big show.  I like to watch fireworks, but Terry and Brent were partied out.  We watched for a little while on TV.  Very lame, but we did have a fun 4th.

June 26th, 2003

     Stacey and Mike celebrated their 9th anniversary on Tuesday.  Terry and I celebrated by watching the kids for the afternoon.  It was our first time with all three of the kids.  Maycee is completely chill.  It was easy, and fun.  We were paid in cheesecake.  Nice!

Fathers Day 2012

      It was Terry's big day, again.  We had all the kids and grandkids over for dinner and pie.  We had Hawaiian haystacks, so it was easy to fix and there was something chopped to please everyone.  The pies were blueberry and lemon cream.  They were all together just last night, but there was still plenty of visiting.  Dinner was early, everyone left early, and we had a quiet evening.  The only part of the day that wasn't so good, was the third game of the NBA finals.  Terry's team won, but it was too intense and stressful.  It was a quiet evening though.

     This was Bry's first Fathers Day.  It's pretty fun watching him be Isaac's dad.  He has almost a month of experience under his belt.

     I didn't get a picture of Mike, the other dad present, but here's his family.  You can't see Maycee very well in the car seat, but she's just as cute as the other two.

Progressive Dinner for Dad

     It's not quite Fathers Day, but we celebrated a day early.  It's actually Terry's birthday, and he didn't come along.  He had a better offer.  I did think it was funny that he wanted to do something relaxing and chose to go bowling with the kids and grandkids.  They had a great time and Cafe Rio was included.

     We were a little small in number (10), mostly because the salmon are running and some were fishing, Tad's fam is in Italy, and I was the only one from my fam, but I like to think the best of the family was represented.  

     Our celebration started at Andrea's for fruit and cheese appetizers.  There were even fresh raspberries!  We could have filled up on everything there, but the big events were in Nampa, so we had to move on.

(Somebody needs to help me manipulate these pictures.  I don't think I can make collages with blogspot.)

Our next stop was for salad, and a tour of Cole and Santanna's new house.  Everything was darling.  They had to do a lot of painting and work when they moved in.  The decor is a mix of them both - Cabela Elegance.  
 

It was funny that their neighbors were having a garage sale.  That's one of my dad's favorite things.  He didn't have time to shop though.

Cole and Santanna in their little kitchen.  We didn't get just salad, Santanna had prepared a whole salad bar.  It was fresh!  There were lots of "comps" on the tossed salad.  I've always been the salad/relish tray maker in the fam.  I now have competition.

We met up with Matt and Kierra who had been to a wedding.  They looked nice (especially Kierra's shoes), but it wasn't for us.  We're all still getting use to the idea that these two brothers married sisters.  I think it's going to make for a fun life, especially for the future little cousins.

The main course was at Nan's.  We had hamburgers, turkey burgers, baked beans, chips and sodas.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  I don't think it got up to 80, and there was just a nice little breeze once in while.

Our last stop was at Matt and Kierra's for dessert.  There house is older and they also had a lot of work to do.  They've redone almost everything in the kitchen, and are working on bathroom redos. Their decor is darling too.  It's a casual elegance with a lot of BSU accents.  It has to be so fun for these young couples to fix up their first homes.   

 I didn't get a pic of the dessert, but it was the best - mud pie, with an Oreo cookie crust, vanilla ice cream, and fudge topping.  Kierra had also dipped Oreos and Nutter Butter cookies in chocolate.  In my book you can't go wrong with any kind of Oreo.


     
 
Ava was our only little kid for the day, but at every house there were four-legged friends.  These two black ones are best buddies, Harry and Cain.  We saw Hank at Cole's house.  I can't remember any of the cat's names.

     It was a fabulous day.  Somehow I think it was calmer and more relaxing than Terry's celebration.

Best Start to Summer

Yesterday was the last day of school and instead of ending with a celebration, or even a quiet dinner with Terry, I ended with a headache.  I went to bed with 3 Advil and a cool washcloth over my eyes.  But today...is the first day of summer and everything is great.  We were up early for the yard sales in Harris Ranch, Surprise Valley, and East Meadow Park.  I love garage/yard sales!  What a great way to start the summer.  We found a bike for Brent, a crib for Isaac, and I got a belt, a new little fry pan, and two sweaters that I'm going to make into hats.  (It's a Pinterest project.)

In the afternoon I went to Ava's baptism where she wore a beautiful white dress.  ( I need to get back in the habit of taking my camera with me.)  We went to a barbecue after, and I got to visit momentarily with Fredee, Phil, Barb, Marisa, Sean, Carolyn and Ashley.  The Adams family arrives in town 30 minutes before the baptism, and they all left right after dessert - except Ashley who had a flight out the next day.  Maybe we'll get in more talk time this summer.  It did make for a great start to summer - yard sales, family, and good food.
   

Today's the Big Day

Only those who are involved with an elementary school, and a few people in Pennsylvania, celebrate Groundhogs Day.  According to the forecast, there will be six more weeks of winter.