Summer Fun

July 31, 2007

It seems that summer is coming to an end. Everyone is frantically trying to squeeze a little more fun out of the summer before the kids have to go back to school. This summer has been a fun summer. At the beginning of the summer I sat down and wrote different things I would like to do before the end of summer. At first I didn't think that I would be able to do them all, but as of today we are down to the last three. One of the things I wanted to do is go up to Pineveiw Dam. We kept putting it off all summer long because everyone was so busy. It soon became apparent that if we didn't go soon the summer would be over. So today I packed up the kids and headed up there. Forrest loved it. He loves going to the beach and playing in the sand.

Eliza loved it because she was outdoors. She loves to be outside exploring. Her next favorite thing is playing in the water so it was a good combination.

One of the friends that we were trying to go to the Dam with has had a very busy summer. They have gone to family reunions, camping, backpacking into the Grand Canyon and the list goes on and on. On Saturday they told everyone they were done with summer. They were tired, their kids were tired and they still had several more big activities planned before the end of August. Hearing them talk brought to mind an enrichment activity that I went to about Christmas. The lady presenting told us one of the best things we could do at Christmas time for us and our kids is have an evenly paced Christmas. She warned of trying to pack so much fun in to Christmas that it soon becomes a chore. I really think this applies to anything we do vacations, holidays and even the summer.

Our Weekend

July 30, 2007

This weekend Forrest seems to be on a roll with interesting things he said. On Friday my mother-in-law had the kids sleep over so we could go to the airport and pick-up our tickets to Disney World. The next day when we were driving home with the kids Forrest starts telling us everything that happened while he was a grandma’s. I am of course listening with half an ear until I hear him say Eliza pooped on the couch. I asked him to explain and he said Eliza pooped on the couch and he thought it was chocolate, but it wasn’t. We immediately called and asked Shirley what he was talking about. She explained that Eliza had a dirty diaper and while she was changing her some of the poop rolled out of the diaper on onto the couch. Forrest went to pick them up and Shirley started yelling hysterically that they were not chocolate. Needless to say I am glad I wasn’t around for that one.

On Sunday we all came home from church and Eliza has decided to try climbing the banister. As I was going into my room to change and I hear Forrest say “What the He** are you doing?” to Eliza. I ask him to repeat what he just said and he says it again. I tell him that He** is a swear word and we don’t say that. I then went back into the bedroom and told Greg and then collapsed laughing. It was just too funny the way he said. Later that day he had used the bathroom and once again forgot to flush the toilet. I again explained that we need to always remember to flush the toilet. Forrest seemed to have a light bulb go on over his head, because he then said, “Aha, if we don’t flush the toilet poop and pee would be everywhere.” Now let’s hope he remembers, but knowing little kids I am sure I will continue to find unflushed toilets.

Are we insane???

July 27, 2007

It is official we are going to Disney World. I just purchased our tickets or at least I think I purchased our tickets. My mother-in-law had $99 companion passes that we will be using to fly down to Florida. Instead of booking them on-line we have to call in. Once again I reached someone that their first language is not English. I could barely hear the operator and he seemed to be in no mood to repeat any of the instructions. The worst part was when half way through the conversation Forrest hit the talk button on the phone and then decided to put the phone in his backpack with some blocks. All I could hear was clinking noise. I asked the operator to hold on, but he just kept rattling on. I finally got the second phone turned off, but when I asked the operator to repeat himself he just continued with the call. We will find out tonight if I was successful. If not it will cost us $50 per ticket to fix the mistake.

Greg is hoping that this trip will be better than our last trip. He thinks with all the extra adults that everything will go smoothly. I don't want to burst his bubble, but traveling with kids is hard and we really won't have that many extra adults. His brother and girlfriend won' t be much help because they are on vacation too. The only helping that will come out of this trip is us showing Scott what can happen when you have kids. Unfortunately that is not a good thing. I will agree that Greg's mom will be a big help, but with Eliza it is just best to expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised when everything goes smoothly, but if it is anything like our last vacation I am not placing any bets.

Humidity!!!!

July 25, 2007

I would have to say that I really do not like humidity. Yesterday since it was a holiday my friend had me going walking with her at 6:00 am because all of her walking buddies took the day off. Half way through the walk I was dripping with sweat. We weren't walking fast and it was first thing in the morning. I knew that for my run today it was going to be bad. I was right. By the time I got home I was dripping with sweat. Every inch of my body was wet and the worst thing was that we had actually run slower then we normally do. I am now sitting in the basement trying to cool off and realizing that my butt is wet because that is where all the sweat has run down to. I am officially over summer and I am ready for a nice cool fall, but knowing my luck we will be warm until November like we were last year.

Teddy Bear

July 24, 2007

For Christmas Forrest got Eliza a very large Teddy Bear. Up until now the Teddy has kicked around her room. She really didn't pay much attention to it until the last couple of days. She now insists on sleeping with it. When she gets up in the morning or from her nap you need to get her, her platypus and teddy. It is really an armful. Hopefully she grows out of this soon. I don't think my back can take much more of carrying these guys around.

Firefly Toothbrushes

July 25, 2007

Forrest goes through his toothbrushes very quickly. When we replace them he always wants one of the cool character toothbrushes that cost about $2.50. I on the other hand only want to spend the minimal amount of money that will get his teeth cleaned. The other day I stumbled across these toothbrushes at Target. They are great because they only cost about a $1 for one and $1.85 for two. The neat thing is that by pressing the bottom of the toothbrush it will flash for 1 minute. This lets Forrest know how long he needs to brush his teeth for. Forrest thinks they are very cool. His new favorite thing now is to brush his teeth in the dark and watch the toothbrush flash. I like them because it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to replace them every month and he is learning good brushing habits.

Choices

July 23, 2007

On Saturday Greg finally came home from his week long adventure in the Uintahs. Also on Saturday the final book of the Harry Potter series came out. I was of course faced with a difficult choice. Greet Greg home from his hard journey and spend the rest of the weekend fawning over him, or completely ignore him and read my book. It was a hard choice, but I think I chose wisely. Book 7 was a great book.

Menu Plan Monday - July 23

July 23, 2007

Monday: Pork chops with sliced potatoes and corn on the cob

Tuesday: BBQ at Friends house

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Italian Shrimp with grilled veggies

Friday: Marinated Steaks with Corn on the cob.

Hand-me Down Clothes

July 19, 2007

I don't know about you, but I am drowning in hand-me down clothes. I hate to throw anything away because what if we need it in the future. Right now we have a dedicated area in our crawl space to clothes. Unfortunately the clothes are now taking over the crawl space. Last night as I was surfing the web I came across a great article to help cut down on the amount of clothes you have to store for each child. For each child you will need to determine the optimal amount of clothing they need to get through a season. For example I always buy Forrest 12 shirts. This seems to be just the right number of shirts to get us through a season. When it is time to pack Forrest summer clothes up I look at all of his clothing and pack less then my target amount. For example since Forrest always has 12 shirts I would only pack up 8. I know that I am going to buy the next child new shirts and they will also receive clothing as gifts and from relatives. This way I am only keeping the best that I have and when it is time to go shopping for the next child I know that I will always need to buy at least 4 shirts to get them started for the season. Also the next child will always be receiving some new clothes. I am really excited to try this and I am sure that my sisters will be happy to start getting some hand me downs.

Quote of the Day

July 17, 2007

Forrest: Mom can we send Eliza to live with Grandma.

Me: Forrest that isn't very nice.

Forrest: But you could go visit her whenever you wanted.

Our Pond

July 14, 2007

I just realized that since we won't be celebrating Eliza's birthday party at our house that John wont be able to peek behind our table to see our pond. So here it is in all it's glory.


No we don't really have ducks in our pond. When we have a wet spring our backyard gets really wet and the ducks will come with their ducklings to eat food or play in our pond.

It makes for a fun spring, but it also means that we can't play in the backyard until the middle of June when it finally dries out.

Where is everyone?

July 14, 2007

Every afternoon after Eliza is done for a nap and Forrest is playing nicely downstairs I take a moment and check my e-mail and read some blogs. Lately however it has been pretty sparse. The family doesn't seem to have anything important to talk about and most bloggers are either too busy or just don't have anything to write about. I did enjoy John's latest blog about balloon art. Forrest and I spent quite a bit of time looking at each picture and figuring out which was our favorite. Forrest of course likes the ones that have wheels. I just couldn't believe anyone has that much time on their hands. I could really get into Ross's blog about the Tour de France if he would be willing to spend all of his time finding video of these crashes and posting them. I am amazed that someone could take a hard crash and still get up and blow by everyone to take a stage. That is pure determination. Me, I just like watching the crashes. I know that is morbid of me.

I have also started to re-read book 6 of Harry Potter. I really wish that book 7 would come out today since Greg is incognito this whole week, but alas it is not to be. I have noticed as I go about my daily errands there are a lot of people doing the same thing. I have never seen so many people walking around with a big book in their hand while they also try to watch their kids swim, sit in the car waiting for the light to turn green or reading while they eat lunch. It is obviously the week before book 7 is to be released.

Has anyone gotten a chance to see the movie 5 yet? Is it any good? I haven't been too impressed with most of the movies, but for some reason I feel that I have to watch each and everyone of them to feel like a true Harry Potter fan. Most of my friends only know the books by the movies. I keep trying to get them to read them, but they think the movies work just as well. Boy are they wrong.

How to kill time.

July 12, 2007



35 Balloons
5 balloons that ripped or exploded all over the kitchen
30 Balloons filled with water
35 minutes to fill them all
15 minutes to clean up the kitchen from all the balloons that accidentally got away
7 minutes of fun
Was it worth it? You be the judge.

Wanted: New Mommy

July 11, 2007

Must be willing to let me stay up late whenever I want. The only options for dinner will be spaghettio's, chicken nuggets, ramen noodles, or grilled cheese sandwiches. There will be no asking me to eat anything that remotely resembles a fruit or vegetable. I will be allowed to watch t.v. from sun up to sun down and I will be supplied with limitless amounts of popcorn and Koolaide while I am watching t.v. I want to be entertained 24/7 and if I am not I will run through the house, jump on couches and make a general pest of myself by asking repeatedly to build a new house, build a car or cut numerous holes in all the boxes that are stored in the basement. You must be willing to lock my little sister up at all times and only allow her out when I want to play with her which is only about 15 minutes everyday. The pay for this job is my love and appreciation when I get my way. Otherwise you will be fired immediately and I will start looking for a new mommy. All further questions about this position may be referred to Forrest at 555-5555.

Organizing Magazine articles and e-mails

July 10, 2007

I am forever finding articles in magazines that I would like to keep or refer back to. Today I came across a great way to organize these articles into a three-ring binder. Right now I tear out each article that I am interested in and I place it stack on the counter and read through them later or just throw them away when I get too many of them.. I found at A Chelsea Morning a great way to organize articles. Barb has done a wonderful job of showing different items she stores in her binder and how she does it.

Another item that I have been struggling with is groups on the internet that I belong too. I belong to several groups for scrapping, primary and FHE. Each day in my in-box I receive several great ideas that I would like to keep. In my word file I have set up different files for each topic. When I find something that I would like to keep I copy it and put it into the appropriate file found in my Word document. At the bottom I list where I found it and also why I saved it. Previously I would just try to go back through the groups archives to find the item I was looking for. Most of the time I could never find just the right one. By doing it this way I have really cut back on the clutter in my in-box and wasted time trying to find my ideas.

Menu Plan Monday -July 9

Monday: BBQ Meatballs over rice

Tuesday: Navajo Tacos

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Grilled Chicken with Corn on the Cob

Friday: Chicken Burritos

I found this over on I’m an Organizing Junkie. I am always looking for something new to eat. It seems like we are always stuck in a rut asking what is for dinner.

The Bird is cool.

July 8, 2007

We are just back from our vacation to Snowbird. Thankfully it was about 15-20 degrees cooler up there then it was down here. They have some new toys to play on. The biggest hit was the new play ground.

I spun Forrest around on this several times before he finally got off. That is when he said he was going to throw up. I guess he doesn't have a good stomach for these kinds of things.

Greg was able to try the bungee trampoline this year. Buy the end of the day he could do two flips in a row before he landed.

All day long Forrest begged us to go on the Tram. When we finally did get to the top of the mountain he told us it was too cold and he wanted to go back down. It was 68 degrees I don't know what he was complaining about. I wanted to live there and never go back to our 95+ degree days we have been having.

We of course did lots of swimming. Good thing the pool was heated or it would have almost been too cold to swim.

Just like her brother she has no fear.

On the way home we stopped at the Living Planet Aquarium. They have added a couple of new exhibits. Forrest favorite was being able to feel more of the animals.

This was a great trip and Forrest is already asking when we can go back.

Then what am I?

July 2, 2007

I had just bought some fresh fruit and I was cutting it up and putting it into bowls. When I started to cut up the cantaloupe I had this conversation with Forrest:

Forrest: What is that?

Me: Cantaloupe. Do you want to try some, it is really good.

Forrest: I have never seen anyone eat one before.

Me: (popping one into my mouth) Now you have. Do you want to try one now.

Forrest: No mom.(sigh) I have never seen a human eat one before.

Me: Ah, well if I am not a human then what am I?

Forrest: You’re just a mommy.

To make a very long conversation short I was finally able to get out of him that people he didn’t know are humans and everyone he does know is a nonhuman including all of his aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. That is kind of a scary thought, but it does explain a lot of things that go on in the family.