Mexican Dinner

Roy and I have been seeking for adult friends.  Okay, me more than Roy but that's to be expected since he goes out with business people regularly and I eat PBJ with preschoolers.  We arranged with a youngish (like us) couple in the ward to go out on a double date.  So fun.  Except that I accidentally paid our bills before we were supposed to go out so I found out we didn't have any money to pay a babysitter and go out. 
When I was young I used to look forward to Mexican Dinners with the Campbells.  At the time I didn't realize it was probably more because our parents wanted to get together than because they knew their kids would like it.  Now I know better. 
I called our friends and invited them for a Mexican dinner.  The plan was to have dinner and play games while the kids played and watched movies downstairs.  We actually had dinner and talked until it was too late to play games and our kids were bouncing off the wall from exhaustion downstairs. 
It was a lot of fun.  I think it is good to expose the next generation to these timeless traditions.

Daddy's boy

D has been a daddy's boy from the time he was born.  Roy likes to tell a story about one time when D was a baby and got sick.  (Mom, you remember the time -- it was when D threw up on you at the hospital in SLC....)  I had to work the next day so Roy inflated our air mattress and went to sleep in the front room with D.  They snuggled together.  Roy rubbed his back and fed him some smashed carrots.  D threw up, went to sleep and awoke later in the night.  Roy gave him some juice.  The boy went back to sleep and felt better in the morning.  Roy likes to take credit for healing D. 
Of course, the man also claims to have raised D for the first year of his life.  Therefore his word can't always be taken seriously.

Today Roy went to have lunch at D's school.  They've been talking about this for YEARS.  Literally.  They have been planning for the day when D would be in full time school and Roy could come for lunch.  They also plan to make it a monthly thing.  They have both been so excited.
I thought about calling Roy around the time I knew lunch would be finishing up.  Imagine my pleasure when Roy called me.  I wanted to hear all about their wonderful lunch.  Instead Roy announced he'd checked D out of school and was bringing him home.  Apparently the poor boy wasn't feeling well.  He didn't even want his ice cream from lunch.  Obviously something was wrong!
So D came home early today while Roy went back to work.  D lounged on the couch, ate some cookie dough, had some lunch and felt better after a couple of hours.  I like to think I cured him this time.

Crafty Bath Mat

I've been working on this for longer than I want to admit.  Not because it is hard but first because I was intimidated by using silicone and then because my craft room became too messy to use and had to be cleaned.  Now it is finally done and placed in front of my shower.  So what is it?  It is a "Stone Bath Mat" via Lowe's Creative Ideas.  I think it turned out nice.  I am excited to try it out.  I do have a few concerns about the pracitcality of it due to water and moisture issues.  It may be that I have to get a regular bath mat for outside the shower and put this in front of the bathtub to be used for theraputic rather than practical uses.  As you can see, I used three large seashells to begin with.  I really liked the look of the shells.  However, when I tentatively stepped on the mat to try it out one of the shells cracked.  I was worried about them not being able to support standing on.  Turns out I was right.  Fortunately, it was a quick fix to pull the shells off and glue stones in their place. 

I will let you know how things turn out but I'm hopeful right now.  In fact, I can't wait to take a shower to so I can step out onto my new mat!

Guess who's wearing the cone of shame...

Friday the psycho cat. 

What?  You didn't know we had a cat?  I don't remember if I mentioned her or not and I'm too lazy to go back and check.  So here's a quick low down on Friday.  While the kids and I were in Utah, someone in Roy's office brough some kittens to work.  Linda (friend and ex-secretary, twice. long story.) knowing the story about Zibby (previous cat that disowned our family and found new owners down the street) messaged Roy to go get one of the cats.  This is how on a Friday, Roy came home with a free kitten.  Yes, that is why the kids named the cat Friday.  I lobbied against it but lost.  Anyway, this 'free' kitten was only 6 weeks old.  She has/is (paymentplan) costing us $300 in medical bills for all her shots, tests and the big fix.  Well, the big fix was today.

A little blurb about Friday's personality.  CRAZY.   

Even the vet and nurses delicately informed us that she is "more active than most cats, even for a kitten."  Somehow we got stuck with an ADHD cat with emphasis on H.  The vet strongly encouraged an Elizabethan collar for Friday because she was licking and biting her insicion before she even left the office.  When she wasn't running madly around the room looking for food that is.  So we borrowed one and she has been in the cone of shame all evening and will be all night.  And may be for many days to come because she can't bite with the cone on!

I was reading the post op sheet and it mentioned the cat may be lethargic and want to sleep.  I WISH!  She is running in mad circles and knocking stuff down.  It's like Benadryl and children.  Most children get sleepy when you give them Benadryl but a few get more wired.  I think that is what psycho the wonder kitty is doing.  Somehow those sedatives have made her brain race faster. 

I keep hoping she will calm down into a regular, lazy, sleepy cat but my hope is dwindling.  At least we won't be getting an unexpected batch of wonder kitty babies now!

This cat would NOT hold still for a picture.  She was all over the place and jumping and attacking anything that came into view around the cone.

Pictures I didn't take

Sometimes I upload pictures from my camera only to find there are more than I realized!  Here's a sampling from the latest batch.

These ROCK!!

I love love love what Marissa did with our family pictures.

 

 Her website is http://www.marissagiffordphotography.com/  If you want, she is running a 50% off special through the end of the year!

Letter to Uncle Rick

My baby brother is in the MTC preparing to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Chile for 2 years.  I wrote this letter to him.  It's a pretty good summary of our week.

Dear Elder Rick,

It is good to hear from you.  We sure love to read your letters and talk about Uncle Rick on his mission. 

This week was a good week.  It is always a good week when we have General Conference! 

Thursday, Roy and I went to the temple with a family in our ward.  They were going through for the first time.  It is so amazing to go through the temple with someone who has never been through before.  Plus, Roy and I were invited to be the witness couple so we got to sit next to our friends for their first time.  Then we were blessed to be in the room as they were sealed together as a family.  I’ve never been in a live family sealing.  I’ve done sealings for the dead where children were sealed to parents, but it is different live.  Small children do NOT like their hands being held down so the one year old cried through the ceremony but it was still so sweet. 

On the way home, Roy wanted to stop at Video Only (a store that only sells video stuff ie TVs, DVD/Bluray players, camcorders etc.) just to see.  An hour later we left with a new TV in our backseat.  He’s been researching and wishing for some time now.  We got a smoking deal so I guess now’s the time to upgrade.  Having a new TV did have a perk for conference.  We were able to attach our TV to the computer and watch conference on the TV screen.  After years of huddling around a laptop it was super nice to have conference of 47” of viewable screen!

We spent a lot of time together as a family this weekend and fortunately the kids mostly got along.  That’s always nice.  We had cinnamon rolls and some crazy brownies that may have involved Oreo cookies and a chocolate cookie crust.  On not.  I plead the fifth.  We built block towers and knocked them down and played about a hundred games.  K can play Go Fish now so that’s pretty fun.  And then, of course, we watched and listened to conference.  Some of those talks to were so AMAZING.  I love conference weekends!

K started preschool this week, as she mentioned in her letter.  I should say that she typed part of it by herself.  I’ll let you deduce which part that was.   I have put together a co-op style preschool were each mom takes turns teaching.  This week was my turn to teach.  It was really fun to use my teaching skills – sort of.  There is a bit of a difference between middle school and preschool, probably not as much as you would hope but some difference nonetheless.  It is very gratifying that K now recognizes the letter P and knows its sound.  (P was our letter this week.)  D was so easy, you know.  He learned his letters, sounds and how to read mostly on his own because he wanted to.  K is rather indifferent to learning the letters and their sounds.  She is happy to learn but is just as happy to do other stuff. 

A’s language is really taking off.  She is speaking a lot now and in full sentences.  Usually, it is very difficult to understand her because he words are still in her own language but they are getting closer to the actual English words we use.  This weekend, she walked around the house telling everyone, “No, no – no touch.  No, no – no touch.”  She heard this a lot as we were building towers as you can imagine.  A 2 year old around a block tower is literally like a bull in a china shop.  Anyway, she is getting to be quite the mimicker.  I love it!

Roy did finally get the deck sanded and one coat of stain put on.  It has also started to rain.  This was a problem he was afraid of running into.  He’ll have to try to squeeze in staining anytime there’s a sunny day.

Our garden has finally stopped producing.  I for one am glad and may have allegedly pulled the zucchini plants out by the roots before their time.  No one can prove it was me though.  I’ve shredded and frozen more than 20 cups of zucchini, made zucchini bread, cookies, soup, salads, grilled/stuffed, given away and still have 4 in the fridge.  It was their time to go.  I am also really glad the tomatoes are done.  I’m done with the tomatoes anyway.  I bottled 59 pints for the winter.  That’s a whole lot of tomato peeling!  I’ve also worked in peaches and pears.  I need to do applesauce this week and then we should be good for the winter.  It is rewarding to have it done but it sure is a lot of work to do!

I know you are on the Lord’s errand and I am so proud of you.  We all love you!

Love,

Sheena