Just Jammin'

My mother's neighbor gave us both an enormous amount of apricots. And what do you do when you live in Utah and have an enormous amount of apricots? Why, you make apricot jam, of course. Duh! I have only made jam one other time. That is when my dear friend Betsy came over and helped me. On Monday my mom said she was going to make jam and wanted to know if I wanted to come join her. My answer: NO! On Tuesday she asked again and my answer: NO! But then I started thinking about it. And I started thinking about the enormous amount of apricots in my fridge. So I loaded up the children. And the apricots. And made my way to her house. OK. We had the BEST time making jam! And my girls, all my girls, loved it too. In fact, we decided that apricot jam just wasn't enough. So I quickly ran to the store and bought a whole bunch load of strawberries and more pectin and jars. By the end of the day we had 3 very messy girls, one very destroyed kitchen, and 70 jars of homemade jam!

Monday Morning Musings - Thursday Night Style

Yes. Thank you. I am fully aware that it is Thursday night. I have not been able to blog in, like, forever. Steve worked from home all last week and most of this week. He has been on his computer all dang day. Every day. I can't load my pictures onto my computer, because, well, it's a long story. Not to mention that there are 3 children vying for the seat in front of my computer during every waking hour. So really, I have been wanting, but unable to blog. So I have a lot inside and it is just waitin' to spill out. I might ramble. Sorry.


First things first:

I realized on Monday that it was only 4 weeks until the kids start school. A part of me was sad for about, uhhh, 3 seconds. Then I did a little happy dance. See. Happy dance. I'm doin' it right now. You know why? 'Cause on Monday it was 4 weeks. Today, it is practically only 3 weeks.

I have been contemplating where I will take my children to do their school clothes shopping. I got a cute little mailer in the, well, mail the other day. There were some really cute kids dressed in really cute outfits on the front. I thought, OH! Emily would love that outfit. It was totally cute. And totally her style. I thought, I will just take her out and buy her that outfit. Then I started looking real close at it. It was all layered and stuff. With leggings under a skirt. I counted. There were seven, SEVEN major items of clothing that made up that outfit. Hello! Yes, I would like to go spend $150 on one outfit. For one child. If someone could just loan me a million dollars, I can go school shopping. Any takers?

You know when we went camping earlier in the month? I was in a hurry at the store when I was buying the food to take. I just grabbed a bag of chips and threw them in the cart. A blue Lays bag. What kind of chips do you think would reside inside a blue Lays bag? Salt and Vinegar, right? Uhh, no. Low salt. OK. What's the point? Kinda what the chip is all about. I was eatin' some and I was thinkin', these are the nastiest Salt and Vinegar chips I have ever had. BLAH! We still have almost the whole bag. I should just throw them away. Chips with low salt. I might as well dip some card stock in some vegetable oil and chew on that.

Just how trashy am I? Well, this trashy:

I've been driving around for over 2 weeks with my DVD player hanging down like this in my van. It just fell down one day. We were just drivin'. And bam. There it was. Just hangin' there. And there it still is. Just hangin' there. I want to go back to the place I bought it and yell at the people who installed it but it is an hour and a half away from where we live now. And I don't want to drive that far. With four kids. And no DVD player. So I just drive around like this. Nice, huh? When it first came crashing down, Steve wanted to just cut the wire. I got really mad at that idea. Now, I'm pretty tempted to cut it myself. I'm afraid one of these days I'm gonna take a corner too fast and it is going to slam into the back of my head and knock me out.

My friend Alissa once told me that she cleans her diamond ring with toothpaste and a toothbrush. So I started cleaning mine like that. And it works so amazingly well. So I keep a special toothbrush in my bathroom drawer just for that purpose. I keep it in the drawer right alongside the toothpaste. Not the best storage idea. I keep my teeth toothbrush in a holder thing on the counter. Most nights I can just pick it up and open the drawer and get the toothpaste out and brush my teeth like normal. But twice, something else has happened. I have been really tired and in a hurry and I brush my teeth. Then I go to put my toothbrush back in the holder. And there is already a toothbrush in the holder. And I start spitting and gagging 'cause I realize that I just brushed my teeth with my ring cleaning toothbrush. BLAH!

That reminds me of the time when I went through a chop stick phase. I ate everything with chopsticks. I collected them. I had some awesome ones. This was before I was married and I was living at my parents house in Dallas sharing a room with my sister Farrah. I kept my chopsticks in our room on my desk in a holder. One day I was going to get my chopsticks to eat dinner. That's when I discovered my sister. Farrah. Who had a broken arm. In a cast. And she was standing by the desk. With a chopstick. Down her cast. Scratching her arm. And she informed me. That she had been doing that. On a regular basis. For quite sometime. Why did you hate me Farrah?

A Whole New Twist On Power Tools

It is no secret. We have some nasty feet in our family. Some are more nas-TAY than others. You know who you are. It is a battle I fight constantly. And my extreme dislike for enclosed shoes just makes the battle worse. Flip flops and smooth feet, well, they just don't go together now, do they?

That is why I am so excited about the helpful tip shared with me by my dear Aunt Vicki when she was visiting. She was helping my mom fix her bathroom up and she was sanding down a mirror so she could paint it. She was on the back deck and then all of the sudden she busts off her shoes and starts sanding her feet with the palm sander. I was like, "HALLELUJAH! Gimme some of that!" She is a woman who shares my foot woes.

It works FABULOUSLY! FAB-U-LOUS. LY.

Bye-bye pumice.

Bye-bye Ped Egg.

Bye-bye to all those hundreds of other products I have bought in vain.

HELLO palm sander.

I'll never look at a power tool the same way again.

I ♥ U palm sander. You will never know how much I heart you....

All In The Family

My Granny Snow and Aunt Vicki are here visiting from Washington state. We had a big family dinner on Sunday and invited my cousin Alicia and her family and my Aunt June and Uncle Buck and Uncle Ronald.

Above:

Back row: Sam, Kay, Vicki, Lauren, Allyson

Front row: Alicia, Emma, Aubrey, Irene, Zac and Addy

Below: Emma, giving granny some sugar

Vicki and June

Alicia and Boyd

Addy and Uncle Ronald

Emma, Alicia and Kay

Allyson and Lauren

No event around here would be complete without the ATV's

Uncle Buck and Aunt June

Even though June and Buck are from my mom's side of the family, and Irene and Vicki are from my dad's, they are all good friends from back in the day when there was only one ward in Dallas.

Strike A Pose

You know how we ate at The Pie while on vacation? Well, as we were leaving the establishment, Steve told me to go over and stand and let him take a picture of me. Which I thought was a little strange. For one thing, anyone who touches my camera-including Steve-gets in big fat juicy drop pop trouble. So it was brave of him to take the camera out of my hand in the first place. But I had just made a comment earlier, upon entering the establishment, when the pizza delivery dude took our picture about "Oh, wow! I actually get to be in one of our pictures". So I thought, well maybe he just wants me to be in a picture. And then I thought, maybe he just wants a picture of me in front of The Pie because we have happy courting memories there. So I went over to where he was motioning for me to stand. I was posing but I felt very self-conscience and it was taking him forever to take the picture because kids were in the way and everything. So in my uncomfortable state, I did what came naturally. Which is act a fool. That's when he snapped the picture. I was like, don't you want a normal picture? And he said, no. I gotta good one.

Happy courting memories my booty. I got home and downloaded the pictures and it was then that it became very clear to me exactly why he wanted a picture of me in that there spot. Oh. I'll show him "Individualized Hormone Replacement". I'll replace it right up his....

Vacation - Provo River Falls

Alas, our vacation pictures are coming to an end. On Tuesday, the last full day that Mike and Sheila were here, we hiked up Provo River Falls. It was absolutely beautiful and the perfect ending to a perfect trip (if you don't count all the stuff that happened at the beginning)(although, actually you can count it because I think we all learned a lot from those rocky first days). Anyway, this was a fun day and a fun way to end our time together.

Mike, Asher, Spencer, Sheila and Reagan

Aubrey, Emily, Addy, Allyson, Zac and Steve

Brotherly love

Steve, Aubrey and Addy

Emily

Zac

Addy

Addy and Spencer

Reagan and Aubrey

We cooked hot dogs for dinner on our way home

The next day Mike and Sheila packed up their little clan and boarded a plane for home. Home for the moment. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of them soon...

Vacation - Chololate, Humanity, Fountains and Hey! I'm Famous

On Monday we went to the Mrs. Cavanaugh's factory for a tour. It pretty much sucked. I think they should put on their website that the tour pretty much sucks unless you go from Thanksgiving-Easter. Apparently that's the only time when there is really anything fun to see. There wasn't really even anyone working there except the girl behind the counter who was eating chocolate the whole time we were there. I will say this, it did smell really, really good inside.

Next we went to tour Welfare Square. I have never been there and I must be honest and say that it always sounded a bit boring to me. I just knew the kids would be bored to tears. I couldn't have been more wrong! It was fascinating and the kids were totally into it. All of them. It was so interesting. I knew our church did a lot to help those in need and help those in third world countries and help in times of disaster. But I had no idea the scale or the scope. I highly recommend this tour for anyone in the area.

Next we toured the Humanitarian Center. Again, very fascinating. Did you know that you can go in and volunteer your time putting together kits (newborn, school, toiletry) or tying quilts that they have set up there. All you have to do is walk in. And kids 12 and older can help.

With both Steve and I being from out of state, we get a lot of family and friends coming through to visit. My kids and I have done the temple square and downtown tours a hundred times. We will definitely be adding these two tours to our repertoire.

Next we went to the Gateway to let the kids play in the fountains. They had a blast.

Aubrey





Reagan and Addy



Emily, Addy and Zac

Spencer, Mike, Sheila, Reagan, Allyson Steve, Aubrey and Zac

It was there that I made my Television debut. They were there interviewing moms about "Swine Flu Parties" people are having to expose their kids to Swine Flu. First, I would like to say, I am so glad they didn't use my whole interview. Because I sounded like a complete idiot. Hmmm, maybe that's why they didn't use it? They did however, take what I said out of context. I said I would NOT take my kids to a Swine Flu party, but they made it sound like I'm a stupid mother who would. I have been abused by the media! See for yourself:

(I'm the gal with all the facial piercings. Just kidding, I'm the cute one)

If you want my autograph, just send a request in a self addressed/stamped envelope.

Later that night, my dear sweet mother and sister came over to watch all 7 kids so Mike and Sheila and Steve and I could go out on a date. It was fun to have some adult time to just relax and talk.

Vacation - Day Of Rest

On Sunday, we took a much needed rest day. After going to church that morning the adults and Addy took a nap. I have no idea what the other kids were doing, but it couldn't have been too bad because no one died and the house didn't burn down.

After naps the boys played their game that they always play when they get together. It took hours. HOURS. But I am glad they had fun.

Mike and Steve strategizing on how to defeat their sons. Which they did. You would think they could have balanced the teams out a little better.





Asher

My mom and Lauren were missing us way too much. They had to stop by and get their fix.

Sheila and I took the younger kids on a walk.

Reagan, Aubrey, Addy & Asher

Watchin' TV

Emily, Steve, Zac, Mike, Spencer and Sheila

OK. Now for the serious stuff. There are some things that went on that night, that I am a little concerned about still to this day. Sigh...while the boys were playing their game, the girls turned on the TV and started watching the Parent Trap. Not the old one. The new one. With what's 'er name. The game ended. By that time, the girls had scattered. The boys went over and sat down on the couch and started watching the movie. By themselves. Until the very end. It wasn't like Steve going over and sitting down by his daughters to watch it. It wasn't like it was early and they had nothing better to do. The movie ended at midnight. It wasn't like they couldn't find the remote to change the channel. They were really watching it, watching it. It was really disturbing me and I was trying to figure out what the deal was. I went and stood in front of the TV and started talking to them. They looked right past me and kept watching the movie. I thought maybe they watched the original movie a lot growing up and they were feeling sentimental or something. I kept asking them to explain it to me so I could make it right in my mind, but they just sat there, transfixed on the TV. As soon as the movie ended and the final credits rolled, they stood up, turned it off, and went to bed. Weird. See for yourself:

(side note: We obviously have some really harsh lighting in our bathroom and my glasses are crooked 'cause Addy made them that way)