Cute Blanket

So, I've been working on that afghan for Samuel for a while now, and it's finally finished. I was up until midnight last night working on it - putting the pieces together and doing the edging. Here's the final product:


I originally planned on having five red and four blue squares, so that red would be the middle square, the dominant color. But when I did the seams and edging in the yellow/orange yarn, I realized the red would be overpowering - too much warm coloring. So I had blue be the dominant color to balance it out. I like the way this blanket turned out - very boyish and bright.

Now the only bummer is that I have to wait until Christmas to give it to him! My next project I need to be focusing on is an afghan I'm working on for my dad. I started it last winter but haven't made any progress in months. I'd like to get it done in time to give it to him for Christmas as well. It's going to be a really big afghan - over six feet long - and I don't have much done on it yet. I need to get working! I'll post some picture of it next time I get it out to work on it.

Peach Jam

When we went over for laundry today, Mom was busy making peach jam. After getting the laundry started in the washing machine, Jeff and I were enlisted to help. We peeled and pitted the peaches after they were scalded. While we were doing this, Janelle was chopping them up in the food processor, and Mom was stirring a batch of jam on the stove. Zaylee and Thomas were playing on the kitchen floor. It was neat to have all of us there working together to make jam. When we left this evening, we got to take home six jars of peach jam, and three jars of plum jam they made earlier.


We also got a jar of the peach jam foam - the best part! This is the foam skimmed off the top after the jam has boiled long enough, right before putting it in the jars.


Today was the younger kids' first day of school. Thursday is a pretty weird day for school to start (remember the days when the school year would start on Mondays?), but today Marie, Rheanna, and Samuel headed off to public school. For Marie, this is the first time she's been in public school in years. Rheanna and Samuel have never been in public school - Mom has always home schooled them. Because of her college classes, she won't be able to home school them for a couple years, and that's pretty hard on Mom. She loves teaching the kids, and feels so much more secure with them here at home, not being so influenced by the world. But there really wasn't any other option. Anyway, she's really hoping to be done in just two years, so she can start home schooling again in time for Rheanna not to have to go through any public middle school.

I'm trying to think if there was anything else I wanted to post about. But it's late and my brain isn't wanting to focus on anything right now. That's what I get for trying to post something after midnight. Yeah, I'm going to go to bed now.

A Nice Evening

I finally did it!

That's right - it's Wednesday evening, and I made it to the farmer's market!


I didn't actually buy a whole lot. I mostly just wanted to go there and walk around a bit, take it all in. There was a lady handing out free tokens for face painting, so I took Zaylee to get her face painted.


It says "I heart CFM." CFM stands for "C. (our town) Farmer's Market". Zaylee was very good and held still the whole time. I think she was a bit shy about it, but she really liked it when the lady showed her a mirror so she could see the painting on her face. We tried to get Thomas' face painted as well, but he was not interested in that at all, so we didn't push the matter. The lady got a couple tiny blue dots on his cheek before it was very clear that it would get very smudged right away if she got any further.

Like I said, I didn't get much. Most of the vegetables were ones that I could get from my garden or from Mom's, or that I just wasn't interested in. There were eggplants though, at 99 cents per pound. I got these 2 eggplants for a little under $2.


And with one of those eggplants, I made Michelle's Broiled Eggplant with Garlic Sauce.


Wow, it tasted so good! Very unique and delicious. I ate half of the eggplant in one sitting. I'm going to work really hard at saving the other half for Jeff when he gets home. But he doesn't get home until about 1:00 in the morning, so we'll see how that goes. ;-)

My weekend

See here for a nice description of what I've been up to this weekend.

Sorry for the very short post here, but it's bedtime and I'm sleepy. 'Night!

Getting things done

Today I did two things that I have not done in a very long time.

First, I went shopping today for "ladies' intimate apparel" - aka bras. I have not purchased non-nursing bras since before Jeff and I got married. None of my bras were fitting anymore, because I have changed so much, what with all the weight loss and breastfeeding I've been doing. So today I braved the bra section of Wal-Mart while Jeff and the kids escaped to the toys.

I lucked out. I had found a place online (I forget the site now, but you can probably just google it) that tells you how to size yourself for bras - you just measure where they tell you and plug in the numbers, and it tells you about what size you should be wearing. Really cool. So I had a pretty good idea of what size I was looking for. I've changed so much that I would have been totally lost without that awesome tool! So I was able to find the perfect bra pretty much right away, and it cost less than $8 (I love Wally World!). I bought three.

Okay, enough of that lovely T.M.I. subject. On to the second thing I did that I haven't done in forever - I thoroughly cleaned the bathroom. It was so awful before I cleaned it, I was dreading having to do it. But I dug in and cleaned it anyway. See my homemaking blog for pictures (the "before" picture is terrible, and I'm pretty embarrassed about it...). Cleaning the bathroom gave me a big ol' migraine - but I'm glad I did it. For the first time since we moved into this apartment, the bathroom is clean! I love the feeling I get when I walk in and see a clear mirror, an uncluttered, sink, and a clean floor and toilet. It's so wonderful! And now that I've cleaned it, it will be easier to do it every week like I plan.

Jeff mentioned this evening that he feels less stressed when the house is clean. I feel like that too - there's less weighing down on me. It's a nice feeling.

Fixing the Well

Jeff and I had quite a full day yesterday. I really don't think I'll be able to do justice to all that happened and all that we did yesterday, but I have to try it anyway. This will be a long post. You have been warned.

On Thursdays we normally do our laundry at Mom's house. But Mom called yesterday morning to tell us that they were having problems with their water, so doing laundry there wouldn't really be an option; we'd have to use the coin-op here at the apartment complex. But she said we were more than welcome to bring our wet clothes over to dry them on the clothesline, to save a bit of money.

The only problem with this scenario is that Jeff and I, never using the coin-op laundry, didn't have any quarters. It was decided that I would walk over to the Albertson's a block away, buy something small, and get a roll of quarters ($10) cash back. So I walked over and checked out the sale-priced meat. I found a package of bacon ends on sale for a little over a dollar per pound, and bought that, knowing Jeff would be very happy when I got home (he loves bacon). When I asked for the ten dollars in quarters, though, I was informed that they use change machines, and I could only have a ten dollar bill. It was all automated and there really wasn't any other option. But she sent me to the nearby fuel station to see if I could get change for the ten there.

So I walked over to the fuel station. She didn't have enough quarters for the whole $10, but was able to give me a five and quarters for the rest. Okay, so I finally had quarters to do our laundry.

I was able to fit all our clothes into two loads and only spend $2 to wash them. I didn't realize that the reason we had so few clothes in the baskets was because Jeff was keeping his dirty clothes in a pile on his side of the bed. Oh well, those will have to be washed next week!

When the clothes were finished in the washing machine, we put them in the car and headed over to Mom's house. Mom and the kids were really excited to show us the pickles and peaches they had been canning, and the huge hole in the back yard. They were digging up pipe. Dad thought the water problem had to do with the pump in the well in the back yard, so Dad and the younger kids had been digging a lot to expose part of the pipe. I thought, "hey, that's cool." But I didn't think it would affect me any more than just causing me to wash my clothes at the apartment laundry room. I was wrong, but didn't realize it until later.

Around lunch time, Jeff reminded me that we had a $25 gift certificate for Olive Garden, and would I like to go for lunch? I quickly asked Mom if she would watch Zaylee and Thomas, and of course she was willing. So Jeff and I hopped in the car and headed off for a child-free Italian food date. The food there never fails to impress me, and this time was no exception. My Zuppa Tuscana was absolutely divine. Who would have thought such a simple soup of swiss chard, potato, and sausage could be so good? The bread sticks were perfect too.

As usual, I had an enormously difficult time choosing what to eat. The waiter pointed out that there is a pasta and sauce meal where you choose your own combination of pasta and sauce, and it's all-you-can-eat. Meaning when you finish the first bowl, they'll bring you another and you can try a variety of pastas and sauces. The only limit is how much you can fit in your stomach!

I ordered the Whole Wheat Linguine with Tomato Basil Caprese. I couldn't even finish my first bowl, there was so much pasta! And I had already had soup and bread sticks. I'm eating the leftovers right now for lunch, actually. This pasta is so delicious! The cool thing is that before my diet, I would have been able to eat all that food and ask for another serving. But my stomach has shrunk enough that I simply couldn't eat anymore. That's good because I probably consumed more calories in that one meal than I normally do in an entire day!

After we got home, Dad enlisted Jeff's help to work on the pipes. Not long after that, he also enlisted the help of Mom and Marie and I. Apparently, there were supposed to be 160 feet of plastic pipe going straight down into the well. At the bottom of all that pipe was the pump. The plan was for the five of us to lift the pipe and get the pump out of the ground so Dad could check it out and see what was wrong with it. Okay, no problem. Or so I thought.

Here is where my story get really difficult for me to tell. My piping vocabulary is so limited, and this experience was so beyond anything I've ever done, I just don't know the words to describe what happened! We were all working so hard and dealing with a very dangerous situation, so no one was taking any pictures, so I can't use that to help me. But here goes.

We lifted 60 feet of corrugated iron pipe straight up out of the ground with pipe wrenches and a whole lot of strength and exertion. See? Okay, that describes what we did, but it really doesn't even begin to cover it! Let me try to describe the weight of this pipe. Most of you know my dad. He has those Popeye forearms that are hugely muscled. He once ripped a flannel shirt he was wearing simply by flexing his arm. He is a big, strong man. He was nervous to even start lifting this pipe. He was straining as we lifted this pipe. Add the fact that Mom and Jeff and I were also all lifting and straining. Had the pipe fallen on any of us, it would have killed us.

We were each gripping this pipe with pipe wrenches - huge metal wrenches that are over a foot in length. We would lift the pipe by all of us simultaneously hefting up our wrenches. Then the one on the top would loosen their wrench and let go of the pipe (leaving the weight on the other three wrenches) and attach at the bottom of the pipe near the hole in the ground. Then we would lift again and the next person would let go and grab the bottom. After lifting twenty feet we got to a pipe connection that Dad would unscrew, while the rest of us held on to the bottom pipe for dear life. Then Dad would remove the top twenty feet of pipe while the rest of us hoped desperately that it would not fall on top of us. We did this three times. Each time the pipe we were lifting got less and less heavy, but it was still a struggle.

I want to add some nice words here for the tree that was right next to the well. At first we thought it would be inconvenient to have that tree there - we would have to lift the pipe straight through the branches and thought that it would get in the way. It turned out to be a blessing. As the pipe rose into the branches, the tree stabilized the pipe. It surely would have fallen had the tree not held it in place. As Dad removed each section of pipe, the tree branches continued to stabilize it, and kept the sections from falling on us. The tree provided shade as we worked hard in the heat of the day. Yes, we were all very glad that the tree was there.

When we were done, Dad was perturbed to find that the pump was located at the bottom of only sixty feet of pipe. The water level was fifty feet under ground, so the pump was only under ten feet of water. He figures that the pump burnt out because it sucked up those ten feet and couldn't run properly anymore. Or something like that. As for the rest of us, we were just glad that there were only sixty feet of corrugated iron pipe to lift. Had there been any more, we would not have been able to pull it up - it would have been far too heavy. Dad was also upset because the pipe wasn't supposed to be iron. The previous owners were supposed to have replaced it with plastic piping, which they obviously didn't do.

We measured the well to find out how deep it went. It was ninety feet deep, so Dad and Jeff went out and bought 80 feet of plastic pipe, plus all the trimmings. Meanwhile, Mom and I were feeling rather sore and painful. If I made a gripping motion with my hands, my knuckles and forearms ached. My legs were weak and a little wobbly when I walked. We had just been through a very exerting experience! We got working on dinner - enchiladas and sauteed snap beans - yummy!

While dinner was cooking, Dad and Jeff did a lot of stuff working on the pipes, figuring stuff out. I don't know what all they were doing, but it had to do with prepping the plastic pipe they had just bought, to go back down into the well. I took to laundry off the line (finally!) and got it all folded, then Mom and I sat on the porch relaxing and talking. It was nice to get to talk with Mom about all sorts of stuff - from my homemaking endeavors to how to teach Zaylee the things she needs to be learning now without sending her off to some preschool, to how overwhelming life can be, to how beyond-words our pipe-lifting experience had been. Plus it was nice to be sitting and resting our muscles!

After dinner we went out to work on the well some more. We needed to put the new pump and pipe down into the well. So Dad and Jeff were lowering the pipe into the hole, while Janelle kept the electrical wire untangled and taped properly to the pipe, and I wiped the dust off the pipe because we were putting it down into the drinking water and wanted it to be clean, and Mom kept the end of the pipe going in the right direction and kept it from scraping against the fence. At the end of the pipe, while we were working on getting it all secured, the security rope (tied to the pump) dropped down into the well. Luckily it was attached to the pipe in several places, so we only had to pull the pipe back up several feet to get the rope up. The security rope is important because it keeps the pump from falling to the bottom of the well in case of mishap while working on the pipe. We were glad we didn't have to pull the pump all the way back up to get the rope!

Anyway, we got the pipe down in the well, and everything hooked up properly, and the well closed off, and the water turned back on. Of course, all our activity had stirred up all the dirt at the bottom of the well so the water that came through the pipes was a lovely brown color. But after the well water settles, there shouldn't be all that sediment anymore. By the time we got the water turned on, it was almost 10:00 at night. Thomas was asleep in the play pen in Mom and Dad's room; Zaylee was asleep in Marie's bed. It was actually cold outside (hallelujah!). We were all tired and sore.

Anyway, after that long and busy and physically exhausting day at Mom and Dad's house, we finally went home and put the kids to bed. Jeff mentioned with a touch of irony that today was supposed to have been his day off (he didn't have work today, obviously).

This morning when I got out of bed I realized that I was sore and aching in muscles I wasn't even aware I had used. I hope nothing in this post has come across as complaining. I'm really not. I think yesterday was awesome! I felt very strong and needed as I was helping to work on this pipe. I felt a strange connection with past generations - generations of families who used to work together all the time to do things, like working on wells, that were necessary for the family's survival. I was awed and amazed at all that we were able to accomplish, and I am glad that I was able to help my family to fix the well that provides their home with life-sustaining water.

But I am determined that when we buy a house, it will be supplied with city water. And that's final!

Wednesday

Today is Wednesday, isn't it? And Wednesday is the day of our local farmer's market, isn't it.


Phooey.

Cater-killers and food storage

Things have calmed down somewhat, and I am feeling a bit better, and a little more optimistic about life. Thanks for everyone who commented and helped me feel better.

This morning, just as I thought, I awoke to the sounds of both kids in Thomas' crib. But Zaylee wasn't beating up on Thomas at all, and she had slept dry. Then the day took a turn for the very much worse when I heard Zaylee talking to the little "cater-killer" she had found in the hallway. It turned out to be a maggot.

I ran out to the hallway and discovered about seven maggots squirming around on the carpet! Oh no! So I grabbed the vacuum and sucked them up, then went searching for the source. The first place I looked, of course, was the kitchen garbage can. But there were no maggots there. Nor were there any in the kitchen or dining room at all.

By the time I had checked the kitchen and dining room, there were several more maggots squirming around in the hallway, so I was back on vacuum duty for several minutes. I would get rid of all the visible maggots, then look around and discover that one or two more had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Where were they coming from?!

As I watched and vacuumed, to my horror I discovered that these maggots were creeping up from inside the carpet itself. That meant that there were an unknowable number of maggots squirming around under my very feet! At this point I woke up Jeff.

I'm going to cut this story short, because it's becoming a bit lengthier than I intended. Basically, we decided to get some bug spray. So I left Jeff at home with the kids and the trusty vacuum cleaner, and I headed out to do our weekly shopping. I'll talk a little more about that later. But anyway, I bought bug spray and we sprayed the hallway carpet thoroughly. We had to block the entrance to the hall with chairs to keep the kids out, because they are instinctively drawn to things that can harm them, like bug spray on carpet.

We're hoping that takes care of this problem. Since spraying, we haven't seen any more maggots. But if we do, we still have a LOT of bug spray left, so I say to them, bring it on!! Actually, no - don't bring it on. Go away.


Okay, back to grocery shopping. After spending lots of money, mostly on food, I brought home my spoils and started adding things up. As of this trip, we now have our one month supply of food storage! Hooray! That's a pretty big thing for us. One down, eleven to go.

Since I'm so excited about this, and proud of what we've been able to do so far, here's what we have in our food storage:
- 80 pounds of grains
- 28.5 pounds of beans and peanut butter
- 33 pounds of sugar
- 1.5 pounds of salt
- 76.5 quarts of dairy
- 9 pounds of fat
- 16.5 pounds of meat
- 92.5 pounds of fruits and vegetables

I'm so amazed and excited that we've been able to fit this much food into our tiny apartment, and proud that we've stuck with it so far. It feels good to know that we are following the counsel of latter day prophets and preparing our family for the future.

Someone Take Me Away!!

The house is clean. But the kids are both screaming at me. Every little thing they do is getting on my nerves.

Zaylee pooped in her pants - five minutes after pooping in the potty, which she did two minutes after peeing in her pants.

Thomas keeps opening the fridge and pulling foods out. I blocked the kitchen entry with chairs. So now he's sitting in front of the chairs, trying to move them out of the way so he can get to the fridge. And he's screaming at me.

Zaylee screams at him when he screams, because the sound bothers her. Does she not realize this only makes the problem worse?!

Jeff is at work. He'll be gone until both kids are already in bed. I'm going solo tonight. And I am not enjoying it at all.

I really just wish someone would come and whisk me away to some little place just for me. It would be quiet and peaceful and serene. There would be books and magazines there for me to read without being interrupted, and yarn and hooks and lots of simple patterns to choose from so I could crochet something beautiful, just for me. And there would be ice cream and chocolate, but it would all have no calories at all, so I could eat as much as I want and not gain any weight. But it would taste as delicious as though each bite had a hundred calories!

Someone would be there to massage my back and shoulders and neck and feet for as long as I want. And when they were done I would feel blissfully relaxed and ache-free.

And it would have air conditioning.

And when I got back from this wonderful place, both kids would be sleeping soundly, cherub-like, in their beds. And they would stay asleep and QUIET until 9:00 tomorrow morning, so that when I woke up I could have some time to myself to get ready for the day, instead of having to jump straight into "mother mode" the second before I open my eyes. And when they finally woke up, they would both be smiling and happy. And Zaylee would have slept dry all night so that I wouldn't have to greet the day by changing her out of urine-scented underwear and plastic cover.

But instead, Thomas is still yelling and crying because he can't get into the kitchen to play in the fridge. And Zaylee is off making a mess somewhere. And I have aching shoulders, back, neck, and feet. And no ice cream. And no chocolate. And tomorrow the kids' crying will wake me up because Zaylee will have climbed into Thomas' crib and will be squishing his face into the mattress.

Whisk-Away Fairy, if you read this, please come take me away!

Learning Homemaking

Well, I went and created another blog. I've been thinking a lot lately about homemaking - cleaning and beautifying our home, making it pleasant and lovely. But lately, if I don't have a blog for it, it doesn't get done! So I created Learning Homemaking, a blog dedicated to my attempt to turn my messy apartment into a beautiful home. I don't know how this venture will turn out, but I hope to be able to make some improvements into the way I run my home and spend my time. Here goes!

My Latest Crochet Project

Since I come from a large family with many siblings, we siblings are on a rotation for Christmas gifts. Each year we have one sibling to give a gift. A couple years ago we had Marie (age 14). Last year we gave a gift to Rheanna (age 10). This year, we have Samuel, my 8-year-old brother. Mom had some yarn that she had purchased at a thrift store to make an afghan for him, but hadn't yet gotten around to it. So she said I could have the yarn and make the afghan as his special sibling Christmas gift this year.

And so, I am temporarily doing away with my procrastinative tendencies for this one project, and making an afghan for Samuel for Christmas (gosh, I hope he doesn't read my blog and see this...).

The yarn is a thick and chunky yarn, so I needed to make this afghan with either a really open pattern or a huge hook. I decided to go with a fairly large hook (K) and a granny square motif. I'm doing nine really big squares of blue and red, probably crocheted together with yellow yarn.

If I can get my pictures to upload onto the computer (for some reason, the pop-up to load the pics isn't appearing, and so no loading is going on. What's the matter with this thing?!) I'll post a picture of the afghan so far.



Waiting....





Yup, still waiting....






Hooking up the camera again....






Maybe I should change the camera batteries, might that help?....







Pausing to sweep up the shattered remains of the mug Thomas just dropped on the dining room floor....







Okay, I'm back and the batteries in the camera have been changed. Trying again....





Hooray! After shutting down the Internet, logging off the computer, logging back on, and hooking the camera up once again, I was finally able to upload my pictures. Here are the three that turned out decent (apparently it's difficult for the camera to focus on blue and red granny squares laying on dark brown carpet. I'll make a mental note of that).

Here's all the squares I have done so far, laid out approximately how they'll be for the finished project.

The easiest way for me to get the camera to actually focus on the stitches was for me to include my hand in the picture. Plus this gives you some size comparison.

A close-up of the granny square stitches. Like I said, it didn't focus well. But you get the idea.

Anyway, it's going to be a really cute afghan when it's done, perfect for a little boy. He'll love it.

Maggots - 1, Housekeeping - 0

We had an adventure this morning, of a less-than-pleasant nature. I was putting together some rice pudding for breakfast, when I noticed Zaylee playing with a tiny squirming thing on the floor. I assumed it was a little caterpillar; we had been outside for a couple minutes earlier, and I thought maybe she brought it in on her foot or something. So I grabbed it (eww! - it was really squirmy and yucky) and tossed it out the back door.

That's when I noticed that it was not alone. There were a few more pudgy little squirmies stuck on a cobweb by the door. Ooookay, that's weird.


Then I saw another one on the floor.


And another...


And another!


The floor was crawling with little squirmy things!!!

I freaked out just a tiny bit, then ran for the vacuum. Using the hose attachment, I sucked up squirmy after squirmy, all the while wondering what they were and where they came from! As I moved the trash can, cooler, and refrigerator out of the way to vacuum the critters out from under them, I noticed the rice pudding just in time to prevent a boil-over. But I was a little too late to prevent it from burning on the bottom. Oh well, I just stirred it and kept it cooking, but turned down the heat. Then I was back on the hunt.

I cleared the floor in the pantry and vacuumed up more little yuckies. I found them under the potatoes, hiding behind the bread machine, and squirming across the dining room floor.

Finally I realized that more were crawling out of the trash can. The trash can that we've been meaning to empty for days. The trash can that has not been emptied for much longer than I care to try to remember. And it suddenly hit me.


Maggots.


All those annoyingly pesky flies that have been buzzing around for the past several days have been reproducing in our trash can! YUCK!!!

So I ran the trash can to the dumpster and emptied it. This is the first time I've emptied the trash can myself the whole time we've lived in this apartment (it's pretty much Jeff's job). Desperate times call for desperate measures. I then sprayed the inside with an all-purpose cleaner with bleach, and set it outside.

About this time the burnt - I mean extra done - rice pudding was ready to eat. So we sat down to enjoy a nice, peaceful breakfast. Well, it would have been nice. The kids loved the rice pudding, and thoroughly enjoyed every bite. But I had to keep getting up to vacuum away squirmy little maggots crawling around under and around the table.

Since emptying the trash, and getting rid of (I hope) the source of the problem, the maggots have been sighted in less numbers, but I've still had to turn on the vacuum several times throughout the morning to suck down more of those pesky little suckers.


Yeah, chalk this one up to my horrible housekeeping "skills." I just don't keep this apartment clean enough, and now it's coming back to haunt me. So this round: Maggots - 1, Housekeeping - 0.


Pout again.

Farmer's Market - Finally Remembered!

Our local farmer's market is held every Wednesday evening from 5:00 to 8:00. Every week I look forward to going and checking out the bounty. And every Wednesday evening, shortly after 8:00, I look at the clock, realize I forgot about it, smack my head in dismay, and think, "Oh well, I guess there's always next week."

But this evening I remembered. A little after 5:00, as we were moving the dinner dishes from the table to the huge pile filling the sink and spilling out onto the counters, I told Jeff I wanted to go to the farmer's market. Right away. If we waited for later, we would never make it. My visiting teachers were coming at 7:00, and by the time they left it would be too late, so it was now or never. So we got the kids dressed a little more presentably, shoved everyone's feet into shoes or sandals, and hopped into the car.

As we passed the gas station a block from the apartment, Jeff pulled on in, stating that we were really low on gas. Okay, so we would just get a few gallons, then be on our way. And that's pretty much how it went.

Except for the "be on our way" part.

After gassing up the car, Jeff climbed back into the driver seat and turned the key. And the car wouldn't start. It was turning, but not firing. We tried for several minutes, then Jeff got out and popped the hood. The man with the van in the space next to us (who happened to be a mechanic) stepped over to see if he could help. He said it probably had something to do with the coil - sitting in the sun all day overheated the already-wearing-out coil, and that kept it from working. Or something like that. I don't fully understand it. Anyway, after standing in front of the car staring down at the engine and talking man-talk for a while, they still weren't able to get the car started, so I popped the car in neutral while Jeff, the helpful mechanic, and his teenage son pushed it out of the way.

The man's wife gave the kids and I a ride home in their van. It actually had two built-in car seats that we were able to buckle the kids in. That was great because we didn't have to go through the trouble of moving our seats into their van, then back out when we got home, then back to the car. The lady let me use their phone to call my parents. So while the kids and I were getting a ride home, Mom sent Morgan over with the van and tow cable so he could help us get the car back home. The car didn't end up needing to be towed - after sitting for a while, the coil had time to cool down (?) and the car started on its own.

I am so grateful that the man and his wife were there, right next to us, to help us out and give us a ride home. The kids were able to get home without getting overheated (it was quite warm, much too warm to sit in the car while waiting for Morgan), and we were able to get the car moved where it wouldn't be in the way (it had been stuck right at the gas pump, which I'm sure would have caused problems had it stayed there).

When Dad gets home from all his obligations this evening (work, scouts) Mom will be sending him over to take a look at the car and see if he can make it all better somehow. Or at least tell us what we need to do to make it all better. No, I'd rather he just go ahead and make it all better.

So long story short - yes, I remembered about the farmer's market; and yes, we were on our way there to enjoy an hour or so of wandering among the beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables. But no, we still have not been able to go to the farmer's market. Oh well, I guess there's always next week.

Pout.

Went For a Walk

This evening after dinner I was checking out some food blogs when I suddenly had the thought - we should go on a walk tonight. No sooner did this thought occur than Jeff blurted out "Do you want to go for a walk?"

Weird.

So we put the kids in the stroller, grabbed a toy truck and a little ball, and headed out the door. We ended up going to the local college campus, you know, the one that I have raved about in the past because it's so pretty. We walk through it every Sunday on the way to Church, and really like it. Anyway, we got to a shaded, grassy area and unloaded. Thomas had fun playing with the leaves he found on the ground, and Jeff and Zaylee got a game going where Jeff would throw the ball really far and Zaylee would run to get it. Yeah, we were letting her use up all her energy and wear herself out so she would go to sleep really easily tonight (p.s. - it worked).




Here's one of the buildings on campus. The view from where we were playing was so gorgeous, and the lighting was good too.


On the way home, I remembered that it's Monday evening, so I turned it into Family Home Evening by having a little discussion about how God gives us nature - grass and trees, and how he also gave men knowledge to be able to make things like the beautiful buildings and landscaping and stuff.

All in all, it was an enjoyable walk.

Busier than I've Been in a While

I haven't really posted lately because there hasn't been anything to post about. I haven't gone anywhere, done anything. We've been sitting around watching movies and surfing the Internet. I wish I could come up with better stuff to do (like finally clean the apartment!).

Anyway, this isn't supposed to be one of those posts where I complain about how messy my house is and how terrible I am for letting it get this way and for never doing anything. So I'll stop doing all that and get on with it.

This morning Sister H called (the one I've worked with in Nursery a few times, that we walked home with a few Sundays ago) and invited us to go to the park with them later. I was very excited and of course said yes. So a little before noon Jeff and I packed the kids up in the stroller and met with Sis. H and her little girls, and we all walked to the park together. The school district provides lunches for kids 18 and under at the local parks, so we got to feed our kids free food. Thomas didn't care much for his egg roll, but he loved the pears, rice krispy treats, and strawberry milk. Zaylee ate her whole lunch. She really had a great time playing in the sand box with little C. Thomas enjoyed crawling around in the grass - I bet it felt really funny on his legs!

Before we left to meet Sis. H to go to the park, I made a big fuss about making sure we had the camera. Then I didn't take any pictures. I didn't take pictures of Thomas shoveling the egg roll in his mouth (before deciding it was too strange and he didn't like it), or a video of him eating those pear chunks just as fast as he could grab them, or a shot of him guzzling the strawberry milk out of the little bowl the pears came in. I didn't get a picture of Zaylee and C playing together in the sand with buckets and shovels. Yeah, I'm kicking myself over that.

Soon after lunch we had to get back home. We were supposed to meet with the management of our apartment for recertification. Since Jeff got a job, that constitutes a change of income and needs to be taken into consideration for our rent. But they were really busy and had us reschedule for tomorrow morning. Phooey, if we had known that, we would have gone with Sis. H to the library after lunch (it's right beside the park we were at). Oh well, we have plans to hang out more later, and do messy craft stuff with the kids - cool!

This evening I got to go to the Church to help out with a Primary activity. The girls, ages 8-11, were having a craft night, and several sisters were asked to help teach them to knit, crochet, and cross-stitch. Another sister and I taught crochet. We didn't get any further than the chain stitch for most of the girls, and a couple got as far as the single crochet. That's okay, we laid the foundation for them to learn more later should they choose. This was really neat to do, because things like knitting and crocheting are becoming lost arts. We were asked to bring samples of things that we've made. I brought the little dress I made for Zaylee, as well as a potholder, a washcloth, my camera case, and a belt I made. We were able to show the girls things you can create with these skills, and that you can make really neat things. Everyone oohed and aahed over Zaylee's dress - tee hee, little ego boost for me!

It felt good to get out and do stuff after sitting on my duff at home doing nothing for several days. Tomorrow won't be a sit-around day either - it's laundry day! I figure we'll head over and get the laundry started, then leave the kids with Mom and my siblings and come back here for our recertification. When that's done, we'll go back to Mom's house and finish our laundry. Then we'll probably do our grocery shopping.

And maybe at some point we'll get some dishes done. Maybe.

Life is Full of Unexpected Things.

"Look Mommy, a bug!"

That's what Zaylee said to me as she held out her hand. Sure enough, there on her finger was a little smear that was once a bug. I smiled, said "yes, that's a bug," and helped her clean up her finger.



Later this afternoon, I heard Zaylee go into the bathroom and shut the door. A little bit of background - she's had the runs, so I put her in diapers today to ease in clean-up. She still goes to the bathroom on her own anyway. So I thought nothing of her going into the bathroom. It wasn't until the second flush of the toilet that I suspected something was amiss.

I got up and checked on her.

She was standing in front of the toilet. In her hand was a huge, soaking wet, soiled diaper, which she was dunking repeatedly into the toilet. She looked up and smiled; "I'm helping, Mommy!" This is how we clean her soiled underpants, so she thought that was how she should clean up the diaper as well. I smiled back, threw away the wet giant, and helped her clean herself up.



Life is full of unexpected things.

Sleepy Sunday

Today was sleepy. After Church, I fed the kids, then put Thomas down for a nap. Then while Zaylee was watching a VeggieTales movie, I lay down on the couch and went to sleep. Then Jeff got home from work. He ate a bit of lunch, then lay down for a nap. Then Thomas took another nap. Then I read a book to Zaylee and she fell asleep in my lap. Being stuck on the couch, I took another nap. And we all just woke up at around 5:30.

Why are we so sleepy?

Because yesterday we didn't get home until midnight. We went to the Twin Falls Temple open house with my family. It was so very neat - all of us were there together in the Temple, my whole family - Mom, Dad, all of my siblings and nephews, everyone except for Owen. That was just really cool. The Twin Falls Temple is very beautiful, and I'm glad we had the opportunity to go see it.

After the tour, Michelle and Mark and their kids and Jeff and I and our kids all went out to eat at Golden Corral. It was Nathan's birthday, and Mom and co. had gone to Michelle's house for cake and ice cream earlier in the day. Jeff and I weren't able to go because Jeff had work, so we wanted to spend time together after the tour. Hence, dinner out.

Dinner was soooo good (I love all-you-can-eat buffets!), though I ate way too much and was feeling it all day today! I made sure to eat plenty of shrimp, one of my all-time favorite foods. We didn't get done eating and ready to go until 10:00, because we were having such a great time together, all eating too much and having fun.

Pictures of kids eating:

Oren with his cupcake

Oren with his drink

Thomas concentrating very hard on a strawberry

Zaylee hiding

Nathan eating

I got a lot of funny-face pictures of Michelle, but didn't want to embarrass her too much, so here's a nice one!

Here's a couple pictures I actually took on Thursday. Mom has a pan cupboard under the stove that Zaylee used to love to climb into. There's a little peek hole that's just irresistible to young toddlers. Well, on Thursday, Thomas climbed up into the cupboard and was peeking out at us. Zaylee climbed in with him, and we got some cute pics.




Okay, fast forward back to this morning. Jeff had to get up before 5:00 so he could go to work at 5:30. That left me going to Church alone with the kids. No big deal, until you take into consideration the fact that I was asked to sub in on the organ for Sacrament. Kinda hard to watch two toddlers and play the organ at the same time! But I was able to ask a nice family to let the kids sit with them. They had young kids that played with Zaylee and Thomas, and kept them quiet and content while I was up on the stand.

I was a bit embarrassed at one point. I had turned up the crescendo pedal to make the organ louder. What I didn't realize is that the crescendo pedal makes it louder by adding stops instead of opening the valves. I wasn't playing on the foot pedals today, and didn't have them turned on, so I assumed that I could "stand" on the pedals to adjust myself on the bench. When I did so, just before the Sacrament hymn, I was surprised and mortified to find that the crescendo pedal had "turned on" the foot pedals and several loud, low notes filled the chapel. Oops! I quickly sat down and lifted my feet, mouthed an apology to the congregation, and started playing the song with bright red cheeks. Well, I was a bit flustered for the first few lines of the hymn after that, but I was able to calm down and play well for the rest of the time. I now know better - when I want to turn up the volume, I need to use the expression pedal (turns up the volume by opening valves and letting out more sound), not the crescendo pedal!

Reunion stuff, finally!

I went through my reunion pictures and realized that I really didn't take very many, and most of them weren't very good quality. So oh well.

We left for the reunion Friday afternoon after Jeff got home from work. After a fairly uneventful drive full of delicious snacks and quick potty trips, we arrived in St. Anthony, where we drove around in circles for over half an hour. Apparently our directions from Google Maps were missing one turn - we were within a mile of the lodge and had no idea how to get there! Finally we stopped at a gas station, where we found someone who knew where the lodge was and was willing to show us.

We arrived at the lodge just in time for a delicious dinner of way too much pulled pork - yummm!!! After dinner we convened for the talent show. I took lots of pictures of the talent show, but it was dark, so all my pics turned out pretty bad. But here's one that turned out alright:

Kathy and Emily sang a song together. It was very pretty and very sweet. Kathy was right - Emily has a wonderful voice!


Other highlights were Kathy and her sons playing jazz songs - Kathy on piano, Jordan on drums, and Justin on saxophone; Aaron and Karen's son Nick doing some awesome gymnastics; and Bill and Karen's family singing together in beautiful harmony. We're one talented family!

It was later that evening that I learned to play Killer Uno. I wasn't very good at it, but I sure had a lot of fun, especially wrestling with Abby for the spoon that would determine which one of us had to draw a card. We were vicious! And I want to apologize again, Abby, for shoving your foot down the vent and cutting your toe. Yeah...

Friday night was miserable as far as sleeping goes. We shared a room with another little family of four. It was hot and stuffy, Jeff and I shared the bottom of a small bunk bed (the top was wobbly and creaky). Also, one of the little guys in the room could only sleep with his special night light - that happened to shine a bright blue. Then fade. Then a bright green. Then fade. Then a bright yellow. Then fade. Then ... etc. Thomas had a hard time sleeping through that, as did I. But we survived.

Saturday morning was the auction. Here's the spread:


I was pleased with how much my offerings brought in. The 4 dozen Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies went for $50, and the 2 dozen Caramel S'mores Popcorn Balls for $35. Wow! Meanwhile, since we are very tight with our finances right now, I only spent $2. There was more I wanted, but the bids kept getting higher than I could pay - phooey. As it is we got a tablecloth and a really cute princess dress for Zaylee. She really loves wearing her sparkly new dress!


Saturday evening we headed over to Rexburg to look up some of our old friends. Two couples in particular that we used to have Family Home Evening with every Monday. We learned that one couple is spending the summer in Washington, so we weren't able to visit them. But the other family, Brenda and David and their adorable kids, were still there. We had a great visit. Brenda recently had twins, and we got to meet them for the first time.

Brenda with twins Heidi (left, sleeping) and Hyrum (right) - aren't they adorable?


David with Caroline:


We had a nice visit; it was so fun to see them again! But we eventually had to leave because the kids really needed to go to bed! So when we got back to the lodge we put Zaylee and Thomas down, and Jeff went to bed shortly after. I stayed up and played Killer Uno again. This time we were much more subdued - on Friday night many people had politely complained that we were too loud with all our giggling and shuffling around - but we still had a great time!

Sunday was full of cleaning, frantically packing and checking over and over to make sure we got everything. Apparently we should have checked a couple more times - we lost Jeff's keys. Pouty face.

A couple highlights I didn't mention yet:

Thomas found a toy shopping cart and had a great time pushing it around. He's been working on his walking skills, and he loved the fact that he could walk all over without falling when he was pushing the cart. I took several pictures of that, but on Mom's camera. I'll try to get those and post them later.

There was that really awesome slide that went from the game room upstairs to the play room downstairs. Zaylee loved that! She would go down the slide, up the stairs, and down the slide again over and over. It was cute. Also cute was Ashley and Joseph's daughter Paige. She would go down over and over again as well. When I was in the game room, every time Paige passed me she would smile big and tell me she was going down the slide. I cheered her on and down she went! This happened several times and was very cute.

Michelle got some pictures of Thomas and William playing together in the little play house. They played really well together. She needs to send me those pictures (hint hint!) so I can post that!

So there you have it - the reunion post I've been putting off all week. Now back to your regular scheduled programming - every day life at our house!