Picture-palooza

I still don't have much to talk about. Maybe I'll think of something really provocative and interesting today. I doubt it! LOL! In the mean time, please enjoy these pictures. It's been a while since I've taken any. In fact I think my camera may have sat on the counter for an entire week without me even touching it. Which I don't think has happened since I got it. Anyway, I got it out, took some shots, and even handed it over to the boy so I could be in a few. Some of these are pretty humorous as he's cut Megan's head out of most of them. He knows he has to put the camera to his face, but doesn't have a clue that he can actually see through the view finder! And then he presses the shutter button as if he's rapidly firing an automatic weapon. I have to say...his technique isn't too bad!



My niece, Caitlin. I think she's so photogenic...so is her momma :)

Miss Kitty...the raggedy old cat.

I had a hard time getting this one to smile for me this weekend. What do you think of her hair bows? I made them and the orange ones up top. I'm thinking of making some more for my friends with girls in their lives.

So.....That's it I guess.
Happy Monday!
I'm off to think of something provocative to post tomorrow :D

Is it just me?

Or do I appear to have freakishly long fingers? Just look at them...they go on and on. If I wasn't 4 years old when the movie E.T. was filmed, I would swear Steven Spielberg modeled E.T.'s hands out of mine. E.T. phone home. Not only are my fingers freakishly long...just look how blotchy and clammy they look. Eww.
I have absolutely nothing to talk about. But I saw this picture as I was uploading and it just scared me a bit. I figured it might be worth blogging about. I'll have to see if I can dig out this picture of me when I was like 12 I think. I was in a dance class and the particular picture I'm thinking of is me, dressed in my dance costume. I'm down on bended knee with my arms spread like I'm going to take flight and "jazz hands". Talk about long. My arms are so long, they almost don't fit in the picture. I'm sure the photographer had to back up an extra 5 feet as to not cut them off in the frame. Mom? Do you have that picture? I'm willing to sacrafice my coolness to show you my freakishly long monkey arms. If I can find it, I'll post it. For the sake of the blog. Spandex, glitter eyeshadow and all. Oh and really puffy hair.
Oh. I started an account at Twitter. Geesh. Yes, I DO have to be involved in every new internet trend. Gah. You can see on the sidebar over there --------------> little updates. The only reason why I did it is because I get these amazingly awesome (!) ideas that come swarming into my head. And then I come here to blog and they're mysteriously gone. Poof. Brain fart. And sometimes I just have little random bits that come and go that I think maybe are funny or memorable, but not necessarily blog worthy. Such as freakishly long fingers. So.....if you want to follow that, cool! If you don't, that's cool too. I think you can leave comments there too. Not sure how that works.
Speaking of internet trends.....What the heck is Skype? I don't get it. Someone explain, please. I need to know. I'm feeling left out in the dark on this one. And hello, I'm all about following trends.

Have you ever had a meal, either good or bad or whatever, that you know you'll remember for the rest of your life? I know this is completely random, but Pete and I were talking about it the other night and I wondered if anyone else felt the same way.
So far in my short time on Earth, I have two meals that stand out far beyond the rest as "The Best Meals of My Life". The first one was in the summer of 2000. It was the 2nd day of our honeymoon. We'd driven all day from Lake Tahoe, Ca. to Park City Utah. We were on our way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We'd driven all day across the dessert of Nevada and through the Salt Flats of Utah and finally made it to our hotel in Park City around 8 o'clock that night. We were tired and hungry. Park City is such a cute little town. This was before the winter Olympics were held there in 2002 (?) We decided to take a walk and see if we could find something to eat. Mind you, this is Utah (home of the Mormons) and Sunday (in my experience most Mormon's don't work on Sunday) AND it's the middle of summer in a WINTER resort town. Yeah. Not much going on in Park City that night. We walked down a couple blocks and decided to turn down a side street and head back for our hotel, figuring we could just get room service or something. And then, there it was....a little steak house type restaurant right there on the corner. I have not idea what the name of it was. But we walked in and almost thought they were closed. There was no one in there. In fact, the hostess said they were just about to close. But they sat us anyway. I remember thinking that it was going to suck because you know they just wanted to go home. They were going to feed us leftovers off the floor or something. I ordered teriyaki chicken, thinking that would be safe. They also had tons of wild game like elk and buffalo on the menu. I don't remember what Pete ordered, but I think he actually passed on the wild game that time.
I remember waiting for quite a while. I think they actually had to turn the ovens back on. It was that late. The food finally came and we were pretty hungry, but I tell ya.....That chicken was and probably still is the best chicken I've ever eaten. It was so tender and juicy and the sauce...oh the sauce was wonderful. Its just one of those meals I'll never forget. I think it's probably the entire situation that led to the memorableness of it. I mean we were on our honeymoon, and we were hungry as heck and the people in the restaurant were extremely hospitable despite the late hour. But the food really was good. I wish I could remember the name of that place.
The second Best Meal of My Life was in August of 2002. It was my birthday and we had been camping with some friends up on the Mendocino coast in Northern California. We'd been at the beach all day. Pete and the guys had been diving for abalone and me and the girls were searching for treasures on Glass Beach. We were dirty and cold and wet. Summer at the beach in Nor Cal is COLD. It's almost always foggy and there's a stiff wind that comes off the Pacific. But it's the most beautiful place in the world. (in my opinion) Anyway, we were driving back down to our campground when Pete pulled of the road into the parking lot of a little bed and breakfast. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Well, it's your birthday and I thought we'd have a nice dinner tonight", he said. (Awwwww!) So, he went in and made reservations just for the two of us. We went back to camp and cleaned up as best we could. We were camping, you know that's kind of hard to do! We drove back up to the B&B and were seated for our meal. This place was SO nice. The nicest restaurant I'd ever been in. One of those restaurants with a French gourmet chef and a different menu every night. It was just about sunset and we were seated right next to the window which overlooked a beautiful garden and then cliffs down to the ocean. The restaurant sits right were the Albion River meets the Pacific Ocean. It was incredibly romantic. I'm usually not all mushy like that, but this place is just...wow-amazing. We both ordered the fillet mignon with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans. I remember the first bite. Pete and I both put our forks down and looked at each other. It was like nothing we'd ever eaten in our lives. Like we were offered a tiny peace of heaven right there on our plates. It was just so amazingly good. I can't even describe it. Worth every bit of the $120 dollars! *yikes* Again, the experience made it just that much more enjoyable, but it was still the best meal we've ever had. Hands down.
We were lucky enough to go back there for our anniversary in June of 2006. We actually stayed the night at the B&B this time. It was another great meal and the breakfast the next morning was phenomenal. But nothing can top that first time. Plus I was like 8 months pregnant the 2nd time...nothing's that enjoyable when your 8 months pregnant!
So how about you guys? Ever had a meal you'll never forget? If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you request for your last meal?

****Side note****
Thank you to everyone for your words about my last post! And hello??? Where have I been? Super Why! is like AWESOME! Is there any better pre-reading program out there? I went directly to the PBS website after Jude and Kim recommended it and watched an episode right here on the computer. I then went to iTunes and downloaded a couple of episodes. They are great. And I also bought a Leap Frog DVD at Costco so we're on a roll!
Thanks for all your input!

I don't think I could ever home school. In fact, I don't think I could ever be a teacher at all. It's funny because for many, many years that's all I ever thought about doing. In fact I was a teacher for 5 years. I taught preschool, pre-K class for 5 years. Mostly preschool was about social skills, but there were plenty of early fundamentals in there such as the ABC's and 123's. Even in the pre-K with early math skills. I have 2 red blocks and 1 yellow block, I have 3 blocks....that sort of thing.

So........why can't I teach these things to my own kid? Why doesn't he get it?

I already know the answers. Because he IS my own kid. Because I have NO patience what so ever. Because school is starting very soon and I'm starting to feel the pressure of him at least knowing the effing alphabet....and to at least count to 20 without assistance. Gah! is that asking too much? Oh, he can say the alphabet--no problem. AND he can even write it pretty well too. But out of 26 letters, he maybe recognizes 12 of them--on a good day.

We have flash cards and I've been going heavy on the flashing lately. A-B-C no problem, he's got those both upper and lower case. We get to D and he starts staring off into space. This is were the train starts de-railing right here. "uhhhhhh.....(gulp).....O?" he says. I give him a little bit of a break because it does sort of look like an O. Sorta. I show him the Duck "Deeee....duh, duh, Deeeee. D is for duck." I say. "Deeee, ok mommy D." I show him the E card with the elephant. *silence* "uhhhhhhhh......."

And here's where my train completely de-rails.

"E!! Eeeeeee!! El-e-phant! Eeee!"

I mean, it's in his name for pete's sake! He knows how to spell his name, so why can't he recognize E? or e?

Deep breath.

Count to 10.

Another deep breath. *whew*

Lets start again..

A----"A"

B----"B"

C----"C"

D-------------"uhhhhhhh O? nO! not O uh...."

Duh, duh...dd........................."duh"?

no! Deeeeee! Deeee

"Oh yeah D!"

Next letter.

E----------*crickets*

And so the cycle continues.

*Let me just add in here that I don't JUST do flash cards with him. I still have lots of stuff from my teaching days. I've give him pre-K type worksheets and as long has he's paying attention and I give him clear directions as to what to do, he never has a problem. He loves to play matching games and counting games and LOVES the pre-K worksheets. He'd do a whole book of them in an afternoon if I let him. Flash cards are like an oral exam. He gets all freaky and feels the pressure. I can't blame him. It's just that I, personally, think he should be able to recognize most of the letters by now*

I realize how horrible this post makes me sound. I realize it's completely obvious I have no patience. I realize that I'm probably approaching this all wrong. I realize I'm not cut out for teaching.

I'm just nervous. I'm feelin the pressure, man. School starts in a month and kindergarten is much different than it was 25 years ago (holy crap!) You're expected to like, know stuff now ya know? I also have a niece and nephew that have been held back at this school. Two kids who seem perfectly normal and smart and capable to me and yet, they've repeated grades. I think that is what is actually fueling my paranoia. I know he hasn't even started yet, but I don't want him held back! I also have a kid who will actually still be 4 when he starts kindergarten. And I know that boys tend to just be a little on the slower side anyway.

He's such a great kid. And smart as a whip. The dude remembers everything. (except the alphabet ha ha)

I just want him to succeed.

I really think he will.

I want to at least give him some weapons before I send him off to war. If that makes sense.

I'm sure I'll get the don't worry, he'll do fine comments. And, you're probably right. I just can't help the way I feel. Can't help my lack of patience (I'm a redhead-it's inbred in me) or my frustrations.

Tomorrow I'm going to:

lay off the flash cards

Run errands early and maybe stop at the park

Go to the pool

Not think about the alphabet! HA!

hey guys

no blogging = not much going on around here. It's been super hot (with the exception of the last two days) like I'm not kidding 110* degrees. So the majority of our waking hours have been spent at the pool.

Which is fine by me. :) Jake is getting more and more brave every day. I caved and got him some arm floaties. I've not been a huge fan of these thingies because I think they give a false sense of security and make kids a little over confident. I'm still finding this to be quite true...BUT they are allowing him to actually get in and enjoy the water and feel confident enough to practice real swimming. So, it's been good. HUGE difference from a month ago.
Last weekend was spent up at the ranch. I must say, despite the heat, it was pretty fun this time. (not that it's not fun every other time we go...this time was just a little different) We (me and the kids) actually spent the night up there so we had 2 full days to play and mess around. PLUS, Pete's partner Curt had his wife up there and it was just so nice to have a woman to talk to! AND she brought her horse, Tulip. :)

I hadn't ridden a horse in about 10+ years and I took a little 15 minute jaunt on Miss Tulip. It was so fun and it felt great to sit in the saddle again. If I didn't have kids, I'd SO want a horse! Too much work though. And money. Oh! and guess what??!!! The turkeys made their way home! My garage is now turkey free! And a little less stinky, however, there is a lingering scent still there. I can't help to still look to my left as I go out and expect to see little beady eyes staring at me. But I don't miss them! Not one bit. Oh and to answer a few questions...No, I did not release one like I had thought. I was close, but couldn't bring myself to do it. But if they were still on Sunday, you bet your life I would have!
My mom came down yesterday and we took the kids to the pool...of course! Had a great time and basically had the entire Olympic size pool to ourselves. Nice! MOM: could you please email me those pics we took yesterday, ok? Don't forget! I need them :) Thx.
********
Jake funny:
So we as a family read the Bible together about twice a week. 5 year old boys (or almost 5) are like little sponges and he is retaining EVERYTHING we have read about. Can't complain about that, right? But it's funny because some things he just takes so literally.
When we were up at the ranch last weekend, we took a ride down to the pond. There were thousands and thousands of little baby frogs/toads everywhere. An almost 5 year old boys dream come true! He was catching them right and left. At one point he had about 7 or 8 baby frogs in his pocket ready to take home. ummmm....no. No frogs. We just got rid of the turkeys, please, no frogs. Well, Pete caved and let him take one tiny little froggy home in an empty Gatorade bottle.

The little boy was just smitten with this silly frog. He even had to tell it goodnight when it was time to go to bed. But alas, when he got up the next morning, the frog had died. He was so, so sad and he cried and cried. I told him to go bury the frog in our flowerbed in the patio. So he did. A few hours later he went out to, i guess, say a few last words to the frog. But he couldn't find him. So, he came in the house and said this:
"Well, I can't find my frog. I guess God must have been out there when I wasn't looking and took him up to be with him in heaven, because he's not out there. God touched him and healed him and took him to heaven. God is very powerful, don't ya know."
Hee hee! he's so cute :)
Dang! Today marks exactly one month until school starts. Gah! I'm SO not ready for this. I can hardly believe it.

Happy Birthday America! I made you a cake!

I love 4th of July. It's my favorite holiday. Always has been. There's just something about hot weather, BBQ's and lightin' stuff on fire that just makes me happy. I'm a closet pyromaniac. Not really. Well maybe. I get it from my mom. We LOVE fireworks. Unfortunately, they are not allowed in our city. Boo! But they do have a city fireworks show in the park after dark. And that's where we're headed tonight. Let's just hope it's worth the wait. Last time we went it was pretty horrible. We waited until almost 10 before they started and then they couldn't get em up high enough (sounds like a personal problem..ahem. please pardon my immaturity.) past the trees so we could see them. And it just totally sucked. The whole thing was like a big hoser waist of time. And yet we're venturing out again this year! Yippee! What else are you to do when you live in a small town that doesn't let you light stuff on fire?
In all seriousness, I hope you all have a fun and safe holiday.
God Bless America. And Canada. They're nice too :D Happy belated Canada day!
oooh! I forgot--me and the kids are gonna make home made ice cream today! Yeah! What is cake without ice cream? And home made ice cream just screams summer to me. It's gonna be good!
Have fun today Americans!

The Turkeys of Redbridge

If you build it they will come.
First, let me start off by apologizing for yesterdays post. Freaking lame. Lamer than lame, man. Forget it ever existed. Amen.
We now return you to the regularly scheduled blog post.

So, many of you know that my husband is a pig farmer. You may also remember that for some crazy reason he's decided to become a turkey farmer too. And about a month and a half ago (MAY 15TH TO BE EXACT)I was sent to the post office to pick up 20 baby turkey chicks in box no bigger than a shoe box. Oh! how the children squealed with glee when we spilled them out into the small cage Pete had built in our garage!

And I will admit, though not thrilled with the idea from the beginning, they were pretty darn cute.

Two or three weeks at the most, I was told. Then they will go to the ranch. Um. That was May 15th and it's what? Almost July flippin' 3rd. HELLO!?
Yeah. Let's just say the turkeys are not so cute anymore. Not at all. I've told you all my disgust for them here before. And, the disgust grows more and more each and every day. Lets take a look at what the turkeys look like now:

Good. Lord. Do you see those freakishly beady eyes? Gah. They're just waiting to peck me to death, I'm sure of it. Here's a side by side so you can see just how big these mofo's have really gotten:

Good. Lord. They're the fastest growing being I've ever lay eyes on.
You know, if it wasn't for the fact that they freaking stink like nothing I've ever smelt before (I'd take a poopy diaper any day), or the fact that I have to feed and water them 3 or 4 times a day, it might not be so bad. I might not hate them that much. Take a look at this:

These are two of the water thingyies before I put fresh water in them. Do you see all that nasty stuff in there? That would be a mixture of water, turkey food, shavings and POOP. Dude, seriously. This picture is tame. Usually there is a large blob (or two, or three) of POOP right on the top of these things and is slimes down the side of it. I'm really not that much of a girly-girl, but seriously! Ewww! Three or four times a day.
Oh! and do you see that fly on the edge of the big water thingamajig? Now, close your eyes and imagine that one fly multiplied by six hundred fifty three thousand and one, and you will see the amount of flies there are in my garage and...in. my. house. If you build it they will come. The flies have come. Oh my, have they ever. I think that might just be the worst part of this whole thing.
Anyway. So, The Turkeys of Redbridge....Let me explain the title.
Redbridge is the name of our neighborhood/community. I've put up an ultimatum. The turkeys have over stayed their welcome. Pete has assured me that they will be out of here THIS weekend. And I told him, if they're not I will let them go. And they will become the Turkeys of Redbridge. He doesn't believe me. He doesn't think I'll really do it. He obviously has no idea what I'm capable of. I'm joking. Sort of. Not really. I don't know. But lets see if those stinky turkeys are still here on Monday.
The end.

A couple things I really love lately...
First: Dawn Simple Pleasures liquid dish soap. Specifically the Lemon and Tangerine scent. Oh my. It smells so good. The soap itself is scented, but the bottle also has a built in air freshener thingy on the bottom. It's like these little scented balls, and every time you tip the bottle, this lovely whiff of lemon-y orange tickles your nose. I love it. And the soap (while not anti bacterial) still works just as well as you would expect from Dawn. It is a little bit more money of course, but that yummy smell is worth it!

Second: Kraft Tuscan House Italian dressing and marinade. (this link is not direct to the exact product. I couldn't find it on the Kraft website but this is similar.) Yum. This is the best marinade for grilled chicken breasts. Not to mention quick and super easy. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Place in zip-lock bag, squirt in some dressing. Seal bag. Let sit for 10 minutes or so while your heating the grill. Then throw it on the grill! Really, really moist, flavorful chicken. So good. I also use this as a dressing for pasta salad.

Third: Target brand disinfecting wipes. Sorry, no linkage for this one...couldn't find it on their website. But as far as I can tell, they work just as well as the Clorox brand and are still easy to dispense. Lysol wipes totally suck. They never come out of the thingy correctly. Bunch of crap. Target wipes+ easy out=good.

Fourth: Bushes Grillin' Beans Do you like baked beans? Pete is weird. He LOVES them. I mean, I like them and all, but Pete uses baked beans in burritos instead of re fried or pinto or black beans. So strange. Anyways, so I found these Grillin' Beans at the store a few weeks ago and since we've (ahem..I've) been doing a lot of grillin' lately and because well Pete really likes baked beans, I thought what the hey! let's try grillin' beans. We're totally obsessed now. Lovin' the Grillin' Beans. We've been having them with almost every meal. Way better than plain ol' baked beans.

So I guess that's it for now. Do you guys even care about this stuff? Is it all interesting? I realize it's probably not. This kind of post means there's really NOTHING exciting or blog worthy going on around here.

*Books!* I have not forgotten about giving away books. I'm just trying to come up with a better way of doing it, and letting more than one or two books go at a time. That way it's worth the shipping cost. So if you're still interested in that...there will be more books coming.