Popstar!

Lately Ains has been into pop stars. I'm not sure why. The only thing I can think of that would have effected her this way would be the few episodes of Hannah Montana she has seen. Out of the blue she started showing us how pop stars did things. Like how they said good-bye, danced, and even how they carry bottles of ketchup. Here is a video of her demonstrating how a pop star dances. Amazingly enough, she is holding back in this video...she's usually a lot more jerky(I think the necklace she is holding on to is throwing her off). She kind of reminds me of Elaine on Seinfeld. I'm afraid she might have inherited her mother's dance skills.

BTW:She keeps looking to her right so that she can see her reflection in the TV...too cute!

Yummy!

Last night we tried this for dinner...
It was super easy and fast. It's a Kraft recipe that is surprisingly delicious. You should try it! I even made it with wheat pasta and everyone gobbled it up. The only thing I will change next time I make it will be to use more veggies and chicken than the recipe calls for. This is definitely going to make it into our meal rotation! Click here for the recipe.

New Do?

Someone at church on Sunday asked me if I had gotten a new haircut because my hair looked different. I had to explain that the difference was that I had done my hair that day and she probably hadn't seen my hair done in a while. I have a serious problem with making myself look presentable during the summer.

As soon as swimming season starts my hygiene goes way down. My showering/doing hair schedule is based on workouts and when I will be swimming next. For example, if I work out in the morning but will be swimming that day there would be need for a shower, but no need to do my hair. When I do go swimming that day there would be no need to do my hair after that shower because the day would be practically over. There would also be no reason to shower the next morning if I don't work out, and it would be pointless to do my hair because it would be all crazy from not doing it the day before.

I have such a complex with doing my hair in the summer. I'm convinced that it should take less than a few minutes. So usually I just put some gel in it, attempt to make it curly, and then pin it up or put it in a pony tail. I would say that I do my hair only once or twice a week. Once for church, and maybe one other time if I feel up to it. Am I the only one that takes summer off? Why do I feel that just because it's warm outside there is no need to shower and groom? I must say though...I really do like the summer, and maybe that's because I'm so laid back about everything...even how I look.

Quality time

A while ago I started feeling like a slacker mom and decided that Ainsley needed more one on one time. Usually when Owen goes down for his afternoon nap Ainsley and I both have our separate quite, alone time. And since I wasn't ready to give up this time completely, I decided that we would just spend 20 minutes or so on a project or activity after Owen went to sleep so that she got some individual attention during the day. Some days she helps me in the garden. Some days we just read stories. And some days I fail miserably and am so ready for a break come 1:00 that we just do our own thing. For a few days we worked on her necklace. This took a while because we had to start it over twice when she changed her mind about the beads she wanted to use.
I have also been using some of this quality time to teach Ains to swim. One day a week we head over to my parents house, put Owen down for a nap, and then hop in the pool. She has to spend 20-30 minutes with me practicing swimming and then she can play and do whatever else she wants in the pool. I have been really impressed with how fast she has progressed. I was worried that she wouldn't learn from me and that I would regret not putting her in lessons. But she can already bob up and down in the water (she wouldn't even go under water last summer), float on her back for a full minute, jump off the diving board (with floaties), and swim 4-5 feet with her head under water (with out her floaties! She does sort of a doggy paddle, but I'm still impressed). Here is a picture of her in her beloved goggles. She is obsessed about not getting water in her eyes and so the goggles stay on the entire time she is in the pool.(FYI she is holding her 'collection bag' that she has been packing around for days. She was super excited about yesterdays addition to the bag....bubble wrap.)

Where has the time gone???

So........talk about a lack of posts! Time for a catch-up. Mostly for my record (since this is the only family record I keep) so the reading might be boring...proceed at your own risk.

I'm not sure how I got so distracted. I think it all started when our power chord broke.

We have a lap top, so when it died, it died. We were without a computer for a few days because we were waiting for some gift cards that we were going to receive for going to a travel presentation. That was fun...okay, so it wasn't really fun. But, we got $65 in gift cards and we are supposed to be getting 3 nights accommodations in Vegas for free, hopefully not in the complete ghetto. We'll see?!? And the $65 came at a very convenient time.

This past week we made another exciting purchase (besides the power cord). We bought a bike cart. I was excited about this, not only for the sake of having a bike cart, but it was my first craigs list purchase. I've sold a ton of stuff, but this is the first thing we've bought. We've wanted one for a while and we got a decent deal on this one. It wasn't a steal, but it was a very good brand and has a lot of years left in it. We took it home, cleaned it up, and have since become a biker family. The kids love to go on bike rides now. I've even used it to save us on some gas. We are lucky enough to live less than 1/2 mile from a ton of stores, so I figure we might as well bike to run our errands that are nearby. It has been great! Although, on Saturday I rode with Owen to Fred Meyer, did our shopping, put my items on the conveyor belt, and then realized that my wallet wasn't in my purse. So we had to go home and then do the trip all over again. Oh well, I guess it just gave me more exercise.
We also got to spend time with both of our families this weekend. John's sister Melanie was here with her family from Atlanta. We spent Friday with their family and Dan and Paige's family. We went to the park, had a BBQ, stopped by the Dairy Day's celebration to pet some animals, and let the kids play a ton. Ainsley was so sad when her cousin Quinn left. She cried for a good hour about how much she would miss Quinn because she didn't know when she would get to see her again. She made me write down all the things that she had fun doing with Quinn (like playing barbies and riding in the same car) so that she could send her a letter. It was really cute. (BTW I tried for like an hour to try to scan the letter but our scanner is causing me much anger...and hence, no copy of the letter for you!)

We also got to celebrate Syd's birthday with her. We just went to my parents house and hung out in the pool and then had a lasagna dinner. I didn't take one picture. I don't know what my problem is. I have a complex when it comes to taking pictures of events. I'm great at taking pictures of random day to day things, but if there's something significant going on...you can bet that my camera will stay safely tucked away and not be used once. And that is why there are no pictures of Syd's party, or our day with the Mel and Burke.

Ainsley also got to go to a pirate birthday party for her friend Nathan on Syd's birthday. That's a lot of partying in one day for a 4 year old. Ains was so excited to dress up like a pirate! Syd came over the morning of her party and dressed her up. She was going for the Jack Sparrow look and I thought she did a great job. I loved the 'pirate faces' Ains was pulling for her photo shoot! She came home looking ragged and covered in chocolate...if that doesn't say "good time" I don't know what does!
And lastly, this past week we were finally able to see some of the fruits of our labor. We chopped off all of our lettuce and brought it inside. My lettuce looks sad now, but it is growing back nicely. I was a bit traumatized however when I was cleaning the lettuce and found TWO slugs in my kitchen sink!!! I was totally grossed out. We have since purchased slug bait in an attempt to make all future lettuce slug free. I was so disgusted at seeing the little bugs on my food that each piece of lettuce was washed with soap and received 2 thorough inspections before being consumed. I have to admit that it was delicious though!
The rest of our garden is in full bloom too. We have a bunch of little peas, a baby pepper, and blossoms on the zucchini plant. I wonder if I will be as excited about the progress of my garden next year?!?

Parade

Ainsley has been driving me crazy lately asking when we were going to go to a parade. We've gone to our cities 'Dairy Days' parade every summer since we moved here and she's become accustomed to it. This year we weren't going to be able to make it to that parade because we get to hang out with Mel's family that night....which we are super excited for by the way! We actually could have taken her family to the awesome event but apparently a certain uncle of Ainsley's (who will remain anonymous) has a severe dislike or phobia of parades (I'm not sure which :).
So this year, in an attempt to meet our yearly parade quota we ventured outside our city limits and went to a neighboring cities parade and celebration. We had a lot of fun. The weather was perfect. We didn't really have to fight crowds or traffic. We got there about and hour and a half before the parade, staked out a spot in the shade, and then wandered around looking at vendor sights, watched some entertainers, and ate treats.

Then the fun began. The kids really liked the parade. Ains would dance every time a cheer leading or dance group would come by. She has a new, self labeled, 'pop star' dance that is hilarious. I was trying to get her to dance as this float went by...but instead I got some great footage of Owen shakin' his booty.

Owen really enjoyed the first part of the parade. He was very polite and would wave good-bye to every one that passed. And while Ainsley liked the first part too, I think her favorite was the end because this was a water parade. Owen and I got drenched with the one of the first fire trucks, and then Owen made it known that he wanted no more of it!
Ains however stood on the side of the road waving her hands in a 'bring it on' type fashion, loving every minute of it! It was mostly men and teenage boys spraying the water and most of them would look at Ains and pass her over in an attempt to be polite. So John went out with her and taught her to yell,"spray me" while waving her arms. This increased the amount of water coming her way significantly.

The kids had fun and it was a great festival. So now we will have to decide which event we will be going to next year.

A side note about the parade......

There was one bizarre thing about this parade. People were wandering around the street during the ENTIRE parade! At first I thought it was a little weird that the streets still had so many people walking up and down the middle of the street right before the parade was supposed to start. I kept waiting for the streets to clear but they never did! I've never been to a parade before where people just traveled up and down the street (not in cars of course) at will in the middle of a parade. I was really bothered by this so I took a few pictures while we were sitting on the curb of the people passing in front of us while we were watching the parade. At one point a family wanted to cross the street just where we were sitting and so they just stood in front of us for a few minutes waiting for a break to cross the street. I'm still not quite over it. Hence, my random slide show of the ridiculous amounts of people walking around during the parade. (I have about 10 more pictures I could have added to the slide show but I quit adding them because the pictures were taking forever to load and I thought, "Who is actually going to sit and watch an entire slide show of random people. Enjoy!

Summer is here....at last!

Today it finally felt like summer! And while the house needed cleaning (and did eventually get cleaned) we went ahead and did this.....

TWICE!!! And in two different pools (just to mix it up a little). (This picture is from last summer...I didn't pack my camera around today)

And we went here.....

once. Although we didn't actually go there, I think that park is in Maryland, but once again I didn't have my camera.

And John got to work taking care of this...
What's funny is that our lawn has actually been half mowed all week. It started raining while John was mowing the back last week so we have had a line in our backyard all week that looked a lot like this one.

All in all...a fun and productive day!

Pay it Forward....DONE!

Months ago I agreed to this pay it forward thing on my blog. And I'm proud to say that I finally finished! I made things for Matt, Steph, and Maria. Matt and Steph got a magnet board. This was actually Maria's idea (which is why I had to come up with something else to give her). I just painted some old frames, stuck in the metal, and made some little magnets to stick on it.
Maria got a bunch of homemade cards.
So, as promised in my original post, I didn't make anything grand...but I did make something. And now I'm done so I never have to think of it again!

The Silver Linings

After a few days of crazy we are now seeing the silver linings. Not that we had it that bad...I'm just a whiner and here are a few of the good things that have happened to us over the last few days!

• Both kids were sick for only a few hours.
• After dealing with an insurance scare and some misinformation I only have to pay $15 for my chiropractor visits instead of $150
• My parents were able to get moved in successfully with little help from us.

Here is a shot of their new kitchen...I think it turned out great!

• Because I was able to get into the chiropractor quickly I am up and moving with minimal pain.
• We were all healthy enough to go to Merel's farewell party.
  I put a few of the pictures from my camera, that I didn't take, into a slide show for you all. There is the "Photo Tour by Ainsley" and a few more shots from the party. I thought Ains did a great job of capturing the greatest aspects of my parents remodel.
  

• Our last silver lining was that we got to be served. I realized that we have great support here. A friend that was willing to rush to my house with no notice, a family offered to bring us dinner (we declined...but the thought was nice) and another friend called to volunteer to take my kids with out me even asking. People were so willing to serve us, it's always nice to realize that.

When it rains it pours!

Last night I slept with John, Owen, and BIG bowl. In a queen size bed. It was just a bit squishy. I honestly thought about getting up and taking a picture, but it was 1:00 in the morning, and that would have required way too much moving. We slept in a communal bed last night because Owen woke up and threw up all over his bed and since I was sure there would be more to follow, I stuck him in our bed so that I wasn't running back and forth all night...correction...so that John wasn't running back and forth all night, because I'm still very slow and can't lift a darn thing.

Little did I know that Owen would insist on holding the BIG throw up bowl while he slept. He would also insist on having his head, legs, or arms on me. I can't even begin to explain how hard it is to get comfortable with a bad back and a toddler and a bowl on you! I put up with this for a few hours and then gave up. I've never realized how much Owen tosses in his sleep at night. At one point I literally caught him by his shirt as he threw his body over the edge of the bed during one of his squirming episodes. At about 3 in the morning I went and made him a makeshift bed and made John carry him from our room. Poor John had to get up at 5:00 this morning for a trial. Hopefully he doesn't fall asleep in court!

Why does everything always seem to happen at once. It sure would have been convenient if we could have spread out the back issues, stomach issues, and the trial, over more than 2 days. Oh well.

Down and Out!

We've had a bit of chaos around here the past couple of days...mostly due to me. On Friday night I went to bed with a sore back after helping my parents move back into their house (their remodel is finally done, and it looks great). On Saturday morning John and I woke up to Ainsley running into our room around 5:00 with an upset stomach. I jumped up to direct her toward the toilet and realized that I could barely move. Ainsley spent the next 2 hours throwing up, and I spent the next 2 hours trying to relax and stretch out my back. Our day Saturday was supposed to be packed with things like mowing the lawn, helping my parents complete their move, John working to prepare for his trial...etc. Instead, I called John at 9;30 in the morning, almost in tears, telling him that he had to come home from work because my back was getting worse and I couldn't move at all.

Luckily, the chiropractor that I had gone to with this problem before (after Owen's birth) was opened until 10:00 on Saturday. When I called they said they would wait for me until 10:10. John wasn't going to make it home in time, so I started calling everyone in my ward to find someone to watch my kids. Ains was still sleepin g in bed and Owen was wreaking havoc in my house. I called 6 or 7 people before I finally even caught someone at home. Codi (aka my lifesaver) raced over, with her kids still in their PJ's', so that I could rush off to get my back taken care of. She was so great, she rushed over with very little information while I rushed out the door. John got home while I was gone and cleared things up a bit for her. I'm pretty sure she'll be getting a little gift...as soon as I can move again.

So, Ains and I spent yesterday in our jammies on the couch. She was fine once she woke up, but her and I still took the day easy. John took care of the kids while trying to prepare for his trial. I think he finally felt ready last night around 10:00 (at least he wasn't up all night due to my lack of mobility). We weren't able to help my parents out anymore, John had to miss a young men's activity, and our lawn is still awaiting a much needed mowing. I'm so impatient and have a hard time putting life on hold due to a failing body. My body is numb from laying for so long. I still can't move and couldn't go to church today. I have another appointment to adjust my back again tomorrow, hopefully that will help, because I can't take much more of this. (Boy, I'm a whiner!)

Green Thumb?

The more I garden the more I like it. And the things I'm planting are actually growing...which was a bit unexpected. My biggest disappointment this year is when we got a big hail storm on Memorial day and it destroyed my Hastas. They had just opened up this year and they were looking gorgeous, now they just look plain sad. I was told I couldn't cut them back until the fall or they wouldn't come back next year. So, I guess I'm just stuck with torn up Hastas lining my walkway.

My garden, however, is doing great! My lettuce got a little worn down from the hail but it's pulling out of it. I've only killed one tomato plant and one pepper plant. Not to shabby, eh?
I even have blossoms on my pepper plants...I'm so excited!

I'm sure we'll have peas any day now. I think my pea plants look really pretty.
Ains has been a great help too. Today she helped a bit with weeding and then cut up little pieces of twine for me and wadded it up into little knots. Why? I'm not sure. But she felt that it had to be done.
Ains and I also planted some more seeds yesterday. As we were at the grocery store yesterday I got a hankerin' for some chives. I was outraged that it was $3 for a tiny little container of herbs, so we went and bought some seeds to grow our own. We planted basil, parsley, and chives along the edges of our garden and also in little cups to grow inside (just as a back-up). So one way or another, we will have an herb garden. I just need to figure out a place that I can grow them inside year round. I don't have any good windows for growing. So here's my question...do they really need direct sunlight, or will they grow on my kitchen counter that is not sunny? Anyone know? If so, please share.

Bulk

I have a new love. I call it "bulk at Winco." When we first moved here I started shopping at Winco because they were the cheapest, but over time I have grown to love their LARGE bulk section. At first I just used the bulk section for Halloween candy. You can get a lot of candy for cheap. Then I started buying my almonds there because they were way cheaper. Next I was told to buy my wheat and gluten flour there for my bread because it was cheapest. Now my favorite part of my trip to the grocery store is our time spent in the bulk section. Over time my list of things to buy in the bulk section has grown. I soon added noodles, cereals, yeast, dried fruit, rice, etc...etc to my bulk list.

I soon noticed that they carried spices in bulk too. One day when I was shopping for a certain spice I found a small container of it for sale on the shelf for over $4.00. Call me cheap, but I wasn't going to buy a teeny tiny jar for $4.00. So I headed over to bulk to see if they happened to have it there. They did! So I got a baggie of it for 17 cents. Yes, just 17 cents! The spices there are so cheap. I have since gotten a bag full of bay leaves for 23 cents. Exciting...I know!

My interest turned to pure fascination when we were shopping a few weeks ago and I happened to notice a big grinder thing where you could grind your own fresh peanut butter or almond butter. And right next to the nut grinders were some wooden bins for organic honey, blackberry honey, or regular honey. On the wooden crates there was a sign that said, "Please do not remove lid, Live Bees." I couldn't believe it! There were live bees in my grocery store making me honey!!! I have been too chicken to try either of these yet because I'm not sure how the machines work, but last time I was there I spied on a lady getting peanut butter, so next time I'm going to try them for sure. (Boy, I'm sure scared of whimpy things!)

I'm amazed that it took me so long to fully appreciate my bulk section. Why wasn't I shopping there before? It pains me to think of the time and money wasted. I'm thinking and hoping that my love of bulk is rubbing off on my children. Ainsley now loves to wander through the bulk isles with me, although her favorite section is definitely the candy isle, she is starting to love discovering new things to buy in bulk with me.

Our weekend

We had a great weekend with John's family. Our niece was getting baptized and so we were lucky enough to benefit from it by living close and getting to have everyone come to us. David and Yanira's family stayed with us. Ainsley loved having cousins here and being able to have sleep-overs in her room. John's parents came up too and so we had everyone over for dinner on Friday. It was a fun weekend filled with BBQ's, a baseball game, playing, geo-caching, a baptism, and not much sleep. The kids had a blast, and unfortunately, I didn't pull out my camera once! What was I thinking??? So, if you want to see pictures you'll have to go here to see them. Paige did a way better job of capturing the weekend with pictures (maybe because it was her daughter getting baptized). But I decided to put my two favorite quotes of the weekend here.

On Saturday afternoon Mikaela walked into the house after I had just finished making potato salad and said, "Mmmmm, boiled eggs!" And she was serious, I have never heard anyone say that in my life...I've only heard the opposite.

During the baptism Owen was being a bit of a stinker, but I couldn't keep a straight face when he saw Maddie go under the water and yelled, "UH-OH!" He must have been very concerned for his cousin.