$15 worth of pumpkins

I finally got the pumpkins unloaded from the car and out to the front porch.

This is $15 worth of pumpkins. 


I should probably just take off my last post.  Having a rant sitting there is like starting to complain and never shutting up.  It's embarrassing.  And I would take it down but it took me a long time to write it.  So now I want to move it to the past.  But I really have nothing exciting to write about.

Except that HUBBY COMES HOME tomorrow!!!


It has been working pretty well to Skype him, except that the best time to do it comes out to be during meals.  We're eating breakfast while he's eating dinner and vice versa.  I set the computer up at his place at the table and we kind of crowd to the opposite side and talk to him while we eat.  Kind of like a sitcom where we're all crowded into camera range.  He and the kids often have rather disjointed conversations... the girls get excited and have to run get things to show the camera, at extreme fuzzy close-up.  There is sometimes a slight delay in the upload, or it freezes entirely and we have to come around the table to deal with technical issues, but they push through.  They were having a knock-knock joke contest the other day that turned into a giggle fest on our end.  I made Salmon for dinner (that no one ate but me, BTW) and Hubby kept stalling out his system by uploading full screen pictures of salmon to show us.

It will be awfully nice to have him back on this side of the planet.  

I can't imagine what it's like to have your spouse in the military where they get deployed to the other side of the planet for three months or longer at a time.  The longest Hubby's been gone was three weeks, and he's in no serious danger, but it's still brutal for us.

I have been volunteering Thing 1 for more clip art.  I'm bucking for her to become the school newsletter clip art specialist.  But it might just be for this month, we'll see.

This morning she provided the graphics for an article the principal wrote using an analogy about apples and how volunteering helps distribute the work and helps divide things up.

Thing 1 just likes having an excuse to draw something.  She is very frustrated that 3rd Grade is so much less creative than 2nd was.  She said her "creativity is going away."  I can't let that happen, it's so much a part of who she feels like she is.

Thing 1 is 9

Because of her birthday I had to write a quick bit about Thing 1 for church. Some of these went straight from Hubby's lips onto my keyboard.

Thing 1’s favorite color is lime green.
She loves dragons, and drawing, and drawing dragons.
She eats math for breakfast.
If she’s reading a good book or something interesting on the computer, she won’t hear a thing you say.
Thing 1 is NOT pink and frilly. She doesn’t like poofy dresses. In fact, if there is somewhere she is supposed to go that she’s supposed to dress up for, she would rather stay home.
Thing 1 likes raspberries, the kind you eat, not the kind you blow.
Thing 1 loves milk, and Kelso, but not together.
Thing 1 loves cheese pizza, apricots, german pancakes, and hamburgers, but not together.
Thing 1 likes playing on her DS, and on the computer, sometimes together.
She hates clothes that are scratchy or have pokey tags.
Thing 1 makes up her own games if there’s not something around she wants to play. But she does like playing games, especially Sleeping Queens, and Clue.
Her favorite vacation is just about anywhere she’s been, but London, the beach, and all the Disney parks are the first thing she mentions.
Thing 1 loves watching movies with her family, especially at home where you can hit “Pause” and then go get a treat.
Thing 1 loves her family. She is very very close with her sister, and they are great playmates.
Thing 1 is sweet, sincere, and a lot of fun. She has a darling giggle, and a glowing personality.
She is now nine years old.

We had her birthday party as brunch because breakfast is far and away her favorite meal. And even though having cake after breakfast is a little weird, everyone moved right from breakfast to dessert without complaint.
I had forgotten to get the pinata. Even though there were only going to be a couple kids, Thing 1 reminded me that morning that she needed a pinata. I had intended on getting one since Thing 2 had one two months ago for her birthday (we just happened to have one sitting around, long story) but I forgot. Thing 1 is the quiet one who would not say anything, she'd just be a little bit sadder on this day of her celebration, and I wouldn't find out how truly wounded she was and how unfair it is and how she grew up thinking that we like Thing 2 better until after four or five years of therapy. I was out anyway picking up the cake, so I swung by the party store and picked up a pinata.

The pinata was a black dragon, very fitting.


I have never had a pinata that required less than a full on assault with sharp kitchen implements to breach its interior. Those kids could flail on that thing for hours, unblindfolded and without anyone pulling on the string, using a real baseball bat (none of these little wimpy sticks) and the contents would still be safely tucked away in their impenetrable cardboard fortress. This one was no different. After the kids were getting tired, no one cared whose turn it was anymore, and the adults had lost interest and broken off into their various conversations, Hubby attacked the pinata with a pair of scissors. The kids whacked at it some more, and finally a few pieces came out. Eventually Hubby decided he'd loosen it up for them. He took aim and swung a grand-slam home run that would have made Babe Ruth proud, disintegrated the pinata and spread pulverized candy across our back yard. Hubby was stunned, but we got the danged thing open.

Hubby gave Thing 1 a few hitting tips before she gave up and he took over.


My brother kindly risked lighting his hat on fire, using it as a wind block while we kept the candles burning long enough to sing.

It was a very nice day.

Jackson

We had a fabulous time in Jackson. I've had a few days to get my ducks back in a row, but that hasn't helped. I still have piles of laundry, and just put away the suitcases yesterday.

My family has taken an annual trip to Jackson for a number of years now, but this year was bigger and better because we were also celebrating my folks' 50th wedding anniversary. Wahoo! And we couldn't have asked for a better trip. Everything just worked out swimmingly. I'll let the pictures do the talking, mostly.

We went for a hike and the kids did really well. We took a wrong turn and got lost, which ended up being a significant shortcut, saw an adolescent bear (no mother in sight).
Hubby and Thing 2 at Phelp's Lake

At these family outings my daughters are inseparable from their favorite cousin, who is right in between them in age. She's the tallest one on the right.
My folks, whose 50th is next month

We also had a cannon ball contest in the pool (I was a judge, not a participant). This is the line of judges, I'm in the middle. Thing 2 is an excellent cannonballer, by the way, and won her division, but didn't have the mass to take the overall prize.


Hubby and Thing 2

We ALL (including my folks) took a whitewater river raft ride, had a pictures taken by an old-time photographer place, and rented canoes for a day on String lake.

My dad used to be a river guide, he spent several summers in the 50s and 60s guiding inflatable boats down the rivers of southern Utah, and is very handy with a canoe. He took my mom on a little ride.

My sister-in-law and I took the 3 musketeers out for a ride.

We stumbled on a family of ducks. Mohawk ducks. A mom and seven babies. It was fascinating, we floated along with them for a while. The girls were thrilled.


The three girls just like to hang out together, no canoes required. They just played in the water.

Ain't she cute?


Hubby and I took Thing 1 for a ride. You may ask why I'm always in the back of the canoe. When there's cold water and my camera involved, my inner control freak emerges.

Thing 2 wanted to go swimming. You can almost hear her say through her chattering teeth, "Can I stop smiling for the camera and get back in the boat already?"



We also rented two kayaks, but I didn't find them as easy to maneuver.


Hubby and I took a kayak out once, though, and there was a sort of canoe rendezvous, with the two canoes with my brother and sister and spouses and some of the kids all out on the lake


We had a great trip. My niece said "Can we do all this again next year?" We'll come to Jackson again, but some of the extra activities were special for the 50th anniversary. "When is the next 50th?" You've got about 28 years to go.

Hubby's Days

Hubby's birthday is so close to father's day, it's a problem to figure out how to celebrate them both. We usually celebrate Father's Day on Father's Day, but his birthday can be bumped anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months behind the real day, depending on his schedule, and the scheduling of my nieces' summer birthdays, since in the grand scheduling of holidays, kids take precedence. The longest we went between his actual birthday and the celebration was some time in August. This year we actually celebrated within a week of his birthday. Birthdays for the adults in my family are usually pretty small, my folks always want to attend and part of their gift is babysitting while he and I go do something. We went to a movie and then went mattress shopping. Not exactly thrilling, but it was what he wanted to do.

Father's Day was a bigger deal. Since he usually does such wonderful things for me for mother's day, I was feeling pretty inadequate about the fact that I had made no special effort for Father's day. We had a couple of gifts to give him, but I hadn't made a garden in the living room, or cooked a big breakfast, or anything like what he usually does.

While I was mulling this over on the afternoon of Father's Day I had an inspiration. I decided to turn our living room into a day spa. Our old mattress bothers his back (see how we spent his birthday) and he's always wanting a massage, so this seemed a good answer. The girls helped with the transformation. Thing 1 and 2 made signs. I hung a sheet between the dining room and living room to divide the two rooms into a reception area (the dining room) and a massage area (the living room). I brought the kid's table from the back yard to serve as a reception desk. When everything was ready Thing 1 told Hubby to come into the kitchen, then disappeared to her position. Thing 2 sat at her desk at the doorway from the kitchen to the dining room.

When Hubby followed Thing 1's signs to the Golden Day Spa --> Thing 2 was waiting for him. She was super polite. She greeted him in her best receptionist manner. "How can I help you, Kind Sir?" He was amused but not sure how to proceed. She asked if he had an appointment. He said "No."
Wrong answer. He hadn't rehearsed with us. But she took it like a pro. She said, "Well, let me see if you're on my list. What is your name?"
He gave her his first name.
She looked over her list of four names which she had written moments before. She hesitated. "What is your last name, sir?"
Lucky for him she found his name, first and last, on the list.


I don't think he noticed the "Best Spa" award Thing 2 had made to hang above her reception desk.


She showed him to the waiting room - a chair pulled to the corner of the dining room, and gave him a magazine. She pointed out the lovely painting in our waiting room (which she drew herself) and invited him to enjoy his wait.


Thing 1 then came out from behind the curtain, ushering our previous massage appointment. It was Kelso, with a towel clipped across his shoulders. She was leading him with a rope that he likes to trot around with in his teeth, and she chatted with him, asking him if he enjoyed his massage. (Using the dog as the previous appointment was Thing 1's idea.) (They wanted to figure out a way to work in the gecko, but I nixed that idea.)

Thing 1 then ushered Hubby to the dressing room (the small front entry alcove next to the living room), where she invited him to remove his shirt, and then she guided him to me, the masseuse, waiting in the living room. The coffee table was pushed to the side and I had laid towels on the floor, and had emptied our linen closet to place towels folded up all over the place. I'd had quite a time keeping the dog from messing them up.

The girls have never been to a spa, and their excitement at the whole process kept Hubby's massage from being very relaxing. I hadn't expected much privacy, but they kept up a continuous parade of patrons, taking turns escorting each other through the living room with towels across their shoulders, chatting about what fine massages they'd had, and what a great establishment the Golden Day Spa is. I finally sent them to watch TV for half an hour.
They were back in about 20 minutes theatrically whispering to me that it was time to send Daddy through the "gift shop" where he would receive his specially wrapped gifts.
I was quite pleased with how it all fell together, and it was fun to have the girls so excited to be involved.

The Day of Mom

My girls get so excited over Mother's Day. I think my husband sort of helps whip them into a frenzy that this year started the Saturday before, but really got going at 6:00 am on the actual day, when they woke him up to make the preparations for me. Bless all their hearts. But especially his. Hubby said this Sunday it took quite a bit of effort for him to keep them from waking me up, which I finally did around 8:30. I came downstairs and was surprised to find a paper garden constructed in our living room. The kid's plastic table from outside was leaning on its side in front of the couch (with two girls crouched behind it), and paper flowers on posters adorned every tapable surface. I had left my camera at my brother's so didn't get pictures until most everything had been cleaned up. (photos have been added later) But there was a sign:



While I admired the beautiful flowers growing in our living room, the girls tittered behind the table. When Hubby said the cue words "You'll have to find the girls..." they sprung from their hiding place and threw into the air a half a dozen sheets of construction paper with the words Happy Mother's Day carefully printed on them. Two of the flowers decorating the room turned out to be real, a couple of pocket orchids, smaller versions of the big ones I'm so proud of myself if I can get to bloom multiple times before I finally kill them.

After opening more presents, a beautiful breakfast, and a drive to church, we had the Mother's Day brunch in Primary, where I finally got to see the necklace that Thing 1 and 2 had created. It was my idea to give each of the Primary kids a little piece of Shrinky Dink film to color, then I'd punch a hole in it, and shrink them and put them on a necklace for each mom. Thanks to my sister, who happened to be in town for a conference last week, and knows more about amatuer jewelry making than I do, we got all of them but mine put together Thursday and Friday. She did mine herself because Thing 1 insisted that it was a SURPRISE for me. Thing 1 had made a mistake on her first attempt, which she had made last Sunday when all the other kids did. Since I happened to be the one making them, I told her she could color another piece of Shrinky Dink film. So she got up early on Friday to make a 2nd. And 3rd, before she finally got what she wanted. She carefully concealed her final effort in an envelope and wrote "Do Not See" on it, and my sister assembled it on her way back out of town on Friday. Bless her heart, not only did she stop by and make the necklace for me last Friday, my sister also cleaned my kitchen. I completely knocked it out of the ballpark in the sister department.


The irony here is Thing 1's Shrinky Dink, once she finally got it to where she want it, wasn't quite what I had intended. I had given all the kids specific instructions:
1) Put your name on it
2) Color both sides of the Shrinky Dink film, even if that means that you're tracing your name backwards on the backside.

This is Thing 2's Shrinky dink - a pretty little sun flower. It's slightly longer than 1 inch long. The name was not photographed, but it's there.



Thing 1's first effort had been done according to my instructions because I was standing over the kids reminding them. I don't know about her 2nd, but her 3rd and final effort was not produced under my dictatorial direction and was therefore minus those two key aspects. It was colored on only one side, and it doesn't have her name on it.

One of the charming things, to me, about the way Thing 1's Shrinky Dink ended up is that it may, or may not have a spelling error on it, depending on your point of view.

My very wonderful day ended with a picnic in the park. It was really very nice. The girls are getting old enough to keep gushing about things, like how much they love and admire me, etc. etc., not just for the three minutes that their daddy reminds them to, but all day. They were very sweet and appreciative.


I just have to throw in a picture of my fabulous girls... and the dog, who has grown quite a bit.