Yesterday's "To Do"

Yesterday was the first Saturday of the summer break.  Perhaps you thought we would be working on our huge hole in our front yard, or should I say, simple sprinkler installation?  Suffice it to say, no, we did not even touch that project yesterday.  It was supposed to be a 1 day project.  That was 2 weeks ago, and I'm hoping that "little" (read ginormous) project will finally be completed this week.  But, no, it didn't happen yesterday.

My living room right now looks like a somewhat organized mess of little girls clothes, which it is.  I'm in the process of simplifying the girls' wardrobe.  Simplifying causes messes.  It's scientifically proven.  My kids' clothes are out of control, and it's ridiculous.  They have nice clothes that fit, yet when they get dressed in the morning, they come out wearing pants with shredded knees, or shirts with holes and stains, or pants too short, or shorts too short, or shirts too short.  Why are those clothes even on their ultra-crowded shelves?  When the dresses are packed so tight that pulling one down causes three more to fall to the floor,  OR when the nightgown from when they were 3 years old is still being worn, but now it's small enough to call it a tanktop, then you know things have gotten out of control.  We are downsizing their wardrobes and only keeping clothes that fit and are neat, clean, and modest, AND only a limited number of each type of clothing is making it back on the shelf (so they have enough, but not an excess).  So, perhaps that is what we worked on yesterday?  Nope.  Thought about it though.  That's a 1 hour project that will likely take 4 days to complete.

A few weeks ago, I signed the girls up for "Golf Clubs for Kids," a free event at the Dinaland Golf Course in Vernal, where they serve the kids lunch, give them a free golf club, and have 3 activities for them to take part in to teach them how to golf.  That was the main event scheduled for the day yesterday.  Because of that, Tom (my step-dad that is picking up his golf game again), invited Steve to join him for a game of golf before the girls' event at 1pm.  Tom picked Steve up at 7:00, and they headed to Vernal.  It was just me, my mom, and my girls for the morning, and we thought we'd go yard sale-ing!

We went to 6 or 7 yard sales, I think.  It took us 4 hours or so.  My mom found several decor items she purchased.  Lily and Amara found all kinds of cheap knick knacks that they considered treasures.  I didn't buy very much, but I came home with a FREE big armoire that I decided that I was going to refinish and make into a wardrobe for the girls.  They need deeper shelves  so their clothes don't fall onto the floor so easily, but Steve just laughs at me when I ask him to build me some.  So, now he doesn't have to build me any.

Mom bought us homemade tamales for lunch at the last yard sale.  We had to go back home and get Tom's truck to bring the armoire to my house.   Mom and I hefted that sucker into the truck, then dropped it off at my house.  We were running low on time.  I told the girls to go use the bathroom and be back in 1 minute or else we'd be late for the golf thing.  3 minutes later they come out and I realized what they were wearing.  Lily had on a black shirt, black pants and knee high furry snow boots.  It was almost 90 degrees outside.  Amara was also wearing snow boots, but with shorts.  Dear me.  I've put those snow boots away for the season time and time again, and somehow they keep gravitating out of the closet.  I sent them back into the house for tennis shoes and clothes they'd want to wear in the hot sun (not black, or I'd never hear the end of the complaining about how hot she was).  Lily wouldn't wear a hat, but Amara appeased my request.  At least I still had some sun screen for the girl that couldn't tell me why she didn't want to wear a hat.  And we were off.

Lily didn't want me to sign her up for the golf thing, but as her mom, I knew it would be good for her (plus a free kids golf club- hello!  Those aren't cheap!).  "I'm not good at golf.  Golf is boring."  were her excuses.  My responses were "You can't be good if you've never even tried it."  and "Golf is only boring if you're watching it, but when you play it, it's a lot more fun!"  She wasn't convinced.

We arrived a few minutes late, but that just meant we didn't have a huge line to wait in to register.  I could see a lot of kids stationed at different places, and they had just started the activities.  When it was my turn to register, I got 2 vouchers for free golf clubs that I'd have to come back for on Tuesday.  Because of all the heavy rain this month and flooding in the midwest, the golf clubs did not arrive on time.  Bummer.  But they were still doing the activities with what golf clubs they did have.

It was a beautiful day.  Steve and Tom had finished golfing and were able to watch the girls at 2 of their 3 stations.  First they played "birdie ball," which is basically hitting a hollow 1" white pipe-looking thing with a golf club off of a plastic rectangular plate on a mat and sending it off to the grassy area where a blow up target was set up.  The goal was to get the birdies into the holes on the blow up target.  It looked like fun and I wanted to give it a go.  Lily was gently easing the pipe off the plate with a low, calculated, pendulum-like swing while Amara was whacking it with all her strength and sending the plate and the birdie flying on a few occasions.  I loved watching it.

The next station was the putting green.  Grandpa Tom was there to give the girls tips and pointers and help them improve their putts while I basked in the shade.  There were a couple teenagers in charge of that station, but they mostly talked to each other and just let the kids putt around.

Finally, they got to go to the driving range and hit golf balls out as far as they could.  Grandpa Tom was analyzing their swings and giving them pointers.  They got to hit a lot of balls, and I daresay they got the hang of it faster than I did my first time, and could probably beat me statistically in the ratio of how many swings it took to actually connect with the golf ball.

Afterwards, they all had hot dogs and chips for everyone.  Instead of eating the cold dogs, though, we decided to go out to eat at a new "steakburger" place called Freddies.  Good choice, I must say.  They have thin fries and fry sauce, and the burger does taste a little more like steak.  

It was 3:00ish.   I was tired, Steve was even more tired, and even though I needed to get some grocery shopping done, we decided to go home and rest.  Steve was asleep in less than 1 minute from the time we got home.  I fell asleep shortly thereafter for about an hour.  Steve slept for 2 hours.  When I got up, I was a bit groggy and hot, but I wanted to get that FREE armoire refinished, so I got up.  Tom and mom showed up shortly after I came outside, which was awesome.  Tom and mom helped me get the armoire out, and Tom took his truck home (but not without first taking the girls for a ride to get more propane for his grill).  Mom stayed and helped me with my project.  I found my paint but couldn't find my paint brushes and supplies, so my mom went and got hers, and then we started painting.  We got a lot done.  When Steve pulled himself out of his coma, I asked him to pick up a few things from the market, and he lovingly obliged.  I sent him for milk and chicken.  He came back with milk, chicken, 2 bags of spinach, 2 bunches of bananas, a piece of pipe we need for the sprinkler project, a quart of moose tracks ice cream and 2 DVDs from Redbox.  Check and check.

The day was well spent.  Projects still loomed about in priority land somewhere, but we had a fantastic yesterday together with our family.  Success?  Check.

12 Years Married

This year for our anniversary I thought it would be fun to have a budget of $12 to go along with our 12 years of marriage. Since our anniversary fell on a weekend, we decided to celebrate close to home instead of wait for the summer to come, and then go somewhere, like we've done in many years past. Thanks to our winnings at the summer contest last year, and to Steve's company's Christmas present, we had some gift certificates at our disposal that helped us have a phenomenal time and keep under our 12 dollar budget.

This year, my mom watched our children while Steve and I went out to eat at the frontier grill, watched Avengers at the movie theater, and stayed the night in a renovated room at the frontier motel. We actually only spent a little over seven dollars for the whole celebration. We really enjoyed our staycation, and we were pleasantly surprised that the frontier motel had a nicely renovated room.

Steve and I have a blessed relationship and we love each other very much. Here's to twelve years!

Baseball Dreams

     Our youngest daughter Amara is learning how to play softball.  She's in the beginning league which allows for as many pitches as necessary to hit the ball, everyone stays on base, and everyone gets to run home.  They'll learn about the rules later.  Right now they have their hands full developing the motor skills required to hit the ball, not get hit by the ball, and catch.  However,  whether just starting out or playing pro, determination and a sense of fun is what gets the job done.

The Cat in the Hat who can read with his eyes shut tight has got nothing on Amara.  Here she connects with the ball, and gets on base.  She's hit the ball from the coach's pitch every time.  No need for the T yet.

Amara is as happy as a pup with two tails running the bases, and boy is she fast.  The helmets are a little large, the kids' heads often mimicking a marble bouncing around in a jar, but Amara's solution charmingly works.






She is laser focused.  At this early stage in the season anything within a couple arm lengths is what the children go for, letting the other balls roll by and sit there until a parent's call finally convinces their child to "Go get the ball!"  They'll learn to expand their sphere of activity on the field as the season progresses.



     Amara has a knack for sports and physical movement.  She is enjoying softball, and we're so proud of her for wanting to participate in these team sports. 

Male Bonding

Steve bonding with 6 month old nephew Tommy

Cousins With Glasses

My Relief Society Calling

Phrases from the Relief Society theme decorated the walls and centerpieces.

 Last December, I was called to be the secretary for the Relief Society presidency in our ward.  I've been hard at work ever since with meetings, visits, phone calls, and lots of productive pondering.  The sisters in the presidency are wonderful to work with and I really enjoy getting to know them and see their talents at work.

The table runners were gift wrap.

Last month we celebrated the birthday of the Relief Society.  We decided to throw a "Wok-n-Tok" celebration, a getting-to-know-you activity with a Chinese theme, complete with Bro. and Sis. Funk's amazing sweet-n-sour chicken (better than any restaurant). 

I helped set up and got to enjoy the event and even got to know sisters that I've never officially met in this ward, even though I've lived here 5 years!  Take a look at the decor. 

The entrance

They did a great job!  Several things were ordered from Oriental Trading, others were from the Dollar Tree.   I'm really looking forward to the next activity.  I've always loved attending the additional Relief Society meetings and feeling the kinship of the sisters in the ward while doing things together.  And I'm always a HUGE FAN of dinner events!  Mom came to my ward's celebration, and I went to hers ;) 

Ahhh... Sweet Sisterhood!

St Patricks Day

 

For St. Patrick's Day this year, we had a lot of fun.  We attended the St. Patty's Homeschool Party at Constitution park where we had lots of green treats, facepainting (Lily and Amara painted my hands and I painted their face), and a cute leprechaun painting craft.  

She wanted a daisy.  I thought, "easy."  Uh, face painting is not my forte.

This is supposed to be a leprechaun, but it looks more like an orange octopus with a pilgrim hat.

It was windy, yet warm.  They used plastic forks to paint the orange hair on their leprechauns.  It made for a cool texture.

Earlier that day, we planted our cold weather crops in our garden for good luck!  You can read all about it on our Wild West Gardener's blog, just click here.

And later that evening, we had a very traditional St. Patrick's Day meal- Corned Beef and Cabbage Artichokes.  The grocery store never got their shipment of cabbage, so it was good ol' artichokes for us!

Growing up, we always had the one pot meal of corned beef, boiled potatoes, boiled carrots, and boiled cabbage with lots of butter and salt and pepper.  My dad always made it for us because it was his family's tradition growing up.  I called my grandpa Lauret a couple months ago and he told me that he always made corned beef and cabbage in one pot because that is how his dad did it when he was growing up.  So, I can trace this tradition back at least 4 generations.  I always thought it was carried on through my English-Irish ancestry, but my great-grandfather Lauret was not Irish, he was 100% French, and a really good cook that owned his own bar/restaurant in California.  Ha!  I'm wondering if he picked up the method from his culinary endeavors in America or if his French family also enjoyed a one pot corned beef and cabbage.  Perhaps the tradition goes back further... or maybe we were wrong all along and it's a french dish?  Hmmm... 

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