Monday, November 2, 2009

And the book is...

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. (Still not finished by the way. I kept falling asleep last night)

Sorry Marti and Anne. good guesses though.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Must...Finish...

I took this cool picture of the latest book holding me and my household captive. By my household I mean the shambles that exists because of my lack of desire to put this book down. I am about finished - hopefully tonight and maybe then I can do some dishes or laundry. Sorry family. Reading is important too right?

By the way, I really like this pic. It might be frame on the wall worthy. What do you think? Also, any guesses of what the book is? Oops. I just noticed that there is a big clue there.

Happy Birthday!

Birthdays in our family kind of go in packs. The latest happens at the end of October. My late Grandmother's birthday, her son's (my dad's) AND my neice's birthdays all happen within two days. Thanks to the plethora of multiple births, we have another group in Dec., Feb., and then in April. It sure makes it easy to celebrate.

Happy Birthday Dad and Miss C! You too Grandma.

Stubborn!


This is Jake being stubborn. I told him (after telling him a zillion times already) that he had to finish his homework before he could leave his seat at the counter. He sat there for about 45 minutes and then what did that bugger do? He fell asleep. I was going to leave him there all night so that he would learn that I mean what I say but I couldn't do it. He might fall off the stools and then we would possibly have a bigger problem. He won this time I guess. I wonder where he got his stubbornness from? :) not me.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Claire's Dream

Claire wants to be a chef when she grows up. Her long-term plan is to go to college and get a business degree, go to culinary school, and then open a restaurant -- ambitious! She loves to watch any cooking show on tv and she LOVES LOVES LOVES to cook. If it weren't for the messes she never cleans up, I would let her cook as much as she wants. This was a little caprese salad she made on her own. She paid great attention to the plating. It tasted a great as it looked.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Summer Vacation

Just catching up...

Last Summer we had the chance to take a fun trip to Sun Valley with my family. We were joined by my parents and my two brothers, their wives and kids. My sister Anne couldn't join us this year. Our group is on the small side but we sure had fun.

We stayed in Matt's brother's house in Hailey (just south of Ketchum/Sun Valley) which was great. He has a big yard where the kids played lots of games and ran around. Matt, my Dad and brothers took the kids fishing several times and they caught multiple fish each time. Other than my Dad's tumble in the river (losing his glasses, hat, wallet, and phone) that was a highlight for the guys. The girls did a little shopping in Hailey and Ketchum. Overall we had a great time just hanging out. Here are some of the pictures.

Matthew, Jake and Katie reading about the swans at Sun Valley.

My Dad doing something with his fishing line. He also spent time tying his own flies. He is sure a master fisherman and he even makes his own fly rods.

My brother zonked out on the couch holding one of his 2 month old babies (who wasn't very interested in sleep at that point).

Miss C. showing off her sucker (which she got from the Grandma Store, see below)


My mom who is the master of all things creative, brought along a good behavior motivator for the kids. "Grandma Linda's Country Store". The kids earned "Grandma Dollars" by making good choices, helping out, or obeying and then they got to spend their dollars at the store. The kids LOVED it!


Some of the offerings in the store and their prices.

Grandma Dollars


Matthew holding Baby R. Two cuties.


All of the grandkids.


Saturday, August 29, 2009

A Good Day

Saturdays are good days, packed with things from start to finish. Today, though, was especially good. We started off with Matthew's football game against rival Skyline. Oly played great, winning 40-14. Matthew didn't get many chances to touch the ball but he made two great blocks that left his guy admiring overhead cloud formations.

After football, we came home to find that we had killed one of the many rats that have been eating our tomatoes. The picture below shows what our tomato plants look like thanks to those rats. So, I emptied the dead carcass out, reloaded the trap with more peanut butter (making sure to leave the rat "essence" that I was sure would attract more rats) and then put the trap back out. Within 20 minutes, we had another dead rat, and then within an hour we had our third dead rat. I don't like to think of myself as bloodthirsty, but I loved to see those dead rats. (Matthew and I proudly display them below.) We are hoping that's it for the rats.

Inspired by the vanquishment of the rats, we went to Jake's soccer game. Jake played great, scoring two goals and assisting on another. What I was most proud of though, was his red face. It was hot, but he hustled all game.

Later, I finally convinced Jake to let me pull his tooth that had been hanging down like the single tooth of an old hag. When he finally did, I held on for dear life and when he tried to push my arm away and -- voila -- no more tooth. He looks like good old Jake again (not like an old hag) -- just with fewer teeth. (See below)

We also got the house clean while Amanda was taking pictures. A huge accomplishment for us. Like I said, it was a great day!




Tomato eaten by rat. I hate rats!


Large rat trap loaded with peanut butter.

Dad and Matthew proudly displayed two of the three dead rats.


Jake's toothless grin. The kid looks good again.