A Little Sugar for Breakfast

Look who I found having a little breakfast cereal? What got me laughing was the bowl (and for the record there were regular-sized bowls in the cupboard). I guess he grabbed one that was convenient and held a bit more than the average size. And you have to wonder why we're always running out of cereal.

From Cement to Soft Flooring

Carpet was laid yesterday, yeah!! and surprisingly Jared was the only one to sleep downstairs last night. He threw a blanket on the floor and shared the basement w/his cat, Zoe, who was a little zany. Don't know if is the funny feel of the carpeting or the cat was just simply high on glue fumes? Victor said that he's going to start moving some stuff downstairs today, but it won't be much, as we have no furniture for him. We've bought a bed from R's friend in Heber who won't be working down in the valley for a couple weeks, so V will just have to go w/o a bed for a bit, plus we don't have a dresser for him, although he could use the shelves in the closet for clothes for now. R has tomorrow off, so I think he'll go ahead and install the rods. We haven't yet painted the closet door or the any doors for that matter...as we get to it.

24th Fireworks

The boys like to play w/incendiaries and had quite a stash, mostly tanks, but also blossoms and regular firecrackers. Fortunately, no one lost a finger, which is always a worry to mom, although I did find my water can thrown in the garbage a couple days ago and finally T admitted that he had blown it apart. "I'll get you a new one." I think I'll go buy my own and hand him the bill. What I wanted to do was have a family picnic in the mountains out of the valley and away from the house and phone, which I voiced quite clearly the week before at planning. What I got was time working at the computer and doing domestic chores, making dinner (nothing fancy, some hotdogs, potato salad and watermelon) and taking in a dollar movie, Angels and Demons, which I loved because I'd read the book and the whole movie takes place in Rome.

The 24th? Well, it's a state holiday, quite a big holiday actually. Historically it's the entering of the first pioneers into the valley, so sometimes it's simply called Pioneer Day. Don't all states have a holiday? I thought so until yesterday when visiting w/a new sister from Washington State who said that her native state doesn't have a statehood day. hmmm?

Victor Returns from Trek

Went to the stake center to pick up my pioneer son. Fortunately, he made it back on the first commercial bus (the other two were going to be up to an hour later because of being late picking up kids and an accident in Parley's). It was a hoooooottttttt afternoon. R made it down in the van a little later.

V had us laughing at dinner last night. These kids were supposed to experience a somewhat realistic pioneer adventure sans electronics and goodies, so there was actually a contraband check prior to leaving. His friend, Connor Blauer, ended up in his family (Connor is from a neighboring ward and the two of them play BB together). It turns out that Connor had taped candy to the inside of his sleeping bag, which when opened and shook still remained hidden. Also, Connor had a 2-liter bottle of Mt. Dew in the middle of his rolled-up bag, so when V passed his check, Connor managed to pass it off to V w/o getting caught, which meant the two of them didn't lack for sugar. tsk, tsk boys. Also, it seems that the two of them, in a moment of boredom, went to the girls' porta-potties, got inside and then when they would hear a girl approach started to grunt really loud.

V's favorite time: Crawdad fishing and eating, then taking the skeletal heads, placing them on fingers and putting their arms around the girls trying to frighten them.

Now if only R had a blog, he could post some pictures.

Carpet's In...

the garage!! The carpet was delivered two days ago, Wednesday. Although the pad and tack strips are downstairs, the carpet only made it to the garage, as the installer wasn't too crazy about minimal lighting and electricity. My contractor made it over and got to work on the electrical (has been going to get it done for the past two weeks), but it was too late and so now the installer will return in a week. Oh well.

Trek 2009

R and V headed off to stake trek this morning. R loves doing these adventures. He's the "medic" and drove himself (location in Wyoming) because of the supplies he's transporting. V went with the other youth and leaders in three commercial buses. V wasn't too excited about going because he'll miss a couple days of playing golf, plus he's getting to that age (almost 17) where the excitement is fading, but I think in the end he'll have a great time. I'm not too worried about him. I made sure they had a filling, manly breakfast. I, on the other hand, got up at 4:30 because I'm loaded w/lots of work and am trying to hold down the home fort. I need a vacation!!

Prepping for Carpet

I put T and V to work last Friday on pulling the carpet on the stairs. New carpet is arriving Wednesday. I couldn't figure out why the picture quality was so poor, until I noticed the heavy covering of dust on the camera. Anyway, this was last Friday. I finished the baseboards Saturday, but still have about half the doorframes to finish today, although my worker is back grouting the tile today, so I've lost my light. Hopefully will have enough energy left tonight to make myself climb down the stairs and pick up a brush.

An Overload of Color

We must have been crazy when we decided to do our own painting. The bad part: We're amateurs and there is lots of DIY evidence that will become permanent. The good part: We saved ourselves approximately $5000 dollars that a professional would have charged. What were we thinking? Especially where two colors meet in a corner, and especially where we've had problems w/the blue tape pulling off the primer.

R reminded me that I haven't taken any pics of the basement lately, probably because I'm getting tired of this project and would like it to end. Here's our family room. I like the green. I narrowed the color choices to several and R picked this one.

The bathroom is kind of a yellowish-orange color (we were going w/the Southwest theme). No lights are hooked up yet and so this was taken w/the twilight/flash mode of the camera. Therefore, it's a bit hard to get the real hues. Tiles are down and grout will be the next step (which reminds me, I need to run The Home Depot today and get the grout).

Here are yet two more colors--my craft room. The lighter color also is used for the hallway which will carry up the stairs, someday (which I think I'll try to get a professional to do, as we have high ceilings). The darker reddish/brown color Jared took and used to paint under the stairs (he was feeling a bit left out in not having a room downstairs and has decided to claim the area under the stairs (which we've always used for storage). It's a small space and with this dark color on the walls it feels very cave like. He's going for the boy-who-lives-under-the-stairs theme, as in Harry Potter.

And still more color. This will be Victor's room and he's going w/Utes colors. We still have to paint the middle stripe (what's showing is the primer).

Any Lakers' fans? This will be Tony's room. We will be putting a black middle stripe to connect the purple and yellow. Oops, Tony reminds me that it's royal gold.

Today I will be working on baseboards (have already been up typing). Jared is at Scout camp this week. Victor has a golf tournament today, Tony has the day off (am hoping to get some help from him??? especially since the old carpet needs to be pulled from the stairs), and Rafael will be going to Jared's Scout camp in the Uintahs after he gets off work in Heber.

The carpet will be laid a week from yesterday, which incidentally does not match the Utes and Lakers rooms, but it's extremely challenging to pick a carpet that will coordinate with all these NINE colors. Anyone doing a painting job soon? My advice: Hire a professional if you can and pick ONE color.

Someone Loves Me

Okay, so Jared went to Scout camp this morning, leaving at 6 a.m. I got him up and made him a little breakfast, walked him down w/his foam pad and fishing equipment to the rendezvous point. Got back and noticed a little letter on my desk. He's really a compassionate kid, sensitive to my ups and downs. He was a little "bummed" that he couldn't go see the new Harry Potter film on opening day because of camp, so I promised him that I'd take him Saturday night. Tried to talk the family into going together, but no takers. I think I'll take my date out for ice cream after, a little kindness in return.

My Son is a(an) ____________

Victor went to Scout Camp for a few days this past week, getting home yesterday. They were at the stake property, a couple hours away in the mountains (you know like pine trees, stars at night, where I'd love to be pretty much year around). The boys like to take their air soft weapons for play and someone dared Victor to shoot himself, so he did. In fact, he did it several times and made a "smiley" on his biceps. He asked me if I wanted to see his tattoo when he got home. Some day I'm going to show this to his prospective bride..."and this is the man you want to marry?" Actually, I think he'd make a great Scout leader, a boy in a man's body.

R arrived at the airport Thursday from his OSI trip to Nicaragua at midnight. He had a great time, lots of adventure. Ask him some time about the trip from the big "boat" back to shore. I drove home (eyes burning from wanting to sleep) and R got up and went to work, then off to Scout camp in the afternoon.

We both worked in the basement late yesterday afternoon/evening. Our focus is a bit different. Let's just say I'm the quality-control person and he's strictly quantity. I wish I could have gotten it all finished while he was gone. Don't know if the unpleasant person working downstairs was more because of tiredness or just simply the real Rafael. I thought I'd do something nice for him, as he was on dinner duty today (once every four weeks), so I put a roast in the crock pot and fixed dinner, and I've had a busy day, first one up w/meetings, visits, no nap, cooking/baking, lesson for FHE....but I don't think he even realized it was his turn, even though it's written on the family calendar. At least a thanks for dinner would have been nice.

So, we have a black raspberry pie sitting on the stove right now. R and V went to Castle Dale (stake property is close to Price) to pick some raspberries and to bring back my parents' Suburban. Anyway, the funny thing is that Victor thinks he picked the raspberries (which is like his favorite food) and then forgot and left them sitting in CD. He doesn't know that the berries came back, I washed them, bagged them, put them in the fridge, and used some to make a pie. He probably thinks it's a cherry pie, of which we made a bunch last week and threw in the freezer. He was taking a nap while the pie making was occurring, so he should be surprised because he was in such a grouchy mood this morning when he couldn't have a bowl of berries for breakfast.

4th Celebration

The birthday party started early at 6 a.m. w/Jared and Scouts placing flags at each home in our neighborhood. He returned to pancakes with red and blue fruit sauce and a sack w/a new Bees shirt. The boys did what all teenage boys do very well--sleep. I worked downstairs for a good portion of the day. I sent all three boys out in the afternoon to work the yard--mowing, weeding and then to clean the upstairs since I was busy down. They are pretty good workers when mom turns the screws.

Finally, it was time to go play. We did what has become an annual trip for us, the Bees game. We have a minor league here in SLC which is sheer pleasure to go sit in a seat, view the Wasatch Mountains in the back, and enjoy a cold snowcone. The weather was absolutely perfect. We've had some evening stormstorms lately, but last night was definitely a 10! Here's a picture of the opening play (we had really good seats this year, but had to purchase tickets many months ago).

My boys in profile.

It was a great game, lots of hits, runs and even a major argument in the 8th. The umps failed to make a call with the players looking at the umps, the umps looking at each other waiting for someone to make the call, and then the Tacoma Rainers' pitcher and manager in the umps' face venting steam, a hat thrown, several ejections--what entertainment!! A big dude from the Rainers hit a homer at the top of the 9th which tied the game sending the game into MANY extra innings. Please, someone just make a run...ANYONE. Finally the game finished almost two hours behind schedule with the Bees losing by 2. By that time I could have cared less. I was tired and just wanted the fireworks to start so that I could get to bed.

I crawled into bed a couple hours after America's birthday was officially over here in the Mountain West time zone. My alarm was NOT my friend this morning. Thank goodness to much-needed Sabbath nap.

June Flowers in July

One thing I really enjoy is to garden. I would much rather be outside working in the dirt with the bugs and worms than sitting at my desk typing. Because of the cooler, wetter June we're a good two weeks behind our normal, so we still have flowers in bloom. I took a dozen pictures, but for space sake, and your sanity, I posted only a few. Above is a clematis vine.

The colorful pinks and reds are sweet pea, very fragrant. They're an annual, but they drop their seeds and tend to take over.

The blue flowers are bachelor buttons, I guess 'cause the men would snap one off and put in their lapels when courting?? The plant in the forefront that looks like some type of grain is actually a weed, which tend to grow taller than the flowers, especially when I don't have the time to get outside and work.

White daisies and orange lilies.

My favorite, which reminds me of an old-fashioned grandmother garden (I guess I'm getting there in age so I'm allowed), is the tall hollyhock.

I sent Victor out earlier to start cutting back the poppies, as they're long gone and I sent Jared out to pick a bucket of weeds. He took a shovel and got an unwanted sunflower, so technically he got his bucket full. Drat I hate his reasoning.

Operation Smile Teams With US Comfort

Yesterday R left for one of his regularly, usually annual, volunteer medical missions. He is affiliated with an organization called Operation Smile which sees primarily to the needs of small children w/cleft lips and palates, although sometimes the organization also addresses adults w/plastic surgery needs such as contracture burns. His first mission was to the Philippines when I was pregnant with Tony. This is his second trip to Nicaragua, although this time there is a twist, as OSI (Operation Smile) has teamed with the United States. The US Comfort, a floating military hospital, is at the tailend in a four-month humanitarian "cruise." This former tanker, converted to a hospital, is three football fields long and 10 stories high.