Recapping July

So July has been busy!
We shingled the playhouse roof and have spent a lot of time working in our yard and Grandma Earl's. For all you non-relatives that read this, Grandma Earl turned 90 this year and she's still going. She lives in her house with her widowed brother Uncle Karl. They have some one who comes in and helps around the house and a little in the yard. Some one mowes the lawn, but most of the garden has been left to go totally wild for the last 5 years but it was starting to go wild from the far corners in about 5 years before that, and since she has about a 1/2 acre lot thats a lot of yard!
Well we've started to reclaim the yard from nature. It's totally like The Secret Garden there's still a lot of good stuff growing under the weeds and creeper vine, we just need to give it some TLC. And maybe you've heard those jokes about "Nature's a mother!" well some days thats how it feels working out there, and then John whips out the weed eater and 30 minutes later we go oh well maybe that's doable. I'll have to do another Grandma's yard post after I get the pictures off the camera.
Little John and I started a once a week mommy & me tumbling class, he loves it. And we're in the last week of our mommy & me swim class, which it sooooo much fun!
We keep canning: cherry pie filling, blueberry pie filling, raspberry jam, tomato juice, maraschino cherries (non-alcoholic), danish cherry sauce, and just canned raspberries. And we froze the ecsess purple carrots from the garden, because we don't have a pressure canner.
My mending and alterations bussiness is picking up a little, I just altered a wedding dress for a girl.

Recapping May and June

So May was a good month because school got out.

Ben went to his first ever fancy dance on a date. He took Amanda Wendel from down the street, they look so good!

My grandma Earl (she is actually my Great-Grandma) had her ninetieth birthday so we celebrated with a great huge part with all the reletives from out of state that we don't get to see very often. Someone found out that you can get amazingly good deals on huge orders from Maddox so we got the food from there. YUM!!! Two different flavors of cake. After the lunch we had an open house so that all of her friends and neighbors could come and see her.

We made and frosted donuts, chocolate and vanilla frosting!

Little John decided the sand box is more fun with water.

We started buildingLittle John a playhouse in the backyard, we modified some plans off the internet. John's parents came over and helped a lot. The weather was hot not foggy, the fog in the pictures is Little John's fingerprints on the camera lens but no one noticed until too late.

We enjoyed a nice picnic up the canyon.

We made jam and our sticky helper is so cute!

We went to the zoo and Little John was mezmerized by the elephants, they are deffinately his favorite animal.

We ran the Race For the Cure 5k with my Aunt Juli and her daughter Kate. It was awesome! I hope to do it again next year. Maybe next year I'll jog part of it with the stroller instaed of just power walking with the stroller.

My brother Ben graduated from Box Elder High School and Seminary. At the high school graduation things were getting boring since the speakers just go on and on and on. Then all of a sudden, at the back of the students there was a great commotion with everyone looking all over and looking under their chairs. It turns out that someone had let loose a mouse. Ben appreciated the break from the monotony. After a while they caught it. Then there was some more commotion because they had let loose more than one mouse. It kept the audience very well entertained. It also kept the sutdents awake. Oh, and some guy wore a kilt, it was cool.

We spent a lot of time working on the playhouse.

We took Ben for a ritual "last meal" before shipping him out to boot camp.

We spent a weekend with my sister Heather in Loa, UT (near Capitol Reef Ntl Park), for her baby shower.

We made arricot, pinapple apricot, and apricot plum jam

Little John ride his trike a lot.

For Father's day I helped Little John collect stuff and we put it in plaster to make Daddy a paper weight (I gave it a few coats of sealer to protect it).

We are loving your year pass to the Jensen Historical Farm (where we went to Baby animal days) We saw lots of chickens and washed clothes.

Little John loves bubbles!

My Mom entered an online contest and won a Pizza Party! So we had a bunch of friends and family over. The kids loved the backyard.

We took Little John to the pool.He lasted about 10 minutes because once the wind picked up it got cold.

Nana (my mom) lets Little John get away with things sometimes. Like making the backyard a nudist camp. He decided sitting naked was a mistake, but had fun doing everything else.

Typed by Sarah Snow the cooliest ever!!!! ('Cuz I don't type, I chicken peck:D)

Visiting the cousins (pics)

So this isn't everybody, just everybody I could get a picture of.
1. Steven 2. Aunt Debbie holding Steven and Trevor 3. Alicia
5. Tiffani 6. Ben and Tim 7. Donni


So Little John has never met any of these cousins before, him and Steven are about 2 years apart. They had a lot of fun.
1. Sizing each other up 2. Let me show you around 3. Oh pinecones are fun to throw
4. Just kidding I don't want to be up here after all 5. Why do keep following us Mom?
6. & 7. We found a stick! 8. 9. & 10. Trampolines are fun! 11. Ooh a slide

Baby animal days (pics)

So I have so many pictures I like uploading them as collages, if you want to see them bigger just click on them :D

So we went to baby animal days and little John loved it!
1. Him and the easter bunny 2. He loved the pony ride so much he cried when I got him down
3. Looking at sheep 4. Touching a centipede 5. Touching a hissing cockroach (we washed hands right after the bugs) 6. He's laughing 'cuz the cow licked his face 7. More horses! 8. His first twinkie, he loved it 9. Goats


He loved the baby animals so much that Nana and Daddy took him again the next weekend (we got the year pass)
1. They jumped on and off of this a lot 2. He rode the pony twice today 3. Fuzzy baby duck
4. The sheep "baaad" really loud and scared him so bad that not even the baby bunny cheered him up 5. & 6. He spent ages playing with this wheel piece, the stick, and a rock. I love his simple joys!

So I'm still here...

Wow I knew it had been a while since I blogged but I didn't realize it had been almost a month. So I've been busy, here's the basic rundown and then I'll do some more blogs on the more interesting stuff afterwards.

Spring has arrived, complete with it's fickle whims of crazy weather. It beautiful, it rains, I wonder where my shorts are, it snows, its beautiful again. Over all this is great for the yard, but I lost a blueberry bush :(. The most obnoxious part of that is for best fruit you plant 2 different varieties and I'm not sure which one died so I'm not sure what to replace it with. This weather is not so great for Little John, he just doesn't understand why he can spend 3 days living in the backyard and then has to be cooped up for another 3.

Spring break came and went for Mom and Ben and it was nice to have them around for a few extra days. We went to baby animal days, drove to Idaho to see cousins, and just hung out. (Blog with pics soon to follow)

General Conference weekend was great! We loved the speakers. We DVRed it and I put it on DVD and mailed it to my friend Clerie in Iraq (the internet there is too slow to stream the feed). We also (mostly John) got the railing on the deck out back, between sessions. I worry a lot less about the little guy playing out there now.

We finished the Man Cave, it's all decked out and John enjoys using it. (Blog w/ pics to follow)

Easter Sunday we got together with some cousins and did dinner and an egg hunt. Little John loves to find the eggs and for quite a while didn't care that there was stuff inside them. He got upset at the city hunt when we made him wait till they said "go" to start finding them. (pics blog soon)

We joined this fruit and veggie co-op thing (it actually started in AZ) and the produce is great. We got the italian pack and I made 6 cool whip containers of sauce and froze it (I added the tomato paste/sauce and some spices but most everything else came in the pack). We also got 40 lbs of pink lady apples that I'm in the process of turning into apple pie filling and canning it. I will be doing this for a while because 27 apples gave me 7 qt jars of filling and there's 115 apples in a 40 lb box plus the 13 I also used 'cuz they'd been in the fridge for a while. So I figure I'll end up with between 30 an 35 jars of filling. And I made a pie from the jar that didn't seal- delicous! Here is the link to the co-op if anyone is interested. (The only UT places right now are Brigham and Clearfield)

I have been stage managing a show at the local community theater. It's a straight play (as in not a musical) called The Women. It's basically Desperate Housewives, set in the 1940's. The author got all her material sitting around in hair salons and pwder rooms and women's shop just listening to ladies gossip. The play is fantastic a lot of drama but still funny. Opening night is tonight. (More stuff in following blog)

My mom went to the doctor for a rash on her face that started to swell and was told it was shingles. First of all she isn't old enough to be having shingles! Second, because its by her eye she has to keep a close watch 'cuz if it gets in her eye she could go blind, I'm not sure how likely that is to happen, but just thinking about it freaks me out! So I'm praying for her alot, feel free to join me :)

So see I'm so busy doing things worth blogging that I have no time to blog :D

The silver lining

So now that I've depressed everyone with our sickness (and possibly shared the germs), here's the silver lining. While being cooped up, those who were feeling up to it have done a lot of good work.
We put together, anchored to the wall, sanded, painted, and painted again the shelves for John's man cave. I made and hung a curtain to hide stuff stored at the back in the space to small to use as part of the man cave.
We dug, moved, and fertilized the garden boxes (the dirt here is such junk we use the square foot gardening method (mostly)). We planted peas, lettuce, and blueberries (although the weather may have killed one of the blueberries). We transplanted the raspberries. We seeded the bare spots in the lawn and spread peat moss to keep it moist. And even though the one blueberry may be toast all the wet/snowy weather means I haven't had to water the grass seed.
After being cooped up the old furniture arrangement was definitely old so we changed it up and it's much more cozy and conducive to conversation (but everyone can still see the TV, so we're all happy).
And John's had the chance to give lots of blessings. I love that we have such convenient access to the priesthood. And I always feel so comforted, even just listening to someone else's blessing. John says he makes better decisions than he might otherwise, because he knows I'll ask for a blessing and he wants to be worthy to give them. I think that is so awesome.

Hobos and doctors and laughs oh my!

So I'm going to smash a lot of stuff in this blog, since my sister was home from collage last week for spring break.

I almost had a shower with a hobo! I was running the water to get warm and this giant hairball gets floated up to the other end of the tub AND THEN IT UNCURLED A BUNCH OF LEGS! And it was a hobo and it was big and John wasn't home so I had to smash it myself. It still freaks me out to think I could have gotten in and been bit 'cuz I never would have even seen it 'cuz I don't wear my glasses in the shower.

So I'm not sure if you're familiar with the "man cave" so I'll explain it a bit. It's a guy's personal space for working or playing and stashing or displaying things like comic book collections or high school ball trophies. They tend to be smaller than bigger unless most of the kids are grown and gone. Well for John's birthday he is redoing the closet under the stairs for his man cave. Before you freak out, he picked the space and is very happy with it, even though it makes me think of Harry Potter. He painted it silver and I did the floor a marblized blue and green finish and we're going to give it several clear coats to protect it. I designed and built him a set of shelves (with lots of building help from everyone) as a suprise and after we get it all finished I'll post pics.

Sarah had her wisdom teeth out. It went well, very little swelling, and no need for the heavy pain pills.

All the stores are having seasonal clearance to make way for the spring clothes, so Sarah and I did lots of shopping. I did really well with my budget though and didn't go overboard. I got some way cute stuff but only if it was cheap.

Now that our insurace has kicked in I found a new pediatrician for Little John. He's great, he used to be head of peds at a big hospitals but went back to private practice because he likes it better. So poor Little John got all caught up on his shots and he's been under the weather since and pretty cranky.

5 out of 6 Hizers are born in March so we had the everybody birthday party this last weekend. It was lots of fun. We took advantage of the nice weather and BBQed until the wind drove us inside.

Sarah's ride back to college was in Salt Lake so Ben and I drove her down there for the rondevouz. We had to hang out there for a bit so I helped Sarah reveiw her anatomy flash cards. She's working on muscles right now. I was asking a lot of "identify the muscle that originates at... and inserts at... and does such and such" questions and while she'd think about it Ben would make random guesses. So Ben's last five guesses had been "your rump?" when the question "what is the insertion of the gluteous maximus" came up and I was waiting to tell him he'd guessed right when he said it again. But instead he says, with this funny look on his face, "Its called sex, and you should never, ever do it!" And his face goes all red. Sarah and I luaghed ourselves silly! And when we finally stop laughing he says "So what's a gluteus maximus anyway?" He had no idea it was a butt and we started laughing all over again.

I went to the chiropracter today (my first appointment was last week) and he worked out the whatever I did to my shoulder over the weekend. My mom talked me into going after my shoulder had been bothering me for a few weeks. I was kinda resistant to the idea, because some of those guys are quacks. But I googled the one my insurance said it covered in our area and picked the guy who did mostly sports injury stuff because he seemed very unquacky (so does his office partner). And he was very professional and none of this "I'll need to see you 3 times a week for 6 months ot fix it" stuff and no wonky promises like "I'll cure your athletes foot by feeling you skull". The day after I was pretty sore but overall much better. He also worked on my neck and lower back. He says I carry all my tension in my neck and shoulders and I didn't realize it until I felt so much better afterwards. My back hasn't felt right since I was pregnant (which he says is really common) and it feels tons better now. So now I'm sold on chiropracters. I know a bunch of you have raved over how much good your's has done you but I had to try it to belive it.

So that catches us up to right this very second, so now I need to go do stuff to blog about.

A photo Blog

Since its been a while I decided to do a photo blog, and let the pictures explain most of it.

Ben and John got Guitar Hero for Christmas and Little John loves to play too on his guitar.

We took the train as a family and John's mom and brother Kevin came too. Little John even sat in his own chair until he got too rowdy.

They were playing chase one night and Little John tripped and hit a chair, but the stiches healed up just fine. He got his own glasses so he'll leave everyone else's alone. And we played in the paint to make Valentines.

I've done a lot of sewing lately. My sis-in-law was a bridesmaid and they had these immodest dresses so the 3 girls asked me to make them sleeves. I love the design they picked and it didn't take me too long to make-up the pattern. And the pretty blue one is a skirt I made over into a dress for my sister Sarah to wear to a dance at collage. And I did the purse to match.

I caught up with a friend I haven't seen in like 8 years. Dorian was home from Australia for about a month before moving to Tucson this week. She came over a second time for dinner and games but I didn't take any pics of that.

Little John is going stir crazy from being inside so on warmish afternoons we go out in the sunshine and blow bubbles. We'd play in the snow but he doesn't know what to do with it.

We have very much enjoyed the principles of static electricity and balloons. Well except for the dog, she didn't think this was fun.

And Ben is still doing his army stuff and he loves to play with Little John if he isn't playing video games. Which catches us up to where we are now.

The adventures of Indiana John and his intrepid sidekick Carolyn

Alternate title: The day we took the train, trax, and a bus.

So yesterday we decided to go down to Salt Lake and do a dry run of John's commute, to be sure he makes all his connections and figure out just how long it will take so he won't be late on his first day. So we left around 9:15... ~~~dissolve from shot of narration to scene of parking the car~~~
The adventurers grabed their bag and headed out for the large building near the buses. "Hi we'd like to buy tickets to the Frontrunner (the commuter train), can we do that here?"
The woman, slightly overdressed for the occasion, looked up from her papers, "Tickets are purchased from the machine at the platform." She gestured slightly in the vauge direction we had come from.
The train pulled up just as we arrived at the ticket machine, "Hurry John, they only stay at each stop for a few minutes." Quickly navigating the touch screen the heros were briefly stalled by the credit card swipper machine, which lacked any instructions about which way to face the card in the slot. At last the tickets were printed out and they were on to the platform. Pushing the "open door" button, we made ready to board quickly, but nothing happened.
"Maybe they aren't letting anyone else on 'cuz they're about to leave," John hypothosized. That would mean a 30 minute wait until the next train! "Wait!" called Carolyn, "the button isn't green but the one on that door is." Zipping over to the next door, John pushed the button and the door opened. The explorers climbed aboard and quickly secured window seats at a table.
The train pulled smoothly from the station and our heros read and played DS all the way to SaltLake without interuption.
Disembarking at the end of the line, we made our way to the Trax platform. (The street car trains) "Which trax line do we want, Sandy or University?" John queried. Consulting her growing selection of maps, Carolyn replied, "We can take either and then transfer to the university line to get to our bus stop." Just then the Sandy line pulled up and we boarded.
We transfered lines and got to our stop without complications. "Our bus stop is just down this block," Carolyn said setting off. But on our arrival our route number was no where to be found on the sign. "Well lets go to the other stop," John suggested. Back tracking and proceeding North, the adventurers spotted thier stop just past a McDonalds, pausing to consider the rumbling in their stomachs they decided a brief detour was in order.
Following lunch (which aside from the uncarbonated soda, was quite good) we made our way to the stop. Unable to locate a schedule, Carolyn called the posted phone number. "Can you tell me when the next bus is for route ..." John looked over their maps while he waited. "... I see, thank you."
Carolyn explained that the 307 was an express bus that only runs for a few hours in the mornings and evenings. But only carried passengers one way, into SLC in the mornig and out of SLC in the evenings. The exact opposite of the way they needed to travel!
Thier spirits undampened, the intrepid travelers consulted thier maps. They soon discovered another bus that would take them close to their destination. Setting off at a brisk pace we were soon riding the Trax again. "Now we just transfer to the Sandy line and we'll be at our bus stop in no time," Carolyn said confidently.
Getting off the university line they didn't wait long before a South boundtrax came along. We climbed aboard settled in and began working a Sudoku puzzle, since it would be a bit of a ride. After several stops Carolyn looked up in confusion, what were they doing at the Stadium? The Stadium was on the University line. Realizing the error we quickly got off and took the next Trax downtown. Arriving at the stop to change lines our heros paid very close attention to the arrivng trax trains before boarding again.
Spirits slightly dampened and in need of a snack, we settled in to ride to our stop. John whipped out the DS saying, "I need to kill something."
Many stops later we disembarked only to discover a 20 minute wait for our bus. Taking advantage of the cold we snuggled together while getting an update from my Mom, on how Little John was doing. Advising her of our circumstances so far we let her know not to expect us any time soon.
Soon the bus arrived and an uneventful 25 minutes later we were walking away from our stop. As far as we could tell from the bus map we were 2 blocks up and 2 blocks over from our destination, so we set off on foot eager to conclude our journey. However, it was not to be.
After 45 minutes of steady treking up and down steep, snow covered sidewalks we straggled into an Artic Circle in desperate need of a bathroom break and a pick me up. Over a hot fudge sundae, some chicken nuggets, and a soda (carbonated this time), we reevaluated our prospects.
Deciding to take a differnt route to the bus stop we stopped into the Smith's for some provisions before setting out. While at the store Carolyn decided to return a phone call she had missed, from her brother Rick.
Finishing at the checkout John asked how the call went. "Great!" Carolyn replied, "He's racing us to the bus stop and will drop us off at the trax station!" With renewed hope and energy we set out on our new route. Looking at the very small and unlabeled bus map, we had selected a more circtous path to the bus stop in the hopes that it would be more level.
After trudging through the snow in a mostly northern direction we came across a friendly mail delivery person. He pointed out on our miniscule map were we were and which way we needed to go next. Follwing his directions west at the T-interesction were were able to navigate the rest of the way to Fort Union Blvd ourselves, without further incident.
Just as we got there Rick arrived and we were soon zooming along the freeway. Rick decided to use this excuse to drive into Salt Lake (he picked us up in Cottonwood Heights) as a chance to visit his favorite German deli. We tagged along since it was right by the Trax and he bought a kinder egg for Little John. Soon we were hugging him goodbye and on the Trax back to the Frontrunner station. Once on the train we broke out the supplies and relaxed for the ride home. John struck up an interesting conversation with a fellow passenger who turned out to be an industrial engineer for the government. Before long we were back at the car and driving the last little bit home. ~~~dissolve back to narrator~~~
So we decided that John will drive the car to work at least for the first couple days. And incase anyone was worried we don't have any blisters from all that walking in damp boots.

Wow bees!

This paper wasps nest is in a tree at my mom's school. Its about the size of a basket ball. Now that the leaves are gone you can see it really well.

My own private zoo

So on Monday I walked past a window in the basement and discovered that I had been transported to my own private zoo exhibit. There was a little fat mouse scurrying around in there! Of course since our lot backs up to a field its not too big a suprise. The good news is that he was a fat little mouse with a healthy coat (like you'd see on a well groomed houstcat) so I doubt he was diseased. The better news was that when I came by a few hours later he was gone. :D

Lagoon

OK so if I stayed up to date on blogging these wouldn't be so late or all out of order.

Anyway Saturday of UEA weekend (umm, Oct 18 I think) we were all set to have an adventure driving up to see my Aunt Debbie and then we find out that they're going to be in Twin Falls all day. So this left us adventureless and we're all geared up for some fun, so we tracked down some discount tickets and went to Frightmares at Lagoon. For those unfamiliar with Lagoon it rivals Disneyland in cost but doesn't have the characters or the seamless "magic" atmosphere. However it does have lots of roller coasters if you don't mind the lines. (Another thing they should barrow from Disney would be FastPasses) So we spent the day and in the evening they have all this haunted stuff (hence the Frightmares part). Me and Mom took Little John on his first rides while Ben and John did they're own thing. Then while the little guy and Mom had a nap I went with the guys. I love and hate thrill rides. I like the "whee" part but I hate the way the stomach-falling-out feeling gets so intense I can't feel my arms to clutch at things for dear life. And by the end of the night our feet were killing us, but it was SO worth it. We had a blast.

Everyone by a pumpkin sculpture naer the entrance.

Ben, John, and I on Rattlesnake Rapids, Its cold here so I wore a ponch because you get off the ride SOAKED.

Everyone but Mom rode the log flume, I think it scared Little John but he didn't cry.

He loved the train.

He liked the boats 'cuz he loves water.

This was his first ride and he didn't know what to think.

And for Halloween they had all of these put your face through things so I made us use them.

Me and John

Little John

And Ben, gotta love the face.

Colds

So I hate playing musical colds. Sarah and her friend come visit from college for confrence weekend and bring a cold with them. A Little John catches it. And now John and I catch it and man I am miserable. I don't think AZ colds were this bad (of course the flu there is terrible). I didn't think colds were sopossed to leave you exhausted just from going up and down the stairs carrying the baby. Of course he does weigh 21 pounds.
On the other hand today is cold. It's snowing but not sticking and so we started up the fireplace. I sort of wish it was a "put on another log" fireplace 'cuz I love the smell. But mostly I'm really glad its a gas fireplace. No going out to the cold for more firewood, no messy firewood, no popping sap to set the baby/dog/carpet on fire, no ashes to scoop, and a very stable glass and metal screen to keep Little John out.

Picnics

OK so I promised a blog about picnics and here it is. Apparently picnics are an endangered species. Most of you reading this might be surprised by this news, I certainly was. While driving to Utah when we moved, we pulled off for gas and lunch. Anyone who has traveled with a small child in a car seat for more than 2 hours understands the need to let them out for a pit stop. So any time we road trip we picnic when possible (weather permitting). We just expect that's what we'll do.
So we get our sub sandwiches, haul our picnic blanket out of the trunk, and eat outside the restaurant on the grass. (For anyone road tripping I highly recommend this: you get some fresh air and kids can run and squirm and yell and nobody cares)
Well, we're there enjoying ourselves and these 2 guys come up and ask to take our picture. They are doing a research project/presentation about the decline of family values (or something very similar) for a college class. They are just gushing about how they can't believe people still have picnics and how this will get them an A for sure. We let them take our picture and if I had been thinking I would have asked them to take one with my camera too.
We just thought the whole thing was so random and funny, but apparently we are an anomaly in the world because we picnic. So since most of my readers are in AZ and this time of year is the best weather I invite you to picnic. It is an extinct tradition worthy of a "strange and peculiar people".

Autum leaves

So we've been driving past these beautiful fall leaves in the canyon all week and then I read some blog posts about how Phoenix has no fall and so for all of you who are missing fall this is for you.

We decided to go hiking and took a picnic lunch (I am planning a whole blog about picnics so watch for it)

Little John and the dog were so excited. All the pics are of Little john 'cuz I took the dog to run through the hills (we were at a campground)

He dragged John all over exploring and getting messy

and eating as much nature as he could get his hands on

And while I was off with the dog I collected a sack full of leaves which I'm going to laminate (thanks H.) and for a limited time special offer: if you leave me a comment asking, I will mail you some. I still have my PP RS directory and I will share the wealth. And because kids love to get mail I can address it to them if you want. You can link to this if you think someone reads your blog and not mine and might want some.

Happy Fall!!!!

More Photos!

We made Little John a sand box and Gr'ma and Gr'pa got him a bull dozer to play in it with.

He loves to be out in the yard

Him and John wrestling

He loves the camera

This is the dog, she's so small I call her a puppy even though she isn't any more

And this is what that cute dog can do to an unattended baby bottle.