The Boys

I can't believe I forgot my camera....how can I possibly blog without pictures - it's not nearly as interesting. I went to Wal-Mart in Rexburg to look for a cheap digital camera - I think it was a bad sign that it didn't list the megapixels.

Anyway - we had a few fun days with Matt and Steven. I left them with zombies and cinnamon rolls and groceries. They gave me lovely memories of singing "I love the Lord" with their roommates, they're singing it in church today. Steven and Matt are rooming together which is challenging but they're getting along pretty well. Johnny stayed with them for the two nights we were there - they don't sleep much - I guess that's college life.

It was fun being in Rexburg - I couldn't help but reminisce about my days at Ricks. I could never have guessed that I'd be back 30 years later with my boys. Time passes quickly...

This week will be fun - I drop Johnny off at BYU tomorrow morning for Basketball camp then it's playtime! I'll tell you all about it.

Words for Wednesday

Tomorrow - Southwest - Utah - Rexburg - Boys - $$$ - Provo - Johnny - Basketball camp - quilt shops - Taipan Trading - Gardners Village - The Front Porch - family - friends - fun!!!

Wordless Wednesday!

Father's Day

Johnny does it again! A culinary masterpiece for father's day breakfast -


He created a crabby face as a fathers day joke - he's creating the face so you get the idea - scrambled egg mouth, fork nose, english muffin eyes, kielbasa eyebrows and fruit hair - fabulous!

Dave's not a fan of breakfast in bed - he prefers breakfast on the deck! What a wonderful father - 29 years of raising boys - it's a wonderful life!

Jim and Liz gave Dave a kite for Father's day - they had fun flying it in the park on a perfect breezy afternoon. A happy family portrait. We were happy to have our best friends Lisa and Olivia visiting too.

Thanks Davey for being such a good dad and kind and loving hubby - I love you...

I love to ride my bicycle!

I do, I love to ride my bicycle! I realize I look goofy with my red helmet and all - but I'm having so much fun riding around. I want to thank whoever had the foresight to plan so many bike paths -

I can get almost anywhere. I told Dave I want to get a trailer so I can go grocery shopping on my bike. I would much rather save the gas money and buy something fun. He got a little exasperated and assured me that we can afford to drive the 2 miles to Costco.... I'm still going to start saving for a trailer...

Another thing I love - Watermelon!

I have lovely childhood memories of watching wonderful world of Disney at my grandparents house - everyone would spit the seed in the potted plant in the corner. Thank goodness for seedless watermelon, now that its in season I try to keep cut up watermelon in the fridge at all times. I could certainly bring watermelon home in my bike trailer!

I love our grape vines!

The grapes are little but very promising with tons of clumps all over the place. They are so delicious and I imagine myself feeding the family even in times of famine with the grapes, at least for the few weeks they're ripe.

My Grandma Foster had a grape arbor along one side of her back yard. There were stepping stones through the middle of the vines - it was a great place to go on a hot summer day.

I'm going to notice and enjoy all the great things summer has to offer. Oh I almost forgot - I really love my electricity bill since our air conditioning has been out. The replacement will be installed next week but I'm becoming such a granola/earth mamma that I might leave it off. I love saving money - it means I can buy some new shoes...

How does your garden grow?

My grandpa would be so proud of me. He was a master gardener and summer at grandma and grandpas always included fruit and vegetables from the garden.

We'll have apples and squash,

beans and tomatoes and the grape vines are loaded. I'm thinking that if we all plant fruit trees and vegetables we'll have enough to feed everyone in the neighborhood at least for the summer because I'm not a canning person - I'm more a buy a case of canned goods from Costco kind of girl.

Mildensteins invited us over to pick cherries from their trees. We enjoyed eating them for two weeks, not to mention how cute they looked on the table.

I'm hoping I can keep up the garden watering because the cinderella pumpkins vines are looking really good.

It's such a miracle that great food comes from little tiny seeds. By the way the munched on tomato plants are thriving! I didn't even put out slug bait - you might think I'm all about growing organic with no pesticides of any kind but the truth is I just didn't get my lazy self down to the store to buy it - so far I guess the snails have moved on to greener pastures!

Johnny in high school???

Our district does not allow a graduation ceremony for middle school so the awards assembly was the closest thing to it. Here's Johnny with his scholarship award. I cannot believe he is going to be in high school!!

When he was in pre-school we had a son in every school - Steven in elementary, Matt in middle school, Doug in high school and Jim in college. How in the world did we do that?? And how in the world did time go so fast??? It seems like yesterday...

We're so proud of John and know he'll do well in high school even if I have to become a raving maniac to make it happen! Another last time goes into the record books - farewell El Dorado middle school.

I love my new blog counter

I just installed a blog counter!! Don't you wonder how many people visit your blog? I visit so many blogs that are so fun and inspiring but the author never knows I'm there. It's the perfect "fly on the wall" experience!! I don't mind lurkers on my blog - in fact I think it's great - lots of friends you don't even know yet! I recently recognized a person in the store whose blog I read...I felt like I know her so well but she has not idea who I am...or does she? Maybe she recognized me too! It's all so fun and I feel so "in" with the "in crowd" even though I'm on the older side of bloggers.

I read lots of blogs on google reader - I don't think the counter works with that so if you're reading this on google reader if you don't mind clicking on my blog just to make the number go up I'd appreciate it. I'm going to have to stop myself from logging on to my blog to see what the number is because I think that will increase the count artificially....

All My Children

When I was in high school I watched All My Children - the soap opera - every day. I'm not sure how I did this since we didn't have DVR's. Maybe it was on later or something - anyway it was the topic of conversation with my friends.

When I was a young mother I still enjoyed taking a break and catching up with Erika, Pheobe, Adam, Tad and Dixie. At some point I realized this was a big fat waste of time. I was talking about it with my neighbor at the time - an also overwhelmed young mother. She said, "I knew it was time to stop watching soap operas when I started praying for the characters".

I haven't watched soap operas for many years but Friday I had a break at 12:00 so I turned on the TV - I had already seen the DVR'ed episode of "What not to Wear" so I flipped through the guide and there was All My Children.

Honestly nothing has changed in 30 years!! Erika is in prison, Jack is trying to get her out. Adam is trying to mess with everyone. Tad and Dixie are together though it appears Dixie is actually dead and Tad is in a coma but they're happy to be together in the spirit world. Meanwhile it seems that everyone is looking for the daughter of Tad and Dixie whom Tad never knew about because Adam pretended the girl was his from when he was married to Dixie. I assume he had a paternity test done but never told Dixie that the girl was actually Tad's. Everyone is sure that if the long lost daughter talks to Tad he'll come out of his coma.

Seriously it was comical but made for a fun little mindless moment. I think I'll check back in 5 or 10 years to see how everyone is doing. Does anyone know if Pheobe is still with us?