July Was A Good Month

July was good! I read three books, and they all got three stars! Yippee!

Sisties!

This summer both my sisters came to visit. It's been a GREAT summer!

Gotta love 'em!

Jajuan

The mullet hat!

Lemon Meringue Pie

We always benefit when Grandma decides to bake! :)

Waffles

Last night the prince said he was going to make waffles for breakfast. I figured he would use the box mix...just add water. Nope. He looked up a recipe on the internet.

That seems like an awful lot of ingredients. He was commanded to clean up his mess too, which he did.



The finished product. He made three but was only able to eat one. His sister had one for breakfast and then smothered the other in peanut butter later in the day for a snack.

The chef!

Swing With Me Baby

I found this on my phone the other day. I don't think I ever posted it. One of my favorite dances too!

Final Skabelunditto Shots

The princess was watching a movie with us!

Before the haircut.


Cousins--Andy was already in bed.
Can't wait to see them all again!

Get Well Soon, Mark

Cousin Mark had emergency surgery yesterday. He's on the road to recovery now, and we wish him a speedy recovery. Wasn't he so cute here? He's all big now!

Get well soon, Marko!

Forcast: 97* Today

Smokin' Hot!

About Blind Your Ponies

I just reread Blind Your Ponies. (It's the summer of rereading for me.) I loved, loved, loved this book the first time I read it and even gave it away for Christmas. I was afraid to reread it for fear it wouldn't live up to my glowing love for it. Rest assured, it was as good the second time. PHEW!! In fact, maybe better as I was able to keep the characters straight sooner and read for pleasure more. GREAT BOOK! Let me know if you want to borrow it!

Happy Birthday GRANDMA!!

Borders

In case you haven't heard, Borders Book Stores are closing all their stores. A chapter 11 didn't work, and they are going out of business. Since I have a gift card for there, I headed out yesterday. I might now know why they are going out of business:

Me: Do you have the book _______ by _______?

Borders Dude (BD): I don't know (throws up his hands), and I have no way of checking!

Me: (Looking dumbfounded) It's a fiction book. Any ideas?

BD: Well more than half our store is fiction. It could be anywhere. We have... And here he starts to list the various types of fiction.

Me: (Walking away) OK. I'll just look myself.

We did not find the book, in any of the fiction sections. We later heard that their computer system was down. Why didn't he preface his first sentence with that? Then I wouldn't have thought he was such a moron.

I do feel for the many employees who were working there yesterday, as it's gotta suck to go to work knowing you will soon be out of a job. Everything is currently 10-40% off (primarily 10%), and I did prove myself to be every bit as dumb as BD when I went to pull out my gift card and realized it was at home. Guess I'll have to go back. Grrr...

Hanging with the cousins!

Somewhere under there, the prince is about to get a haircut!

Cards...we are big fans of black jack.
Most of us can count to 21,
though some of us are not very quick about it.



Jammin'!

ISCREEEM!

We love the ISCREEM place!

Yummy!

And it was only in the 80*s today!

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

The score board said it was 105* when the game started. Scorcher! But we pulled out a win, which was great for us, but not so great for Andy since we were playing his team!

Another Old McDonald

We have the BEST time checking out the neighbors' chickens!

The offers keep rolling in!

The prince, while off from the Chuckster gig with his arm, applied for jobs at a Veterinary place and Albertsons. Both places interviewed him, and both places offered him jobs. Though the vet place is closer and pays better, the hours were less flexible. In the end, he chose Albertsons...and gave Chuck E his notice. He's a union man now...a union man making minimum wage...

Ah, Vegas. How I've Missed You.

Hi Cousins

Cousin Mark

His parents.

We saw sister Amanda standing on the horse a few days ago.

Back to school time?

I saw that they were stocking the school supply aisles at Walmart yesterday...just sayin'.

No need to go to Mexico.

I do not have a refined pallet. I rarely can discern flavors in food other than to know if it's good or bad. But I can taste the difference in my baked goods (on those rare occasions when I bake) if I use real vanilla. I am also cheap so have spent most of my baking days (again, on those rare occasions when I bake) using imitation vanilla.

Fortunately for those who have to eat my baking, I went to Mexico a few years ago and bought real vanilla for not too many dollars. Yummo! Since then, when running low on real vanilla, I request that someone bring it to me when others go to Mexico. It's worked out pretty well, although I do forbid the children to use the "good stuff" when making smoothies. There's always the cheap stuff for that.

Finally, I get to the point...the other day I was in Costco and noticed a BIG (not sure of the ounces but probably 10 or more) bottle of REAL vanilla for under $7!!!! That's it. No need to go to Mexico anymore. I'm stocking up at Costco!

By the way, the nice lady in Mexico who sold us our vanilla in a plastic bottle told us to transfer it to a glass bottle when we got home (not that I ever did that, since that would constitute me caring about cooking) as it will last longer. Who knew?

4th of July Fun

We had family and friends over for a bbq. It was great fun. The kids went to the fireworks stand and bought the really loud pop-its. No real fireworks to light, but they didn't seem to mind. Special thanks to Kathi and Rick for letting us camp in their driveway for the big fireworks display. It was GREAT!

Don't they all look so patriotic?

That can't be safe!

Two weeks ago one of our smoke detectors starting chirping. We changed the battery, and I suggested to the king that we change them all out. There are 9 in our house, and we've not changed them in 4 years of living here. Now, they are electric, w/a batter back-up, so they aren't apt to need to be changed yearly, but if one's going, it seems maybe we should change them all. The king, being much like me, decided to procrastinate that idea. So Saturday night, at 4AM, the one in the living room--the really HIGH one--started screaming, not chirping. The good news is it woke all of us up, even the princess downstairs, and after a few minutes, it sort of quit. Clearly we were meant to change them all out. But the king didn't know how he would reach the high one. I suggested he borrow the neighbor's ladder. He decided to create his own ladder.

Say it with me: KNUCKLEHEAD!!

The "ladder" held, and he was just tall enough to reach the very high detector. Alas, even with the new battery, it chirped. So he cut the power. Did a little of this. Did a little of that. And eventually figured out that the batter was in backward. He couldn't see it when he was pushing it in there because he was literally on tiptoe and extending his arms as far as they would go to reach it. Eventually it was all fixed up, and we are hopeful we're good for another 4 years.

That's the smoke detector...on the ceiling...so you can see how far he had to stretch.

One sad note: on his way down from the ladder (the second to last time), he stepped funny and tweaked his back. It is slowly healing, but he is going in today to have it looked at. I guess I'm going to have to buy the man a ladder.

That doesn't look good.

A couple of nights ago a storm blew in. It looked weird. In fact, the grey in the first photo reminded me of how we were sort of covered in grey clouds during last year's tornado. I snapped a couple of shots while pulling in my patio cushions. It blew over, and we didn't even get any rain out of it. Weird.

That looks like dust or rain, but really, we didn't get a drop. And it wasn't dust.

Anyone want to join me?

The text he sent, attached to this photo, read, "Wish you were here." But I really don't think there's room for me.

CNN Is In Da House

I picked up my mother-in-law today at the airport. She said there was much equipment from CNN on the luggage turnstile when she picked up her bag. I assume they are here to cover the oil spill. It happened on the 3rd. Today's the 6th. The governor didn't make it here until yesterday. I understand it was a holiday weekend, but really? As for CNN, maybe they had reporters with spare time since the Casey Anthony thing got wrapped up so quickly. On the up side: all these people coming to town will need a place to stay and food to eat so that might boost the sagging economy a bit.

Now THAT is cool!

Cousin Amanda!

That's a well-trained horse.

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

Let freedom ring!

Happy Birthday Dad

Not a great photo.

I really should go scan another one.

He'd be 69 today.

(Oops, sorry Shelley. I can't count.)

Wow!

I took this photo on our way to UT last month. Early June and the Bozeman mountains. Even from 50+miles away you can tell that there is a lot of snow up there. With our recent 90*+ temps, all that snow is melting and running into the Yellowstone, which is now at flood stage in many communities. In fact, the annual (this will be the 48th year) boat float from Livingston to Columbus is being postponed. It was to start July 8, but won't start until August 4 because the waters are too high, too fast, and too dangerous. On the plus side, check out all the green grass on the side of the road. Most of it is still pretty green, but the brown is starting to show.

Happy Anniversary

If Grandpa was still with us, the King's mom and dad would be married 50 years today. Oh, how we miss him.

Those other kids...

It's very fun to take photos of little people having lots of fun in the sun. The big kids aren't around as much and are often sleeping (since it's summer and all). But they have been present and accounted for and a HUGE help with their cousins the last 2 weeks. I'm very proud of them. By the way, report cards came for both of them a couple of weeks ago...honor roll--both of them--just sayin'!

Group photo before we left AZ.

Even injured, the prince had friends over for smores by the fire.

Yes, that's the princess on a long board...after the prince's second injury.

She isn't brave and went no farther than the end of the driveway. Phew!

At the doctor's we ran into one of the prince's middle school teachers.

Yikes! We wish her a speedy recovery.

Sadness

After two fun-filled weeks with Ariana and Isaiah, we had to say good-bye yesterday. Their sister and mom came to get them, but at least they arrived early enough that we got to have a fun lunch at Godfather's and take in their final swim lesson. I am proud to say that they both were promoted to Level 2! Those little fish! I hope they'll come back again next summer. We had a ton o' fun!

Cousins! The prince and Mariah want to take their own roadtrip to Arizona next summer. Heaven help us!!!

I love this sisty!!!

While the little kids are gone...

...let's sneak off to Arizona and visit Grandma and Grandpa!

Libby and Mariah pool side.
And at London Bridge (trust me...it's back there)
in Lake Havasu.

Chuck E. Cheese

Sunday we went to see Cars 2 and then headed to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner and fun. (We are cool like that!) Cars 2 was pretty good--not as good as the first one, in my opinion. The scene where Mater is trying to get the guards to react at Buckingham Palace is very funny, and the animation is amazing. The prince thought is was better than Cars, but the rest of us are sticking with the classic.

At Chuck E. we got to meet the prince's boss who assured him he will have a job just as soon as he's able. He also had a paycheck waiting for him, so that was kind of nice.

The kids played forever on 100 tokens, and we dined on "delicious" pizza--okay, maybe not delicious, but way better than Little Caesars. Good times.