I Brake For...

A couple weekends ago Rhiannon and I were running errands and saw this car just up the street from our home.

I learned that I brake hard for DeLoreans--I might have left tire marks in the street, haha!  Need to watch some Back to the Future STAT! :)

Just for fun

Last Thursday Jason and I celebrated our 16th anniversary on May 16th!  Woo-hoo!  We went out to dinner the next night to the Red Bowl (yummy Asian food), and then we hurried home to pick up Wade so he could join us for Iron Man 3.  Rhiannon was going to see it the following afternoon for her friend Emma's birthday party, and I just did not have the heart to leave Wade out.  I mean, the kid has wanted to see Iron Man 3 for 6 months!

So we were in the movie theater, and the movie was AWESOME, but I felt a little weird having Wade there.  Every time something cool happened in the movie I'd lean over to Wade and say something, or he'd do the same to me, and, um, it was like I was on a date with my son instead of my super handsome hubby, ya know?

Wade was hilarious, though--the next day he said, "Hey, Mom!  Maybe next year for your anniversary date we can go see Amazing Spider-Man 2!"  I had to let him down gently that this probably wasn't the best idea. :) 


Another funny thing happened tonight.  We had Elder Hanson and Elder Amadi, our full-time church missionaries, over for a taco dinner.  After dinner I asked if they'd like some chocolate chip cookies for dessert, and Elder Amadi said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to pass because I'm doing P90X."  Jason lit up and for the next 10 minutes they talked about the program Jason's been doing for 3 weeks now, and he showed the elders some of his gear, etc.  It was really fun!

Right now I'm hoping Rhiannon is on her way home safely from her Disneyland band trip.  She won't be home til 11:30pm or so, and it's SUPER WINDY outside.  I'm trying not to worry about her and keep myself occupied by updating this blog! :)

School ends next week--YAY!!!!!!!!!

A very satisfying ending

   

Jason took me to The Dark Knight Rises this afternoon, the "last" in the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy.   Bane's continuous neck cracking got a little old, but otherwise I enjoyed every last minute of it.  Thanks, babe!

Last post of the day

So, after almost 3 days straight of party prep and partying, what did I do?  I stayed up another 2 hours and watched this with the kids for the first time:

It was fantastic!

I think we're going to watch it again tonight! :)

What to do while Daddy's burning the pavement?

The kids and I won't be joining Jason for the race this weekend.  As much as I'd love to be there to see his team cross the finish line, there were too many variables and I personally didn't want to add to Jason's stress so he could focus on running.   He agreed--if it was just him, we'd BE THERE, but with 11 other people, juggling a 2-day, 200-mile race, it didn't seem like the right thing to do.  Hopefully I won't regret the decision and will be able to experience the Ragnar finish "next time!"

Instead, we'll be checking the team's Facebook page constantly for updates.  We'll go to Wade's baseball game on Saturday morning and then Rhiannon will go to a church activity.  Somewhere in there, we may sit down and watch this, which came out on "BLU-RAY" this week:

Oh, yeah!

I'd rather stay inside, thank you very much!

It's REALLY windy here.  I had to push Oscar out the door to go to the bathroom, and then I had to walk around with him til he went because he kept heading for the door--he did NOT want to be outside.  This is NOT typical for him, poor puppy!

Rhiannon has stayed home from school today.  She came down with a sudden fever over the weekend and is finally acting a little more like herself today, definitely happier now that the fever is gone, but she's got a hefty cough.  I begged her to watch last night's two-hour Downton Abbey episode with me.  She wasn't too excited about it but admitted it was pretty good after we'd watched it!

While we wait for the next season of Psych...

White Collar on USA Network.

This show is fun, smart, and endearing.  The kids and I have been watching the past two seasons on Netflix, and it is GREAT!

I avoided it for a while because one of the main characters, Neal, played by Matt Bomer, is almost too good-looking, if there is such a thing.  (Stop laughing at me, please!)  Thankfully the show is more clever than "swoon."  We LOVE it!

Spring!

Aside from the allergy issues that seem to get worse for me every year (itchy throat, watery eyes, sneezing), I really do love this time of year.  Here's one reason why:

I spy radishes, tomato plants, zucchini, apricots, grapevines, marigolds, roses, strawberry plants, snap peas, and a basil plant (that one's from the store and just thrown in for fun!)

Time will tell how long this beauty will last, and if our garden will continue to grow.  For now, we're soaking it up!  I was most surprised by the little apricot trees out by the pool.  I'd noticed the green leaves, but when I got up close there were little green apricots growing EVERYWHERE!  So cool!

I do have some questions for more experienced gardeners out there:

--what do you do about the little green/white bugs on roses?  I think they're aphids, but I'm not sure.

--what do you do to keep the birds away from your fruit trees?  As soon as those apricots ripened last year, we were lucky to get a handful or two, while the birds ate everything else. :(

Random funny:  Wade came to my bedside first thing this morning.  His eyes were opened wide, his smile was stretched ear to ear, and his face was inches from mine.  "Do you know what TODAY is, Mom?"    We both said, "Harry Potter!"  (We're just a little excited about the blu-ray coming out today...can you tell?)



Giddy

Yesterday was a good day.  The kids invited 4 friends over first thing in the morning and had 2 hours of non-stop activity and fun chasing each other outside, making crafts, and playing Wii.  Then we met Dad for lunch at Golden Dragon (yum) and later worked on some projects in the back yard together.  Jason tackled the out-of-control grapevine that had grown up into the top of the porch, while the rest of us cleaned up that aftermath and raked leaves or cleaned out the area under the roses.  The porch area looked so great when it was all done, and we had good timing, too, because it rained for a few hours later.

We had a pretty good dinner that night (translation:  I took more than 15 minutes to prepare it) of scallopped potatoes with big chunks of ham, steamed broccoli, canned peaches, and some homemade dinner rolls that were fabulous, if I do say so myself.  I have lots of good roll recipes, but I'm usually not successful with them.  I used the following recipe off of Deals to Meals, and it makes me giddy thinking about how easy it was to make these rolls and still have them come out tasty!


30 Minute Rolls

1 1/8 c. + 2 t. warm water

1/3 c. oil

2 T. yeast

1/4 c. sugar or honey

1/2 t. salt

1 egg

3 1/2 c. flour

Mix 1st 4 ingredients and let rest for 15 minutes. Add salt and eggs - gradually add flour. Shape into dinner rolls, or use in your favorite recipe that calls for dough. After shaped, let rest for 10 minutes. For rolls,  bake 10 minutes @ 400 degrees until golden brown.   Makes 12 rolls.


*Recipe from Real Mom Kitchen

We are keeping our fingers crossed for some decent weather so that we can camp over in Death Valley for a night.  If that doesn't pan out, it will still be fun having Dad home for the rest of the week to spend time with us!

One more random thing:  the kids and I watched some Shaun the Sheep episodes on Netflix last night.  They were hilarious, sweet, and fun!  We're in love...

 

Cue the music

The book fair is at our school this week!  Rhiannon and Wade love it, and they use their own saved up money to buy books....

(Conversation as we were walking to the van after school)

Wade:  There was this cool Lego Star Wars dictionary that I wanted to get.

Mom:  How much was it?

Wade:  The lady said that it was $21.  (He slumps over and puts on a sad face.)  I only brought 10 dollars.  But then!

(Wade gets this big grin on his face and starts singing the Indiana Jones theme song really loud...)

Wade:  There it was!  An Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull book!!!!

Mom:  (smiling) And how much was that one?

Wade:  7 dollars!  I got it and sat down at recess to read it, almost 60 pages worth!


I laughed and laughed over that, and Wade had fun recreating the scene for Dad at dinner time, too.  Rhiannon bought 3 books and said she'd read almost 70 pages in one at school today.  Love, love, love books!

Pancake molds ROCK!

Our Thanksgiving week is off to a fun start.  Yesterday we went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  This was a big deal because it's the first PG-13 movie I'd taken the kids to--usually Jason and I preview them first.  I checked out the very helpful review at pluggedin.com and then called Uncle Logan for some informed opinions.   I'll be honest, I wanted to see the movie pretty badly myself, but probably not as badly as the kids wanted to see it!  Since we knew what to look for and when to cover our eyes (about 2-3 short scenes), we were prepared and had a really great time watching it. Will I make a habit of taking the kids to PG-13 movies at this age? Absolutely not. But sometimes exceptions can be made! :)

When we got home, there was a surprise package waiting for us from Grandma Deb, and the contents totally rocked!!! STAR WARS PANCAKE MOLDS! We tried them out this morning and had a blast. :)

Here are a few random pictures from the morning, taken by Wade and me. Enjoy!

Blog fun

It sounds silly, but I've been posting more lately to reach a personal blog record--I'm about 16 posts away from 500!    Many thanks to my friend Aimee for inspiring me to try some new things on the blog, too.  I liked the tabs at the top of her blog which ended up being "pages", so I added a couple extra "pages" to this blog--they're on the sidebar on the right. I started labeling posts today, too.  I tend to get pretty specific on my labeling, though, so I don't know how long I'll keep that up!

Last night we watched Prince of Persia--it was pretty good, but I'm glad we didn't go see it at a movie theater.  When in Rome was the same way--I watched it by myself and was so glad I didn't go waste money at a theater because it wasn't that great.  Good things come to those who wait, and I'm starting to fully appreciate the awesomeness of Netflix.  If we add a movie to Netflix and just wait for it, we can watch it in the comfort of our home, can pause it when we want to, and best of all, don't have to spend money on treats and eats that a person feels compelled to get at a theater! :)  Don't get me wrong, the theater experience has its perks, too, as in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1,..

Impressive...and a little scary!

This morning we were a little goofy. We were talking about how much we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Unnatural History show on Cartoon Network. I don't know if the season's last episode can be topped--it was so mind-blowing cool! As much as I hate most of the other trash on Cartoon Network, I'm tempted to send in a letter singing the praises of Henry, Jasper, and Maggie (the main characters) and their adventures and pleading for more!!! Hopefully Season 1 will come out on DVD SOON!

Here's the link for more on the show: Unnatural History

So, here we are getting ready for the morning and talking about TV, when all of a sudden Wade starts acting out the newest Anthony Sullivan Oxi Clean commercial...from start to finish! We laughed and laughed and laughed...and then I got a little scared. Maybe, just maybe we watched too much TV this summer! :)

Off to a good start

Weekend report:

*Jason survived (and enjoyed) the final session of BOLT/OWL Scout training Friday night and all day Saturday. This was a blessing since both of us have had some mixed/bad feelings about it. The training turned out to be fun and was very well-attended by LDS members, too.

*Wade had a stomach bug all day Saturday and is thankfully starting to feel better from it. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the rest of us won't get it!

I'm off to a good start today. Before 9am I went for a walk, listened to a General Conference talk, vacuumed, sorted laundry and folded 2 loads of it, started up the dishwasher, skimmed leaves from the pool, got the kids out the door for school, and checked email/blogs. I hope to crank out the Primary program, do some clean-up in the front yard, cash some checks, go to Wal-Mart, and get a TB test done for substitute teaching, too.

To reward myself, I will be watching more of the 2005 BBC production of Charles Dickens' book Bleak House. Man, it's good stuff. I started watching a bit of it because it came up on a Netflix instant-streaming search. I'd never heard of this book and was on cloud 9 to find that our small local library had a COPY of it, a beautiful, ancient-looking copy! So I am in heaven, reading the some-700+ pages that Dickens wrote at night, and watching a TV version of it during the day! Sometimes I wonder if I was born in the right century, but then I remember how much I appreciate modern-day conveniences! :)



Tomorrow is a big day for Rhiannon--we'll find out if she won the election for Historian/Photographer! We'll keep you posted!