Some unique summer purchases.

Wanted to make sure I document a couple of summer purchases that have been a lot of fun:

Rhiannon's post about this on social media:

"I had the time of my life today at WalMart when Mom and I found this gem!! I waved at people on the way home and got a lot of smiles, waves, and an older gentleman rolled down his window so he could take a picture of me. Day made."

Oh my goodness, we were laughing so hard that our sides hurt and I had tears running down my cheeks!

The funniest thing, though, is that Rhiannon and Wade went back to WalMart within minutes and got a tiger mask for Wade and a bunny rabbit for Jason (his request).  We spent 60 bucks on animal heads that day, and I'm still laughing about it.  

Another fun purchase was a letter board.  A friend posted that there was a killer deal on them at JoAnns, and I could. not. resist.  We've all had some fun this summer adding things to the board.

Broken garage door

I had some "excitement" on Thursday when the spring to our garage door broke.  THAT is an awful, scary sound!  It'll be nice to get it repaired, but we have to wait a few days.  For now, we are sporting the "parking lot" look...

Random pics from Summer 2016

Our summer vacation from school is short this year, but thankfully the days are long!  So far it's been a nice mix of work and play!

Here are some fun random pictures from the last couple weeks:

Wade has had a few friends over lately--we always enjoy having his buddies over!

  

One day this week Rhiannon and I did some facial masks that we picked up at Walgreens.  The greatest health benefit from these weird things was probably the belly laughs we got putting them on!

Wade and I had a pretty weird experience this week at WalMart.  We were doing a little clothes shopping when we heard the following over the intercom:  "Please do not leave the store.  Customers need to stay in the store at this time."  Well, turns out there was a MASSIVE gas leak near the new construction of the Super WalMart across the street, and we were asked to stay in the store until it was safe to leave.  After about 40 minutes we were able to get to our van and exit southbound.  It was pretty creepy going to our car--there was this very loud hissing noise, which we think was the gas leak!!!

Yeah, it's been hot, 108+ most days.  Yesterday Rhiannon and I were driving around town and the van temperature guage only read 98 degrees. What a treat!

On Friday the boys went golfing, and Rhiannon and I got pedicures!  It was a lot of fun!

Gorgeous sky full of clouds the other day!

Other events/moments from this week:

--Jason was on travel to PAX in Maryland.  We were glad to get him back home on Thursday!

--Jason has also been re-painting the kitchen wall in our home.  He's doing a fantastic job!

--Rhiannon has enjoyed her babysitting job this summer!  She babysits 3 days a week and has a lot of fun with the girl she watches.  It's an easy gig, and she's very grateful for it!

--The kids and I brought a meal and ate dinner with a ward friend, Elizabeth this week.  Elizabeth recently broke her arm and needed some help.  We all were very happy to spend time with her and realized we need to do that more often!

--Had our sister missionaries over for dinner!

--I've been volunteering a couple hours in the early morning the past few days at the Burros Music Boosters fireworks booth.  I'm tired because I haven't been waking up that early for the past few weeks, but it's been a good experience and I've enjoyed helping!

--We had a great visit with our friend Howard, who is still making a slow recovery at the hospital.

--Made homemade pepperoni pizza rolls and pizza sauce with the kids using a recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe website.  DELISH!

--Rhiannon gets her patriarchal blessing tonight!!!

We are looking forward to a family day tomorrow as we celebrate the 4th of July!

Things you learn from your dad

Here's a fun throwback picture from October 2000.  Rhiannon was about 5 months old.  What a cutie!

Earlier this month Rhiannon was bothered about something, but I had to laugh when I got this text:

"I think being my father's daughter I have a hard time when people are being complete idiots."

HAHAHAHA! That was a while ago and I am still laughing about it.  Truer words have never been texted.

Sunday selfies

Sunday Selfies, 10/12/15

I love these fun kids so much!

These pictures deserve their own blog post

Rhiannon took these with her phone on Wednesday.  I HAD to share.  Enjoy!

First World Problem

I laughed so hard tonight when Wade was setting the table for dinner...

Rhiannon: What's wrong, Wade?

Wade: (big exhale)  I know this is a first-world problem, but it is super annoying when I go to get the plates and they're all mixed up.  (We have 3 sets of dinner plates...)

Rhiannon:  Is your OCD kickin' in there? (laughing)

Mom:  I'm glad you realize that's a first-world problem.  You can fix it, ya know?  Or just set out mismatched plates, haha!





I am still smiling about this, hahaha!

Rhiannon is the winner...

Rhiannon is the winner for Most Enthusiastic April Fool's Day Spirit!  I asked her if she'd been thinking about it for a while.  No, she just got on Google the night before and went crazy!  My favorite was this surprise, waiting for Wade when he woke up in the morning!  So funny!

There's got to be a better way to meditate

Here's a post I made on Facebook this week:

I read last week that meditation is the hot new health trend for 2015. Huh, I thought. I had a few minutes this afternoon and thought I'd try it out for kicks. Amazon Prime Music had several 20-minute guided meditations, and the first one I tried was great! After about 5 minutes I was on a "golden beach where the water was tickling my toes". (no lie) Then I tried another one but had to stop--I was laughing SOOO hard because the voice was like a female version of Kip from Napoleon Dynamite!!! Laughter is a great stress reliever, too, haha!  

We laughed a lot this month...

4 words, folks:  Crazy Helium Booth app

I put this on my phone and the kids and I had way too much fun with it.  It takes a regular video but  manipulates your face and voice.  Definitely brought out the 10-year-old boy in me, haha!  Enjoy!

Halloween 2014 fun!

Yesterday was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL.  Perfect fall temperature, beautiful sunset.  I sat and watched the last few minutes of Wade's flag football practice, sitting on the grass, and basked in a perfect moment.  It was amazing.  This is definitely the time of year to live in Ridgecrest.

The kids had a crazy fun time at a Halloween carnival last night, too.  Rhiannon and the other young women, young men, and their leaders put it on for the Primary kids and they did a GREAT JOB!

So, of course, after a wonderful day yesterday, I tossed and turned all night, couldn't breathe, and woke up super congested this morning.  It's like someone slammed the brakes on my happiness.  Not fun.  Thankfully I only have a few things I HAVE to do today, leaving lots of time for rest and fluids and taking it easy!

And thankfully these cool cats are old enough that they didn't need too much help from their mom with their costumes, either!  I think they look AMAZING!

At the carnival last night:  Rhiannon and her friend JenAi are Scotty and Spock from the starship Enterprise.  Last year they did the Dr. Who theme.  I love that they do things together!

Our sweet Bishop Washburn asked Rhiannon to do some facepainting for him!  

Our friend Tamara is Effie from Hunger Games.

Wade was pretty stoked with his Green Arrow paint job.

Green Arrow/Captain America!

I was so impressed that Rhiannon put this together.  Band-aids worked as Spock ears!

Live long and Prosper!

The taped-on Star Trek symbol is hilarious, too. :)

"Trick or Treat...baby."  Wade is the Terminator!  He'd been planning this for a long time when Rhiannon passed the jacket down to him.  He just needed some cool shades.

Lookin' good!

This is from 2008, but close to what Jason was going to wear TO WORK today.  I can't remember him ever doing that.  TOO FUNNY--I love it!

If I'm feeling better, I've also got an easy costume idea--I plan to go as "Identity Theft" and wear a bunch of "Hello My Name Is" nametags with different names on them.  

Maybe I'll black out some of my teeth, too, haha! :)

Happy Halloween!

It was time for a good blackmail post

The other day I was on the computer and heard Rhiannon giggling on the other side of the wall.  She had taken all of these with my phone camera:

I dare you to try looking at those without laughing.  I died!  And I'm STILL getting a huge kick out of it.  What a clown! :)

She is a beauty through and through!  She's only into high school a few months and we are watching her get older and wiser right before our eyes.  It's magical, scary, fun, and bittersweet all at the same time!  Love this girl!

This boy

This boy has been feeling a little neglected lately.

He was telling me at breakfast the other day that he felt like all our focus was on Rhiannon--Rhiannon and seminary, Rhiannon and homework, how'd Rhiannon do on her tests, Rhiannon plays the piano so well, Rhiannon needs to get to school early tomorrow to practice with the band, etc, etc, etc.

He wasn't whining or crying about it, he was just sharing how things looked from his perspective.

It made me smile.  I reminded him that there were plenty of things that Wade got recognized for, too: Wade is going to start flag football next month; wow!  Wade is reading at an almost 9th-grade level!, Wade is doing a good job saving up some money, Wade is so close to getting his Arrow of Light for Cub Scouts, Wade did such a good job mowing the lawn!

It's not like we stick him in a corner and forget about him, but I appreciated his honest opinion and told him I'd do a better job.  :)

One thing that Wade has been planning for is the Student Council election coming up in a few weeks.  He plans to run for vice president and have posters that say:  "WANTED, Wade Cushing, for Vice President."  Which is the reason for the dog house pictures. :)

We love Wade and we love his sister, too!  We're blessed to have such good kids!

Let's call it what it really is

Tonight is book club at our house--we're discussing R J Palacio's book Wonder, which I L-O-V-E.  I think every parent and every 4th grader on up should read it.

In preparation for the book club, I was making a grocery list this morning and telling Jason and Rhiannon what I planned on making for tonight:

Kathy's Cinnamon Bundt Cake
Chocolate Raspberry brownies
Seasoned popcorn
Crackers and cheese ball
Veggies and dip
Fruit

Jason's eyebrows arched up and he said, "I think you should call this what it really is--Treat Club."  :)

I'm looking forward to it!

Update:

Success!  6 friends showed up, along with Rhiannon and Wade, and we had a good time.  I woke up smiling about something Wade had said and posted it on Facebook this morning:

Funny Wade time:

Last night at the book club I invited both Rhiannon and Wade because they enjoyed the book.

We were teasing Wade about his dad saying he'd take away Wade's man card for joining us, and Wade goes, "It's okay, I've got 3 of those."

He calls these Chuck E Cheese credit-card looking things his "man cards." No one else knew what he was talking about, but inside I was laughing SO HARD!!!!!!

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!!!!!!!!!

Baseball and Bed Angels

As part of our mini-getaway last week, we went to a Lancaster Jethawks baseball game Wednesday night.  We had a great time and GREAT seats right behind the Jethawks dugout!  The sunset was amazing, too!  Thanks, Daddy!

Oh, and here's how we stayed entertained while we were waiting to head to the game:

I'm still laughing about this...

#456,798th example of how to truly exasperate your loving husband:

After several minutes of trying to fix the computer/printer set-up this morning after I'd messed it up...

Me: "Oh, I thought it just kind of magically got transferred upstairs."

Jason: "Contrary to what you might think, unicorns, magic fairy dust, and little leprechauns aren't what you need to print a document upstairs from the computer downstairs. You've got to actually turn the upstairs computer on and then log into it."

Me: (lop-sided grin on my face) "Okay."

Love the man. Still laughing about his unicorn comment, and laughing at myself for just not getting technical stuff!

Did I mention I drove over some mysterious item this week while Jason was in DC and put a GAPING hole in one of the back tires of the van?  Yeah, it's been that kind of a week!

For Grandma Deb

With Rhiannon's help, I set out to find the "cutest winter hat" I could find--at the very least it had to be a hat that didn't make me look like a 10-year-old boy. I giggled when I saw this one, but then I tried it on and it was JUST RIGHT--cozy, warm, and cute, cute, cute. I may be turning 36 next week, but I'm totally okay with this hat!   The fact that I look like a 10-year-old GIRL in it doesn't seem to bother me, ha-ha!

I like to wear it in the mornings when I take Oscar for a walk--today it was about 35 degrees outside, so the hat was much appreciated.  Some old friends walked by and we had a good laugh about my hat--I was wearing black from head to toe except for this neon thing on my  head--my friends called it the "camoflauge hat!" 

Wow.  This was the only picture I took the entire 2011 Christmas weekend. 

Thank goodness it's a good one! :)

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?)



Monday morning plans

This morning I woke up to some great news--we have a new cousin/niece!  Welcome to Reta!!!  We are so happy for Jordan, Amelia, and the big brothers!

Right now I am downloading last week's General Conference to my

.

It could take a while, so while I wait I will probably

     and and    .


After Conference is done downloading, I'll lace up some shoes and listen to Conference while I go for a nice long



around the neighborhood, taking a 2-mile route that I haven't done before.  I haven't been for a walk/jog in a couple weeks, and I'm ready to get out there this morning!

Random fun:  I ordered some fun things today for Rhiannon's birthday party next month.  We found a SUPER CUTE theme on Oriental Trading:



So, think owls, lots of balloons, pool party games, and this cupcake cake off of FamilyFun:

 

Should be fun, as long as I don't make it too "cute-sy" for our soon-to-be 11-year-old!

Random funny, for posterity's sake:  Last week I ran into some friends from church at Wal-mart.  The 4-year-old in the cart recognized me from Primary, saying, "Mommy, I know that lady from church!"  Her mom said, "Yes, that's Sister Cushing."  Later on in the day, her mom shared this funny moment.  She said the little girl was so excited to tell her big sisters the news when they got home from school:  "Guess what?  I saw Sister Couch Cushion today!"