Merry Christmas to my Twilight friends...

(Thanks Leslie!)

Crawling out from under our rock...

Between Thanksgiving and being sick - I haven't been here much lately! I promise updates coming soon! I'm finally starting to feel better from this terrible, awful, cold we've all had. I haven't had a cold this bad in YEARS. This morning I went out for a run - the first one in over a week. I didn't cough too much and I made it through - so maybe there is hope. This is also the first day in a while I've gotten up and not headed right for the Tylenol bottle for my pounding head. Between that and Sudafed, I've been well drugged! :)

I have to go to Family Movie Night tonight at the school (remind me later to tell you why never to be a) PTO pres and b) why I hate Family Movie night (besides the fact that Philip is supposed to play his violin at our church Christmas party tonight and I won't be there :( .) More from me when this event is over!

It's just not at exciting as it seems around here!

Caitlin told me the last time I updated this blog that I always make our life sound way more exciting than it is. Really? I thought that I was just telling it like it is. Of course, then Rik had to say that he thought that our life seemed uninteresting through reading the blog. Hmmm...

In uninteresting - or depending on who you are, interesting news, I've been doing a few "pioneer woman" type things around here. (Don't ask why - Christmas is on it's way and I have a huge list, but am messing with this other kind of stuff). I finally had the mequite beans from our yard milled. The ones that I made the kids go out and pick up every morning last summer. I have made pancakes and chocolate chip cookies out of the flour. I'm planning on making muffins in the morning. The kids groan everytime I mention that they are enjoying what they helped harvest! :p I have about 11 lbs of flour right now. Very exciting! Esp when I paid about $1/lb to have it milled and it's about $14 /lb to buy it. I would show you a picture of the hammermill, but I took it with my phone and can't seem to get the pictures off of it. I think I need to ask the people at Verizon how. I've had the phone since the end of July - you'd think I'd have figured it out by now!

In other "pioneer" type activities - I subscribe to a daily cooking newsletter. The other day they sent a newsletter out on making your own household cleaners. They promised a better cleaning job, less impact on the enviroment, safer for your family, and saving money. What more could a girl ask for?! I was curious as to if the homemade laundry soap worked - the ingredients were pretty cheap - so - I tried. I didn't take a picture of this either - goopy light yellow stuff didn't make the most appealing photograph. But - the good news is that it was easy and I have now done one load of laundry with it and the clothes appear to be clean! I'll keep you posted as to how it goes on the rest of this huge bucket of stuff I have made! Of course, depending on if you are Rik or Caitlin will probably show if you will read the update to this! :p

Goodbye Little Ugly...

We'll miss you!

He left yesterday. Hopefully he likes his new home. Both kids were really sad. Philip didn't realize that we had sold him at first and was shocked that we actually would. Caitlin wanted to buy him, but her $100 wasn't enough. I can see why - we've never known life in the Brenton household without him. After all, he took Rik and I on our dates, to get married, and even brought Philip home from the hospital. Yup - there's lots of history in that truck! Hopefully the new truck will be as reliable as Little Ugly - how many things from 1989 are still running, much less running that well?!? I can't believe all the things we didn't have to do to him - he's still running with his original clutch in fact!

On the bright side - I wish we had about 20 more just like him to sell - I had no idea that it would be so easy to sell him. The calls kept coming! He was sold within an hour of putting him out on the road!

Rik got a new truck?!?

Unbelieveable you may say - I was caught off guard too. After all, he called me at 1:15 to tell me he'd seen a truck, and then called again at 2:30 to tell me he'd bought a truck! It is actually pretty nice - it's the *exact same thing he had* - just 12 years newer! It's still white - still a Nissan. I drove the kids around the block in it and asked what they liked best about it - they didn't mention that this had paint or that there was a CD player - they said that they liked the doors being able to lock best. The door locks on his other truck have been broken for quite sometime. You can lock them from the inside, but, don't expect to be able to shut the door and be able to use a key to get it open! :p

And - the more unbelieveable story for this... I left work 2 hours early on Friday so that we could go to MVD and register it - I was prepared for the worst - I still remember a certain Christmas time a few years ago that we sat there with 2 young kids for what seemed like hours waiting to register something and how I was quite sure I needed to be a much nicer person because that is certainly what hell must be like. Anyway - surprise - we were in and out in less than 15 minutes! We had time to go to lunch, the bank, and check out what Linens N Things has in their going out of business sale (not much good in the way of good sale yet - wait a while before going!!!).

We can't decide what to call him though - his other truck is called "Little Ugly" for obvious reasons like the lack of consistant paint. If you have a good nomination - let me know. Philip has suggested "Little Not So Ugly" and Caitlin has a bunch as well (Bobert was vetoed immediately!!).

Our "unique" costumes...

That I have *no* idea where we got them from.

This was Halloween morning - before school. I think they both had a fun time doing it. Philip carried that box with him the entire day at school. They both had boxes to carry for the evening to get candy in.

We had hardly any trick or treaters. Is this a dying art? Do kids mostly go to "safe Halloweens" anymore? I was sure we would have a lot since it was a Friday - I even bought extra candy! Too bad we had to spend a week sacrificing to eat it all! We also had bought a blue lightbulb for our porchlight (note to self, remove it now) and got some dry ice (note to self, don't buy 2 blocks next year - the 2nd we didn't use and "evaporated" in the freezer by Monday!) to make around our pumpkins look hazy. The effect was nice, but there wasn't a lot of kids to help us enjoy it.

It's November!

And you know what that means don't you???

Dark Chocolate Peppermint ice cream is back at Cold Stone! Only for November and December. It's because of the dark chocolate shortage that the world is having. Seriously - that's what the kid at the counter told me last year when I told him I'd been waiting all year for the flavor to come back. He told me this in all seriousness as well! :)

Don't worry - I've now had the 1st of many tastings of it for these two months! :)

It's over!

I woke up nervous just because of all the campaigning I have done for AZ's Prop 102. I have walked door to door putting flyers out, put out signs on the street, and been part of a phone bank. I am going to say that campaigning is not my favorite thing ever, but I did it. Caitlin walked a lot with me for the door to door stuff and really liked it. Maybe she has a future in politics? Anyway, I stayed up waaaaayyyy too late on Tues watching the returns (yes, we plugged in the TV just for that!!!) and as a result it's been a really long week.

As for the other elections, both kids had an opportunity to vote at school. I loved the way that the Caitlin learned about the candidates - just candidate one and candidate two and the issues. Then they were really listening to what each believed and not what their parents, etc were voting for. Caitlin was really disappointed to realize that she will only be 17 for the next presidential election and still not be able to vote in it!

You may or may not know my political beliefs, but I am going to take Obama at his word when he said in his acceptance speech the other night that for those of us who did not vote for him, he wants to earn our trust. Well, Obama, I am going to give you that opportunity. I may not agree with every stance he has, but I am willing to give him a chance and respect the position that he has earned. America had it's say and this is what was said. Isn't it great to live in such a wonderful place that we are able to voice our opinion and vote???!!!

Kitt Peak...

A couple of weeks ago we had our "fall break" - we'd never had this before - and decided to go to Kitt Peak for one of the days. Rik had been before, but the kids and I never had. It was really kind of cool - lots of telescopes to look at - cooler than in town - and the guy didn't charge us for the full tours. My favorite was the solar telescope - mostly because we could see it in action! There was even an astronomer there to explain a couple of things. I just find it so amazing that we can see distant galaxies on these things! I also find it amazing that the telescopes that are there that are not owned by a university can be used by application a few times a year. If your application is approved, and it's a cloudy/rainy night, oh well, try again next year. It didn't sound like many applications got approved since there were so many people applying to use these things! Tip - if you ever go - take only one guided tour - you basically hear it all there - and self guide yourself to the other 2 telescopes that are open to the public. Here we are with the solar telescope behind us!

This is Bailey...

He is visiting us until Tuesday when his loving owners return. I just need to hang our shingle out now and actually make this gig pay! :p I wonder if our dogs ever wonder at the seemingly long string of dogs that have been visiting us lately!

A new friend...

I know - it's pretty hard to keep up with the bicycle comings and goings around here. Trust me, I live here and sometimes I get confused! ;) Rik had been looking for something to replace his mt bike with. He coudn't get exactly what he wanted (no, we're not millionaires yet!), so, he found a great deal on craigslist. He got a bike that had barely been ridden by an older man who hurt himself and couldn't ride it. He brought it home and cleaned it up a bit and he has a winner! Of course, a few days later, there was one that he wanted even more posted on craigslist, but, unfortunately, that was way out of his price range. :( Here it is after it's 1st bath...

Square Foot Gardening...

It's been a long time for this project - believe it or not Rik started building the frame for this back in May! He did a really nice job - it should last a long time! But, then we decided that we were going on vacation, then it was too hot, and a whole list of other reasons why we didn't plant it sooner. Now, I have a few things in there and believe it or not, they are now actually getting new leaves, etc. This photo was taken about 1.5 weeks ago when I actually planted it - it's looking much better now! If you're interested, the square foot gardening website (right here) has lots of helpful hints about this - and - even better - the book is great as well. Wish me luck for getting lots of food this winter! I'm looking forward to some fresh lettuce and broccoli!

Edited to add.... I have planted lettuce (romaine), red cabbage, broccoli, artichokes, and there are a couple of tomatoes - (I know they are going to die any day because it's cooling off!). I am planning on planting spinach in their squares and soon as I can because there is nothing like fresh spinach! Other winter options are peas, carrots, potatoes, and other veggies that need cooler weather to grow. After last winter, I am convinced you haven't lived until you have grown your own broccoli! And, it never froze even though I didn't ever cover it!

Also, for my out of state readers, it's still in the 90's here, I have no worries about anything freezing at the moment. In the very few nights a year here that it does, I just go cover my plants and they are fine. We grow year round here!

Finally, a candidate I can support!

I need to find out where I can get a bumper sticker now!
The best candidate for the job!

In all fairness I have awful pictures too...

This one in fact from this past weekend when Rik and I hiked Mt Wrightson (the tallest peak around here!!!). It was beautiful. There are all these cute little Keebler Cookie looking cottages at the bottom where it would be fun to have a weekend away! We planned to get done early - because we started early - but I'm guessing since it was so steep (very very steep in some places!), we got home about 3 hrs later than planned. Oh well. At the top it was *windy* and *cold*. So, that is why my hair looks the way it does. And I look really geeky holding my granola bar. It makes Rik's pictures below look really nice in comparison! Very neat was the fact you could see out all around in all directions. We really were standing on a point at the top of the world (or at least our world around here!!!_

I had a request to post a couple of pictures...

So, since it was my bishop and all that made the request, I guess I'd better! :) (Sorry Brett, I gotta blame someone!!!)

Here is Rik about 1979 - isn't he the cutest kid? We still have the pinewood derby car!




Then, fast f0rward to about 1987-1990ish...






(I couldn't decide which was the best to show you, so here are quite a few!)

I should be doing about a million other things than scanning old photos - but it's kind of fun to see where Rik's been and what he is today! :)

(Actually - I'm just wondering how many people read this blog - I figure with pictures like this - everyone will be out commenting!!!! :))

New Sunglasses and Dog Toothpaste...

I just had to take a picture of this...

Caitlin had saved her $$ and bought herself a pair of sunglasses - a big deal since they are prescription and all - and the lime green - doesn't that just scream Caitlin???? But, we had Elsie at the vet that week and they mentioned that we should be brushing their teeth once a week. It seemed meant to be after we were at Petco and they had dog toothbrushes on sale for $1.50 (regular $8 - I don't think so!!!). So, Caitlin self elected herself to be our dog tooth brushers - and had to do it in her new sunglasses. The dogs didn't mind too much, the toothpaste says it tastes like peanuts. And, no, I didn't try it to make sure!

Book Project!

After several years of helping kids through book projects, I tend to believe that they are really just a harsh punishment for parents. Too bad they don't warn you about them back in child birth class, but I suppose it's too late for that by that point anyway!


Philip had his first book project of the year coming up. We knew about it, but you never really seem to remember about it until the Monday before the Thursday it is due. He had a list of things he could do to present his book - everything from posters to newspaper articles to Powerpoint slide shows. Being the kind of kid he is, he thought he could get off easily by picking a sculpture of a main character in a book. We went to Michaels and got some actual modeling clay like real sculptors use. He spent quite a bit of time trying to make *something* out of it, only ending up with quite a bit of wet newspaper. Hours of time actually. I was surprised that the clay hadn't dried out. He decided that sculpting wasn't as easy as he thought - but - it was too late to turn back - being the mean mom I am, I had already donated $5 to this project and, darn it, you're going to finish it!!! After he finally buckled down and decided to do it (read it was dinner time and he was hungry and mom said no dinner until you have *something* done), his sculpture came out quite nice. Here is Count Olaf from a Series of Unfortunate Events. He even managed to get an A+ on it!

The sad thing about this whole project? The clay we bought said if you weren't going to fire it, it was good for medium use projects. Well, by the time Philip brought it home the very next day from school, it was really just a pile of Olaf parts. Medium use my foot!

Yes On Prop. 102!

If you're in Arizona, make sure you're registered to vote (we all know how I feel about the presidental race, but this is much more important! :)). The deadline is coming up - Oct 6. Then, hopefully you'll join with us and vote Yes on 102 in the Nov election. You can go to http://yesformarriage.com/ to get more information. If you click on churches and then click on LDS, you can see what I believe.

I've never worked on getting anything voted on before (yes or no!), and it's very interesting how it works! I'm sure you'll hear more from me in the future as I'll be sure to have more to post about the inner workings of campaigning!

How *do* we survive? ;)

I was reading one of my favorite blogs today and came across this post....

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2008/09/guest-post-cutt.html

Hey! We're not as weird as I thought we were! As of right now - there are 150 other people over there who have posted how they don't do TV either.

Now, don't get me wrong. We've had our days of TV. There was a time when I worked my life around CSI, Law and Order, and all the different varieties of all of them. We saw the first couple of seasons of Survivor, Big Brother, and have caught a couple of American Idol episodes. There were lots of sitcoms I was there for as well. I hated the days when we would have to miss one of them. And, then somehow all of that changed. I don't know if we just became busier, or the shows seemed to have the same story just rehashed differently, but, slowly, somehow, we've just gotten out of the TV habit. Now if you come to our house on an evening that there is "nothing going on", you will find our family all there in the family room, each of us with a book or magazine. I often think how "unfair" it is when they have Turn Off the TV week at school. It's not something we have to try at. ;) We still have a Netflix account to see the occasional movie, but it's not something we plan our lives around anymore.

I read a newspaper editorial once in which the author wrote that he wished more people would turn off the TV. Watching TV, he thought, showed that you thought that someone else's life is more interesting than yours. You are not out going and doing. You only have one life to live and why spend it watching someone else?

So, when people at work, church, or where ever start talking about the latest episode of Dancing with the Stars, I just have to sit back and listen quietly. I don't have a lot to add to the conversation. It doesn't bother me a bit. I wouldn't trade all the extra stuff I get done around here in the evenings for TV shows that are a one hit wonder. Since school has started, I've made 2 skirts, 1 top, 1 pair of pants, read several books, made some cards, plus all the regular laundry/dishes/running kids around that normally goes on in the evenings. I think our lives are more peaceful now as well. There is still the usual noise that is around, but not the constant background noise to contend with.

I don't know why we didn't do this years ago!

Why didn't *I* think of this????

I'm sitting here recovering from being sick this week (finally food is sounding good again!) and am able to catch up on a lot of magazine reading. I came across this...Isn't this the coolest thing? I'm going to try it on my own I think. Their prices are a little steep - but what a GREAT idea! Probably the hardest part is finding a frame/mat for the whole thing.

I really love these skirts...

They send me a catalog on a regular basis and I drool. And drool. It's not fair. Why can't I have them? Not just one, but ALL of them? I'm just a sucker for a cute skirt I suppose!





Of course, I can't post them all... go to www.downeastbasics.com if you want to see them all. I don't actually own any, I've talked myself out of them a dozen times - after all - it's not like I don't have a skirt to wear - in fact, I have several skirts to wear! I probably have too many in fact - just ask Rik. The poor guy puts up with my side of the closet slowly encroaching upon his! The kids better hurry up, grow up, and move out so that I can have the closet space! ;)

Are you a Philip Phan?

We loved this commercial during the Olympics - so - when Philip came home with the news that he is running for Student Council secretary - it seemed the perfect campaign slogan to adopt - "Philip Phan"! He has spent this weekend making stickers that say "Philip Phan". It is labor intensive because all campaign items must be handmade. Elections are on Thursday - I hope all the Philip Phans come out and vote!

Labor Day run...

Again...

This year I did it with a friend from work. I wasn't planning on doing it as I wasn't really working hard to do it. I was *planning* on it, but all of my fun adventures this summer seriously sidetracked any thoughts of really training for it. I wasn't even planning on doing it until the week before when Andrea decided she was going to. I was about 1 min slower than last year - but on the serious upside - I am not very sore today - a tiny bit - like you can tell that I did something yesterday - but not like last year when it *hurt to walk* for two days afterwards! So, even though I wasn't totally ready for this, I must be doing a little better since I'm not popping Advil like candy and wondering if it's worth it to get up to go to the bathroom!

Why does this race hurt like no other? Let's see... you spend the first 4 miles going down a hill (pictured here), then one very long mile going back up, so long that you just know you've missed the 5th mile marker, and then the last 3 miles are rolling hills. It is beautiful. Totally worth the views you get as the sun is rising over the mountains!

Points to whoever can see me - I can't! I'm wearing a white shirt and black shorts! Andrea is wearing a green tank top and black shorts! ;P Silly newpaper people not taking pictures of just me!

Happy Birthday Rik!

Here are a couple of pictures just for fun from this weekend. The first is him rappeling - which was right before his rock climb back up - his love in life right now! The second was at our church campout we had and he was helping cook breakfast. I love how he is willing to help out with anything!

I've been saving this quote forever so I could post it in honor of his birthday...

"Behind ever fortunate woman is someone who believes in her - someone sitting in the bleachers quietly applauding every success, shouldering each disappointment, waiting in the twilight or the drizzle after everyone else is gone, loving her. If she is really lucky, that person is her husband."

-Annie Griffiths Belt

I am really lucky - AND blessed! Happy Birthday Rik - I hope you have a wonderful day!

The first day of school has come and gone...

And I'm behind as usual! Caitlin is in 8th grade this year. So far, so good! She's in Geometry which totally blows me away! It never used to be a 8th grade class! Philip is in 6th grade. He is doing well too. He got nominated for "Dragon of Character" at school today! WooHoo! He gets a pizza lunch with the principal! He looks really sad in this photo - he was in a grumpy mood here - luckily his attitude changed by the time we got to school. That is what he is really working on this year - having a good attitude in everything.

PS - This is my 100th blog post - get out the confetti! :)

Totally worth it!

This is longer, but totally worth it! Thanks Hilary for letting me steal! Also, it's convinced me that like eBay is with finding stuff you think you need, you can watch anything on YouTube!

Mmmm... pizza...

Our newest love. Papa Murphy's pizza. You call it in, pick it up, and bake it at home. It's delicious! We have had the stuffed crust kind (they promise 5 lbs of cheese on this one!) and the Cowboy pizza. YUM! We could probably order smaller pizzas, but the family size ones huge and give us LOTS of leftovers. Like Sat night we got some, and I didn't have to make breakfast or lunch on Sunday! ;)

How I'm saving money this year...

I recently read a post on my favorite daily blog (http://www.moneysavingmom.com/), giving us a challenge as to what things we were doing in our lives to save $100 over the course of a year. I've been thinking... and I'd love to hear yours - they can be big or little - I'd just love to hear if you are - and what you are doing. So many articles tell you to skip the Starbucks and the pedicures, but I have yet to start either of those!

Anyway, I thought I'd share my most recent find of how I'm at least saving us $40 this year. I am a complete believer in AntiVirus protection. Rewind back about 6 or 7 years ago and I didn't think it really mattered if you had virus protection. Enter husband who opened an email with an attachment called "Kiss Me." Why? Don't know. But, suddenly, our computer was infected with an awful bug - that took me two days and lots of headaches to get rid of. And, then, about 5 years ago when we got a new computer and it came preinstalled with McAfee software - which I thought we would use for the 6 months of freebies. Unfortunately, in the first 30 days, it let something through which led to the eventual reformatting of my hard drive (thanks to the very nice man at Dell who was willing to spend 2 hours on the phone with me. Did I mention the Indian man from McAfee who after none of his solutions worked, told me that he would pray for my computer! :p) We'll just let it be known that McAfee isn't my first choice in virus protection!

So, I have been really good in keeping up my virus protection with the competitor, Norton. My only complaint has been that it makes my old computer run veerrrrryyyyyy ssssssslllllooooowww. Well, my lovely program keeps telling me lately that I have less than a month left of my subscription and I'd better renew for approx $40. I really hate that, because even though it's something I know I need, I still don't like spending the money because, I think it's a lot for what you get. Anyway, I found out today that you can get FREE virus protection programs - that PC World mag and CNet reviewers say work every bit as well as the paid for well known names! Woo Who! Guess what I did tonight? I uninstalled Norton, and have installed Avast - a freebie - that runs much faster than Norton ever dreamed of running! I also hear good things about AVG, but didn't try them because a couple of people said that lately it's getting to be a bigger bogged down program as well. It's all installed and running pretty now - so I'll let you know how it goes - but so far, it's worked just like all the reviews claimed it would! :)

Time for Some Campaignin'

Isn't this how we all feel about this time of year? ;) I'm tuning it all out! :p

Special Blog offer...

I've been taking an online photography class - it's over now - but I would like to continue practicing what I have learned. My kids only have so much patience for me, so.... I am throwing out an offer. I'll come take your picture, your kid's picture, your grandkid's picture, or even your pet rock! ;) I'll even give you a CD of the pictures I take. I'm wanting to build my portfolio and hoping you'll help! But, this offer is limited to a 20 mile radius around me - I'd love to come visit you in West Virginia or where ever, but with gas and all... ;) You are more than welcome to come here and I'll still photograph you! Email me and we'll talk!

Breaking Dawn party!

Friday night/Sat morning at midnight - the final book in the Twilight series was released. Barnes and Noble had a book release party that started at 10pm. I hadn't planned on going, but I went to work for a couple of hours and everyone else was going... and I had Caitlin with me who wanted go as well... so it was planned - we were going. Caitlin had a friend who ended up going with her mom as well. It was fun - lots of cute t-shirts were there - a trivia contest - face painting - lots of excitement in general! You had to choose whether or not you were a Edward fan (of course!!!) or a Jacob fan (blech!) and got a bite mark painted on your neck or a paw print on your face. Our group only had one paw print.... and it wasn't me! Since I hadn't preordered the book (I didn't think I needed to - I didn't know I was going to the party!), it was almost 1am before we got our copy and 1:07am when I pulled into our driveway. Caitlin stayed up at read until 2:30. Me? I was so tired that I put my nightgown on backwards and didn't notice until the next morning! Caitlin is now done with the book.

(Can you see the bite marks on our necks here???)

So weird that I like these books - I don't do vampire stories and I hate love stories and this is both!

Family Fun Night

Last Monday night we hiked about a mile down a trail near our house. There is an old rock house along the trail that we stopped and ate dinner at. I had made all these backpacking meals for our trip to Bryce, and since we had to come home early from that, we need to use these meals up somehow (if you are looking to make your own backpacking meals, I highly recommend http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/). The boys thought it would be fun to climb the rocks that this house is made out of, but it turns out that the rocks are all kind of shifty. It's a pretty old house. Caitlin on the other hand, was a bit more into relaxing while we we there.

And, thanks to all who voted in my poll. If you didn't know, I like Rik shaved best, but even though my poll was running 100% in my favor, he thinks I bought all the votes or the person voting felt obligated to write what they did. Whatever. I know my side won!

How I ate my way through San Francisco...

I spent this weekend in San Francisco with a bunch of wonderful women who used to live here, but sadly, now don't. Take that back, 2 still do, the other 4 do not. Anyway, we met there Thurs afternoon and had a great weekend of sightseeing and fun! We went to Golden Gate Park, Ghiradeli square, Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, rode bikes across the Golden Gate Bridge to Saucilito, and managed to do all of this either walking or on public transportation. We spent quite a bit of time eating as well - and from my list - I wonder how we had time to do anything else!

Here are some of the wonderful things I had to eat this weekend...

*Pumpkin ravioli (I am now a new convert!)

* Gelato (this gives Frost a serious run for it's money!)

* Sesame Chicken (I am wishing I knew how to make the sweet potatoes they were served with!)

* Mahi Mahi (and the sauce it was in was *heavenly*!!!!)

* ice cream sundaes from Ghiradeli square (2x!)

* sourdough breadbowl with clam chowder

* french toast (I wish I could make it this good!)

* a $3 cupcake (OK, so it was CUTE and YUMMY even if it was $3. I never make choc raspberry cupcakes!)

From this list, it looks like I need to go clothes shopping for the next size up (or maybe 2 sizes???).

Now I should start a new list with the strange characters we ran in to... public transportation brings them all out!

PS - If you love me at all, you will vote in my poll down below! ;)

Poll....

Without going into a lot of details, post as to which picture of Rik you like the best. The one with facial hair, or the one without. I'll explain later.

Caitlin and I are back!

From Girl's Camp! Yes, I didn't know I was going either until about a week before it happened! The lady that was supposed to go suddenly couldn't, so I was asked to step in. I hadn't been to camp in about 19 yrs or so, and while a lot is the same, a lot has changed as well. I was in charge of 9 girls for the week - and there were about 100 people at this camp. It was a great experience for the girls - and me. The activities the girls did were fun - the speakers and classes were really interesting and spiritual, and, most importantly, I didn't have to cook for a few days!

Philip and Rik did just fine at home without me. Rik managed to do laundry, make his own lunch, and even filled some prescriptions! He did a great job!

This is the picture of Caitlin waiting for everyone's ride to show up so that we could leave camp. It's really the picture of how I felt after getting home!

I'm almost embarrassed to post this...

But it's Philip's birthday cake - probably the most, um, unique thing I have ever made. He wanted a rock climbing cake - mostly because he wanted the little bendy rock climbing guys I put on it. I have never spent $10 on a cake topper until now! I hope you can tell - but it is a mountain the bendy guys are climbing. The cake is dusted with chocolate pudding because that's all I could find in my kitchen w/o running to the store to find something else to make it look more like dirt!

Happy Birthday Philip!

He's 11 - today in fact! It's some sort of record that I'm getting pictures up the day it happened!

This morning we went geocaching while Caitlin was at ballet camp. We found 5 different caches - and a couple of them were clever - like the one hidden in a irrigation tube...

And then we went and got his birthday Cold Stone afterwards.. (he chose Birthday Cake Remix!)

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We arrived home in time to meet dad... bringing home his birthday present! I think this has been a pretty good day for him!

There must be a new rule here..

We dog-sat again last week - another dog named Mollie - totally different breed though! So, we must only be capable of sitting dogs named Molly/Mollie and no one told me about it! She was funny - she always had to have something in her mouth - I was busy making sure it wasn't something I cared about!

The end of an era...

(As short as it may have been). Bye to Rik's road bike - it's gone - sold - the man came and got it this past weekend. It sold with lightning speed! Here's the final washing of it before it got put up for sale.

Saguaro festival

Last Sat I went with my friend Ann to a festival/workshop where we learned how to harvest saguaro fruits. First we made the sticks that you use to harvest the fruit out of saguaro ribs and greasewood. We lashed them together with bailing wire. Mine was great, except when we were out picking, the top broke off. When we came back, we boiled the fruit down into syrup. It takes a loooooonnnnnnng time since you have to first boil the fruit, then strain the seeds/pulp out, and then boil it again until it is thick. It took even longer than it probably should have since the process was being done on camp stoves. This was all taught the traditional Native American way. They sang a song before we were able to go and harvest the fruit.

So, Ann and I went out this week and tried to harvest the fruit ourselves. We used pool cleaning poles with bolts stuck in the ends - much easier since they telescoped out and there were no issues with them breaking. (So much for the Native American way!) It took us two hours to harvest a 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket of fruit. This is a very long time compared to the 30 min it takes use to get the 2 5 gal buckets of prickley pear fruit! Not as easy as it looks! Some of that fruit is really stuck up there! When it does come down, we were trying to catch it with the bucket. It was an adventure to say the least!

Happy Birthday Caitlin!

(Better late than never!) Happy 13th to you! It kind of got jumbled up in the chaos before we left on all of our trips, but, she had plenty of fun and got just what she wanted (a green iPod!). She insisted that orange be on her cake - so there it is. It kind of reminded me of a Shrek cake because it was strawberry inside - and with all that green frosting, well, it looked, um, colorful! At least it was tasty. :)

(Do you see how straight her teeth are? The braces are off! Now she just has a retainer to wear all day everyday for the next 3 months, and then just at night. Orthodontics have sure changed since I had braces - this retainer looks nothing like the one I had!)