Best Laid Plans

I woke up this morning thinking I needed to clean the kitchen. I got distracted when I went to the garage to get the broom and decided I needed to clean the garage instead. Then when I looked and saw that the fertilizer bag was almost empty I thought, "hmm, Home Depot has plants on sale". So, off I went to get plants to cover my new rock wall. I was disappointed in the plant selection so I decided I'd stain the deck. I figured it would only take a about an hour and I had two before I had to pick Zach up from the Fire Academy. I ran home, threw the stain in the sprayer and.... it exploded. So after an hour or so of cleaning stain off the cement, my hair, my clothes, my daughter...and a few choice words (thankfully the workers behind me seemed to understand) I realized there was no way I'd finish in time to get Zach across town. A call to his friend and the ride problem was solved but after six hours of staining I'm still not done, the garage is a mess, the kitchen looks like I left Jacob on his own for six hours and my freckles are now a lovely shade of Behr Stain Brown. I think I have some adult onset ADD. Perhaps tomorrow I'll tackle the kitchen.

Double Whammie for Kaitlyn

Wow, today by little girl is off to school...her last year in elementary school...yep...she's a SIXTH GRADER!!!! As if that isn't reason enough to have a panic attack she is also turning 11 on Friday. It seems like just yesterday she was off to kindergarten saying things such as , "should she really being teaching kindergarten, how smart is she anyway". She was pitting boy against boy in physical fights on the playground to see just who got to be engaged to her. She was eating scrambled eggs and syrup made daily by my BFF Ann (that makes me sound young and hip, not like I'm trying too hard to be cool..right?)

It's hard to express how grateful I am for this little spitfire of a young lady. She had a rough start in life and has battled her share of health issues but she doesn't let it stop her. From threatening the nurses at the children's hospital with their life if they poked her one more time, to demanding they get some new toys to entertain her since she's been in the hospital for too long, she is full of spunk. I think I've had more sleepless nights caring for this sweet child than I have all the others put together and yet I wouldn't trade any of it. I love her determination, her ingenuity, her ability to tear up on command to get what she wants from daddy (ok, maybe I'm just jealous of that one), and her generosity. So today I will stand on the corner and watch her embark on another adventure(in sixth grade your mommy doesn't walk you in anymore) and remember my sweet little girl whose spirit is captured in these photos.

Herriman is Under Water

Wow, what a wild weather day. We had record rain fall today. I believe they said that in 15 minutes we had more water than we usually get in the entire month of August. It was spectacular to say the least. I am not sure I've ever seen that much water come down at one time. We were in Smiths when it started and 10 minutes later when we got home there was water up to the bottom step of our deck out back. Poor Waffles was outside and for a dog that is terrified of water it was a nightmare. The new home being built behind us just had the landscaping finished and that beautiful rock wall that I was so excited about turned into a waterfall. Just like the CERT trained girl I am I stood in the kitchen yelling "do something" to Zach. Thank goodness he was home! He came up with a brilliant way to keep all the water from coming into the house. Who new keeping bags of compost and giant inflatable toys would come in handy. They were able to keep water from getting into the house (which is more than I can say for a neighbor whose basement is covered in 8 feet of water). My favorite part of the rescue effort at home was my sweet children trying to protect my budding tomatillo plants. Zach built a dam all the way around them and funneled the water to the front of the house and even covered them to protect them from the hail. The pictures that follow are horrible quality but we were under water people...I had bigger issues!!!!

Make Shift Barrier (Waffles Still Looks Concerned but she follows me anywhere)



This is supposed to be my cement patio...it's there somewhere.






Looking at the pictures it seems so silly but I PROMISE It was a big storm!

$10 happiness

There aren't many direct marketing companies that I haven't tried at least once. I'm kind of a sucker for those things. I'm not sure what the attraction is, I don't like selling things and truly just end up doing it for the discount but as soon as the first phase of excitement leaves and I realize I don't want to purchase items over and over and really don't want to have a party of any kind I let it go. Cookie Lee was no different. I really felt like I got my money worth on it though. It was all stuff that I would want or that my girls would. The problem is that my jewelry boxes (and the girls) are overflowing and I NEVER take the time to look through them. In fact, I still had a box full under my bed waiting for me to come up with a solution. (It's been there for two years). So yesterday after seeing Bailey's jewelry all over her dresser I decided it was time for a solution. I didn't have her with me so I HAD to experiment on one for myself (I'd hate to have bought the wrong color fabric :). So.... ta...da.....I learned a few things (like the fact that my friend and neighbor Trish is a great resource when I'm stumped). I also learned that cats REALLY like to destroy cork boards so don't turn your head for a minute or Kaitlyn's kitty will have that thing shredded within seconds. GC is really good at saving the aforementioned cat from becoming an outside cat by helping me fix the problem. Finally, I need to come up with a better trim but at this point it's already hung up and I'm just going to go with it. I will change it out when I do one for Bailey.

More of My Mommy!

When I was a teenager I was way to cool to refer to my mom as "mommy" but now that I'm a mom with teenagers of myself (who would rather die than call me mommy) I ache to hear that sweet expression of love from my children. I keep finding myself going through these new photos of my mom and am remembering so many little things about her. She was SHORT! It was always funny because my brother is 6'4 and I'm 5'8 (minus an inch now for disk issues but I'm still going to claim that extra inch) and she was only 5 foot and 1/4 inch. You could never forget to say that 1/4 inch. It was a form of validation for her. In church or at meetings I'd often look over to see her feet resting on my dad's briefcase because her feet would go numb hanging over the bench. She had her favorite chairs just for that reason. In fact, my favorite chair in the house is the one that she saved and scrimped to buy just so she could have a spot that "fit" her.

Old Family Photos

Growing up I was very close to my mom's mom. We called her Honey and my grandpa was Papa. I have learned things over the last 15 years or so that make me appreciate my mom so much more for her allowing me to have a relationship with Honey despite the fact that there were some family issues that lurked in the back. My mom knew that I loved Honey and that our relationship was great. I always thought she was the most beautiful woman and she was so much fun to be with. She collected dolls of all kinds and her house was a museum of all sorts of collectibles. She was addicted to QVC and her house, a beautiful home in the historical district of Boise was always bursting at the seems with her newest possesions. Food was not allowed out of the kitchen but for me there was always an exception. She and I would spend hours watching movies, eating junk food and shopping. She didn't drive so our shopping was always with Papa who would sit in the car and patiently wait while we did whatever damage was to be done. He and Honey didn't share a bedroom. I never understood their relationship but it seemed to work for them. Perhaps one of them snored... I know I've considered that option a time or two when I'm laying next to the buzz saw I'm married to.

This is my mommy. I talk about her all the time. I recently received a gold mine of photos from her youth and this is one of my favorites. I love the dress, I love how proper she's sitting, and I love the chair. It was one of the only ones that she could sit in and have her feet touch the ground.