Improved Slip 'n' Slide - April 21, 2015

Tuesday - April 21st

It was really hot again today.  We were really sweating by the time we got home, so we decided to set up the slip n slide again today.  Parker helped me tape the plastic sheeting together before we left to get the kids from school.  When we got home, I went to the storage unit to get the tent so we could use it's stakes to hold our slip n slide down.  I blew up an air mattress to make the first part of the slide more comfortable, different, and fun.  We were excited to try it out.
On Alissa's first try, she landed hard on her hip bone, as she came off the mattress.  It hurt her really bad, so she went inside.  She has a big bruise now.  After it happened, she said she wasn't going to even try it again.  It was too painful.
The other kids had a lot of fun.  They played for a really long time.  Alissa's friend, Malaiyah, kept asking if Alissa was going to come back out and play.  She was bummed that Alissa wasn't out sliding with us.  We all were.  It felt weird to be out here playing without her.  It's always weird for me when one of my little ones aren't out having fun with us.

When we finished slip n sliding, the kids all changed back into their regular clothes and were trying to figure out something fun to play.  Malaiyah discovered a Ghost app on her tablet.  It is supposed to be able to see ghost and show you were they are in your house.  The kids were all freaked out as they walked around and their ghost app showed ghosts in different areas of the house and outside.  They had fun with it.

Brinley had Activity days.  Her friend Layla came over and they went to their meeting.  This was their first time with this new activity days leader.  She lives right across the street from us, so that made it nice and really easy to get the kids there.  Brinley had a lot of fun.  she really likes the new leader.

After dinner, we all went outside to get some fresh air and throw the football around for a little while.  Actually, I didn't go out to throw the football.  I had no intention of doing that.  I went out to take pictures.  I love to take pictures, so we can always remember the fun happy times we have.

 Brinley's friend, Kylie, came out after she finished her dinner.  She was like, "Why do you have a camera?"  I explained to her my hobby of taking pictures and documenting everything, then she said, "Take pictures of me and Brinley."  So, that's what I did.  Alissa snuck up behind them to give bunny ears for a few of the shots.  Then, Kylie's Brother, Porter came out.  He had the same funny idea Alissa had.  He snuck up behind them to give bunny ears also.  I think it's funny how big the smiles were on Alissa and Porter's faces as they gave the bunny ears.  They both thought they were so funny.

We started reading 'The Work and The Glory' as a family, every chance we get.  Tonight, we really wanted to read.  I had the kids get all ready for bed a little early, so we could read for a bit before they headed up to their beds.  We got all settled and comfy int he living room and Roger was just about to start reading to us, when he got a text message from the search and rescue, saying there was a stranded motorist in the west desert.  Roger had to leave as quickly as he could.  He apologized, then we jumped up and helped him gather his things so he could be out the door as quickly as possible.  It was kind of a crazy way to end the day.

Now, the kids are all in bed, Roger is out with the search and rescue looking for the stranded motorist, and I'm here, worrying about him and scrapbooking.  I'll head to bed soon.

Slip 'n' Sliding - April 20, 2015

Monday - April 20th

On the walk home from school, we got way too hot.  The kids wanted me to set up the swimming pool.  I told them it has to be 75 degrees out before I do that, but I did agree to set up a slip n slide using some plastic sheeting.

We had fun, except it didn't stay together very well and the ground was aerated about a month ago, making little poop looking things that we like to call poopalapums  (the name we came up with last year, when I showed the kids how to go outside, be creative, and make a game out of nothing).  The poopalapums hurt when you try to slide over them. It feels like rocks.  Malaiyah, Alissa, and Simon climbed under the slip n slide and moved as many as they could, so it wouldn't hurt anymore.  Every once in a while they felt one, but it wasn't that bad.  We all had fun.

Sister's Fling - April 19, 2015

Sunday - April 15th

I went on a Sister's Fling this weekend with my sister-in-laws, Mother-in-law, and nieces on Roger's side of the family.  I planned it this year.  I'm so happy that it went well and I don't have to worry about it anymore.  We loved the house that I found for us to stay in.  It provided a nice place for us to relax and enjoy each other's company.

On Thursday night, as I was getting things ready to go, I decided to take a short break at the computer, before finishing up and going to bed.  I had a large glass of water sitting at the computer desk right in front of me.  As I was reaching for it to get a drink, my phone rang.  I decided to grab the phone instead of the cup and in the process, I knocked the cup of water onto my phone.  I quickly pulled my phone out of the water and shook it off.  It was still ringing and it was Roger calling, so I decided to answer it.  Roger had a hard time hearing me as I explained that I had just spilled water all over it.  He told me to take it apart and dry it off, then he would call me back.  He called back about 10 minutes later.  He could hear me better that time.  I hoped that my phone was going to be just fine.  As I climbed into bed, I decided to turn my phone off for about 5 minutes then turn it back on.  When I hit the power button, it said that it was downloading something and do not turn off your device until download is complete.  It kept going and going and going.  I wanted to take out the battery and just shut it all down, but I was afraid.  I wasn't sure if I would be ruining it or not.  I couldn't call and ask anybody for advice, since I have no other phone.  I was so frustrated.  I needed my phone because I use it as my alarm clock in the morning.  I ended up steeling Alissa's alarm clock from her room and setting that for me.  I plugged in my phone and left it

downloading as I fell asleep.

Alissa'a alarm doesn't work.  I didn't know that until Friday morning when I slept in because the alarm didn't go off.  I woke up to the sound of Roger coming home.  The kids weren't thrilled about having to wake up quickly and rush to get ready for school on time.  I felt really bad about that.  I didn't like sending the kids to school when I could tell that weren't happy.  It was especially a bummer since I knew that I wouldn't be home when they got home from school.  I don't like saying good-bye on such a sad note.

Anyway, I got the girls off to school then Parker, Roger, Brian, and Delany drove me to the Frontrunner.  I knew it was going to be really frustrating trying to find Missy VanBibber after I got off the train, since I didn't have anyway to call her and I had never gotten off on that stop before.  On the drive to the Frontrunner, Roger called Missy.  I overheard her telling him to tell me to walk to the road.  When I got off at my stop, I was extremely frustrated because there were multiple roads that I could have walked to.  I had no idea what road she meant.  My stuff was heavy and I walked around looking for a long time.  eventually, I found someone who let me us their phone and I called Roger.  I was angry and told him to tell Missy that I was going to sit with my heavy bags in the parking lot and I wasn't going to budge from that spot until she came and found me.  I was really frustrated at that point.  So, I went and sat down to wait.  Roger called Missy.  She was running late and didn't know how to get to the parking lot.  Eventually they found it.  As they drove up, Melissa stuck her head out the window, waving her hands, and yelling, "Over here Jenny!  We're here!"  It was kind of funny.  I got in the car, called Roger on Missy's phone, then vented to Missy, Becca, and Melissa for a little bit.  I let out one frustrated scream, then told them I was better, so we could go play.

We went to Gateway to walk around and see the sites.  We went to a few stores.  I didn't have my phone or camera, so I don't have any pictures to show for it.  Missy and Becca said they would send me the pictures they took.  I will add those when I get them.  We went to the blue Lemon Restaurant to eat.  The Blue Lemon is a clean eating restaurant.  I was turned off by pretty much everything on the menu.  Luckily they let me eat off of the kids menu.  I had a yummy grilled cheese sandwich for $5.00 instead of spending $10.00 - $15.00 on a yucky looking burger or salad (the only 2 things on the menu that I considered eating).

Went to another store after that, then headed to Midway to the house.  We stopped by the cheese factory before we called the guy to let us in the house.  I got some really yummy ice cream.  I love ice cream.

We thought the house was fun.  While we were waiting for the others to arrive, we sat around and talked.  We joked about how it was Missy and Becca's job to protect me (because I told the guy who rented to use that there were just us four girls all alone) and it was Missy and Becca's job to take care of us.  Melissa explained to them that we should not have to do any dishes, make beds, etc.  It was funny.  Then we tried out the pool table and hot tub.
This was a really fun house to stay in.

  Caroline, Rachel, and Cindi came.  Caroline had brought soup for our dinner that night, but it ended up spilling all over in the trunk of her car.  She felt bad and was really frustrated to not have as much soup to serve us.  Some of the soup survived, but not enough.  We ended up going to the local Ridleys where Caroline was able to buy some more soup for us.  Joyce came shortly after we got back from the store.  We ate the yummy soup, then sat around playing games and laughing.  We played 'The Game of Things'.  It was a really funny game.  One of the things was, "Things you can't believe somebody would do."  I was going to write, "Drop a cat down the out house toilet.", but I thought it through and decided that, maybe I shouldn't make fun of Roger's mom.  So, I wrote something else.  But the funniest thing happened.  As they started reading through the comments, we were surprised to hear that 3 people had had the same idea as me.  3 people wrote about throwing a cat down the out house.  We all had a good laugh at how many of us thought of that.  I explained how I had started to write it, then scribbled it out and wrote something else.  We had a fun night.  After the games, some of us went downstairs to play pool and watch a movie.  That was fun.

Jeanne came really late (after midnight).  She had to stay late at work.  It was nice to know she had made it.  We were all really tired by that point, so we
all went to bed.  

Saturday, we went sight seeing.  Joyce showed us around Midway, then we went shopping and went out to eat.  After that, we went back to the house to relax.  We had a lot of fun relaxing in the hot tub, playing pool, watching movies, playing games, and just talking.
Roger sent me some pictures of the fun he and the kids were having.  They went to Willow Park Zoo in Logan.  After looking at the animals, they played on the playground for a little while.  The kids all said they loved it.  They want to go again with me.  I texted a message to Roger reminding him that Parker had been to that zoo before when he was in first grade.  That was where they had gone on their class field trip.  roger said, that Parker's response to that was something about that must be when I learned to speak monkey.  When they got to the monkeys, Roger told Parker to communicate with them.  He tried.  Roger said they all had fun and a good laugh over the monkey talk.

 Sunday morning, Cindi, Caroline and Rachel left early.  Missy, Joyce and Jeanne went to church.  Roger and the kids came to get me.  Tyler rode his motorcycle to pick up Melissa.

Parker and Brin soaked in the hot tub for a little bit.  Then we took turns playing pool and Foosball.

We ate lunch when they returned from church.  Then we cleaned up and played some pool, then left.

Roger brought our good camera with him, so I could finally take some pictures.  I took pictures of Parker and Brin in the hot tub, then a few pictures of the house.

 On the way home we went on a short hike.  Brinley said she was tired and didn't want to go, so I told her I would give her a piggy back ride.  She agreed.  It was not easy hiking with her on my back.  We got further and further behind everybody.  When we were getting way too far behind, Brinley said that she would walk so we could catch up.  We weren't prepared to do a big hike, so we weren't out for long.  After our hike, we headed home.  We were all tired and pretty much went straight to bed.

Icy Grass - April 15, 2015

Wednesday - April 15th

The grass was covered with ice this morning.  I thought it looked really cool, so I had to take pictures.

A Blustery Day - April 14, 2015

Tuesday - April 14th

It was really windy today.  When it was time to get Alissa from school, the wind had picked up a lot.  I considered driving to get her, but as Roger and I talked about it and walked outside to see how it felt, we decided that walking would be much more fun and adventurous than driving.  We were right.  It was fun!  But, also a little painful.  There was a lot of dust flying at us.  On the way to get Alissa, the wind was blowing at our backs.  That was fun, because every once in a while, it felt like the wind would pick us up a little and push us forward.  The 3 mile walk to the school went really fast with the wind pushing us, but we knew the walk back would not go as fast.  It was hard walking back home, because the dust was blowing in our eyes and the wind was blowing so hard against us.  It was something different and that made it fun.  I don't know why weird things like that make me so happy.  But, this was my favorite memory of walking with the kids.  This and a few weeks ago when there were a crazy amount of bees sitting on the side of the road for 2 blocks.  It was sunny, but really cold and I assumed that the cold was making it hard for the bees to fly.  I was really freaked out as I had to step over them all on the way there.  I warned the kids about it on our way back and when we got there, a lot of the bees had started flying.  There were still a few on the ground, but a lot of them had started to fly.  It was crazy to see all the bees, kind of scary, and also fun, because it was something different.  When I noticed the bees were flying, I said, "I can't handle it!  I'm running."  Then I took off running.  All the kids took off running with me, yelling, "Run!"  That was my second favorite memory of walking with the kids this year.

Back to today's walk.  The wind whipped extra hard as we walked under the freeway overpass.  With the wind at our backs it was fun, then when we came out from under the freeway, the wind was kind of swirling back toward it, until we got far enough away.  That was kind of crazy to see.  On the way home, I warned the kids that it gets really bad under the freeway, so they took off thinking they would run through it, but it was really painful and hard to get through, because of all the dust flying at us.  We ran through it, but with the wind blowing us back, we might as well have been walking.  At one point on the walk, the wind was blowing so hard at us, that when I tried to run, I ended up barely moving.  I thought it was funny.  I yelled to Roger, "Run with me.  It's like I'm on a treadmill!"  We had a good laugh as we tried to run into the wind.  It was fun.

I had Roger take a picture of the kids.  There were a few parts along the walk where the dust was blowing really hard in our faces.  This is how the kids dealt with it.  I also forgot to mention who these kids are.  Alissa is in the red shirt.  She is walking next to her friend, Malaiyha.  Simon is in the yellow shirt and Tayson is in the green shirt.  These are some of our friends that live in the town houses surrounding us.

 I had a really good baking day!  I tried a recipe for granola bars that I love!  They taste like store bought granola bars, but better.  This recipe is super yummy and it was really simple to make.  I know, maybe I should share the recipe, but I need to make a few changes to it, before I type it up.  I learned a few things as I was making it, that I wold like to add to the recipe.  I'll come back and post it on here after I get it all typed up.

 This was my second success of the day.  For the last 12 years, I've been trying to find a recipe that makes light and fluffy bread, similar to the store bought bread.  Today, I did it!  I found a recipe that is close enough to the store bought bread, that my little ones will eat it.  We all tasted a slice and everybody agreed it is the best bread I've made.  We even had sandwiches made with it for dinner tonight.  That was the big test.  They enjoy the other bread I've made, but they don't like it to be used for sandwiches.  This bread passed the test.  We all love it!  Yeah!  I never have to buy store bought bread again (except when I want bread and I'm feeling too lazy to make my own, which, of course, will probably happen a lot, after the excitement of having this new favorite bread recipe wears off).

 I didn't take a picture of the other thing I made.  I made salad in canning jars.  So, know I have 6 pre-made salads.  They are put together in the jar, in a way that they won't get soggy (I hope - I learned about this idea on Pinterest).  The claim is that it will keep well in the fridge for up to 10 days.  I just liked the idea, because it make it really easy to have a salad.  I like salads, I just don't enjoy cutting and preparing all of the vegetables whenever I want to eat one.  This way, I only have to do all that work once and I have salads whenever I want all week.  I ate a salad in a jar for my dinner tonight.  It was very yummy.

These are the pictures I took after we got home from school.  It started to rain toward the end of our walk.  The rain that came down was pretty much, mud, because of all the dust in the air.  Here is a picture of Alissa's mud splattered glasses.  When Roger went out to leave to work, we noticed all of the vehicles in the parking lot where splattered with mud.  It was kind of crazy to see.  I would have taken a picture, but I was tired at the time and walking across the room to get the camera felt like too much work.  I had already spent the whole first half of my day, on my feet, working in the kitchen, then I walked the 6 mile walk to get Alissa.  I was tired.

 Here are the kids enjoying the granola bars I made.  They all loved them and they were gone in no time, so I made a second batch.  Hopefully, they filled up enough on the first batch, so the second batch will last longer.

 Eventually, the wind stopped.  As the day went on, it got colder and colder, and as Roger left to work, the snow started.  We hardly got any snow this year, so I felt it important to document every time it snowed a little.  I'm pretty sure I took a picture each time. I'm not positive though, I'll have to look back through my blog and remember.  It was just a crazy year.  We really missed the snow.  I had the snow tubes out, waiting for a chance to make some hills to sled down, and it ever happened.

Also, Parker went to cub scouts tonight.  He had a lot of fun, but he was freezing when he came home.  He was walking home, when the snow was at it's worst.  He thought it was fun though.

Roger texted from work to tell me the power went out and when it came back on all of their equipment wouldn't work right anymore.  So, he had a nice break, while the power was out and they worked to fix the machines.  They have to call people in to fix the machines.

Cake Decorating - April 8, 2015

Wednesday - April 8th

Alissa's friend Tonya got to come and play today.  Her dad passed away in November and her aunt (who takes care of them now) hasn't let her play with friends since than.  But she finally got to come and play today!  We have missed Tonya.  She is one of Alissa's nicest friends.   It was really good to get to see her again.

I made a list of things to do, so when the kids get bored, they check the list for ideas.  Alissa and Tonya found 2 things from the list that they wanted to do.  They wanted to make and decorate small cakes and build a fort outside.  I helped them out and baked the cakes, while they built a small fort outside.  They had fun outside in their fort until the neighbor kids found them.  The fort wasn't big enough for all of the kids, so they had to put it away.

 The caked were ready to go shortly after they came in from their fort.  Brinley, decided that she didn't want to decorate her cake.  She just wanted to eat it.  She thought it would be fun to just stick her face up to it and eat it.  She was being really goofy.  She loved her little cake and ate it all.

 I gave Alissa and Tonya some cake decorating books to look through to get ideas and to learn the different designs that each icing tip makes.

 Finally, we got everything ready and the decorating could begin.

 Parker decorated a cupcake.  He sprayed it with the purple food coloring, but he got carried away and over sprayed it.  It still looks pretty yummy.  He did good.

 Here's Tonya's cake all finished.  Tonya's aunt only lets them eat organic food, so she knew she wouldn't be able to take her cake home with her.  So, we cut into and ate our cakes as soon as we finished decorating them.  Of course, we didn't finish all of the cake.  We have a lot of cake left over.  It is yummy stuff though.

 Alissa was almost done with her cake when she decided to spray the top with purple.  She thought it would look really cool, but she was not impressed after she did it.  She felt like she ruined her cake.  I think it still looks good, but that's why she has a frowny face in her pictures with her cake.  She wasn't really upset, she was just being goofy.

 I've been cleaning out my bedroom and packing things to take to the storage unit.  I found my accordion.  I miss playing the accordion.  So, we pulled it out to play for a little while.  Parker really wanted to try it.  He liked it, but it is heavy and hurt his shoulders, so he didn't play it for very long.

I had fun playing it for a little while, before I had to get Roger's lunch ready and wake him up so he could go to work tonight.

After Roger left to work, Sydney came over to play.  Alissa and Sydney looked at my list for ideas of things to do.  They decided to reenact something they've seen on YouTube.  They decided to do a skit they saw on Studio C.  They spent a long time preparing and rehearsing.  Then I was the camera man while they did it.  They went through it a few times so I could record from a few different angles.  I will spend time editing the video tomorrow.  They had a lot of fun.  I think they did a really good job.  A few times I accidentally laughed (the camera man is not supposed to laugh).  It is a funny little skit that they did.  I'll put a link on here to share the video as soon as I get it all ready.