Memory Monday

I've decided that since I have so many wonderful memories to share, and eventually plan to have my blog printed and bound into a scrapbook for the girls that I would start sharing a new picture each Monday.



To kick us off we have...





Sassy, Me & Beanie falling down Splash Mountain in Disneyland last year. Despite the ponchos we still managed to get pretty wet. Our shoes were squishy with water and we were grateful for those flip flops in the stroller!

It's 4am and I'm Cooking Chicken

Oh, yes, you read that right. It is indeed 4 am and I'm still up cooking chicken. It seems as though some small person let themselves into the freezer today, but neglected to actually shut the door all the way after pilfering what I'm sure was a frozen doughnut out of it.

Left it OPEN!

Of course this wouldn't happen on a weekend when I don't already have to work all day, nooooo, that would be too easy. It happens at the start of what appears to be one of the busiest weeks this summer to date. I tell ya, they are lucky I've learned how to drink coffee.

(Even if my brothers, best friend and mother all tell me it's not actually coffee if I have to add so much creamer and sugar to it)

It serves me right really. This afternoon at work I got on the scale to find out that I have indeed gained 5 pounds, despite my need to hike up my pants every few steps. We'll just pretend I've gained muscle, okay? Thanks! Then after finally arriving home, at 1:20am I tell myself that I'm going to grab a quick snack and head to bed. That's when things went south. Quickly.

Stepping into a Popsicle puddle as I reach for the handle of the freezer door, I see that things are going to be ugly. As I pulled it open I silently prayed that it would just be the Popsicles that thawed.

Reluctantly I began smooshing my fingers into the meat, and began thinking foul words in my head. Foul, foul words full of frustration. Enough foul words for 50 pounds of chicken, 1 bag of chicken nuggets, 4 London Broil steaks and a rack of pork spare ribs. That my friends is why I am up cooking chicken and it's 4 am. The cats think I've lost it and can't figure out why the front door is open this late at night.

In good news ----I'm nearly caught up on laundry! (don't rain on my parade I'm trying to find some positive in this, ummm kay?)

How Our Garden Grows

Just thought I'd share a few pictures of our garden since we're sooooo stinking proud of all how far we've come since last years duo of tomato plants.

Day one



See all those tiny green leaves spring up, those are the canteloupes.

Just a few weeks later!


Mid July - the squash are insane!

Spunky Girl's hand on a squash leaf

We Might Just Be Farmers After All!

Well, probably not, but this is the first year that we've successfully grown anything besides tomatoes. We are thrilled with our little garden and hope it continues to flourish. The hours of sweat and dirty nails paired with the sunburns that go along with it are all worth it knowing that we are actually growing stuff! Besides when you have a great supervisor like Gambit, you know you'll work hard. Or if you're a frog, you'll at least want to stay hidden in the tall grass by the fence.

We planted one mystery plant and we think it might just be a bell pepper plant. It's not producing anything right now, but maybe it will. Who knows?

Other than our mystery plant we have one Roma tomato, two Crook Necked Yellow Squash, one Green Bell Pepper, cucumbers, pumpkins and a whole bunch of cantaloupes. The cantaloupes we honestly quite an accident.

We tried sprouting them in egg shells filled with soil, and had no luck. After about 3 weeks I told the girls to just crunch the shells up and toss them in dirt and all. Welllllll, those little seeds decided they'll bury themselves and take off. We had cantaloupes coming out our ears. Luckily I was able to spread the joy and take a bunch on over to our church and plant them in the garden we are growing there.

Our 1st squash for 2011

Now that we know how the squash grow we are planning our garden a little differently next year. We're even going to try and expand it about 18" forward, which should give us a whole 'nother row.

Family and Friends For Fun BBQ 2011

We co-run our youth group at church, and have happily declared it to be named Family &Friends For Fun! Why? Well, because we are friends, we are family and we want to have fun!

Since the weather has been so nice lately we decided that we would have a barbecue at a local splash park. Sadly upon arrival we were notified that the fountains were broken, and they didn't think they would be fixing them this summer. That was a major drag, but not ones to give up we just played a fun game of kick ball instead.

We broke up into two teams and played against each other. No one really kept score, and it was great to show the kids that you can have fun without the pressure of being a "winner".

Of course there was awesome food, and everyone ate until we were bursting at the seams. Delicious burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, macaroni salad, chips, veggies, brownies and cookies! Yum!

So I suck....

Apparently I have been terrible about actually posting the things I write. I just went through my 20 or so posts that are just chillin in my editing box, waiting for me to get around to adding pictures and such to them.

The girls birthday posts are all there, all but Baby Big Girl whose birthday has yet to come. Hmm, think they'll notice if I just stick them in anywhere? Here's hopeing I get to them before the end of summer. :)

Half Way Over Already??

Man, it feels like summer just started and today I realized that we are nearly done with it! Ahhhhh! I am NOT ready for that just yet. Ummm, hello my to do list is still brimming with crap to get done!

Stupid bills they just keep on a'comin, plopping their happy little selves into my boring little mailbox (note to self: mailbox revamp is on list). If only that Publishers Clearing House crew would show up here with their oversized check and balloon bouquet....ehhh whatever!

School planning starts again next week, I took a hiatus from it since I tend to work more in the summer and I have yet to figure out how to completely go without sleep for more than about 48 hours before those around me start avoiding me at all cost. Huh, who knew that your family and friends even want you to get some kind of sleep. **wink**

My beloved mini van has decided to kill over, or at least place itself on a time out. Now if only it wouldn't have decided that when I was 92 miles from home, alone and on the freeway!

Not just the freeway folks, ohhhh no!

That would have been easy peasy right, just pull to the side of the road and await assistance. Nope! It decides to just stop as I'm crossing a busy bridge and there is NO where to pull over at.

So yeah, if you happened to notice that crazy woman in the green mini van crying her eyes out the other day in San Fransisco - it was me! I've never been so thankful to see the tow truck guy as I was right then. Seriously I forgot to get his name, but managed to thank him 35 times in the short time we spent together. Oh and just for kicks I also broke down 100 feet from my exit, and after my tow truck angel pushed me down the exit and across the street, I find out that my stopping point is a terrible part of town. Lock your doors and pretend not to see anything terrible. The co-worker I called to tell I would be late told me "lock your doors and DO NOT get out of the car". Since he grew up in SF I had to believe him and can I just say - Ummm, that made me feel soooo safe - not! Holy crud! Good thing that The Boy and Brother 1 and 2 came to my rescue. Those boys are handy to have around, I tell ya!