Rain gutters and light switches

It's funny how the little things in life can make me happy. Yesterday, we finally got rain gutters back up on the house. We took them down last summer when we were redoing the roof and soffit and fascia. The old ones were attached in such a weird way that they could not be put back up. The only thing keeping me from getting new ones up was a couple of phone calls for bids and I put it off for a year. Winter was the worst when the snow would melt off the roof and drip down onto the front porch and then freeze the steps like an ice skating rink. We went through a lot of ice melt this past winter. And we would have a nice water fall coming off the roof right in front of the front door every time it rained. Now, I can hardly wait for it to rain so I can check out the gutters!

The other thing that has made me happy lately is a light switch. It is a really small thing to get excited about but this light switch has a story behind it. In our house, we have a great storage room that we have been using for books, movies, cd's, and many other odds and ends. There is a light switch in that room that isn't connected to any lights so I figured that it would be connected to an outlet but none of the visible outlets worked with the switch. Recently, we decided to move a few things around in that room and we found another outlet. Naturally, the first thing I did was to try the lamp in that outlet and then flip the switch and sure enough, it worked. So now, it is just taking a little getting used to to flip the switch instead of turning on the lamp, but it is a wonderful thing.

One more tiny thing that just makes me smile. Amelia discovered a movie last night that she didn't know we had. She found Aladdin! But this is no ordinary Aladdin. I bought it when I went to Mexico more than 10 years ago and it is in Spanish. This was obviously before the days of DVDs and being able to pick the language that you wanted to watch a movie in. Of course, she doesn't care that it was in Spanish and that she wouldn't be able to understand a word that was being said and she watched it anyway. In fact, it is on right now and she just asked if I knew what Jasmine and Aladdin were saying. Um, no. I guess I need to add an English copy of Aladdin to our collection.

Splash park with Kamber

Kamber and I met our first year at USU and became friends really fast. Our first year of school, she lived in the apartment above me and then for the next two years, she was right across the street. We have had so much fun together over the last few years, but now she is moving out of state and so I went to visit her one last time and to take all our kids to the splash park in Riverton. Amelia had a ton of fun playing in the water as long as she wasn't getting too wet. Ashley, on the other hand, didn't want anything to do with playing. For the first 20 minutes or so, she just stood on the sidewalk trying to decide if it would be worth the effort to go and play. Then, she decided to just hang out on my lap for the rest of the time that we were there. It was right in the middle of her nap so I can totally understand. Once we were done playing and started to drive home, both girls were completely zonked out before we even hit the freeway. What a fun day! And now, of course, Amelia is asking when we will be able to go to the splash park again but I don't know of anything like it down here so it could be a while before we go again.

Camping at the Cabin

Why stay in a trailer when there is a cabin? Well, mostly because the cabin retains a lot of heat in the summer which makes sleeping really uncomfortable. Sleeping out in a tent trailer on the other hand is quite nice. It was my mom's birthday on the 22nd so we celebrated her birthday on Saturday with all of Steve's kids and us. Amelia desperately wanted to go swimming on Saturday and right after we got her and Ashley in their suits and slathered in sunscreen, we found out that the pool was closing because of a storm that was rolling in. So, we headed back to the cabin and gave Keno a bath and then ran through the sprinklers. It doesn't really compare to the pool, but at least we got a little wet.

Fireworks on the 24th

We finally decided to take the girls to see some fireworks on the 24th. We gave them a bath, put them in pajamas and then drove over to Spanish Fork. After staking out a good spot on the grass, we started waiting for the fireworks to start. We were hoping that they would start soon after dark, but we had to wait for the rodeo to end and then they finally started at about 10:30 or so. Amelia and Ashley had a great time dancing and running all over the park while we were waiting for the show and once things started, Ashley didn't even want to sit down. Amelia was getting really tired right before it started and said that she wanted to go home, but once she saw the fireworks, she was really excited. After the show, it took us an hour to get home but it was definitely worth it!

Camping at Granite Flat

This past weekend, we went camping at Granite Flat up American Fork Canyon and had a blast. The weather was great and we even had a moose and her calf visit our camp site a few times. On Friday, I had this crazy idea that it would be really fun to hike up to Timpanogos Cave. Tamara said that I was insane for wanting to try this with a 3 1/2 year old that always wants to be carried, a 2 year old that never wants to leave my side and me being pregnant but I still thought that it would be really fun. Well, she was right. The hike was steep, we had to take a lot of breaks, Amelia got shoulder rides almost the entire way up, Ashley screamed "mama" every time I was out of sight, and we all had a good work out. Guy was a trooper and carried Ashley in the backpack carrier the whole way up. My mom, Tamara, and I each took turns giving Amelia shoulder rides until Guy told me that I shouldn't do it anymore because I was getting a little flushed. But for the record, I never felt like I was over exerting myself, my cheeks were just getting a little rosy. On Saturday, we pretty much just hung out at camp for most of the day and then went down to Tibble Fork Reservoir so that Amelia could do a little fishing with Grandpa Steve. She got bored with fishing pretty quickly so she mostly just played in the mud and rocks until it was time to go. We all had a great time and we were definitely ready to pack up and come home on Sunday. Amelia was lucky enough to sleep in Auntie Tamara's trailer while Guy and I slept with Ashley in the tent. My mom and Steve offered for us to sleep in their trailer, but it was kind of nice to have our own space. We are all looking forward to doing more camping next year. Except Guy and I are already stuffed in the Durango so we will have to find a few more creative ways to pack our gear.

Kindness

Friday night, we decided to go out to eat at Amelia favorite restaurant, "the Tomato Restaurant" better known as Fazoli's. After I parked the Durango, Guy and I got out to start unloading the girls when he noticed that the rear passenger tire was looking a little low. Then he said that he could hear the air leaking out. Oh great! Looks like I have inherited my mother's ability to run over sharp objects. He backed up just a little bit and right as he did, I saw bubbles escaping from a tiny little nail embedded in the tire. Since we were already at Fazoli's and it was getting late, we decided to go in and hurry and eat and then change the tire. Guy wolfed down his dinner and then got started on the tire while I finished up with the girls, they seemed to have inherited my talent for eating really slow. We got outside by 8:00 to help Guy with the tire. He had the spare out and ready but couldn't get the flat off because one of the lug nuts was a different size than all the others and we only had the standard tire iron that came with the Durango. So while he ran around to two nearby gas stations looking for loaner tools or at least compressed air to fill up the tire and get us home, someone came up to me and asked if we needed help. I explained our situation and he told me that he had some tools in his truck. Yeah! He started working on the tire when Guy got back and explained another problem that we were having...Apparently the lug nuts were torqued so high, that the tire iron was just bending instead of loosening the nuts. To make a long story short, we eventually got the flat off and the spare put on, which would not have been possibe without the kindness of strangers.

My next encounter with kindness came on Sunday. Guy wasn't feeling well and so he went home after dropping Ashley off at nursery. In the past, he will come back and get us when church is over so that is what I expected to happen this time. However, after getting everything done at church that I needed to, which took us at least 15 minutes, Guy still wasn't there. Since I knew how awful he was feeling, I decided not to bother him and just start walking home. Keep in mind that this is no easy walk. We would be crossing four lanes of traffic to get across Hwy 89. We were just getting ready to cross when a nice family from our ward pulled over and offered us a ride home. I was so grateful since I didn't know how I was going to cross quickly and safely carrying my two bags and Ashley and holding onto Amelia. We actually passed Guy on the highway and I tried to get his attention to let him know that we were taken care of but he didn't see me. Apparently, he had set his alarm to come and get us when church was over but he set it for the wrong time. I am so grateful for the kindness of this wonderful family to make room for my family and make sure that we were safe.

Embrace the bump

I have been trying to squeeze the most mileage from my regular clothes before I move completely to my maternity wardrobe. But after seeing the side profile of my belly yesterday after church, I have decided that I really can't hide the bump any longer so now it is time to just show it off. My theory though is that the longer I can go in regular clothes and hide things a little bit, the less time I am actually pregnant since those around me aren't noticing my belly. I remember "hiding" my pregnancy with Ashley for at least the first 4 months and then when I started wearing maternity clothes a friend said that she didn't realize that I was so far along since she hadn't seen my bump yet. Anything to make pregnancy seem to go faster is a great idea to me.

Goodbye couch and chairs

When we bought this house, we were a little short on furniture and the sellers didn't have room to take some things with them so they left a really ugly love seat and two matching chairs for us. We got some great use out of them for about a year and a half until we got the couch and love seat from my Aunt Linda and moved our green reclining couch downstairs. For at least the last 6 months, we have had a love seat and two chairs stuffed into corners or spare rooms because we no longer had a place for them. We decided that they weren't even good enough for the D.I. so we have just hung onto them trying to figure out what to do with them. I didn't want to be too white trash and just put them out on the curb so my next thought was to just take them to the dump. But luckily, we didn't even have to do that. Guy found someone at work that could get some use out of them and so he drove them to Spanish Fork last night. Amelia kept asking, "What are you doing with my favorite chair?" I had no idea that she felt so strongly about this furniture. I on the other hand, did a little happy dance as Guy drove away last night and I waved goodbye to our free furniture.

Ashley at about 6 months old.

My nephew David.

Ashley and Amelia just hanging out.

When the couch was in transition and shoved in the playroom.

How do you loose a piano?

I arrived early to church on Sunday because it is my month to set up the chairs for primary. I walked into the primary room and was a little bit surprised to see that our piano was gone. Then I remembered that it was moved on Saturday for the Stake baptisms because the electric piano in the RS room wasn't working (really an outlet problem that the Bishop later fixed by flipping the breaker). No big deal, I thought. I will just walk down to the RS room and retrieve our piano. But when I opened the door, I was shocked to see that the electric piano was back in its place and there was no extra piano. Luckily, I could hear the Bishop down in his office so I went down the hall to see if he had any ideas where the piano could have gone. He asked if I had checked in a few obvious places and I said that I had and now he was just as stumped as I was. Luckily, my old home teacher volunteered to help me look so that I could get back to getting chairs set up. He looked in every room around the entire building with no luck. Fortunately though, the elders quorum was nice enough to sacrifice their piano so that we could have music in the primary. I am still baffled about where our piano disappeared to. Maybe it will magically show up someday.

Happy 4th of July!

Our celebrations for the 4th started off with the Bill Collings 5k Fun Run/Walk in Magna at 7 a.m. This meant that we had to be on the road by 5:45 to get there in time and register for the race. Guy and I were the last to start since we got there a little bit later than we wanted to and we had to get the girls situated in the stroller with snacks and milk. About 80% of the route is downhill which makes things really easy. And when you are pushing a stroller weighing about 100 lbs., you practically fly down the hills. We were able to pass a few groups of walkers and we finished just under an hour. At the finish line of the race is breakfast...pancakes, eggs, hash browns, and ham. Yummy. Walking 3 miles sure helps build up an appetite. Of course, Ashley and Amelia were much more interested in playing on the playground than eating so Guy was nice enough to go play with them so I could eat the yummy breakfast.

We went back to my mom's house to get changed and get all our supplies gathered for the parade back out in Magna at noon. We were pretty lucky this year with the weather...It was cloudy for the race and breakfast and then partly cloudy for the parade so it never got too hot. The parade was filled with the usual 2.5 floats, tractors, horses, and political candidates. The best part for the girls was the candy being thrown into the crowd. Amelia was really good about giving me all her candy after she had eaten her first two pieces so she would have an appetite for lunch when we got back.

We had a small little BBQ at my mom's house complete with a wading pool for Amelia and Ashley to play in. I kept telling Amelia that she couldn't get in and swim until after she had lunch. For a while, she was just splashing in the water while standing outside of the pool. Then she asked if she could take off her shoes. I didn't see any harm in that so I told her that she could. Of course she still has all her clothes on so I thought that she would just put her feet in and splash around a little. At first, that is exactly what she did. Little by little, she got braver and would run through to pool, still just getting her legs wet. The next thing that she decided to try was sitting in the water! Crazy girl. No swimsuit on yet but that was not going to stop this girl from "not swimming" before eating.

Around 7:00, we finally got up the energy to head home. The girls fell asleep almost immediately and slept all the way home. Once we got home, we decided to put the girls right to bed since we had started the day really early and they were exhausted. One day, I'm sure that they will want to see fireworks, but this year, they were much too tired. I didn't even make it through the 10:00 news when we got home. It was a long day but a ton of fun.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

You know that it is going to be a warm day when the AC turns on at 8:00 in the morning. Usually I can make it until noon or later and have the windows open in the morning to bring in a nice cool breeze. That was definitely not the case this morning. So, when Amelia asked (just like she does every morning) if we could go outside and blow up the pool, I figured that we better hurry and do it before it became unbearable out there. Amelia had a blast going down the slide and landing in the freezing cold water. Ashley on the other hand, was not so thrilled about it. Right after I put her down the slide, she stood up and said, "Hold!" But of course I didn't want to hold her because she was all wet. She eventually warmed up to the idea of being in the water even though the water didn't get one bit warmer.



Once we came in and I got the girls dressed, I thought that it would be a good idea to put Amelia's hair in a pony tail since it had sunscreen in it and it was a mess. It will definitely be a bath night tonight. Then I thought that I would try to put a pony tail in Ashley's hair too. It actually worked pretty well and she looked really cute.