Daddy Daughter Date

When I was younger and living at home one of the things my parents and I enjoyed doing was Mountain Manning. We would spend a lot of time camping and enjoying the great outdoors. Every May we would camp up Left hand for weeks and enjoy participating in rendezvous.

Just like everyone else's life, mine changed. Some changes I thought would not be easy and some I thought would be a breeze and are not. One thing remains the same.

My dad still comes camping with me as often as he can. Sometimes he just makes a day trip and enjoys teasing and socializing but none the less he comes. We have a great timed doing what ever it is we are doing. This past summer my dad even tried beading. Most of all we like to shoot guns. This is a family fun activity. Dad is usually full of jokes and enjoys helping out doing what ever is needed in camp.
Here is a snap shot look at a Daddy and a Daughter still enjoying things the old way...even if life has changed.

I Love BBQ's

So glad I'm not a tennis ball

When the dogs are being quiet I should know they are up to no good. Instead I keep doing my own work passing by the office I see black specks that look much like a smiley face...What have you been chewing Bella. All I can find is a piece that is about the size of an apricot. Then I notice some have fur on them. Her tennis ball is in tiny intsiey winseiy pieces.

In the closet

Last night after returning from the baseball game I was sitting on the bed telling a story about my day when my husband who had his T shirt over his head, ran into the closet, shut the door, and didn't turn the light on. I stopped my story and sat there dumbfounded. I could not figure out, first off, why John was running. Secondly I couldn't understand why he was in the closet with the light off. Just as I was unfreezing and getting ready to walk over to the closet he opened the door and with the biggest shit eating grin exclaimed, "It glows in the dark. They eyes they glow!"

Some day you will thank me

Lately, when I try to take pictures, I hear about how no one really wants to know every thing I write about. I have tried to censor out the not needed info like when I last used the bathroom, how much poop is in the yard, what the dust bunnies under the bed looked like, how many times I took the trash out. Nash and I get in trouble because when we come out of the bathroom we talk about putting it in a blog. Every picture I take of late, has a middle finger in front of the face. So I have started saying that I am just trying to get the perfect funeral photo. Some people think that is morbid but in my line of work that's an important thing. So now I have resorted to taking photos while the big guy is sleeping. I think they will come in handy some day when I am looking for the perfect funeral photos. You see if I just blow this up too life size....it will find the perfect spot at the top of the casket and I won't have to pay for a flower spray because I can just use a blanket to cover the rest and it will look perfect.

Dawnna this post is for you. If it doesn't get a response then I guess he has stopped reading:)

Poppy, Poppy, Poppy

This is my favorite flower. They are so beutiful and look so hardy yet they don't keep so well if you cut them and bring them inside. I love to cook with them and I have found a lot of ways to use those little seeds. I was amazed to see them used at the Cache County Fair in the "City Seed Scapes" you know, those cool panoramas that are supposed to be made out of different seeds.

This hill is breath taking in May. It looks like this for the whole block. I always want to stop and dig up a few plants to put in my own yard but never have. So here they are. My photo that is now my screen and part of my slide show;0

I hate pine trees

Pine trees are not my favorite. I hate that the sap gets every where. I hate that the needles fall out and they are not rake able until there are at least three inches of them. I hate that they take all of the water out of that side of the grass. I hate that the grass won't grow under them. I hate that they grow very fast, or so it seems. Just chopped of lots of limbs a year ago and they are already back. I hate that when the wind blows the branches make creepy noises on the window. I hate that the cat can climb up the tree really high but can't climb down it. I hate that the roots come through my grass, side walk and clear into places at least 10 feet from the tree.

Why after that whole list was I so excited about the tree when we bought this home?

That's because it reminded me of the trees that used to be in front of my parents. I thought about climbing to the tall branches and looking out seeing the whole world. I remember having a house under the branches. We used the fallen needles as carpet and would pile them in rows to designate the different rooms. I loved to Tonka truck under the trees. The trees grew so tall that I could climb out of my bedroom window and climb down the tree. They were great shade in the summer and when winter hit they helped make the biggest snow piles ever. We always had a "boat" to float down the ditch because there was a never ending supply of cones.

Ode to summer squash

John will be very happy when he doesn't have to come up with a suggestion for dinner for the rest of this week and next week and possibly the next. Tonight I set out making summer squash casserole. For those of you not familiar with it, here goes. You see my mom and dad don't like to waste much. Especially something that grows in the garden. It's hard work and you should use it all. Even if that means creating a casserole that gives you left overs (meaning breakfast, lunch and dinner) for weeks. The only thing you have to add is cream of soup and stove top. Both of which can be found in the food storage supply at any given time. There you have it. The birth of summer squash casserole. When I was a teenager that was a great "diet" for me. I would eat it for dinner on the first night. I may even have it for lunch the next day based on the schools choices but that was the line. My mom and dad would eat it for every meal until the pan was empty. Not so bad if there would have been 15 of us living at home but with only 3 of us that could go on for weeks. By the time that pan was done there was so much squash growing in the garden that mom would make another casserole. Most people never run out of milk in their fridge. We never ran out of casserole.
So tonight I donned the apron and did it. I used everything fresh from farmers market or Tim and Leslies garden. I even made breadcrumbs because my food storage is not up to par and I didn't have stove top. I changed the rest of the recipe because, well you guessed it, I didn't have it either. Never fear, I usually do change recipes and they usually work. The down side is......the recipe calls for two cups of squash. Being the diligent daughter that I am I measured the squash. When I got the two cups I still had 1/3 of a squash and I know someone worked very hard to grow that stuff so I had better use it up. I made enough summer squash filling to make 3 casseroles. I guess we will have our menu planned for the next little while.

They are here....party photos

Who has the camera???

A few weeks ago after I had stayed awake all night walking in Relay for Life, I arrived home to find the neighbor was having a great yard sale. I found something for me and something for Gene. I ran inside and told him he needed to get dressed and come out side. He didn't understand all of the excitement until I got on my hands and knees and begged him to come with me. Then he found it there in a pile of junk....a table saw. Good as new. We carried our purchases home and he suggested that we go to the farmers market. You see on Saturday that's how we like to start our morning. Picking up fresh produce and the best bread, melon, milk, coffee. We headed out after I had a shower because I thought that would help me shake the no sleep hang over. After we got there and shopped a bit we hooked up with Tim and Zack. Breakfast at Karens and Modern Art.

We had just finished shopping up on side of 25th and were ready to cross the block when I spotted what I wanted. Free massages for 10 minutes. I handed everything I was holding and told the other three I would hook up with them later. I filled out the necessary paperwork and sat down on the massage chair. After the guy found out what I had been doing all night he threw in a few extra minutes. This is what happens when you hand your camera off to someone else....

We were just finishing up shopping when the parade of motorcycles headed down 25th street. We got to hook up with Scott and Debbie and visit while people looked at all of the bikes along 25th street. It was a lot of fun! Nothing better than people watching on 25th street with friends and Iced Tea.

Pancake time

My brothers two youngest girls Brinley and Elise came down on Saturday to spend the night while their parents went to Park City. When you only have 24 hours you have to pack a lot of fun into every hour. I figured we could go to a movie, make cookies and see ducks on Sunday. We started making scrapbook pages which quickly turned into card making. Zack came over and joined in the fun. Card making quickly became painting. Then peanut butter jelly sandwiches. By this time I was getting worried that this trip was going to be boring and they would never want to come back. I was quickly reassured when I heard Zack and Elise (the 6 year olds) run through the house shouting "this is the funnest place, I love this place. I never want to go home" I was so glad I didn't have to break the news that it is usually dull and boring here. They found the treat drawer. ( I thought every house had one:)They had a great time exploring and discovering. My Brother and sister in law came over and thought I must be super into scrapbooking to be able to pull all of that stuff right out and entertain at the drop of a hat. The truth of it is having all that young energy makes me feel like a kid again. Anything is possible at that age and so it was. After dinner we headed to the duck pond. What a treat. I have yet to take a visitor there that they didn't enjoy it and wish to go back. We fed the ducks until it was so dark we could only see the rats eyes running across the path on our way back to the car. We came home and watched "Icarly" or something like that and went to bed. Sunday we all slept in, we must have been worn out. Then headed out to breakfast. Elise only wanted a side of sausage. I had to use a little authority and ordered a pancake for her also. You should have seen her eyes when she saw this pancake get set in front of her.

We had to hold it up and cover her face with it!!! We had a great visit and on our way home Matt and Amy called and said that they were at our house. The girls were sad because we didn't get to go back to see the ducks. On the next trip we will go there first. T heck with scrap book and movies just take me to see the ducks.

This is the Garcia boys being excited about being in my next blog. Some day when we make a funeral slide show it will be full of a lot of birds. You can play eye spy in all of my photos searchig for the "birds"

HOPE

At the end of July I participated in Relay for Life. Our team was great. We raised a bunch of money to do more cancer research with. We had a great time staying up all night and walking around the track at Syracuse High. The photo above is luminaries that spell out the work HOPE. It was so neat to see and gave me chills.( sorry the photos does not give it justice)
The first lap of the event was walked by cancer survivors. It was amazing and tear jerking. How neat it was to watch real people who have survived this horrible disease walk around a lap. There was not a dry eye in the place. Lola was particularly cute. She was so small and made it around.
I hope some day there is a cure for cancer. If I had one wish I could make I would wish that my mom survived and was able to grow old with me. I miss you mom!!!!

Sky turns three

Wow it doesn't feel like it's been that long. I still remember the day when Sky was born very well. I was sitting at Maria Castellanos when John called and said we needed to get ready to go to the hospital. Maria was so excited! She kept asking if I would bring the baby by so she could meet him. She ate lunch early so I could leave at any time the baby was born. When we finally hit the hospital we went straight to the nursery to try to take a peek. Then we checked on Jen and Josh. Skyler was so tiny and cute. It was amazing to hold a tiny baby and not break him. Now he is a tall three year old full of spunk and loves to play. He loves camping with us. Some how I manage to collect other children and he loves hanging out with them and playing. He is always a great sport to play any game I can think of. It's time to think of some new games to play with him. He loves to pull out the flash light and make finger shadows on the ceiling. He also loves his floor mat for the cars. We can spend hours on the floor driving cars through the town. It has been so much fun to spend Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with Skyler. We love him so much and enjoy our time with him.