From Shad's Phone

I finally figured out how to successfully extract pictures from Shad's new phone!

Our THREE kids!

Tom found this stick in the yard one day.  Wanna know what it is?  It's his Robin bow.  You know, like Robin Hood.  He has carefully guarded his Robin bow for weeks and plays with it when we're out in the front yard.

Eyes like a fox!

Tom loves to play with Dancy and be her brother.

At a garage sale.  Tom was quite disappointed we didn't get it.

Kids wanted after-bath pictures.

This is Grandpa Dodds.  We got to see him again at the memorial for his wife, Sandy, a couple weeks ago.  We miss having them around, but he's doing very well living with his son Dale in Minnesota.

We went for a walk at Prairie Dog State Park and then played at the "Green Park" next to the campgrounds. There were some kid bikes there from some of the campers that Tom and Katie commandeered.  Look at that little girl with her thug hat on!

Colorado...Again...

So we went to Colorado for a few days this summer.

 

Katie and Dan were good friends.

 

 

Tom thought the kid seat on the Target cart was the coolest thing.

 

My attempts at propping up Katie's head while she slept on our way up to Georgetown for fireworks.

 

Did I mention that Katie loves Dan?

 

What summer mornings should look like.

 

Becky fixed Katie's hair every morning and painted her toe nails.

 

 

Playing in the water at Cherry Creek Reservoir

Katie and Becky

 

Tom, Ryan, and Bode

 

Bode and Tom

 

Katie was also good friends with Becky.

 

Becky and Erik giving Katie and Tom a ride in the inner tube.

Air conditioning

So here's the story of our air conditioning.  When we bought our house 2 years ago, there was damage in the ceiling of our bedroom.  We didn't know what caused the damage for a year because we couldn't afford to use air conditioning the first summer when Shad lost his job.  It wasn't until last summer that we found out the damage was caused by the air conditioner in the attic.  It works great, except that it doesn't drain the way it's supposed to, but rather pours from the hole it created in our ceiling. We had two different people look at it last summer, and another company this summer.  At this point the diagnosis is to replace the coil ($1000), or replace the unit ($5-7,000).  We don't understand what replacing the coil would do to fix the way it drains.  The company that's been over twice this summer and told us that latest diagnosis hasn't even seen it dripping to full know what the problem is.  It's kind of frustrating.  So Shad's going to see if he can find a solution himself.  We're looking at possibly having him machine a new drip pan at Natoma.  Until then, Shad has rigged a drip system via a pool noodle to safely drain the water so we can have air conditioning in our upstairs level where all the bedrooms are.

 

 

I have to empty the bucket occasionally, but it's not too bad. I pour it out on my lone pumpkin plant that is my garden.  Hopefully I'll add a zucchini plant, some garlic and celery to keep it company. We do have an air conditioner for the main level and basement that works just fine without a problem.

Kansasland

It dawned on me when my mom was here that there are some phrases that we're used to hearing that describe where I live.  She experienced the "rolling thunder."  Anyone ever wonder what "amber waves of grain" looks like?

 

 

The grain isn't tall enough yet, and today was a still day, but the "waves" take on a different look when the wind blows through.

 

And for corn, the rule is "knee high by 4th of July."

 

 

 

This is my home, and I find it not dull, boring or ugly, but beautiful.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I feel sorry for all the poor souls who drive through Kansas and can't find the beauty in God's creations.

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Summer



Every weekend is booked!  Doesn't that seem to happen two times a year?  In the summer and then in the fall with the family holidays?  We might finally have time to paint...in September maybe? The paint that we bought in April for 4 rooms of our house...

 

We've been spending our mornings out of the house and I've mastered the art of getting all three of my dears down for naps so that I can work in the afternoons.  That's actually made it possible for me to attempt keeping up with all the messes they manage to make for me.  On Mondays and Wednesdays we visit Shad for lunch, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays we go to the library for reading time.  They have a birth to 2 years group on Tuesdays and a preschool group on Thursday mornings.  I'm meeting a whole new group of moms on Tuesday now.  It's fun.  Not to call my friends and life monotonous, but it's nice to mix in new flavors.  This past Thursday was different and there was a puppeteer ventriloquist comedian (yep, that's what he is) at 1:30 in the afternoon in the rec center gym.  That was a difficult one to swing and still go to.  The kids usually go down for naps between one and 2.  By the time we got to the show, Katie was zoning out like she'd rather be napping. Tom enjoyed the first puppet of the show, which was a mute magician's rabbit in a hat.  He was nice because we didn't have to understand what he was saying in order to enjoy it.  All the other puppets had funny voices that didn't carry over well acoustically into our area of the gym.  We weren't the only people who didn't know what was going on.  After a few minutes of that, Tom asked to leave.  We went and played at the library and got "Wuckit Wuff" --Wreck-it Ralph.  He's watched it every day since Thursday.

 

We missed church last Sunday because Dancy had a hard night of sleeping, and Shad was trying to fix our air-conditioner (more on that later). At 3:30 am I'd gotten 20 minutes of sleep and at that point I was starting to get a headache and feel nauseous and dizzy even lying down. So we stayed home to sleep.  There was no way that I was going to be able to handle the day and driving to church on 4 hours of sleep. 

 

Kid quotes--Katie says "hanguber" instead of hamburger.  Emphasis on the "han."  After chasing our dump truck all the way down the street with Katie and Dancy both in my arms just so that Tom could fulfill his heart's desire to say hi and "thank you for picking up our trash," I told Tom that he's my hero.  He said, "I'm not a hero. I'm just only Tommy!" I explained to him that hero meant he makes me happy and helps me.  He thought about that for a moment, then replied, "I'm too little to be a hero!"

 

Brian and Deb came over Thursday evening to make ice cream.  They were in the mood for ice cream and needed help to eat it.  We couldn't turn that down:) So we had an ice cream party with homemade strawberry ice cream.  Hand cranked strawberry ice cream.  And because Brian has been recently diagnosed as diabetic and shouldn't be eating it anyway, they had us keep the remaining half gallon.  Shad and I worked at the theater Friday night because Jeremy called needing help.  We saw Now You See Me, and Ruth's friend Katie babysat.  Katie is fantastic!  Tom kept calling her "honey."  Katie thought it was cute.

 

Hey guess what! Our little girl is 1 month old!  I have to say, she is my favorite baby so far.  And before you go thinking that I'm favoring her over my other two kids, I'm strictly meaning BABY.  With Tommy, I was a first time Mom who was suddenly responsible for a little creature's life 24/7 and having to figure out things like how to bathe him and that excessively goopy eyes for 7 months didn't mean my baby was going to go blind.  With Katie, she was so tiny, breakable, stuck in the NICU for 10 days, and then connected to an apnea monitor for 2 months.  With Dancy, I've got a a good sized healthy baby and I'm not worried about how to take care of her.  I get to sit back, relax and bask in the glory that her perfection is.  Not that the other two weren't perfect.  Every baby is perfect just the way they are and any mother will tell you that.  I love them all, but I am just relishing every moment with my sweet #3.  Anyway, Mom told me I need to get some face shots of her without her hands in the way so that people can analyze who they think she looks like.  So I worked on that this week.  But first, here's my favorite baby sleeping pose:

 

 

 

 And here's Dancy's face.

 

Another favorite sleep pose

 

This girl LOVES her baths! That's a new baby experience for me because Katie and Tom hated baths until toys were involved.

 

I love this face!

 

We had an awesome afternoon thunderstorm one day, and it was fun stuff!  It was a heavy downpour for at least half an hour.  We watched it out on the porch for a while (we still need to get the old blue couch hauled off to the dump), and then went out driving in it because I needed a couple ingredients for dinner and it couldn't wait.  Tom only agreed to go to the store with me on the condition that he could stay safe in the mini van.  On the way home from the store, we spent 5 or 10 minutes driving through the big puddles so the water would splash up as high as the van.  Tom and Katie loved that.

 

 

I forgot what was going on in this picture, but Tom came and narrated it for me.  "Oh look, Momma, there's Tom taking a picture!"  "Is that what you're doing? Good, because I forgot." "Yeah, that's what my doing! That's why you're laughing. I go 'chicka! Chicka! Chicka!' and I tuuuuurn around and around on my neck and I take a picture of of of...my sword! That's what my take a picture! That's why you're laughing."

 

Holidays

We had a fun Father's Day after church.  Our ward doesn't seem to cancel any meetings for holidays, because Shad still had to go to his morning meetings on Mother's and Father's Day, and they had BYC (a youth planning meeting) after church on Father's Day.  The kids got Shad Gloom, a card game where you make your fictitious family members as miserable as possible before they die, and IBC Rootbeer and Darkside Skittles.  I got him boba tapioca pearls and straws to go with them.  We had pineapple ham from the crockpot (one of my freezer meals) with a sweet potato left from Thanksgiving (2 pounder), and artichokes for dinner.  After the kids went to bed we made slushies to pour over the cooked boba.  It's going to be fun figuring out what ways we can serve and enjoy boba at home since there's nowhere remotely close to us that we could get it.

 

Back in May Shad gave me my birthday present early because he wanted me to be able to enjoy and use it in the warm months rather than at the end of September before it gets cold and messy outside.  He got me a bow and arrows!  It's pretty cool and we've enjoyed going out to the ravine behind our house a couple times to shoot it.  By the way, being down in the forested ravine with a bow and arrows totally gave both of us a Hunger Games sensation.

 

On May 17th, I was 1000 days old.  Apparently at work, Shad has this date calculator on his computer that will calculate how many days it's been since a particular date.  When Shad entered my birthday, he saw that I was soon approaching 1000 days old and he saw fit to celebrate that.  I had a large box to open that morning and find a helium balloon, card explaining the date, Reese's peanut butter cups, and the card game Spot It.  When he was shopping in the card aisle, a lady asked him if he needed any help.  When he told her the occasion was "my wife is 1000 days old," she simply replied, "I don't think I have a card for that..."

Little Things

Here's a load of little things I forgot in my last writing.

May I?
Tommy always asks, "May I...?" for everything.  I love it! I love that he's learning correct English. When I say he asks that for everything, I mean EVVVVERYTHING.  Typical snack times sound like this:
Tommy: "Mom, may I have some grapes?"
Me: "Yes, that's a great idea."  So I give him the grapes.
T: "May I eat the grapes?"
Me: "Yes, you may eat the grapes."
After eating the grapes, "May I frow it in de trash?"
"Yes, you may throw the stem in the trash."

Hose
When we pulled in the driveway returning from Hays last weekend, we saw a new hose with a card propped up against our garage door.  My first thought was, "Who did I tell that I ruined my hose?"  I had forgotten to turn the water off one day after watering the garden and my hose sprang a leak.  When I read the card, it turned out to be from my neighbor Jaynell.  She had noticed that we had some tall milk thistles and, after mowing her lawn on her riding mower, decided to come mow ours.  On her first trip around the yard, she didn't see the hose out and clipped it.  Ripped it to shreds.  She felt awful and wanted to reassure us that her intentions were good.  She couldn't even get the shredded hose out of the the blades herself, and had to call another neighbor over to help!  We love Jaynell dearly and are so glad we have good relationships with our neighbors that they are willing to help us.  We feel the same way about her.  In fact, we had already bought a new door handle for her screen door to surprise her.  Every time we go over to visit her, she's got her screen door tied shut with a shoe string, and tells us that her son keeps promising to fix the handle.  Shad decided he'd just do it for her.

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think means."
Ridiculous. Tommy keeps calling food "ridiculous."  I'm not entirely sure what he's trying to mean by that, because he uses it when he's happy and enjoying his food.  I have two conjectures for this: He's either saying that his food is so good, it's ridiculous; or he's meaning to say "delicious."

Manners
Tommy: "Katie! You're booful!"
Katie: "Tank you, Tommy!"

Thor, the God of Thunder
So...I may or may not be guilty of transgressing the first Commandment in my parenting. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."  Well, in teaching Tommy not to be afraid of thunder, I told him that Thor makes the thunder--isn't that so nice of him?  So Tommy gets excited over thunder, and has even since forgotten that I gave Thor the credit for it.  I got a great laugh at Shad today though, with what he told Tom about thunder.  I forget what Tom was doing, but it was driving us nuts when some quiet thunder rumbled and Shad said, "Hear the thunder, Tom? That's Jesus yellin at you."  Hahahaha!

I Love to See the Temple
Last Sunday, with just a couple minutes left before the closing hymn in sacrament meeting, Tom finally had to break his restlessness and sing "I Love to See the Temple" as loud as he could.  We had some people up on the stand laughing with us.

Lavendar oil
It's a lifesaver.  Known for it's calming and relaxing qualities, rubbing a couple drops of lavendar oil on the bottom of your feet at night will send you off to a sound sleep.  I can't attest that it helps you fall asleep better, but once there, you are ASLEEP! If it's enough to knock out an 8 month pregnant woman and keep her from tossing and turning all night, it's a friend of mine.  If it's enough to knock out a 3 week old baby for 5-6 hours straight, followed by another 3, and yet another 3 hours, it's a friend of mine.

And just a little thought from today...

With great spandex...
comes great responsibility.  The first counselor in the bishopric was speaking at the end of sacrament meeting today and noticed that people were drifting off.  So he pulled in a Spider-Man quote to try and wake us up, "With great power, comes great responsibility."  It worked, and then Shad whispered to me, "One could also say, 'With great spandex, comes great responsibility.'"