Where Oh Where is Baby Bear?

A couple of weeks ago, I was pretty sick. I got feeling mostly better after a couple of days, but I had a fever that hung on for two weeks. I finally went to the doctor yesterday. When they took my temperature, it was normal. After checking for various infections (sinus, etc), the doctor asked me what type of thermometer I used. I told her the ear kind. She told me those were unreliable and concluded that I never really had a lingering fever.

I have a hard time believing that my thermometer was that off every time I took my temperature. I actually had Rick take his temperature a couple of times over the last two weeks to check our thermometer and his temp was normal. However, I decided to take the doctor's advice and buy a new thermometer. She said the oral kind were most accurate. I came home and took my temp and it came out.... LOWER than normal. What's the deal? One is too high, one is too low. I need the one that is just right!

THEN...

I'm having foot surgery tomorrow. I had the same surgery on my other foot a few weeks ago. I learned from that surgery that my foot will be too sore to put any weight on it for a couple of days. So I decided to borrow some crutches. I have tracked down two pair. It turns out one is for people 5'10" or taller, and one is for people 5'2" and shorter. I am 5'5"!! Too high, too low- I need the one that is just right.

Isaac's Book Report

I take it back. Two posts in one day. I am the best blogger ever. :)

For this month's book report, Isaac had to read a non-fiction book on Egypt and make a diorama for his book report. We have been working on it all week. He is very proud of the end result.

The ground is sand paper. We used a little too much glue, but it turned out to look like ripples in the sand. You can't tell in this light, but the pyramid sparkles in sunlight (just like vampires).

Yes, I know, I have mad photo skills. Sorry it's blurry. The glue is also still wet so you can see it, but all that will be fixed by turn-in time tomorrow. The mummy is my favorite, we wrapped crumpled paper with white tape- very life like. You've probably summoned the curse by looking. Are you scared?

Here is a video of Isaac explaining the project.

We are proud of his hard work.

p.s. I just have to note what a nice kid Isaac is. As we were working tonight to finish, he kept asking if my foot was OK and if I needed to put it up.

I suck at blogging

It's official. I am a bad blogger. I few weeks ago I had a nice photo-filled blog ready to post including all of our fall fun. Blogger told me it was too big, so I gave up. I had foot surgery last week and figured with all my down time I would catch up, but the drug induced stupor along with not being able to get out of bed foiled that plan. So here's the quick and dirty version.

We carved pumpkins, however I didn't take any photos of the finished product. More proof of my bad-blogginess.



Rick and I attended a Halloween party as vampires (along with about half of the other guests). We dressed up as Egyptians to give out candy- also no photo.


We took monster cupcakes to the party- they turned out cute! (I can't figure out how not to underline here)

The boys all designed their own creepy cupcakes






We also made caramel apples with cookie crumbs and smashed up candy bars. Yum.


I had included an update on my "brown thumb" post. The roses ended up being beautiful this fall until the deer ate them all. I had several pictures but edited down to just this one.

The wildflower seeds I spread throughout the backyard finally bloomed. I loved it. I'm excited to see what blooms next year.

Betsy Brown Thumb

OK all my green-thumbed friends, I need some gardening advice. Here's my backyard:

I have this hill of rocks that I threw wildflowers seeds all over when the snow finally stopped late Spring. Now I have a bunch of things growing, but I don't know if it's weeds or flowers. What seemed like a great idea is not turning out to be such a smart plan. However, I do have a few flowers starting to bloom.Cute, huh? They are pink, purple and white. I have several patches now in bloom. Fun!

Although, this is how most of the yard looks.
And that's after pulling what I know are weeds. (My mom informed me what I thought were poppies were actually weeds, sad.)

Here's my biggest problem. We planted 4 rose bushes. Two are looking good and two look like thisHelp. This rose is called the Ingrid Bergman rose and is a beautiful deep red. I don't know why the leaves are turning brown. Do I need to water more? less? fertilize? pesticide?

This is our other problem areaIt's very sandy soil that is eroding away from the rocks. (One rock actually fell and rolled into our house- it may stay there and be landscaped around, as it is extremely heavy.) I heard that day lilies do well in sand and may help with the erosion. Any other ideas?

This is my favorite part of the backyard. This tree was overgrown when we bought the house. (It was a rental and the yard was in bad shape). We trimmed it up and now it hangs perfectly over the lawn to provide a little shaded area. I planted some bright orange flowers beneath it that have done very well.
This is another tree that we have pruned. It had branches growing along the ground and huge thorns on it. Rick and I were scraped up for weeks (worth it). We still have a little pruning to do on it, but it may wait until next year. We now have to figure out what to do with the hillside. I'm thinking a hardy ground-cover.So there it is. I'm up for any advice/ideas.

FINALLY

I can finally write another I-love-my-bike post. Last weekend for the first time in probably two years, I loved being out on my bike instead of just being miserable that I was so out of shape. Over the weekend, Rick and I did a loop from our house, to the temple, to downtown Draper and back. Lots of hills, not too far. Last night, we did one of our favorite rides from the East side of the airport out to Saltair. Flat and long. Both were wonderful.

Honestly, I have to say everything in life is wonderful right now. While I was riding last weekend, I was thinking how balanced I feel in my life. I know this is rare so I'm enjoying every second while it's here. Over the weekend we did yard work, errands, biked, took the kids to a carnival, had some down time, and dinner with family. I'm so in love with my husband I can hardly stand it. Work is going really well and business is finally picking up. I have nothing to complain about and everything to be thankful for. How great is that?

CSA

This year we joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). We paid a local farmer in February to help with seed, etc and all summer we get a weekly harvest of produce. Here is what we are enjoying this week.

Peas, zucchini, beets, carrots, lettuce and chard (anyone have a good chard recipe?)

Originally, I joined with a friend and we split a share, but we found neither of us could eat all the veggies in a week. Another friend joined us this week, so the above picture is 1/3 of a share. Probably perfect for us.

The veggies are organically grown locally, harvested in the morning and delivered to us that afternoon. I actually got the boys to snack on fresh baby carrots this evening. We just get whatever is ready to harvest that week and love being surprised with what will show up.

We are definitely open to any good recipes out there. Please share.

Flowers

A year ago this week my dear friend Shari passed away from lung cancer. Shari was known for her beautiful yard, especially the roses and irises in the front yard. Last fall, just after we moved into the new house, I called and asked her family if I could come take some iris starts for my new yard. Never having had a yard before, I was pretty clueless in the where and how to plant department, so I just dug some random holes and hoped for the best.

It has been fun watching them grow this Spring. Since they were no longer blooming when I took the starts, I had no idea what color I was getting. Shari had a wide variety, and I took from various locations in her yard. Here is a photo of what is currently in bloom.


Aren't they pretty. I love coming home every day, seeing the progress of growth and thinking about Shari. It's been such a fun memorial to her and a way to think of her and smile on a regular basis.

California

Summer has officially begun. The boys had school until Thursday and Rick had school the following Monday so we decided we better take a quick trip with the little break. We had the boys miss the last day of school and left Wednesday right after school. We arrived in Fountain Valley Thursday early afternoon and headed right for Huntington Beach.


Zane and Isaac with Huntington Beach Pier in the background.

We buried Isaac in the sand.

Rick and Isaac helped me harvest shells for my shell garden.

A fun afternoon in the sun!


Friday we spent at Magic Mountain. Online tickets were only $33, so we opted to that instead of Disneyland. We enjoyed some seriously scary roller coasters. Good times!!

Saturday we headed to LA to take in some sites. The boys have never been to Hollywood. Here they are outside of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Zane was stoked to find Robert Downey Jr. It was just added a couple of weeks prior.

We stopped to see the La Brea Tar pits then walked to a letterbox near a turtle pond. Hidden with the box was some food to feed the turtles. I was hoping to do a lot more letter boxing on the trip but we couldn't find the other one we looked for, and didn't have time to look for others.

Turtle pond.


We ended our LA excursion at China Town. Here we are having a little snack at the Phoenix bakery. I've been to SF and NY China Town and have to say LA was a little disappointing.

We ended our evening at the Holbrook's (who were excellent hosts the whole week) playing Rock Band.


On our drive home we stopped in Las Vegas and went to the M&M store (4 stories of M&M paraphernalia)

We also went to the Coke Museum. For $7 you can taste Coke products from all over the world. Rick was happy we all got to sample the icky, bitter Italian drink; and I was happy my favorite Fanta from Central America was included. Vegas was insanely hot though and neither Rick nor I enjoy it as a destination. An hour or so was plenty to stretch our legs enough to finish the car trip home.

Thanks my fun family for a great trip !

Ready for Summer

We are officially ready for summer. It has been a crazy week. The last full week of school. The boys actually have to go to school for a couple of days after Memorial Day. So weird since they seemed to have a bunch of random vacation days through the year. It seems like they could have saved a few up and just been done at the end of this week.

We had something going on every night this week and multiple things many of the nights. Isaac finished Spring soccer. We are so proud of him for getting out and trying something new. He made a goal (which is great since he mainly played defender) and his skills and confidence really improved. Most importantly, he had a lot of fun. Here are a few shots from a game.


My camera has a big delay so it's hard to get a good action shot.







Zane had both his play performance and choir performance this week. Zane, who seems to like a lot of attention everywhere but from his parents, surprised us with a speaking part in the play. When I asked before, he said he just was a guy in the background. His role was small but he was the comedian in his scene and very funny.

He also had a solo in the choir concert. They did a rock concert which was fun. It was mostly a Beatles tribute, and they had a rock band accompany them. Zane had a verse in Paperback Writer. We are proud of him and his talent.

I can't believe we have a full school year behind us in our new house. I think the change was good for the boys to get them out of their comfort zone, even though the transition was a bit rocky. Isaac told me this was one of his favorite school years. That made me happy. I've been impressed with his school and teachers this year. He is changing schools again next year to be in the accelerated program. He is excited about it and really wanted to be in the program. (My only problem with the accelerated program is that they often put the programs in the poor-preforming schools; apparently it brings up their test score average. His new school is in sort of a ghetto neighborhood. Isaac is the most pure and innocent kid ever so I worry about him and the affects a harsh environment could have on him.)


And finally- we couldn't be ready for summer without Glitter Toes! I held a party at my house last week and Stephanie came over to sparkle us all up. It turned into a kind of mother/daughter evening. Avalon and her friend got matching red sparkly toes and silver sparkly nails.





If you're interested in a glitter toe party- see Stephanie's blog here.

Bring on summer!!

Finally moved in

While we still have a long way to go until all the moving-in projects are done, we finally unpacked the last box this week. This is thanks to Rick, Ikea and Craigslist.

First Rick: After building the sturdiest shelves in the world in the garage for practice, Rick spent Spring Break building these shelves in our family room for all of our games.

It was so nice to be able to unpack the boxes of games sitting in boxes in the room. It inspired us to get on the rest of the shelf acquiring.

After scouring the internet for inexpensive, attractive shelving for the movie collection, a quick trip Ikea solved the problem. We were so exited to find DVD depth shelving at a very reasonable price.

I guess officially we aren't completely unpacked because some of the actual shelves are out of stock so we can't fill up the final case.

Rick has cataloged all of our movies on an on-line data base that you can view here. Rick has edited most of the rated R movies to family friendly versions. We need to do some work on the categories as I see 101 Dalmatians listed under Action/Adventure movies. I'm guessing many are listed in more than one category as the movie total is at least double our real collection. Minor details.

Finally- my favorite. Our bedroom. We've had a corner full of boxes in the master bedroom since we've moved in. We donated our bookcase to Isaac's room and put a new bookcase for our room on the wish list. I wanted something large and semi-nice (i.e. not Ikea) for the bedroom. Rick found this on Craigslist.

It is the perfect size for the wall and our books, not to mention the color matches our other bedroom furniture quite well.

It's funny how happy it makes me to walk into these rooms and see things organized instead of stacked in boxes. Progress on the new home is slow but steady. We spent all of yesterday in the yard. I'll post some pictures once everything starts to bloom (which hopefully- with my brown thumb they will).

A Saturday in Spring

Ah, finally, warm weather. Right now all the windows are open in my house and I'm loving the fresh breeze. My feet are a little better so there's hope for hiking, tennis and biking this season.

Yesterday we took advantage of the great weather and went to watch my brother fly radio controlled airplanes. A few years ago, he got with a couple of his flying friends and starting an annual "Civil War". It has grown to a pretty significant event. Yesterday they had at least 30 planes and a number of different events. Here are some photos/videos.

First they did the "Limbo" event. You earned two points for flying between the two strings, one point for flying below both strings. First person with 10 points wins. This was really fun to watch. (The video only stays sideways until they launch the planes)



Zane and Isaac each got their first try at flying. Here is Darren helping Isaac.


Here is Zane with the plane he crashed. It was beautiful- he went into a dive and part of the wing broke off. Then the battery starting smoking. It spiraled to the ground smoking the whole way. Definitely the best wipe out of the day. Zane was famous as everyone came over to see the plane ruins.


Darren's flight of his newest plane.


Mom brought lunch for our family.


Just a few of Darren's planes. My dad also brought his fleet.



As we were leaving they had just started this event. Someone was flying a regular plane and all the smaller planes were trying to either rip part of the streamers off or knock the plane out of the sky. Someone took it down just as we were leaving.


The event went all day. We only stayed for a couple of hours. They also did some contests to win planes. It was really fun. We'll definitely be at the next one.

My Funny Friend

I am so amused by Afton's last comment on my Facebook status that I have to explain it here so everyone can know how funny and clever she is.

First a little background on my post...
I'm not a bath person. Kramer's comment, "Sitting in a tepid pool of your own filth", describes how I feel about bathing. Also, I get kind of bored just sitting there. But every once in a while, I really enjoy the hot soak. (However, I will never see it as an effective method of cleaning myself)

Two nights ago, I had about 3 hours of sleep. All of yesterday I was tired and sore. With the snowstorm, I got a chill and just could not get warm. Hot bath seemed like the answer. I needed something to read but was too tired for anything that would require a long period of concentration. I wasn't in the mood for brainless fiction. I settled on a book of Billy Collins poetry.

If you aren't familiar with Billy Collins, you are missing out. His poetry is so accessible. I love his imagery and humor. I've posted several of his poems before. Below is a favorite. I went to hear him read at the library a few years ago. He explained that he wrote this poem to mock a bad poem he had read.

You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine...
-Jacques Crickillon

You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.

However, you are not the wind in the orchard,
the plums on the counter,
or the house of cards.
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.

It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
maybe even the pigeon on the general's head,
but you are not even close
to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.

And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the boots in the corner
nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.

It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I am the sound of rain on the roof.

I also happen to be the shooting star,
the evening paper blowing down an alley
and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.

I am also the moon in the trees
and the blind woman's tea cup.
But don't worry, I'm not the bread and the knife.
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife,
not to mention the crystal goblet and--somehow--the wine.


Back to last night- After my bath, I felt great. Chill gone, totally relaxed, ready for an insomnia free night. I posted this on my Facebook.

I just had a steamy bath with Billy Collins. Very satisfying.

I thought I was pretty clever. I checked my account this morning and saw this comment from Afton.

You are the lighted candles
and the scented bath salts waiting to sooth tired muscles.
You are the mirror covered in steam
and the fluffy towel still smelling of fabric softener.

You are not the shiny hot water faucet,
nor are you the thread bare bath mat.
You could never be the thread bare bath mat.

It might interest you to know that
I am the cozy slippers
waiting patiently by the wall heater.
I am also the rose water tangerine bubble bath
that costs $15 a bottle at the fancy store in the mall
and the well loved copy of poetry, waiting to be read.

But you are still the lighted candles.
You will always be the lighted candles,
and the scented bath salts waiting to sooth tired muscles.
(With apologies to Billy Collins)

I’ve read it over and over. I’m so amused. Afton always cracks me up with her smart and subtle humor. This one may take the cake!

My Aching Feet (aka feeling sorry for myself)

Fair warning, this is just going to be me complaining.

I'm so tired of my feet hurting. Do you realize how often you use your feet? Walking, running, standing, shopping, skiing, even when you're sitting you put pressure on them. These all cause me pain!

I've had plantar faciitis for a couple of years now. It started mildly, my feet just felt sore- like they were bruised- when I got in the morning, but it went away after a few minutes. Slowly, it's gotten worse. Last fall when I started playing tennis regularly again, it got so bad that I couldn't walk for an entire day after I played.

Having a podiatrist brother, this should not be a problem. Too bad he's out of state. He sent me some inserts, which controlled it for a couple of months, then the pain came back worse. I bought some Dansko shoes (actually my cute husband surprised me one night with his secret cash stash and told me I had to go by some new shoes with it so my feet could get better.) They were wonderful, and I thought the problem was solved. But a few months later, they seemed to be like any other shoe. Now, it's worse than ever.

I wake up at night with pain shooting through my heels. If I am on my feet at all, as soon as I sit down I want to curl up in pain. I ice them regularly, which is its own kind of misery. I was so excited that Rick enjoys cross-country skiing and we had planned to go regularly all winter. But I hurt too much the next day, so we've only been 3-4 times this season.

I love to walk. It was so hard to move out of walking distance from my job. If I have to go anywhere, I'd rather hoof it. I feel ridiculous if I drive anywhere within a few blocks of home or work. If I had the time, I'd walk everywhere. I'm also pretty good at sucking-it-up when I'm in pain. But these days, I'm thinking those motorized shopping carts are a good idea for getting around the grocery store. Ugh.

My cutie brother told me to fly out and he'd fix me up. I've opted for a local doc he knows. So far, the results have been minimal, but I'm optimistic he's going to help me resolve this. Keep your fingers crossed.

Holiday Weekend

I know I'm late in posting about Valentines/President's Day weekend, but better late than never, right?

I've never been into Valentine's Day. When I was single, my girlfriends would have big girl's night out parties. I never got into it. It just has never been a big deal. Even when I was dating someone, it's all seemed kind of contrived and superficial. Not that I'm knocking the holiday. I think it's great that people want to celebrate each other and have a romantic day. Nothing wrong with celebrating love. It's just never been something I subscribed to.

This year we had some fun with it. Playing it up for the kids changes my attitude a bit. Rick and I got up and made a holiday breakfast: pink, heart shaped pancakes (I don't really like pancakes, but Rick's are delicious), pink whipped cream and strawberries all topped with raspberry syrup. It was divine.



Later, Rick and the boys gave me a box of chocolates- and by chocolates I mean a heart shaped box of Ferrero Rocher. Perfect.

After church, my parents had a family party. We had a delicious dinner. Mom planned some Valentine's activities, like, everyone had to pick someone else's name out of a bowl and anonymously write something you like about them- very creative answers when little kiddies are involved. Then later we read them aloud.

I was in charge of a game. The kids love the adverb game and it requires no preparation- how can you lose there. It really can be quite funny. This clip isn't very clear. I think Darren and Jairon are acting out bow hunting "delicately" or something like that.


It was a fun holiday.


We continued the holiday weekend, by teaching the boys how to cross-country ski on President's Day. They did extremely well. It turned out to be a bit more of an adventure than we'd planned. Rick and I read on the map that there was a beginner's loop if we started a few miles up the road from our regular route. We found it just fine. The problem was that with the fresh snow, we missed where the loop looped. After an hour or so we realized we should have been back at the beginning and turned around. Our short, beginners trip turned out to be almost three hours. The kids were troopers. No complaining, just sucked it up. Isaac did have to rest a couple of times and mentioned that he wished he could just teleport back to the car. I think we all did.

It was a beautiful day though. Light snow falling and about 34 degrees. We only saw a couple of people in the parking lot, then had the trail to ourselves. A grand day for sure.