Graceland

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

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?

Thursday, July 8, 2010

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.

Monday, June 21, 2010

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.

Monday, June 7, 2010

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 !

Friday, May 28, 2010

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!!

My Movie Reviews

Quiet Earth. B-. Another SciFi recommended by Netflix, although this one was actually interesting and enjoyable. A guy wakes up and everyone is gone. Made in New Zealand, it claims to be one of the top ten movies in the US in the year it came out (sometime in the 1970s). After it was over, we agreed that it was good, but the ending was a little confusing, so we watched the ending again with the directors comments. Lame. Apparently the whole movie was supposed to have an anti-nuclear message and the director takes credit for his movie making New Zealand nuclear free. So.... pretend you don't know that and enjoy the movie.
Sunshine. C-. Netflix. That's it. We are not trusting Netflix's rating of sci-fi movies again. The sun is dying so a crew is going with a nuclear missle to "re-start" it. I kept hoping aliens would show up or at least something would happen to draw me in. A lot of things almost happened, but when they did, it did not make much sense.
Warm Bodies. B. Red Box. I was surprised by this movie. I'm a fan of a good zombie flick, but when I heard about the plot, it seemed a bit too much. It turned out to be very entertaining. I'd rate it pretty high on the must see zombie film list and very high on the cheesy teenage romance film list.
Wolverine. B. I'm a fan of the X-Men movies. I'm also a fan of Hugh Jackman. It was hard to go wrong going in with those two biases. The fighting sequences were too long, but that was expected. If you've like the X-Men movies, you should like this one too.
The East. B. I forget how much I love the indie flicks at the Broadway. This also had an environmentalist-based plot, but was written well and I liked how it ended. A women goes under cover in an environmental terrorist group. It goes with the obvious plot of her having sympathies for members of the group and trying to balance that with her personal beliefs. Worth seeing.
World War Z. B. I was in the middle of the book and didn't want to see the movie until I finish, but I couldn't help it and saw it opening weekend. Not a big deal as they are very different. This is a different kind of zombie movie. While most are horror flicks, this was more of a suspense movie. They cut out the gratutious gore associated with most zombie movies and gave it more of a plot. Fun for zombie fans and non-zombie fans.
Silent Running. D. Netflix. I have no idea why this is rated so well on Netflix. Sci-fi movie made in the sixties with blatant environmental message. Forests have died on the earth so they are growing them in a space station orbiting Saturn. Earth decides to abandon the project and for some reason that means they have to blow up the forests. One man understands the impact of losing all our forests so he kills everyone. My description made it seem way better than it is. At one point, he programs his robot helpers to play cards and you watch them play cards for about 10 minutes. Skip this one!

My Book Reviews

The Rent Collector. B. I loved this book while I was reading it. Then the author's comments on the back disappointed me. It was fiction! I was so inspired by the "true" story of this woman living at the dump in Cambodia and learning to read. The whole way through I thought it was true. I was mad when it wasn't. Although toward the end, it started getitng a little unbelievable. It was based on real people which bothers me wondering how much is true and how much is fiction. I still recommend the book, but know what you're getting into.
Divergent. B+. Fun, quick read. YA fiction. Your basic strong female in post-apocolypic world fighting to make change. Even though the story's been told over and over, this one was very engaging. I can't wait to read the next in the series!
World War Z. B+. For staters, this is very different from the movie. It's 10 years after we won the zombie war. The book is a series of interviews with survivors. I was hesitant about the way it was written and that I wouldn't stay involved without a central character. However, the book created a very real world. So much so that when I was getting off the freeway one morning and saw some homeless people waking up under a bridge, for just second, I thought they were zombies. I also wanted to bring it up in conversation. Like when someone was talking about North Korea, I wanted to say, "Did you hear how they handled the Zombie Apocalypse?' It was a fun book. I've never read a zombie book before and I may never again, but I'm glad I read this one. It also was welcome to read a book that isn't a strong female character overcoming incredible odds. I'm seriously weary of that plot line.
Waiting to be Heard. B+. I've followed the Amanda Knox case for several years. I thought, since I knew most details of the case, this might be boring. I was surprised at how engaging and well written it was. She is a quirky girl and, while the complete lack of physical evidence makes me sure she is innocent, I can see why people think she is hiding something. The book was haunting to think the someone who doesn't understand a culture coupled with a corrupt prosecutor could put an innocent person in jail for years.
Girl Gone. C-. Maybe it was called Gone Girl. I don't remember. Book club book. I've never gotten into mysteries. This one took a while to get into, then I couldn't put it down, then it ended and I wished I never picked it up. Ridiculous ending.
The Kitchen House. B-. I have no idea how to rate this book. It was slow to start. Once things started to happen (murder), I found myself sucked in and not wanting to put it down; however, once I did put it down, I didn't look forward to picking it up again. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's similar to a bunch of other books I've read. I'm just getting weary of the genre and need to mix it up a little. Overall, an interesting read. The story of a young white girl who is indentured when her family dies on the boat from Ireland to America. Her relationship with her new family (the slaves whom she is sent to live and work with) and how her life is different from them because of the color of her skin.
The Happiness Project. D. I'm reviewing the book, but I'm not going to finish it. I knew this wasn't my favorite genre, but it was the book club pick this month so I thought I'd give it a chance. I didn't see the point of reading someone's goals. I sometimes feel like these "self-help" books are an excuse for people to feel like they are doing something to be happier, when really they are an excuse to avoid working on yourself by living through someone else's experience. Instead of reading the book, how about spend that time working on your own "happiness project". As I read, I kept thinking it should have been a workbook for readers to complete their own project while reading hers. I'll be interested to hear how others in book club liked it.