Q&A

Here is Miles Jefferson, on our rainy walk the other night. He has been cracking me up lately, so full of questions and ideas. He's so fun. Below are some questions he's asked in the past few days, most of them at bedtime when I have my eyes closed and he's wiggling himself into relaxation mode. Kind of reminds us of this other little person.

Mama, how many sisters do you have? What are their names?
How many brothers? You have THREE brothers? What's Guggle's real name?
Who is Bramma's mommy? Who is her daddy? Did he die from cancer?
Is there air on Saturn?
Is there air on the moon?
Is there air in Phoenix? (It might as well be a different planet, for all he knows.)

When can we go skydiving?
If I'm an astronaut when I grow up, can I still be a dentist?
When can we see Toy Story 3 again?
When can I get some Buzz gloves so I can be Buzz for Halloween?
Mama, when did you get married?
What did Daddy look like when you got married?

It goes on and on. I love it.

blueberry progression

Also exciting: peaches

Grateful Sunday

One of our evening walks. Once the sun starts going down, we head out to enjoy the evening and tire out the puppy. This evening it had been raining, so it was nice and "cool." Aren't the trees on our street pretty?

Today, I'm grateful for:

• easy-going kids. I don't know if our easy-goingness created such mellow children or if we just lucked out. But they are awesome, easy to please, self-motivated, happy, and easily entertained. Gotta love that.
• a great Visiting Teaching companion. Teana is a great friend, and we have a lot of fun together.
• a worthy husband. Neal was called as Ward Clerk today, and though it means meetings and lots of time away from us, I know we'll be blessed for it, and I'm grateful that he is an upstanding priesthood holder.
• our visit with my grandparents. I love that we got to spend so much time with them, and that it was comfortable and fun. My kids really got to know them better and that means a lot to me.

summer reading

and freckle multiplication.

Bye Grammy & Grampy!

We had a lot of fun with my grandparents, who were visiting this week. They are on a coast-to-coast train trip to visit nearly all of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday this summer. We were so lucky to have them for four days here in Texas. We relaxed, laughed, cooked, ate, and watched the kids swim. Wish they lived closer. Or that we did. Either way.
We sent them off to Alabama via New Orleans this morning, and wish them safe travels.

Happy Birthday Grammy!

Toy Story 3

So maybe we counted down the days until last Friday when Toy Story 3 was released in the theaters. And maybe we got there an hour early so we could get good seats.

It was worth it. And how great are those mini 3-D glasses!

big green egg

I got Neal a "Big Green Egg" for Father's Day. He's wanted one for a while now, and we surprised him with one this weekend. I had it in the back of the car for about 3 days, and all the accessories in plain sight in the garage, and though he drove the car and spent lots of time outside, he never even noticed it. He's easy to surprise because of how observant he is. He's already cooked steaks and a turkey breast on his egg, so it's kind of a gift for all of us.

Grateful Sunday

me and my dad, probably about 1979

Today, I'm so grateful for many things.

We had a great weekend, and it got even better today because my Grammy and Grampy arrived! They are on a nation-wide train journey to visit all (or almost all) of their progeny for Grammy's 80th birthday. We're so happy to be stop number two! We're looking forward to hanging out with them for the next couple of days before we send them off to New Orleans, etc.

Today, I'm also grateful for my own loving Dad. He has taught me so much over the years, and has shown his love in countless ways, from the days carrying me up to my bed when I was a little girl, to the way he loves my own babies to this day. I'm beyond blessed to have had him raise me in a home filled with a peaceful spirit and the power of the Priesthood. Thank you, Dad. I love you!

I'm also so grateful for my loving husband, Neal, and the way he fathers our three little ones. He's patient when I'm not and silly when we need him to be. I'm grateful for his countless hours of sacrifice on our behalf. And that he pretty much lets me cheat on dinner and eat out any time I want to.

buds

I love the summer. We can just hang out with friends, no pressure, no time constraints! We've had fun with our buds this week, and it's not even half over yet.

Callie and Cater stopped by at our house, the half way point between their old house and their new one in Amarillo. We already need to plan the next time we hang out; they're such great kids. And their parents aren't bad either!

Miles and his best friend, Simon, at the museum in Fort Worth on Tuesday. These guys never get tired of each other, it's so cute.

Grateful Sunday

I had so much fun in Mesa this weekend, visiting Steph and Mike and their kids. Sweet little Elliot is just  the kind of baby you'd dream about. He's super squeaky, makes silly faces, has little wrinkles and fuzz all over the place, and his smiles are just little gems. Stella and I bonded a bit, too. She let me read her books, push her on the swings, and nap with her for a little bit. What a wonderful family the Cs are. It's fun for me to see how similar our kids are. Really similar temperaments in our houses. I wonder why. :) I don't know anybody as similar to me as Stephanie, Love You Steph!

Today, I'm grateful for:

• Neal, for just accepting the fact that I had booked a trip to Arizona and that he'd have to take a day off work and be Mr. Mom for a few days. He did a great job.
• Stephanie and Mike, for putting me up for a few days, and for letting me hold and smooch on Elliot as much as I wanted to. Their house is so peaceful.
• Yodipity, because it is yummy.
• the safe arrival of baby Elliot. I'm so glad he's healthy and perfect.

Grateful Sunday

Neal and the kids (and nosy puppy) doing the whole mentos/soda trick out front this evening. Good times.

Apparently, we had too many good weekends in a row, because this one definitely threw us for a loop. But in the end, all is well and we have many things to be grateful for. Let me start with Friday:

• I arrived home from picking Parker up from the last day of school (woohoo!) only to notice a large crack developing in our living room ceiling. A large, bulging, wet crack in the ceiling. Immediately, I turned off the air conditioner (the likeliest culprit) and woke up Neal (sleeping with Miles, gotta love Fridays), who quickly went up into the attic (where it's probably 140 degrees). After his third trip up there, he found the problem (something had caused ice to form on the air conditioner and the excess water was dripping out of the pan, and onto the drywall). He then performed surgery on the crack to drain all the water out of the bulge. Meanwhile, I cringed as my new couch and newer bookshelves lie directly below said leaking crack. Short story, the AC guy came out Saturday morning and determined the cause of the problem. Long story, we now need a portion of our ceiling drywall patched. Lesson learned: CHANGE YOUR AC FILTERS ALL THE TIME.
• Later on Saturday, Neal and I were out in the front yard doing yard work. I was pulling out the border around one of our large flower beds (which have no flowers because they are too large), and Neal was trimming the hedge near the house. Next thing I know, he is running out from behind the hedge saying, "Baby, I just cut my hand. I think it's really bad, we need to go to the hospital." I didn't even think twice, just grabbed a towel to staunch the blood, and ran to the neighbors' house to see if they could watch Audrey and Parker, who were swimming. Their entire family jumped up, ran over and took care of it. Awesome people.
Miles and I took Neal to the nearest ER, which is about 6 minutes away, thankfully, as the blood wasn't stopping. We waiting for what seemed like eternity to be seen, it was really about an hour and 15 minutes, which is a long time to sit there bleeding. I almost passed out at one point just imagining the hedge trimmer cutting Neal's hand and then thinking of the pain he must have been in. Ick. But Neal was brave and calm and didn't seem mad at all that we had to wait so long. I, on the other hand, was being obnoxious to the reception lady. After a while, they numbed up Neal's hand so they could take a look inside to see if there was any damage to his tendon (nope), then eventually stitched him up. The doctor recommended that Neal see a hand specialist since there is obvious nerve damage that may be permanent. Luckily, the worst part of the wound is on his left middle finger, which isn't necessarily crucial during a root canal procedure. We arrived at the hospital at about 1:30, and at 7:30, we were finally leaving. I had to leave him there alone for a good portion of that time, to take care of the kids, get cleaned up, and because it was too yucky and I didn't like seeing him in pain/all the blood.

Many things could have been worse in this situation, and I am grateful that they weren't, I'm grateful for our neighbors, who stepped in during the crisis, and I'm grateful for the kind doctor who took such good care of my husband. I'm grateful for my kids and their calm nature, and for Miles for hugging me through the parts we had to see. I'm grateful that I could at least use this experience in my Sharing Time presentation on the Holy Ghost today (Neal had a little premonition/message moments before he was cut), and that Neal's dad and Gail were able to be with us for dinner tonight. Neal will go back for a dressing change tomorrow and will have the stitches out next week. He had to cancel his patients for tomorrow, his hand is just too awkward and he's still in some pain, but if he's back to work on Tuesday, it will be a tremendous blessing, considering the events on Saturday. If you're his friend on Facebook, there is a really yucky picture of his hand wound. If you want to see it for some reason, let me know, I'll send you the link. I have a hard time looking at it!

Surely this week will be an improvement. Number one, we don't have anything to wake up for tomorrow (except for that darned puppy); number two, my parents arrive on Tuesday; and thirdly, I get to go to Phoenix on Thursday. And nobody will be doing any yard work.

last day

Today was finally our last day of school, we had a full day of school all week, which I thought was rather torturous. But, at the end of the day, my kids had majorly mixed feelings about leaving their classes and teachers. I think it surprised even them.

Here is Audrey with her angel teacher, Mrs. Smith. She was incredible, went above and beyond our expectations, I hope Parker has her in third grade! Poor Audrey had been crying, sweet girl.

Parker receiving his awards from the principal. Great job, dude! I can't believe they're in second and fourth grades now!

Good thing I still have one little one left. Him and his buzz cut.

town fair

We had a good, sweaty time at our little town fair on Friday night. Obliged the kids with a few rides and ended the evening with a funnel cake. Life is good!