Saturday, May 23, 2009

Gotta love them, really, you're legally bound to love them

Things I've learned from my boys (honest and not kidding):

  1. A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.
  2. If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.
  3. A 3-year old Boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.
  4. If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to
    spread paint on all four walls of a 20 x 20 ft. room.
  5. You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.
  6. The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.
  7. When you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh oh", it's already too late.
  8. Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.
  9. A six-year old Boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old man says they can only do it in the movies.
  10. Certain Lego's will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year old Boy.
  11. Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.
  12. Super glue is forever.
  13. No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can't walk on water.
  14. Pool filters do not like Jell-O.
  15. VCR's do not eject "PB &J" sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.
  16. Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.
  17. Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.
  18. You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor is.
  19. Always look in the oven before you turn it on; plastic toys do not like ovens.
  20. The fire department in Austin, TX has a 5-minute response time.
  21. The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.
  22. It will, however, make cats dizzy.
  23. Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.
  24. 80% of Men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid.

Clean House

Do you ever have those weeks when you really don't want to clean. I am not talking about the dislike of cleaning that everyone feels but one of those weeks where you do nothing, literally nothing. You know, you run the dishwasher when it gets full but don't empty it for a day, or two, or three, or until you run out of spoons and need to wash something else. You do laundry but it is now in a pile on the floor at the foot of your bed because that is where it landed when you kicked it off in your sleep. You only clean the bathroom when the counter is so dirty you don't want your kids to put their toothbrushes on it.
That is the way I have felt for the past week. The house was a disaster! There were dishes everywhere, dirty clothes Shaun had left behind in every room, sticky stuff on the kitchen floor and I really needed new sheets, but I still did nothing. We even lost the remote and I wasn't willing to clean the living room in order to find it, now that's bad!

So, I did what every girl should do, I called my sister and counted on her to inspire me to get up off my "rear view mirrors" as Shaun calls it and do something. Also, since people only come to visit when the house is dirty and when it's clean there is never a soul to be seen I decided to clean it all and then invite you in. Here is what my place really looks like, since no one but me ever sees it when it's beautiful.


I started in the kitchen. unloaded the dishwasher and loaded it and ran it again. That is chicken defrosting on my counter. Occasionally, I even cook!












I scrubbed the drip pans in the stove. I know that I have ranted and raved about baking soda before but here is the real proof. Non toxic, easy cleaning.
Before... ....and after.
It took about 2 min and a toothbrush to get the crevice and TADA, happy, shiny stove!



















Then I cleaned the dining room. I even moved the table and vacuumed under it. I haven't yet gotten anything to cover up the pantry shelves and make it look nice. So if anyone has any good ideas for me pass them along.

Then I moved onto the living room.















Ignore the small boy playing on both the computer and his Nintendo DS and watching TV. He's just multi-talented!














Next came the bathroom. Ain't it pretty. Yes, those are really star fish on my wall. Yay, CA!



















Last but not least my room. All there is left is Shaun's room but, frankly, I'm tired!

So, the next time you come over and there is more stuff on the carpet than there is carpet, or so much dust you are tempted to write in it, just pretend it looks like this!

My garden

I pulled A LOT of weeds
and mixed A LOT of soil
and moved A LOT of bricks
and planted A LOT of seeds and plants.
This is my pretty garden. It is small but good for Shaun and I. Maybe next year I will add on and plant more stuff.
This year I have corn (above in the center, by the end of the hose), strawberries (in the hanging baskets), tomatoes, pumpkins (at the base of the corn), cherry tomato (in the pot on the ground), onions (in each of the bricks), bell peppers (next to the tomatoes), zucchini (the little plants at the base of the trellis), squash (bigger plant in front of the trellis), carrots (in the bricks), lettuce (in the bricks) and cilantro (in the bricks). I also have a rubbermade tote full of potatoes.


Now, I need to pull the rest of the weeds to be able to plant grass. Yes, that is a 6' dandelion. My yard is narrow but long 6'x40'. Just big enough for an awesome slip and slide. Maybe I can find a mini fruit tree to put in at the end, do they make mini avocado trees?

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Family Trip to Tahoe

My cousin was supposed to get married. The wedding is off but since we were all planning on being there anyway, my aunt and uncle rented a cabin in Tahoe for the weekend (by tahoe city). Shaun and I drove up Thurs. and stopped at this gas station. These are just a few fun sculptures and vehicles decorating the Chevron.


These pics are misleading. It is lightly sprinkling and rained continuously the whole weekend we were there. We did have a little fun jumping back and forth between CA and NV; CA, NV, CA NV, CA, NV, hehehe.
South Lake Tahoe-Shaun and Madzie
Ain't she too cute? Trying on glasses in a gift shop.
Don't forget the earmuffs.
Lindsey, Shaun, Madzie, and Jared with a couple of bears.

A lady walked in front of me taking the kids picture and volunteered to take this one. I'm almost never in the pics because I'm behind the camera.
John and Jared, the original Blues Brothers
Madzie Boop

It was actually a good time. On Friday night we had a story share. We all wrote down a story about ourselves and then we had to guess who it belonged to. It was very enlightening. It seems my mom attracts lewd men, my cousin steels keys and breaks into vacation houses, my aunt picked up marines with her cousin at age 13, and my dad spent a beer filled weekend in Mexico nearly escaping jail (he wasn't involved in the drinking or the reason for jail but it probably wouldn't have kept him from being thrown in with his friends.) I merely pretended to be blind while riding my bike and ran into the back of a parked truck. Just shows you never know!

I finally finished!

I have been working on this for about a year. A sister from our ward saved all her daughters baby clothes and cut them into strips. She started sewing them together and then realized she was really over her head so she gave them to me to put together into a quilt. I finally finished it a couple weeks ago. Looks so cute! Even better up close!

Our silly cat, Tom

Toms favorite place to take a nap is a lap. Once he climb on there is nothing that will wake him or cause him to move except picking him up and dropping him of the couch.
Shaun tries to get his socks on so we can leave.
Success! and yes, cat still asleep
Toms other favorite spot is my bed. He loves to snuggle. He wraps his paws around my arm just as though he had hands. Apparently he'll snuggle with stuffed animals too, Shauns "bunna"

Shaun went to Knott's Berry Farm with the Savages

Grandma and Grampa Savage and Easton came to CA for Spring Break. They took Shaun to Knott's with them for the day.
Posed scared face!!!
I can't believe how much Easton has grown!!! 10 1/2 WOW!!!

More gymnastics

Shaun has really improved in gymnastics this last couple of months. Here is his pull over. He needs one hand up to get his legs over and then he can do the rest himself.
Back hip circle.
Sometimes he gets a little stuck.

The four events that they learn are Uneven bars, balance beam, vault, and floor. Uneven bar and beam are girls events but learning these will make him better on any of the boys events that he learns in the future.
Doing his own routine on the beam
Front roll over the vault. This is his favorite move.

Easter 09

Shaun and Linzey got up early to see what the easter bunny had brought.
Out hunting eggs
Linzey finds one.
Shaun finds another. Tricky easter bunny.
Small rant: This was an ok Easter. It was one of those days that shows me exactly how far I need to come to really have Christ like love for everyone. Having a roommate isn't exactly easy for me. I am a very independent person and I consider Shaun and I to be a family. We do things as a family, we have FHE, and Family Prayer, and Family Scripture study, etc. just like every other family out there. I do not feel the need to include other people in my family. BUT Lorie and Linzey include themselves whenever they are around. 99% of the time it is ok but Easter was just not one of them. I have traditions, a way that I want to do things. I always have Shaun get dressed and eat breakfast before egg hunting because otherwise we are late for church. It also starts the day off on a spiritual note to have prayer before eating and time to talk about Easter, the real thing, instead of the easter bunny thing. A few years we have even done bunny stuff after church. Instead Lorie and Linzey invited themselves to our egg decorating (I was ok with that) but then in the morning it was total chaos. I was trying to get Shaun to do it our way and Linzey couldn't wait and Lorie is telling him not to do it. It was so not fun. Of course, we ended up late to church, no discussion at all about easter, no prayer, nothing. She bought him some stuff to put in his basket which totally made it overboard. I try to keep the bunny stuff small: a chocolate bunny, a toy, a few candies, and then the hunt. It was too much and then he wanted to take it to church with him, it was so not the way I wanted to celebrate the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior.
I may just be making a big deal about nothing, but how would you feel if your next door neighbor showed up at your house easter morn at 7 am and took over your family's morning, traditions, and made you late for church? I guess someday I will be mature and charitable enough to not let stuff like this bother me. Until then thanks for listening to my rant.

Slip 'n' slidding

It was soooooo hot one day...
Sooyoung, Chingka, Cassie, Jeremy, and Eliza came over to play on the slip n slide
Several neighbors drove or walked by and asked if they could play too, but just for kids!
Although, since it was almost 100 degrees, I was seriously tempted.


Miss Eliza played it cool, just hanging out in the mini chair. Much too cute to get herself mussed up.

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