Permit Passing Party

My fabulous son, Calvin, is now a proud permit carrying member, which grants him the privilege of driving an automobile, whilst being heavily supervised (and cheerleaded) by his legal guardians. What a red letter day! In a little over 6 months, that permit can morph into a bona fide drivers license. Pretty dang exciting. Well done Calzone!

Thumbs up. Waiting in line to get his permit printout.

Celebrating at Panda Express.

Seemed like the right thing to do.

Uninvited Campout on Mother's Day Weekend

Instead of being avid campers, we're not. In an effort to give moms the weekend off (I'm guessing), our congregation planned a campout for mother's day weekend. Fathers and kids were invited (which basically meant moms were uninvited.) But since we hardly ever go camping I totally wanted to join in the fun. Ryan assured me that a few moms usually come anyways, so I decided to join my herd. Long story short, I was the only woman in sight, and felt out of place and entirely ridiculous.  We played games for a bit, hiked around a bit, and cooked some hot dogs and smores. Even though it was mid May, it was still pretty chilly. After dinner, Norman and I headed home to sleep in our own warm beds.  As long as I live, I will never crash a Dad and kids campout ever again... and I will always support family campouts, you know, where the entire family is invited:~)

Simon setting up the tent. We forgot to bring our stakes, so he whittled some sharp sticks and stuck them into the ground. MacGyver. It was crazy windy. so the tent would not have stayed in place without his help.

So many friends to play with.

Look at all those dogs! We brought brats.  There is something magical about the taste of a brat cooked over a campfire in the fresh open air.

Norman loved the cliff with sand and sticks and other boys playing king of the hill.

Mother's Day was lovely bc I got to spend the day with my children. I missed being close to my mom, but was glad I would get to see her in just a few weeks for Preston's high school graduation.

My family gave me many treasures, but this doll was a highlight.

I've made a New Year's resolution to swear more. I think it's just so touching that my family is trying to help me keep my goals.

Belated Birthday Boy

My 4th son is officially 9... as of May:~) He loves baseball, watching basketball with his Dad, took piano lessons this year, just finished his 4th year in our elementary school's Chinese immersion program (Mandarin) and is basically a fantastic person. Of all my 6 children, Owen was the only one eager enough to come to our family arriving 3 weeks before his due date, and is actually usually early/on time in general. He's a high quality individual, and I'm super glad that I get to be his mum. Happy birthday, Owen!

His birthday request: breakfast in bed.

Pancakes, bacon, strawberries, scrambled eggs, and milk in a goblet.

9 years old is going to rock.

His class was assigned to do a presentation titled "I'm an expert" where each student taught the class about something they know how to do well. Owen taught the class how to turn themselves into a turkey using a sweater with a hood. Basically, I could not have been prouder. Gobble, gobble, Owen. Gobble. Gobble.

End of the year class field trip to the nearby park for popsicles and play time.

10 points to Owen for sharing his popsicle with his younger brother. What a guy!

Baseball season went very well. He was even invited to play on the Allstar team after the regular season.  

Piano recital. He played the song from memory and did us all very proud.

Happy belated Birthday handsome. My this year bring you many chicken tenders from Chick-Fil-A!

Preston Goes to Prom

Preston Edward Albert Smith, aka, P.E.A.S., or the "Beast" went to the senior prom several weeks ago. He took his lovely girlfriend, Ms. Abby Watts, aka "Belle" from their schools musical, "Beauty and the Beast." They had a wonderful night. I'm sure there was plenty on dancing.  And as a total mom perk, I got to play the part of photographer for their group. Below is a sampling of the pics. A good camera plus attractive people can certainly make up for a lack of photo taking talent:~)

Preston refused to smile w/ teeth because of his braces. 

Abby didn't mind his braces so she smiled and showed her pearly whites.

Lots of kissing... but I'm sure they didn't kiss for the rest of the evening.

An attempt at a cool guys photo. A failed attempt.

Under the tree of life, on this totally cool circular bench.

Love the dresses. What a great group of kids.

Preston rocking the suspenders.

Lovely.

Lovelier. 

Skee Low's, I Wish:

"I heard that prom night is a bomb night"

I love this song. 

Table That

Whenever I head out of town, even for a little while, my handsome husband decides that it is time to make some change to the house: a new oven, new paint on a wall, etc. I headed to AZ for a few days to check out my sister's brand new fabulous house in Gilbert, and to sit in on my twin's preschool (as I'll be doing a preschool of my own next fall - Little Piggies Preschool!) Anywho, whilst I was away, Ryan decided to play.  He made a new dining table. And I absolutely love it. It got me thinking about the phrase: "table that" which depending on where you live, means totally different things. In the US, it means, talk about it some other time. In the UK, it means: put it on the agenda and were going to talk about it now (cause we're all sitting at the table.) Frankly, I think the UK version makes more sense. Especially since we sit at our table all the time. If the phrase were, "lawn mower that" or "cold storage" that, then it would make sense to me that the topic will be ditched for another time... Oh well, let's table this... so should we continue to chat about it or leave it for later. Who knows. But I love me new Ryan made table.

Here it is, in all it's glory.

It's made of maple plywood. He bought the legs online.

It took about 2 hours on Saturday to cut, sand, nail, glue and lacquer. It's tableriffic.

Here we are dining at our new table. Crab legs... the table was better than the dinner. Sometimes that happens.

*** Sunday, April 23rd, 2017***

Bacon Vs. Lindsey

Bacon won this time. Sorry to jump to the final score, but I lost, and I lost pretty good. For years I have had a love/hate relationship with bacon. I love it, and I hate how much I love. In a not very animal friendly way, I have always adored bacon, and have simultaneously always wanted a pig. I've settled on a breed: a Juliana pig. I'm pretty sure that my neighborhood is not zoned for farm animals, but may plan is to call my new little Juliana pig "Dog." That way, when we're trotting around the neighborhood on our daily outing, I could say, "come on dog," or "Come here dog."... you know, to throw people off the scent... One of my children said I can't name a pig a dog, but I pointed out that we have a dog named Cricket*. We have a precedent for naming a pet after another animal. Mom won that discussion. But now that you know the ending, I'll get to the beginning. Early Tuesday morning I was making breakfast burritos with bacon. I fried up loads of bacon, and felt the pan contained too much grease. So I grabbed a paper towel to mop up a bit of the grease (which was a dumb move without tongs.) Well, I was right about there being too much grease, but I was wrong about just how much was in the pan bc when I went to mop it up, I accidentally swirled a bacon grease tidal wave onto my right wrist. I squealed out in pain, ran it under water for a bit, then finished the task of making some incredible bacon breakfast burritos. So, ya know, totally worth it.

A little Julianna. A piglet. Darling. Mercy. Darling indeed.

A pig in motion. Just imagine a darling little piggie collar on that sweet little porker!

2 Hours after. That blister is about the size of a quarter.

And hurts like its the size of a half dollar.

And this is 4 days later. 

Nice. I't still hurts like the half dollar.

Not sure what I should be putting on it to avoid a scar.

 *We, nor her previous owner, chose the name "Cricket."  Guide dogs are named by the family that first has them, and loves them, then lets them go. Cricket, it is then.

175th Anniversary

The women's organization in my church is celebrating it's 175th anniversary this year. Pretty dang exciting! I was asked to plan the stake event for the party since I know my way around a party. I was able to gather with many women in our stake to ensure that the Deci-semi-septi-centenial anniversary was as fabulous as the women who claim membership (FYI: there isn't really a membership process: be an adult women who wants to help others, and you can be part of the Mormon Relief Society:~) As luck would have it, our Stake R.S. President is friends with Elaine S. Dalton and so our guest speaker was taken care of... and the rest was up to our committee. We handled the advertising, food, decor, music, and an epic service project: 175 purse kits containing tampons, pads, pantyliners, lip gloss, nail clippers, chocolate, and lotion. Boom, baby. Those are on their way to our local women's shelter (the original plan was to send them to our local refugee center, but given the state of refugee's and our government restrictions, the Refugee Center their incoming numbers were up in the air, and that they couldn't take any donations at this time: sad.) Anyways, the big day was Saturday, March 11th, 2017. We started set-up early. and were done right around 11:00am - which worked out well since that's when I launched into a migraine. Major lame. I came home and tried to sleep it off. As a blessing I was well enough to attend the event (4:00pm start time.) With over 350 in attendance, I vote the 175th anniversary was a smashing success, thanks to a wonderful committee, and all those who carved out time on their Saturday to attend.

Ryan (an unofficial committee member) designed this fabulous invite. I just love it sooo much!

Getting Ready!

We put together the purse kits in two separate areas of the building. Women either put a kit together, or wrote an inspirational note to go into the purses. Even women that were unable to attend the event were able to participate by donating items.  Busy women, busy lives, still make time to help!

Getting the event all set up.

Order of Operations:

Speaker

Service Project 

Dinner: Soup, rolls, salad and cupcakes

The decor was incredible! I love a sign that is too big and wonderful it's easy to read from 100 feet away!

Loads of cool quotes lined the room.

I wanted the pineapple sign to say "sweet on the inside... but acidic when necessary."

It was simple and fabulous.

Our Stake Relief Society President and me.

Sister Dalton and me after her talk.

Her adoring husband right behind her.

Getting those kids together! The purses and goodies were inside the giant green bags.

This was the message I wrote. It was made into a sticker and it went inside a small white gift box, an anniversary gift for each sister. The box contained Hershey's hugs and kisses, and loads of love.

Done and dusted.