Some actual creative crap

Still so tired today, we stayed for Primary and then headed home to sleep. Poor Matt has worked so, so hard. I've been relaxing watching some documentary on Ogden, Utah. I can't say it's actually interesting, but it's not bad for background noise.

I have been doing creative things lately, just didn't post any because I had to get that big project finished. The big project was to complete Lori's Birthday present. I started it in July but just got too busy to finish it until last week. We gave it to her before she and Uncle Carl left for Labor Day weekend. It's a family scrapbook to show Malot and Jessica and to keep for herself, to show off her family until the babies come home. I kept the designs simple so that she can add any journalling and whatnot she wants to.

I was recently invited to join a group of scrapbookers on website I frequent that hosts some swaps of pretty high quality. I signe dup for one last week, so I'll be busy making the kits for that swap this next week if I ever get all of the asphalt cleaned up from what seems to be every surface of this house.

Anyway--here is Lori's album, the last page is a pocket page to store letters, notes and other little things she wants to save for the little ones. Hopefully, if you click on them, they will enlarge, if not, I'll adjust it later.

So...tired...

I was going to sneak the kids off to Lagoon today while the men worked on the roof, but when we realized only grandpa Ted was going to come, I knew we needed to stay and help out. We will play another day.


The guys all worked on the roof and I tackled some of the "honey do's"" on Matts list. My mom and I got the front door painted, I got a shelf put up in parkers room, an entertainment center put together there and blinds hung up. Then I realized bricks for a retaining wall were on sale at Lowe's and it was such a good price, we needed to get those purchased. Kate, Em, and I took 2 trips to Lowes and purchased and hauled 160 of the bricks we needed and all of the kids helped set up the wall. It will need to be leveled out eventually but it will work for now. I was pretty pooped after loading and unloading all of those bricks, but the hedge needed to be trimmed, badly. I have never trimmed a hedge, but I think it turned our pretty nice. We also bought paint samples and chose the new house color. We will see how long it takes to recover from this weekend before we tackle that, but it will need to be soon since we not have a kaleidoscope on the front of the house. I think when it is all done and once we can get the roses in the front planting area to take and fill in, we will have the prettiest house on the block.

Here's Moe doing some of the detailing on the new paint job on the front door.






1/4 of the house has the new shingles up and the part that had the most damage and needed the most extensive repairs has the felt all up. The rest of the roof will go faster, the gray architectural shingles are so nice looking.

We are so pooped though. We are subbing in primary though, so we will be up bright and early. Thankfully, we are not doing anything on the house.

My hands are calloused, raw, and cut up from the bricks, Matt is covered in scratches as well. When the last kiddo gets out of the tub we are both going to fall into a lump together and sleep.

While home repairs are not exactly "creative" my blog lost focus and the ability to be interesting a long time ago. Story of my life.

Thank Heavens for leftovers from the Cheesecake factory. Whoever thought of chocolate coconut cream CHEESECAKE gets and instant pass into heaven. My word. So good.

Roofing and Racing

The great roofing project began today. Bleah. It's going to be more work than we had hoped, the roof is in much owrse shape than we anticipated, and we figured it was pretty bad. Whoever built our house just did a really crummy job. They put the back doors in backwards, including the fram so that all had to be replaced, they ran plumbing and wiring in weird ways and places and they gave the house no attic access whatsoever.

So seeing how bad it is, we have at least another day added to the task but only a few hundred more dollars. Time is easier to come by than money in a project like this.

Tonight was the Pinewood Derby, Grey actually finished second in one race. We had a lot of scouts who were poor sports this year and it was kind of a bummer to have so many scouts either brag or pout. Next year I am going to make sure our lesson prior to the derby is going to be about sportsmanship. Grey was a great sport, cheering with the girls "We're number three!!! We're number three!!" I really prep my kids for coming in dead last and we kind of make that our goal every year. It spares me having a bawling cub scout.

We aim for cute cars, not fast ones.

After the derby we came home and played tag in the yard until the girls had to leave.

Happy Day!

School started Friday for Zane, it gave the seventh graders a day to get their berings in the new school without the pressure of having all the older kids there, it also means he had today off when everyone else started school.

Parker refused to walk through his schedule even once in his new school, I guess it is much cooler to be lost and clueless for a week than to know where you are going and be on time. He wouldn't let me take a first day of school picture, so I'll just embarrass him after school and take one as he approaches the car, in front of all of his friends.

Grey and Roe returned to their school in Murray today. Romy statrs her first day with a substitute. It's not a good way to start for her, she needs to know the rules and expectations from the starting gate, but what can you do? Grey's teacher is in the Army National Guard and Grey is excited about that since he idolizes Grandpa for being in the Guard. He didn't want me to take his picture either, but he lost that battle. He also did not want me to walk him to class, and so I just followed him instead.

I still have Zane here today- tomorrow will be the first real back to school day with all the kids gone all day, but it's still nice. I am ready for school now. I wasn't last week, but this week, I am.

Have fun kids, I love you, but Mom is doing the happy dance.

Guitarded

Today we went to Lagoon and then Matt came home and we picked up a guitar for Zane and Parker who both will be taking beginning guitar in school this year.

Parker said he and Zane are Guitarded and Greyson is Avatarded. (Avatar is one of his favorite TV shows.) It's fitting for a family that calls the harmonica a "moronica."

My tooth was fixed yesterday by Dr. Wisner. Just a glue job and a reminder of how bad popcorn and Milk Duds are for crowns. Wisner is a friend, Sunnie use to work for him and he cracks us up when we see him. He does great work and is just a fun guy to be around, too bad all of our socializing involves the F word. Flossing. He sees our whole family, my mom, Sunnie and family, Lindsey's family and was Sy's dentist as well before he moved. We love the guy. Thanks for fixing me up again, Wiz.

Pinewood Derby

The Pinewood Derby is next Thursday. Our family is not good at making fast cars, so we have to make really creative cars instead. This year Matt and Grey came up with the idea of a pool on wheels, and between the three of us, this is what we came up with. No wheels yet, but it still looks pretty cool.

Big Picture Scrapbooking party

So just as I finish up one challenge...I join in another,lol.

Eh, it keeps fresh ideas coming into this tired brain of mine.

This one comes from Big Picture Scrapbooking, the site run by Stacy Julian, everyone's favorite photo guru and simple scrapper. We were challenged to use 6 specific things on one layout. My layout came surprisingly quickly and while I am not loving the specific letter stickers I chose to use, I really like the layout. I also used a few of the supplies I got in a grab bag I ordered from Scrapinstyle.tv.com

And lest anyone take the journalling wrong- by "only daughter" I mean only daughter I got to name.

Here was the challenge and how I met the requirements:

Something soft: black felt flower
something that sticks: letter stickers
something that sparkles: green button (much more shiny IRL and shiny counts for sparkle in my book,lol)
something that is transparent: I made the tag from clear plastic
something w/ decorative edges: Scallop edge felt accents
something from an office supply store: green label stickers, green file fastener thingie holding the tag.

The boys came back from Arizona this past week, and we have all been having fun with them. I am rushing to get Zane his booster shots for school, and get the boys the school clothes they need and we're going to squeeze in at least one Lagoon trip this week.

Since I'm not trying to fit too many things into one week already, fate decided I needed to break a crown and my back tooth shattered last night while eating a Milk Dud. It doesn't hurt but not only did the crown come off, the porcelain shattered, so it will need to be totally replaced. Grrr......

Saturday we went south and visited the grandparents since nobody had seen the boys in so long. We went to Pioneer Park with Grandma Moe and Ted, then went up to visit Grandma and Grandpa Olson. There was a farmer's market going on in Provo, and the older girls and I liked scooting off to buy handmade jewelery. That evening, for reasons we shall not disclose here, Matt and I took Jane to get a haircut. It will be easier for everyone to take care of and it just looks super cute. She is so proud of it and keeps walking by the mirror saying "I look like a short hair rock star" and she can't get enough of it. She was nervous about getting it cut, afraid she'd get int trouble, but I think all of her fears vanished when the hairdresser gave her a free Hanna Montana poster and she saw how freakin' cute it looked.

Boring meeting leads to startling revelation!!

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

If I had a nickel for every time I have had to tell someone I am not Bono... Now I know why. Note that I didn't use the version that says I look like Omar Sharif, Carl Sagan and Cate Blanchett. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Thanks to Tamara for reminding me this site is out there. It's very amusing, but they should not replace police sketch artists anytime soon (Bono just robbed a liquor store! Or maybe it was Ed Harris!)

Reminds me of the old Elmer Fudd cartoon: I'm 50% pointer (there it is—there it is—there it is) 50% boxer, 50% setter (I-rish setter), 50% watchdog, 50% spitz, and 100% Labrador Retriever (Have you got a Labrador? Know where you can get a Labrador? Then shaddap)

Last Scrap Etc challenge

This should be my last entry for the weekly challenges at Scrapbooks etc.

The challenge was to scraplift the August cover of the magazine and make it your own.

I lifted the basic design, but changed the colors and shapes of the layout and went with my own theme. I don't love this layout- it's a bit too busy for me and I didn't stray enough from the original to feel like I was adding my own creativity to it, and it just looks too messy to me----- but it is done and the challenge is done, I only missed one week out of 10, and that's pretty good.

Peach Clobbered

Okay, so I bought waaaaay too many peaches when they went on sale last week. We made jam, syrup and I still have enough peach crap in the fridge to make 6 more jars of jam after making fresh peach "clobberer" (as Roe called it) last night.

Romy hated it, Greyson ate his obligitory one peice and told me it was the most wonderful food he'd ever eaten, then declined seconds...Matt ate 4 pieces, so I'm guessing it turned out okay.

But we are really peached out.

Now what to do with all the zuchinnii........

One more layout

Before I cleaned up my scrapping mess, I did one more layout. This one is of Rhett and Natalie, the couple who were married in Idaho a few weeks ago. Rhett is "big" Romy's little brother that I use to torture as a kid. I am super happy that he married such a nice girl this summer in the Pocatello temple.

Scrapbooks Etc Challenge

I skipped last week's challenge. All the kids were here and we just had so much going on and I was working on another project anyway, so I missed last week's challenge. No worries.

This week the challenge is to do a "day in the life of me" layout. Most people are writing about their busy days and schedules, I decided to do the anti- day in the life because in the summer my main goal is to relax and do as little as possible ( even though I rarely accomplish it,lol.) SO I made a layout about my summer slacking tendancies. I did a lot of hand painting and drawing on this layout and decided to use a color that I don't use very often, green.

I recently bought a new green purse that I just love and it looks great with my green dress. (No, not a real green dress, that's cruel.)

The big boys come home this week, I am super excited, I have missed them.

Peaches and Parties

One of the things Matt and I did together when we were first dating was to watch the winter Olympics together, and we are excited that the Olympics are back again. Tonight we had an Olympics party and watched the Tivo'd opening ceremony and as many of the sports as we could. Most likely the TV will be on 24/7 until the Olympics end.

For our party we had each person sponsor a country. They had to present a food from that country for everyone to eat. We decorated the Family room in red for China and enjoyed tasting the various foods. Nothing was too complicated and the kids each helped with their dish.

Matt chose Jamaica and made tropical drinks, I chose Switzerland and just served pieces of a Toblerone bar, Emma had Czech Republic and made Potato pancakes (aka hash browns), Kate had France and we made French Crepes with whipped cream and homemade peach syrup, Grey had China and made Chow Mien noodle cookies and also fortune cookies, Jane had England and made English Muffins, and Romy had Mexico and made Churros. We also drank Coke since it is an Olympic sponsor and we really had fun. We talked about politics with the kids and discussed some of the big stories in this year's games.

Yesterday I made peach jam with Emma and Kate, 10 smaller jars for the freezer and one each for the girls, and one for our dear neighbors. We also made a good supply of peach syrup. I need to invest in a new canner, I don't know where my old one went but freezer jam will only last a year or so, canned jam and fruit will last much longer. Thanks Sister Lindsey for help with that.

Dylan and banana pops

Today I babysat Dylan for a little over an hour. We all had a great time playing with him, it's so cute that he is crawling now. He likes to growl and blow raspberries on my arm. We took him outside in the front yard for awhile and he didn't like the grass on his legs, but once we put him on a blanket he kept crawling over to the grass and touching it with one finger...then he'd pull away, then slowly reachout his one finger again to touch it....to funny.

He's such a wiggly little guy but we spoil him rotten here. Hopefully after a visit with Auntie Chris he sleeps really well for his Mommy, if not, sorry, sis but we had fun with our Dylan toy. We made the fried zuchinni with the stuff from our garden, we also made zuchinni coconut bread, so yummy. After our dinner of oh so healthy friend zuchinni, Roe and Emma made banana pops and we had those for dessert.

With only 2 1/2 weeks left of summer vacation we're going to spend it doing as many fun and lazy activities as possible.

Here you go Tamara.....

Good greif the things I get talked into. I'm part of a scrapbooking message board-- okay I am part of dozens-- but this one you need to participate in at least one swap every so often to stay in the group. So far none of the things I have seen are really what I do-- lots of paper piecing-- teddy bear stuff-- cute stuff, but things that aren't my style. So I signed up for one that seemed pretty low-effort to stay in the group- it's an embellished paper clip swap and you had to make a paper clip with a BBQ theme that was embellished and you could clip onto a layout.

So here they are Tamara-- the infamous hot dog paper clips. ROFL.

How does my garden grow?

We cleared out a nice big area for the garden this year, but with the winter that never ended and then suddenly it was hot as heck-- we didn't plant much this year. Just a few tomatoes, zuchinni and some squash. Well, we also tried sunflowers and asparagus but the sunflowers were eaten by bugs as soon as they spouted and they say asparagus can take a few years to sprout. The squash were also eaten by bugs. So this year it's zuchinni and tomatoes. I'm going to shred up the extra zuchinni this year and freeze it to make muffins and bread with later and we'll can salsa with the extra tomatos.

Some of the zuchinni is already to harvest, so tomorrow night we'll have fried zuchinni for dinner that we grew ourselves. I don't know why that makes me so happy but it really does.

While checking on my little garden Matt noticed we had some sort of fruit growing from one of the 3 huge trees in the back. None of them have ever given a hint of fruit so we picked it and it turned out to be a plum. I looked over the tree more and there were all of two more plums growing,lol. We had no clue and I am excited because I have always wanted a fruit tree. We'll get some help/advice from someone who knows what they are talking about and get it pruned well so hopefully next year we can see more fruit.

And in other fruit news...sort of...... today the Sunday School lesson was on saying kind words to one another and making sure you SAY the things you think about your family, the gospel and whatnot to your children and family- (you know.... so they can partake of the fruit and stuff,lol) Tonight's family home eveing lesson was based on those teachings today at church. We had each kid stand in front of the family and each person had to say one unique thing the loved about that person. It was fun to see each child beaming with pride as they were given compliments unique and special to them. It was a good FHE and Sister Sellers is such a good teacher. I am glad she has a son Parker's age that helps him do what is right.

The Holmgren's also bore their testimonies today. they are our next door neighbors and we just love them so very much. They have touched our family for more good than I think they will ever know (and boy, you should see their garden,lol)

Grey also bore his and he was so brave to go up and once he got up there, he froze, but I was proud of him for doing it.