The Sound of Silence

Ah, the moment when you realize you've spent the last several minutes entirely absorbed in taking care of important things (doing the dishes in this case), and you haven't heard a sound from your toddler. Yeah. I found Dallas stuffing his crayons (which he also wasn't supposed to have) into my ice water. I snatched up the camera even while telling Dallas "no", and trying hard not to laugh!

BTW, he stuffed the crayons in so tight I had pry them out of the bottle.

What donut are you?

I found this on Calista's blog, and had to try it!

I love donuts...

You Are a Glazed Donut

Okay, you know that you're plain - and you're cool with that. You prefer not to let anything distract from your sweetness. Your appeal is understated yet universal. Everyone dig you. And in a pinch, you'll probably get eaten.

http://www.blogthings.com/whatdonutareyouquiz/">What Donut Are You?

Water, water everywhere...

This is my floor. Recently we had a storm, nothing too serious, and the rain was driving straight at our front door. Late that night, I noticed water on the floor in front of the door. Thinking it was rain that had forced its way in, I put a towel down and went to bed.

Two days later I'm still mopping up water. Josh and I examined the floor, the freezer and the wall to figure out where on earth this water was coming from. It was the A/C unit. It's a window unit that we installed into the wall; the drain holes, outside, had become clogged and the condensation was forced into my wall. The wall doesn't look all that bad, no apparent water damage, but my floor is still wet. Being concrete it is also rather slick.

The root of the problem is solved, but the effects will take longer to disappear; in the future I will be making routine checks on how it's draining...because I really don't want to go through this again!

Snappy Surprise

This afternoon, when I let Dallas outside to play, we found a friend sitting on the sidewalk. It looks like a pretty normal box turtle, and we've had several around. But it had some nasty looking claws, and it kept hissing at Dallas, so I put it in a box and left it on my counter until Josh got home and could take it out in the back forty and turn it loose.
Dallas was sorry to see it go, and had spent the hour and a half before Josh got home running back and forth between me and the kitchen trying to get me to lift him up and look again.
I suppose if I come across another one, I just might need to keep it for Dallas to see and oggle over:)

Save a horse....

Before
After

This is my latest project. I saved this cute rocking horse from the dumpster, and, as you can see, he was in a little bit sad shape (note the missing tail). Dallas loves rocking on it, and today I finally got him all fixed with a new tail, reigns, and cleaned "saddle".

The flowers that bloom in the spring!

The heavenly scent of roses has been wafting past my front door for a week at least, and only now have I finally shared them!

The Little Monster!

Okay, here I am, minding my own business, catching up on everyone's blog. I wasn't going to post yet, I don't have pictures or anything exciting to report, but I wanted to see what everyone else was up to.
There I was, and Dallas drags a chair over, stands on it and wraps his arms around my middle in the sweetest hug imaginable. I hugged him back, kissed him on the head and asked what he was doing. He looked up at me, smiled.....and rubbed his ookie nose all over my arm. Then, he climbed down and went right back to playing.
Despite this, I can't help but laugh and shake my head over it. What a little monster!

Mother's Day, Princes, and Boiling Oil

My Mother's Day didn't arrive on the normal date this year. My husband's big plans to do something were foiled by our stimulus check not arriving (blame the government!). Instead, when I recieved a gift card from my mom, I ventured out of my house to spend it all. Josh went with me, but refused to come into the store. When I finally came back to the car with my arms loaded with all the fun things I bought, there was a balloon and bag with my name on it waiting for me. While I'd been shopping Josh had gone to a nearby store and filled a gift bag with all sorts of things, including chocolate, cookies, and flower seeds. I was very surprised, and Josh looked like the cat who stole the cream.

Later that day, we accompanied a friend to the movies. We saw Prince Caspian, and anyone who is intending to see it....DO!!! It was great, I loved it! Our baby sitter fell through, and I walked Dallas near the door until he fell asleep in my arms, and I didn't have to miss any of the movie.

My one bad spot this week happened a few days ago, while making sticky chicken. (For those of you who have no idea what that is, see Utterly Favorite Foods on Calista's blog.) While frying up the chicken, I dropped a piece, splattering my arm with the hot oil. I now sport four giant blisters on my fore arm and a large bandaid covering two of them that broke open this morning. Th only good thing about the whole sorry affair, was that even though Dallas was standing next to me in the kitchen, none of it got on him (whew!).

All in all, I'd say I had a good week, and a great Mother's Day.
Thank you to my wonderful husband!

Book Tag

Awesome Tag!! I love anything to do with books!

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag three people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

My nearest book was In the Ruins (the second to last book in a series I've been reading).

The 6th sentence is: Their eyes stung and their noses ran from the constant irritation of falling ash and blowing grit.
The 7th sentence is: Yet the patter of ash fall eased by the time Fortunatus sighed and turned to Rosvita.
And the 8th: "What if she is not coming back, Sister?"

I tag: Sarah H., Mom and Dad M., and Abby!
I was tagged by Stephanie

Don't Bother me...I'm Eating!

Birthday Party!!

Saturday, Dallas went to a birthday party, and he had a blast! The party was for Cai, pictured below, and he was turning 3. Dallas ate two hot dogs, a cup of popcorn, and drank two cups of juice. Afterward, he ate a cupcake and a small amount of ice cream. He spent lots of time throwing balls around with the other kids, riding bikes, and blowing bubbles. Eventually he crashed out and stayed that way through all the tear down and goodbyes.

This is the toolbelt Cai got from Dallas.

Friends and Family Tag

Rules of this Tag:
1. Answer the questions about the list of friends and/or family on your blog.
2. If you don’t have 18 names answer the question about the next name that you have not had a question for on your list.
3. Tag 5 people.

--When did you first meet the 1st person on your list?
Like Melinda, I met Cousin Abby a long time ago, but I'm not nearly as sure of the date as she is.

--What do you like about the blog of the 3rd person on your list?
I love how often Ashley includes Joseph in her pictures and posts. I don't always get Josh's name in, let alone his picture. Way to go, Ashley!!

--What do you like best about the 5th and 6th people on your list?
Several years ago, now, I had the opportunity to spend several days in the home of Uncle Ken and his family. It was great to hang out with my cousins, but I particularly remember the peaceful feeling, the warmth of the spirit that settled on their house, all the time.
Esther and I had many memories together growing up (our moms being so close and all), and I've always loved how energetic she is; and how she focuses the energy into accomplishing the goals she sets.

--How long have you known the 9th person on your list?
Oooh, I haven't actually met Jessica. She's Josh's only first cousin, and she lives too far away to visit, so I'm afraid I'm not aquainted with her at all.

--What impresses you about the 11th and 12th people on your list?
Kathy has an amazing talent at the piano, and her voice is devine! She's also impressed me with her strength in dealing with the grief of losing a loved one.
Melinda, oh, the things I could tell!! Mel doesn't just impress me, no, she astounds me with her good cheer, upbeat attitude, and smiling disposition. She and I had our moments growing up, but she's always been the one to see the bright side first.

--What is a memory you have with the 16th person on your list?
Way back when I was a snotty teenager, I went to visit Melinda at BYU Idaho. Because there was a shortage of beds, I spent the night at Rachel and Brandon's house. It was just after Jenna was born, and Rachel and I went upstairs to tidy up her new bedroom. I remember organizing tiny pink dresses in the slightly triangular room, and sighing over the perfect crib and teddy bears. Rachel told me my chance would come, and we went back downstairs to bake cookies.

--Say something nice about the 18th person on your list.
In one of the more recent posts, I have to say I am sooo JEALOUS of how great Sarah F. looks in her pregnancy. I didn't look that good (thus the reason there are no pictures of me during that time). They say a women is most beautiful when she's pregnant, and Sarah is the perfect example.


I think I'm out of people to tag, OH NO!
Just in case, I'll tag:
Abby
Grandma and Grandpa
Sarah H.
and
Mom and Dad M.

Caught with the Cleaner

Hearing a clatter in the kitchen, I peaked in and found Dallas rifling through my cleaning supplies. Fortunately, none of them contained any bleach.

...Just the Cowboy in me

Here they are: all of Dallas' cowboy blankets. G'ma Reid's arrived a few days ago, and I had to take a picture of them together. The red one is denim on the other side, and was made by his Great-great Aunt Linda. The light blue with boots and cacti was made by his Great-Grandma Danes. And the Boots Quilt was by G'ma Reid. Dallas loves hauling blankets around, and especially likes to have them draped over his head so he can run around like a ghost and "scare" people:)

Relay for Life

I had to post this before going to bed, I just knew I'd forget otherwise.
A friend of ours asked us what we were doing tonight, and when we said the obvious "nothing", she invited us out past the viaduct to support her in the Relay for Life. While we had no idea what it was, we decided to go. It turned out to be a very fulfilling hour.
The Relay for Life was a relay walk for survivors of cancer. The evening began with The Star Spangled Banner, followed by The Pledge of Allegiance, and it felt so good to see every hand on heart, and hats removed, and tears in the eyes of the man standing next to me.
There were a whole bunch of teams that would keep walking all night (7pm-7am) to signify the heartache and troubles of those who were going through therapy and chemo. The sun going down was the terrible news that would change their life, and the dark, cold night was their difficulties going on, sometimes even wishing to give up; then the sun rise to symbolize the cure, the triumph of overcoming it.
Josh and I weren't prepared for the entire thing, so we had to bring Dallas home (it was getting pretty chilly) and put him to bed. But, in my head, I keep seeing those women (and a few men) walking with their heads up, determined to make one lap, then another, to prove that they were strong enough to weather the night, to prove they were willing to do anything on their way to finding a cure.
It was beautiful, and I wish I could have stayed. And next year, I'll post a picture of my participant t-shirt that I will receive for walking alongside such brave people.

Pic of the Day

Oops! I forgot to post a pic of this when I took it. This is our deck, we made it out of the boards Chris and Laurie took off of their deck when they resurfaced it. Laurie thought we might want to use them, instead of throwing them away, and I jumped on it. I have been very pleased with myself the last few weeks, being able to sit at my own deck, on my own chairs. Now all I need to do is wash it down...