His Airness

 It's that time of year again. The basketball season is in full swing, and all but one of my boys is playing ball this season including their father. 

Usually the whole family turns out to watch the games. It's so fun to cheer on our players and to yell at the referees together as a family. 

Just kidding we don't yell at the referees (at least not all the time).

That reminds me of Elder Holland's talk about "Never checking your religion at the door". 

You can read it HERE.

I almost forgot

We've had the strangest winter here in Utah. Sunny days with temperatures in the 50's and very little precipitation. I almost forgot what snow was; thank goodness Mother Nature decided to remind me.

The snow started Friday night and it never stopped. It snowed and it snowed and it snowed all night and then all day Saturday into early Sunday morning.

I can't count how many times Clint had to "shovel" the driveway. 

(When you use a snow blower does it count as shoveling or is it cheating?)

The top picture was taken this morning. The skies are blue, the sun is out, and everything looks so beautiful covered in a blanket of fresh snow.

p.s. - This is what happens when you go too fast in the snow. You slide and hit into the car in front of you who is stuck in the snow. Can we consider it lucky if it's only your car that gets damaged?

Big Birthdays - Part 1

 Last November Clint and I both turned the BIG 4-0!

And since every big birthday needs a big celebration, we flew deep into the Heart of Texas for a weekend get-away.

Birthday Week- Part D (Clint's Birthday)

Our last day at Disneyland just happened to be Clint's birthday. 

What a way to spend your birthday!

   We spent the day riding our favorite rides from BOTH parks

And look who just happened to be in line for Small World during the Christmas parade. . . talk about luck!

 It was the perfect day and hopefully a perfect birthday for my perfect man.

Birthday Week 2016 - Pit Stop

Wordless Wednesday:

 

20 Years

Last month was Clint and I's 20th Wedding Anniversary.

Last weekend, we were finally able to carve out some time to celebrate.

(It's been a crazy busy summer full of camps, college orientations, and yard work!)

Friday and Saturday, we took off on a little overnighter to Park City while #2 held the fort down back at home.

We attended the symphony, ate, shopped, and just enjoyed each other's company sans kids while #2 took everyone swimming at the pond, scootering along the river trail, and for a picnic. She's pretty awesome.

I think the saying "Choose your love, love your choice" couldn't be any truer. I definitely love my choice. I'm so grateful for this man and how our life has turned out. Here's to another 20+ years.

It Finally Happened

 As you may or may not know, three years ago, Clint and I bought a two-year old house. Here in Utah, when most people build a house, they move in first, and then put in their yard. The original owners of our house never got around to that part, so when we moved in, there was no yard, just a lot of dirt, and rocks. 

-Well, no more.-

I'm happy to report that as of last Friday, July 15th, we finally have grass!

 Putting in a yard with minimal hired help is a long tiring process. We tried to do as much as we could by ourselves.

Clint and my dad started in April moving rocks and installing the sprinkler system.

After doing as much as we could on our own, we had to hire out the rest. Someone to pour cement, build a couple of rock walls, bring in topsoil and grade the yard, and finally, someone to curb around the flowerbeds.

Here in Utah, the housing market is booming. We called 100's of landscapers who never called us back, and those that we were able to get a hold of were booked out for weeks/months. I'm an impatient person. When I'm ready for something, I want it right now. This was a hard wait for me. Finally, bit by bit, over the course of three months, we were able to get everything done.

 After months of waiting, once things got started, everything seemed to happen all at once, and almost too quickly.

On Monday the topsoil people finished. Tuesday the "Curber" came. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we (and when I say we, I mean Clint) installed 1,567,899 sprinkler heads.

In fact, we were up until 3 am most nights trying to get everything done and ready for sod.

Our neighbors were awesome and also helped.

We had one neighbor that came over every night to help. Our other neighbor stayed up late combing the dirt to make it smooth and remove any rocks.

Speaking of sod, it was scheduled to be delivered Friday night, and we would install it Saturday just in time for the return of our three older children who were attending a church youth conference.

WRONG!

The sod trucks pulled up a little after 5:30 am Friday morning (Who needs sleep?)!

There was no way we could keep the sod outside in the heat and sun all day long, so after going back to bed for a couple of hours, Clint and I began laying sod.

We had some awesome helpers. The first to arrive was a sweet neighbor lady, no bigger than me, who came with her two children. Together we carried the large HEAVY (who knew grass could weigh so much) pieces of sod over to Clint who then put them in place. We worked for over two hours and finally finished the smallest section of the entire yard before muscle fatigue set in and lifting another piece of sod was impossible.

 When I was wondering how we were possibly going to lay 20 more pallets of sod, more neighbors showed up to help -This time men! 

 They kept coming and coming and before I knew it, there were 10 men out there taking time away from their family to help us lay sod.  Each came on their own without being asked.

We were so grateful.

 When we began laying the sod, we noticed that there were a lot of unusable dry crumbly pieces that fell apart when you went to pick them up. This was not good. We knew we had ordered a little bit extra (a little cushion), but with all this bad sod, we wouldn't be able to finish the entire yard, and would have to wait (ugh! that waiting game I "love" so much) for more to be delivered. 

Somehow, even with several pallets-ful of unusable sod, we had just enough -just enough- to complete the yard. It was a miracle!

At the end of the day, as we sat on the patio looking out over our new yard eating Cafe Rio (that a thoughtful friend brought us), we were dirty and exhausted, but happy and very very grateful.

Two Months!

It's been two months since my last post. WHAT?!

Life has been crazy-busy, and I plan to blog it all.

WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?

For starters, we've (and when I say we, I mean everyone but me) been working on putting in our yard -FINALLY! After 4 summers without grass, I'm so ready.

 My dad came and helped Clint put in sprinklers. It was a looooong process, that took almost a month to complete.

 Then we had cement poured for a sidewalk, patio, and a basketball court.

 And of course, for memory's sake, we had to add our hand-prints to the fresh cement.

They go in order left to right - Clint, mine,#1, #2, etc

Next, we replaced our crumbling rock wall with a new sturdier, prettier rock wall

We also had a retaining wall built in our backyard.

Things are moving right along. We are so close to being able to feel cool, soft grass under our feet.
All we have left to do is to hire someone to come scrape the rocks out of our yard (there are only 1,459,678,577 of them), and spread topsoil. Then we have curbing and finally sod!
Stay tuned!

Sweethearts 2016

It is with a heavy heart that I write this little blog post.

Last Saturday was #2's last ever Sweethearts dance (unless she becomes a high school teacher and gets drawn for chaperone duty, of course.)

Here she is with her cute date.  Can you read her facial expression?

Let's look closer -

In case you don't speak teenager, let me translate:  her expression is saying "Hurry Up and take the dang picture mom so we can go!"

(Please ignore the blurriness.  I was feeling the pressure and forgot to focus the camera lens.)

It was bad enough that her little sister (#5) video recorded the whole thing. From the pick up, to the awkward boutonniere pinning (In our family we call it a booty-near because we can never spell boutonniere right. It's easier that way!), to the picture taking by yours truly, to the descent out the door and into the car.

Yay-ya!- having little siblings- ROCKS!

Remember what her brother did her first Sweethearts?  You can refresh you memory HERE.

Since I had taken a picture with her for her first Sweethearts Dance. . . .

(no idea what is on my shirt)

 I wanted a picture with her for her last.

Then Clint got jealous and wanted a picture too

 so I took a picture with him.

(I kid, I kid!)

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, 

WHY DO THEY HAVE TO GO AND GROW UP?!

MIA

Wow this week has been a -Ka-RAY-Zee- one!

SUNDAY right before church (our worship starts early at 9:00 am), #3 gets another never ending bloody nose. Which luckily, only dripped on his tie and not on his white shirt or dress pants. 

PHEW!

We ended up walking in late (which I hate) without #3. He came later after his nose stopped bleeding and he reshowered (let's pretend that's a word.)

MONDAY started out awesome with the best, sweetest, most thoughtful text from my oldest daughter- just out of the blue for no reason at all.

It made my day!!!

The next conversation I had was with Gram

This is how that conversation went down:

ME:  Hi Gram!  How was you weekend?

GRAM: Rachael? I can't hear you.  My hearing aids are broken and I was wondering if you could come take me to the doctor today at 4:30.

ME: Sure Gram, I can take you.

GRAM: What?  I can't hear you

ME:  (louder this time) YES

GRAM: What?  I can't hear you.

ME: (Screaming) YES! YES!

GRAM: I can't hear you

ME: YES! I CAN! YES! YES!

(By this point I'm racking my brain trying to figure out how I can let her know I can take her since she can't hear a word I'm saying.)

GRAM: If you can take me, be here a little after 4:00, and I'll meet you in the lobby.

When we hung up I was dying laughing.  Gram needs to learn how to text, so the next time her hearing aids go out, we can communicate.

HAHA .I just love her.

The next call I received was a text from #3 a little after 11:00 am. 

It said, "Will you come get me? I have had a bloody nose for over a half an hour and it still won't stop."

You know I did.  That sucker bled and bled like nobody's business.  We tried everything - ice, nose spray, pressure. He was so afraid they would have to shove a painful pack up it like they did the last time. It finally stopped right before our appointment with the ENT at 2:45.  He cauterized it, and sent him on his way.

However, we were a work-in appointment and had to wait quite a long time.  Remember I'm suppose to pick up Gram for her appointment around 4. It would take me a little over half an hour to get to her. AND #5 and #6 needed to be picked up from school at 3:15.  Luckily I have an awesome husband who always rushes in to save the day.  He left work early enough to pick up the girls. Then he brought them to the ENT's office where we switched places.  He stayed with #3 while the little girls and I picked up Gram and took her to her appointment.

Everything worked out.  Gram can now hear again, and #3 hasn't had another bloody nose yet.

HAPPY DAY!

Randomness and Other Things

A.) The kids celebrated their 100th day of school last week. 

That means that I have less than 80 days of a quiet house left before the madness of summer comes.

Just thinking about it makes me want to go take a nap.

 II.) #6 has grown hair! It's a miracle. It took her almost 8 years to do it, but she did it.

Yesterday she wore it down, AND she let me curl it - That's a BIG DEAL!

I called her "Lady Lovely-Locks" all day. She scowled at me, but I think she secretly liked it.

3.) I saved the best picture for last. my fine-looking husband fixing the water heater.

(*whistle*)

 He did this after he fixed the dryer.

The water heater's pressure valve was broken and was leaking water all over the floor.

Just over a month ago, this room was covered with wrapped Christmas presents. Can you imagine what a mess it would have been if the water heater had decided to break then?  

I give all the credit to the grace of God.

After 3 weeks, we now have a dryer.

We were able to find a shop that would repair the broken control panel of our dryer.

(When I say we, I mean my handsome handyman-)

I've never been so excited to do laundry before in my life.  I did 4 loads last night, and I've done 2 so far this morning.  I'm like a crazy woman washing everything in the house- sheets, bedding, pillows, the dog (oh wait, we don't have a dog). It's so nice to be able to have soft, warm clothes again.

No more scratchy underwear!

Whoo-Hoo!

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

Imagine lying in bed late one night.  You're nice, comfy, and snug as a bug.  You start to drift off into la-la land when you're awaken by the loudest band you've ever heard!  You rush out into the kitchen to investigate expecting to find a burglar, but instead you find that your kitchen sink is missing.  It's now sitting in the cabinet located where your sink use to sit.

I don't have to imagine it because that's exactly what happened to me a few months ago.

We were grabbed some boards and propped up the sink (when I say we, I mean Clint) until we figured out what to do.

We called a bunch of granite companies who wanted way too much moolah (that's Spanish for money) to fix it. So the sink sat, propped up for months until we could fix it ourselves.

Clint's been on vacation this week.  Guess what we did?

(You're so smart!)

We (and when I say we, I really mean it) spent hours chiseling, scraping, filing, and dissolving all the old glue and the caulking, both on the sink and underneath the counter tops.

Then we re-glued it and set it back up into place.

It's been curing most of yesterday and today. Hopefully by tomorrow we will have a working sink again - I really hope so because the dishes are really starting to pile up.

Gangsta' C!

Have I ever mentioned that I'm married to one of the coolest guys on the planet?  Seriously, he is always surprising me and awing me with his many talents. 

(Not too mention I swoon regularly over his extremely good looks.)

Last weekend was Clint's work Christmas party.  At this party, he surprised his employees and also me with a little performance.

He's a master lip-sync-er, and those moves!  - Who Knew?!

He blew me away, and by the look of pure delight, the cat-calls, and all the smiling faces, the crowd liked it too.

Here's just a little sample of what you missed.

(There may or may not be a video of this entire performance on YouTube.

*wink, Wink*

If you find it *ahem* it may be best that we don't mention it.  It may embarrass my extremely humble husband.)