the best birthday present ever

My guys wanted to do something special for my birthday this year. They know I love their handmade gifts. It is so sweet of them to put so much work and effort and thinking into the perfect gift that would make me happy. The boys have worked in the shop for the last 2 weeks. They have carved, glued, nailed, used the band saw, and drill. This is what they made for me. It weighs about 10 lbs. They wanted to put it in the living room but luckily it didn't come with legs. I talked them into the fact that it would make a great bird feeder. So this spring we will place it in the garden. This is a gift that only a mother could love and appreciate. I love my boys. It makes me happy that they love me too.

infamous last words

When you have a pile of kids running to and fro, you never know what to expect. Shane went to Logan to do some shopping (that doesn't seem possible I know). He took Ridge, Brock, and Caleb. On his way home he stopped off at Travs'. The cousins have been dying for a sleep over so Shane thought this was a perfect time. He would bring home Mason and Zoe. It sounded great until he realized he be riding home with 5 kids under 10. He has a hard time if the TV and the toaster are on at the same time. He stopped at BK at fed the masses. Everyone ate except Zoe who only had a fry or two. Anytime you go anywhere with Shane, there is always someone that needs to talk with him. I don't know what it is about gun people. You are automatically best friends and can talk for hours. Here's Shane in burgerking trying to talk with someone and trying to watch over the kids just as the food arrives. He is not a multitasker. He managed to get through it, after someone ate his hamburger and he was left with a mini, and load everyone up again. About 20 minutes into the trip, Zoe pipes up with, I'm hungry. He doesn't know you have to force feed little pups, so he was able to here every 10 minutes the crisis that Zoe was in. I am still giggling. Shane makes it to our house safe and sound. We of course still have a toilet on our front porch from our plumbing woes. Shane, the knuckle head he is, made the blanket statement, make sure you use the bathroom when you get in the house. Mas and Zoe, you need to use the one right there, (it is outside on our porch) it's our special one for visitors. As they were unloading the van, the boys came in and got me and said, you need to see this. Here is little Zoe outside using the pottie. We laugh until we all about need to use it. I guess we need to get rid of our potty, or try to make our gunmakers a little less silly.

It's nice to flush

The gunmaker did it. It is never just replace a toilet. We had to replace the sub floor and the old pipe. Now it is awesome. We had to do rock, paper, scissors to see who got to flush first. Can you see the crack from the handle to the inlet? I think I'm going to go use my potty, just because I can. Try going 3 weeks without the main toilet. Not fun.

trucker bomb

How does this stuff happen? When it the potty training have I ever taught, go get a glass bottle and fill 'er up. I'm sure I never covered that lesson. Today, I'm talking with the big boys in the office and in runs Caleb. He is so excited and proudly proclaiming "look what I did, look what I did." He holds up and empty Jones soda glass. It is full of pee. Laugh or cry? I tried to explain through the holding back of laughter, "we should never pee it bottles, only in the potty." Now I'm going through the garbage making sure there are no specimen bottles to fill. The good to take from this. He didn't miss the mark, put the lid pack on, and didn't pee in his pants. I'm so proud.

Glitter bomb

I use performance enhancing glitter. There, I said it. Now the whole world knows. I might be stripped of some awards and titles now, but I could no longer bare this burden. I had to confess, and after yesterday, the cat is pretty much out of the bag. I only use it to sound better. When I play, I'm not that great. I'm still "perfecting my talents", so I needed that extra edge. When I use glitter everyone is overcome by the glow, not the mistakes. "Wow, she's not bad". No I'm crappy. it's the glitter, not me. I keep my little vile hidden where no one thinks to look and no man dares tread. The makeup bag. The following events have lead me to reconsider my use of performance enhancing glitter.
We had to get the whole family to the Dome by 7:30 am. We are an hour away. You can only guess what kind of morning it was. I thought a real time saver would be putting on my face in the car. If I could only go back. We get on the road and everyone went back to sleep so I bring out the face lift kit. I notice a trace of sparklidge on the zipper and think, hum that's weird. As I unzip I start to see more glitter. Not to big of a deal. As I start to brush and paint, I look at my fingers. What the! where is it coming from. then I see my little bottle with no lid. This can't be good. If you have tried to get rid of glitter you, can't. The fan, no. Brush, no. Window, no. Wet wipes. no. So here I am, glitter hands and all, I look down, my pants are covered in glitter. Upper deck, neck, face, hair, dashboard. It didn't really seem that bad until I was under the big lights. You could see a glitter trail coming down the stairs. From cross court you could see Ridge and Brock sparkling. Shane draining the three never looked more glamorous. There was a dazzling police outline of the babies on the bleachers. I looked like I was dancing at half time. I was just waiting for the tap on the shoulder, "excuse me miss, you're on now." I looked fabulous. When we came home I did my best to de-glitterfy. I have a sparkling counter top where I set my clothes and a glowing shower floor. Even after cleaning, today I look over at Shane in sacrament, the whole side of his face, sparkling. Brock had to sing in Sacrament. He sounded so good, or, was it the glitter? After the last 2 days I'm not saying I will never use glitter again, but I am considering it. Maybe I can find a better container.
Confessions of a performance enhancing glitter user.

joy ride

It has been over 10 weeks since I've had my "MAV". The mechanic assured us it is fixed and ready to go. everyone cross your fingers! I'm ready to have my car seats back, Caleb's tired of driving.

rabbit stew

Shane and his bros took the boys on a rabbit safari. Of all the things they hunt why he made the decisions he did is beyond me. I think it's because he likes cottontails. If you're going to shoot them, we need to eat them. A lesson the boys need to learn. That's great but why do I have to suffer as well? They brought back 5 rabbits. I thought it was just for the photo op. nope. After they got home, the pose spent the next 45 minutes outside. I never really want to know what they are doing. Too many details and it just makes more work for me. Ridge kept coming in and asking for supplies. Bowl, water, knives, salt, the usual. I was hoping he was skinning with the intent of tossing, so I played along. Before long here come 5 dressed rabbits. Shane sent the boys in with the request, "mom, will you cook these for us?" Really? I've had to chop up a whole chicken, no problem. Cut up some beef. OK. Pork. fine. Venison. piece of cake. When I went to cut up these rabbits, I just about couldn't do it. I don't know what it was. I did work my way through it. They just looked like little people parts. Creepy. That, come to find out wasn't going to be the hardest part. My boys are some of the pickiest eaters in the world. I have had to become an amazing chef. Smell, site, taste, texture. It's like I'm on live TV in front of the worlds' biggest critics every single meal. They are harsh. But we eat like kings now. It's just a little trickier cooking for kings!

I had to present my little fellows a meal that they would love. I would hate for them to be sour on rabbits for the rest of their lives (I know, we had a bad fish experience once but, that's another story.) I called around to all the old timers we knew, then searched the Internet for the perfect recipe. I made a crock pot meal. It was really good. Everyone liked it, but it was so hard to eat. It tasted a lot like pork. I guess I wasn't hungry enough. I hope I never have to be hungry enough. We are so soft. I was telling this story to Grandma Dahl. She said they used to eat rabbits all the time. It was a big meat source at one time. If there is a time of food shortage you are all invited to my house for rabbit. Until then, let's eat red meat.

change the football ranking system

I think the team with the hottest qb should always be #1.

Kurt is hot, is he not?

Cardinals #1

not enough crack

Plumbing. I can't find the picture of Shane doing plumbing. I know he deleted somehow, whether through thought or prayer, it's unknown. Anywho, he doesn't have enough crack to get the big jobs done, I "had" the picture to prove it. I needed a sink fixed. waited and waited. No fixie. I called in a real plumber. Not good. He fixed it. But for the 1 hr he was at my house it cost $250. The faucet only cost $40. You do the math. Now that's the way to make money. I needed some more work done it the bathroom. After I invited the last plumber over, Shane decided he would fix my toilet. It kept running. That was all I needed fixed. Well, Shane changes the handle, the float, and the shut off valve. All worked and I was amazed, until. BANG. We heard this loud noise. He asked, "was that you?" I replied with, "no, I thought it was you." After searching for the noise we found that the toilet tank had cracked from the handle down to the inlet supply. Now I'm not pointing any fingers, but isn't that just where Joe plumber had his tools? Problem, nope, not if you have a lot of caulk on had. Luckily for me, we just happened to have a mother load supply of caulk. It works, just don't be in a hurry when you use the upstairs commode. I think that if Shane had a bigger crack, he'd be a better plumber. At least now I get a new toilet. Shane's installing it, what could go wrong?