Two Months of Summer - Gone?!?

July is over and done with - gasp! 

Here's how we spent it...

Watermelon smiles

The Logan fireworks show @ USU stadium on the 3rd
that my Uncle (waving from behind, in the red shirt) started clear back when I was a child....and I've loved going ever since!

Summer nights sunsets...

Fireworks...

...and family rounded out our 3rd of July!

Neighborhood party on the 4th of July - shaving cream and cheese puff game!

Summer cockroaches - bleh!

The girls and I went to "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" that my cousin was the Musical Director for!
And then out for shave ice - the BIG Kahuna - afterwards!

Kyle went on a High Adventure Scout Camp in the Tetons July 8-11.

Farmington Festival Days!

Hooray for the full-time missionaries in the Farmington Festival Days parade! 

(Sister missionaries in the red convertible behind the Elders)

Matt caught TWO shirts that they were throwing out at the evening festivities in the park - Brookelle immediately donned it as her new dress!

We {heart} our Farmington Festival Days

Family Night activity - climbing to the top of a neighborhood tree.

Annual read-a-thon and pizza picnic in our family room.

Katelyn got her long locks cut off!

Katelyn fed her obsession got crafty making bracelets

Katelyn & Brookelle were in the Days of '47 Children's Parade in SLC

Fresh Lime treats!

When the school supplies hit the shelves, we jumped on it! 

(Haylee's back pack pick) 

Lagoon

The new ride, Cannibal!

It's description: Cannibal lifts riders 208 feet and plunges them into a 116° beyond vertical free-fall into an underground tunnel

We ALL survived, although there WAS some crying and closed eyes involved. We also rode it while it was raining, so we were privileged to get pelted in the face with rain drops during our ride; the ride that was not open by Lagoon's season opening day because the dummies were falling out on the test runs; the same ride we noticed, as we waited in line, had a swaying/wobbling inverted loop when the coaster went around that section of the track  - Oh, my!

 

Road trip to St. George in the EARLY morning hours, as the sun is just coming up.

Nothing quite like the hot days of Summer, standing by Port-a-Pottys watching a Pioneer Day Parade!

Hooray for the full-time missionaries (again!), singing, "Called to Serve," in this parade in Washington, UT

Kyle got the silver medal running in the 16 yr. old foot race (because he was the only 15 yr. old who wanted to race, he "ran up.") and won In-N-Out Burger coupons, too!

Sparklers & firecrackers in the street to finish off the Pioneer Day weekend.

(including the "grand finale" that sent many of us RUNNING & SCREAMING, like last year!)  ;)

4-Wheeling in the property behind my parents' house

Our Annual Movie Marathon.  This year's titles: "Penguins of Madagascar," "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb," "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2," and "The Book of Life"

I attended the first day of this 2-day Women's Conference to close out the month of July.

Be Mine

We had a great Valentine's Day -- even though it was Friday the 13th that weekend, too!! 
And since it was on a weekend, we spread it out and celebrated dates on both days!  :)

The girls had their Valentine's parties at school on Friday.  I had purchased their valentine cards & treats for their classmates a while ago and they were on a shelf in our storage room.  Well......when I got them out for the girls to sign, one of the boxes had been opened - and 11 of the treats were missing!!!  It seems Brookelle helped herself to some treats whenever she felt like it over the last little while!  I told her I wasn't going to go out and buy more valentine treats since she's the one who caused the problem of not having enough for her whole class now.  She thought for a minute, then informed me she'd decided she would just be EXTRA NICE to some boys in her class as their "treat" from her, instead of giving them a candy to go along with her valentine card.  ;)  That girl is thinkin;! 
And, ya never know, maybe the boys would like that "treat" better anyway?!?

Matt & I went out to Sushi Monster on Friday night

Katelyn got creative with the Valentine's morning breakfast she made me!

Messages for Matt

Matt took me up to Taggart's Grill.  This has been on our "bucket list" but we've never made it happen, yet, because it's out of the way and there's always a wait - not exactly the type of place you can just drop by when you're passing through.  But, we planned to make the journey up there for V-day!  It was kinda weird going on that long drive up the canyon in FEBRUARY and having the sunroof open!  Instead of our surroundings being covered with snow, it was all brown & barren.  Taggart's is a popular place, I tell ya.  We thought we'd miss the crowds by going at 2:00p.m.  Nope!  Still an hour wait, so we went hiking in the hills behind the restaurant while we waited.  (I needed steps for my Fitbit!)  There's many more things on the menu that I want to try, so we'll definitely be back!

Matt surprised me with a new treadmill!

So I won't have trouble getting my steps in the snowy winter......WHAT WINTER this year?  ;)

He had put it in the front room, but I hadn't seen it.  Katelyn kept trying to get me over there.
She'd call me, telling me to "Come here."  Saying she had to show me something, and I told her to just bring it to me!

Then they finally got me to go up the stairs (that are by the front room) but I

didn't even look in that direction.

(They were trying - I was just oblivious!)

Eventually, Matt had to say, "Just go look in the front room!"  ;)

We finished it off with our traditional HEART pizza from Papa Murphy's and red drink with Valentine-y dishes and table (and Cherry Ju-Ju hearts!).  

Then we watched our traditional movie: "Sleepless in Seattle" (Empire State Building on V-Day!) together with the girls.

  (Kyle went to a didn't-go-to-the-school-Valentine-Dance-party instead of hangin' at home with us!)

#LOVEISINTHEAIR

If You Know Who the Pink Ladies and T-Birds Are.......

.......you're a girl/boy after my own heart!

I happened to check in at The Pioneer Woman's blog tonight for the first time since Summer started -- have I mentioned before that Summer really kicks my butt?!?  ;)  HERE and HERE and HERE for just a few reminders. Especially THIS ONE as I was getting a missionary ready to go?  And we went on back to back to back vacations/trips.  (unpack, wash, pay bills, pack, repeat!)

ANYWAY, so, although I love her blog, I've been a little preoccupied!  BUT ON THE DAY that I return to it, to my great delight, she is doing a movie quiz, which she does periodically, but today's was on the movie, GREASE!

Oh, I got giddy!  I could hardly start it fast enough!

You can check it out here:
 The GREASE quiz

I am pleased to announce that I DID NOT even use Google to help me with any of the questions (my 1st time ever on her movie quizzes).....AND......I was done lickity split (also, my 1st time ever!).....AND I scored a 100% on my own!

You see, when I was in my teens, "Grease" happened to be on T.V. one night, and my family recorded it on our VCR!!  We tried to remember to pause it for the commercials, but some still got recorded on the video tape, as well.  So, when we watched it in the future, we had to fast forward through those. But, I loved it!  (the movie, NOT the fast forwarding!)

In fact, I looked for ANY excuse to watch it.  WHENEVER any friend came over, I'd be like, "Hey, do ya wanna watch a movie?!!?"
And they were like, "Sure."
And I was like, "Cool."
And then I proceeded to get the GREASE video tape out and watch it myself AGAIN play it for them, and introduced them to the greatest movie ever!

In fact, when I threw a Surprise 40th birthday party for Matt, we had Karaoke there.  NORMALLY, I wouldn't do that, but they had, "Summer Nights" - so what d'ya know?  We ended up singing it together!

***What I didn't know THEN, was that the movie I repeatedly watched in my youth had been edited for T.V., and years later, I was given the real movie as a gift, and I watched it again, and I was like, "WHAT?!?"  OH MY!  I don't remember THIS!  Did they change it?  Because none of these naughty/improper/crude/irreverent parts/lines used to be in it!  Apparently, they had done a thorough editing job!

And because I had so much exposure to it, I can quote many, many of it's lines.

Sandy: Danny?
Danny: That's my name, don't wear it out.
Sandy: What's the matter with you?
Danny: What's the matter with me, baby, what's the matter with you?
Sandy: What happened to the Danny Zuko I met at the beach?
Danny: Well I do not know. Maybe there's two of us. Why don't you take out a missing person's ad? Or try the yellow pages, I don't know.
Sandy: You're a fake and a phony and I wish I never laid eyes on you!
As she throws down her cheerleader pom-poms and runs away to cry!  (I may or may not have acted out this scene a time or two - "just for fun.") 

BUT, even though, Danny was a "bad boy" and a jerk, and Sandy did start to date a "nice", athletic, (but kinda boring) boy, in the movie, I was still pulling for Sandy & Danny!  WHY?!?  'Cuz in REAL LIFE I don't want my own daughters - or my young women - to go after those types of boys.  It sucks ya in, I tell ya.  This movie had POWER over me!  ;)  haha.
Also, I could ramble off these:

“Men are rats, listen to me, they’re fleas on rats, worse than that, they’re amoebas on fleas on rats. I mean, they’re too low for even the dogs to bite. The only man a girl can depend on is her daddy.” – Frenchy

“She looks too pure to be pink!” -Rizzo

Marty: Do you think these glasses make me look smarter?
Rizzo: No, you can still see your face.

“Tell me about it, stud.” -Sandy

It was a fun quiz! Any other Grease lovers out there?  If you're a serious Grease fan (like ME!), I bet you could score a 100%, too!  (let me know your score!)

In the end, when Sandy changes for Danny (becomes an "edgy girl"), and Danny changes for Sandy (a letterman sweater-wearing, clean-cut guy), I KNOW I should've been disgusted that she gave up who she was for a guy (because my mom always fed me that message about the movie!), but I actually thought Sandy looked GREAT/HOT with her curled & teased hair, black leather outfit, & her RED SHOES (Let's be honest, I was probably 90% swayed by the RED SHOES!) and I was happy with the ending!!!  Even though, AGAIN, in real life, I don't want my own daughters or young women lowering their standards because of a boy!
 

But, again, the movie gets to ya - right to your heart!

I'll always have a great fondness for GREASE.
{But, for the edited version a little more than the real one!}

Up All Night

Last night we watched a movie on Netflix called, "I Don't Know How She Does It."  

Almost right at the start of the movie, there was this one scene/quote in there that really caught my attention....because it was SO relateable.  It shows the main character (a mom) lying in bed at night, awake, just staring at the ceiling, while her husband is sound asleep next to her.  Her voice is simultaneously narrating the scene:

"A recent study showed that 64% of women with young children don't sleep through the night. 

Researchers were at a loss to explain WHY?

They could've asked me!

At night, I, like women all around the world, do THE LIST

• Emily's Birthday party theme:  Pirates or Pop Stars?
• Things to buy:  paper towels, toothpaste, pork chops, a birthday gift for Jedda's party....
• Find out if "Jedda" is a boy or a girl
• Call that guy
• Make a play date with the kid who doesn't bite
• Refill washer fluid in car  --  Wait a minute!  Shouldn't that be on Richard's (husband) list?  Who am I kidding?!?  Richard doesn't have a list!
• Wax something.....anything!
• Call Richard's mother and say, "Hi."
• OR just email, "Hi"
• Wash Ben's teddy bear
• Renew birth control pills
• Twinkies
• Ambien
• Finish year end fiscal summary........Oh no, START year end fiscal summary
• Hamster?
• Kegels?
• Bagels

...and on and on." 

Oh. My. Word!  I have been there!!!  This was the worst for me when my first (& only at the time) child was in his toddler years.  It was so maddening because he was finally sleeping through the night, but then, there I was lying awake, thinking about EVERYTHING!  Grrrr.

And then I discovered Melatonin. 

Now that I'm past the stage where any of my babies wake up in the middle of the night for nursings, I have been doing better about not waking in the middle of the night for THE LIST.  Now, instead, I make it through the night, only to wake up too early in the morning to THE LIST, while my husband is still sleeping in.  (And then he asks me why I didn't sleep in, when I had a chance to, on the weekend!??!)

So, THEN, last night....

I don't know if it had to do with the fact that:

I had just watched this movie 

OR

I had failed to take my Melatonin

OR

That I had slept in yesterday morning, after returning home late from an extended Spring Break family trip we took, then worked even later, so THE LIST had not been attended to at it's regular time.

But, I awoke at a little past 3:00 in the morning. 

And laid there.  And laid there.  

While Matt was snoozing away....

I tried to block out my own thoughts....

....because everything/one else in the house was QUIET - and I SHOULD be sleeping!

I was still awake when streams of light started to come in between the blind slats.

And I couldn't go back to sleep because the wheels were turning:

I finally started to write THE LIST down on a post-it notepad Kyle made me that I keep on my night stand.......and this was AFTER I'd already made a list while at dinner to get me back on track after being out of town for a week.....the middle of the night stuff was all new stuff!

I asked Matt this morning if he saw THE LIST I'd made during the night.....and he's like, "WHOA!  What the...?!?  Who does that?"

ME.

This Weekend:

It has been a tradition of Matt & mine, over the last several years, to go on a "recovery" overnighter at a hotel sometime between Christmas and New Year's.  We usually have our niece stay with our kiddos, but this year she is on an LDS mission in the Canary Islands.  And my other niece (the sister to the above mentioned niece) is getting married on New Year's Eve this year, and she planned her pre-wedding temple day on the Friday evening that we would've gone on the overnighter.....so, it didn't work out this year.  We decided to substitute an "all day date" instead.  Matt took the day off work on Friday.

* Breakfast at Ruth's Diner up Emigration Canyon

(No outdoor seating this morning in the frigid temps where the sun was blocked by the mountain the patio backs up to!)

* Then we looked at some cars at about 4 different dealerships in Salt Lake & Davis County.

Can I just say that some car salesmen are in the wrong job!  They're really bad!  NO people skills!

(One really good car had been sold just 20 minutes before we arrived and the buyer was still there 

doing paperwork and the car was, too, getting detailed!  Miss!)

* We went to this movie matinee:

(It was interesting.  Walter is quite a delightful geek. ;)  We liked it.  Very clean (PG).
We got good seats this time, unlike my last experience at a movie. 

Spoiler Alert:  Matt's favorite part was when I screamed out loud and grabbed his arm,
practically jumping into his lap, when a shark came out of the ocean!)

* We had "linner" at Costa Vida afterwards.

We got the usual:  sweet pork for Matt, grilled steak for me.  (Salad, that is.)

* We went home and changed into our dress clothes, then went up to the Bountiful Temple

to attend a session with our niece, Maddie, and her fiance, Josh - and a lot of my 

extended family.

{Interesting note about Maddie's maiden name/married name:  Currently, her last name is Fowers (same as my maiden name)
and her fiance's last name is Baum (pronounced, "bomb").  So, when she gets married, she will be known as "Maddie F. Baum."}  haha!  ;)

* We went to my brother's house for dessert following the temple session.

There were a few choices, but I had peppermint ice cream pie with Oreo crust - YUM!

* Everyone (except exhausted me) did their Saturday jobs in the morning...which drug into

the afternoon for "some" (who shall remain nameless).

* Matt took the girls sledding

* The boys went to the movie, "The Hobbit: The desolation of Smaug"

* Which meant I had the [quiet] house all to myself!!!!  And I read some more

from my book, A girl name Zippy: growing up small in Mooreland, Indiana

And then I fell asleep while reading, for about 1 1/2 hrs., until the troops [noisily] came home.

* We got together with some of the Brenchley adults for

Dickey's BBQ for dinner, card games, and visiting.

* Church on Sunday

I taught the Young Women two lessons:

This one and This one. 

As far as establishing a Christ-centered home, I found this helpful chart on Pinterest recently: 

{It's hanging on my fridge now, ready to go for 2014}

* Sunday afternoon was spent with a visit from my Visiting Teacher,

more reading, and a nap!

* We had a non-traditional Sunday dinner for Sunday dinner

(Creamy Black Bean Salsa Chicken), but it was

easy and allowed me to have a leisurely afternoon while

I am still recovering from the post-Christmas-run-over-by-a-truck feeling.   

* We never got to watch "A Christmas Story" during the month,

so we actually finished off the night watching it, even though it's after Christmas - that's OK, isn't it?

With the magic of Wikepedia and imdb, we discovered those "kids" (Ralphie & Scut Farkus) 

in the movie are like MY AGE! ~ weird.  

(the actors who play them, that is.)