Poetry and Pinewood

Dan's pinewood derby was Friday evening. He got 3rd in the best of show category (don't they look thrilled?). The first pic is what his car looked like when it was 1oz. The second is what the bottom looked like when it was 5oz, the top was covered with coins as well, they were out of weights. Dan was happy. I didn't realize this was our last pinewood derby until Gabby mentioned this was Ralph's, in her blog a week or so ago. I'm a little sad.

Robin made it to the district speech tournament and she won 2nd place for her poetry reading this weekend!! She is going on to regionals in two weeks, if she makes it into the top 3 there, she will go to state! It was a two day tournament and she came home so happy but exhausted Saturday night. (I took this yesterday after church when she finally got a chance to relax.)

Netflix at our house this week . . .

I love Netflix! I especially love it when we have a stormy weekend like we just did and can't do much outside.

We're on the 3 at a time plan and I usually like the have a little girl movie, a 10 year old boy movie and a movie for Mom and Dad and the older kids to watch after the little ones go to bed, sometimes this includes Dan sometimes it doesn't, it depends on the movie.

This week's the selections were Enchanted, Super Bowl XI-XX: Disc 1 and Dan in Real Life.



Enchanted was darling. The music was fun. Perfect for the little girls. My big girl loved it too. Favorite line: Him, "You made a dress! . . . out of my curtains!" Her, "Do you like it?"







Super Bowl XI-XX: Disc 1 This is the only football I will watch. An entire season's highlights in 40 minutes and the Super Bowl in 20. It is a TV show on ESPN I think. I love when you can hear the coaches yelling at the players.






Dan in Real Life I really liked this. It is what I expected The Family Stone (the worst movie ever) to be. It was sweet and sentimental and funny and it is what I hope our family will be similar to, in another couple of decades. Favorite line, "YOU ARE A MURDERER OF LOVE!!"

Pimping their ride . . .

Making the car their own consisted of peeling off the yucky tinting on the back window, scraping off the old tacky stickers, and carefully putting on new tacky stickers. You can see Robin really put a lot of effort into the job.

Truer words . . .

So a couple of weeks ago we did our 1st quarter primary activity at church. The morning of, I went to the grocery store for a few last minute things and Sara went with me. Sara said, "Mom, why do we have primary activities?" "I don't know." I said a little exasperated because of course, I had just been wondering the same thing. "Why do you think we have primary activities?" I asked her.

(think think think)

"I guess . . . so we have more work."

Simply because it's spring . . .

The last two weeks have been so nice; a few stormy days but mostly sunny and warm and springtimey. We've been out in the yard almost every day and these are some of the things we've gotten done.

Last year we planted 12 blackberry plants. I mentioned to Paul that eventually I'd like a little arbor over them so the branches would be off the ground. The next day he had put this up. I wasn't successful in my effort to take pictures of the entire thing. It's about 50 feet long. Isn't it great?!?

We also worked on the garden. We weeded. Then we brought in about 12 wheelbarrows of compost that we made ourselves, thank you very much. (We only used about half of it.) We added plant fertilizer as well and then stirred it all into the dirt.

Next, we leveled it and then we were ready to plant. We planted sunflowers, green beans, cilantro, basil, squash, cantaloupe, artichokes, peas, carrots, and 30 tomato plants. I hope this garden does better than our winter garden. Cross your fingers.

The next project was to finally paint the swing set we inherited with the house. Grandpa Mac and the boys fixed it up last summer but it was still ugly. It isn't very imaginative but at least it looks finished and I am happy when I look outside. We also painted the chicken coop, we've been meaning to get to that for a long time too. It feels so good to have these projects completed! Here are the befores and afters.

We also weeded old flower beds and dug new flower beds and planted lots and lots of flowers, mostly bulbs.

I'm anxious to see what will come from all this work.

Eggs

Our hens lay brown eggs. They are pretty and I have loved having them. We get about a dozen a day and we use them all. There is one problem . . . they aren't good hard boiled. The membrane just under the shell is very thick and when I peel an egg half the white comes off with shell.

Someone told me that it is the age of the eggs and if they were a week or so old the shells would come off easier. Now I never asked how old the eggs were when I bought them at the store but now I think about eating them a week old and it kind of grosses me out. I have actually set a few aside and will boil them in a week and see if it makes a difference. (I'm sure you'll all be sitting on the edge of your computer chairs waiting for the results.)

So because of the whole hard boiled issue as well as the already a color issue, I bought 5 dozen white eggs to decorate. I dyed 6 brown eggs just out of curiosity and to my surprise they came out beautifully. The colors are so rich and luxurious and perfectly even. They almost look fake. Aren't they fabulous?


I hope I can figure out the hard boiled thing by next year, then we'll have the prettiest and yummiest eggs yet.

Happy Easter

I loved being in Germany at Easter. One of their fun Easter traditions is to hang colored eggs in their trees.

The kids are off today for Good Friday and the weather is going to be gorgeous today and tomorrow. I think we will work in the yard a little and maybe hang some eggs in our tree out front.

I hope you all have a happy Easter.

I got my license ya ya ya ya ya!

Paul got his driver's license this week! What fun!! Although the feeling in the pit of my stomach as he drove away from me the first time . . . not so fun.

. . . you boarder on the Adriatic . . .

From May 1998 to May 2000 Paul was the commander of a NATO unit. In the spring of 1999 thousands and thousands of Muslims left Serbia with only what they could carry, fleeing persecution. They were pouring into Albania and didn't have anywhere to go or food to eat. Paul's unit was deployed to Albania to help with relief efforts. He was in charge of the American contingent to the NATO effort supplying the refugees with temporary food and shelter.

Paul was gone for just under 6 months and while he was there I sang, hummed or thought this song a zillion times a day.

Our resident food expert . . .

So about 10 or 11 years ago the gorgeous and talented and super smart Erin Kelly married my brother Joshua. Not long afterward I was talking to Sara and was shocked to hear that Erin was NOT impressed with our traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner, which I am sorry to tell you, consisted of . . . well . . . any meal bathed in green food coloring. (Man I thought that was so clever!) . . . And did I mention Erin's maiden name is Kelly?

Within days of hearing this news I talked to Erin myself, I think to try and explain the virtues of the green food coloring . . . hmmmm . . . I swear I could see the disgusted look on her face, over the phone. (If you read her blog at all you'll understand why.) A few hours after that phone call I received an email with actual St. Patrick's Day dinner recipes.

I have to admit I was skeptical but I tried the recipes she sent. I mean how could anything be better that lots and lots of food coloring?? Now, I LOVE making an authentic and yummy Irish meal on St. Patrick's Day. It is a simple meal of corned beef and cabbage and Irish soda bread and I also make chocolate mint brownies. (Please don't tell Erin I still put green food coloring in the frosting.)



I'm only posting this today because you still have time to go to her site and look under Holiday Cooking and make your own awesome St. Patrick's Day dinner. You'll be so glad you did.

Thanks Erin, for saving my family from my sweet St. Patrick's Day tradition!

Pauly's Friend Wheel

I think this is so cool and pretty too.

When you get there click on the words Interactive Flash Wheel and roll over the names.

Spring Break

Gorgeous!!

A couple stopped Robin and Paul and asked if they could take a picture. This is under the Flagship Pier.

While the big kids were in the water the medium kids (they don't like being called the "little kids") the medium kids, played on the beach. I wish I had pics of the kite flying and the treasures they found, batteries ran out. Do you love that awesome camera work??

They found a stranded jellyfish under the pier and brave Daniel threw it back into the water.

It was a good break and just what we needed.

I love the Daily Show . . .

We've been on a great trip and I have some super pictures to show you but I am still trying to get to know my new camera so watch this while I figure out how to get all these pics from here to there.

Relief Society Birthday

Last night my girls and I were in our little R.S. birthday program. All in white . . . I like this picture.

Robin, confident, pink cheeks, not thrilled to be wearing a wedding dress.
Sara, such beauty, a little insecure.
Gloria, ready for her close-up.
Me, wishing I had done something different with my hair, but happy.

Fahrenheit 451

I just finished Fahrenheit 451. I've never read it before.

I liked it. I'm impressed that Bradbury was so dead on with some things, when he wrote this over 50 years ago.

Fooling Mother Nature

Here are 3 of our hens.

So we have been raising chickens for 7 months now. (Robin can’t stand that I talk about it or that it defines our family in any way.) We’ve learned a lot about chickens.

For instance did you know that hens have to have 14 hours of light to remain fertile? Well they do, so to keep our hens laying we used a light that kept the coop lit up for the missing hours of daylight needed. Our hens began laying at the end of November and were laying about a dozen eggs a day until a few weeks ago when the light went out. I’m not sure if we just didn’t believe it or wanted to try the above rule but we didn’t get another light. After about 10 days the egg production began to slow down a little more everyday until the hens weren’t laying at all. We put another light in about 2 weeks ago and they are back up to their previous production levels.

Obviously chicks wouldn’t survive in the winter and so Mother Nature has given the hens this natural reprieve. There is something so beautiful about that. Part of me doesn’t like that She is so easily sidestepped. I guess if we lived on the equator I wouldn’t even be thinking about this at all.

This is our rooster. He is very protective, which is why we keep him around.

Army Brats . . .

The kids really liked this list.

You know you're a military kid if...

You know the difference between an M-16 and an M-60.

It's pointless to explain what your dad does.

You can get in-state tuition to half the country.

There's only like one person who really did stay in touch.

Every time you move, you find you actually suck at what you think you're good at.

Curfew actually means something to you.

You stand up whenever the lights go out at a movie theatre for the National anthem.

Every one's house looks the same, but really they don't.

You know yours and your dads social security number by heart.

You don't have a home town.

When asked where you are from, it takes you over a minute to answer.

You have to use two hands to help you list all the places you've moved.

You're out-of-the-ordinary if you haven't lived in another country and lucky if you were born in the US.

You've tried to explain the difference between the Air force and the Army at least 10 times.

You know how to spell Colonel.

You're not scared of nuclear war.

You've never gone over 30 mph without being scared (on base).

You want to TP the general's house.

You think your house is bugged.

You laugh at the guards but you're actually scared of them.

You've been asked what rank are you.

You hear gun shots and its not a big deal.

Airplanes are boring.

Your dad knows how to kill someone and you're not sure if he hasn't.

Yelling does not affect you at all.

You know how to talk back.

You dislike Russia and you're not exactly sure why.

You know the National anthem and take it seriously.

You've lived in North Carolina or Texas.

You know that midnight is 2400.

You know pilots' kids are cocky.

You know what TDY means.

You know what AFFES is.

You only eat Burger King when necessary because every military installation has one.

You know the difference between going to the commissary for just a few things and "THE BIG SHOPPING".

You know if you want something new you have to wait for either the first or the fifteenth of each month to get it.

You know what an MRE is and what it tastes like.

And if you're a military kid you smiled at almost every one of these.

(Robin added, "This list makes you happy and sad.")

A new car and a new roof . . .

We bought this car for the kids yesterday. It had some hail damage from that storm a few weeks ago and a friend of a friend was practically giving it away. We got such a sweet deal and it will be a good safe little car. Robin and Paul both have their permits but will get their licences now that we have something for them to drive. Even though it has a few polka dots, they are very pleased.

I am also happy to report that we were advised to have someone come and check our roof after the storm and we are getting a new one because of damage we couldn't see.

1st and 2nd Dates

Paul and Becca

Paul went on his first date last night. Her name is Becca. They met on the pioneer trek last summer, she lives about 2 hours south of us but is in our stake. They doubled with Robin and Zack (just a friend). Robin said, "I think she is the nicest person I've ever met."

They had great time.

Zack showing off the tattoo he won.