Busy, Fun, and Life

I'm sorry I haven't kept this up. Mostly it's because I suck. :) So anyway -- let's see. My husband enlisted in the army. He is going to be a Combat Engineer. Which I'm sure involves a lot more than what anyone is telling me. And I think I am ok with no one telling me. He is supposed to leave on October 27th. Maybe. They just called him yesterday wanting him to leave sometime in August. Hmmm. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It's what he wants and there are a lot of great benefits. But....it's my husband going away. As much as he might frustrate me from time to time - he is my husband and I love him. *sigh*

Also - we moved. We moved out of our tiny little apartment in the midvale ghetto to my grandparents house in Holladay. It's 3 times the size. You can walk around and not trip over each other. The kids can go down in the basement, play their drums, games, whatever and they have all the room they need. And best of all -- I have no attached neighbors to yell at, or to yell at me. It's awesome. It took some work, but it's nice.

We went to California last weekend to visit Aaron's friend and his family. That was wonderful!! We had bought the tickets last year to visit his sister fr Christmas but were unable to go. The airline reminded me that the tickets had to be used by August or they were going to expire. (non-refundable and all that jazz)So we decided to go to San Jose. We flew in Friday morning. It was the kids first flight and they thought it was pretty cool. His friend Jen took us back to her house where we were staying to drop off our stuff and have some lunch - then she took us and her friend Chris to San Francisco.

San Francisco was amazing. Driving in it with Aaron at the wheel was scary. Kind of like being on a roller coaster. There were a couple of streets I swear we were vertical. Once while we were halfway through an intersection - an ambulance was coming the other way. As soon as they saw us they blasted their horn and lights and Aaron almost had a heart attack. I think they did it on purpose and laughed. I would have. :)


We went to Pier 39 and wandered. It was great. Their was a street performer guy Josh liked. We went and saw the sea lions, who oddly enough seemed like a group of noisy, snorting, grumpy old men. But the babies were sure cute. They were all laid out on the wood blocks like a giant harvest. Watching one of the ones swimming around climb back up on one while stepping on a bunch of other sea lions was kind of fun. Then we went and wandered through China town. That was fun.
I have this terrible attraction to cute useless things, so all these knick knack stores of course suck me in. There were awesome carvings and pretty little glass bottles and bone boxes and little figurines. Of course, there was a whole shelf in each store of figurines we had to steer the kids away from as they were old oriental people in every sexual position possible (and some I don't think were). I thought it was hilarious but still...not so much for Curtis and Josh.
We bought steamed pork buns and they were awesome! Give you heartburn for sure but still....yum! There were dragons on every single lamp post! Every one! How cool is that? Outside of one store there was a box of shoes that had all been stained in some way - new with tags on but stained. A couple kids made off with the boxes and took all but one pair. Jen's friend Chris picked them up and walked the next couple of blocks saying "Hey free shoes. Size nine - brand new." It was funny - then he stuck them in a fence.

Day two of our vacation was pretty relaxed. We went to a skydiving place where Jen helps out at packing parachute's and jumping when she can. We watched the planes and jumpers. We watched them practice poses on a wheeled table to show the newbies how to hold themselves and watched them pack chutes. They let us climb in the plane and jump out just so we could say we did. And Four feet to the ground is the only way I'm jumping out of that sucker. Josh was very disappointed to learn he was not big enough to skydive. They got a little bored and managed to find a video game machine in the corner. Then we just went and relaxed at Aaron's family's house. Curtis was being a brat and not letting me take pictures of him. Ick!

Day three was at the beach!! It was Curtis's birthday and we promised him bikini's. We wen to Santa Cruz. It was like Lagoon and a beach!! We played in the sand, buried Josh, and tried to body surf. We all biffed it pretty good, but it was fun. I just didn't expect the water to be so cold! Holy Crap! It was awesome! Curtis even smiled! Then we went to another beach about 20 minutes north. There was alomst no one there. It was foggy and breezy and chilly but it was so much fun! Jen said it was a clothing optional beach but I don't know if I beleive her. It was so pretty with these rocks that jutted out and the waves crashing over them. They tried to climb them a couple times but the waves were too high, Every time I tried to write happy birthday in the sand it kept washing away. It was awesome. I know I keep saying that but really..... I wish I could go back. I loved it. It was relaxing - no one argued. We needed it. I only had one complaint. Well two. We needed more time there. And we spent more on parking than anything else. But I loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat!

Kids and Too close to death for comfort...or in other words, Vacation!

So again, I wait too long to post. But when you don't have the internet at home because your poor and your husband isn't workin you don't get a lot of time. :) Ok so excuses aside let's move on. We went to Fremont in May for our 50th annual reunion or something like that. ( I think it's been 6 but the number we put on invites changes each year just for fun.) A lot of went rock climbing. My youngest has no fear (except for spiders) and went down 3 times! I finally got my courage up and went down once. Needless to say I don't think I will go ever again. It was a 140 foot cliff. About 15 feet down I got stuck. No not from panic, well not yet, but because I didn't know to put my hair up. And it all twisted up in the figure 8 that my rope was going through. Not a small chunk, but ALL of it. So I had to stop and pull the rope back up through it to get most of my hair out. .I still lost a little bit but oh well.And of course thats when my loose sneakers fell off. Then I very slowly made it most of the way down in my socks. Almost to the bottom i slipped and banged in the wall a couple of times and my harness was digging into my legs really bad so I hurt. I just wanted down, I was slipping farther and farther backwards and was pretty close to being upside down by the time I got to the bottom. I remember crying "just let me down I just want down". Not very dignified. And of course I was the one who had to let me down but I had a death grip onthe rope. *sigh* But hey Josh had fun!
And of course T ball was way way cute. Especially when the older cousins would try and tackle them and stop them from getting to the bases. Cute kids, lots of fun. And then my brother took me out on the lake in the boat while the boys went shooting their guns. It was good weather, quiet, and beautiful! Plus I caught 2 fish. That always helps. It was a nice half of the day to make up for almost killing myself on the mountain earlier. And what I have realized in the last month is how super awesome my family is. I have known this already dont get me wrong, but really really in the last while. Love you all!

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

I saw this at www.despair.com. I know it's not technically my image to share but I am linking to their site so hopefully it's ok. Just wanted to share the love. :)

Babies and Sewing Exile

We have babies in our house. My husband likes babies. All kinds of babies. I do too though. I just like it better when I'm not the one who cleans up after them. We have had a lot of babies in our house. Baby snakes, baby iguana's, a baby duck. I liked the duck. Josh named him Bob. He liked to run around the back yard, jump in the kiddie pool, eat the bushes and chase the dogs. He was a big white one. I kept trying to teach him to say Aflac but it never worked. We had kittens (now mischief making cats), baby turtles (seriously only the size of a quarter, super cute. But now are more like obnoxious teenagers who beg for food and like to bite.), the fish regularly have babies that the turtles promptly eat,baby lizards, and now baby birds. I have to say that most all babies are cute. Birds however, are ugly cute. Ugly, scrawny, creepy things who are cute because the are tiny and after all, are babies. Our cockatiels had babies and we decided to pull them and handfeed them. That way when we sell them worth double, and are nice, friendly and tame. *sigh* I forgot what having to feed someone every few hours was like. *sigh* But I admit to being taken in by their cute ugliness and being excited as they get more feathers every day.

After Christmas and all the 6 months of sewing that entailed I banished my sewing machine to exile in the corner of my room where I put all the socks that need to be matched and folded. I didn't want anything to do with it for a while. Didn't even want to look at it. However I did buy a super duper cute quilt kit for myself for Christmas. It has dragons and castles on it. I just knew I needed a break before I touched it. I had made some basic quilts before (just some big squares sewn together) but never a real piece together one. Of course, this is nowhere near a complicated as some fantastic pinwheel blocks that I've seen, but it's enough for now. So I have decided it's time to start it. Mostly because Aaron found an old over the cab camper from the early 70's some guy wanted to get rid of for 20 bucks. Still works fine, no water leaks just in desperate need of a cleaning. We decided to give it new curtains and cushion covers. To give it "more testosterone" you know. He didn't like all that 70's turquoise paisley going on. So since I was sewing for practical reasons, I might as well sew for fun too! Right?

So here is a picture of the pattern:

A picture of what the castle blocks are supposed to look like:

And my first castle so far:

Of course I didn't realize until later that my towers weren't quite straight and one was taller than the other. But by then it was out together and there was no way I was taking it all apart. Besides, they were medieval masons and were probably drinking mead all day and its good to have one tower higher so the king or whoever can have a lookout right? Right? *sigh* Oh rationalization and procrastination will no doubt one day be my end. I still need to add all the people and doors and stuff but hey..its a castle! Woohoo for me.

Hermit Crabs

It's been a busy little while. And of course when things are actually happening ... I don't write. My grandmother passed away. She was an interesting person. I always liked her even if there were many times I wasn't sure she really liked me. But she was funny. My dad made a beautiful casket and we buried her quietly. I learned things about her after she was gone that I never knew while she was here. That's sad. Why didn't I try to learn all that sooner? I think of all the stories my father tells, and the places he shows me and think...man I need to record all this. I couldn't bear it if it was lost. I love my family, I wish I was more involved with them besides cruising their blog pages and checking out the family website. I always tell my cousin Cindy we need to get together, we need to get our kids together, but in the end I never call. That's sad. I am a hermit. For the most part I am ok with that but...one can be too much of a hermit. I need to come out of the shell more often. Or at least find a bigger one with room to visit. :)