Summer Fun

I'm getting kind of behind on my reports. Better do a quick one before I forget everything about my summer.

I only have 3 measly pics from the last several weeks. (Could be a blessing in disguise...)

So the Color Me Rad 5k was fun. Maria, Renee and I participated. We didn't get as colorful as we'd imagined.

 

Maria was the only one of us with a way to take a picture. She took a few other pics, but they apparently weren't as good as this one. Must be why I haven't seen any of them, even after asking if this was really the best photo of the morning. ;)  I was in the process of saying something in this shot. I found out a couple of days later that we'd missed out on some sort of photo booth. I got an email about our finish line photos, so I looked at them, only to discover that I'm not pictured with Maria and Renee. I'm all by myself! Nice. Needless to say, I refrained from ordering any.

 Do you like my little shorts with sprinkle donuts on them? I do.

 

 

The tap dance class was quite the experience. It started out with 8 or 9 students, and by the end it was just 5--  my sisters, me, and one other brave woman.

 



These are our tootsies just before our first class. Somehow I missed the subconscious memo about wearing cute sockies.

 



 

And here we are at the start of our last class. We plan to resume the experience this fall. The teacher promised an end-of-year production that will include all levels of tap dancers. =)

We all had an enjoyable time, though some of the steps are pretty tricky for those of us who aren't very coordinated (me). I won't stop until I get to learn a routine. Or maybe I won't even stop then.

 

 

I finished the "Read the Book of Mormon in 60 Days" challenge right on schedule. I have to admit, I have the worst attention span. I had to read along while listening to it online to even have a chance of concentrating. But it was overall a nice experience. I'm glad Suzy put us up to it.

 

 

Here's what else we've been busy with so far this summer-

 

Took the kids for our first swim of the season on July 1. With Renee and her kids. At Renee's mom's pool. So fun and refreshing!

 

Went to Eagle Island with the kiddies on July 2 with Rachel and her girls. Cool and relaxing, in spite of the murky water.

 

Took the kids to the zoo once with my mom, Fletcher, PJ, Maren, Maisie, and Ruby.

 

Went to the aquarium with Ryan, Oliver, Jackie, Eric, Ethan, and Tomi. I think that was the week Cora and Jane were on a trip to Utah with Ryan's mom.

 

I've been going to that BODYPUMP class 2 or 3 times a week at the gym. I like it now. I look really awesome doing an hour worth of clean and presses, squats, lunges, bicep curls, dead lifts, push-ups, bench presses, dips, etc... ;)  I *think* I'm noticing a tiny bit of muscle tone on my previously wimpy limbs.

 

We went bowling once. Visited a few parks, threw rocks in the river, attended cub scout day camp, cub scout den meetings. Got fired ;) as the R.S. pianist and called as the R.S. meeting committee chair. Been doing yard work-- pulling weeds, trimming shrubs and trees, watering flowers, replenishing flower bed bark where needed. Yard work is good thinking time -- quite therapeutic for me.

Went to a 4th of July BBQ at the Lytles and went to Ann Morrison Park for the fire works.

 

I guess that's enough summer for now! Getting set to go camping with Ryan's fam tomorrow. And the camera Ryan ordered should be coming in the mail any minute. =) I'm excited to take pictures again! Let's hope the new camera doesn't get hurt like the others.

 

Ok, I mean it. That's enough for now. I'm such a rambler. 

Yard Candy

Yup. Summer is busy spewing its beauty all over our property again. See for yourself...

 

I can't remember what these globular flowers are called, but I love them!

 



 

Okay, these pictures are all more than a month old and some of the flowers are goners by now. But I can't not share them. Especially since we're currently camera-less. =( Mine has been broken for a while and Cora's is now broken. We're reading reviews on what to get next.

 

 

 

I transplanted individual bunches of flowers into pots... 

I'm thrilled to the max whenever I see my lovely flowers.

Here's a portion of one of the cute front yard shrubs...

I've also treasured the cute birdies who have visited me.

 

 

We had an adorable family of mourning doves camping out in our backyard for a couple of weeks. =)

 

These are the babies before they could fly.

 

 





I did a little research on mourning doves and found that they are not particularly afraid of people. I liked that. For as long as they were in our yard I pretended they were my friends and that they found comfort in my kind words and hospitality. =) 'Cause I'm sure they did.

 

Within a day or two of these photos, they learned to fly but continued to hang out with me, lounging in different spots around our yard.

 

 

Below is a grainy pic of the doting parents...

 

 

I saw one of the adults feeding the babies one day. They were right outside Cora's window, so I had a clear view of them.  I grabbed the camera and proceeded to video the moment. Apparently they like their privacy. After a few seconds they became aware that I was watching them. They all ceased feasting and slowly craned their necks to look at me. I think I read their beaks correctly when they asked in unison, "Do you mind?!"  It was pretty funny.

 

The birds abandoned me the day after I posted a picture of them on facebook. I'd captioned it with something about how they didn't want to leave me because they liked me too much. =/  I just don't know when to quit! Next time some birds decide to reside in my yard I will try minding my own dang business!

 



Anyway, that's a sample of what's sort of new in our yard. My front yard flowers are progressing nicely, but I can't document them until we get a new camera. If that's not motivation enough, I don't know what is...

What's Up

I don't know why I still feel the need to tell you every little thing, Blog.
Believe it or not, I do try to pare it down to the things that matter the most (except for that unbearably long 200th post).
So here is some of what's been happening over here lately.

 I spent an afternoon organizing all the crap in the garage. It was so messy after a winter of throwing everything we didn't want to deal with out there.

 But I pushed everything under the car  put everything away in its proper place, just in time for spring. I was getting to the point of feeling ashamed whenever the kids left the garage door open for the whole neighborhood to see. I'm pretty sure by now we've been dubbed the "subdivision slobs".

Our neighbors' fence broke and fell over a bunch of weeks ago (adjacent to our yard, but unmistakably their fence - it borders our front side yard and connects to their gate). Ryan took it upon himself to fix it. He rented a big hammer drill and extracted the rotted posts from the underground cement, bought new posts, concreted them in, reinforced the fence slats, and fastened them to the new posts. Now it's fixed. Who knows how long it would have remained undone if Ryan hadn't taken the time and effort on his days off work to take care of it himself. I was pretty impressed that he did it, and without complaint. And the neighbors didn't even acknowledge that he did it, nor did they reimburse him for any of it!  Like a good neighbor, Ryan is there.

Cora has been participating with her classmates in Y volleyball over the past hunk of weeks. Her friend was signing up and encouraged her to join, so she did. 

She likes to wear long socks. =)

This is the first time many of these girls has been on a v-ball team, but I think they've done pretty well. Cora is frustrated that they haven't won any of their games (they play best of 3). She is just a little too competitive. I'm trying to help her understand that it doesn't matter what the score is as long as the team is working hard, but she doesn't want to listen. Hopefully I can help her have a better attitude about "losing". Anyway, the games have been fun to watch. 

                                 The first Saturday of May we went shooting with Ryan's dad.

It was the first time for the kids and me. 

It was a fun family afternoon.

Here's a last look at my tulips. They have now gone the way of all the world.

But I'm getting excited about my summer flowers! I started planting them yesterday. It is such a calming activity. I don't feel the least bit like yelling or glowering when I am busy digging and placing pretty plants in the soil. Pictures to follow soon, I'm sure.

There are two nests by our front door this year. This one is in the tree. I noticed the babies in it a few weeks ago.

I couldn't see them very well and haven't seen them lately, so I guess they moved away. Also, the nest from last year above our porch was taken over by a new bird this year. I'm waiting to see if any new birdies emerge from the depths of the repurposed nest. None of these birds are the same type as the ones from last year. I miss those cuties.

Construction has begun for the new stop light at the entrance to our subdivision. This is good news for us; bad news for everyone else who has to drive down Eagle Rd. =/  Not my fault.

I just found out there will be a new Axiom next to Big Al's. I've been going to the one way the heck on Overland, so I'm glad that by early next year there will be one that is just a couple of minutes away from home. Anything that will save me 15 minutes of driving is a good thing. The only reason I joined this particular gym was because my neighbor talked me into it. After the first few weeks, she ditched me. =/ Was it something I said?

A few weeks ago, my friend Suzy proposed that all her female friends from our seminary class of '96 commit to reading the Book of Mormon in 60 days. She created a FB group for it and some of us accepted her invitation. Even me! I've never done a BofM reading challenge before, ever. Never read it from cover to cover. Sure, I've read it all; just not in an orderly fashion. I've always been more of an open-it-up-to-wherever-and-read type of girl. Or I've looked up certain topics and read that way. I thought this would be a great time for me to take on a goal of reading the entire book in two months. 19 days in, and I'm still right on track. Over a quarter of the way through! And we're currently in Mosiah, one of my favorite books.

Last thing for now... I made a plethora of flower cookies for Mother's Day. I kind of had a blast with this batch. =) 

 

Have a happy week!

Out of the Mouth of Oliver

Oliver is busy as ever. When he's not promoting the growth of white hairs upon my head, he's saying something cute instead.  I'm about to share some of his recent notable quotes.

 

Walking into the kitchen one day he asked,"Why does it smell like a piece of junk in here?" (For the record, I don't know what scent he was detecting, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't me.)

 

Ollie and I often cuddle in the mornings on the big blue chair. Once he heard the sound of my heartbeat. I asked him what it was doing, and he said "beeping".  I should have had him tell me if it was a series of rhythmic beeps, or more of a long, continuous beep. ;)

 

Our family has begun watching "Leave it to Beaver" on Netflix. During the first episode he asked, "Why is their house gray?"  The kids were stunned to hear that TV wasn't always in color.

Last week we had spaghetti per Oliver's request. As he was eating, he made another request: "Mom, if we have to have dinner tomorrow, can we have this again?"  I like how he worded that first part. I often feel the same way...

I'm normally the last one finished eating. He wanted to know: "Why are you so slow at eating?" Because I like to savor my food?

He was waiting for me to get dressed, and apparently I wasn't going fast enough. "Why do you take so long getting dressed? I just pick out a shirt, pick out some pants, and put it on!"  If only it were that simple... Oliver's obvious advantage is that he gets hooked on a certain outfit and wants to wear the same darn one every day. I should really do that more. I don't typically see the same people every day, so nobody except my family would know if I wore the same thing a few days in a row. And they'd just have to love me anyway.

Me: (noting the evidence on his face that he'd been secretively eating something downstairs) What's that on your face?
Oliver: Not frosting, but...
Busted.

Here are a couple of recent snapshots of our little ninja.

 

He and his cousin Ethan have taken up classes again at the same place as before. They started back a few months ago.

I'm not familiar with many types of martial arts, but the place they go to does Tang Soo Do. He passed his first belt test recently. It's cute to watch him. His main problem is that he goofs off a little bit, but I think he's learning that in order to earn a stripe each class he needs to focus, which is great. The instructor guy is really good with the kids.

 

Oliver is officially registered for Kindergarten. He's growing up too fast. Pretty soon I won't be able to pick him up anymore. I hope he keeps willingly sitting on my lap and being the cozy cuddler he is.

 

Here's the card he filled in the blanks for at church on Mother's Day...

 

 

Ha!  He did pretty well on a few of the answers. You'll have to guess which ones. ;)

But I have to say I've never taken him to the circus before. He's always making up stuff. And his favorite color is red, not mine. (I don't want everyone to suddenly start sending me red presents.)

 

Oh, one last funny thing for now. He was watching me decorate sugar cookies for Mother's Day and asked me in all soberness: "Mom, sometimes when you're done decorating the cookies do you try not to eat one, but then accidentally do eat one?" =)

 

Yes, son. That's exactly what happens. Ah, the emotional burdens of a 5-year-old boy (who happens to be a major cookie monster)! Glad he felt comfy enough to confide in me about what he frets over. In a round-about kind of way. ;)

 

I'm looking forward to our next heart to heart conversation. Stay tuned...

Best. Summer. Ever!

I can't think of a summer I've had that's been as all-around awesome as the one I am about to have!
. . . . .

Wanna know why?

~My sisters and I are going to take tap dance lessons together in June! We're starting with a 4-week class (only Tuesdays) offered through Boise Parks and Rec. After that, we'll determine where to go with it. I won't be surprised at all if we're invited to the advanced class for the next session. ;)  I'm so looking forward to this toe-tapping, fabulous chance to dance and laugh with my sisters!

~Not only is the TMBG concert quickly approaching, it was announced last week on FB that the band will be appearing at the Record Exchange at 3:00 the same day as the concert to sign stuff and also sing songs! Woo!!  I was totally psyched when I read the news (big shocker there).   My eyes must have been the size of wagon wheels as I practically levitated off the couch, squealing and gleaming like a freak. I love when things cause an immediate consciousness of delight in me. It's refreshing when something triggers this genuine mirth in me, making it absolutely impossible for me to keep from smiling like a madman. I don't mean to go on and on and on about how excited I am about this whole thing. But it's now less than a month away, so I can't help myself! =)

~Barry Manilow is coming to town the night before the TMBG concert! I've been a fan for as far back as I can remember. I blame my mom. =)  People don't like to admit they like his songs, but I think everyone secretly does, at least a little. Anyway, Erin and I are taking her to the concert. It should be fun! Who knows how many more years Barry will be roaming the earth. Wouldn't want to miss seeing him sing Copa Cabana in person. He'd darn well better sing that song!

~Renee and her family are moving back home! After a year in Florida, they are returning sometime near the end of June. I am so glad! I've missed her so much. Can't wait to resume the many merry adventures of Renee, Maria and Shannon. =)

~My good friend Rachel and her family are also moving back to Boise this summer! They've been in Coeur d'Alene for 2 years. Yay for friends moving back where they belong! =) We've truly felt their absence.

~Maria and I are participating in the Color Run in June! It's sure to be a special day. Maybe we'll trot backwards this time. Or do the grapevine, or sashay the whole way. Or maybe we'll run as fast as we can and try not to get any of the colors thrown on us. Or maybe we'll dare be normal for once?

~In July our family gets to join some of Ryan's family for a trip to the Oregon Coast. We loved going there last year. This time we'll be in a different area. Is Florence something? I believe that's amongst our Oregonian destinations.


I'm sure there will be many other treasured moments to feature here as the summer progresses, but this list is mainly why I'm so pumped up for summer!

Feel Like Singin' Songs.

Hola. A very happy Cinco de Mayo to you.  It's the perfect day to sit back and marvel on what the 5th of May does for the tortilla chip industry.

I'm feeling fantastic the past few days. How about you? I was sick for over a week with a sore throat and ongoing eye goo, along with other cold-correlated crud and a general feeling of malaise. But now I'm basically back to normal. Yay. =)

A sore throat is the one symptom (out of all I've ever experienced) that makes me feel the most miserable. Mostly because I can't sing on days when my throat hurts. And I sing to live.

I'm not my typical, chipper self when I can't sing along to the groovy tunes I hear. It's an important part of my complete breakfast. I have a hard time even listening to music when I can't warble along. I'm left filled with emptiness.

I was so happy the first time I was able to resume singing last week. I think I went six days without so much as a hum. =(

I love how good I feel when I'm done being sick. Maybe I should make up a song about it.

Giddiness is...

 

Giddiness is...

 

... seeing our yard provide such sublime signs of spring...

 

 

 

Look at all the layers of loveliness in just one shrub!

 

 

 

Giddiness is...

 

... wandering through Ross and finding a serving tray that's precisely my style! 

 

 

Giddiness is...

 

 

... discovering the most adorable ice cream-themed shirt there could ever be. 

In the Kohl's juniors section. Candie's brand, still available in store. In case anyone wants to know. =)

 

(I know what we're all thinking -- a 34-year-old shopping in the juniors department?

Hey-- If I like it and it fits, then why in the world should it matter where it came from?)

 

I'm glad I have so many things to be giddy about!

One last pic before I go. This didn't really make me "giddy", but did make me "awwwww" when I recently saw it in a series of photos depicting animal affection.

 



 

I love giraffes. The recipient of this kiss looks a little hesitant about PDA, no?