A Week in Review (September 14-20)

A Week in Review (September 14-20)

Watched: Jack have fun at his school's Classic Skating Night. Apparently twice a year, the PTO pays for the families to have free skating time. All the other offerings in the building are on a reduced cost too. Jack had really been wanting to go and do this foam block jump.  It worked out okay.  I didn't get a picture of the foam block jump, but I did get a picture of him doing his scooter in the innerSkate, but it was horribly blurry.  He did pause for me to grab a picture of him as climbed the bridge in the jungle. 

Read: I finished up Dead to Worse. It was a great audiobook for the car. I'm so tired of Sookie flitting in and out of relationships with men.  She doesn't seem fulfilled without a relationship either.  I am wondering where the True Blood Series picks up with books. Seems like something I might be able to watch.  I also finished up Big Little Lies. Once you get past the character development of the first hundred pages, it really picks up.  It shows some of the dark elements of life, but yet you enjoy it all. I would recommend it to the average reader.

Listened: Because I finished up Dead to Worse, I decided I needed something else to listen to. I have never read the classic, Pride and Prejudice, so I decided that it might be easier to listen to the old English rather than read it. I am enjoying it, but haven't gotten very far.  Everyone says I am really missing out by not watching the BBC mini series that was made, so I will be able to rectify that in a couple weeks.  

Made: It through my back log of Days of Our Lives.  I had let several of them back up while I was watching Parenthood (yep, my life has really become this exciting).  I was bummed that the show hadn't had any exciting revelations in my absence.

Felt: So excited that the buyer agreed to our terms for repairs. I had been nervous that might be a breaking point, but my worry was for nothing (as it seems to be most of the time!). Now we just have to wait for the final signatures and it will be all done. Woo Hoo!

Planned: To try and find Jack a new pair of cleats because he has been complaining that the 13's I bought pinch his toes.  We couldn't find any at the second hand store, but we did score some footie fleece PJs, which he was super excited about. He has been upset that I had to give away the pair that were too small. We found three pair, so he was thrilled.  We did end up finding a general pair of cleats from Payless that he loves because they are red, blue, and shiny.  He played great on Wednesday, finally be aggressive in going for flags and getting out to block and he credits the shoes. 

Loved: That Jack had the day off of school. It starts the Canyons "Who needs a full day on a Friday?" run.  His Friday schedule goes like this for school: Off, Early Release, Off, Off, Off, Early Release,  Halloween. True story.  Any who, we decided to take advantage of the cooler weather and visit the zoo here. Afterwards, we went to Fazoli's to celebrate his getting an A+ on his first spelling test. We were going to see Earth To Echo at the cheap seats theater, but ran out of time, so we settled for Frozen at home. It was a good day :)

Here are the pics for the week:

A blurry pic, but Jack is on the far left and his friend is in the middle. He was glad to have someone to mess around with. 

Jack wanted a picture in his footie jammies

My first Halloween decoration that I put up. Had fun crafting these up while Jack was at school one day.  It's just a simple foam cone, cut in half and wrapped with yarn 

Jack's A+

Some pics from the zoo

This isn't a great picture, but we went to a party at one of Nick's coworker house. Across the street was a house with a moat. Seriously, a moat....  It went all the way over their house and they had built a small bridge for their driveway. Living the childhood dream they are!

A Week in Review (September 7-13)

A Week in Review (September 7-13)

Watched: Dolphin Tale 2 at the drive in. Jack has been wanting to see this movie since the previews for it were on the Lego Movie. We decided to try our local drive in. There were lots of screaming and/or crying kids. I was surprised the other adults weren't better about keeping them quiet. The movie was pretty similar to it's predecessor. I keep waiting for Jack to try to hit us up to go see Winter and Hope. 

Read: Sunday morning, I finished up A Man Called Ove. Charming book about a grumpy old man whose principles take him off his original course to something much more wonderful. A good lesson in appreciating people for who they are.  Next, I started on Big Little Lies.  It is a big book at 480 pages, but I find myself relating to the characters as they are all mothers of Kindergartners. 

Listened: To a lot more of my book From Dead to Worse. I have been surprised at how quickly I have been able to get through it. I should have a whole review in next week's blog. 

Made: A little painting project for our master bath. It is clearly designed with me in mind. I wanted to do a little something more with the word you, but I felt I would ruin it by going overboard. It was fun to do something a little different with time.

Felt: Frustrated with Jack's football team   It had been a rainy day, but the cancelled practice even though the sun had came out.  They do feel a lot different about moisture than the average person in Kansas. The boys he had two games and only one short practice. I try to remind myself that he's only in first grade and he's having fun, but my competitive side is annoyed.

Planned: Another week of meals for our family. It probably doesn't seem like much, but we went from a family that ate out at least 50% of the time to one that eats at home 95%, it is quite change. It took Jack some time to realize that he wasn't going to love every meal, but he had to eat at some of each meal without complaint. We found that he loves teriyaki tofu a side to almost any meal.

Loved: Finally getting to volunteer in Jack's room. Even though I did a lot of questions, I felt that I did some helpful work for his teacher.  She was away at training so I got to hear a lot of the student teacher and I think she is quite ready for her own room. :)

Here are the pics for the week. Not very many since our week was pretty routine. 

The storm that brought us the rain on Tuesday. Kinda cool, eh?

My master bath project 

Waiting for the movie to start

A Week in Review (Aug 31-Sept 6)

A Week in Review (Aug 31-Sept 6)

Watched: Jack play his first flag football game. It is definitely in a different style than FCCJC, but I think we will get used to it. Three of his classmates are on his team, so that is pretty nice for him. He enjoys himself and so that's what is really important. He had talked about not doing it in favor of a science club, but I think he is glad that he stuck with it. 

Read: I finished up All Together Dead. It was much in the line of the other Sookie novels. It left me in the mood for another one, so I got the audiobook for From Dead to Worse. I only listen to it when I am alone in the car, so it will be quite sometime before you get a review. I did make some good progress on A Man Called Ove.  I should wrap it up next week.

Listened: To my friend announce that her triplets would be born on Thursday. All the babies are doing well at last update. Two of them were over 5lbs and the other weighed in at about 3.5lbs.  I am so proud of how great she did on her crazy journey. I think the true craziness is just about to begin.

Made: A new friend because of my Jayhawk front plate. A family that has just moved the area and has a son attending Kindergarten at Jack's school noticed my Jayhawk front plate. She asked me to meet them at the park for a play date. Jack had a great time playing with her kids and I had a nice time chatting with her. I see more get togethers in our future.

Felt: So glad that Nick was able to take off Labor Day weekend. On Sunday, we helped him move his stuff into the project office. On Monday, we drove around doing a search for items from Itty Bitty Draper. It was a picture search of places throughout the town. We found about half of them.

Planned: On finally doing our ALS ice bucket challenge. It was a complete fail. Jack chickened out and cried horribly when he got hit with a bit of the ice water in the back. Then he failed to record mine. I do wonder what my face looked like when that ice water hit me. It was really uncomfortable.  We donated $100 as a family.

Loved: Being able to watch the first Jayhawk game.  While it wasn't as awesome as being there, it was great to be able to watch our team play. We splurged and bought an Apple TV sones could have a hard wired internet connection for Watch ESPN, which will also come in handy during basketball season too.

Here are the pics for the week:

Our Itty Bitty Draper Clues

Pics from Jack's first football game

A Week in Review (August 24-30)

A Week in Review (August 24-30)

Watched: My boys have a great time a the Snowbird Oktoberfest.  After we went for Mexican in downtown, Nick mentioned that there was an Oktoberfest going on that might be fun.  In addition to a ton of (3.2!) Biergartens, they had activities to do. Individually they were quite expensive, like $17 for the rope course.  So instead we bought a day pass for $46. The first thing Jack wanted to do was the rope course. We waited an hour and half for him to go on it, and then he didn't even really enjoy it because he was just a bit too short to be able to tug the rope. We made our way to the next thing he wanted to do and we had to wait another hour for him to do the bouncy tramp. He was ready to leave, but I asked him to do the rock wall so that we could at least break even. However, we realized that the park was clearing out. So we rode the ski lift to the top and Jack did the Alpine slide.  When we were up there, he decided he wanted to do the vertical drop. So he did that twice and the alpine slide once more. It was great at the end and the dreadfully long wait times were forgotten. 

Read: I started on All Together Dead. It cracks me up because sometimes you see the age of the book because she had to have a seperate phone line for the internet and she packed her portable CD player. The plot is a bit more sex filled than I remember the previous ones in the series. I also began the book A Man Called Ove. It is our September book club selection.  I didn't finish up either one of them, but should have two reviews next week.

Listened: I finally friended one of Nick's colleagues wife on Facebook and asked her for some recommendations for radio stations. She pointed me in the right direction. :)  I was getting a little sick of listening to the same old music. I also ordered All Together Dead so that any errands I run in the middle of the day, I can listen to my book. 

Made: An impromptu Bunco score card when my dear friend actually Skyped me into my Kansas Bunco group. It lifted my spirit so much. It worked out extremely well since the boys were out messing with each other for the night. I think I'll convince Fia to take her laptop so that I can always play instead of the ghost. :)

Felt: Glad to get our house on the market. Please let it sell quickly....

Planned: On using some of the 3M command picture strips to mount pictures since I know I want them to be temporary. I LOVE them. They feel much more secure than a simple nail on a wall. So if for some reason, you have been on the fence as whether to try these or not, go for it!  It feels much nicer having pictures up around my home.

Loved: That Denise and Lee were able to stop for a visit on their way home from their vacation. We had a great time time teaching them Mille Borne and playing monopoly party. We also went to home the footlong corndog with them. :)

Here are the pics for the week:

Rope Course

Bungee Tramp

Rock Wall

The Vertical Drop

Lightsaber fighting with Jack can be dangerous. 

He also said sleeping in, but it was too much to write. :)

The selfie I took to send to my Bunco group before I realized I was going to get to Skype them. 

A quick before Grandma and Papa got on the road. 

A Week in Review (August 17-23)

A Week in Review (August 17-23)

Watched: Several of the Lego Chronicles from Star Wars. Jack checked out the Empire Strikes Out from our library and loved it, so we started to do research into other episodes. Amazon had the whole "season" which ranges over 7 years and is only 6 episodes long. We bought him one episode as a Back to School treat and he purchased one with part if his allowance.  He likes them both quite a bit.  Lots of humor in them. 

Read: I finished up The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes. It is a really captivating read that pulls you in. I could have seen me in 16 yr old CeeCee's shoes.  I think it's an excellent story about loving flawed people. 

Listened: To a lot of Pandora. The house is too quiet, so I put on music to keep me company. The idea of getting a four legged fur companion has come across my mind several times, but I think I would prefer to wait for summer so that it can bond strongly with Jack instead of me. Hopefully some volunteer opportunities open up at the school soon. 

Made: A menu plan. I figure since my weekdays are much more open now, I should spend that making dinner instead of eating out as frequently. With my love of Pinterest and my lack of desire to always eat the same thing, I'm sure we will be trying lots of new recipes. On Friday, I made a version of this using hamburger and green sauce in the place of chicken and red sauce.  It made way too much food.  Jack wouldn't try it because he didn't like the way it smelled. I liked it more than Nick did. It will be a couple lunches for me next week. 

Felt: Nervous about sending my little man into a school where they do things quite differently than we are used too.  You can see by the way he has his hands in the third picture below that he was pretty nervous too.  He seems to like his teacher and I like her too. I know he will do great.

Planned: To stop at Little America on our way home from my mom's, but Jack had dozed off and so I drove on past.  He woke up about 5 miles too late and was none to happy with me. Guess we will just have to road trip soon !

Loved: The book club that I was allowed to crash at the invitation of a friend of a friend. Little did I know that Jack's love of trips to the neighborhood bakery would one day net me adult conversation with women in Salt Lake City.  I had been feeling nervous about it all day.  It was like a first date and I haven't been on one of those in about 15 years. Would I do it right?  Would I fit in?  These ladies all made it very easy to fit in and feel right at home.  It will be an event I look forward to monthly :)

Here are the pics for the week:

A quick pick with Grandma before we headed out Monday morning

Our Mille Born cards look just like Grandma's even though the cards are 30 years newer. We were shocked because we assumed the styling was due to bad 70's graphics.

First Day of School Pics

A picture sent to me by his teacher.

On Saturday, Nick suggested we visit Scheel's for something to do. It is huge!  We couldn't believe it. They have lots of fun different photo ops and even a Ferris wheel inside. We didn't ride the Ferris Wheel because the line was too long, but I can see Jack and I making a pit stop there on the way home from school someday.  If you come to the area, I think it's worth a look. 

A Week in Review (August 10-16)

A Week in Review (August 10-16)

Watched: A cute movie called About Time. I had never seen any previews for it, but it was in the comedy section of Streampix so I decided to give it a shot. It is a pretty interesting movie, but I think it felt more in the drama class. If you liked The Time Traveller's Wife, I recommend this highly. 

Read:  The Language of Flowers for  my first face to face book club. This book surprised me. I really thought that I was going to struggle with it because I just couldn't connect in the very beginning. But once I sunk my teeth into it, I really enjoyed it. It is an excellent story about forgiveness and acceptance in a messed up world.  I gave it four out of five stars.  Next, I began reading The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes.  It also seems to be about mother daughter relationships.  I am breezing through it.


Listened: To my phone ring several times. I have had many Kansas friends text or call and chat with me for a while this week.  I am so thankful for these calls. It is nice to have updates as to what is going on in my old neck of the woods. 

Made: A last minute decision to travel to Alliance for my mom and step-dad's end of the summer/welcome home Kyle and Jess party. We had a great time visiting with everyone.  It made me worried for our winter visit because Wyoming is such a barren land around i80 that any snow could really spell trouble.

Felt: Ready for routine. I like back to school because it lets us fall into a nice steady rhythm. While I am anxious about what I will do with myself all day while Jack is at school, I know he will love it. Well except for the spelling test, but maybe I will be wrong there.

Planned: On teaching Jack the game Mille Borne.  It took him quite by surprise and he loves it. We played several different team combinations and he usually came out on the winning team so that always helps.  We are going to try to get Nick to play with us when we make it home on Monday. 

Loved: Spending the day outside with my boys on Sunday.  We drove up into Big Cottonwood Canyon and saw the Hidden Falls. After climbing around the area, we tried to trek to Donut Falls. Apparently everyone and his brother tried that as there were no parking spots and lots of people parking where they shouldn't be. We will have to save that for a weekday!  Jack was getting hungry so we pulled off the road and went down and had lunch by the stream. We had fun trying to splash each other by throwing rocks in the river.

Our pictures for the week:

Hidden Falls

Our picnic spot:

Jack with his DP licorice.

An underwater selfie from Grandma's Pool. 

Tio and Jack messing around in the pool before the party started. 

Jack made me a party hat. 

A Week in Review (August 3-9)

A Week in Review (August 3-9)

Watched: I am finally able to watch Days of Our Lives again.  Oddly, it is only on from 1:07-2:07AM!  I guess there must not be a huge market for it hear in SLC. Thank goodness for my DVR. We also got hooked back up with American Ninja Warrior. 

Read: I finished up The Phantom Tollbooth . 

	I was very surprised by this book. It was like an Amelia Bedila book for grown ups. It had so many quirks that I have a hard time believing that a younger ages audience could really enjoy it. If you are looking for a delightful read full of plays on words, I highly recommend this story.

Next I started on The Language of Flowers . I haven't gotten very far in it.

Listened: To the sounds of the city and new construction fade away as we made our way back into the Rocky Mount Falls. It was pretty neat to find the little treasure hidden back there. Then we heard something pretty ominous--Big Loud Thunderbooms.  Another one of the hikers got a call that it was pouring rain about 25 minutes away.  We all decided to trek back down and we made it to the car before the rain hit.  We did stop to take a picture of the big cloud that had formed.

Made: A fun night of work out of packing up the majority of paper the packers used.  We ended up with 13 60-gallon trash bags full of paper.  And the bags were stuffed full. Each bag was treated to several rounds of Jack jumping in it to compress the paper.  I'm thankful that I convinced the city of Draper to let me take it in rather than try to keep filling up my recycling bin.

Felt: So sad. On Friday, Barley came in from outside and tripped on his doggy door. I thought he was just had a cramp. But as it kept getting worse, I had a big fear that his time had come. I called and made a vet appointment for him.  He could tell we were getting ready to take the trash to the recycling facility and walked out and sat by the car. I couldn't refuse him so I let him in. After running the two loads to the site, I called Nick's office and asked them to pull him out of his meeting.  Upon seeing Barley, he decided he would take the time to go with us to the vet.  When we pulled him out and the vet, he could no longer use either of his back legs. It was pretty awful.  It became quickly apparent that a tumor had most likely pinched a nerve in his spine and caused him to have paralysis. With very heavy hearts, we chose to humane euthanize him. My heart still aches as I write this and I think this is why I put off writing the blog for so long. He was such a great friend and fallen food catcher. The house feels empty without his bark to greet me when I return.  Thanks for 10.5 good years my friend.

Planned: To find a Kansas style farmers market so that we could try this new recipe,  Instead we drove clear around town before finding something that resembled a vendor fair with produce at it. We did learn that they can grow a yummy peach here and we did find the tomatoes. We also found a bakery that had cheap prices so I bought several things to sample. My favorite was the raisin filled cookie.

Loved: All the support that I have gotten in the ways of texts, calls, and Facebook messages. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to reach out to me.  I really miss a lot of things about Kansas and our friends are one of the biggest. Love you all!

Here are the pics for the week:

Rocky Mount Falls

Barley at the Vet. As you can sadly see, his top half was just fine and happy. It made it so much worse. 

Jack in his skills of justice pose.

The boys playing lightsabers when we took Nick over to Jack's new playground.