Viva la Taco!
Need gas? Got gas? Have a taco… no, have two tacos – for free!
Lobster, Tomatoes and Candy Canes?
Sounds like something you’d pay a few Ben Franklins for at a swanky, seaside restaurant in December, right? After all, a delicious bowl of hot, steamy lobster bisque topped with curls of aged parmesan cheese and a warm baguette of freshly baked sourdough could take the winter chill off Jack Frost himself. I just can’t imagine, however, candy canes headlining the dessert menu. So what do these three edibles have in common?
RED, RED, RED!
As in; “Honey, you’re back is lobster red.” or “You’re shoulders look like tomatoes.” and “You have a ‘happy face’.” My personal favorite a la Charity, “See my candy cane stripes?”
No, I’m not gonna show the world my stripes. Just trust me, I got’em in places high, low, and where I thought the sun would never, ever shine. Between the pool, boating, the pool, boating, weeding, pool (repeat at least a dozen times) I’ve gone from a dead ringer of Capt. Ahab’s white whale to a coast guard DANGER buoy.
After spending a few nights drenched in Liquid Ice and lying stock still in bed with the ceiling fan wobbling above, I’ve promised myself to get on the boat – the Banana Boat.
And yes, I do use the kiddie stuff, the more the merrier. I treat it like a can of Aqua Net as a claw-sporting Sevie when doing the Rodger Rabbit during Buttermilk Biscuits would end in a hair disaster of overly dramatic teenage proportions. (don’t laugh, those of you guilty of it too!)
I stocked up for the summer at Costco and made sure that I have a bottle in the boat, in the bag, and in the bathroom. Take that melanoma! Happy summer.
RED ALERT – RED ALERT
$0.24
Get four packages of Ball Park franks and two packages of sara Lee Hot dog buns for less than a quarter! Here’s how you do it!
Go to Fred Meyers and pick up a handful of sale fliers; you’ll find them next to the entry door. The coupon for the B.P. Franks can be found on the left inside flap, cut’m out and treat them like gold.
Go to Albertsons and Pick up the Franks, Locate the buns. The coupons should be next to the buns on a peel off display. Get as many as you need. (2 per Hotdog coupon)
Go to checkout. Kraft has a sale, $5.00 off meat purchase if you purchase 5 Kraft items. (B.P. and Sara Lee are Kraft Products) Watch the checkout… (note; purchase each separately.)
$5.00 4/$5 B.P. Franks coupon
Free Buns
-$5.oo Kraft Rebate
Total= $0.24
Money Saved: $26.24
Go Ahead, Punk.... Make My Day
Tying in to our Summer Camp Out theme for June’s Enrichment Activity, we made these confectionary contraptions known as Marshmallow guns. The sisters had a blast, quite literally, and fired the mini-marshmallows from one end of the cultural hall to the other without so much as a warning. The first offender, surprisingly enough, was our very own, mild-mannered Relief Society President.
It was neat to hear them giggle and squeal like a bunch of little girls and was a terrific project for the night; easy, instant results and fun.
I plan on making a few of these for the Farmers to take to the Ward Camp Out next weekend ; we must defend our nylon fort from the restless, invading settlers!
They can be decorated with Sharpies, craft paint, and even decoupage if it strikes your fancy. For example, buying a package of camo-napkins at the party store or go girly and use mylar tissue in the wildest hot-pink you can find. You can even make a laser sight if you prefer being a belly-crawling, sniper than no guts - no glory, all or nuth'n Rambo.
Step by step instruction for this and other mallow-guns can be found here.
Tears and Tap
(The Divine Miss Is! )Maddy had her very first dance recital last night which could be the first of many as much as she loves to dance. Is and I started getting ready, as us girls like to do, an hour before we had to leave for the recital hall while Daddy snoozed in bed.
"Why isn't Daddy getting ready?" she asked while I held a very hot curling iron near the crown of her head.
With a roll of my eyes and a roll of the iron I answered as best I could, "Because boys get to do those types of things when girls are busy getting pretty."
The thing about Rapunzel hair is that not only is it long with flowing cascades of locks but it hides a clever five year old's sins. Gum, jam, goobery-grossness I don't want to even imagine where or how in got into her hair, run in's with scissors, white out, raisins saved for later, Playdoh, My Little Pony combs.... It wasn't until I started putting on her 'stage make-up' that I discovered the most recent, self-inflicted disaster - SCISSORS!
"Did you cut your bangs?" I eyed her, sparkles and all. "Did you?"
On cue, she burst into tears that ruined the make-up I spent the last ten minutes on and ruined my resolve for getting after her too hard. "They kept getting into my eyes - and I couldn't see - so I cut them - so I could see - with the scissors - you - cut them - last time - I couldn't see."
I ended up lightly scolding her, this was after all the first time she's ever played beautician on anything other than Barbie. She gave me a hug and said she was sorry; that was enough. The giant who had been sleeping in the next room heard the simpering sniffles then added his two cents which started her tears all over again when he learned of his daughter's bold initiative. Another ten minutes and we were dry enough to reapply the eyeshadow and mascara. "This is why girls get ready so early."
Growing in the Gospel
Yesterday was Devin’s first trip to the Temple to perform as a proxy for baptisms. He was reverently excited when he returned home.
“Did you know that the room is white marble?”
“Did you know that there were white marble oxen?”
“Did you know that it was beautiful?”
“Did you know….”
Do you know?
(Boise Idaho Temple)
Summer Family Movie Festival
Continuing to kick off our first official week of summer, the Farmers and I attended the movie Shrek The Third at our local Regal Cinema for free. We arrived twenty minutes early and snatched up the seats near the middle of the middle. There were lots of moms, even more farmers and a few dads too. The movie was just a predictable and corny as the first time I saw it but it didn’t seem to matter, the point was that we were out of the house, not fighting and all for the cost of gas in the Focus for the five minute trip, definitely a penny-pinching way to have a good time. Next week’s shows; Jonah - A Veggie Tale Movie (personal fave) and Bee Movie.
Visit the link below to find more information:
East of Eden
Last Friday we gassed up the Yukon and nearly died from the cost of it; $106.54! After the sticker shock, we decided that we were going to make the most of it and headed southeast for Salt Lake City to David’s sisters resort home. Private pool, hot tub, gym, theater, arcade, tennis court, billiards, mongo play-fort and multiple fridges stocked with all sorts of goodness I would never buy at the grocery store. Plus, we get to visit with Fam which despite the list of fun things to do is the real reason!
Unfortunately, we could only stay overnight and had to leave by eight that morning northeast to Eden for the ten o’clock baptism. The valley has never been more beautiful thanks to all the rain and cooler temperatures this spring. I wish I had my fancy-pants Nikon D80 – heck, even my stupid Point & Shoot – to capture its beauty. ( I found this photo online, my brother-in-law lives north of the golf course, out of the picture, but you get the idea. ) If there was some way for Dave to work without driving anywhere and I mean anywhere during the winter ( they usually get four plus feet of snow ) we’d buy a very humble chalet in a heartbeat.
I was lucky enough to be there for a rip-roaring thunderstorm Saturday evening and soaked the sights and sounds in as fast as each bolt of lightening stuck; the damp, earthy smell alone was sufficient to keep me happy and at the same time wanting more. I miss sitting on my back porch, watching micro-bursts bubble and ooze over the mountains near our home in Cache Valley, further north of where I currently stood.
The baptism was great; a private family affair and in my personal opinion what they should be. It was nice to visit with family though sad to retell Grandma who I was at least twice that day. My only regret is that I didn’t pull out my iPod and queue up Lee Holdridge’s, East of Eden: Main Title & Finale.
Praise The Man
A little video I pieced together for a Relief Society lesson.
Sign of the Times
(Ushering in the Second Coming one idiot at a time.)
Overall, I think I’m a pretty level-headed person and keep most of my soapbox moments to myself. Speaking to throngs of ridiculously dressed listeners with an added I.Q. of a sea sponge is much easier in my warped little mind than what reality will ever be. I received this little nugget of things to come and my brain nearly exploded from the (insert your favorite expletives) stupidity of it.
To preface what you’re about to witness for yourselves; this is REAL! A.B.C. (Australian Broadcasting Company) has made a “irreverent website” to assess when you, your spouse, or our children should die to save the planet; that a good person is a dead person and we should sacrifice ourselves for the betterment of all God’s Mother Earth’s lowly creatures. (God? Who needs religion?")
The pocket-padding ‘green’ movement has officially crossed the line from being a rational, concerted effort for protecting the environment to a Green Gestapo. I suppose I should calm down and have a laugh about it... yeah, right. Put on some calming music, get a bowl of your favorite ice cream, run a bubble bath or just get a bucket of bleach water and a towel to clean up the mess.
Planet Slayer Greenhouse Calculator
F.Y.I. Should've drunk a bottle of Drano back in March of 1977 at the ripe old age of 3 years and 7 months. Forgive me for cursing the world with my presence…
And So It Begins…
As of noon today, the Farmers are officially out of school, marking the end of what little sanity I had. But never fear, a plan has been activated and with any luck should go as follows.
- Chores: Rooms clean, beds made and household assignments completed before the Cocoa Krispies turn to mush.
- Practice Makes Perfect: Dev has his trumpet and all three Farmers will be learning to tink on the piano though not all at once…
- Read! 30 mns. minimum, including Miss. Is. Chapter reports are given verbally.
- Homework: Yeah, I’m evil. I’ll be dishing out all sorts of worksheets on all sorts of subjects.
- Pool Time: Now that the pools is finished, daily dips @ 11am. if all of the above requirements are met.
- Kids Movie Festival: Every Tues/Wed. free kid movies all summer long @ Regal Cinemas.
- Tennis: They all love it.
- Bike the Belt: Once a week at least; the boys could use the exercise and Maddy needs the practice.
- Float Our Boat! Tubing, Knee and wake boarding. Oh, and fishing too.
School starts August 20th… that’s 2 months, 15 days, and 18 some odd hours, not that I’m counting or anything!
How are you saving your sanity?
Peeping Through My Fingers
(Movie Poster or Fantasy Romance Novel Cover-Art?)Scraping the bottom of the barrel in our quest to give our Farmers a taste of what movies were like when we were kids, I thought they might enjoy Clash of the Titans. As a timid seven year old, this wet-my-pants movie gave me nightmares for months.
The cursed son of a young Prof. McGonagall, horned lizard-dude Calibos, lived in my closet and I'd swear a thousand oaths and grandma's oatmeal cookies that Medusa would come slithering down the hall and into my bed. My dresser, belonging to the generations girls' bedroom set in cream with gold-trimmed French Provincial, was angled just so along the wall in case the cold-blooded rattler showed up. I would even shield my eyes, peeping through my fingers so that I wouldn't turn to stone while watching the movie.
My mom had the hots for Perseus; the white linen, loincloth wearing, tan enough to make George Hamilton look pale, Harry Hamlin. I, on the other hand, was accused of harboring a "special interest" in the Kracken despite hiding behind the couch during his impressively destructive scenes. Although, I did want to be as beautiful as the grecian princess, Andromeda and have a Pegasus for my very own, wishing that one would drink by the full-moonlight from Bonney Lake, a short jaunt through the wood.
(No, this is not me in the morning!)After loads of convincing with promises of much smiting and gruesome monsters, the Farmers agreed to watch. I even fessed up to my childhood trauma, leaving myself wide open for ridicule. We all settled down with bowls of popcorn into the great room and streamed the movie off of Netflix Watch it Now feed.
With it being one of the last school-nights, we stopped the movie after Miss M's head was whacked off by Perseus' blinged-out sword of the Gods. (It just oozes sparkly cheese.) The boys had a good laugh and I was yet again peeping through my fingers in shame while listening to cracks like "you were scared of that!" or "that looked sooo fake, nobody would ever think that was real" and finally Maddy's brilliant deduction of "you can't turn to stone over the t.v. mom!" - eye rolls included.
When the razzing subsided, Dave asked if they wanted to finish the movie tomorrow night and was met by a resounding "Yes!" By 10 p.m. my nightly, slightly O.C.D. ritual of locking the doors and checking them twice and tucking the Farmers in safe and sound, I found both Devin and D.J. snoozing in the same bed and Maddy had snuck downstairs, curled up on my bedroom floor. Look who's being silly now!
On a side note, if this movie were to be remade (like what movie hasn't been through the mill lately) it could be very cool, a la LotR's, Star Wars and Narnia. The story is there... lets just not have Mr. Lisa Rinna reprise his breakout role. Hmm, who could? Any suggestions?
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