Ira's 10th Birthday

Okay, so you've seen the cake. Here's the REST of the party. I bought a bunch of shaving cream, squirt guns, and swimming goggles for the kids to have a shaving cream and water fight. For those of you whose kids came over, I DID give them all goggles. Most of them took them off within about 30 seconds. All was well though, I heard no cries of pain from shaving cream in the eyeballs. We put out big Rubbermaid tubs of water to refill water guns, and discovered that the kids would rather use them as personal pools. A couple of kids (Ethan and Ella mostly) were 100 percent covered in shaving cream. They did it to themselves. I think I rinsed Ethan off like 3 times. We also put a sprinkler spraying on the trampoline and that was a big hit. Here's a slideshow of the pictures. (oops, a few are flipped horizontally.... I was hurrying) Thanks to everyone who came or brought their kiddies, we really had a blast! oh.... also, there are more posts below this one!

Camping on Memorial Day Weekend

We went camping on Memorial Day weekend. We drove up on Friday and back on Sunday. It rained on Friday, POURED Friday night, and then just a little bit of rain off and on on Saturday, with one downpour of a thunderstorm that lasted 15 minutes. It was a LOT of fun, and I'm very glad we bit the bullet and stayed for 2 nights, because we were able to do a lot more than just set up and take down camp like you have to when you only stay overnight. I started whittling and in the end Aaron and I made hiking sticks for all the kids so they have a souvenir of our trip. Mom and Dad Williams came with us, and after Mom came up with the idea to put up a tarp just to sit under, the rain got a lot easier to deal with. We have lots and lots of innovative ideas to make our next camping trip even better!! Enjoy our little movie.

Couple of posts....

Whew.... I have a few posts to write, I got the pictures from our other camera. It has been a hard week. Aaron and the kids were great, as they always are. But on Friday, May 22, two people I've worked with for years the PD were killed in a helicopter crash. It took a while for the "official" identification, but we all knew who was in Mike's helicopter--him and Donna. So, this past week was one of preparing for a police funeral, which if you've ever attended, is really heart-wrenching but powerful and cool too. Bagpipes, an honor guard that rivals military honor guards, procession of police and fire department vehicles from all over the state and country, 21 gun salute, the whole thing. I was surrounded by people who were stoically choking back tears and showing their respect and unity, all while hurting so bad inside. I can't tell you how hard it was to see all my friends (I call officers my "children" because of the caregiving role of a dispatcher)-- see them suffering so, knowing how they felt, and not being able to make it all better. So anyway, Mike and Donna, I will miss you very much, but I know I'll see you again.

Okay. so now I'll be posting some pictures of camping and stuff, so keep looking down. I might make a movie or two to get it all in.

LOTS of catchup!

Well, to start with, we had a lot going on this past month... Ira's birthday was May 11. The boys went on Father and Son's outing, so Joy and I had a mom and daughter day (or 2) of fun. We had camping over Memorial Day weekend, and a barbecue with some of our friends from before we were married on Memorial Day. I don't have pictures for all of this.... but I do for some of it.

Let's see. Joy and I had a great time during our Friday night and Saturday at home. We went to Famous Dave's for BBQ ribs. Joy is SO my daughter, FD's is now HER favorite too! Then we came home and Joy made me a picture frame that she's wanted to work on for months. It is made of plaster that she put in the mold and then painted. It is beautiful! Joy helped me make Ira's birthday cake, and we went to breakfast with Aunt Rachel, Jessica, and Jess's friend Lexi at Cracker in a Bucket (Cracker Barrel)--that was a good breakfast and Joy was a champ with her pancakes and bacon. THEN we went and saw Hannah Montana--Joy was singing along with all the songs, it was fabulous. Here are a few photos from that... I think really just of breakfast and Joy smashing my face:

Joy and Mom posing

Auntie Rachel doing the kids' menu....

Jess doing Lexi's hair with the little tees at Cracker Barrel while Joy supervises:

STILL catching up..... Ira's birthday cake

This is what Ira's birthday cake looked like. If you can't tell, it is a bunch of Army guys fighting for territory in the mud. The "walls" are chocolate covered marshmallows and the "mud" is two different darknesses of chocolate frosting. I realized as I was looking for my pictures of Ira's party that we took most of them with another camera so I need to download that onto this computer..... so there will be more to come.

Catching up.... some of our harvest

Okay. so, a tiny strawberry, a peach, and some apples. This is NOT our whole harvest, just what I took a picture of. We have some peppers which I am drying-- and a whole LOT of peppers I need to pick. Okay, let's be honest, Aaron does the picking :-) Our apples and peach were all we got, because we weren't supposed to let any grow so that the trees would devote their energy to getting big. We had more strawberries, and a TON of tomatoes, however, we have various insects having a heyday with our strawberries and tomatoes. We have ants in the berries and I don't know what in the tomatoes. Our watermelon bushes, a little zucchini plant, and a pumpkin plant, are on their way up, so we had better get the oogedy boogedies under control because I will NOT be pleased if my watermelons get eaten! Anyway, here are a few fruits of our labors. Okay, AARON'S labors.

Catching up... again.... part 1 :Growing stuff

Okay, so.... here are some pictures of things we've been growing. There are tomato plants, spinach, our front garden that was SOOO pretty until the 100 degree plus days killed it, our coolest flowers, I thought, were the sunflowers and the poppies, but it looks like I only got sunflowers in our photos. There's also a picture of one of our pepper plants. We're growing Anaheim chiles and jalapenos.

This is the "bottom" post of catching up...

Ya Gotta Have Friends!!

So this is totally NOT a family related post-- those who log on JUST to know what the 4 zoo monkeys are doing cute NOW, just skip..... this is more ramblings from Mom. That's me. Still weird to think that name instead of my own :-)

Anyway, Relief Society yesterday was a Visiting Teaching Conference. The (not) fun part is that I took part in the role-playing, using the commitment pattern to help a sister my "partner" and I were visiting teaching. Actually, I have to admit it was kinda fun to surrender to the Spirit and the commitment pattern like I did on the mission. If this sister HADN'T have already been an active sister, I'm pretty sure we woulda had her. But, that wasn't the part that hit me the hardest. Janice Beals, who I LOVE by the way, spoke about friendship--it was assumed we would take her thoughts and translate them into our visiting teaching. But she gave 4 principles that I am going to share because it's my blog and I warned ya'll it wasn't about the kids. The first is Listen, which kinda is self-explanatory. 2nd is Overlook, meaning that true friends will overlook their friends' faults and will OVERLOOK and let go of the things that do that bug, annoy, or offend. We should talk about them, but then we should let them go. Then was Value--remember our friends, don't take them for granted, and value what a gift they are in our lives. Lastly was Enjoy--take the time to enjoy your friendships and spend positive time together. At any rate, I thought about the friends I have, old and new. My ward is really wonderful and I've felt like it was HOME since the first day we walked in. I have new friends who I am just getting to know, from my ward. It's VERY hard for me to let people in so those people in my ward who are patient enough to deal with the really sad efforts I make, I really do value. But I was also thinking about my "old" friends.

Last week my friend Liz came from Utah/Idaho/New York, and in only having a week here to visit with her family and friends, she chose to spend a whole day with ME. That meant a lot to me, because she is just one of those people that is good for the soul. We went to lunch and then she insisted on coming to my house and clipping coupons with me. Like, thousands of them it seemed. But we just talked and clipped coupons and it was the best time I've had in a long time. NO, my life isn't that boring, I just REALLY, REALLY enjoyed catching up with my Liz.

Then I think about my friend Erica, who I haven't seen since she was FIRST pregnant with her child who she brought home a MONTH ago. I miss her incredibly, and I wondered if she feels valued--but when I imagine the way she has been there for me, there's no way to replace the friendship I have for her in my heart. Janice put up a sign in her lesson, which is poorly reproduced in the top of this post, that says "That's What Friends are For" and then has a sign that says "To the Ends of the Earth--1 billion gajillion miles" That's where my Erica has gone with me, both literally and emotionally.

My friend Charity, who I haven't seen since like 1999. She is almost solely responsible for me being an actual contributing member of society, because she was my rock and example (and partner in crime) during a time when I was becoming an actual person instead of a blob of cells and biology that just existed and blew in the wind. One email, one phone call, and we're caught up like we had never left those teensy weensy dorm room at the Y.

There are more friends out there; my sis Rachel is and always will be my "twin sister"--you can't have a best friend better than your sister, no matter how "best" your other best friends are. I could write a list of my friends, but they are innumerable. Ya'll know who you are, but you may not know how much I value and cherish you and the colors you've added to my life. I keep a little piece of purple paper in my scriptures from when Erica taught a RS lesson, that says something to the effect of "You are the missing piece of the puzzle in someone else's life." That's what my friends are to me, but they are more. To steal an idea from a book that shall remain unnamed so as to not add to THAT bandwagon :-), my friends are like the threads in the tapestry of my life--you each add colors that make my tapestry rich and vibrant and beautiful. So thanks, and know that I LOVE you guys, and I L. O. V. E. you guys (Love, Overlook, Value, and Enjoy). And for my new friends who I am trying to actually be a worthwhile friend to, I'm working on it. I'll get it right eventually.

Here is just a little sampling of some of the friends I have in my life, and some of the memories I cherish.... hopefully some of you will OVERLOOK any photos you'd rather not see, I haven't always been the model of appropriateness that I am today ;-)