Kitchen Update

I know you are all wondering if I will ever update the kitchen progress because we certainly should have progress by now right? Well we do only it isn't real visible. It is amazing to me how you can work for days and not see much go on. After our little trip to San Fran Grin took the rest of the week off and worked on the kitchen. That little arrow in the picture is pointing to the progress we made in those 3 days. It might not look like much but it was a huge accomplishment we now have water and drain to the center of the room so our sink and dishwasher can now reside in the island WAY TO GO GRINNER!!! we are very excited for this progress it is one major hurdle Grin has taken. We are about 3 weeks out and the cabinets will be ready. Does it look like we will be:)

Happy 30th birthday Grinner!!!

This is a little shocking so maybe don't look with the kids around. Sorry to anyone this might offend I was just in such shock I couldn't help but get proof.

Grin turned the big 30 a week ago and we decided to celebrate by having a couples weekend so we headed to San Fransisco neither of us had visited the city before so we thought it might be fun for a long weekend. We arrived at our hotel to find a huge parade or what we later found out was a race. Known in the paper as a Run/Walk/or Stumble the "Bay to Breakers" run is more like a big drunken party about 30,000 people enroll in the race and about 34,000 show up for the party. They were dressed in all sorts of outfits in themes like beach bums, superheroes, donuts in a box and as you can see the PG-13 version below some chose to wear nothing at all. That is right folks. You ask how do they get away with it well apparently it is a common theme for people at this party and the police seem to look away (we aren't in Kansas anymore) we also saw many topless woman with painted on shirts I will tell you that this introduction to San Fransisco was more of a culture shock than the primitive parts of Mexico.

After the shocking entrance to this otherwise beautiful city we headed down to At&t park for a Giants game (grin's favorite team) They lost but we had a blast watching the game and people. The downfall was the guy we scalped the tickets from said they were in the sun and they weren't so I froze. That is what grin gets for thinking it's better to buy on the street.

The next day we visited Fisherman's warf and walked the coast down to Giridelli Square and rode the trolley back to Union Square and our hotel. The trolley ride was awesome I can't believe they still let you just hang on to the sides. The driver kept pulling different levers to make us go sooo fun!

On Tuesday our last day we planned to rent a car and go see the victorians, Lambert street, Golden Gate park, and some other sites but there were no cars available in the whole city (That is what happens in cities I guess when people don't own cars) Anyway that morning we hopped on a bus and went down to the beach and started a run across the golden gate. The bridge itself is only 1.7 miles each direction but we started by the ocean and went about 6 miles in all. It was such a fun run exploring some of the paths along the way and seeing the bridge inch my inch. When we got back to the area where we picked up the bus there was a popsicle vendor in the exploritorium we walked through so we splurged for a rainbow and it was the perfect ending to a great run. However it was interupted when a segull pooped on my arm luckily enough it was only my arm not my clothes, hair, or heaven forbid my popsicle. (Thanks Jamie I think that your segull pooping story jinxed me:) )




All in all it was a wonderful trip and one not to be forgotten unlike our car in the parking lot at the airport which took us 30 minutes to find.

Tiptoe through the Tulips

A few days ago the kids and I went with some friends to walk the thanksgiving point gardens the kids had fun running around and I had a ball taking picks in the gorgeous flowers. Even if we did all freeze to death well mom froze the kids didn't mind.

The kids minus the babies in strollers we tried to keep them there as much as possible.

Kids say the darndest things II

I took treats to Jaxon's class the other day for the celebration of his birthday because his is in the summer anyway there was another mom there doing birthday treat too. what a sugar over load for those little kindergartner's, of course they loved it. So as I was leaving the other mom said "I have to tell you what your son said to me" this start of conversation is never a good thing especially when it comes to Jaxon (remember the bald story) Well I guess when they went on there field trip she was a chaperons. Jaxon was sitting there watching her for a long time she said looking like he was trying to figure something out. after a while he jump up and pointed to her and said"I know who you look like those fish at the bottom of the ocean that have the light on top of there head" (holding his hand out in front of him to show her what he was talking about) she said he walked away just as pleased with him self as he could be for figuring it out. I was mortified I didn't even know what to say I simply apologized and got out of there as soon as possible I don't think we will call her for play dates anytime soon. YIKES I truly don't know where he gets these things except that if you know his father he tend to speek before he thinks as well.

Top Ten

May 12-26

10. They celebrate Jaxon's birthday at school so we take treats and a poster about him he was very excited
9. I survive an 11 mile run
8. Grin competes as a captain in a skills challenge for work and his team gets 4th place which isn't bad since they were one guy short and grin didn't even know who was on his team until he showed up. some captain he was. However all the salesman team won money but the management team apparently just did it for sport (no money for us)
7. We go to a free dinner to learn fire safety but in the end they wanted to sale us 6,000 dollars worth of fire-extinguishers. As we all should remember nothing is for free. We did however learn a lot of good info.
6. Jaxon gets 3 good hits in his baseball game.
5. Grin Turns 30 and is feeling quite old
4. We go to San Fransisco for his birthday just Grin and I
3. My sister survives having all of our kids and hers for 3 days that is 7 kids Thank you Thank you Thank you. and she doesn't seem to completely hate me either.
2. Grin and I run across the golden gate bridge (see future San Fran trip post to come one of these first days)
1. I ran my first 1/2 marathon and not only survived but got enough in me to sprint to the finish line to beat out two ladies in front of us. Mind you that still put me in about 30th place but I FINISHED that's what counts for me.

Top Ten

For May 5-11

10. My goal for top ten is Sunday nights you know the beginning of the next week. It's only tuesday again for this post.
9. I went broke buying birthday presents and mothers day presents it all seems to come at once.
8. Ella cuts tooth number 7
7. The front yard gets weeded and mulch put on so it is good for a week or so
6. We are eating in the basement and the kids tend to wander more than usual. I found food and with it a whole party of Ants great!
5. Jaxon gets a new bike he is so hard on bikes but they keep him busy so bad parenting or not he gets a new bike just for mom's sanity
4. Grin gets some more sheet rock up but things do not look like they are progressing at all.
3. I attended a surprise birthday party for one of my best friends Happy 30th Jamie well on the 25th. And managed to get to another shower for Paige
2. Grin gives me a beautiful basket of house plants for mothers day and cooked breakfast and I didn't change a diaper all day! what a great hubby and Dad
1. My dreams of ever owning my dream home were shattered (see post"my dreams take a reality check)

Kids say the Darnest things

I am starting another weekly maybe monthly post for the funny things my kids say again mostly for my benefit but you might all enjoy.

Gavin: The other day we walked Jaxon to school. Almost everyday I remind him to turn in his book so we can get another one. I call out "don't forget to turn in your book." I remind him right as he is going in the door because even then he tends to forget. Well this particular day we hadn't got the book read enough so I didn't say anything. But as we turned to go home Gavin turns and says"Jaxon give your book back today". Man they hear everything.

Gavin: Last wednesday Grin was changing his clothes after working in the yard gavin came in and studied him for a while. Then left the room and came back completely undressed with a brown shirt in his hands (this was the color of dad's shirt) then he sat there studying his dad again. I came in and saw that he had undressed when we had already taken care of that. As you all know it is hard enough to get everybody ready once. Anyway as he left to go get "Jeans" to match dad I called to him "Gavin why are you undressed we are leaving get your clothes on." His response was yelling right at me "BE QUIET MOM" yikes I am doing such a great job. At least he didn't say shut up right:)

These next few are from Jaxon in years past but I haven't written them down yet so I thought while I was at it and haven't forgotten I would write them down.

Jaxon: Jaxon was in his first primary class after nursery. His teacher was wonderful and loved all of his comments he is full of funny things but this particular one she shared with me wasn't so funny to me. Thank goodness she didn't seem to bothered by it. I was mortified. He was in class and she said that her husband was coming in to talk to them about something. He came in and talked to them (he happens to be loosing his hair) and she said that she noticed that he would answer his questions but acted very bothered never looking right at him and kind of squirming in his chair. When her husband left she asked Jax if he was ok and Jaxon's response was. " I just don't like bald people". She said that he was still a good guy and she loved him. She said that Jaxon looked like he was really struggling with this in his mind and responded"I know but it just isn't normal". How embarrasing We had many talks after that about loving everyone no matter how they looked.

Jaxon: The summer he turned 4 years old he learned to ride a two wheel bike. He was out riding it and came running in the house yelling that he had crashed but when I asked him about it he said that he had jumped off. I said good job and he responded. "mom I am my own Rescue Hero."

As I remember things I might bore you all with more. it seems that this is the easiest way for me to get them written down.

P.S. Does anyone know if it is possible to save you Blog to a disk?

My DREAMS get a reality check!!!!

So there is a house being built in our neighborhood. (above)I have been running past it on my runs and watched it progress it is now finished and we rode past in on a family run this morning and to my extreme delight it was for sale by owner. So Grin and I got off the bikes and looked around. It is beautiful just what I would do if I built my own. full of architectural detail. Kitchen cabinets almost just like the ones I just chose. beauiful hardwood floors built in, columns and an open upstair overlooking the family with fabulous red iron railings. I was convinced I told Grinner we would down grade a few of the finishes in the kitchen and get it done and put it up for sale "We are moving into this house"! I have made up my mind. By the time we had come back from the bike ride I had it all worked out in my mind we would get 100,000 profit out of our house and that house would be around 350,000 and we would not have to change our payment much at all. Grin said that I was wishful thinking that the house was probably more around 450,000 still I might sale the boat to make it happen. So we got home and called the owners this is what we discovered.

Lot: 250,000 just under a 1/3rd of an acre

Square footage 4,000 finished

6,000 total

basement framed and sheetrocked

grand total: 999,000.00

That is right folks a million dollars for a beautiful but average house so there you have it what a million dollars can buy you these days in Fruit Heights Utah. So unless I can find some sucker to pay 700,00+ for my house I am SOL.

My friend Amanda had a great idea on her blog so I am copying thanks manda. I am starting a top ten events of the week so I can keep track and realize that we did accomplish or not accomplish something each week.

Top Ten

10. I am now the 2nd counseler/Secretary in the young woman's
9. I got my tile and countertops picked for the kitchen
8. Gavin poops in the backyard while playing in the water yuck
7. We had a shower for my brother brett's Fianc'e Paige and a B-day party for Brett
6. We went to cache Valley to celebrate Grin's dad and sisters b-days
5. Jaxon starts baseball and we still have soccer
4. Gavin has a meltdown in Target and I have to keep shopping (birthday presents for that day)
3. Grin Gets the Drywall up on the back side of the stairs no more worries of falls!
2. Ella Plays Peak-a-boo by herself
1. I ran 9 miles on Saturday Ten this next Saturday Yeah

Ella Dance's

Ok so don't listen to the singing it is terrible. But I tend to sing to Ella to get her attention when she eats and I think I must bob up and down as I sing because one day a couple of weeks ago she started dancing everytime I sang or she here's music. So here is a little clip she got a little distracted by the camera so she doesn't go for very long but you get the idea. It makes me laugh everytime.