Sneaky Lincy

Yesterday we worked on the townhouse . . . ALL DAY. I was surprised at the end of the day when I asked Lincoln when he wanted to go home he said 7. . . . . . . 7? . . . . . I was shocked. . . . . . I need to give you some background . . . . Every night that Lincoln has helped me work on the townhouse we work until 9 or 9:30. Why, because when Lincoln does something he does it 100 percent, full steam ahead, no breaks, no stopping until completely necessary. . . . . 7. . . . . . . . WOW, I thought, he must be REALLY tired.

When we got home, I figured him out . . . . . he went straight to the TV and frantically searched the 600's section of our Direct TV channels. His face downfallen, I innocently asked, what are you looking for? The BYU game he said. Ahaa! A light bulb moment! It is that time of year again? Geesh! He kept saying "for ordering information call etc. etc. etc." A phone call later and $12 bucks a month and my husband was as pleased as punch! Can you believe he debated spending that $12 bucks a month? He is soooooo frugal. If he knew what I spent on stamping a month he wouldn't have any guilt feelings at all! I'm glad he doesn't read the blog OR hold the purse strings or I'd be in trouble!

I'm going to get a lot of reading done during those BYU football games! or maybe even some stamping!

Breaking Dawn

Okay, here is my first ever book review to go on to my blog. I FINALLY read the book Breaking Dawn last week while I was on vacation. This book was purchased by my sister Trudy, given to her daughter Ceci to read, who is 12, then Trudy read it and then it was passed to me to read. I knew something was up by the look on Trudy's face when she gave it to me . . . . oh no!! . . . I thought . . . . "we'll talk after you read it, she said." As I read Breaking Dawn, I couldn't help think. . . . . Is this really classed as a Young Adult book? Is this really a Mormon author? Trudy's heart must have fallen, just as mine was falling, realizing that Ceci had read this book before her. That Trudy didn't even feel that she needed to read it first, trusting that the first 3 books were basically okay, and trusting that this was a MORMON author. I am sooooo disappointed. I had somebody tell me that their daughter had read all but a portion of the book . . . probably the honeymoon portion, but in my opinion the whole book is not suitable for the audience it was written for. Now, onto the plot . . . . I felt jipped. I was a Jacob fan. Why Jacob? Because Bella could have children, she could stay human, his great smile, his warmness. . . . Geesh, if I'd of known she could have all that and eat her cake too, I'd have been for Edward the whole time . . . Jipped, JIPPED!! Well, that is what books are for . . . to throw you a curve ball . . . that is what makes them fun, so my real complaint is couldn't we keep it clean???? You can all throw tomatoes at me now . . . . I'd love to hear what you think!!!!

Halley

Halley just called me to tell me that she auditioned and MADE IT in to the premier choir of the University of Utah!!!! They just reduced their numbers from 52 members to 40 members (10 for of each of the parts) and she was really nervous because for her to make it into the choir she would have to beat out someone who was already in the choir. She will be a soprano, and was ranked 4th in rank based on how high her vocal range is. Her range is pretty amazing, it is hard to imagine someone singing higher, but apparently it is so.

Here is a link to information about the choir if you are interested. http://www.uofusingers.org/about.html On their last tour to Europe the group won the world choir competition. . . at least that is what Halley called it "worlds." She will get to go to Europe . . . which is why she has never auditioned before, the fees for traveling and for costumes is pretty high for her . . . . she didn't ask me to do this, but if anyone would like to donate to her cause she would probably really appreciate it greatly! CONGRATULATIONS HALLEY!!!!

A lesson in multiplication

When we were on vacation a few years back with my brother Sid and his wife and daughter, one of my children came up to me and asked why Sydney (Sid's daughter) got everything she asked for. I told him that when Uncle Sid said "yes" to Sydney he said yes only once but when I say yes to one child I say yes 4 times. (yes X 4) = 4(yes). Sid was within hearing distance and got a chuckle out of that one. The reason I bring this up, is I know my older children will be reading these next few posts wondering why the face of our vacations have changed . . . . why are they better than they used to be? Well, then I had to say (yes X 4), and now we only have to say (yes X 2). It makes a HUGE difference!!

Sand . . . .

virginia beach!!!

Our last hurrah of the summer . . . . another beach trip, but this time to Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach is much different from Ocean City. The boardwalk isn't as commercial . . . in fact, there are very few shops on the boardwalk. Just a place to walk, and a place to ride bikes. The shops are on the next street over and it makes the boardwalk a lot calmer. The weekend we were there there was a skim boarding and surfboarding contest going on. It was fun to watch. We haven't even taken our skim boards to the beach the last few times because at Ocean City they won't allow the use of them except after the life guards leave at the end of the day. The boys could have gotten some good use out of them this time. Wish we would have known. There seems to be a lot fewer rules at Virginia Beach also. Overall, it was very nice!

Here we are soaking up the sun!

Lincoln and McKay walking the beach. They probably walked a couple of miles that day. Don't you love the reflection in the sand . . . I do!

McKay, the fish.

At Busch gardens in Williamsburg.

Chancy at Motorworld in Virginia Beach.

Our sand building (playing) is getting more and more complicated . . . .

Sun . . . . .

Chancy

McKay

and Lincoln in their race cars . . . .

At motorworld . . . Chancy did this . . .
On his way up to FLY!!!
He was a flier, not a lier . . .

Fun . . . .

Bumper boats.

Guess who? Yep, me.
Water Country USA. Williamsburg, VA.The not so lazy river.

Temple Day

Yesterday was our stake temple day. I was really looking forward this year to an entire day of peace and tranquility that the temple brings. Inside the temple there are no pressures, no work, nowhere to go, nowhere to be, nothing but calmness. Okay, now that I just typed that I realize that I am totally wrong . . . there were places to be, there was work to be done, but it is a different kind of work and it feels good to leave your ordinary cares and troubles behind. Lincoln and I started our day at 8 a.m. in the baptistery and didn't leave until 9:00 in the evening. Something that is neat about the DC temple is that it has a huge assembly room on the 7th floor of the temple. The day ended with a meeting in the assembly room. I sang in the choir, and I thought it sounded angelic. The acoustics in that room are amazing.

Because both Lincoln and I have held stake callings that required us to travel around the stake and visit wards we both know so many people in the stake. It is like the stake IS our ward. People know our names and we know, surprisingly, a lot of their names. Yesterday I felt that that was what the celestial kingdom would be like, to be surrounded by people who know your name and that not one unkind statement was uttered . . . . at least in my hearing. Trudy, I'll have you know that some people even knew me as "Trudy's sister." "Are you Trudy's sister?" they'd ask!!! ROFL.

(Note: Thanks Kiersten for the lunch and companionship throughout the day and for the above picture!)

Last night . . . .

Last night, Lincoln, McKay and I went to see the theatre production "The Lion King." Words cannot describe how fantastic, fabulous, and incredible this play was. The opening scene was completely amazing. There was a lot of puppetry in order for people to be animals. The giraffes were made of people on stilts, the zebras, heinas, elephants, etc. were half human, half puppet. The scenery was bright and wonderful and the music was out of this world. It was playful, magical, majestic, tragic, and just plain fun. We tried to see Lion King when we were in New York, but they were changing theatres the week we were there. We have had these tickets since February and every show is sold out. I couldn't get Chancy to go, he'll never know what he missed, the weird kid. . . . .

Rockin' and Rollin'

Trudy called me on Sunday and offered me a ticket to go to an REO Speedwagon concert. So, last night, we went to the concert. I'm not sure if I can say my ears had fun . . . they still feel muffled this morning, but the rest of me had fun. I thought I would know more of their songs. I only knew 4 of them. I think (most probably) that they were promoting a new album they have just put out and so we heard a lot of new songs. People watching is always fun. I couldn't believe the amount of beer that was flowing. It was one huge party. The audience was mostly late 30 year olds and 40-50 year olds watching 60 year olds do their thing. It was amazing to watch their energy. . . made you wonder if they were still on their speed wagon! THANKS TRUDY, for the tickets, I enjoyed myself!!!

Power tools

Working on our little townhouse has given me a LOT of opportunities to get out of my comfort zone. When our house, our actual house needs any kind of paint or repair it automatically goes onto the "honey do" list. I hardly ever participated in "honey do" type items. The paint would "cause me to cough," so I couldn't paint, or "I don't know how to do that" would come out of my mouth to save myself from the work. Well . . . I think paint fumes must have reduced in years past because they don't seem to bother me much anymore. I've painted more in the last two weeks than I've ever painted in my entire lifetime. Everything needs paint, and it is a cure for everything.

Power tools . . . . Lincoln bought me a "little mouse" sander several years ago because I just had to have one, heaven only knows why. My little mouse bit the dust last night while I was using it and I am in mourning. I have to go get a new one, it sure is a handy dandy little tool. It has been used to sand down mud used to fill holes in the walls (which I'd never done before either) to sand the mold off of the deck, to sand the dog chews out of the molding in various places in the townhouse, and to sand the kitchen cabinets which I am painting, it has been a jewel and has saved lots of time.

Another power tool I got introduced to last night was the drill. Yes, I don't remember having used a drill before. I still haven't gotten the knack of getting those darn drill bits in and out of the drill, Lincoln very patiently tried to teach me, but I'm sorry, the way those drill bits go in and out of that machine has to have been designed by a man! Nonetheless, I NEEDED to start drilling holes for the new knobs I bought for the kitchen cabinets and Lincoln was busy doing other stuff and so after he put the designated bit in I took off on my own! After breaking a bit, and a few more lessons from Lincoln they look so great! and I drilled the holes myself! I know you are thinking I've lost my mind and gone crazy, but doing stuff like this and then standing back and seeing the results is kind of neat!

In our humble way

My boys and I have been working on our little townhouse we acquired for just about two weeks now. When we first started working we carefully selected the clothes we would wear that we didn't care about ruining. We don't really have very many of these types of clothes so we have been wearing the same ones over and over again. I know this sounds gross, but you just can't ruin your whole wardrobe with paint. We have looked increasingly worse as the days go by. Yesterday while working my capris blew out a knee and I'm going to have to choose another pair to sacrifice to the project . . . . . . .

One of the serendipities of doing this job for my children is that we have eaten out for lunch every day. They take turns picking where we are going to eat. It has been hard for me to walk into fast food joints looking like we look. You have to swallow your pride and just do it. I notice we aren't the only hard working people in the places, I'm just not used to being one of the hard working ones!

On the Sabbath . . .

Today I am thankful it is the Sabbath, a day of rest. In the past, and being a stay-at-home mom for 22 years, Sunday, often times, was my busiest day of the week. Sad, but true. This week, however, after doing a week of demolating, painting, muding, sanding, cleaning, sweeping, shopping, planning, deciding, supervising, I am thankful there is a day in seven set aside to rest. I don't have to decide, "shall I work today?" I know I'm not, and it is a good feeling. Thank you Heavenly Father for knowing what your children need.

Is it just me?

My Internet explorer won't open my blog anymore . . . . I just about had a panic attack. I reloaded explorer and still, error messages. YIKES! So I guess firefox is my new internet browser. So far so good . . . hopefully I don't have a silly little virus. Computers can be so frustrating!

Betty Crocker

Lately I've been either to busy or to lazy to cook from scratch. Almost everything I've placed on my dinner table is either from a box, packet or a frozen entree. So what do you do when you receive a compliment on said item? do you:

A. Just politely say thank you.
B. Say, Oh yes, I and Betty Crocker did a great job!
C. Say, I wish I could take credit, but I just popped it it the oven!
D. None of the above (and if so what do you say)

I have a hard time taking credit for something that isn't totally mine! Give me an attitude adjustment please!