Fish out of water

My laptop blue-lined on Tuesday afternoon. I tried not to be sad because, well, it's just a computer. Luckily, I backed up the system a month ago. Although, I was inspired to do it earlier in the day on Tuesday and I didn't do it. I wish I would have listened. Bummer. If any of you sent me something important this week, you'll have to try sending it to Travis' email.

I realized today for the umpteenth time that often I am inspired to do things that seen of little consequence but actually make life a whole lot easier. I almost deleted all the pictures on our digital camera after I downloaded a bunch recently. I remember thinking to myself, "No, I better just leave them on the camera, too." I am SO happy we still have all those pictures because I hadn't backed up those photos on my computer. They would have been lost forever besides those I posted on the blog during the past month. I'm really trying to listen to that still, small voice of the Holy Ghost. All the time...

I really need to have copies of all our pictures online, too. I have a Flickr account and have just dabbled in it. Well, I think I just got a big drop kick to get me going to town on those pictures.

I just hi-jacked Travis' laptop so I can write this and catch up on all of your fabulous blogs! I have been doing so much housework this week...especially today...because I don't have anything better to do! I don't have a computer and I don't have book #2 yet. What else would I do with all my free time? Travis just laughed when I told him that tonight and said, "Well, maybe that's a good thing!" I beg to differ.

Happy

Hatu. I remember calling it that in grade school. The boys and I are looking forward to coming for a visit. Yes, in August. I don't want to be here alone while Travis is in Japan. Also, Amber is just about ready to have her baby and I am excited to hold that baby and let all the cousins play together. I want to see my blogging buddies, too. So, let's plan something.

Co-ed. I'm playing on a city league softball team with Travis and some of our friends. We are called the "Pirates". Lots of fun and lots of pain. I have used muscles that have been on vacation for a while. I keep forgetting to stretch out first. I'll have to make a note of that for our next game. And no catching the ball with my hand through the mitt. Ouch!

Sequels. I'm in such suspense! I have been sucked into "Twilight" this past week and have been sneaking a page here and there throughout my days. I would hear Travis coming down the hall and hurry to put the book away and act like I was folding laundry or something so he won't make fun of me. I finished the book last night and I am so anxious to read the second book! I know, so silly that it has taken me so long to start reading these books. I'm trying to get Travis to start reading the series so I can read #2 in peace. But, he says he has never heard of another guy reading these books. Hmmm...I have to agree...so, that pretty much means it is not going to happen. Help, do you know of a really great series a tough guy like Travis would like?

Jets. We live about a mile from the airport and get a pretty good view of the annual air show from our house. The Patriot Jets came to fly in the air show this year.



We didn't buy tickets this year. We just went on tons of bike rides to the parks nearby to play while we oohed at all those airplane loopty-loops. This picture cracks me up. You'll have to click on it to see their expressions as Tyler has no idea Justin is ready to SMASH! CRASH! Justin is SO ready to get rid of those training wheels. Maybe that will be our next big post.


Here's a picture of our front-row view of "The Patriot Jets" flying over our house.



Our whole house shakes and it is so loud. I always wonder if those pilots ever look in people's windows...

Olympics. I loved the drummer boys at the opening ceremony. And I have NEVER seen so many fireworks. Those people in the stadium were missing out. That was amazing! We have been watching some of the events and our DVR is stuffed with more to watch at our leisure. I love that.

I love watching the gymnastics and diving events. Here's another deep thought: I've always wondered if there are scuba diving cameramen under the Olympics swimming races. Is that how those swimmers "know" they are about to crash into the finish line wall? They never seem to look up. Do they see the little scuba guy perched on the bottom of the pool? The funny thing is that this had been on my mind ever since I did the same thing while swimming backwards with Tyler during Justin's swimming lesson. Don't try this at home. It hurts.

Wowsers! I'm watching the Men's 100 Backstroke right now and a guy just miscalculated the finish-line wall and ran into it with his head. They just replayed it in slow motion. My silly question doesn't sound so silly anymore, huh?

I know, dorky thoughts, but I still want to know...where else would I ask them if not for the blog?

Funny Boys

"Give me a headache!" Ty says this whenever he wants a "head start" push on his tricycle.

Justin yelled, "Hey, look at that...(flock of geese)they are flying in a 'V'! They must be going on vacation!"

"I'm only 6 years old, be easy on me, huh?" As Justin was getting smoked by Tyler when they were in a kicking/poking war.

Happy Birthday Travis!

Travis with his parents and sisters July 2008

Today Travis turned the big 33!!! I think he's happy about it because he even did a little dance when we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him for the 50th time today.

I remember my first birthday memory with Travis. My sister, Tawnya, and I took him to a birthday lunch at Los Hermanos in Provo. We were just barely dating then and we had a fun lunch laughing and laughing. When all the employees came around our table to sing their "Happy Birthday" song, they told him to stand on his chair. He looked so embarrassed standing up there right during the busy lunch time at the restaurant. Tawnya and I laughed so hard we could hardly sing. Later, my Mom was worried that we had been rude. She liked Travis so much that she didn't want us to scare him off. He later reassured me that he just thought it was funny, too. I'm so glad we are married now and don't have to do that dating guessing game.

The boys and I are holding a "Birthday Challenge" today. We are going to surprise Travis with a clean sweep of the house as an extra birthday present. We need to clean up all our sleeping bags and tent stuff left over from our weekend camp out. (And the mound of dishes left over from the "no electricity" night. Next time the power goes out for real, we're using paper plates!) Justin complained, "Mom, that's not a birthday present! Birthday presents are just toys and stuff!" I quickly assured him that "Yes, I promise he will LOVE this birthday present from us." No dish duty tonight, Babe! Priceless!

Survivor Day #7

More magic today...at the "Celebrate Hillsboro" event downtown. Our friend, Ryan Janeway, was MC at the main stage and put on a magic show throughout the day. Justin was all about the magic tricks and would laugh when he couldn't figure them out. Ryan did a great job and we were all very impressed! We even did a disappearing act with some Kettle Corn we bought. Yummy and we justified it by saying we bought it with our emergency money. Gotta eat when we're starving! What would we do if this challenge lasted longer than just one week? We're already fudging!

We joined the effort to make a Guinness World Record for the most number of people playing a kazoos at once. The organizers were shooting for over 5,100 people playing kazoos. We all played "Doe a Deer" from The Sound of Music. Here's a peak at us making music together:



We had a fun time and the boys played in the bounce houses before we headed home for lunch. Then naps, BBQ for dinner and bed. Justin and Tyler begged to sleep in the tent again. This time Travis opted out and happily tucked them in for the night. Justin said he wants to sleep in the tent for one month. Now we know if there really is an emergency, we'll just pop up the tent in the living room and the boys will be peachy keen! Good to know! Sweet dreams, boys!

Survivor Day #6

I just want to say one thing...I love my crock pot! It's simply magic! In the morning, I threw in frozen chicken, a bunch of potatoes and carrots and poured Newman's Own Italian Salad Dressing on top and BINGO! Dinner for the neighbors (and us) is served! And it happened during "Survivor Week", too! I think we should get extra points for that...at least the bonus points will balance out our score after you take into account the fact that we did go to the store (shh!) to buy salad and watermelon for the dinner we took to the family of our friend who just got out of the hospital. I figured we could slide a few feet for that one. We just couldn't let the red, ripe, juicy watermelon go mushy in the fridge until Sunday...so, we enjoyed every single bite!

Speaking of forbidden fruit, I have now entered the Twilight Zone! It's true, I have been plotting to read the Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series for over a year now and I had just the motivation to begin this week. My friend, Kelly, threw a Twilight all-night party on Friday night in honor of the new release of the 4th book of the series. We had fun with some Twilight trivia and watched clips of trailers and commentary on the new movie and books. Then about 25 of us caravanned to the Barnes & Noble book party to stand in line to buy the new book at midnight. There were so many people there! Crazy! I don't know what the final number was, but when we got there around 10:30 they were handing out wristbands with the number over 1,000. We were lucky to have a low number in line of 113. Thanks, Tiffany! I'll post a picture of our group as soon as I get a copy. Many of us went back to Kelly's afterward to read all night. I lasted until 1:30 a.m. when my dry contacts forced me to head back home. Funny thing is that now I'm trying to finish this post so I can pick up that book again and start reading...

While I was partying with my friends, Travis and the boys were camping out. In our playroom! As part of our "Emergency Preparedness Challenge" this week, we were asked to pick a night for no electricity and to sleep in a "shelter". Of course I suggested Friday night knowing I'd be gone anyway. Yes, I know, I'm really helping here, huh? I did stay long enough for the "Emergency Supply Scavenger Hunt"...

Travis was a trooper and got out the tent and sleeping bags while the boys searched all over the house for our wandering flashlights. We need to put leashes on those things (The flashlights, not the boys...well, maybe Tyler.) so we'll have them handy when the power goes out for real. Here's a picture of the happy campers:

Holli, look at the book they are reading. They still love it! Thanks!

When I got home from my party, I woke Travis up to say "Hi" and then I went upstairs to sleep in our bed. Sorry, babe! No room in the 2-man tent for me! I slept great by the way and Travis climbed in bed the minute the boys woke up this morning. I had to laugh. He's such a great Dad!

Survivor Day #5

Blueberries are here!


I paid for them over a month ago, so it's really not grocery shopping. Nifty, huh? This morning I took the boys with me to go pick up our 14 lb. bucket of fresh Oregon blueberries. Yum! We ate so many and then I froze the rest. It felt good to add more to our food storage. I am going to have sweet dreams tonight!

In trying to keep with our food storage challenge this week, we ate yogurt and granola bars for breakfast on our way to pick up the blueberries. For lunch, Tyler wanted apples and cashew butter. We only had one apple left between the three of us and so we savored every bite. Then we filled up on cucumbers and frozen peas with blueberries for dessert. An omelet was on the menu for dinner tonight and then we zipped off to an Eagle Court of Honor for a teenager at our church. Justin told me tonight that he wishes he could be a scout right now. I just about choked when I told him he had less than two years left until he'll be a Cub Scout. Can that really be true? He's growing up too fast!

Travis just opened the fridge and said, "We're getting low on the good stuff!" And to think he just noticed! Just kidding! I made a list today of things we need to add to our emergency storage. One big thing that jumped out to me is that we need to stock up on more toilet paper and cleaning supplies. So funny, as I'm writing this Travis says he made a list of things today, too. We are on the same wavelength this week.

Only 3 more days!

Survivor Day #4

Today the fridge is looking a bit bare. I was thinking all our fresh food would last a bit longer this week. We should have begun rationing food at the start. Among yogurt, cheese and applesauce, we have one apple left, less than a half-gallon of milk, some grape tomatoes, green onions, cucumbers, eggs, half a loaf of bread and the grapes went bad. I have a bag of carrots and potatoes that I need to save to take dinner to a family on Friday. Our freezer is stocked pretty full, so we'll be breaking out the frozen peas and berries tomorrow.

We ate cereal and yogurt for breakfast again...do you see a trend? Justin had a friend over to play all day today and for lunch I brought out cans of chicken stew, beef stew and a box of pumpkin soup. They turned up their noses to all of it and asked for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead. I knew we only had about 6 slices of bread left and if Justin didn't have a friend over I would have made them eat the stew. Maybe tomorrow. I made them 1/2 sandwiches (I was so stingy) and told them I'd make more if they were still hungry. I didn't want to waste ANY bread. They ate their sandwiches, carrots, tomatoes and chips in a dome-fort picnic outside. Travis and I ate beef stew inside. Not nearly as fun for us.



Today I was surprised by how possessive I was getting over the food in the fridge. When Justin and his friend wanted a snack later on of carrots and tomatoes with ranch dressing, I reluctantly gave them two or three at a time. I would have laughed at myself if I had been a fly on the wall.

For dinner I made canned salmon cakes with the green onions in the fridge and almond meal in the freezer. Justin was so happy for his favorite dinner and Tyler cried when he saw the cans. I left Travis to finish cooking dinner and I took off to go visiting teaching. When I returned, I noticed they had eaten all but two of the cakes. That was fantastic! They all ate a good dinner and were dishing up a "boys' night" treat of ice cream when I walked through the door. No snacks before bed for them, but Travis and I are craving popcorn right now...glad we have 16 pounds of popcorn in our food storage! It's going to be a good night!

Survivor Day #3

Here we are at the Museum of the Rockies in Montana

We just had a fun day today. Visiting teaching in the morning and Justin played with a friend all day. For our survivor meals we ate cereal for breakfast, leftover grilled chicken and vegetable skewers for lunch, and quesadillas for dinner. It actually felt like a regular food day. I told Travis that I think we have a good food storage strategy. Most of the food we have been stocking up on is the food we are used to eating all the time. So, for this week's challenge, I am so happy that I don't have to figure out how to cook with mystery church cannery dried meat substitute. We do have a bunch of cannery cans of rice, flour and oats. But that's pretty normal food in my book. I may change my tune in the next few days when we're running out of fresh food, but for now we're happy.

After dinner, we headed off to play softball. Travis and I are playing in a co-ed league and we had our first practice tonight. Several of our friends from church play on the team and we have really been looking forward to it. I played in the same league with Travis for two seasons when Justin was little. Then I took a break from playing so I could chase kids while Travis played in the men's league with his friends. It felt so good to be back on the field and get dirty! We brought along a babysitter to keep track of the boys while we were playing ball. We will definitely be doing that again. I pitched for most of the practice and I am SO SORE! I'll be the only pitcher for our first game next week and so I'm going to keep practicing so I'll be ready.

All day I was thinking about what we would need to be comfortable in an emergency. Justin needed new pants when we were at the baseball fields and I had nothing for him in the car. I think I am going to put together a bag of basics to keep in the under-storage in our van. Just things like a garbage bag, extra clothes, pull-ups, wet wipes, granola bars and water bottles. Also, I was thinking about our 72-hour kits and how we are going to need some activities for the boys. We'll all go bonkers if we don't have anything to do during an emergency.

For a bedtime snack, we had granola bars. That's my favorite part about food storage!

Survivor Day #2

Palisade Falls in Montana

No S.O.S. coming from our house today. But we did have one little bump in the ride last night. We told Justin and Ty our plan for the week during dinner last night. Justin immediately started crying. He is our weather boy and is so worried about natural disasters. In the past, he got the idea that our 72-hour-kits and emergency supply of food would only be used if something big like an earthquake or tornado hit our house. Justin has been so worried about this challenge. He thinks some tornado is going to run us over any second. Well, we had to do some explaining that we are doing this just for fun and the ONLY thing that will change for us besides some fun little preparedness family activities during the week is that we won't be grocery shopping until next Monday. I think he was worried he wouldn't be able to watch T.V. or something. Today he hasn't said a word...no big deal.

Travis and I are looking at this as an opportunity to find out if we are prepared with a storage of food that our family can be happy living on for a week and then we can get an idea for what we would need to add to make it last for a 3-month-supply. Recently, we have been adding to our food storage of canned foods and boxed soups and soy/rice milk. Just regular stuff we eat every day anyway. With the food in our freezer and in the cupboards I'm not too worried about this week. It's just difficult to gage how long the food we have already collected would last us. Bishop was so sneaky to ask us on a Sunday when he knew we wouldn't go to the store and stock pile everything. Travis said the Bishop had told him this was a well thought out piece to the "challenge".

Since we are the first family to take this challenge on a "test run", we're not doing the turn-off-all-the-electricity emergency. I don't want to spoil all the food and melt without A/C. So, on the no electricity night we are just going to try not to flip on the lights and on the "sleep in a shelter" night we're just going to sleep in a tent in the living room. So far, so good!