I love the hammock!

I just took a 45 minute nap in the hammock - heavenly! I can't be in the hammock without falling asleep. Even if the day is hot, the shade from the tree makes the temperature just right. I was interrupted only once by Jenna asking for food.

In other news:

We have some delicious nectarines.

Our garden is not doing too well. Snails are eating it. The tomatoes, sunflowers and pumpkins are doing OK.

Corey lost a molar. On the way to Wal-Mart he announced that his tooth had come out. He'd only told me once a few days before that it was loose. He was pretty pro-active about pulling it.

We had a picnic at Draper Park on Monday with our friends, the Taggarts. She's also the co-teacher for the Sunbeams. Speaking of which, the Sunbeams were on a rampage today! (Not all of them, but 2 or 3, including Randy, which makes the whole group more wild than usual.)

The kids got haircuts/buzzes at Cookie Cutters. Here they are.

I took the kids to Lifetime to swim. Swimming is such a production! The kids had fun though. The pool was pretty crowded. We lost only one of our set of four brand new diving rings.


Dion and I had dentist appointments. No cavities. I've been having lots of sensitivity on the upper right side of my mouth. The dentist said it was receding gums, maybe from brushing too hard. There's nothing to do about it excecpt use toothpaste for sensitive teeth.

All 3 kids played at a neighbor's house for an hour on Wednesday. That was a nice break.

For years, the LDS Church has counseled us to have food storage. Recently, they advised people to have 3 months worth of normal, every day food stored and then a year's worth of staples to keep your family alive in case of emergency. So, finally this week I made a menu list (for 3 months) and then on Friday I went to Harmon's and bought LOTS of groceries. Dion said to just get it done and we could take $ out of savings. I felt quite self-conscious checking out with SO MUCH FOOD! It was a bit of a headache and the kids started to get crazy, but it feels good to have it done. Dion even put all the menu info. I gathered into a spreadsheet that shows what we have and what we need. He included a bar graph that shows the percentages of each item on hand. It changes when I input new items I've bought. He's so clever.

We went to a concert in Brigham Young Historic Park on Friday. We had dinner at the Gateway and then rode Trax to the park. Again, a bit of a headache. Even though Dion was helpful, I couldn't really listen since I was trying to keep kids from falling in the creek and climbing on the rocks, or else when we were on the blanket the kids were crawling all over me. Dion saw a couple of the Pixton girls from Albuquerque, Allison and Sara, so he visited with them a bit.

On Saturday we had our block breakfast. We've never had one before. My assignment was to bring egg casserole (this is the recipe I used) and napkins. Dion helped set up and take down tables and chairs. It was fun and I got to meet some neighbors from the end of the street who I've never talked to before. And another neighbor invited all the kids to come to her backyard and see her 3 BIG pet turtles. (I went too, but I ended up stepping in dog poop.)

Later that day Dion bought a new computer for the kids and I cleaned out the basement. (My Mom gave me the idea - she said she did that with my sister last weekend.) We were planning to donate all of our unwanted stuff, but in the middle of loading the van another neighbor came over and told us they were planning a neighborhood garage sale at the beginning of August. I did NOT want to haul everything back downstairs, so for the next few weeks the van's side of the garage is full of our junk and the van will have to sit outside in the hot, hot sun. The basement looks so nice and tidy now!

Dion joined SLAS (Salt Lake Astronomical Society). I'd read about a "Star Party" in a community events book and suggested that Dion go. People from the SLAS set up their telescopes and you can go look through them at all the cool stuff in the night sky for free. He liked it and came home and joined. Only $20 a year and you can get access to really powerful telescopes. He went again on Saturday night to another Star Party that was far away in Stansbury Park. At 11:45 pm the SLAS members went to Denny's. Dion only knew one or two of them, but he walked up to their table and said, "Do you mind if I sit here?" Many of them looked at him with blank stares. He said, "My name's Dion." (Doesn't this sound like a bad memory from middle school?) Then, one guy recognized his name and said, "Oh, Dion, you're the one that signed up last night!" After that he sat and chatted, well, listened mostly. He said they are an interesting, smart, eccentric group. It's funny to listen to him tell all about it - the different personalities and all. Anyway, that's one thing I like about him - if there is something he wants to do, he just goes and does it and doesn't worry about excuses, like I would: "I wouldn't have time," "I don't have the energy," etc. Plus, I would NEVER just go up to a group like he did at Denny's - he's so bold!

Is there some kind of disorder where children get addicted to playing with friends? Lately, Jenna cannot stand to not be playing with friends! She'll be out front running around with them all morning and when they have to go in, or I call her in, within about 3 minutes she'll be asking if she can invite someone over or go to someone else's house. It's crazy! And, when I say no, she'll often break into sobs. Maybe it's something to do with the fact that she only has brothers and they aren't as interesting to her as girls. I just don't get it and I don't like it. It makes me want to intentionally curtail her friend time until she can find a way to have fun at home. It's fine that she has friends, but I don't want her friends to become her world. I remember once asking Doneen why her girls weren't the typical cell phone, giddy, teenage "this-family-stuff-is-so-stupid" type. She said, "Well, we don't let them be like that." I didn't really know what she meant, but I think I'm starting to understand. I like to have Jenna here, but maybe I need to spend more time being involved with her. She does like it when I color with her. . .

I got the season 1 DVDs of "As Time Goes By" from the library. It's a British sitcom from the early 90s. My Mom once told me that whenever my Grandma stays with my Uncle Mark and his family they get out the DVDs and enjoy making their way through the episodes. So far, I've only watched 3 episodes and I like it - I can see how it's their style. Watching it makes me feel connected to faraway relatives somehow.

We sometimes have these Holly Hobbie Apple Muffins for breakfast. We had them this morning. They are so tasty! Jenna found the recipe on line months ago. I used 1/2 white - 1/2 wheat flour and sprinkled oats on top.

Instead of having two blogs I keep wondering if I should just merge my blog with the Sandy Davidsons blog since I usually write about a lot of family stuff. It just seems like my style is too rambling for the Sandy Davidsons readership.

Next week we have Dion taking a trip to CO, Cub Scout camp, 2 birthdays, a band concert.

And, for the "Rand" finale - a picture of Randy in only a pull-up, wearing Dion's bike helmet, eating pancakes. Before I took this picture he was pushing around his toy vacuum.