After Dark

When the sun is sweltering hot, beaming down, and the temperatures soar over 102, I tend to either enjoy the pool, or hide out in my air conditioned house. Sadly, heat doesn't make chores go away. The garden still needs watering, weeding, insect repelling, and of course harvesting. The lawn still needs to be mowed. My chickens still need food, and water. And eggs still need to be collected.My pool still needs to be balanced and treated, and skimmers cleaned.

My genius mind finally came up with the idea to do all of these things after 11pm, when it's "only" 80 degrees outside. A good headlamp and shop lights, make visibility a breeze. Sure, you are more likely to run over a glove while mowing, or miss an egg when collecting. But overall I would say, it's worth going to bed a little later. Just to stay out of that unforgiving sun. Not that darkness shielded me from sweating! 80 is still plenty hot enough for that.

I know one thing for sure; I sure as heck wouldn't live in Texas if Air Conditioning wasn't invented yet!!!!

Pita Pockets

Another fun thing to make with fresh ground wheat flour: Peta pockets. Never having made them, I was very surprised to see them come out looking like balloons. Wish I had taking a picture.....

I used the bread machine method, so after dumping all the ingredients in the machine, I just let it do it's thing. 80 minutes later, I rolled the dough out, waited another 25 minutes, and cooked them for 4 minutes each. Not too complicated or hard.

Unfortunately Joe didn't know that you're supposed to stuff you toppings inside, and promptly ate 4 of my 16 pitas!!! Next time I make something new, I'll have to leave eating instructions for that man.

Gun power

Swimming is not ALL we do. Although it's the most comfortable thing to do in the 100+ degree weather...

Joe's uncle Bill decided that with our new US president Obama, he better stock up some guns, just in case he needs to defend his homestead. Bill and Earl went to a gun show last week, and Bill came away with a few different types of guns. But what good are guns you don't know how to use? Not much use at all. So uncle Bill and aunt Barbara came over for some guns instruction and target practice.My favorite gun to shoot, from last night, was Earl's "Saturday night special". A tiny little gun that would fit in my smallest purse. The shotgun was fun for the power, but I still prefer the littler guns. We really should get out there more often and shoot our own guns! It's so much fun.

Shade of brown.

All the practicing has paid off. Ginger can now swim! Yesterday she decided it was fun to practice, and kept swimming back and forth from me to the steps. Just a week ago, she fought me tooth and nails for her "swimming lessons". She isn't independent yet though, because she hasn't figured out how to come up for air. She can hold her breath for a while, but she is still limited by that. I guess she'll figure that out soon enough, with the amount of swimming she does.
Today, my friend Renee and her kids came over. Yeah! I love all these visitors! The pool water has warmed up so much from the sun, that it's almost not refreshing anymore. I'm not sure what to do about it. Aeration can work, but we don't have a fountain or anything. Piper is only 2, and it was so fun to see her going under water. At that age, kids aren't scared of the water yet. It's great.For the first time, I had a little race with a peer. It was fun to really give it my all, and try to beat her to the other side of the pool. I never really learned how to swim free stroke, only "froggy stroke". I have been practicing a little, but I always forget to kick my feet. It has also been fun to collect diving sticks all over the pool. We have 5, and when I spread them throughout the pool, it just enough to be a challenge (if I zig-zag).Winter is by far my best little swimmer. Today she swam the lenght of the pool under water, all the way! I am so proud of her. She is also learning how to dive, get diving sticks, make bombs, and flip from the side of the pool.

The sun has also made our skin a nice shade of brown. Winter seems to be the darkest, but Sterling and I are close runners up. (or is it runner ups?). It does make me nervous when I read my friend Amber's blog, that she has skin cancer. She's my age! We're too young for cancer! Just keep applying that sunscreen!

Swim party

I love it when friends come over! Tracy Sparks and her boys came over, with a Sam Allred addition. We swam, rode motorcycles, and the boys looked for trouble. We have an electric fence between our house and the lake, and those boys just loved testing it out. It didn't matter that each time they got shocked, they jumped back and hurt their arm... it was too tempting to leave alone. Joe has this little motorcycle that is just the right size for a 12 year old. It's all kinds of dangerous, but they seemed to do pretty good on it. I was sure glad to have a pool to cool off in though. I bet it's over 100 out there.My garden is doing great. I just harvested my first cucumber. The cucumber has done really well, climbing up the trellis. I'm glad I happened to plant my watermelon plants on the side of my garden, because it has taken over the world! 2 plants cover about a 12x10 SF area. I have had a few cherry tomatoes, but there are a ton of green tomatoes right now.My caseworker finally called me today, for a possible foster placement. Nothing will probably happen, but at least she thought of me when this child came through the broadcast. She submitted our names, and now we just wait and see if we're the family they pick.

Busy, Busy

I have had the busiest Saturday in a long time. Weekend for that matter. Yesterday, me and the kids made the trek down to Dallas to visit our Morphis cousins. It was Gracie's birthday, and Katy made the best ice cream pie. As soon as we horked it down, we had to make a mad-dash back up to Plano to drop the kids off and pick Joe up to make it to the 6.30 temple session. The temple was great, and we had some nice Tex-mex food afterwards. By the time I got to bed, it was after midnight.

Today, we had a lot of shopping to do. Of course tomorrow is Father's Day, so we had to go get something for the fabulous dad in our home (Joe). Then we hit several mob-infested grocery stores including Costco and Walmart. A quick nap, some cooking for tomorrow, and a dinner later, and it's almost 11pm again. I guess all that work will pay off tomorrow, when I (should theoretically) be able to take it easy.

Lame

I actually feel like writing a post right now, but can't think of anything interesting to say. I was stuck at home today, when Joe took our only running car into town for sales. The kids have been bickering a lot. I am feeling depressed about the whole foster/adoption situation. We still aren't pregnant. My TV won't scan the 4 stations I like to watch. My house is an on-going mess. Hey.. this is sounding soo depressing! I need to get out of the house, and get my mind in a better place. Not all days can be good days, and today just wasn't one of them I guess.

Texas summer has officially taken hold. The AC seems to be running non-stop, and we only set the thermostat to 82 degrees. It funny how your body gets used to the temperature though. After first coming in from the 100 outside, 82 feels great. But only 5 minutes later that is feeling a little uncomfortable.

I am totally hooked on the bachelorette, again. I always get so into the "characters" on the show. I have my favorites, and of course some that I think are lame. I would like to think that if I was in a situation like that, that I would be able to make the smart decisions, and not end up with a bunch of losers. Just for the past 2 seasons I have started reading online spoilers, and have found that those influence my opinions on the guys. A guy that I might not have given a second thought, can become my favorite, after I find out he's one of the final 3.

Well, that's all I think of to write. I know, lame post.... but at least it's a post!