Wild Success

My 29th birthday party was a wild success. Wonderful friends and family gathered on our farm to celebrate this special day with me. These kind of parties are always a lot of work, but it is always worth it.
The celebration started off last night (my actual birthday). Joe took me out to see "Angels and Demons". I recently reread the book, so it was fun to compare the book to the movie. By the time we got out, and picked up the spit in downtown Dallas, it was 10pm. Good thing some restaurants have bars, so they stay open later. TGI Fridays' baby back ribs and salmon are the bomb!

Liz and Earl watched the kids, so we went to pick them up, and got chatting. Before we knew it, it was 1am. Time to hit the sack there!

The celebration continued this morning, with a lovely breakfast in bed. Sterling made a wonderful drawing, and everyone sang happy birthday in English and Dutch. Once we got back home, there was a lot of work to be done before the party could get started.

Number 1 priority: kill the goat, and get it on the spit. One of the missionaries from our ward was super excited to slit the goat's throat, so they came over for a little while to prepare it. While Joe and 1 missionary were taking care of that, me and the other missionary were taking care of the lawn. I was on the riding mower, and since it had been a few weeks since we moved, there were a lot of grass clippings all over. The missionary was nice enough to run this humongous industrial vacuum over the lawn, and collect all the clippings.

Once the lawn was done and the goat was roasting on the spit, things settled down for a bit. It was nice to get a nap in, before the crowds started to arrive. It was so great to have all my friends and family here, to celebrate with me. Everyone brought all kinds of yummy food, and snacks.Of course the pool was the main attraction, and with so many adults, we got the volleyball net out. We had a good game going, with 4 on 4. Grandma even got in on the action!For some reason, when a lot of people get together, someone always ends up swimming in the lake. This time it was Joe, Brooks, Tucker, and Bailey. They ran off the dock as fast as possible, and still landed in the middle of the algae/weeds/muck. I think that if we wouldn't have a pool, we would keep that lake cleared of algae, so it would be better for swimming. But, hey, like I said before, who wants to swim in a mucky lake, when you have a sparkly pool?The goat was delicious! I think it was even better on the spit, than how we cooked the last one in the oven. the Morphises brought all the fixings for gyro sandwiches, which just complemented the goat so well. Then, there were yummy salads, and of course lots of chocolate dessert. Liz knows what I like!As it was getting dark, we had to pry the kids out of the pool and into cars. It was sad to see everyone leave again, but at the same time, I realized what a great success this party was. Thanks Joe! (and everyone else who contributed)Ginger, Baily, Winter, and Riley Gangstas of the Texas back country

Building friendships

Tuesday we went down to Wylie to help Katy move into a new house. The kids were having a lot of fun, as they always do with their 'cousins'. We decided to swap kids, so I left Winter at their house, and took Grace home with us. Grace and Sterling are bestest buddies, despite their 3 year age difference. Whenever we all get together, they always end up playing together.

As a host, I've been trying to do extra fun stuff, so Grace can have fun memories of her time here. Yesterday we swam for hours, and then Sterling and Grace spent a few hours outside with the kittens. Then, they watched a movie, and even got to keep watching while they ate their dinner. Last night, they collected rocks, so they could paint them today. I don't do crafts with kids nearly as much as I should. I think it might have been Gingers first time, because she was freaking out when a little paint got on her finger. She got over it pretty quickly though.It's amazing how much more quiet it has been too. It seems like Winter and Sterling are always arguing, or whining. S&G played in Sterling's room for hours, building bionicles. What great friends they are!

Fight for your food

If you never feed your cat, and then come out with beggin strips, she WILL try to eat your toe!

Let me explain. We have outside/barn cats, to keep the mouse population under control. Once in a while, when we have kittens, or a nursing mama, I will feed them. I ran out of my stockpile of free cat food the other day, so it had been a few days since they got any food from me. I can tell when the cats start getting hungry, because as soon as you open the back door, they just about attack you. Some make a mad dash for the door, to try and sneek in- especially the newer kittens, who don't realize they'll just get launched right back out.

So we were out swimming, and I was feeling some sympathy for those poor starving cats, so I got the only thing I have at this point: Doggy Beggin Strips. Hungry cats will eat anything, including big spiders and bugs like grasshoppers, so beggin strips are a real treat for them. I had given the mama cat a piece of "bacon", when she dropped it out of her mouth, and it fell right next to my left big toe. She reacted quickly, because if they don't, another cat will scoop it up. Except instead of biting down on the bacon, it was my juicy toe she got a hold of. Auwww! I got 2 puncture wounds; one on the top of my toe, and one on the bottom.

It is really quite funny to watch hungry cats eat. They growl and paw each other. One of these days I'll have to get that on video. It's very entertaining!

Oh, and as I was recovering from my bite, Sterling puked in the pool. Lovely.

Independence day weekend

Since we're not going on any long/far away trips this year, I thought it would be fun to do something local. Oklahoma is only 3 hours away, and I heard it's a nice place to go. My plans went from 1 week of camping, to 4 days, to overnight. I think if we would have gone the beginning of June, we might have survived a week. But in July, we were lucky to survive 1 night. It was just barely not too hot to get to sleep. But it was great to get out camping again. It's hard to believe it's been 2 years since we've last gone camping. My kids didn't even really remember what camping was like. I was also a little disappointed with the lack of "toughness" for all 3 of them. They kept asking me for permission to do any/everything. From going into the woods, to getting into the tent. etc.

On the way to Robbers Cave State Park, I noticed a shorted route on the map. The road seemed to be of decent size (on the map). Once we got on the road, we quickly discovered it wasn't very well-traveled. There would be stretches of horrible road with sharp drop-offs, and then a short stretch of nice road. Each time we reached the nice sections, we thought we had gotten back to the good road, only to discover that it went right back to crappy road. Once time, right after a small hill, the road turned sharply to the right. We were going about 60 when we hit the curve (as there were no slower speed signs), and it took all Joe had to keep the suburban on the road.

Another funny thing: the kids were so excited by the "mountains" in OK. They really are just hills, but I guess Texas is so flat that anything looks like a mountain to them. They'll be surprised if they ever see Utah mountains!

We arrived at the red-neck infested campground just in time to get camp setup before dark. We roasted some marshmellows, and hotdogs, and then the kids just wanted to get in the tent. They just love the tent.
The next morning we headed over to the caves. We came to this part of Oklahoma, because of the cave. Call me naive, but I was expecting a lot more. I guess I'm just used to Utah. There's really just 1 area with a bunch of rocks. The strangest thing to me was that you could totally hear the freeway while on top of the "mountain". We had fun exploring the caves and crevices though, and I really am glad we made the drive out there.Once it started to heat up, we headed to the red-neck infested lake. Carlton lake is where the local fire department does their annual fireworks show, so as time passed, even more red-necks showed up. While the kids and I swam, Joe took off mountain biking. The kids favorite part of swimming in the lake was looking into the water with their goggles, and seeing the green water. Also, jumping off the dock that was in the deep end. Maybe it's because of my old age, but I prefer swimming in a pool!

The Huber family in our ward celebrates 4th of July with a "burgers and bullets" party. It was great fun to visit with friends from our ward. Lenore, who lives in Hawaii, was also visiting, so it was fun to catch up with her. AmyJoy and Melodie's sister Julie was also there with her husband and son. It was fun to get to know her better, and I was surprised to find out that she is living in Melodie's old house, while Melodie moved back to Utah.

Lots of guns were shot, and Winter got to shoot for the first time. She was so excited, and actually did pretty good. There were also fun 4-wheelers, one of which Winter totally crashed. For a while, we weren't sure if she would be okay, but luckily her body took the fall very well. A few bruises, ice packs, and chocolates later, and she seems to be fine.
We closed our day with a humongous bonfire, and a few fireworks. What a great independence day weekend!

Sterling Update

Sterling's eye is doing much better. He was excited about taking benadryl every 4 hours. Once the swelling went down enough, he was bummed not to get that bubble gum flavored medicine anymore.

Bummer

While watering the garden, I noticed several biggish watermelons. I picked the biggest one, but then I saw one that was even bigger. They were heavy! I got so excited, watermelons sounds really good in this heat. I made one huge mistake. I didn't do my research online first. After the knife sliced through the skin, disappointment set in. I had picked 2 beautiful, unripe watermelons. What a waste! Maybe the pig will eat it.

Not Again!

I don't know what it is with Sterling! He has some kind of wasp magnet above his eyes. Sterling saw a turtle when he was getting the mail. After bringing the mail home, we went back out to find it. It wasn't there anymore, so he checked in the storm drainage tube. There must have been a wasp nest, because one of them got him right between the eyes.
We have too much experience with this, so as soon as he showed me, I gave him a dose of benadryl. Night time is the worst for swelling, and this is what he looks like this morning.
Poor kid. This reminds me to request an epi-pen from the doctor. What if he got stung in the throat next time??