Teenager in the House & Return to State.

Our baby is officially a teenager.

 Here she is wearing the same happy birthday crown on her 2nd birthday.

Where did the time go?

Finally. A cell phone. (She was completely surprised.)

On her birthday - she drove with my parents south to Salina for the State 4H competition where Mike joined them two days later. By all accounts it was a pretty exciting 3 days. Drama, re-runs, a horse collapsing and dying mid-stride with rider aboard, rain, lots of fun, and more rain.

 Jessie placed in the top 20 for over-all speed events out of 102 in her division.

(Yay Jess!)

She's come a long way.

The Vampire Room gets a face-lift, and other adventures in paint

We're painting. Again.

 The "Vampire Room" is going to need a new name. I know. I know. We're all disappointed about losing the most perfect Halloween party location in history. But it had to be done. Noble's Lego Robotics Team needed a place to meet this year. And you can't ask a bunch of 11-ish year old boys to be creative and scientific in the dark gloom of a black and blood-red room. It's just not healthy. Pretty soon they start wearing all black and listening to Nine Inch Nails and stuff. They don't need that. So...

Noble bringing a little cheer to the vampire room.

 Actually, all we've managed so far is to get up a good coat of primer. (If ever there was a need for primer, it's here.) When I get the final color up, I'll post an "after" shot. But already the room is so much brighter.

Credit: my mom painted quite a bit of this - when I got sick with that kidney infection last week, she stepped up (again)...

...and once she got started she couldn't quit. So she also started in on the girls' closet.

 As soon as I was feeling a little better, I joined them.

Sometimes I wonder if I would ever get a project finished around here without her.

Kidneys, don't fail me now.

I have gone through two of these (plus several gallons of water) in the past few days.

What a week. I haven't slept much this week. Here's why: kids with stomach flu, puking in the night, a toddler who wants lots of attention at 2 'oclock in the morning, a very needy newborn who likes to be held and fed and snuggled all the time and also cries just for the heck of it - 24 hours a day. All this while getting sicker every day with what I thought was just a minor UTI (my first, so what did I know?). I've been running a fever most of the week and finally went to our doctor yesterday when my fever spiked really high (about 103) and my lower back started to ache. She wasted no time in telling me that I had a full-blown kidney infection, & pulled out some weapons-grade antibiotics which was administered immediately via hypodermic needle. They made me stay around for 15 minutes after, to make sure I didn't react badly...that scared me a little. I am supposed to appear today same time, same place for round two of the same, after which I will start an oral antibiotics regimen. I imagine when I'm done there will not be a single living bacterium anywhere in or on my body.
I just need to get better. The laundry is piling high and my kids need their mom. Our parents and neighbors have helped out so much, babysitting, driving kids to and from school, helping Mike with Lego Robotics last night, painting in the basement, cooking - and just making me feel loved and supported. I layed there in bed yesterday and felt so grateful for all the people and things that make being sick less uncomfortable. I am blessed.

Mike says I should explain...

We have had a lot of questions about the Tacoma incident after my brief reference in the last post. I was trying to gloss over it a bit for Mike's sake (he was pretty disgusted for about 24 hours). But now that we're a few days out, and Mike has had a few good laughs, we decided a public retelling was OK.

Actually, no one actually witnessed what happened (except Jupiter, and he's not talking) - so this is our best guess at how events transpired.

Jupiter the Space Donkey - lone attestant to the destruction -

 looking down the rock wall at the aftermath.

He's thinking, "What in the...?"

Mike had helped me off with the kids for the first day of school before pulling out of the garage to go to work. He noticed that pen ink had leaked on his sunglasses case. So he decided to run in and rinse it off, leaving the truck in neutral. (Mike traces the whole ordeal back to leaving the lid of his pen at work the day before. How narrow is the knife's edge upon which the events of our lives sometimes balance. ha ha ha.) He was standing there at the kitchen sink rinsing, when he heard the dog going nuts outside, which began, of course, to irritate him. So he walked out yelling for the dog to be quiet, & noticed that his truck was NOT where he left it.

First reaction, "Someone has stolen my truck!"

Next instinct: look at what the dog is barking at in the back yard -----------truck wedged in the back fence. Now start putting the pieces together: truck in neutral, large rock retaining wall, smashed shrubbery, tire tracks in the grass, demolished fence.

A few moments of stunned immobility.

He said his first thought was a sinking, "I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS! What am I going to do?" He said his next thought was, "I hope none of the neighbors saw that." (I think it's hilarious that he thought that...because I KNOW I would have thought the same thing - even though it's silly. *digression* When I was like 8 I drove my family van in neutral down the hill of the church parking lot and hit another car. And even at that young age, I distinctly remember trying to distance myself from the disaster - and act as if I was totally uninvolved. I kept trying to shush my sister who was yelling for help out the window, because I was embarrassed that she was drawing attention to us. Oh my goodness, that is a funny memory...)

At this point he called me (and freaked me out because it took him FOREVER to spit  out what had happened - I  thought it must be something awful) - and started trying to figure out how to get the truck out of the backyard. In case you've never been to our house, the backyard slopes down & there's basically a boulder retaining wall all the way around it. It's hard even to get the lawn mower back there and out again...much less an automobile. 

When I got home he tried rock-crawling up the most gradual & shallowest spot on the wall. No good. The only other thing to do was to go and ask the neighbor if we could drive through her yard. Mike sheepishly rang the doorbell at 8:30 AM and asked if he could drive over her lawn. She responded, "I would rather you didn't." And then he explained that thing was, his truck was stuck in the back yard unless he did. She started to laugh and said she'd let him drive through their yard if she could come see the carnage.

We were sure we'd have to make a claim on our home owners insurance in addition to a claim on our auto insurance to fix the fence & the dent in the truck.

But it turns out PVC is an incredibly forgiving material. All of the downed fence panels were intact, even the posts were relatively unscathed. It took Mike an hour on Saturday to fix the fence. Then he was able to buff out all of the scuffing on his truck. In disbelief, he kept repeating to me yesterday that he was just as shocked about how easily he was able to fix the damage as he was at discovering the accident in the first place.

We still have a dent to repair...and honestly, it's pretty minor. I also have a bunch of broken limbs on a bush in the back yard.

But I'm not complaining. 

It's another good story for Mike to tuck away for telling at parties.

Like the time he got stuck at the mushroom convention, wearing just his boxer shorts. Only this time he doesn't have a cool t-shirt to show for it.

Here We Go Again

The last gasps of Summer...

 Noble fishing for crawdads at Soldier Creek

 Cooling off with the cousins one more time

 ...Before the first day of school

 First day of school for the little brothers. It's confusing to be loaded into the car while you're still half-asleep.

 

Mom (still in jammies) & kids ready to roll. 

It's a bitter-sweet time. We are already missing the freedom of summer break, but you can't help getting excited for the possibilities of a new school year.

New clothes, new haircuts, lunches packed, pencils sharpened...

The kids were up AND dressed by 6:30 this morning. (I, on the other hand, was not. It was a long night with the newborn... and a toddler who wanted to take over my spot in the bed.) I cannot believe that we have a middle school-er this year!! She's pretty nervous about being able to work her locker combination fast enough. But she had her schedule memorized and her locker all decorated (decorated??). So she should be good.

Exciting.

And, adding even more excitement to the day...

Mike's truck, left to its own devises (neutral), took a short trip off a rock wall into the back yard, leaving us to figure out how to extricate it. No serious harm done (whew), but thrilling none-the-less. We like to keep the adrenalin pumping around here.

In the Trenches: Saving Slick

This is why we have a beta. Because they can survive stuff like this.

  Mike barely gave me enough time to snap a picture in his frantic rush to rescue Slick the fish.

Yesterday Sully & friends got a hold of the fish food.

Enough said.

I know it looks bad, but no worries, Slick came through in perfect health.

Our pets have to be tough as nails - in a family like this there is no alternative.

(Sometime have me tell you a story or two about our cat. And then of course, there's the Space Donkey with his ten-foot verticle. I think our pets have super powers.)

Don't worry if you can't keep up...

We have had one crazy August so far. I'm not going to try and give a blow by blow here. But I will give you an idea.

To begin with, we had a close call with Mike's grandmother over the past couple of weeks. We thought we might lose her at any time. Mike's brothers were all flying into town for the family reunion we had planned, & at the same time, thinking that they would be saying goodbye to grandma. Amazingly, she turned it around. We're so thankful to still have her with us, and we're grateful for the tender moments we were able to share with her in recent weeks. Sweet grandma.
Some of the other goings on over the last few weeks: Our nephew, Benjamin, was baptized while he was here. (We were so happy to be a part of that.) Jessie went to girls camp for the first time. We hiked to Timpanogos Cave and to our old stand-by, Cecret Lake (you wouldn't believe the wild flowers!), with family. We had lots of family meals, a birthday bash for the July birthdays, went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, had a memorable day at Payson Cemetery learning about some of Mike's mom's ancestors. We went flower-girl dress shopping with Valerie (Gary's fiance) for Jessie & Grace, took lots of people to and from the airport. AND we rescued the Sullivans' dog, Cooper, from the dog pound while they were out of town.

Because of grandma's situation, lots of other family came into town - and so we had Mike's brother, Jimmy, and his family come to stay with us for a few days to make extra room at Mike's parents' house for the relatives. They were the best house guests ever - and we totally enjoyed having a little one-on-one time with them. We don't get to see them very often. They didn't even complain about being put-up in the vampire room, and THAT'S saying something. Tami went out one day with Grace into the garden, harvested a bunch of ripe produce and then came in and whipped up some AWESOME salsa from what she picked. (Thanks a million, Tami! That stuff was amazing!)

We didn't take as many pictures as we should have - but here are some from this crazy couple of weeks.

With the cousins at the Museum of Ancient Life (a favorite display for the boys)

Tim came in our car to Payson. Thanks to the magic of DVD he got some quiet nap time with Sully.

Sully, Tim & Gary

Learning about some of grandma's ancestors in Payson.

Making some grave stone rubbings in Payson

Valerie.

(We're pretty excited about her becoming part of the family!)

 Awwww. The mountains in summer. Makes you want to breath deeply, doesn't it?

You get a prize if you can spot Noble in this picture.

 As one who snowboards, this is the only way I ever get to see Alta...hiking in the summer.

Epilogue:

All our visitors have left town. We miss them all. Grandma is improving. (Yay, Grandma!) Mike is going back to work tomorrow. I'm turning my attention to getting the kids ready for school in a week and a half, and getting the baby back on a schedule. I started running again today. Routine is returning.

We could use a little breather.

Abner's Big Day

First of all,  ignore the crazed-eye thing Mike is doing in this picture...AND the fact that he's dressed down for our photo shoot (he snuck out of his suit ASAP after church). Second, check out Abner's sweet tie. My mom whipped it together for the occasion, and I think Abner looks dapper in it.

Abner was blessed at church on Sunday. I love baby blessings. I love seeing the men of the family gathered around a new little one to name and bless that tiny person. To me it says, "We're all here for you, little one. You're a part of us. Welcome, with love."

All of the Sullivan clan, minus Sean were there. Also, Mike's parents and brother, Jimmy with his wife and kids from far-off Michigan.

We had everyone over to the house for food & hobnobbing afterward.

A Healthy Part of a Packed Weekend

My brother, Casey called earlier in the week and asked if a we wanted to do a little rock climbing this weekend. He agreed to take Noble a little while ago - for his birthday (he turned 11 last week).  You can't pass up a chance to be instructed by the best. Casey used to climb for Salt Lake County Mountain Search and Rescue. Now he puts his skills to use teaching the next generation.

 

Casey and Mike - getting ready to repel down after rigging up the rope for Noble.

Noble getting near the top.

 ...meanwhile, down the trail a ways...

 Casey, a professional mason, made it an all-rock birthday with this personalized slate. (When a guy loves rocks, it shows.)

Noble loved it. Thanks Casey!

Also, on the docket this weekend: two full days of horse competition for Jessie (she has the sun burn to prove it). She finished off her regular show season, and is planning to go to state next month with her new horse (go Jess!). Unfortunately, I didn't get to see much of her competition (& with everything else going on, we didn't even get any pictures) because of the baby & because, as usual, we are over-booked this weekend. We are prepping for a crowd to come over tomorrow after Abner's blessing at church.  One of Mike's brothers flew in last night (the rest are due in this week for a family reunion). We hung out with their family today for lunch. There's the yard work. Mike was just offered a new role at work.  Also, some old girl friends are in town this week, so we got together for dinner tonight over here, while Mike and his bro. took our boys to an RSL game.

It is so non-stop around here. I'm pretty tired.

Simple Food: Egg plant pizza

In my opinion, this is the best use for egg plant. Hands down.

Egg plant has a little bit of a "bite" for me - so I like it this way. It's one of those veggies that takes on the flavor of whatever you're cooking, in this case, the olive oil and garlic.  Plus, Mozzarella, Parmesan, basil and a crispy crust... so good.

Egg Plant Pizza-
(adapted from a recipe I found on Epicurious.com a few years ago)

1 large egg plant

onion 

summer squash or other veggies (optional)

olive oil for cooking

2 T minced garlic

grated mozzarella cheese

good Parmesan cheese

Prepare pizza crust

(this is my eye-ball recipe as close as I can figure) 

1 T yeast

1 C warm water

1 1/2 - 2 C flour

1 tsp. salt

3 T olive oil

*Mix yeast into warm water, set aside for about 5 minutes until it begins to form bubbles. In a mixer pour olive oil, add yeast mixture. Add salt, then flour a little at a time until the dough forms a soft ball, and cleans the sides of the mixing bowl. Set aside.

*Slice egg plant about 1/4 inch wide. Cut a few slices of onion. Slice summer squash.

Saute vegetables in olive oil on medium heat, add minced garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Cover.

* Roll out pizza crust - on parchment or a stone. Pre-bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove from oven, layer with mozzarella. cheese, egg plant & veggies, sprinkle liberally with Parmesan cheese. Return to oven for 10 minutes until cheeses are melted. Cut strips of fresh basil leaves over the finished pizza. Serve it up. (Feeds a family of 6, no problem.)

Give it a shot.