Looking forward

Looking foward.....to things to come.......



and am so grateful.......



The SM.......



knows how to can.......



and put up produce now........



He makes THEE best fresh homemade salsa ever!

It may be broke, but he's not broke!

It may be broke, but it sure isn't slowing Mr. J down.........



Mr. J had a bit of a run in with amazing heights and the ground.



The ground won.



But as you can see, it doesn't seem to be an issue for Mr. J



If he's not hopping and crawling around himself,



He's got The Native's trained to come and carry him around at his every beck and call.



He even has Levi hauling him around in his bike cart! It's a good thing I don't bow to his every whims. I've a heart of steel. I'm not falling for his antics. I refuse to be manipulated.

Oh! Mr. J just rang his bell. Need to go and fluff his pillows...... What? WHAT??

Dentist

Yesterday I went to the dentist. I had my silver fillings (five of them) removed and replaced with the white ones. That meant my whole entire face was numb. Upper and lower. My tongue was numb and kept wanting to escape my mouth that was quivering because I was trying to keep it closed whilst my lower lip wanted to drag on the floor.

Here's a video on going to the dentist that sums up my experience from the drilling all the way to covering the front of my shirt in water that poured from my uncooperative lips:

Management. It's starts when they're young.

Photo Credit

Ever seen a construction site and wondered what all of the guys are doing who are standing around watching the one guy working?



It is called overseeing. It is a form of management and only the trained and prepared can obtain this coveted position. It starts when children are young.



Years and years of experience. If The Native's hadn't been keeping a close eye on the pouring of concrete and the making of our neighbor's driveway the project would have failed.

Don't be fooled by the chairs. This is exhausting work!



It'll take the starch out of the most seasoned of overseers.

Improvising

Me: You're all wet! What have you been doing?

Miss K: We've been jumping on the trampoline. We put the sprinkler under it.

Me: We don't have a trampoline!



Miss K: Yes we do! Levi's!

(Improvising: It is what The Native's do when their mean parents won't buy them a trampoline like all of the cool parents.)

My birthday. Reason enough!

Because it's my birthday and I wanna, I bought some cool yarn. Isn't it wonderful that that is an option? I want something, so I get it? Think about it. Not everyone has that blessing. But I do and so therefore did.



A very cool colorway if you ask me. I think it is so fun to see the yarn in a hank like this and then



how it looks wound up like this. Gives you more of an idea of what it will look like knit up. So, what to do with this yarn?



I went to ravelry.com. The most awesome place where you can get a lot of patterns for free. All sorts and I saw this pattern and thought it would look smashing done up in my yarn.



So I downloaded this gal's pattern. Happy day! Happy knitting!

Photo credit

I'm Flyin'!!

There's a reason I've not posted yet today. It's because I haven't had time and still don't! Yeah, I'm probably over doing it but I'm having A GREAT DAY! I'm flying!!!! And it feel so dang good!

A high five to fathers!!

A high five to all the fathers out there today!

I am so blessed in that I was raised with an exemplary father. A man who I love very much. My father, The Native's grandpa. When I was little I can remember going to bed Saturday night filled with excitement at the thought of getting up super early before Dad got up for early church morning meetings and making him breakfast in bed. Sneaking around in the dark kitchen making him crepes and orange juice.

My gifts to him over the years were always much the same. Soap on a rope when I was younger to who knows what as I got older. All I know is he was very glad when I grew out of the soap on a rope stage.

I spent several years on the weekends riding the ski lifts with my dad as we were both ski instructors. I apprenticed under my dad for several years before becoming a full fledged instructor and taking students myself. I loved those years and the conversations we would have riding the lift.

Many hours were spent in my Dad's shop as he in my eyes was able to build and fix anything and everything. Riding to the dump on Saturday mornings as living in rural America.......garbage trucks didn't find their way to your curb.

Monthly one on one interviews with my Dad and Mom just "checkin' in" to see how I was doing....Dad driving me to early morning seminary morning after morning during the school year..... hours spent hauling and splitting wood together.....working side by side......

Many lessons learned at the knee of my father. Happy Father's Day Dad! To one of the greatest men that I know!



Another high five!

And Happy Father's Day SM. Another great man in my life! The father of our children...the daddy of our children..... The man who tirelessly gives to our family day after day and is the joy of our lives as he walks in the door each day after work. The father who sits with our children night after night until all hours helping them with their homework and listening to them tell him about their day. The daddy who is teaching his children to grow up to be persons of integrity and honor. I love you SM!

And last but not least, to my Father in Heaven. For blessing me with these great fathers in my life. A Father that I love very much and look forward to seeing and being with again someday along with all of my loved ones.

Just work dang it!

Photo Credit

When I use something, I expect it to work. I know the saying that computers are only as smart as their users but I totally disagree. If this were the case, mine wouldn't even know how to boot itself up after I hit the 'on' button. I'd just get a blank screen with the words, "duh" written across it and an occasional pile of drool seeping out onto the keyboard.


Photo Credit

I don't know if it is just my little blogger.com world but mine is being terribly inept! When I try to comment on other blogs I am having to log in every stinking time! And then, when I type my password it never takes it the first time. I have to re-type my password again. And somewhere in bloggie.com world some oompa loompa is laughing his orange head off that he's made me do it again. "Watch this, Rachel's logging on. Let's see how many times we can get her to re-type her password today!" Followed by a high pitched sick giggle.

Twisted oompa loompa number two sees deranged oompa loompa number one having such a blast messing with Rachel he decides to see how tight he can wind Rachel's undies by only letting her download three photos TOPS at a time on her blog. He knows Rachel will read that she can download five but that number is just to see if she'll try time and time again to download five photos only to have them swiped away to oompalands overloaded landfill/dump.


Photo Credit

When I use something, I expect it to work! This goes with anything. Cars, appliances, computers.... and when it doesn't....... well I just get crabby! And I want to throw things at the offensive not working ____________ (insert name of not working whatever), and I call it all sorts of barbed names but here's the real kicker! Oompa Loompa land is a one way mirror type place I've decided. They dish it out and I receive it and I get all ticked. I dish it back and it doesn't do a blasted thing! Nothing changes. They just keep dishing. Internet down? Who cares? Chief Oompa doesn't. I kick and scream and hit refresh. Nothing.

So I throw my temper tantrum and get all worked up and finally foaming at the mouth I'm resigned to the fact that I am getting no where and the only one that is being affected is myself as my blood pressure goes through the roof.

There's a lesson here.......but I'm choosing to walk to the other side of the warped mirror and ignore it.

Destination

Yesterday morning as I lay in bed thinking about the pepto sweater that I could wear scuba diving and be mistaken for a piece of rubberized coral I came to this conclusion. I enjoyed the journey but the destination stunk. Big time!



So, if you don't like the destination,



Pick another one!



Just make sure to enjoy,



the journey!



This yarn was destined to be something great.



In a few months it will hopefully be a beautiful sweater that was worth the journey and the destination.

Journey

Photo Credit

While looking on the Internet for who knows what I came across this sweater. I loved the lace and flow of the sweater and thought it looked romantic. I bought the pattern and ran to my local yarn shop to get some yarn. They didn't have a white I liked so I decided to try pink. In the past I've hated the color pink but for some reason, in the last year I am embracing the pink in me. Red being the ultimate color...pink is a shade of red.....I can do this right? I thought so too.



So I started to knit. And I knit and I knit and I knit. For the past several months I've been working on this sweater imagining how fabulous it would look when I finished.



I even took it to Park City to work on while Miss K and I relaxed by the fire as storms raged outside.



The last step before sewing up all the seams was to add the lace. I couldn't wait to get to the lacy part. That is what had drawn me to the sweater in the first place. Puzzling looking at this and wondering how in the world this shape is supposed to be a sweater when all is said and done......



Last night the moment came. When it was all put together. I was so excited. I danced up the stairs, flipped on the light in the bathroom, and........I hated it.

I came crashing down like a water balloon dropped from the third floor. My emotions went from airy and excited to limp and soggy.



On a real person it does not hang even close to how it looks in the photo. From the back it looks boxy, like I have a huge roll of fat under my arms and the arms look like a rubber suit. I've made a pepto bismol scuba jacket!

When I went to bed I was so exhausted from the let down. That which I'd thought would be so romantic turned out to be carob instead of chocolate!

This morning, as I lay in bed ignoring the fact that I should have been up an hour earlier I had a talk with myself. Self, did you enjoy knitting the sweater? Yes, I answered. Self, did you enjoy the journey? Yes, I answered. Self, then quit your moping around and be excited! You've just made the fanciest pepto bismol dish rag ever! I bet no one has made as fancy a dish rag as you've just made. Be proud! Adventure accomplished. You enjoyed the journey and the destination isn't what you thought it was, GET OVER IT!

I can't wait until Christmas and someone needs a white elephant gift! Boy won't they be surprised when they get the fanciest pepto bismol dish rag EVER!

What is affordable?

Photo Credit

Last week I told you that my baby girl and I had escaped. Taken off and flown the coo coo's nest. The first day we had Kristen Randle with us and had an absolutely delightful time. Kristen wrote about it on her blog and since she had the camera that first day (I let her. I wasn't about to tramp around Park City for hours with a heavy camera around my neck) I'll send you over to her blog for Part one and for Part two of our day's adventure. She does a much better job of telling the story and quite frankly, if it had been left up to me, all you'd have seen was photos of really awesome trashy shoes. So go take a look and be grateful!

The above photo is one of the adventures that took place on that first day and I have to tell my side of the story because I am the victim after all.......

The first store we go into, THE VERY FIRST I TELL YA!!! Was a clothing store. We're looking around and I see a dress on a mannequin that is kind of cute. Shimmery and pretty and I love the colors. I ask the sales lady if there is another I can look at and she informs me that this is the last dress BUT she'd be happy to take it off the mannequin just for me. How thoughtful of her. Naughty Kristen encourages and tells me what the heck, try it on. So, what the heck! I'll try it on.......

The dress is yanked off the now naked mannequin who didn't seem to mind being naked in public like I would have and I am taken to a dressing room. One of those dressing rooms with just a curtain between you and the public. I enter the dressing room and the sales lady yanks the curtain shut and then, STANDS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CURTAIN! She begins and boy does she lay it on thick. Hot bread out of the toaster with thick dollops of butter oozing and melting on top! Turning greasier and slimier the more she pours it on until I was so saturated I was literally sick to my stomach!

I walk out with the dress on and if you didn't think it could get worse it did! She ran out of butter and started slathering on bacon grease. Like I care what Melanie Griffith wears and buys when she is with Antonio Banderas! And then....the killer......She tells me the price of the dress. Which makes me gasp! And then she has the gall to tell me that an almost five hundred dollar dress. Yes, a five hundred dollar dress is expensive.........but affordable! Excuse me? You dare to assume what is or is not affordable for me? And we wonder why most of America is in debt.......

Honey! If I'm wearing a five hundred dollar dress.....then I better LOOK like Melanie Griffith and quite frankly, I didn't. Instead it made my bahootie look as big and wide as a billboard! All I needed to do was find me a matching necklace to hang around my neck which said, "Advertise here".

So, I didn't buy the dress. Only because it didn't make me feel beautiful. If it had......I'd have bought it for sure.....because it was affordable right?

Mutt and Jeff Strike Again

Mutt and Jeff are at it again.



"Rachel!" The SM calls to me. "Hurry! Come here and bring your camera!"



What in the world are the dogs doing tied up to Mr. J's dresser?



And why is there money hooked into their collars?

Where'd I go?

Photo Credit

I'm gone! I am! I left!

I packed my bags and my baby girl and we've flown the coop. I'll blog about it. I really will but not today.....or tomorrow probably. We're having a great time. On Monday perhaps? Who knows........we're having a ball.....we're living a life without schedules....deadlines........pressing matters....

We're on vacation! Wanna guess where we are?

This photo is a clue. I didn't take this actual photo but we passed this barn, stopped and took photos, and are just about a mile away.

Helping Hands

I've mentioned on here many times about growing up in rural Montana. How I loved running through the hills and fields for hours and miles and with my imagination. The work ethic I learned growing up where I did. We lived off of the land. We had a big family. Not working together as a family wasn't an option. You didn't work, you didn't eat.




You've also heard me many a time complain about living in "the city". I know. It's not "the city" for someone like The SM who grew up in Chicago but for little ol' country girl me, this is the city.

I've struggled with wishing The Native's could have the land and experiences I had growing up. Having so many boys I've worried and agonized (yes, agonized) over how I am going to teach them the work ethics they need to survive in this world when they are surrounded by concrete.



As much as I have yearned for land and living out further I am beginning to see the wisdom of a loving Father in heaven who has placed us where we are especially in the last few years with my health. As neighbors pitch in to help me take care of my family, hire my boys to do physical labor that takes the starch out of their shorts at the end of the day they are so exhausted, help me with my yard when I am not looking, bring us endless amounts of food, let us borrow their truck when our vehicle is smashed to smithereens........the list never ends!

I am truly grateful for the gift of a helping hand and those who so willingly offer it.

Where's Waldo? (or Mr. J)

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.



She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.



She gave them some broth without any bread;



And whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.



I promise. He does have a bed......it's just not often that you can find him in it!