Hound Dog News

Two years ago the kids and I started "family fun day" and had the best summer EVER!!! We had daily and weekly chores that they had to get done every day (their rooms were cleaner than ever!!!!), they would usually get them done first thing in the morning and then I would go to work and after work they could play and invite friends over for a while. On my day off the day was all theirs and we would go do something different each week and we invited all of our friends to go with us. We went to the Children's Museum, Lake Tahoe, Wild Island and a bunch of other places. We had so much fun!!! Last year I had a new baby and was pretty sick for most of the summer and we didn't do it. So this year we have tried restating the family fun day. It hasn't been so successful! The kids are all involved in so much this summer that we don't have much time and the only day that I can do it is on Monday...let's hear the collective moan from the moms about having something on Monday uuuugggghhhhh!!! I'm sure many of you can empathize with my distaste for a "planned" Monday! That's the day to get things back on track for the week (and if you don't...the week doesn't go so great!), and recover from the weekend. We've tried doing a few things and have been semi-successful, and we're still trying.

(Another long intro to a story!) So, Monday I got the kids up and got a plan of action in place for them to get a list of things done and we would go bowling when I got back (my boss is gone and I needed to work for a bit). We called around to everyone and they were either out of town, sick, or couldn't come. We finally found one family who could join us and we met up at the bowling alley here in town. I went and picked up one of Austin's friends on the way. We got in the car and all of a sudden there was the emergency warning blaring over the radio and they announce severe thunderstorm warnings, and just as they are about to say WHERE the storm is headed, Joslyn changes the station (she doesn't get to sit in the front seat very often and was very excited to be in "charge" of the radio). So she starts flipping through the radio stations to try and find it again when my friend Amy (Austin's friend's mom) called to inform me that the severe thunderstorm warnings had just been upgraded to a tornado warning for US!! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!! What is UP with family fun day?!! So we went to the bowling alley to tell our friends what was going on and we all decided that we were probably safer there than in our houses. So we geared up and started bowling. We got to the 7th frame and the lights dimmed inside the bowling and we didn't like the sudden darkness, but it was only for a second. Then the 8th frame the lights dimmed about 4 more times and we had heard that a tornado touched down in Carson City and the storm was headed in our direction. So we decided that we liked the idea of our less safe homes and abandoned our game (except for Austin who hurried and finished his game and beat Asa's high score which made his day!). We found out later that the tornado-like activity was a little closer than Carson City--like 10 miles away-- and that it wasn't officially a tornado but it had funnel clouds and really high winds. We never saw anything, and I would like to keep it that way!

Maybe NEXT week we can have some family fun!!!

This one sounds like a lot of fun! I saw a couple of these before and thought it was worth a try (plus I had so much fun thinking up memories of my friends!)

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little, or a lot, anything you can remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog, and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see these responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game, and I'll come to your blog and leave a memory about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or you don't have a blog, then I'll just leave a memory of you in my comments.

I've been trying to post some movie clips. So here's s mini clip of Chloe climbing into an exhibit at one of the Visitor's Centers at Temple Square in SLC. I had thought she was naughty all by herself and then Jodi informed me that Josh taught her the trick (and once she was taught she had blinders on and could see no other trouble to get into and we had to carry her kicking and screaming aWAY from the building!)


I'm crossing everything I have that this will work!!

Here are some "Ellie-isms"

Ellie: (at grandma and grandpa Asay's looking at the backyard) "Look at those squirrels chasing each other up and down that tree all nekked", & the conversation continued to talk about clothing and squirrels and more nekkedness

Mom: (same day, later time) "Ellie, go get an outfit to pack to wear tomorrow."
Ellie: "I'm not wearing an outfit, I'm wearing my nekked outfit!"

Mom was going to the bathroom...once again with an audience and none too happy about it! Ellie says, "Mom, I saw your bum!" Mom snips back, "Well GOOD for YOU!" Ellie replies, "I thought it was bad for me."

One of my favorite things to do is make homemade cards. I love finding things in different places that I can put into a card that you would never think of (one of my favorite inventions is to use the glue gun to put the cards together...I'm not worried about it being archivally safe and I hate the way adhesives don't hold when you are manhandling the things...and also to make my own pop dots (I put a drop of glue on the item I want to stand out and let it dry and then glue it onto the card). It is SOOOO much cheaper!!!! And it holds together soooo much better.

One of my presents to our new niece Zuri was some birth announcements and I thought they turned out cute so I took some pictures so I'll remember how I made them. Here's a pic.

When we lived in Boston and were POOOOOR students, I would go to the thrift stores and stock up on "toy essentials" like building blocks and dress-ups and stuff. So I have fairly big tubs of them. Once in a while the call of the simple life overpowers the constant hummmm of the electronics and I find the kids playing with them.

On this particular day Chloe found the box of ... what ARE they called????? ... well she got "them" out and started playing and soon had a "friend," who is just a little older and whose name rhymes with Nellie, take it over and made everyone necklaces and snakes. Scott was so absorbed in his Wii game that he played for quite some time while being crowned and I just HAD to have a picture! (I had taken one of him absorbed in his game but he began *cough* "grooming" himself when I snapped the picture and so then he smiled pretty for another picture.)

We had a fun and VERY busy week in Utah. I don't think we could have fit one more thing into our schedule. We're finding the ability to run away for weeks at a time very difficult now that the kids are older and involved in more things, so I see this busy schedule being the "norm" for our future.

Scott had to fly out for a couple of days in the middle of the trip and so I took the kids and we dropped him off in SLC at the airport and we went to visit some friends we had in Boston. Ilsun and I were in the Primary Presidency together and I just loved her and have been trying to find her for years and finally found her on a wild google search a few months ago. The picture of us together in the slideshow is kind of funny because we took it right before the kids and I left (so like 10:00pm) and we had been in and out of the heat and fought with a grill amidst a lot of steam/smoke so do you love the frizzy hair and blotchy/greasy skin?! bleah...why does Ilsun look so good???? NOT FAIR!!!!!!!

After leaving Ilsun's we drove down to Ross & Jodi's house and spent the night and then Jodi and I took the kids to SLC and walked around Temple Square. I used to love doing that! We all really liked it...just wish it hadn't been quite so hot. Someday I'll figure out how to do video's and put one in of Chloe being a pill at one of the exhibits. We then took Jodi & the kids and showed them one of Scott and my favorite used bookstores (we have to go there every time we're in SLC...I just wish that we had more time!! And less kids...it's like a china store I swear!!) After riding the Trax with some VERY interesting/intoxicated people we arrived back at our cars and pulled up to the airport just as Scott stepped up to the curb.

We spent the next day with Shelley and her family and played a fun game of Katie's (Settler's), and Shelley made dinner for the "picky" family (okay now I need some of my current friends to PLEASE defend me here...do you think I am the pickiest eater around????????) That night, quite by chance, we wound up at an awesome spot for the fireworks, Scott's aunt Vickie. (Logan does them on Friday night...not necessarily the 4th) We could see into the stadium and everything and the commute home was a breeze for both of us which was key.

Friday was spent at my brother Larry's house for a 4th of July party. It was so much fun!! I think I could get used to living on the beach...even in the winter! Thanks you guys for all of the work you did...we all had an awesome time! The kids went a little overboard on the 4 wheelers (better than they would have without the 5 minute lecture they got before we arrived I'm sure!), playing at the beach, horseshoes, volleyball, EATING, and best of all catching up with everyone.

Saturday we went to Brigham City and spent the day with Scott's family. Scott's little brother had a new baby, Zuri, and my little girls LOVED her! At first Chloe couldn't believe that she was real and kept touching her and holding her hand. Later when I hold her she decided that she didn't like her mom holding someone else's baby.

Sunday we split ways in the morning and Scott took all of the kids except Chloe out to visit his dad and I took Chloe to sacrament meeting and then we all met up at my parents for dinner. Later that day we went to a park and Scott's brother Tony came with his family and we hung out and chatted for a while.

Monday morning we got up and headed for home and it is now Thursday and I now feel like we're unpacked and back to regular life.

Thanks to all of our family! Our kids had a blast and of course I hear on a daily basis how they miss Utah so much and why can't we move there?!