1st lesson

Tonight was my Piano lesson and I have mixed feelings. I am super excited about learning, but a little stressed about how much I will need to practice. I haven't read music in over 15 years (man that makes me feel old) so I am starting from square one. I was intrigued to discover I cannot move my pinky independently of my ring finger! Just need to practice Jackie tells me.

This is what the inside of a Piano looks like. It was fun to have a visual aid to show what happens when you hit a key or hold a key.

I am sort of a quitter when it comes to stuff like this... I start very gung-ho about it and the excitement wears off and I quit... Wish me luck! I need to practice 30 mins/per day... Should be easy just need to waste less time sleeping ; )

R & R day

We took today off for some R &R. No this was not an unscheduled Monday morning 'dont wanna go to work day' we actually planned it. We spent some time geocaching (our newest hobby) -

This one's clue was really cute it said "watch out for the yellow bugs" 

This one was a tough one to find! It is the smallest cache we have found! 

Geocaching

Today I learned about Geocaching... I believe this may be a start of new obsession... Geocaching is a "sport" where you use your GPS unit and put in the latitude and longitude coordinates which takes you to a general location. Then you hunt for "treasure" or the Cache. Once you find the cache you sign the log and if there is any treasures you can take something as long as you leave something. I read about it on a friend of a friend's blog and then I googled it and found this website. I started reading and signed up. I put in our address and found out there was a cache just 390 feet from our house! We couldn't find it on our first trip and went back later that night and took another look after reviewing the name (Pol-ish Cache) and found this!

Sneaky huh!? It was held up with magnets and had a log to sign your name. The color of the paint actually matched pretty good but the flash of the camera made it stand out when I snapped this picture.

Its amazing this whole world of geocaching has been going on for 10 years all around the world and we never knew anything about it! Our first find was placed on 09/09/07 and 157 people have found it... just 390 ft from our house!

Mr. Mechanic

This week has been totally, crazy busy trying to get everything ready for camping this weekend! Registering the quads, getting one emissions tested, tires checked, the S10 wired for the trailer lights etc etc etc.

During the midst of all that... the battery and alternator went out on the S10! Luckily Kenny realized the problem before it left me on the side of the road! He took the alternator out of the truck and headed up to Auto Zone to buy a new part. They ended up telling him his diagnosis was wrong and that the problem was a "grounded wire"(bear with me since I have no mechanical knowledge and am just retelling what was told to me!) After more investigation and several trips to Auto Zone, Checker and Napa over the span of 2 days he figured out they were wrong and it WAS the alternator per his original diagnosis. Kenny ended up getting a superior part from Napa and even haggled with them to offer the same pricing as Auto Zone! I am so thankful for all his Mr. Fix it knowledge and this new haggling skill he has developed (He saved my mom $200 on her AC repair recently too!).

A Lil Somthin somthin'

My Work BFF's birthday was this week... so we snuck in after hours and wrapped her present-

Here she is bright and early to open her gift...

rip, tear, shred

to find this-

can't go wrong with candy and bling!

Shelves

I forgot to post about the awesome shelves Kenny built in our garage a couple weeks ago!

Aren't they great! We have so much holiday decorating stuff it is nice to have shelves rather than massive stacks of totes to wrestle.

Today he re-purposed the wood from the old shelves and made me some shelves in my craft room (which I am desperately trying to organize).

Here is the before

And after! They are great! I don't have any paint or the time to paint them so I am just going to leave them as is.

I love decorative edge too!

Funnies

Lately Jacob has been calling Kenny - "Aunt" Kenny.... not sure why or where it came from, but I am sure our giggling only encourages him to keep it up.

A while back Jacob saw a man with a mohawk and pointed in his sweet little voice and said "chicken!"

3 Stars

Little Brian is having a little trouble adjusting to school... I can't image this sweet boy having trouble 'playing well with others.' He is SO outgoing, wants to be friends with everyone, sweet, caring and would NEVER hurt someone intentionally... BUT he doesn't understand he can't wrestle little kids like he does his daddy and Uncle Kenny. He didn't go to preschool and wasn't involved much in any formal day care or even Sunday school (except the handful of times we took him).

I am not sure how the color system works, but Brian is collecting a rainbow of them. Some days he brings home a color that is acceptable, but not a star which is the highest honor. Luckily, we think he is starting to understand what he needs to do because he brought home stars 3/5 days this week!

At the game Friday night I was talking with him about school and wanted to find out more about the color system... I asked him what he got if he didn't get a star what did he get instead. He replied, " A Spanking!"

Ross Ruckus

I am so excited I have FINALLY convinced the Ross family to start a blog! Check it out - Ross Ruckus and add it to your favorites so you can watch these two amazing parents raise 3 small children! I asked Michelle when she will possibly have time to blog and she said "I don't really know," but I know she will find value in sharing her family photos, stories and just daily happenings. PLUS it will be a record of the kids growing up and fun things to look back on... maybe she can make it into a printed book like this (click here) for each of the kiddos when they are older.

Tricks

Jacob has a trick...

I don't know how he does it, but it is pretty funny. See is nose?! The really funny thing is how tickled he gets when we all laugh. He is such an entertainer with all his silly faces.

Little Brian can do it too!

The onset of this new trip brought out other older "tricks"

which the boys then tries to imitate. LOL

Saturday

For weeks I have been wanted to try Bountiful Baskets that I have heard a bunch of people talking about. It is a co-op for produce... you pay $15 and get all this-

The problem is the pick up is only on Saturday mornings... and we are hardly ever home on the weekends! My goal is not letting anything go to waste! I gave the cucumbers to my mom since I am not a fan and I already juiced up the grapefruit to make some salty dog drinks. My family had a grapefruit tree growing up and my dad always made us virgin salty dogs and we thought we were super cool. They are delicious!

After my pick up I did a little yard "shopping" on the way home. I got a bag of clothes for our nephews for just $5! The lady I bought them said "You must have a boy just younger than my son" I had to reply, "No, my nephews- they are 3 and 5" Sometimes a situation like this would make me sad... another reminder that we don't have kids. Today was different I started thinking maybe it really isn't so bad, its like we just skipped to the grandparent stage. For now we are at peace with our decision to postpone adoption or IVF and I know God will press on our hearts when the timing is right and if we are meant to be parents. I still have hope we will get pregnant the old fashion way and am just leaving it in God's hands.

Later in the afternoon we went to visit the Ross family. I fed the twins... they were VERY dirty when I was done... sorry Michelle!

Love Matt's little smirk

Sweet Emma

The Ross family- Trevor, Matt and Emma (6 months), Michelle and Zack (2)

All the kids loved Trevor tossing them in the air! Their giggles and squeals were so cute!

Emma

Zack

Matt

Us with all the kiddos

I have a crush... on little Emma!

Kenny and Matt

Emma and Kenny

Giddy up Kenny!

In the evening we went to church with my mom. This week was there was a guest pastor and he was pretty good. His message was to refocus our priorities on God. He talked a lot about how we idolize or worship the all mighty dollar. I didn't really think of not paying tithing as worshiping something higher than God, but you are saying it is more important than obeying what God tells us we should do. It was interesting and really gave me something to think and pray about.

After Church Kenny helped my dad fix the irrigation problem they were having. We had a late dinner with Blair at the hip, happening Village Inn in Surprise. It really doesn't matter where we go or what we do it is always fun with Blair.

Oh the fun we had!

We met my brother and his family at Christown (or Spectrum but it will always be Christown to us!) and rode the light rail downtown to the stadium.

Little Brian was fascinated by riding the "train"

Our seats were up in the "cheap seat" but we didn't care and still had a great view of the game. My brother had gotten 4 free tickets so we just bought 3 of the $9 tickets and sat with them... I really enjoy doing this kind of thing, but my brother's family is so big and with them being unemployed sometimes it is hard for us to pick up the tab. Tonight was such a perfect night! We only spent $44 (which is less than what we paid for 1 ticket when we went last month with Jason). We brought all our own snacks and drinks and it worked out perfectly. We were less stressed about buying $5 fountain soda or hot dogs for 7 people and could easily enjoy the evening.

Cheesy smile Jacob and I

Not sure what he was doing but it was entertaining...

I was trying SO hard to get us on the jumbotron and finally saw this camera guy... He asked if we wanted to do the kiss cam-- um YES!

Jacob climbed in my lap 30 seconds before they did our "shot"....

Little Brian was more than a little disappointed he wasn't on the big TV.

Crystal

Crissy (12)

I love that the boys wanted to sit on our laps most of time :)

Little Brian tried everything to get on the jumbotron... dancing, showing his muscles...

Jacob with more silliness

The boys got a little tired toward the end of the game

I love how Jacob is so loving

The last part of the game was the most exciting! In the 9th inning they scored 2 runs to tie up the score and ended up winning in the 10th inning!

After the game they opened the roof for some fireworks.

Jacob was intrigued by the opening of the roof

and so was little Brian

When we were walking to the light rail from stadium, talking, laughing and carrying on my brother walked straight into a parking meter... we were all in stitches (even my brother once the sting wore off).

Amazing night!