Wordful Wednesday...

Is it really Wednesday? Having a week off for Spring Break and then having our first day back to school be rudely interuppted by a 6:15 a.m. phone call from the school telling us that school was cancelled due to snow has completely thrown me off. That and life in general.

I've cut back on blogging. I've cut back on facebook. I finally cleaned out my google reader which maxed out at almost 250 blog posts I had yet to read. I picked my favorites and dumped the rest. Sorry if you didn't make the list, consider yourself lucky if you did. I definitely decided that anyone who doesn't do a full feed is hardly worth my time. Unless you are a personal friend of mine.

I don't even take pictures. Life is really kicking my butt right now! *sigh*

But... I managed to find time on Easter... actually, it was either take a whole lot of pictures or sit in the house with grandma. Um, yeah, where's my camera? My kids are getting too old for Easter egg hunts, or so they think. My inlaws host a huge one every year, enough for a couple dozen children to take home a haul. However, there's only four grandkids. My older two were completely embarassed to even have to be there and purposely left their Easter baskets at home so the little two could gather all the eggs. Little did they know that Grandma would have extra baskets and insist they go on the hunt anyway. They screamed and cried every time I came near them since they just knew I would tag them on facebook and all their friends would see just how they spend their time. What kind of a mom do you think I am? Luckily, I can do whatever I want on my blog.

I picked a totally innocent one.

Wordful Wednesday - 2009 - a scrapped review

Every year, I make a collage of my favorite pictures of my kids throughout the previous year. When I did this last year, I promised myself I would do better at taking at least one decent picture of each child every month. I need to make myself this promise again, because last year, I didn't do so good. I was really grasping at straws on some of these. Either way, it's fun to look back on some of my favorite moments, and seeing how they change and grow... or change and regress... and yes, I'm fully aware that my son is wearing the same outfit in several pictures. I think we had to finally burn that sweater just so he'd quit wearing it.



Check out last years here...
(All the papers and frames were made by Scrappity! Aren't they cute?)

Wordful Wednesday - Remember this?

The representative from the claims company for the lawsuit against Trex came a few weeks ago and took some photographic proof that our deck was indeed falling apart. He measured and checked everything and determined that we had indeed put the deck together correctly and it was in no way our fault that it looks like this.

They sent us our check this week to replace it plus like $143 for labor. Really, do you think we could find anyone to replace this deck for $143? Well, the husband installed it in the first place, so he can uninstall it and reinstall it. For free. Right after golf season ends. And the snow quits flying. And then golf season ends again. And then when the snow is gone. And then when.... yeah, maybe one of these days it will uninstall itself and he'll have no choice.

Either way... Trex came through on their promise to pay us to rebuild the deck. It sure would help, though, if we never had to replace it in the first place! Whatevah....

Wordful Wednesday... Night Blooming Cereus

It was party time last night when my sister called and said "come on over, it's blooming". This flower is called a Night Time Cereus, which is a very unique flower that blooms once a year for only a few hours. I watched and photographed for about 45 minutes to an hour, and this is what I saw...

I just wish I could have captured the smell!

Wordful Wednesday... Tatanka...

My husband regularly drives to Jackson Hole Wyoming for work. Periodically, I travel with him. When he jokingly asked if I wanted to come this time, I said yes, and he said "are you serious?" I said yes, again. He hates going to Jackson more than anything in this world - and thinks I'm off my rocker for ever wanting to go. I don't necessarily "like" Jackson - but it gets me out of the house AND I get to take pictures of something besides my own backyard. So seriously, I want to go.

Besides, this week I was reading a blog of a lady who just went to Jackson and she saw all sorts of wildlife and I told my husband that with all the times I've gone to Jackson with him, how come we never see any? When he was done with his work he asked if there was any sightseeing I wanted to do and I said yes, I wasn't leaving until I see some critters of the wildlife variety.

So we drove out to Mormon Row (which, by the way, my header picture was taken there last fall) and sure enough, there wandering through the, uh, prairie (do they have prairie's in Jackson? I've never thought about what it's called) and sure enough, there was a whole herd of 30+ buffalo wandering around. We parked along the side of the road and waited and waited, and here they came, walking directly in front of the car, then off down through the grasslands. I was satisfied. Finally.

Wordful Wednesday - Cardboard Canoes

Why, yes... that is my 15 year old son sitting in a cardboard box using flip flops for paddles and being pushed along by his buddies in the middle of a lake. Why do you ask? Doesn't everyone do this?


The youth of our ward had their annual cardboard canoe race last night. Each age group made their own canoe out of anything they could find that would float - except wood - using cardboard as the "base".

Their's was by far the least impressive boat in the bunch. And as it turns out, tiny little unimpressive boats can really kick butt in a race. Of course, it helps to have three other strapping young 14 & 15 year olds helping you along.

For more wordful wednesdays - check out Angies 7 Clown Circus!

Wordful Wednesday - a pocketful of wishes

Your wish may be in someone elses pocket. Yesterday, while visiting the stunning Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, Idaho, a young man lept the side of the railing and began collecting loose change off the rocks below that people toss with their wishes into the mighty Snake River from the lookouts above. I took pictures merely to show the coroner proof of his stupidity. He didn't fall - but we were sure he would. Idiot.

Check back later in the week if you want to see more pictures of this breathtaking location!

To find more Wordful/Wordless Wednesday moments, check out:

5 minutes for mom

SevEn cLoWn CirCuS

Wordful Wednesday...

This past weekend, I was standing around watching my husband plant the beans in the garden, chatting with my father in law and the subject was brought up of what day we usually plant the garden. "The 15th of May", I replied. Why so specific? The 15th of May, 2000, we planted grandma's garden for her and a few short hours later, grandma died. I'll always remember that day. Plus, it's a girl thing. Or a me thing, I'm not sure which. Dates just stick out in my brain.

So, yesterday I needed to go pick up some pictures and decided to stop and check out a building in town my niece is looking at for having me do a photoshoot for her this weekend -

after first stopping here -

and attempting to give directions from here to a local hot springs to a family from California who were looking for somewhere nice to park their motorhome for a couple of days. I'm glad they didn't ask my name, otherwise they probably would have been cussing me all day yesterday (which I'm sure they were anyway) since I'm sure the directions I gave them sucked and they probably ended up in Wyoming asking for directions on how to get back to where they should have been.

This all happened of coarse right before an elderly man came screaming down the greenbelt about some lady who had let her dog off the leash and it was scaring the geese. Boy, was he mad and this lady sure got an earful from him - and he got an earful right back from her.

It was then I decided I had time before my pictures were ready, and since grandma was on the brain, I wanted to pay her a visit. My husband doesn't do the traditional memorial day visits, so it's been 9 years since I've been to the cemetery. I also drove a little further and paid my own grandmother a visit since my mom is out of town this year and won't be able to herself. Too bad I didn't think of this far enough ahead to bring flowers. I got one picture in - and then my camera battery died. How fitting.

That afternoon, as I was driving my kids home from school, a kid ran out in front of me to grab his basketball that had rolled out into the road - a 50 mph speed limit road! My heart stopped for a brief second there. Lucky for this kid, I was already slowing down to turn the corner.

I think next time, I'll just stay home!

Wordful Wednesday - DSing through the fence...

One of the perks (I guess you can call them perks) of living in the middle of nowhere is the severe lack of neighbors. Don't get me wrong, we have them still, but it's not exactly wall to wall people around here. We've never had neighbors with kids, much to my own kids chagrin, until recently. They have one cute daughter a few months younger than my middle child. A few days ago, the middle child came running in the house, grabbed her Nintendo DS and ran back outside. I asked her where she was going with it, and she said her and the neighbor girl were going to play "Pixo-chat" on their DS's. I went out later to check on them and found my girlie sitting on the driveway and her friend next door sitting on the other side of the pasture in her own yard, just close enough to chat with one another via the DS. Isn't it easier (and more comfortable) to just talk to each other? Sure, but it's funner to pixo-chat her! Kids!