My Ladies

So I told John that I have a book club. We meet together monthly to have deep intellectual discussions on quality literature. Really it is an academic group, not a girls night out. Never mind that we all bring enough goodies and treats to feed an army. Or that the discussion might lead away from literature and towards telling pregnancy stories or discussing our color palate (I found out I'm a winter. I've always liked the Autumn colors best but I'm ready to move on and stick to my best colors).

Really these girls are my lifeline. In a house of boys I really need my girl time. The books are fun but even if we can't read the book (or just plain aren't interested), we still come to enjoy our time out. I love that even after moving, when I don't get to see some of these girls as often, I still have a chance to get together with them. They are a wonderful group of women to be with. Let's hear it for the ladies!

It's Starting Already

I love when kids are little and free from outside influences. When the music you listen to is cool and Santa Clause is real. It's scary when they start school and you realize that for a good chunk of the day they are not where you can keep an eye on them. Alan finished kindergarten relatively unscathed but first grade just started and he's starting to notice trends.

Alan left for school with his backpack on just how it should be. And this is how he came home, with his backpack hanging around his bum (yeah, I did that trend for a few years while growing up too). Oh it makes me so sad that I am not his main influence any more. I know it's just a backpack but what's next? Drugs, skipping school . . . OK maybe not in first grade. But still, why can't he be my little boy forever?

Neighbors

We were looking for houses and I found the one. Huge kitchen, granite counter tops, the split floor plan we had dreamed off. Hyrum and I walked around the neighborhood trying to get an idea of the place. It was nice and quiet. In fact we didn't see a soul as we walked down every street. That evening I was ready to put an offer on the house. We decided to go take another look before we made an offer. On the way we stopped at another house that we didn't get a chance to see that afternoon. It was really just to assure me that the house we were going to was the house for us. I almost didn't go to it because there wasn't a scrap of grass in the backyard and it really just wasn't set up for kids.

I found out later that the house was built in the mid ninety's but by looking at the interior I thought it was built in the 80's. Lots of gold trimming, pink counter tops and blue toilet seats. I was really disappointed, not in the house but I was disappointed that I felt really good about the place. I wanted my granite counter tops! Our realtor really liked the place (and he was picky) and thought that both houses were a great deal. I was so conflicted! I was so certain that we were ready to submit an offer and then we saw this house that was fine but certainly not what we had dreamed off, and I was just so confused.

The next day we took a walk around the neighborhood. I think I was secretly hoping to find drug dealers hanging out on the corner to make my decision easy, but there were none. Instead there were lots of people out jogging and taking dogs on walks. We enjoyed the playground nearby and met someone from the neighborhood. She said that she hadn't recognized me and wondered if we were new to the neighborhood. I was impressed that she knew the faces of people in the neighborhood that well. When I told her we were thinking of buying in the neighborhood she raved about how wonderful a place it was to live. When I pointed out which house we were looking at she said "We call that 'the fun' cul-de-sac" She told us all about the barbeque's that were held in the cul-de-sac for the neighborhood and about how wonderful the people there were. I was sold. Truthfully the reason we were moving was not for the house but for a neighborhood that would be a good place to raise a family.

We bought the house and are busy replacing toilet seats and trying to take our house forward a few decades. But so far, the neighborhood is just as wonderful as was described to us. The neighbors have brought brownies to welcome us, took the time to get to know us. Already we know almost as many people in our neighborhood as we did in our last house. Just yesterday someone in the neighborhood stopped by to invite Alan (and the rest of us) to a swim party at his house for the neighborhood kids. He hadn't met us us but had heard from another neighbor that there were new people in the house with kids. There are wonderful people and we had a great time getting to know their family (and for their recommendations on great babysitters in the neighborhood).

So for those of you who asked, no it isn't my dream house, but the neighborhood, it just might be a dream come true. By the way the house next door is going up for sale soon. Now THAT house would be a dream house. Come take a look and be part of the neighborhood!

School Lunch 101

School starts tomorrow. We are excited and nervous. Gone will be the unstructured days of summer but that can be a good thing for me because if I don't have a deadline I don't get as much done.

I remember sack lunches as a kid as boring. I think half the time my sandwich ended up in the garbage (sorry Mom). Before Alan started kindergarten I made a big list of alternatives to sandwiches for his lunch to make it special. As it turns out, Alan likes sandwiches. When Alan gets to buy lunch from the school cafeteria (a rare treat when I was a kid), what does he choose? Not the corn dog or chicken patty sandwich. No he chooses a sandwich. All right I'm not spending money on hot lunch for this kid. So now with out further delay I present to you . . .

School Lunch 101

First grab a loaf of homemade bread. Then search high and low all over your kitchen to find where on earth you unpacked the bread slicing guide. Find it sandwiched in between your cookbooks.

What? Apparently, I was in a little bit of a hurry when unpacking and was not thinking about what I was doing.
Slice the whole thing (and try not to be jealous of my pretty pink countertops).

Then set out all your bread to make a million sandwiches. My mom used to do this when we were kids, but that's because there were seven of us. When you only have two this will last you a week.

Stick them in the freezer, and in the morning you just need to pull one out and stick it in the lunch box. This works great with lunch meat and cheese too, though I wouldn't recommend mayonnaise on the sandwich (and that's not just because I don't like mayonnaise). Freezing the lunch meat is also perfect because the lunch meat stays cold until and you don't have to bother packing a icepack.

While you're at it bag up snacks like pretzels and raisins so you just need to grab a bag or two to stick in the lunchbox with the sandwich.

Done!

Fishing

We had a fabulous trip to Utah in July that included 2 family reunions. One of the days we went to Wasatch Mountain Park to do some hiking and fishing for the kids. Hyrum was the first to catch a fish. Apparently he was not planning on the fish suddenly jumping around when it was out of the water.

I love this picture

After that he was a little hesitant to go near the fish.

Alan caught one too! And thank goodness for that because we all know it just doesn't do for one kid to succeed at something and the other one not to.

Unfortunately the kids casting didn't bode well for John's eye.

The Best Entertainment Around

Not long after we moved into our last home my Mom was helping me put in a garden. Of course Alan wanted to help. In all the wrong places. Grandma took Alan to a part of the yard that we didn't care about and showed him where he could dig. It worked and from then on when we saw the kids digging where they weren't supposed to we redirected it to the digging spot. It soon became the favorite play spot.

When it rained it was even more fun.

They kept digging.

Once we were doing some landscaping in the front yard and had some extra dirt we needed to get rid of. We filled in the dirt pit. I was a little afraid that they would stop playing there. But not to worry, they got to work and had it two feet deep again in no time at all.

No toy can compare to the allure of a dirt pit.