And the Giant Peach

Shelby was at the grocery store and found James' other half...

Naturally, a photo shoot:

Thanks Shelbs. You're the best!

Redefined

Remember that one family reunion when we not only owned the definition of "puke," but took it to a whole new level? Of course you do. We talk about it at every annual family get-together. Barf Fest 1999. Well, I was preparing for a Relief Society lesson this morning and came across this journal entry. Oh how I wish I could have tied it in to the lesson somehow...

July 26, 1999

I’m in the very backseat of the car traveling on the way to Salt Lake City. We are coming from Boise, ID. We just got done with our family reunion a few days ago at Pinetop (Pinetop is a church owned girls camp). It was fun for the most part. What I mean is it was fun until the last night. It all started when I woke up from a deep sleep and there was Bethany standing there looking down at me. I asked her what was wrong and she threw up. Luckily I saw it coming and I moved (She also told me she was going to puke). That’s how it all started. After that I moved by mom and James. Right after I settled, James threw up, then Kevin, Parker, Abby, and Spencer had their turns. That night was my worst nightmare come true. Just smelling it and hearing it made me want to throw up. I hate throwing up. I’m almost afraid of it. I can’t stand it. Maren and Reed went home throwing up that day and the day before.

The picture featured above was taken prior to bedtime that night. Yep, there's sweet, unsuspecting Bethany smiling right beside me. If only I knew the horrors about to unfold. If only she knew. If only all of us knew... about the Kool-Aide, right? Of course, in the passing years, the journaled trauma has transpired into the most endearing, fond reminiscings. Oh guys. I miss you. You're so far away!

I say we're overdue for another reunion at Pinetop, yeah?

With Gabe in Mind

Browsing Craigslist this evening and came across...

Ketsup? And the eyes? Yikes.

I'm not sure how to comment on this one above.

The point of this one is that his name is "Uncle Tio". Hm.

No one could ever replace Gabe. Never. He's got to make it to 150.

What? You want some more?! This next gal is James's fav.

The ad is what sells it though:

Rahja is loving, loyal, beautiful 8 yr old Australian Shepherd. She is a dog for a woman or family of majority ladies because she was raised by three women and has proven to only allow women to walk her. she is spayed, house broken, walks well on a leash, trained in basic commands, and will play fetch til you stop throwing the ball. She can maintain extended periods of low energy. So if you knit, sew, or just like to watch movies she will sit next to you and love every minute of it.

Rahja does NOT like fireworks...she digs out and runs every 4th of July that she is not brought inside. Other than that, she has no other behavioral problems.

We would like to rehome her because she isn't getting the attention she deserves with health problems in the family and daughters away from home for extra curricular activities and college.

Willing to drive her up the freeway for the right woman/women to love her.

Here was a headliner that we found invitingly enthusiastic:

and another:

And lastly, an excerpt that was randomly read aloud that sounded a little awkward...

And Then We Sort of Grew Up

Pretty much, this post is for you Shauni. In honor of your birthday, the old old house, and the new old house:

1991

1991

1993

1993

1994

2011

1998

2011

The Past Little While

1. Time- 5:32

Start time of family dinner that we haven't had in a long time and that the grandparents are here for- 5:30

Speed limit- 45 mph

Speed clocked by that darn camera- 56 mph

Family dinner excuse for speeding- worthless

Price of ticket- $171.25

2. The best place to visit on an average of three times a week- Mesa Frozen Yogurt

The calendar that hangs on my fridge noting the daily flavors available- click HERE

The number of days that have at least one uber-appealing flavor highlighted yellow on my calandar- every single one

The cost (with tax) of a size #1- $1.64

3. What is the very best way to spend your time on a Saturday morning after a late night?- FBYWT a.k.a. Family Bonding Yard Work Time. See HERE for past experiences.

The amount of time it takes to drag your sluggish body out of bed- apx. 15 minutes

The warm fuzzy feelings that you feel for your family as you rake up the neighbors pine needles and leaves that have fallen into your yard- M.I.A.

Watching your mom, who is feeling a little intense, ring your own doorbell about 50 times (I'm serious when I estimate 50) to wake your sister up (who hasn't had any prior notice) to come on out and join the festivities- Priceless.

Welcome back FBYWT. It's been awhile.

Oh yeah... There are some things money can't buy, but for everything else, I'm going to have to use my summer savings.

Quotationish Excerpt

"Most of the people went quietly, but three children in the front row of the grandstand put up quite a fuss, saying that they had to find their sister Katharine, who'd done something terrible, but a sister was a sister and they'd stick up for her, anyway."

From Half Magic

By Edward Eager

Conference Weekend

Aunt Yvonne and Benjo. Miss you already. I feel like I hardly saw you! Ben, maybe next time we'll find the Pop shop that was shut down. It has to be reopened somewhere. Remember when we stopped at the gas station and asked if the shop was nearby and then that clerk tried to sell you HIS pop instead? What was he thinking? There's no way he had a sarsaparilla behind the counter. Maybe we couldn't find the shop since we didn't invite Bushaw. Next time let's invite her?

Remember that time we watched conference and we were so excited?

I miss you Aunt Yvonne and Ben!

Poll and a Winner

So the little poll on the side? The correct answer is Tiger Woods.

Now for the winner. Remember that one time how there were some embarrassing photos posted about how I look like a poodle? See HERE. Well, somehow at our household we managed to get another dog and he sure is a winner. You could call him my long lost brother...

Which one's the dog? The black one on the bottom. James named him Billy Joel. I know what's probably going through your head now, "Shouldn't she be embarrassed about this timeless photo?". Yes, but here's the deal. I'm tired and the dog is squirmy and this was the best photo out of seven. I'm not takin more than that. Besides, how cute can you look after a day of hammering in the coal mines? On a positive note, I think it captures our stylish poodle-hair-dos quite nicely.

How to Deal

The other night I was chattin with Mom and James at the kitchen counter. I was a bit stressed and I think James must have been too. While dealing with my emotion by venting, James did some of his own. He tore up the cover of his golf magazine. I think he felt much better. Now, let's play a game of guess who. Who was on the cover of James's magazine?

Let's see. I set up a little quiz thingy on the sidebar. Humor me and take a vote? I'll Let you know the one true answer sometime. I wish I could give you a definite time frame but it's not top on the to-do list; however, if there is an astounding number of votes, I'll hop on it and let you know soonerish. Ah, the suspense!

and Break

It's October Break. I started it out with a quick jaunt to San Francisco to see my dear uncle, aunt, and cousin. Just what the doctor ordered, I mean, I guess, what I ordered. I felt so filled being with them and look forward to visiting again. In life there are people you don't see for years and when the time comes again for reunion, from that moment of greeting and on feelings of friendship and close familiarity flow seamlessly. Conversation carries on like not a day has passed since last communion. That's how it is with this fam. The above picture is missing Uncle Dave (he's taking the pic) but this photo was taken when we attended the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels show (see HERE for details). They were thrilling and the photo below doesn't do them justice but gives you a tiny glimpse.

After the visit, I arrived home and met my grandma at the airport. She came to visit for the week and it's been so good to have her. She is such a comfort to be around and I think she is so stately and noble. Do you have a grandma as wonderful as mine? I think not (unless of course you are my cousin on my mom's side)! She leaves tomorrow and I'm bummed about it. I wish so badly that we lived closer together. You cousins in Idaho are so lucky to have Grandma. Sorry but I don't have a picture of Grandma visiting!

As far as the rest of the break goes, I haven't done much to make a name for myself. James and I had a torturous game of Scrabble last night. Torture. I don't think we made it past any four letter words. Toward the end I made James let me look at his letters in hopes that I could aid our dire situation. I wasn't much help. I should have focussed more energy on producing my own quality submissions. We even fudged on some spelling. How lame was our game and by what measure? Aside from the measurement factor that I was tortured to the point where I broke and could only laugh to make it through, here is a picture for your "lame measurement" consideration:

As for this Thursday evening, James and I went out long-boarding. Las was gone so I texted her to see if I could borrow her board. She never answered back so I took the liberty of taking it out for a ride. I thought that it'd probably be kosher since she rarely spends bonding time with it. I'm pretty sure it was an o.k. thing to do. If not, she'll probably find out about it via this post (Hey Las) and I won't be in the room. If she does care, I'm pretty sure it won't be enough to remember to bark at me. She's got a stellar boyfriend to occupy her time and thoughts with who's way more interesting than a sister-who's-bored-on-a-Thursday-night-that-takes-her-stuff-for-a-few-breif-moments. Anyway, it was fun to go out with James. It wasn't enormously fun though, so we didn't stay out for long (sorry James).

Here's the photo op of James in motion. He took one of me but the shot made my hips look way to huge. No thanks. Too bad the picture of him is blurry. He's such a handsome young man (minus the knee-high, white socks).

Laughter

One of the most, the very most, soul-satisfying feelings I experience in life happens to be drinking in my mom's gut-deep, face-scrunching, total-body-encompassing episodes of laughter. She's been doing it more often lately than she ever has in the past. I love it. Its more satisfying for my soul than soaking in sunshine or singing in the shower. Speaking of singing in the shower, I'm so out of the habit. I can't believe I've been off the bandwagon for so long. Tomorrow morning, I'm singing in the shower.

When the Family Gets Together

A friend of mine has a sign posted in her house that states "Families are Everything". I couldn't agree more. Last summer at Loyd and Angela's wedding some of us had a little photo shoot. So fun. I think it's time again for someone in the family to get married. There were themes for each photo shot but I can't remember them all. Here are a few of them:

Below is the post photo shoot. Just hanging with some of the couzos:

Oh What Do You Do In the Summertime?

I went through some pictures from last summer. Las went house-sitting so James and tagged along to swim. Las had a camera and decided to work on sharpening her shooting skills.

She aimed at capturing the mid-dive photos...

And then some...

James's Captain Underpants "Tra-la-la!" pose

The "Firepower" pose

Lessons From Lucky

I was running an errand not to long ago and came upon Lucky grocery store. Oh man. I haven't seen one of those since I was a youngin so it was so very nostalgic to walk in those front doors. As a child, we used to visit Lucky for all those grocery needs. I learned priceless life lessons there. Of course this present store I found was in a completely different state and looked completely different inside from the original. No matter. Let me share some incalculable wisdom obtained solely from this franchise.

Lesson 1: Avoid cages of balls at all costs. When Boo was little-little, one glance in the ball direction would result in her squirming and bugging till she got those idolized balls. As a reader, you might suggest that a quick swat on the bottom would have done well to deter her insistence? You don't understand. This girl was determined. No swat could stop her devotion to the glorified, bouncy-ball cage of splendor. I remember having to stand there till she got it all out of her system (maybe sometimes I played a little with the balls too). Needles to say, we eventually got smart and let her carry a ball around as we shopped then snuck it away at the checkout. At any rate, stay away from cages of bouncy balls!

Lesson 2: Mom is the coolest and will let you mess around with the blood-pressure arm machine near the pharmacy every time we pick up a prescription.

Lesson 3: If you're ever in a hurry to finish making a delectable dinner for guests, and forget that you don't have any OREGANO in your cupboard, don't drive Erica over to Lucky, shove her out of the car with the directions to "get some, and get it quick" while you wait outside. If you do choose such a routine, the following will occur...

Erica will run in the store to the spice section all flustered because she has to hurry. She'll scramble over to the looming wall of spices and look for ARAGANO. She'll search and search. Knowing that she's flustered, she'll search once more thinking "Slow down girl. You missed it. Hurry, slow down!" After failing to find it, the thought will occur "Duh, maybe it's spelled URAGANO!"

The search process will repeat with lack of success only to be followed by the next somewhat doubtful thought "Duh, maybe it's spelled ERAGANO!" Mind you, the whole time she'll feel some impeding pressure because her mother (still sitting outside in the car) who was really frustrated about the setback is now probably ferocious because the time keeps ticking and ticking and ticking (sort of like when Boo would play with the balls).

After the whole ERAGANO search fails, she'll empty-handedly run like the dickens out to the car, full of trembling courage to approach her exasperated mother. The conversation will go something like this:

Mother: Where is it!!??

Erica: They don't have any here.

Mother: What do you mean? Yes they do!!!

Erica: I looked over and over. I couldn't find it. I checked for all the different spellings.

Mother: O-R-E-G-A-N-O?

Erica: Oh.

Erica will then run back in and buy the OREGANO in less than a heartbeat. Many life-lessons can be learned from this little heart-warming (or should I say heart-boiling) story like make sure you have your ingredients before you start cooking or be a patient mother or don't shove innocent daughters out of car doors while you wait outside. Mind you, those are all very good noble lessons to learn (Mom) but the one I will never forget is that if you need some spice, O-R-E-G-A-N-O is the definite way to go.

Lesson 4: After that last OREGANO lesson you might be thinking my mom was a feisty one, right? Now, now. She's a gem I tell you. Just not in that story, or the time when we were little kids (that naturally quarrel, which was what we were doing one day) and she locked us outside, dripping with sweat, while she in turn swam right in front of our tortured faces. But that's another story altogether. At any rate, this last lesson I'll share is a positive one that shaped my mentality as a young woman (not that I'm old now)...

The checkout lady at Lucky that day was a grueling meanie. Picture a middle-aged woman fraught with frown lines and a furrowed brow. Now picture a little bit of saliva drooling down her chin as she growled. Any question asked of her was responded to with with a tight remark. Basically, she sucked the happiness out of each customer as they wanderingly approached checkout. This woman was a doozie. Bummer that we (the kids and Mom) went through her line. No worry though, we made it through the line and even out the doors.

We all had two bits to say about that rude behavior as we walked to the car. How could she be so rude?! What was her problem?! How dare she?! I was all worked up and in a slight huff when mom commented "Maybe her dog died this morning." What!!?? It was a statement that jerked me into deep thought and feeling. All of a sudden I felt, what was it? Compassion? Surely her dog didn't die. Mom is just so corny sometimes. But maybe, maybe her dad died or she needed money really bad to pay for surgery or.. or.. or..

I've since talked to my mom about that day and she doesn't have the slightest recollection of it (I can tell you though that she definitely remembers the OREGANO incident). There were a couple of lessons that can be taken from that walk back to the car but the one I'm ever grateful for, that has often shaped and reshaped my thinking is this: People act all kinds of ways in all kinds of situations, positive and negative. Rather than reacting instantly, take a step back and remember who that person is, who I am, and where we are going. By doing so, often brash judgements and thoughtless reactions/behaviors are not only avoided, but that invitation of compassion and a sense of understanding connects individuals, allowing them to be more on the same page, at one with another. What a way to avert the mumbo jumbo!

So there you have it. Lessons from Lucky. Pretty cool grocery store, huh? Do you have any grocery experiences? Reminiscing has me now remembering all sorts of grocery goodness. Oh, what fun it is to shop.

Last Week

Brought to you by Family-Bonding-Yard-Work-Time...

The scorpion enemy:

The pvc pipe weapon (bravely utilized by mom):

The size and outcome (being mostly dead before its final smashing to smithereens):

There's never a dull moment during those precious early hours shared together while working on the yard. Those scorpions sure do give me the creeps.

Side note: They don't give me the creeps when we drop them into a flaming ring of fire on the sidewalk followed by egging them on. That's pretty cool.

Abduction

One time James kidnapped my doll. He took a threatening picture and sent it along to me with a ransom note demanding 1 plate of cookies. He's so tricky. I was going to kill him but quickly realized that by so doing, I'd never get Louisa May back. He got his darn plate of cookies and some accompanying severe threats that, should he start feeling brave with kidnapping endeavors in the future, I'd make sure that he'd never see the light of day again.

Louisa May currently mingles with the Wild Things on my bed (when it's made). She comfortably sports homemade, polka-dot pajamas fashioned by my mom. Her cute pink socks came from the dollar aisle at Target. She hasn't been abducted since the first incident and couldn't be happier with the life she's currently living. Luckily, James doesn't read my blog so he won't get any conniving ideas from this post. I hope you find the safety and protection Louisa May is afforded in your coming endeavors this week. Peace out.

Family Keepsakes

All right. If I must, I must. In yesterday's post, I mentioned finding some pictures that are a "hoot". Shauni read it and said that by mentioning the content of the pictures I might as well have just posted them. Hmm. Here they are. What do you think?

Before the strip-down in the Missississippi, I bet my mom told the Captain not to worry, that no one was looking. No one was... then.

After all was said and done and the fun had been had, there was evidence remaining. The Captain got embarrassed over these snapshots for a long time afterward. I didn't tell him they'd be posted today, but I'm pretty sure he's past the embarrassment part now... hopefully.

I now bring to you the best, saved for last. It's the wedgie one. Priceless. Yep, priceless...