Today Elle and I vacuum-packed and froze our Utah peaches. Oh such fun. I like canning, but man is it too hot to be standing in front of a steamer all day. Besides, frozen peaches are the main part of our family's favorite summer-time drink:

Kickapoo Juice.

Enough vanilla ice cream (don't skimp on me, people, use the good stuff) to fill your blender 1/2 of the way full

Fill the rest of the blender with fresh frozen peaches, cut into small chunks

About one cup of milk (more or less depending on how thick you want your drink)

1 Tablespoon of pure almond extract

2 Tablespoons of honey

Blend this all up and then make more because you're going to need it.

How Porter Rolls

Parent-teacher conference with Porter's teacher went really well. (I admit it, I was a little nervous for what she might have to tell me.) Only good things. Port is doing great and achieving all A's and made it on the Honor Roll. This sounded like a cause for celebration. What does that mean for this family? You guessed it. Peter Piper Pizza.
We always order the same kind of pizza - peperoni and pineapple. Don't knock it till you've tried it. I can't remember if it was Briauna or Camille that introduced me to this combo, but now it's Olen's favorite too. Porter could eat any kind of pizza and London thinks "pizza-apples" are yucky so she picked them off.

Porter zipped around the game floor playing one game after another. Olen stayed put at his favorite game (that one where you put the token in and then try to shoot it just right...I don't know the name, so let's just call it "frustrating"). I watched London ride the alien merry-go-round till we ran out of tokens. Bittersweet, but it was time to roll on home.

A trip to the beauty shop

I'm going to save you all $100.00, the way I did earlier today. Let me tell you how:

When Porter was four years-old he stuck a popcorn kernel up his nose, you know the 'old maid' kind. We tried everything to get it out (tweezers, pepper -not recommended- blowing) on our own; but couldn't get it. So we gave it a day and then off to the ER we went to have the doctors suck it out. Well, their sucking tools were too big for his little nostrils so after six hours in the ER, two shots of sleepy meds and $100.00 later a nurse came into our area of the ER and offered an idea. A paperclip. He bent the clip like so:
And pulled out the popcorn kernel without a tear shed. Painless and quick.

Well, today London put a pretzel rod up her nose and it broke half way up there. She was majorly freaking out because there was now a pretzel rod up her nose and she kept unsuccessfully blowing her nose. I had to call Olen home so he could hold her hands down, but then we calmly got out a paperclip and hooked that pretzel right out. Ta da! Thanks to the nurse with the Tietjen Noodle in the ER that night, I'll never have to pay that $100.00 deductible for any nose clogging issues again. Now I hope you won't either.

A bit of random:

Parent-Teacher Conferences are this week for Porter. I meet with his teacher on Thursday morning. The teacher that Porter swears is out to find ways to get him into trouble. The teacher that Porter just knows secretly hates all little boys - especially him. The teacher that makes Porter tie his own shoes and won't let him have band-aids. I choose to forget all that and just think of her as the teacher that has to be with 30 six and seven year-olds all day..

Olen asked if I could make my cowboy beans and fry bread tonight. The aroma of the beans piping away on the stove brings back all kinds of delicious memories of my childhood. I'm so grateful that my mom taught me how to cook and bake and always had something homemade and scrumptious on the stove for the family. Baking from scratch is one of my favorite things. Well, besides the eating part.

Rainy days and Mondays always get me...

I'm not gonna lie to you, Land of Blog, I'm having a pretty melancholy Monday over here today. Seeing this when I wandered into the kitchen to make breakfast helped a lot, though. I think my Monday might be on the mend...

London and I decided that we needed to fix our hair and put on some make up and face the day looking fabulous. Then we made some dough. Play dough that is. Mom, now I know why you made this stuff for us so much when we were little. I put this together an hour ago and London hasn't moved from her spot since. So I thought I would pass it on to all my favorite readers. Just in case the melancholiness has hit your Monday too.

Kids Clay also known as Salt Dough

1c flour

1/2 c salt

2 t cream of tartar (why is this called 'cream' when it's really a powder? And what is 'tartar' if this powder stuff is its cream? oh well...)

1 c water

1 t cooking oil

food coloring

Mix everything together in a medium sauce pan and don't stop stirring till it's turned into dough. (I've made this before without the cream of tartar and it's just fine, a little more sticky, but who cares, right?) I added a little splash of cinnamon extract to mine. Also nice is lemon or strawberry or almond, but I'm crazy for cinnamon...yeah, yeah, laugh it up Kate.

I've just put on my Best of Harry Chapin...I think this Monday will be alright after all. Wait. I know this Monday will be alright. Right, mom? I love you.

Saturday is a special day...

Saturday Chores. That's what it was called growing up at my parents' house. Olen would like to spread out the house-scrubbing and lawn-mowing through out the week, so that we can just chill on Saturday as a fam and have time to do stuff together. I think that's a beautiful idea; but it never happens. Saturday ends up being the junk-drawer of the week and everything that didn't get done in the other six days gets shoved into Saturday. One of these days (or years) we'll get everything sorted out and in its place and then let Saturday have a break.

Our backyard was a crazy jungle of Bermuda grass and Texas sage. After one hour in the lovely AZ sun and a gallon of kool-aid later the 'outside work' for the day was done. I actually did do a little house-scrubbing during the week (in my sauna suit - I love it love it) so we did get time to go do stuff as a family today.We went with our Reynolds gang to the Mesquite Aquatic Center (Val Vista and Riggs) and got our swim on. Then had a picnic. It was fab. After all; all work and no play is not what life is about. Can I get a witness?

London on my mind

This is London Mae.


She is two-years and three and a half months old. And pretty much the family pet.


She is known by many names. Before she was born Porter named her Buttercup. Then when she was born she would sing songs "yah, yah, yah, yah" all day; so Porter named her La-La. Olen calls her Lolly Pop, Pumpkin Bread, Darl'n, and Princess. I call her L (Elle), Ellie, La-La, Sugar and Lamb. She doesn't really like to be called Lundie and Lunders.

Her most favorite food is candy.

Her favorite animals are dogs.

She is most happy whenever Porter is home and playing with her or when she is drinking a "bobbie" (bottle) with her "happy" (the blaket).

She's my 8am to 3pm sidekick. After that it's all about Porter and Dadda.

London keeps me busy, drives me crazy and makes me happy. I love my little girl.

Porter came home from school yesterday...

"Mom, a boy at recess said that his step-dad and mom are rich. Are we rich, too? What's being rich?"

"Rich is when you have a lot of something. Like Aunt Arlissa's chocolate cakes are 'rich' because they have a lot of chocolate in them."

"Oh! Then we are rich!"

"Yeah? We are, huh?"

"Yeah, because we have a lot of love."

"Yeah. We are. Huh."

Back from Vegas (hallelujah).

The best part of the trip was getting to talk with Olen uninterrupted for the six hour drive. Except Olen totally smoked me on the license plate game. (HOW does he see them all?!)

Here's Olen cleaning the windshield, again, at one of our pit stops.

"What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas". And they can have it all.

Each time I go there I am reminded why I hate that city. We stayed at the Hilton because our Fibrenew Conference was being held there. As we walked the 500 yards from our room elevator to the conference room we had to pass through the casino lobby and bar. My hair smelt like I had been standing around a camp fire just from passing by all the brain-dead-smoking-slot-players. One day of creepy old men looking at me funny, having a head ache from the second hand smoke and neon lights is enough for me. Maybe if we had time to take in a show or at least visit the gift shop in the Venetian (my fav hotel) that would have turned the trip around for me.

The Conference was good, though. It was great to meet other franchise owners and swap stories and technique ideas. But, I'm still glad these meetings are just a once a year deal.

The one time Olen will ever be excited to be dressed like me...

There's no place like home.

Last night I had a hot date to the Slade and Lady Antebellum concert.

Slade is one freak-awesome band with its main members our good friends, Brent Slade, Aaron Ballard and Mark Baker. Boys, you rocked the house.

(I've always been a fan, but now it's official because I'm on the fan sign-up sheet.)

We got to meet Lady Antebellum after the show. They were so sweet. They have two new fans, too.

Now we are off to Vegas...oh yeah...

This is what welcomed me outside our front door this morning. Now it welcomes you!

Make today beautiful.

Drips

Yesterday I cleaned my house while wearing Olen's sauna suit. What a trip. Or should I say drip. Ha! I turned off my ac and tidied the house while sweating to the oldies. I was seriously dripping. When Port came home from school he asked if I was wearing garbage bags. It was so much funner cleaning up like that, I think I'll do it again today. I love a good multi-task. I hope my suit dried out.

In other drippy news, London's got a cold today. Her nose keeps running and we can't seem to catch up with it. She sneezes and fires away! Ten Kleenexes stat! I hope it's only the famed family allergies and not a real cold because....

Friday is the FIBRENEW Convention in Las Vegas! As part of our franchisee agreement we have to go to one convention a year. It's an untimely and Star-Trekie sounding event that I'm not really looking forward to. So I'm focusing on the best - a weekend away with my main squeeze. The kiddos will be lovingly left at Grandma's while Olen and I rub elbows with other Fibrenew owners. We even have matching shirts...okay, I can't lie, this part I'm pretty stoked about. So I hope Elle's runny nose runs away.

Today was Porter's school pictures.

Here's remembering my little man littler as a proud kindergartner last year...

London and I have had the most fabulously lazy day.

We painted our nails, took a nap and ate bon-bons down by the pool. Okay. So one of those might not have happened. But it has been a fabulous day. I hope yours was, too!

"It's Katie's Birthday, yo. Get her a sweet sicky sicky present...maybe a neck brace."

Happy Birthday Katie!

My beautiful little sister, Katherine Mae, is celebrating the mighty twenty-six years today.

I am the luckiest girl because I have six sisters/best friends; today I'll focus on Kate.

If you've ever wondered why she is so completely off-the-radar-rad, allow me to fill you in on the details. Here are just a few:

1. She knows what's going on. Even when she lived in another state, she knew more about what's going on with the fam than me.

2. Did I mention that she moved back to good ol' AZ?! (This should probably be number one.)

3. She's the best listener and understander. She knows what I mean.

4. She has a great sense of humor and can make me laugh at anything.

5. She is humble and sees the best in everything.

6. She makes amazing cookies.

7. She teaches herself new skills and discovers hidden talents in herself and others.

8. I never have a bad time when I'm with her.

9. She makes me forget what a dork I really am.

10. I know she's always there when I need her.

Here's me and Katie on a Daddy-Daughter outing. Judging by our hair, this is probably the next morning.

Way to go, Class of 2000!

We made these glasses hot waaay before Paris even knew they existed.

Mexico day-trip with two of my favorite girls. Que bonita!

Wedding Day.

Before we lost the baby weight, aka Ogden and London.
Tell your favorite thing about Katie, a fun memory or just a Happy Birthday message!

How did you spend this day off?

Clean the house? Outdoor grill'n? Buy a new mattress?