Hotter Than the Hubs of Hell

They're finally here...those hot, muggy days that come with the summer rains. On rain days the weather is perfect. On the days building up to rain you sweat gallons of water (how come I'm not shrinking???) feel sluggish, and get meaner than hell (so what's new?) Must be the full moon, the heat and my even-tempered personality - boy I have a short fuse. Wish I could use the rage for energy :o(

Kamryn and I were watching Bambi (for the millionth time) and she heard "thumber" = thunder and said, "I keered" = I'm scared. When we were in the valley at Jenna's the electricity went out and both girls freaked and so Gunnar and Kamryn both say "I'm scared" now.

Every body on my block is mowing yesterday and today in anticipation of Saturday's promised rains. I got most of my yard work done yesterday - when I came in the house I was as red as my truck. I over-heated and it took forever to cool down. I got a lot done though - just forgot to drink (and I'm gonna start on the hard stuff) enough.

I have these two kamakazi black birds that live in my back yard. They had babies and one fell out of the nest and Sadie got it so now every time Sadie is out in the yard, they dive bomb her and are making this awful scolding sound. After three months of the noise I'm tired of them and am thinking bb gun...Sadie is tired of getting hit from all sides when they attack her. Today, while my fuse was lit, I threw Sadie's water bucket at one of them and broke her bucket - now wasn't the smart thing to do? Sadie will be mad when she realizes what I did and the dang bird is still scolding and dive bombing...birds 1 Dorlene 0...

I always tell Sadie, "those birds will poke your eyes out" so now Kamryn says "birds poke eye" or "birds eye" - she isn't really sure what is going on, just repeating what she hears...which brings me to my little repeat. For any of you that know me, you know I throw a few swear words in every once-in-awhile...one day I said son of a (%*#) and guess who says the "b" word. Her mama is ready to kill me and I tell her to ignore her because when you react she is sure to say it again. Any other ideas? (No, getting me to quit now isn't one of the ideas)

Well, Trentin is crying again and I better see what has made him mad this time.

Happy 4th of July

I've always loved the 4th of July. When I was little, everybody dressed "western" and it was the thing to get new riders (before the days of Rockies) and moccasins (before the fad of boots) and the parade was HUGE! Then our family would load up and go camping somewhere. When my kids were little, the parade was still a big deal and Jenna said she remembers her dad taking her to Allred's to buy rockies and boots. Now days we wear flip flops, shorts and get comfy. My how times change. They didn't always have fireworks, but once they started having them here, it was a fun thing to watch from our balcony at 26- and eat cherries and watermelons and spit the seeds. This year we had to drive to Lyman but it was ok - they were pretty good, but never as good as when my kids were little.

I think the coolest part of the whole 4th this year was the fly over by the Army helicopters. I got so choked up I couldn't talk for a few minutes. I AM so GRATEFUL for every man and woman who so willingly serves.

Since I've joined the "grey wave" a group of "mature" atv riders...(I know that is stretching it), I ride my quad in the parade and don't see much of it anymore. Normally I have one or two of my nephews on with me, but this year I picked Kamryn up in front of Java Blues and let her ride. It was too hot for her to ride the whole parade. It was a good day. After the parade we went to my mom and dads for our cook out and then home to rest up before the fireworks. Jenna and Weston were here and I went with them and met their friend, Brett Overson and his fiance at the lake and watched the fireworks together.

Jenna makes her dad's banana ice cream and we did that Saturday night and the kids all watched UFC...now that's a phenomenon I'm not in to, but the kids are. I had my "rap crap" on and Jenna thinks I'm missing a few brain cells. I like all kinds of music and there's some of the stuff that is cool :o)

Tad spent the weekend at Roosevelt with Troy & Suzanna & Jay skiing and playing in the water.

Maggie and I drove to the Valley Sunday afternoon when Jenna and Weston left and stayed until Thursday a.m. It was fun, but Trenton is NOT a traveler. We were ALL glad to get out of the car last night.

Tonight I am blog stalking, checking up on everyone...love to all - it is fun to see what you are up to.

Yum Yum

On Saturday Troy & Maggie asked me to baby sit so they could go to Show Low to a movie. They ended up just shopping around and eating bocci balls from La Venti and then coming back home. Anyway when they got home, Maggie asked Kamryn what she had for lunch and she looked up at her mama and said dog food. That's probably not too far off from what she had. (I fixed her lunch but she didn't eat much, I think she was already full :-) Dang kid, I caught her down on her hands and knees drinking out of Sadie's water dish the other day, and we've caught her chomping on dog food since she was a baby. Yesterday while we were visiting out on Maggie's front porch , she was drinking out of the bird bath! Maggie grabbed her by the arm and was dragging her away from the bird bath and Kamryn kept saying "arm, arm"...I was chuckling and Maggie was telling me it's not funny. It WAS funny...Kamryn being raised around the dogs, thinks she is one. Sadie huffs and puffs when people drive up or go by and once in a while you hear Kamryn huffing and puffing, too.

Maggie's dogs howl when they hear a siren and every once in a while you hear Kamryn howl when she hears the siren. What is she gonna teach poor little Trentin? How will he know what is normal? Will we have to buy Kamryn a flea collar? (and tell her it's a necklace), will we have to buy her a leash? Oh who knows...all I know is that you NEVER know what she is gonna do next and that makes my heart smile. I LOVE the things these babies do...Gunnar likes to strip naked and wreak havoc. Their mothers are in for the run of their life and I love every minute of it!

Blessings

Troy blessed Trentin on June 1st. I know he was nervous, but he did such a good job. Weston assisted and I felt so blessed to know that my girls have married men who honor the priesthood they hold. Troy wasn't a member when Kamryn was born and didn't get to participate in her blessing so this was a really special day for us to see how far he has come. I am so proud of Troy!

The few days before and that weekend were busy, too. Troy's dad came through from Louisiana on his way back home to Washington state. It was nice to meet Kris and LeAnn. Troy & Maggie had a big cookout on Friday night and then a big bonfire in their pasture. Tad, Jenna & Weston were all there so it was good to see our families being together.

On Saturday we went up to Slade lake on the quads and had a picnic. There was a big herd of elk under the damn that everyone got to see. Gunnar wanted to see them again.

I went to Youth Conference on Saturday night. The Amity Ward chose the Rogers Family Cemetary as their clean up project and did a dvd to honor the Floyd & Zola Rogers Family. It was cool to see what each of the ward's had done as their clean up projects.

Skipping ahead...I set a goal that I would tackle one room a week and deep clean until my house was completely done. This week I started with washing windows inside and out and then hit my bedroom. I was tired of the wallpaper and started ripping it down. HARD WORK - if anyone says wallpaper to me again...thanks to Maggie we got most of it down by Wednesday night.While we were busy doing this, Kamryn was busy doing this..."wimming" in Sadie's dog water dish and this...
playing in the sprinkler buck naked. She is a hoot and you never know what she's gonna do next.

I am finishing the wallpaper removal project today so I can paint. YEA!

Tad came home the other day and was telling me that he was at Short Stop filling up and this lady in this car drove through, stopped and looked at him, drove around and came back again. She did this about three times and he and Chris (his helper) were wondering what was wrong with the lady. On the fourth time through she got out of her car and said that he looked just like Don standing there and she just couldn't believe what she was seeing.

With every wedding, every new baby, every blessing and most recently the Allred Family Reunion, Don is in our thoughts so much. He is missed, he is loved.

I like to check in on friends and family through their blogs. I found this story about a snake on 2 Peas and the crazy lady started a blog. She is one of the funniest people ever. I have her blog "Ava Jo" if you want to read some of her adventures. She is my age, maybe that is why I think she is so funny.

Family Reunion

I didn't get a lot of pictures taken at the family reunion. Everybody went to the lake on Saturday except Velda and I. From the pictures I have seen, that was one fun activity! We had a great time and THANK YOU, Velda for planning and dragging. I know it is a lot of hard work, but it was definitely worth it. The Saturday cook out at Nate & Jen's house was a lot of fun and the kids loved playing on the GIANT water slide. Heck if I wasn't so old and fat, I might have gotten in on that one, but I'm afraid I would have looked like a beached whale :-(

Sunday was great, too. Sunday morning we kind of kicked back and then on Sunday afternoon most of us met at the Temple to view the Joseph Smith film. Mike & Ashley were so great to take photos and they are awesome! The prime rib dinner was wonderful! - Velda got a dang good scald on cooking prime rib. Even though it was delicious, we still missed Brando & Tammy.

The guys did a four hole scramble golf game on Sunday evening and the rumor was that Dal, Steve, Weston & Tad won.

I had to laugh as Tad and Weston reported their "walk" back to grandma's. She lives down "Ashton". They said (hunting terms) they were off one "ridge" and found themselves coming down "Gayridge" to Grandma's. They said they looked at each other and asked if they should hold hands and skip - I would have paid good money to see that.

Coming home on Monday, Tad and I talked about the good time we had and he was glad that he went, and I am glad that he stayed. He did have a good time, we all did. Now everyone is saving their nickels to go on the cruise. (Did someone say sea sick?)

You're Kidding Me

We woke up to 6 inches of snow on Friday morning. I had to chuckle - the last day of school kids usually wear shorts and are buzzing with excitement. Today the kids were in their coats and long pants waiting for the bus, brrr! It was a really heavy and wet snow. In the 12 years we have been here at this house I've never seen my lilac bushes fall over from the weight of the snow. This bush is normally taller than the over-hang of my roof

but the weight of the snow had it on the ground.

Any hooo Mother Nature is in charge and must have quite a sense of humor!

Holy Crap...

The last three weeks have been busy! Maggie & I drove to the valley a couple of days early so we could play. Troy came down on Thursday evening and we took the kids to the zoo on Friday.

Kamryn & Gunnar had a good time. Gunnar saw the carousel at the entrance and all he wanted to do was ride the "ashar" = Tiger. Pulling him along to see the animals, he enjoyed them, but never once did he forget about that d*&#ned carousel. Finally Jenna and I took a break and let him ride while Troy & Maggie took Kamryn to see more animals.
We ended up meeting at the water hazzard (the water randomly shoots out of the ground) and both kids were in heaven playing in the water.



We finally drug them out of the zoo and went home for a rest. Friday evening Weston & Troy baby sat all four kids and the girls and I went to the mall. It was a lot of fun. We stopped for pizza and just kind of shopped around. Look at Jenna's blog for the sunglasses story. We took the guys Cold Stone ice cream for being such good sports. Saturday morning the guys went on a quad ride in the desert and Saturday afternoon we went to Grandma Mary's to swim. Grandma and I took care of Bailey and Trentin while everyone else played in the pool.

Oh, I love these babies. I am so blessed and so happy to be "ammah" to Kamryn and "mo mo Sadie" to Gunnar. After the pool, we cooked hamburgers on the grill at Grandma Mary's and Dal's. We had a good time together and then Gunnar & Kamryn were running wild on the golf course ( a no no) but no one complained. Saturday night at 10:30 Jenna and I were in the grocery store so that we could make Hawaiian haystacks on Sunday after Bailey's blessing. I got up Sunday morning and got the chicken going and then Jenna and I cut up all of the veggies and got the rolls to raising. By the time we left for church everything was under control. NOTE: if you are feeding a crowd, leave church right after the blessing and go home and start the rice) I thought of that on my way back to Jenna's. By the time I got to her house there were people knocking on the front door. I started the rice and pretty soon Weston came in and more people were coming, but no Jenna. Guess who the last person through the door was? Weston and I were stressed. By the time we got the rolls and first batch of rice done and people started eating I started to relax. When talking about it on Sunday night, Jenna just laughed as she talked about the death rays that Weston and I shot her when she walked through the door. We looked at each other and said, "she doesn't get it"...meaning that when you invite 30 people for lunch, maybe you should be there when they get there!

Bailey's blessing was beautiful and that was the whole reason we were there.

I spent the week with Jenna so she wouldn't have to be alone every evening while Weston was at class and she came back home with me on Friday. On Saturday we took the kids to the park and I made a batch of chalupa for dinner. It was so good with all of the stuff on top! Sunday I had to teach my RS lesson and Jenna went to church with Troy & Maggie. We were getting ready to eat Sunday dinner when they told me that they had invited the missionaries to my house at 5:00 for dinner. Well, there wasn't going to be enough roast left so we heated up the left over chalupa and I made a batch of brownies. Chalupa is better the second day anyway and the sister missionaries never knew we were eating "left overs".


Monday morning Jenna was ready to start taping and caulking so we could get on with my painting project. It only took 5 days to paint the kitchen and dining room. We had two toddlers and two infants - guess we're lucky it only took that long.


Gunnar was in the terrorist twos last week. No that is not a typo. He and Kamryn didn't get along as good as they have on past visits. There seemed to be a lot of crying (once -in-awhile I swear it was ALL of us) and a lot of refereeing. I personally changed 200 diapers, I swear! On Thursday if having four wasn't pushing the limit, I had Tanya's 2 year old twin boys, too. Now that things have calmed down some, I can laugh. Both Jenna and Maggie were stressed with Kamryn and Gunnar not getting along. It will get better, it seemed every time there was a crisis, the two babies would need mama, too!


Weston found out that his Clinicals were going to start on Saturday so he wasn't going to be able to come for the weekend and pick Jenna up as planned so on Friday afternoon we drove to Salt River Canyon and met Weston. I brought my truck and quad home and they went back home from there. I spent Saturday touching up the paint where needed and cleaning and thinking how much I LOVE my new kitchen/dining room. We painted the walls a rich yellow and one of the dining room walls a "sangria" red...it is so pretty! Thanks, Jenna and Maggie for all of your help!


Today I am kicked back and thinking about the Allred Family Reunion coming up next weekend in the Valley. It will be a lot of fun to see all of the kids, and of course we will be taking a lot of pictures.


Yep...I am blessed and I am thankful for my kids and grandkids. You are my heart and soul!