celebrating the birthday boy

Welp, we're back in business!

Soooo . . . when we last left you, it was May 18, Keith's 60th birthday!  I didn't mention that before because I didn't know if he wanted it announced or not.  Yikes, when did we get to this age (him, not me!)  Anyway, some people outed him on facebook, and he's perfectly fine with that.  After all, they say 60 is the new 40, right?  Let the celebrating begin!

Friday night, birthday eve . . . he got off work early (hooray!)  I made him his favorite dinner, and we went to see the new Star Trek movie (awesome). (can I say that this was Keith's first 3D movie?  I know, we don't get out much).

Saturday, the actual birthday.  We got some yardwork done (which was something he was wanting to do), then we met up with Calley and family over at Claim Jumper.  Photographic evidence follows:

After a lovely dinner, we discovered Claim Jumper will present a red velvet cupcake to the birthday person.  He was kind enough to share.

 

He was toasted.



Oh, how we love dinner with the grandkids.



That would be some of grandpa's cupcake that Abby is devouring.



He was also blessed with beautiful weather that day.  Look at that, sunny, dry and warm.  Summer thought she had discovered a brilliant trick that nobody else knew . . . bunny ears.  She was extremely proud of herself.



And again.  She needs to work on her technique, though.



Parking lot gift exchange.  Thank you soooo much Calley and Tyson for such a wonderful evening.



And this one . . . there has to be a caption, but I can't think of one.  Can you?



I was also showered with some Mother's Day goodness.  Calley gave me those beautiful flowers that Abby's holding.  All I asked for was some coupons to do things with the girls.  Some people might consider those to be lame, but nooooo . . . they are priceless!  You'll get reports on when I redeem each and every one.



And last but not least, Sunday.  Instead of a birthday cake, he wanted pie.  Strawberry rhubarb, to be exact.  Freshly cut rhubarb and it was divine.

You know, with turning 60, we had actually planned a birthday party for Keith.  Months in advance, we made a guest list, a menu, but after a while, Keith decided he didn't want a big party.  That must have been a premonition because as circumstances would have it, there turned out to be a whole bunch of conflicting events that we didn't know about before.  And having a relaxing weekend and getting together with family was exactly what he wanted all along.

So here I am, blogging from my new computer.  I am eternally grateful to Keith for getting this for me.  I was not expecting one.  I was doing all in my power to try to get the old one ready for repair.  Its funny, this night here when we met at Southcenter to go out to dinner, I was asking if I could go get a new mouse, but we were too tired to try braving the Apple store at the mall.  I came home to try to view my pictures on the computer, and it was all downhill after that.  I am so thankful for this gift.  I chose one a little smaller than the old one and I can't get over how perfect it is for me.  Oh, and I love my new mouse too.  And it all came just in the nick of time, because life is getting a little bit busier now that summer is approaching.  Hope to be posting some fun stuff coming up soon.

technology argh . . .

I am no technology genius, but I do take care of my computer.  I try to not let it get too cluttered up with stuff, and try to keep my photos at a reasonable level and will burn them onto dvds and then delete them off the computer.

So last night when I was trying to upload some pictures from the weekend and nothing was happening, I finally got the little pop-up message that my start up disk was almost full.  No big deal, I knew what to do, burn some more dvds, delete, empty trash on iphoto, empty main computer trash, take a few other documents off . . .

Except this time was different.  I couldn't even burn the smallest amount of pictures onto a dvd.  More deleting.  Massive deleting.  Massive trash emptying.  Nothing.  NOTHING.

F R U S T R A T I N G !!!!!

So here I am, and I am almost at the point of giving up.  Keith says that tomorrow night we'll get me a new external hard drive, back everything up, and hopefully over the weekend we can take it in for some TLC and major help.  I was just thinking the other day . . . my computer is OLD.  (well, not that old, maybe 2006?)  I have friends with newer computers that fail and crash, and mine has been true and faithful.

In the meantime, I'm trying not to go through picture withdrawal.  That is my peace, my calm.

So here are some old pictures I came across in my deleting frenzy.  Hawaii is my other peace and calm. I can't post something without adding some pictures, so why not a little aloha?

This is from Aug. 2008 when we took Toby to BYU Hawaii as a freshman.  We were having dinner at Ola at Turtle Bay.  As you can see he is trying to be very patient as I make him WAIT before starting to eat, so I can take a picture of his dinner.



A monotone sunset at Kuau Cove, Maui.  Can't remember the year.  See?  You don't need brilliant colors to have a beautiful sunset.



Sunset at Wailea, Maui, and again, don't remember the year.



Gosh, weird to look at that picture of Toby freshly graduated from high school.  So much has happened since then, and in a year he'll be graduating from BYU Hawaii.

Sooooo, you can bet that this week will be spent with more deleting, trying to get this old computer doing what IIII want it to do.  And hopefully, I can get my new photos on here and update what's been happening.

happy birthday keith!

Wishing the happiest of birthdays to Keith today.  Its a milestone birthday this year!!!



Thank you for being my best friend, and my partner in life and in eternity.  May the next decade and all the rest to come be awesome!

the garden lineup

This is my back porch.  There are literally hundreds of veggie starts in dixie cups on there, waiting to be planted.  We start our vegetables like this every year.  This picture just shows a fraction of what is really there.  So . . . the vegetables of 2013 are:

corn (honey select and ambrosia)
beans (pole and purple bush)
peas
zucchini
yellow crookneck squash
peppers (unknown varieties)
easter egg radishes
beets
and some mammoth sunflowers just for fun



Our plan is to have all the starts in the ground by Saturday.  Keith planted all the tomatoes last weekend.  Most of them (ahem . . . 25 plants . . . and he is really the only one who likes them) are in our raised bed tomato boxes.  There were some leftover, so they got put in pots to go on the patio.  Like this:



and this:



But I really have to draw the line when he gets creative and plants them in something like this bucket!!  Either it gets replanted in a pot or it goes to a remote part of the yard.



Currently the patio is looking like this.  Pretty much a staging area/construction zone without the construction part.  My goal is to have all the work done by Memorial Day weekend, and then we can have the rest of the summer to enjoy it all.



The raspberries are starting to flower, and so are the strawberries.  And sadly, I discovered that Keith planted his pepper plants in my iceland poppy bed.  I'm trying to just ignore the peppers and focus on the beautiful flowers.  I can do that, right?

every single time i think its her

Every single time this iphone commercial comes on, I am literally glued to the screen because this little girl looks just like Summer!!!  Am I crazy?  I think not!  Just look at her!  Besides the fact that I don't think she has pink bunny jammies with a hood, and she's in a room I've never seen before, and the fact that I think Calley and Tyson probably would have told me . . . . I'm just convinced that this is her exact double.  Right down to the missing front teeth.



I was trying in vain to get a screen shot directly from the commercial, so instead I took this picture of my computer screen.  Then I looked through my recent pictures to try to find Summer in a similar pose, and all I found was this one . . . which for some reason should have been deleted but was not (soooo sorry Summer, I know that's not your best picture!!)



You can take a peek at the commercial and see for yourself.  Actually, its so beautifully done, I really love watching it.  She is near the end.



So . . . yeah?  Am I pretty spot on with that one?

Well, that's a LOT better than the other case of mistaken identity that I saw this afternoon.  I pick up Luke from the shipyard on Fridays, and I was parked, waiting, when I saw someone walking up the street in my direction.  Toby??  It looked just like Toby.  He was quickly approaching so I tried to discreetly get a picture on my phone without looking too obvious.  Success . . . I snapped it but by then Luke was also walking up to the car and I didn't get a good look at my picture till I got home.

Aack!!!  Sheesh . . . not even close!!  Unless Toby changed his eyes, dyed his hair black, and wrapped a giant piece of gauze around his arm (from drug use?)  I think it was the shape of the hairline from a loooong distance that caught my attention.  Maybe its time to get the old vision checked!



There you have it, my photo report from today.  Its a beautiful Friday night and we are soooo happy to be enjoying it at home.  I know most of our friends are busy doing something other than staying home!!  Sometimes we just love to be here on a Friday night with nothing on the horizon.  It gives the weekend a little longer stretch, don't you think?  Looking on the calendar, about the next four Friday nights will be occupied with other stuff, so we're relishing tonight.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a happy Mother's Day!

wednesday playday

My day today:  Luke and I were out the door at 7am to drive over to Calley's to babysit for a while this morning.  Except its anything but babysitting.  Its kind of glorious fun for me.  And these two girls were perfect in every single way today.  Not one single cry from Claire, and Abby was a pure joy. It was a playday for me.

Oh Abby.  While Claire was napping, I had two delightful hours of her brushing my hair.  I can usually get one or two normal smiles . . .



 . . . and after that she is quite a little actress.



Smile . . . .



 . . . then the face.  I like this one.



Then there's Claire Bear.  Can you believe this baby girl is going to be 9 months old next week?



She is fast.  She does this crawl/scoot combo and she is speedy.



Uncle Lukey is happiest when he can help find the perfect toy for her.



Look closely: two teeth.  With more coming.





We had a fun little stroll to take Abby to her musikgarten class.



And one last sweet look.





Once again, I missed seeing Summer since I had to leave before she came home from school.  I hate that.  I miss her.

I would drop anything and drive two hundred miles (100 each way) to spend time with these precious girls.  Pretty much a wonderful Mothers Day gift for me.

blue shadows

A Cinco de Mayo lullaby for you:



Seeing the coyote in there reminded me that Keith came face to face with a very bold coyote by the trampoline the other night when he was mowing the lawn.

Luke was very happily satisfied with our dinner tonight: tacos with everything you can imagine (either shredded rotisserie chicken or ground turkey with taco seasoning), empanadas, and mangos. Probably simpler than most people's dinners, but hey, its just the three of us. It was amazing!  Churros for the Big D.  (I didn't have one, but I assume they're stale, since I got them on Friday).  Luke proclaimed "oh YEAH!!!" (meaning they were good).   Remember when Costco used to sell them?  Why no more churros, Costco?  Fresh is the only way I'll eat them.  Churros always make me think of you, Tyler!

Hope your Cinco was fantastico!

cinco de mayo

Luke.  I kid you not.  He drives me a little nuts at times.  He is obsessed with any kind of holiday.  For some reason, he is totally obsessed with Cinco de Mayo.  For weeks and weeks he has been on the countdown.  After he announces how many days are left till the big day, the next question is predictable:  "What are we having for dinner on Cinco de Mayo?"  Followed by even more predictable:   "What's for the Cinco de Mayo Big D?????????"  Food.  Its only about the food.

Not like we've ever done anything beyond having mexican food for dinner, he has taken things to a whole higher level in his mind.  But then I was reading this Babble post, and saw all these cute ideas.   Just give me a theme or an idea and I go crazy with planning.  Now I want to do a summertime fiesta on the patio.

This is actually a margarita bar, but you could do the same with lemonade, right?



Banners and twinkle lights, of course.



A little luchadore fun, for kids and grown-ups too?  You can print these out (check the link on the babble post).



Love this mini pinata, but I think what people really love is swinging the baseball bat to a big one.  Right?



Well, none of this is happening at our house this Sunday, but who knows, maybe later on.  So far our menu is tacos with the works.  And bless your heart Central Market, they had churros.  They'll probably be stale by Sunday, but Señor Luke doesn't care.  And I have a little bit of flan on hand too, just in case.  I think I've got my bases covered.

tiny dancer

I'd have to count yesterday as one of my best days ever.  This year has been a really hard one, as far as getting over to Calley's as often as I want to.  But the stars aligned and our schedules both worked out, so yesterday was fantastic.  I got to take Abby to her ballet class . . . which is one of those things I just live for, you know what I mean?  I can't think of anything more adorable than little girls doing ballet,  and we had the most wonderful time, just us two . . . talking about our favorite things while driving to and from her lesson.

Get a good look at her darling bun, because it didn't last long after this.



Her teacher holds classes in her home for small groups of little girls.  No barre, no mirror, but they sure get a great feel for moving their bodies to the music and learning ballet positions and moves.  They were practicing their numbers for the upcoming spring recital.





















As they were practicing their recital numbers, their teacher instructed them to go to the stairs (because that was like exiting the stage).



It wasn't all about Abby yesterday, I also had some much anticipated Claire bonding time, and some much needed time with Calley.  Claire had woken up from her nap when we got home from ballet.  She's crawling now!



Luke has had a recent affection towards Pinocchio lately, most likely from Pinocchio/August from Once Upon a Time.  He loves coming over to Calley's house, because she has an amazing collection of figures and little toys that Luke can't get enough of playing with.  He can be himself and act like a little kid with no judgement at all.







After lunch, Abby wanted to show me how good she is at riding with training wheels.  Look at that sunshine . . . it was either rain or sun, but neither lasted very long.







She said "look how far I can turn my head . . . like an owl!!!"  Well, she did turn it a lot farther than this . . .



Earlier when we went out to lunch, Abby was huddled under the umbrella with me as we dashed through the rain in the parking lot.  She said "these were a poor choice of shoes for today".  Yes, she really said that!



Swinging.





Claire too.







Love. (yes, look at her socks, too).



Josie stands like a sentinal over the backyard.

A few of you might know that I recently developed a severe allergy to dogs.  Really really severe.  I didn't have it before, but it was one of those things that hits you as a surprise as an adult.  I've even had to take a trip to Urgent Care after just being around someone who had dog hair on their clothes.  With my allergy testing, my dog sensitivity results were waaaayyyy off the charts.  I don't know how long it will take before my shot regimen will get things more under control, but as of now, they're still deadly serious.  But . . . I think I'm being blessed with a little major get-out-of-jail-free card, if you will, as far as Josie is concerned.  Josie is an outside dog, but she does get to come inside for a little while in the evenings.  So yes, there is dog hair in Calley's house.  But its like I'm immune to it.  I can't tell you what a most amazing blessing that is to me.  I know its a special blessing just for me, so I can be with my granddaughters.  Because I am down on the floor and carpet with them and NOTHING happens to my lungs, ever.  I don't tempt fate and touch Josie, and I think she and I have an understanding that I won't touch her and she won't jump on me.  But its a testimony to me that my Heavenly Father knows me personally and knows my situation, and has provided me with a blessing so I can be happy.



She was sad to find a broken tulip.  Who would have done that? (Josie??)









And now some springtime in the backyard for you.





One of my favorite moments was being slouched on the couch while snuggled up with Claire (blissful) and Abby was behind/beside me playing with my hair.  Abby said to me "we look the same. We look alike.  We're twins!!"  I can't think of anyone better to be twins with!

I was so sad to have missed Summer yesterday.  She was at school, and I needed to leave before she came home.

I brought home a big bag full of dolls and ponies who were in desperate need of hair detangling, so hopefully I'll get those done and delivered back over to their cute little owners soon.

(off the subject, but I get frustrated at my pictures having the perfect color and exposure on my computer, and on photobucket---where I store my blog pictures, but then as soon as blogger gets hold of them, they are all muddy, dark, and the color isn't right.  Does that happen to anyone else?)