7 Random Things

My cousin, Kim, "tagged" me with a "7 random things" post. I'm supposed to post 7 random things about myself, then tag 7 other people to do the same thing on their blogs. I'm not sure I know 7 other people with blogs who she hasn't already tagged, but if you read this and can think of 7 random things you'd like to share, by all means, post them.

1. I enjoy doing laundry, but not doing dishes.
2. I like to read out loud to my husband when we travel or while he does the dishes. :-)
3. My ears are pierced, but I never remember to change my earrings--I always wear the same pair, day in and day out.
4. I am a sucker for chocolate ice cream with candy and/or nuts in it.
5. My favorite church calling so far is Relief Society secretary.
6. One thing that really annoys me is poor customer service.
7. I love being outdoors, but I spend a disproportionate amount of my time in the kitchen.

Kids' Photos

You may remember my Photographer Frustration post from a few weeks ago about getting Dallin's and Jared's pictures taken. Well, I finally succeeded in getting them done at Wal-Mart with my coupon. The photographer had to trick Jared into smiling and it only happened once. Luckily I got a decent picture out of it. Unfortunately, his Lightning McQueen car was lost, so it didn't get in the picture with the other Cars figures, but this is still pretty representative of him and what he likes at three years old. Dallin's pictures are just cute because he is so cute and he was very cooperative with the smiles. He was five months old in these photos.

Grandparents, Mothers' Day, Baseball, and Fathers and Sons

Jeff's parents just finished a 12-day visit with us this week. They needed a grandkid fix and had some Delta Skymiles to use. It's always fun to have family visit, and we enjoyed having them. The day they left, Ryan was moaning and groaning, wondering what in the world we were going to do for fun after they were gone. The kids love playing games and reading stories with them, and generally just having the extra attention. They helped me out too, washing dishes and tending kids and helping me with some projects. I felt a little guilty working them so hard. We tried to make it up to them on Saturday with a little trip to Fredericksburg to see Texas wildflowers and eat German food. Although I was disappointed that we didn't see more bluebonnets--missed their peak by week or two--we've had a wet spring so the wildflowers were everywhere and really beautiful. (I also got two or three new counties on this trip. :-)

I had a very nice Mother's Day, and it was extra fun to celebrate it with Grandma too. Jeff and his dad cooked yummy Japanese/Chinese food for us--almond chicken, sweet and sour pork, and gingered green bean salad, with pecan pie and vanilla ice cream for dessert. I love having a husband who enjoys cooking!

Jeff and the boys really outdid themselves with the gifts this year--I usually don't get or want near this much for Mother's Day. They surprised me with a beautiful new oak chest of drawers to replace the hand-me-down we've been using for 14+ years now. It's unfinished--raw wood--but Jeff is also looking forward to finishing it, which is good since all I need right now is another project. We're thinking we'll stain it medium brown to try to match our headboard and then seal it with tung oil. That's what's been recommended to us anyway, although my friend sealed hers with polyurethane and it looks great. I also got a couple Ritter Sport candy bars--real German chocolate (available at Target, FYI). I needed shirts and I got a couple of those too--a pale green button-up and a "Lady Longhorns" t-shirt. I guess I couldn't really leave Texas without some burnt orange in my wardrobe. It is "my color" after all, even if I bleed BYU blue. The most fun present of all though, was a pink cowboy hat. I don't really do pink...or cowboy...but now I have a souvenir that says "Texas" all over it. The funny thing is, whenever Jared finds it he brings it to me and says, "Put the pink cowboy hat on your head Mommy." I've worn it quite a bit this last week. :-)

I'll bet you thought I'd forgotten about baseball. I'll bet you missed my play-by-play posts too, didn't you? Well, I didn't forget, but there hasn't been much to post about. We've had several games cancelled by bad weather--lots of thunderstorms and rain lately. When it finally cleared up last week, Ryan and Adam both had games on Friday. Ryan's game was typical teeball-- everybody hits, everybody scores--except that this time Grandma and Grandpa got to see him play, which was a treat. I think Adam was a little nervous to have the extra audience--he wanted to do so well while they were there to cheer for him and got upset when he struck out a couple of times. I think he did get at least one hit, but I didn't keep track very well since the other team forfeited due to a shortage of players. We lent them some of our players and just played a practice game. They "won" thanks to our players who hit well, so technically we "beat ourselves." Adam and Ryan both played again last night. Ryan's game was cut short due to rain, but he still got two good hits. Adam batted 2-for-4 with two singles and an RBI (15-for-19, .789, 12 singles, 3 doubles on the year). His team won 10 to 7 for a 7-2 record so far.

I've had occasion recently to think about how many Little League games and Cub Scout pack meetings we're going to end up going to over the next several years with our four boys. Tonight I've discovered another benefit of having all boys--Fathers and Sons outings! Dallin is still a little young to go camping without Mommy right now, so he and I are having a nice evening here at home. I really, really love my boys, but ah, the peace and quiet!

Hobby #3 Photography and Photo Editing

I've always enjoyed taking pictures, especially since we got a digital camera. It's kind of a wannabe hobby though. I've gotten lucky with a few pictures that turned out nice, but I don't really know much about the principles of good photography. I'd like to take a photography class sometime and learn more.

For Christmas Jeff's parents gave me some Photoshop photo editing software. I was thrilled, but wasn't sure when I was going to find the time to sit down and learn how to use it. Then I heard about a Beginning Photoshop class at the local community college. It was offered two nights a week for four weeks in February and cost $90, and I had two friends that wanted to take it with me. I figured that commiting to the class and investing money in it would make me take the time to learn how to use the software, so I signed up. Jeff was kind enough to take care of the kids so I could do it. I learned a lot, I really enjoyed it, and I wish I could have continued with the intermediate class, but baseball season was starting for the boys, so our family schedule was full enough. Anyway, I still don't have much time to sit down and play with it, but I've got the basics. Here's a small example of what I can do:

Before

After

Hail Storm

We just experienced our first real Texas hail storm. I think we rescued our cars, but I'm not so sure about our roof. Check out the size!

Dallas Weekend Adventure

Okay, here's a long story about our short weekend last week.

During the summers of 2003 and 2004, Adam took swimming lessons at the Oakley Pool in Cincinnati with two friends, Peter and Ross Lohrisch, who lived in our neighborhood. At the pool we met and became good friends with two other families, the Sellas and the Russells. When we moved away from Cincinnati, one of the things we really missed (in addition to Graeter's ice cream) was hanging out at the Oakley Pool with these friends. Last summer, the Lohrisch's also moved to Texas and bought a home in Plano. Maryann called me a couple months ago to let me know that John Russell was coming to Dallas in April to guest conduct the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. John, better known to us as "Jack and Alma's dad," was the associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra while we lived in Cincinnati. So we made plans to travel to Dallas last weekend to visit my brother, Adam, and his family, to play with the Lohrisch's, and to see John conduct the Dallas Symphony Orchestra concert with the Von Trapp Children, great-grandkids of the real Maria and Captain Von Trapp of "Sound of Music" fame.

Last Friday we planned to leave for Dallas as soon as Jeff and the boys got home from school so we could get to the cousins' house around bedtime. I ran around all day like a chicken with it's head cut off, trying to get all my errands done and get packed and ready to go. I almost made it, but best-laid plans failed again. We got a late start and didn't get to Dallas until about 10 p.m.

Saturday we drove up to Plano and spent several pleasant hours visiting, eating lunch, and swimming with John and the Lohrisch's. Three-year-old Jared provided the first excitement of the day by falling into the pool. Jeff had brought his swimming trunks but hadn't yet changed into them, so when he went in after Jared he soaked his wallet and clothes. Jared was fine, but scared. I'm afraid it's going to be a challenge to get him anywhere near a swimming pool anytime soon.

The second incident of the day occurred as we left Lohrisch's to go back to Dallas. The back tire on the driver's side of our van was completely flat. It took five men and at least a half an hour to figure out how to release the donut from underneath the van and get it mounted. Not wanting to drive too far on the donut, or to have to deal with fixing the tire on Sunday before we drove home, we pulled into a tire store five minutes before they closed Saturday evening. Fifteen minutes and eight dollars later we were on our way again. We made it back to Adam's and Paula's house with about an hour-and-a-half to eat and change before leaving for the concert.

The plan was to take Adam and Ryan with us and leave the little boys with a babysitter that Paula had arranged. I thought I had prepped Adam and Ryan well for the concert by buying the DVD of the Sound of Music, which they enjoyed in the van on the way to Dallas on Friday. However, they were tired from the late night Friday night, playing hard in the pool, and getting pretty bad sunburns--I forgot to apply sunscreen. The third incident of the day was one of those ugly parent-child power struggles when they both threw a fit about wanting to stay home and play video games with the cousins instead of going to the concert. I had actually considered letting them stay home with the babysitter until they started throwing tantrums--especially over video games! Then we were in a situation where we couldn't give in. So we got them dressed and into the van against their will, and we were off into what is known as the Mixmaster--downtown Dallas freeways. We only got turned around once off the last exit and made it to the Meyerson Symphony Center on time. The Meyerson was beautiful--can you see the Starship Enterprise in the lights on the ceiling?! The Von Trapp Children had amazing voices for teenagers, and John was fantastic--fun and energetic as usual. Adam and Ryan settled down and enjoyed the concert, as I thought they would. It was great experience and we really appreciated the tickets John comped us.

After another late night, we enjoyed a relaxing Sunday morning with Adam and his family. It's been so nice to live relatively close to them and get to spend time with each other fairly often. Our boys love playing with their cousins. Family is the best! We went to sacrament meeting with them in the afternoon, then headed home, again hoping to make it by bedtime. Our final excitement of the weekend happened when we stopped for gas in Sweetwater, TX, about 75 miles from home. We noticed that the tire we had gone to so much trouble to repair on Saturday was flat again. Grrrr. And it was pouring down rain. Jeff had no desire to put the donut on in his Sunday clothes in the rain. And he didn't feel good about driving home on the donut in the rain and in the dark either. Fortunately we were in a town big enough to have a truck stop with a service area that was open on Sunday evening. Unfortunately they didn't have the right size tire for our van. Fortunately they were able to refer us to an auto parts store that, amazingly, was open until 8 p.m. on Sunday evening and did have the right size tire. I still can't believe that. Unfortunately, the auto parts store wouldn't mount the tire for us. Fortunately, the truck stop service area did mount the tire for us. We saw some awesome lightning on the last leg of the trip, making it home 7 1/2 hours after we left Dallas, again about 10 p.m. (It's normally a 4 1/2 to 5 hour drive.) I let the boys sleep in Monday morning and took them to school late. When the secretary asked why they were tardy, all I could say was "hard weekend." Hard, but fun. And we got six new counties. :-)