Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom is 74 today, and she makes 74 look great.  My mom and I both wear fitbits and follow each other on our fitbit dashboard.  It is not a competition between us because we are both active, though I will admit that my steps are usually higher.  Twice now, she has called me to check on me because her steps were higher than mine.  "Are you okay, Jo?"  I love that she still thinks of me.  You know when you become a mother that you never ever stop worrying about, praying for, hoping for, or being concerned about your children.  I am grateful to know and to always have known that my mom loves me.

On our recent visit to Canada, we took my parents with us North to Radium Hot Springs, Lake Louise, and Banff.  It was wonderful to spend time with them.  As we drove, my mom sat in the very back of the van with Kristen and worked to teach her knitting.  When we asked all of our girls what their favorite part of vacation was, Kristen quickly answered, "Sitting in the van with Grandma and learning to knit."

(Just a note about the back seat of that rental van.  I sat in that middle back seat for a day and let my girls have turns sitting up front.  That seat was mighty uncomfortable!  I had to use a pillow for my back after awhile.)

My mom has always been a talented, craft-making lady.  She and my dad were equally matched in that they both work with their hands.  In different ways of course, but their hands are rarely idle.  They taught me well.  She taught me well.

21-Day Fix Extreme

For the past three weeks, I have been doing a workout and eating program called 21-Day Fix Extreme.  I follow more of the 21-Day Fix plan for food, but have been doing all of the daily workouts faithfully on the Extreme plan.  When it comes to exercise, I am pretty dedicated.

I will admit, however, that there are times when I am literally dripping sweat and think, "Are you kidding me?" when the next exercise is demonstrated.  These workouts are no joke.  Seriously, they will kick your butt!  I joined an online accountability group led by my friend.  It really seems to help me to stay focused on my goals.

Reflex Happiness

Misha and Kristen discovered last night just how sensitive my leg reflexes are. They had a lot of fun tapping both of my knees to watch my legs jerk in reaction.  Happy to see them laughing together.

It isn't So Funny When You Tell It Again...Said Amy

While Chris has been across the sea, we have been having our car fixed.  Just regular maintenance.  Our mechanic helped us out by
 driving our car to his work and then bringing it back to his home once he was finished.  Worked great.

The only problem was that I was the only driver, although Amy was more than willing to drive the car home for me.  Unfortunately, she's not yet legal to drive.  Nor did she have her license with her (not that I was going to let her drive anyway).  “So you’re not legal to drive and you don’t have your license.  Two wrongs don’t make a right, you know!”

Her response, "In math they do."

There is Beauty All Around

I think I scored this sunrise and sunset on the same day.  Pretty amazing.

Asha

Misha happened upon the bottle of Coke the other day.  "Really?  They'll put Asha on a bottle but not Misha?"  You can tell, she wasn't happy.

Simple Things

Sometimes it is just the simple things that makes my heart happy.  Like these two walking home from the bus together.

Trying on Dresses

A new Maurices clothing shop opened a little closer to home.  I took my girls (though most clothes there were too big for Kristen).  They had fun trying on clothes, but I was a little surprised that Amy and Misha both ended up buying a new dress.  Kristen came along for the ride and just happened to be wearing a dress to complete the picture.

Back-to-School Amy

Amy got one extra day of summer break.  She would have loved one thousand more days of summer as she was totally not ready to pick up the early morning seminary and school schedule.  5 am comes awfully early for someone who loves her beauty sleep.  Fortunately, she still shines at 5 am!  (We took the pics after school since it is getting darker in the morning now.)

Back-to-School Misha

I think Misha was more nervous than any other emotion.  The first day of high school was a big thing.  Fortunately, the school had only Freshman attend on Wednesday to break through some of their jitters, to get them acquainted with the school, to learn their schedule, and to figure out their lockers.  It was helpful, and by next Friday, Misha will be an old pro at high school.  Right now she is still trying to figure out where her classes are and learning her schedule.  It helps to have her big sister on the sidelines.

Back-to-School Kristen

It seems to be a reoccurring theme at back-to-school time.  Kristen was the only one that was excited to go to school on Wednesday.  She was excited to be in fifth grade, excited for her new teacher, excited to make new friends...just plain excited.  And she was more than happy to pose for some pictures while we waited for her carpool.

No More Lego

Misha sat down at the dining room table this morning to play with the Legos.  The Legos have taken up residence in my dining room for the past couple of weeks and Kristen plays with them every so often.  It was a rare occurrence for Misha to play with the Legos.

As per our normal routine, I suggested that she could come back to the Legos after she had finished her chores but would she please get started now.  After a couple of times of asking, I finally said, "No more Legos.  Do your chores!"

She held up this little Lego man and asked, "Are you saying no to an amputee?"

"Yes.  Yes, I am.  But...let me take a picture first."

Kristen Selfie

Every so often, I find a stream of pictures and short movies on my cell phone, usually where Kristen is posing and taking selfies or playing around with her friends.  Most I delete.  Some I keep.

Friends' Shoes

My girls had friends over, I thought all of their flip flops were haphazardly left in a colorful arrangement.  These summer days pass all too quickly.

Beach

Our beach is getting closer to being done.  There is still so much that we would love to do, but for this season, I think we must call it good.  The grass was installed while we were on vacation.  My girls aren't exactly looking forward to the increased mowing area, but Chris is already thinking riding lawn mower, and then he'll have to keep them from fighting over whose turn it might be.

We have a shower, lots of sandy beach area, an area for eating, and triangular shades from Costco to provide a little relief from the sun (not yet installed). We need to camouflage the blue doors.  That, too, will come.

We found this nice fire pit online and hope to break it in soon.

And we have lots of geese...and goose poop.

Lots of Growing Pains

True to form, and following in her sisters' footsteps, Kristen has had some growth spurts this year.  She was resting comfortably under my chin for awhile, but I notice that I now have to lift my chin up to accommodate her height.  Kristen has grown almost 2 1/2 inches since January.  She's looking forward to breezing past the five foot mark.

18 Years

Happy Anniversary to the man who captured my heart 18 years ago.  You are the best.

It all started in a beautiful place like this.  Our girls wished us a happy day and said, "Thanks for making us a possibility." 

First Stake Dance

Misha and Amy had a multi-stake dance in Cheyenne last Saturday.  It was about 1 1/2 hrs from our house, and I told them Dad and I would take them if they wanted to ask some friends to go with them.  We picked up kids and carpooled with friends, dropping the girls off at the dance at a reasonably "late" time.  You can't be on time to these things, you know.

The dance was held at a beautiful ranch with a tree-lined drive.  And there were kids everywhere.  We dropped the girls off and planned to have dinner with our friends while we waited to pick them up at 10 pm.

Here's to first dances.

Misha had a fun time.  Amy?  Not so much.  She was quite perturbed at all of the young men who came and just stood around and watched.  Seriously boys!  Why even go to a "DANCE" if you have no intention of dancing?  Well, the boys haven't changed much.  I remember having the same frustrations.  The good news?  More of the boys get a little courage in college.

Dinner for Amy

Amy had to work one evening and didn't have time to pack a decent dinner.  We had breakfast burritos, so I packaged one up for her and Chris and I dropped it off at the Rec Center on our way to Costco.  Yeah, she said, "Don't ever do that again!"  Decorate her bag, that is, we can always bring her food.

High School Registration

Amy and Misha both had high school registration last week!  AAAAHGGH!  I have a junior and a freshman.

I went with Amy on Thursday (Aug. 13) and spent a couple of hours with her getting all of her paperwork handed in, waiting while she posed for her school picture and ID, signing the "Permission to Leave Campus" form, and waiting in a long line to change a class or two.  Alas, she will have to submit her parking permit form in January when she gets her license.  Amy had finally reached the front of the line when I snapped a picture of her.  The exasperation was more with the picture-taking than with the line waiting.

The school this year is 100 students over capacity.  The incoming Freshman class is as big as the Junior and Senior classes combined.  Alas, there weren't too many options for Amy to change her schedule around, but she did get a Psych class she had wanted to take.  We kind of snuck in a question for Misha's schedule so that I would not have to stand in the long line again on Friday.  We were able to make a change for Misha and added a Multimedia class the first semester and GeekSquad the second semester (it is a class that teaches the students the ins and outs of Tech Support).

Goose Poop

Now, this was a summer job that was never on my kids' radar as having to do--picking up goose poop.  Since we finished our beach, the geese have found an enjoyable place to hang out and...poop.  I sent my girls down twice last week to scoop up said poop.  They had friends over.  The friends weren't inclined to help, but they patiently waited until the girls were done.

Frogs

Here's hoping that Kristen doesn't see this post, because she is hysterically afraid of frogs.  Not worms or snakes...frogs.

We have two bug zappers.  They are located in the front of the house and the back.  All night long the zapper zings the mosquitoes and other bugs as they come in contact.  The frogs seem to be a smart species and night after night come to feed at the fountain of deliciousness.  They clean up the dead bug carcasses pretty well, but leave behind piles of poop.  Not very nice, and combined with the goose poop at the beach, we have some interesting fertilizer to remove.

The frogs have grown over the summer.  (Don't tell Kristen.)

Misha and Makeup

Misha has never really wanted to wear makeup.  Amy would love for Misha to wear makeup.  In fact, here's a picture where Amy was saying, "Let me put mascara on you, and I will get off!"

Misha and Amy were quietly working away last Wednesday while I was working in the office.  They both came down and stood beside me, and as I turned to look up at them, I was greeted with Misha's made up face.  She looked great.  I made her sit for a picture.  Come on, take off those glasses.

Doesn't she look great?

Amy's Hair

Well, she won't be thrilled that I post the before picture here, but you kind of need to see it to see the amazing transformation of her hair.

Here's a random curly before:

A brushed-out before:

And after:

Look how long and beautiful it is!

Swimming Lessons

We arrived home from Canada on July 26th.  On July 28th I thought, "I should look at my calendar to see when Kristen's swimming lessons start."  July 27th.  Uuughggh.  This is the second time that I have done this.  I put her swimming lessons on a paper calendar but forget to put it on my online calendar, and she missed the first two days!  You can bet I had her at the pool early on July 29th and dutifully drove her to class for the next week and a half.  She was in level four and learning her strokes.

One day she forgot her towel, the next day her goggles, and once or twice a snack.  But by the end of the second week, she was pretty on target with being prepared.  Her class got to jump off the diving boards for part of their last class.  There was no fear on Kristen's part.

Spending the time at swimming lessons was nice for me as well.  I took my keyboard and iPad and spent the time working on blogging our recent Canada and South Dakota vacation.  I was able to finish after a couple of days and got up-to-date on other events in our life; I spent the last couple of days leisurely reading a book and perusing magazines.  Nice for a little required down time.

Misha's Drawing Pad

Misha is interested in drawing and art and animation.  She asked for a drawing pad that would connect to the laptop for her birthday.  She was just a little bit excited when she received an even nicer drawing pad than she had asked for.  Chris and I figured she wouldn't grow out of this pad's capabilities quite so quickly.  It is a Huion H610Pro.

Exercise Room

One of my favorite rooms in the basement, now that it is put back together and I have spent hours cleaning up after the contractors, is my exercise room.  I love this room.  This past week, we put the rubber floor mats down, brought the treadmill back in from the storage room, brought the hand weights down from the office, and set up the weight stack.  The weights take up a little real estate in the room, but I think we found the best spot for them. With this orientation, Chris and I can still work out at the same time with only a minor chance of crashing in to each other!

While putting the weight stack together, I realized that I was missing two poles that hold the weights in place.  I searched in every place I thought they might be with no luck.  Chris suggested we check Burnham's where we had stored our stuff while in the rental.  So we headed over there to check.  It wasn't in Rafer's big garage out back, and I was losing hope.  I asked if we could check his regular garage.  We looked around and suddenly Chris said, "Here they are?"  Yay.  It took all day long, but finally, with a lot of help from my peeps, everything was put together.

The treadmill is situated in such a way that I can watch tv or watch the lake and sunrise in the morning.  Love it and so happy not to be exercising in my office or the front entry anymore.  A morning sunrise is pretty spectacular from this vantage point.

Favorite Scenery and Flower Shots

I always like to take pictures of flowers and nature whenever I travel (or anytime I see something beautiful).  These are a few of my favorites from our Summer Road Trip.