My Husband's Thing

Okay perverts...that is not what this blog is about. It is about the fact that I married a man who can spontaneously purchase (on ebay) a volkswagon "thing", and then tell me about it as it is getting shipped to our house. Gasp. Yes, well he did that a couple summers ago, and this car is
the car he has been dreaming about for decades. Tim has this strange VW obsession/fascination. The way in which he is a freak about VW's are numerous (the tattoo), the ownership of multiple volkswagon van's through the years, and the fact that we even got engaged in a VW. The VW thing was only made for about 2 years I think, 1973-74, and they are pretty dang funny looking. Tim happened to find a guy who spent about a year of his life and THOUSANDS of dollars restoring and modifying this car, only to sell it to us, so he could pay for his wedding. How do I feel about this car? Well it is cute, and really fun to ride around in, but highly impractical, and almost TOO nice. It stresses Tim out to actually own it because he has to constantly worry about it getting scratched, or dinged, or having some of the fancy stereo equipement stolen...aargh! So I put it up for sale, I don't know if it will sell, but I am trying because right now it is just a fancy ornament in our garage. I really want somebody hip, (translation: young and no kids) to purchase this car and drive it all over the place. Let's face it: the cool factor goes way down once you throw a couple car seats in it! I guess we will see if there are other spontaneous VW freaks out there willing to fork over some bucks for the "thing."

Kitties, Bunnies, and Bears...oh my!

As most of you know, we have a wildlife issue. I am a little disgruntled however, that the bear who has recently taken up residence in our neighborhood is NOT in my backyard. I don't understand it, I mean I have lots of things for a bear to eat...strawberries, kittens, bunnies, and small children. What does a girl have to do to get some bears around here? Actually on second thought, I don't even like cleaning up small dog poops, so maybe it is best if that bear stays down at the neighbors house. All joking aside, it really was hanging out at a neighbors house who lives near the creek. She woke up two mornings ago to see this bear eating her birdseed out of her birdfeeder in her backyard. I am not sure what will happen to this cute bear, but I am going to leave my smelly garbage out for a few days. Here beary, beary....

Growing Season

I have been obsessing lately about the importance eating and feeding my kids a more healthy whole food diet, growing my own garden, and teaching my kids to work past the point of comfort. Why? Well, I guess partly because I love growing a garden, partly because we are supposed to grow stuff if we can, partly because then we know exactly what we are eating, and finally because my kids are over-indulged. Don't get me wrong, they are great kids, not even terribly bratty, but they really have it pretty easy. I think it is so important for kids to learn to do work that is uncomfortable, and even difficult. (Remember working on the corn picker Jen?) It is a great life lesson I suppose, and they don't get many opportunities to do that.

So I was trying to talk Tim into buying me a farm, but I guess we don't have to now, since someone in my ward offered to let me plant a huge garden on their 10 acre farm. What a blessing! Truly an answer to my prayers. So 10 days ago we went and spent 4 hours planting everything I could think of.

A few strawberries, tomatoes, onions, peppers, lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, peas, beans, cucumbers, corn, pumpkins, squash, cantalope, and watermelon. Yee ha. So I take the kids there a couple times a week, and we weed, and water, and check on our plants.

I am so excited about this. And being the ridiculous organizer/nerd that I am, I even laminated labels for each variety of plant so I will know which ones are the best tasting or best producing. I will keep you all posted on our progress as the summer goes along, and hopefully we will have an amazing harvest at the end of all this hard work. But don't worry it isn't all work and no play...

The Good, The Bad,...and the Ugly.

So I had a friend point out that lots of times, people only blog the great things that happen, or the highlights of their family, thus creating a standard of unrealistic perfection. I don't want to do that, so here are some of the "low lights" if you will of the last month or so.







First: Tim drove our minivan into the garage...not good. Okay, I will admit that we only have about 2 inches to spare on either side, but still...he cranked it good. Dented and ruined paint on two doors. Ya.

Second: Piper dropped a metal patio chair on her big toe. I didn't think it was that big of a deal until she cried ALL NIGHT, and the thing turned black. She probably broke the end of her toe, but there isn't a whole lot we could do, except carry her everywhere for a week. Then a week later her toenail came off...eewwww. It was gross. Josh really liked it though, and was carrying the toenail around for a few days, until it got "lost." Translation: I threw it away when he wasn't looking, because I think he might have started a really creepy collection with it.



Third: Josh was riding his long board down the hill in front of our house and he did a back flop onto the road...ouch. Luckily he had his helmet on, so we saved his noggin, but his back and butt, were black and blue. I think he was a little nervous, and a lot sore, but he got back out there yesterday and I saw him cruising down the hill again. I don't think my nerves can take it.

So those are the big things I can think of....I am sure there is a lot more I could say. I could tell you how Piper had a 45 minute raving psychopathic meltdown yesterday because she couldn't find her bouncy ball. Or how my kids have to be coerced mightily everyday into doing their chores, or how I fed the kids grilled cheese (bad mom), for dinner. But the list goes on and on...it just our life. It isn't perfect but I still wouldn't trade it for anything.