Posh Poultry

I have a problem.
You don't have to tell me.
I am so aware of it and yet I still move forward with curiosities... flitting to and fro from one crazy thing to the next...
Blame it on the garden, blame it on the compost, but have a little, teeny tiny secret desire to now have chickens. Fresh eggs! How cool is that!? And, well, this company doesn't make it easy for me to resist. These are such snazzy little cabanas and I sort of a little bit want one.
I know this may be a stretch but does anyone out there have chickens? Does anyone out there want to talk me out of it? Because so far the friends I have that do have chickens make it sound crack-a-lackin'.
Perhaps the city laws will make my decision for me.... until then, me wanty.

Wasatch Back Relay 2009

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted.
The few days prior to the race was filled with getting ready, and even having been home a few days I am still tired. Yes, my fingers are so weak but I am mustering typing energy for you. Snuggle down and get ready to read some deets if you are interested...
First and foremost, if you aren't familiar with what this is, go read about it here. You basically gather a group of 12 people, each of which run 3 legs that vary from 3-9 miles long (easy or hard). The first car full of the first six runners begin the race, each taking their turn. When runner #6 is done, car #2 meets at an exchange point, exchange the baton and runners 7-12 each go. Then car #1 drives ahead to the next exchange to run legs 13-18, and so on. It continues ALL NIGHT LONG and well into the next day. There are tons of teams, interesting costumes, lots of decorated cars and positive energy. It's the first time I have ever done it and it was really, really fun.
Now... how awesome is our logo!? We came up with a fun team name, but my friends brother is the one who did our logo. It was so perfect and got fun attention all weekend long. We had shirts made and my great friend, Jackie, was willing to cut vinyl for me, so we slapped it all over both team cars. I promised to get a good pic of the car but never did- lame! Hopefully another one of our girls got one. So, now with shirts, car stickers, black nail polish, fake tattoos and other glam rock accessories, we were ready to hit the road.
Our start time wasn't until 9:15 am on Friday morning, so we had plenty of time to get ready. Here is Julia carefully contemplating and applying some Ed Hardy.
This next picture is of everyone in car #1. From left to right: Heather, Julia, Sara, Erica and Michelle. I was the first runner so I took this on our way over to the starting line. Aren't we perky? Yeah, well, that died down..... okay, not really....
The weather was awesome- nice and cool and the scenery was sooo beautiful. Who would have thought that such cool, small towns were littered all over the back side of those mountains?! I never would have seen them otherwise so I snapped a few shots fer ya.
More on the pics:
-Erica had quite a climb surprise during her first leg. If you enlarge that pic you can see her from up high where we were. But did she complain? No, compadres...
-The four of us waiting at an exchange
-A cool barn
-Julia the bandit, getting ready to run up Avon pass (dude- a very hard section to run and she did great)...
-In the middle is the shot of our complete team. Heather, from our car, had to leave early for a wedding so she'd be missing from our finish line picture at the end. So we decided to take a quick photo of us all at the first exchange point in all our shredded rocker T's and fresh, smiling faces!
From left to right: Erica, Julia, Brenda, Myndi, Jana, Jen, Emily, Michelle, Heather, Roz, Sara & Me.
-Heather running through the night... she was an animal, that one... had so much fun killing herself on the hills at 1:30 am. She was always so positive and fun.
-My car outfitted with a make-shift shower idea. I thought it would be handy to make a place to clean up after our 2nd shift of runs. Would it work? A couple of sheets and binder clips? Why, Yes! It worked like a charm! And a few of us were spring time fresh in pj's for the night of no sleep.
-And finally, us at the finish line!!! The weather started to get pretty stormy and cold by the time our last few girls finished. Those girls in the second car were some tough chicas. We only had time for a few photos before the temperature dropped and rain blew in at a 45 degree angle so we all dispersed our seperate ways.
But it was SO FUN! It feels so good to have it over (and so good to ride my bike again) but I never would have thought running 19 miles like this would be such a blast. Everyone was safe, everyone was positive, everyone was willing to help when necessary, everyone pushed themselves and did their best....everyone was incredible! It's an honor to have some great friends who would want to do something this crazy. Love you, girls!!!


OH- and the last pic was from my parents garage on the way home... Lately my brothers & Dad have been into gathering these old scouts and I thought the point of view from the garage was classic. Rich's orange one in the street, My Dad's blue striped one out front and I think Marty's (Or I'll take it :) ) burnt orange/pink one in the garage. Nice, guys... nice....
(Dad- I thought you might like that)

R & R

Richard and Randi are official!
Friday they got married and it was such a great day. Richard has waited so long and finally found a wonderful girl to be with forevs. And look at the little thing! So beautiful. She is so great and I am really happy she is part of our family.
Since all the festivities were happening in SLC and Bountiful, we decided to go sans kids. It was a toss up but was a better decision in the end. We flew in that morning and met everyone at the temple. I love that part. I love walking in that waiting room and seeing Aunts and Uncles, friends and family, all for such a great event. And luckily, no rain that day (I guess Utar has had a lot of it lately). Awww, aren't they ceeeuuute?
After some family photos outside and fun chats with the famulee, we split our different ways before the reception. Time to put on our colored clothing (No, I never did find anything but luckily I had orange shoes, so hurrah) and hang out! Scott and I made a quick stop in Layton to visit his brothers Skate/Snowboard shop which looks great. Don't know when we would have made it up there otherwise so I'm glad we had time to stop in. Then we hurried up to the house.
The reception was great. Beautiful weather, fun people and soft serve. :) Seriously though... mini cones? Right there? As many as I want? = Bad.
This is probably the first reception where things actually ended on time (Hmmm... think they were in a hurry to get somewhere?). Around 8pm they cut the cake, politely fed each other a piece, tossed the bouquet, etc. And soon they were walking around to the front of the house where Richard had to de-coccoon his car. Earlier we watched a few of his friends go to town writing and wrapping, so it was fun to watch R & R tear it all apart. And boom- right at 8:30 pm, they were off to Park City!
It was such a wonderful day. I am so glad we were able to go and be part of it. Rich and Randi, we love you guys and are looking forward to lots of future fun! Welcome to the family, Rand!

Sid Fishous*

You know... Life has taught me many things. It has taught me lately that sometimes when you make the right choice, even when you don't really want to, you could still be condemned for that choice. Condemned for trying to be good! It's sad, really. But what can you do?
Example: Sid.
(*and if you don't understand my title reference then you are probably too young to be my friend. Which means I am old. Ugh.)
We had pets growing up. I liked our pets. They were fun. They were cute and ate little food and lived in little spaces. They were also a mess, pooped outside of their spaces and would wander away and get lost. I already have three of these. Their names are Elliet, Luke and Sadie. I don't need any pets. The thought of taking care of one more thing has not interested me. But here is the trap, folks. I attend my ward Enrichment night and they have centerpieces filled with goldfish. I'm no dummy. I did the math pretty fast and knew they'd have to pawn off all those fishies to someone at the end of the night, so I formulated my excuses early. It mattered not. There I was, surrounded by friends taking their own and saying how much my kids would like one (and how quickly they expire) so I caved. I CAVED. I tried to make a 'good choice'. Home I come with a goldfish.
The next morning the kids squealed with joy and named him Sid. I have no idea why. He wasn't swimming around too much so we hurried out and got him some food. Turns out that within the 24 hour period of him coming home, the other fishes my friends brought home had died. Nice. Not Sid. No no no... he is a hardy little sucker.
And this was all about three weeks ago. I even waited to post about the guy because I didn't think he'd be around long enough. Ah well. At least he can't whine at me. :)

Farewell to Pre

It has come! Preschool is over for this family. It is crazy to think that phase is complete in my life.
We have loved Miss Jamie and it was sad to say goodbye to her. Each year for graduation, she has a fun little ceremony where the kids sing and tell jokes. I swear this was the first performance EVER where Luke was happy as a clam the entire time. He ended up being quite the ham up there performing for everyone.
Perfect.
Just in time for Kindergarten.

Trés Eco

I was in Target yesterday, contentedly soaking in the current what-not and discovered these awesome melamine "paper" plates among the summer fun.
Quite clev, me thinks - so they all came home with me.
They also come in red and a nice grass green, but the white is classic, no?
Time for some picnics...go get some!

The '-toe' and the Show

Aww... just look at him.
He is so happy. So proud. So pleased to be the first fruitlings of my labor.
He was also delicious.
And he was supposed to be about four times as big. But who am I to complain? He's red and didn't taste like a weed, so I say, the garden is still doing A-OK.
Yumm.... nothing like the taste of home grown tomatoes.....all one of them.
The GND show went well also. Scott took the kids to dinner and the new "UP" movie while the women flooded the house. We had some new vendors and included some super yummy cupcakes this time. But I will admit I'm wondering what the next direction for GND will be. It's time for some modifications and I'm stewing the possibilites. The Holiday show will be a change, though-
Now we enter a fun week. Richard is getting married on Friday!!!! My youngest brother, the coolest of the cool... I am so excited for them. It's going to be a wonderful weekend with family and my hubs. Think I can find something to fit my attire requirement by then? Flip flops are okay, right?

Last Days

So, last week marked the end of some school for the kids.
Sadie and Luke finished Ms. Kristina's preschool and had a fun graduation/swim party celebration. She had a really cute program complete with handmade grad hats (the coolest idea) which they got to wear as they entered to music while we cheered. Then Ms. Kristina called each name and shared funny stories or interesting characteristics unique to each child. It was so cute to see them smile up there as she did this. She then presented them with a certificate and the best part, a large book of art projects they worked on throughout the year with a self portrait on the front. Hilarious. She was such a great teacher. I am so glad the twins had a chance to be in her class and I've loved getting to know her better. You did a great job- We heart you "Miss Kreena"! :)

I am also a lame Mom. I have no pictures of Elliet's last day. Apparently I missed the memo that this was a big deal, and my story goes like this:
I rush to the school to find the street already packed with parked cars. Luckily I slipped into a freshly vacated spot and speed walk to meet her outside just in time. We already gave the teacher cards and notes, etc., so I am thinking this will be a hug goodbye, "have a great summer" deal and hip-hip-hooray it's summer time. Not so. As I begin to cross the blacktop I notice children with puffy, swollen eyes...wet cheeks...shoulders racking uncontrollably in mothers hips to hide the tears.... what was happening?! Oh dear- tears for saying good bye to the teachers. I never thought to talk to Elliet about this and just as I find her, she is quiet, head down, solemn... I kneel down and check to see if all is okay and it is. I give her teacher a hug, thank her for everything (she really was so wonderful) and tell Elliet it's time to say goodbye. She wraps her arms around her legs and gives her a big hug and the tears begin to fall as we walk away. Oh man- that melted my heart. It took me a few minutes at home to get her smile back. Awww....
Anyway, school is officially out and here we go summer.
I already nearly left my kids at the store today. It's gonna be a long one... :)

Final May Weekend

WOW! Survived the month of May. Goodness knows it was a doozy. My calendar is so scribbled over with things that turning to an empty June was divine. Well, sort of empty. Still have my brothers wedding AND the darn Wasatch Back beast. I'm so over the running.... only a couple of weeks left to go.
My parents came into town again over the weekend for business. They didn't stay with us this time so I felt the lack of company, but it was great to see them when we could. I was able to shop with my Mom on Saturday, looking for wedding threads. Didn't happen. Because, as you know, when you look for something, you don't find it. Really great to hang with my Mom, though, so who cares. Love you mumsies....
We also attended the long anticipated Animal Collective show with our friends.
It was bound to happen, you see....after so many fabulous shows, to attend one that was less than interesting. Such a bummer. Their songs are so atmospheric and large, so layered and happy. And yes, at times the over mixing can last too long, but when they pull all the sonic microns together, it's a burst of rainbow fun. I was looking forward some awesome moments live. The funny crowd and lack of excitement was not about to ruin our night, though... we giggled through the obnoxiousness and had some great laughs over Sonic cherry-limeades (LOVE that ice, eh?). That will really get the giggles going at 11 pm... :)
Now this week of big events! Last day of school and Girl Next Door on Friday. Probably won't have much time to blog for a few days as I my office space is already a disaster with projects. And before leaving last night, my Dad assisted me in getting my table/chop saws a working. Chuckle chuckle.