The Geyser In My Front Yard.

This post was originally written and posted on June 20, 2009.

I came home from work on... Wednesday?

Yes, Wednesday.

I'd been to Casey's funeral.

West had fallen into the basement of the house he was framing and messed up his foot, breaking his toe.

I came home and turned on my sprinkles... only to discover a geyser next to my front porch.

Wednesday was a good day.

I checked it out and it wasn't a sprinkler head.

I stuck my hand into the hole the water was gushing out of to feel for a pipe... no pipe, only the strong rush of water coming from off to the side, and that rush of water was washing out the dirt from under my grass.

I was suddenly very concerned that the geyser that I was finding to be somewhat entertaining, was going to make my grass cave in.

I called Mark.

My neighbor across the street, the one who always saves me in my single motherness (do you have a ladder so I can take down the Christmas lights the previous owners left up? How do I set up my swamp cooler? Do you know how to turn my outside water on? Mark, there's a geyser in my front yard.).

Every single mom needs a Mark.

I now know how to fix a crack in poly pipe. Something every woman should know how to do.

While Mark was working in the geyser-turned-crater, we had a visitor...

Too late, the geyser is closed for sight-seeing.

Pioneer Day 2013.

Since it's nearing the 24th of August I suppose I should post the pics of our 24th of July... which for you non-Utahans would be Pioneer Day, or the celebration of the day Utah became a state.

Which really means a second day in July to BBQ and blow stuff up into the sky.

Fireworks make me happy.

The last two years The Man and I have invited people over to hang out, BBQ on the front porch, and light fireworks.

This year I just wasn't feeling it.  I was tired, and I signed up for summer semester, which really messes with your attitude about summer, and we'd had to redo the garden in the front yard when all our bushes died and we had to pull them out.

But then I had an assignment for my nasty, terrible communications class and I needed to video myself doing a speech in front of 10 adults.

And I thought a good way to bribe people to come and listen to my five minute schpeel (on how to make a really good cake in the comfort of your own home, without paying bakery prices) was to offer them food in the form of  a BBQ.  So I said, let's do a BBQ on Saturday.  

And The Man said, if you're going to do a BBQ why not just do it on Wednesday, for the 24th?

And so we did.

On the evening of the 23rd, or neighbor and friend, Brandon, pulled up in front of our house with his truck and trailer.

to which I posted on facebook that it was just a BBQ and there was no need to camp out in front of our house.  Unless you wanted prime spots for the fireworks, in which case this would be a very good idea.

(He actually was just having West help him with something on his trailer).

(But my theory was much more fun).

On the evening of the 24th I grabbed the first 10 lucky people who caught my attention as the people started showing up on our lawn and dragged them into my basement to see my powerpoint (required by my teacher) and listen to me talk about cake.

And then the night was free for the good stuff.

Hamburgers, salads, desserts, and homemade ice cream.  Family.  Friends.

And fireworks.

Cali and Casidee had my camera through the night so the pictures are a little crazy, and a little grainy or blurry, but I think that has to do with they were also using my phone a lot.  They got some pretty fun shots I think.

Our 3rd annual Pioneer Day BBQ, in an overload of pictures, as happens to be my way of doing things.

 Someone who is a lot cooler than I am brought some cool glasses for the kids to watch the fireworks through.

Cali had the idea to take pictures through the glasses.

To me, this is the stuff that summer memories are made of.

Thanks to our neighbors and friends who come and made it so fun.

Chalk Art Festival

Every once in a while The Man and I break out of our comfortable spot of dinner and a movie (oh how I just really love dinner and a movie with that man) and we do something a little bit different.

We still had dinner.

And we still saw a movie (Man of Steel on opening night!).

But we also added this in between:

The Chalk Art Festival was being held downtown at Gateway in support for Foster children.

We even ran into our neighbors who were participating.  He's a crazy good artist.  He did all the artwork on the Haunted Circus:

Andalin and Russ!

We have a couple of artsy girls in our house and it's got me to thinking with summer being here and all...

I think I'm going to have an chalk art day at our house.

Seriously.  (Update:  We did it here)

Once upon a time I was really into taking art classes and I learned a thing or two that I can teach to the kids who want to do this.  We have squares on the sidewalk already...

I'm going to hit the art store, buy some chalk, have the kids pick out the pictures they want to draw and teach them how to grid it out to draw it.

I think that sounds pretty splendid for a summer's day activity.

If they like doing it, maybe our family can sign up for the festival next year.

I like making plans :).

The Trick You Should Make Sure You Do With Your Crockpot Every Time. And, Come On Bub, You Know You Want To.

I have leaned that when it comes to asking the kids to help me with things around the house I need to be very specific.

As in, spell it all out to the very finest detail of how it needs to be done.  (A good example of this is our chore system here).

So when I realized I forgot to put dinner in the crockpot one morning I called home to see who would be willing to help me out.  It was an easy recipe, just dump three ingredients in and turn it on so I wasn't too worried about it, but from trial and error of my own through the years of cooking for my family I knew there were a couple things I needed to spell out.

Tayler was my willing helper and she easily found the ingredients and dumped them into the crockpot.

And then I asked, "Is it plugged in?"

"Yes."

"Is it turned on?"

"Yes."

Perfect.  Thanks, Tayler.

And I thought that would be the end of it, because in my years of using the crockpot, those were the two things that have fouled me up, forgetting to turn it on, or turning it on but forgetting to plug it in.

We had it covered.

I forgot about it while I went about my day, then Cas called when she got home from school.

"Hey, Mom, dinner doesn't look cooked.  Isn't the lid supposed to be on the crockpot?"

It would seem no matter how prepared you think you are with kids, they will prove you wrong.

{pic source}

Also, the house next door to us has gone up for sale.

Our street has had somewhat of a high turn over in the past year with the two house to the north of us selling and the second house to the south selling.

And I must add here that I miss the neighborhood hens who moved on.

No, not real chickens.  But real middle aged bachelors who were our two neighbors to the north of us.  They would sit in each other's drive ways on plush office chairs and shoot the breeze after work with their cold drinks in hand.  They would let The Circus swarm around them with balls and bikes and comment about the people going down our road.  They would heckle me when I was out for a evening run. I affectionately referred to them as "the old hens."

Recently a family has moved in two houses to the south of us that have kids and their whole family will come and join us as we play ball and hands up stands up in our yard.  This has been a lot of fun.  Also, I might mention, this would be the little brother of my college best friend.  It's crazy to me how life comes around in a circle sometimes.  I can't wait now that it's warm enough for BBQ's and The Man and I have started talking about a firepit in the front yard.  Oh the possibilities!

So the stakes are high now that house right next to us on the south is up for sale.  Like, really high.  We've been lucky three times this year with good neighbors moving in.  And we're sad to see our current neighbors go.

Actually, I think my college best friend needs to move in between me and her brother.

Now that would awesome.

Come on, Bub, you know you want to.

Addicted To Sugar. And a Bunch of Other Stuff.

Hello.

My name is Stephanie.

And I'm addicted to sugar.

Hard core addiction and though I don't want to be opposed to sugar, I certainly don't want it to run my life either.

I have a lot of reasons for wanting to make a change in my eating habits.  I love to run and push my body to the limit, but when I get myself on a regular running routine, like I have been lately, the exhaustion settles into my bones and I'm ready for deep sleep bedtime at 4:00 in the afternoon.

This can't be normal.  It's not normal.  It's because I'm not giving my body the fuel that it needs to go.  I'm living off of sugar.  And a lot of Coke.  Those aren't going anywhere.  Yet.  They are my guilty pleasure but I don't want to need it everyday.  It's not the caffeine, it's the sugar.  I get hungry and I crave the sweetness.

I've been trying to make small steps so I can keep up with it.  When I made spaghetti I made a big pot of noodles for The Circus, and then made a smaller pot of whole grain noodles for me.  I've stocked my desk drawer with raw almonds and organic oatmeal and granola and popcorn.  If I'm prepared with a quick healthy snack I'm less likely to decide I need "something" and with nothing on hand, head out for a drink run just to get the sugar.

Swimming And Baptism. Not At The Same Time.

This weekend was just one party after another.

Cali had her friend party on Friday.  

She wanted red velvet cupcakes and swimming at the Rec Center.

I love it when they choose easy things, my over burdened brain rejoices.

I spent Thursday night baking cupcakes and let them cool overnight.

On Friday I rushed from work to take Tayler to a follow up with the doctor before the party.  I called Cas and asked if she'd please frost cupcakes while I was at the doctor with Tay.

Frosting is a hard job, but I'm thankful for her doing it.  I think next time I'll mention to her to heat the frosting a bit so it will smooth around better.

Lessons learned.

Still, she was a life saver doing that for me.  By the time Tay and I were done with the doctor, dropped off her prescription, and picked up the pizza, it was time to get our party on.

And Cali and her friends didn't seem to mind one bit.

The candles still blew out and the kids still ate them up.

After I inadvertently sent a father to the boys locker room when he was looking for his daughter...

Yeah, I thought his son was at the party so when he showed up I told him, "He's in the locker room with my husband, you can go in and get him."

And he just looked at me funny and kind of walked away.

Turns out he was needing to pick up a daughter...

So I went into the locker room and got her instead.

So after I did that and we got all the kids sent home with the correct parent, The Man and I threw on some nicer clothes and headed over to cute Jessie's wedding reception.

I'm so happy for that girl.

Saturday dawned on Cali's baptism day.

She's my littlest one, making such big decisions with her life.

I'm pretty sure my other girls weren't as young as she seems to be to me.

I talked to her about the choice she was making, the commitment.

The promises.

She wanted to do those things.

It's my biggest desire in life to have my children know the gospel that we claim to live.

Cali was baptised by Grandpa Dick and confirmed by Grandpa Scott.

She was surrounded by family.

I was overwhelmed by the support of our neighbors.

She's my last one and I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry.  I settled for a peaceful in-between.

And, of course, afterwards we met up with even more family at Leatherby's for giant ice cream sundaes.

On Sunday we stayed in bed until 10:00, which, anymore, is unheard of.

It simply does not happen.

By 10:30 I was quite convinced that I wasn't going to church that day.  I felt "uh."  I didn't want to.  The girls had spent the night at their grandma's with their dad so I was going to throw on my jeans, curl up with my laptop and hot chocolate, and get caught up on homework.

And then with 15 minutes to go I threw on a skirt and headed to the chapel.

Because even on the days when I want to be anti-social and crawl into my own world, I know that I love church on Sunday.  And that I really wouldn't let myself get away with not going.

While at church a neighbor friend approached me.  "Do you and West want to bring your kids over for food and the superbowl?"

To which I asked, "When is that?  Next Sunday?"  Calculating that we wouldn't have our kids next Sunday.

He hesitated... "Um... that would be today."

"Oh!"

There's nothing left to do after that but show up with dip and crackers in hand.

And it was nice to feel included with good people.

Even if there was a lot of talk about football.

The Haunting Hour

Have I mentioned how much we love Halloween around this house?

Well, most of us anyway.

This week we had the fun opportunity to host a party for R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour. 

You know, R.L. Stine who's the author of Goosebumps... and The Haunting Hour.

The Haunting Hour is now a TV series (check out The Hub and The Haunting Hour HERE), and we got to preview two episodes at our party. 

So we decorated the basement,

 invited best friends and neighbors,

bought a bunch of party food,

and got dressed up like vampires (since the episodes that we got to watch were about a Grampire).



To start the night off we made sure everyone had a pair of vampire fangs.



And with those fangs we decided to have a little contest, since The Hub sent us a whole box of goodies to give out, and we figured a contest to win one of the t-shirts would be a great way to start things out.

We weren't wrong.

All the kids sat in a circle, put their fangs in their mouth, and I dished out a scoop of jell-o on a plate in front of them.

Okay everyone, plates on the floor.

Hands behind your back.

Get ready,

get set,

go!

And with fangs in their mouths they raced to be the first to eat their jell-o.



Can I just say that if you happen to have a bowl of jell-o and some plastic fangs lying around... I would highly suggest doing this activity. 

I love having parties because it means making the kids do crazy things like this.

Our proud winner starting the night off right.





The Hub sent us a box full of t-shirts, stickers, glow in the dark fangs, and glow in the dark slap bracelets.

We had the kids put their names in a bowl and drew names out, giving away all of the stuff.

And then we got to watch two episodes of "The Haunting Hour."

I have to admit, the kids were spell bound by the show. 

And I might have been too.

We loved it!  But with R.L. Stine and Halloween, what's not to love?

And guess what?  If you want to check out The Haunting Hour, it's on The Hub now, Saturdays 6 p.m. ET.

I was selected to be a MommyParties host as part of a promotional program with MomSelect. All words and opinions are my own.
We loved doing this party and we loved watching the show.