You Just Thought You Knew Vocabulary!

New vocabulary words coined by Inigo:

Inspectigate: "I will 'inspectigate' this evidence and solve the mystery."

Gargoyle: "Mom, if I 'gargoyle' with the water after I brush my teeth, can I spit it into the bushes?" (said while camping)

Aqua-pied: "I will go ahead and watch TV all morning so that I can be 'aqua-pied' while you clean the house."

(There is one more hilarious word, but for the life of me I can't remember. When I do, I will add it.)

I expect we'll see these new words added to the dictionary in the next year or two!

Happy side note: My girl has returned from her trip to the Pacific Northwest. She had a wonderful time! Her Aunt and Cousins spoiled her rotten and kept her 'aqua-pied' from sunup til sundown. However, it's back to reality for her as she is now home and needs to help me get ready for a family reunion that will be at my house on Saturday: We're feeding 30 people breakfast before Max's cousin gets married in the Florin Temple.

A 1.5 Hour Drive That Took 12 Hours

I have a friend, Steck, that has lived in Florin for 8 years. Eight long years that should have afforded her the opportunities to drive north to the mountains and experience the wonderful beauties that are there.

Well, she hasn't. (Hard to believe, isn't it?)

When we realized that both Buttercup and Max were going to be gone this week, leaving only Inigo and me home, Steck and I decided it was the perfect time for me to give her a tour of "my" mountain home. (Yes, I claim the wilderness as my own.)

We left in the morning and headed to some of the most beautiful water falls that our area has to offer, Plateau Falls (names have been changed).

We had a lot of ground to cover and only one day, so we couldn't linger in one place too long. Our next destination was further north to Large Watering Place, where we had planned on feeding the fish. I got distracted however, when I drove past this:

This is where we go cross-country skiing every winter. And, believe it or not, I haven't never stopped to see what it looks like in the summer. I've only seen it covered with snow. It's just as gorgeous thawed out as it is frozen!!

Finally we made it to Large Watering Place. It's been years since I've been there. Okay...The last time I was there it was winter and we were on snowmobiles. Again, I was thrilled with the thawed-out beauty.

(You know, we've complained about all the rain we've gotten this summer, but it has made everything so beautiful and green!)

I am always talking about the cabin my parents are building, so I felt like it was only fair if I take her there. And if we're going to the cabin, then we have to go to the two lakes that are there! Edge and Splash Lake which we had to dip our feet into! (It's not easy trying to come up with new names for all these places!)

Last summer we took Inigo to the "crooked cabin" and he's been fascinated with it ever since. That was the one place he insisted we take Steck. (There was an earthquake in the area 50 years ago and this is one of the buildings that was damaged.)

Finally, we were out of time. We had to hurry back to "town" (my family knows where that is) where Steck had an engagement with some other friends at the Windmill Theater. We booted her out the door in front of the theater and headed home.

We were exhausted, but happy. I love spending time in the mountains and this trip was especially fulfilling because the scenery was so stunning. We saw Pronghorn Antelope, soaring hawks and even a muskrat at Large Watering Place.

There were gorgeous wild flowers at every turn.

We couldn't have asked for a better day!

I've had a couple experiences this week that really touched my heart. They were definitely an answer to prayer and proof that we have a loving Heavenly Father who listens to us and knows exactly what we need when we need it!

This summer has been unique. It seems that I've had more to do than ever before. Max's new career choice means he's on the road travelling more than he's home. That means that I'm both mom and dad. I'm in charge of the house inside and out. I've taken over all of Max's chores and added them to my own. Also, I have also started working in Max's local office part time as the A/P clerk (accounts payable). I am also trying very hard to make the summer days special for my kids. I want them to look back and say, "Man! I used to love summer vacation! There were so many fun things to do!"

I know that there are a lot of women out there that are doing this already and they are doing it better than I am. I realize that my situation is not unique... heck, it's not even special. But to me, it's new and I'm trying to adjust to it. I'm trying to find the balance between what has to be done versus what can wait until there's more time.

Fortunately, the kids are winning. I think we've had a lot of fun this summer and made a lot of memories. Unfortunately, the house is losing. The laundry is piling up, the dishes are making it to the dishwasher, but there are still many that need to be hand washed. I need to reintroduce myself to my vacuum.

Buttercup has taken on the chore of getting the lawn mowed, but neither of us know how to run the weed whacker or the leaf blower (both help the lawn look really nice!) Thankfully, there was so much rain during the month of June, I haven't had to chase sprinklers much this summer, because we are the only house in the neighborhood -- probably the whole town of Florin -- that doesn't have a sprinkler system. I didn't buy even one pony pack of flowers this year. The only flowers that are blooming are perennials... or weeds.

Thankfully, I am blessed with the ability to be optimistic. For me, most days are viewed through "rose colored glasses." However, I have also had moments of despair. Moments of thinking, "what in the heck are we doing?" as I go to bed alone... again. I have had moments of feeling completely and totally overwhelmed. My prayers have been, "Please give me the strength to endure."

Don't get me wrong. Not every day is filled with negative feelings and despair. I have enjoyed many wonderful visits this summer with family and friends. I have reconnected with people that I love that I haven't seen in years. And it's been wonderful. I have felt rejuvenated by the love I feel from my kids; my parents and siblings; my neighbors. It's not all bad. Really it isn't.

And I had proof again this week that life is good:

Buttercup went on a vacation this week. Alone. Without me. Without Max. Without Inigo. I put my baby girl on an airplane all by herself and sent her to Oregon to visit Max's sister.

**Disclaimer: Okay!! I know my "baby girl" is 17 years old!! But this is the first time she's gone away without us! I'm trying to adjust!!

After we dropped her off at the airport and as I was saying goodbye to Max as he was going off on yet another business trip I realized that I was going to be the lawn mowing person this week. I seriously hate mowing the lawn. I was dreading it and planned on putting it off until late in the week... as long as I could possibly go.

Imagine my surprise when I got out of the shower on Tuesday and I could hear a lawn mower in my back yard. At first I thought it was just the neighbors mowing their yard, but it finally dawned on me they were mowing my yard!! I didn't ask them to. Max didn't ask them to. I didn't tell them that I didn't want to mow this week. Maddle Faddle (age 17) just had the impression that she could just keep mowing my yard after she finished hers! And she mowed the entire yard!! Her mom, Jillwanna, (age not disclosed) followed behind with the leaf blower.

WHAT A BLESSING!!! (And my yard looks wonderful!! THANKS GUYS!!!!)

Today something incredibly nice happened. Maybe you've had a similar experience, but for me it was a first!

I took Inigo and his friend, Bullseye, to Guilder to go to the Museum. To make the day even more "special" for the two of them, we decided to get lunch at McDonalds. Moving slowly through the drive-thru, we were laughing and talking about the cool Titanic exhibit we were going to see. I placed my order and moved forward to pay the bill.

When I arrived at the window, I tried handing the clerk a $10 bill. She looked at me and smiled and said, "The lady in front of you already paid."

WHAT!?!?!

Seriously, that's what I said. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "She already paid. You can move forward."

I have heard of things like this happening. I have even thought about doing it myself. But I've never followed through with it. I can tell you that I will follow through the next time the prompting hits me. I'd love for someone else to feel as special as I did. I'd love to be as nonchalant as that lady was... I kept yelling "THANK YOU" out my window, but she pretended not to hear me for a long time. Finally she just gave me a wave and drove off.

Isn't that wonderful?

And what's even more wonderful is that I was reminded that I'm not alone. Even though I don't have Max with me as much as I'd like, I have the companionship of someone else that loves me. Someone who loves me just as much, if not more than anyone else.

I'll put my "rose colored glasses" back on now!

If Your House Has Kitchen...

. . . then we need your help!!

Background: When Buttercup was younger and thinking about driving, we told her she needed to finish half of her values in Personal Progress in order to get her licence. We thought that if we got her half-way there, she would be self motivated enough to finish up and get her YW medallion.

WRONG!!! It didn't happen.

Now she is getting ready to start her senior year of High School, she's one year away from turning 18 and she still needs to finish 2 value projects. Time is ticking away faster than she realizes and we realized we needed to light the motivational fire underneath her once more. Using the car as a driving force (yes, the pun was intended) we are encouraging her to get her rear in gear (ha!) and get it done. We have taken away her driving privileges until she has finished these two remaining values.

One of her projects is gathering recipes from family and friends and putting them together in a book for her use when she leaves home... (mom is still in denial about that one!) She is looking for recipes for everything: main meals, salads, breads, desserts. I told her I would help her this little bit by putting a call out on my blog and asking my readers to submit their favorite recipes in those categories... or other categories if you wish!

You can leave the recipe here as a comment or email us or leave it on Facebook. She appreciates it and I would appreciate having her driving privileges back.

Because Wuv... Twoo Wuv...

There is a phenomenon going on in Florin.

It's called Love.

Or as the local clergyman says, "Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togever today. Mawage, that bwessed awangement, that dweam wiffin a dweam...."

Sitting upstairs, on my kitchen counter are 6 wedding invitations. All are taking place in the next two weeks. (A 7th invitation will be coming for the end of August.) All weddings are for good friends, or former YW. People I know and love. People that I can't just brush off and say, "oh well, they just invited us because we're on the ward list, so we don't really have to go."

I love to go to receptions. It's fun seeing the bride and groom, seeing the love and happiness that is theirs for that day. I love reconnecting with my former Beehives and Mia Maids, rejoicing in the good choices they have made to marry in the Temple. I always feel that somehow I might have played a small part in getting them there.

But 6 in the next two weeks? That's a lot of silver wrapping paper!

* * * * * * *

I keep forgetting to post this link here. I recently found this place and I have to share it with you!

It's called The Prepared Pantry and they have the most delicious mixes you can find anywhere. I have purchased mixes for Potato Bread, English Muffin Bread,

Chocolate Mint Cookies and

White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies.

The next mix I plan to purchase is Caramel Apple Cookies.

Not only do they have the wonderful mixes, but they also have some pretty amazing recipes. Sign up for their newsletter (or become a fan on Facebook) and you can get these recipes.

Something to look forward to: They are working on a book titled, 1,000 Ways to Make Strawberry Shortcake.

You can't go wrong with that...

Can you?

Ketchup

**What a crazy summer! I have been absent from Blogger for so long I came perilously close to forgetting my log-in information. I had to wrack my brain for a few minutes to remember what I needed to do to get on here.**

I heard an amazing story the other day. I'm sure I'm the only person in the world that is fascinated by this, but I'm going to tell it anyway:

A lady in my ward was pregnant and due in 4 weeks. She went into premature labor and -- no joke -- from start to finish, delivered her baby in 1/2 hour. No typo... HALF AN HOUR!!! The hospital is in the middle of my ward boundaries and she lived only a one minute drive away, but she was alone and with the baby coming that fast, she couldn't get herself there. She delivered her own baby, alone, in the bathroom of her apartment. AND (as if the story wasn't already compelling) the baby was BREECH!! AND (yes, there's more!) the baby weighed 6lbs 6oz!!! Here's some perspective: Buttercup was 11 days overdue and weighed 6.8.

(I think my eyes bugged out of my head as I listened to her tell the story. This is the kind of thing you watch on TLC or Discovery Channel. I mentioned that to her and she agreed.)

Fortunately, the baby is okay. He is being kept in the hospital until he starts eating better, but they aren't expecting any lasting complications.

* * * * * * * * * * *

The other day Inigo had a friend over. This friend, Bullseye, is one of his best friends. Together they rid the neighborhood of every bad guy, villain, and miscreant they can find. Not to mention, using the Force to defend the Jedi's against Scith warriors. Anything they get their hands on turns immediately into weapons. Typical 6 year old boys.


Inigo and Bullseye came to me, handed me two pieces of paper each and said, "We want to make a tool belt." I believe in encouraging creativity, so I cut the paper into strips, handed them a stapler and said, "Get busy!" "But mom, we want to have pockets on it." Honestly, for the 60 seconds I spent thinking about it, I couldn't come up with a way to make pockets for the tool belt. I was busy working on a slide show of camp for the YW, and felt like my brain was taxed to the limit. I shooed them away and said, "Figure it out."

I could hear them working and being happy but I was busy with my slide show and wasn't paying too much attention to them. I was so surprised when they came and showed me what they made:



How clever is that?

Well, the truth came out after I took the first pictures. It wasn't a tool belt they were creating. It was a weapon belt. They were on the prowl for finding appropriate weapons to fill it with. They had a squirt gun that was small/light enough that it wouldn't rip the paper, but they needed more. I suggested some Popsicle sticks to use as knives and got them some bendy straws as machine guns. They went in the yard and found great big pine cones to use as grenades. Their swords were big bubble wands.

Admittedly, the belts only lasted about 45 minutes, but it was 45 minutes of the best, imaginative play EVER!!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Buttercup had her senior yearbook pictures taken last week. (It freaked me out just a little.) The photo shoot was at Florin University where they have some beautiful gardens to take amazing photos in, so I took my camera and took some pictures of our own while we were there. The plan is NOT to have to pay anyone to take professional senior pictures... I'm hoping I can just do them.

I am not going to put our favorite picture on here... in case it's the one we use for announcements, but here's a little sampling of some of the pictures we took. I need to work on Photoshop skills to enhance them a bit, but we feel somewhat happy with what we got.

Africa

I love listening to good choirs.

This qualifies.

Enjoy!

Refreshingly Yummy

I got this recipe from my friend Aubrey. It is a DELICIOUS ice cream treat that I made for Buttercup's birthday/Father's Day which ended up being on the same weekend this year. I am posting it here for Wees because she is now home, living in heat and humidity and needs something yummy to cool down with. And I miss her.

The basic recipe is this:

44 miniature chocolate chip cookies (like Famous Amos or Chips Ahoy)

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 cup hot fudge topping divided

1 quart vanilla ice cream, softened (or a box. Depending on how much your making. Just do the same amount of both kinds of ice cream.)

1 quart chocolate ice cream, softened

DIRECTIONS

Crush 25 cookies (approx. amount... you'll probably want to add more!), set remaining cookies aside. In a bowl, combine cookie crumbs, and butter. Press onto the bottom of a greased 10-in spring form pan (or you can use 9 x 13). Freeze for 15 minutes.

In a microwave-safe bowl, heat 3/4 cup hot fudge topping on high for 15-20 second or until pourable; spread over crust. Arrange reserved cookies around the edge of pan. Freeze for 15 minutes. Spread vanilla ice cream over fudge topping; freeze for 30 minutes. Spread with chocolate ice cream. Cover and freeze until firm. May be frozen for up to 2 months. Remove from the freezer 10 minutes before serving. Warm remaining hot fudge topping; drizzle over top. Can crush remaining cookies and sprinkle on top too!

Here's how I changed it up: I used cookies and cream ice cream on the bottom and between ice cream layers, I put a layer of Mrs. Richardsons caramel/butterscotch topping. Make it thick. The top layer was chocolate ice cream. On the top of the dessert, I swirled the caramel, the fudge and the cookies. IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!

Think of all the ways you can mix this up: crush Nutter Butter cookies on the bottom and use chocolate ice cream and peanut butter/chocolate ice cream with a layer of melted peanut butter between and on top.

Use mint cookies and mint ice cream.

Sugar cookies and sherbet.

The possibilities are endless!!