Saturday, July 31, 2010

10 for July

Oh, I've been looking forward to doing a ten list for this month. July was a fun month!!

10 things we did in July:

  1. Finished our sprinklers.
  2. Shoveled 14 yards of dirt.
  3. Put down sod. Squee!
  4. Planted flowers.  I have lupins, iris, day lilies, asiatic lilies, and a few more I can't remember the name of.
  5. Planted 3 trees - 2 chanticlear pear in the front parking strip and a sycamore in the back. Swoon!
  6. Went to the Nordstrom sale with my mom, sisters, and nieces.  You wouldn't think spending some time in a dressing room with family members would be good bonding time, but it really is.  Really.
  7. Got a concrete pad poured on the side of our house.
  8. Had fence posts installed - vinyl fence comes next week.
  9. Spent Wednesday evening in the dark since the fence company shredded our power lines while setting our fence posts. I came home to absolutely no power and no one to tell me why (it seemed like too much of a coincidence that the day I get fence posts, my power goes out. I really do pay my bills!) After 2 hours of sitting around, the power company sent 3 giant trucks and men to match them to fix my power. It took them until 9:30 to get it turned back on.  I didn't realize it took multiple burly men to fix a house's power.  Good use of our tax dollars there.
  10. Turned 35. Holy cow, I am old. I'm now one of those women ("Women over 35 should avoid taking...Women over 35 should have....you know the drill. Gulp. That is me.)
9 people who I spent time with:


  1. Amy.  My kind sister invited me and the boys to spend the day with her family at Lagoon.  It was a ball.  I took Thomas on every single ride he was tall  enough for - many against his better judgement.  It was the most fun we have had at Lagoon since having kids.  It was fun to be there with my sister, too...I have many fond memories of our times as kids at Lagoon. Aparently we rode the Colossus together the first year it opened.  Good memories and fun making new ones.

  2. My family on the 4th of July at my sister's house. We had a barbecue and swim and celebrated my mom's birthday.  It was fun to have a get together with everyone.

  3. My niece Kayci.  I only saw her for a few minutes one Friday when she came down to visit the weekend after the 4th, but it was so nice to see her and her sweet girls.

  4. Bloggers.  Yesterday Britt, Apryl, Amy, Jeanette and me got together for a lunch/play date. It was so fun. I am amazed at how close you can feel to people you've only seen a few times in real life.
  5. Nicky, Britt, Jeanette, Me holding Daisy, Britt's baby, Amy, Apryl

  6. The friends and family who helped us with our yard.  The night we did our sod, people from our ward showed up without being asked.  Our good friends the Bells came and so did my in-laws.  It was so nice to have it done, and nice to see how much we are loved.

  7. My neighbors.  You all know I was very attached to my old street and the people who live on it. But we have moved onto a very nice street in the new house.  It is an interesting mix of people, and not all of us are in the same stage of life. It is a fun experience getting to know some new people who will likely be a part of our lives for a long time.  I feel so blessed to have lucked out twice.

  8. My mom. I saw my mom more this month than I have in forever.  We ate lunch together 2 weeks in a row, had a barbecue together, shopped at the Nordstrom sale together, discussed making mitred corner baby blankets together...fun stuff.  Thanks, Mom.
  9. Cute blanket I made...first one doing mitred corners!

  10. Ben.  He had his kindergarten assessment on Thursday. How is this possible?  

  11. Thomas, who started fourth grade.  Where does the time go? 
8 ways my life starting to feel more normal...moving really threw me.

  1. Having a yard means that I can now say "Go outside and play, would you!" And having a door from the kitchen going into the backyard is heaven. No wonder I never spent much time in the backyard at my old house...we didn't have any access.

  2. I started reading again.  I have had a terrible reading year.  July finally broke my streak of bad library books and I have read good books all month.  Yay!

  3. Starting to sew again.  My awesome husband modified a sewing table I bought and so now I have a great place to sew.  I celebrated by finishing 2 of the 3 baby blankets I bought flannel for.  The one I showed above is for my old bishop's wife.  Isn't it cute?  I used 2 tutorials that I found online to make it.  (Tutorials are here and here.)

  4. Shane is washing cars in the driveway again....the Kumps have officially moved in.  Our old neighbors knew how dedicated Shane was to his four-wheeled friends, and now our new ones will soon know.

  5. Sitting out on the back porch at night, watching the kids play, chatting with neighbors. So nice!

  6. Working on my posture all. the. time.  Especially when running. I think that is what made me so upset about the bad Ragnar pictures. Running is my thing, and I feel good when I run and it made me feel embarrassed to think I look crappy while doing something I enjoy.  Does that make sense?

  7. Decorating. I hadn't put up anything on the walls because I wanted all the frames to match. I bought 2 cans of black spray paint and went to town painting everything.  It looks so nice to see all the pictures that have followed me around from appartment to house to this house.  Most of the paintings are prints that I bought in Washington DC or had friends bring me back from New York and Paris.  Love.

  8. Having time again.
7 things I'm looking forward to:

  1. Both kids being in school.  Sure, Ben is just in kindergarten, but how cool to have 2 morning to myself.  What to do, what to do!

  2. Going on vacation in the next few months. I think we will be gracing the hallowed halls of the Catamaran Hotel in San Diego again. Can't wait to run on the beach again!!

  3. The weather cooling off.

  4. Thomas turning 9.

  5. Having a fence again.  We have a trampoline now, and I worry that kids will get on it while we aren't home. And it's just nice to have a contained yard.

  6. Buying bulbs to plant in the fall.  I will die if I don't have spring bulbs to watch for.

  7. Fall running.
6 Books to read or have read:

  1. The girl who chased the moon.  This was so good. If you were ever an angry teenager you can relate to this book.  It's very light hearted and fun.

  2. Someone called Eva.  A childrens fiction book that I read at the recommendation of my friend.  It was really well done and child-appropriate.

  3. A Vintage Affair.  This was kind of chick-lit-y, but I read it in 2 days all the same.

  4. Little Bee.  Loved it.

  5. The Little Stranger.  Has anyone else read this?  I need to see if anyone else was as frusterated with it as I was.

  6. Possession.  I bought my own copy and am going to write in it.  Anyone want to exchange it with me and take a turn reading it when I'm done?
5 things about July:

  1. It makes me sad to see the days starting to get shorter.  It is getting dark by 8 or 8:30 which is a reminder of the dark cold winter nights ahead.

  2. I love looking forward to the Nordstrom sale.  It is such a fun time with my family.  It is my equivalent of school shopping and brings back so many good memories.

  3. My birthday.  I love my birthday.  Shane made me 2 cakes.  Shane's grandma and grandpa (on different sides) each sent me a card. It is a treasure to recieve a birthday card signed "love, Grandpa."  Sadly, Shane's grandparents have been an active part of my life longer than my own very loved, very missed grandparents.  Anyway, even though I don't love being 35, it's nice to have birthdays all the same.

  4. Having 2 holidays in the same month.  I love it when Shane is home for extra days.  It makes my long weekends even nicer.

  5. I still miss those few July's that featured the new release of a Harry Potter book. I still miss little Harry and his adventures. And the movies don't compare to the book, sadly.  I mean, I still get excited but not as much as I do for the books.
4 things I wish I had right. now.

  1. Something cold to drink. Although, I am currently 1.5 months Dr. Pepper-free.

  2. An air-conditioned garage. Typing a blog post in the garage is sweaty work.

  3. Some bacon and cheese nachos.  Mmm, bacon.

  4. A new baby to hold. One of my friends from my old ward had a baby on Wednesday and I held her this morning when I dropped off a blanket for her.  She was so sweet.  I wanted to steal her.
3 songs I like to run to right now:
  1. Little Red Corvette.  Ah, Prince.
  2. Breath in, breath out. Matt Kearney, I love you and your song.  It gets me through many, many hills.
  3. Beyonce and her If you Like it then you should have put a Ring on it.  Amy might have Lady Gaga, but I have Beyonce as my guilty pleasure.

2 books I'm looking forward to:
  1. The Hunger Games finale.  Can't wait!!
  2. Monsters of Men, the finale to Chaos Walking series.
1 awesome thing that happened:
Ben JUST learned to ride his bike today. And is doing so well!  Now I officially don't have any little children - my baby is in kindergarten and can ride a two wheeler. Whose life is this, anyway?

Monday, July 12, 2010

Thought for the day.

The book that I'm reading has a fantastic paragraph that reads like this:

In our village our only Bible had allof its pages missing after the forty-sixth verse of the twenty-seventh chapter of Matthew, so that the end of our religion, as far as any of us knew, was My god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me?  We understood this was the end of the story.
Just transcribing it brings tears to my eyes.  That a whole african village (fictional, of course) could believe that Christ, hanging on the cross in his most agonizing of moments, would think this was the end.  For them, there was no Easter morning, no Mary Magdalene meeting Jesus in the garden,  no resurrection, no acts of the apostles afterward. 

It just struck me how sad this (again, fictional) village's religion would have been.  They would have had all the miricles he performed, his words during the sermon on the mount, his agony in Gethsemane and his betrayal that led to his crucifixion, but none of the goodness afterwards.  It would have made their religion one of sadness, of being built up for something good by a person with real promise only to be let down in the end.  I guess life is like that, but we have hope for something better.  Those who know of the good news that happened afterward have been given the hope that this village was not.

Anyway, I don't get churchy very often, but I had underlined that passage in my book (Little Bee, by Chris Cleave) and I couldn't stop thinking about it.  I am grateful I know that good things happened after that heart-wrenching passage of scripture from Matthew.  I'm glad I have hope.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Rebecca, Rebecca, Rebecca

It was 1989.  I had just ended my gymnastics years with a nasty broken/dislocated ankle.  I was 14 and in 9th grade and not very friend-savvy.  I had a few friends from school and church, but no one that I really felt was....right for me.  It  as an awkward age made even more awkward by the fact that I didn't have a direction and I didn't really know where to look for one.  And then, one night, I walked into a pizza parlor and found my friend Rebecca.  She invited me to stay with her and a large group of friends and go to the movies.  I didn't know it, but that invitation changed my life.

Rebecca and I have been through everything together.  We stayed together though multiple friend changes and upheavals.  We remained friends through high school, college, me getting married, her having a son, me having two sons, her moving to California, me staying in our home state of Utah. We danced together for more years than I can count. We lived though a total of 5 Grateful Dead shows together.  We have lived together for months at a time.  21 years is a long time, but it seems like just yesterday. 

It's true that we probably only see each other once a year.  We might talk on the phone every 3 or 4 months.  But it doesn't matter.  When we are together, we are still the same old Rebecca and Becky.  We even have the same name (but don't expect either of us to answer to the other's.) When we were 17 my mom made her a dance costume when her stepmother wouldn't.  That same year her mom opened her home to me so that I could see the Grateful Dead.  We have since stayed with her on multiple occasions (including my honeymoon and last year's San Diego vacation.)  Time and distance don't matter; we know each other too well and love each other too much to let anything come between us. 

My dear Rebecca is getting married tomorrow in Virginia and I'm not going to be there.  It kills me that I'm missing her wedding.  She knows that if I could, I would be there.  That my heart is there with her and her family in Virginia as she spends her last night before marriage.  We saw each other a few weeks ago when she was here in Utah.  We went to lunch and spent 3 hours sitting in the sun at Rumbi Island Grill, talking the whole time.  After lunch, we walked over to Kohl's and she taught me about spanks (am I the only girl who didn't know about spanks??)  Then, it was time for me to leave. I drove away only to realize that in all our hours of talking, I hadn't seen her wedding ring.  I flagged her down and opened her car door and admired her ring.  I hadn't noticed it because it had already become part of her.  She didn't flaunt it.  As she hugged me again as I left, she said "only a true friend would do what you just did."  My favorite thing about her is when she told me that she was getting married, I asked her "Do you want a wedding or a marriage?" And her answer was wholeheartedly "A marriage."  I was so glad she gave me that answer.

I love you Rebecca. I hope the very very very best for you on your wedding day and forever.  Thank you for being my friend all these years and letting me be a part of your life.  Thanks for inviting me to sit at your table at the pizza parlor that long ago night.  May your marriage be happy and fulfilling and may you always like each other just as much as you love each other.

Friday, July 2, 2010

4th of July project


In order for pretty things like this to grow....



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I am going to be moving this....
























Happpy 4th of July weekend to me and Shane...(but seriously, this dirt is the most beautiful thing I've gotten this week. And the grass we get next weekend will be even more beautiful. That is because it means we are done with our yard!! Yay!!)

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Thursday, July 1, 2010

Here are a few letters I've been writing in my mind tonight. 

Dear L-

Thanks for building my house! We like it! But, I sent you a letter 6 weeks ago and you  just called me back about it this week. What is up with that?  Anyway, I was glad you called me (finally) and even showed up (although I wish you had called first. But beggars can't be choosers.)  It was awesome to discuss all the things that have been lingering.  Looking forward to you fixing them.

However, I could have lived without your disappointment about how we did our sprinklers.  The "Awe....." you expressed after you saw where we were putting our sprinkler box was really annoying. And your attitude about where you put your sprinklers...yeah, I didn't really care.  I get it that you built this house, but we happened to buy it.  If you cared so much about where sprinkler valve boxes and wire and timers went, you should have just done it yourself.

Hope to see you again in the next six weeks!  TTYS, Me



Dear Wind,

I've grown to tolerate you.  I can even enjoy you a little because you keep me cool when I'm running. But seriously, you need to know this is a neighborhood.  There is a strict 25 mile per hour limit that you break every minute of every day.  Can you stop?  Or just take a long break? I don't mind if you would blow lightly during the night, but this all day thing is older after 10 years.  Just see what you can do, ok?

Regards, Becky



Dear Jeanette,

Thanks for giving my absconded lilies and iris plants a home for the past 2 months.  I loved knowing that a part of my old yard was waiting for me, safe and snug, in your yard. And thanks for all of the beautiful Asiatic lilies you graciously let me pilfer from your yard.  Each and every one of them are now planted in my front flower bed.  They are so pretty and I will think of you each time I see them.  Thanks!  Real friendship is providing a home for homeless plants, it seems.  You rock.

Love, Becky