Wednesday, May 25, 2011

nature appreciation

I love it when I plug in my camera and I find a bunch of pictures taken by the kids. Most of them this time were of all the plants in our yard. All the bushes, trees, my dying flowers, etc. But this one was my favorite!
Do you see a cute little Drakey head poking up in there?

The other day while we were out playing in the yard, we saw a good ant hill buried in the grass. I had heard that a good way to kill ants is to pour boiling water on them. So we boiled up a big pot of water and took it outside to do away with the ant colony. Mass murder style. We poured out the water and watched the hill disappear. Later that evening though, we saw this...
do you see those little dark spots in the grass? (And the dead patch of grass from the boiling water?)
Those dark areas are piles of DEAD ANTS!! The ones that lived carry the dead ones out of the hole and pile them up! Those little hard workers were moving the dead bodies out of their home all day. (and never mind that I'm in my pajamas at 6:00)
See, look at these piles, all little dead ant bodies!
Nature is so cool!
Sorry to destroy you little guys, but we don't want you biting us while we play in the grass.
RIP.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

10 things


My friend Monica has a darling blog, and she did this fun 10 things post and tagged me. So let's be honest, who doesn't like talking about things that you like? And in coming up with my 10 things, I can't help but notice, that most of my favorite things have to do with food! But that's me, my life just about revolves around food.


#1. Newton running shoes. I love these! Land, lever, lift. These are geared for mid to forefoot running, and are made to not tire your legs so quickly, but work with your stride to conserve energy. They are extremely light, and come in amazing colors!!

#2. I'm a creature of habit. Really.
If I could eat pancakes every morning I would!! Those are my fav, but since they are calorie ridden, I chose a healthier option. So I have two, depending on summer/winter. During the months that strawberries are in season, I have yogurt, berries and granola...every morning! And then during the winter, I have Basha's cottage cheese (because it really is the BEST!) with a fresh orange peeled and cut over the cottage cheese. Oh, so yummy! I'm salivating as I type this. And somehow I don't get tired of these. I eat one of those every morning, and love it!

#3. Cute socks.

I don't know where this came from, but I have some belief that if I'm going to be wearing pants, I have to have cute socks on underneath. LIke if somebody got a peek of my socks, it'd be a treat, not just boring white socks. So I reserve white socks for the gym, and the rest of my sock drawer is full of fun patterns.

#4. Frozen yogurt. Oh dear, I have a problem. A serious problem.
I really have frozen yogurt almost everyday! Sometimes more than once a day. I know where just about all the frozen yogurt stores are, and can make any trip convenient. Among my favorite flavors - NY Cheesecake from Yodipity, Coconut from Yogurtland, White Chocolate Mousse from Mojo's, Tart Mango from Goldenspoon, and Butterbrickle from Mesa FroYo.

#5. Watermelon. Holy smokes, the summer is one of the best times of year, because of this.

Once I start eating watermelon, it's difficult to stop. In fact one time in college (not band camp) I challenged this guy I was dating to watermelon eating contest. This guy outweighed me by a good 70 pounds, but that couldn't help him, I totally won! I eat until the skin on my stomach is stretched and I feel like I'm gonna die, but it's so good I just keep going!

#6. Pantries and staples.
I lust after a nice pantry. This one is just a dream. But even a fancy, huge pantry wouldn't quell my anxiety for not having kitchen staples in it. I'm uneasy if I'm low on butter, sugar, flour, etc. Basically I just need to know that should I need to bake anything, I've got it on hand.

#7. Knife throwing.
I don't know why, or where this came from, but I have always had a fantasy that I'm a knife thrower. I want to take knife throwing classes so bad, and just think it is a vital skill to have. If an intruder came in my house, and I don't have a gun, I can still injure him from afar by landing a knife in his shoulder. Oh just think of all the possibilities!!

#8. Candy. Yes, another addiction.
mmmmmm! Red vines, skittles, cinnamon discs, Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish, Tootsie Rolls, Cinnamon Bears, Gobstoppers, etc. I have a candy habit. I carry it with me just about all the time. I have stashes through out my house. And I have the cavities to prove it. Despite my next thing...

#9. Dental floss.
I have to carry dental floss with me, because I have to floss many times through out the day. The more I floss, the more I feel like I have to floss. One of the worst feelings is needing to floss and not having any! Try not to think about it, you'll start to get the urgent I need to floss feeling.

#10. I love Tina Fey.
I want to be her! She is so witty and funny, I love her responses to everything! I also love just about every movie/skit she's in. Mean Girls, Babymama, 30 Rock. She's a genius!!

And there you have it.

Toothless

So Gwen's tooth was loose for a month!! She was scared to work it too much, and couldn't try to pull it. At one point she let Ryan try to pull it, but he chickened out and couldn't. I asked her if I could, but she wouldn't let me. Sunday in church I left the nursery room to go fill our water pitcher when I saw Gwen in the hall with her cheeks full of water, excitement in her eyes and her tooth in her hands!! Our primary president was there with her too, Gwen let her try to pull it, and she did! Gwen said it didn't even hurt.Gwen was so excited she was begging to go to Gigi's to show her her missing tooth as soon as we got home from church. We waited until Sunday evening, and Gwen (against my strong warning) took the tooth out of the ziploc bag it was in, and put it in her tooth fairy pillow she had sewn together... with yarn mind you. I told her that the stitches were wide and her tooth could come out, but she insisted. So as you can imagine, after she had shown Gigi her little tooth, played around, and then checked her tooth purse again and it was gone! We checked everywhere - floor, tables, couch, but we couldn't find it. She was devastated!!! So she wrote a letter to the tooth fairy that went something like this:
Dear toothfairy, i lost my tooth, please give me money. -Gwen

Luckily the toothfairy still came to our house, she got a "golden coin". (a Sakajawea dollar)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Ryan McPhie, J.D.


Five years ago, Ryan decided he wanted to go to law school. He applied late in the application process and got in to some schools, but decided he wanted to try again, to get into ASU. He did LSAT prep classes this time, took the LSAT again, and applied. He got into ASU, but got into McGeorge (University of Pacific) too. That one was in Sacramento, where Ryan really wanted to be. So I got a new job in Sacramento (I was working at Progressive here at the time) we got rid of almost all our stuff, and moved to Sacramento. A week later, Ryan decided he wanted to go to ASU. He packed up our now decreased amount of belongings, I put in my two weeks at my new job, and he moved out here just in time to start orientation. We joined him two weeks later. That was hard! But he was starting a journey that'd be even harder. Law school.
Ryan really did do well. He balanced school and family better than I can. He'd come home and play, and didn't even do homework over the weekends. On top of that he's held a couple of jobs to help support us (since I decided I would NOT get a job after moving back to AZ), participated in several competitions, and even has grown so much spiritually too. I'm so proud of Ryan and all of his hard work. To prove it I got this sweet sign that's still in our front yard-
These kids are pretty dang proud of him too. It was funny to think about how when Ryan was trying to decide if he should do law school, one of the things kind of holding him back was the thought that Gwen would be almost SEVEN and Drake almost FIVE when he graduated. I told him "well, in three years they'll be almost seven and five and you could be done with law school, or not." Well here they are, almost seven and five - and Ryan's finished with law school!
Ryan and his mom.
Ryan and brother, Gavin.
Ryan and sister, Emily. And Drake jumping in there too.

Gwen and Drake so happy to finally be out of the ceremony and see Ryan.
Ryan and his proud wifey.
Getting the party started! Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of his party. But thanks to everyone who came out and made Ryan feel special. It was a lot of fun!
Now on to the BAR!! He'll be studying like crazy for the next two months and will take it at the end of July.

Monday, May 09, 2011

no time to blog

my last final is Wednesday afternoon. Hallelujah! Then I can have a life again! And put together a grad party for Ryan!!! So here's just a couple pics to throw up until I can really blog.
almost out!
new one's already coming in


Don't let you kids play with your ipod, cause it might get lost. And that's not okay.
But if they get you one with double capacity and with this inscription on it,
then it's okay.