212: beach hair

A glorious day at the beach! Bryce and Skyler decided to get out of the water with crazy beach hair..it fits them well!

211: early morning training

I am SO not a morning person! Honestly, I can't tell you the last time I saw a sunrise, that is, until today!  I started seminary training this week bright and early at 6:00 a.m. {which meant I was up by 5:00}. I'm not going to lie..it was HARD! I pulled into the church at 5:58, 2 minutes to spare!

210: happy 39th to me

The day started off with breakfast in bed! It might not look very fancy, but cereal was actually my request..request granted! Having a Sunday birthday means church as usual. So basically..it was a very kick back, relaxing day. It is crucial for Jim that everyone blows out a candle on their birthday, so he got me a cupcake {which he ate}.  39 has come and gone! I have 1 more year of my 30's and I plan on making the very most of it!

209: mad madelines

Our friends opened our eyes to a new restaurant in old town Temecula.  I can't believe we have lived here 9 years and never knew about this place.  It was all that it was hyped to be! I'm not much of a burger person, but these were to die for. And the chicken wings..don't even get me started! 

Mad Madeline's..Old Town Temecula

208: olympics opening ceremony party

Jim tells me Thursday that he wants to have an Olympics party. Sure..1 day should be plenty to throw something together..especially when I have all these long window appointments and can't get out to go shopping for food. I texted some friends and threw out the invite! It's amazing how last minute parties tend to be the best. You don't have much time to worry about it or over plan. 

After the window repairman came {at 1:00, an hour outside the window of 8-12} I rushed to pick up some food and goodies for the party. I had made some decorations..since I was forced to be at home. Quickly cleaned up the house and we were set!

We had a great group show up! I even pulled out my stash of fireworks..this seemed like a perfect time to use them. I was so impressed with my girls! I had a vision of the olympic rings in sparkler..and they made it come to pass! Pretty awesome if I do say so myself!

Go Team USA!!

207: project & fun

 My refrigerator has been out for over a week! They came out to repair it but needed to order a certain part. Today they were coming out to finally finish the job, but with that came the blasted all day window appointment. They said between 12-5. So to pass the time, I started a project I've been wanting to do for almost 2 1/2 years. I found this cute patio set at a consignment antique store in town and knew it could be darling with a little love. I spent hours wire brushing the old paint off and prepping it to be painted.  Stay tune for the after.

Another show with our season tickets..Memphis. Didn't know a thing about it {other than it won the Tony Award in 2012}, but it was good! 

206: shattered glass

Boys will be boys! 

I was downstairs doing the laundry and heard this awful crash of glass. I was thinking it was an earthquake..it was loud! Then I go upstairs and see the damage! Skyler was across the street and fired a water balloon right smack into the window. His response, "I didn't think a water balloon could break a window!" Guess what..it can and did! Not only that, it went through 4 panes of glass because I had the window opened. Cost for an innocent day of water ballooning: $348.56. Someone has a lot of chores in his future!

205: ready or not, here i come!

I was just recently called to be a seminary teacher! Am I overwhelmed and totally out of my league..YES! But ready or not, here I come! This is the most intensely I have ever studied my scriptures and I'm only just beginning! Heaven help me..I don't know what will be more difficult..coming up with a spiritual lesson 5 days a week for 50 minutes or waking up at 5:00 a.m.!

204: happy 10th birthday jayden!

Jayden has hit the double digits!! Happy Birthday buddy..we love you!

We drove home from Tahoe today and on the way, in the absolute middle of nowhere, I found this house. I call it the spongebob house and in honor of Jayden's {who loves spongebob} birthday, I will post it!

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Spongebob Square Pants!

203: blast from the past

Loverboy

 I don't know what was better..the concert or the people watching! {yes..my heart is breaking at these sites}

The day of the concert we spent lounging..well I lounged, Jenn and Theresa somehow woke up early and worked out all while I slept! Later we walked around the Heavenly Ski Resort area and looked around the shops. Then it was time for the big concert. Now, I really didn't know who Loverboy was..they were before my time. I did recognize a few songs though. Pat Benatar was AWESOME! She's this little think with a huge voice. What was most endearing is that her lead guitarist is her husband and they just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. You don't see that kind of longevity in that industry very often. They were darling together..Then the finale was Journey. It was crazy to think that the lead singer {who replaced Steve Perry} was this little Filipino guy.  His voice sounded identical..it was uncanny how similar it sounded. All in all, it was an awesome night. 

My video snippet isn't working..guess it was too big, sorry!

202: lake tahoe

After spending the morning in Reno shopping, we drove over the mountain into Tahoe and fortunately for us, Jenn had some friends who just happened to be on the lake with their boat! Sweet..we got to cruise around the lake and lounge on a boat! That was totally a bonus to our weekend. We noticed, while sitting, that the 3 of us made a very patriotic site..red, white, and blue toes!

After our day on the lake, we were driving back to our hotel and saw that Maroon 5 was in concert that night at the outdoor theater..we drove around it and parked outside {with hundreds of others} and got a free concert. We heard about 4 of their songs but it was enough to know that I would love to go to one of their concerts! They sounded pretty amazing.

It may be dark, but you can see flashes of the screen! I only recorded a short portion of the song.

201: girls weekend to Tahoe begins

My girlfriend Jenniffer took me and Theresa to Reno/Tahoe for our birthday celebration! She had tickets to see Loverboy/Pat Benatar/and Journey and invited us to go. A weekend away, no kids..I'm in! 

 Drove past Mt. Whitney 

{I had 4 friends just hike to the summit a few weeks ago..they're rock stars in my book!}

 It's a girls weekend so we did what girls do best...EAT! We pretty much ate our way through the Reno and Tahoe valley.

From the all you can eat buffet {which the crab was to die for}, to 1 1/2 dozen doughnuts consumed by 3 of us in 3 days, to the fresh cheese bread straight out of the oven at Shatt's bakery. I'll will be paying for it next week, but till then, I'm living it up!

On our way to dinner, we saw tons of police cars around some hotel. Naturally we had to pull over and get a better look. Once we pulled up closer, we saw cops with guns drawn heading towards a room with shattered windows. It was pretty exciting! It was taking awhile and they weren't really doing anything so we took off for dinner. After dinner, when we were driving back to our hotel, we saw the commotion was still going on, so of course, we pulled over again. This time we watched the cops pull someone out. The person was wrapped in a sheet and put in an ambulance. We have no idea what happened, but it was a pretty exciting night!

200: soak city

Spent the day at the water park! I wish my kids could realize just how great a life they have!

199: deep cleaning

Last week while Skyler was at scout camp, I did the summer purge and deep cleaned all our closets! Out with the old, stained, torn, and no longer able to be passed down clothes! 

198: a glorious day at the beach

It was probably the best day I've seen at the beach all summer! 

Plenty of friends to play with and sun to soak in!

197: more ice cream, why not?

With all our renter drama, this has been a not so good day! What better way to end it then with the pure heaven of Peanut Butter Cup ice cream! 

196: national ice cream day

Thank you President Ronald Reagan for seeing the need for a day just to celebrate the joy of ice cream!!

195: comfort

If I have to spend my entire Saturday at a soccer tournament, I'm going to do so in comfort!

194: skyler scout camp

You know scout camp was successful if the scout comes home with every square inch of them covered in dirt! 

I had to pick Skyler up a day early {I know he was just sooo sad about this and the fact that he missed having cod for dinner} because he had a soccer tournament first thing in the morning.  I will have to say that their campsite was by far one of the most tidiest I had ever seen!  Scout shirts were all hung up on a rope with hangers, the ground was swept and chairs were nicely placed in a circle! Other than the fact that one of the scouts had to get 11 stitches in his leg, I think it was a success!

193: a marathon of OZ

I definitely had my share of OZ today. Earlier in the day I took the boys to the Temecula Community Theater to watch our friends/neighbors perform in "The Wizard of OZ'.  There were actually quite a few people that we ended up knowing who were in the show. It was much better than I expected and even held the boys' attention...for 2 1/2 hours! 

That night, I met Jim down in San Diego and we went to see WICKED. It was our 3rd time and I don't know if it was because I had just watched the Wizard of Oz, but this time, so many more things made sense and came alive for me. 3rd time was definitely a charm!

192: girls movie night

It had been way too long since our last girls night out! It's summer and we needed some time away from our kids!!

We saw "What to Expect When You're Expecting"..pretty funny and relatable for all us moms!

{theresa..we missed you! I had to bust out the xshot in your honor} 

191: it's official..i'm my mom!

When we got home from vacation, I noticed a bunch of cucumbers had grown in our garden! Knowing my kids don't like plain cucumbers, the only other thing I could think of doing with them was making pickles. This was so out of my realm! I had never canned anything in my life. I vaguely remember my mom busting out the big black pot and heating up the entire kitchen, but I was too busy being a kid to ever watch the process. I decided this was my year.  I borrowed all the essentials from my friend, downloaded some recipes online, and then got to work.  I was so surprised how simple and quick it really was! I want to let them soak for a couple weeks before I try them, but really..how can you mess it up? It's basically cucumbers marinating in vinegar and that's just plain delicious!

190: heatwave

Today I switched cars with Jim because his car needed new tires. After handing the keys over to the new renters, I dropped the car off {around 10:45 a.m.}.  Dressed in my gym clothes, but knew my chance to get to the gym was over, I decided I could just walk home from the car shop. It's probably about 5 miles. The one thing I really didn't take into consideration: the fact that it was about 95 degrees out already and getting hotter! About every mile I was ready to call a friend to come pick me up..it was miserable out..but I persevered. I told myself I could do it and I did! 

189: buddha

Uncle Jay would be so proud!

OUCH!! Good thing the cart only took about 1.6 gallons!