Eye For An Eye

So today, I was downstairs playing World of Warcraft and minding my own business, when Zachary comes downstairs and asks if he can have a lemonade stand. To which I reply, "No." I keep minding my own business trying to complete the exploration achievements I haven't gotten yet due to my husband wanting to actually quest when we play together. Rude, I know. Any way. So Riley comes and asks me if they can have a koolaid stand. Like that's any better. To which I tell him, he doesn't have change, and I don't want him to. After badgering me, I tell him I will ask his dad. That always gets me off the hook for a bit. Mr. Jones tells me we need to have them buy the koolaid and sugar and stuff they need with their allowance and then they can (he's so organized). I go upstairs to let them know this, and low and behold, they are having a lemonade stand with two neighbor girls. How cute? No! I said NO! So they got to have their lemonade stand. Zach made the lemonade wrong, and they told me they were selling it for $1 a cup. I talked them down to twenty-five cents. Koolaid doesn't even cost a dollar a package. Geesh. So now, Mr. Jones and I are going to ask Zach if we can delete his Death Knight. When he says, no, we plan to do it any way. It's only fair. He just did the same thing to me. Mean? Well, don't worry. We'll just pretend to. Maybe.

Dill Pickles

I ate a pickle. It was just your everyday, dill pickle. Nothing weird like sweet 'n sour or garlic pickles. Dill! I hated it! I am going to be 30 in less than a month. You would think that by the time someone turns 30, they should know that they do not like pickles and thus refrain from ingesting them so their taste buds are not assaulted by the horrible flavor on their tongue!

Death of a Dishwasher

You came into my life a short two years ago.
I knew then, you were not in your youth.
I knew one day we would have to part.
You came into my life, when I needed you so.

Five years I went without.
Five years I washed by hand.
Dirty bowls and spoons would haunt my dreams.
I would look at the sink and scream.

We searched for the perfect home.
With a dishwasher of our own.
We found you and all our dreams came true.
I'm so blue.

I've tried many time to revive you.
Scraping away the hard water deposits.
You groan and protest,
Creating such a mess.

I shall miss you my dear friend.
I shall remember our good times.
When I didn't have to triple rinse.
When I could stack the dishes high.

How I shall miss, the days
When I pulled out a bowl
And there was still a haze.
Scraping bits of food away.

I would scream, why didn't you rinse these!
The youngling would cry, oh, but I tried!
So tonight, I say my goodbyes.
To the dishwasher who finally died.

I Lovely Love My Family!

Yes, I watch too much noggin!
It all started on Thursday afternoon. I found out that two of my friends were in Treasure Island, and I just had to go and see them. But the only show available was Thursday at 4:00 p.m.! That is really not exactly a convenient time for me to go to a play. None of my friends were able to watch the boys, so I talked Mr. Jones into working from home. I took my sister with me because who wants to go alone! It was fabulous. The set designer is marvelous, and the play was a lot of fun (if you like pirates, and let's face it, who doesn't!). It was really awesome that I made my husband work from home because I had 6 dozen rolls to make for Saturday afternoon and he could help me out by getting the first two dozen in the oven for me. I finished the next two after the play.
My sister from Minnesota and her family arrived on Thursday at 2:30 in the morning. They drove the entire 18 hour trip in one fell swoop! That does not sound like fun. So, Friday, our whole entire family went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. It was so beautiful inside. I am grateful we had the opportunity to attend. Afterwards, we went to the Mayan restaurant to celebrate Ana's birthday. She turned 12! Ana is my niece. She's very nice. I like her, and she's growing up, and going to young women's now!
That evening, I went see the Heritage Theater's production of Snoopy with Riley and Kaleb. The cast of the women was supposed to all come and get together to watch the play. Well, not everyone was able to make it, but we had fun seeing those who could come. I miss everyone. The play wasn't half bad either. Snoopy runs June 5th thru the 27th! Go see it and take your kids because they will like it, too! Mine did.
Saturday, at 10:30 in the morning, my oldest son, Zachary, was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Just a note to those singers out there. Never sing at your own child's baptism. Have someone else do it. You will just cry the whole time. And it will suck. At least, that's what happened to me. But you live and you learn. That is what I learned. But I have to say, I am so proud of him. He is learning to choose the right and it is so wonderful to watch him grow and become more responsible. I love my guy.
After much eating and talking and laughing at the luncheon we had after (thus the 6 dozen rolls) the baptism, we and the entire family, went to Antelope Island. My sister wanted to go, and all my friends kept telling me to talk her out of it. I just have one thing to say to them. I had fun. They told me there were too many bugs, and they wouldn't leave you alone, and there isn't enough salt in the Great Salt Lake to float any more. Well, the bugs didn't come out and bother us until around 5 p.m., so we went to the visitor's center and ranch there. The bugs didn't bother us more inland. It was a pretty cool place. I saw lots of little brine shrimp. Riley swallowed some of the lake and decided it was really nasty. But Kaleb asked me yesterday if we could go to the beach again, so he had a really good time. Just go in the heat of the afternoon. But it wasn't very hot that day any way.
Sunday, was my sister's birthday, so after church, we went up to my parents' house where they were staying. We got out the chocolate fountain and I brought the leftovers from the day before. We had fajitas and chicken salad sandwiches. It was delicious. Then we dipped fruit in the chocolate. So yummy! We played Pig Mania! I haven't played that game since I was a kid. It's really a weird game. But my sister has a picture of me in the leaning jowl position or whatever it was called. Because we decided that whoever got one had to pose next to it in that position. I want a copy.
Monday it rained, and Kurtis took the car with out asking me, so I couldn't spend the day with my sister. I was not happy at all.
Tuesday, we went swimming. The water was cold. But the sun was shining. Then the wind blew and the sun went away. My kids said they wanted to go back to Grandma's. It started to rain just was we were leaving. But my sister and her family stayed an hour longer than I did and swam in the rain. I'm glad I left. Swimming in the cold rain does not appeal to me. After dinner, we watched my brother's Senior video. He graduated from high school June 3rd. Congrats little brother!
They left this morning. I will miss them. But it is so wonderful for them to have come all that way just to see Zach get baptized. It was a good week.


Zach and his cousing walk on the beach. Wear flip flops. There are rocks in the water.


My nephew Henry, playing in the sand.


Kaleb with his uncle and Mr. Jones is sleeping on the sand. He took some Benedryl before we left. He doesn't remember much of this trip.


My dad the rancher. Ropin' cows.


My brother-in-law is a great rancher too! No, not really. He's an accountant with skilz.


The kids loved petting the horse! He was hoping they had a treat for him!


We saw some buffaloes and a few prong horns (antelope). Apparently you don't see the antelope as much as you do the buffalo. Which is weird because isn't the island called "Antelope Island"?

I Really Want My Computer Back!

Monday, Kaleb was freaking out because Zach and his friend wanted to play the PlayStation. They interrupted his Ni-Hao Kai-lan! How dare they!? Any way, he was saying things like, "I'm going to miss it forever!" And screaming and throwing a tantrum the way four-year-olds do. So I went to noggin.com to see if they had episodes online that he could watch. They don't. But they do have games based on the shows that three-year-olds can play! I was avoiding this because I knew he would always want to play them. Dang it! I was right! Kaleb has learned how to use the mouse. He struggles with the coordination a little. He must get that from me. Anyway. In our house, we have three computers. 3 kids + 3 computers = mommy gets kicked off the computer! Geesh! Rude! I suppose it's good for me. Maybe my house will be cleaner (don't hold your breath). Unfortunately, though, Kaleb still needs help navigating the site. I weeded for 5 hours today. Well, actually, more like 4 because I had a lunch break and interruptions from the computer geek in training. Ah, well. I knew it would happen sometime. Zach was playing computer games when he was two. I think Riley was three. At least Kaleb waited until he was four.

No, Really. It's Mine.

I have found a new way to entertain my four-year old during church. We went to my cousin's church Sunday because he was speaking. He's been in Brazil for two years and we were excited that he finally came home Wednesday. His talk was really quite excellent, but I have to admit, my attention span doesn't let me listen to more than one speaker. They should have made him go first. But he was last (tradition). I had to focus. Any way, we didn't bring the "church bag" this time because we figured we were only going to be there an hour and a few minutes. Our kids can handle that. Yes, they can. So I told Kaleb when he asked where it was that we didn't bring it. He wanted to look through my purse then, so I just handed him my phone thinking, "He doesn't know how to open it. It's no big deal." Well, he figured it out pretty quickly. He's such a smarty! ;) He started pushing the buttons and noticed the numbers were rainbow colors. He thought that was amazing and just kept pushing the numbers over and over again until the phone wouldn't let him push them any more. Then he closed the phone and started over. He did this the entire meeting. Then, he wanted to do it during the drive home. Then he wanted to push the buttons for the rest of the day. Amazing! Today, I was texting my friend, and he was sitting on my lap. He said, "Ooooh! Numbers! Numbers!" As he's trying to grab the phone away from me, I said it wasn't his turn this time.