ho hum

I haven't had much to say lately.  Nothing is really going on (among the chaos of life).  School starts in three weeks and my kids are crying about that.  I need to go register my son at his new middle school.

I've been trying to weave, but I'm not liking what is going on with my threads.  Half of the warp is loose and half is super tight.  The pattern I thought I was doing isn't working out either.  I've restarted this project three times.  I just need to finish it, but it's a long way from being finished.  I've already got my next project picked out and I'm very excited about it, but now is the toughest part - picking out my threads.  What colors? What textures?  So many decisions.

Peanut has learned to turn on the Internet, go to the Nick Jr. website and play.  She has also learned to work the VCR.  (She has been a pro at the DVD player for half of her life.)

Now, a sneak peak at my new book I'm creating:  Cooking with Flamethrowers!

Cooking steak with a propane torch!

Burning, cooking marshmallows with the propane torch!

Storms

I love lightning storms.  We don't get them often where I am.  We live on a Mesa, and the storms usually seem to be surrounding us, but rarely over us.  Tonight has those huge clouds with lightning all in them on the western horizon.  It's quite amazing and I love to watch the clouds light up.  Now, we just need a home that is out of a neighborhood filled with two story houses.  They block the view!

Lastest weaving project

This is what I did in my weaving class.  I'm working on another project in class right now, but this is the big one.  It's 7 feet long and about 14 inches wide.

I had never finished a weaving project with anything but a tassel.  I didn't know how to do anything else.  My teacher taught me how to do this cord. I like the cord look a lot.

back into the swing

Well, after a fun vacation to see lots of family, we are home again.

Within 12 hours of being home, the kids were back into their normal routine, the good, the bad and the ugly.  My oldest son leave for a camp out tomorrow, so he is re-packing today.  He will have lots of fun, I'm sure.

I went to my weaving class last night.  We only meet two more times.  There are four of us in the class.  The other three ladies will be taking it again this next time they offer it, but I will not be.  While I'm having tons of fun and learning good things, I will not spend the money again to take a second round of classes just so I can keep weaving.  I have a loom at home to use.  So, I'll go twice more and finish my second project in the class and call it good.

I was terribly flattered last night at my class, though.  My teacher said he wants to take a break from teaching beginning in January and he said he would like to submit my name to be the next instructor.  It may or may not work out when that time comes, but it was so nice to hear.  I would love the opportunity to teach.  If it pays a little, so much the better!

Summer, where have you gone?

It's hard to believe that summer break is half way over for the kids.  It's been much busier than I expected.  When summer started, we only had on big thing on the calendar plus a few camp outs for my oldest son.   The calendar didn't remain empty for long.  It good, really.  I would rather have things going on than absolutely nothing.  Today my six year old has been walking around like a bored zombie.  So bored, so bored.  We have no yard to play in, and she is tired of playing with her toys.  So, we called up a friend and now they are playing dress up.  So great!

We have some acquaintances that have moved, but they are renting out their home.  We went to see it last week.  Oh my, what a house!  I want to move in now.  Hubby is more cautious and probably much more reasonable in hesitating before giving an answer.

The house has three floors.  The bottom floor has a common area, and four bedrooms!  The main floor has the usual rooms of kitchen/dining/living/laundry and the master bedroom.  The top floor has a large loft, a large playroom, a small room and a large storage room.  There is actual carpet in the house and the areas that are tiled are a much nicer tile than in my current home.  The house is huge and it has a yard!  Actual grass.  Not much, but enough for the little ones to play in and run through.  It has an area that isn't landscaped and it is obvious they have had a fire pit.  Doesn't it sound wonderful????  Oh it does.  Can I move in now?

The reason for being cautious - our current lease isn't up. Moving isn't fun, or cheap, even when it's in town.  Also, we might have to move again in 6 months.  That's the biggest draw back with Hubby's job.  It's a yearly contract and if the contract isn't renewed or his position within the contract isn't renewed, we've got to look for a new job.  It isn't a pleasant way to live, but that's the life we've got right now.  So, do we want to try and break the lease, endure the major hassle of moving with the possibility of moving again? 

I say YES!  Hubby, is still thinking about it..... well, we've got to give an answer soon to the owners.  I'll let you know what we decide.

Promised pictures

My computer isn't reading my camera's memory card, so I haven't been able to do much in the way of pictures, but now I can, so now you can enjoy my random summer time photos.

One evening, as I was trying to get the house clean for company, I put Peanut into the bath tub to occupy her.  It only took minutes, but when I came back in I found Peanut had occupied herself by dumping water out of the bathtub.  The water went all over the bathroom, of course, out the door, into the bedroom and underneath bookshelves.  It took about 10 big towels to mop up all the water.  Well, at least the bathroom floor got clean.

This is Peanut.  This is her brother's toy army helmet.  Peanut likes to wear it like this, with her entire face covered by the helmet.  She giggles and runs around the house.  Amazingly, she doesn't run into to many things, but if she does, at least she has on a helmet.

A recently completed weaving.  I like the way this turned out.  It's quite festive looking, but the yarn would separate every time I would advance the yarn on the loom.  It created gaps that I really can't fix.

Cake Entry #6

Last year my siblings, their spouses, my mom and I participated in a family 4th of July Cake decorating contest.  My sister won last year.  My cake tied for last place with Entry #6.  The problem was, there was no #6, my dad just voted for it as a joke.  Well, this year, I have created Cake Entry #6. 

Get it?

And last, but not least, a view from our garden.  Because we have a rock yard, our garden had to be improvised.  Our garden is made up of 4 large storage tubs filled with soil.  We tried to grow some new things this year, one of them is watermelon.  We didn't think anything was going to happen with the long vine that is growing from the tub, but the other day we found 3 small watermelons.  This one is the biggest.  At the time of this picture, it was smaller than a tennis ball, but it has grown since then.  We are very excited.  We might actually have home-grown watermelons to eat at the end of the summer!

Well, I hope you enjoyed the summer time photos.  Unfortunately, summer is about half way over for us now.  I ran into a store today for something and saw all the school supplies being set out.  Crazy, crazy.  I hope by the end of the summer, there will be more photos to share.

5+1=0 ???

Five kids, one messy house and zero motivation.

Ever have those days?