News, Easter prep and "Doughnut Spree" is now a thing

What's this in my yard, you ask? Why that's a for sale sign. We are moving! We don't know where but we do know will be out in June so we will have to go somewhere else. 

Our newest Easter tradition is to paint wood eggs. This is our second year painting eggs and the kids enjoy it. It's less stressful than dying them plus I get to keep them as decorations for next year.

This makes me so happy. I think it will be so fun for the kids to see their collection grow and their artistic abilities evolve.

Last weekend while our house had dozens of showings, Justin and I went to Salt Lake for a couple of nights. The kids stayed with Justin's parents because after working on the house nonstop for a week, I needed a bit of a respite. And I hadn't been away from the kids since our anniversary last May and that was for like 24 hours.

Thursday night we ate dinner at Afghan Kitchen. I had never had Afghan food before. It's similar to Indian and I liked it because I love Indian food. 

On Friday the only thing on my agenda was to do a doughnut spree. If you've never done a doughnut spree (I'm just now making this term up), it's where you go get doughnuts from different doughnut spots and then eat them to decide which doughnut place is the best. We chose Donut Boy, Darla's Donuts, and Fresh Donuts and Deli based on their proximity to each other (I didn't want to spend all day driving all over Salt Lake county.

Donut Boy had the best old fashioned doughnut I've ever had. They are my favorite kind of doughnut.

This chocolate and peanut butter doughnut from Darla's was Justin's favorite. Darla herself served us at the drive thru! Plus someone earlier that day paid for a bunch of doughnuts so ours were free!

Sadly I didn't take a picture of the doughnuts from Fresh Donuts because they came in a bag, not a box and we didn't eat them until later. But they had the best doughnut holes. I'm going to remember that forever. And their chocolate cake doughnut was the best too.

So it wasn't a scientific outing but a delicious one! We weren't consistent on the kind of doughnuts we got at each place--we just chose what looked good wherever we were. Our not-so scientific conclusion is: All the doughnuts were dang good. Doughnut are good. Doughnut shops are much better than grocery stores. Donut Boy and Darla's are both in West Valley so I don't see my life taking me near there again but if I am, I'll stop. Fresh Donuts is on State Street in South Salt Lake so I'm more likely to cross paths with their shop again.

In between doughnut tasting, we ate lunch at Taqueria Los Lee because they had a picture of an authentic gordita online and I had never had a real gordita. This pocket stuffed full of meat is a gordita.

Below is not a gordita. What the heck, Taco Bell?

And this Taqueria Los Lee was just a few blocks from Fresh Donuts and Deli. So if you need a suggestion for a fancy lunch in South Salt Lake, there you go.

Next doughnut spree may be a southern loop to hit up a few places in South Jordan and Draper. 

Who is super excited about Easter? I am going to see family I haven't seen in months and months!

Random Story Saturday: The Scary Pool of Danger

Somewhere between here and Colorado Springs, Colorado there is a Travelodge Motel. My parents and my younger brother and I stayed at this motel on our way home from Colorado Springs in the summer of 1995. We stayed just one night but before we started the last leg of our journey home, Thomas and I took a morning swim in this pool. (Please keep in mind neither of us had proper swimming lessons.)

In addition to modest accommodations at a reasonable price, the motel sports a normal sized pool surrounded by white plastic pool chairs. Motel pools are grody at worst and unremarkable at best. This pool is unforgettable. It is rectangular in shape. One end is 3 feet deep; the other end is maybe 8. The floor and sides of this pool are tiled with blue and white ceramic tile--the slippery when wet kind and here is where things get a little dicey. I was 11, my brother 6 or 7. We entered the pool down the steps and instantly lost our footing. It was fun at first--where the water was waist or chest high. We'd joke around chasing each other and slide right under and pop right back up. But we quickly learned of a second danger lurking under the water.

Like this but steeper. So. Much. Steeper.

The shallow end of the pool was actually a very narrow portion on one end. The slope of the pool down to the deep end was so sudden and steep. We found it the hard way. We would drift close to this slope and slide down on our feet and then struggle/swim to get back to where we could touch, continue to play but lose track of where we were and then panic/slide as we drifted back down. The pool quickly lost it's fun as we were in a constant fear or struggle for our lives. We didn't whine when my mom fetched us to go home.

The tiles of that pool were so dang slippery! Who tiles a pool with slippery tiles? What the heck?

We are taking a trip to Colorado Springs in May. I wonder if we can stay there on the way back. My kids are better swimmers.

Not for Granted

Where has the month gone? I can't believe March is half over. Remember where you were a year ago? Everything was getting cancelled. Let's never take anything for granted again.

Like NCAA tournament brackets. I don't care for the games but I think it's fun to compete with my kids for the best bracket.

Henry was super methodical about it. Sarah was mathematical about it. Erica chose her by whatever name she liked the best.

I helped James fill his out. As I read him the matchups, he invariably chose whatever school I said second. So then I reversed the order I said some of them to increase his probability of getting it right.

Don't take getting dressed for church for granted. "Mom, will you help me with my buttons?"

"Yes but let me take a picture first." Bwahahaha

Some things happen, pandemic or no pandemic. Like doing tricks on the trampoline bars.

And losing teeth. She pulled it out all on her own when she was supposed to be asleep. I'm just glad she didn't cry about it.

"Mom, this is the best strawberry ever. Take a picture of it."

And moments like these when my kids sit so quietly together and don't fight. Thank you Where's Waldo.

Other things to never take for granted:

School (Please please please never close again for any reason), library, church at church, primary, concerts, family reunions, girls camp, movie theaters, free samples at Costco (which will be the hallmark of the end of the pandemic because that's the first thing that went away).

Random Story Saturday: Movie Stubs

 I don't collect a lot of things mostly because I don't like stuff. But I do have a collection of movie stubs from my teen years. You know, back in that golden time of your life when you see all the movies. 

My older sister worked at our local movie theater so I actually saw way more movies than are represented here. She took me along with her to see just about everything and we didn't get a printed ticket for those showtimes; we just walked right in.

Some notable stubs:

Spiderman with Toby Maguire. Yes, I saw it twice but don't roll your eyes, I only had to pay for it once.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which is my favorite film and book of the series.

On some rare occasions I also wrote who I went with and my critique of the movie. Catch Me If You Can

This was on my birthday. I often went to the movies on my birthday. I also saw Twister and A Little Princess on my birthdays as a kid.

And there were a lot of teen movies like She's All That. Freddy Prinze Jr at the top of his game.

As well as Julia Stiles at the top of hers.

Here's a side story. I didn't actually see The Haunting twice. On the night of August 13, my friends and I wanted to see Sixth Sense but it was sold out. So we bought tickets to the Haunting and snuck into the Sixth Sense. The ushers had to bring in benches and folding chairs because they ran out of real seats but we weren't the unlucky ones that had to sit on them. I feel bad about that now.

This is the stub from when I saw my favorite movie ever.

I remember a big group of us seeing Legend of Bagger Vance together and the boys that came along made fun of it the whole time. It was kind of dumb but at the time I liked it.

Justin will be most pleased to see this ticket. This is one of his favorite movies ever and I tease him about that. I didn't like it then and don't like it now.

And in case you were wondering what movies were playing nearly 21 years ago, I saved this from the paper. Remember looking in the paper for showtimes? Or calling the theater and listening to the recording?

The movie theaters I went to the most are torn down now. That makes me feel old.

Now I'm lucky if I see two movies a year in a theater.

Fashion tips from a 7-year-old, how it was better than Christmas at our house, and James kinda sorta got what he wanted

 One of the things I love most about Erica is her clothing choices. I have been pretty laissez-faire with all my kids about what they wear. I didn't used to be. I think somewhere along the way I realized that them heading into school feeling snazzy and confident and comfortable trumped any need on my end that their clothes coordinate or were fashionable. Is it clean and in good repair and fit? That's all I care about. Anyway--this is the outfit Erica put together last week. One of her favorite dresses, capri leggings, leopard boots, and tube socks pulled high to cover the rest of her legs. As we were walking out the door, she asked if she looked a little silly. "Yes," I answered honestly. "Do you need a minute to change?" She shrugged. "Nah." 

As I was ridding my home of Valentine decorations, I came across these gems. When I saw they had handwriting, I got all excited that my kids wrote nice things on them. Nope.

And Erica is my nicest child........

Henry finished up his basketball season on Saturday. He loves playing and he's pretty fun to watch. They never posted the scores so I don't know how well they did but I would guess they lost most games but they did get much better by the end of the season.

He never ever ever complained about going to practice or a game. That's huge for him! Football season was frustrating for him a lot of the times even though he loved playing. Somedays it was hard to gear up to go and play and lose. But he was Mr. Enthusiastic all basketball season long.

Our printer really stopped responding to anything so Justin and I drove to Staples Saturday afternoon and bought a new one. This time we got a laserjet and the kids were so amazed at how fast it printed. (Our old printer would maybe print what you sent to it--if you plugged it right into the computer, messed with the settings, unplugged it and plugged it back in, fasted and prayed.) This printer was magic by comparison.

We were printing coloring pages all afternoon. It's going to be fun!

Above: Justin taking requests for coloring pages while trying to watch a basketball game. The Littles feeling happier than Christmas morning.

Today James went to a pre-preschool class at the library. He's been asking to go to preschool for a few months but I told him he had to wait until fall and he has been bummed. So I signed him up for this once a week class and he was mad about it. "I wanted to go to an actual preschool building." I had to bribe reward him with a doughnut afterwards for going in and staying the entire time. He did great but let's be honest, he did it for the doughnut. Let's hope he won't bargain for a doughnut for the next 5 weeks.

Sarah has nearly finished her hunter safety course. She just has the field test left. I don't know who's more excited for her to hunt in the fall--Sarah or Justin. Justin is still working long hours finishing up this report that just. won't. end. And how 'bout them Jazz?  I am having a dickens of a time nursing a terrible pinched nerve in my neck for the past week. Praises for YouTube physical therapy videos. Is there anything not free for the learning on YouTube?

This and That from February

This is James's ninja turtle costume.

My phone's screen is kept locked so the only thing the kids can do with it is take pictures. Sometimes I find these gems.

While Justin was hunting down a homeless rabbit in our backyard, Erica coped with the situation by drawing a picture of the rabbit that has hopped around the neigborhood for months. She wanted to name it Hoppy but I told her I already named it Poopsie because of the several hundred rabbit poops in our backyard. (The rabbit is now dead and we can use our yard again.)

Nothing says be my Valentine like a bat brownie.

 

James and I visited Justin at work a few weeks ago. They have a 3D printer and Justin has a toy excavator in his office so James thinks it's pretty much the coolest place ever.

I lost a measuring cup from one of my measuring cup sets. I looked everywhere (all my dry good bins, in the toy kitchen) and even asked my neighbor if my kids used it to dig in their yard (which isn't an unlikely occurrence). We concluded that it got thrown away somehow. I was really upset about it because 1. I liked that set, 2. I can't buy it online anywhere and 3. I don't want to spend money on a new measuring cup set. It took me like a month to finally break down and buy new ones (And I really like them) but I still held onto the remaining cups of this set out of hope or denial. 

And then I found it last week. I pulled out a bag of dried milk that I keep in the freezer and there it was. It's been there since that FHE when we made peanut butter playdough (November maybe?). Pretty sure I was the one to zip up this large resealable bag and stick it in the freezer. Funny part is, I misread the recipe and didn't even need dried milk this day so who knows how long it would have taken me to find it.

The kids could make a Valentine box for school if they wanted to and they wanted to. James didn't want to be left out so he made a monster box.

Erica chose a unicorn (thank you pinterest)

Henry's is an Among Us guy.

And Sarah's is a toaster. A Cuisinheart toaster. (See what we did there?)

She won second place in her class's contest. I saw the first place box that was a vending machine. It deserved to win.

Sarah asked me if I ever had Valentine box contests in elementary school. I told her, yes every year, but now that I think about it, I think it was just me that always made my boxes like it was a competition!

Note to self and warning to others: don't buy the Tootsie Pop Valentine kit. The hearts do not punch out without scissors and/or cursing.

We had to improvise our own little tags with stickers that I had on hand

I actually think they turned out cuter and Erica and her friend Madison liked working on them. Henry is at the end of the table complaining why he has to do this dumb Valentine stuff.

James got a little obsessed with cutting out hearts and made one for everyone he knows. I'd fold the paper and draw the line for him to follow.

This is for his cousin Jaana. It's his best one.

Friday we went to the school to see the 5th and 6th grade science fair. I snapped this picture of Sarah's student council picture.

I thought the science fair would be boring since it's just posters---no malfunctioning volcanoes like on television. But it was actually pretty interesting. The kids were so creative and genuine. I liked it and wished I had time to talk to each of the kids but I only stopped at 10 or so.

Here's Sarah's project. She was among 9 sixth graders that won 1st place. (Still not sure how that works.)

A car carrier trailer (I had to google what it's called) pulled up in front of our house Saturday morning. We called the kids up to take a look as it's not something that we've ever seen on our street.

After a year long hiatus, Justin and I went out to dinner with our good friends and neighbors AmyJo and Brock Jones. We introduced them to a taco place in Provo, they introduced us to Brooker's ice cream in Provo and it was the best ice cream I've ever had. The theme of the place is colonial America so they  have clever names like Alexander Hamilton's Not Gonna Throw Away My Scoop and Patrick Henry's Give Me Chocolate or Give Me Death. This is Aaron Burr's Murderous Shot (Black Madagascar vanilla). 

And that takes us to Valentine's Day. We celebrated with a fancy dinner at home. Justin made the most authentic enchiladas, refried beans, and jalapeno poppers. He even bought Mexican sodas to make the dinner extra fun. I gave each of the kids a bag of Valentine candy and we had a dance party in the living room after we ate. Oh! And chocolate mousse pie for dessert.

The kids opened their Valentines from my sister-in-law Lisa. She has the snowcone shacks and she sends all her nieces and nephews Valentines every year. She's making it nearly impossible to compete with for Favorite Aunt award.

And that's that.