Hobo Dinners

Time to backtrack! I finally put the 300+ pictures I've taken over the last few weeks onto my computer. So be prepared, it is picture time!

Melody put together a great campout the night before we moved away down at Macon Beach. It was so great to hang out but I had this bittersweet gloom hanging over me all night. The great company was the very reason it was going to be so hard to move away from this place. Not everyone was able to make it, but here are most of the boys:

Katherine and me getting ready for dinner. Katherine! Act natural! This picture was supposed to be unposed :) Actually, cooking makes her pretty happy. So maybe the grin is standard.



I love that this is her idea of a hobo dinner. Yum! A while later, Mandi looked over at me with a sad frown on her face. We gave eachother a nice, drawn out goodbye hug. Then after an awkward second I said 'Wait, are you leaving yet?' she said 'No, are you?' No. We had a good laugh realizing we'd have to go through another horrible goodbye later. I hate goodbyes. But it was a good hug and a good laugh. Here's a snap of her little guy, what a stud.






Then it was down to the beach for a pitiful showing of my rock skipping skills.

Love these girls!

Oh, and one more thing..

And add frustration to the list of emotions. I almost forgot. I almost completely blocked it out. The other day I was walking around my freshly painted home in glee, with my busy bee workers happily working on another project. Nothing could bring me down. Oh wait. My CPA exam scores are in. How did I do? Well, I've passed three. Failed the AUD portion. By ONE point. One! Are you kidding? Do they know what it takes to study for that thing with a baby? That's just a slap in the face, especially since I had plenty of points to spare on the other test. Wish I would have studied one more day on auditing and one less day on regulation. What can you do. The state board apparantly feels the public must be protected from me for another few months. So be it. Well, State Board of Accountancy, you win. I will have nothing but auditing on the brain until October.

Pack It All In

The last two weeks could not be more jammed packed with moving, unpacking, playing, emotions, goodbyes, and hellos. We had so much fun our last week in The Ville, jumping at any chance to be with friends when we should have been packing. So many emotions in so little time! I had a good cry on my way out of town then cried the whole next day when a close friend went through an unexpected tragedy. We had a whirlwind roadtrip back to the homeland and are back now doing a remodeling marathon with my mom. She leaves tomorrow morning and I feel bad we've worked her like a slave. But, whew, this place looks good :) She and J are both workaholics and have found every project imaginable to do around here. In fact, Mom leaves in less than twelve hours and they are in there putting moulding on my kitchen cabinets. I'm so lucky. We went to our new ward and I almost feel right at home. That was going to be the kicker--if we had a good ward. I think it's going to be awesome. But, man, I miss you Ville girls!!!

Grass Is Always Greener At Grandpa's

J's grandpa is the ultimate lawn connoisseur. And his yard definitely shows for it. Yesterday, I just went and laid down like a little kid and ran my fingers and toes through it's velvety goodness. I miss good grass, Missouri has horrible grass. He is in his late 80's and there seemed to be a lot of talk this week about what will ever happen to this immaculate yard when he's gone.

J was walking with him this morning and I thought I'd relay the conversation, I thought it was so cute. J had the nerve to suggest putting in an automatic sprinkler system. Grandpa looked at him and said 'You know, they just put in an automatic sprinkler system up at the park. You should go look at it'. J said 'All right, let's go.' 'Oh, I'm not going. Green and brown patches. It makes me want to puke.' Quite the lawn snob. I love it.

This led to an hour walk around the property, Grandpa showing J how 'easy' it is to keep his lawn. He has created quite the irrigation system. You turn one valve and three huge sprinklers start covering a whole section of the lawn. 'Is that automatic enough for ya? All you have to do is turn it on. Oh wait, one other thing you have to do...turn it off.' Then he described the placement and angles of his beloved, personified sprinklers. 'He doesn't move. This is his spot, right here.' And it's set perfect so it goes all the way to one side of the barn then turns 270 degrees so it comes up right to the front of the barn. He mows it twice a week; by the time he goes through his watering routine, it's time to mow again.

He also takes care of the 1/2 mile stretch along the freeway exit by his home. With a weed eater! For free! I guess he just loves to look at good grass. Well, I appreciate it. Thanks for the lovely afternoon Grandpa.

What's So Scrappy?

The point of this site, 'Everything Scrappy', was to post pictures of my scrapbooking ideas. Have you noticed I have yet to do so? Just today I found a scanner in town large enough to do 12x12. It was at J's school, who knew? Guess I should have started my search there. I was almost going to go to the City Engineering Building! I just couldn't muster the courage to say why I needed a 12x12 scanner. Now, I have to restrain myself, though, because I really should be working on packing. Ugh, packing. But here's the cover page for Abbey's Baby Book. Rest assure, scrappy stuff is on the way.

MISSterious

I found this cool shirt that I thought would look great on J. He looked at it and said 'Size 14? Ash, men's clothes don't have sizes like that'. Oh stop, just put it on. 'Ash, the buttons are on the wrong side' At this point, I'm starting to see. 'Ok, it has little slits on the side. I'm taking it off'. I was rolling at this point. I accidentally crossdressed my husband today! In all fairness, when I was in Macy's last week, the men's styles are seriously feminine right now.

I immediatly thought of this Office clip. I couldn't figure out how to edit the videos off youtube to get the crossdressing part by itself; it starts about two minutes in. But who wouldn't love 5 minutes of The Office highlights? PS, if anyone does know how to edit videos pulled off the web or get TV shows into imovie, let me know.

Saving the Day...Twice

Time for some confessions of a neglectful mother. I swear, Abbey is unusually curious and adventurous. She fears nothing. This mobile baby phase hit me FAST. Luckily, Katherine (the hero of the story) has been near and watching. Yesterday we went to the wading pools with Bobby and The Hero. Abbey is pretty finicky about her pool play. Today was a sit-on-the-side-and-throw-stuff-in day. She decided to crawl in, head first, after something and luckily Katherine was there to quickly snatch her up. Whew. I didn't even see it happen! Never mind the fact that The Hero has TWO kids to watch besides my own.

So next scene, up at the lake for a barbeque. I hate the beach shelter there. It's perched precariously over a steep hill down to the water. Actually, I think you would hit some rocky dirt before hitting the water. I'm sitting on a blanket with The Hero and Sophie when Abbey beelines it for the hill. The Hero sprang into action and slid down the hill after her. Abbey only took a roll or two before she got there, but it got my heart pumping. I like to justify that I was holding Sophie at the time, but in actuality, The Hero was halfway up before it hit me what was happening. Thank you, The Hero! You now have my resolve to keep my eyes peeled on my precocious toddler!