I'm on my way!!

 The day has finally arrived for me to leave for Scotland.  My friends Susanne and Denise and I have been planning this trip for over a year, and I can't wait to see them!  My sister-in-law Becky--who originally insisted that I read Outlander--is also joining us in bonny, bonny Scotland.  Aye!

I think the fact that my house is cleanish and my suitcases are all packed and I still have time to blog before heading to the airport should tell you how supremely excited I am.  Wahoooo!  I am not even going to let my stupid picture-less blog get me down!

So, apparently when I deleted all the back-up photo albums from my phone, I deleted all the photos from my blog.  I am FURIOUS with Google+ and Picasa.   

Luckily, I have all the pictures saved on my computer, but I’m going to have to manually replace them one-by-one.  

It’s going to take a long time.

I don’t want to talk about it.

My movie date tonight.

So, I saw this on the internet today and it creeped me out a little bit.  At the very least, I think I have a cavity forming just from looking at it.

The thing is, I love The Sound of Music and I resent NBC making it look cheesy.  I prefer to think of it as charming and soul-filling, so I purged the above image from my eyes by looking at some photos of when our family took the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, Austria in 2010.

 This is Lukie and Pep doing the Maria Spin from the beginning of the movie in the Alps just outside Salzburg where the movie was filmed.

Ahhhhhhh...charm's back.  That's better.

One of the best things about living here = The Trains.

I love lying in bed at night reading my book and hearing the whine of train horn as it goes by, reminding me that while some poor engineer is hard at work steering a train, I am snug in my bed, comfy with a story.

However...

One of worst things about living here = The Trains.

 We live out here in the sticks, and there just aren't very many roads to choose from.  So, when one is blocked by a sloooooooooooow moving train, there is nothing to do but put your car in park and wait it out.  Luckily, now that I have Kindle on my phone, I can still read my book.

Nashville is back!!

And, like the good little story that it is, the season premiere included a duet from these two.

 You know you want to listen to it.  And even if you don't know it, I know it, so do it.

If that wasn't enough for you, click here to hear last season's premiere duet, the one that told me in no uncertain terms I was going to love this show.

 

With Brad, Pep, and Adam gone hunting, Jess and I celebrated National Punctuation Day with dinner at Panera Bread while Luke was at his soccer practice.

And by "celebrate", I mean we went to Panera because it sounded good and happened to mention National Punctuation Day while we waited for our food.

 Brad, Pep, and Adam are leaving tomorrow to join my dad and brothers deer hunting in southern Utah.  It's going to be wet and cold, so we had to do some digging to find all the winter clothes we haven't had to use since moving here.

Regarding this deer hunt, here is an email my brother Jeff sent with some of the details:

Gentlehunters-

Tis time again for the annual venture into the woods known as the Deer Hunt.  As usual, we will invade the plush, game-rich woods as mere city folk and leave the forest with filled tags, completely true tales of our bravery and manliness, and Grizzly Adams-caliber facial hair.  Jason and I are planning on heading down to Shangri-la on Tuesday to prepare for the onslaught of manliness and testosterone fueled joviality.  I believe that Brad and Chet will arrive on Wednesday afternoon and that Dad and Bust will be there Thursday afternoon (please let me know if any of this has changed) to complete the Army of Deer Doom.

Nourishment for this hirsute, burly clan is, of course, a daunting and ever-so-critical necessity.  As such, I have laid out the following plan:

Tuesday: FFYDS (Fend For Your Dang Self)

Wednesday:

• Breakfast: FFYDS
• Lunch: FFYDS
• Dinner: Jason

Thursday:

• Breakfast: Chet
• Lunch: FFYDS
• Dinner: Jeff

Friday:

• Breakfast: Bust
• Lunch: FFYDS
• Dinner: Dad

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Brad
• Lunch: FFYDS
• Dinner: FFYDS

My thoughts were that we would get up early and grab a quick piece of fruit, granola bar, or whatever each person would like (again FFYDS).  We would go out and hunt for a few hours and then return back to camp & cook a proper breakfast.  Not much hunting is to be had from 10:00 am to about 5:00 pm so I figured we could just hang around camp and act manly throughout the afternoon, eating lunch whenever we individually desire.  Then we can go out and hunt in the evening and return at dark and eat a scrumptious dinner.

I will be bringing an assortment of delicious Coca-Cola Company produced beverages to share with everyone.  If you have suggestions as to which delicious flavors I should bring please let me know.  If you want another type of beverage: FFYDS (the D in this case does not stand for "Dang").

Snacks and goodies are everyone's own responsibility, but bear in mind that overly delicious items are subject to "reassignment".

If anyone has any questions, suggestions, or things that I left out please let the group know.  I'm excited for this week and look forward to seeing all of your smiling, rugged faces.

Jeff

In case you didn't know, Jeff works for Coca-Cola and is a die-hard fan.  Hence the "strong" language.

Obviously, they are going to have a great, manly time!

 The Primary sacrament meeting program happened today, and it went nearly perfectly.  The parts that weren't perfect were adorable, so I think it was a success.

And now, I am going to enjoy my celebratory Sunday afternoon nap.

A day of football.

The German kind...

 ...and the American kind.

Both of our teams lost.  Not a good day for football of any kind.

 Lately, Pepper has been on a cookie-making jag.

This is an obsession in which everybody wins.

Tacos tonight for dinner, and look what I found in my pantry:

 To recap, I used spices from Germany to season taco meat in Texas.

Something about this just ain't right.

This morning when I dragged my lazy self out of bed at 7:00, I found that my early-morning-seminary-teacher husband had already gotten Luke up and moving for school and was busily making cheesy eggs in the kitchen.

In the words of my new favorite license plate, "Im Spold".

For the last month or so, Pepper has been talking about the etiquette dinner his Teacher's quorum was planning for this month's combined youth activity.  He was beyond excited about the prospect of sitting down to a fancy meal with all the YM/YW in our ward and talking about the right way to eat.  BEYOND excited.  I made the mistake of mentioning once that I had an etiquette dinner once when I was a Young Woman, and he has been grilling me about the details ever since (which I don't remember--not an acceptable response to Pepper--so it was just easier to make stuff up).

As luck would have it, his soccer coach had a family obligation, so Pep's soccer practice was cancelled and he could go to the dinner tonight with no conflict.

Jess was good enough to snap this picture of her ecstatic brother as he finished his dessert.  Judging from the grin I got when they came home, the etiquette dinner was everything Pepper wanted it to be.

Well, duh.

 You totally knew I was going to post about the season premiere of Dancing with the Stars, didn't you?

As always, it is much more about the pros than the stars for me.  Stars, schmars--I'm too lame to know who any of them are anyway.  But after watching seventeen seasons of DWTS, I totally have my favorite pros. This season has Derek, Tristan, Peta, Val, and Karina, so I'm rooting for whomever they are dancing with.

Last night after all the soccer "fun" was over, we had our hometeacher's family over for a barbeque.

Cementing his role as The Boss of Everything, Lukie convinced all the boys to play Twister after dinner.

In most parts of the United States, an umbrella at a soccer game in September is because of rain.  But here in the Lone Star State, an umbrella at a soccer game in September is because of blistering sun.

About five minutes into the first game, taking place on this absolutely barren field in 99 degree heat, I knew I wasn't going to make it.  So, I hopped into my car, drove to the nearest Walmart, and bought this big umbrella to give us a modicum of shade.  There was also quite a bit of wind, which as you know, makes holding a giant umbrella an adventure.

Whose idea was it to sign all three boys up for soccer?  Oh yeah, this guy holding onto a bucking umbrella for three hours while his wife complains that he's hogging all the shade.

Kharma.

In case you can't read the license plate, it says "IM SPOLD".

Yep.  That's exactly how they say it in Texas.

Hey, remember when I posted about my naked walls and begged for help?

Well, I'm pleased to say that I've made the first step!

I loved the idea of filling this wall with a big canvas, so I had this made of a recent family photo.  It came today, and I am so excited!  It is ginorm (almost as wide as I am tall), but I love the colors and how it brightens up our little nook.  I'm still working on curtains and a rug for under the table, but baby steps, right?

So, I'm sitting here at my computer, busily paying bills, when the sounds of chomping and slurping barge into my consciousness.  I look down, and what do I see?

This naughty dog eating the second pair of my shoes this week, literally right under my nose.

Joey is SO grounded!

Soccer practice days are pretty brutal.  We grab a quick dinner--sandwiches usually--then rush out the door at 5:30 PM.  We drive and drop off and drive and pick up, usually getting home around 8:30 PM, Lukie's bedtime.  Unfortunately, he needs (NEEDS!) a shower by then and has to read 20 minutes for his homework, so if we're lucky he hits the sack around 9:00.

However, I don't worry too much about him getting to bed a little late because he tends to fall asleep in the car on the way to his practice.

How could he not be refreshed?

Yesterday at church, Brad was sustained as a seminary teacher in our ward.  I was sooooo jealous, because teaching seminary is my favorite and I'm stuck in Primary, which as you know is kicking my butt right now.  Plus, now that Brad will be going at 5:45 AM with Jess and Pep, I won't be able to take them and sit in the church parking lot reading my book every morning for an hour, which I secretly loved.

But then this morning, my alarm clock said this when it went off:

I'm feeling significantly better.

I'm a little stressed about Primary right now.

Over the summer, we had a bunch of new families move into our ward, which necessitated us calling several new teachers.  This happened last Sunday, so this week I had nine teachers I needed to contact and visit regarding their new callings.

We are also preparing for the Primary sacrament meeting program, which will be on Sept. 22.  Our first practice in the chapel was today, so all week I have been obsessing about making sure all the children have their parts and trying to figure out the logistics of fitting 130+ children on the stand for the actual program (it can't be done--half of our kids will be sitting in the front center pews).

So, in my typical fashion, I have been waking up in the middle of the night and freaking out about all things Primary.

This was the text I sent one of the new teachers I had been playing phone tag with all week:

You'll notice what time I sent it.

I need professional help.

'Tis the season of Saturday Soccer Games.

Brad and I had to divide and conquer, as Pepper and Luke's games were at the same time in different cities.  Brad and Pep got caught in horrendous traffic (it took them 1 1/2 hours to travel nine miles), so they nearly missed Pepper's game.  I spent those same 1 1/2 hours sitting in a camp chair in 104 degree heat watching a bunch of seven-year-olds chase a soccer ball while ants nibbled on my toes.

Good times, good times.

Adam wanted to have a Back-to-School Pool Party, so tonight we had ten seventh graders over for swimming and pizza.

My favorite moment of the night was when one girl informed me, grinning from ear to ear, eyes shining with glee, totally oblivious to the fact that her swim-suit bottom was sagging to comic proportions in the back "This is my first pool party!"

I'm just glad I was here to witness this epic milestone.

"Blessed": my new favorite Texas adjective.

I caught this at a church near the field where Adam practices soccer.  It is on the same street as a high school and elementary school.

I passed it just after I'd left a message for the mom of one of Adam's friends.  At the end of her voice mail greeting, she said, "Thank you and have a blessed day."

Apparently, "blessed" is a thing here.  Cool.

We have had Adam's old Spiderman costume floating around for years, and believe me, we've gotten our money's worth.  Adam was Spiderman for about three Halloweens, and now Lukie has decided it is his go-to lounge-around outfit.  He changes into it every afternoon after school and insists on wearing it to bed.  It is rather the worse for wear--there are huge holes in the sides and crotch seams--but hey, if it doesn't bother him, why should it bother me?

So, as you know, I'm a Mormon.  

And as a Mormon, I believe in life after death.  Like a LOT of life after death--eternity even.  Seriously, this is one of the best reasons to be a Mormon, because I know that all the stuff here on earth that I haven't been able to do, I'm going to have time for after I die. So, rather than make a Bucket List of things I have to do before I die, I am making a list of things I plan to do after I die.

Here's what I have so far:

1.  Take golf lessons from Chi Chi Rodriguez (pronounced "chaɪ chaɪ rod-ri-gweez", a la Les Nessman from WKRP in Cincinnati in our home--it's amazing the stupid stuff your brain will remember from your childhood), so I can skunk Brad at golf.  See, I'm planning to die first, and this is how I want to welcome my hubby to the Great Beyond--with a rousing round of golf in which I Blow. His. Mind.

2.  Dance with Fred Astaire.  Because . . . well, duh.  He's Fred Astaire.

3. Dance with Derek Hough.  I'll probably have to wait a while for this one to happen, what with the difference in our ages, but that's OK.  I'll be ready for him when he dies, since I will have been dancing with Fred.

4. Become a Ballet Contemporary dancer.  I am officially changing this Post-Bucket List item after watching this season of So You Think You Can Dance.  

This little gem from Amy and Robert solidified the change tonight. Luh-uv!!

And, while I'm at it, I may add Become Best Friends with Stacy Tookey (the choreographer) to my list.  Just go here and click on anything (or everything, in my case).  I'm pretty sure my future BFF Stacy is a fellow Story Junkie.

This afternoon, Brad took the boys to Cabella's to buy a tent for an upcoming hunting trip and somehow ended up getting BB guns for Pepper and Adam.  

Obviously, I wasn't there.  My views on boys and BB guns are firmly of the you'll-shoot-your-eye-out variety.

Slow news day, so y'all get a picture of Luke putting away the left-over mashed potatoes from our Sunday dinner.  

But, it should be noted that today I finally made a decent roast beef dinner.  My mom is a master roast beef cooker, but sadly I did not get that gene.  My skills in this department are learned, not inherited, and it has taken me nearly 19 years of marriage to arrive at this point.  Also, lots of bouillon cubes.