Month: September 2009

I’ve been so busy lately that by the end of the day I’m too tired to post anything, and posting anything during the day is just impossible. So I’ll try to just sum up the last couple of weeks now. 😀

A few weeks ago we sent my computer in to Dell so they could figure out why my wireless connection has a problem. Basically every now and then my computer just stops getting internet. Don’t know why. Then when I try to reconnect it says “Problem applying profile!” What does that mean, you may ask? I have no idea, and Kyle doesn’t know what it means either. So I basically would have to restart my computer to get internet again. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Kyle has done everything he can think of to fix it, Dell sent out an on site tech to switch out the wireless card and it still has the problem. So we sent it to Dell. We just got the computer back last week and the note that came with the computer says that they didn’t do anything to fix the problem, because they couldn’t duplicate the problem. ARGH! We told them that it just randomly disconnects from the internet, it’s not something you can just duplicate on demand. So ya, so my computer still has a problem and I can’t unplug it from the network or I lose internet.

September 7-A couple of guys from our ward came over to help us get our sprinklers fixed. When David put them in and connected the back to the water supply in the front he did it oddly. He took 4 angles and had the pipe curve up then over to the valve for the back, then back down and curved back into the bottom pipe. Well last year that area exploded 4 different times, each curve once. It turns out we don’t have a pressure reducing valve out there, and that much pressure going through that many curves in such a short distance of pipe….ya. So our sprinklers have not worked at all this season, and our front yard looks yucky. And since the flower beds flooded so many times last year, we had dirt filling in the sprinkler boxes, and that had been dug out a couple of times so we could see what’s going on down there, and so the flower beds are a total mess too. So ever since spring rolled around this year, I’ve been asking Kyle to talk to this guy in our ward, and after a couple of months of hounding him, he did. But he only asked what this guy does for work, and when he didn’t say ‘sprinklers’ Kyle didn’t say anything further. So I started asking Kyle to call a landscaper or someone that repairs sprinklers to get the problem fixed. Months went by and my asking turned into hounding, and he finally did. And the quote to fix the problem in the front, fix the spot where the pipe bends around a corner in the back, and split up the 8 sprinklers that we have on one zone and put them on 2 zones, and add a zone to put a drip system in for the garden boxes and the beds around the house…..uh ya, the quote came back at around $800. Uh not this season NO. I happened to be describing our sprinkler problem with some ladies in the ward, and one of them went home and talked to her husband and their neighbor about it and they said they could come over and help us. So I told Kyle to talk to them and set up a time. YAY! Well they came over on the week before took a look at it, and said that they have the parts we need minus a couple and came back to fix it. So now the pipe goes straight across, and we can run our sprinklers! So now we just need to get the flower bed patched up a bit, and next spring we can move forward with the other improvements to the sprinkler system. YAY we have water! 😀

We also went to Kyle’s mom’s house to pick peaches. The poor tree is in sad condition. A branch fell off earlier this year, and there is another branch that I guess became so heavy with peaches that the branch curled around and was touching the ground. Kyle’s mom thought that that branch had snapped too, but it’s actually still attached to the tree. It will most likely need to be cut off before next season though, a tree is just not supposed to have a branch that curls that way. The kids had fun picking grapes while Kyle and I picked the peaches. We got a large box full of peaches from that tree.

September 9-We went to Uncle Aaron and Aunt Linda’s to pick peaches from their tree. They had been praying about who to share their peaches with, then they got the message from Kyle asking if they had any plans for their peaches. 🙂 So we went over and filled 5 more boxes with peaches. So between the two trees this is what we got-approximately 161 pounds of peaches:

While we were there Aunt Linda offered to give Ethan a haircut while we waited for Kyle to try to fix their computer. Surprisingly Ethan AGREED and he actually LET HER!!! Can you tell I’m shocked?! This kid does not like it when Kyle tries to cut his hair. He’s very touchy about his hair, and when she finished he said “I always want you to bring me here for Aunt Linda to cut my hair. She’s FAST!” Well I’m just in shock.

September 11-The fence people came over and installed the posts for our fence. I’m SOOOO excited. I’ve been wanting a fence ever since we moved in almost 5 years ago, and the construction trucks kept driving through our backyard (ya we still have puddling problems because of that…) Well finally, with Kyle working 2 jobs, we’ve paid off most of our debt (can’t honestly say we are out of debt because we have one car loan left to work on) and have been upgrading the backyard this year, and after lots of saving we finally have the money to get a fence!

I also started canning the peaches. I would have started earlier, but since one of my callings is as the mini-class canning teacher I wanted to give anyone that was interested a chance to plan on coming over to can with me. Well let’s just say that from the 11th through the 16th I canned all of these peaches by myself with a bit of help every now and then from Kyle. Jars of peaches, peach pie filling, peach puree, peach jam, and peach syrup. YUMM!

September 13 & 14-We celebrated Dinah’s birthday on Sunday even though Kyle would actually be home on her birthday which was Monday. My little girl turned TWO!

Me: “Dinah, How old are you?”

Dinah: “Free”

Me: “No you’re two”

Dinah: “Nut huh!”

Why is it that little kids are always trying to be older than they are, and adults are always trying to pretend that they are younger????

In decorating Dinah’s cake I went to the pantry to see what I could use. I saw the box of jujubes and it was open. Hm. I pulled it out and started using it. When asked if he had opened the box, this is the face I got:

What do you think?

Dinah’s 2 year check-up was on Monday. She weighs in at 24 pounds (four pounds more than when she was 18 months). YAY, she’s growing!

September 14 through 19-Kyle took the week off to stay home and help me TRY to get the house in order. He had to work Blue Host a couple of nights, but he was home the rest of the time.

September 15-I ran out of lemon juice in canning so many peaches that to be able to continue I needed to go out and get some more. I was also very low on sugar, so after getting Ethan and Tyra off to school, off I went to go shopping. I went to maceys, and got the needed items, and a few other things to add to our food storage, and to try out. Then I went to wal mart and got some storage buckets to organize the girls clothes. I currently have their clothes in larger buckets, but each bucket has several sizes in it, and I HATE getting the next size out (I can never find all of the clothing that size) and I HATE putting the stuff they’ve outgrown back in, because I need to figure out how the size that I’m putting away fits in there with the stuff that’s already in there. So my method of clothing rotation is a mess. And getting rid of everything and just buying new for each kid, just isn’t an option. We are not made of money, so having the buckets of clothing around is helpful to the budget. (Not to mention that some of their clothing is stuff that I wore when I was little, so some of it’s sentimental too). So, I decided that I needed smaller buckets, and would put one size in each bucket (yes I realize that that’s a lot of buckets, but in theory it’s going to make my life easier) and I’m a matching person, so I want all of the girls clothes in one color, and all of the boys clothes in another color (boys clothes will be a future project). So at wal mart I got 10 buckets for organizing the girls clothes, and there are currently buckets and clothes all over my house right now.

The guy from our ward that tilled our yard earlier this season came back to finish the last little bit today. YAY!

Kyle and I decluttered our porch. It had just been collecting things that needed to be cleaned, or that needed to go to the backyard, and the salt that needed to go to the basement. So the focus was cleaning it up and sweeping it off. Sigh, it’s so nice to walk up to the house, and see a clean porch. Now if only I can get to those weeds in the flower beds……

September 16-I spent the whole day finishing up the canning of peaches, and finished just after 4pm, then I had to hurry and change so that Kyle and I could go fill a stake sealing assignment at the temple at 5! Talk about pushing it. Kyle had arranged for a young woman from our ward to come over and watch the kids for us, so off we went. And while we were gone, the kids had tons of fun with Madison. They just LOVE her, and they are constantly asking me when I’m going to leave so she can come over again. Hm is that a hint?

September 17-The focus was the entry way. It’s lots better now, but the coat closet is still a nightmare.

We also went to our ward temple night. Debby came out to watch the kids for us, and she brought her friend’s 2 year old, Brianna with her to play with our kids. So we were actually leaving her here with 6 kids aged 6 and under! But it was good, and it was so nice to sneak away from the world 2 days in a row to go enjoy the peace of the temple. I definitely need to make a point to go more often.

September 18-We had a garage door opener installed! Yay! Our house is becoming more modernized! And Kyle and I went out and chucked a whole bunch of stuff from the garage. Old styrofoam pieces from random packaging, broken boxes, packing peanuts mingled with cat fuzz, an old rug that was just nasty, and other random stuff. We FILLED one of our two trash cans. And now we can park our bikes in the garage.

The fence guy came back to finish our fence too! Isn’t is beautiful?

Well actually it just looks like a fence, but now I can send the kids out to play and not worry about them running off! Chewy I still need to worry about though. The stinker dog went out into the yard, and not 10 minutes later we noticed that he was gone. He found a spot where the dirt was lower and he snuck under the fence to go visit the neighbors dogs.

September 19-We woke up this morning to the kids jumping on us in bed, so I rolled over and said ‘get dressed and go play outside’ 😀 Yay we have a fence and I can say that. When Kyle and I got up we got dressed and went outside too. And after consulting a gardening book of mine, we decided that 2 of our watermelons are ripe and ready to pick. We picked the small one today, a sugar baby watermelon, and decided that we would pick the second one for dinner on Sunday. And since the watermelon was the plant Ethan picked for the garden this year, here he is showing off his first harvested watermelon:

After nap we went out to do some shopping to get some random items for household projects: lubricant for the garage door, more paint for the bed frame, spikes to hold weed block in place, a bucket for backyard toys…..Then we went to see Up, at the dollar theater in American Fork. I think the last time we actually took the kids to go see a movie was when Disney’s Cars was in the theaters. It’s been such a long time. It was such a cute movie, and the kids were mostly behaved. I nursed Chloe to keep her quiet, and Kyle tackled keeping Dinah quiet and in her chair. And Ethan, Tyra, and Jeremy just sat there watching the movie occasionally whispering to us to ask for some more candy. 🙂

Ya so life has been crazy lately and I’m SURE I’m missing something in this post, but it’s long enough already. 😉