Day 4...a day of "thought"~

Living in a rural area, as many of you reading this will know, there isn't alot of entertaining things to dash out and do. We have to drive for at least 30 minutes to do anything...and an hour or more to get to REALLY do very much other than go to a movie...SO we usually have to create our own kind of fun entertaining ourselves or make plans well in advance to go somewhere. I had a busy day on Thursday and so leaving wasn't really an option (plus Day 5 was school shopping and we would be leaving for that)...so I got creative and decided that we would play night games in the yard. NOW...keep in mind that I am not as young as I use to be, as fast as I use to be, or as crazy as I use to be...BUT I still know how to have fun. At 10:00pm we put on our jackets, our bug spray (with lots of DEET) and headed out into the dark night. We decided to play "Kick the Can". If you haven't played it before, it's similar to hide and seek with the twist that if your found you have to come running and jump over this can before the person counting does, otherwise you will be in "jail" until everyone else is found. Halle and I were on a team (because she is terrified of the dark), so that left Cameron and Kimber to hide. Halle and I counted to 100 and headed off for the hunt...we had our flashlights just in case was thought we saw something that we might need to check out (we are little cheaters!!!!). Now...mind you, that it was a VERY DARK night- and I AM over 40 now, (so my vision isn't what it use to be) and Halle was so scared that the BOOGIE man might come out, that I don't think she was doing much"hunting"....we couldn't find ANYONE! We walked around the house, through the yard then around and around again-squinting our eyes to see if we could catch anyone and where they might be hiding. After what seemed like a long time, we finally found Kim. She went sprinting across the yard and over the can before we even knew that we had actually found her. Cameron stayed hidden and we looked and looked and still couldn't find him. Finally Kim gave us a hint that he was up in the tree (I kept hearing things up there but couldn't see him so I thought it must be the cat)...regardless, Halle and I lost BIG TIME! After playing twice, with Halle and I "IT" both times, we decided that we needed a change of activities. So we laid on the grass and looked up at the sky, trying to find the big and small dipper (because those are the only ones that we can make out, or CARED to TRY and make out). Kimber saw fit to dump water on us from the watering can...but because we were all having a good time, we all just laughed. As we sat there and watched the lights from the airplanes and the twinkling stars, Cameron said, "Mom, why don't we do this more often?"...it got me thinking- Why don't we do that more often? It doesn't cost money, we don't have to leave the comfort of our own yard and its fun....then WHY I ask? As we all laid there quiet and thinking, he said "We should do this FUN WEEK all during the summer and not just wait until the last week of summer to do it, we should just do it ALL the time."... I was taken back by the thought that it REALLY isn't about cramming it all into 7 days, but doing little things all the time....making time-Quality TIME- to spend with my kids. Night time stimulates teenagers to "want to talk" and that's what our night mostly entailed. We didn't talk about problems, I didn't give lectures, we just talked-observed our surroundings and relaxed. It was my favorite FUN day of the entire week.

Day 3...Our own kind of FUN~

Our FUN week continues with day #3 which would have been Wednesday. With 3 teenagers in the house, we are always busy. Wednesday's FUN consisted of everyone doing their own FUN thing(...hence the reason for no pictures). There was a church activity that the kids were invited to go to. Halle was the only one that was around and wanted to go. They had a big "Breakfast" at 6:00PM for all of the kids and then there was free swimming at the pool or bowling at the bowling alley. Halle chose to go swimming and hang out with a few of her friends. Cameron wanted to go up on the mountain with my brother, Lee, and Grandpa Weight. Lee is building a cabin and loves for Cameron to come up and help with the building. But the funny thing is...I think that Cameron loves it just as much, if not more than Lee. He loves to build and to create, so building a cabin is right up his alley. I had a meeting to go to over in Roosevelt so Kim decided that she wanted to ride over with me. We went and had a hamburger at Rocky's and "people watched" while we ate. It was fun just having time to chat and talk about life with Kim. Deron stayed home and put his feet up and caught up on his TV time....you see we all had FUN...we just had OUR OWN KIND OF FUN today.

Day 2...

Our second day of fun was a bit "melancholy". We had gotten some sad and heart wrenching news that put a damper on our day....but we did the best that we could to press forward and tried to do the best that we could to get through all.

Deron and Cameron were in Vernal for the afternoon doing some things that they needed to over there. On their way home they decided to stop and see a movie together...which was fun for them...(no one said that the "fun days" had to all be spent as an entire family at home.....I guess we do what we can, where we can and when we can, right?!)

As for the girls and I, we decided that we were going to make nacho's for dinner and have a picnic while we watched

"The little Mermaid 1 & 2".

Watching those sweet films by Disney always takes me back to my childhood as well as my

children's childhood. They are just innocent and wonderful entertainment that make you forget about life for awhile... And thats what we tried to do.

I love "The Little Mermaid". When Dayna was little she would watch it over and over...I don't know if it was because she loved it so much or because we only had 2 movies, Peter Pan and The little Mermaid...regardless, we watched it hundreds of times before she grew tired of it.

At the end of the day we looked back on our evening. It was just fun to spend some time with Kimber and Halle picnicing and hanging out~ and Deron and Cameron had a good time together at the movies. It was time spent together with people that we love and thats what makes days special.

PaRTy all WeEk!

I use to look forward to my kids going back to school when they were little and took hours to entertain and care for, but now that my kids are older and they don't take as much "entertaining"...(they can entertain themselves)...I don't look forward to sending them back. Our summers are pretty care free and boring, but there isn't the stress of activity after activity that they have to be to, or homework that I have to constantly ride them about. We work around the yard, in the house and do what needs to be done, but we try to make time to play a little too. And with the summer months, its nice that we have many days a week to try and fit the fun in instead of just a Saturday. I decided this year I was going to try and make the last week before school started, a little different. I was going to plan something fun to do every single day for a week. Monday was our first big day and we started it off with a bang! We set up the croquet set and played outside all evening. We ate ice cream cones and laughed and had an enjoyable night... (we didn't even have 1 argument between the kids...woot woot!!!). The kids are looking forward to the week and anxious to see what each day will bring. We aren't going to do great big elaborate things, but just spending time together, doing something different from the "norm", that we usually do every day. I am looking forward to a fun week too. Sometimes I forget to take time to relax and laugh like I should, so this week is going to be good therapy for me as well as just plain ol' FUN....its a PaRTy at our house!!!! (at least for this week)

School Daze....here they come again~

Twelve years ago, I thought this day would never come, our last child is entering into the Jr. High/Sr. High School world, no more elementary for us. I know that we all say it, think about it and yet wonder...where does all the time go, I am no exception...WHERE HAS ALL THE TIME GONE?! It seems to travel on wings of lightening anymore. Dayna graduated 5 years ago, Todd 3 years ago, Erik 2 years ago. Kim will graduate this year, Cameron in 2 years and Halle in 6 years. It seems unreal to me, because in my small mind I'm still young and feel as though I just graduated a year or 2 ago. (like I said...in my SMALL mind~)

Halle turned 12 in May and that means....she is old enough to move on to, the "BIG SCHOOL", as we so often refer to it. She was a little anxious when we walked into the halls of the Jr. High/Sr. High School last week as we went to register her for the 7th grade. Everything is bigger, more spread out and so much different. Not only do they get their recess's cut, they now have to walk the halls where the seniors are walking as well. They will move from one class to another and have several different teachers instead of the same one all day long. She likes the thought of eating lunch where you have several choices in what you want to eat, getting to have a music class and an art class and even getting to be in class with some of her friends. So its not all "scary" to her. We walked around to each of her class rooms so that "hopefully" on the first day of school she will sort of know where she is going. I remember the apprehension that I felt when I went to Jr. High and I was scared to death. I asked Halle if she was nervous or afraid for the first day of school and she quickly told me that "YES," she was. She tends to be a little shy and anxious anyway, so I hope that she can have a positive experience and that she will make some new friends along the way and enjoy the change that is happening in her life.

A plug for "Mimi's Cafe".....

If any of you have ever gone to "Mimi's Cafe", you will love this recipe. If you've never been...you'll wish that you had. Last year my step mom and I went and tried it out when we were out in Salt Lake. I had never been, but had always wanted to try it out. They have awesome food there, but my favorite part of dinner was their "Carrot Raisin Nut Bread"! It was the best quick bread that I had ever eaten. In one of my many searches for new recipes I fell upon a copycat recipe for this bread. I thought I would give it a try and much to my delight, its a very close fake.

You've got to try it to appreciate the just how fantastic it is!!!!

Mimi's Cafe Carrot Raisin Bread

3 c. flour

2 t. baking soda

4 t. baking powder

2 t. cinnamon

1 t. salt

2 c. vegetable oil

2 c. brown sugar

6 eggs

1 c. chopped nuts (don't leave these out unless your allergic, they add alot to the bread)

1 c. diced or crushed pineapple, completely drained!

1 c. raisins (I used CRAISINS...because my kids aren't big raisin fans)

2 c. finely shredded carrots

Sift the first 5 ingredients into mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar and eggs. Stir the liquid mixture into the flour; mix well. Add the next 4 ingredients; stir again. Grease AND flour 3-4 bread pans (i used 4 so that they are smaller loaves and cooked clear through). Fill the pans 2/3 full with batter. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes ( or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.) Enjoy!!!

* If you use mini loaf pans they take about 20 minutes

Happy Cooking!

BBQ with a twist~

I told you I was going to do better this week with my menu and new recipes...and I DID! I actually made a new recipe Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Our schedules were a little crazy the rest of the week and didn't allow me to dive into cooking as much as I had planned. But I was proud of myself for accomplishing what I did (since I hadn't explored much in the cooking world for awhile). On Monday, I looked and looked all day for something that sounded good to make for dinner. After hours of searching, I finally just made up my own recipe. I named it "BBQ Meatball Sandwiches". Everyone was a little skeptical at first but after tasting them, they all liked them and even said they would eat them again.

Julie's BBQ Meatball Sandwiches

1 lb. sausage

1 lb. ground beef

4 cups of crushed BBQ potatoe chips (I am sure that you could use any potatoe chip)

3 eggs

1 t. salt

1/2 t. onion powder

1/2 t. oregano

1 t. season salt

1 t. garlic powder

1-2 bottles of your favorite BBQ sauce

Hoagie Rolls

Cheese, sliced

Mix first 9 ingredient together. Shape meat mixture into small balls about the size of a walnut. Fry in a pan with just enough oil so that the meatballs won't stick. Continue to turn meatballs every few minutes to keep them from burning. Cook until done. Drain oil. Pour BBQ sauce over cooked meatballs and let simmer for 10 minutes. Open Hoagie rolls and place sliced cheese on one side, place under broiler for 1-2 minutes, until light brown, remove from under broiler and place onto a serving plate. Place (3) meatballs onto bun (enough to fill it from one end to the other) , close and serve immediatly. ENJOY!

*this is a large batch and makes enough meatballs to fill 8-10 sandwiches. It also made great leftovers.

Happy Cooking