Smith family reunion in Heber..

The month of July was super busy and fun filled. With the Smith family reunion and our trip to Yellowstone Park, let's just say...we are finally decompressing....

The reunion was fantastic. We spent 5 days together in a 7 bedroom cabin up in Heber, Utah. It was great! The cousins had a great time getting reacquainted and hanging out. Alycia had a great time hanging out with her cousin Dariya. They're just a few months apart. With 20 cousins and only 5 being girls...the girls tend to stick together. Our 5 days were filled with planned activities. One of them being boating/tubing/wakeboarding...My fave was wakeboarding. It was just my second time attempting it and I actually got up several times. I'm trying to convince Brent that we need to get a boat or jet skis...haha...we'll see about that...One of the days, we went hiking (which I'm not a fan of) and fishing. Alycia actually caught a fish. I'm not sure what kind it was, but she liked eating it. Her cousins Alan and Jakob also caught fish...Joseph was a trooper, he wanted to stick it out and catch one but didn't. I give him an "A" for effort.

Our brother-in-law Paul got a fabulous deal on reunion t-shirts and Brent got his slogan printed. "Heber City invasion 2009" "Keepin' it real"...

On Sunday, our nephew Jakob was baptized in the Provo river. It was an awesome experience. After the confirmation, we went to church in Heber. The time slot we went to was for the Single's ward. I was a bit nervous. Single's wards usually have a reputation, especially on Fast Sunday's. I'm happy to say no one bore weird alien testimonies. About half of Brent's siblings went to the same meeting time as us...so there were weird looks when we walked into Sacrament meeting.

There was one person that said.."you know...ummm...this is a Single's ward meeting..."

"uh, yeah...we know..." I said.

One of the girl's in our row, kept eyeing us and was freaking out that we were there. It was quite funny seeing her expressions. They were priceless...(big grin)...

In all, the weather was fabulous and everyone got along. My kids can't wait until the next reunion.

Girl's Camp 2009

As many of you know, Alycia went to Girl's Camp this year. She had an absolute fabulous time! I'm posting a few pictures she took on her adventure. I don't think I'll freak out as much next year knowing how great of an experience she had. Thanks to all the YW leaders that made this such a special event.

Enjoy!

Summer is here! Time for some drama....

June has come and gone. The kids have been out of school and I've had the chance to catch up on the happenings of their little lives. The first few weeks after school let out, the kids were so nice to one another. Well the something's happened and they now get on one another's nerves.

"so and so didn't brush their teeth, and they have dragon breath."
"so and so poked me, so I poked them back....it's not my fault they're crying"
"so and so is killing me with their death breath"...gagging sounds

I can go on for forever with the drama that I'm dealing with. I remember as a young mother watching other moms at the store. Some spoke kindly to their children when they misbehaved....some looked frazzled and chewed the kids out with no regard as who was observing...some just ignored the behavior and went on doing what they were doing...others caved in and gave the child/children what they wanted. Hmm...I'll be like the first mother...were my thoughts...

I remember thinking...I'm going to be so patient and loving towards my kids always...I'll never raise my voice to them...If I just give them all the love and attention they need, they'll never misbehave...my kids will never talk back to me, since I'm such a nice kind mother... hmm...
yeah right!

So what happened yesterday? We were at Sam's Club getting some last minute items for our trip and I brought both kids with me.

"So and so whacked me in the face"...sobbing.
"I didn't do it on purpose, I was just skipping and swinging my arms and accidentally hit so and so. It's not my fault so and so's face got in the way."
"Apologize" I said.
"So----rrrry".....
"so and so didn't mean it!" sniffle sniffle.
"so and so stuck their tongue out..."
"so and so is giving me the evil eye..."

I think this was the straw that broke the camel's back. My patience by now had dwindled.
"Fold your arms, no swinging, no bumping, no talking, no evil eyes, NO nothing! I don't want to hear one word from either one of you. Silence!"

(audible sniffles from both kids)

As we pass the little old people at the sample booths, both kids say "oooh. Can I get a sample?"

"No, you two were not kind to one another and misbehaving. No samples."

sniffle, sniffle

We pass two sample booths and both kids look pitifully sad.

"Would you like a sample?" said the little old lady with the samples.

"We CAN'T... our Mom's mean and said we were misbehaving so no samples for us."

gasp.

You would think the little old lady would have some sympathy for me...Nope...she made the "shame on you" face to ME!

Nice huh?

I guess the drama will never end, huh?

Bad dog owner....

We had just gotten back from swim lessons, when Joseph notified me that Copper got into the Nutter Butters. I was not happy. I don't like very many store bought cookies, but these are my absolute favorite. I know it's silly to yell at a dog and ask it questions. But I proceeded to do so.

"Copper! Did you get into my Nutter Butters?"

Ears tucked back and tail also.

"Bad dog Copper!"

Dog runs to the back door to be let out.

I open the door and tell my brown enemy what a bad dog he is. I feel a little bad since it's 102 by then, but the dog needs to learn his lesson, right?

I instant message Brent and tell him how bad of a dog he has. How he ate all my precious Nutter Butters.

There was a bit of a pause. I'm sure he was laughing.
"Uh, I ate the rest of the Nutter Butters. There was nothing left but crumbs." Brent wrote.

My heart sank. Poor dog. He got yelled at because someone decided to leave the empty bag out...

Am I a bad dog owner or what? So sorry Copper.....

Revenge of the Turkey.....

As many of you know, we are Arizona transplants. In Arizona it gets hot in the summer....like insanely hot...110 degrees is the norm during the months of June, July and August. I am somewhat of a bargain shopper and if I find a smokin' deal...I'll buy a ton of it. Well I found some turkey on sale and stocked up (I have a nice sized freezer for such occasions)...

I must warn you...this will be a long post and may not be very pleasant....

It was late July and I had put one of my prized turkeys in the fridge to defrost to feast on later. Well...I kept putting it off for about 3 weeks. Not good. Well we ended up not eating it. I double bagged the stinky beast and put it in the big black trashcan our city provides. The bad news about this is...they had already picked up the trash that morning and we'd have to wait a full week until they came again.
So not good...

The trashcan smelled worse as the days progressed. We could no longer lift the lid to put our trash in, due to the stench of death and ginormous swarm of flies protecting it. We ended up leaving the trash bags next to the deathly black beast. The story gets worse...


Our next door neighbors invited us to swim in their pool and bbq. As he was grilling, he turned to his wife and said..."oh man...Monica... it's those dogs again. They stink!"He later turned to us and said..."I hate those dang (edited) dogs next door!" What we noticed was that his grill shared the same wall as our black beast. We could see the small cloud of flies where the beast stood. The grill and beast were just 6 yards away from one another. All we could do was nod and say..."yeah...those dogs really stink, you have bad neighbors." (were we bad or what?)

Trash day finally came. Yippee! I thought for sure my brave husband would do the manly duty and put the remaining trashbags into the beast. Nope. He actually left early and had to be at the office earlier than usual. Who had to do the horrible deed? Yours truly...yeah..'lil ole me... I had tears in my eyes...I was scared I'd be attacked by the flies for disturbing their carcass...Oh the stench was terrible. I was on the verge of throwing up, it was soo bad. I did the deed, then rolled the beast to the curb. There were several high school students walking to the (school) bus stop. They got to about 10 yards of the beast, crossed the street, while holding their noses.
So embarassing....

I never felt so happy to see the green trash truck. Lucky for the trash man, the garbage truck has the one arm bandit...so he never had to get out and get near the black beast. The beast was now empty and would be back to normal...or so I thought....I opened the lid and to my horror...it still had the stench of death and about several inches of white maggots occupying the bottom of the beast. I screamed! (so glad no one was around)...I called Brent on the phone immediately. His suggestion was to call the city and to get that bad boy replaced. I called them and they said I could put the beast in my van and exchange it at their facility.

"Are you INSANE! I will NOT have that thing funktify my vehicle!" was my response.

Her advice "Pine-sol usually works with the stench." she said.

The first thing I did was pour a gallon of Clorox into the beast to kill its friends living inside it. Next I poured 2 gallons of Pinesol I had bought at my last Costco trip. Yeah! Take THAT beast!

Later that evening while the kids were in bed (approx. 11pm), Brent rolled the beast to the curb, put the hose in it, and started filling it with water. It was quite the site, I mean Brent's choice in wardrobe was interesting. He had a bandanna on his face to filter the stench from the beast, work boots and shorts. Once the beast was filled, he kicked it over, filling the street with dead maggots. He hosed the street until the body of maggots reached two houses down. He then proceeded to clean the beast with the additional Pinesol I had purchased. When the stench got to be too much he'd say "hit me", I would then spray Lysol in his direction then run quickly back to my safe spot. We realized one of our neighbors was outside observing us (he was on a smoke break I guess). All I could say to him was "hi" then I avoided all eye contact with him.

Well this experience taught us a lot about Arizona summers and how important trash day is to us. I can't say the beast's smell returned back to normal, every so often it would have a funk that made you want to gag. I was so happy when we sold our old house and moved and didn't have to deal with the beast another summer.

So sorry new owners....

So there you have it...this is our "revenge of the turkey" story I had referenced in a past posting. Brent tells this story so much better than I could write it. I hope you enjoyed it!

One less child at home.....

As I sit here typing, listening to our (Alycia and myself) favorite groups (Paramore & the Ting Tings)...I'm getting a bit teary eyed. When we're in the car listening/singing along it makes me so happy and grateful that I have a good relationship with my daughter.

Yesterday, my 11 year old went off to Girl's camp and will not be returning 'til Saturday. I have to admit...it was one of the hardest things I've had to do. I had to actually cut the cord...When we pulled up to the YW camp director's home I felt sick to my stomach. Alycia said "Mom...don't cry...I'll be fine...anyways...if you cry....you'll ruin your makeup....Love you Mom"....sniffle,sniffle...and off she went to join the rest of the excited girls. Alycia has never been away from me, except for the time Brent and I went to Boston and left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa. I thought for sure they'd cry themselves to sleep without Mom and Dad (this was 7 years ago)....Nope....no tears for mom and dad. My kids have never been clingy kids, at times I'm happy about that..

but not yesterday...

It was quiet day for us here at home. Too quiet. Joseph asked me several times when Alycia would be home. He asked who would play Legos with him now. I have a playdate scheduled for him today...otherwise...I would be stuck playing Legos. Luckily...I married an Engineer that knows alot about Networking...Brent and Joseph played World of Warcraft together last night...Ahh...some father and son bonding...hmm...I should've taken a picture...Perhaps next time.

Well, I didn't cry myself to sleep last night. So I guess that's good. I'm now wishing Alycia had a cellphone. It is so hard for me to NOT be in control of situations. I'm sure she's having a fabulous time. Brent has warned me that she'll be singing camp songs. That's what all his sisters did when they went to YW camp.

Three or is it four more days to go...I hope I can survive this. Holy Cow! What am I going to do when she goes off to college???

(Deep breath)

...Ahh...I still have 6 years left...

Camping 2009 Scrapbookin' pages....

To escape the horrid Arizona heat...we went up to Payson to enjoy cooler weather and fresh mountain air. Hah! And people don't think we have forests out in the desert....The family enjoys doing the camping thing (except me....Anna)...

I suffer in silence...

NOT!