Way to go Dianna!

Our neighbors are chain smokers. Well, not all of them, but most. This darling lady...

Dianna, managed to quit smoking while living with all these smokers-including her spouse! We all got together to BBQ & celebrate a whole year of being smoke free. I made a cupcake tower & the goodies to go on it. Good times.






What else says "smoke-free" but a NPD temporary tattoo? :)

Broken Heart

On Aug.2 my dear friend, Lindsey, lost her mother. Kris was a mom to so many, myself included. Nurture, support, encouragement, those were just her way. She was the sort that always made you feel better about yourself when you were in her presence. Beautiful. Generous. Gone too soon. http://www.legacy.com/IdahoPress/Obituaries.asp?page=lifestory&personid=131262690

There is a lot of grieving going on in our community, amidst birthdays & summertime visits from friends. This is the bizarre mix of life that we are experiencing. I want to feel through it all, though. To stay away from the pull to numb out. There is this great idea I have grabbed onto about not wasting your pain.

"Everyone says love hurts, but that isn't true. Loneliness hurts. Rejection hurts. Losing someone hurts. Envy hurts. Everyone gets these things confused with love, but in reality love is the only thing in this world that covers up all pain and makes someone feel wonderful again. Love is the only thing in this world that does not hurt." unknown

Falling in love all over again...

As much as I adore these 4 children, Matt & I relished every quiet moment away from them last weekend. Thank you Mom & Ken for caring for the boys while we played!

My Uncle Mark hooked us up with a company condo in Bellevue, near Sun Valley, at an irresistible price. This left us with more money for REALLY GOOD FOOD. And that is what we did, eat, all three days worth. There are no pictures because we were too busy eating REALLY GOOD FOOD.

This is where the love part comes in. Matt continually surprises me on our dining adventures with what he is willing to try. We made the drive up in time for lunch on Friday & found a spot in Ketchum called Glow. All organic, all vegan, & mostly local, place to eat. You have to understand that Matt & vegan in the same arena will always take my breath away! Not only was he excited to try this but he was enthusiastic about all the new textures & flavors when the plates of coconut meat, lentil toast & squash pasta actually arrived at the table! It is one thing to look at a beautiful menu & posh design of a place but to actually put this in your mouth! It was all good but mostly new tasting. Ahhh...this was going to be really amazing weekend.

After being sufficientely cleansed at Glow, we wandered to Leroy's Ice Cream & botched it all. 2 big scoops for both of us. Matt was left out in the cold with his poor choices in flavors. ( Cookies & Cream? Really?) But I hit the jackpot, Toasted Coconut & Lemon Bar. Ohhh, baby, top 10 of all time, for sure!

That night we went to Globus. This was a bit sentimental for me because my first job was at the Globus in Boise, when it was still open. The Ketchum Globus brought back all those sweet memories & man, was it tasty! By far the stand out there was the vegetarian Pad Thai, they do it right. We are still waiting for a worthy Pad Thai near Boise, this one put the Treasure Valley to shame.

Rolling out around 11 am, yes! I love my long lost friend... SLEEP! I was hoping for breakfast but afraid I would have to settle for early lunch when we stopped at Papa Hemi's. And we were glad we did. I had an amazing monster-sized apple pancake, the kind that is so good you want that big a portion. Out doing myself, I even sampled Matt's trout & grilled veggie omlet with goat cheese. Ten pounds? SO WORTH IT! When we were done we were asked if we wanted to try a fried Twinkie. (?)

We had an early dinner at Rickshaw, this was all Asian tapas. You were supposed to order at least 2 of their small plates per person so we got to try a lot of yummy new things. Matt's favorite was the Bok Choy. Who is this guy? I am seriously SO IN LOVE. He is busy trying to re-create this at home, he loved it that much.

Dessert at Vintage, the most romantic place ever. I am not the sappy sort but this place had me swooning. Music , lighting, even the desserts had names that were embarrassing to say. The best part about any of these places was that, except for Globus, we just stumbled across them. My Aunt Lisa said we managed to find some of the local's secret spots, all by accident!

In a spontaneous moment without kiddos, we caught the late showing of The Ugly Truth. Mostly ugly, very little truth. I want to like Katherine Heigl but she surrounds herself with idiots on screen, after awhile I just think she is the idiot.

Not wanting to leave, we had lunch at Kethum Burritos. This did not help, their fish tacos were delish. But alas, we headed back to reality... with very full bellies.

One more thing, we stopped in Mountain Home for something to drink on our way back & I caught Matt getting a sandwich at ARBY"S!!!!!!! What? There's the man I know & love.

Which Crayola are you?: Crazy Yellow!

I just took the "Which Crayola are you?" quiz and got: Crazy Yellow! What about you?

They SO got this wrong, the answer is always PINK!!! Hot pink, pale pink, whatever, but always PINK! Also, I have heard that yellow is the hardest color for the eye to process...GREAT!

So much to Blog....

Karl visited! Karl was the only nice kid when I joined FBC youth group in 7th grade. He was my friend long before Matt & Kelly claimed him for their own. Yes, I hold tightly to this because most of the crowd we used to hang with were Matt's friends 1st & I was Matt's girlfriend.

There was no alcohol involved here, just Ginger Beer. A drink that I thought the boys would love when we visited Bar Grenika downtown. I was wrong. They did not like much about this Basque treasure, oh well, more date night deliciousness for Matt & I!

Karl was in town with the Air Force & stayed at the Grove Hotel. The boys swam in the pool & we had another excuse to visit our new favorite downtown sweet spot, Ben & Jerry's! I still cannot believe we have one so close. We are going to be SO fat! (& happy!) Karl's 1st ever job was at Idaho Pizza Company so we ate there too. Much more enjoyable for the boys who bled Karl dry for quarters at the end of lunch. Somebody who owns those vending machines should thank him.










Matt & I also got away for a weekend in the Ketchum area. A big post to come on that. We were having way too much fun relaxing to take any pictures but I did get this trunk at the thrift store. So cool, huh?



And the kitchen makeover continues.... This is our cabinet face lift in process. Go Matt!

The Haircut

I decided to share more on the haircut or shall I say haircuts? Does anyone else see it? I get layering but I have 2 different haircuts!

There are a number of things going on here, the first is that 2 decades into my life, I all of a sudden have curly hair. (?) This is how I have avoided the haircut nonsense, I just clump it all into a wavy mess. Childhood issues are at work too, I cut off all my hair 3 years ago and have been growing it out ever since. I loved it short and felt really free but the childhood message is basically this: Long hair= Beautiful, feminine, better person. So you can imagine how tortured my short hair person self was! But everyone has been supportive of my neurotic hair drama and I have received some great tips too.

I have boiled it all down to this: (which I totally stole from this cool lady who has the BEST blog ever and who I totally blog-stalk, I have never met her but my real life friend Staci has & again, she rocks.)

The 5 stages of Bad Haircut Grief

Denial- This isn't happening! I just found this great stylist that listens to what I want and works at the nicest (read; MOST EXPENSIVE) salon in Idaho.

Anger-Why is this happening? I just paid up the rear for you to destroy my self-image for years, well, 6 months at least!

Bargaining-I promise Lord that I will not be so vain & trivial, please let me wake up & this never happened.

Depression-Fine, whatever. I don't really care about hair, I should just let it all fall out or shave it off & be done with it.

Acceptance-Okay. I am ready to start the search for a stylist that does what I want & not what she wants. But it will definitely not be at the swanky, "we know better than you," salon!

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." Anais Nin

Tales from the Crypt

Here is the set up, Matt is driving our van with all 6 of us in tow, at 4am. He says to me, "Just wait until you blog about this!"

Matt is taking some time off this week so we decided to go camping. We headed to Grimes Creek, just an hour away, with visions of reconnecting as a family. You know how they say you'll laugh about that later? We are hoping that is true. Let me just sum up the highlights:

As we are setting up the tent we discover an ant infestation. Not anywhere else, just in the only spot you can set up a tent.

Kaleb finds a mason jar, perfect for bug collecting and carries it into the swimming hole where Parker & Aden are swimming. You guessed it, it shatters, broken glass all over the bottom of the water.

I put together cowboy dinners that were going to be so fabulous but, fearing that we would open them and find raw chicken, left them in the fire too long. Burnt and inedible.

I lifted Kaleb's shirt off to apply sunscreen & found huge skin blisters from the day before. He is sore but fine until he sees them, cue meltdown.

The boys managed to avoid he broken glass in the creek & the many fish hooks we found there, only to cut their feet on thorns and sharp rocks. I do not even know why we have water shoes.

And the final blow, we awoke at 2:30am to Aden vomiting. Matt has a major gag reflex so I thought I would handle it. I took a look and thought, this isn't so bad, it is just on the one blanket. I discovered that was not the case when I pulled out the blanket & large puddle rushed onto Kaleb's sleeping bag. He woke up and though the vomit was from his blisters popping, cue 2nd meltdown.

So.... we packed it all up and headed home.It has been ironic that we have been listening to the Lemony Snicket books recently. We are beginning to sense a deep connection with the Baudalaire orphans.

July Happenings

This is an update on the potty training progress. Can I call this progress? I am going to say that Collin just getting familiar with new equipment :)

Collin has been spotted on our front porch in the afternoons. This room has no insulation and horrible old aluminum windows so it heats up to over 90 degrees in this heat. My only explanation for this new affinity is that he is doing the dirty business of NOT potty training!

Kaleb's best friend from 1st grade also came over this week. They were SO excited to see each other, it was a crazy afternoon. I was hoping Joey would shoot me with a tranquilizer dart from that Nerf gun.

And, we attempted this ...

The Rodeo! I did take some pictures of the actual rodeo events but since they moved it inside the Idaho Center, not so good for pictures. It does not feel right to have a rodeo inside! I guess no one misses the giant green bugs that used to swarm the old location though. Anyone remember those?





Thanks Mom & Ken for sticking it out with me!

We are hot!

Last weekend was my 10 year Boise High School reunion. I went back and forth about whether or not to go then made the last minute decision to attend. Matt & I got all dolled up and went downtown in time to take some pictures before the big night. I am so excited about how they turned out! It was about the only good thing from the night.
It was all still very "high school," as I was warned. I did find a few old friends to be just as delightful as I remember. Also, Matt & I danced a bit, even though virtually no one else would. Uggh. I got a ton of feedback on how wonderful my husband is, a couple girls (and guys!) even asked to borrow him. (?) After spending a few hours with my classmates I was so happy to go home with Matt, reminded me of why I picked him. So happy to have ended up with my high school sweetheart!