Flat Tire, Sophie Lubs, Promotion, Dentist, Close Call, Red Castle Run, Dance Tryouts, DIY Oatmeal Packets

Summer has been going by so fast it seems.  The last 11 days have been busy.  I haven’t been sleeping very well lately and I don’t know why.  However, this morning I had to opportunity to sleep in and I was really looking forward to it.  However, the dream of sleeping in was shattered when I got a phone call from Josh at 6:30 am.  That is never a good sign to get a call from him so early in the morning. UGH!! Anyway, I was too slow to get to the phone in time, but I called him back.  That’s when he informed me he and Daniel had a flat tire and they needed a ride to cross country practice immediately.  I dragged my sorry bleary eyed self out of bed and picked them up and took them to practice.  When practice was over I picked them back up and we headed over to the car to change the tire.  I made them do everything as I watched.  I have changed so many flat tires that it should be someone else’s chance, right?!--haha!  Changing a tire is an important thing to know so I wanted them both to do it so they actually know how to do it--especially Daniel since he will be getting his Learner’s permit later this year--how scary is that?!?!?!  They did great.  I had to remind them about a few things, but for the most part they did the whole thing themselves using the jack and tools from the trunk of the car.

We took the tire to be repaired, but unfortunately, it was not repairable.  DOH!!  We had to purchase a new tire.  After that we brought it home and I made them both put it back on and put the tools away.  Even though a flat tire isn’t a good thing I am glad they got the experience of changing one.  I was also glad it wasn’t on the freeway, but a side street with little traffic.  It’s the little things--haha!

Another teaching moment happened a few weeks ago, too.  Last year one of Daniel’s buttons had fallen off his shirt.  I showed him how to sew it back on with a needle and thread.  A few weeks ago Josh lost a button from his shorts.  Josh was struggling to sew it back on.  I wasn’t around to help him, but Daniel stepped up sewed it back on for Josh.  Wahoo!  Even though it seems no one listens to me at times, my kids are learning helpful life skills occasionally--haha!

Aaron says he isn’t a dog person, however, I don’t believe it.  He secretly loves it when Sophie snuggles up to him as these pictures prove--haha!

Speaking of Aaron, we got some news last week.  He had applied for a promotion back in April.  He made the interview a few weeks after turning in the application.  He finally got the notification last week that he got the job!  Wahoo!  He’s not all too excited to have to start wearing nice clothes, though.  He really liked his jeans, but what can you do? He will be in charge of around 130 people and be the Civilian equivalent of a Lieutenant Colonel on base. It is back in the same office that he has worked previously for the last 9 years.  That was some awesome news!

Noah and Josh had dentist appointments this past week.  It had been over a year since they had both last been seen.  We had terrible dental insurance last year so I wanted to wait for a checkup when we switched insurances.  I procrastinated and made their dentist appointments in March, but then everything got cancelled thanks to COVID.  I finally was able to reschedule them last week and they needed it.  The hygienist worked Josh’s mouth over, but got his teeth so clean.  She did tell him to take some ibuprofen when he got home, though because his mouth would be sore.  I am glad to say neither Josh or Noah had any cavities--wahoo! Here’s Josh waiting for X-rays:

 Noah chilling watching a movie while waiting to see the dentist:

 The other day I was down to only three kids--Matthew was at his Summer Program and Sarah was with friends.  It was weird.  I ended up taking them to pick up fabric for Grandma T to sew them face masks for school.  Afterward we did stop by Hokulia to enjoy some shave ice.  Yum!!

 Sarah had another Prep in the Park.  They made towers out of marshmallows and toothpicks and catapults out of popsicle sticks.  She said it was pretty fun.  One of the leaders got a picture of Sarah playing one of the games from behind--haha!

 Sarah is enjoying Prep.  She did an experiment about Boyle’s Law last week and sent in this picture to Prep to show she had done her homework.  Too bad she didn’t include her face....

I am proud to say that I have NEVER run out of gas before.  However, this past week I came pretty close to it.  In our old suburban it would beep at you multiple times to let you know you were low on fuel.  In the van the beep is so quiet that unless you are actually listening for it you miss it.  The light will turn on, but unless you look at the dashboard you miss it.  I missed it.  However, I caught it before we actually ran out of gas, though.  We only had two more miles we could have gone before I ran out, though as you can see:

 I guess I can say it’s not irresponsible--it’s skill--haha!

The van has a 21 gallon fuel tank and I put in 20.8 gallons--Gah!!  I am just glad I made it to the gas station without any mishaps!! I like to live on the wild side I guess--haha!

 Last week Josh had his annual Cross Country Red Castle Run.  Usually it is at the end of a week long High Altitude Cross Country Camp held in the High Uinta mountains all the Cross Country kids attend.  They run all week at about 9000 feet elevation and then as the culmination of their efforts they take on a 23.2 mile hike/run from the trail head to Red Castle Lakes that ends at an elevation of 11,400 feet.  However, this year was completely different due to COVID.  They had to cancel the actual camp, but the coach still wanted to do the Red Castle Lake run.  Josh wanted to do the run so he was able to catch a ride at 5 am from a friend’s family.  They made the 3 hour drive through Utah and part of Wyoming and got to the China Meadows campground/trailhead by 8:30 am that morning.  He made it to the Upper Red Castle Lake after running almost 12 miles.  Here he is taking some pictures of it:

A panoramic video of the lake area:

The runners then turned around and ran another 12 miles back to the campground and then drove home.  All in all the hike/run took about 7 hours to complete.  His Garmin watch recorded over 48,000 steps by the time he got home.  This is the 4th time Josh has done this hike/run, but the first time he hasn’t been at at least 9000 feet altitude the 4 days before the run. He enjoyed himself, but was sunburned, exhausted and sore when he got home.

He is hoping to get the chance to run it again next year, but it depends on when he gets his mission call.

The other runners that either didn’t have a ride up to Red Castle or didn’t feel ready to run Red Castle, they did a different workout that morning.  They met at Fernwood Campground/trailhead early that morning.  Daniel ended up running 5 miles with the rest of the team.  Daniel wants to try Red Castle next year, though.  Hopefully, they can camp and it will be more like normal next year.

Sarah had dance tryouts this past Saturday.

 She was number 19.  They started at 9 am and she didn’t get back home until noon.  She was pretty nervous, but I am sure she did find.  She will be on the Defyz dance team for this upcoming year.  Wahoo!

Last week Matthew had a follow up with the Psychiatrist.  She likes to see him at least every 6 months.  However, his last appointment got cancelled due to COVID.  She finally was able to reschedule for this past Monday.  Matthew had his labs drawn, but his Depakote level was off so he has to get his labs redone in 10 days.  Neither one of us are looking forward to that, though.  Ugh! 

Josh and Daniel are trying out for city youth council.  They both have to fill out an application, include a recent picture and submit a letter of recommendation.  They both asked different people to write letters of recommendation for them.  The letters they received were awesome.  I was grateful they were able to include them with their applications.  

Here’s Daniel’s:

 Josh’s:

We have been trying to do things together as a family.  The past two weeks we have done some Pickleball, had a movie night and watched the most recent Psych movie, played a rowdy game of Settler’s of Catan, gone school clothes/shoes shopping, and had a few read-a-thons.    However, the read-a-thons have been a bit difficult since we are all trying to read the same book(s).  While on our trip to Oregon we listened to a few audio books.  One of them was the first book in the Fablehaven series.  When we got home we all wanted to continue the series so we have been fighting over who gets to read the books at which time.  Good thing we have two copies of the entire series, but even with doubles there have been some fighting for who gets which book when.  Aaron got sick of hearing the fighting so he downloaded a Kindle version of the book everyone is on so that way there are THREE copies so everyone can read.  It has been comical, because whenever anyone sets one of the books down, someone is always prowling to pick it up since they don’t want to wait their turn.  Of all the fights to have I will take this fight over any others--haha!

Yesterday Aaron did a shrimp boil for dinner.  It was pretty tasty. However, our kids don’t eat seafood very often so they didn’t enjoy the shrimp as much as Aaron and I did except for Sarah.  They did like the rest of the boil, though--the potatoes, corn on the cob, sausage, onions, etc.  

Aaron doesn’t enjoy eating breakfast at 5 or 6 am when he gets in to work, but he gets hungry later on in the morning.  To try and help with that I made him a bulk batch of DIY packet oatmeal.  It’s healthier and cheaper than to buy the pre-made store packets.  To make sure I got the ingredients right, I made up a bowl to taste.  The kids all had a taste and loved it so I made up a batch for home, too.  Here’s what I put in it:

Dry Mix Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal

2 Cups quick oats (grind up in food processor to flour like consistency)

2 Cups quick oats left whole

1 Cup brown sugar

3/4 tablespoon maple flavoring

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 cup non dairy powder creamer

Mix everything together.  Add approximately 1/2 cup boiling water to 1/2 cup oatmeal mix and stir. You can adjust the measurements to get the consistency you prefer.

Here’s the finished home product ready to just add boiling water:

 One thing I forgot to add to the last post is a note Noah had written to Aaron and me.  It was a thank you note for taking him to Oregon.  It was really sweet.  He put it on my pillow so we would find it when we went to bed that night.

He even drew us playing Poker at the Poker table at the rental house--one of his favorite things about that trip.

I loved it!

Family 4th of July, New Kid Car, Sonoran Hot Dogs, Cookies, Pickleball, Prep in the Park, Friend Pics, Pancake Run, Park, Project, Baby

The 4th of July was very different this year.  All the traditional things we did like the 5k race,  attending the local hometown parade was cancelled in addition to the festivities at the park (especially BINGO and the baseball game) and the nighttime fireworks show.  We were pretty bummed about it.  For lunch Aaron did some grilling, though.  He made some Sonoran Hot Dogs.  A Sonoran hot dog is a bacon wrapped hotdog (grilled until the bacon is crispy) topped with pinto beans, sliced avocado, chopped onions, salsa, sour cream, Cotija cheese, sour cream, chopped cilantro put inside a buttered and toasted hot dog bun.  We had these for the first time when we went to Tuscan, Arizona a few years back and were hooked.  They were pretty tasty!!

Josh had to work that afternoon so we dropped him off at work.   While driving back home we did drive by the 'Patriotic Tractor Guy'.  This guy drives his patriotic tractor in all the different city parades around us every summer.  My kids love to look for him in the parades.   It was fun to see him out and about despite not having any parades to participate in, but driving around to show off his tractor.

 That evening we went over to my brother Bryan's house for dinner along with my sister Johanna and her family and G&G T.  Josh got off of work about then so he was able to come, too.  We had hot dogs and hamburgers.  We chatted for a bit while the cousins all played together.  Awesome enough their city did not cancel their fireworks show for that evening.  When it started getting dusky we drove over to a nearby church to watch the fireworks show.  While we were waiting for the fireworks to start Aunt Michonne was awesome and kind enough to share some sparklers and glow sticks with the cousins.   Everyone had fun playing with their toys:

 Matthew, for some reason, was absolutely afraid of the sparklers and wouldn't even get close to one. It was a beautiful night with a full moon that came up while we were waiting:

Since most of the different city fireworks shows got cancelled there were A LOT of people setting off their own fireworks.  We had a lot of different fireworks around us to look at while we were waiting for the Hooper City fireworks show to start.

The next day was Sunday and Aaron always loves cooking Sunday dinner.  This particular dinner he wanted to make Philly cheesesteak sandwiches.  He cooked the pepper and onions while he buttered and toasted the rolls.

He then cooked the meat:

Next he put them altogether while it was still super hot so the provolone cheese would melt.  It was yummy!

Call it a pretty good hunch, but I think Aaron really likes his Blackstone griddle--haha!

This past week I finally talked Daniel into cooking something.  Daniel isn't a big fan of cooking and if he wants something he can usually sweet talk someone into making it for him so he doesn't have to cook.  So when he wanted to cook something this was a big deal.  I found a really good chocolate chip cookie recipe for him to try.  I told him he was going to make it (not sweet talk me into doing it for him).  I said I would answer any question he had and that he should get started.  In the middle of him assembly the ingredients I had to go to the store and he called me three times while I was there asking me different questions about the recipe.  He got started and did great.  The cookies were great.

However, he got tired of scooping the cookies out on the cookie sheets so he wanted to make one HUGE cookie to finish off the batter.  He made his huge cookie and put it in the oven and promptly forgot about it.  We didn't realize it until we started smelling something burning. That is one of the quickest ways to burn 1000 calories I have ever seen without exercising--haha!  That is not a chocolate cookie if you were wondering--haha!

 The kids snarfed down all the cookies by the next morning.  Daniel offered to make another batch and everyone was on board for that!  He didn't forget about any cookies that time--thank goodness!!

Last Saturday we went and played some Pickleball.  Aaron still isn't able to run and twist with his ankle so he sat out, but took a picture. We are all not very good, but at least we had fun.

This past week we acquired a huge amount of fresh onions.  I have always wanted to try making a French Onion soup so I decided to try it out.  You caramelize the onions and then add beef broth and a few other ingredients.  You are supposed to put it in an oven safe bowl, top with a slice of crusty French bread topped with Gruyere Cheese and broil it.  I don't have an oven safe bowl so I toasted the bread topped with Gruyere Cheese separately.  It still turned out pretty tasty, though!  I also used up all my onions so it was a win win situation.

It is fresh vegetable and produce season and the best way to use it up is by making soup! I know it is summer, but I love soup during anytime of the year!  I also made a minestrone soup and a cheesy broccoli/zucchini soup as well for different dinners last week.  The kids have liked it for the most part, but they are starting to get sick of eating soup for dinner, though.

Sarah is doing a summer STEM program.  Since it can't be held in person on Weber State Campus this year due to COVID they are doing classes virtually.  However, they are averaging about one group session a week at a local park where they have a 2 hour group lesson.  Everyone has to wear a mask or stay 6 feet away from each other.  Sarah was a bit nervous to go for the first time, but she said she had fun.  They made the tallest tower they could with straws and tape to help them understand engineering and design.  Here's Sarah working on her tower:

 Sarah's friend's mom is a photographer and found a really cool mural wall she wanted to take some pictures of.  She got Sarah's group of friends together one evening and they went and took some pictures.  They turned out great!  The girls had a great time taking the pictures, too.  I am glad Sarah has a good group of friends especially with starting Jr. high this fall!!

This past Saturday was a bit crazy.  However, Aaron and I squoze in a quick date night.  It wasn't anything too special, but it was still nice.  We shared and enjoyed some sushi in the car.  Pretty romantic, huh--haha!

 Last Sunday Aaron made omelettes for dinner.  He cooked up a bunch of diced peppers and onions in addition to sausage and bacon.  He had all the ingredients  sitting close by so everyone could choose what they wanted in their omelettes.  They were pretty good!  Here's Aaron's grill surface--I have never seen him so organized--haha!

 Two weeks ago we found a killer deal on another cheap kid car.  It is a 2002 Honda Accord.

With me working, and Aaron not accessible by phone while he is at work, we really needed Josh to have access to a working car for emergencies and for his busy schedule.  However, with his driving record we have curtailed a lot of his driving.  He can only drive to work, school, and cross country practice.  We also told him with his crazy driving record he needs to start paying us the increase in car insurance premiums due to his accident(s).  He also has to pay for his driving citation and traffic school.  Good thing he has a job!!  If he wrecks this car he will get upgraded to a bicycle or have to walk everywhere.  That will severely curtail his dating scene which he wouldn't like.  Most girls don't think tandem bikes are very cool if it's the only mode of transportation--haha!  Besides I think if he got into another accident that totaled another car he might get kicked off the car insurance....Keeping my fingers crossed that we won't have to find out!!  Anyway, Josh has been working quite a bit lately.  There are two Little Caesar Pizza locations by us.  One of them had a Covid positive person so they had to quarantine the regular staff.  While that staff was on quarantine they had the other location employees fill in for them after doing a super disinfecting clean on the store.  Josh picked up quite a few extra shifts.  It was nice for him, but a pain for me because he didn't have a car to drive during this time so I got to shuttle him everywhere.  That tandem bike sure would have come in handy during that week--haha!

 I got myself a new t-shirt this week and I love it.  I think it is hilarious.  It says, "Support Wildlife--raise boys".  I am doing my best to support the local wildlife--haha!

 I heading back to work next month and am really excited.  There are a ton of back to school clinics and even more rescheduled clinics since everything has been shut down for the past few months due to COVID.  It will be a busy month and they told us to expect an even busier flu immunization season this year since no one wants COVID and the flu if they can help it.  Anyway, it will be nice to be back to a bit more of normalcy next month.  Usually at work I am very people oriented, however, driving to work is a bit different.  I found this meme that explains things a bit better--haha!  I do have a bit of road rage when I drive, not excessive, but it's only while I drive I promise--haha!

 This week I took the kids to the library and then to a park and we had a picnic.  Josh was able to score two free pizzas from his work so we were set for lunch.  I now have a pizza guy--haha!  The kids ate the pizza and then played.

 Here's Daniel:

 Matthew and Josh were with us, too, but for some reason I didn't get a picture of them.  After eating Noah saw the sprinklers were on and couldn't help himself.  That kid is inexplicably drawn to water!  Ugh.  He got sopping wet, but at least he had a good time.

 Josh wanted to start up the Pancake run again in Cross Country.  The pancake run is where a boys running group teams up against a girls running group, but they do their individual day workouts together with their boy or girl team.  Afterword they eat pancakes at the host's house.  Whichever team gets through their whole box of pancake mix first wins.  Josh picked up the pancake mixes and gave one to the girls and kept one for the boys.  It was Josh's turn to host Wednesday morning.  While the boys were out running Aaron made the pancakes on his griddle.  He happened to be home that morning because he had a physical therapy appointment for his ankle he had surgery on.  I was glad because I didn't want to have to make all those pancakes!  Here's Aaron in his sexy zebra apron--haha!  He couldn't find his regular black apron so he was lucky enough to wear this one:

The boys finished off the pancakes, but the girls beat them to it.  The girls won this round, but Josh wants to start another round soon!

Sarah had a project for this week's Prep in the Park.  However, she failed to tell me that she needed supplies until 9 pm the night before it was due.  DOH!!  Josh heard me muttering and sent this meme to me.  Ugh!!

Sarah was just lucky the stores around here are starting to stay open later instead of closing at 7 pm due to COVID.  Anyway, she was able to get her supplies so she could build her soda bottle rocket.  That was a bit of late night getting everything put together, but what can you do?!  Here's the finished product as I dropped her off at her second prep in the park two hour group session:

The Prep in the Park people took this picture of Sarah while she was at the park, too:

The object of this Prep in the Park was learning about Newton's Laws of motion and to see how far they could launch their rockets.

Last weekend Josh was with friends, Daniel and Sarah were playing night games at the park with a bunch of friends, too.  Matthew was tired and went to bed early so that just left Noah, Aaron and me. It was so quiet!  Noah loved having all the attention on him the whole time, though.  Again it was quiet which doesn't happen a whole lot around here.  It was weird, but nice, too, for that evening at least.

This past week my niece and her husband had their first baby.  We are pretty happy for them.  I guess that makes me a Great Aunt for the first time family wise!  Here's her cute baby boy named Wodin Alan Gilmore:

He's G&G T's first great grandchild and my sister, Jennifer's, first grand baby.  How exciting!