Sorry, No Pictures

I have taken pictures today to put on the blog, but it is too late, I will do it tomorrow.

Sports Update:
Quinn won his soccer game
Kylie won her Softball game (14 to 5!)
Zak and Quinn won their basketball game
Kylie did well in tennis

So, I guess we are all WINNERS!

In Other News:

• Video - we watched Body of Lies tonight. Leonardo DiCaprio and Russel Crowe. It had such potential, but just missed the mark. Don't bother....especially if you don't have clear play.
• We have Stake Conference tomorrow
• Dad mowed the lawn today
• It was SWEATY HOT!
  
• Oh, Griffin and I and later Kylie collected A LOT of plastic bottles. We will turn them in for money. It was kind of exciting, like picking up all these nickles and dimes other people didn't want. We WILL collect more.
  

Friday Night's Activities

Friday night we had a primary activity: the primary children made the families dinner, then we each family made "crest". It worked out well. Our only primary child there was Griffin. While eating our meal, we heard some funny stories:

From Scott Luna: I would like to give "Shovel Pass" a hug. I think he has Scott Luna Syndrome. The syndrome is where you start gaining weight just after you graduated from high school.

From Scott Colton: he has an uncle with Down's Syndrome....at family parties, when a delicious food items was put out on the table he (the uncle) would lick his fingers and touch everything he wanted to eat...just to make sure HE got to eat it.

In Other News:

• we have loads of SPORTS today! Basketball for Z & Q, Tennis for Kylie, Softball for Kylie, Soccer for Q
• We have Stake Conference tonight and tomorrow.
• I can't believe NO COMMENTS about the knit uterus!
• People have really got to clean up their STUFF around the house

Weird Things

People will buy and sell odd things.
While learning, searching, figuring out online today, I ran across these two items:

The first: someone is requesting a person to KNIT a UTERUS for her! Yes. She teaches a prenatal class and wants a knitted uterus. She has a pattern. It would be great if you could also make a place where a cesarean section took place.
http://www.etsy.com/alchemy/request.php?id=66808

The Second: someone I don't know, but a blog that I have visited from time to time,(Oh Happy Day..the blog) she has been making books, 5" x 6 1/2". The covers of these books are old paintings that her husband made years ago. The books are interesting. She is selling 6 of them for $81 EACH! Oh, and by the way, she has sold every one. What??
http://jordanferney.blogspot.com/2009/02/books-for-sale.html

In other news:
We had spaghetti tonight. Zak did NOT like the sauce so much. He really didn't eat much. It was a shocker.
We watched Survivor. We enjoyed it.
I made an account at ETSY. If I sell my purse there, it will break the rules. I think I will try to break the rules. Some rules are for breaking...I think.
Quinn has Frontier Day tomorrow
Kylie is making up a dance with Lydia for the upcoming Highland Oaks Talent Show

Open For Business!

If you are looking for a few Handmade items, I have the place for you!

visit: handbagsandsuch.blogspot.com

(that's handbags and such)

I have made a beautiful handbag in black toile

several baby blankets

a little tote bag

other items are still coming.

Don't be afraid to put this link on your blog! I would really appreciate it! I am hoping to get a fun looking button to share...soon...it all takes time!

Tell your friends, tell your relatives....momma needs a sale!

The Marv

The Marv just got released by the Colts. There is a chance the Eagles will want him, but I expect they are too smart to want that noob.

Review in Pictures

That's a review of things that we have seen here at the Cole house hold....

You know it has been raining; I have shown pictures and talked about it.

The other day, as I was walking back and forth (for the 100th time) from the gate to the back door, I noticed this bucket. It is FULL of rain water! That is a lot of rain. The bucket is 9 inches tall.

A few nights ago, late, around 10:30pm, Zak noticed this moth fluttering by our kitchen window! It was huge (for a moth). It's wing is 2 inches! We'd hate for you to miss seeing it, so here are a few pictures: (and yes, I can see the window is a bit dirty!)

Our last picture is of our cat. It seems that when he is ready to go outside he reaches up to twist open the door. He is so close to being able to help himself, but not quite. It is funny.

In other news:

• I made a post about the Academy Awards on our Payne site. If you want to vote, go over there and make your thoughts known!
• Kylie and Griffin only have 1/2 days of school this whole week!
• Griffin starts T-ball on Monday. He is very excited.
• No one (even me) is more swayed by commercials than Griffin. It is funny. He will often tell me things I just need to buy that he saw on a commercial. I was once swayed by the Hebrew National Hot Dogs commercial. I thought they would really be good and different. They were not!
• The Swenson's came to our ward today! They have planned this family reunion for 1 year. Most everyone came. It was fun to see them all. Anne is going on a mission to Sweden in May. They will go to Disneyland. What fun.
• The photos in this post were taken by Zak and Quinn! Quinn took the water bucket so he could get a marshmellow valentine treat. Zak took the rest.

Guitar: The Wood Has Arrived!

There on the right you will see the Zebrawood, which is what the back and sides will be made out of. I also think that red piece there in the middle will look pretty neat - it will be the bridge (the part at the bottom on the face that the strings hook into).

Odd Man Out

Did anybody read this article in the Sports Illustrated for February 16? It is a story by Matt McCarthy about him being in the minor leagues. It ends kind've suddenly. I think it is a book, and this is probably an excerpt or something. It was very interesting. I think it would at least be worth checking out of the library (when you aren't taking 15 credits or something).

He happened to play for the Provo Angels based in Provo, UT. I didn't even know there was a minor league team here. Anyway, I would have posted this in the Payne blog, but I think the only people who actually read sports illustrated are here.

Utopia News

Adults, you won't understand this post. It is for us kids.

So Steven and I decided to play the new age of Utopia just purely for 1 reason: to cause havoc. We both became the biggest in the kingdom, and then posted a message in the forums for a "hostile takeover". Then we attacked the king and anyone else who opposed until they defected. Now we're attacking everybody who isn't voting until they do vote. It is great fun. We've caused probably 8-10 defections already, and several more to delete their accounts.

We don't have many people left to attack. So I'm think it would be fun to just attack everybody until it is only me and Steven left in the kingdom. Then whoever is bigger will automatically become monarch.

Too bad you guys missed out.

Tuesday Stuff

Back to school!
Raining some more this morning.
Dad's car is back in the shop.
Chicken Noodle Casserole for dinner, (yum).

Sparkling Dinner Conversation:
If a professional sports player got to substitute in your classroom, who would you like it to be?

Names that came up: Brett Favre, The Manning Brothers, T.O. Larry Fitzgerald, Kurt Warner (and also his wife, Brenda!), Marshawn Lynch (because he is so ugly, apparently Zak and Quinn did not make that up, his ugliness is something people talk about!), Manny Rodriguez, I thought Jeff Kent would give too much homework.

Zak and Quinn are at mutual
Dad is at his bishopric meeting
Those at home will watch Biggest Loser. We like it.

Rainy Monday

It was a raining day!

Zak & Quinn: had basketball practice this morning at 8:00am. Then they were supposed to go sledding, but the weather was too bad for that, so they went to IHOP instead. Zak was happy to not have to go do the sledding. He said it was a perfect situation where he was not seen as lazy yet still didn't have to go and be cold.

Griffin: played with Vincent today. He said he had an awesome time. We had a little time to discuss things after dinner, so Griffin told us this: "There is a girl in my school class that goes to school and she goes to church every Sunday too!". I asked him if it was Megan Colton. "Yes, it is!"

Kylie: went to Lydia's today. I am sure she had an awesome time too.

Mom: I made pancakes and hash browns for breakfast. I made French dip for lunch. Then heated up corn dogs for dinner. I also made 3 baby blankets for my store! They are beautiful.

Dad: started gathering papers for taxes. He has also had odd/weird trouble with his car! He had it in the "shop" for a couple of days. It would not do "the thing"; which is just not start. It works fine for 1 - 2 days, then it won't start. It was fine for the 2 or 3 days the car people had it. Odd. Then Sunday morning it would not start. Thank goodness for the reliable green car. They are going to replace the battery tomorrow hopefully for free!

CHASE SIGHTING! Grant Jensen (Lydia's father and our Ward's Elder's Quorum President and he is a scientist that travels and speaks all over the world) went to Galveston, Texas yesterday. He spoke last night and had some time today so he called and asked permission from Chase's mission President, it was granted, and he went and took Chase and his companion out for ice cream! Grant said Chase looked great. Chase thinks he has recently lost around 8 pounds from being sick! Grant also said Chase seems happy and doing well.

Building a Guitar: Installment 1

So I've started making some jigs to help me make a guitar. I just finish what was probably my most complicated jig.



First, I had to make a circular piece (the dish). Then I made a table thing that the dish could rest on, with a dowel in the middle so that I could turn it. Finally I made a sled that just barely sits on top of the dish with rails that lower down in a subtle radius. I took the router and slid it along in order to make the radius. You can see I'm about halfway done at this point.



As you can see, it made quite a mess, both on me and everywhere else.

The radius dish helps me slightly dome the top and bottom of the guitar.

Wed - Art For Griffin

I taught Griffin's art class in his Kindergarten room yesterday. We were to use the papers they painted last month; cut them up and make a castle with those same papers.

Everyone was VERY creative and had their own idea of what the castle should look like.




















In other news:

• It is good to write your meals down on a meal calendar. It helps to know how old things are in your fridge. It also is an esteem booster for how good you are to make dinner all those nights!
• It rained again last night
• Quinn is staying up LATE doing homework!
• I FORCED myself to clean to very messy family room. I was happy when it was done. My example did NOTHING to promote the idea that the children could clean too.
• I am helping at the school today, then working on my "Store"!

100th Day of School

Griffin is having his 100th day of school on Wednesday.

He was supposed to make a "100's" project; glue 100 of something on a paper. He suggested 100 One dollar bills. I suggested Cheerios.

Here is his project.

Do YOU remember what you brought to school for your 100th day of kindergarten?

I think I remember milk caps, pennies, possibly cars.

Steven's Playoff Bracket

And the winner is......CHRISTOPHERChristopher got the most points.
No one picked the Steelers to win -
BUT Christopher was the ONLY one to put the Steelers in the Super Bowl.
Nice choosing, Christopher.

Dad and I were right on your tail!

Sunday Lunch

This morning, I woke up, put a roast in the crock pot. I have done this many times. It is done and delicious for when we get home from church.

I also found some frozen rolls (that need to rise) in the freezer. I put those out so they could rise while we were at church.

All’s well; so I thought!

When we walked in the door after church, the lid to the crock pot was not on! It was vertical to the pot. The roast was big, and as it cooked, I guess it pushed the lid up. So the roast did not slow cook for 5 hours as it should have.

I thought I would just finish up the rest of the meal slowly and let it cook for another hour, it had to be fine. The rolls looked weird and not rising. I made mashed potatoes and lots of gravy thinking that would fix anything. I also heated up some corn from a can.

The Results: The roast was AWFUL, the worst ever. It was like eating shoe leather, really. There is/was no gravy strong enough to correct that taste. The potatoes were fine, the corn was cold (why??); the rolls looked poisonous. Quinn said the rolls tasted fine, (I would NOT even try them), but the middles of the rolls were still doughy, so Zak eats the outside and plays (like putty) with the insides. I said I hope I never had to eat a meal that awful again.

Moral of the story: things can still mess up and be awful even if you plan ahead and try your best.

Soup With a Fork?

We had yummy Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner Friday night.
Apparently, Quinn thinks you eat soup with a fork; much better for leaving all that pesky broth behind.

Zak went the conventional way of eating his soup with a spoon.

In Other News:

• While playing computers games next to Zak, Griffin broke out singing a Barry Manilow song, "Can't Take my Eyes Off of You". Yes, it is true and very funny.
• Zak and Quinn are out practicing basketball with Bro. Miller
• Tonight the DVD will be Madagascar II
• Friday night's DVD was watching the recording of the game show Win, Lose or Draw that I was on. (Probably 1987). I won $600; bought my scriptures that I use currently and the automatic garage door opener in Duarte. I was embarrassingly sappy. While other people went through the "Clever on TV" line in heaven, I chose to go through the "Sappy" line several times.

Griffin's Sandwich of the Day

I guess it is homemade crunchy peanut butter.

He asked for peanut butter with peanuts on bread.

He found the can of peanuts in the cupboard.
I cut them up, put them on the spread peanut butter. It looked just like crunchy peanut butter.

He said he liked it.
Our little chef.

Soldering Anyone?

I need a little help!

Does anyone know anyone that knows how to do a little delicate soldering?
This is my car door opener. That arrow is pointing to the part that needs to be soldered down.
Any takers?

While I was out today, I got this part fixed too. It holds up a flap in the back of my car. Mr. Nobody broke it.

Free Breakfast at Denny's

Today, Tuesday from 6am to 2pm you can get a FREE breakfast at Denny's. I forgot all about it, but when I saw this LINE of people in front of Denny's, I remembered.
Can you imagine waiting in that LONG line to be seated, to wait for the waitress to take your order to WAIT for your food to come. That's desperate. I think you could go buy your pancake mix, go home, make it and eat it before you would ever get your food at Denny's.
Whatever floats your boat.

Where Have We Been??

It was Nana's birthday this Saturday. She and Bumpa came into town. If you want to see the pictures go here.

The music leading at the funeral was just fine. I was glad I did it.

Funny Griffin story:
Every Friday the Kindergarten has music time. They learn songs and do a few moves. Lately, they are learning songs from Mary Poppins....Feed the Birds.....Step in Time. Griffin usually enjoys it because he comes home and shows me his moves. Well, I guess that Friday he was not too excited to go. The 2 mother helpers took the class to the music room. After they were there, the mothers noticed that 2 boys were missing! Griffin and his friend Cole (quite the coincidence!...the name). The boys were found outside hiding behind a tree. Their teacher talked to them and told them not to do that again.

Zak & Quinn both started a new semester at school. That meant no homework over the weekend!

Kylie had softball practice on Monday and she really enjoyed it. She said she played well.

Chase sent pictures from his mission. I will try to get those posted on his mission page in the next couple of days!

We are having Beef Burgundy tonight for dinner. Should be good.