Ode

I like things that are on my team. My favorite teammate is, of course, Ryan. That's right Babe, I'm talking about you! But I'm not really talking about him because today I'm going to tell you about my second favorite teammate.

Kermit the Frog asks us, "Why are there so many songs about rainbows?" And I will tell you, that it is because they are so very awesome. First there's the rainbows in the sky that rock, they remind us that we don't have to build huge boats and plus they are pretty. I've even seen a couple of them lately with our "monsoon", no rain, but I've seen rainbows (sorry Hawaii!). Then there's our chicken named Rainbow, she's my favorite (don't tell Fish Blob). Then, there's my favorite rainbow of all. My wonderful vacuum.

We've had our dear Rainbow since we got Leah and I can tell you that the vacuum has been infinitely more helpful around here than the Bug has been so far, maybe in the next 8 years the race will be more even (hopefully, she's pretty lazy so far).

I had to take my dear teammate into the Rainbow Doctor this week and I'm telling you - I love my Rainbow! Apparently I had sucked up a barbie boom-box and it was caught in the hose and was preventing maximum performance. The Doc had to take the handle apart and pull out the junk, it was a lot of junk (I did brush off the boom-box and bring it home). He also spiffed my friend up with a new brush roller and rubber bands. Today we worked together just like in olden days, it was fantastic! I emptied the water out like 6 times and it was pretty yucky every time. I guess having a not working very well vacuum is quite different from having a really "sucky" vacuum.

About a year ago a vacuum sales lady came by the house and tried to get me to listen to her, I told her I had a Rainbow and she was like, "Eww, water and electricity? Hmmm." And I was like, "Yes, I am electrified every time I use my Rainbow, I am exhilerated and astounded at it's ability to clean the floors and air and trap all the dirt and dust so effectively in it's watery tomb!"

Well, I wish I would have said that.

What I got out of just my room alone!

Hot

Is it pathetic that I have been trying to rush this morning (an every morning lately) to get out and run errands before the heat of the day sets in? I just caught myself looking nervously at the clock, it said 7:45am and I was like, I have got to jam! It is going to be yucky out already!

I found this online.

• you no longer associate bridges (or rivers) with water.
• you can say 113 degrees without fainting.
• you learn that a seat belt makes a pretty good branding iron.
• the temperature drops below 95, you feel a bit chilly.
• you've experienced condensation on your butt from the hot water in the toilet bowl.
• you would give anything to be able to splash cold water on your face.
• you discover that in July, it takes only 2 fingers to drive your car.
• you discover that you can get a sunburn through your car window.
• you notice the best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.
• hot water now comes out of both taps.
• it's noon in July, kids are on summer vacation, and not one person is out on the streets.
• you actually burn your hand opening the car door.
• you break a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30 a.m. before work.
• no one would dream of putting vinyl upholstery in a car or not having air conditioning.
• your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, "What if I get knocked out and end up lying on the pavement and cook to death?"
• you realize that asphalt has a liquid state.

I didn't even laugh at these, I just nodded and thought, yep.

Missing Pickles and Sedona

We are missing one of our sweet babies. After the wedding we took a count and noticed that our Tessa had stowed away with Aunt Kate, Uncle Kent and Sweet Afton and gone to live in Utah. We will pick her up in a couple of weeks when we go up for a family reunion and boy, will she be in trouble when we get her home! Just kidding, man you guys are gullible. She really is gone, but she isn't in trouble, silly.

But she is having such a good time! Aunt Kate, the talented and beautiful ballerina, teaches at a dance school up the road and our Tessa gets to take dance classes, lots and lots of dance classes! She loves it so much, I get little calls from her throughout the day telling me about the most recent class she went to. She did have one little homesickness pitty party a couple of days ago but has since decided that she is having way too much fun to come home. We miss our funny girl and it feels unbalanced at home but we are excited about the opportunity she has to play with her Auntie and Uncle and cousin and get to do lots of special things. So to help ourselves feel better we went to Sedona for an overnighter with my parents at their timeshare. Ryan missed out because he had to work, sucker. And my Mom left the evening we got there to be home in time to help my sister Whitny deliver baby number 6. She had him at home in the tub (on purpose), she did great! And he is a beautiful little baby.So we lounged about in Sedona, we ate our breakfast outside because when you are outside in Sedona you don't drip sweat which is unique for us Phoenicians.
Then we went for a very tiny hike in the backyard, Jeffey only wanted to look at rocks and try to find creepy crawlies.
They were nice to each other.
Alana and her scared to death look, I peeled her off after I took the picture. She wasn't that high.
Fearless Leah Bug.

I did it Mom! She is such a sweet little peanut, I like her.
Pretty Red Rocks of Sedona and our funny lookin' group.

Bath time which Peter LOVES.
There were two tubs at the place and we had them both going at the same time, boys in one (except for when Pete started out with his sisters, he was so mad when I took him out but very happy to see that I was just relocating him to a different and just as good jacuzzi tub) and girls in the other.

We had such a lovely time on our mini-vacation. Thank you Mommy and Daddy for letting us stay with you! And also, the Emmons' came down from Flagstaff to see us for a little while and play at the pool, of course there are pictures but they are on my Dad's camera but little Coco is getting so big and it was lovely to see my Gaby friend again, it was hard to recognize her without her huge belly though :) Tierney and Avery are just as darling as ever, it was fun to watch them run around and play with my kids.

Happy Wedding Day!

We just got back from the temple where Jessica Joan Livingstone and Mitchell Lee Clerc (the "c" is silent, it's french) were married for time and all eternity.

Yeah!
Photos by Steve Watson (he rocks)

Giggles

Tonight at dinner Ryan was giving the kids instructions:

Ryan - Fold your arms, and until you hear "Amen", you will keep your eyes closed.
Jeff - What's "a menu".

Later the conversation turned to a recent skirmish between Jeff and Tessa and I just thought what Tessa said was funny, it went something like, "He didn't punch me on the trampoline - he punched me on the swing set!" Who knows why it tickled me but I think I was already giggling from the "menu" comment so I just kept finding them entertaining. But the incident with the punching was funny too, it was a couple of days ago and these are the complaints I heard between sobs and tears;

Tessa - Mom! Jeff punched me in the face! (lip bleeding)
Jeff - (with a completely straight face, he totally bought what he was selling me) Mom! Tessa bit my knuckle! (he had a little bit of Tessa's blood on his knuckle).

Summer Fun

Post swim team practice Sponge Bob Squarepants marathon. Good times.

Lake Pleasant

On Saturday we got invited to go play at the lake with Jessica and Mitch on his Dad's boat. Sweet.

There's the lovebirds. The wedding is in 16 days!

Ryan showed off his huge muscles and his fantastic tan
(I was kidding about the tan part but serious about the muscle part).

The kids were taught by Mitch's sister Leah who is an expert 10 year old knee-boarder. She really did a great job teaching them how to do it and they all took to it very quickly. Here's Jeffey, he did great, he could have ridden all day. He never tired of being dragged by the boat,

and he grinned the whole time.

Here's the two Leah's. Our Leah did great, she grinned and loved it. She and "Almost Uncle" Mitchell rode together later and were fun to watch.

Tessa was up on her knees the fastest of all our kids
(but don't say that near Jeff or Leah or you will have a big argument on your hands.)
She was great at it but did get tuckered out earlier than the other beasts.

Then there was me and Jessi. I liked it a lot even though I was laughing so hard at how weak I was it weakened me even more. I'm not sore anymore though so that is good.
Sunday was a painful day for me.

I like this picture of Ryan, he had fun and he is so cute.

Thanks Clerc's, Mitch and Jess for the wonderful day.
And Big Thanks to Terry and Arnon for watching Alana and Pete for us!