"It was an accident!"

That is a direct quote from one of our kids' favorite books, "David Gets in Trouble."
Tuesday nights Chris takes Kennedy to her soccer practice. I usually stay home with Tristan. This week, however, we decided to go as a family. Tristan had a late nap and needed to get some running in before bedtime. That being the case we all loaded up in the van as opposed to the Corolla. We headed down the main road. Suddenly a vehicle in front of us slowed down. Chris quickly pressed on the brakes and we stopped just in time. The vehicle behind us, however, didn't . . . .
The good news is that none of us were hurt. The bad news is that the van was.
We pulled over and used a phone from the business across the street to call the police. We waited for an hour before a state trooper came to inspect the accident. Luckily I had a few pieces of candy in the van and a few camp songs in my head to entertain the kids. They were pretty good waiting that long strapped in their car seats alongside a busy road. We were so glad to be done with the exchange that we went to McDonald's for an ice cream sundae.
I've had so many "what ifs" floating in my mind: what if we had left earlier, what if I had not decided to go, etc. But the fact is, we are all ok and I need to get the van fixed quickly. Like I need one more thing to do in the next week and a half!

One minor detail missing

I guess I forgot to put why Shelby was put down. She was sick for weeks and wouldn't eat. We took her into the vet for x-rays and they found a growth in her stomach, which we assumed was a tumor. We all knew she was too old and too weak to undergo surgery, so we decided it best to put her down. We sure do miss her!

Life in Cedar

On May 8th, I went into surgery to get my tonsils out. That same day, and about the same time, our beloved dog Shelby was at the vet being put down. This is a beautiful picture of her and my Mom before they put her down. While I was in surgery, Mom left the hospital to go be with Shelby while she went to sleep. It was a really rough day on all of us. The surgery went fine, but when I woke up I was hysterical, which I guess is pretty normal, but the first thing I said was, "my dog is dead." :( I don't think the nurse knew what to say. But I had a very sweet nurse that took care of me before and after surgery, Mom says I wanted to take her home. HeHe. I was pretty out of it for a while. But I'm finally recovering, slowly.
Last Thursday was Mary's graduation. As you can imagine, it was a rough day for me. But through the tears and smiles, I made it. I'm very proud of my adopted sister, convert, Mary. Grandma and Grandpa drove over for it which meant a lot to her. Grandma made her a beautiful quilt that she carries everywhere with her like a baby blanket. But as for me, I'm going tomorrow to register for the GED test and from then on out I will work towards my diploma with the credits I have. And in the mean time I need to find a good job. It's really hard in Cedar to find a job that's not fast food, and even that can be hard to come by. But I will eventually get there :)
It's been tough in our household the last little while. With finances, emotions, illness, Shelby gone, and me not graduating. My Mom hasn't been doing the greatest with the pains in her neck and head. And my recovery has lasted longer than I anticipated. None of us are feeling too great all around. But if it weren't for the faith in my parents, we wouldn't have made it this far. My Mom has spent a lot of late nights in my bed with me when I have been crying or not felt good and I thank her for it. She has also put up with more than I think I ever could when it comes to being in pain and feeling sick. Dad has supported us 3 girls for quite a while now and it hasn't been easy for him to work full time, work in his shop, play occasional racket ball, spend a little time with us, and get a little sleep. Both of them have been so strong through all these trials and I would be nothing without their influence and support. THANK YOU BOTH!
Well that's all from me for now. Hope everyone is doing good. And congrats to Josh and Derek on graduation

The annual pancake fest

We pulled it off again. This year we served 53 friends and neighbors. That took 14 times the buttermilk pancake recipe, two pans of oven omelette, 96 link sausages, one half gallon of whipping cream (with some left over) and 8 pounds of strawberries. New items this year: chcolate milk, one gallon devoured, and holiday syrup, which earned raves from those who tried it.
I thought I'd include the details so you'd know if you ever tried it yourself and so I'll know next year when I'm trying to remember how many times to do the recipe.
We had a few mishaps, which began the night before when Jeff realized the garbage disposal doesn't do well with 36 egss shells. We ended up with a clogged sink. Then, because water was spurting out the side of the disposal, he discovered a crack in the casing. Looks like we'll be getting a new one.
We awoke this morning to find that contrary to what we thought, the sink had not been unclogged all the way the night before. The dishwasher hadn't drained properly. Jeff had to bail it out and plunge the clog out of the sink, all while we were trying to get breakfast ready. Then the microwave suddenly died. Also, it was pouring rain, so our spillover seating--patio and picnic table--was unusable.
Despite all that, we ended up having a great time. Also, the food was yummy. Here's the oven omelette recipe for your own enjoyment.

Oven Omelette
1/4 cup utter or margarine
1-1/2 doz eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
6 oz grated cheese
1 lb sausage or 8 slices bacon or 1/2 lb ham, diced

Preaheat oven to 325. In a 9 x 13 pan, melt butter. Beat eggs, add sour cream, milk and salt. Stir in cheese, and bacon or ham. If using sausage, arrange evenly after pouring mixture into pan. Cook in oven 40-45 minutes. Serve warm. Makes 12 servings.

Last Hurrah!

This weekend is our official "last hurrah" before the baby comes. Next weekend Chris will be in Tennessee taking his final board exams and the weekend after that is when Mom comes to town.

So what did we do? We took the kids camping. This was Tristan's first time camping and with his latest sleep issues (waking up at 5:30 AM) I wasn't sure how fun it would be.

We picked up Chris from work early Friday afternoon and headed to Falls Lake where we hoped there would be a camping spot left for us on this holiday weekend. Fortunately, there was. As soon as we opened the van doors the kids were ready to start exploring. Tristan, especially, was excited, jumping up and down and shouting "hurray!" I was glad to hear such shouts of jubilee because all week long I had been trying to prep him for the trip by telling him we were going camping and we were going to sleep in a tent. The reply was always, "NO camp!, NO tent!"

One problem we encountered was buying some wood for our campfire. Our grocery store had bundles all winter long but now, when I needed it most, it was gone. I tried a woodcutting business down the road but they didn't have any split wood and the person who owned the business wasn't there. His mother was nice enough to give me some rotten wood for free but we couldn't get it to burn. When we got to our campsite there was a list of local vendors who sell firewood so I went to the closest one and not only had the name of the company changed but they no longer had firewood either. Bad luck. Chris ended up going to Food Lion for charcoal briquettes. Finally at about 8:30 we were ready to eat. Tinfoil dinners. Yum!

We kept the kids up way to late--until almost 10 p.m. but we all went to bed together and all fell asleep pretty quickly--even Tristan. As campgrounds go, though, I was awakened shortly after midnight by another camp's crying child, talking children, barking dog, you name it. It was a pretty happening place for midnight. I meant to take some earplugs because I knew things like that would keep me awake. Between campground noises, the noises in our tent (Tristan woke up a few times and I had to comfort him), getting up to go to the bathroom and the rain I got a grand total of three hours. Tristan woke up with the birds at 5:30 AGAIN. The rest of my family, however, slept pretty much all night. We were pretty tired today though.

After breakfast we had a little rest in the tent while it sprinkled outside (what's camping without a little rain?). Then we went to the beach and let the kids play on the playground. We decided we had better pack up so we could get home in time for naps. It was a short camping trip and I'm sure I/we put in more hours preparing and cleaning up than we actually camped but it was so much fun and I'm glad we did it.

(This is the position he usually assumes at home while playing with cars. Notice he is using a pinecone, driving it back and forth.)

Upsidedown tomato

There is definitely an advantage to having your tomatoes planted in a bucket. With freezing temperatures for the past two nights, the little varmit would have been dead on the vine. But we just hung it in the shed over night to keep it's little britches warm and now it's back in the sunshine.

Annaliza

We are still helping our little Annaliza to become a nurse. Today I received an email from her asking for tuition for the next semester. The dollar is down in the Philippines so it is costing us more and more to help her. However, we are determined to finish what we started. She is now in her third year, 1st semester. She was so excited. This year she gets to wear a white uniform. She doesn't speak English very well and has to have the help of her father sometimes to tell her the words to use when she writes her emails. At the end she said this, "We are all still active in the church. My father is now a bishop pric. That means he's first counselor to the bishop". That was our first good laugh for the day. We love our little Annaliza and hope she will be successful in her studies so she can become a nurse.

Plant your Tomatoes upside down

I was fulfilling my assignment today, dutifully visiting the sisters on my beat. We visited with Gloria Murdock for the usual hour then left in a hurry to catch the next sister. Dr. Murdock was in the front yard as we left the house and he had a funny looking contraption hanging on a wire rack and it had a tomato vine hanging out of the bottom. "What in the world?", I ventured. Then he began to tell me that this was the latest strategy--to plant your tomatoes in a bucket with a hole in the bottom and make it so the little varmit can grow upside down. "Why?" Well, he said it works and would I like a bucket? "Sure, I'll see if I can get Merrill to plant one." I brought it home, Merrill laughed, but he went right down to Kerksiek's and bought a couple of tomato starts and tonight we have an upside down tomato hanging from the carport. I'll let you know how it progresses.

Strawberry Romaine Salad I

I harvested a romaine lettuce from my garden this week. This is the recipe I used to make a salad. It was very good so I thought I would share.
Strawberry Romaine Salad I

Toddler-Induced Insomnia

Last week I wrote on my personal blog about how our life has just changed because Tristan learned how to climb out of his crib. He's only been two, what, a month? It's like the minute he turned two he turned terrible. I guess that is the reason for the name "terrible twos".

So little did I know what I had in store for me this week. The second night after Tristan learned a new trick I was visited at 3 a.m. by the little guy. From that point on I received a visit about every 20 minutes until I finally gave up at 6 a.m. and just let him stay in our room. I was so tired and upset and the tears just flowed down my cheeks. "I can't be up all night with a newborn AND a toddler". The day continued and I had to go to a dentist appointment which meant that we would be away from the house and his bed, in case he wanted to sleep. I had to leave my kids with a friend and luckily he did ok. I was surprised.

Chris and I discussed the problem and decided that the mattress needed to be on the floor and that Tristan would no longer sleep in the crib. We would leave his door open a crack if he stayed in bed but close it if he got out and came out of his room. Luckily he hasn't learned how to open the door yet or I would be toast because so far the system seems to be working. Tristan doesn't always like going down for a nap but he is getting used to his new sleeping arrangements. He does still try to rebel a little though.

The other day he had a few 5 minute cat naps in the car but was tired enough for a nap. He cried for a few minutes after I closed his door but settled down, played for about a half hour and then fell asleep. What does one play in a room with a crib and a dresser? Just take a look at the picture below.

I guess he prefers sleeping on the floor because he moved his mattress himself. You can't really tell but that is a whole container of wipes on the floor that have been pulled out one by one.

Beaver keeps changing

As I stand at the quilting maching, sometimes staring out the window, I see activity across the street that leaves me to believe that Beaver will no longer be the same. No 1: Carmen's beautiful little shop has closed it's doors and has now become a vacant building. The gal who bought it from Carmen has decided that she wants to be a stay-at-home mom so she sold her stock to Scott Robinson (Beaver Drug) so if you want to buy flowers, try the pharmacy! On the other hand, the building next door is getting some renovations. The marque boasts the new name, "Main Street Theatre". I see carpenters tearing out rotten boards and plastered walls. Soon we will be able to see a movie there (if they ever show anything worthwhile). The new owner is Scott Fotheringham. Next door to Patches and Pieces, Cub Enterprises has established their copy business. Several doors down from that is the new Beaver County News. (Yes, the Beaver Press has some competition). This paper supplies a free copy of the paper to every resident of Beaver County, plus Cove Fort and Brian Head. For this reason, they have some very good support in the advertising business. The next big venture is the change of ownership at Fish Lake Lumber Co. It now belongs to the Robinson Corporation. Matt will be running the business in their behalf. Lynn Anderson will stay for a couple of years to help him learn the ropes. And, of course, you all know about the new Dollar Store. It's a mini Wall Mart and very well supported. If you can't find what you want, you can always go back to the Beaver Variety. Oh yes, I forgot about Rowland Yardley. You can now find bottled Beaver water on the market. Rowland is the one to profit from this venture. Are we progressing or what? Slowly, I hope!

Silence

The silence has become deafening. I had to write something. I'm sure you're all caught up in busyness like we are. Here's a summary of the goings-on in the Randall house.
School: It seems to be ramping up before it winds down. Lots of projects, tests, etc. For example, Tamsyn has to make a "Rube Goldberg" device. If you haven't heard of him, he's the guy who uses multiple simple machines to do a task. She's trying to pop a ballon and to do so will use the marble ladder, a pulley, dominoes, and a pinewood derby car with a pin on it. This all has to be set up and a successful attempt filmed before Monday. Josh, on the other hand, has been deep in AP testing. Three down, two to go.
Sports: I guess there's really only one sport going on in the family--unless you count watching Jazz games--and that would be Josh's track meets. We spent all of last Saturday at the BYU Invitational. Yesterday and today the region meet is taking place. He did well enough yesterday to make it to the finals this afternoon in two races, the 110 hurdles and 3o0 hurdles. That last one was a spur of the moment thing. This is the first time he's run it this season. I think the coach asked him to do it for possible team points. Josh was suprised by the results.
Church: I've been busy with ward conferences since January. We also had a training meeting in Salt Lake before General Conference, which made us want to go out and retrain all of the ward presidencies. We have a big Stake activity coming up next weekend, a Humaniatrian Aid Day, which will include projects and a speaker: Liz Lemon Swindle. We're excited about it. A lot of work to do still.
Work: Jeff takes off for a few days in New York next week. I don't enjoy having him gone. The frequent flyer points are nice, though.
Well, that's it for us. How about the rest of you?