Wrestling

Well it is getting late and I am getting cranky trying to figure how the heck to upload videos with sound.  I have put Adrian's last 3 wrestling matches on the side.  2 are from tonight and one from last week.  Tonight was a little brutal since he came home with a bruised nostril and a skid mark on his forehead into his scalp.  Last week was pretty rough too.  We thought he had the kid but then his arm gets in an awkward position and he just can't break loose.  It really is hard to watch sometimes.  To hear some of the kids get slammed down onto the mat just makes me cringe.  Adrian has really lost weight and is starting to get pretty muscular.  Here is one picutre I took tonight.  I tried to get one of him standing up but every time someone walked in front of the camera.

Apple Butter

I was telling Dad tonight about a recipe I have for apple butter made in a crock pot.  It isn't quite as good as Grandma Rhodes, but it is still pretty good. I thought I would share the recipe if any of you are interested in making it.

Chunky Sweet Spiced Apple Butter

4 c. peeled & chopped Granny Smith Apples

3/4 c dark brown sugar

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

4 Tbsp butter, divided

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine apples, sugar, vinegar, 2 Tbsp butter, cihnnamon, salt, and cloves in crock-pot.  Cover, cook on low 8 hours.  Stir in remaining 2 tbsp butter & vanilla.  Cool completely. 

I usually blend mine at this point because I would rather have it smooth like Grandma's used to be.  If you make let me know how you like it.  Anthony & I really enjoy it.  Makes the house smell really good too!

It's been awhile...

Life just seems to be whizzing by lately.  I can't believe November is just a few days away.  Football season ended Wednesday night with Adrian's team taking the Meridian Middle School Championship for the 2011 school year.  They played under the lights at Rocky Mountain High School and won 14 to 12.  It was so cold that night - 38 degrees.  He was very excited.  The team was recognized at the Varsity game Friday night.  He is now ready for high school football!  Wrestling season starts Monday and he is now trying to decide if he wants to do it again this year.  It is such a time commitment.   Thursday was the first day since school started that he was able to come home right after school.  If he wrestles he won't have that option until almost Christmas break.  It takes a toll.

Below are some picutres that I have been meaning to post and am just now getting around to it.  These first few are from a day when we decided to go to the Bruneau Sand Dunes.  It was pretty hot that day and Charlie did not want to walk on the sand.  We took sleds but Anthony had a heck of a time coming down in his.  Adrian took his RC truck and had fun zipping it up and down the dunes until it died about mid way up a dune.

 It doesn't look that far way in the picture but it was almost at the top of the dune.  Not a good place to quit running!

This picture is from the Saturday we were in Idaho Falls and Gary, Adrian, & Brandon went hunting.  They came up on this cattle truck that had overturned. 

With the cold weather coming on, Anthony thought it would be a good idea to build Charlie a dog house so that he could stay outside while we were gone during the day.  He and Gary have been working on it the last few nights and have been painting it this afternoon.

This is the tree in our front yard.  I love the bright red colors. Out of the 5 trees we have in our yard you would think they would drop their leaves at the same time but they don't.  Today Gary & I raked up one of trees that is almost done dropping.  I am hoping that by having a fence it will keep out leaves of neighbors who don't rake.  Every year it seems I get our all cleaned up and then a big wind storm comes up and blows leaves all over our yard that some neighbor chose not to rake up.  Stupid to get frustrated about such a thing I know, but I do. 

Not much else has been happening.  Do you all have the link to Caitin & Brandon's blog?  If not it is on the right hand side of mine.  By reading hers you will know they came to visit last weekend.  It was great having them here.  I love having everyone together.  It just makes everything seem right. 

Adrian's New Room....Sorry Caitlin!

Now that is official that Caitlin isn't moving back home, and yes I have been hopeful the last two years, Adrian decided to move downstairs to her room.  Our Sunday project was to repaint her room and get everything moved. 

The color is called Bright Parrot.  He is happy with it.  At first he had picked out a oranish red color and it was a battle of the wills in Lowe's.  Upon a return trip we agreed on the green.   I would like to hang up his football pictures but I just keep getting told "They're FINE mom."  I don't anticipate them getting hung anytime soon!

The Girl in the Tie Dyed Shirt

When Caitlin & I were in Idaho Falls for her bridal shower Simon & Dylan were staying at Mom & Dad's.  Dylan could not remember Caitlin's name no matter how many times we told him.  He did though remember that she was wearing a tye died shirt as a pajama shirt and so he kept calling her the "The Girl in the Tie-Dyed Shirt".  Dylan was looking for Caitlin to come and and jump with him on the trampoline. In the pictures below they were taking a break and from the looks of it deep in conversation.

We couldn't leave Simon out of the picture.

The video above is of our new kitten Roscoe.  I am sure most of you have heard about how hard of a time Jake had been having for a while.  His poor nose was so gross and was not getting any better.  We came home from the wedding to a mess on the floor.  He had done this once before while we were on vacation.  We aren't sure why because his cat box wasn't overly full.  On top of the mess he kept flinging snot rockets and they were getting pretty gross.  It was time to make a decision.  We had taken him to the vet 8 times in the past 2 years and he just wasn't getting any better.  We decided to have him put down.  The four of us took him, but Anthony & I sat in the truck crying.   It was so hard.

He was 13 1/2 years old and was  a great cat for our $20 trial pound cat.

Of course we didn't wait very long to get another cat.  We spent most of the day looking for a kitten and found one later that night on Craig's List.  His owner's were moving to an apartment where they couldn't have pets and they had just adopted him in June.  He is 4 months old and very active.  Roscoe and Charlie get along quite well.  That first night we weren't so sure how it was going to go, but it only took them a day.  Of course Charlie will still start chasing him around the house every now and then . 

School is going well so far - only day 4!  Adrian already managed to be marked absent in his 3rd period class on the first day of school.  I noticed it last night and when I asked him about it he said he went to the wrong class!  He was the one who didn't want to walk around and find his classes on registration day.  Oh well!  He is playing football for the school this year and it has him exhausted & starving.  He came home from practice the other day and ate 2 tacos, a full lunch size plate of fettucine, and a ham, pepperoni, & olive sandwich, several glasses of apple juice and then an hour later 1/2 container of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  He did make A team so he is excited about that and his first game is Wednesday.

Anthony is enjoying having some time to himself in the afternoon.  He has had about an hour of math homework each day and then spends time playing with Roscoe & Charlie or playing his guitars.  Anthony is looking forward to going to Def Leppard on the 17th.  He tells us every day how many days are left until the concert.    Hopefully their tickets show up soon.  We ordered them online while we were in Logan.  We hadn't received them yet so I called on them Wednesday night and their records show that they were sent via email and had been printed off.  I told her I received an email but it was blank and we hadn't printed any tickets.  We are a little nervous now.  They are putting new ones in the mail to us so I am hopeful that they will be here tomorrow.  Gary thinks someone may have intercepted our email. 

Hope everyone has a great 3 day weekend!

Brusher of the Month!

Some of you may have heard how lucky Anthony seems to be when it comes to money.  We have a family tradition on Christmas Eve that involves stopping at a gas station for hot chocolate and a few lottery tickets for our tour of Christmas lights.  Anthony has won on each of his lottery tickets the last few years.  If I remember correctly he won $35 or $40 one time. 

The orthodontist that the kids see gives them a grade of A, B, or C on their brushing each visit.  On Anthony's visit a few weeks ago he received an "A" and got to put his name in the bowl for Brusher of the Month.  Today in the mail there was an envelope from the ortho addressed to him.  He opened it up and inside was a check for $50 congratulating him on being July's Brusher of the Month!!!  He was so excited....well so was I!  His picture will be hung in the office for a month and his name will be on the orthodontist's website too. 

Adrian came home, saw the check on the counter, and asked what it was all about.  We explained to him how it works (he is getting braces next week) and he made the decision to start brushing better so that he can have the chance to put his name in too.  Adrian barely brushes for a minute once a day so this will be a huge incentive for him.  Couldn't have come at a better time.  Hopefully he will stick with it!  Out of 8-10 years Caitlin has seen this ortho she never won once so this is fantastic for Anthony.  Certainly made his day!

A Day Trip to Silver City

Once again the weather for a Saturday wasn't nice enough to go boating so we decided to take a drive to Silver City - to scope out the deer for Adrian's first deer hunt this fall - to get out of the house.  Anthony drove us all the way there and most of the way along the mountains once we arrived.  We were surprised to see there was still a fair amount of snow in several places.  At one point we could not go through the snow because it was too deep (of course Gary had to try first though),  nor could we go around it, so we got out and walked for a little bit.  We never did see any deer.  On our way back down  we saw an abandoned old mine house and stopped to check it out.  The terrain is so rocky we can't imagine how it would have been for them to get all the mining stuff up there.  You can see parts of tracks and carts, old mine shafts, and buildings.  The one house we stopped to check out if we were quiet you could hear bubbling water.  It was strange.  There wasn't any snow around the house and we couldn't see the water but you sure could hear it.  The first picture is at the first mine we came to.  You can see the snow and it was really melting so they weren't able to go down to the mine as it was full of water.

 This next picture is just of a little waterfall at the same stop.  They were all over.

 This picture was taken just down from the house we stopped to check out.  Of course I didn't take a picture of the house......and yes we do know how to set the date on our camera

On our way back down we ended up in the middle of a 4 wheelin' caravan of jeeps.  At one point we came to a complete stop and people were jumping out of their jeeps, a lady was packing a big tow rope up on her shoulders, and jeeps were turning around, we weren't exactly sure what was happening.  That is when we saw the truck stuck in the mud with all the dogs in the back.  Not including us and the truck that was stuck, there were 8 other vehicles and a 4 wheeler that were stopped.  It was quite the sight to see.  Gary was commenting that this was totally making all those guys/ladies day.  This is what they live for.  We were laughing at all the people standing around like this was one big show.  One lady had her blanket wrapped around her smoking her cigarette standing back observing,  several had out cameras and camcorders so of course we had to join and tape all the commotion as well! It was pretty funny.  Hopefully you enjoy the video and this isn't one of those "You had to be there" stories.  First they tried pulling the truck out with a chain & tow rope, second they tried a wench, but that only succeeded in pulling the jeep closer to the truck rather than the truck out.  That is when the 2nd jeep pulled into action.  They hooked one wench through the hitch on the truck and back onto the wench and then the 2nd jeep hooked its' wench to the first jeep. Finally they had success! It is a good thing all of these jeeps came along when they did because the truck had a chain hooked around a rock to the side of him and that was how he was trying to get out.

I am not near as good at everyone else telling stories but hopefully you get a kick out of the video!

Catching Up

Well it has been awhile since I have posted anything so I figured I would just say a quick hello and catch up. Anthony has been taking driver's ed so here in just another week and a half he will have his learner's permit. I'll have to say I am not so sure I am ready for another child to be a licensed driver. He quit taking guitar lessons the end of April since driver's ed is 3 days a week. He still loves to go up to his room and jam though. I hope you enjoy his latest video. Anthony is pretty excited because in August he, Gary, Adrian, his friend Konner & his dad are going to the Motley Crue & Poison Concert. Tickets went on sale this morning. He really wants to see Def Leppard and we just need to figure out when & where. They aren't coming to Boise as of yet so it is either Seattle, Portland, or Salt Lake. This is the one thing Anthony is willing to miss school for! 

Adrian is ready for school to be over and for the weather to stay nice for an extended period of time so we can go boating. Probably won't be able to get in the water for a while though. We considered taking the boat out today but didn't end up going. As of right now it looks like next weekend might be a warm one but that could change too. Adrian and Anthony have been going out in the backyard each night after dinner having tetherball challenges. We had the same ball from when we put the pole up several years ago and it had not weathered well (probably because we never took it down) and they were coming in with bloody hands because the ball was so rough. Last Sunday Gary bought them a new ball and they are much happier. It never seems to fail as soon as you start to think that a kids toy can go they immediately start playing with it again. They haven't used the tetherball very much the last few years and the same with the trampoline but for some reason that has changed this year. They also like to drag the baseketball hoop in the back yard and put it up against the tramp. 

Caitlin is starting to get her wedding planned. It has got her stressed out already so I can only imagine what it is going to be like as November gets closer. Jennica, her best friend, got married on Thursday and we went to her reception last night. It got me a little emotional seeing her in her wedding dress and thinking it will be Caitlin here in just a few short months. These girls are still to "little" to be doing this. It isn't dress up anymore! We did find her a dress when she was home a couple of weeks ago so now we have 2 big things out of the way. The rest is up to her to decide exactly what she wants.


Not much else going on. It seems like the week goes by and we sit around all weekend trying to recoup and then Sunday night rolls around and we start to think dang we should have done something!

Kappa Delta Formal

Here are two pictures of Caitlin & Brandon from her formal last night. There were more pictures but both of them have such goofy faces in them. At least they have fun together!

A Chuckle for You....

3:05 this afternoon my phone at work rings. I hear "Mom....can you please pick up some Halls throat lozenges? " from Adrian. As soon as he starts talking I can tell he has a sore throat. I asked him a few questions and I knew he had strep. We hung up, I called the dr., got an appt at 3:45, and left work 5 minutes later. I called Adrian on my way home to get a little more info. Now here is where it gets good. He said he woke up not feeling good and told Gary he had a sore throat. They found Benadryl in the cupboard and saw that it helped scratchy throats and he gave Adrian 4 tsp. Yes, you read correctly 4 tsp. and sent Adrian off to school. Adrian said he pretty much slept through most of his morning classes! Adrian did test positive for strep and had a 102 fever. He is now resting on the couch with his Ben & Jerry's hoping it soothes his throat better than the Benadryl did. I will be laughing about this for awhile!

Caitlin is on spring break right now and she & Brandon headed to St. George. She called Wednesday night and had me Google Angel's Landing in Zion's. They hiked to the top of it. She said it was beautiful but also a little scary with the cliff on the side. They headed to Vegas today where it was a balmy 81. They are having a great time. We just told them to make sure they stay out of the chapels!

Anthony is doing well. He is spending the night at a friend's house tonight, playing guitar and xbox all night long I am sure. He is hoping to start Driver's Ed in April. Today was the last day for sign up's so we are hoping to get a letter in the mail next week saying that he got in.

That is about it for now. Life has just been busy. I have been getting to work at 6:30 each morning trying to stay caught up until they hire someone for my position. I am also doing about half of my new responsibilities in addition to what I was hired for. It has been a little crazy. I sat in on 2 interviews today and I think one girl will actually get an offer. But then she will still have to give 2 weeks notice, go through St. Luke's new hire training and then start. So in other words I am looking at probably another month. Frustrating!

Happy 20th Caitlin!

Caitlin came home this weekend to bring her boyfriend, Brandon, to meet us and so that we could celebrate her birthday. It hasn't been to much of a big celebration but it has been fun having them here. We have been just hanging out visiting. This afternoon we went to the movie Unknown and then afterwards we went to Red Robin. Caitlin loves to eat there and since there isn't one in Logan we usually go when she is here. Now she is out giving Brandon a "tour of her life" although it is 10:15 pm so I am not sure how much they are actually seeing! Below are just a few pictures. They were being pretty silly. Caitlin didn't really have much she wanted this year so needless to say she will be eating at Costa Vida for a while and she will be able to do some shopping when she is ready. Evidently it snowed 15 inches in Logan last night. Caitlin says she can't even think about buying spring/summer clothes right now with that much snow still.

Bang!

Anthony had a little free time his hand this afternoon while we were at the grocery store. Charlie was better at it earlier....this time he was exited for the food he would get as a treat when he did what he was suppose to.

Crazy Train

Anthony is really enjoying his guitar recording software. He spends about an hour in his room everyday jamming. Here is one of the songs he worked on today.



We really don't have any other big news to report. Yesterday Caitlin called in a little bit of a panic because she turned a corner, hit a curb, and put a hole in the sidewall of her tire. She needed to know what to do since she was headed to work. Thankfully she has a really nice boyfriend that came to the rescue. Brandon drove to the theater, put on her spare, then took her car to Les Schaub to have a new tire put on. Caitlin is bringing Brandon to Boise in 2 weeks so that we can meet him. She is really excited for that...but just in case any of you are starting to wonder, No they are not serious.

This upcoming weekend Adrian is going through the field training of Hunter's Ed with Gary. He got a 243 20 gauge combo for Christmas and is ready to go hunting. It was either Matt or Dad that told me he was even suppose to have a license to go out and shoot the gophers out at the airport. Adrian is thinking he would like to go deer hunting too. This will give him plenty of time to used to his gun. It kicks just a little bit more than he would like. Gary and Adrian went to an indoor range a few weeks ago to practice and had a good time.

I am still waiting to hear more on my new position possiblity. I did about 2 hours of job shadowing this week and I started to think what am I getting myself into. It will be a lot to learn but they said they will start me out slow and focus on only one insurance company recovery. I am still hopeful it will come through but until I hear the words "You've got the job" I am trying not to get to exicted, but it has been 2 weeks since they originally talked to me so I am hoping I will hear something this week.

Have a good week everyone!

Shook me cover

Below is a video of Anthony playing his guitar. What I have been told you need to do is push play on this first video titled Shook me cover and immediately scroll to the next video and push play when you notice the Shook me cover video has played to 4 seconds. The bottom video is the back track to his song. Hope you enjoy and understand the directions!

shook me_0001.wmv

Adrian Wrestling

With our camcorder that we got last year I think we might have finally figured out how to upload the videos. We can publish straight to youtube.com and then it will publish them straight to our blog. I may be posting random videos from the past year to share~mostly I know that Mom & Dad and Marilyn really enjoy watching them.

This is one of Adrian's wrestling matches. He finished the season on Dec. 8th. He was about 50/50 for wins and losses. He isn't sure if he will wrestle again this next year. There was 95 kids on the wrestling team this year so it made for some crowded busy practices and some very very long matches after school.

Anthony is having a blast with his new guitar gear. I will record him playing a song and get it on here soon.

Climbing the Hill

Freaking Cold!

Happy New Year!

Well now that life has finally slowed down a little bit I think I will be able to get back to updating the blog on a more regular basis.

Today we got up early and headed out to Lucky Peak to watch the Great Polar Bear Challenge. When we arrived it was -1 outside and the wind was blowing. The news said with the wind chill the temperature was -15. We watched people jump in and a few water ski. It was so cold and we were miserable. I can't even begin to imagine how those felt that actually got in the water. One guy walked passed us and we heard him say "That was so dumb!".

On the way back we stopped at a hill so that Adrian could sled a few times. You'll have to watch the video. It was pretty funny. He was coming down so fast he lost both of his shoes. Needless to say he was so cold he only went down the hill one time. He thinks he put Clark Griswold to shame.

I will work over the next week to get more pictures and video on here. We have wrestling and Christmas videos and I am sure more too.