My new capris

The other night I wanted something really comfortable to put on after my shower, so I grabbed a T-shirt of Nate's and a pair of his basketball shorts. Well, when you almost weigh the same as your husband, his clothes ought to stay on you. I think I need to feed him some ice cream tonight. Anyway, Hannah said, "Wow Mom, I can't believe those clothes fit you. Except the shorts are like capris on you!" And why, Alli, do you think I need a picture taken right now?

Oh yeah!

Does the summer get any better than this? The girls and I spent 5 hours of heaven on the beach today.

Nikki-isms

Japanese beetles, or June bugs, whatever you want to call them, absolutely love the trees in our back yard. Nate sprayed for them last Saturday, and they have been falling out of the trees onto our deck ever since. There are TONS of them. The girls and I were out swimming yesterday, and the Japanese beetles kept flying into the pool. Nikki called them "Japaneetle Beetles." It was so cute I didn't even want to correct her.

And this was said at lunch today, and it proves that Nikki does have some of Nate's blood :) --
Nikki: Hannah, what are you having for lunch today?
Hannah: A peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Nikki: Oh, peanut butter and honey.
Mom: Jelly.
Nikki: A jelly and honey sandwich?

What a dad!

We had a great Father's Day yesterday. I know the girls and I did, and I think Nate did, too, but he wouldn't complain even if he didn't. We gave him cinnamon rolls in bed for breakfast and cooked a pot roast that he requested for supper. When he got home from church the girls had the living room covered with games they had set up. They wanted to have a party for him, and I thought it was cute because they came up with activities that they wanted to play with him, rather than what he would want to do. Actually, I think one of the reasons he is such a great dad is because they really believed he would rather play with them than take a nap. When he is home, he gives them all the time that he can. I love that. One of the speakers in church yesterday talked about how his role as a father has changed over the years as his children have grown, and it made me think about how Nate has changed as a father over the years, too. On Saturday I was in the shower when Nikki tried to yell something to me through the door. I told her I couldn't hear her so she should go ask her dad. She opened the door and yelled, "But he always says NO!" I thought that was so funny. Between the two of us Nate is much more likely to say yes than I am. But he has gotten better at enforcing the limits he sets, and I think they respond to him in better ways because of that. They love being with him, and so do I.

When we first moved to North Carolina two and a half years ago, it felt like Nate was put through a refiner's fire. So much came on his shoulders at one time. After being in his new job for a couple of months he realized that his new bosses were great salesmen but very poor managers, and that left him with lots of new and uncomfortable tasks that he was given little to no direction to complete. It hurt my heart to see him struggling so much and I couldn't do anything for him. But he persevered and was successful through all that he faced, and I think he learned a lot about himself in the process. He came out much more self-assured and confident, and I think it was a time of spiritual strengthening as well. I am so happy for him for all of the growth he has made, and I just hope I can keep up with him.


One of the activities the girls wanted to do for his party was play with the flubber we made the day before. Here are a couple of pictures of that.

Notice Nate's flubber in midair.

Flubber

Sometimes I blog hop over to the Littles' bishop's wife's blog because she is a neat lady even though she may not remember me. A bit ago she posted about the flubber she made with her kids, and we tried it today. It was so fun! Nate and I had a great time playing with it, too. I didn't get any pictures, but here is the recipe. I made 1/4 of it, and it was enough for us to play with. It really is neat stuff.

Flubber
Makes enough for 24 kids

Bowl 1
1 1/2 cups cold water
2 cups glue (Elmer's works just fine)
food coloring

Bowl 2
1 cup hot water (you can microwave it)
2 tsp. borax
Mix until borax is dissolved.

Slowly add glue mixture to the borax mixture. Mix well. Pour off excess water. It can be stored in ziploc bags.

This and that

I painted the baby's room today. It felt good to actually be doing something to prepare for the baby. I decided that I'm not getting any smaller so I better go ahead and get it done while I can still move. Then I took an hour and a half nap on the couch this afternoon. The girls were so nice to me. When they realized that I really couldn't wake up after about 10 minutes, they let me be. I had no idea I was asleep that long, but it felt SOOO good.

Can you get varicose veins on your ankles? I'm afraid that's where I'll get them, at least the spot where my ankles should be. They are nonexistent right now -- carbon copies of Grandma Bass' ankles and feet when she was 80!! I've never had swollen feet before, so it's interesting to me. But then, I surprise myself whenever I look in the mirror, too. Maybe I have more in common with her than I thought. =)

And hooray for 91 degree weather!! I just couldn't believe it last week when we had several days in a row of 100+ degrees. My daffodils didn't survive, but I feel pretty good that those were our only casualties in the yard. It's now perfect beach weather, and we have a day planned for next week to go. I can't wait.

Sometimes I just can't believe how good my girls are to me and how much I enjoy being with them. This afternoon they wanted me to play some ballet and tap music on the piano so they could dance. Of course I could play around on the piano for them! It was so fun to just play anything and they loved it even with wrong notes everywhere. They had fun trying to decide if they should do tap or ballet on each song. It's just fun to be with them, and sometimes it's the simplest activities that are the best.

Nikki's Dance Recital

Nikki's recital was last night, and she was so cute! I could just eat her up. She did a tap number to "Happy Feet," so her class had little penguin costumes. I thought Hannah was a real trooper to sit through the whole thing and not complain about not being a part of it. At the beginning of the year she decided to do piano lessons instead of dance, and I think she has since regretted that. The girls wanted to stay for the whole shebang, so we got home at almost 10 pm. They were so tired during the second half, but there was no way they were going to ask to leave. It was a lot of fun, and at the same time, I'm excited to have them try gymnastics next year and see what that will be like.

We've been having so much fun outside. I love this time of year when I haven't killed my flowers yet, and my trees aren't suffering from extreme heat and drought. The girls have had so much fun in their swimming pool. I tried to get in with them for a little bit yesterday, but I just think the water is so gross. Bugs, leaves, grass. I just spend all of my time with a strainer getting stuff out. They were happy that I tried, though. Nikki was the last one to use my camera which is why my pictures now have a nice fuzzy glow on them. Hopefully I can get rid of that.
We found a home for Pearl. The lady I got her from said she would be happy to have her back, so this weekend we'll be saying good-bye. This is a picture for Hannah's scrapbook. She really is a sweet kitty.

A Funny Conversation

Yesterday, as I was about to sit down at the table with the girls for a snack, Hannah looks over my chair with these huge eyes and sucks in her breath really quickly. I looked and saw a spider hanging from a web directly above where I was about to sit. Nate would have been so proud of how calmly I got a paper towel and squished it -- no drama at all. :) So then Hannah asked what would have happened if it had landed on my head. I told her it probably would have made a web and caught a fly and had a snack along with us. Hannah was thinking pretty hard about that when Nikki said, "Ha! Mom, that was a joke!" So then Hannah asked if it really could have made a web in my hair. I said probably not because I move around too much, and he wouldn't want to stay on my head. Hannah said, "No, because you like to sleep a lot and eat a lot, and you stay still when you do that." I couldn't help but laugh. She is only too right.

Baby Name

We are having the hardest time thinking of names even though we have a huge book of thousands of names. Hannah and Nikki are really pulling for Alex. I like that, but I don't think it's my favorite. What names do you like?