March Madness

When I reviewed my pictures from March, I discovered that it was truly a month of fun activities with my kids.  I have lots of pictures to share to capture the essence of the diversity of things we did.  Someday, one of my cute nieces will take me under her wing and will hold my hand until I can really learn how to do photo collages and such on my blog.  Until then, you're stuck with a series of simple pictures in the middle of the page with a little descriptive text to liven them up.  Enjoy a little trip through a typical Spring month at our house.

First, a little hair straightening and the color purple.  When I blogged about this in March, I expected the color to stay in my hair for about six to eight weeks (according to the hairdresser who did it).  In reality, it lasted 8 months before I finally had to cut it out!!!  I loved it, I might add.  It continued to make me happy every time I looked at it in the mirror.  A pretty cheap mid-life splurge if you ask me.

Experimenting again -- with garbage bags and a vacuum.  (See the post from March for more details.)

 With my mom in tow, we had a little adventure in Vernon, Utah.  Fun trip and great burgers at the little cafe in Vernon.  Yum!

 While Mom was still here, she joined us for a Derby Girls green lunch for St. Patty's day.  Green soup, green salad, rolls with yummy green spices, cookies frosted green.  I love that those girls can cook! And loved that Mom was there to join us.

Piano recital time!  They both are getting so good.

So the piano recital was our more refined side.  Launching model rockets and chasing them brings out a whole different set of talents.

And, for our artistic side, how about a little glass blowing to make flowers.  So fun and the end results are displayed at home.  I love original art!

 Congratulations to my nephew Tim on receiving his Eagle Scout award.  I should have only a couple more of these cakes to whip out for nephews.  Oh, and wouldn't it be nice to do one someday for Daniel???

Speaking of Daniel, I will never quite get how he studies like this!

 And it appears that she studies like this!  Just another day at our house doing an experiment.

And finally, a shot of the 5th grade music program - the precursor to the big Hope of America concert with thousands of other fifth graders.  She loved it, and I loved how she was right there with every other fifth grader singing her little heart out!

February From Sea to Shining Sea

February was the beginning of an extraordinary year of travel for me.  Within 3 days of the first week of February I had truly been from sea to shining sea.  It began with an awesome one day trip to Disneyland with a group of 13 adults!  Though I do only a small amount of part time work for my good friend Syd, she chose to include me in her company trip to Disneyland.  We flew from SLC to Long Beach on a 6 a.m. flight, rented a car, checked in our hotel, and were at the Disneyland gate when it opened.  We played and played until midnight then headed back to the hotel for a few short hours of sleep before we grabbed an 8 am flight back home to eat lunch with our families.  It was an awesome way to visit the "happiest place on earth."

I spent a brief 24 hours at home before packing my bags again and getting on a plane to New York City, on the other shining sea.  This time I was part of the Wilde Women take New York tour.  My sisters-in-law and I had the fun and privilege of escorting my mother-in-law on her first ever visit to the Big Apple.  It was terribly cold, but cold New York is cheaper than warm New York so we had chosen that time to go.  We had a great time!  I'm pretty sure we couldn't have crammed one more thing into those few days.  My dear friend who lives near the city drove in and showed us an amazing night for our first night there.  We had a limo trip, an incredible meal, and chocolate covered strawberries!  The next few days we also got to spend some time with my nephew Christopher who helped play tour guide.  We did Broadway to see "Mary Poppins" and "Wicked."  We even acted like tourists and did a bus tour, rode in lots of taxis, and took the subway (not without causing a little anxiety for Mom and Susan).  And for the most fun, we took a walking food tour in Greenwich Village.  Super fun and super yummy!

I learned a number of things on those two trips.  1.  Even Tower of Terror can be fun if you're with a big group of people who make you laugh.  2.  It's amazing what you can squeeze into a day when you put your mind to it.  3.  Flavored olive oil (for example, basil, lemon, etc) is an acceptable and even delightful way to enjoy olives.  4.  A great way to ease tension when traveling with family is to assign one person per day to take responsibility for any and all things that go wrong.  It makes you laugh, it lightens the stress, and it makes for great stories later.  5. Playing Where's Waldo in the Marriott Marquis at 2 am is completely immature, but worth a lot of laughs.  6.  If you get stuck in traffic (just for example) and miss a flight, don't bother with the desk agents who want to charge you a ton, just go straight to the phones on the wall 'cause those ladies are much nicer.  7.  The Days Inn in Jamaica, Queens, NY is not that bad - just in case you're looking for a nice hotel near the airport!

While I was off tripping, Daniel was busy finding a way to protect a raw egg from breaking when it got dropped.  His solution was a homemade ballistic gel just like they use on Mythbusters (his dream job).  It worked beautifully, and the egg was unscathed.  Another thing learned in February.



And, finally, the winter month would not have been complete without a ski trip with sisters and friends.  I'm so glad I finally have something to look forward to in the winter!  If we ever get snow this year, I'll meet you ladies on the slopes again!

Best of 2011

As I've said so many times this year, I was so busy living my life that I simply didn't have (or take) the time to blog it.  Fortunately, I did take time to record it in pictures.  So, now that we have 10 days left this year, I figured I could blog a month per day and almost be done by the New Year.  Okay, if I combine a couple of months, I can make it!

So, in the spirit of all of the "Best of 2011" retrospective shows and lists, I present to you my Wildelife of 2011.

January was pretty boring as January usually is.  As I reviewed my pictures, it could be summed up with fire, food, and friends.

In an effort to be the coolest parents ever, we continued to allow Daniel to play with matches........
You'd think all that snow would make things safe, but there was that time I started the back porch on fire in Kentucky, and we had to put it out with snow....  Ah, but I digress.

Otherwise, it looks like I was into yummy food.  We had a pie fest with friends (I only made two of the pies), and I must have wanted to show off the pretty platter I got for Christmas, 'cause I clearly needed to bake a bundt!

Fortunately for me, I also got in some good skiing with friends which probably helped counteract the calories from the pie and cake!

And so January is in the books!!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Wow, I'm not sure how six months passed with no blogging 'cause it seems like only a week or two went by.  There was so much going on in my life that I simply didn't have time to record it!  How sad is that?

But, there is nothing productive about rehashing all that now.  'Tis the season to be jolly, and I have something to share!

Last year, the lights on our tree died.  Dale declared early on this year that he had no interest in restringing lights on the tree.  We talked about buying a pre-lit tree, but we're cheap!  So, then we spent some time as a family brainstorming 'alternative' trees.  We decided we wanted to make our own.  We had some surprisingly fun and original ideas, but we settled on a tree made of canned goods to donate to the food bank.  After some time designing, time shopping for wood supports, and time shopping for nutritious food with the right color labels, we began construction.  It took more time than stringing new lights would have taken, but it was more fulfilling knowing where this tree would end up.

Once the tree was complete, we picked a few of our favorite ornaments and hung them around the tree.  The first few packages under the tree are a case of chili, a case of toilet paper, and some chocolate chip cookies.  Those presents will join the tree at their new home.

And so, I present our 2011 Christmas Tree - the first annual Wilde food construction!

For those of you who want to know details, the base of the tree is a 36" circle.  There are some wood supports right up the middle on each layer, but otherwise, the layers are covered with food.  It's made up of cases of tomatoes, soup, beans, chicken, tuna, green beans, a few soda waters for color, and Tree Top apple juice for the top of the tree!  Additionally there are some chocolate chip cookies spread around for fun!

P.S. Dale here. Being very unhappy with the tree photos that I prepared for Cheryl to do this blog, I had to fix up a better one and hijack Cheryl's blog to replace the ugly ones.

A little reminiscing...

June 12, 1995.  I was still on bedrest for a high risk pregnancy.  For some unexplained reason, Dale and I watched "Paint Your Wagon" with our friends, then ate watermelon.  They left.  I suddenly started bleeding.  I couldn't quite get it to stop.  Off to the hospital --again.  I had every intention of staying the night then coming home.  Apparently, something about Clint Eastwood singing was more than Daniel could stand.  He wanted out of the womb!


June 13, 1995.  At 9:08 a.m. I delivered a sweet, sweet little baby boy.  I don't really remember seeing him, though they tell me I did.  Colleen told me he was perfect, just small.  Dale followed him to the bigger hospital with a NICU.   He brought back some pretty sweet videos of my adorable little 3 pounder.



After a 6 1/2 week stay at that fine hotel, we got to bring him home -- my cute, perfect baby.  It took a lot of energy to eat, so he often took about 1 1/2 hours to eat.  That means he ate about every 1 1/2 hours, 24 hours a day.  Eat and poop.  That's what babies do best, right?



Today, my sweet, perfect baby turned 16.  He's way taller than I am now, but some other things haven't changed.  He still eats (nearly 24 hours a day) and poops.   In many ways he perfectly fits a couple of definitions I've heard of boys.  One is Boy: Noise stretched over an appetite.  The other is Boy: Noise with dirt on it.  He qualifies on both counts!

There may be some things that don't change, but then again, some things do.  He's in the middle of the growth charts now.  He's handsome with naturally straight teeth.  He's grown into a fine young man.  He excels at school.  He's kind to others.  He has never gotten in trouble with or without his friends!  He doesn't ask for much, except food.  He's tons of fun to be around.  He's still creative and imaginative.  He's great!  Happy birthday to my absolute favorite son!!!!!  I love you!!!

Late night laugh

I can never find time to blog about myself, but I just read this on a Facebook entry, and it made me laugh out loud.  I had no choice but to pass it on to make someone else laugh.  Then I'm going to bed!

A nice woman attempted to compliment my youngest on her pixie/bob haircut, but Li'l Sis didn't appreciate being likened to a "dorky camel.". This called for a brief on-the-spot history of America's top figure skating women.

So funny!

Now all I need is a highway...

I've officially adopted one of everything else (a little person, a cat, and now a dog)!!  If only I had a highway, my collection would be complete.

Much to her great happiness, Cheyenne's 11 years of asking for a dog were not in vain.  According to her, she "finally got a dog!"  And let me just say that getting one as the mom is a really different experience than getting one as a kid.

We didn't know exactly what we wanted, except that we wanted something not to big or too small, one that didn't shed much, preferably one already housetrained, and most of all, one that would be Cheyenne's friend!!  We did okay on most counts.  The housetraining part leaves something to be desired, but considering my track record, I am destined to deal with pee more than the average person.

Meet Molly.  She is a cockapoo (half cocker spaniel, half poodle).  She is small enough to be a companion, but large enough to not be carried around like a stuffed animal.  She doesn't shed much.  She's playful but pretty mild.  She isn't yappy or whiny.  We like her.  She really needs a good grooming, but that will come.  For now, we're just embracing the scraggly look!

And just briefly, while we're on the subject of animals, let me just follow up on Dale's last blog entry.  The bird was a present delivered by our cat Jackson.  He brought in an injured bird he hoped to eat.  Of course he did it in the middle of a crazy busy day with tutoring students, kids, etc.  Daniel convinced me the bird wasn't very injured because we saved it in time.  The kids really wanted to save it - to nurse it back to health.  I wanted Dale to deal with it when he got home.  I conceded to let them put it in a box.  Before we could do that, it flew out of Daniel's hands and into my pantry.  I really did not have time for a bird to be perched in my pantry!  After some time and effort, Daniel managed to retrieve it with a butterfly net.  Then it just sat outside on our picnic table motionless for over an hour while the cat was locked inside being tormented.  When Dale arrived home, it flew away, never to return.

It wasn't a huge deal, I guess, but it was one more thing in an otherwise crazy day that is the kind of thing that doesn't happen to just anyone.  Lucky me!!