Almost Finished

Friday I spent a good part of the day brushing wood sealer on the swing set beam, a few long boards for the "A" frame and pieces of wood that Curtis had put up for the banister that I hadn't done yet (mostly the boards on the top of the hand rail). By the evening I was pretty tired and even though it was getting late we really wanted to get the holes for the swing set dug out and filled with concrete so it will set up sooner. As fun as this project has been I think everyone is just wanting it to be done and have a break from projects like this for awhile. So I'm not sure if we'll get our pergola up for our patio this year. Curtis really needs to start studying for his engineering license test he's planning on taking this Fall.

Marking out where to put the holes.

The wood is just to hold this anchor in the cement while it sets up.

Saturday I could hear rain blowing against our bedroom window throughout the night and even though the wind started to calm down by the time I woke up it was still raining quite a bit. We have a couple more boards to get for our swing set but I told Curtis it can wait for when it's not raining. It was a slow morning because of the rain but after I showered and got dressed Curtis and I decided to walk down to the corner of Greenhurst and Midland to get some fresh big tamales from the man who's been selling there for over a year now. He's usually only there on Saturdays and Sundays. They are so good so we knew it would be worth walking in the rain to get them. We did have our umbrellas on our walk too. My shoes and pants got a bit wet but the walk was so refreshing.

Our nephew Asher (Shauna's youngest child) was having a graduation party with family at my in law's house from 1-3pm. Curtis and I made a quick trip to Walmart to get a few things before going over to the party. We all had a good time visiting and Garrett got to hold his cousin Kallie's new baby, Graysen, who was born on May 22nd. It was the only picture I got while there but worth it. I have to admit that as much I love having had my babies I'm glad to be finished with that phase of my life and I can enjoy other people's babies, especially my nieces' and nephews' babies.

Today turned out to be very nice weather so Curtis and I went on another walk but this time we went to Wilson pathway where it begins on Greenhurst close to Albertsons then all the way to Wilson Ponds and back. It turned out to be about 4 miles total trip. I'm hoping I can find some good new walking shoes soon. We went shoe shopping to several places yesterday looking for some but was unsuccessful to find something for myself, although Curtis found a good deal on shoes for himself. I had to stop using my New Balance shoes because a week ago when we walked the side of my left foot hurt a lot, and then again when I tried them a couple days later. Now I'm just using a pair of Nike shoes that I got hand me down from my neighbor friend Ashlie. They work well enough but they too are not the best walking shoes for my feet.

On the Wilson pathway close to the ponds.

Cats, Crepes, and more!

Monday afternoon I had Nikki drive me to Zamzows to get some weed killer for the grass and some insect control for our trees and shrubs. While we were there we were looking around at cat and bird items since those are the two types of pets we own. We have had Sage for 4 years now and Stardust for about 7 months and neither of them had a collar. My brother Colby told us that Star would always get her collar off when they tried. Well, we decided to get collars for both cats and see how it goes so that they don't look like stray cats roaming the neighborhood. Nikki put the collars on both of them and we could tell they didn't like them very much but to our surprise and delight neither of them have taken them off yet and it is now Thursday morning. And they look even cuter than before!

Sage got a sushi collar because she loves to eat.

Stardust got a space collar because the colors went well with her. We later realized that it matches her name too, lol!

Nikki and I had gone grocery shopping last Saturday and we made sure to get some fresh fruit so we could do the crepes again. They were delicious!

I spread Nutella on the crepe and then topped it with strawberries, blueberries, and bananas.

Then folded it up and topped with blackberries and powdered sugar.

Tuesday evening I covered the playhouse windows with cut out pieces of grocery bags in preparation for applying wood sealant to the door and the door trim and it took awhile to do. While I was doing that I remembered that Jack and I needed to go to activity day boys (formerly scouts) that night and I panicked that I might have missed it already (I'm one of the leaders). Fortunately it was about 6:08 when I looked at my clock and the activity started at 7:00 pm so I had plenty of time to finish prepping the windows and then change and go. It was our first time meeting since everything was cancelled in March. We met at Sis. Nickell's house in her back yard where her yard is also connected to her neighborhood park, so there was plenty of space to social distance. The boys made a necklace with a leather piece on it that had the Roman numerals for 2060 which represented the 2060 stripling warriors (2000 to begin with and then 60 were added later), as we are doing a summer of heroes from the Book of Mormon. After making the necklace we sat around a campfire where Sis. Nickell told the story about Helaman's stripling warriors. It was great because there were a couple of boys there that didn't know the story and they were all quietly sitting and listening (and for boys ages 8-11 that's pretty awesome). There were only 6 boys though out of 16 on our list. After the story we had fun playing volleyball and ended with a little treat of mini pies, apple or cherry. When we got home Curtis had started putting up the banister on the play house.

The boys were able to stamp some of their own designs on it around the Roman numerals.

Wednesday I spent most of the day getting wood sealer put on our banister pieces so that they would be ready for Curtis by the evening because the previous night he started putting the banister up and I hadn't gotten those pieces done yet. After spraying most of the pieces out on the driveway, it ended up being a bigger mess than I thought it would. The sealant looked like watery milk so when it sprayed it used a lot of sealant and we had lots of run off. I was able to catch a lot of the run off by sticking the end of the paint cloth that was under the wood into a big black leaf bag. Any time I saw some leak onto the driveway I would try to wash it away as quickly as possible with my watering can that I use for flowers. I decided it would be a lot cleaner and easier to use brushes to apply the sealant on the door and door trim, plus the pieces that Curtis attached the previous night. And it certainly was! I poured the sealant I had caught in the black bag into a paint tray and was able to get most of it done with that. I was pretty tired by the time dinner rolled around but I was able to help Curtis make some dinner. We had kabobs again and tater tots. This time Curtis's dad came over to help with the play house and putting up the banister. They were able to get most of it done. It just needs the top part of the railing I think. Next we'll be getting ready to put up the swing set.

We're able to sit in camping chairs on the balcony and relax. It was nice sitting out there last night after they were done. We may be watching fireworks from there in July!

Church, Cooking, Walking, and Working

Our stake and ward were given the go ahead for having Sacrament meetings again starting today. Boy was it hard for everyone to wake up to leave for church at 8:30 am. However, it was just Curtis and the 3 oldest kids that went to church today. We decided that I would stay home with Charlotte and Alice for now because they get wiggly and touch every thing. It turned out to be a good experience for me and the girls because I was able to read to them some stories from "the Friend" magazine, something I haven't actually done with them yet. We had stopped getting the printed magazines awhile ago but I decided it would be good for my kids to have something to read on Sundays and that isn't on a screen so I renewed our subscription a couple months ago. Today we read about a boy who loved going to church with his family and how he was reverent and happy while the sacrament was being passed and how he thought about Jesus. Then we read some stories about a Lamanite woman in the Book of Mormon who had great faith. Her name was Abish and she helped convert many to the gospel when King Lamoni and his wife were also converted. Until Ammon showed up as a missionary to teach King Lamoni she was alone in her belief in God. Anyway, the girls and I had a good little discussion about her and how they can be like her and tell their friends about God and Jesus.

Church is being shortened to 45 min and Sacrament meeting only with no more than 99 people in attendance. So we have to take turns going to church. Today people with last names starting A-I attended Sacrament meeting at church (who wanted to) and next week it will be J-Z. Curtis says there might have been between 50-70 people there today. Every other bench or row was left empty to help keep distancing but also for the young men to be able to pass the sacrament while walking in the empty rows so that the boys are the only ones touching the sacrament tray handles. It was also Fast Sunday today but instead of the usual testimony meeting the bishop was told by the stake presidency that the bishops should speak on the first week back. Before church got cancelled we (Curtis, Nikki and I) asked to give talks. We're wondering how soon that will happen or if it will. I had written only about half of my talk just a few days before the intended date. Nikki hadn't started hers and I don't think Curtis wrote anything down yet either but he had been listening to the talks related to his topic and thinking about it.

Today Garrett helped us make some Ratatouille for dinner. The recipe we found even said it was from the movie Disney's Ratatouille but I don't know that it would actually be the same thing but it tasted pretty good to most of us. I think it tastes similar to spaghetti. Garrett was the one who really wanted to make it and he loved it! We have made this once before but it's been a long time. It's actually vegetarian too. 

Curtis sliced up most of the veggies; eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, red and yellow bell peppers. I chopped the onions.

Making the sauce.

Now to layer the veggies on top of the sauce.

All done!

It says to serve Ratatouille on brown rice, couscous, any pasta or some crusty bread. We served it on white rice except I had mine on toast. I did try some on the rice too and they were both good. After we cleaned up from dinner Nikki and I got to work on making dessert. We had some buttermilk to use up so we looked up recipes that used buttermilk and found a coffee cake recipe. It was delicious!

After we ate dessert we went ahead and did our Come Follow Me where we watched a couple of Book of Mormon videos and then talked about them. This time I printed off coloring sheets for the girls and it helped a lot! Even Nikki decided she wanted to color one. She's our artist! When we finished Curtis and I decided if we were going to go on a walk we better do it now. The weather cooled down quite a bit the last couple of days and was overcast. We drove over to the Stoddard Pathway again where we walked a few weeks ago. We went a little in the same direction we did the first time but then turned around at the first street that we came to and went back to cross Greenhurst Road and go the other direction since we had never walked that way before. Fortunately it was paved all the way this time and had two portable toilets along the path, which we used! It was also a beautiful walk. We got sprinkled on a little bit with rain but it wasn't bad. We visited Curtis's parents afterwards and not long after  we got there the rain started coming down a lot more.

We said hello to the cows.

This bridge was at the end of the pathway. I thought it looked cool.

The only thing we were able to get done on the playhouse this weekend was going to Home Depot to pick up a bunch of wood for our banister and swing set and a few other items. Since they didn't have any beams that are 14 feet long like we wanted we decided to buy 6 boards that are 2x4x14 and make our own by gluing them together. Curtis also used a nail gun to help hold them together. Then he went to his dad's house and got some boards ripped for the banister.

Here's our beam. Curtis will take it to his dad's tomorrow to plane it so it trims just a tiny bit off and smooths it out. He had to work in the garage yesterday because it was raining a lot.

Our banister boards.

New Things

This week has been a bit quieter and more relaxed than last week. We haven't done any more on the playhouse however, I did finally make a purchase on Amazon for some new swings and they arrived today! We put one together and tested it out on the old swing set. The kids love it! We can't wait to put it on the new swing set when it gets built. Originally I was going to get 2 regular swings and 1 that was different. After looking for weeks and realizing we might not have enough room for 3 swings I found these saucer swings online and it had a lot of good reviews. I was then going to get one of these and then a regular swing but some people said that their kids wouldn't even hardly use the regular swings anymore since they had this saucer swing. So I made the decision to just get 2 of the saucer swings because it can hold up to 440 lbs making it possible for multiple kids to use it at one time. I just hope they last awhile. The material looks similar to a trampoline.

Last Sunday in the evening Curtis and I wanted to go walk a new trail and there is one not far from us that is like a mostly flat hiking trail with it being close to the lake and made of gravel.  It's called Kingfisher Trail. I really wanted to walk the whole thing to see how far it goes and I did look it up on the way over. It's about 3.75 miles one way. So that totaled our walk to 7.5 miles that took over 2 hours and we are not used to that yet! We learned that we should wear the right shoes and use the bathroom before going on long walks because we were having a hard time holding it in on the way back, with no outhouses anywhere! Curtis could have gone in the bushes but I wouldn't let him because it wouldn't be fair. It's not as easy for women to do that, lol. It was a beautiful walk though and we got to see a few deer, several rabbits, lots of birds, and even a mouse.

We found a little hidden area that looked so beautiful!

View of the lake from the trail.

Some areas were covered liked this and we loved it.

I had to zoom in from far away to get a shot of the rabbit before he took off. They are fast!

Curtis had worn the wrong shoes and his feet were killing him by the time we finished the walk. My legs were a bit sore so I stretched out when we got home. The kids were back at home waiting for us so that we could start another camp fire with Nikki's friend Angie who was over visiting. We always tend to get to bed pretty late when we do campfires but this time we did not do s'mores. I brought out some healthy snacks of carrots and sugar snap peas that most of us enjoyed.

On Tuesday we went out again with my parents. They have been doing a lot of walking so we thought they might like to join us and so they did. However, I was a little worried about having them walk this trail since it was gravel, not paved like they were used to doing. It turns out I was right to be worried. While we didn't walk the whole trail, we still didn't turn around to go back soon enough. Their bodies were aching that night and they did not sleep well. Next time we do this trail with them it will be on bikes for sure!

We took them to our little spot we found.

It almost looks like we could be in the Florida Everglades or something.

My dad got a good picture of one of the rabbits this time. They are so cute!

 Nikki started her first official job yesterday at Del Taco. On Monday she was feeling depressed because her two best friends Angie and Logan had already found jobs. She thought she might not get one. Well, Monday night she received a text from Jack in the Box asking if she would like to come in for an interview the next morning at 10:30. She said yes but then I asked her if she knew which location. She had done her application online so she wasn't really sure. I knew there were at least 2 locations in Nampa but later we found out that there are at least 4 in Nampa now. We went to the one closest to us on 12th Ave about 15 minutes early just in case it was the wrong one. Sure enough, it was the wrong location but while she was there they told her she could come back to that location on Saturday for an interview if she wanted that so she said sure. We were a little panicked because the other locations are on other sides of town quite a bit further away. After calling the one by the Franklin exit they told her the correct location she needed to be at was the one furthest away out by the Idaho Center! We raced over there and ended up being about 5-10 minutes late so the hiring manager who was going to interview her was in a meeting and the assistant manager interviewed her instead. We were both thinking it will be totally okay with us if she does NOT get this job as we do not want to be driving clear across town all the time.

As we were driving out of the Jack in the Box parking lot Nikki got a call on her phone from Del Taco asking if she could come in that day around 3:30 pm. Of course she said yes! After getting interviewed they hired her right on the spot and started getting her I.D. and other information. She was so happy and excited! We were blessed for her to get a job here because it's one of the closest restaurants to our house, only a mile away, so she can easily walk or ride her bike to work.  I told her that if she has to work late when it's dark then I will come pick her up. She has a goal to get her driver's license by the end of the summer. We may be getting her a car sooner than we planned! After we go home from her interview we almost immediately got back in the car to go get her some work shoes. She needed some that were non slick. Garrett also had to get some shoes since the shoes he had been wearing were so small that both of his big toes were poking out! We knew those shoes would be too small for him when our neighbors gave them to us but he insisted that they were going to be his. They were size 6. We just bought him a size 8! He's grown a lot this year and is nearly as tall as me now.

Anyway, Nikki's first day of working and orientation stuff was yesterday evening. She watched some videos but was also put right to work taking orders in the drive thru. She was overwhelmed because she didn't know the menu or the computer and not feeling too happy about things after work but that's just how things go when you start something new. It's not always easy at first. We told her she'll be fine and that she just needs to get used to things. She's a little worried to go back to work again tonight. I'll be lucky if I can get a picture of her because I asked if she would put her work shirt on early so I could get a picture for my blog post and she did not want to do it!

Just after I finished typing that she didn't want to do it, she came back out with it on. What a good sport! We decided to take the picture outside and this is the first time she saw the swing so of course she had to try it out and she loves the swing so you get to see both!

It's bright outside so it was hard for her to look up for the picture but she also didn't want to get out of the swing, lol!

At least she's happy about getting to wear a t-shirt and jeans to work! She just needs to get a smaller size of shirt though. This one is size medium but they were out of small.