Going, Going, Gone!

Yesterday morning I wanted to go for a bike ride to get some exercise. I couldn't use my own bike because it needs a new tube so I tried using Nikki's bike because I used it the other day. Well, I did not get far before I hear this squeaking noise and it turns out to be one of the front brakes is rubbing against the wheel. I took it back home and looked at it and tried tightening things but to no avail. Since I had already gotten in my workout clothes I decided I would just got to the Rec Center and ride one of the bikes there. It would be the first time going to the Rec Center since before the pandemic began. It wasn't much different other than that classes are limited to a certain number (25 I think). Every other machine had a temporarily out of order sign on it to help us with social distancing. Also, there are two sets of stairs and they had signs saying the one by the front is for coming downstairs only. The one toward the back (by the weight room) is for going upstairs. I did my workout which was a lot more boring than if I would have been able to ride my own bike but at least I could count how many miles I went, which I think was either 5 or 6 (I can't actually remember!). When I drove in front of the Rec Center I noticed that the hospital had been completely torn down now and they were working on cleaning the last little bit of it up. So after I finished I walked over and got a few pictures. The last time I saw the building just a few weeks ago it was gutted and basically a skeleton but the tallest part of the building was still there. Now it's gone.

After I got home Garrett was anxious for me to help him with a project. He had found one of our extra trim boards from our playhouse project and wanted to make a backpack hanger out of it so that he and Jack could hang their backpacks in their room. Since Curtis went back to work yesterday it was I who needed to help him. Fortunately I had learned how to use the miter saw (not table saw like I originally thought it was called). I cut it for him the length that he had measured, which was 30 inches, and then we found some sand paper and worked together on sanding it out on the picnic table. Once he was happy with how it looked  and felt we had to make a trip to the store to find some hooks. We bought a bunch of other things too while we were there. Most of the hooks were gone so there weren't many to choose from but the ones he liked there were just enough. He placed them on the board where he wanted them and I helped him make sure they were fairly even. Curtis said his small drill bit broke so I decided we would just do the screws right into the board without a pre-made hole and we did it by hand instead of drill. We decided to wait for Curtis to get home to help him hang it on the wall since I wasn't quite sure where the studs were in the wall. Luckily, the board was just long enough to be able to screw it in 3 places to make it extra strong. It turned out pretty good!

Curtis and I had to make another trip to Home Depot in the evening to get a few more boards for our playhouse project plus some more wood sealer, wood cleaner (some of our fence has mold and mildew) and some new drill bits. I swear our neighbors are probably thinking we're buying all the wood in the store because it seems like every other day we're bringing more home but the end is near! After we were done there we decided to cheat our new eating schedule and get some frozen yogurt. I think we over did it though on the toppings because it didn't taste very good. We had salted caramel and cookies and cream yogurt flavors. Maybe it was just the salted caramel that wasn't good with the toppings because I liked the cookie flavor.  And when I say new eating schedule, I mean that we are trying to eat dinner earlier and not snack on foods after we eat our dinner. We're also trying to eat better during the day by not snacking so much on unhealthy foods. It's been tough but we're seeing success as Curtis has lost 7 lbs already and I've gone down a couple also. Since we cheated we decided we better make sure we walk even though it was raining lightly. We needed to get something from a guy in our ward so instead of driving, we walked! I still need to find better walking shoes but at least these ones I'm using are tolerable for now.

Today has been kind of quiet again. I did have to take both Garrett and Jack to see their uncle Casey (who's a dentist) to get some fillings done. This is the first time Jack had any cavities but they weren't deep enough to need numbing so he lucked out. Garrett wasn't so lucky! I keep telling the kids they need to brush their teeth so they don't have to go through these experiences but of course they don't listen unless I'm adamant about making sure they brush that night. They are old enough now though that I shouldn't have to be on their case every single day. One day they'll figure it out.

Curtis and I just got back (it's now evening/night) from going on an hour long walk. We just walked from our house up to Greenhurst and then cut across the golf course. The wind was blowing against us so it gave us more of a workout and it looked like there might be a storm soon but we kept going anyway. It was a little cold too but it was refreshing still. I'm enjoying all of these walks that we've been going on.

I couldn't decide which picture of Curtis to post. The sky looked really pretty in this shot but his face was dark. So I added both.

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.