fractured coccyx?

my life has slowed down, finally. yay! i've been hanging out at home, trying to read, and taking it easy. we leave for portland on saturday and will flies back home sunday. i'll be driving home with a friend thursday. i hope this girls trip offers just what i'm hoping for. lots of down time. no schedule to keep and nobody else to take care of but ME! i've bought about 8 books to read while i'm gone. (wishful thinking.)

we're getting ready to paint our house. the main color is going to go from the taupe it is, to a butter yellow color. i'm nervous we're going to strongly regret it. we are almost to a point where we're ordering the carpet. i'm so excited to get rid of this gross garbage we've had for 6 long years- but i really hate spending the money. all of a sudden i have about 5 home improvement projects i'd like to do- but the others will have to wait. maybe not the oven- that one is really more of a need than a want. :)

before i go- i'll share one more funny story- this one about myself. two days ago quincey and linc were home playing while i was doing laundry. they were sliding down the stairs in a small, nylon sleeping bag. quince kept trying to get linc to go down, but linc was afraid. quince wanted me to slide down with linc but i explained it wouldn't work. so we decided i would just show linc that it was easy and no big deal. so i got in the bag, and instead of laying down in it like quincey was, i thought i'd be smart and sit up with my legs and rear in it and just slide down like a slide. about two stairs down i realized this was a very bad idea, but i couldn't stop myself because i was flying and my legs were in the bag. it was probably the most painful two seconds of my life. when i hit the bottom and stopped, i was in so much pain i couldn't even speak. it took about 10 minutes for me to get up and walk back up the stairs. i seriously thought i had injured myself to the point where a doctor was going to need to be involved and i couldn't think of what i'd say to them. (i was sliding down my stairs in a sleeping bag???)

the sad part is i haven't been able to move around really great, it hurts like heck to stand up or sit down, and i've got to spend 12 hours in the car on saturday!! i'm going to have to get one of those donut pillows. as will told the boys- "mom's injured her coccyx." and man- did i ever!!

funny story

today i spent the afternoon and evening making cookies. lots and lots of them. sad part is, i'm probably only half way! in between baking and washing dishes, i started reading the lost symbol- dan brown's new novel that came out yesterday. i have been anxiously awaiting this book, because of my fascination of freemasons and that kind of stuff. i'm only on page 75. so far it's just like his others. interesting. anyway- i wanted to share a funny story.

the other day spencer called home from school in the morning and explained he had forgotten his p.e. bag (with his clothes he wears) and asked if brigham could bring them when he comes to school. (spence goes earlier than the other boys because of early morning seminary.) so brig ran downstairs and grabbed some clothes and brought the bag to school for spence. during p.e. spencer comes walking out of the locker room in an extremely tight shirt and pants that fit almost like spandex and capris. everyone, including the p.e. coach were completely cracking up- and spence was about ready to kill brigham. brig didn't do it on purpose, but apparently he had a really good time with it. the p.e. coach told spence if she could she would've paid him to wear those clothes the whole day. he tried them on for me today to show me what he looked like. he wouldn't let me take a picture. it would've been priceless. only spence could walk away from an experience like that unharmed. :) most kids wouldn't even have left the locker room looking like that.

i'm guessing he won't be forgetting his gym clothes any time soon.

This is coming up. I just thought I'd give you guys a heads up. Abby- are you going to be out of town for sure? We'll be delivering the invites tonight and tomorrow. I was going to mail them, but procrastinated....again.

It's been a crazy busy week. I'm so glad it's the weekend- and I've got NOTHING on the agenda for today. So I'll be cleaning and baking. And making pesto. Yet again. But this time I'm using spinach and walnuts as well as the regular. I'm not sure which one is better.

peaches and pesto

one of the benefits of gardening is reaping the harvest, right? is that a benefit? some days i'm not sure. :) i've been up to my neck in vegetables, fruit, eggs.... over the past few weeks. then, if you don't do something with them, you feel guilt. so i've spent a LOT of time lately freezing peaches, canning salsa, (not fun) and today i made pesto from the massive basil plants we've got. let's just say it takes a whole lot of work and basil leaves to make one small jar of pesto. it almost makes me think i'm better off buying that large jar from costco for all of $6. don't get me wrong- i love the self sufficiency- it's just a lot of work. and today i went out to deal with the chickens and noticed that our nectarine tree is ready to be picked. they may just have to sit and wait until i'm ready to do all of that again. :)

last week i spent a whole day at my mom's learning how to use a pressure cooker to can beef, chicken, and pork. it looks absolutely awful, but i hear it taste totally fine. so that will be a bigger project in october, once it's a little cooler and running the pressure cooker all day long won't be so bad.

this week we've been eating out of our food storage exclusively- upon request from our bishopric. we've also gone without power one day, and get to go without water tomorrow. we'll see how it goes. it's opened our eyes pretty good about how badly we'd be hurting if there was a real emergency. i'm anxious for this experience to be over- and i desperately want to go to the store! but probably not as much as the boys want me to.

viewer beware!

after 8 years or so of anticipation- we finally held the sharp family wrestling match. it only took approximately 12 minutes and it was over. and the winner was..... the boys! we figure between spencer's girth, preston's skills, and brigham's strategy of holding down will's legs- they had him pinned in much less time than we ever would've guessed. (aside from will's extremely poor apparel choice!) nonetheless- they beat him. and he's demanding a re-match because he thinks he had brig pinned in the very beginning.

it was fun, disturbing, and a little unpleasant. but i'm glad it's over, and the boys have hardly gloated at all. :)

today was preston's first day of high school. i can hardly wait to hear how it went and what he thought of it. i spent most of my day cleaning a friend's house. she has breast cancer and went in for surgery today. about 6 of us went in and deep cleaned their home. they are the salt of the earth- wonderful people- but not the cleanest. it was seriously exhausting labor. it made me feel like i should appreciate how clean my boys are compared to others.

it looked so much better when we left. will is taking the scouts over there tonight to mow their lawns and pull weeds. one of our friend's is over there right now cleaning their carpets. (his business) i keep thinking how great it will be for them to come home to all of that. then i thought- why do we wait until someone has cancer for us to all step in and help out? like we should be doing this kind of stuff all the time.

my family

the boys had a really good time on trek! they got pounded with rain and hail, but they still said it was amazing and they both absolutely loved it. we surprised them by having their room redecorated when they got home. it wasn't finished, but we got some new furniture, curtains, accessories- and painted the room and their dresser. tons of work! but it looks so much better. i'll post photos sometime.

these are a couple of shots of our trip to phoenix. and yes, we're proud to call them family. :)

School has started and Quince is officially a kindergartner! I took far too many pictures of him that day. You would have thought he was our first.

And Preston and Spencer left on Trek yesterday. I have to agree with them, they looked a little lame. But they didn't have a choice. I'm sure it's hot and they're probably exhausted, but I hope they are having a very memorable time.