Sunday, August 16, 2009

Picture Updates

Ruth:
I realized that it's been quite a while since we've posted pictures of the kiddos.

Rachel, still goofy at 9
Pretty Emily, 7 turning 8 in Nov., almost ready to get baptized!
Silly Kaitlin, 5 starting Kindergarten this year!
Christopher, 3 turning 4 in Sept., a picture IS worth a thousand words, and this one speaks for itself.

Crazy Aaron, 1 turning 2 in Sept. This is his Alfalfa look-a-like picture! What do you think?
Our newest love, David, 3mo. on the 6th of Sept. So fun and sweet! We're trying to enjoy it while it lasts!
All the gang, we took this about a month ago, I haven't tried to get a group picture since. You have to time these things just right! All in jammies, but most of them happy, works for me! We'll see what happens when we try taking a new family photo, hopefully soon.

Friday, August 14, 2009

The Birthday Boy! I mean MAN!

My sweetie turned 33 today! Man is he getting old!

He has spent the day away from home mostly. With work, helping Sarah and Joe pack the U-Haul, and helping another friend in our ward install granite counters. He's so busy, and I'm sure tired!

We knew he was going to be busy today so we celebrated with the Chapmans on Wednesday evening. We had tacos, the way he likes them, and yummy cake and ice cream. The kids helped me pick out some balls for his present, a Volleyball, Soccerball and a Nerf-ish football, they even decorated the box, since I didn't have any birthday wrapping paper. So he got artwork from the kids too!


His cake looks girlie because I was practicing for my sisters wedding cake I'll be doing next week! Yay Liz and Cameron! I only just realized as I was loading the picture, and after the cake has been mostly devoured, (by me) that I for got to put the "d" in birthday. No actually, I did that on purpose! We were celebrating with style! ;)
Anyways, I hope he knows how much we all love and appreciate him! I love you sweetie, and I hope you had a wonderful day!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Which one are you?

Ruth:

I got this email from a friend, just thought I'd share! Enjoy!

Are you a Democrat,
a Republican,
or a Redneck?

Here is a little test that will help you decide.
You're walking down a
deserted street with your wife
and two small children.

Suddenly, an Islamic
Terrorist with a huge knife
comes around the corner, locks eyes with you,
screams obscenities, praises Allah, raises the knife, and charges at you.

You are carrying a Kimber 1911 45 cal. ACP,
and you are an expert shot.

You have mere seconds before he reaches
you and your family.
What do you do?

..........................................................


THINK CAREFULLY AND
THEN SCROLL DOWN:










Democrat's
Answer :


Well, that's not enough information to answer the question!
Does the man look poor or oppressed?
Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack?
Could we run away?
What does my wife think?
What about the kids?
Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand?
What does the law say about this situation?
Does the pistol have appropriate safety built into it?
Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this
send to society and to my children?
Is it possible he'd be happy with just killing me?
Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me?
If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my
family get away while he was stabbing me?
Should I call 9-1-1?
Why is this street so deserted?
We need to raise taxes, have paint and weed day and make this happier,
healthier street that would discourage such behavior.
This is all so confusing!
I need to debate this with some friends for few days and try to come to a consensus.

....................................................................


Republican's
Answer:



BANG!


............................................................



Redneck's Answer:


BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG !
Click..... (Sounds of reloading)
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Click
Daughter: 'Nice grouping, Daddy! Were those the
Winchester Silver Tips or Hollow Points?'
Son: 'Can I shoot the next one?'
Wife: 'You ain't taking that to the Taxidermist.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Technical Difficulties Chapter Two: Disagreeble Dryer

Jase:

So the cooler is working great. Everybody is happy. I need a haircut so I ask Ruth to get up early one morning before I go to work. She happily agrees.

The next morning we go out to the kitchen and there are ants everywhere. Instead of trying to squish them all or clean them up with a washcloth, I say "Let's break out the vacuums and suck them up." This works really well, avoids that nasty, squished ant smell and I didn't have to rinse off an ant-covered washcloth a hundred times. So instead of a 15 minute haircut, we spend 45 minutes cleaning up ants and 5 seconds blocking their entrance, a wonderful little drain hole in a window. So the haircut waits. Which is okay because we need to get a new blade for our clippers because they are getting dull and don't cut all the hair!

We like to visit our families as often as possible which we did for the first weekend in August. We travel to my parents on Friday night. Saturday morning comes and I request a haircut which Ruth gladly provides. Then we throw each of the boys up on the hair-cutting stool and run the clippers over their heads. An what wonderful surprise does Ruth find, but a louse on Aaron's head! Then a few more. So what do we spend the rest of our Saturday morning doing? Shampooing and combing hair. After some contemplation we decide we know the source of the infestation and make some phone calls to warn other parents.

If there was ever a reason for girls to have short hair this was it. Trying to comb long hair with a nit comb is, to me, an exercise in futility. I combed Aaron's hair and was responsible for Emily's hair. I only hope I did a satisfactory job on Emily.

We get to throw all the bedding we have used at Grandma & Grandpa's house down the laundry chute (easy, thankfully) and clean all the bedding at home and whatever else the kids may have put their heads on, along with retreating all the kids' heads in 7-10 days. Well, the dryer didn't think that all this laundry was necessary and quit halfway through the day. I get home from work Monday evening and there are two wet loads of laundry and several loads left to wash.

As I have mentioned before we live on a well traveled dirt road. This is not conducive to having a clothesline as wet clothes hanging in a dust cloud don't stay clean for very long. But Monday at 9:30pm I was putting up a clothesline on our back deck so our wet laundry wouldn't mildew. This was after I took the dryer apart to figure out why it was being so disagreeable. I suspect the belt is broken. And after working on the dryer for an hour I find a broken belt. ask me about the symptoms if you care to know.

Ruth is able to find a belt the next day ($30!?) and after I get home from Scouts we get the dryer put back together and it works! And I only lost one screw in the disassembly!

So here's hoping that you'alls houses and all their gadgets are working properly for you, and that your homes are louse-free, forever.

to be continued...? (I hope not)

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Technical Difficulties Chapter One

Jase:

Holy cow.....

Ever since David was born nothing is working right or everything is breaking. We have been having a hard time posting because our computer died. We have lived in this house for nearly four years and the things that need attention keep calling for it louder and louder.

When we moved in the previous homeowner, a kind older woman, left us her fridge, washer, and dryer with the house. We don't know how old they are, but the house is about 16 years old now. The fridge is a small one (does 14.8 cubic feet mean anything to you?) and I'm surprised we get by with it. The washing machine has been leaking oil onto the floor almost the entire time we have been here. But the latest story is the dryer, but that is only part of the story.

We have a roof-mounted evaporative (swamp) cooler to keep our house comfortable during the hot times. Swamp coolers are pretty simple creatures. That being said, they have to be taken care of. Ours has gotten old and contracted an appliance form of gangrene and leprosy combined. Swamp coolers have water sitting or running through them and this invites fungi, mold, rust and, if you live on a well traveled dirt road, like we do, mud.

Our swamp cooler was at the point of rusting into millions of pieces and my employer had offered me a pair of them. I have a hard time turning down free stuff, especially when I need it so I took the offer. I took a couple months to get the replacement day scheduled, but we finally got it on our books. That was for two weeks ago.

So the scheduled Saturday came and we loaded everything up and brought it to my house. Things went swell. My boss, John, did an excellent job of removing the old cooler and getting the replacements ready to install. I wanted to move the cooler switch inside the house to a more convenient situation. That went well. So we moved on the the second cooler.

Now, John had offered me two coolers, both of which had been sitting in the "yard" at work for several months. The coolers were pretty dirty from sitting underneath an oak tree for all that time, and spiders had taken up residence inside them.

John had this idea that two coolers on a house, both functioning on the low airflow speed, would work better than one cooler on high. So we cut a hole in my bedroom ceiling and in the roof to place the second cooler. The corresponding holes lined up surprising well and while John began work installing the cooler base on the roof, I started running wires for the new switch that would go in the bedroom. So I am minding my own business, trying to pull wires down through a wall. It's a clear day and already hot in the house since there aren't any functioning coolers yet, when all of a sudden it starts raining ductwork from the bedroom sky!

The straight sheet metal duct that was to connect the cooler with the bedroom fell (with some encouragement) straight down from John's hands and hit the base of my neck right at my shoulders. That nearly ended our day as it cut my neck pretty good. But it wasn't bleeding much and there was still work to do. We pulled the coolers up on the roof and set them in place without connecting the water or power. We picked up all the tools and trash and since band-aids weren't sticking I went to the ER to get some attention. John thought I needed stitches and my head wouldn't turn around far enough for me to examine the wound so I believed him.

It ended up that the doctor just put some glue on it because the skin wasn't cut all the way through. I hooked up the power and water the next day to one cooler. The other still sits waiting patiently.

One last note on the coolers. Among the nice little arachnids that had made the coolers their home were at least four black widows, two of which got blown into the house sometime after we turned on the cooler.

Ruth's note: One things for sure, our kids know what Black Widows look like. :)