I should have been COOKING fifty years ago instead of born then.

I'm so tired of my stupid electronic oven. The electronics stop working and then dinner is a non-event. The timer panel went out on and I had to hit it with my fist for it to work again. And again. And again. The family all knew Dad was preparing dinner because of all the yelling and pounding that could be heard from our very small kitchen.

Not any more. I'm so done with "modern electronic ovens". This is my sweet new oven. A 1950's era Wedgewood. Beautiful white and missing two easily purchased knobs. A nice center griddle for cooking bacon and eggs or pancakes. Very important to have a working stove as my boys all know how to cook now and frequently just go into the kitchen and make something themselves.

Winter showed up.

I was in the process of putting up lights and then we got slammed with snow. Oh well.I'm sure I'll get that frozen-to-the-roof ladder down in mid-March or so. At least I got my latest BMW project under a tarp there on the side.

Our Christmas tree

This is about how close we are going to get to having a tree this year. We wont be in Utah for most of that week-end and we are trying to be very frugal so we can get decent gifts for the boys. Call me Scrooge if you would like. If they want to dance around this years Christmas tree, they can go into the back yard.

Red

Life’s not fair. I swing a killer deal to unload my beloved Porsche 914 projects to get a Mercedes for my wife to drive and now I never see it. Don’t I need a German car to drive too? I say yes. I got to thinking, you know, it’s been like three weeks since we found another car to purchase and I found a car for house husband Jay.

It’s a 1989 BMW 325i. Red. Two doors. Five speed. Big six-cylinder engine. Bought it from a lovely BYU couple in Provo. “It just stopped running”. $450.00.

Vroom vrooooooom!!

So I need to get this going soon as I am getting a mental condition from driving the Dodge Caravan all around all the time. I've got it up on blocks so I can inspect and change the brakes right now. So it's running rough right now but give me a week or two.

Pimp Daddy

German automotive math 101…..Invest $100.00 total for two Porsche 914 projects……realize you have too many projects involving cars all over the yard…..list 914’s on KSL classifieds for $3000.00…….get a trade offer for a clean 1986 Mercedes Benz 300e …..make trade…does that make my Benz a $100.00 investment?

Flashback Friday

Our wonderful Romanian friends, Mike & Denise Iacobescu

Here is Mike, sporting Christmas decoration earrings at a PV2 ward party in 2000. I just found him on facebook after 7 years of wondering where they ended up. Denise is holding Elijah. Man, those were the days!! We miss you guys!!

Super Step-Dad

When I remarried, I hoped that I would find someone who would love my boys like their dad does. I never... NEVER.... wanted to hear those dreaded words, "Well, YOUR son did this...."

I think I won the jackpot with that wish!

Jay's the best step-dad in the world. His unique personality has also made these guys into men that they wouldn't have been without knowing him. Feel the love from this sweet picture! And this is the teenager that doesn't let me hug him in public anymore. :)

Fanny & Leafy Mae

How would you like to be named Fanny... or Leafy Mae? These are honest to goodness names in my family tree. Get it? :) Mom has been working hard to extract names for temple work and she asked me to go with her on Saturday and perform some of the work.

I think we had a marvelously spiritual experience and it was fun to think about what my great-great-great-great- or so grandmother, Fanny, was like. I like the name Leafy Mae so much that I guess it's a good thing I'm not having any more children. They might not like it so much!

Thanks, Mom, for the good time on Saturday. I love you!!

(Provo Utah Temple Photo courtesy http://www.ldschurchtemples.com )

I chose right.

Flashback Friday

The best brothers in the world turn into the best uncles in the world!!

Remember what the little chicks looked like when I first got them about five months ago? Well they are all grown up now, ready to be the egg producing women they were meant to be.

Now I know what your thinking......who's sexy hand is holding that tiny egg and why is it significant? Well that tiny brown egg is the first egg that was produced by my pretty white Deleware chickens. What this means, of course, is that soon all my other rare Delewares will be laying big beautiful brown eggs too. We will be getting a incubator and attempting to hatch baby chicks soon. I'm not sure how soon as I am not sure if we should attempt to do that in the winter. But we will see.

Chickens digging the new straw.

The red barn

Here is the red coop form the outside.

I ran into some more good deals this summer so I’m in a little deep with projects happening all at the same time. This is the driveway. We actually parked cars here at one time. The brown Porsche 914 is the parts rig. Any parts that I need for the cool sexy mid-life crises black 914 I’m restoring for myself comes from that one. Then of course there’s the 1972 beetle convertible. All the boys made fun of that until they learned that girls dig convertibles. Now they are looking forward to that being completed too. Especially Zach.
None of these fun cars will be found at my Brother Chris’s house. He was bagging on me the other day saying I’m getting old and boring. I think he’s driving a station wagon or maybe a Dodge Aries K or something now.
In the forground you can see our fun Honda 100 and a Honda Cr80 I’m fixing for the boys.

Here is just a sample of firewood that is getting split by or log splitter. This will continue until it snows. We don’t pay heating bills at our house.

Some wood you don’t want to just cut up for firewood if it’s big enough. This log is an example. It is apricot. I may have it milled into sheets of very hard to purchase one-inch sheets. Lot’s of grain and nearly impossible to find at any lumbar supply store.

As you know I like to get good deals on things. But I don't just randomly buy stuff I don't need or wont be able to sell for a major profit. Well, wood logging season has approached and I've always wanted a dump truck because I'm so lazy. Imagine how much wood I can load and then dump with this bad boy. That's an 1988 Chevy one ton with a dump bed for five hundred dollars. Runs perfect.

Poor, poor Jay!

Jay is allergic to our town. It's sad, really. He's from LA and has never suffered through allergies before. Since moving to Nephi, he suffers every year. Severly. We decided to do something about it finally. Jay would like some relief from the suffering. I'm ready for the nature blows to end.

Here are a couple shots of the allergy testing:

they put dots on his back with letters to identify weeds, trees, mold, grasses, and animals

In this picture you can see the welts after the nurse measured them. He is allergic to ALL native grasses in Utah, some trees, and weeds. NO allergy to animals (phew, the cats are safe...) or mold (thank goodness because we'd have to move!)

It was $500 for the test and each shot is $125. Thank goodness for insurance! $30 for the test and $25 each shot. The doc says one shot every other week for 3 years. Here we go!

Summer Fun

David's Birthday:

Birthday dinner @ Quiznos

When he first saw what his present was....

Dad did a good job picking something he'd love!

New School Year:

They're all getting so old!

4th of July:

On the roof watching the jets... it's become a tradition! Jay's a trendsetter.

Rebekah's visit:

Fun dinner with the girls!

Front yard remodel:

Thanks to our good friend, Will for volunteering his time and equipment to rid us of the giant eye-sore out front!

Jay's brother, Rick at the 4th of July gathering: Jay and Rick re-connected during Rick's visit to help their parents. It was so great!

Hill Air Force Base Air Show:

Thank goodness for good friends. I love you, Wendy!

Four of my five boys set up at the air show... Jay tries really hard to make sure we're all comforatable and having a good time. Thanks for that!

Wheat!

Can't get enough wheat. My friend Willie planted five acres of wheat and it grew very well. As a result we have tons of wheat to bag up and sell. Here is what six tons of red wheat looks like.

Our kind of newer LG washer set!

We don't buy NEW washer/dryer sets. They are too expensive and as soon as you buy a set the value drops so much I don't find them worth it. We had a used Maytag Neptune set that worked wonderfully for three years. I bought that set for five hundred dollars. Thousands of loads of laundry for three years. A good value. Well the washer finally died and I scored this LG set for seven hundred and fifty bucks. The people I bought this from paid twenty four hundred for the set three years ago. LG washers kick all sorts of butt over the older Maytag set we had. All the boys are fighting to do laundry. All our clothes are clean again. Life is wonderful.

Flashback Friday

Jay calls me at work one day and says, "Do you want to see what your boys are doing right now?"

and THIS is what he sent me.... oh my heck. Thankfully, he had it all cleaned up and the kids were freshly bathed by the time I got home! What a super-stay-at-home-dad! These little guys have so much more fun with a dad to play with all day than they would with me!

13 years ago today...

...we met for the first time and went on our first date. As you can see, Jay won an "instant family" and I feel really blessed because he's taken such good care of me ever since. :)

Flashback Friday

Look how uncomfy my baby is with the water - he didn't want to fall in! Now he jumps from the treehouse "deck" to the pool below.... we've come so far!

Dusk at Island Park

The moon setting early in the evening while we are camping in Idaho.

Flashback Friday

When Liz married my brother, David, she only had nephews and was inheriting four more nephews. She planned to dress them all alike in these darling vests and bowties for the wedding reception. I think it was stunning and I love the pictures of them all... they took one picture (that I don't have) of her down on the floor in her poofy dress with all the nephews sitting on and around her dress... I'll have to see if she has a copy of that one. It was my favorite!

Now that we are back from our vacation, I don't want to run out of projects to do or I'll have to clean the house or feed my family. I recently scored this 1974 VW Beetle convertable. My buddy Mark lifted the body off of the running gear with his forklift so I can fix that up before I start on the body. Notice the nice clean area on the other side of the fence only ten feet away. Yep, my neighbors really hate me.

Red canoe

Just before we left for Island Park on our vacation I tried to borrow a canoe. I had given up until at the last minute, our friends Mark and Cheryl let us use this. I had no idea so many people would enjoy it so much. We had some fun quiet times on this trip. Mostly in this canoe. Notice the two ton garbage hauler in the background. My very clean and organized neighbors REALLY must hate me.

I have a FIFTEEN year old. What??

Happy Birthday my almost-driver!

For Zach's birthday dinner, he REALLY wanted to try Lobster. Yikes, I know, but he's a good kid so we try to accommodate without spoiling... I'm not sure how that is working yet. We went to Red Lobster and Zach got to try much more than Lobster. Here he is trying crab legs.

This is him contemplating the Lobster - he actually said "It's not as good as I thought it would be!" Which is good news, right?

All-in-all, I think he had a fun birthday. We love Zach and he's a joy (when he wants to be - haha)