And then they melted

It is crazy hot right now... major crazy hot.

The temps are so hot that any breeze is appreciated.

YaY for the swamper that is working thanks to the boys!!

Best kids E-VER!!

Happy Dad's day to me...

Jaker has always acknowledged the 'Dad' in me.

This year was no different.

He gave me a grow hose.

(We call it a penis hose)
Fitting as it starts out flaccid and grows.

 Then it grows...

When you shut off the water it shrinks up again.  It is amazing.

But wait, that's not all...

Okay have any of you  used the dryer to get the wrinkles out?
Me too.

I also got an orb that is supposed to steam the clothes and get the wrinkles out.

Not yet tried.  Soon.

Happy Dad's day to all the Dad's. 
and
All the Mom's who are Dad's

Happy National Donut Day

This day exists?
This is too freaking awesome.

Not that I'll be eating a donut mind you.  I had my casein cake this morning - I'm still tweaking the recipe to get the carbs to an acceptable level.  Not quite right - but I'm getting closer.

 

I believe this one was cinnamon bun with cream cheese cinnamon frosting.

 

This morning was a peanut butter chocolate with peanut butter frosting.

(alas I took no photo)

 

If they had a Beyond Glazed near me I'd be tempted to celebrate with a maple bacon donut.  I have to be thankful that Jess and Stavo don't live with me any longer.  They were the Queen and King of delicious things to eat.  If they were not buying them; they were making them.

 

I'll be content with my low carb-high protein cake. 

 

Oh and Happy Graduation to Evie.  She graduated Kindergarten last Thursday.

My phone takes the best photos. 

I can even get pictures of Chester that are not blurry. 

Can I get a picture of this little munchkin? 

Well, obviously I got ONE photo. 

The rest were either the back of her head or people who walked in front of her or...

What would I do without my boys?

I told you about the great "Water Park" adventure.  The weather has been cool enough that waiting until the weekend to fix the swamp cooler would be fine.  I could still vent the swamper and moving air feels cooler than non-moving air.

But then things changed:

 

Mid to high 70's crept up and up and up.

 

"It might get a bit toasty, but we'll be okay," I assured the animals.

Chester rolled his eyes at me and went out to lay in the cool, shaded grass.  I thought of joining him.

 

When the cavalry arrived I was awfully pleased.

 

The swamp cooler is now fixed.

Thanks boys!!!

 

 

Awwwww

Well now, that's interesting.

I got home from a dinner engagement last night and discovered that my swamp cooler decided to go all "Water Park" on me.

I twisted this knob and turned that knob.  Nothing I tried would remedy the situation. 
I jumped on the phone and called Jake, "Houston, we have a problem."
I just needed to turn this other knobby, that doesn't look like a knobby, and it shut it down.  It was a leak in the hose that feeds the water to the swamp cooler.

The forsythia and the dog LOVED it.
Momma, not so much.

I tried to take a picture of the rupture but it didn't turn out.

So I took a picture of my wet legs instead.

Jaker will get me taken care of this Saturday.  We just need some new hose - I use plastic not copper so the expense is not that great.  It 'should' be an easy fix.  She said giggling nervously, hoping she hadn't cursed anything.

Enough of cats...what about dogs?

I found these on Humor Train.

 

What's in my mouth?

Nuth'un.

 

and

This little fellow is just plain happy.

 

As the weather warms here in Utah,

 it is time to do a few things to make the yard presentable.

(Also known as keeping the HOA off my back ;)

 

Last year the kids were in charge of the yard. 

They like all things black and the chips they chose were ... black.

 

I prefer the natural looking bark.

Jaker helped me get it spread out.

 

 

Back under my forsythia, it has become a secret garden.

You can see Tiger Baby hanging out in the cool shade.

 

He didn't appreciate the intrusion into his sanctuary

and decided to hang out on the porch instead.

Where I promptly stuck the camera in his face and intruded anyway.

 

My kibble - My rules!!

 

The nature of cats

 

Adorable one minute

 

 

 

 

I'm going to eat your face off the next.

And you are?

I have a wedding reception to attend this evening and so I was getting gussied up.  First I had to step over Chester as he was laying in front of the shower door. 
He looked at me but didn't seem to mind the intrusion.

I washed and conditioned my hair and then I looked down.
And what to my myopic eyes did appear?
Something that looked like a small black spider.

I have a truce with spiders and so there was no screaming and fleeing with water droplets flying.  I bent over to try and ascertain if it really was a spider. 

I then said, "If you are a spider and you are NOT dead, you better get out of here."
Chester got up and walked away.

I always figured he thought he was a cat.
Seems he fancies himself a spider.
Good thing I have a truce with them then.

And this is why...

You take a before photo.

Doesn't look like much, but you should have seen it!

 

 Jake told me my little battery powered weed whacker would NOT tackle the over grown jungle that was my patio.  But I wanted to BBQ and you can't do that in knee high grass, right?

 

Jake told me to have Stavo bring his gas powered monstrosity. He said it had the power to take care of my jungle. 

 

Pshaw I say to that.  Never under estimate the power of a woman who wants to BBQ and is not content to wait for some man with his high powered, noxious fume belching machine.

(Not that Stavo would not have done it but he works 70 hours a week.)

 

So with my little weed whacker in hand I had to try. 

It worked well enough to BBQ.

When Stavo has time and brings the high powered machine I'm sure it will work better but for now this will suffice.

Happy Mom's Day

My Mom's Day was fantastic.

"Wait, she posted that at 6:30 am Sunday morning...what?"

Scratch your head no more, I will explain.

My kids know that Sunday is sacred to me.  It is my time to be alone and recharge for the next week so one of the gifts they gave me was to celebrate Mom's Day on Saturday.

On Saturday morning the boys came over and we went to coffee. 

It is a Saturday ritual that I love.

The pup with the cone of shame says 'Seriously?' 

Each of the pictures has a cute saying.

And I got a weed whacker.  It is battery powered. 

The boys said that it is Mom proof. 

Now I have a battery powered mower AND a batter powered whacker. 

The HOA will love me this year.

 

Then after all the manly yard work has been done they gave me:

Shae butter lotion and a sea salt scrub. 

It will have me back to womanly loveliness in no time.

Or at least the sweat will be washed off.

Jess and Stavo stopped by later that afternoon and this was my surprise. 

 

Filled with all kinds of flavorings for my casein cakes.

I asked for lemon extract and I got heaven.

But wait, there's more

A turtle holding a bamboo shoot and that little red blotch is a ladybug. 

How cute is that?

All in all I would say it was a win for this mom.

My Mom

What can I say...

My mom clung to me when I was strong.
She abandoned me when I was not.

She needed to survive.
I get that.
Sad, that.

What can I say mom,
  I love you but...

Mom Day continues

The boys descened.

They were going to decomision the swamp tomorrow.
Today was hot and they came today.

Not 80.  Awesome

They also fixed the back gate.

I have the best kids.  I will never know what I did to deserve them, but I will take it.

sMom Day and Cup Cakes

For sMom Day my sDaughter gave me...

Individual serving bags of broccoli and White Chocolate Wonder. 

It is a flavored peanut butter and it is delicious.

 

I used it to top my cup cake.

It is a Casein cake but instead of cooking it in a bowl I used a cup. 

Topped it with Walden Farms zero calorie caramel sauce

 and on top of that the white chocolate wonder. 

I found a dark chocolate peanut butter too. I am going to try that next. 

I think it would be more visually pleasing

 

Why the seeming odd gifts? 

Since we started eating a more healthy diet

we have discovered a whole new world. 

It has been fun sharing this with her.

Well, alrighty then...

The Blogess had a link.
I followed the link and I think it is worth the read.
I haven't even read part one...Part two is...wow.

I felt I hit bottom this last year.

The threat of losing Chester and then all the dead people.
 Brother, Niece, Uncle, Sister in Law.
My world was not a good place. People I assumed would support me, did not. Alliances that should have been dissolved, reigned supreme. My voice did not matter. Life sucked.

Check out the link.  It is about depression.
It is long, but worth the read.  If you have never been depressed it gives you insight into what it is like.

If you have been depressed it gives a whole new meaning to that kernel of corn.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

What did you say?

I heard this sentence in the hall at work and I'm puzzled.

"Are you what you are?"

How does one respond to that?

I are not certain. 

I was, but now I am questioning it. 

Why are you asking me this?

I hear the strangest things in the hallway at my work.   A lot of times I will respond even if I'm not part of the conversation.  If you are hollering in the hallway how am I to know that it was not directed at me?

One fellow is famous for this. 

"Yo ho ho," he hollers.  There was some dude at the end of the hall he was yohohoing but I was between him and the dude and so I replied.  "And a bottle of rum."  He has not made eye contact with me since.  There is also a lot less hollering when I'm around.  Win/Win I suppose.

April showers bring more snow in May.

 

Well that doesn't rhyme at all. 

 

 

This is what my yard looked like when I snapped the photo.

By the time I left for work snow covered the car and grass. 

So I'll just sit here and wait for spring. 

 

Still waiting. 

 

Yep, that's me, still waiting.

Camp NaNo - April Edition

Les Misérables Soundtrack - I Dreamed a Dream - Anne Hathaway OST

http://youtu.be/k6YwuqWFTbc

Ain't your mama's cake

Okay - this is delicious.

1 scoop Capsien powder chocolate
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp Greek yogurt
2 tsp Oat flour
1 Egg white
2-3 tbsp Almond milk
1/2 tsp baking powder
I use a little stevia

Stir together to make a batter.
Place in a bowl.
Cover with saran wrap microwave for 60-75 seconds.
Invert on to a plate.

155 Calories.  7.5g Carbs and 29 g Protein

Topping is PB2 with water. ( Powdered peanut butter)
I also use raspberries on top of the PB2

Recipe compliments of Jamie Hudson.
I used her pictures too as mine didn't turn out.

It is very high in protein, low in carbs, low in fat. 
It is decadent and a wonderful treat.

Happy Easter

 

DH gave me an orchid for Valentine's Day 2012

When the flowers died I couldn't throw it out.

I am the queen of keeping discarded animals and plants.

 

This year I was rewarded with a beautiful bloom.

There are several more in the offing.

 

A festivas miracle for certain sure.

Really?

Sunset Sam is going down!! 
Utah's prognosticator of spring, a ginormous guinea pig, made a grievous error.

Dear Sunset,
THIS IS NOT SPRING.
Sincerely,
J.

 

See the street between me and my neighbor? 

No?

Me either.

Stupid rodent!!

Milestone

 

"Damn it" I meant to put my camera in my purse. 

The mileage was close.  I might make it home to take a picture.

I watched it every step of the way.

 

If push came to shove I would use my phone.

One of the kids would know how to make that work.

But I wanted to land in my driveway at 100,000 miles.

 

The gods smiled and life was good.

I had 1/10 of a mile leway.

I did it.

Squee!!

Happy pi Day

 

March 14 is pi day. It's a math thing.  3.14

 

I know the only one who really cares is DH. He told me he's watching what he eats and so I guess he'll have to settle for looking at this pie.

 

 

The Grand Critters

 

The Lordling and The Captain 

Lord Reginald

 

Captain Barbosa

 

Ginger

(Not Miss Ginger or Lady Ginger or Mademoiselle Ginger.  Just Ginger)

 

 

No Pics of the guinea pigs or Picca

(I'll take what I can get and then I torment you with them. ;)

 

 

Zombies in SLC

Knew it was bound to happen.

The guy with the very big gun has a girlfriend in Thailand and she commented on the US and the whole gun thing.  He made this little video to prove why we need guns. 

The zombie apocalypse of course.

The blonde screamer is my sDaughter.

Why oh why do I believe...

Or perhaps I should say "Why of why do I assume what works for one thing will work for another."

I read a great tip.  Cook your noodles al dente.  You can then place them in a steamer basket over hot water and keep them warm.  I was using rice noodles and maybe that's what made the difference.  Maybe wheat noodles are a more hardy breed.

I can say that they still "looked" like noodles but they turned into more of a mush.  Oh well, live and learn. 

I think I will go back to crock pot cooking.  I had less fails with the crock pot.

Spring snow

Spring snow is full of hope.  I still don't like snow, but in the grand scheme of things...

This year has been a bad year.  Not as bad as our dear friends back east have had to deal with.  I know I should not complain.  I will, but I shouldn't.

In the winter when it snows it piles higher and higher.

(Credit)

In the spring it can snow seven inches one day and the next you can see most of your grass.  This makes me smile.  It gives me hope.

Lengend says...

 

So whoever has been draming about me knock it off.  I need some rest.  Please and Thank you!!

 

 





Mama's Broken Heart

This ain't my mama's broken heart.

What is this thing that burns my eyes?

Sunshine?  I'd forgotten what it looked like.

Worst air in the nation

It doesn't have Blogger button so I can't share it without making you link, sorry.

Suffice it to say that Utah has had the WORST January as far as air quality goes.  It is impossible to tell the sun from a full moon.  The news said that breathing this air was like forcing everyone in the valley to smoke a full pack of cigarettes. 

Normally it takes a big wind to blow the gunk out of the valley.  SLC is like a bowl just waiting to be filled.  There have been no big winds, but there must be some higher up because I can see blue sky amidst the clouds.  Not haze, actual puffy white clouds.

What a wonderful day.

Grand Critters



 

Ginger

The kids got her from a shelter. She'd been returned twice.

She's the sweetest cat ever and gets along with the boys.

 

 

 

The Lordling

 Um, driving? At least he's attentive - no texting and such ;)

 

 

The Boys

Lord Reginald and Captain Barbosa

(I suspect a treat was involved to get this unified concentration)

 

Autumn and Picca

Autumn is the Guinea Pig

That makes Picca the bird - not sure what kind she is.