If you want to make pancakes for breakfast. . . . .

This is my version of "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie". It is a true story, just happened a few moments ago:



If you decide you want to make whole wheat pancakes for the kids for breakfast, you'll have to get out the mix from the freezer.

When you get the mix out, you'll see that you only have 1 cup of mix and you need 3 cups of mix. So, you'll have to make more mix.

When you try to get the wheat berries out of the cupboard to grind them up into flour, you'll discover that you don't have an open can. So, you'll have to go downstairs to get a new can.

When you turn the light on in the under-the-stairs storage closet, you remember that you didn't ever put away the new cans of white flour and now they are in your way. You can't even get to the wheat that is in the back of the closet. So, you'll have to put the cans of white flour away.

Once you've put the cans of white flour on the bottom of the stack so that the oldest are on top, you are able to climb on your hands and knees to the back of the closet to look for wheat.

Once you are crammed into the back of the closet and the wood from the staircase above is scratching your back, you discover that you cannot read the labels on the boxes because your head is blocking the light. You didn't bring a flashlight and you really really don't want to go get one so you just open the box that you think you are looking for and pull up one of the cans enough to see that it is not wheat but oats. You can't find the wheat so you'll have to back out of the closet.

As you back out, you see a stack of cans on your right, close to the front of the closet, where you can stand up and you remember that months ago when you got you wheat grinder, you decided to move the wheat to the front of the closet where it would be easily accessible. So, you get a can of wheat.

When you return to the kitchen with your can of wheat, you find that your kids got tired of waiting and are going to have cereal for breakfast. So, you'll just have to laugh about it or you'll start the day off wrong.

I hope it gets better from here.

Kai got home from his 50-mile hike yesterday. I really wasn't expecting him to be so dirty! For some reason I really truly thought that he would at least wash his face while he was gone. How could I have been so unrealistic? It was an easy remedy. We made him shower within minutes of returning home. I should have taken a picture first. He had a great time and after hearing all his stories, I think it was actually a vacation for him. They slept in until 9 or 10 every day he said. I never let him do that here at home. They also were able to fish alot and he loved the hiking part, although he did get tired of it by the end of the week. He said he was not tired of camping though. He thinks he could camp for months and be happy. Thankfully, there were no injuries or disasters, other than one horse had to come home early due to a stumble and the resulting cuts on his leg. There were a few close calls and of course many funny stories for him to tell.

Justin and I are grateful for good leaders who are dedicated to their callings in the church to lead and guide our son. We are also grateful for their willingness to undertake a project such as this so that he might have opportunities to learn and grow into a fine young man.

On Friday night, the rest of us went to Walla Walla to visit with the Perry's. We had missed them since they moved and we wanted to go see them. We had a great time with them! We went to a candy store and movie in the park on Friday night. Saturday we hit the farmer's market and just enjoyed the downtown area. It was fun to visit the Perry's and also see Walla Walla.

Big fish!

Saturday evening we went fishing with our friends. We caught a 30 pound salmon. It's always exciting to see the big ones come in. I didn't get sick this time! I think because I was busy with good conversation.

After having a fan on, blowing under the carpet for 3 days, I finally can find dry spots and maybe there is a light at the end of this "wet carpet" tunnel! The hallway is still wet though and I'm just now sure how to get it dry without pulling it up. The blower is sending enough air into the hallway to lift the carpet off the pad but it doesn't seem to be drying. We seriously don't want to pull up the hall carpet! Any suggestions?

Our weekend

So, Kale moved in to his new room downstairs last week and now we've moved him out. You might think he couldn't stand being away from his mommie at night but no, that wasn't it. His room flooded. Last Friday morning, before anyone woke up, in the wee hours of the morning, a sprinkler line came apart just outside of Kale's new window. It was a 1" line and must have broke as soon as the water came on because there was a ton of water and mud on Kale's carpet and out into the hall way. There is a water line inside of his window well that is about 3" above the 4" deep gravel. The dirt around the outside of the window well has settled several inches. It was a soggy mess. So, we had to take everything out of his room and move it somewhere else in order to lift the carpet and get fans underneath. Justin and I had just finished installing a closet organizer the evening before. Friday morning, we uninstalled the closet organizer. I was so excited to be almost done with his room and now we're starting over again, minus the painting.

On the upside, the girls and I went to Ikea Friday afternoon. We were going to pick out some dressers to replace the too small dressers they were using. When we got there we decided to buy a new wardrobe for each of them instead of dressers. This way they have room to hang their dresses and then close the doors so no one can see anything. They don't have a closet in their room so we've been hanging all their stuff on a portable hanging rack and it's been out in the open for all to see. They cost about the same as the two new dressers I was going to buy for each of them and still half as much as one dresser from the furniture store. We got home at about 9:30 Friday night and then Saturday morning we started putting them together. The first one took me about 4 hours (I took my time so as not to make mistakes) and the second took 1 1/2 hours (I hurried). Hadley brought down snacks and even made herself some microwave popcorn. Then draped herself over a chair and watched me put the first one together. By the time the first one was done, they were both gone to the TV room and I had to keep calling for helpers to hold this or bring me that. Now that they're done, both girls like them and I love that we don't have clothes hanging all over and falling out of too small drawers. We'll see how long the organization lasts.

The boys all went camping Friday night. It was a father/son ward activity. They had fun. Kale called me to tell me that he thought we should come join them because it was so much fun up there. They went to a place called Wishpush (sp?), above Cle Elum. Justin said the weather was just perfect and they all had a fun time. Kale got burned with the end of a stick Friday night and he was pretty upset about it but now there is barely any mark at all.

No More braces for Seila

Seila got her braces off this morning. She was pretty excited and couldn't stop rubbing her teeth with her tongue. The orthodontist gave her a bag of candies that have been forbidden. They didn't last long. She's driving me crazy with her retainer. She keeps playing with it, in and out, clicking it on her teeth. She has to wear it all the time for 2 weeks.

Last week we went crabbing off of Camano Island in the Puget Sound. We were there for 4 days/3 nights and we had a ton of fun. We were able to crab with friends from Royal, friends from Camano Island that we knew from Connell, more friends from Royal, and Justin took some of the mutual kids from the Othello Stake. The trip was offered to the mutual kids in the Stake who had either earned their Eagle Scout award or their Personal Progress award in the last year. It's always fun to take people who have never been before. We stayed at two different State Parks over on the island in some little cabins. It was a super fun trip. Justin said he thought it might be his altime favorite. We caught our limits every day and there was just a ton of crab. We figured that we kept about 300 crab between both boats (our friend had his boat there too)after the four days were up. Our best pot pulled 27 crab with 7 keepers and we actually managed to get a picture of it. Our friend pulled a pot with 30 crab.

We had a great time even though there were a few little hitches along the way. Somewhere along the highway, our boat window was shattered. I couldn't believe the weather either! We were hoping to get a break from the heat and then went right into record breaking temps in the Seattle area. On Wednesday, Seattle recorded a temp of 103. In the history or recording temps, Seattle has never been so hot. When you added in the humidity, it was a cooker! Thursday cooled off a little bit and the Friday and Saturday were just plain nice. We went home to 100+ temps on Saturday night.

We're always surprised when we pull something other than a crab in one of our pots. This year we pulled several sun stars (a variety of star fish), a small flounder, and a jellyfish. We kept finding jellyfish tentacles that were all stringy on our ropes as we would pull them. We discovered quickly that these were the stinging kind. If the stringy tentacles touched our skin, it burned for hours.