One Tough Mama

That's me. One tough mama. At least, according to some clowns last night...

Before the soccer game started, we went to this little carnival thing going on outside the stadium. Some clowns on stilts were running a game-- they had one of these thingamajigs where you take a heavy hammer and whack a pad to try to get the bell on top to ring.

I convinced Ron to try it-- he got pretty close to the top.Then I decided to try it.

I remembered the wise words of my father, who taught me how to chop wood as a child. "Put the force into your downswing," he used to tell me, "Wait until your hands are in front of your head." So I did just that. And hit that sucker about 2/3 of the way up.

The clowns started ribbing all the men around the area, because my hit was better than most of the guys who tried. Ha! They kept calling me, "One tough mama!" and urged all the men to come and best my score.

Too funny!

New Stadium

The first game for the Real Salt Lake was played last night in the brand-new Rio Tinto Stadium. Ron and I enjoyed watching it, right there in the stands! It's an incredible stadium-- I don't think there is a bad seat in the house.



It's everything a soccer (football) game should be-- lots of action (including three yellows and one red card!), goals from both teams, and great saves from the keepers. The only thing it didn't have was a win for the RSL. It was a tie, 1-1.

One of my favorite parts of the night? Ten minutes before kickoff, the sprinkers came on. The crowed just roared. Too funny!
We capped the night off with mugs of hot chocolate and cherry pie a-la-mode. Mmmmmmm...

Irritation

I am in a grumbly mood today. Last night, Lu went to babysit for the single gentleman down the street (the widower with three little boys). He said he would need her from 4:00-10:00pm. Okay, I thought... 10:00 is a little late for a school night, but it should be ok.

At 10:40, after his not answering Lu's texts and calls, I went over to the house and sent her home to go to bed.

The gentleman shows up at... drumroll, please... 12:30am.

He was a bit surprised to see me in his house. I let him know that Lu cannot be out that late on a school night babysitting, and that she will not be able to sit for him again if he cannot be home at a decent hour.

He was apologetic, and vowed that it would never happen again.

What would you have done in this situation? And should I let her sit for this gentleman again on a school night?

Wordless Wednesday

Street performers in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

The Experimenter

I have a child who likes to experiment with things. She's been this way since she was born, I think. How does this work? Will it still work if I take it apart? Will it still work if I smash it into pieces? Will it work if I glue it back together?

My experimenter is Violet. Her current favorite thing to do is freeze things. This phase has lasted almost two years now. (In fact she took 3rd place in the school science fair--against middle schoolers-- with her "Gadget Freeze" project, where she froze different items and then tested them to see if they still worked afterwards...) I never know what I will find in the freezer when I open it. So many surprises are encased in ice for my enjoyment: frozen matches, frozen applesauce (she says don't try this-- it's gross), frozen toothpicks, frozen toys, frozen... something...

I remember one day when she was about 5, and we were unloading groceries from the car. I gave her the package of two Costco-sized mustard bottles, and she went in. A couple minutes later, the older girls yell, "Mom! Come quick!" I enter the house to find mustard splattered all over the landing and wall at the bottom of the stairs. Older sisters informed me that they saw her throwing the mustard.

Me: "Honey, why did you throw the mustard down the stairs?"
Violet: "I wanted to see what would happen."
Me: "Well, mustard explodes everywhere when you throw it down the stairs."
Violet: "The first one didn't!"

This morning, I drove to work with little stick magnets stuck to the outside of the car. I have the best hood ornaments EVER.

SOLUTION: Can't Open Attachments in Outlook 2003

Problem:

• You have Office/Outlook 2003
• You have installed the Office 2007 Compatibility pack
• When you double-click on Office 2007 attachments in Outlook, you receive an error that says, "The system cannot find the file specified"

Solution:

• Open Windows Explorer/My Computer
• Go to Tools, then Folder Options
• Click on the File Types tab
• Scroll down to the file type you are having issues with (ex: .xlsx or .docx)
• Click Change
• Choose the regular program to open the attachment-- in other words, you want Excel to open a .xlsx, or Word to open .docx, etc. DO NOT CHOOSE THE COMPATIBILITY PACK PROGRAM.
• Click OK

Now try to open your attachment again. It should (hopefully) work this time!

Never Boring

Kayla is my child who has always had a very quick wit. She's a funny person, and is definitely a yellow personality. This means that conversations in our home are generally amusing on some level.

For example: "Oh-my-gosh-I-love-Kenna-so-much-and-I-really-have-to-pee!"

Or, the other day when we were all driving in the car, with Kayla at the wheel:

Violet: "Your driving is really good now. You're just like mom!"
Kayla: "Only more sexy!"

Or the morning I was driving her to the bus stop, and passed a sign announcing a Cottage Meeting. She asked what one was, and I started explaining it to her. She interrupted with:

"Oh! I thought you were going to say it was a church kind of meeting. You know, where the ladies would say, 'I think maybe it would be best to have the prayer second instead of first, and it would be a wonderful idea for everyone to bring a treat because everyone likes them, and now let's all go make some casseroles!"

I wish I could put her voice changes/inflections into the written word. It's just too funny. :)

This is the same child, who at age 4, told me, "I have SO many thinks in my head! There must be a googol of them." I love it when her thinks come spilling out her head and right out of her mouth. :)

I've told her that the "mother's curse" applies to her-- I hope she gets her own mini-me so that she, too, can experience how much fun it has been to have a child like her.

Letterbox-- Lehi Sugar Factory

We placed our first letterbox last night at the Lehi Sugar Factory. We did a covert night operation and moved a lot of rocks to cover the hidey-hole. It was fun!

This place has quite a history behind it. To read more, visit here.

I've created a new blog just for my letterboxing clues. Please visit Letterboxing Adventures for fun and excitement. :)

For more information about letterboxing, please visit http://www.letterboxing.org/.

Morning Surprise

As I was taking Kayla to school early this morning, we saw a horse trailer being pulled on the freeway. Not too unusual-- there's a lot of animals in this area still-- but then Kayla says to me, "I don't think that looks like a horse in there. It looks like a camel!"

"Not likely," I replied. "I bet it's a llama."

As I pulled closer to the trailer, we saw this:

Wild, huh? :)

Kayla calls her best friend to tell her about "...the best thing that has happened to me in the morning..." Her friend asks her, "So, is an Indian person driving the truck?" Kayla responds, "Huh? What does that have to do with anything? Indians don't usually have camels." Her friend says, "I mean Indians, like from Iraq or something."

Ahhhhhh...... this is the same girl that thought Mexico was a state, and that Canada was near China or something.

Wordless Wednesday

Violet, inside the mine on Sunday.