Fruits

Okay, here are some "fruits" of my day.

Fruit of my labor:

In order to make room in my freezer for some fresh Alaskan fish (story to follow later) I had to empty out a 5-gallon bucket of frozen raspberries. My wonderful father had frozen these for me 2 summers ago. I had every intention of making jam then, but just forgot. Anyway, I made 6 batches of jam and there it is (minus the 2 that I gave to Laura). I don't want to put it back in my freezer because of the fish thing, so I guess I will start taking bids!!

Fruit of the Loom:

We went to Fred Meyer's the other day and bought official big boy underwear for Parker. He picked out Diego and Cars underwear (surprise, surprise). Here he is modeling it. Zach had to be in the picture too! He is about 80%-ish potty trained. We still have to use a Pull-up for naps and bedtime and it is always a battle to get him to go poop. Don't they have the cutest little Blad-bums??

Tender moments

Today before church we were in the kitchen. We've got the really nasty 1:00 church. The boys were all dressed up in their suits and ties for church and I was making dessert (yes, I cooked a Sunday dinner complete with a really yummy lemon cheesecake). Anyway, I heard Zach tell Parker to lay down on the floor. He did and then Zach placed his hands on Parker's head and said "By the authority I bless you that you will do good in school. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." I was trying so hard not to laugh. I don't know if that is sacrilegious or anything, but it was so cute. When Zach started school this year, Gus gave him a father's blessing. He blessed him that he would do well in school and learn what he needs to. I am so thankful that my husband is a worthy priesthood holder and honors it. I told Gus that he is a great role model! I love my boys!

Reality

My sis Heidi tagged anyone who read her post to take pictures of their REALITY. Since I am an avid blogger now, I will accept this challenge! Well here is mine: (I really debated whether I wanted to post this pic of Parker)

I censored it for family viewing. My REALITY is that I hate potty training enough that I just let him run around outside naked! At least he is not peeing in his diaper. It even got bad enough that he was playing outside tonight with only his Pull-up on! Yes, in front of neighbors who drove by thinking that we are total white trash!! I finally did make him put clothes on when I finished nursing and dinner and everything else!! But the thing is that I let him outside in front of people like that!

My other REALITY is my room. I cannot keep the area around the TV clean:

This area is such a catch all and I am so embarrassed by it. I just don't do anything about it because no one can see it unless they enter my room and look behind them! My REALITY is that we have too much junk!!

I now tag anyone who reads this to post their REALITY. We are only human after all!!

Fair Fun

We went to the famous Eastern Idaho State Fair on Monday. It had just rained and it was wet and muddy, but the same ol' fair! We went through and saw the animals first. Parker didn't even want to get out of the stroller. He was mad because the guy at the gate gave him a stamp on his hand and he did not like that! Then we met up with Mom, Dad, Holly, Kris, and Kaiden and did the best thing at the fair--EAT! I love going with a lot of people then you can taste all different kinds of food and not eat the whole thing. We had foot long corn dogs, hamburgers, scone bites, tiger ears, funnel cakes, cotton candy, lemonade, carmel apples and my favorite--cinnamon glazed almonds. That sounds like a lot of food that is not good for me, but I only tasted from others (except that foot long corn dog was all mine) and it only comes once a year!

6 Quirks

I've been tagged by my friend Becky to post 6 quirks about myself. I asked Gus last night to help me think of some and he wouldn't shut up, just kidding. Here are some things that you may or may not know about me.

1- I HATE my feet being touched and I hate people's feet touching me (not too much cuddling going on in my bed!) I think it all stems back to my big sis popping my toes when I was little. Yes Jen, I am blaming this one on you!

2- I have to have things symmetrical. From pictures on my wall to things on my counter, they all have to be balanced. I even tell people that 3 kids are good because it is symmetrical. One in the middle with one on each side!

3- My kitchen has to be clean before I go to bed. This one is from my mom. I was kinda bad at this when I was pregnant, but it has gotten better. I can't sleep knowing my kitchen is dirty.

4- I put salt on my ham fried rice. Yes, we can say so-di-um, but it is so much better than soy sauce and so tasty! Try it some time.

5- Everything of mine is one the right. I didn't realize this until I got married, but I am very 'right'. Haha. If you look at our bed, I sleep on the right. If you look at our closets, mine is on the right. My stuff is in the right side of the medicine cabinet. I pack things in the right side of a suitcase. Weird, huh?

6- I love the smell of dirt and even craved it when I was pregnant with Alivia. I love when they plow fields and I can smell the wet dirt. I think this goes back to my childhood when I did a little more than make mud pies!


Okay, now I tag Heidi, Jen, Holly(who needs her own blog), Bonnie, Melanie M., Lois, Janet, Laura, Darlyn, Felicia, Hailey and Elaine!

How to get help at Wal-mart

From my experience today, here is a sure fire way to get employees to help a customer for a 5:1 ration.

1. Get a quart of paint--apple red to match my kitchen for touch up.
2. Have lady mix it, dry it and tap on the lid.
3. Put in cart in the child seat because it is empty (children are with dad at home, yea!)
4. Do some more shopping in fabric section.
5. Get some material cut.
6. Put material in cart and start to push.
7. Watch as the red paint slides through the leg hole of the child seat and watch it fall to the floor, spilling all of its contents as it lands upside down.
8. Silently curse under your breath and tell the lady it spilled.
9. Have lady call in help over the page system so everyone in Wal-Mart knows that there is a major spill in fabrics.
10. Blush with embarrassment as 5 employees quickly gather around to help. Help clean up the globs of paint.

Guaranteed to get employees around you in 3 minutes or less! Welcome to Wal-Mart!!!

Summer

Since our summer is finally winding down (and it has been a very busy one), I thought it would be fun to show our summer in pictures. So, here you go, the Gus Blad family summer in 30 seconds (give or take a few).