…is the new color of Royal and my bedroom. Royal picked it out and I thought “exhale” was the perfect name for a color for a bedroom. :) Well actually, Royal picked white first, and I told him that wasn’t an option for me and if he didn’t care, then maybe I’d paint the room pink. Soon after that he had a bit more of an opinion. :)

We of course had plenty of help from our #1 helper in the house.

And since I know that looking at people painting and finished painted rooms isn’t exactly everyones idea of a good time. Here’s a random video of Willow’s evil laugh.

The start of the hard work of storing up food for the winter has officially begun.  Well, we really started stocking the freezer for winter a couple of months ago.  When it comes to berries Royal is like a little squirrel, he’s constantly putting them in the freezer, and they always seem to be gone just when I’m looking for them to put on the kid’s plates.  We had big plans this year to go to a berry farm and pick a lot of our own berries, but with the driving time, the amount of hard it work it takes to pick the berries, and the young ages of our kiddos, we decided we’d put it off for another year and re-evaluate next May.  But corn is a whole ‘nother story!

Last year, we froze 6 dozen corn and we ran out way too early, so since you can get the corn 4 dozen in a box, we just decided to get 2 boxes this year.  We started out the morning, by going and picking up the corn right when the stand opened, because on the weekends they always seem to sell out really fast.  Then we headed North to Newton to go check out the peaches at Beck’s Farm and find out what kind of pears she’s going to get in this year.  We were hoping to can a couple batches of peaches in the next couple weekends before we left for our vacation to Washington, but it seems like the peaches just might not be ready yet, they are pretty hard still, and I just don’t have the time or room to buy a bunch of peaches and then have to lay them around the house waiting for them to ripen.  I’m pretty sure the kids would think they were new toys just for them, and I’d have peaches hidden everywhere!  So, if they don’t ripen in the next couple of weeks, hopefully they’ll wait for us to get back from Washington!

Anyway, back to the corn.  Like I mentioned, we got 8 dozen corn this year.  That would be 96 ears for all you out there who don’t like doing mental math.  :) That’s a lot of shucking!  So, I made up a new house rule.  When we got home I said to Royal, “Well, it turns out just like I don’t do dishes, I don’t shuck corn either”  Ha ha ha, I crack myself up!  So, Royal sat out in the garage for about 2 hours shucking every ear of corn.

He wasn’t alone though, he had Jayden (and Sam) out there with him keeping him entertained with a measuring tape.

But don’t worry, it’s not like I didn’t do anything.  I was in the house, cutting all the kernals off the cobs.

and then doing some more…

Royal and I got smart this year.  The last couple of times we’ve done this, we cooked the corn on the cob and then stuck them in an icebath to stop them from cooking, and then we’d cut the kernals off as fast as we could.  The cobs were usually still pretty hot because we’re both a bit impatient and we didn’t want to wait until they were completely cool, and so I always left the project with burned finger tips.  But after complaining to Royal’s mom about my sore fingers, she oh-so-wisely suggested that we cut the kernals off and then cook them.  Genius!!!  And it took so many fewer batches of water as well!  We’re getting smarter over here folks!

I just am always surprised that all the corn fits into so few bags.  96 ears of corn, and we have 20 bags of corn to stick in our freezer!

Royal’s father’s day started out a little rough.  Jayden woke up at 6:30 with a wet bed.  I got up, changed Jayden and his bed.  Willow woke up at 7:15, also with a wet bed.  Royal got up, grabbed Willow and Jayden and put them in the bath, then went out to the kitchen to finish doing the dishes from the night before.  About 5 minutes later he hears me yell from the bathroom, “Um, Royal, I need your help!”  Willow had pooped in the bathtub and I was frantically pulling kids and toys out of the tub before someone grabbed “something” and was like, ‘what is this?  a new bath toy???’  Luckily things went a better from there, but nothing like being reminded first thing in the morning what being a dad is really like!

We spent the morning at El Dorado where the kids played at a playground, Sam chased some birds, we went for a little hike, and then the kids went swimming.  Royal wouldn’t even put his foot in the water because the lake looks so dirty, so I waded in the water with the kids.  So far, no one has grown an extra limb or anything  :)

The kids got Royal a sno-cone machine for Father’s day.  While in Arizona, Royal was making sno-cones with my parents margarita machine about every hour, so I thought since it is approaching triple digits here in Wichita that he (and the kids) might like some ice treats here too.  I never seem to get to eat mine, because the kids finish theirs off so quick they move right over to mine and help themselves.

We found our first red strawberry of the season tonight!

Then we played a little baseball.  Jayden wanted to be the pitcher.

Royal was the batter.  Look how fierce Royal is in this picture.  I’m guessing it’s because when I was the batter I smacked one way over the fence into the neighbor’s yard, and well, Royal doesn’t like to get shown up by a girl (or really anyone for that matter…).  :)

Scooter even joined us in the yard this evening.  She’s kind of like a dog and follows us down the street if we take a walk, but she’s always about a house behind us, like she’s guarding us, making sure nothing sneaks up behind us or anything.  She also managed to catch a HUGE bird tonight.  But she decided to play with her food before she ate it and gave the bird a chance to get away before I got a picture.

There was a also a little hide and go seek.  But in the backyard there are not very many places to hide.  Under the slide was Jayden’s choice.

We just had the scariest tornado storm I have been in so far since we’ve lived here, which really isn’t that long, it’ll be 2 years in June.  About 10mins to 5, I called Royal at work, because Royal was suppose to be driving up to Kingman for a business dinner this evening, and asked him if he was still planning on going.  He said he’d just checked the weather and he figured he was going to be okay to go.  He says this to me as I am hearing the tornado sirens go off on the WSU campus over his phone (I can’t actually hear any tornado sirens from our house if I am inside).  I’m a little freaked out and say, ‘Well, I’d rather you not go, but if you think you’ll be okay, then fine.’  I finally got my computer to start loading the live feed of the storm while I am hastily shoving food at the kids and I sit down at the table with them to watch the forecasters and stare out the window to make sure I don’t see a tornado.  15 mins later or so, Royal calls me and says he’s heading home because there is a tornado spotted on the ground about 6 miles away from the airport.  By the time Royal called me I had already grabbed the kids, Scooter-pants, the computer, the camera, and was in the basement office.  Jayden and I had just talked about what to do if a tornado ever came around a few days ago, and when I ran upstairs to grab my purse and came back down I found Jayden like this.

He was “hiding from the tornado”.

He had built his own shelter!  So, clever!!!  But I made him move his shelter into the office where I was watching the weather people and the radar.

Willow made sure Baby Stella was doing alright.

Here’s a picture of the storm after the tornado warnings had passed and we went back upstairs.  It was just rain, hail, thunder, and lightning.  I had to take it from inside the window because the wind was blowing it sideways and I would of gotten soaked.  Sorry, but I am just not THAT dedicated to providing you with storm pictures.

And Jayden’s swimming lessons got canceled this evening because of the storm, but it looks like now he could practice in the corner of our backyard!!!!

Royal has been a little difficult about his birthday.  I’m pretty sure it didn’t stem from the fact he was turning 32, Royal’s never had much of an issue about getting older.  I think down deep he was trying to make his birthday not stress me out or anything, like he didn’t want me to feel like I needed to do something big for him.  And while that is very sweet of him to try and make my day easier on his special day, really it just started to bug me.  I mean, this is what I do for a living these days.  I entertain other people, I fix them the food that they want, I try and make their day fun and special.  So it felt a little like an insult to me, like I couldn’t fix or do anything for him that would make him feel special.  Well, I didn’t let that stop me!
He told me he wanted no presents for his birthday - I am so not okay with this - I wanted to get him something, but Royal didn’t want me to spend any money.  When I asked him what he wanted me to cook him for dinner, he said, ‘Well, I don’t know, maybe hotdogs or hamburgers or something?’.  Okay…  And then when I asked him what kind of dessert he wanted, like did he want a cake, or cupcakes, or an ice cream cake, or his mom had just taught me her pie dough recipe, so I could try to make him a pie or tarts or something.  He replied, ‘Well, I guess I’ll just have an ice cream cone.’  Ugh!!!  How in the world was I suppose to fit 32 candles into an ice cream cone????

So, I didn’t spend any of his money on his present.  When the in-laws were in town for Jayden’s birthday, they brought Royal and my birthday presents too.  And part of my present was money, so I used that money to buy Royal something, but really it was kind of a loan from myself.  You see, someone is paying me to make them a couple cheesecakes by this Friday, so I’ll be getting my birthday money back!  :) ha ha ha

And then for dinner, since he said he wanted ‘hotdogs or something’, I made one of his favorites, kielbasa and krout.  The Lovingfoss’ had brought me some homemade canned sauerkraut and I had some kielbasa sausages in the freezer, so I BBQ’d those and heated up the sauerkraut and they were delish!  The best sauerkraut I think I have every had!

And then for dessert.  I had to get a little trickier here.  When Royal was leaving for work in the morning, I made some comment about how me and Jayden were going to make him some chocolate chip cookies today.  They are his favorite and I fed most of my last batch to our small group on Sunday, which he wasn’t too pleased about.  So, Royal said, ‘Oh, I like those, they are my favorite!’   Basically he had given me permission to make him something, which meant that when he came home and I had 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies on the counter for him, he wasn’t going to gripe that I did something for him on his birthday.  But instead of making him a batch of cookies, I turned my cookie dough into a pizookie (pizza cookie for anybody who has never ate at BJ’s!)  It’s basically a cookie in a round dish that is super crunchy on the outside and half baked on the inside and then you cover it with vanilla ice cream and it melts all over it.  It’s super good and I could fit all those candles in there!

Happy Birthday Royal!

Look at all that smoke!

Happy Birthday to my big guy!

One more year.  I feel different ths year and I decided I wanted to do something different than previous years.

4/14/2007, I found out my brother died in a car accident.  I pretty much went into survival mode, shut off all feelings and emotions, became the person who got things done and took care of people, all in order to keep me from taking care of myself or having to deal with anything.  Then during that year and an entire year of therapy, I learned how to turn my emotions back on, and found out I was really angry.  (Really sucked to be Royal during that year!)

4/14/2008, We had an unveiling at my brother’s grave for his new marker that his best friend Forrest designed and worked really hard on.  I. did. not. want. to. go.  But I did.  I was tired of my brother being dead, I was tired of dealing with the aftermath of his death.  I love that marker that Forrest designed, I love it so much I have it tattooed on my arm.  But I did not want to mark the year anniversary of Willie being gone by spending it in the same place I was the year before.  I wanted to feel like I had moved even just a small bit past burying him.  But honestly, I wasn’t that far past it.  By not dealing with anything for the majority of the year before left me pretty much sitting on the edge of my brother’s grave with my feet dangling over the side.  We did go eat Ritz burgers though later that day in memory of Willie, so I have him to thank for that gut-bomb.  :)

4/14/2009, I was in Kansas, so I had no choice but to spend this anniversary with no family around.  And I didn’t do anything.  I had a fairly new baby, so my options were somewhat limited.  But I remember that I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what to do that was out here in Kansas that would make me feel like I was doing something in remembrance of Willie.  Willie is lakes and mountains and snow and skiing and motorcycles.  Kansas is lacking in most of those categories.  So, I stayed home with my kiddos.  Royal took us out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant so I could have a big ole margarita.  That was nice.

4/14/2010, I was determined to figure out something to do today.  Kansas might not have mountains and snow and stuff, but there was plenty of it that I hadn’t seen.  So, I figured today was as good as any day to go discover one of the 8 wonders of Kansas.  I figured it was something that Willie would totally make fun of me about, so it felt right.

We went and checked out Mushroom Rock State Park.  It is a 5 acre park that has these rock formations that were formed during the Cretaceous Period (dinosaurs, people!) that look like, well, mushrooms.

On the way there, I saw this, and if you look closely and kinda squint your eyes (and you don’t see the PNW for long periods at a time) this could almost pass as mountains in the distance!  Okay, maybe not, but look people, I found some hills in Kansas!!!!

And this is what the kids were doing in the backseat…

And here’s the mushroom rocks!

Jayden climbs a rock….

That means Willow wants to climb a rock…

We packed a picnic lunch and decided that now was as good as any time to drink some of Willie’s soda.  I’ve got quite a collection at my house thanks to people giving me the soda that they’ve found in stores around here, and Jayden’s been begging to get to drink out of the bottles with my “brutho” on it, so I brought a few with us to drink with lunch.  Holy Sugar!  We all ended up sharing just one of them because they were so sugary!  Jayden would of finished it happily for us, but with 47g of sugar and a 90 min car ride back home in our near future, we tried to limit how much he drank, but he’s a sneaky little sucker.  :)

(please excuse the peanut butter and jelly on the kids faces.  we were having a picnic, even if it was just in the back of the truck!  Royal pulled a tick off his leg, so we decided to stay out of the grass)

When we got home, it had finally warmed up enough, and Jayden had begged enough, and Royal was home so he could reach it for me, we set up Jayden’s splash pad.  This thing has made it 3 summers so far and these probably aren’t the last of the pictures you’ll get to see this summer with the kids splashing around in it!  :)

Royal took us out to dinner again so I could again have another big ole margarita (delish)!  I felt different today than the previous years.  It felt good to get out and do something that we don’t normally do, and I felt like I celebrated Willie more today.  And you’re not going to believe this, but I found Willie today on this mushroom rock.  And it says right on there “I Love Will”.  So true.

Royal and I and the kiddos went to the 2nd annual StrollerFit Easter Egg Hunt today.  It was a lot of fun, and while I am going through a ton of pictures and videos that I’m going to be editing and putting together for Tonya’s blog, there were just a few funny things that my family did today and I just can’t not share.  :)

The unique thing about the StrollerFit Easter Egg Hunt is that the kids are allowed to get out of the strollers (usually they need to stay in strollers during workouts) and find the eggs, but it’s whats in the eggs that makes all the difference.  They aren’t filled with candy, they are filled with pieces of paper that have exercises on them.  Things like pushups, ice skaters, lunges, hill runs, squats, etc…

Royal did all the work today, as I was taking lots of pictures, so I took pictures of him doing the work.

Running…

Ice skaters…

Push Ups…

And then there was the bunny hop sack race.  I got to get out of it because of my bad knees, and I wanted to get some pictures, which I am so glad I did because Royal did the most hilarious thing.

Here they are at the starting line…

Hop, Royal, Hop!

Then comes the funny part.  Royal thought this was the finish line, he didn’t realize you had to turn around and hop back.  So, in order to insure his victory, he dove across the “finish line”.  It was hil.ar.i.ous.

And just so Willow’s not left out of this post completely, here’s a picture of her doing the kids easter egg hunt!  :)

So, the madness begins again.  I am pretty much good for 1, maybe 2 weekends of all this basketball.  But by the time Sunday rolls around on the 2nd weekend, I just can’t take it anymore.  I am going to have to find something for me and the kids to do outside of the house, because I know Royal will be in front of the tv most of the time and he’s not gonna be very happy about kids jumping all over him.  Really though, to me, it’s not that big of deal.  Royal is really good about not insisting he gets to watch sports every weekend, most of the time he misses the games he wants to watch so he can play with the kiddos.  So, I guess once a year I can be okay with him wanting to watch sports all day.  :)

However, even though I really don’t care that much about college basketball, I’ve still filled out a bracket again this year.  Every year Royal and I bet a quarter on our brackets, and every year I’ve lost.  No big deal, whatever, I can part with a quarter.   But Royal came home yesterday and told me he bet a friend of his lunch over the outcome of one game.  One game!  Are you kidding me?  And I get a quarter if I win the whole thing????  So, I’ve upped the stakes for Royal.  I have been wanting to get a travel trailer for our family for a couple years now, and we’ve been saving for it.  We actually have been out shopping the past couple of weekends trying to figure out what we want.  Then we got some notice saying because our house is no longer in a development that is building houses, we’ve been bumped to a different tax bracket and we owe a bunch of money.  Have I ever mentioned that Kansas has the most taxes ever??? I hate it!!!  So, that pretty much squashed me getting my trailer anytime soon.  That is, unless I win my bracket.  If I win, I get to get my trailer anyway.  If I lose, well, I’ll wait until we’ve saved up the money again.

So, for my brilliant bracketology this year, I think I’ve done some good reasoning.  If any of you have been following this blog for awhile now, you’ll know from 2009’s post, and 2008’s post that I pick based off of seeding, school colors, the ferocity of school mascots, if the school is in a town I might want to visit someday, things like that.  And I always lose, but whatever, no need to change my methodology now!  Here are some of my most creative picks this year.  I have put #5Butler and #4Vanderbilt to meet up in the second round, and I’ve picked Butler to win that game because I think it would be really nice if I had butler around here (or a maid, but there’s no school playing this year with that name)  I have #10Florida picked to beat #7BYU in the first round because Florida sounds really nice this time of year AND I like orange juice.  I have Syracuse making it to the final 4 because, if you’ve read 2009 post, I really dig cream-sicles and their colors are orange the white.  This year in the final I’ve got Kansas (sorry Tonya, please don’t punish me on Monday for letting Syracuse beat K-State, I promise to share some cream-sicles with you) and Duke.  I had Duke picked to win it last year.  Why?  Because of my favorite Duke sweatshirt.  Obviously it’s a sweatshirt I really like.

And really who would win in a real life fight?

A blue devil    or a Jayhawk ?

I’m sorry, but the Jayhawk pretty much just looks like a parrot with tennis shoes on, and my parents have had a couple of those, well minus the shoes of course, and boy are they annoying.  The blue devil’s name came from French soldiers in WW1, and soldiers have guns and to win all they’d have to do is shoot the made up bird (combo of blue jay and sparrow hawk) down!