Wrong Number

Since we have moved here we get at least one phone call a day for Dixie. She has won all sorts of prizes that she needs to claim and there's a recording that really needs her to call them back. The recording is the most annoying because there isn't anyone to tell they have the wrong number. A few days ago I got a call for someone looking for Kiki, it went something like this: "Hi Kiki. Kiki doesn't live here, you have the wrong number. Do you know Kiki? Never heard of her. Do you know where she lives? No. Are you Kiki's cousin? No, you have the wrong number. So you don't know how I could get a hold of her? No, I have never heard of Kiki, you have the wrong number! Oh this isn't Kiki's number? No. I'm sorry." I don't know if Kiki and Dixie used to have this number, if they used it as an alias, or if these calls are all coincidentally mis-dials. Maybe I should start taking messages-it would be a lot easier!

Big Eyes

When she was younger my sister Deidra would load her plate full of food (maybe she still does) and then she would only eat half of it. My parents would remind her at every meal that her eyes were bigger than her stomach. I think Bentley may have the same problem. He loves food and thinks he should get whatever we are eating. This afternoon I made a smoothie from frozen fruit and a little yogurt and I would alternate spoon fulls--one for me, one for Bentley. He would get so mad when I would take my bite. Granted I was eating off of a bigger spoon, but I swear he thought the whole smoothie was for him. I don't think he realized there was no way in the world he would have been able to finish off the whole thing. He has pretty big eyes for a little tummy.

Sippy Cup

Bentley drinks out of a sippy cup! I read somewhere that at 6 months you should introduce your baby to a sippy cup. Since Bentley is close enough to 6 months I bought one and he has been drinking out of it for the last couple of days. He isn't the most coordinated with it and likes to chew on it, but he can get the spout in his mouth and suck on it. He also fed himself veggie puffs this afternoon. It took a couple minutes per puff to get it out of his chubby little fingers and in his mouth--but he can do it. Pretty soon he is going to be an independent little guy. He can also sit up unsupported. Another big step for Bentely.

Work in Progress

This is what I've got done so far. A few more frames, pictures and maybe some red accents and we'll call it good.

Budweiser Brad

We are always told to meet our neighbors. Last night we met Brad (he likes his Budweiser) when we came home from looking at houses and he was out working on the sprinklers with his 24 oz Budweiser. I don't know how many times he told us he likes his Budweiser, always has. I'm not sure if it was his way of telling us he was an alcoholic or what. He seems like a nice guy that likes his Budweiser. He has done a lot of work on the yard around our apartment. He keeps the lawn mowed and the weeds down and was working on the sprinkler systerm last night. I'm glad he has taken care of the weeds and such, this place looks alot nicer now. Brad likes his Budweiser, always has... Maybe its better not to know who your neighbors are.

Wall Excitement

Here is some of the things I am putting on my shelves. My camera gives everthing a blueish tint, but the clock is red and black even though you can't really tell. I am so excited for the clock. I think its going to tie things together nicely. The white wire picture frames I am going to paint black, so all black frames with black and white photos with red accents. So fun! The best part is that I already have stuff that will work. A little black paint and we will be set. My picture frames I got pretty inexpensively so all and all most of the money will be in the star and clock. Tonight for FHE I am going to insist that we get the shelves hung so I can start putting stuff on them. I am painting an old window black to go on the wall above the couch. Can't wait for it all to be decorated.

Hot and Cold

Last night our apartment was super warm. It was a hot day and I had turned the oven on to cook dinner--stupid. When I went to change Bentley into his pajamas he was warm, so I left him in only his diaper. While I was feeding him he fell asleep, and I thought it would be mean to put his jammies on then, so I put him to bed in his diaper with a blanket. At 2 am the poor little guy woke up screaming. He was freezing cold! I put some jammies on the little guy and fed him and he slept until 7 am. What a bad mom he has....

Standing on the dock of the bay...

Okay, really it was the dock of the Ririe Resevoir. My sister and brother-in-law invited us to go boating with them today when we stopped by to pick up a CO2 cartridge to fill up. None of us were prepared to go on the water, but Brent found Chod a suit and we decided to meet them there. We ran the errands we needed to in Idaho Falls (I got a star and a cute clock for my bare wall) then we headed to Ririe. We made sure their pickup was in the parking lot and headed down to the dock--expecting them to notice us and swing by to get us. We stood there for the better part of an hour watching people put in and take out their boats. One guy had his little fishing boat turn over and was saved by a boat of skiers. Another boat broke down and was towed in. We listened to some Eninem some wakeboarders were blaring and watched all characters of people come into the dock. It started getting really warm standing there waiting and Bentley was getting hungry, and there was now sign of the Hillmans-so we left. It wasn't a wasted trip though, because then we drove up and saw Hiese, Chod showed us where he used to go bike riding, and most of all we got to spend some much needed time together. It seems Chod is never home so an afternoon in the car was a good thing. We then ate dinner at The Bistro off Broadway in Idaho Falls and walked around Pioneer Park on the greenbelt. It was a nice evening, perhaps even better than it would have been on the boat!

Birthday Cake and Kittens

Last night we went to Cameron's birthday party. At Rigby Lake we roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. Afterwards we took a tour of Grandma and Grandpa's Lake Ranch. I didn't know they were owners of a red barn (maybe that is where we should take the western photos for the family reunion) then we had ice cream cake. Chod shared his with Bentley. He must have some Quast blood because he sure likes ice cream. It starts out a little too cold for him, but once it is melted he thinks it is goo-ood. Then Clare and Grandma let Bentley pet a kitty. It was soft and he loved to pet it. Sometimes he would grab fistfuls of fur, but the kitty was really patient and sat there purring as Bentley would try to stick it in his mouth. Bentley likes to chew of soft, furry things and this little kitty was mighty tempting.

Home Hunting

Chod and I have been throwing around the idea of buying or building a home here in Blackfoot. We aren't exactly sure what are plans are for the future, but we realize that paying rent is getting us no where. The cost of housing is outrageous. I would have thought that homes would cost less in Blackfoot than they do in Logan, but I was wrong. They are pretty much the same. The homes in our price range are less than appealing and none of them are what I want. Chod is afraid that the housing market is going to cool off and we could end up stuck with a house here and be living somewhere else. I like the idea of building best, but even then I have no idea how much it costs to build, and we probably couldn't afford that either. I emailed the realtor yesterday because there are a few houses in the Groveland area for sale. If only someone else would tell us what to do--build, buy, or rent--it would make things a lot simpler.

Work Truck

Chod has a Geo Prism that he used to call "Race Car" because it always wanted to go fast, but he had to hold it back. After starting this job Race Car is now "Work Truck". He takes it to the fields and treats it like it is a truck. He hauls whatever needs to be hauled in it, potato seed, chemicals and his monster toolbox. This morning I looked inside it--what a mess! I know a work truck when I see one and that is definitely a work truck. Inches of mud on the floor, tools strewn about, a grease gun on the passenger floor and empty pop cans rolling around. I wonder how Race Car feels about the abuse he is taking. Whenever I mention Chod buying a pickup he gets really defensive and says that Work Truck does everything he wants it to. But the poor little car is falling apart. I don't think he was made to take through fields. If he lasts through this job, he will be the Wonder Car.

Wall Photos

I have a large white wall in the front room. The ceiling is vaulted which makes the wall seem even larger. Since we live in an apt. painting is out and I am left with a large white wall to deal with. I'm stealing an idea from Potterybarn and decorating with black and white photos. I haven't been able to hunt down many from my husband's childhood, so the majority of the photos are mine and Bentley's. I am just getting ready to order the prints. I'm hoping it turns out as well as PB. I think black and whites are fun. The best thing about black and white is that any photo can work--portraits and candids are all good. I like the little bit of color I left on the one of Bentley and Hudson and my 2 year old portrait.

Father's Day

What a hectic day. We were in Burley this weekend to attend the Quast Reunion and get the things we are borrowing from my parents for the Stephens' Roundup. Bentley and I gave Chod his Father's Day gifts early. He got a paintball gun and paintballs. I think he was pretty excited for them and they went paintballing Saturday night. So we spent Saturday night in Burley and came back to Blackfoot yesterday morning. Leann was planning to be out of town, so I offered to take Larry dinner. We got home 1 hour before church started, so in a mad rush I started dinner by boiling potatoes and eggs for a potato salad, made a jell-o salad, baked a cake, started marinating the meat. That left me 15 minutes to get ready for church (and I had to shower). Thank goodness Chod helped me by getting Bentley ready. We thought we were going to be late for church, but apparently our clocks and the church clocks are a little off and ours are early! After church we raced home and finished preparing dinner, loaded it in the car and headed to Rigby.
We had steak sandwiches which seemed to be a hit. Chod's siblings got Larry a mailbox for Father's Day. I'm not so sure he liked it, but oh well. Leann thinks it will be a prime target for mailbox bashers, but what a pretty target it will be. We stayed there for a few hours and then loaded the car up and came home.
What a crazy day. I hope Chod had a good Father's Day and is excited for his gift. I thought it was strange that our ward didn't give the fathers any thing for their special day...the moms got flowers but the dads didn't get anything.

Summer is near

Well the first family reunion of the season has came and gone. The Quast Reunion has never been known for its creativity. Most years it is held at the View church pavillion and last for a couple of hours while people eat. Once the food it gone so are the people. I was defiant this year and refused to pay my $10. I don't see where the $10 goes. Family members bring the majority of the food...and they have a silent auction that also raises money. Since I wasn't sent an invitation (which they didn't even spend money to make them cute--just plain white paper) I snuck in without paying and forfuted my chance of winning a raffle item.
Family reunions are funny. A large family get together which breaks off into individual family units and there is very little intermingling. I don't feel that they acheive the purpose for them usually, but whatever makes people happy.

Hostage in My Own House

I have no idea what time Chod quit working and came to bed last night, then this morning he was at work at 5:00 am. A little after 9 this morning he came home to do some more work on the computers and boy was he grumpy. Nothing was working right this morning and everything bothered him. Bentley was noisy, the TV was on, I asked too many questions so I took Bentley and went to the store. We went to Chod's least favorite store on the planet.....Wal-Mart. But when you live in Blackfoot, Idaho there aren't many other options. We finished our Father's Day shopping and bought some cute camp chairs. Not cause we really needed them right now, but I am sure they will come in handy. When we got home it was almost noon and Chod wasn't in any better of a mood. We are supposed to go to my parent's tonight, but getting him to decide on a time to leave is impossible. Since he was so cranky I am now cranky, because I have sat here and thought of all the reasons I have to be mad. Not a good thing to do. Guess I'll start packing bags so when he does get home we will all be ready to go.

Family Reunion

The Stephens' Round-up plans are coming along nicely and I am excited for it. Here's what the plans are so far; Friday: The guys are planning on going paintballing in the morning, which should a lot of fun for them. That night is when the reunion officially begins and we should all be in our gidd-ups. There will be horses to ride, dutch oven, homemade ice cream, Robyn is bringing her camera to take family pictures (with us all dressed up that we are going to turn into sepia tones for an old western looking photo), campfire and s'mores, Jolyn is going to play a few songs on the guitar and Michaela is working on some cowboy poetry. Then we are going to watch a movie (either old home videos or Home On The Range) outside projected onto a sheet and sleep under the stars.
Saturday: Once again the guys will be shooting, this time skeet and there will be panning for gold, horse shoes, a high noon shoot out (with water guns) and good times to be had by all.
The prize for the best gidd-ups is going to be a pizzookie pan, I decided that would be a good one since a Lodge cast iron pan is very cowboy-ish and who doesn't love pizzookies! I am in the process of painting the picture frames for the family photo and the gold nuggets for the gold rush. I need to stencil the prizes bags for the gold rush, make a few signs, and finish painting the picture frames and then I think we will be ready for this reunion.
Our little family's gidd-ups are almost all ready. Chod will be wearing jeans, red chaps, and red plaid western shirt, a western belt that says "Chuck" on the back with a decently sized belt buckle, boots, spurs and a hat. I will be sporting a western skirt, shirt, boots, and of course a hat. Little Bentley will most likely be bare foot with jeans, red chaps to match his dad's and a shirt of some sort. I bought the red naugahyde yesterday so now I need to get them made and we will be all ready for the round-up!

Sick at Home

Yesterday my husband was sick, but kept insisting that he was going to get better and be able to go to work at any minute. Finally at 9 i talked him into calling in sick. He still thought he was going to make it to work. He has plenty of sick time, worked tons of overtime and has weeks of comp time he can use. So I don't understand what the problem of calling in sick was, and boy was he sick. But thank goodness he felt better today. I like to have him home, but it throws my day all off. Bentley and I have a routine and when dad is home the routine quickly disappears. I'm not so sure that is all his fault though, when he is here I don't try very hard to keep our routine.

Under Control

Things seem to be coming together for everything. Father's Day is taken care of...well almost. My mother-in-law is going to be out of town, so I think we should take my father-in-law dinner or something to let him know that he is loved.
The family reunion is only a few weeks away and I am feeling good about it. I hope it is pretty laid back and fun and that people participate. Things are always more fun when people participate. I am the most worried about people not dressing up, and that just wouldn't be cool.

Silly Bentley

Bentley is such a happy little guy. He giggles all the time. Yesterday at church we was giggling so loud I am sure the whole congregation could hear him. I am glad he is a happy little guy. He brings me many happy moments and lots of joy.

Not Needed

We have been in our new ward going on 2 1/2 months, and I still do not have a calling or visiting teaching assignment. Chod has a calling and a home teaching assignment, but not me. They told Chod that they thought about calling both of us as primary teachers, but since we have a baby they didn't call me. So since I have a kid, does that mean that I won't get a calling. It's kind of nice to not have one, but then I would like to feel needed and I think a calling would help me meet new people. Any way guess I'll keep going to church even if they don't need me.

When grandma comes to town

My mom came and spent the last few days with my sister and I and our two boys. It was fun to have grandma around. We spent most of the time shopping. Yesterday we spent the whole day in Idaho Falls shopping. You would have thought my mom lived in the sticks and this was her big trip to the city. She kept telling us we had a lot more shopping available to us...I don't think her selection of stores is nearly as bad as she claimed. We made skirts and she got to spend time with her "boys". Today we went to garage sales and we all ended up with purchases we were pretty proud of! It was fun to have grandma here.

Bentley on a Roll

For the last month Bentley has been able to roll from his back to his tummy, but not from his tummy to his back. So he would roll onto his tummy and then scream because, like a turtle he couldn't get back over. Last night he figured it out! He rolls clear across the room now and only cries when he runs into a couch or a wall and can't go any further (since he can only roll in one direction). Seems like its time to start keeping things picked up and begin the child-proofing process...things are on their way to no longer being safe.

Brother CS-80 Bothers

For the last 6 months my sewing machine has given me fits. Karisa looked at it, my mom looked at it. It didn't seem like anything major, but I didn't know how to fix it. Whenever I would sew it would ball up really bad on the underside. Last week I was ready to take it in to a repair shop, but when I called I was told the guy was going to be out of town for the week and I should wait. Yesterday I decided to google troubleshooting brother cs-80. And low and behold I think I found what the problem had been. My machine is a self-threading machine which poses problems of its own when you want to know what is going on. Apparently there is a "spool cap" that you are supposed to put on top of the spool of thread, and since I have never read the instructions I had no clue. Once the spool cap had been installed the machine worked beautifully. Glad I didn't waste a trip to Pocatello and $50 to figure that one out!

Lug-nut fiasco

Friday my sister and I were headed to Utah to an old college friend reunion. Before leaving I stopped at the local Les Schwab to get new tires. The new tires were on and we were on our way. Around Tremonton we started feeling a vibration when we would slow down to 70. We stopped and looked at the tires, but everything looked fine so we continued on our way. Around north Ogden the vibration got really bad and we started looking for the nearest Les Schwab. A bill board told us that there was one located off the next exit. While on the off-ramp the vibration was so bad we once again pulled over and looked at our tires. Not seeing anything we proceeded, but I called my husband and told him, "the car is making a really loud noise, like a tire is falling off". He said "stop the car right now and check your lug-nuts, your tire probably is falling off". We pulled into the closest parking lot we could and checked the lug-nuts. Sure enough the front passenger tire's lug-nuts were so loose we could tighten them by hand. When they had put the new tires on apparently they hadn't torqued the lug-nuts. I continued to Les Schwab and they took care of the problem and fixed what damage had been done to the car.
I am glad we had decided to exit when we did, or we could have lost a front tire cruising at 80 on the interstate. We were about an hour late to the reunion, but at least we were alive. Scary when "so much is riding on your tires" and someone forgets to do something as small as tighten the lug-nuts

My Little Secret

I don't know why I enjoy keeping my blog such a secret. In fact I haven't told a single soul about it. So if you are reading this I want to know how you found out! Last night as I was finishing up my entry my husband came home and I quickly closed the window. I must have had a suspicious look on my face because I said "looking for Father's Day presents". Which was partially true in another window--but I was looking for ideas for my dad--so it wouldn't have mattered if he would have seen them. Why did I lie! It's not like I am doing something wrong. I think its because I feel like this is my journal and I don't appreciate others reading my journal--why did I put it on the world wide web you ask....I'm not sure.

Not Ready For 2

This weekend I volunteered to take my sister's 14 month old along with my 5 month old to my parent's house. Yesterday I watched him again. Even though they are both really good kids, they sure keep me hopping. I'm sure that since my house has not been "Hudson proofed" is part of the reason. One would be crying while the other was finding every sharp object located in the bottom half of my kitchen. In the 2 1/2 hours he was here, the two of them wiped me out. I put Bentley into the tub, just to have Hudson try to bail in over the side. Good thing I am quick and got all of his clothes off before he went for a swim. Think it will be a few more months before we think about adding on to this little family.