Vacation, finally

I have to give a "thank you" to our elected state legislature, who have FINALLY passed a budget. (I say finally, because session is, in theory, only supposed to last 100 days, begining Jan 2) The govenor signed it late Tuesday night, so no special session for the budget, it is really done. What that means for us: that we can go on vacation over the 4th of July up to Huntsville, Utah and escape this blistering heat (111 for today); that Eric will have early mornings and late nights to ensure that his appropriation reports are done (he had 7 to do) so we can go on our vacation; and that when we get back Eric will start flex time-working 9-9 hour days and then getting every-other Friday off. It means that I have something truely pleasant to look forward to, not just day after day after day of summer vacation. You should all rejoice in the fact that you can kick your kids out of the house to play, but for us, our bikes will go untouched until September when the temp drops back down to 100-105 (seriously, it will be hot until October) But for now, I look forward to sitting on the porch, reading a book, while the kids play outside. We'll share pictures when we get back.

Happy Fater's Day

Aidan made Eric a card Sunday morning that read: Happy fater's day! Breakfast included mini-raspberry muffins (thank you Lehi Roller Mills), farmer's breakfast and juice. We had a fun and relaxing day (excluding sacrament meeting-crying children and long high council talks) that even included naps for Eric and I. Dinner with Eric's family, all that mattered was that we had key lime pie for dessert! And we finished off the day with our annual father's inspired FHE, 16 questions ranging from: what color are daddy's eyes? to: How many son's did Jacob/Isreal have, and can you name them all?

I like having a day that reminds me of how lucky I am to have Eric. He is a wonderful dad, a great train/castle/lego builder, and a caring and considerate husband. Thank you darling.

Tooth #3

Aidan lost tooth #3 yesterday with no tears! One quick pull of the string after a count of three, and that tooth flew across the kitchen and into the hall. I was a little more prepared this time, when he lost his first two teeth I learned some lessons: don't pull teeth in front of a mirror, do use a dark washcloth (not white gauze) to bite down on (you can't see the blood). He is very excited for tooth #4 (3 & 4 became wiggly at the same time) which should come out before the end of the month.

BOOTS

For Aidan's first birthday Eric's grandparents bought Aidan a pair of "real" boots (they're ranchers in No. Utah). We have made sure that each of our children have worn them at least once, they are really nice leather boots. So here is Eme, taking her turn in the boots. She loves them, she cried when I took them off. We can't wait until Grandma and Grandpa Roberts can see her in them on the 4th of July!

Are you kids NUTS?!

Aidan woke up last week wrapped up in his afghan, the others all followed suit. I'm not sure where my children think they are, they all told me that it was cold out . From the picture you wouldn't think that it was the end of May in Arizona, with an expected high of 100 or more, or that the open windows over the night had only cooled the house down to 74 degrees. Yet, there they are, too cold to come out from under their blankets.

Woes of the amature radio opperator

Last year Eric and I got our Technical class amature radio licenses for his Dad for Father's Day. Little did I know the woes that this license would produce. Let me illustrate. Once Eric had a radio license, he was able to opperate his Dad's radio-so every time we went to his parent's house, he squirreled himself away in his dad's radio room-leaving ME alone with our children in a non-baby proofed house.

After a while using his dad's radio wasn't fun, he needed to get his own radio; dad gave Eric one of his old hand-held radios, and one of his older mobile radios. (Dad had promised anyone who got their license a radio). But you can't opperate a radio without an antenea, so an old antenea (the ringo ranger) was found. However, an antenea must be mounted very high-this is a problem when you rent and there is an HOA. Eric did come up with an ingenious solution. Fine, right?

Sadly, no... for once you have your technical class license, why not get your general class and be able to use the HF bands. For Christmas, Eric got a very nice radio that will opperate on the HF/UHF/VHF bands. There was nothing in the way of a general class now. Eric passed his test with his dad (good bonding time). Now they are both able to opperate on the HF bands. But a new problem arises...the antenea. You have to have a different antenea to opperate HF. A VERY big one, a very expensive one.

Now all I hear is moaning about the radio and the antenea. Eric and his dad keep planning on building a dipole antenea, among other kinds. I just wish that they'd get it over with. I don't care what kind he has, I have just one requirement-that the kids can still play unsupervised in our safe, small backyard. This requirement keeps thwarting many of his ideas. Oh, well.

But my woes won't end with a new antenea...it's sad I know. For once you have an HF antenea, you need an antenea tunner, and a dummy load, and a... Will this EVER end? Probably not.

Cooling off

We had a heat wave last week. Our temps went above 105 for 1 or 2 days, and low 100's for more than a week. (We are okay this week, only the high 90's) After Aidan's final t-ball game (it was 90 degrees by 10 am) we decided to cool off in our new summer relief: a fun sprinkler head. Summer isn't looking too bad after all.