Good Times

Croz went to his friend Sam's birthday party on Sunday, and was pleasantly surprised with a pony ride! He was whacking away at the Thomas pinata, played a little Bingo, and won some prizes.



We are on the go these days. Always have something we're doing, whether it's taking Munga or meeting someone somewhere or dinner with family or friends. I feel a bit of the single-mom syndrome since D isn't around much. I don't have much to complain about and I know it will pass, but it gets old really fast. I love the line from Ben Harper's song "Crying Won't Help You Now" that says, "Lonely just doesn't look good on you somehow..." it may sound a bit blown out of proportion to say that the boys and I are lonely, but in a way it's true right now... lonely in its subtlest form I guess.

Sweet Tayter Bug is still in the NICU. Mirjeta is amazing. She keeps plowing through... while she goes to be with Tayt we've had the pleasure of having Tavi come over several times. He is one cutie of a guy. Croz told me the other day that Tavi is his best friend.



What I do when we're watching Tavi is I strap Lennox on in the Bjorn, throw Tavi and Croz in the wagon and haul the three boys to the park. I wonder if some people driving by see me with a 3 yr old, 19 month old, and a 9 month old strapped to my body and think, 'Welcome to Utah...' well either way the park is the place to take them. I was able to see Tayt again, got to snuggle and hold him. I love him! He is getting older and more aware and it's killer to witness Mirjeta stay for hours with her baby and still not be able to take him home.

I set up a tour at Taffy Town recently; had some friends w/their kids come along. It was actually extremely cool to hear all of the factory factoids. If I'm remembering correctly, I want to say they were telling about bags of sugar that they use that are thousands of pounds and their secret taffy ingredient is egg whites. That way they don't have to use the old-school machine to twirl taffy to incorporate the air into the taffy. Hair nets rock.



The tour guide may or may not have started to wig out with how many questions I was asking. Also he may or may not have been afraid of me when I started inquiring about job positions there because I think it would be so awesome to work in a taffy factory. Actually I just want to learn the secrets of the Glade family and eat free taffy. Each section on this machine has a little scale that weighs the candy into 5# bags and then they get dropped through the floor down to the main level where they're boxed.



Fresh caramel apple taffy! And we also got to sample their new hot chocolate and frosted cupcake.



My guys. What more can I say? I sure love them. I am a very lucky mom! Crosby is so imaginative (Pisces, go figure) and has many many questions all throughout the day. I try to be patient with the questions, but... for instance. Today as we drove on a dirt road we heard a rock ricochet somewhere on our car. He asked about 6 different questions about that incident... What was that? A rock. What happened? It flipped against our car. Why did it do that? It just... did. Where did the rock go? Um, maybe on the road with the other rocks. Well, where did the rock GO? Um, maybe in the grass. He has to know everything. And then he has to know everything about EVERYTHING! I know it's a good thing for him to be inquisitive but by the end of the day I kinda have a twitch. I am in love with just about everything Croz says. He was kicking some bark dust at a park and I called him over for something and then he said, "Okay mom I'm going to go back and kick all those cornflakes." This morning he was asking what a heart is and he put his hand over his chest (he thinks a chest is called a tummy). I told him how your heart pumps blood throughout your body and beats quickly. He said, "Oh, so our hearts are butterflies in our tummies."



Have had some real fun with yard sales lately! Been a little tradition last two weekends where my mom, Audrey, and I creep out nice and early to do some scouring. Have had a lucky streak! One of my favorites was the cutest (and clean!) grocery cart with a big Tupperware full of fake foods and pots, pans, and cookware. $3!



Saturday morning having a blast with his new toys! I said, "Guy, are you making some food?" to which he replied without looking up, "These are specially baked, always baked," and "I'm always baking foods."



Lennox! Jiggaloo Jiggaloo Jiggaloo-Do. Eating up every second I can find alone with this one. Just when we thought he was lots of fun, he becomes even MORE fun to be around. Just happy, funny, squishy, loving. Really I find it extremely sad to watch him grow up as I realize how fleeting each moment is. It is just downright disturbing that his year mark will be coming in October. So... before I burst into tears... like I said... just ENJOYING him!



So happy for swim season! We got to finally break out the swimsuits and Crosby was ecstatic. Karin and I met up to swim and went to the BEST place.



There are no pics of Arthur and Croz because they were off sliding on the pirate ships... Karin and I had our babies trying to trade off keeping our eye on the 3 yr olds. Lennox was relaxing in the shade. Abs of steel.



Crosby was going down the pirate slides nonstop. He was having the time of his life. So I got to fit in some one-on-one Jigga time which is EXTREMELY rare. He was so tired and his warm little body fell right asleep in my arms in the shade.



**DON'T GROW UP**



We all know that when it rains it pours. All in one day these three things happened: I realized my wedding ring wasn't just misplaced, but LOST; we found a raccoon in our garage, and Cam joined the Navy.

I suppose the raccoon should have been the least of my worries but I made it the #1 worry. I never felt one way or another about them but I now am quite terrified of the little buggers. Long story short: it was in our garage for four days. It believed our garage was its home. It knocked things over, clawed out the rubber lining on our (new) garage door, and spooked us out for days.

Jon helped us set a trap with a peanut butter sandwich but morning after morning when we'd open the garage the trap door would be shut, sandwich still there - like he was playing a trick on us!

Well I could go on and on about the stupid raccoon but I was VERY mad at it. I was scared to even go outside because I thought it would attack us. My fears were a little out of hand but finally on Saturday Cam and Auds took matters into their hands and Auds, the brave one, figured out how to corner it because it was weak after 4 days with no food/water.



Four of us joined forces as Cam showed up with his magic sword to usher the raccoon into the cage. Knight in shining armor. We were SOOOOO HAPPY to have him out! And yes we took these guys out to dinner. Was the least we could do.



Okay... despite them being mean, territorial, and spooky... YES they are cute to look at. Jamie named him Fred and then shortly after making friends with Fred she and Jon and Susan hauled him up to the property to shoot him. Thank you! I am extremely relieved he won't be coming back.



My bro! I am so proud of him. He and Audrey have finally gotten their answer on what direction to take and for now it's the Navy. They are headed to San Diego soon.



We all know how sad it is that they won't be in Salt Lake but dwelling on it won't do any good. I'm going to miss them terribly. At least San Diego feels (and is) soooo much closer than Cleveland! We hope to cherish the times we can spend together 'til they have to leave. I have a feeling though that once stationed in SD they might be getting frequent visitors :)

Christina took me to Mazza for my birthday, bless her soul! I sure love my friends. This one's a keeper ;) We have the best times; the best talks.



We had the most DELICIOUS lunch! I hadn't been to Mazza for so long. Anything you order would be amazing but if you want something that's pretty classic and not too "ethnic" then you should try their chicken kabob. It is out of this world amazing. Same goes for their fries... yes I know it's bad to order fries from a Middle Eastern restaurant but trust me on this one.



We took two steps across the street and ran into the coolest girl working at Caputo's - gave us LOTS of chocolate samples; Madagascar was my favorite. Then she highly recommended we buy a Happy Hippo and it was actually incredibly tasty!



When we were at Sabita's the other day I passed her room and right outside of it she keeps this corkboard plastered with pictures. To be totally honest I've always loathed it for some reason; like it was junky to me. As I've come to know and understand this woman better over the years, I viewed it in a different light the other day, like a work of art.



Still looking for my ring. I hesitated to announce such horrible news on something like a blog, but it's just life. A weird thing has happened... my life has been so full that I haven't really had much time to look for it but also when I think of beginning the search, I immediately get sick to my stomach. So I keep pretending away the fact that it is possibly lost and gone forever. I know I should bring all things to a halt and hold an enormous search party but I am TERRIFIED that it won't be found. Stay tuned for hopefully a happy ending to this story :(

On a brighter note, Fourth of July is already here! I cannot believe this is the 4th of July weekend... time is flying too fast. Always like to get a little festive for the 4th... how bout them apples?!