What I really miss........ and what I love to have

Electricity! Not having running water has not been that big of a deal, but no electricity has been quite the adjustment! We can haul water with no problem, hand pump water is not that big of a deal, bucket showers and camping showers no problem! But no electricity, no cooling, lights, crock pots, refrigeration that my friend is hard! I have made a chocolate cake in a solar oven that was fun! But I miss brownies done in 20 minutes. So Jen this list is for you a list of what we have eaten for dinner these last few weeks: spaghetti, burgers, mac in cheese, grilled chicken, baked potatoes, nachos, pasta, pasta, pizza and more pizza to name a few. Another big change is all the dish washing hand pumped water to wash oh yeah!

You have never seen a group of people so excited to have a portapotty! Enough said on that one ;)

Counrty Chauffeur

It was so awesome, Suzie and I had had enough of driving the kids to school, and were ready to have the kids ride the bus. We talked to the school and signed the kids up for them to come home on the bus. Then right around the time that we would normally arrive home from picking them up from school the kids come running up to the tent. We were surprised to find a 15 passenger van at our driveway. The driver comes out and explains that he is the director of transportation for Benson school and he will be picking the kids up at our property in the morning and dropping them off at the property in the afternoon. No Bus stop, a chauffeur! Unfortunately he said they will be reworking the bus schedule and the chauffeur service would not last forever, bummer. What a classy school instead of telling us to take the kids to school until they have it worked out they cater to us, sweet.

Nature up close and personal

The kids have loved being in the nature. They have literally played for hours in our wash. One of the neighborhood kids came over with her pet goat and Liv went up to her and said, is that a lama? No Liv, that is a goat. City kid.

Later Bella had found two dragon flies mating, Benjamin told her that that was what was happening, so she chucked them on Livvey who freaked out. Benjamin said don't worry there married, then Bella said, there was no bug going, buzz buzz your married buzz buzz.

Nothing like country learning.

Moving on up to a trailer park

I mean RV park! Benjamin swears there is a difference. Hmmm it is classy living no matter what you call it. When we found out that getting the electricity to the land could take upwards of 5 weeks we had to go with plan D i mean B. As I look around my beautiful house and think of what the next couple of months, shoot maybe a year will bring, I have a lot of heart palpitations. Actually i can't wait to experience trailer park living, honestly. What really gives me heart palpitations is packing up. It is one thing to pack up to move to a new house it is an entirely different to pack up to live in 1/13th of what I am living in now. My kitchen has shrunk by ......it hurts to do the math on that one. I can't remember who wanted me to blog on what I will be cooking, the more I think on that one the more interesting (and pathetic) that could be. I am very excited that the Olympics are coming, I may be living in a box air conditioned mind you, but at least I have those feel good overcoming obstacles stories that the Olympics inevitable show. Let's hear it for electricity. I need to find my happy place and learn to channel it in small confining places with a dog that doesn't like me. I do love our land and can't wait to be tenting it out there. Tent life never looked so good. Say a prayer for me on this most adventurous week yet!

PS We have sold our oven and dishwasher, two major conveniences gone. That is an interesting way of life. Anything short term is bearable.

Seven 11 Slurpee Suprise

When I was younger every time my grandparents came to visit us from SLC, grandpa would take us to go get a Slurpee. We could get the biggest size we wanted and any flavor (back then it was just cherry and coca cola to choose from). It was an awesome tradition. To make things better Grandpa would then let us tell him how to get home. We would try our best to get him lost so that we could prolong the drive and have a good laugh when he would obediently follow our direction. Little did we know that Grandpa knew Tucson roads better than any native Tucsonan and we weren't fooling him at all. Such a little tradition provided such a great memory. Well today my Grandpa turned 88 on 7/11 . Imagine my delight when Benjamin called me up to tell me that Seven 11 gives free Slurpee's on this day to celebrate their store. Check out this site that gives the history of the Slurpee http://slurpee.com/ I laughed thinking of how it is such a great tribute to my Grandpa that we take the kids to get a Slurpee. I called him up to wish him happy birthday and told him about the promotion and promised to take pictures to send him. Free Slurpee's are already really awesome but they also served Costco cake, yippee! Here are the pics.

oh yeah check out that awesome hair :)

So happy Birthday Grandpa, here is to a great comedian, a fantastic supporter (he would cheer me on in high school basketball and get a kick out of me fouling out -which I did often) he has a wonderful legacy of Faith and hard work (Bella' is named after Grandpa's hardworking farming parents Isabell and Julius, thus Isabella Jules ). We Love you!

Practice makes Piranha

I can't remember which Howe brother in law use to call me the PE Nazi (Peter, Aaron hey it could of even been Jeremy?). I have the belief that just like academic classes in High School are graded on how well you perform, PE should be the same way. I don't think that a student taking Biology should get an A just because they dressed appropriately and showed up 90% of the time. No it all comes down to tests and a performance of their Biology knowledge, if they can't run a lab test well, they don't get an A for showing up. The same should be for PE, A's go to the kids who perform outstandingly. They win the badminton tournament, they run the mile under 7 min (OK maybe 8 min.) Well maybe my theory has changed a little bit. Olivia my very precocious 5 year old, has wanted to be a Palo Verde Piranha since her sister swam last year on the team. She had yet to swim a 25 without stopping a requirement for joining the swim team. But I had talked to the coach and as long as the team roster wasn't full what would the harm be letting her workout with the team? The coach was on board for letting her participate. The first meet came....and went she didn't compete. But we knew at this point she could do it. The day of the second meet she was really nervous but she said she wanted to do it. It made me nervous watching herself sike up to it. She was to do one event freestyle. She got up looked like she was going to run away and then the buzzer went off and she jumped into the pool and swam her heart out not stopping once to grab onto the lane lines, she was awesome. She finished! She didn't get first but she didn't get last a real A performance. I cried at the finish line because I knew how much she really wanted to be on the team, it was beautiful a real Rudy moment. Once I knew Liv could do it and wasn't in jeopardy of being replaced , I began to recruit for Bella's relay (hey I maybe willing to give an A for effort but I am still competitive). The recruiting was a success. They now have an awesome medley relay and a freestyle relay. Incidentally Bella has an awesome backstroke, she has gotten first place every meet, not that it matters ;)

Not even a shelter dog will stay in this place.

Like every smart house seller should do, we decided to buy a dog. This was not a whim decision. We have for some time wanted to buy an Australian Shepherd dog. They are dogs that need to work, like to run, and are protective and even like to herd children. We think they would be the ideal dog for us when we move out to the land. They will run around with the children and warn them from danger a real Lassie dog. They also like to herd goats and since Suzie and I will be making homemade goat cheese, (look for it in classy health markets), we thought it would be perfect. Anyways, that bread can be expensive so we were delighted to find out that six such puppies were at the Pound. We went down there with the kids to pick out the dog that best fit our family, a social non aggressive one. We decided which one we all liked and ask to be able to play with it in the Pound yard. The Pound lady asks will this be an outside dog. Yeah, we have five acres of land for the little guy to explore. She then says well this is a puppy and it can't be outside for at least 6 months. Then I say well after that it can be outside, right? She says no then it will be displaced because it will have gone from a little cozy house to being thrust outside. Then she says you can go back to the kennels to look for a dog that is primarily an outside dog, look for one with a yellow tag. She wouldn't adopt out the shelter dog to us. The kids were so sad, we had known this was the kind of dog we had wanted. I was dumbfounded are you kidding me? The whole car ride home the kids were so sad and I was fuming. She would rather keep the dog in the Humane Society instead of adopt him out to a loving family. When I got home I called the Humane Society up to ask who they would adopt out the dog too. Unfortunately I got connected to the same ridiculous lady. She said she would adopt the dog to someone who would have it as a primarily house dog. So I tell her that we have researched this breed and they enjoy a job to do and prefer a farm like lifestyle ie a place to roam. She then tells me too many people put their dogs outside and buy them to be a yard ornament. I told her we did not drive all the way to the humane society to buy a yard ornament. Next time I get one of those flyer's in the mail asking me to donate to the Humane Society I won't feel a twinge of guilt when I throw it directly in the recycling bin. I know it is not the best time to buy a dog, but when providence knocks you open the door.........or have it get shut in your face by a mean lady who prefers to spend her days smelling cat urine and wet dog hair than learning how to interact with decent folk.