Soaking in the Summer

Today is day three of cooking from my new cookbook. Last night we had beef dip with the missionaries. The night before we made peanut butter, white chocolate chip chocolate cookies...to give to the missionaries, home teachers and visiting teaching ladies. The previous 2 came over Tuesday night to help us move our piano into the POD. I thought cookies were a good payment. The Home Teachers brought their entire family, so it made for 'fairly' light work. I was behind the camera.


Tonight's feast: RIBS! Did I mention our family LOVES ribs?

Slow cooker + BBQ and they were set. I put the crockpot outside all day so as to not steam up our house. I even BBQ'd the potatoes. Summer cooking is the best. It's primitive. Cavemanish. And so awesome tasting.


The verdict....a HUGE hit. The recipe claims that you will compare all other ribs that you eat to these...and they were right. Tyler even said they were better than Tony Roma's...who is famous for ribs. Lucy is the best reviewer of ribs because she loves them so. Yes, she wears pink and yes, she insists on her nails being painted, and yes she is a DIVA princess, but she is also a CARNIVORE. She was going on and on, and I said, "Thanks Lucy." She replied by saying, "No mom, we should be thanking you!" "I love being a carnivore and eating Pig!" Crazy meat eyes:

So we have determined that when we get to the new house and we're somewhat settled enough to cook a real meal, we will have RIBS to celebrate our move.

We had ice-cream cones and worked outside, packing more stuff into our POD. The kids played on the roof. Yes, we acknowledge the trailor-trashiness of playing on the roof, and no we don't care.


Getting up was easy (for the kid's). Tyler hoisted and scraped up his leg in the process, but they were fine. (Tyler reassures me that it hurts worse than it looks). Jumping down is another story. Daredevil Max was all for it and leapt into Dad's arms with only a moment's hesitation. 3-2-1 JUMP! With Lucy, it was more of a 99-98-97.......scoot to the edge, get your shorts caught on the eavestroph and then be plucked off the side of the house by dad.

Bubble-bath to end the night.

Ah, summer!

Lucy, and the cat she'll never own

Today, we visited my friend Kristy at her pet store in Cochrane. My kid's love it there. They love seeing all the rabbits, puppies, fish, snakes, birds, hamsters, and KITTENS. Ohh Lucy and her kittens. She would own twenty if she could and they would all sleep with her and she would carry them around all day and love them to death.

She is especially fond of orange cats, I think because she thinks their hair looks like hers and she can truly say she must be their mother. It was hard to pry her away today...especially since they ACTUALLY let her hold one.

When she got home, she pulled out her kittens that we gave her for Christmas (I think she has upwards of 10 kitten stuffies...which is never enough when she sees another in the store). She has been taking care of that kitten all day and telling us that it is REAL and she just got it today, and she's keeping it away from Dad because she knows he's allergic.

Crazy cat lady.

Doctor Tyler

I was FINALLY able to get pictures from Tyler's graduation. So here they come!

It was a totally awesome, highly anticipated day. We wore our finest doo-dads and got ready to clap and cheer for good-ol-dad. I asked Max what he was going to say when they called Dad's name, and he said, "I will yell, 'yay dad!'

We had a really good crowd there too, so it wasn't difficult for us to make a LOT of embarrassing noise when it was Tyler's turn.






As he walked across the stage, each person that greeted him asked if he had a lot of family in the audience...it was pretty obvious.


There was so much build up and anticipation (hello...10 years!) that I have to admit I was a bit teary and my "Yays!" were a little choked.

Tyler was fortunate to have his Supervisor, Gordon Fick as part of the procession, so they shared a hug on stage. It's pretty awesome to go to a graduation for a PhD recipient. They get to go first, there's a lot of pomp, and they get to wear super goofy clothes.










Everyone took a turn wearing Tyler's hat for a picture. (Except Lucy, she was too shy).


Then it was off to Tony Roma's for a huge dinner celebration. 30 guests. We pigged out on all-you-can-eat Ribs...which Lucy especially enjoys!