Kelly Times Two

The kids and I are flying to Utah tomorrow for some fun, so Christopher got a summer buzz cut tonight. It's not quite what I had in mind, but he likes it. We'll blog when we can. See y'all later!

Coming back from San Antonio from the youth temple trip today, the two cars in our caravan chose to take a country road off the interstate to what Fred calls the best barbecue in Texas. This place was the real deal, the smoked rib meat fell off the bone gently and the sausage was tender and juicy, along with the brisket. After lunch, I insisted that we all stroll across the street to bring home a watermelon, each one hand-thumped by this white-haired woman who, like a fortune teller, would tell us whether or not we picked a good one. It was rather funny and Fred quipped that at the end of the day, all of them would be sold, and therefore, good enough. Most of the youth were in the other vehicles that didn't join us, leaving Lindsey and Scott behind with the remaining adults. From left to right, there is Scott, Brett, Brent, Lindsey, Fred, JL, Sergio, and Mike. Our striped Luling fruit should be perfectly chilled now. I'll leave a comment on how delicious our watermelon was or w...

Our spa is not functioning properly and this wall that Christopher is relaxing on is going to have to be taken apart, as this is the spillway for the spa. Kind of a drag, but I'm just glad that they're trying to fix it. I told my builder to wait until after I have a party at my house on Tuesday before he starts demolishing things. I love how it looks now and hope they can make it just as pretty. Wish us luck!

Thanks to my cousin, Sonny, our family history guru, I got this awesome, cute picture of my grandma today, taken on Easter in 1971. She was the best grandma. She taught me how to crochet really well when I was eight years old when my mom was having a tough time and she sent me off (with my siblings) to stay with her for a short while. She was incredible with her crochet hooks and whipped out tons of crocheted teddy bears for all her grandchildren. She made beautiful afghans and other handmade treasures. She was the mother of twelve children and was a widow for many years. She got married at age 15 to a 35 year old. I loved going to Grandma's house in San Pablo, California. It was so welcoming and warm. She had a garden that she took good care of and she baked really delicious cookies. She had a little bird in a cage that she liked really well. She died in 1975, one day after I turned 13 years old. I miss my Grandma. She was born 106 years ago in 1902!

Today I spent the entire day at our church's 2nd annual pioneers and patriots stake festival. I always enjoy the Spanish speaking branch for their music and dancing. We have mariachi music at a moment's notice and they're really talented and bring a lot of spirit. They're wonderful. This is what I worked on with Cindy--it took much more time to put it up than to take it down. Of course if I didn't wear high healed shoes to climb the ladder to hang the rope and bandannas, it might have made the process go more quickly. We hung more than 250 pieces of artwork from children in several wards to display. Cindy came up with the decor, I just helped her put it all up. The most fun part of the day for me was when the Wilkinson quintuplets arrived and I stayed with them for the rest of the evening and helped a little bit with the babies. They are getting so big and developing into the cutest, most adorable personalities. I simply adore these little angels. Rachelle is so a...

I picked Lindsey up from camp today and she had a great week, but came home to horror. She walked into her bedroom and came down stairs crying. I killed one of her parakeets (Kiwi) by neglect and starvation. I feel so horrible, I can't even tell you. It's the second time I've done this. Last year when she was at EFY, I did it too. I promised her that the next time she goes out of town, I will take better care of her sweet little birds. I'm such a bad mom. At least regarding my kids' pets. I'm so sorry, Lindsey. Edited to add: On a more positive note, I made Lindsey laugh tonight when referencing the incident. We recently saw the movie Dan in Real Life with Steve Carroll (loved it), and our favorite line from the movie was by his young teen-aged daughter who thought her dad was interfering with her relationship with her boyfriend. In a drama queen moment of rage to her widowed father, who thought she was rushing things with her boyfriend, she exclaimed, ...

I worked up a sweat today in the pool, I guess. Since I'm in the water, I can't tell. I did some laps but since our pool is small, I get dizzy easily when going back and forth so often. The water was perfect and I had fun swimming by myself and it felt good to be moving around, not having to feel self conscious about anyone seeing my flubber. Not sure what that word is? It's a combination of fat and blubber. I baked a Nestlé Tollhouse Pie tonight and canceled out my exercise efforts. The recipe was from the Nestlé cookbook that my sister, Tracy, got me last year for my birthday, which was then hand delivered from Kansas City to Oklahoma City to Austin by her daughter, Aubrey, who visited us during Thanksgiving. I love to bake. What's a girl to do? In the meantime, I'll share the recipe with you. Enjoy! 2 large eggs (beat on high speed until foamy) 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 3/4 cup butter (softened to room temperature) 1 cup semisweet cho...

She's only been gone since yesterday and I already miss my girl. The house is quiet. I took Mindi to the airport at 4:45 am on Monday, then Lindsey to camp at 9 am. Here was our Independence Day barbecue, grilled steaks with salsa verde, our little family, plus one. We just hung out in and around the pool and then Kelly and the kids played with fire when it got dark. I watched nervously, like I do every year. It was a wonderful day even though we didn't go any where. It was the first year that we did not go to a big fireworks show in a long time. This year's tab for the explosives was a mere $182. I sat in the car while the boys shopped. It was entertaining to hear comments from shoppers when they came out with their fireworks purchases, "Thanks, Dad!" And "I felt like a kid in a candy store!" And "That smoke bomb is supposed to go off for two and a half minutes!" Kelly gets such a kick out of this holiday and I just endure it, then breath...

We LOVE our new pool! There are a couple of problems that need to be fixed, so we're crossing our fingers that they get it done right, and soon, considering we have given them the final check for the balance of the pool, and we don't have any leverage. Three of the waterfalls work. This is the main one and I like the natural look. Below, here's the deep end waterfall, and it's flows nicely. The water sheer like this one, that flows into the shallow beach area, is the fall that is not working. It's frustrating, but hopefully they'll fix it soon. The fountain in the spa is blocked too. Here's the small rock waterfall, which works just great. It took about 18 hours to fill the pool and we practically watched it gallon by gallon. I stayed up all night long, making sure it didn't overflow. We swim in it every day. Last night we went on a midnight swim and it was beautiful. The water temperature is perfect. I'm extremely thankful that we have our new...

After two and a half months, our swimming pool and spa construction are finished! The crew just left and put one garden hose in the spa and another one in the pool--it's getting filled with water as I type. Come back tomorrow night to see the BIG REVEAL and our first plunge!