Kelly Times Two

Lindsey has spent the last two weeks wake boarding, kayaking, going to youth conference with her cousin ( a trek in Wyoming along the pioneer Mormon trail ), fishing, riding behind the boat on various floating objects, and visiting friends and family. R and R. Christopher has been doing almost as many things, but since he's six years younger, he's spent a lot of time with the younger cousins instead. The weather has been kind of cold lately, and the boat broke down for a while, but they've still managed to get a lot of lake time in. Here's Grandma cooking up one of her specialties, smothered burritos, which we enjoy every time we go there. This was the menu on Father's Day when Kelly's two sisters and their families joined everyone at their home. Here's Kelly's dad, Grandpa, kicking back on Father's Day. The kids will be going to Waterworld tomorrow in Denver, and the new friends Lindsey made from youth conference are having a little going away party...

For my 400th post, I'll talk about my kids. Here's Christopher, catching a big one at Grandma and Grandpa's house on the lake. Grandpa ties his kayak to Christopher's kayak when they go out fishing to keep him safe, so he will not drift out too far by himself. Lindsey caught a big fish too! The kids have spent the past two weeks in Colorado and will come home on Saturday. Christopher is really homesick, but Lindsey hasn't really seemed like she's even ready to come home. Here's Lindsey leisurely and patiently waiting for the next fish to bite. Grandpa released the fish to put back into the lake. Maybe they keep catching the same one over and over.

Congratulations to Delaney and Corey, who were married Saturday in the San Antonio temple. Here they are at a reception held at her parents' home later that evening. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the beautiful backyard. Fantastic wedding cakes. Refreshing water and punch. Pretty food table. Allie and Olivia across from me in the food line. Such cute girls.

We had four DVDs sitting around being ignored for at least three months (during the peak of my reality TV season), and this movie was one of the forgotten. I couldn't even remember whether or not I had actually watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days or if I had just shuffled the disc laying around so long, and even though I could recall the previews, I somehow half-heartedly convinced myself that I'd already seen the movie. I returned it, unsure. Then I rented it again, about a week later, to satisfy my curiosity, and to avoid missing out on a good chick flick. It's better to be safe than sorry, I thought. After about ten minutes into the movie, I realized that I have seen the whole thing recently, and yet continued to watch. I still can't believe that I saw it within the last few months and forgot all about it. It must have been late and I must have been extremely tired. Either that or the movie was so forgetful and I was asking myself why would I want to watch it agai...

If you have never seen this movie, Boy in the Striped Pajamas , I highly recommend it, and give it a 10 out of 10. SPOILER ALERT: I will give details of this movie that will reveal events to come and you should read this later if you want to stay in suspense. Starting now. I sat there in our gameroom for a few minutes afterward watching this film, thinking about the little boy in the striped pajamas, and how his dad tried to protect him by not telling him what likely happened to his grandparents when they first arrived at the camp and "got sick and were sent to the hospital but never returned." While the whole history of the matter is utterly deplorable, despicable, and makes me sick to my stomach, I thought the movie was very well done and it portrayed the extreme contrasts of the two lifestyles in a way that could attempt to show how this Nazi mindset came to be. The character of the older Jewish man who was a doctor just broke my heart. My heart goes out to every single o...

Kelly and the kids and I actually saw Star Trek in the theater about a month ago when he returned from Taiwan, but I am just now blogging about it. I enjoyed this movie, even though I thought I would have trouble with Sylar, the Heroes television character, who played Spock. The Captain Kirk character was a doll. I was highly annoyed by the reference to inappropriate relationships with farm animals, which seemed completely unnecessary, but good old Hollywood is trying to do us all a favor by throwing in trash, thinking it's what the people want. Aside from a few other incidents along this line, I still liked it and give it an 7 out of 10. Kelly has always been a fan of the TV show, so he had a lot of anticipation built up for the movie and liked it, so that might have influenced my judgment a bit. Edited to agree with Greg's comment, to a 7 out of 10 instead of 8.

Lame. Be Kind Rewind seemed like it was written to allow Jack Black to try to be funny, and it sort of succeeded. The moral of the story was hard to pinpoint and I won't go into detail. It was a quirky movie and it wasn't bad. I've seen better Jack Black movies. I'll give this one a 6 out of 10.

This movie, August Rush , wasn't too bad. I'd recommend seeing it, I suppose. Robin Williams was a creepy character in it, but the story was pretty good. There were some unbelievable scenes that bothered me slightly, in that they seemed very unlikely. This was the second time I've seen Keri Russell play a single woman who gets pregnant (The Waitress). Typecasting. I'll give it a 7 out of 10. Now that summer is here and all my favorite shows are over, I'm in movie mode and have several movies to blog about that I've seen, so I'll keep it super brief.

Here's Kelly taking a quick swim in the pool. The pool was crystal clear this afternoon and it was a perfect day to be in it.

These ceilings are tall and the little step ladder above wasn't big enough, so Kelly brought me the nine-foot ladder. For the last two days, I've been painting our bedroom in a Sherwin Williams color called Softened Green, kind of a sage tone in an eggshell finish. I took the paint sample to Home Depot, which copied it and made it conveniently in a Behr brand paint, which I'm very pleased with the quality. I'm almost done, and just need to paint behind the large four-post bed, that is hovering over several cases of food storage. Kelly is trying to convince me that we should move the bed to be able to paint behind it, but I don't want to mess with our heavy bed. I am not strong enough to carefully move our bed, assisting him, and don't want to hurt my back or my gorgeous bed! So, I'm going to gingerly paint over the headboard and around it as much as my arms can reach. I'm a tidy painter. I can't wait to finish everything in the room that I have plan...

A warm cream cheese and strawberry Toaster Strudel with some Bing cherries and an HEB drinkable mango yogurt is what I served Kelly this morning before he headed off to work today. Last week was intense for him and I'm so thankful for how hard he works for our family. Now with the kids still in Colorado, I'm home alone and have GOT to get the sewing projects and painting done by next week. I'll pretend it's my job and see if that will help. It has been very quiet around here and I'm rather enjoy it.

What a beautiful shower that Jackie and Lonna hosted for Brooke's baby girl last night. The colors were so pretty and the French onion soup in the green teacups weren't even added to the picture yet. So elegant. Susie, Allie (Brooke's sister from Virginia), and Brooke Gayle and Cheryl Salads and panini Brooke and new mom Kristen Lonna, Emily, Jackie Dessert plate, so pretty. Darling little outfits for the baby. What a fun night out.

Here's Christopher enjoying one of the kayaks at Grandma and Grandpa's lake. Cousin Courtney and Christopher are having fun in the sand pit at the neighbor's house. Here's Lindsey relaxing on the Big Bertha tube on the lawn at her grandparents' lake house. Two days ago, I dropped off my kids at the curb at the Austin Bergstrom airport. They told me they are experienced enough travelers and didn't need me to go inside with them. Which was fine because I just had oral surgery and was ready to go home and sleep. They'll be in Colorado for two and a half weeks! Party at our house! (Just kidding--I'm going to really try to get some of my sewing projects done.) I haven't made any progress. But I'm sure the kids are having a fabulous time!

Jennie called me three days before Cheryl's birthday and asked if she could throw a little party for her here. I'm always up for a fun time with friends, especially since Jennie said she would take care of all the food. All I did was this sign on the door and got the house ready! Here's the birthday girl, 33 and fabulous! Tamara, Wanda, Jennie, Lisa, Cheryl, and Lonna Andrea (barely on the left, below) just had twins recently, and she brought her baby girls. Jennie cooked up a storm! Amy joined us a bit later too. Lonna and Jenn enjoying some moist and delicious birthday cake before heading out to the pool. Gabby, Cherie, and Wanda, plus the angelic twins What a slice of heaven to hold on your birthday! Cheryl's on cloud nine. Speaking of heavenly goodness.... Those apple dumplings were out of this world! Jennie prepared an incredible feast. We had a fun evening outside by the pool and relaxing in the spa. Happy birthday to Cheryl!