Around the World Ping Pong

Last weekend we made another trip in the car. We sure like to cram these things really close together. My cousin, Clint, just came home from his mission in Russia and we went to listen to him speak. Much fun was had while on the farm.

When my siblings and I were younger, we were inseparable with the red-headed Call family. We were together a lot. I don't know who came up with this idea, but we found a game that we played called Around the World Ping Pong. Stephen was introduced to this game and fell in love. Anytime that we had downtime he would ask all of my family to play.

The game started out with as many people as you could get to play. Lets say there were six people playing. You would have three people lined up behind each other on one side and three people on the other. The person in the front of the line would hit the ball and then run to the other side of the table behind the other three people, while the person in front of that line would hit the ball and run to the other side and get in back of the other line. If you messed up, you were out. When you were down to two people, the game got interesting. The two would stay on each side of their tables, but after hitting the ball they would have to turn a 360 and then hit the ball again until someone messed up. This game is VERY interesting to watch. Sometimes makes you sick to play, but I guess you have to choose your battles.

I really should have gotten a video of this one, but I guess your imagination will have to do. Just imagine everyone about to hurl as they finish this game. The only difference in all the players is that the winner has a grin on their face. Don't you just love ping pong?

Yard Time!

This last week I have neglected the inside of my house to do outside chores. The weather has been SO beautiful!!!

I'm working on our side yard. We are going to put rock on the side of the house and I'm getting rid of all of the weeds. It is a massive process, but look what I found!

Don't these clovers look so cool! I don't think I've ever seen them grow like that before. Goes to show how often I've been weeding our dirt patch...

I've also been working on the front of our yard. I am pretty proud of myself. This is what it looked like before with our grass and rock. They were a little mixed together.

This is what it looks like now. I feel so proud of myself! Doesn't it look so good?

Boys Will Be Boys

This last weekend Stephen and I traveled south to Utah to see Stephen's family. We stayed a couple of nights with Brandon and Mitzi and then one night at Aunt Carlene and Uncle Ron's. It was quite the gathering.

One thing that Stephen has been so looking forward to is playing Street Fighter with his brother. They are really hooked on that game. The first night I fell asleep to "SHORUKEN!!" and "TIGER UPPERCUT!!" Night number two was no different, except I awoke to three boys giggling. I'm not kidding. Stephen, Brandon, and Marc had found a new game at two o'clock in the morning. They were playing three on three basketball. It was definitely really late...

At Carlene and Ron's the boys found a new game to keep them entertained...Rock Band. The girls were all upstairs playing card games, but were interrupted when we found out Marc was going to sing a solo. We scrambled downstairs to find Stephen, Marc, Rustin, and little Logan taking turns singing, playing drums, playing bass, and playing guitar. It was a hoot!

When it came Stephen's turn to sing, a rap/hip hop song was chosen for him. He yelled those words to his hearts content and also bleeped the not so good words that those fancy composers wrote. It was quite funny. I love my hubby! He makes life fun.

Is she singing?

Krystal and I were in Boise today, stopped at a red light. Being the observant girl she is, Krystal was eyeing the girl in the lane next to us, turning left. The girl was moving her mouth as if she was talking to someone, but no one else was in the car.

"Hey, that girl is talking to herself." Krystal said.

I leaned over to look at the girl and said, "No, she's singing to the radio." I did a double take and then realized that she was on the same radio station that Krystal and I were listening too. We turned the radio up and watched how this girl to our left got every word right.

As we were paying attention to our neighbor, we failed to notice that the light in our lane had gone green. I don't know how long it had been green before we noticed. Watch out drivers, Krystal and I are people watchers. We aren't very good at hiding that either.

Pillow Talk

Stephen and I were laying in bed on Sunday night, just about to go to sleep, when he whispered, "I have a confession."

"Hhhmmmm?" I replied.

"I was making eyes at another girl at church today." came Stephen's confession.

"Did it happen to be a Watrous girl?" I asked.

"...it was Clara." he responded.

Clara Watrous is four years old. She happens to have the most innocent, big brown eyes I have ever seen. Stephen has fallen for her. I think that he pays more attention to Clara than he does to the speakers.

Got Milk?

Yesterday I made a treat. I don't normally make sweets, but I was really craving them. I've been typing up my recipes and printing them off to put in my own cookbook. I came across these Peanut Butter Bars topped with melted chocolate chips. Yeah...see? Now you want some too. The last time I made those things I was a freshman in college. That time just keeps getting further and further away...

When Stephen got home from work he walked into the kitchen and saw the yummy goodness on the counter and his eyes got big and he said, "What are those?"

Playing dumb, I replied, "What?"

Again he said, "What are those?"

Again I replied, "What?"

"Kami, if you don't tell me what those are, I am going to lick them all over!"

I laughed and Stephen asked if the treats were for Relief Society. I told him no and his face glowed.

After cutting pieces for us, Stephen got out some milk to have with his treat. We always share a glass, and so after his first big gulp, I took a sip and then put the glass down. Stephen then proceeded to chug the rest of the milk.

I looked at him as he was gulping and said, "WAIT!! I want some more!" At that point, all of the milk was in his mouth. That didn't stop Stephen from being a generous sharer...he let the milk in his mouth pour right back into the glass. He then smiled and offered it to me. Gross.

You can guess what I told him.

I didn't drink it.

Skittles

I participated in the funnest general conference session on Sunday morning. Stephen's boss, Ben, and his family invited us over for breakfast. We've gone over to their house a few times to hang out with them and their kids. They are a lot of fun!

When we first arrived we feasted on orange rolls, sausages, and scrambled eggs. With our gracious hosts we scarfed down on orange goodness.

Ben and Christy have five kids and the oldest is seven...I think. Stephen and I probably didn't help any on the reverence issue. Before conference even started we had those kids wound up and running around the house squealing, but THOSE KIDS WERE SO GOOD!! I was blown away at how good they were during conference. Ben and Christy had the greatest idea to get their kids to pay attention to conference! Just as the first session began, their oldest daughter, Sage, brought in a huge bag of skittles. The kids got one skittle every time they heard a key word that Ben had chosen for them to listen for.

One of their daughters, Addy, who is two, sat on my lap during most of conference. She had to have her blanket while I was holding her. Every time I heard a keyword, I would pull Addy off of my lap and pushed her towards her Dad. She would get so excited because she knew she was going to get a skittle that she would trip on her blanket and fall on her head. That never stopped her from getting her treat. As she ran to her dad she would say, "I heared it! I heared it!" She was so cute...darn those kids...one day we'll get one of those things!

For future reference I need to remember the skittle thing. That is a good idea.

Gas Cans Wanted

Friday evening, Stephen and I had a delightful time with Marc and Kenna. They really are a hoot. We bowled to our hearts content and I even beat Stephen. Granted, Stephen wasn't really paying attention to hitting the pins. He and Marc were just trying to see who could chuck the ball down the lane the fastest.

After our evening out we decided to get our sweet fixes at Dairy Queen and then head in early. We are all married now, so it's only reasonable that we end our night at 9:30 pm. We are old now.

Dairy Queen, however, had different plans for us.

Stephen had been telling me all that day that we needed to stop and get gas for his car. We never did anything to resolve that problem because our lovely little gas light hadn't come on yet. Well, Stephen's gas light finally decided to die. We can no longer rely on that little yellow light to tell us when to gas up. Our poor little Honda didn't even have enough gas in the tank to start our miserable, thirsty car. It wouldn't start. It just kept turning over, and over, and over, and over, and over...poor Bell (that's Stephen's car's name). It died at Dairy Queen.

We hopped into Marc and Kenna's car and they took us to the closest gas station to get a gas can for a little fill up. We learned something new at that gas station. It is against the law in the state of Idaho to allow anyone to borrow a gas can at a gas station. Huh, who'da thunk. We just bought the darn gas can and purchased a couple gallons of gas and began to quench Bell's thirst.

Hopefully we have learned our lesson and we will not be allowing Bell to go dry. SO, EVERYONE...Gas lights do burn out!!!

You probably didn't know this about Stephen...

We finally did it.

Stephen is elated.

Also according to Stephen, it was "perfect timing".

We are now the proud owners of Dish Network. Personally, I could care less about our new found toy, but we are now able to watch the NCAA tournament AND watch the end of the basketball season. GO JAZZ!! (Disregard the fact that they played a crappy game our first night of watching the almighty Dish. Stupid Boozer...couldn't even get a dumb layup after his fourth try!)

Stephen loves basketball. Every time he watches the Jazz play, or any sports game that has some emotional tie to him, he has this strange phenomenon happen. His hands get cold and sweaty. I don't think Stephen ever got that nervous when we were dating! He sits on the edge of his seat and holds my hand. He is continually wiping his hands on my pants or his pants or my shirt, or whatever he can to find to release his poor hands from this odd occurrence.

Now thanks to our new Dish, I will have more opportunities to hold his clammy hands.

I love you Stephen!