Summer Break Checklist

Over two-thirds of summer vacation has slipped away. 

What have I accomplished thus far?

Celebrate an International Doctor Who holiday with the niblets: Check.

Spend 60+ hours reviewing curricular materials for the State Department of Ed... and then NOT smack any officials from the State Department of Ed when meeting with them in Boise: Check.

Swim with Elizabeth and Pam every day at 6 a.m.: Check.

Help the new Relief Society presidency in the Spanish branch make a 15 minute video about visiting teaching staring the sisters in the branch... and all in SPANISH: Check.

Teach Elizabeth what pina coladas are supposed to taste like: Check.

Get a cute haircut: Check.

Walk on a beach/put feet in an ocean: Check.

Visit Mikey and New Jenny in Oakland: Check.

Kiss this guy... a lot: Check, check, and CHECK!

Watch a parade with the Monchichi: Check.

Buy a snowcone from hardworking K-Rae: Check.

Read stories that were written by authors over the age of 13: Check.

Eat a fancy dinner what used to be a auto repair shop in Oakley: Check.

Take the niblets to the new splash pad in Paul: Check.

Help paint/decorate Ruby's room: Check/Check.
(for more on that, check out Jenny's post HERE )

Get "paid" for painting/decorating Ruby's room in cucumber & spearmint snow cones from Yuki: Check and yummmmmmm.

Make baklava to enter in the fair in the county across the river: Check.

Still left to do:

Earn a ribbon from the fair in the county across the river.

Finish lesson plans for the first month of school.

Help decorate the Relief Society booth for my county fair.

Win some ribbons from my county fair.

Clean my cute little hobbit hole house.

Host my parents, niblets, brother, and new sister-in-law for fair week.

Meet my brand new niece!

Spoil my brand new niece!

Decorate my classroom.

Swim some more!

Attend the Story Teller's festival

Here's hoping August doesn't fly by as quickly as July!

One Big Happy Family

 For the second year in a row, our official family photos will be wedding photos. With folks spread out from Buffalo, NY to Oakland, CA, it takes an occasion of eternal significance to get us all together.

But while the whole family was able to attend the actual wedding at the Salt Lake City Temple, not everyone was able to make it to the Idaho Falls reception the next day.

Original Jenny was only able to bring two of her half-dozen offspring; her sweet hubby John stayed home with the rest. Mikey and New Jenny were also unable to attend the IF shin-dig.

Mikey's absence threatened to derail our plans for photos of the Original H Family... until Ben, the Super Photographer, came up with a Plan B.

Ben is Spencer's brother-in-law and husband to my blogging buddy Kar. Creativity runs in their family (for proof, check out Kar's blog, Here! )

Spencer grabbed Kristina's most littlest of brothers, Ben snapped the photos, I e-mailed some shots of a tux-clad Mikey, and then Ben worked his Photoshop magic.

The result was priceless.
I am seriously recommending that my parents use this as their Christmas card photo this year.

The photos are extra fun for anyone who knows Mikey, who happens to be freakishly tall... and incredibly proud of being freakishly tall.

The moral of the story is, "Never, ever skip out on family photo opportunities."
Especially not when you have spent the last 8 years flaunting your excessive height over your older, shorter brothers.

Karma can be rough... especially when Karma has access to Photoshop.

Gone to the Dogs: Reflections on Passive Aggression and Puppy Piddle

I am a traditional girl who traditionally takes part in several traditional summer traditions. One of these traditional summer traditions has been to puppy sit for my pal Elizabeth.

My first excursion into the furry, slobbery world of dog-watching took place way, way back in 2008 when Elizabeth went to Poland for three weeks. While Liz and her banjo were having many international musical experiences (and one awkward hostel communal shower experience), I stayed in Cowtown to keep an eye on her neurotic bat-eared rat-dog, Chloe.

During those three weeks, my nephew Bentley developed and deep and abiding love of smallish dogs, Chloe developed a whole new set of neuroses rooted in newly developed abandonment issues, and I developed some fun ideas for blog posts that have since become some of my favorites (much like this one... My Puppy Epiphany). What Elizabeth and the other party involved in the awkward Polish hostel communal shower experience developed is anyone's guess.

Since that summer of '08, I have puppy-sat for Elizabeth approximately 873 times. In the last few years, Chloe has been joined by Willow, a shih tzu/poodle mix (which, on an unrelated note, makes for the only mixed dog-breed abbreviation more interesting than my beloved labradoodle ).

This past week, I kept an eye on Chloe and Willow while Elizabeth was house hunting in Las Vegas.

 In case you weren't aware, Elizabeth was recently lured to a Nevada teaching position by the promise of excessive heat, legalized gambling, and licensed brothels.

Ha ha! Just kidding!

I think!

What Elizabeth was actually lured by was the promise of getting paid a lot more to do less work, which is pretty much the opposite of what happens in Idaho.

And really, who can blame her for that? Certainly not me, which means that my bringing-up of that unfortunate awkward Polish hostel communal shower experience in this very public post is in no way a passive aggressive response to my newly developed abandonment issues.

An actual example of a passive aggressive response to abandonment would be tinkling on the floor... Which brings us back to the original topic of this post: Puppy Sitting.

The addition of a second pup to the puppy-sitting has made the process much more exciting. And when I say "exciting" what I mean is "filled with escape attempts and puddles of puppy piddle."

While Chloe is very intelligent, polite, graceful, and intuitive, Willow is, well, a total spaz.

I spent most of the week trying to figure her out.

One minute I was sure that she is as dumb as three bags of rocks. The next, I was certain she was an evil genius. Either way, it was a bit of a relief when Elizabeth returned and re assumed the responsibility of the two additional bladders.

And, since Elizabeth will still be around for a week or two, you might want to take the opportunity to ask her about that awkward Polish hostel communal shower experience.

Passive-Aggressively Yours,
Mindy

The Ballad of Greggie and Kristina

 One bright day in the month of June,

Two cute kids knelt in a sealing room.

There  they said, “Yes,” to eternity,

And became their own little family.

But before they could embark on their brand new life,

They made two trips as a Man and Wife.

The honeymoon came first, of course.

Three days of camping, but no divorce!

The second trip was twice as long,

And proved their marriage was super strong.

 No, this stanza’s not a joke,

They took this trip with the groom’s own folks.

Over 1800 hundred miles, there and back

In a van with the in-laws…  how fun was that?

If not for the sweetness of this bride,

The week might have ended with a groom-i-cide.

 Across Nevada and to the coast,

With family members playing host,

They met relatives both young and old,

Some upstanding, some paroled.

With his parents, they toured the sites

And then slept right next door at night.

And six days later, they returned

Exhausted , wrinkled, and sunburned.

But while that six day-trip seemed ill-advised,

It turned out to be rather wise.

Their apartment that might have seemed too small?

Compared to the mini van, it’s the Taja Mahal!

The Bride will be thankful ever more

There’s only one Haws in their home who snores.

Having survived all that, they have no doubt

It will be smooth sailing from here on out!

So we won’t mention just quite yet

The vote we took when last we met.

Greg and Kristina pasted the test

Homely and Joyce love them best!

When the parents independent days are through,

Greg: They’re coming to live with you!

So I Should Probably Clarify Something...

Yes, this is my parking spot.

No, this isn't my car.
My brother and cute new sister-in-law parked THEIR car in my spot so it would be safe while we all traveled to California for THEIR seconding wedding reception.

I hope this clears up any confusion.

Love and handshakes,
Mindy

Wedding Day

A wedding day is supposed to be the happiest day of a girl's life, and it was... for Ruby.


 Ruby got to leave extra early in the morning to ride to Temple Square with Grandpa, Grandma, and me. While the grandparents were in the temple giving Greggie oxygen, Ruby got to have pancakes and hot chocolate in a mall, while her brothers ate Kix at home.

Then she pretended to fall into every single fountain on and around Temple Square...

...flirted her way into the visitors center before it was actually open...

... and played with her Idaho cousins.

The highlight of the day was helping the Bride with her wedding dress. All in all, the day was a dream-come-true for little Rubistar.

Oh, and speaking of the Bride, I think she had a pretty good day too.

It's a shame little Ruby doesn't get to attend the reception in Monterrey this weekend. She would have a blast posing for photos  pretending to fall into the ocean.

I guess I will have to play in the ocean for her.
Am I a good aunt, or what?

Summer So Far

Did I happen to mention that our yearbooks were late this year?

Like, TWO WEEKS late?

The books arrived one day before the very last day of school. Needless to say, I was a little bit stressed.

 But thanks to my fan-tab-u-los Yearbook Ninja Princesses, I didn't spend one second stressing over the books themselves.

 Irony = the most manly book we have ever produced, designed by an all-girl staff. Well done, Ninja Princesses. Well done.

Once the yearbook crisis ended, my summer vacation began.

I have partied with my Idaho Niblets.

And had some fun with my Utah Niblets.

I am currently in the middle of a scripture-memorization challenge with these three little dorks... and I am pretty sure they are kicking my trash.

And then there is this little guy: Stormageddon (a.k.a. Alton, a.k.a. Grumpy Baby, a.k.a. Bread-Dough-Boy, a.k.a."The Cheeks").

He is the most kissable little thing on the face of the earth.

I kissed him. A lot.

And I am planning on kissing him a lot more.

I have spent the last two Sundays at the Spanish Branch helping them put together a video about visiting teaching.
In Spanish.
Which I do not speak.
But now half of my internal monologues are conducted with a Spanish accent.

The other half of my internal monologues feature a Scottish accent, thanks to a historical fiction novel that my sister INSISTED I read.
I did read it.
And then I read it again.
If Jenny wants her book back, she might have to trade her chunky-monkey baby for a week.

Diane is still sacrificing her sleep to walk with me at 5 a.m. most mornings.

Have I mentioned how kind and charitable she is?

And the Elizabeth, Pam, and Stephanie join me at the pool for lap swimming from 6 to 7 a.m.

And then, because it is beautiful, blessed summer, I walk home and take a nap. 

I saw this movie twice in three days.

It was awesome.

I also saw this movie twice, although I have to admit that the motivation behind my second viewing was the chance to see Mr. Cumberbatch in action. 

I have missed Benedict so much, I would have liked to have spent some of my first weeks of summer writing letters to the BBC demanding they bump-up the air-date for season three of Sherlock, but I didn't have time.

Instead, I spent around seven hours each day doing a curriculum review for the State Department of Ed. 

I will spend a good chunk of this week in Boise, working on final reviews and recommendations with the other task force flunkies.

 It won't be a ton of fun, but when that is over, the vacation part of summer vacation can officially begin. 

And that will start with attending the wedding of these two crazy kids next weekend. 

Congrats in advance, Greg and Kristina!
And if you are still looking for something to do for your respective bachelor and bachelorette parties, I highly recommend a double feature of Now You See Me and Star Trek Into Darkness, followed by a healthy dose of Sherlock seasons one and two.
And a couple kisses from this guy.

Yes Alton, they do.