Bangs McCoy

Star + fish = starfish

This morning we met up with Robin, Peter, and Jasper at the aquarium. Rees was about as hyper as he has ever been. He was so excited to show Peter everything. Rees’s favorite displays there are the rays you can touch, the shark tank, and the coral play area. They had a blast. Rees knows a lot of signs for things at the aquarium, so he got a lot of practice in today for that too. Adam and Robin have gotten some chickens! I asked a lot of questions about this. I need chickens.

I came down to work today, and took a little break to have dinner with “the girls” in Orem at Thack’s house. Tara couldn’t make it, the radiation is making her throat very sore. We missed her. Thack grilled up some fab chicken kebabs with mushrooms and pineapple. Everyone brought great food to share. I got some great birthday gifts:

• three floral mini-lotions (B&BW) from Thack
• family & friend recipe book from Shoi
• air freshener (citrus lime verbena, B&BW) from Becky
• gift card to Joann from Kris

While I was at work tonight, Bryan borrowed our neighbor’s tiller to attack our back yard. Our backyard is really gonna happen this year, baby!

Add comment April 30th, 2007

Blue Star Creeper

I took Rees with me to church early today for a YW presidency meeting. He was very well-behaved and looked at his three flap-books the whole time. At one point, I realized that he had moved from his chair over behind the small table in the room. He was also covering his face with his hands and grunting quietly, doing (ahem) - number two. I guess that was the best hiding place he could find in the room (yes, he’s a “hider”). Potty-training is pretty slow-going, but he is getting the hang of it (number one at least).

After church, the boys took a short nap and then we went to Bryan’s parents’ for dinner. We had a yummy salad with chicken and strawberry shortcake for dessert. After dinner, Maryanne, James and I walked to Reva’s to show her our first Africa quilt. She was impressed! She borrowed it to show her daughter (who made the quilt top). Bob also spent some time showing me all the different flower groundcovers he has planted in the rock wall on the side of their house. Blue Star Creeper would look nice in several areas of our yard. I also like their Variegated Dogwood and Photinia shrubs.

Add comment April 29th, 2007

Our sun-jars need work

Bryan took Rees to Little Gym this morning, which gave me a chance to get an early start. I cleaned up and then spent time outside working in our yard. The temperature was just perfect. Rees and Bryan brought back a Jamba Juice for me. In the early afternoon, I went with Maryanne to Piper’s in Sugarhouse for their biannual open house. I got some great deals on some nice retro-modern fabrics, and brought an eclair back for Bryan.

I recently spotted a solar-powered “sun jar” online and showed it to my friend Liz. She was really interested in making one. Bryan did some investigating and found an instructable to make one yourself. So we settled on today to give it a try. Camillia wanted to join but she was busy making fruit salad for her Grandma’s 80th birthday party. We went out in search of lights, jars, and frosting spray. We only found lights. So we used some mason jars I had (at least I had cool antique zinc lids for them) and matte-finish sealer. The sealer actually worked pretty well to frost the jars. Bryan helped us deconstruct the lights. However, they didn’t turn out so great. Liz wanted her jar to be completely autonomous - she didn’t want to ever have to move it. She also wanted it to be water-tight so she could leave it outdoors. These requirements presented some aesthetic problems - the assembly for our particular lights, combined with our chosen jars, made it difficult to place the solar panel in such a way that it would collect light but not look ugly inside the jar. She ended up with a “ghetto” (her words) sun-jar with a standard brass-tone canning ring (which she tried to spray-paint black) with the solar panel balanced on top. The rest of the assembly hung precariously down from the lid inside the jar. I opted for a jar that needed to be turned on its side to charge, then turned on automatically when the jar was turned right-side up. I put my solar panel face down on the bottom the jar and secured it with Blu-Tac. I also lined the inside of the jar with white vellum, and used one of the cool zinc lids. However, the Blu-Tac gets too soft when heated, and doesn’t hold. But my jar still works anyway. It is not super-bright, but definitely has a cool effect to it. I think with a different type of jar, they could be great.

The temperature here has been in the 80’s, so our house is getting pretty warm. Rees is pretty stuck in his ways, and it has been a little tough to convince him that he can’t wear fleece jammies to bed right now (especially his dinosaur jammies from cousin Berkeley). In fact, we have no warm-weather jammies in his size, so he has been forced to sleep in a t-shirt and his Pull-ups.

Add comment April 28th, 2007

The Queen

Bryan’s parents watched Jamie and Rees while we went out with Jeff and Cashell tonight. We originally planned to eat at Saltimbocca in Sugarhouse, but they were closed for a private party. Bummed me out, I really want to try that place. So we went to Bajio (up the street) instead. Bryan got stuck at work a little late. Then we went to the dollar movies there in Sugarhouse to see “The Queen”. I had forgotten what it was about, but it turned out to be quite interesting. I remember hearing that Helen Mirren watched tons of footage of Queen Elizabeth to really master her unique walk.

Meanwhile, Jamie was refusing to go to sleep and had Grandpa wrapped around his little finger. He ended up falling asleep on the sofa while watching TV with Grandpa. Rees had no trouble going to sleep on a crib mattress on the floor of their guest room (vacated by Rus earlier in the day).

After the movie, we said goodbye to J and C and went to the airport to pick up Maryanne’s car, where Rus had left it.

Add comment April 27th, 2007

Showered with presents

Bryan is the sweetest. For my birthday, he gave me a number of presents, all early of course, because he was too excited to wait until Monday. First, a set of eight wooden steak plates for outdoor use. Super cool. He also gave me a special clamp that holds a picture frame together so the glue can dry. It incorporates a strap that goes all the way around the frame, with pieces that hold each corner at a right angle. AND, he gave me a little tool organizer to keep my sewing item neat and tidy. It is very portable and keeps everything in a small space.

Bryan is the best.

Add comment April 14th, 2007