The Blog Readability Test

So, my friend Roxie found this interesting little tool that somehow checks the readability of your blog. Basically, telling you what education level you would need to have to be able to read my blog. I would be very interested in knowing how exactly they decide what reading level to give your blog. I mean, do they 'scan' your blog and see how many big words you have used and decide based on that? Do they look for typos?

At any rate, I plugged my blog address in and this is what I was told:

I hesitated at first to post it. I felt slightly ashamed. But then I plugged in all of your blog addresses and found that I was in good company!

One-up Me!

So, my brother-in-law had to one-up me on the snake post!! If you have a minute go over to my sister's blog and check out what he 'wrangled' today!! Jeez!

Mommy - Daughter Outing

I don't get to do this very often but a couple of weeks ago I took Aspen shopping with me... alone. Nobody else! She had saved up a some of her money and wanted to buy a new Webkinz. She was specifically looking for a Collie. Well, we found one and then we had some lunch together! We had a really good time together and she wanted me to take some photos of her with her new friend!

Wrangled Myself a Copperhead!!!

This past weekend we went to visit my dad to celebrate his birthday. We decided that since sometimes it's hard to buy presents for a guy who pretty much can get whatever he wants that we would all (my sis, bro, and their respective spouses and Geoff) help him clean up his property. He lives kinda in the woods and it was quite the task! Well, while I was raking out the flower beds of all the leaves, I disturbed the slumber of a nasty pest! I started screaming my head off and ran to the porch! My brother raked through the pile of leaves until he found the evil thing! Honestly, I assumed it was a grass snake or something but my brother informed me that it was a copperhead! The picture to the right depicts what one might look like! My brother-in-law killed it with a rake and then threw it into the brush fire. Man, do I ever hate snakes! On a lighter note: my dad was driving my brother-in-law around in the bucket of his little tractor raising and lowering him so he could cut back some of the trees with the chainsaw. I'm not sure why, but I thought this was pretty funny! So here's a couple of pics and a small video clip of the event!

April Fool's 2008

Doesn't this look yummy? Don't you want a bite? I know this is a little late in the game but I just wanted to post what we did for April Fool's Day. Last year Aspen helped me make 'cupcakes' for dinner on April Fool's Day. Really, they were delicious meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potatoes on top tinted with food coloring. Well, even though it wouldn't really surprise anyone we did it again this year. I guess it will be a new tradition. I did, however, take one of these delicious cupcakes to my PSO meeting that night and gave it to Katy - the principal. She would touch it! She asked if the topping was glue!! Silly! My friend Jack took and ate the whole thing! If I get a chance I will have to post the recipe for the meatloaf on the recipe blog. I don't normally like meatloaf but this recipe is scrumptious!

Super-Duper Lawn Service!

Saturday I went garage-saling and saw someone that sparked a memory that I just HAD to post about! About 3 or 4 years ago we lived in a house that needed some major trimming done to trees and bushes. So... we trimmed some trees and bushes.... actually, we just completely removed them! These pictures show what our front yard looked like after the massacre!

A couple of days later, two young guys (in their 20's) stopped and asked if they could mow our lawn. Uh. Look at the pictures again. I think I asked them if they were serious. They said yes. I think I just chuckled. What were they gonna mow? Anyway, I told them that I was looking into having someone hall this stuff off and asked them what they would charge to do that. They said $30. I thought this was a pretty good deal since I had talked with the city and they would haul off the first load for free any additional load would be $40. I figured that we had at least 3 loads there. So I hired these two boys to haul it off. They were in a truck that they immediately loaded down with the brush. They left and returned with a trailer and loaded the truck and trailer down. Then they left to dump it (I have no idea where - probably somebody else's yard) and when they came back they were driving a little station wagon. That's right. A station wagon. Following are the pictures that I stealthily snapped when they weren't looking! Even today I laugh out loud when I look at these pictures!!

When I asked them what happened to their truck they said that they had run out of gas! I had to take off to go somewhere so I gave them a check even though they hadn't quite finished. No sooner had I walked into the house and they were gone! They didn't even finish the job! At first I was kind of mad but the rest was picked up by the city for free and I continue, even today, to get an enormous kick out of these pics!! Some of the best money I've ever spent! The person I saw garage-saling.... one of those boys having a crappy garage sale. I know where he lives maybe I should go dump a load of brush in his yard!!

Lightening Doesn't Strike Twice April Fool's!!

Wouldn't that have been so totally nice?!! I WISH! Hope you all had a great April Fool's Day!! Remember-forgiveness is divine!!

Many of you will recognize this picture from my posts on our trip to Mexico. The trip that I won on the radio (read about it here)! Well, they say that lightening doesn't strike twice in the same place... I say bull-malarky! I just won a second trip from the same radio station!!!!! INCREDIBLE!! This time it's to Cozumel! Aspen begged me to take her so I agreed since I took Geoff last time! Woo Hoo! Viva Mexico!

Obsessions

My friend Amber just wrote a post on her blog about her obsession with some old guy on a TV series called House. And she totally changed her blog layout to represent that obsession. I thought it might be kind of fun to "copy" her only use a guy that I think is gorgeous - Mark Ruffalo! Therefore... my new layout!

Template Issues

So, Amber has informed me that on her fancy-dancy wide screen monitor my layout looks like junk! Basically, I majorly tweaked a template that I found on the internet. So, if you have something other than a 17" monitor or you're using Internet Explorer (shame on you) instead of Fire Fox, then you probably don't think that my layout is all that great! This is what it's suppose to look like:

Give Peas a Chance! - part II

Recently, I posted about Andyn and her pea fetish: Give Peas a Chance! Interestingly enough, she did it again! Actually, the day after the first incident I gave her some of the leftover peas and thought I had kept a good eye on her - making sure the peas went into her mouth and not into her nose. Well, I didn't keep a good enough eye on her because today (3 DAYS LATER!) she started fussing and rubbing her nose. I held her down and tried to look into her nose with a flashlight. She was thrashing so much that I couldn't be positive that there was anything in there but when Geoff got home I had him look. He wasn't sure either so he tried his mouth blowing trick to no avail. I was still pretty sure that I saw a hint of green so we agreed that we should probably take her to the E.R. Geoff (always the teacher) thought it would fun and educational for Aspen & Ainsley to go too. Not really my idea of the perfect field trip but hey... whatever. He called me an hour later asking if I wanted to come get them. "No way, man! Good luck with that!" Actually, I told him I would if he really wanted me to but he said that he thought he could handle it. 2 1/2 hours from the time they left the house they came home hungry, tired, and minus 2 more peas out of Andyn's right nostril! TWO PEAS! THREE DAYS! That had to be uncomfortable! For now, peas are off limits! I won't even tell you about the cat food she's been eating off the back porch!

Just Some Random Tips

I thought I would just share a couple of tips or ideas with this blogging thing. Not that I'm any kind of expert but because I've had so many people ask these kind of questions.

#1 How to subscribe to a blog (or set up for other people to subscribe to your blog)

I used to use Blogarithim but I noticed that it was taking a really long time to get the email updates when someone had updated their blog so I changed to Feed Burner. You'll see the small box down on the right hand side of my blog where you can just plug in your email address and it will automatically email you when I update. If you want one for your blog just go to their website and fill out your info. They will you give you the code that you need to copy and paste into a Page Element (use the HTML element) on your layout. Another great reason to use this - I plugged in my own email address to MY feed burner and it emails me when I have updated my own blog. I like this because it sends me the post in a very nifty print friendly format. I can print the posts and have a hard copy of my work! Blogger also has a way of doing this also but I don't like the email format as well.

If you just don't want to mess with plugging your address into the little box you can scroll to the bottom of the page and you'll see this: Subscribe to: Posts (Atom). Clicking on this will add any blog to your 'reader'. I use Google reader as well as many of you. Google reader is a program that you can put on your Google homepage and it will bring up the posts that have just been posted and you can read them from there. You don't even have to go to the blog.

#2 Search my blog If you're trying to find something on a Blogspot blog there is a search box at the very top left hand corner of the blog (on the navbar). This search box only searches the blog that you're looking at. Type in your search words and you will find what you're looking for.

#3 Mess with layouts If there is anything you want to know about layouts for Blogger then Blogger Buster is the place for you. This lady has helped do EVERYTHING that I couldn't figure out on my own! She also has a ton of templates if you are wanting to change yours up a bit.

#4 Email updates on comments When you leave a comment on somebody's blog the box should look something like this:

You can publish your comment using your google account or it gives you a few other options but I would like to draw your attention to the little box with this phrase next to it: Email follow-up comments to .... This is a VERY handy tool. When someone posts a comment on my blog and maybe they have asked me a question in that post (or they've said something that I want to respond to) I can just leave another comment there on that post and IF they have checked this box they will get the comment that I just left in their email! This is very handy, people!! It means that I don't have to create a whole new email and try to respond or if it is something that many people are asking then I only have to answer it once! Whenever I leave a comment on other people's blogs I ALWAYS check this box because I want to see what other people have commented also! You can do this too - come out of your comfortable little box and live a little!!

#5 Word verification This next one is actually just kind of a pet-peeve of mine that I'm hoping I can convince many of you to take it off of your blogs! Do you see under the comment box those squiggly blue letters? This is an option on your settings to have word verification set. Definition by blogger: "This option (off by default) gives bloggers a tool to prevent the automatic creation of comments by nefarious ne'er-do-wells (e.g. spammers)". My philosophy: Don't use it till you need it! If you happen to have spam comments bugging you then by all means use it but I've been blogging for almost a year and have never had a problem. Sometimes I will chose not to leave a comment because I hate filling out the word verification thingy! If you're not sure whether yours is set-up to do this, for the love of everything chocolate could you please just check your settings and remove it if you're so inclined. Thank you! :)

#6 Picasa for blogging If you don't know about Picasa you are really missing out! Picasa is free photo organizing software from Google and you can use it to do some basic photo editing. It's REALLY nice! You can use it to create the really cool picture collages that you have seen on my blog, too. When you download it it will automatically organize all your photos by date. If you're interested you can click here: Picasa.

#7 Email notifications Under your blog settings there is a tab for 'EMAIL' if you go to this section there is something called "BlogSend Address". Blogger just recently set this up so that you could insert up to 10 email addresses of people you would like to get your blog posts as soon as you post them. It used to be that you could only insert one address. So... If you have a Great-Aunt Myrtle who really wants to read your posts but can't figure out the stinkin' subscribe box, you can add her address and she'll get them automatically! Fun, huh? (This is also a good way to get your own posts emailed to you for printing as mentioned in Tip #1)

So, there you have it some of my great tips for blogger! Stop snoring!

Tonsillectomy, Adenoidectomy, Ear Tube Placement... Oh My!

It might be an understatement to say that it's been a little crazy around here! On Tuesday Asher and Andyn both had outpatient surgery. Asher had his tonsils and adenoids removed and Andyn had her adenoids removed plus tubes put in her ears! Back to back on the same day. When the doctor scheduled it this way I thought it would be fine because we would just get it all over with at once. I still feel that way but it has been a little crazy! This is a picture of Asher right before they took him into the O.R.

I didn't snap one of Andyn because, truthfully, I was bawling. I think I snapped this photo to take my mind off of them leaving me. We had thoroughly prepared Asher. He knew exactly what was going to happen. Unfortunately, we left out the part that we wouldn't be going in with him. As they wheeled him away he looked up at me with kinda sad eyes and asked "aren't you going with me, Mom?". Crap! "No, baby, the doctors will take really good care of you and there's no reason to be afraid." He leaves perfectly fine... I dissolved into tears.

Now, they were both out of it when they brought them to us in recovery. It was a little heartbreaking. After a few hours of being home I think the morphine had wore off. Or maybe it was just really kicking in! This is what he was doing:

It has been a little touch and go some moments but overall Asher has done really well. Andyn was really miserable the whole first day and half of the next but she's pretty much back to her shinanagins today! (previous post)

One last note, Asher woke up in a panic the first morning after his surgery because his throat hurt so bad and Geoff got up rather quickly to get him some of his pain medication. I had gotten up to get the baby when I heard Geoff calmly say my name from the bathroom (where he was trying to get Asher to take his meds). I ran in there and basically... long story, short... Geoff passed out. I won't go into details so I won't embarrass Geoff but I had no idea what was happening and it scared me to death! Geoff is very healthy and rarely gets sick. For him to have such an episode was very uncharacteristic. This experience caused me to take inventory of a few things. Primarily, my love for my husband. I love you, Geoff. You're so good to me and I would be lost without you.

Give Peas a Chance!

Andyn LOVES peas (and pancakes):

She REALLY loves peas:

No, really, she LOVES them:

Seriously, no joke, she could eat them all day:

Or just stick them in her ear!

So, you think that was funny.... She was given peas again tonight for dinner. After dinner she was sitting on Geoff's lap and sneezed a pea out of her nose! We had no idea she had stuck one up her nose. Actually, after further inspection, it looked as if she had stuck more than one up her nose. I tried to get the second one out with a nose aspirator to no avail. What happened next was incredible. I wish so bad I had videoed it! We laid her on the couch and while I held her hands away from her face Geoff closed one of her nostrils with his finger and then gently blew into her mouth and two more peas flew out of the other nostril!! It was the funniest thing I've seen in a while!! He told me we could recreate it for a video but something tells me that we're going to get another opportunity! We're going to have to start counting the peas we give her so we'll know when she puts them into an orifice!

This reminds me of my earlier post of Asher doing something similar!

St. Patty's

Every year for St. Patrick's Day we (along with just about everybody else I know) color the food that we eat for dinner. I know not very original but the kids REALLY love this!! So here are some pics of the eggs, pancakes, and milk that we had for dinner!

Looks pretty disgusting but always turns out really fun!

After dinner we had Family Home Evening. Aspen did the lesson and the activity. She read the story of Samuel the Lamanite from the Book of Mormon how he stood on the wall preaching about the birth and death of Jesus Christ and that the people threw stones and shot arrows at him but could not knock him down. While she read the story we all got to throw pinto beans at Samuel (aka: army man) as he stood on the wall of rice krispie treats (green of course)! The kids loved it! Things got a little out of hand when Geoff started throwing the beans at ME! I captured it on video. The video was a little long so I split it in two. I won't be offended if you don't watch the whole thing... actually I'll never know! But it's REALLY funny at the end.

And the Winner is....

My friend Cindi just posted a "guess this" picture on her blog today and I'm having fun trying to figure out what it is! Well, she reminded me that I have yet to post the answers to my two posts that were "guess this" type posts: Miniature toothpastes in my purse and doohicky in the hotel. So here ya go!

The little tubes of toothpaste came from an Enrichment Meeting at church. The lesson was on food storage and the lady teaching it had this big box of these and told us we could have as many as we wanted. I jokingly grabbed a huge handful in front of my friend Nancy and then put them back. When I got home I found all of these jammed into my purse! Thanks, Nancy!

This 'doohicky' is to flush the toilet. It's sitting right above the toilet on a ledge in the bathroom! And actually my friend Arlene got it right after I forced her and her husband to sit down at my computer and read my Mexico posts (the creeps don't read my blog... the nerve)! But since she didn't put in an official comment on the post she gets..... NOTHING! :) Unfortunately, no clear winners so here's some love to you all!!!

Family Portrait - Again

Something happened and my picture disappeared so here I have it and I played around with it a little!!

Family Portraits

We ususally have our family pics taken on Valentine's Day each year but this year it got away from us! The girls' school had a family portrait night and we took advantage! A local photography studio (Granger) did it and I thought they turned out really good!

Splashing Queen

Andyn absolutely loves taking a bath! She gets so crazy when she splashes! Here's a really cute video:

This is a snapshot of the same experience. I actually thought this could also serve the purpose of showing you how beautiful my tub is! Gold. Isn't it lovely! Well, soon to be no more. I'm refinishing it this week. Geoff took all the tile down yesterday! Wish me luck!

Surprise! Andyn Butt Shot

So, I debated whether or not to post this. But since I have my blog settings set so that people cannot just search for things and 'land' at my blog I thought it was pretty safe. Plus it barely shows her buttocks! I found her like this after her nap the other day. We started using cloth diapers again and she figured out how to undo the Velcro! Sweet baby.

6.7.08 Edit: I added the flower to help it be a little more modest. And so I could, with good conscience, post it again.

It's a Date!

We have some friends that live in our neighborhood and their son Ty and my girls are always playing together (blondie on left). This night Ty and his parents invited Aspen and another friend - Mika - to go to the movies! Fun times! Aspen's first date.... just kidding! According to her, she is SO a tomboy!