Tired of white or just nesting... Maybe both.

For anyone that knows me, they know that I like light, neutral colors on my walls. I'm actually afraid of color. My poor house has had the original flat builder's paint on the walls for almost 8 years. I've always wanted to paint, but could never decide on colors and I really don't like to paint. Well, those almost white walls have finally got to me(or I'm nesting before Matthew gets home) and it has brought on a major painting job.we have only done a small mount so far, but with all the chair railing, trim and crown molding it has been a very slow process, not too mention the 20 foot entry way that we still haven't gone all the way to the top since we don't have a ladder tall enough to finish by the ceiling. Well, we put some color in our home. Here is what we have done so far.

Good excuse for Brittney to wear overalls

Dale, the happy painter

Yes, that is a shade of purple.
My LSU friend thinks it's in honor of them, but there is no yellow!!!

Part of the entry way 

The entry way, but it's no complete at the very top, need just a little bit longer ladder

The living room.
Haven't hung the curtain yet, I need to paint the rod.

Love the lights on my ficus tree. I guess I can take those off.
I'm going to order a picture that Matthew took in the Dominican Republic to hang on this wall.

Youth and Beauty and the Lesson

Here is an email I received for Brittney. She had to emergency sub in Primary for a bunch of 10 year old boys. The person that was suppose to sub didn't show up. 

 

 

For Brittney

 

Thank you so much for being a substitute for my substitute in Primary Sunday. I am sure the boys enjoyed youth and beauty and the lesson.

Susan Combs

Yaroa

Yaroa, is a Dominican dish that Makenzie made for her World History class. She was going to make Fried Plantains, but Matthew told her they spoiled really fast and she needed something she could make the night before. Yaroa contains plantains. I think the Dominicans use plantains like we would use potatoes. Makenzie boiled plantains and mashed them and added a meat mixture on top and them topped that off with Gouda cheese. Her teacher loved it and asked to keep the recipe. I wasn't too sure about the mashed plantains, but the meat mixture was yummy and smelled really good. We now have two things we can make for Matthew, Rice and Beans and Yaroa. We took pictures because Makenzie had to show that she actually made it.

This meat mixture has, hamburger, different bell peppers, onions, oregano, paprika, salt, pepper, tomato paste and cream cheese in it.

Boiling plantains. They would have been easy to mash if they had been a little riper

The final project ready to go to school 

Can I Have a MEOW?

Yesterday was Sunday. It started off like any normal Sunday, we got up, got dressed and went to church. We sat on the same pew in front of the same people that we have for almost the last 8 years. We sit in front of Sandra and Hugh Johnson. I have known them for 20 years. Sandra was the my Relief Society President before and after Brittney was born. I was Sandra's daughter's visiting teacher and helped with both of their wedding receptions. They are good friends. We found out that Hugh was talking and he was so excited, not! I told him he needed to say "meow" in his talk. He just laughed and asked why. I told him about one of my nephew's daring another nephew to say Meow while giving an opening prayer in their Sacrament Meeting. Anyways, church continued with 3 youth speakers and then there was a song that was sung by all of the Priesthood holders in the ward, except two young men, one being Jacob. Jacob volunteered to be one of the ushers for that Sunday just so he wouldn't have to sing. Dale sang, yes, Dale sang in a choir and here are the pictures to prove it. And yes, Brittney took some pictures on the iPad during church.

Dale is in the back center hiding behind the Hymnbook

Dale in the back middle singing.

   I don't know if you can tell, but the young man on the left side with the purple tie and khaki pants is our neighbor, Corbin Short, and he kept laughing. He would look at us and we would start laughing too. My stomach hurt from laughing with him. So far, we have taken pictures and laughed a bunch during Sacrament Meeting, not off to a good start. After that, Brother Hugh Johnson got up to speak. He gave an introduction and then started his talk and then he stopped and said, "Before I forget, this is for Sister Smith's benefit, MEOW."  He actually said it. I had tears rolling down my face, just to keep from laughing out loud. I finally got my composure and hear that I am getting a text on my phone, I forgot to turn my phone on vibrate. Luckily,I was the only one who heard my phone, but it was a text from my neighbors that said, MEOW. You got to love people with a good sense of humor. I sure hope Heavenly Father had one yesterday because I wasn't the most reverent person with taking pictures, laughing and then I was being a bit judgemental during Sunday School and Relief Society, let's just say it was one of those days when I wish I could throw a penalty flag at people for excessive and long commenting. I really need to work on being more understanding and compassionate.  After church we came home, ate and took Sunday naps. We were waiting for a show to come on TV when Brittney asked if we had missed the solar eclipse. I looked out the window and said it's just starting, but we needed to go some place where our view wasn't blocked by houses or trees. All the kids hopped in the car and we went to the Elementary school a half mile away that had an open view. We caught most of it. I had to move at one point to get away from the trees, but got a few good pictures for what we caught.

And the sun has set. 

  After the sun completely set we realized it was after 8pm which means half price shakes at Sonic. I figured what the heck, I've already taken pictures in church, laughed through half of Sacrament Meeting and was just not very understanding of others. Why not get a shakes so I could "Eat, Take pictures and be Merry" all in one day.

Surprise in the Dominican!

I am thankful for caring Elders and a Dominican Sister for giving Matthew a surprise birthday party!!

What a sweet Sister to open her home up to Matthew and the Elders and look at that cake, AWESOME!
I think I should send her an updated picture of the First Presidency as a thank you :)

Track Banquet 2012

Makenzie had her Track Banquet last night. We had a pasta meal and then they passed out the awards. After about 2 1/2 hours we left. They were showing a video and still had all the senior speeches. Makenzie had homework and I was just tired of sitting. Makenzie was giving a certificate, but they spelled her name wrong. I would be nice if someone would spell it right!!

Makenzie with some of her track friends

Getting her award from Coach Mathias

Coach Beasley talking about how well she did.
Don't they all look so excited?? 

There is no "C" in Makenzie's name!!

What you doin' at the courthouse?

What you doin' at the courthouse is a radio segment in the morning where the DJ is at the Courthouse asking people what they are doing there. It's pretty funny, talk about stupid criminals!

I was at the courthouse yesterday, but it was only for Jury Duty.

Sat in there for 3 hours on some very hard benches!

I was there for 3 hours, but was not picked to be on a jury or even a potential juror. It was a long 3 hours though. We went into a room and they scanned our juror badge and we sat down. After sitting for sometime, a court Constable came in and talked to us and then an assistant county clerk spoke to us, basically telling us the same thing the Constable said. Then the Constable swore us in. A judge came in later and spoke to us and basically said the same thing the others had said, but he did it with a lot of humor. My favorite, is when he said if we were picked to serve we would hear dumb questions from the attorneys and dumb answers from people being questioned. He said it was ok to laugh until the judge tells you to stop. After he left, we watched a really lame video. I think it was suppose to get us excited to serve, but it was really boring. After that we sat for awhile. Then they finally told us we could take a 10minute break because they were waiting to hear how many people they were going to need for the two trials. After 10 minutes we came back in the room and sat for almost an hour. They finally came in and read 28 names to be potential jurors for one case. There were 130 people there so the odds were good. We waited longer and finally were told the other was settled out of court so no jury was needed, so we got to go home!! I really wouldn't have minded serving since they were just misdemeanor cases and would take only a day or two, but after sitting there doing nothing for 3 hours, I was glad i wasn't picked and I really wanted to get home at a decent time last night since Makenzie was having her track banquet and I didn't want to be late.
This is what I was doin' at the courthouse yesterday. I even got an excuse paper. They said to take one even if you weren't going back to work just so your husband/wife or kids were wondering where you were at all day.    

Mother's Day 2012

 I had a very wonderful Mother's day. I received some flowers, a Hot Tamale dispenser, a bird house that Jacob made in Technology class(I have 3 bird houses now, but love them all), a recipe clip board Makenzie made in her Floral Design class, candy and I got to Skype with Matthew!  Before we skyped, we went to church. The Primary kids sang like they always do, but this year during their sweet singing, there was a 4 and 5 year old girl fighting for position up on the stand, they were actually on the steps so we had a clear view of the feud. One girl would not let the other girl get in front of her, she will make a great basketball post. Her dad finally came up and made her let the other girl get through and then she was sliding her foot over trying to step on the girls foot, a person seeing this went up and put and end to that. I've seen many kids wave and say hi and sing real load and make funny faces, but I've never seen little girls fight for position. I can laugh since they weren't my kids. We did get to skype with Matthew for a long time. We were getting hungry so Dale grilled our fajita meat and we skyped at the dinner table also, Matthew even said the blessing on our food in Spanish, it was pretty cool. It will be even cooler when we get to see him in 66 days. Jacob has already challenged him to a one-on-one basketball game. Matthew will be surprised how much Jacob has grown.

Our most current family picture

Matthew eating fried plantains or platanos fritos as they say in the Dominican Republic

 

Happy 21st Birthday Elder Smith

Happy Birthday Elder Smith

Last Year as a Teen

Brittney had a Birthday shout hooray! Brittney turned 19 on Thursday, May 10th. I can't believe she is 19 and has just finished  her first year at BYU! It was a pretty low key birthday. I took her to the new Olive Garden, much closer than the other one, for lunch. That evening, she wanted to go to Chili's so she could get their Molten Lava Cake, but by the time Dale got home from work, it was cutting it close to the time she had to be at Institute. She wouldn't want to miss Institute, there might be some fresh meat there that she would want to get first dibs on. We sang happy birthday to her and gave her a cookie cake and presents. Last night after Jacob's football games, we went to Chili's and she got her Molten Lava Cake!

Happy Birthday Brittney!! We love you!

Happy to have her Molten Lava Cake

Dr Pepper...It's what's for breakfast

Breakfast of Champions and Missionaries

Who's Counting??

SURPRISE!

Since Makenzie was busy with track the weekend of her 16th birthday she did not have a party, so Brittney and I decided to give her a surprise party. It was nice that Brittney could get on facebook and invite people on short notice. It was a busy weekend for a lot of people, but we had a decent turnout and her cousin, Erica just happened to be in town, so that was extra fun! We had Dale take Makenzie out to practice her parallel parking and then Dale said he wanted to drive the car around to check out how the alignment was. I then called Dale and asked him if he would pick up some pizza that I ordered because Brittney was having a bunch of friends over. Makenzie was wondering how many friends Brittney was having over by the amount of pizza there was. We all waited on the back patio or her to walk in. I think she was surprised, at least she said she was. We ate pizza, wings and cake and swam. I think they got more wet from the water bottles I had on ice in a wash tub. They were dumping the water on each other and chucking the ice at each other, luckily no one was hurt. Happy 16th again Makenzie!  

SURPRISE!!

Erica, Brittney, Julie, Sophie, Makenzie and Taylor

Taylor Bachrach, Makenzie, Michael Bleazard, Matt Bleazard, Dale, Tanner Pope
Kassandra Short, Taylor Janis

Sophie Milich, Taylor Bachrach and Makenzie

Kassandra and Taylor

Dale funny face

Kassandra and Taylor trying to keep the candles from blowing out

Guess who won??