R.I.P.

Red Dot Blue Dot
February 25, 2003- October 29, 2007

We bid farewell to our beloved betta fish, Red Dot Blue Dot, who died of old age. Aunt Ashlee gave him to Noah for his 5th birthday. He was a happy fish who loved to swim and eat. He was also a survivor: able to go weeks without being fed, enduring the taunting of the neighbor girl, and, most recently, living out of water when he was dumped by the neighbor girl. Red Dot never gave us any trouble, except for the occasional stinky tank. Good bye, little betta, we will miss you. No fish will ever take your place. (Seriously, does anyone want a fish tank?)

Jiffy Pop my.... foot

Noah recently won a package of the Jiffy Pop popcorn that comes in a little pan. He was SO excited. Who doesn't get excited about the prospects of watching popcorn pop right before your eyes. It is very thrilling. The wrapper even says that it is "as much fun to make" as it is to eat. I'll be the judge of that.

Coming into it, we knew the odds were stacked against us. We were warned not to use on ceramic cook tops. I hoped that I could put it in a frying pan and that, though it might take longer, it would still pop. But the pan got too hot and smelly. So I fell on my back up plan, holding it slightly above the burner. According to the instructions, once you hear a sizzling sound you vigorously shake the pan in a circular motion. It can take 2-5 minutes to pop. We heard the sizzle and I began the shaking. First of all, a circular motion is not exactly the most natural way to shake a tin foil pan of hot popcorn. But I tried my best. Noah didn't think I was being vigorous enough so I shook it harder. I rotated hands. I worked up a sweat. Minutes passed and the foil cover didn't show any signs of expansion. Feeling the burn (in my arms) I faithfully continued the shaking until, finally, Noah saw it grow. Energized by the perceived improvement, I shook it, around and around and around. Until finally, 10 minutes later,it was starting to smoke. Not steam, smoke. My childhood recollections of Jiffy Pop are off it always being burned. I was not going to do that to my kids. Our Jiffy Pop was going to be delicious. I figured that it wouldn't all be popped, but it would still be better than burnt. As per the directions, I got a fork and pierced the lid. Anticipation high, I peeled the foil back. My reward for all that work: 3 popped kernels. "It's all nuts!" exclaimed my boys. What a bummer. So I pulled out a bag of microwave popcorn, we watched it expand and had a bowl full of delicious popcorn in a jiffy.

Halloween--Hauritz style

Every year we look forward to Ken and Cathie's Halloween party. They go all out and it is always lots of fun. This year was especially.... SUPER.
Raise your hand it you think it would have been funnier for Matt to wear the tights. Me too. But the monk costume worked and was probably way more comfortable than Chancho's sweats. (I totally forgot about the white leisure suit which would have been really good too, but I don't think I could have got him to wear that either. ) I am Sister Encarnacion--yes that is her name. Zack fit into the scary dragon costume, which he eventually liked. Ben went for being a Power Ranger and Noah is a Zombie.

By the way, Matt won the tightest mask award. Take a close look, the award was well deserved.


Napoleon, Kip and Uncle Rico.
You might know them as Chad, Angie & Grace. It took me a minute to recognize them too. Gosh.

This is why I stress about costumes. Peter Pan (in the corner) is missing his wife (dressed in a nightgown-Wendy) and his little daughter who was dressed as Tinkerbell. Mike and Tracy always look good. Even the people I didn't know had good costumes. I am already worrying about next year. Any ideas?


The main event is the Kid's Fear Factor competition. Noah won the $10 prize last year but wasn't sure if he would be able to defend his title. This year's disgusting foods: canned peas, dark chocolate, black licorice, wheat grass, sweetened condensed milk, mystery meat (slim jim) & pumpkin guts (canned pumpkin).


Zack might have been a contender if it wasn't for that sweetened condensed milk. He started gagging when he saw it and was out. I am sorry this video is the wrong way. When will I ever learn that you can't turn the camera for a video? I am including it because I think it's funny to hear Zack talk about his fear factor experience.




Ben wasn't even going to try to compete. The poor kid gags in the fruit and veggie aisle of the grocery store. Noah & Ian were both out out when they drew pumpkin guts. Suffice it to say the kids were disappointingly wimpy this year. Alec (Jenny's stepson) won the competition in the first round by eating the dark chocolate.

What a let down! Then Mike threw down the challenge: $5 gets you in, winner takes all. That was enough to entice both Matt's (mine & Peter Pan), Mike, Ken & Cary to compete. They had to pop the dice then draw that number of cards. The cards corresponded to the food they had to eat. First round, 30 seconds to eat it, then it went down 5 seconds on each round. Things were looking good for Matt, he breezed through the first two rounds then he rolled a 6. The combination: 2 helpings of peas, mystery meat, wheat grass, sweetened condensed milk & licorice. YUM. I'll let you watch:




Slowly the numbers dwindled until it was sudden death with Mike and Ken. They were each given one of everything and the person to finish first was declared the winner:




It wasn't even close. Congratulations to Mike; evidently fear isn't a factor for him.

Being Neighborly

I have really great neighbors. But when you get the four of us together, we tend to get a little ambitious. Last year I hosted a little pumpkin decorating party in our garage. It was lots of fun. This year we didn't want anyone to feel left out so we decided to include everyone on our street. (Mostly so we could do it in the driveway and not feel guilty if other neighbors saw us). But why get together and only carve pumpkins? It is, after all, Halloween. So we decided that we would have a cake walk and a haunted basement. But that didn't leave much for the adults. The solution: a chili cook off. And thus, the first annual Winter Wheat Way Halloween Party and Chili Cook Off was born. We made fliers, baked cupcakes and changed the date because of bad weather. But when it was all said and done it was a really fun time.

Of course Noah would pick a pumpkin so big that they couldn't even weigh it at Smith's. (Maybe they shouldn't sell pumpkins they can't weigh...). He started carving it and then got too overwhelmed by the project, distracted by a cake walk and didn't finish.

Zack and Ben opted for painting their pumpkins. Zack entered cutest category and Ben entered the scariest category. If there was a used the most paint category Zack would win. I think it took 2 days to completely dry.

Judgment time. (I mostly put this picture in because of the mountain behind it. Also notice the improved yard.) Noah won in his category because he shrewdly entered the only carved pumpkin in that category. Zack and Ben got a goody bag. Fortunately my "it's ok if you don't win" lecture worked and we avoided tears.

Cake walkers. I believe Ben was just announced as a winner. Look at all those delicious cupcakes. I bet it makes you wish you live on Winter Wheat Way.

This is Megan. Her DELICIOUS white chili won. As the winner she is the recipient of a yard sign announcing her accomplishment.

Who will win it next year??? Not me because I didn't have a recipe good enough to enter this year. But Matt might have a chance when we have the summer grill off. (It is his idea though so he'll be making the fliers.)

Happy Birthday to Matt

Here are some pictures from Matt's birthday yesterday. It's hard to party like a rock star when your birthday is on a Sunday (especially when you wife has a 2 hour enrichment planning meeting and the home teachers come. ) We did our best to celebrate and hopefully he had a fun day. Noah learned part of Iron Man on his guitar, which I think made the day for him.

Not only was his birthday on a Sunday but we woke up to snow. That's a first since we've been married. He thinks it may have happened once or twice while they lived in Teton. Incidentally it never happened in St. George.

All the neighborhood kids think Matt is the coolest because he is such a rocker . We think he is the coolest for a lot of reasons.

Spain-ish

I achieved a little victory today. I finally got Noah to let me video him saying something in Spanish. See if you can figure out what it is. He's funny about speaking for anyone outside of his class. He won't do it. I don't know if he is burnt out (his class is primarily taught in Spanish) or if he just figures he is wasting his efforts on people who don't understand him.

Just so you know, Noah speaks what we refer to as Spain-ish. He has told me on several occasions that a word or way of saying something is "mexican spanish." His first teacher was a native of Spain and very particular about pronunciation. I guess it's like learning British English versus our English. Anyway, Noah has a little attitude about it. He loves to correct me when I attempt to pronounce anything. (Maybe Ryan could talk to him and put him in his place.)

"Mom can I have a pillow for my tongue?"

Zack had a little accident today. He fell off the barstool and bit his tongue. He didn't quite know how to make himself feel better. After I explained to him that he couldn't have a band-aid he requested the previously mentioned pillow. Then he started complaining that he couldn't smell with his tongue anymore. Things are looking up though. His big brothers were sufficiently impressed with his injury. Now I think he's rather proud of himself and his gross looking tongue.

An Interesting Statistic

Prior to the three baby blessings we had in church yesterday our Bishop commented that our ward has 91 infants (and 150 children). I am pretty sure we will hit 100 before the year is through. Just thought I'd throw that out there. And don't worry I am not going to give into peer pressure.

The pumpkin patch

Zack was excited when I told him today we were going to the pumpkin patch for his preschool field trip. When I tried to get him in the car to leave he was a little upset and confused. The poor kid thought we were going to our pumpkin patch. At least he didn't have outrageous expectations for the field trip.



Instead the kids went to Hee Haw Farm. Maybe next year some unfortunate preschool will want to book the Francis Pumpkin Patch for a field trip. I will have some improvements to make before then. It will be hard to compete with Hee Haw. It was really fun. I won't show everything because there is a lot of stuff, but here are some of the kids favorite things.
The corn maze leads to a future project for Grandpa.
We think it is time for the McGarry farm to be a little more fun. Here's a start. It took Zack forever to get the courage to go down. I wish I got a better picture of the look on his face. It was hilarious, a cross between sheer terror and joy. When he was at the bottom, he took a deep breath and jumped up with a big smile on his face and ran back into line.
Zack and I really liked this cute little bunny village. Zack loved the bunny garden and bunny fountain. They even have a temple (according to Ben), this is Utah after all.

Meet LeRoy the pig, all 1200 pounds of him.
We went on a little hay ride.
They passed around a sunflower and let the kids take a seed. They were supposed to take a seed, Zack took a whole bunch of seeds. We made it home with exactly zero. Shh, don't remind him. I think he had grand plans for our flower beds.

Pumpkin Patch tip: plant giant sunflowers to prevent bugs. Dang, I guess we really could have used those seeds. The kids got to go into the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin. Zack wanted a very specific tiny and fat one with a little green and orange. I didn't think we would ever find it. There were A LOT to choose from. We saw nearly all of them.


I can't even tell you how glad I am that the sunflowers were dying. Zack would still be there trying to pick one and I don't have a big enough vase .

This picture is for Grandpa:


So you are probably wondering what pictures I didn't include. There were a few. Sorry it is so long. But one last slide before we go... I wonder how many slides can boast that kind of view.

A Favorite Spot

This is Tibble Fork Reservior in American Fork Canyon. It is one of our family's favorite places to go. Isn't the view of Timp pretty impressive? We took the kids for FHE last night.
Zack saw alligators and baby fish in the water. I wish I had his eye sight.
Leaves are like flowers....

All I want for Christmas

My kids have been deciding (since January) what to ask Santa to bring this year. They narrowed it down to a Wii. I really hope they get it. Because if they do, Santa can bring me this:

I am going to be really, really good.

Intolerance

I like to think of myself as an open minded person. I try to consider other's opinions and to appreciate different points of view. I have a neighbor though, who is really testing me. Let me say that she is a great person, I really like her. But we have one major difference of opinion that is really, really bothering me.

You see, I am staunchly anti-weed. So much so that I may border on having an OCD. I hate the sight of them. I can't stand the thought of them growing. I pull them, spray them; do anything I can to prevent them. I fight myself not to pull them in other people's yards. (That would be a little weird). I've trained Zack to be a weeder, he knows how to get the root. Just try to find one in my yard.

I've never actually asked, but I am pretty sure that my neighbor is pro-weed. She must be because she's completely ignored the 3 month yard requirement (it's been 2 years). She is violating various city ordinances and is paying monthly fines. She looks at this every day and doesn't do anything about it.

The only reason they aren't worse, is because this summer I have invested 2 1/2 bottles of Round-Up and two packs of Pokemon cards (a bribe for my kids to help pull weeds) in an unsuccessful attempt to fight them. But this problem is bigger than me. Apparently it is bigger than our neighborhood because I am not the only one complaining and still nothing changes. All I can figure is that she must love them. I just don't know if I can ever come to appreciate that point of view. Anyway, I am going to call the city again. At least this time I know I am right. And I've got the law on my side.