Life According to iPhone

Unauthorized climbing at Arctic Circle:

{January 17, 2014}

Silver's favorite place:

{January 15, 2014}

{January 22, 2014}

{January 27, 2014}

Too many Doritos:

 {January 17, 2014}

A forgotten gem:

A couple weeks ago I took Lily and her friend sledding and we remembered that our sleds were at the old house. I went into the shed to find them and came across this sign, a remnant from Lily's club, Fort Feline. My favorite rules are "Don't touch the cats in any way" (wait, this is called Fort Feline, right?), "No sassing" and "No dinking around".

{July 10, 2012}

Annie curled up in my minky blanket. She (or Jackie) sleep with me when Dan's at work.

{January 20, 2014}

The day I changed the dog's name from Silver to Damn Dog:

{January 23, 2014}

We came home from watching a wrestling match at the high school to find puke all over the living room floor. Of course, she couldn't puke on the opposite side of the room that has laminate flooring. I spent an hour and a half cleaning the carpet and sprinkled baking soda on all the spots. It absorbed all the water and I vacuumed it up a couple days later.

The only problem is that now a have several really clean spots that stand out. If this were our house, we would replace that carpet with laminate flooring in a heartbeat!

The day after the puke catastrophe, Silver pooped in two tiny spots while we were gone for an hour. Later that night after I simmered down, Amelia asked me, "Mama, did you cry when you found Silver's mess?" 

"I wanted to, but instead I said a swear word."

"C-R-A-P?"

"Something like that."

Lily pipes in, "Ooh, you said the worse one, didn't you?"

"Maybe."

Amelia, eyes big and incredulous, "There's a badder word than the baddest word I know?"

Yep.

I immediately brought Silver's kennel back in from the shed. She now goes in there anytime we leave. Note the laminate flooring. Where she didn't puke.

Keeping an eye on the neighbors:

{January 24, 2014 photo by Lily}

Weekend bowling in Afton:

We had to stop one frame early to make it into the movie theater to see Frozen. I bowled Amelia and Mack's last frames for them and Lily was like, "No fair!" Especially since they had bumpers and she didn't.

{January 25, 2014}

What an 11-year-old does when she begs off church because "I don't feel good":

{January 26, 2014 photos by Lily}

A little something poking out from under Amelia's bed:

{January 27, 2014}

Dance partners:

{January 28, 2014}

Snow Mouse by Mack:

{January 29, 2014}

Ficus climbing Lego Friend:

{January 30, 2014}

Sugar cookies at Activity Days:

{February 4, 2014}

What happens when a certain child neglects to close the car door the night before a big storm:

{February 7, 2014}

We're supposed to get another 8 inches this weekend.

Hawk supervising the snowstorm:

Without the iPhone, I likely would not have taken pictures of many of these everyday things. They may not be the greatest quality, but they document our lives, and for that I am grateful.

Quick Jersey Fix

After doing laundry this week Lily's basketball jersey came out of the dryer with letters peeling off. I thought it might be because it was dried in the dryer, but after consulting the tag and talking to some other moms, it wasn't the dryer's fault. Sometimes the letters will stick together if the jersey is dried too hot, but peeling off is unusual.

I should have gotten a better before picture because all the letters were sticking up, but I didn't think of it until I was almost done.

I tried using a low heat setting on the iron and covering the letters with a thin dishcloth. But it didn't do anything. Then Dan suggested I use some parchment paper.

I turned up the heat (one below cotton) and laid down the parchment paper, applied heat for 10-20 seconds, and Voila! Everything was melted on again.

I told Dan, "Good call on the parchment paper! It totally worked!"

He asked, "Didn't your mom used to do iron-ons for you? You know, the ones that came in the cereal box?"

Nope. I remember my brother having iron-on Star Wars t-shirts, but that's it. Guess I wasn't much of a child of the 70's...

I hope this tip comes in handy for you someday!

Bubba's in the House!

It's been almost 4 weeks since Lily got her palate expander. She's only had it in for 3 weeks because it fell out after week one and we couldn't get in to have it fixed until the following week.

I am amazed at the human body and how quickly it can change and modify itself. Each day that gap gets a little wider and the grin gets a little goofier.

There is some serious Bubba action going on.

Me likey!

Gettin' Their Basketball On

Lily is into month two of Junior High Basketball. After her success in volleyball, we were hopeful that she would have an equally positive attitude about basketball. She doesn't complain much when she goes to practice, but at games she sits on the sidelines looking like she'd rather poke her eyes with a fork.

The team has 6th, 7th, and 8th grade girls. The 8A and 8B teams are made up of 8th and some 7th graders. The 7A and 7B team are made up of the other 7th graders and 6th graders. Lily gets a limited amount of game time in the 7A games. In division 1A sports in Wyoming, there sometimes is no 7B team from the other schools because they simply don't have enough girls. But when there are enough girls, Lily plays most of the 7B games.

Lily didn't get to play in her first game because she missed two practices, out with a chest cold. So she got to "keep book" or write down all the fouls, shots scored, free throws, etc.

She liked that job pretty well. :)

During the games Amelia keeps herself entertained making bracelets on her Rainbow Loom.

She's very popular with the girly set.

"Ahhhh, Mama! No pictures!"

Mack usually runs wild in the commons area with a pack of little boys.

I've been impressed with Lily's efforts to move up the court and use her size to really get in front of the ball.

You'll notice that Lily's wearing regular sneakers instead of basketball shoes. Her feet are still growing and I wasn't willing to pony up the cash for good basketball shoes for just one season. Hopefully by next year her feet will be done growing and we can buy her some good shoes.

Last weekend Lily had two away games in Pinedale and Big Piney (close to Dan's rig). As luck would have it, he'd gotten home the day before so he had the pleasure of making the drive yet again! It was fun, though. The Sirius XM radio was working even though we don't subscribe, so we got to listen to a lot of fun old music. Did you know that classic rock is starting to be considered oldies? Horrifying.

The 7A team was playing first and we didn't know if there would be a 7B game because Big Piney only had seven 7th grade girls total (I'm not sure if any of the other schools have 6th grade girls on their teams). It drove Dan and I crazy to watch Lily sitting on the sidelines, separated from her team and looking like being there was the biggest waste of her time. She got told to sit with her team and stop being disrespectful more than once by her father.

She had a couple of minutes in the 4th quarter but her play was timid and she had no hustle in her step. But things changed once the 7B game started (those poor Big Piney girls had to play two full games!)

Playing with the girls in her class and being a starter on the 7B team seemed to do a lot for her confidence. She played much more aggressively. At some point one of the opposing players threw some elbows and that got Lily all fired up. It was good for her to play a little mad because she put her heart into it.

She was ready on the rebound and took several shots.

She scored 10 points in the game and she gave it her full effort. We were so proud of her! She's got a natural talent for the game and if she can get her desire up to the level of her talent, she will be an awesome basketball player. (And it wouldn't hurt for her to get fully invested in the team and join hands for the hurrahs at the end of the game!) Coach Barnes is so good with those girls!

I made this video in iMovie on my MacBook Pro. It's such a cool program and super easy to use.

(Note Amelia whining at the end, "I wanna go out there and play!")

Yesterday Lily and I were talking about her game and I was complimenting her on how well she did. She said, "You know, if you asked me which I liked better, volleyball or basketball, I'm not sure which I would choose. Volleyball is fun, but there's something about basketball..."

That's a good sign!

Amelia continued to enthrall the girls with her Rainbow Loom, only this time it was the older 7th grade girls who wanted a piece of the action!

Amelia is in her first year of Jr. Jazz basketball. ScrambleBall, I like to call it. The program lasts for 6 weeks with 3 practices and 3 games. It's very low-key and basically just gives the kids some exposure to basketball. When she first got her jersey, Amelia was sad because she thought zero meant you were the worst player. But we told her about Dan's grandfather, Pepa, who was a truck driver. His handle on the CB radio was "Double Ot". 00. Amelia was OK with her number after that.

Amelia totally loves it! She was so nervous for her first game last week, but once she got out there she had a great time. She was aggressive and really tried her best.

Dan was on the rig for Amelia's first game. He was so proud when he saw the pictures and noticed that she had her eyes up while she was dribbling and passing.

Of course, there were other times when dribbling was optional:

Amelia was especially good at defense.

"I'm watchin' you!"

She was all smiles at the end of the game.

It's sure good to have an outlet for their energy during these long cold months. If only we could get Mack into an intensive Mixed Martial Arts program. Ultimate Fighting, Baby!