Lil Johnny Sack

Since the same people who read this blog also read The Gold Element, I will spare you the story of the 4'11" Johnny Sack, but I will share some of my pictures from the trip to Big Springs since those are the only pictures I took this weekend on our excursion to the Gold family cabin.

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I took a bunch of Pictures of Buck & Vic that are more traditional, but this one was my favorite.


Don't look too close or you might see Little Johnny Crack. The boys were looking at the Ginormous Trout under the bridge.


I'm pretty sure those fish would put up a fight.


Me and my Boys enjoying the great outdoors together. They also got a dose of Yellowstone with Grandma Nay and Grandpa Randall Clause on this trip when they got to see..as John said "That squirty uppy thing...Old Yeller?"

The many faces of Big Springs

Look! Its a Beaver! Oh actually its a duck. We saw Osprey, Pelicans, Muskrats, Trout and a couple Ducks that were somehow mistaken for Beavers. Thanks again to Buck & Vic for having us up for the weekend. We all had a great time playing Ping Pong(losing to Vic), Went on a 2 mile hike where John and Weed set personal bests, learned a new game called Killer Bunnies and Buck got well practiced (addicted to) Guitar Hero.

Garden Time

I had forgotten how much work goes into a garden. About 2 months ago I bought a tray of peat moss pellets to start my seedlings. I figured that would only take a few minutes to put together...I mean...how hard can it be to put a few little seeds into some dirt? Well, that little project took like 3 hours cause I wanted it to be just perfect. After about a week or two I started seeing little miracles of life springing up from the peat moss pellets and I knew that my garden had a head start even though it was still snowing outside. I had the seed packets in the container that the seeds were from so that I would know what row had what growing in it. (dont do this...they grew in the packets). I watched and watched as some grew quickly while others took their own sweet time...but almost every pellet had some life in it. Now all I needed was to wait for the weather to be just right so I could plant the little fellas and let mother nature do the rest. Well...As you all know...It has been a frosty cold spring so no early planting this year. Ben and I tilled the garden area a few weeks ago and got any weeds or rocks from the area. We made the kids come help by hauling the weeds or rocks away from the area for us (cheap labor). Last weekend would have been perfect, only Mothers day didn't leave any extra time over the weekend to get that done. I did however get the tomatoes planted last week.
So...the time finally came for the seedlings to hit the soil. Here's where the not as easy as it looks part comes into play. I needed to re-till the area again since it had been so long since we first did it and that is quite the workout. It was hot...I am out of shape and luckily had Jasmines help transporting seedlings to me so I didn't have to make too many trips. I almost blacked out once when I stood up too fast. Jazz asked me why I was falling asleep standing. Its because I was about to collapse is all. We made it out alive and now its back to waiting and watching to see if the labors are rewarded with some salsa fixins (pretty much all I planted). I need to get some more seeds cause I have room for more and have thought of some other things I would like to grow. So far I have Jalapenos, Habanieros, Tomatoes, Onions, Garlic, Cilantro, Cucumbers and Lettuce. Kinda bleak. Oh well...All I wanted was some good Salsa from my garden and hopefully...that is what we will have.

Poor Little Kitty

So, some of you know that the life of Dookie has gotten bleak. We noticed that he had gotten pretty skinny, and I kept telling Daniel that, but he kept saying it was just him losing his winter coat. Well, I was saying the other day that he has gotten way too skinny because you can see his hip bones. Daniel then noticed, and also noticed he hadn't seen Dookie eat in awhile. We took him to the vet on Monday, where they kept him overnight giving him fluids and waiting for blood test results. Tuesday morning they told Daniel that it all pointed to kidney failure and that there was nothing we could do at that point. So, all day Tuesday, Daniel and I mentally (and emotionally) prepared to have him put to sleep. Then, Tuesday evening, the vet said he had eaten, which was a big change, so we should take him home and see if he keeps eating. So now we are pretty much just watching and waiting, hoping for a miraculous comeback. We sure love the little guy, so everyone say some kitty prayers for him!

Here he is tonight, battle scarred from the night at the vet (shaved/pierced neck and bandaged little paw):

Some of my favorite memories

For my favorite memories, I’m going with the time the restaurant manager in Mexico brought us each a beer and Paul said” we have to drink it or he will be offended” and I said “I can’t drink this…beer is disgusting…you will have to drink both” So every time the manager would get called away for a minute I would pour mine into his glass and he would chug it and I would pour more…When the manager got back my glass was always lower and Paul’s was still full. Later, Mom said “I saw you 2 drinking beer you bad boys”. I never convinced her that Paul drank them both, but that’s ok...at least the CANADIAN restaurant manager in Mexico wasn’t offended. On a more family friendly memory…Paul and I had the great idea to sleep out on the beach in lawn chairs while in Mexico…BAD IDEA! Not only was it about 200 degrees at night out there with the humidity…but the bugs feasted on us all night. When we woke up we were miserable, sticky, tired and oh yeah…covered with bug bites. I’m glad I had the time I did with Paul. I’m also glad I got to spend some time with him a week and a half before he died. I wish there was a way to know when something like this is going to happen so you can cherish your time with someone knowing you don’t have as long as you think you do…but it makes you realize that life is precious and can change in a heartbeat. We should treat everyone like it is the last time we are going to see them…because it just might be.

Paul, Paul, Paul

As everyone knows, this week has been a tough one ever since finding out about Paul. Daniel has been trying to figure out his favorite *appropriate* Paul memory. We have talked about it a little bit, and I don't know if he has figured his out, but I know mine! Well, I have a few, but only one was well documented. It was at our wedding, during the Dutch dance. It's time for the couples kissing in the chair part, and here comes Paul, matched up with my lovely married friend Shiloh. Well, she's a cute redhead, had a good amount of cleavage on parade and this is Paul's chance! Not so much. He tried to go for the kiss, only to have her turn her cheek at last second.. and right at that moment "CLICK" went the camera. I love this picture.. it kills me everytime I look at it, just because I know what could have been. (And you can see Riley's hopeful look on his face like, "Go for it man!") :) We miss you Paul!

HSN here I come!

I have a new hobby. I'm learning to make jewelry. A couple of my friends have been doing it for a few months and I decided to try it out, only I had to wing it and teach myself. I started with some earrings the other night:



Last night I tried a new kind of earring (thank you Becca for being a fabulous pinky model),



a bracelet,



and a funky necklace.



I don't know about you but I'm pretty impressed with myself, and I think I could make millions on the Home Shopping Network. Or at least I could make 10 bucks and buy some more supplies.

Celebrity look-a-likes.

I am conducting a survey. Tonight Becca and I were having a conversation about celebrities we look like, and I told her, once again, that she totally looks like Anna Faris. For those of you who dont know who that is, she was in all the "Scary Movie" sequels, "Just Friends", "Waiting" and more! Becca says that girl is ugly and she doesnt look like her and that she looks more like Melissa Joan Hart aka "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" (who has a lazy eye). She just doesnt understand why people think there is any resemblance. You tell me.


Melissa Joan Hart


Anna Faris


Becca G.


Weird isn't it?