Pay It Forward!!!

So, here's how it works: the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (or copy and paste like I did). Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift! Come and play!!

16 years and counting

December 19, 1992

Last Friday we celebrated our 16 year wedding anniversary. Wow 16 years has gone by so fast. How can it seriously be 16 years already??

Wicked fun!

Last Saturday my mom and I went to LA and saw Wicked! We had so much fun. I got the CD and have been listening to it non-stop since then. Everytime I hear Defying Gravity I get the goosebumps. Nathan is so cute...the other day he told me that he thinks it would be fun to go to a musical. I so wish I could take him to see this - I know he'd love it.

Thanks for the fantastic time Mom!

Halloween...finally

This year for Halloween Nathan wanted to be a Biker Skeleton. Here he is getting ready for the annual ward trunk or treat...

with the bandana without makeup

with grandma snow white

Clayton, Sarah and Nathan

Nathan, Clayton and Maleah.

At mom and dad's after trick or treating.

all the loot - he made piles and wrote notes on them letting us know which piles we were allowed to take from. What a turkey - this kid never even eats his candy yet places restrictions on what we can and can not have. Check out the Disneyland pennant - 30th year??? When Nathan was looking at it he said..."wait, they've been around for longer than 50 years!" HA! 20+ year old halloween treat.

This is for Steph...me in Hannah's "hot n spicy" wig - it's a wig for adults (i tried to say that a few different ways and any way that i said "adult" sounded wrong) Hannah was Ariel and Steph found this wig that worked perfect. By the end of the night I think we had all tried it on...Brad says that we are easily amused - i certainly dont' know what he's talking about - i'll spare Kelli, Doug, Brad, Steph, Dad and Mom and only post this pic of me... :)

disneyland

We love going to Disneyland and go every chance we get.

A bunch of us met on Matt's birthday...

Nathan and his best friend Clayton
we just so happened to run into Clayton and his mom. small world

California Adventure

strange boy

apparently Nathan has joined the Casey Jr. chain gang...

sign flasher

can't get enough of casey' jr.

Brad said we looked homeless...I guess main street disneyland wouldn't be such a bad place to be homeless.

Mission Bay Triathlon - 2008

Brad did the Mission Bay Triathlon again this year. He improved on his time - I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he actually trained this year! Here are a few pics from the day.

Brad in the transition area.

I'm happy to report that this year was nude free - Last year this guy dropped his pants 15 feet from where i was standing. what the heck man this isn't blacks
Nathan standing in the same spot I stood in last year (see above note)

Brad and Nathan before the swim - is Nathan tough or homeless?

my cutie...waiting patiently

bike to...

run - Brad said i got this same shot of him last year - HA!

after race skating

how i spent my summer vacation...

with all that life has going on i attempt to finally finish this post - i actually started this back in September - it is now October 26th...oh blah dee

seriously what vacation? I remember when I was a kid I used to think that you went to school for a year then had summer vacation for a year. What a terrible day when I realized how wrong I was - and then another terrible day when I realized that when you work there is no such thing as a 3 month break. Oh well.

So besides giving Nathan the "cheese touch" as often as possible (see Diary of a Wimpy Kid book volume 1) here are some pictures of how we spent our summer vacation...

we celebrated dad and all 60 of his years!!

we played in newport

i made my first icing roses!! watch out mom...

I witnessed this guy getting baptized in Carlsbad

and this kid having a blast!

FINALLY got to swim!

we moved maddie into her new college life...wait that's nathan sitting on a college girls bed, with a college girl, in the college girls room! isn't that bed awesome??? I put it together! i rule.

went to St. George and trespassed at Sand Hollow

drove recklessly in the church parking lot

and climbed and hiked everything we could...

fun times were had by all!

hmmm

So, tonight Nathan found a measuring tape from a sewing kit and walked in with it around his waist. I pulled him over and measured 29 1/2 inches around his waist. I looked up at him and said Nathan that's what my waist was when we got married. He looked at me and said "WOW! You wanna see how big it is now?"

yeah, not so much...

Brad laughed...he won't be laughing later on... ;)

a few of my many quirks...

Nichole this ones for you... :)

Seeing as I've been such a bad poster lately, I figured I would have a go at this tag.

Mention the rules on your blog

Tell 6 unspectacular quirks about you

Tag 6 following bloggers by linking to them

Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.


1 - Walking on grass grosses me out - even with shoes on! sick man.

2 - When I put our colorful plastic cups in dishwasher or the cupboard they have to go in a pattern - orange/black/orange/black/orange/black or red/green/red/green etc etc etc. i know ocd. but my real question is WHO DOESN'T HAVE IT? yeah that's what i thought.

3 - I will not swim with fish - no ocean, no lake - pool only! The thought of fish touching me is just disgusting.

4 - I hate milk - you will never catch me drinking a plain glass of milk - add it to cereal or even add chocolate ok but plain - heck no!

5 - I don't like pedicures! I know, how can I be serious?? I don't like when people touch my feet - good thing Brad hates feet! HA!

Wow - I've been so negative - which is strange because by nature I always look on the bright side of things - hmm i suppose that could also be a "quirk"

6 - I would rather be behind the scenes than out in the center of attention - I suppose that's why I love taking pictures - I can hide behind the camera instead of worrying about being in front of it.

Ok - that's me in a nutshell. Now I tag anyone who hasn't done it yet. Surprisingly, it was hard for me to do this tag - too many "quirks" to narrow it down to just 6 - and I didn't even get into the whole Satin quirk I've got going.... ;)

pool fun

Ok so i've been a big fat slacker lately...here are a few pics of the pool...

finally filling :)


enjoying :)
nuthead - no diving board yet
Audrey chillin' on the top step

diving board!
still nutty
brown fence - makes such a huge difference

more!

Here the coping and deck have been poured - what a difference!This is where the diving board will be - and before rocks were put up...
and after rock...

tune in Tokyo
and we say these things...

Here is an example of the sturdy scaffolding that the workers were standing on while we had our little earthquake the other day - surprisingly nobody fell - Brad likes to scare the heck out of mom and walk out on the boards - he likes to live dangerously - he is a rebel.
the spa is ginormous now - LOVE IT!

They have now finished all of the rock, finished the tile work, and installed the turtles. Next stop plaster then water then me!

updates!

Here are a few oldies - i've been so diligent in updating my blog lately - so much has happened in mom and dad's backyard - here is some of the progress...

Nathan sitting in the fat spa...they have since trimmed and shaped it out - can't wait to fill it!

Standing on the new Baja Reef - kiddies and dad will be loving that.

I love the wheelbarrow in the deep end.

underground water superhighway

time for some changes

For those who have been to my parents house this is a typical picture of their pool. It's been in the family for 24 years and we've had plenty of fun in it. The spa has had it's fair share of dish soap bubbles, friends, and grand kids over the years. Here are a few "before" shots...

Times a changin' and it's time for a pool face lift!!!
Brad wanted nothing more than to get this thing empty so he could skate it.
Nathan doing his part :) Check out how steep those stairs are - they sure don't seem like they are that steep when they are covered with water.
Nathan "accidentally" fell in. The water looks sick but it's really ok water - it was clean until they started this project and dirt and rocks from the sides fell in.

Brad emptying the spa.
No naked carrots in this spa! Whoa - blast from the past Riley/Harris spa humor!
Airboard drop in.

Still wishing the pool was empty and in skateable condition...
Dad demonstrating his swimming technique!

I told Mom and Dad that they should use this picture as their Christmas card picture this year. I doubt they will go for it. ;)
This pool is ENORMOUS!

Cheap labor. Mom made really nice little piles for the workers - I'm sure they appreciated it! Dad couldn't understand why mom wanted to sweep the pool out. She said it was "fun!" Hey Mom why don't you come over and have some "fun" at my house?

This is Nathan doing what we like to call "The Matt". I was trying to take a picture of Brad and at the last second Nathan jumped up in front of the camera to steal the scene aka "The Matt".
I'm pretty sure Mom has never been this deep in the pool (especially with a broom).
Almost completely empty! Of course it was way to late in the night to actually skate it. So sorry Brad... Brad was in charge of the pump and making sure it was working properly. My Mom was having flashbacks to the days right after my heart surgery, when Brad would make sure that my chest tube and all of the other tubes coming out of me were working properly. Fun times!

More pictures as the ShopKo* continues... (mom will get that now)

*ShopKo - A long time ago my Dad and I were at my Grandma Riley's house in Bountiful, Utah. We were standing in the kitchen going through the newspaper and no doubt eating chips and licorice and there was a Grand Opening spread for ShopKo. Dad looked at it and said "Whoa! Progress!" Grandma looked up at him and said "No, I think it's called ShopKo." Dad and I just looked at each other and then Dad said "oh yeah, you're right." HA! Gotta love G-ma Riley.

Mom and Nathan day

The last awards assembly for the school year was last Friday. Nathan and his best friend Clayton both received awards for Responsibility for Learning. Here they are with their principal Mr. Hausner. They were so excited that they both got the same award. These kids are like two peas in a pod. If you see one you will see the other - they are practically joined at the hip.

Since Brad was out of town fishing we had Nathan and Mom night on Friday night. We had lots of fun taking funny face pics and watching movies. Since I wake up at the crack of jack now - I'm usually really tired by the time Friday night comes around. But Nathan didn't seem to care since I let him stay up as late as he wanted! :)

So the other day I went into Nathan's room to clean it. PLEASE LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES...start early and make your kids clean their own room or do other chores around the house - I didn't and now I'm paying for it! Anyway, I went into his room and I see this envelope on the ground. I pick it up and it says... "Do not open until Mother's Day 2018 Nathan". I took it over to Nathan and asked what it was. He said it was part of my Mother's Day gift for the year 2018. I said "2018???" and he said "Yep! In 10 years." Apparently I can't open this up for another 10 years - I have it on my refrigerator we'll see if it makes it until 2018!

This is our cat Sid aka Fat Sid - too bad she doesn't have a good life.

Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my...

This last week Brad went up to June Lake area on a fishing trip with his dad and a few of his long time fishing buddies. They have gone 2 times a year for about 30 years (give or take just a few) ;) This time they stayed in a cabin and when they got there they were told to make sure and not leave any food in their car because there is a bear that has been hanging around. A bear? Holy cow. They got up there on Wednesday morning and when Brad called me later that day he told me this. On Friday night Brad called and said that they had gone out to eat. When they got into the cabin they could tell that someone had been there. Brad looked at his stuff and it hadn't been touched - phew! They walked back to one of the bedrooms and realized it hadn't been a person it was an animal! The screen on the window was all torn and the curtians were shreaded. There were M&M's all over the ground and some HoneyCombs cereal. Brad went outside and walked around the corner and came face to face with the intruder - the bear! He said it was a smaller one only about 300 pounds! When Brad looked at the bear it got this guilty look on it's face and kinda crouched down - just like Rosie (our dog) does when she's done something wrong. Then it ran around and hid under the porch. The other guys came out to see what was up and they watched it try to climb a few trees, try to hide behind a bush and then finally walk around out of sight. So get this - the window must have been just barely open - enough for the bear to get part of his claw in and then it just barreled it's way in - they think that he was even still in the place when they got back from eating. They must have startled it and it tried to grab what he could and get the heck out of there. Needless to say they got home safely yesterday afternoon - I was so glad to have Brad back home in one piece. Seriously though, I could have gone another night without knowing "the bear" story :)

there's a wolf in our house...

Tonight was the final Scouts Pack meeting until after summer. We had a BBQ at the park. Nathan has worked really hard and finally finished up his Wolf requirements so it's official. He's a wolf. PHEW!!!!!

Nathan receiving his patch and my pin :) and he even pinned it on me without drawing blood!

Isn't this just the cutest kid. He's going to make a great husband someday. :) And who will be the lucky one to get me as a MOTHER-IN-LAW??? wow all of the sudden I feel really old. (Especially looking at all of my wrinkles in the picture below, why am I losing weight if fat fills in the wrinkles???)

So proud to be his mom. How did I get so lucky??

Seriously...where did May go?

VH1 Big Shopping Day

Yesterday we got up at the crack of jack and headed out hillbilly style to Hollywood. VH1 was having their 3rd Annual Big Shopping Day and Lacy & William was a vendor!!! Holy smokes. It was held at Boulevard3 on Sunset. It was so much fun. I didn't get a picture of our truck but it was quite a sight. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Nathan standing in the "Press" area not being noticed.

Inside Boulevard3 - l&w was on the 2nd floor - right before the corner on the left.

Mom and Alyssa ready to work it.

We had a 16 x 9 space and Mom and Alyssa made ours look the best.

I just love this kid.

We were chillin' downstairs - the guy in the red shirt on the other couch is in some boy band called V Factory - there are 5 guys in the band and they were walking around hoping to be recognized.

Alice Cooper was there - Brad was trying to be sly and take Nathan's picture with him in the background and all of the sudden he looked right at Brad when he snapped the shot.

Matt in Hollywood working the pink phone hmmm

While we were sitting outside Alice Cooper walked by and Brad said "Excuse me Alice, can I get my picture with you?" He said sure and Brad's day was made :) We keep laughing about it - excuse me ALICE - hahahaha But what was he supposed to say Hi Mr. Cooper? Yeah that works!

Nathan was such a trooper - we had to leave at 5:30 am to get there in time so at 1:30 pm he was ready to get the heck out of dodge and enjoy him some La Brea Tar Pits... 30 minutes before Natasha Bedingfield was supposed to go onstage. Oh well. We took off and had some family fun time eating over priced cheeseburgers at LACMA and checking out the tar. Before leaving Nathan rolled down the big grassy hill a few billion times with some girl (that sounds funny).

I found a few pictures from our Hollywood adventure last year.

Nathan at Hollywood and Highland

Brad and Nathan at Johnny Depp

Pinewood Derby 2008...

Last Thursday night was the Pinewood Derby at Scouts. Nathan got 2nd place in his division. He was SO excited. Of course there were only 3 kids in his division :) BUT who cares at least all 3 boys felt like winners! :) We promised Nathan that next year we will spend more than 2 hours on his car. HA. At least he didn't have to race a Harris! :) (sorry if that brings up bad memories Matt)

Cute kids

Happy Birthday to my boys...

Happy Birthday Brad and Nathan!!! Yesterday was Brad and Nathan's birthdays. We had a very full day... I took Nathan to school in the morning with 3 dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts, said good luck to the substitute teacher and ran home to get ready for a funeral... Last Saturday late afternoon our neighbor and friend died in a motorcycle accident on the 91 fwy. very sad...

We ended up having a pretty low key night - just the 3 of us - we went out to CPK where they gave us a HUGE sundae that we all ate like pigs :) then came home and finished up homework which included Nathan's 2 of 2 class Moon journal - He thought it was a great idea to sign up and do it on his birthday. HA - little did he realize that it meant he would now have to do HOMEWORK on his birthday - so much for the homework pass we've been saving for months :) oh well. It was fun - i went online and found out what the moon looked like on his actual birth day 9 years ago (seriously 9 - how can that be???) and also on Brad's birth day 9+ years ago and did a little compare and contrast dealio. fun times.....