Where, Oh Where, Has My Little Jake Gone...

Jacob disappeared for awhile today. Dakota and Adam stopped by to fuel up while they were out on a bike ride and, suddenly, Jacob was gone with them. He called me about 3 hours later to come and pick him up in South River (google map it!). He was a long way from home, but he had fun hanging with his biker gang. They are planning another ride on Saturday.

Apparently, South River has the most bars per square mile of any town in New Jersey. Isn't that good to know??

And where was our poor little William during all this?? Still mowing the lawn. It takes about 6 or more hours to mow without the riding mower and William just kept going until it was done. Give that kid a Klondike Bar (or a Slurpee)!

Is anybody else ready for school to start??

'cause I was godzillionaire and I liked doing it so much. I cut that grass for free. - Forrest Gump

William told me he felt like Forrest Gump today when we finally (after about a month) made him mow the lawn and didn't even pay him. (Except with praise for a job well done!) Our riding lawn mower has been broken for awhile and the jungle is invading so today we borrowed a push lawn mower and sent William out to mow the back 40. He did not have fun but he tried to have a good attitude. He didn't quite get finished before he had to go to Scouts so he'll be back out there tomorrow to finish the rest of the job!!

Go Will!!

And by the way did you know that today is a very important day? It is the birthday of Carla Lee Greenwell Robbins Lewis - my mother!! I think she is 39 again!! LOL. I would have scanned in some fabulous photos of her in the younger years but I was busy doing Primary stuff all day and driving kids all over the place. So you will just have to wait! But here is the most recent picture I have of her. This was taken while we were together in Washington, DC in June. L to R: Carla, Suzy, Grace, Randee.



We wish you a happy birthday, Mom, and hope it is the best ever!!

Oh What Do You Eat in the Summertime...

Now that the gang is a little older and a little less dependent on me, I don't make them breakfast or lunch during the Summer. Shocking, no?? Okay, on occasion, I will get up and make some cinnamon rolls or waffles or something, but generally, they are on their own. It is easier - everybody wakes up a different times, everybody wants something different to eat, etc., etc.

This is what we ate today!

Breakfast:

Jacob
blueberry bagel with berry swirl cream cheese
Grace
hot fudge sundae pop-tart and milk
Mom
fried egg on toast with a little pesto
William
hot fudge sundae pop-tarts

Lunch:

Jacob
chicken patty with tomato, mozzarella and pesto on an onion bun with carrot sticks and ranch dip
Grace
chicken noodles (pasta-roni)
Mom
frozen bean and cheese burrito
William
2 frozen bean and cheese burritos

Here's what I've decided after looking at this list -- I want Jacob to be the mom - he makes way better food than me. What do you think, Jake, are you up for it??

Oh What Do You Do in the Summertime...

...when it's hot and you're bored??

Create "Toothpick Art"!

Try it today!!

A Thought For the Day...

"Although “men are, that they might have joy” (2 Ne. 2:25), this does not mean that our lives will be filled only with joy, “for it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things” (2 Ne. 2:11). Happiness is not given to us in a package that we can just open up and consume. Nobody is ever happy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Rather than thinking in terms of a day, we perhaps need to snatch happiness in little pieces, learning to recognize the elements of happiness and then treasuring them while they last."

"We are enticed daily to pursue worldly pleasures that may divert us from the path to happiness. But the path to true and lasting happiness is, ... “virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.”

James E. Faust

S'more Kabobs...

Gracie loves s'mores. Even when it is not s'more season she will usually find some kind of marshmallow, chocolate, graham cracker type snack to eat. Today she was inspired to come up with a s'more dessert for us. She has named them "S'more Kabobs" and they are yummy!!

S'more Kabobs

Honey Maid Graham Sticks

Jumbo Marshmallow

Chocolate Frosting or Hot Fudge

Carefully stick the Graham stick into the marshmallow then coat the marshmallow with your choice of chocolate frosting or hot fudge (the hot fudge works best). Place on a cookie sheet and toast in the toaster oven until the marshmallow is slightly toasted. Eat and then go take a bath because they get a little messy!!

If You Chance To Meet A Frown...

Gracie was a little disappointed yesterday when she found out that Daddy and Jacob would not be gone for the weekend. Jacob's "hobbit" food prevented him from putting on a shoe and Quintin's pulled groin prevented him from hiking. So, in typical Grace fashion, she turned her frown upside-down and re-planned her weekend. And so we will now be having a Daddy/Daughter campout in the family room. Jacob and I have just been informed that the starting at 7 pm, the family room will be off limits.

So we bid them "Happy Camping" and hope they don't set the carpet on fire while making s'mores!!

Oooo!! Check out the new Crocs. Finally we found a pair to fit!!

Happy Pioneer Day...

We wish we were in Utah to celebrate today!!

Is He A Hobbit or a Boy?...

Something is wrong with Jacob's foot and we think he might be turning into a Hobbit. Or maybe it is just a bee sting. You be the judge...

Just Do It...

My little brother, Brian, extended a challenge to my other little brother, Mark!

Read about it here!

Here are my thoughts - JUST DO IT MARK!!

Mark is so funny. Everytime I am with him I feel like I should be wearing Depends. You would all go see him perform - right????

Leave a comment here and encourage Mark to "Just Do It" ... it would make us all happy! And if he bombs, he can blame it all on us!!

We're all cheering you on!!

A Thought for the Day...

"If you do something that turns out not quite as you had planned, you can almost always put it right, get over it, learn from it. But once you've missed out on something, it's gone....Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved. Friends move away, children grow up, loved ones pass on. It's so easy to take others for granted, until that day when they're gone from our lives and we are left with feelings of 'what if' and 'if only.' Said author Harriet Beecher Stowe, 'The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.'

"Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey and share our love with friends and family. One day, each of us will run out of tomorrows. Let us not put off what is most important."

Thomas S. Monson

Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

Way back in May, Gracie won 4 tickets to the Somerset Patriots game and today was the day that we cashed those in and headed to the ballpark. Grace was totally excited. She has been learning all about baseball so that would know what was going on. She brought a baseball with her so that she could get it signed and then left it in the car thinking that she wouldn't be able to get it signed, but right as we entered the stadium there was a player there signing autographs. She decided to have her ticket stub signed instead.

We had a great time watching the game, but we decided that baseball games are really all about the food. We didn't have peanuts and Cracker Jacks, but we did eat

1 hot dog
4 frozen lemonades
1 funnelcake
1 big pretzel
1 bucket of chicken and fries
1 bag caramel chocolate popcorn
3 sodas

It was delicious!!

The Patriots lost 5-4 but it was a pretty good game and we had some great family time. Grace even got a hug from both mascots and there was a great fireworks show after the game!!

Some action from the game! Go Patriots!

Grace joining us after her victorious hug from "Sparkee" the mascot!

Where's Jacob?? Probably off getting me some more food!

Funnel Cakes - Ya baby!!

And the fireworks!!

Hey big news!! Today is Jacob's half-birthday. Six short months from today, he will be 18!! WAHOO...

The Invasion...

On Wednesday night at about 10 pm I was watching a movie, "Lars and the Real Girl", and my mind was wandering to the Deluxe Graham cookies in the pantry and since Quintin was hungry too, I decided to go downstairs and get some food. That is when I discovered "The Invasion" - I opened the pantry cupboard and found ANTS (great big ones) crawling all over the pantry. We mobilized our little army and started unloading the pantry, washing things and killing ants. Then we realized that half the shelves in our pantry need some repair so this is what my dining room table has looked like since then while we perform the necessary maintenance:

We're almost ready to reload but guess what?? - I never got those cookies and now I can't even find them.

Verizon Wireless Classic 5K...

Tonight "Team Uberfast", which was really only the Glad family and Joe Titus (Quintin's co-worker and friend), ran the Verizon Wireless Classic 5K. This was the largest attended race that the team has run. There were approximately 4100 runners. It took more than 5 minutes for all the runners to get across the start line. I was concerned about the heat and humidity all day, but just before the race a storm rolled through and cooled everything off. It was almost perfect running weather (for the middle of summer)! But despite the weather, nobody had a great run. The crowd and the hilly conditions did not make PR times for anybody. We do not have the official results yet but will post them as soon as possible.

This was Joe's first official 5K and he chose to run with Grace. Apparently, she doesn't know about pacing and kept slowing down and speeding up which made it a little tough for Joe. So a great big thanks to Joe for keeping track of our little girl in the mob.

And where was the rest of our team?? - On vacation or working. We missed you guys!

Next race: Eatontown Labor Day 5K - the race which started this whole thing. Can Jacob defend his title??

** Edited to add our fabulous times:

Jacob - 24:14

Quintin - 25:54

William - 33:25

Joe Titus - 38:08

Grace - 38:28

Evaluation Day...

Today I had my annual PS&D (performance, support & development) phone call with my "coach" at USADA. I am happy to report that after spending more than an hour going over all my work for the last year, I meet or exceed all of USADA's expectations for me!!

We also received, after waiting a very long time, Jacob's AP Exam scores. He did okay. We had hoped for a little better.

Chemistry - 2

Calculus - 3

Computer Programming - 5

Most colleges only accept scores of 3 or above (5 being the highest possible score) so it looks like he will definitely get college credit for Computer Programming and maybe for Calculus.

So we've got that going for us...

Jacob is cool!

Just thought you should know....

Sunflowers for My Sunshine...

At last - we have succeeded in growing sunflowers!! Gracie has been attempting to grow them for the last few years and they have either died, gotten weed-whacked or been gobbled up by deer. Today our first sunflower bloomed and the best news is, we have even more ready to bloom. It is a happy day for Gracie!!

Grace took some great pictures of the progress in our garden today but blogger is being terribly slow and they are taking forever to load so another time, but we have a ton of green tomatoes, butternut squash growing and flowering, green beans ready to eat and peppers in varying stages of readiness and, oh yum, the basil, that was prepared into a delicious and oh so fresh pesto for dinner tonight. I love the smell of fresh basil!!!

Am I making you hungry yet???

Reunited...

After almost 3 weeks of being apart, the Glad Family is back together again - and we are happy (or "GLAD")!

Quintin and the boys had a great time canoeing, climbing, boating, backpacking, mountain biking, water skiing and meeting young ladies at the Hill Cumorah pageant!!

And if you have been reading this blog all week, you have seen that Gracie and I had a fabulous time too. However, we are looking forward to a week at home to regroup and start our summer routine - sleep, eat and play Rock Band (our routine according to Grace).

Anyone want to join us??

Girls Gone Wild - The Party's Over...

But we are too tired to document it. Let's just say that we shopped til we dropped today. On the way home from our shopping expedition, we made a list of all the places we've eaten this week. Here goes:

Dunkin' Donuts (more than once)
McDonald's (at least twice)
Pooja (the best Indian ever!)
China Chef (had a little dumpling craving)
The Cheesecake Factory (sort of twice)
Johnny Carino's
Junior's in NYC
A little sandwich shop in NYC
A pretzel vendor in NYC
Taco Bell
Wawa

Not to mention all the cookies, ice cream, chips & dip that we ate at home. No wonder my regular size pants were a little too tight today!!

And now it's back to cooking, cleaning and boys...

Girls Gone Wild - Day 5...

Day 5 was a repeat of Day 4 until about 2:30 pm when Kate and Talmage saved us from our monotonous existence. Grace and Tal decorated the playroom some more and then played DS together. Kate and I sat on the couch and chatted. Then we decided some retail therapy was in order and off we went to EMS to get some new Timbuk2 bags and stuff.

We then met Sharon at her pool to let the kids get wet for awhile. Kate, Sharon and I sat by the pool and chatted (there was a lot of chatting going on today)! After a couple hours of being wet, we dragged (drug??) the kids out of the pool and went to dinner at Johny Carinos where we stuffed ourselves on lots of cheesy goodness.

Sometime during all this fun, I got a call from William's scout leader saying that they were coming home early. So William is home completely sunburned, bug bitten and tired. He had a great time and didn't even break his new glasses. However, he did lose a towel and a pair of socks in the river when he capsized his canoe. His favorite part - water skiing and banana boating!!

Do you think this is how William looked while water skiing??

William is glad to be home, but Grace, on the other hand, is not happy to have her girl time shortened by a day.

Girls Gone Wild - Day 4...

We weren't really all that wild today. I woke up at about 9:30 and Grace was still sleeping. She didn't crawl out of bed until after 10:00. We ate breakfast, tried to water the garden (none of our sprinklers work right, and then went our separate ways.

Grace spent her day playing with her American Girl doll and decorating her playroom. She kept running out and asking for more tacks. Finally, I decided to check out what was going on and she had been drawing pictures and tacking them all over the walls for decoration. And since there is only drywall and no paint in that room yet, I was okay with her plan.

I spent the day getting started on a new quilt for Grace's bed. It looks like this:


We are thinking that the brown fabric will cut the pinkness of her room a little bit (think Pepto Bismol). I love the color of her room, but apparently, others aren't so fond of it!! Hey, any excuse to make a new quilt!! So far the cutting out is almost complete. Maybe tomorrow or Saturday the sewing can begin.

Later in the afternoon, we met up on my bed to watch "Grease" - the movie. I tried to stay awake, but "Hopelessly Devoted to You" put me right to sleep. Grace's dancing and singing to "Greased Lightning" woke me up though and we finished the movie together. We can't decide if we liked the movie or the Broadway play better!! Grace liked Taylor Hicks better than Frankie Avalon though.

Quintin checked in and the boys are having a great time and not getting enough sleep! We will be happy to see them on Saturday.

Girls Gone Wild - Days 1, 2 & 3...

With the boys away all week, Grace and I are having a ton of fun.

Monday:

After sleeping late and then deciding to have Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, we did a double-feature movie day at Menlo Park Mall. We saw "Wall-E", had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, shopped a little at GameStop, had an almost private viewing of "Kit Kittredge - American Girl", and finished up with another trip to The Cheesecake Factory to get some take-home dessert!

Tuesday:

Slept late again and then cleaned house a little. We were out of frozen waffles and ice cream so we had to take a little trip to the grocery store. Grace had swimming lessons in the afternoon and then Kate and Tal came over for a slumber party! We rocked out on Rock Band, ate Helluva Good dip and chips, watched "Hell's Kitchen", sent the kids to bed and relived the 80's while watching "Footloose"!

Wednesday:

Kate, Tal, Grace and I woke up early to take the train to the city. Here is a run-down of our day:

TKTS booth - we got tickets to "Grease"

"Breakfast" at Junior's (Is a black and white milkshake considered breakfast?)

Walk to the Nintendo store in Rockefeller Center - play wii

Torture Tal at the American Girl store

Visit "Top of the Rock" - see all the way to New Jersey

Play a lot in the light room

Load up on m&m's at M&M World

Go in circles to find a place to eat

Walk to the theater

Sing and dance with the "Grease" gang - yea Taylor Hicks!

Walk to the train station

Eat and drink

Ride the train home

Crash!!

Maybe tomorrow we will stay home and do nothing...

Happy "House"iversary...

Seven years ago today we moved into our house!

"It's just a house on a street in a town. It may not look special to you;
but this is the house where we lived and we loved, where we slept and we ate and
we grew."

Claire Coninger

And seriously grew - Jacob was a little boy of ten when we moved here and now he is about to start his Senior year. William was seven and will be starting high school. Both boys are taller than me now. Grace was just three years old and barely remembers life before NJ, now she is 10 and will be starting Middle school in the Fall. And Quintin and I just got older and grayer. But it has been a good seven years and we are happy!

And a little catch-up...

Thanks to everyone who sent cards, comments and emails. We have had a long emotional week, but we are moving forward.

The boys had a great week at EFY. One of them might even be in love - but I'm not telling (unless you ask nicely and give me chocolate)! Now they are all off to Scout Camp for a week and Grace and I have the house to ourselves. We have lots of fun plans that include sleeping late and eating junk food.

Stay tuned...