Girls Camp

I spent this last week at Girls Camp. We went to the same place in Arroyo Grande as we did the last year. Arroyo Grande is about 10 min past Santa Maria. We had about 80 girls go to camp this year. I was with 2nd year girls. I had 11 girls in my cabin. The girls in my cabin were great. We were probably the group with the highest energy level. They never went to sleep before midnight. I had 4 that snored, one that mumbled in her sleep, and the girl in the bunk above me would sit up and talk in her sleep. They kept the cabin pretty clean and no one argued. I was very thankful that they didn't argue with each other.
The theme for the cabins was "Board Games" my cabin was Twister. My youth leaders did an awesome job with decorating. The youth leaders impressed me with all the nice pillow gifts and scripture devotionals they had each night in our cabin. They truly cared for the girls in our cabin and made each girl feel special.
This year we had lots of crafts, archery,water aerobics, morning runs at 6:00 am,
polar bear swim in the ocean at 6:00 am, kayaks, and tubing at the lake. I was in charge of arranging boats from our stake to come and take the girls on the lake. This was a challenge. In fact I had a boat back out on me the day before we left. I also had a few issues that happened with shuttling girls to the lake on the last day. I hope the leaders can work it all out so that I can have boats again next year. The girls really enjoyed tubing at the lake. Even though we had a couple of snags on the last day, it was a good week at girls camp.

Demolition of the skateboard ramp

Jake and Eddie decided it was time to change the skate ramp in the back yard. In order to do that the existing ramp had to go. Here are a couple of clips from demolition day.


These are just the high lights! It took a lot of muscle power to break the ramp apart and haul it away. I'm just really glad I was at work when all this was going on. Jake has designed the ramp that will going in next. It will have steps to jump over and a rail for him to slide across, plus other things...
I have been spending a lot of time in the backyard with Lucee, and I've been thinking that it would be nice to have a pool or even a lawn. But its fun to have the skate ramp for Jake and his friends. For everything there is a season, and this is the season for skate ramps.

The admit your house is dirty tag

This tag comes from Bethany and Tiffany. It will give you a warped sense of me and my house. But thats what makes blogging so entertaining, right?

1. Favorite Place

My favorite place is probably my home. This is the only picture I could find that showed my house from outside. It happens to be Morgan's senior prom. But you can see the house pretty good. I like being home. I would also have to say my favorite place is wherever my family is. We love going places and experiencing new things. We love Mammoth, Lake Nacimiento, and anywhere we have to get on a plane to go :)


This is a picture of the upstairs family room after opening Christmas presents. Jake and Morgan are enjoying their new laptops.

2. Self Portrait



This is me sitting in front of my computer.

3. What are your kids doing right now
Last night when I took these pictures they were both on their laptops in their bedrooms. But this morning, Jake is sleeping and Morgan just left for her class at the college. She is taking a physical science class.



4. Favorite Shoes



I wore 2 different shoes. I love my flip flops wear them all the time. But I also like these sandals cause they are just a little nicer and still feel like a flip flop.

5. What does the inside of your fridge look like





Pretty typical, no science experiments growing on anything.

6. My favorite room in my house




I picked this as my favorite room because its the cleanest in the house right now. The fact that we just had the tile done makes me like it too. Also, not everything is even back in the room, so it makes it look big and clean. I'm really happy with the tile and the way it brightens the room and it looks more finished then the painted concrete. With the painted concrete I felt like it always looked unfinished and kind of dingy.

7. The kitchen sink


My kitchen sink was looking pretty clean right after Sunday dinner. So I started to take my pictures after our Fathers Day dinner. I try to do dishes right after dinner so I don't procrastinate, but this next picture is like 20 min later. We had dessert.



8. Second bathroom



This is the down stairs bathroom. Its primarily Jake's bathroom since his bedroom is down stairs. If you are wondering what is in the shower, its Eddie's wetsuit.

9. Master bedroom closet


No walk in closets here at my house :( I hope you all feel sad for me!
This is the way I like my closet to look (doors shut) but I know you want to see how much I can cram into such a small space.



10. Laundry room
I admit I have been doing laundry all weekend and so there is not much in here right now. And I put some things away that were on top of the dryer.


This room is really small. The laundry room is at the back of the front entry way. So I have to make sure the door is always shut. Who wants to see dirty laundry every time you come home?

As you can see I have some organizing and de cluttering to do. At least it didn't ask to see the desk where the computer is...

If you're brave do this tag! I dare you! (Not you Morgan I'm not brave enough for that) haha
No cleaning just go take your pictures.

Changing things down stairs

When we moved into this house 4 years ago (time flies) we took out the ugly dated CHEAP carpet and did painted concrete. "Everybody" said this was quite the in look and that it would be great, blah blah blah...
I liked it at first, but within weeks the paint was wearing off, it wasn't horrible but it wasn't what we had hoped it would look like. We decided to tile the room. As these type of projects seem to go, it took awhile to get the tile guy here. We tried to do it before we got Lucee but it didn't happen. So this Thursday the tile guy shows up ready to get to work. Eddie said he saw that the guy had called but he never called him back, so we were caught off guard. We cleared the room in about 30 min. Most of our furniture went into the backyard! The large TV went into the entry hall. Please note that to get into the backyard it is most convenient to go through the downstairs family room. Hmmm puppy potty training took a detour to the front yard courtyard. The floor turned out great. the room is a lot brighter and looks finished. The tile guy will be coming back to do the entry hall and laundry room in the next couple of weeks. We are doing the same tile throughout the down stairs.

I Love Lucee

Lucee is the latest addition to the Asdel family chaos. Lucee is 9 week old red fox lab. We picked her up last Sunday and have had her for a week. And boy it has been an active crazy week with our new puppy. Its a lot like having an active toddler. We are all getting potty trained and doing very well at recognizing Lucee's cues. Eddie erected a large kennel in our backyard and she has a playpen in the living room. We are crate training her for bedtime and eating. Duncan (the red cat) has been very curious about the new puppy. Finn (the grey cat) would rather not be bothered and spends most of his time upstairs. Lucee seems to have a great personality and is adjusting to life at our house quite well. She is a puppy though and chewing on everything. She has already acquired a nick name for her alter ego that sneaks out at least once or twice a day, "Lucifer". She goes absolutely crazy at about 4 or 5 in the evening. Running around circles in the backyard ready to strike at any fleshy part of the body she can. Yesterday evening was the best. Eddie was in the backyard with her and she was running around doing burnouts in the dirt, ears tucked back, eyes bulging, full speed ahead. Then she spotted Eddie who was barefoot and in shorts (lots of flesh) Lucee was coming fast so Eddie ran into her kennel and closed the gate to keep her out. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. We are excited to have a new puppy, she is a great little dog.

NO SPARE!

I was just starting to doze off on our trip home from the lake. We were about 20 minutes from home, and we had a blow out on the boat trailer. Eddie pulled off at the next off ramp and assessed the damage, I called AAA. THREE hours later our boat was being towed back to Ventura on a large tow truck. If we would have had a spare we only would have been down an hour. We've been boating for ten years and this was a first. Eddie said he got a premonition that we were going to have a flat tire that morning. Thank goodness for AAA our towing only cost $75 out of pocket, but we have some damage to repair on the trailer. The off ramp we were on was in Montecito (Santa Barbara), the people in this area were very nice. Several people stopped and asked if we needed to use a cell phone or if they could help. One lady came out of her house and offered us water bottles. We had a cooler full of drinks and snacks so we were OK. Jake and Kevin rode their skateboards down to the end of the street checked out the beach. If we had to break down... it was a good spot.

Lake Trip

Thursday night around 10:30 pm we left for the Lake to get a jump on Summer fun. Eddie, Jake, Kevin and myself were ready to ride! We got to the house we were staying at at 2:00 am. Needless to say we didn't get up early for a morning run. We finally got out on the lake around noon. After dropping the boat and having to pull it out again because we thought we had a dead battery. Eddie was able to get the boat running in about 30 min, it was a loose wire. We took off to find rideable water.
All four of us had good water and lots of fun wake boarding. Eddie claimed it was the best 1st run of the summer he has ever had ( And thats a huge accomplishment)
Jake and Kevin wake surfed too. The weather was sunny and probably close to 80 as the high and the lows were in the 50s. kinda cool if you ask me. The water was 68. I know that sounds warm but I'm used to the water being 80. Eddie brought a wetsuit and I wore it when I rode. I probably looked really stupid but I hate being cold.
In the evenings we drove into town and Jake and Kevin were able to skate at the local skate park.