Ed's Birthday

We had a little early birthday party for Ed Sunday. The cake was supposed to look like his dog, George. It was jello cake with Cool Whip frosting. The eyes and nose are cookies and the tongue is fruit leather. Ed's such a fun kid and always has a mischevious smile. He goes full speed into life and that's why we call him "bulldozer". He'll be 2 in a few days and is learning lots of new words. Sunday he was singing "E I E I O, cha, cha cha...all day. We love him lots!

Carolynn's Patio Enclosure

David and I spent last week in Galt building a patio enclosure for Carolynn, David's niece. Well, it was actually David and his nephew, Barry who did the construction. Barry's wife, Lee,and I helped with caulking and insulation at the end of the week. We spent the rest of the time shopping, exploring Sacramento and getting ready for Carolynn's surprise birthday. (More on that later in my post!) Carolynn has a great house and a beautiful yard, but wanted a little more space, so she asked Barry and David to convert part of the existing patio into a sun room/office. Here's a couple of BEFORE pictures: (The pictures were taken with cell phone camera's since we ALL forgot our good camera's.)


This is how it looked with walls, windows and door installed. See how busy David and Barry were. They didn't even turn around to pose for a picture.

David shot Barry through the wall with a nail gun on Thursday.

In this picture it looks like Barry's trying to retaliate with a drill.

Here's Carolynn helping with caulking:

Barbara, Barry and Lee are posing in front of the freshly installed insulation:

There was not enough time to complete the project, but it is far enough along that Carolynn can just call in sheet rock and tile crews to get it finished.
SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY
Wednesday was Carolynn's birthday. She had told several family members that she wanted to ride in a limo before she died, so Barry arranged to surprise her with a limo ride and dinner out to a VERY NICE restaurant for her birthday. All of us were housed at Barbara's in Sacramento, so while Carolynn was teaching school during the days we were shopping and preparing for the big party. On Tuesday we spent 5 hours at the Galt Flea Market. Becky and Larry flew in Tuesday night as a surprise to help Carolynn celebrate. So, Larry joined the construction crew and Becky joined Barbara, Lee and I to explore Old Sacramento. We found some great birthday gifts there and hurried on to finish gathering things for the party. We got See's chocolates, a bouquet of flowers to give her in the limo, balloons, and picked up the cake for after dinner. This is the table, all decorated. Carolynn loves gardening, so we used that theme for her table flowers and balloons:

We thought she would enjoy these Gerber daisies to plant in her yard:

Larry told Carolynn we were taking her out for pizza, so she was quite surprised when the limo pulled up and drove to Lodi to Wine and Roses, a beautiful restaurant by a winery. Sparkling cider was served by the limo driver before leaving and we enjoyed a wonderful pianist while waiting for our table. The waiters and food at the restaurant were the best! We all tried something different, and "shared". David' s calamari salad was a big hit, but everything was excellent. After dinner, we headed home for dessert and good conversation.

David and I got home Friday morning and Lee and Barry made it to Bakersfield in time for dinner and a movie (Indiana Jones) Friday night. On Saturday, the Delgados joined us for breakfast and then the guys went shooting (not nail guns). Afterwards David and Barry went on errands involving The Mustang, power washers, tire fixing, seeing the new Harbor Freight store and other stuff. Barry and Lee headed back to Escondido Saturday afternoon as David went to work. Thanks so much to everyone for a wonderful week!

Produce Inspection

I asked David to join me for a look at some troublesome sprinklers yesterday and afterward we wandered out back for a produce inspection.

The garden is doing nicely so far and I picked a few sugar snap peas. I ignored the radishes, since we have far too many for me to use, as usual. The crookneck and zucchini are not quite ready, nor the romaine lettuce. The beans are flowering, the cucumbers plants are still small. The tomato plants and onions look great, and the corn is coming along.

These are our "Mother's Day" peaches.

We picked a bucket to share with David's mom.I absolutely LOVE the blossoms on pomegranates.

These we grew from cuttings off our friend Tom's bushes. They are two years old. We started some "Utah" pomegranates from cuttings given to us by the Waites this year.

The cherries attracted the rowdy grand kids last year, who tried to harvest them with croquet mallets. This year they are tall enough to reach, even Ed and Jared. I couldn't resist either.

We left these artichokes on to grow some more, and instead I prepared some that Leo had brought us for dinner. I put 1/4 cup water in a bowl and placed the artichoke upside down in it. Then I covered it with plastic wrap and cooked it for 9 minutes in the microwave. I usually cook 7 minutes, but the ones he brought were really big, so it took 9 minutes. Leo gave us a whole box full that we shared with everyone on Mother's Day. The shippers had given them to the railroad workers. Thanks, Leo. They are delicious! I had mine dipped in melted butter with a little lime added and David had his with mayo. We added some baked salmon and shared this cute cake Lindsey had brought on Mother's Day for dessert: (She brought one for ALL the ladies.)

Lindsey's ward made these for a girl's camp

fund raiser and made $1200.00!

Here's David waiting for his artichoke to cook.

Mother's Day

We found some blue paint under Levi's fingernails while loading him up in his car seat last night. If you want to know why, look below to see what I got for Mother's Day. It would have been much easier for Jocelyn and Karrie to drop by with the kids in tow and say, "Hi, Happy Mother's Day." But, only a grandma can truly appreciate what it takes to haul a bunch of kids to the craft store, after inquiring what they want to make for grandma, and indulging their creative whim to sculpture and paint masterpieces. I don't know how they managed to get all those little hands to cooperate. I could barely get a partial, smeared footprint when mine were babies. And Karrie, How did you manage FOUR colors? Anyway I truly love my tremendously crafty, creative, imaginative grand kids.

Grandma by Nathan, Red Heart by Spencer,

and Grandma's name by Jared (with help from Nathan).

Refrigerator art by Nathan, Spencer, Jared & Levi

Ceramic Tile art by Kacy, Will, Ed, & Jessie

Thank you to everyone who came to make yesterday special. In addition to the grand kids, we enjoyed the company of Jocelyn, Oscar, Karrie, Gaye, Jimmy, David, Lindsey, Vickie, Leo, Mariah, Sarah, John, Becky, Nina, Ellen, Yvette, Anita, Randy and Gary. We ate, we talked about American Idol and who talked in church, and who's the new Gospel Doctrine teacher, and what the moms got at church, examined babies and made them smile, fixed computer problems, kept kids out of trouble (mostly), talked on the phone to family far away, noticed Ed's haircut, discussed Jimmy's beard, found out what Yvette's boys are up to, picked some cherries off the tree, distributed artichokes...you know, all the stuff families do on Mother's Day.

Sunday Celebration

Here's a multi-tasking mother holding the baby and blowing out her birthday candle at the same time before the cream melted. Jocelyn ordered barbecued ribs, "funeral" potatoes and strawberry shortcake for her 28th birthday dinner. We were happy to comply, since she is such a terrific daughter. Plus, we like that stuff, too.
Our day began with a ride up Kern Canyon to visit Kern Vally Ward for Jessie's blessing (see Karrie's blog). It was great to all be together in church and I always like to see Ryan use the priesthood. Jessie is now officially named on the records of the church. She is such a SWEETIE!
After we arrived home, I drove west to pick up my mom to join us for dinner. I had all the food ready and the table set and I left David in charge. Here's what I found upon returning:

I leaned in and called him a slacker, but he redeemed himself by saying Karrie, Ryan and kids would be arriving later. So, I put all the food on hold and took a few pictures of the calm before the storm:

Grandma J took the opportunity to hold Levi.
It's a good thing I took a few pictures then, because after everyone arrived I was busy making sure everyone was fed and no one got in too much trouble. Today every thing is back to normal, but Papa David wants to know if anyone out there knows where the memory chips he left on the computer table yesterday are located. And Karrie, you left George' s ribs, so I put them in the freezer. And Barry, your's are in the freezer too, but if it takes you too long to come for them, I can't guarantee they'll still be there. And, Brandon and Lenna, I was thinking it's about time you came for another visit, so we have an excuse to barbecue again. We'll be calling. And Clement Clan, how's sometime the middle of June when you're all here? But we'll have to do it without David, 'cause he'll be fishing in Alaska. Let's pick a date so Ryan can be off.

Oh, I took this picture of Karrie's garden area all ready to plant after it is "decritterized". I'm sure she'll have more to say about that.

Mustang Tune-up and Dismantle

Barry came to town Thursday to stay for a few days while Lee is visiting her new grand baby in Korea. He and David have been working on Barry's Mustang, which he brought along for the ride. (Actually THAT was the reason for the trip.) The first day they tuned it up:

Then, they listened to it. Still didn't sound right.
So, they dismantled the engine.

They decided there's not enough time on this trip to complete the overhaul, so they stowed it in Bunting's Mustang corral.

Now Barry has more time to dream

about all the cool stuff he can do to it.

Current project: Barbecue ribs for Jocelyn's birthday celebration tomorrow. Ribs are one of her favorite foods. The grill is heating as I type. David says this is the first time he's cooked ribs without a schedule to meet. We are cooking today and re-heating tomorrow. It's actually a double celebration, since Ryan is blessing Jessie tomorrow at church.