Is this why pesticides are bad?

I busted open a box of strawberries last night to eat with my favorite fruit dip of all time and I found this:

That is one strawberry. It was huge! It looked like five or six different strawberries all grew together into one large lump. I knew the photo of it by itself wouldn't do it justice, so I made Anton pose with it.

It was at least a 4 biter. He actually didn't eat it. I did. It still tasted quite yummy, but should I be concerned? If I ever decide to have more children will they come out with 5 heads? 3 legs? a really large, lumpy rumpus? Good thing I'm not having any more!

ETA: Strawberry Fruit Dip

1 8 oz. package strawberry cream cheese
1 7 oz. container marshmallow fluff
1-2 tsp lemon and/or lime juice

Mix all the ingredients together and enjoy with fruit!

Life Changes

So we still haven't heard anything from the Navy. So no news on that front. However, we did hear from BYU. And sad to say, they have denied Anton. And before you all go asking why, which seems to be the first thing everyone asks, we don't know. Schools don't tend to go around telling people, "Sorry, but you just weren't smart enough." Or, "What were you thinking applying here? You didn't really think you were good enough, did you?" But we know they were really just overwhelmed but all of Anton's super smartness and amazing extracurriculars. Oh well. Their loss.

But where did that leave us? Without a plan, that's where. So we had to go back to the drawing board. You see, BYU is the only school that has the particular program Anton wanted to do. So instead of trying to find a similar program we decided to go for something entirely new.

So here is the newest plan. As soon as the Navy decides to let us go, we will most likely be moving to Washington, state that is. Anton will be attending a Community College up there and will study air traffic control. He will be able to finish in a year and then get hired on by the FAA. He's pretty much guaranteed a job, since the school is an FAA approved school.

So that's it. The plan. I'm sure it'll probably change again next week, but for now we really like it. Now we just really, really, really, really want the Navy to just let us go. If things go according to the proper schedule (which they haven't up to this point, so really, what are the chances) we should be getting his paper work within a couple weeks. Anton would like to start school in June, so we'll see.

As for me, I'm pretty much done with my scoping class. I just have the final test to take. I've got my website almost finished and business cards, and fliers, and brochures almost ready to go. I've been a busy girl. I am so ready to just start working and earning back all the money I've put into it thus far. So if any of you know any court reporters that are looking for some help, let me know!

All in a Day's Play

The other day Anton wanted to go camping, but I convinced him that the low 40's were not camping appropriate temperatures. Though, I appeased him by letting us all go hiking the next day. We went and hiked on the same trail we went on when we saw all the nasty spiders. Thankfully it is not spider season right now, so we were able to hike free from heebee jeebees.

It was a beautiful day for a hike. The kids were being troopers. Alex hiked about half of the time and rode on daddy's shoulders the other half.

The trail goes through a swampy area and along the river. You can see the river here:

I was seriously concerned that my kids were going to fall in the river. They can't seem to walk in straight lines and they always manage to veer towards the edge. I did manage to keep them dry, though.

Sadly, our hike was cut short. We got about a third of the way around the loop and came upon this:

That would be a body of water where the trail is supposed to be. We decided not to turn this hike into a river walk. We turned around and headed back the way we came.

Ella came upon a tree in the middle of the trail and thought it looked like a good climbing tree. She strained and groaned and grunted and just couldn't manage to get a single inch up that tree.

She was trying so hard and was so sad when she realized it just wasn't happening. Poor thing.

But we made up for it by letting them play in the sand on the beach for a bit.

I think it looks like snow since we are all wearing pants and coats, but I promise, it's sand. Ella was really miffed when we told her it was time to go. She put her hands on her hips and said,

"But I want to stay on the beach!"

Punk.

We dragged her out of there. We did start out on another trail but about 100 feet down it Ella declared her need to pee. So I go to rush her back to the card to try and find a restroom while Anton and Alex did that hike. I was going to introduce her to the joys of peeing in the woods, but she wouldn't hear of it. What a priss.

Everyone had had enough by then so we headed home. We passed by an art festival along the way and decided to stop. We wandered around looking at all the cool crafty stuff, and I pigged out on a plate full of Polynesian food. Yum.

Later that night we went out and did something too, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was now. Oh well. But it was a fun, full, tiring day.

Time Travel

This post is for all of you who have whined about me not posting photos. So here you go. Photos.

Yesterday we went to a Renaissance Festival. Now, this Rennaisance Festival could not quite live up to the really cool one in Maryland, but it was entertainment for a day. And what would entertainment be without a bounce house? Yes, I'm going to bore you again with more bounce house photos, but only one this time. I promise.

It was free so we couldn't not let the kids play. Most of the time there were too many big kids in it, but Alex got a turn here and there.

There were all sorts of cool things to see. There was a blacksmith demonstrating his skills, and he made us a little metal gnome head. Here's Anton showing it to Ella:

See that big silver dot on Anton's sleeve? That's how they kept track of people coming and going to the fair. Very high tech.

They had a whole bunch of different birds there. Lots of falcons, and a few owls. This one here is a barn owl:

We didn't stay late enough to see any of the falconry shows. But we did stay long enough to see some jousting. The kids were really excited to see the really big horses:

Those guys must have been roasting in their armor.

They were doing full-contact jousting, which means no one was faking it. You could tell these guys were really taking a pounding. The guy on the left in this shot was totally thrown from his horse in the next pass.

He didn't move for quite some time. Can't have felt good.

The kids were pretty bored by that time, and Anton was having a hard time keeping Alex contained:

So we headed home. It was pretty fun, though I did keep thinking, What I wouldn't give to be back in Maryland right now. For those who have been to that one, you know what I'm talking about. And if you live in Maryland and haven't gone to it, I highly suggest it.

And I'll leave you with on last picture:

You know I couldn't resist.

Sushi Sadness

There is a sushi place in town that has had half-price Wednesdays and Thursdays. Every week I have to resist the urge to go there and pig out like a mad woman. Well, yesterday we had no food in the house, and instead of going to the grocery store, we decided to go out to eat. I was so excited to eat all that half-priced sushi.

We get to the restaurant, sit down, and the waitress come over to get our drink order. I kindly say, "It appears as though we didn't get the menu with the specials on it. Could we get that, please?" Then I was informed they no long have their specials.

What!!

So now what were we supposed to do? We were already seated and she was getting our drinks. This place is not that cheap without the specials. I was so sad but too chicken to get up and walk out. So we ordered 2 over-priced sushi rolls and then a whole lot of appetizers. It was all good, but it was such a bummer to not get to stuff my face with roll after roll of sushi.

We need to move back to Monterey where the Benihanas had sushi happy hour once a week with half-price sushi. So good.

After our sushi disappointment we took the kids bowling. We went to a bowling alley we hadn't been to before, and it was the cleanest one I have ever seen. It must have been fairly new. They had the bumper that pop up only on the kids turn, which is nice. Ella bowled almost as well as me. Though I did have Alex helping me. We only played one game then let the kids wander at will in the arcade. I love that they haven't yet figured out that they aren't really playing the game when we haven't put money in.

We dragged them out of there in time to come home and watch Idol. We are sadly obsessed. I think the girls did terribly last night. I think David Archuletta is going to win. I'm sure I spelled his name wrong and I'm too lazy to look it up.

But that's about it. No pictures again. I think Anton took a bunch yesterday, but I haven't put them on the computer. Deal with it.

I'm a dork.

So today I spent so much time on the computer scrolling through all sorts of text which I was reading that I actually got motion sick. Can you believe that? Motion sick because of the computer? I feel like such a dork. Then right after I started feeling sick we hopped in the car to go for a drive. Not the best idea. I spent a lot of the time covering my eyes and doing some deep breathing. Ugh.

It also doesn't help that all of us except Ella are sick. Nasty hacking coughs. I'm going to try and take Alex to the doctor tomorrow because he's been coughing for 2 weeks now and not getting better. I hope he doesn't have strep.

Otherwise, things are a big punctuation and grammar blur. That's all I've been doing, studying, studying, studying. I haven't taken a single picture in weeks. And when I'm not studying I'm trying to spend more time with Ella and Alex to make up for all the studying. So you will all have to forgive me for being such an absentee blogger. Hopefully it will all settle down once I finish my class and start working. Which, by the way, I still don't have a name for my business. My sister thinks "The Scopinator" is perfect, but I think it might be a little cavalier. Oh well. I don't have to have a name to work.

But enough rambling. Off to make myself even more sick!

Help me name my business!

So it does no good to be in the scoping business if my business doesn't have a name! But I can't think of anything good. I need your help! I was going to make it a contest, but I have nothing cool to give away. So you're just going to have to do this out of the kindness of your hearts and your desire to help me.

So here we go. I want the name to reflect the qualities that court reporters look for when hiring a scopist; namely, accuracy, excellent knowledge of grammar and punctuation, attention to detail, quick turn-around, etc. (How was that for a nicely punctuated, fancy grammatical sentence?) However, there are already a lot of businesses out there with names like: Precision Scoping, Professional Scoping Services, and so on. All the names sound the same. I want my name to stand out from the crowd. I don't want it to have my name in it. Who would want my mouth-full of a name in any business title? So do you think you guys can help me out? Think memorable yet professional. I'm pulling a blank. I've been studying too much punctuation. It flows out of my ears. If you don't know what a scopist is you can read about it in my last post. And if any of you know of a court reporter looking for some help feel free to send them my way! Thanks!