They're Back!

During the fall, we start to see these strange critters in our front hall. . . . I call them the "Turf Fleas"! Since the field at Saratoga High was changed to an artificial turf, these little black "thingies" started to arrive. They invade the house for a few months and then they are gone. As marching band or color guard children start practicing on the field, about mid-August, they seem to multiply through the weeks! Marching season is over the weekend before Thanksgiving. Just when you sweep them up~~they're back before you know it.

This year is Jonathan's turn to help the "fleas" invade the house. Especially, when he dumps his shoes right in the front hall.

After a long day on the field, which can be up to 10 hours on a non-competition

day, the shoes coming off are such a relief to the feet!

Those little black "thingies" spread all over the floor, including the

passenger seat floor in the car.

These little black pieces of recycled rubber stick to the socks, trail to the bathroom before a shower, track into the kitchen, and they remind me of Easter grass! If you know what I mean. . .

Thank goodness they are not real "fleas"! If real, this many would be a real mess. . .

Welcome Home Scott!

This is just a small post to say "Welcome Home Scott"! Scott had been gone for 5 weeks and is so good to have him home again! His ventures in China are going well, and he will be going back in October.

Water Bottle Crystals

Yesterday, Jonathan took out a water bottle that he had filled, and put in the fridge a few days ago to chill. It had been sitting in the same place all that time. When he opened the bottle for a drink, he looked inside and found these super crystals!

There are so many beautiful and awesome things in this world!

Sweet Sushi!

On a day at the beginning of August, we came home from going out to dinner with my dad and found this tray of sushi on our doorstep! At a closer look, we discovered the sushi was made out of rice crispy treats, Swedish fish, pop-rocks, and sour apple strips. Aren't they fun? We had to really chuckle when we turned over the "wasabi", and saw that it was a green, marshmallow Shrek! Very clever.

The tray of "sweet sushi" was a gift from the other Wheelwright's in the area. Greg and Judy Wheelwright were in a serious accident middle of June and Scott made many visits and helped with moving apartments.

The sushi was so cute, we didn't want to eat it! But when we did, it was very tasty!

Marching Band Informance!

Last night, we attended the Saratoga High School Marching Band Informance. Jonathan is in the band this year as a freshman and playing the baritone. He gets to wear these cool, black, grippy gloves when he plays. The baritone is a marching version and so his own euphonium is sitting at home for now until concert season.

Jonathan has been attending band camp for two weeks and his days were long! They started at 9:00am and ended at 9:00pm. They would have lunch around 12:30 and dinner at 5:00. They had really nice weather this year! Usually it can be really hot at 95-103 degrees! Most days it was 80-85 degrees. He did have three pretty hot days. The kids drank tons of water!

Since the event was at 7:30 in the evening, the lighting wasn't that great for taking photos with a point and shoot camera. . . . But I think you can find him in these photos. He is wearing brown shorts, and a black polo, like everyone else.

I took a couple of videos with my point and shoot last night, and I am trying to get them to post. However, the videos are taking forever to load for some reason. So, I thought I would just put up some stills with Jonathan for now and will work on the videos.

Sarah's Wedding Buffet Treats

Sarah made treats for a wedding reception that was held last night. She spent the entire week preparing for this dessert buffet table. It was delicious! The items she prepared were chocolate cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, dipped truffles, and sugar cookies with marshmallow fondant. Everything had to be made in "bulk"! We couldn't find the vary large stainless steel bowls, so Sarah got out the canning kettle to mix her batter. It worked pretty well though.

Using the canning kettle. . . .

At this point, it looks like oatmeal. But in reality, they were delicious vanilla cupcakes.

Dipping 220 truffles.

Drizzled with tinted white chocolate.

Clouds, one of my favorite things

Another thing Ii really enjoyed on my trip home from Utah was the clouds. I stopped to take photos of some of the most fabulous clouds. Utah and Nevada have really beautiful clouds. Some of my favorite things besides clouds are hummingbirds, rainbows, butterflies and flowers.