I Don't Understand....

The Tale of Our Apple Tree

We found out that we became watchers over a little apple tree last summer when we moved into our new house. It was awesome to know that we could have the kids favorite fruit just outside for a few months out of the year. Steve has spent many hours on learning how to prune the tree just right and how much to water it. We LOVE our little apple tree. The apples are great.

We have just one small problem. People where we live think that it is THEIR apple tree. Who cares that it is right by our house? Or maybe I just am not seeing the sign that reads: FREE apples for anyone who stops and wants some.

Maybe I am not being Christ like, but I want my apples for ME! That is right ME! I don't wanna share and when I am chasing off apple pickers who think that they are theirs it makes me MAD! Yes, MAD!! Mad as all get out!

We have maybe gotten 2 apples off our tree this year because everyone and their brother thinks that they are theirs. Tonight was a prime example. Yep saw a car parked by our tree with guys out trying to get some apples. I go out there and tell them. **Well not in a kind voice** That they should ask for the apples before they just go and take. That is the nice thing to do. They wanted to know if they could still have some and I said sure might as well. Next time please come and ask. That is the nice thing to do. Then....oh then...one of the guys says and I quote: Well I am not all that nice! I told them they can't have any apples!

I know it is silly, but man we work so hard for these things. We prune when we should. We longingly look at our tree in the winter when it looks bare. We wait for spring for the buds and then the flowers (which make our room smell so nice). Then Steve and I have a contest to see who can find the first small apples on the tree. We wait for the day we can get them to eat. I could go on and on, but you know. It is OUR apple tree!!

I wanna put a fence around the tree like this one here:

and then after that I will be putting some signs up that the local po-po told me to put up. **Yes, I did call the cops to ask what to do tonight. Poor guy on the other end, but man I am MAD about my apples that are missing! Side note: he did say...that guy said what to you? That he wasn't nice. Nope I wouldn't give him any apples either!** So tomorrow we will be putting up a NO TRESPASSING sign along with another sign just in case the idiots don't get the idea. It will read: NO PICKING THE APPLES! Just for fun I think I wanna add another sign too. It will read: YES I WILL CALL THE COPS ON YOU!

Sorry for the rant, but it's my blog and it's something I am upset about. So that was my evening. Hope it was better than mine. I know I will probably laugh about this later, but it is just something that really irks my boat!!!

End Of the Year Activities

I am going to get through all of this stuff rather quickly with a few pictures! We did have lots of things to do at the end of the school year. May is always nuts around our house! The calendar gets really full really fast.

Hang on here we go.....
My little brother graduated from UAB's Medical School!

Here is Katy with her teacher Ms. Veronica at the end of her program. Katy was Wendy in their class production of Peter Pan.

Hannah had a super fun day of playing in the dirt for a whole day. The student teachers from JSU decided that the 2nd graders would love it the most, so they came and had a fun day for all of them!

Here is the whole 2nd grade class with all the student teachers. Take out most of those light blue shirts and that is Hannah's whole grade all put together!

Hannah had her vocabulary parade. She was sick last year and didn't get to wear her costume. Her word was Blossom and she won the best use of a word as a costume award. Yea for me, since it took Steve and I a lot of thinking on how to make her into a blossom!

Here is Ruby in her class production of Cinderella. Ruby didn't want to have any big part so she chose to be a blue bird.

Well there you go. School activities all in a small nutshell. I am stil working on getting more posts together, but I know how grandma's and grandpa's love pictures.

Taylor 2.0

Since the tornados that went through Alabama, there has been many people who have given of their time and money. Taylor Swift was one of those many people who have been so generous. She let people come see her last dress rehersal before going on tour in Nashville. It was right before we were going to Utah and it would be the PERFECT birthday present for Hannah. I was able to get floor tickets while I was sitting at the doctor's office with Steve (who had gotten hurt by a tree during clean up and it's a whole post in and of itself). Steve and I decided that we were not going to tell Hannah and leave it as a suprise for her.

I got her in the car and told her we were going on a drive. Well she thought we were going to Atlanta. Well she didn't figure that out until there were signs for Nashville. I hear "Mom....That sign says Nashville! We are going the wrong way to get to Atlanta!" It was great!!! I managed to pull this gift off for her and it wasn't long before we got to Nashville. The drive wasn't that long and we were both excited.

We had dinner first and Hannah was so excited that she couldn't eat!!

This is Hannah waiting outside before we went in to eat dinner. Sign made. Fingers painted. "13" on her hand.

That was her dinner! It was so yummy!! Even the strawberry cheesecake in a glass was a small taste of heaven!

Hannah's huge piece of birthday cake for her special day!

Before we knew it, dinner was done and it was time to get into the concert and have a good time! Our floor seats were amazing! We were right there when every one was on stage. I mean like we were so close!! Hannah collected another coveted guitar pick from Taylor's aunt. We found Taylor's mom and got another picture. We met band members and dancers. The night was topped off by meeting Taylor's best friend, Abigail.

The concert was AMAZING!! I can't say how great it was because it was just great. If you have the chance to go, then GO! Maybe when we get to attend another Taylor concert, we will finally get that picture with Taylor herself!!! In all I think it was the best way to start off your 8th birthday!

The new stage!

The guitar pic

Our picture with Taylor's Mom

Hannah and Abigail

Taylor doing what she does best!

A Quilt For A Teacher

(My attempt at trying to catch up on everything for the last few months)

During the spring semester, I decided that I needed to do something really cool for Hannah's teacher at school. I was the room mom and getting some flowers or some lotion just didn't seem a right thank-you for the whole year. I had an idea one night that I would make a quilt for Ms. Phillips. Now I didn't know what I was going to do or even where to start, but one night I got an idea from seeing the kids handprint Christmas wreath that they made. **Yes I bought that one too!** This got me thinking. I wanna capture these little hands some how. Freeze them in time and make something really nice too.

Since I am at school all the time helping out it wasn't hard to nicely ask if I could get all the kids hands on paper. Trace them nicely and then write their name underneath. Little did I know what those 17 little handprints on a sheet of paper would turn into. The best part was that Ms. Phillips didn't even know what she just helped me do!

I took those hands and outlined them in sharpie marker so that I could see them through the fabric. I then decided that I would make them each into a 9x9 quilt block. I traced in pencil each hand and name (all of which were very different) and go to working on stitching each little hand and name. It would take me weeks of stitching every where I could in the middle of going to school, church, running kids to the gym, and keeping up with everything that life throws at you. I even had other quilt blocks too. One with a poem, a second grade block, and even a school house too. I didn't realize how much time it would take.

While at Wal-Mart I found a really cool school looking fabric and my quilt was starting to form. I still didn't know how all this was going to go together, but I had my main fabric and a bright school red to go along with it.

In time my blocks were done and I finally got to piece them together. I think it was looking good by this point and I was only done with the top! This secret of mine was turing out great! I even snuck in all the blocks to the class one day! I made the teacher go stand in the hall and get a potty break (since they don't get many of those during the day). The kids were great too and never said anything about this fun project of ours.

So here is how my quilt top turned out....

Finally after some really long nights and a deadline that we were leaving for Utah, I got this quilt done! It was magical! It turned out so much better than I even could have imagined. I just look at it and this creation was just from 17 sheets of paper. WOW! This will probably be my most favorite of any quilt that I will ever make.

It was done and wrapped up and waiting to be given. I told myself don't cry. I knew that Ms. Phillips would cry! and the kids were so happy. I can't wait to see it hung on the wall next year. It is now a super teacher gift from all the students with love! Now what am I gonna come up for next year??

You know I do live!

Let's just say it has been a really fun summer for this little Smith clan! We started out for Utah at high noon on the 27th of May (friday) and rolled into the Salt Lake Valley on Saturday at 6 pm. Yep. That would be driving straight through and we even managed to sleep at a rest stop in Nebraska for 3 hours too. We had a lot of rain like hours of it. I swear that the rain came with us out to the nice cool air of Utah.

The first few weeks were filled with birthdays, graduations, baptisms, baby blessings, more birthdays, and did I say birthdays?? Yeah by the time it rolled to Katy's birthday we were all so tired of cake that we did those cool ice cream cone clown things from Baskin Robin.

The kids had to get used to their new gym and they loved it!

We went lots of places while Steve found himself at work. The dollar theater, visiting friends, trips to every where and anywhere were in order. Steve even managed to learn how to drive himself a stick shift car!

We had holidays too! The 4th was spent hiking the Y. Lead by my little hiker that I never knew I had! Ruby of course!! Loved the parade at our same spot in Provo and a treat at the Cremery on 9th.

The whole time we tried to get everything Utah into our trip. Before we knew it, the six weeks we had planned were over and we were on our way home. We all cried when we had to go, but I am sure that Garrett was more than happy to get his room back!!

The trip home was fun with a few days in Sedona, AZ! Sick husband, Ripped pants and Slide Rock! Spray Painting cars in Amarillo! Eating at that awesome steak house too. Our engine that had NO oil in it by the time we got to Mempis. We finally made it home on the 12th of July!

So yep we are still here and my poor blog has been neglected all summer long. I am going to try my best to get pictures and fun things up. Our computer tried to burn up so we had to get a new one. My phone decided to not work so some pictures are gone :-( I am trying by best. Hang in there with me and we will get it done together!