Devanie.com

Pictures from the family picnic with Aunt Mel while her family was visiting us.

10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TRIP!!

FUN FUN FUN.

A GREAT BIG THANKS to Karen and Suzie for watching the kids! We owe you some!

Nathan and I stole away for 1 night. After the trip my cheeks hurt from smiling from ear to ear so often! It was THAT nice!

We went to The Blue Boar Inn in Midway/Heber/Park City UT

We left the house at 4:30 PM Ran to taco bell for a quick in the car dinner and headed the 1 hr 15 min to our destination. Along the drive I read poems by William Morris and I saved our marriage

You see. . .The Blue Boar Inn is a Bed N Breakfast that has 14 rooms themed to different poets. Ie, Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare, Dickens and so forth.

We checked in and were very nicely greeted and helped to our room. They had a cheese/cracker and grape platter prepared for our arrival, along with fresh flowers. We sat on the chairs and talked for a bit We tried to use Tammy’s “get to know you” questions they were fun for a bit, but not quite as romantic as we needed =) Questions like, Where do you go with your mother? What do you think about Family reunions, we wanted to see the place so we took a walk.

We walked to the Library to see if there were any books to read or movies we could watch. All the movies seemed old and pretty boring so we kept on walking. With the camera in hand. We headed down the hall, to the pretty foyer and out the front door, we walked down the street past the fishing pond to the golf course and picked flowers along the way. On the way back we sat in the gazebo and talked for a bit and toured the back yard of the Inn. We walked around “Der Hinterhof” and took pictures. later we checked out the tiny gift shop and the bar area.

When we got back to the room they had performed out “turn down service” They left big white bath robes, chocolates, a rose and a book of poetry on the bed, turned on some really nice music for ambiance, and Nathan turned on the fireplace. My friend Tammy let us borrow her Questions Jar and she gave us a gift. It was some Bubbly Cider and a bunch of chocolate candy – It was absolutely perfect for the occasion! Thanks a ton!. . .(Don’t let me forget to post about the Surprise Baby Shower we threw for her!)

The next Morning – This morning we woke up and got ready to go on our Helicopter tour!!!!

As we walked out of the room there was a nice big basket of pastries, fruit and a bottle of Sparkling Apple/Pear cider with glass flutes that had the Blue Boar Inn logo etched on them.(a gift for us to keep) It was such a quaint little place, and thought we didn’t eat the 5* dinner there or rent a motor scooter, we sure did enjoy every thing about it!

We arrived at the Airport for the Helicopter tour. It’s an airport you could VERY easy spot a movie star or CEO!

The Helicopter Pilot, Dave had just dropped off one of his groups and had us hop in while it was on it’s “dolly” Wood flat with wheels, ready to be transported to the side of the landing pad. He hopped in the riding lawn mower in front of us as we sat in the helicopter and he gave us a ride on the dolly with a helicopter on it being pulled by a little green riding lawn ,mower. it was pretty funny. I videotaped the whole 1/2 hour adventure, however we had headsets on so we could hear the pilot, so I wasn’t able to talk you through the tour- if you ever see the video.

We flew over Heber Valley, Sundance Film Festival, Provo Canyon, the Nu Skin owners house(he’s got a mannequin with a gun on the roof), Robert Redford’s house(he was driving away in his car(we think)), The Heber Creeper Train Track, Mount Timpanogos, The SLC Winter Olympic Cross country ski courses, Snow mobile trails, a reservoir in the mountains caused by the Provo river, and it was SOOO cool to be able to see it from a height that wasn’t so high everything is too small to decipher.(plus I could ZOOM in with the camcorder)

I had the option of choosing a hot air balloon ride or helicopter and I’m VERY pleased with the outcome, and we weren’t completely subject to the winds =) Which made Nathan a lot more comfortable.

We went back to the Blue Boar Inn to return the basket, have our real complimentary breakfast and check out. We sat outside on the wrap around porch and sipped Orange juice and talked and smiled for a long time. The Inn Keeper even walked around visiting with the guests and introduced himself to us. It was just sooo nice.

We headed out of the town toward Park City and swooped in and out of Park City because we decided to head over to the local amusement park to ride some rides without the kids. we got in at 11:30 or so and rode 4 rides. It was pretty hot, so we lefts, grabbed a drink headed to sonic to get a Coconut cream pie shake for me and to 7-11 for gas, to pick up milk and grab a orange cream/pina colada Slurpee for Nathan. we got home at 2:00 I I don’t think Suzie has ever been more relieved =) she had all 8 kids in their clothes eating lunch and minding their manners pretty well. The house was in pretty good order and it seemed like the kids had a lot of fun. We will have to trade and do that all a LOT more often!

THE BIGGEST LOSER STARTED! The challenge has been posted! So get in there and find out what it is so you can join in! HURRY! There are ton’s of great new rules/functions to the site and NO ONE will be eliminated until the 9th week.

You have to join me in our weight loss competition.

http://bigloser.devanie.com

or link on the left from http://www.Devanie.com

Winner gets to dig in their closet and wear skinny clothes again!

and $50 to. . .to be determined at a later date – Target possibly Walmart. or Olive Garden – Or restaurant of their choice?? Hum m mI’m thinking we will pool together $5 from each participant to go into the pot so it’s fair. (If there happens to be extra the prize pool may be GREATER than $50 or I can pay Nathan for building the AWESOME site.)

Each member should acquire a Jump Rope for the Jump Rope Challenge and a Pedometer for the Steps challenge. (There are some pretty good ones at The Dollar Tree Stores) Let me know if you need me to ship one to you.

Register as a New User

Log in with The Doctor

Winners of the Weekly Challenges are awarded IMMUNITY from being eliminated!!

AND. . . they get to apply 1 POUND to anyone else in the competition!!

If you forget to enter your weight or have someone else use your name and password to do it for you (if you are unable) YOU WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE ELIMINATED.

Competition is based on total %Percent% of each persons own body weight that is lost, the person losing the biggest percent of their own weight will be the winner. Meaning – Just because you lost 5 ponds and I lost 5 pounds doesn’t mean we tied. If I was fatter to start with then YOU WIN!

Read up on the site there is soo much COOL stuff that Nathan built into it. Invite anyone you know that may want to join.

$5 can be sent to this email address through http://www.paypal.com
devanie@stout.org for the $5 Sign up – incentive to get it back by being the WINNER!!!

If you cannot afford it don’t even worry about it! We are just trying to make a good reward for the winner!

You can also mail a check/Concealed Cash to me.

It’s a 12 week/3 month competition. Don’t miss out by not signing up in time! The participants last year had so much fun being competitive!

We went to a picnic last night with a bunch of Nathans family. The kids all had fun in the water, We made some plans for the week. Aunt Melanie and Uncle Jorge are in town and we are going to get together today too.

I was able to get some pictures of Zach and Christian whom are about a month apart playing with cups in the water. The both got soaked but sure had a lot of fun.

We enjoyed a little meal and had strawberry cheesecake minis that we brought for desert. We also piled the 3 babies on Aunt Kathy and took a picture.

On Thursday we will get Aurora, Ethan and Isabell together for a super cute picture at Kathys studio.

Today we are going to visit and Airplane museum which may or may not be any fun. we will see. . . .

Then we will try to have a Movie Party with them I figure Finding Nemo is as close as we will be able to get to a movie party with all the tiny tots around.

From an Email I recieved. I thought I’d pass it on since it seems like one worth passing on =)

New Gas Tips

I don’t know what you guys are paying for gasoline…. Here in California we are also paying higher to $3.50 per gal. But my line of work is in petroleum pipeline for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every liter. Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands,so buying in the afternoon or in the evening….your 1-liter is not exactly 1-liter. In petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products play an important role.

Here in Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose, CA, we delivered about 4 million gallons in 24-hour periods thru the pipe line, one day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grade. We have 34-storage tanks here with a totalcapacity of 16,800,000 gallons. So you see a 1-degree rise in temps is a big deal for the business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pump. Also one more reminder, if there is a gasoline truck bringing loads at the time when you have to buy gas.DO NOT fill up– most likely the gasoline has been stirred up when the gas is being delivered,and you might get some of the dirt that settled at the bottom.

When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode, if you look up you will see that the trigger has three (3)stages: lo, mid, and hi, with slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that were created while you arepumping. All hoses at the pump are sort of corrugated, that one is a return line for vapor’s recovery for the gas that already been metered. If you are pumping on fast rates, of the liquid that goes to your tank some become vapors, those vapors were being sucked up back to the underground tank so that you’re getting less worth of your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space, remember gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. You see, all gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof; this roof serves as zero clearancebetween the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truckload that we load is temperature compensated so that gallons or liter is actually the exact amount.

Hope this will help you guys/gals about your PAIN in the PUMP cost.

I just made my signature dish

Chicken Alfredo Quesadillas

2 Large tortillas
5 pieces of Tyson Cooked grilled bagged chicken, sliced thin
1/3 C Cheddar Monterrey Jack Cheese blend (Costco)
1 TB or so Alfredo Sauce(Buttoni Refrigerated)
Margarine for Cooking on the griddle.

Serves 1 MANY CAN BE MADE THOUGH MMMMMMMMMmmm

Nathan loved the kind I made him, since he’s not such an Alfredo guy

Queso Salsa Chicken Quesadilla

Tyson Cooked Grilled Bagged chicken cut small
Mexican blend cheese
Tortillas
Margarine for griddle

Cook then plate, and spread with Sour Cream and Tostitos Salsa with Cheese/Con Queso, Cut in 1/2 and then into 8 equal rectangles.

I’ll have to make them again and again. THEY ARE SOOOOOO GOOD!

If the directions are hard to follow LMK. I’m in a hurry.

We just Celebrated out 10 Year ANNIVERSARY yesterday.

I was able to get 2 spur of the moment babysitters one in the AM for Zach and Aurora while we went to see Evan Almighty with the girls.

Then Nathan and I hung around the house with the 4 of them wondering what to do next. I really wanted to go to a quiet dinner with him and hand him his gifts there. but we got a sitter spur of the moment and I forgot to grab the presents.

I’m pretty sure he still loves me. I have a million flaws and I’m never really consistent and my communication skills are about as good as my Dads. ( I love you but, I just don’t talk about feelings that much). Plus I have pretty bad selective hearing. I pretty much just hear the thought swirling in my head about the next thing I have to get done. We still went out to eat anyways.

So we couldn’t really decide where we wanted to eat. We ended up at a Yummy Mexican restaurant and it was peaceful and quiet since we got to go out on a Thursday night instead of the weekend. At Dinner I got to tell him what his Surprise was. We are going to a really nice Bed N Breakfast in a town near Park City, UT and they offer a Helicopter ride in the morning. I figured Nathan being afraid of heights and all would prefer the Helicopter over the Hot Air Balloon option. I booked it a few weeks ago for the Weekend of the 24th and 25th so we will be gone overnight and Suzie will come watch our kids- When we get back we will babysit the cousins, so the parents can finish packing their house to move out. After we got back to the neighbors who, graciously, babysat for us, we ran to get milk and sent all the kids to bed. We snuggled in bed with a drink and watched recordings of:
Malcom in the Middle, Who Wants to be a Superhero, So you Think you can Dance, and some others and I gave him his gifts. . .finally.

I had a door sign made that says, “THE MAN CAVE”, and under that, “Food and Drinks Welcomed”. He and his brothers have so much fun playing computer games in the office I figured the note on the door would be a fun addition. I also found a ginormous glass mug and had his name engraved on the silver oval plaque so I could fill it with Dr. Pepper and Gigantic Strawberry Smoothies.

Besides the fact that I’m inconsistant and have a 2 second memory(which is why I blog) We had a good day and got some much needed alone time.

I LOVE NATHAN!! I’ll continue to do so for the rest of forever!

A constant battle of Good Vs Evil!

So the girls are out of school again. It’s actually like having a summer break. We will have Labor Day ’til Thanksgiving and right back on thru to Christmas, then the little (normal) break there. It will almost be like traditional school. Yesterday we had a great day. We Dropped off Uncle Joe’s computer and saw some of the girls cousins. Then we headed the the Amusement Water Park and stayed in the water for about 4 hours then went to ride the kiddie rides for an hour and left the park around 5. We rode on the lazy river for most of the time. Me piled on with Zach and Aurora and Hailey and Sierra paid for their own $2 tubes cuz we are flat broke these days. Hailey and Sierra pulled us around like a train in the water and protected us from the waterfalls. Zach loved when we went around the 1st 2 times and couldn’t avoid the waterfalls he had fun getting soaked. The we went to the kids slide area. Hailey loved playing on the little swings and chasing Zach from bubbling water spout to the next one. Sierra would take him up the slides and I’d wait at the bottom with Aurora and TRY to catch the slippery trains that that made. It wasn’t so easy Zach had one big dunk but sure loved playing in the water still. I had a hard time getting him out of the water to dry off. The girls were ready to ride rides. Though some were closed we still managed to have a bit of fun.

Today I took all 4 to the park for playgroup. Hailey fell in love with the merry-go-round. Sierra liked everything but really had a fun time twisting Zach in the baby swings. Aurora got a fun ride in the swing with Ty. She needed the back support and it was nice for them to swing together.

LAUNDRY GAME

I washed all the laundry yesterday and today tossed it out for the girls to help fold. I offer them 1 cent for every fabric softener sheet they find and they have a race. I’m out a mere 23 cents – That’s a lot of laundry! and boy does it smell good!!

Then one sorts into family member piles while the other hangs the big shirts and dresses on hangers. Then I fold Mine, Nathans Zach and Auroras while they fold the Towels. Blankets, bibs, and their own clothes pile and they earn $1 for helping. Tonight I think we will have a movie party to celebrate too!