My pinkie toe's playing peek-a-boo

That's it. I've decided it is definitely time to get into better shape. I've been telling myself for months to lose weight to make the next pregnancy easier, but in the back of my mind I was thinking, I'll get pregnant next month for sure and how much can I actually lose in just one month? Well one summer later, I'm still just as huge and there is no baby in sight. So no more dithering around and making excuses. Last week I started our walking routine that I meant to carry through all summer, but those darn vacations kept getting in the way and then I'd fall out of the habit. I laced up my shoes, de-cobwebbed the jogging stroller, and told the kids to fire up their hot wheel scooters. Mid-way through out walk, I remembered: I have crappy shoes. I can't find tennis shoes anywhere that will accomodate my rather large and protruding pinkie toe on my right foot. On every vacation I got a huge watery blister and on this walk I got the mother of all blisters. A quarter mile away from home, I took the stupid shoe off and walked the rest of the way without it, while Paul and Elyse zoomed on ahead and beat me home. I've been in rather a temper this week, thanks to mother nature, and by the time I limped into the garage, I hated all shoes that I have ever had, and cursing man's stupidity for not making special shoes for big pinkie toe people like me. So I took a knife to my shoe and sawed a hole for my toe. Now when I walk, it sticks out the side of my shoe, playing peek-a-boo every time my right foot hits the pavement. But you know what? No more blisters! Hurray! I might have to make another door for my left foot, which isn't as huge, but is feeling a little left out.

Blueberry Season Coming to a Close

I took the kids blueberry picking again today. It was supposed to be a church play group, but only me and one other family turned up. Fortunately, today was much cooler than last time which made picking nice. I can tell the season is almost over--the berries were very tiny and some of the bushes well picked over. We're freezing a bunch for smoothies for warm fall and spring days. I tried a new recipe I read in our Relief Society bulletin last week and it turned out great, so I thought I'd share it with any other blueberry fans out there. Blueberry Zucchini Bread 3 eggs, lightly beaten 1 C vegetable oil 3 t vanilla extract 2 1/4 C white sugar 2 C shredded zucchini 3 C all-purpose flour 1 t salt 1 t baking powder 1/4 t baking soda 1 T ground cinnamon 1 pint fresh blueberries Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 4 mini-loaf pans(or two large pans). In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared mini-loaf pans. Bake 50 min(two large loaves took about 1hr and 10 min) in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 min in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely. On an olympic side note: I love the Russian gymnastic guy Bob Costas keeps interviewing in the broadcasting center: Bela Carouli(sp???). Remember Rachelle, the Atlanta games and Carrie Strug with her broken foot and Bela screaming "You can do it!" We quoted that all the time for a while, didn't we. It's a hoot to watch him watch the girls gymnastics team. I haven't been as excited about watching track and field. Is it just me or do they seem like punks?

Olympics

Not much going on around here, especially from 8pm to about 1am because my rear has been permenantly affixed to the sofa. I am an olympic nut. It all started way back at the Atlanta games when me and my sister Katie got burnt to a crisp hiking Timpanogas and wanted to do nothing but lay on our stomachs, so we watched the games almost non stop. It was the first time Bob Costas MCd and she and I both harbored a crush on the short, witty, sportscaster. To this day he's still one of my favorite parts of the games--I heart B.C. (Not really, but he's still kind of cute). And apparantly I'm indoctrinating the next generation. Every time the NBC fanfare plays, Luke is singing in the background: "Da...da...da, da, da, da, da..." And he does it after every commercial break. To kill time during commericals (which I absolutely hate, b.t.w.) I've been working on my cross stitch piece that I've been chipping away at the for the past seven years. It usually only gets attention during general conference, but with five hours of commercials every night, I'm getting a lot done. Hurray! I'm a domesticated couch potato! Matt has wisely learned not to expect too much conversation from me or evenings out during the olympics. But he likes to make snide comments about Bob on the side, like, "He is so profound--I'm still trying to figure out how profound his last statement was." Then I push him off the couch and tell him to go to work. He was so funny during the gymnastics last night, he just couldn't take watching the girls and seeing them make mistakes. And then he'd feel so bad for them. He wanted to go to bed before the last three routines and just find out who won in the morning. Are you kidding me? Did you guys see the absolutely awesome men's 4 by 100 relay? And the women's gymnastics all around? Wow. While Michael Phelps is pretty awesome to watch, I've loved cheering on all the women swimmers. Natalie Coughlin is a trooper. Looking forward to more tonight.

Cabin in Aus Gres

Aunt Meghan, Uncle Adam and Luke Luke and Paul wrecked my sand castle, so they built me a new one. We rented a cabin on Lake Huron this week--I know, we overbooked this summer. We've been celebrating Matt's decrease in shifts at the hospital by playing a lot. During the winter they had four doctors quit and everyone else had to pick up the slack and Matt was working way more than any of us like. So I guess we took the extra money and spent it on the mortgage and some vacations. We now officially own 25% of our house! Anyway, we had a lovely, quiet week on the water. No computer or friends to compete for the kids' attention. We took long walks on the beach. Highlights of walks: a bald eagle flying right over our heads and a lightning storm that blew in and shot bolts right over us as we ran the quarter mile back to our cabin. I can't believe how much the kids played in the sand. It never got old. In the morning, they played in the sand. In the afternoon, they played in the sand. We had some good swims, too. Elsye and I created a synchronized swim we called the Deibel tribute to the summer olympics. We had Aunt Meghan, Uncle Adam, and Gramma Sue come up for a day of sun and games. And then we had a family from our ward come up and spend a day and sleep overnight. Matt and I just enjoyed the quiet time with no house pressures, job pressures, or entertaining the kids pressures. Now our summer is truly winding down. Two weeks of olympics will have my glued to the couch and then I've got to get ready for the kids to go back to school. Boo! Hoo!

Church ball injury

Matt plays basketball Tuesday nights at the church with bothy members and non. I hear it gets pretty rough. A couple of times he's had to go with some of the men over to the ER--One guy tore his achilles tendon or something. Matt jammed his pinky so bad six months ago it permenantly sticks out to the side now. But he loves it and will schedule other things around it just so he can go. So I was really surprised when he came home early this week from ball. Then I saw him limping. Then I saw the softball sized ankle bulging beneath his sock. He rolled it and wow, I've never seen a sprain like it. He already wears a brace on his other ankle because he rolled it a lot as a teen, and he wears a splint for his pinky. Now he'll be sporting another brace. We must be getting old or something--everything breaks down so much easier. Here's a pic to record this month's BBall injury.

Dentist: It's not too hard to guess who got a cavitiy

Yesterday was our biannual trip to the dentist. We've visited this office about eight times now, thanks to the follow-up visits we make to get cavities filled, so they are all pretty used to Paul by now. My regular hygenist, Valerie, thinks Paul is the funniest kid to walk the planet, and I tell her she doesn't have to live with them--that funny impression wears off pretty quick. Poor Paul was born with one volume: loud, and soft teeth. Which means that our destist office gets to see and hear him quite often. When Paul's in the dentist chair, his voice carries to every cubicle in the whole office. And this time he had a new substitute hygenist who was blown away by how loud and how much one little kid could talk while trying to clean his teeth. Valerie kept chuckling while cleaning my teeth and listening, but I could tell the other lady looked a little frazzled when she brought Paul over to my cubicle. Paul has to go back for another cavity to be filled...again. Every time I've taken him he's had one. One time he had two. And six months ago the cavity was so huge they had to do a pulpectomy (uh, that's the technical term for a kid's root canal, I guess)! I brush his teeth the same as Elyse's and she' never even had one. I brush his teeth even better than hers now and I floss them. What more can I do??? I keep having visions of him as an old man chomping his toothless gums together like his great-grandma Bluemlein does and it totally grosses me out. I guess by then I'll be dead and I won't have to watch him do it. On a side note, I solved one of the family frustrations we've been having over the last year: two of my kids forget to flush. Okay, it's the only two that are potty trained, but one is worse than the other. First, I tried threats. I tried making them pay me money, going to bed early, doing extra chores, putting up huge posters in the bathrooms warning them to flush, or else--two in the kitchen bathroom. Finally, I had to resort to candy. I hate doing it, but sometimes its the only thing that works. If they flush, they get a gummy bear out of the toilet jar. It's like going back to toilet training them with potty goodies. But I no longer walk into the bathroom and see an unflushed toilet and the one up in their bathroom no longer has a constant yellow stain in the bowl. Hurray for candy!