A weekend full of fun

I left work a little early on Friday to go to with my parents and nephews to Avery Road Fountain Park about two blocks away from my office. I'm not sure if the nephews enjoyed the park more or playing football in my backyard.We spent Saturday at King's Island Amusement Park! Our friend Deanna Sharpe had extra tickets for her company outing so she got us all free tickets, two parking passes, free lunch, and free drinks all day long. We owe her big time! It was so nice feeling like we didn't have to ride every ride to get our moneys worth. We didn't think we would stay all day long, but the boys were great and we stayed until the park closed. They pretty much looked like this all day long.

The next day everyone was pretty tired.

And now Candice is back from Georgia and we have matching haircuts. She's spending the night at our house and then after my parents fly out tomorrow, her family will be moving to Louisville. I know it's still within driving distance, but it just won't be the same.

Bedtime stories

Last night we headed to Rita's Italian Ice at my dad's request. Grant always orders the same thing, Blueberry Italian Ice because it's blue for boys. He almost had a meltdown when they had no blue flavors, but he finally settled for wildberry because even though it's purple, it has blueberries in it.
After we headed home, I entertained the boys with the video feature on my digital camera. As I was putting them to bed, Grant asked if we could videotape his favorite bedtime story. I convinced him to read it while I videotaped. There's just something so cute about a kindergartener reading. Too bad it's such a poor quality video with dim lighting and I couldn't edit it to show you the last two minutes instead of the first two minutes because he reads the end with such funny emotions.



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After Grant read his story, Cole wanted to "read" for the camera too. Too cute!



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PS - They're going to bed on the floor in the hall outside of my bedroom because I told them they could sleep wherever they wanted and that is what they decided on.

House guests

I've been feeling a little overwhelmed by life the last few days so consquently, I haven't been doing anything fun to tell you about. Sorry! My parents arrived last night with Candice's kids. They'll be babysitting the boys at our house over the weekend while Candice is teaching some scrapbooking/photography classes and visiting with friends in Atlanta and Mark finishes his run at the Virginia Shakespeare festival. I did find time to buy some pajamas to continue the tradition of providing pajamas for our guests from out of state. Here they are at the foot of the bed in our guestroom.

And since Candice NEVER updates her blog, you can see pictures of her in Atlanta yesterday at her friends Elsie and Danielle's blogs. I wish I was there with her. It looks like they are having fun.

The Leaping Ligers

My neighbor is in charge of a Boy Scout Troop that's putting on a 5K Fundraiser and he asked me to put together a design for a t-shirt. This project has been the biggest pain for several reasons:

1. They already had a design that another graphic designer created for them, which they did not like, but they wanted me to work from instead having a fresh start
2. There were several people who had to approve this project, but none of them were in charge and they all kept disagreeing, which translates to several drafts for me.
3. They needed everything right away because they need the T-shirts printed right away and I already have a real job that takes up a fair amount of my time.

I think we finally have it all worked out though and here's what the front looks like(Except imagine it printing in a bold yellow on navy blue shirts (Boy Scout colors, but doesn't that seem hot to run in?)) Anyway, there's still time to sign up to run to get one of these beautiful shirts!

Whirlwind weekend

First of all, I finally got my pictures printed and framed, and I no longer have newspaper templates hanging on my living room wall. It’s sort of sad that this is such a big achievement, but I’ve been trying to get to it for ages.

After I framed the pictures on Friday, Larry and I made a trip to Super Suppers to fill our freezer because we really need some dinner inspiration and we really do not feel like meal planning and cooking when we have so many other fun things to do this summer. We were much faster this time around. We even had part of the evening left over to meet with Donny and Jessica for ice cream.

Saturday we picked up Donny and Jessica (seriously, I love having them just around the corner) and spent a few hours exploring the shops in Old Powell. I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile because Old Powell just looks so cute and I’ve been so curious about their fun shops and antique stores. One of my favorite shops was this bead shop.

Larry enjoyed the pink flamingos outside.

There was a really cool antique bench from a bowling alley in one of the stores and I would have been tempted to buy it if we had any room for it. Larry fell in love with an antique desk at a store called The Collection because it was massive and he could sit at it and actually swing his legs because they didn’t touch the ground (I wasn’t too sad that there was no way for it to fit around our angled staircase into our office). I did love the way they had the front of their store counter painted with little metal stars stuck on it.

And speaking of cute, these were our guests for dinner after church on Sunday, Katherine & Cassie Richardson. I made Catherine dinner (salmon cakes) and she made us dinner (curry chicken) so we had a feast. In our last apartment we lived so close, and I miss seeing Catherine all the time so it was especially nice to be able to visit while her husband was on call.

Save the drama for your mama!

I just had the worst Wal-Mart experience ever. I never ever get good service there, but today was particularly bad. Wal-Mart is the closest place to my office to develop pictures so I submitted my grandparents wedding pictures through their site for 1 hour development so I could pick them up during my lunch hour. When I got there over 2 1/2 hours later, they said the pictures weren't ready, and I would have to wait an hour. I asked, "Didn't I submit them for 1 hour service?" And they confirmed that I did, but they hadn't noticed the order until 5 minutes earlier. Great!

After wandering around for awhile I went back to pick up my pictures, and just as I was paying for them, the girl at the counter asked to see my release from the professional photographer. I told her that I didn't have one, they weren't from a professional photographer, they were from old photos that my dad scanned and then we both digitally retouched them and both of the photos were over 50 year old. She said that she either needed a release or an original negative or I wouldn't get my pictures. I told her that there was no possible way I would ever be able to get those things so she turned around and shredded the pictures. SHE SHREDDED MY GRANDPARENTS' WEDDING PICTURES!!!!!! It was so sad!

I called Cord Camera and told them the whole story and they were totally nice and said that if they looked professional all I had to do is sign a release saying I won't use them professionally or sell them. They should be ready in about an hour.

Here they are for your enjoyment.

Byron & Margrett Borup

Lamont & Billee Lou Carr

Borups in the house

I gave a book talk at an enrichment meeting on literacy last night so for those of you interested, here's the list of books that I shared (I'll spare you my schpeil on literacy). It was a diverse group so I tried to cover a little of everything and I tried to focus on fairly recent books so I wouldn't bore anyone who already knows the classics.

Picture Books:
Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type – Doreen Cronin (Dooby Dooby Moo due out in August)
Diary of a Spider – Doreen Cronin
Olivia – Ian Falconer (Newest Book Olivia Forms a Band)
Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse – Kevin Henkes (Newest Book - Lilly’s Big Day)
Actual Size – Steve Jenkins
The Red Book – Barbara Lehman (Newest book - Museum Trip)
Hooway for Wodney Wat – Helen Lester
How I Became a Pirate – Melinda Long
My Friend Rabbit – Eric Rohmann
Duck on a Bike – David Shannon
John, Paul, George & Ben – Lane Smith
The Three Pigs – David Wiesner (Newest book - Flotsam)
Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus – Mo Willems (Newest book Don’t Let The Pigeon Stay Up late)
Leonardo the Terrible Monster – Mo Willems (New Book Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct coming out in September)
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? – Jane Yolen & Mark Teague (How do Dinosaurs Learn Their Colors? and How Do Dinosaurs Play with Friends? coming out in September)

Middle Readers:
Judy Moody – Megan McDonald
Stink The incredible Shrinking Kid – Megan McDonald
Time Warp Trio – Jon Scieszka

Chapter Books:
Chasing Vermeer – Blue Balliett
Sister’s Grimm series – Michael Buckley
The Tale of Despereaux – Kate DiCamillo (Newest book - The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane)
City of Ember – Jeanne DuPrau (Newest book - The Prophet on Yonwood)
Olive’s Ocean – Kevin Henkes
Babymouse Queen of the World – Jennifer L. Holm
Weedflower – Cynthia Kadohata
Gathering Blue – Louis Lowry (Newest book - Gossamer)
Heat – Mike Lupica
Charlie Bone Series – Jenny Nimmo
When My Name Was Keoko – Linda Sue Park
The Lightening Thief – Rick Riordan (Newest book - The Sea of Monsters)
Flipped - Wendelin Van Drannen
The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

Columbus Authors:
Among the Hidden Series– Margaret Peterson Haddix
East – Edith Pattou

Mormon Authors:
Goose Chase – Shannon Hale (River Secrets due out in September)
Princess Academy – Shannon Hale
Twilight – Stephenie Meyer (New Moon due out in August or September)

When I share a list like this I always worry that maybe someone in the audience really doesn't know anything about children's books so I usually hand out a list of classic kids books that I think everyone should know or learn about. Here's the list I used last night.

Picture Books:
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – Judi Barrett
Madeline – Ludwig Behelmans
Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown
The Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carl
Strega Nona – Tomie DePaola
Koala Lou – Mem Fox
George Shrink – William Joyce
Miss Spider’s Tea Party – David Kirk
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom – Bill Martin, Jr.
If you Give a Mouse a Cookie – Laura Numeroff
Officer Buckle and Gloria – Peggy Rathman
Goodnight Gorilla – Peggy Rathman
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs – Jon Scieszka
Where the Wild Things Are- Maurice Sendak
Imogene’s Antlers – David Small
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble – William Steig
Polar Express – Chris Van Allsburg
Alexander the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – Judith Viorst
Owl Babies - Martin Waddell
Harry the Dirty Dog – Gene Zion

Chapter Books:
Ramona Quimby Age 8 – Beverly Cleary
Frindle - Andrew Clements
Walk Two Moons – Sharon Creech
The Watsons go to Birmingham – Christopher Paul Curtis
James and the Giant Peach – Roald Dahl
Because of Winn Dixie – Kate DiCamillo
Hoot – Carl Hiaasen
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Franweiler – E.L. Konigsburg
A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
Ella Enchanted – Gail Carson Levine
The Giver – Louis Lowry
Number the Stars - Lois Lowry
Beauty – Robin McKinley
The Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell
A Single Shard – Linda Sue Park
Bridge to Terebithia – Katherine Paterson
A Year Down Yonder – Richard Peck
The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin
Holes – Louis Sachar
Maniac Magee – Jerry Spinelli
Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White

Feel free to disagree or add to the lists, it is all a matter of personal opinion afterall.

In other news, my paretns arrived from Utah last night (yay!) and they brought the cd with pictures of my grandparents wedding so I can finally print them and hang up the frames that I painted for my living room months ago (double yay!). They already headed out this morning to pick up my sister Candice and her kids and then drive to Virginia to see one of Mark's plays in the Virginia Shakespeare Festival. Do you think that I can keep my house clean while they are gone for a week so I don't have to go through frantic cleaning all over again?

Meet the Grandparents - Part 2

And now I would like to introduce you to my grandmother Billee Lou Carr.

I'm sure that you can already tell where I inherited my love of dishes. In fact, one of the plates in my leaf plate collection is from her.

My Grandma Carr grew up around Hollywood during the golden Hollywood era. I love watching old musicals with her because she knows everyone. She even went to high school with Debbie Reynolds. She was gorgeous, but her parents wouldn't let her be in movies because they didn't want her running with the Hollywood crowd. Instead she had a job singing the commercials on the radio with her sister. When she met my grandpa she was hiding in a coat closet thinking he was a guy she was hoping to avoid. He said it was not the best first impression and neither of them were particularly thrilled to end up on a date together, but once they danced together they fell in love.

Larry's favorite fact about this grandma is that she dated the actor who played Johnny Lingo in a Mormon movie.

I also inherited my obsession with holiday decorations from this grandma. When I was little I remember being amazed when my mom told me that my grandma had at least 60 boxes of Christmas decorations and it takes her weeks to decorate the whole house. Now I must say my mom has eclipsed her and I am well on my way.

Now I would like you to meet Lamont Carr
Grandpa Carr was an orthodontist with some interesting hobbies; he raised homing pigeons and has several trophies to show for it, he loves managing his investments in the stock market, and at times he has traveled with BYU's archeology team to Egypt where he ages the mummies by their teeth. He also used to be an amazing yodeler, but he doesn't sign since he had a virus that damaged his vocal chords.

I definitely got my lifelong quest for learning from my Grandpa Carr. My grandma says if it was up to him he would still be in school working on his millionth degree. These days he's busy traveling to glamorous spots all over the world with my grandmother.

I'd be pretty happy with my life if it turns out anything near theirs.

Yesterday . . .

I was feeling pretty down last night, but then several things happened to cheer me up. My friend Chrissy and her three-year-old daughter, Kate, came over to visit me last night and brought me some cookies. Then I ran to pickup my guitar. My dad was helping a woman in his ward move and she was giving away a free guitar so he saved it for me and it's actually fairly nice, it just needed some new strings so I was having it restrung. Then Larry found a box of books that I've been missing (How have been living without The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems and There's an Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Mayer?) And as if all of that wasn't enough, then Larry decided to give me one of my birthday presents early. My birthday is still a month away and Larry can be a last minute shopper so I was surprised that he had a birthday gift for me yet this early. He pulled it out and it was . . .

GIGANTIC PICKUP STICKS! So random, but it really made me laugh. About when I met Larry during my Sophomore year of college, my roommate Megan was having an awful day and just as she was telling me about all of the things that went wrong, she opened a cupboard and dry spaghetti noodles spilled out all over the kitchen floor. I thought she was going to cry so I told her that it was ok, now we just had an excuse to play pickup sticks so we swept them up into a pile and began to play. It became an apartment tradition that I almost forgot about. Eventually we did get real pickup sticks because it's a lot more difficult to play with noodles. Oh the fun we would have had with gigantic pickup sticks! I'll have to post a picture of one of my college pickup stick matches later.

Happy Monday

I'm in a good mood today. Maybe it's because I'm wearing new shoes

Or maybe it's because Fuse #8 posted another link to a post on my children's book club blog.

Or it could be the CD that I'm listening to, which Larry made for my Easter basket, and I finally remembered to bring into work. Who can resist a little My United States of Whatever to brighten their workday?

We had a relaxing weekend. It started with surprise overnight visitors on Friday night.

Dayna's kids are adorable, but I still don't know which one is Jenna and which one is Rachel. After they headed out to Utah on Saturday we ran our usual weekend errands and then met up with our friends Eric and Rachel Freeman. We stopped at City barbecue for some of the best barbecue in Columbus.

Then it was on to Picnic with the Pops. The Big Bad Voodoo Daddies were playing with the Columbus symphony. It was pretty warm, but there's something about an outdoor concert with fireflies and people waving sparklers instead of lighters and old ladies dancing on the lawn that made it enchanting.

Here are the Freemans enjoying the concert.

And here's how Larry enjoyed the concert. Oh well, a doctor's got to sleep, right?

A vampire and a skateboard

Larry and I have been a little boring lately. I blame the nasty humidity for taking away my will to leave the house, or even leave the couch for that matter. I get to this point of the summer when we've passed the Fourth of July, and I feel like I'm being smothered every moment that I spend outdoors, and I crave fall. Oh yes, I said it, I want summer to be over! I love school supplies, and fall clothes, and crisp air. I'm already dreaming of putting out Halloween decorations so maybe that's why I couldn't resist these candle sticks when I saw them yesterday.

I went into HomeGoods looking for cute cake plates to stack and display cupcakes, but I came out with this creepy purchase instead. As you know I love decorating for holidays and I thought these were necessary for whatever we decide to do for Halloween this year (I'm still toying with the idea of a Hitckcock Halloween party this year, would you want to come to a Hitchcock party?)

Larry and I did briefly brave the humidity and pulled out our skateboards to roam the neighborhood the other night (granted it was 10:30 at night so we didn't go out in too much heat). I haven't skateboarded in years, and you know what I remembered? Uh, I am not a good skateboarder! It was fun, but I think it will be a little more fun after I tighten my trucks so my board's not so wobbly.

What are you doing tonight?

I already have fun plans for tonight, but if I didn't, I might check out the first ever Campus Hop. Here's the media blurb and links for more info:

Haven't been to campus in a while? You might be surprised at the radical transformation. This Thursday night would be a perfect time to take in the Campus Hop, featuring an outdoor B-Movie at the Wexner Center, street musicians, sidewalk sales, restaurant discounts and more. The activities run from 5 to 10 p.m., and parking is available for three hours for $1 in the South Campus Gateway Garage, located one-half block east of High Street, between 9th and 11th avenues.

Info 1

Info 2

How could you resist a free outdoor screening of the Monster on Campus?

Meet the Grandparents - Part 1

On our recent trip we saw all four of a grandparents, a rare occurrence indeed. Since both sets of grandparents lived in Sacramento I only saw them sporadically, but I've always looked forward to visits with them. I think the last time I saw my Grandma and Grandpa Borup was at my wedding. With Larry's Grandpa Ford's health failing, I appreciated my time with them even more then usual, and since they are so great, you get to meet them too.

I just realized that I only have picture of My Grandma and Grandpa Borup with me at the moment so you get to meet the Carrs later.

Introducing Valeen Margrett Borup (and her new puppy Max)
Yes, I know I am a horrible photographer, but doesn't she look like the kind of cool Grandma everyone wishes they had? Grandma Borup is more in style than me these days. She has so many amazing things from their travels all over the world decorating her house that it looks like a museum. The only reason the wall behind her is blank is that they just moved to Provo, UT.

I think I get a lot of my creativity from my Grandma Borup. She travels the world collecting beads and other unusual pieces for the jewelry she makes and sells at art shows (which is too expensive for me to buy so that's another bonus to being related to her). While some grandparents travel to touristy spots to relax, the Borup have grand adventures. This spring they went on a cruise of some part of Europe (the Danube maybe? It's too hard to keep track) and after two weeks at home they left for a river tour of the Amazon that was several weeks long. I get the most interesting Christmas presents from my Grandma Borup with little notes that say things like, "I found this little golden owl while I was traveling in Burma and it was just too good to resist."

She is an honest, opinionated artist and I love that about her.

And this is Byron Borup

My grandma told me that I didn't want a picture of him in that outfit, but I think it says a lot about him. First the flag suspenders, granted it was the Fourth of July, but I think is shows how patriotic he is. He was a marine and he served in the Korean War. Second, the Tomasso's Italian Ice T-shirt, he wore it in support of the shop my Uncle's are opening. My dad says that he's never met a man who is more tender-hearted and loving than his father and I don't think you can receive higher praise than that.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

We're settling back into life in Columbus.

July 6th was our fifth anniversary. I know it's cheesy to say, but I love him more than I did when we got married. I guess that's what marriage is all about.

The weather has been extremely kind so we spent plenty of time outside this weekend. The Stringhams were visiting, and somehow almost all of my pictures are of my nephew Cole. Maybe that's because he does funny things like walk around the house with this garbage can on his head Or sit in Larry's car for an hour practicing putting on a seat belt.

We helped our friends, Donny and Jessica, move into our neighborhood on Saturday and we are so happy to have them as our new neighbors. They took some time off Saturday night to see The Complete Works of Shaekspeare (Abridged) at Shakespeare in the Park in German Village.

To Utah and Beyond!

I'm finally home and have oodles to tell you so let's start with the rest of my vacation.

I arrived in Provo with my parents just in time to see the fireworks Saturday night from the Stadium of Fire, which reminds me, one of my 100 things about myself should have been that I was a Stadium of Fire dancer one year, which if you know me does not really suit my personality at all. How did that happen? My family will never let me forget it.

Sitting there watching the fireworks made me a little sad because as much as I HATED Provo when we moved there from Hawaii, I miss it so much. I miss running into people I knew in high school (although I could do without ever running into a few ex-boyfriends I would like to forget existed). I miss billboards on the freeway for cheesy Mormon products that you would never see anywhere else. I miss the BYU bookstore (why am I so obsessed with that place?). I miss knowing all of the neighbors. I miss J-Dawgs (which was not open the entire time I was there!). I miss the mountains. I miss knowing what direction I'm heading while I'm driving because I can see the mountains. I miss sprinklers (they don't really have sprinklers in Ohio because it rains so much).

OK, I've got to stop or this could go on forever. It's a good thing that I started missing Larry even more than all of those things or I wouldn't have wanted to go home, especially now that a lot of my extended family has moved to Utah. Growing up we didn't have a lot of family around so big family gatherings were rare. It was so nice to get together with everyone while I was there.

I think I've mentioned this before, but the Fourth of July has become a huge event in the Borup family. My cousins saved our spot for the parade route on Sunday and spent the night out there Monday to ensure that we would have plenty of space to cause a ruckus during the parade, and believe me, we always cause a ruckus. My family is pretty rowdy at the parade. My uncle gets the whole crowd chanting, and this year we all had to wear matching t-shirts for Tomasso's, an Italian ice shop that my uncles are opening at the Shops at Riverwoods later this month, so there was no pretending that I wasn't a part of this crazy group. Here are my parents in their parade garb.
Some of my cousins and my aunt and uncle always run in the race before the parade so we had to get there at 6:30 to take our turn saving our parade spot so we were a little tired. It was worth it to experience to normal chaos of my cousin Whitney running up to get her annual picture with the llamas, and my Uncle Cory calling out each politician's nickname so we can watch the politician pretend that they remember him because they think they know him. This year my grandparents were there and my grandma was forced to get up and help carry the banner for the Utah Democrats because everyone teases her about being the only Mormon Democrat and the Marines came into the crowd to pose with my Grandpa who was also a marine. You really have to love the Provo Freedom parade because it's about the only place you can see a huge group of missionaries marching in the parade.
After the parade we had a big barbecue at my parent's house, and that night we got together for fireworks at my Uncle Tom and Aunt Shawn's house. The most entertaining part was the master of ceremonies, my 11-year-old cousin Weston. I've never seen someone so excited to light the fireworks. His mom said he begged her everyday to go buy the fireworks and once she did, he would sit in front of them practically drooling. He prepared a special vest of the occasion with everything he needed for the fireworks.I was also able to visit Grandpa Ford every day I was there. He's still in a rehabilitation center but he's seems like he's doing pretty well. I think he's a favorite of some of the employees there because they're always joking around with him. This is his version of smiling for a picture.
I also got to spend a little time with my best friend from home, Marnie. I'm not the best at keeping in touch with her, but whenever we get together it feels like we've never been apart. I'm just lucky to know her.Now I'm back in Ohio so I'll try to get back to posting regular updates. Talk to you soon!

On the Road Again!

After some seriously competitive miniature golf (Larry and I tied for last place), here's how we spent our last night at Lake Tahoe. Don't let my innocent looking grandparents fool you, they are ruthless card players.

This picture is just for Lish because I promised her a picture of one of the animal heads hanging at my grandparents cabin (I'm not sure that she really believed me).

Saturday Larry headed back to Ohio and I drove to Utah with my parents. This is how the drive looked:

Ya, that's my mom walking around on the freeway because we were completely stopped for an hour in the middle of the dessert in Nevada. What should have been a nine hour drive turned into a 12 hour drive, but it gave my dad an opportunity to stop and check out the Thunder Mountain Indian Monument (one of the weirder things that I've seen in my life).

Now I'm safe and sound for a couple of days in good old Provo, Utah. More to come!