our kindoflike children

This year was the first year I've ever actually "gardened".
We weeded... we bought fancy expensive dirt (yeah, that's a weird concept, paying for dirt...) bought seeds... transplanted plants... the whole shabang! It's been super fun. Our plants kind of seem like our children sometimes... "they're just growing up so fast... " Just kidding.

But really, we've spent a lot of time together and I've got pretty attached. I like to spend the late afternoons with them, just me, them and the hose. Oh, and you can't forgot about those stupid mosquitos... which make the experiences pretty miserable at times. My legs look really attractive and diseased from all the bumps and scabs from those blood sucking devils.

So now I'm just fascinated with gardening and all the farmer tricks. I've heard of using your own fertilizer to fertilize your plants and that that works really well! Just kidding that's really gross. We've learned a lot this year and I can't wait to see what we can grow next year. I'm trying to talk Jory into letting me turn our whole backyard into a garden but I don't think that he'll let me do that. Like I've said before he likes his lawn a little too much.

So, we saw this on youtube. Green beans (pole beans) that just grow up this teepee! It's my favorite child of mine so far. It grows SO much everyday. Jory might be embarrassed of my telling this, but one day he went out side and couldn't believe how fast it was growing, he then blurted out... " this is magical!". Yes babe. It's magical. : )

Our box. Holy moly can I just tell you how much worry these kids of ours have caused us? The Lehi wind is terrible and kept breaking the little guys right over when we first transplanted them. I'm so glad they're finally starting to be strong and grow. We've got tomatoes, peppers and a very lonely cucumber plant.

the smallest romas you've ever seen.

Do you see our red pepper?? Well, our almost red pepper, kind of like a orangeyinonespot pepper. Is it normal to take MONTHS for peppers to change colors? (red...yellow..) If you know, please shed some light.

The tomato kingdom. Our three "teenage" plants. They are just too wild, we can't really control them.

So... we don't have a ton, but it definitely gives us something to look forward to. Someday when I grow up I'll have raspberries and a garden like my mama.


Oh, and here are some pictures of the pretty flowers in the field behind us! I heart Lehi!

italian sodas and fortune cookies

There are a few things in my fridge and pantry that are considered "must haves". I buy them whenever I go to the grocery store and you will always find them in my house. Most of which are cheese sticks, soy milk, almonds, chicken, green onions and ... maybe fresca. But other than that... I like to alternate. I buy whatever fruits and veggies are on sale at Buylow on Wednesdays... whatever meat is cheap... basically... whatever groceries are cheap.
Anyway, I have discovered another food must have, and I sincerely request that you too get the following on your "must have" list.

Dun dun dun...

• Sprite (or diet sprite, and on this note, I am a COMPLETE believer that cold, this soft drink tastes exactly like the orig and it's delish)

• Ice (lots of)

• half and half or cream or... mulk... I said MULK (milk)

• Torani's flavoring (Yes, you will be tempted to buy a lesser expensive type of flavoring... and yes, it is nothing like Torani's, and yes, you just need to buy it.)

Italian Sodas

In a tall glass pour 2 Tablespoons of Torani's Flavoring
Fill glass with ice
Pour 3/4 the rest of the glass with sprite
Fill the remaining with your desired... dairy- as desired, only if desired. desired

I wish summer was longer so I could drink these every night for the next 3 months in the back yard.

Yum.

On the topic of YUM... One night, on another failed restaurant attempt, (Rib City -don't go there) we were leaving and ran into a friend from work who was going to eat at Rib City's neighbor... China Light Cafe. She told us it was the best Chinese she's ever had. So being the food lovers we are, me and Jor had to try this amazing Chinese Food. No we didn't go right after we had eaten at Ribcity if you were wondering. I don't think I've ever eaten at two restaurants back to back before. Ever. Really, I haven't. Not even with Charisse Williams MILLER, involving Tucanos and all you can eat French Toast at Maglbys Fresh. That didn't happen.
But honestly, we went back a different day for the Chinese.

So now we're obessed. We're also pretty sure that our fortunes are really written by Chinese people. So that's pretty fun.



Don't fortune cookies kind of remind you of beaks?
...


Jory was a lot better at making his beak look "real"... what's new

I can do embarrassing

the adventures of Sarah and the lawnmower

Yesterday Jory was working late. He's been stressed out because of how busy he's been, and how he hasn't had time to mow his baby- I mean lawn. Sidenote: Jory is obsessed with his lawn. He has been known to wake up at 5:o0 in the A.M. to get a good "fertilizing" in before school started. Need I say more? He has to mow once a week, or the sight of our lawn makes him cringe.

So, being the kind wife I am. I decided I needed to kill a few hours. Why not mow the lawn and help out Jor's disgust with our jungle length grass? It's probably not that hard right? Wrongo. Well, wrongo for the "special" kind of person like me.
First of all. The last time I mowed a lawn was when I was young enough that my Dad had to start the lawn mower for me. I had all younger brothers and since the time they turned 9, it was designated a "boy job" in my house, my jobs then consisted of scrubbing toilets. I'm now pretty good it (cleaning toilets).

So, I checked the gas. Empty. I filled it, and when doing so, poured gas ALL over the lawnmower, not just the hole to pour the gas in. I called Jory to make sure I was okay to start the lawn mower after that, to make sure I wouldn't make the lawnmower explode or something when I started it, he didn't make fun of me at that moment but was probably thinking what ditz (how do you spell that?) of a wife he has. Then, in the privacy of my garage (I was concerned someone would see the retarded side of Sarah not being able to start the mower) I did a practice pull to start it. It was so loud. But, I did it! I took it out to the yard and started mowing.

The grass was SO long and the mower was set to a very low notch, me being the stubborn person that I am... didn't want to make my life easier by raising the mower a 1/2 inch. No, I left it short and had to dump the bag from all the long grass about every 3rd row. Smart Sarah.
After about 5 minutes my.arms.were.burning. I suddenly had a brand new view and sense of gratefullness for my brothers and husband for mowing the lawn their whole teenage and young adult lives. It was SO HARD. My back arms and legs ached and I was seriously wondering if I was going to be able to mow the whole thing. Jory can easily mow, edge, sweep and everything else you do to make a lawn look beautiful in one "session". I was debating my ability to just mow that awful lawn.
Now 50 minutes of mowing had gone by (Literally. We have a pretty big yard) I felt as if I was pushing that thing uphill both ways. Sweat everywhere, heart pounding, needed...water... I went inside and called Jory to vent to tell him that mowing 3/4 of the lawn was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I wasn't even done yet! Now came the laughs... "Sarah, it's REALLY not that hard. Are you pushing the lawn mower?" me: "How else do you mow a lawn, you push the lawn mower..."? And then. It dawned on me. I REALLY WAS PUSHING THE LAWN MOWER. There is a beautiful lever that basically makes the lawn drive on it's own, and all you have to do is steer it. And, yes, brilliant little me, wasn't holding down that lever.
I had pushed the lawnmower for 50 minutes.
So after a good laugh, I went out again to conquer that lawn. I pushed down that amazing lever and felt like I was running to keep up! It was so fast! It was amazing!
Probably 3 minutes into the new non vigorous mowing session, the lawn mower, made an awful noise, which yes, made me scream, and a big black rubber/plastic piece came flying out almost amputating my foot. Just kidding. But it was close. After gaining my composer, I started the lawn mower again, and it sounded like it was completely broken. Trying to not look like a complete GIRL I flipped over the lawn mower and tried to diagnose. What the heck is the bottom of a lawn mower supposed to look like ANYWAY?
I broke the lawn mower.
All I tried to do was help Jory out to mow that STUPID lawn. And all I ended up doing was putting myself through a lot of awkward painful moments, wasting a whole lot gas, and then, breaking Jory's favorite 300$ beautifying tool. I felt awful. I called Jory again, I think I was stressing him out so much with all my calls he decided to leave work early.
To end this story I actually didn't break the lawn mower. Thank goodness. But, I did finish mowing, all on my very own. Well. There was one moment, where a concerned neighbor (not joking) stopped to tell me some tips on mowing. Yeah, that made me feel really special.
But I finished it! I have never been so relieved.

Next story... I like to call it. "Bunny Love"

So. As you know, I have a small obsession with animals. Baby animals in particular, and you know what? I'm not going to let Jor get off the hook of this one. He has a small obsession too. That's right, I said it. And it's true, it's both of us.
So, we have two bunnies, a boy named Jack and a girl named Gretchen (as most of you know). What a perfect combination to make some little fuzzballs.
You would think it would be easy to make this little dream come true of getting our bunnies to have bunnies of their very own... but it has been a real pain in the tush. I hear of stories all the time of people whose rabbits couldn't stop reproducing. Our situation is quite the opposite.

So, one day, after much research. Me and Jor tried to let the rabbits attempt yet again, another.... trial of conception.
This time we... this is hard for me to explain and not sound like a completely... gross person? Well, we had to invade the poor buns' privacy because well, frankly, we needed to make sure "it" really happened. So, we watched. Yes, it was awkward and I wanted to give them their alone time... But, if they were to concieve?, then me and Jor needed to know the exact day, so when the 29th day of the gestational period came about we could put Gretchen's nesting box in her cage and she would prepare for the babies. (I wasn't lying when I said we do our research!) Timing is everything, you see.
So, it was cold outside, and not much action was happening, if you know what I mean. Me and Jory were tired and the ground was wet, so Jory got us some fold out chairs, a blanket and some water bottles. He knew it could be a long process!
So, as we are sitting there... a familiar face... Chad, a neighbor who every night walks his midget legged dog past our house, was turning the corner far off in the distance, on his way around our house. We should have known. At that moment I wanted to jump up out of my chair, sprint over to the OTHER side of the house and distract our funny friend from actually seeing what we were observing in the bunny hutch.
It was too late. Way too late. Me and Jory's hearts were pounding thinking how are we going to explain this one..
....in what seemed like slow motion, Chad and his dog cuts through our grass, and the first words that pop out of his mouth are... "I've GOT to see what you guys are looking at!!". And then he saw. And we didn't say anything. I'm sure our faces were red. I'm sure we looked really stupid. And I'm sue he thought for sure, that there was something definitely wrong with his neighbors.
He started laughing. We nervously started laughing. I then blurted out, "We just want baby bunnies!!"
Haha. He told us it wasn't the first time he's seen animals mate before so we shouldn't worry about it. But.. he did end with saying... "But i've never seen anyone watch so intensely before..."
Another embarrassing day at the Schmidt home. I'm starting to get pretty used to those.

I may be...

...in love with this lake.


...addicted to the St. Georgian sun- (but only and I mean ONLY if there is a pool OR a air conditioned confined area within 25 feet of me at all times)


...obsessed with little creatures. Nope, I am. I'm obsessed with all crawling, cuddly, warty.. any kind really, creatures.


...really into greasy hair

(oh and p.s. the following picture is from last year... vaguely familiar?? It's kind of creepy actually. I promise we do own a larger wardrobe than it seems.)


...a pyro (this could also fall into the greasy hair category)

...crazy about my brothers


...pretty happy this man is my husband. Even though his hands still smell like fish

Back in the 801... or 385??

Side note: If you're confused by the 385 someone told me Utah is adding another area code, and I think they told me it was 385. I could be wrong though. But I'm thinking I'm 76 % right on this one.

This week was a crazy week. An emotional week. We laughed, we cried, we ate way too much- (okay maybe it was just me) -but the most important part about this week was that my brother came home from his mission!!! Being the first mission homecoming in my immediate family we were all stoked as could be, maybe even blowing it a little overboard... no, I don't think so actually. It was so great to see him.

Let me set the scene for you... We were running late already to pick Jordon up from the airport... (why does that always happen on important dates!) Jory drove and all of us "back seat drivers" wouldn't lay off of him to tell him to drive faster. As some of you may know he drives like a grandma usually, but he went totally out of his comfort zone and drove 15 over. We were so appreciative. As we "app-ed" Jordon's incoming flight we found out his flight was AHEAD of schedule 5 minutes... all of our hearts sunk to our stomachs and we kept replaying Jordon coming down the escalator stairs with everyone else cheering for their homecoming missionaries and Jordon not having a familiar face in sight. That would have been awful and let's just say Jordon wouldn't have referred to us as "his family" anymore after a traumatizing event like that.

After what seemed like an eternity of swerving in and out of solid road lines, quick halts and go's ... we finally got to the drop off cite...
Jory still driving, screamed back for us all to jump and that he was going to just keep driving. He had NO TIME TO STOP!! All of us threw open the 3 car doors all at the same time and jumped out of the moving vehicle ... Just kidding. But really though, we looked and felt as though we were in a movie, Home Alone quite possibly, running through the airport, literally at a full on sprint, to make sure we could see Dodees face while coming down the stairs.

: ) We made it.


Slowly moving down the escalator stairs... our view...
brown suit pants- definitely floods, a brown vest and suit jacket-definitely a western suit, a bolo tie, and to top if off a 50 gallon cowboy hat. (just kidding I don't know the correct gallon termonology for cowboy hats). IT WAS JORDON! Best moment ever.

crappy picture I know, but it was the best I could do while shaking

Mama

I wish they always dressed like that

ahhsohappee

So how appropriate would cake pops with ties on them be to celebrate?

Like brother like sister. We can't handle the flash. I had no idea he was down with the sickness like me.. soooo good to have him home! : )

we go green, we ride bikes

So, okay, we really don't go green all the time.

We don't really ride bikes that often at all, we just got them. But, we like to think we're pretty great at it.

Except... when instances like Saturday happen, after 30 minutes of your flat road bike riding- which really, I'll be honest here ... burned my child bearing hips and thighs, (no, no child bore from those hips yet if you were wondering). We got to a hill. A measly little hill. Jor yelled to me asking if we could do it, and acting like he was crazy because it was so small, I yelled back, "totally!"- easy for a pro like me, right?

Needless to say, if you were a plain jane passerby, driving down a Saratoga Springs road early Saturday morning, this is what you would have seen.
At almost the base of a hill, you know... possibly the hill was at a slight increase- but definitely not near the top. You would have seen a girl, in her early twenties, standing next to her bike. Not on her bike, trying to defeat that hill, no, she didn't make it that far. She would have been breathing hard, she was pale, and wobbling back and forth because she was dizzy and quite possibly was about to vomit.

At least one of us made it to the top. As you can read, I am absolutely terribly out of shape. Honestly, I can barely walk today. (Not sure if I should be admitting this all..) But, I promise you by the end of this summer I will conquer that hill.

Jory surprised me with these awesome new helmets. He was so excited about his green beaut. He is so cute. But, every time I look at him with his helmet on, this is what I think of. . .


Oh, I love him. (Jory, not the mushroom.)

the worst best things about camping

Friday after work Jory, nervous, came to tell me that he had just spent 80$ on a annual "national park and canyon pass". Which A. That makes me feel like a terrible wife that he would be nervous to tell me that he had just spent 80$! Ha, but maybe it was the fact that I had just told him we reallllly needed to start pinching our pennies 'cause he is going to take me to Sweden next year!

So, that impulse buy sparked a impulse camping trip for the night. We called my little brothers, met at Am Fork canyon, and Jor was able to cruise right on by the lengthy line of guests getting ready to pay their 6 dollar fee to go into Am Fork canyon... We had the annual pass baby! Haha, Jory held his "member id" card up in the window and drove by like he was thee shiz I tell you. It was hillarious. Honestly, I don't think anyone was looking when he held up that card with pride, but we all pretended for Jory. He's pretty cool.

We went up past Silver Lake Flat and hiked about a 1/2 mile to a pretty secluded area and camped. Why is it that...

1. Someone always ends up dropping at least one hot dog in the fire

2. It's such a difficult task to pee outside. Trying to position myself from being hidden from my brothers, the main trail AND making sure to not actually go on my shoes- okay I know too much information...it was really tough. Oh what a concept that is just so much easier for the male gender.

3. On the same subject, the smell of the campfire after your husband and two little brothers decided to urinate to put the glowing fire coals out completely out before you go hit the tent

4. Finding good wood. : ) After a very wet spring, everything is wet- including the wood you need for fire wood! Even with Jory's mad fire making skills we couldn't get FIA going. . . Nothing was starting.. and we had forgot our kindlin.. haha such a funny word. So, thank goodness for camping chairs with their big papery/fabric-y material tags, we ripped off the tags and were able to start a fire with those. Just not a real camping trip with a fire to roast your smores.

5. Cleanliness kind of disappears. How is it, that when you're outside... the concept of cleanliness seems to disappear. I mean heaven forbid... you usually end up having dirt under your nails (i'm being serious here that is one of my biggest pet peeves- and I have been known to try to have Jor scrape the soap to clean under those claws of his). Your nose get's wiped on your sleeve, the dirt or mud wiped on your pants, and you eat marshmallows off of sticks.

6. Why is it that you always end up putting your tent on the rockiest spot possible in the whole Rocky Mountains. Yes, that spot that is so rocky you have to sleep with your body twisted and contorted into awkward positions to avoid the jagged rocks that feel like boulders under your thin sleeping bag.

7. How I somehow always manage to end up eating it, yes, falling where ever I go. I hope other people have this problem. Whether it's hiking, or just sitting in a camping chair. Yes, that happened. I fell on top of the wood pile while reaching for a stick- mind you I was sitting, in a chair. I have bruises to prove it to you, but I don't think Jor would appreciate it if I showed you those brusies. Oh, and when hiking back down in the morning, I also fell, and grew another knee cap. On my shin.

the second kneecap

Really though, camping wouldn't be camping unless all these things happened. I totally love it!