All things in moderation

You know the situation. You've been grocery shopping, your tired, and you just want to put all the groceries away and sit down with your king-size, Reeses Peanutbutter Cups and watch last nights episode of cupcake wars. You open your freezer and then you realize your husband has a problem. I understand his excitement. I mean steak is cheaper than chicken here but come on, Dave, where am I going to put my cookie dough ice cream?

Cloudy with a chance of Candy

When I was little I always wanted wall paper like in Willie Wonka ( The good one, not the one that scares me and leaves me rocking in the corner. ) Anyway, he had that cool wall paper you could lick and it tasted like strawberries and such. I also always wanted it to rain candy. Well, this year at our Checketts reunion, we didn't get to lick someones wall, which after thinking it over, is kind of gross. We did, however, have candy fall from the sky. It was every kids, and my fantasy come to life. A huge thanks to Uncle Mike, uhhh I mean "Maverik," and Aunt Lisa. Soo super cool.

Call me "Goose"

My first decade of life happened in the 80's, good music, "Star Wars" and my mom even cut my hair in the popular "Dorothy Hamel" (Not pretty when you have super thick hair. Hence why my brothers all called me Fungi."

Anyway, my favorite movie of the whole decade was "Top Gun" especially the flying scenes. Now, I realize that the volleyball scene is also entertaining but since I was usually playing with my scratch and sniff Strawberry shortcake doll I never noticed. I was thrilled over the weekend when my Uncle Mike (Who will now only be known as "Maverick") invited me to go up into his two man airplane and do some tricks. Great balls of fire, it was so dang cool. I would be looking at the sky, then all of a sudden I was looking at the ground. Some with weaker stomachs might have lost it right there but due to the training I received being pregnant 4 times I held it all in. It was truly awesome. As soon as we got home last night, I wanted to go watch "Top Gun" again, luckily I had no desire to cut my hair to look like a giant mushroom.

I inhaled watermelon up my nose.

Ya know, when you are in middle school and the socially- backward, scary kid snorts noodles up his nose? Yea, that is what I felt like this last weekend. Part of the holiday festivities included a good old fashioned "Watermelon Eating Contest." I attacked my melon with vigor. It was in my eyebrows and hair and definitely up my nose. The three boys all entered in their age brackets and I was convinced I would win the adult race. The competition was stiff! Although I was happy not to see any 85 pound Asian women. (They always win these events you know )
Other Competitors were:

Kristy: Who, truthfully, I really wasn't worried about, I mean she was wearing a moo moo. No one can win who's wearing a moo moo.

Shiny head handle bar mustache cowboy guy: Definitely a problem, but I still felt like I could take him.

Richard Canon: How competitive could an eye surgeon be?

Lori Canon: Let's face it. Eating is not Lori's strong point. She still makes fun of me for eating an entire cake every year on my birthday.

I thought I had the race when a fifteen year old girl (from my ward) came from behind and barely beat me. Maybe I should have snorted more up my nose. That might have given me the winning edge.

Here's Jonny Watermelon Seed going to town - note how he scopes out his competition midway through!

4th of July in "Stars Hollow"

First of all, if any of you can guess the "Stars Hollow" reference you will receive a gold star. It was such a fabulous weekend, the Steele's and Cannon's (Some of our closest friends who we don't get to see nearly enough) joined us in in the middle of nowhere to celebrate our countries independence. We attended:

: The horse parade (Almost as exciting as it sounds)

: The Ravalli County Rodeo pageant ( Oh my Nellie, I am going to try to send for the transcription. AWESOME! )

: A dutch oven cook-off (Very tasty! Seriously why don't we have a dutch oven restaurant here!)

: The Ravalli county Hoe-down (Think of the worst Stake Dance you've ever attended and times it by 100, and unlike the typical Stake Dance we couldn't even leave early to go get ice cream because nowhere is open after 9:00 p.m.)

: Andy my favorite- the Watermelon Eating contest ( This definitely deserves it's own blog. Stay tuned. )

We also went to Lake Como, and Blodgett canyon. ( We might not have a store opened past 8:00 p.m. but we have plenty of nature) It was a great weekend!

What kind of World part 2

Ok, I don't live in Helena, but we're in the same state and all. The headline of their paper this morning:



Man shoots neighbors dog. Parole in jeopardy.



So, maybe we do need a little gun control in Montana.