Doggy Salon

The other night we watched the movie "Marley & Me". (Yes, I know we're roughly 6 mos behind in watching movies) Well first, nobody told me that you would cry your eyes out! This was marketed as a funny movie! Second, I don't even like pets and yet I still cried my eyes out! Since then I decided that our dog Maxx needed more love since he is, or at least should be, in his late golden years. I know this may be odd that I have a dog but yet have never mentioned it. Unless you've been to our home, you might never have known this tid bit! I "inherited" ole Maxx when Jer and I got married. And no, that doesn't mean I'm the evil step mom. Well ok ok maybe just on some days! Anyway, Maxx is a mutt that was rescued from the desert as a puppy by Jeremy and his friends. Jer was around 16 at the time. This means this dog has got be at least 16 years old!! However, you would never guess that! I'm not a dog expert and therefore didn't know that mutts are the heartiest longest lasting breeds. So clearly Maxx isn't going anywhere soon.

Anyway, it's about 150 degrees here right now so I was harassing Jeremy yesterday to give the poor dog a shave. We're too cheap and don't have time to take him to the Posh Puppy Salon. And I can guarantee his humble heritage wouldn't be admitted in those high class establishments anyway. So instead we whipped out the trusty hair clippers that I use for Jeremy and Anden! I helped Jer get the makeshift doggy salon set up and then I left to go for a run with my friends. Prior to leaving, I gave Jeremy strict instructions to PLEASE finish the shaving job before getting distracted with something else. I was so proud of Jeremy when I got home. He was lying down relaxing on the couch with his freshly shaven mutt sitting on the floor next to him .

Anybody else need a hair cut? Time is limited. Surely we'll be arrested for animal cruelty shortly.

The Washer Ate It

How many times have you SWORN that your washing machine eats the socks?! I have thoroughly analyzed this great mystery and that is the only logical explanation! I know that I can't be the lone treasure hunter on the inevitable quest to find that missing sock match. There has to be others out there like me that share this frustration.

Let's start from the beginning. I know, without a doubt, that I put in both socks. (disclaimer: if Jer loads the washer than this guarantee is voided) However, when the laundry is finished and the time arrives to match and fold the socks, there is NEVER a pair that somehow isn't missing its mate! How can this be possible?! Yet it happens every single time I do laundry! Is there a hole in the washer that dumps the socks to the center of the earth never to be retrieved again? Clearly the washer is empty when you unload it. They can't just vanish! That's why the intelligent conclusion has been that our washer has a rabid appetite for vulnerable little delicious socks.

Well, our sock mystery took a turn last night. Jeremy excitedly called me into the laundry room to show me his earth shattering discovery. He just might be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his investigative work on this case.

After this discovery, I'm sure we'll be answering calls from the FBI for Jeremy to be reassigned to work on the Bermuda Triangle and the Loch Ness Monster mysteries.

Big Changes

Well there's two bits of exciting news at our household...

1st - Anden is officially potty trained!! It was actually much easier than I expected it to be. Nothing like bribery of sticker charts and the "potty prize bucket"! I guess when you wait until they're 10 years old to potty train, their maturity level is competent enough to instantly understand potty techniques. I think it only took a week to master the crapper.

2nd - Taylee is officially a walking maniac!! She has been taking steps (running steps for that matter) for about 3 weeks. She's just such a busy body that she couldn't figure out why you don't stay vertical when you take off running without mastering balance first! However, she obviously felt the pressure of sibling rivalry and conquered walking with minutes to spare before she turned 10 mos! Now she can claim that she too started walking at 9 mos along with her older brother.

(Ignore the howling wind. Clearly a monsoon storm can't keep us inside! I was almost blown over. I don't know how she wasn't!)

Earlier that day i tried to take a video of her walking. She became an instant tease and "forgot" how to walk once the camera rolled. So here's the outtakes...

Can I just jump instead?

How about I just hide now?

And, of course, Anden had to get his face time also.

Monsoon

Last night during dinner, a massive storm rolled in. Normal people run inside during storms. But not here in Arizona. You run outside during storms! So I hurried and geared Anden up in his Monsoon Armour and sent him outside. After he blew across the yard, I sent Jeremy out to stake him to the ground. I'm not sure which person needed more help.

Itty Bitty Pool Party

On Saturday, Anden and I went to the Itty Bitty Pool Party at the waterpark. It was his friend Molly's birthday party also. They shut down the waterpark for a couple hours just for the little kids to play. So they have complete free roam of the place without the fierce competition from big kids. However, Anden enjoys that part the best. Halfway through the party, the lifeguard announced over the loud speakers for everyone to exit the water and it would be temporary closed. Huh?! I approached a male teenage acne victim lifeguard to further prob the reason for disappointing the children. He immediately informed me a kid had poo'd in the pool. WHAT?! But then he must have felt that answer wasn't sufficient enough. He went on to describe, in detail, how the other highly trained mature lifeguards were trying to "shoo" the kid out of the pool while poo pellets were falling out of his pants thus making a trail back to his chair. I tried my best to hide my disgust. I should have known better, but in my innocence I asked "Well how long is the pool going to be closed?" He quickly replied, "Well if it's a hard poo, then 24 mins. But if it's a mushy poo, then 36 mins." I profusely thanked him for his over informative answer and how knowledgable he was about the exact times necessary to "shock" the pool back to safe levels after a feces deposit. I went back to my friends and reported, "The pool will be closed about 30 mins". I didn't feel the need to over indulge them as well.

I hope next time you can all join us at the Itty Bitty POO Party!

Dinner

Anden has quite the diverse palette of tastes. Tonight's dinner was a combination of chicken strips, french fries and sushi. Mmm mmm delicious!

Water Balloons

We made the mistake of buying a 500 pack of water balloons for Anden. I had no idea how absolutely irritating it is to fill up a thin wimpy latex ballon from a hose and an included nozzle that's clearly way too big to fit in the balloon opening. After you manage to spray more water all over you than into the balloon, you have to tie that dang thing without puncturing a hole in it with long nails. After 5 balloons I was wiped out. Great, only 495 more to go! I admitted defeat and sent Aaron out to be the balloon master. I could hear Anden outside laughing with absolute pleasure. I decided to watch from inside for a bit.

Apparently there's some allure about biting the balloon and having water and latex blast you in the face. I still don't know which boy taught the other boy how to do this. At least Aaron kindly removed the balloon remnants from Anden's eardrum.

Kohl's Ranch

On Friday, we picked up our car from the shop and unwillingly handed over Anden's college fund to pay for it. Then we rushed home, threw clothes in bags and headed up north to Kohl's Ranch. It's a cute rustic resort just past Payson, AZ.

Grandma Kathy, Papa Larry, Derick, Taylor, Trentyn were already there. It was supposed to be record breaking temps in Phoenix. So the decision to leave town again for the weekend was an easy one! We had a great time! It was really warm for that area too. But we'll take 90s over 110+ any day! At least you can actually feel cool relief in the shade there! We went fishing in the creek. Papa Larry taught us all how to gut a fish (ick!). Anden was of course enthralled.

Taking an afternoon break. Anden loves watching movies with Grandma! Taylee did her best to sit still and watch too! (ya right!!)

The peace and quiet didn't last long enough. Then we all headed back down to the creek. I left Anden alone with Jeremy and he came back so excited and told me he was playing with "poo sticks". Uh what the heck are poo sticks??! "JEREMY! Why's he poking poo with sticks??!" Jeremy calmly assured me he wasn't playing in manure but rather it's a game from Winnie the Pooh. Oh, guess an "h" makes a big difference! So on they went playing with pooH sticks.

Eventually we made our way to the pool to cool down. Anden thinks he's quite the swimmer in his turtle swimming vest. He conned Grandma into entertaining him in the deep end. I sat safely in the shallow side with Taylee...with my hair still dry! :-)

It was definitely a fun weekend! Thanks Grandma and Papa for inviting us! Hopefully you didn't catch the germs our kids (AND JEREMY) were freely distributing.

Tow Truck Anyone?

It wouldn't be a great holiday weekend without a few hiccups. Well this time, we've totally outdone ourselves in the hiccups department. Let's just say maybe I'll think this will be funny months from now.

So on Sunday, Jeremy somehow "misplaced" Aaron's car keys. We spent 5 hours tearing apart the house, garage and streets of Anthem looking for them. The sun was setting and we finally admitted defeat. There was no way they were getting back to Vegas that night unless they were planning to run and carry the car on their shoulders. So Aaron had to call in and miss work on Monday. Lyndsay had jury duty that she had to figure a way out of. Jeremy was going to have to miss work also to resolve this. Needless to say, it was a bit of a somber mood at our household. We had no choice but to have new keys/remote made at the dealership. Of course everything is closed on Sunday night. And of course Aaron would drive a Land Rover and not some easily accessible GM or Ford that has a dealership on every corner! Oh no, there's only one Land Rover dealership in the valley. Oh and the more we researched it, we were prepared this was going to be a PRICEY mistake and one that might take weeks to fix since most likely the keys would have to be made in England and shipped over! I guess if you're going to lose car keys, you might as well go all out and pick the hardest brand to replace. For that matter no locksmith in town can make Land Rover keys, just every other type possible. So we decided not to worry about it and have a remaining fun night instead. Monday would be doomsday.

On Monday I headed to work at the crack of dawn...but not until after Jeremy and I were up ALL night with an inconsolable sick little Taylee. She would now stay home with Lyndsay while the boys (yes that means Anden as well) coordinated the car mess. Here's some highlights of our Monday:

Tow Truck: $125

Replacement Keys: $270

Watching your money & keys for someone else drive away: Not so priceless

Oh but wait, this is the Harbecks we're talking about so the day was far from over! Taylee was miserable so I left work early to go 20 mins back home, pick her up and then proceed to go back 30 mins to the doctor. (Ya, so I haven't switched our doctors to Anthem yet) The boys were pulling into the house the same time I got home and yes WITH the Land Rover! One crisis solved!! I grabbed Taylee, loaded her up, and rushed off to resolve the second crisis. As I was driving back to the freeway, I noticed my car felt really funky like a flat tire. I pulled over and checked - no flats. So I jumped back in and took off. I didn't make it far before I pulled over again and called Jer. As I'm complaining about the car feeling weird, I notice that the entire BACK END OF THE CAR IS SITTING ON THE TIRES! No joke! I suddenly had a low rider!! I could be wrong but I don't recall hiring "Pimp my Ride" to ghettofy my Mercedes!! I frantically looked for the rhinestone hydraulics button to lift my car but then I realized this wasn't an Impala! "Jer, my car is freakin screwed! Come get me!!" As I pleasantly waited in the 110 degrees with a crying Taylee, I scrambled to delay her appointment. Luckily they felt bad for me and gave me an extra 30 mins to now fix the THIRD crisis of the day! Jeremy showed up, we switched cars, and I watched in horror as he attempted to flintstone the car home. I rushed to the doctor and told Jer that I didn't even want to know how much this was going to cost us.

Taylee was diagnosed with Roseola, which is just what I expected after the 4 days of high fever and now the rash. Also the poor little thing has 2 more top teeth coming in during all this. Of course magically she perked up and was happy as can be when the doctor came in. Thanks sweetie, I love looking like a liar. Bottom line, second crisis resolved. Off we rushed back home. I was dying to find out if Jeremy had fixed the car or either sold the low rider to a South LA inhabitant. I pulled up and sadly saw this in my driveway.

Same Tow Truck: $87
Repair Costs: ?????
Neighbors thinking the Repo Man got us: Priceless

Update: It's been 4 days and my car is now fixed and ready for pick up. ONE measly shock needed replaced. We figured; sweet, $100 at Pep Boys. Oh how wrong we were. We couldn't just have normal shocks. Apparently we have solid gold air shocks (I couldn't understand the technical terminology so this is my interpretation).

One Shock Replacement: $1243.74

It's time to buy a normal vehicle.

Unpaid Vacation # 6 - Fourth of July Weekend

July 2-5: This time our unpaid vacation fell on a holiday weekend; meaning we already had Friday off + taking Thursday unpaid = 4 day weekend! We had so much fun! Lyndsay and Aaron came into town on Thursday night. Then Ashley, Kyle, Gage, Brigg and Holly, Bill, Will, Lucy came up on Friday. The Anthem Firework Festival was Friday night (3rd). So we set up every kid toy we own in the backyard and bbq'd before heading over to the park for fireworks. It was by far the BEST weather ever on a Fourth of July in Phoenix! A monsoon storm rolled in late afternoon and cooled things down (100 instead of 107 degrees). Then there was even a breeze! This is the first year I remember not sweating to death while waiting all night for fireworks to begin! Anden had to literally be dragged off the bouncers, specifically the Lightning McQueen slide, in order to watch the fireworks. Jeremy came back laughing and showed me this picture. Seriously, what's wrong with my kid? Nobody eggs him on. He does this for his own amusement.

Gage wanted more than anything to ride the apple/tomato/strawberry/scary red thing. So Kyle waited in the long line and Jeremy/Anden graciously cut in line with them once they were at the front. Jeremy must have somehow forgotten he gets extremely sick from spinny rides (and even more so after that last skull fracture!). Upon entering the ride, we had but one prayer for the little kids...that they wouldn't get struck with flying vomit from the adult. Jeremy definitely payed the price and therefore was lucky enough to spend the rest of the night on a mental carousel.

Poor little Taylee had a fever ALL weekend and was so sick. I felt bad even dragging her to all the events. But she was a good sport and tried to have fun. You know she doesn't feel well when she actually stays in the same spot for more than 2 seconds!

Finally it was firework time and we anxiously awaited back at our blankets. Then the spectacle began! As usual, my kids were bored 5 mins into the firework show.

The kids were exhausted by the time we got home at 10:30pm and crashed right to bed! Ash, Kyle spent the night since they live an hour away! Of course the adults all stayed up way too late laughing and telling stories all night.

On Saturday (4th), we headed to the waterpark! It was lots of fun and suprisingly not too crowded!

It wouldn't be a 4th of July celebration without the Flag Fruit Pizza! We let Anden help this year. He was so excited that he couldn't contain himself and smooshed the whole case of raspberries in one swift fistful motion. Uh, jam anyone?

On Sunday we finally had time to break out our fireworks!! We were so excited. Lyndsay and Aaron busted up laughing when they saw what we had.

Ok so Arizona doesn't trust you with anything more than glorified New Year's noisemakers. This is seriously all they sell. Good thing Anden doesn't know how pathetic these are in the fireworks world. He was absolutely thrilled.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July! We're so thankful to live in America and for our freedom. Thank you to the troops and all those that have served our country which has allowed us these blessings!

Biker Babe

When Anden isn't looking, Taylee loves to steal his toys! Today she found his bicycle. What a cutie!

Monsoon Season

After 364 days of sunshine a year, we'll gladly take a cloudy rainy muggy sticky 100 degree day!

Anden fully enjoyed the 10 mins of morning rain. I think he might have even been lucky enough to catch a pollution filled rain drop in his mouth!

All I want for Christmas...

Santa has officially come and gone this year. Taylee got just what she wanted. Her two front teeth!