Mexican Vacation 2009

After all of the drama of our car trouble (which is still not over) I have settled down enough to post about our vacation.
Every year we go to Kino Bay Mexico. I think Nate's family has been going for about 15 years now and this is our 7th together. Even with our kids, that keep us very busy, this is the most relaxing vacation we take.
Granted it is very hot in Mexico in July, the water is quite warm and we swim and play a lot.
This is where we stay on the beach. There are 4 condos, and our group used the 3 on the end.. How else do you accommodate 20+ people?
Naturally Nate and Jake took some opportunities to fish. They did not catch anything. They were given some tips on some good fishing places but it was just too hot to sit and fish. It is just as much fun if you don't even catch anything.

Jake is fishing in his underwear. He was very busy potty training this trip. I think that his boxer briefs are so dang cute!!!!
It has been a tradition for a few years to bury the kids and give them fish tails. I was not sure that we would do it this year, it seemed like there were a lot of bugs- I called them sand fleas because they jumped and would bite you- but the tradition carried on. The year they were on their tummies.
I also make "sand Jakeis" and "sand Maesyns." We also make sand castles the whole week long. Jake made sure to take all of the shells of of "himself" before we went in for the night and Maesyn was upset that a large crab had a hole near her head and was wandering around "her" the next morning.

Because I have not read a book just for me in about 10 years I decided to take 2 books on the trip. After this summer's experience I have concluded that it is best to read the cover and some of the reviews before diving into a book.
My first book was "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. A friend told me about it a while back and I thought it sounded interesting. I loved a few nonfiction books I'd read on survival situations. ("Into Thin Air", and "Into The Wild")- however, had I read the reviews I would have been reminded, and prepared for the graphic, carnal nature of the story. I could not put the book down and I think Nate and I both read it in 2 days. I think I was eager for something good to happen so I could not stop reading until it did, or until the book ended. I guess that made it a good book. I was not disappointed with the end and thought about it for days.
The other book was "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." I'm not a very literary person, and after I was finished Nate kept asking me why the caged bird sings. I still don't know. I also love books that talk about rising above difficult circumstances, I've enjoyed reading "Man's Search for Meaning." "The Hiding Place", "Hansi" (Not a well known book- but about the Holocaust), and "The Color Purple." They are enlightening and inspiring. However, I did not like reading about the assault on the young girl. (Nobody does). I think that it was a bit more difficult because I now have children of my own. I think that "The Road" was difficult too because of that reason.

The kids would watch movies and play house when it was too hot to go out. Kourtney, Nate's youngest sister, would indulge them. Jake was the dog. (Nate always wanted to be the Monkey when he played house with his sisters).
We also went to visit the street vendors on our way to the tide pools and at the pier in old Kino. We have a friend named Francisco that does Iron Wood carvings and gives us a good deal. Jake bought 3 dolphins. A mommy, daddy and baby. Maes bought 2 as well as jewelry and a little swivel head turtle. The kids earned their own money this year by practicing swimming. Maesyn can earn extra money by doing chores too. I figured that I spend money on trinkets when we travel, so why not make them work for it. Granted swimming practice is an easy thing to do, but they are sometimes reluctant. They earned 10 dollars for this trip and can earn 10 more for the next. (easiest money they ever made).
Maesyn also got together with her aunt and her friends and made jewelry. Another Mexico tradition that my family will be involved in via Maesyn, as I don't wear jewelry.







In addition to our time on the beach in front of our condo and reading books, we also went to explore the near by tide pools. The kids loved finding little snails on the rocks and tiny little crabs, some just the size of your thumbnail. Nate would also bring them hermit crabs that he would find snorkeling.
Nate and Jake were both stung by Portuguese Man 0 War. Some days there were a lot of them washed up with the tide. They are not very big. We would walk around and pop them (with our shoes on) but this turned out to be a bad idea, as one stuck to one of Maesyn's flip flops and it's tentacles rubbed against her opposite leg, and they still had some sting to them. I'm pretty sure I sat on one at one pint while we were building castles as part of my bum started to sting pretty bad!
All in all we had a great and relaxing (although eventful) trip. We are glad to be home and resting up for our trip to San Diego. We look forward to no car trouble and cooler weather on our trip as we prepare for the new school year.

The End.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to Nate!

Right now the kids and Nate are in the Living Room watching home videos. We need to keep making those. The kids like to watch them and it is a fun Sunday activity.

As far as gifts he sort of made bank this year. We did not make the digital transition about a week ago and have been without regular TV for this entire time! It really was not bad as we are not HUGE into TV. The kids did watch a lot of movies, but it was nice for me not to waste time in front of the TV at night.

The TV we bought right when we got married was pretty bad, so we knew a digital one was in the future. Wal Mart had a GREAT deal, and I managed to keep it a surprise. We gave it to him last night when he came back from his Mission Reunion. Jake helped to set it up. We sort of have it figured out.
He also got a fancy pants shoe rack because our shoes take too much room in the closet and a new camping chair because ours keep falling apart!

MBA graduation

We have been married for nearly 7 years, and Nate has been a full time student that entire time. He has even taken classes each and every summer. What do you get out of that? An associates degree, a Bachelors Degree, a Masters of Health Sector Management and an MBA. He did not walk for the first 3 degrees, but we really wanted him to celebrate this MBA, it is major accomplishment.

We were only planning on going to the MBA part of the graduation on Saturday, but when we heard that the President was going to speak at the ASU graduation we decided to take Maesyn.
Now, Maesyn is not much for politics. She is only 4 and that is fine. She does not know about issues such as the economy and its dismal state, nor about immigration or abortion. I am not cloistering my little girl, I just want to preserve her innocents and that bliss that comes with being ignorant of these things. SHE IS 4! I am saddened when I hear little ones discussing some of these issues. I prefer she have conversations about webkins, swimming and "shaking her bum cheeks."
She does not know who we voted for. We might have told her, but I'm sure she has forgotten by now. She went with me to vote and watched the election on TV. After Obama was elected she asked when she would get to see him. I explained that it would probably be never. When she would see him on TV she would recognize him as the President. We have respect for the office and try to remember to pray for our president (that is all we can do now right?) in our prayers.
Sooooo. When the opportunity arouse for us to give Maesyn the chance to see a Living and Acting President of the United States of America.. we jumped at it. After all, we just had to get the tickets (easy), stand in the heat for a while (not too bad, even for this pregnant lady) and then eat expensive stadium food as we waited in the shade for the sun to set.
Here is the girl taking advantage of the opportunity of a life time!
We had great seats and could see the snipers.
We watched the cars drive into the stadium. Who knows who is in this one.

We waited through the speeches as Maesyn got so bored and restless. Obama began to speak and I thought after Maesyn saw him that we could just walk out. She would have liked that as she had been sitting a while. But we listened to his whole speech, which was not bad and then flooded out of there with about 1/4 of the other guests. (maybe less).
We rode the new light rail back to our car and headed home.

Maeyn's take on the evening:
"He is so boring and does not talk about kid stuff."

THEN.......
On Saturday May 16th we had the MBA Graduation. We took Jake along. He dropped a bag of Cheeze its onto the sound people. They probably hated it. The guest speaker was really brief and kinda' lame, but it was great for the kids that were again bored and restless- even though they had food (now gone) and markers and crayons and walks with Grandpa Anderson, and Lap sittings with Grandma and Grandma Garner.
After we went to lunch for Mexican (I probably threw it up later)...and celebrated the weight off of his shoulders.

NEXT....
Find a better paying job or hope for a raise from his current employer. He loves his current job.
AND....I've already begun making calls about our student loan payments.
It cost a pretty penny to add MHSM and MBA behind your name!

Father and Child......

When we were fishing up in Greer it reminded me of when we visited my Grandparents on their Mission in Missouri. When Nate showed his co workers some of the photos they could not believe how green it was. They were convinced that Nate had altered the photos some how. Although both photos are cute, can you believe the difference in color. These were taken 3 years apart, both in the month of April, one in Missouri and one in AZ.

Proposal

When Nate proposed it was a long event complete with a canoe ride to an island, a picnic dinner and roses. He did not have the ring back from the jeweler but he wanted to propose before he left for a trip with his buddies... so he proposed with a fake ring.
Then we returned back to my apartment. When I went to my room to put all of my stuff away (he had picked me up from my ceramic's final) there were several dozen roses on my bed fanned out in a circle and the ring in the middle.
What a trickster!!!
Well, I have had those roses for nearly 7 years now. And this is what they looked like when I took them off the plant shelf last week.
I have several other bunches of flowers that are decorating my home, but these and a few others are on their way to the dumpster, and the others might go when we move. I just had our air ducts cleaned and dusted years of dust off of our plant shelves. Our little Maesyn has a "dusty nose" quite often. Although Nate and I don't have allergies, we may have a little person with them... and besides, I am on my way to simplifying (don't know if it is possible). So dust collecting nic knacks and various unneeded collectibles are out of here.. or I will not buy anymore for that matter. Things with sentimental value I will keep. I am afraid that I might regret getting rid of these. After all, I saved the sticky notes that times my kids contractions!
But here are the photos for posterity.

favorite picture

This is one of my favorite pictures of Nate and Maesyn. She is about 6 months old and Nate is singing to her-obviously. (on our messy un made bed- I have developed this new compulsion of making our beds every morning... not a bad thing..)
I was cleaning up one of Jake's messes from this after noon and found this in an old photo album with family pictures that we used to take to church when Maes was super small. Although this was less than 4 and a half years ago, we look so much younger... kids will do that to ya... also being 30 does it to you.

sunday mornings with dad=fun for the kids

I've been spending far too much time on the couch looking like this:

However you will notice that my children are wearing dish cloth and placemat capes. This is because Daddy is home this fine Sunday morning before afternoon church. The kids and Dad were busy in the bedroom doing something "really, really cool". I did not have the energy to move from my couch so I told them to bring the fun into the living room.
Once queen size mattress and 2 capes later:

Dads are way more fun than Moms.

Jimmy Eat World and Clarity x10

Nate has been a big Jimmy Eat world fan from the get go. He used to go to their shows when he was in high school and they were just starting out. They are from Mesa (in case you did not know). I, on the other hand, had heard of them from others that were native to Mesa, but never really heard their music until the big MTV hit "the middle" came out. Nate and I were dating at this time.
Of course Nate introduced me to their older stuff - which is very very good. He also bought their newer albums as they came out- i think just one in the last 7 years- am a wrong?
His all time favorite Jimmy album, and possibly all time favorite album ever is Clarity. (honestly he should write this post).
So for Christmas his little sister bought him a ticket to go see the Clarity x10 show. They played 10 shows and ended in Tempe (close enough to Mesa). He was so excited. Clarity came out 10 years ago.
We forgot to mark it on the calendar. His sister called the night before to remind us. Thank goodness that Saturday was not our night for the baby sitting co-op- we did not realize it was that weekend!!!
I was reluctant to go because I have been feeling sick in the evenings and wanting to go to bed before 9pm. The first band would not play until 7:30.
When we got there they would not let me take in my bottle of water, but thank goodness they did not see my rice cakes.
Half way through the opening band (No Knife) I felt sick and tired and had to go to the back. (Why is it standing room only at the Marquee?) I paid $3 for a sprite and kept getting ice refills. I sat on the floor in the back until a few songs into Jimmy. Poor Nate stood with me - thank goodness we were right by the sound booth and had a great unobstructed view and the sound was good. I did eventually stand up and sing with the band and bob to the music. Nate on the other hand, almost has seizures. I am afraid he might run into people. He bobs to the beat and plays air guitar. Everytime he sees a show he misses playing live music. One day he will again. It is so fun to sing with the band at a show when you know the words to all of the songs!! They played every song on Clarity in the order from the album. Then they played a whole bunch of other stuff that was great too- old and new. You could tell who the die hard followers were when they played the song that says "throw out your arms" and all five or 6 of them threw out their arms. Nate included. (I'm not a die hard because I don't even know the name of the song). Apparently at a show back in the day everybody in the audience threw out their arms and it was so cool. I was sort of expecting this to happen but only a hand full of people did it. They must have been at that show too.
You could tell that a lot of the crowd was into their newer stuff as the singing along was louder when they sang stuff from their newest album.
Nate said that this was possibly his favorite show ever. I'd have to put it up in the top 2 or 3 for me. I love it when I know all of the songs and can sing along. I am not as on top of music as I used to be. Generally I'll go to a show of a band I've listened to and they will play music from their newest album (which i have recently or not yet purchased) and then I cannot sing along. This was a show of all old an good songs that we have been listening to for years and years. Fun fun fun. Lots of singing. Now if the Pixies would only come back one more time. I missed them when they came to Mesa a few days/weeks after Maesyn was born. Nate had school and I did not want to leave my new baby alone. I would have known all of the songs at that show too...unlesss they started to play some Frank Black stuff.

Strawberry Short Cake..

Strawberry Shortcake is Nate's favorite Dessert. He (and probably most of us) grew up with the dessert consisting of sugar sweetened strawberries, whipped cream and some sort of cake...usually yellow cake from the box, or sliced pound cake, or even those little hostess cake bowls that they sell at the grocery store. All of these are pretty good in my opinion. However, several years ago while eating dessert at a little custard shop, someone I was with ordered Strawberry Shortcake...and to her dismay she got Shortcake not with yellow cake, or pound cake or a little hostess bowl.. but a BISCUIT!!!! oh, she was angry and returned it and said it was not Shortcake, but a BISCUIT. The NERVE of that Custard SHOP!!. I was a little embarrassed. My friend a little opinionated and I felt that she did not really know what she was talking about...at least not fully. I thought "shortcake" and then I though "shortbread" and remembered shortbread cookies that are made of shortening and are buttery and flaky and crispy. So what is "shortcake"? Yellow cake is not shortcake, pound cake is not shortcake, and those little hostess bowls are like yellow cake...not shortcake. I did a little research, and looked at my favorite recipe source (foodnetwork.com) and even found some Strawberry Shortcake recipes that included pound cake. But I also found this: The recipe for cream biscuits. (I'm not sure that this is the exact recipe that I first tried- but it is cream biscuits)
Oh, what a delight.
Most of the Strawberry Shortcake recipes on foodnetwork.com included some sort of biscuit. I tried the recipe on Nate and he approved. We still like our old way of making strawberry shortcake, but we like this one just as much (and sometimes more).
Here is what we do in a pinch....it tends to be cheaper and is more food storage friendly- however you really need fresh whipped cream for the topping!!!!
We just mix up Bisquick biscuits, plus a little extra sugar and vanilla in the mix. This time we cut them with heart cookie cutters- but obviously any shape works. Then..here is the good part...Dip each biscuit in melted butter and then sugar. Bake as directed.
Cut each in half and fill with sugar sweetened berries and fresh whipped cream. -obviously.

We Don't Like it When the Pigs Eat our Food

Here is the latest from the Garner Family Band.
Hope you LOVE it!!

Stick em' up

Nate insisted that I take a picture of this tree that we saw up in Flagstaff. When he saw the pictures this afternoon he said "See, I told you that was a cool tree." I did not want to take a picture of it because I'm not that great at taking pictures of landscapes. But it was an interesting tree.

I told Nate that I would upload the picture and he could blog about it.
His reply: "No, I'm not going to blog about that tree. Like I care about that tree. I just thought it was cool. Like someone was saying "Stick 'em up". And to be honest. If I lived near that tree, atHalloween I'd put a Jack O Lantern up in it."

"Today"

Often I'll send Nate e-mails telling him what i've done or plan to do during the day. They are usually titled "Today". They are usually long and make me look like some sort of busy person. I list every thing just about.

Here is today's:


thank you for cleaning up last night.
here is what i've done today:

• got yelled at by maesyn while going potty right when i woke up "why aren't you getting my chocolate!!??"
  
• breakfast kids
• wiped down jake, table, chair and floor after jake breakfast
  
• scriptures and breakfast for self
  
• prayers
• bathe and dress kids
• bathe and dressed self
• webkinz for maes
  
• wal mart- tote for train, and soap pump
• bath and body works- sale
• michaels- frame and hooks (i got one with a shelf so that i can put clay work on it- need more space here)
• forgot to buy calander
  
• trader joe's - pasta, brie, bread, soy beans and "pop that taste like water" per maesyn's request.
• took a bite out of every chocolate in the top layer of the box of chocolates trying to find the coconut cream
• ate the coconut cream from the top and bottom layer (did not need to locate it on the second layer)
• lunch for kids and me
• kids made huge mess in living room
• took the rest of the pictures for the chore chart
  

Now I'm going to get dressed and run- hopefully the kids will take a nap while i run.

When I return i'll need to:

• dishes
• paint shelf
• move spoon display
  
• hang shelf
• have kids play in the front "yard" (sidewalk)while jake rides his scooter
• finish chore charts
• print and laminate chore charts
• plan FHE
• Dinner
• fold and put away more laundry
  

I'm sure there is more- i'd like to sort the "importaint paper basket"
love ya
have a good day.
heidi

His replies are usually one liners like this:

That is a ton! Thank you for all you do. I love you! - Nate

Then I replied today like this: (at this point I have yet to run, and blog is not on my list... i should add it real quick)

not really. notice i listed every silly thing that i do usually ..shower, feed the kids, clean up the kids messes.. you could really cut the list in half.
love ya
sorry i was super grumpy last night.
heidi

one of the e-mails i sent to nate today

bike‏

From:	heidi garner (heidileagarner@hotmail.com)
Sent:	Tue 11/18/08 4:12 PM
To:	nate_garner@

once upon a time i put your bike on the car all by myself and packed up the kids and started driving off. i ended up going under the next car cover (either i was going around the speed bump or just turning wide as i was leaving. the bike was on the passenger side of the car and i heard a huge crash. the bike and the rack were ripped off the car. it bumped the side mirror and broke it. there is a missing red piece i think it is the car and i can epoxy it back on but the mirror fell out. it is all cracked up and it won't work with the auto mirror thing. there is a huge gash on the roof and small scratch on the side. some of the other stuff is from the rubber and will rub off. I re assembled the whole thing (i even had to adjust the bar lenght). one of the bike racks might be too damaged to use. (the one with the bike ) it was wobbly when i put the bike up. The rest seems fine. I'm going to take the bike carriers off and then check all of the measurements for the whole rack. And see how damaged the carrier is. If it is very damaged then we need to get a new second carrier. Craigslist.
Also.. i totally don't care about the huge scratch. i just want to be able to put the box on top so we can camp. it would be good to get the mirror fixed. we could check with brother hunt about the part... auch mench.. paint... auch mench. the mirror does in fact work. Ok, i'm going to look all over the car for that red piece and also adjust the rack.

oh, your bike is getting a tune up. there is a huge gash in the back tire- so i'm getting it replaced. Also, your crank set is old, and the part is hard to find. they would need to replace the whole thing if they cannot get the part. If so i told them to just do it. It will be about 90 for that part - it would be the bars for the pedals as well because the bolt is square and they don't do that anymore.. so it will be upgraded. i talked to him about putting money into it.. and we both agreed that even if you find you love road biking more the mountain bike is good for family bike rides and such - it is the suv of bikes... so i don't feel bad about putting money into it. i want you to RIDE IT...

and i don't feel bad about the scratch- except for that it will be your car and i don't want you to have ghetto ness all of the time. maybe when it becomes yours we can get the whole thing painted and replace the bumper and the mirror and have the scratch filled.

love ya
heidi

that was the end of the message

for the record. last time i blue booked the retail value of the car it was about 5k more than what we paid. the lady discounted it because she had a dent in the fender. we never got it fixed... we will when we have the money. the people that gave us a sort of estimate on the fender before we bought the car gave us a way higher(like double) estimate when i took our car in and saw that i was a "stupid" girl.. they did not get any of our money and enver will. i wanted to fix it before we got a mini van and passed it onto nate. he always seems to get the ghetto cars- and this would be his first chance at a nice car. so much for that.
i don't know much about bikes, so i could have said some of the terms wrong.
maesyn said our car looked naked (in a whisper voice) when the rack was off.
we get toyotas because they will last forever- but someone usually totals our cars before they can die. (we had 2 cars totalled in 6 months time) -this is our 5th toyota that we've owned in 6 years of marriage (we both drive toyotas).
i think i sound a little selfish about the car thing... i bet nate hates that we roll in such trashed cars, but i think that the rack makes it look a little hardcore-and maes thinks it makes it look a little less naked.

Some stunning pictures of nate...

It is important to Nate (and myself i guess) that everybody realize that the pictures in the previous posts were just funny things that we did when Nate got "groomed". And he never really went out like that. Here are some pictures of him in all his glory. I feel like i'm posting more pictures of him in his beard ( i even chose a bearded face book photo for him because I miss the beard). It has been over 4 years - and i'm afraid his face is getting quite cold.


There is something about his being in the MBA program and having this new job with a fancy title that deters facial hair growth... bah humbug. We keep checking out bearded guys and nate and i both think that they are so hot....He misses it too.

The winners/cheaters are.....

Sara- Cut your Hair -Pavement.
Kelly - Gigantic- The Pixies.

Please send me your mailing address and I'll get your cards in the mail when ever I decide to drive by the post office and pull in and buy a stamp and send the card to you.

Why are these songs significant to this event???
Cut your Hair. Possibly one of the only songs I know by Pavement. This takes me back to 1994 and listening to Live 105.3 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area. Summer after sophomore year, Mountain View High School, Mountain View, California. Right before we moved to Germany.
When ever I get my hair cut I think of this song.

Gigantic- the Pixies are one of my all time favorite bands. I had no real reason why I picked this song- I just wanted a Pixies song as my new hair style is called "the pixie cut".
The song goes on to say "hey paul, hey paul, hey paul let's have a ball"


Now for your viewing pleasure... Nate getting hair from various parts of his head cut on a few different occasions several years ago: Enjoy.