Zoorific!

Beasty Boy
Friday the 27th, Henry and I loaded up and went to the Hogle Zoo with my friend Sara and her daughter Madeleine (9 mos). When I told Henry we were going to meet Sara at her house, he immediately got excited. Then he began talking about dinosaurs and named every character from The Land Before Time (LBT) series. It then dawned on me that he thought we were going to visit CERA, the Tirceratops, from the LBT series. I had to quickly correct him, but he insisted that we were off to see a dinosaur. Imagine his disapointment when we arrived and Sara, not CERA, answered the door! Henry's disappointment quickly faded when he discovered Sara has two dogs (a huge Malamute who Henry called a "Woof" and a black lab mix who Henry dubbed "Max"- after our Max). As a matter of fact, for future reference, Henry insists that all black dogs are "Maxes". Next, off to the Zoo where Hank knows his way around quite well. We ran, not walked, to the elephant exhibit, the bears and the zebras. Henry's favorite was the very, very humid and stinky Reptile Room with all the snakes and crocodiles. He ran back and forth for about 20 minutes to each window that held any snake. After my hair had completely frizzed out and Henry was drenched in sweat, we called it quits and went to visit the African animals.

Artsy-Fartsy
Here is one of Hank's latest creations. We fingerpainted this week and practiced our colors. Busy, Busy, Busy
On Saturday, Henry and I made the trek up to visit Grandma JoAnn and Grandpa Brent. Grandma had just cleaned the house in time for Henry to wreck it completely! He played at the park, chased bubbles, watched movies, hung out in the dog run and threw decorative rocks in the creek. (sorry, Mom!)

Fun at the park

The dog run

Hot
Sunday was hot. There's no other way to describe it. It set a record for the month of April. True it was only 86 degrees, but still, when you're not used to that weather so early, you must take the necessary precautions...swim trunks, swimming pool and popcicles (in that order).

"Look at me!"

Water baby

"Do I have something on my face?

Un-lucky Charms

Tragedy and Other Things

The Boulevard of Broken Dreams...is 3000 West
Well, folks, I have no new pictures for you to view of my handsome husband and my beautiful child. You see, Sunday, tragedy hit our family in the form of a broken camera. It all started innocently enough.....The three of us were outside working on the yard when we decided to take an impromptu trip to the store. When we returned, I remembered that I was going to take some pictures of Henry outside before we left and I knew I had taken our camera outside. With all the shuffle and commotion, I left the camera on the bumper of the truck. I neglected to pick it up before we loaded up in the truck and headed down the street for the store.

Once I realized the camera must have been on the bumper for the ride, we immediately loaded up again and went hunting for it. As we turned onto 3000 West, there, gleaming in the sun, was the smashed remains of our camera. Luckily I had just emptied the memory card so no images were lost. But we did lose the camera and the memory card.

So instead of pictures of our plucky family, this week I offer you the artistic musings of Henry! I have posted two art projects he's recently completed at school.
The Accidental Ebay-er
On Monday night, I noticed the house was quieter than usual. I knew better than to cherish this silence - I suspected either Henry or Jeremy (or even worse, the combination of the two) were up to something. And it was most likely messy and distructive. So, I did a quick sweep of the house to assess the situation. I immediately found my son in his room plowing through books and puzzles. (What an angel!) I then set my sights on my husband. Why was he so quiet? What was he doing?

First, I checked the bathroom - nope, nothing there. Then I heard the faintest "click, click" sound coming from the office. I walked in to find him frantically minimizing the internet window on the computer. He swiveled around in the chair and I could see the embarrassed look on his face. All I remember next was his incoherent rambling about how he didn't mean to bid on ebay, and he "accidentally" won his bid. It turns out Jeremy bid on an Edge Chip to upgrade the horsepower and torque on our truck.

I won't tell you how much it cost, but Jeremy insists that I tell you he saved our family $445 by getting it on ebay. For the record, I think this is the second time Jeremy has "accidentally" won his auction on ebay. Boy, is he lucky or what?

Weekend Fun

Great White Hunter
Saturday, Jeremy was up before sunlight for the turkey hunt. From across the field in Deep Creek he spied a group of three large birds and he just knew he'd found his "Tom". He crawled to the grouping on his belly, slowly and methodically as a hunter of his skill would do. However, once he was within a few yards of his prey, he noticed they were plastic and "spinning on rods". Jeremy had just spent the better part of the morning inching his way into someone else's turkey trap. You have to wonder what the other hunter was thinking the entire time as he watched Jeremy carefully attack the "prey".

Good Morning?
Friday, Henry and I fixed eggs together for breakfast. You can tell from the pictures that at first he wasn't too hip on the idea. However, once he figured out that he actually was allowed to break the eggs, he cheered up. You can see the progession of his mood in the pictures below.

Seven Year Itch
This weekend marked our 7th wedding anniversary. Jeremy convinced me that the traditional gift to mark the 7th wedding anniversary is the gift of meat so the two of us headed off to a movie and later, a yummy steak dinner. I'm hoping that the somehow I can convince Jeremy the 8th year tradition is Hawaii.

Back to dinner -- whenever Jeremy and I go out to eat, one of our favorite past times is to watch couples on dates and try to figure out which date number they are on (i.e., first date, fifth date, etc.) So you can imagine my excitement when we walked through the doors and discovered it was Prom night and dozens of overdressed high school kids were waiting to be seated too! It was our own little personal Prominade! That 30 minute wait was over way too quickly. (Did you know that powder blue tuxes have made a comeback in a big way?)

Henry: Self Portrait
Here's Henry experimenting with the camera on his own. Looks to me like the kid's got skills.


Games People Play
Sunday night we headed out to our back yard to play a little croquet and bacci ball. (Heads up, Henry's a cheater. Big time!) When Henry wasn't lobbing the solid, heavy and bruise inducing bacci balls at us, he was swinging the croquet mallots around. Sounds safe! Henry also enjoyed hanging out in the dog runs, sitting in Bat's dog house and barking at us. I'm sure the neighbors had a great time watching us.

Spring has Sprung

Out and About
Since the warmer weather has invaded, Henry's goal from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm is to have his "shoes on" and be outside. We have to be extra creative in the morning hours to keep him in until the sun comes up. Typically, he enjoys taking his Mummum (me) and his wagon for a walk to the park (he knows the way), or planting his collection of rubber snakes in our bushes. We kick his many soccer balls and "go fast" (run) up and down the sidewalk.

Endless Love
Henry sure can pick 'em. First his Aunt Traci, now our neighbor and my good friend, Michelle. He absolutely must visit her every day to ask her "Shell, watcha doin'?" Sometimes he just stares at her and smiles. We haven't broken the news to Michelle's husband Paul just yet, but I think he's caught on to the money trail left behind from the endless supply of cookies she offers to Henry.

Most Egg-cellent
We had the best Easter! Although the three of us were under the weather, we still were able to enjoy our weekend activities. On Saturday, Henry went to the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt at our park. And can I just tell you...the kid cleaned house! We did cheat a bit and have several dry runs prior to the actual event, but still, Henry's got skills! Sunday, we took the dogs to Deep Creek and hiked for a little bit. We then got to visit with most all of the Grandparents. Later, Henners went on three more egg hunts and, again, made a steal. That night, we barbecued with our neighbors and played lawn games.

Fun at the park

Hanging together

The Players

JEREMY is my husband and main squeeze. We've been married since the day we met. He's a mountainman and could provide for our family in the event of a Zombie invasion. He has McGiver-esque skills and could kill you with out even using his hands. He seems to be tolerant of me and often tells me I'm pretty. He's an amazing father and I'm so lucky he keeps me around. He has an alter ego named Jerome that only comes out around me and his mother.

HENRY is our three year old son and light of our world. He keeps us entertained and on our toes at all times. He has a penchant for peeing outdoors and often invites you to run with him.

REESE is our infant daughter and holds our every joy in her chubby little hands. She is small, but she's mighty mischievous for such a little thing. She adores her older brother and practically any food you put in front of her. She dislikes bedtime because she finally figured out that life goes on while she sleeps.

TAZ AND MEESHA are the cats. I've had them for ages so they are considered vintage. Meesha is friendly, Taz...not so much. He hates everybody but me. Meesha is prone to sneaking out to run with the dogs while Taz yearns for boys nights out with Dad (even though he can't stand to be in the same room with him)

BAT AND MAX are the dogs. Max is mine and is a boy, no matter what Henry tells you. Also, he is a Republican, which I cannot get behind. Bat only knows that Jeremy exists mainly because Jeremy brings him food. Bat has been known to knock himself out from time to time.

MASTER-P is Henry's betta fish and you should be aware that he read minds.

GRANDMA JO AND GRANDPA BRENT are my parents. They enjoy watching the kids and being flooded at their house. I say this because their river banks have overflowed a handful of times and they've never moved once. My Mom has single-handedly pimped this blog out to almost everyone she knows and she still can't pronounce the word 'blog' properly. Thanks, Mom!

GRANDMA LAURI AND GRANDPA WAYNE are Jeremy's folks. They don't like having a surplus of soda at their house, they love the Greenbay Packers, the color purple and are partially responsible for Henry's habit of peeing outdoors.

GRANDMA GRANNY is Jeremy's Grandma and Great-Grandma to Henry and Reese. She is physically stronger than almost anyone else I know and is highly likely to be seen with a chainsaw, a log splitter, cleaning out ditches or wiping up behind you with a load of papertowels.

JU-LEE is a hybrid of two of my closest friends. JULEE is beautiful, smart and sassy...you know, everything that your shampoo bottle promises will happen to you if you lather, rinse, repeat. LEE loves to fish, jump from helicopters with skis and hang out with beautiful, smart and sassy women with high grooming standards.

ROSLIN or ROZZIE is a dear, dear friend. I don't get to see her as often as I used to because she's a baby-haver now and loves to clean her house. She has coached me through my phone aversion, bad hair days and run-ins with mean people. We love to laugh together and I just generally feel I'm better for knowing her.

I have a respectable GIRL POSSE of close friends that I adore. Each of them is uber cool and we like to get together to discuss celebrity meltdowns, normal people meltdowns, politics and how awesome we all are.

PAUL-SHELL are our neighbors whom we not only like, but we like, like them. Henry has the hots for Michelle and is keeping up appearances with Paul to get to his wife.

We have a lot of COUSINS and other FAMILY that appear from time to time in our escapades. Some of them are hip that I will be writing about them later, most of them are not.

KEELY is Reese's guardian angel and owns a significant piece of mine and Jeremy's hearts. Henry reminds us constantly that she is actutally HIS friend.

BUCKNER is a co-worker who has been house hunting since I met him four years ago. He's an artist, but not suffering or brooding.

OTHERS I may have overlooked, let me just tell you I'm sorry. You should probably hang out with us a little more often so I can exaggerate everything about you in this here blog.

What is Steenky Bee?/Frequently Asked Questions

What is wrong with you?
My husband, Jeremy, asks me this almost daily. I am Jennifer. But people call me Jen…well, to my face anyway. Behind my back, I’m sure they call me much more colorful things. I am a wife, and a mother to two beautiful and loud children, Henry and Reese. I'm honored to live my life with them. We reside in Northern-ish Utah. (No, polygamy is not legal. Anymore.) Utah is awesome. Don't let anyone tell you any different. We have two cats (one of which is kick-ass) and two dogs (both are kick-ass.) We used to have a fish but the cat who isn't so kick-ass ate him.

Why 'Steenky Bee'?
It's simple, really. You see, 'Steenky Bee' is the name we gave our son's binkie (pacifier) habit that he unfortunately held on to for waaaaay too long. Don't ask how long. We're quite embarrassed about it. We ditched the last of the binkies when we bribed our son to trade them in for a 12" Batman action figure. (Coincidentally, our daughter has now assumed ownership of said Batman figure by exercising squatter rights. And let me tell you, her Barbies have never been so happy, if you know what I mean.)

BTW: I tried to name this blog "Stinky Bee" but it was already taken by an angsty teen who was raging against the man (and her parents for forcing her to do homework at regular intervals).

Why do you seem to suddenly disappear from the internet at random?
Well, sometimes I have other things I like to do, like go to work where I make actual money, or spend time with my husband and children who help me spend said money. Other times I just want to drink a bunch of A&W Cream Soda, fight with my husband for the remote control and watch VH1 Countdown specials (When I win - which is never.)

I’ve seen several typos in your posts. What’s the deal?
Well, aren't we awfully judgmental? So I forget to use spelcheck. All the time. It happens.

What else should we know about you?
I also mishandle parenthesis, quotation marks and hyphens. It's something I "struggle" with on a day-to-day (basis).

That's not exactly what I was after. I mean, are there any other interesting tidbits you want to tell us?
Sure! Let me start off by telling you my likes and dislikes: I like stretchy pants. I hate the word "tidbits". I love Utah. I hate being hot. I am comfortably into my thirties. I spill food down the front of my shirt. Always. I smile at strangers, but don't let my children talk to them. I will always hold the door open for you. No one ever tells Jeremy he got a catch when he found me, but they always tell me that about him. I am incapable of road rage. I am disgusted by public swimming pools. I can twirl a baton. I rarely believe anything I'm told.

If you’re not totally put off by me now, feel free to email me at {jenboglass [at] yahoo [dot] com}