Poppie's newzzzzz

We are adding a fourth bathroom!
As part of our extensive yard-makeover, the Carter home in Scottsdale will have a fourth bathroom for guests. It is a PORTAPOTTY! Let's just say that this structure will grace our construction site for about six weeks while the worker's get busy with our landscape project.
Actually, I am OK with it....I am not one to invite sweaty strangers to our commode. It is a good thing--and I suppose that if a non-stranger wants to enjoy the experience of that system--go for it!

Who is up for an adventure?

So I think that we should buy a castle.



Please visit the following two websites for more information on this opportunity.

Royal Castle Estate
Historic Property

I really think that this could be a great thing for our entire family. Imagine all of the things we could do if we all lived in this castle... If you don't want to share it, there are plenty of 3 bedroom bungalows that we could each have, and then just hang out in the castle. We could rent it out. Aubrey's Dad could paint it and sell the paintings. We could stage sword fights there, and maybe even open up a theme park. There are a million other possibilities. What do you think?

The apple, I mean peach, of my eye...

I have been getting a lot of flack for not posting my Easy Peach Cobbler recipe....here it is! Hope your peaches aren't moldy yet!

12 Fresh Peaches
1 c. water
1 c. white sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1-18.25 oz. pkg. white cake mix
1-8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
1/2 c. butter

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees. Spread peaches evenly onto 9"x13" baking dish. Combine water and sugar, stir to dissolve. Pour over peaches. Sprinkle cinnamon over slices followed by cake mix. Top cake mix with pats of cream cheese. Dot cobbler with butter.

Bake 45 min. until golden brown. (just a note, it took about 1 1/2 hours in my oven for some reason...make sure you watch it.)

Addie's choice.

I asked Adeline what she wanted to be for halloween. She either sneezed or said," A seal." I am assuming she meant the animal, not the singer. I tried to tell her that this costume may be a bit warm in Arizona in October... she doesn't care though. I wonder where she got this love of seals from?

Can it at least be children we know?

While I do thank you for not having to look at moldy bread anymore, we have better pictures of these Carter kids in Halloween costumes. Any previews of Landon or Addie are welcome.

Banishing the mold.

Once again, my main motivation for posting is to not have to look at the former post anymore - this time it's the mold. This little dinosaur baby isn't a blood relation at all, but I'd rather look at this picture than moldy bread, so there you go.

This is what Carlos ate for lunch today.

Yummy!

We have a scrapper in our midst...

The Carter Family: Careful what you wish for!

Careful what you wish for!

Poppie's newzzzzz
I met with a very nice landscape architect and told him that we hated our yard layout and told him we had in mind to have a lot more fun and utility than we had. I told him the first thing I want to hear people say was "you have got to be kidding me."

I reviewed the plans, loved the design, saved a few dollars up from denying myself of all luxuries and got the bid. My wish was granted! The first thing out of my mouth was "you have got to be kidding me."

Now, the next time I wish, it will be that people say, "you have a great yard--how did you make it look so beautiful and spend so little?"

Can I put that genie back into the bottle and make the second wish now?

Poppie's newzzzzz

Poppie's newzzzzz

Oh Suzannah! Oh, don't you cry for me.
For I'm going to Alabamy with a banjo on my knee.

For those of you who just love the musical flavor of the day, we have a new banjo in the family. Come to find out, it has five strings--one for each finger, I suppose. In short order, there will be some "pickin' and grinnin'" going on--although we have asked those who pick without a banjo being on the scene--please have some disgression.

So, I guess we wait for the CD of the yodeling banjo player? We hope it will be a nice diversion for us all.

Happy Birthday Colman!!!

Twenty Six!!

I will never forget the summer of 1980 when Colman was born. This is partly because I had a new baby brother, but mostly because his birth kept me from going camping with Dad and Nick. Nick, however, still got to go (w/ Jonathan Updike), and came back with tales of a witch's cave that was near the campsite. Oh how sad (and jealous) I was...but of course happy that I had a little brother to wrestle and play with.

Well, Colman has turned out to be a good brother and friend to all of us. I guess I am no worse off having missed out on the witch's cave. I have been in plenty of caves since that time (many with Colman), but never found a witch. Mostly it has been just stinky air,dripping water, small spaces, and some salamanders that once surprised the heck out of us.

I think that we should use this opportunity to tell some of the things we like and admire about Colman, and I will start:

1. Colman was always up for a good game of TFB, especially in the winter time.
2. You could count on Colman whenever you wanted to call a baseball card "Trading Session", even if we never actually traded cards. As a note - when we did actually make a trade, Nick always "gypped us" out of our good cards.
3. He has more talent than I do at just about everything except for basketball, but that is only because I am slightly taller than he is.
4. He's Michael. (and Nick is Fredo)
5. Colman can sing a great "Space Oddity". We are looking forward to hearing that one again soon and getting it on video.

Please feel free to continue the list. Happy Birthday Colman!

The Carter Family

In the country of Carter, we have three new applicants for adoption/temporary asylum. Troy, Tiffany and Audrey Hill were over last night, were comfortable and were served a nice dinner to entice them over from the dark side. This poor little family has been neglected by their other family members who live too far away.
The formal adoption will be approved upon finding what kind of dishes she can bring to complete the meals provided. She is encouraged to raid her mother's recipe files and make them available to any interested party.

Nice kids, friends to our kids and a beautiful little girl that fits right in.

Karaoke at the Carters'

Left to right: Troy, Nick, Col, Cameron, and Nate (holding the apple juice)

I think we are getting a little too good at this karaoke thing.
Tonight we had several highs and even a few lows.

For most of the night the high score was held by Nick with "Happy Together". Nick was dethroned by Troy and I singing a chilling rendition of "It's Your Love". Later that score was topped by Troy singing, once again, "It's Your Love". I guess he really likes that song. It may have helped that he stopped after the first 6 words.

The Carter Family

You shoulda got 'em whilst they were hot--because now they're not! I just read at azcentral.com that the six Krispy Kreme stores in Arizona closed. Apparently, they went teats-up (that is a movie term, not a disrespectful commentary on my part) and did not have the dough to continue operations. I think it has been years since I had one of these. Oh, they were good, but drippy right down to the elbows with grease. I can only imagine the hole in people's lives when they consider how empty their lives are going to be without these thigh-packers.

Testing... testing...

okay, we'll see if this works this time! Just wanted to announce that Allison's last soccer game of the season is this evening at 6:30pm. So, if you're not busy and would like to come out to the Y and roast with us and see how cute she is in her soccer uniform, you're welcome!

A lesson on prepositional phrases.

in a chair
on the counter
beside the table
in the kitchen
after lunch
at the Carter residence
in Scottsdale
before I left for work
under much duress
after seeing how cute she is in this chair!

The ones who bake.

A lady at work today was talking about an LDS funeral she attended and in mentioning the food that was so generously provided she said, "What is the name of the ones who bake?"

I didn't quite understand, so she clarified saying "You know, the bakers. The group in your church that is in charge of cooking. Relief something?"

It IS an effective form of advertising!

We were driving down Camelback and 12th st today and Nathan said, "Mom look at that car on the roof, Wow!" We drove a little further past a wavy armed Uncle Sam and Nathan said, "Mom look at that guy, I want to go there."

I rest my case.

Crowded beach...glad we are here in AZ

Just saw this picture...Thank goodness we are not at the beach this summer - it's packed!! Hopefully next year won't be so crowded.

I met David Spade...

...'s Dad. Elipses can be dangerous things.

In college, I worked as a bank teller at Bank of America. You all know that David Spade is from Scottsdale. Well, his dad used to come in to our bank. He didn't have an account with us, but he cashed checks drawn on the bank. So, it was required that he place a fingerprint on each check that he cashed.

I guess he is estranged from David aka Dickie Roberts and Joe Dirt. But that didn't stop him from telling everyone within earshot who his son was!

The Carter Family

I told Brooke that my brother once saw Alan Hale, the captain on Gilligan's Island at a Prime Rib Restaurant in Los Angeles.

Brooke's reply: "That is nothing, I have been married to his look-alike for 33 years.

And all this time, I thought I looked like the young blond kid on The Dukes of Hazzard.

Go figure!

Wow Colman thats impressive

The only famous person I have ever run into was two characters from California Dreams (an imitation of Saved by the Bell that came out when they went off the air). I dont remember their names but I was at Disney land walking backward, and turned around right into the chest of the chinese girl and the slater like guy on the left. Of course it wasnt until later that day that I figured out why they looked familiar. Big stars I know.

Famous people I've seen this year.

Who: Sean Marion

Where: Costco

Interesting thing to note: He was about 4 feet taller than anyone else in the entire building.




Who: Steve Nash

Where: Target

Interesting thing to note: He's even greasier in person. He looked like he hadn't showered in 12 days and he asked me "Hey man, where do they keep the camping gear in this place?"




Who: Charles Barkley

Where: Home Depot

Interesting thing to note: He is the biggest man I have ever seen.









Who: Mike Tyson

Where: This morning driving in his car. He stopped next to me at a stoplight.

Interesting thing to note: I recognized him from his eye tattoo. He turned and stared at me and I almost peed my pants I was so scared.

Everyone say "hello" to Landon.

Pictures are up and they can be seen here.