Introduction

Hi, my name is Juli, my husband is Radar. We have been married for twenty years now. We have had five children together who now range in age from eighteen to eight. John is the oldest and is beginning his college journey. Chris is the second, sadly he passed away from cancer in 2020. Mae is the third, she is the family artist. Louise is the fourth and is our family musician. Andrew is the youngest. Over the years we have had a plethora of animals and even a small farm! I am a stay at home mom and a homeschool teacher. I have tried many things from sewing, to baking, to painting. I found success in all of them! My husband is a paramedic and a handy man. I swear, if you broke it, he can fix it! Here I plan to share the funny, inspiring and surprising stories of our lives. Please stay a while, browse and enjoy!

Andrew’s 8th Birthday

We recently celebrated my son’s 8th birthday. I had to get up to be at the store when it opened at six o’clock in the morning because I FORGOT to get Andrew any birthday gifts, balloons or cake mixes! I got it all before he woke up that morning, so he has no idea.

But the fun doesn’t stop there.

Then we came home, wrapped gifts and baked a cake. Then it was eight thirty. I was like “Oh crap! We have to leave in an hour to meet Andrew’s friend and all the kids are still asleep!” So I started waking the rest of the house up. Nobody wanted to get out of bed and we didn’t manage to leave until ten am, the time we were supposed to MEET the friend! We finally successfully picked up his friend at ten forty-five and were headed to the zoo.

On the way to the zoo I miss my exit not once but TWICE! So the GPS takes us this really back woods way. We wind up driving through neighborhoods when the zoo is along the highway. We finally get to the zoo to find the parking lot is CLOSED! We are waved to go past. Now we are looking for little bitty signs that say “zoo overflow parking.” They are only placed at the turns to the parking lot. At one point Radar comments “If we make a full block, we’re going to have to ask that guy who waved us on for directions!” (That’s coming from a man!) We didn’t though. WE finally see the parking lot for the zoo overflow. YAY!! …. But wait, it’s blocked! There is another entrance! But wait, it’s blocked too! Finally the FOURTH entrance is open. Success!!! We are parked at the zoo! It’s only eleven am and I’ve already had a days worth of adventure!

As you know, the zoo is crazy busy and the animals are unimpressed by the crowd. We have a good time anyway.

Back at home I packed one liter of water for each person in our group. Within THREE hours we are OUT of water! Radar and I made a Radar and Juli mistake and spent more money than we intended before going to the zoo, and now we cannot afford to simply buy more water for the seven people in our group. So we let the kids play at the kids zoo and had a small adult only pow-wow. We decided that we had to call it a day early and called the kids back to us. We told them they each got to pick one last animal to visit and then we had to go home. I was afraid it would go over like a box of rocks, but the kids were good sports. they chose two indoor exhibits and two outdoor ones. CRISIS ADVERTED! Thanks to air conditioning no one dehydrates before we manage to make our way back to the car. (Oh, we had lunch in there somewhere)

Radar decided that since I had so much trouble getting TO the zoo he would drive home. Because as he said, “I don’t get turned around as easily as my wifey.” That’s fine. I’m exhausted anyway. So he gets out of the zoo overflow parking lot and makes a big block around the zoo to come out in front of the zoo. There is SUPPOSED to be an entrance ramp right there to get on the freeway. We had forgotten that it was Murphey’s Law Monday and no such ramp exists due to the evil that is construction. Radar drives on the service road for MILES, misses his freeway exchange and now we are playing the same game round two! The GPS won.

Once we finally get on the right freeway, Radar says, “Oh no.” “What now?” I ask incredulously. “The low tire light came on.” “Not again!” I say “What do you mean not again?” Radar asks. “Well it’s been coming on every few days for about a week now. I keep going to the tire shop for air pressure checks and they just keep putting air in it.” “Why didn’t you tell me?” “I just forget”. So guess where we go next? YOU GOT IT! The tire shop. There is a nail in the tire and it has a small leak! We can get it fixed for free because we bought the warrantee but the wait is an hour. Radar decides to just put air in it and come back another day, even though he is not impressed with my decision to do the same thing when I DID NOT KNOW there was a nail in the tire! This is new information for me. I guess they look closer when there is a guy in the car.

So we had promised Andrew burgers from Braums for dinner. Next stop Braums. By now EVERYONE is starving! We have dinner, buy ice cream and head home. Then Louise and I work on making a beautiful cake. Before we can do that I have to convince the cake to come out of the pan! I turn the pan over onto a plate. Nothing happens. So I take a butter knife and gently break loose the edges and repeat the above steps. Still NOTHING happens. So now I have to get out the big guns! I get the serving spatula and break loose a quarter of the bottom of the cake. The cake complains and threatens to crack. I stop prying. Turn it over and … SUCCESS!! Now to make it beautiful! And we did….until it melted. Helpful tip: don’t ice a cake with whipped cream. It will melt EVEN IN THE FRIDGE.

I’m done. Time for a movie and bed. I may need a glass of wine.