Whenever we have old food in our fridge or bad leftovers that we will never eat, I always throw the food over the fence in the backyard. I figure that the birds will eat it or the food will decompose back into the earth instead of being put into a plastic bag or entering the sewer system.

A few nights ago I was in the backyard and I noticed a trail of white spots. I thought it might be a random growth pattern of little flowers but when I got closer I noticed it was popcorn. I thought it was really strange for 3 reasons: I hadn't made popcorn for a week or so, I always eat all of the popcorn, and even if I did want to throw the popcorn away I would never just dump it in the middle of the yard.

I showed Jake the trail of popcorn and asked him if he had thrown some out and he said no. Immediately I was a little weirded out. I started having twisted thoughts like mother nature wasn't happy with my recycling methods so she was throwing food into my yard. Then I began thinking that someone had been watching me throw this food over the fence (into an empty field) and they thought it would be funny to mess with my head and throw some food back over the fence.

So here we are standing on the back porch, it's dark outside and there are no lights behind our house. I'm getting freaked out but Jake, after looking at the trail of popcorn for a minute, walks over to the other side of the fence and sees where the trail stops. He laughs and then relays this story to me.

---A few nights ago he was sitting in our front room and the motion detector light came on in the front yard. He jumped off the couch to look out the window because sometimes we get to see deer in the yard, maybe a fox or a neighbors cat... it's just fun to see what has turned the motion light on. Well this particular night he saw a raccoon pouncing on bugs in the front yard!

Fast forward again to the night where we're standing in the backyard, awed at this mysterious trail of popcorn and I'm slowly creeping myself out with possible explanations. Jake is looking over the fence in the backyard and laughs out loud. He discovers an empty, brown paper lunch bag. He is slowly remembering that there had been a very old bag of burnt popcorn sitting on our back porch for far too long, and now we had a raccoon to do something about it.

The raccoon must have dragged the bag across the lawn and through his little hole in the fence. Then once he realized he had been carrying the bag by the wrong end and all of the popcorn had fallen out, the little masked robber fled the scene of the crime. Jake and I had a good laugh about it! Since then I've stopped throwing food over the fence-- we don't really need a pet raccoon.

Basic Cable Gems

We pay for the cheapest, most basic cable a body can get-- but I still hate writing that check every month. And I'm not sure why I used the phrase "a body." It's been years since I read Catcher in the Rye. Anyway, the truth of the matter is that we get the best stations with basic cable in the first place, so I can't really complain. In your face Comcast!

The most watched channels in the Boucher house:

HISTORY

TRAVEL

DISCOVERY

Utah Lake

So we have some awesome friends from Ohio & Maryland named Paul & Ruthie. We took a little raft to the lake yesterday because the weather was GORGEOUS!

We later found out that the raft was made for 4 people or 440 lbs. We got the 4 people part of it right but the 440 pounds-- well I'm glad we didn't sink! The lake was nice and relaxing and it finally felt like summer!






We only took pictures on our way to the lake....

And coming home from the lake....

600 HOURS

Guess who's done with schoo-ool?! Yesterday I completed the final hours of my electrology course. Next Tuesday I take the state written exam and Friday I'll take the practical exam. Wish me luck!!!!

Food Inc.

Jake and I have been on a documentary kick for a while-- easy to do with Netflix. So last night we had some friends over to watch Food Inc, and now I never want to eat anything ever again. Actually, that's not true but I wish everything I ate was good for my body. This is just a trailer, but I would suggest watching the whole movie. It was upsetting but not overboard radical. Overall just pretty educational.

1870?!

The other day I was out in the front yard enjoying the weather and talking to my sister when a mysterious white suv parked on the road in front of the house. An older couple got out and came over to talk with us. This is pretty much how the conversation went:

Me: Hi how are you doing?

Old Guy: Good, good. We were just driving by and saw people outside so we thought we'd stop. This is Carterville Road right?

Me: Yes.

Old Guy: Ya we live in Provo and we drive by here sometimes. This is Carterville Road and I'm a Carter.

Old Lady: And I married a Carter.

Old Guy: And we saw some other people down the street that looked like Carter's too and sure enough, we asked and they were Carter's, still here on this same road. You see, my Dad, and my Grandfather were born in this house.

Me: Wow, really? That's so neat! My sister and I were just talking about how old this house was. (No joke, that's what Jade and I were talking about when they pulled up.)

Mr. Carter: Ya and my grandfather was born right around 1870.

Me: Oh I always thought this house was 1902 or 1903.

Mr. Carter: Well if the legend is true then this house was here when my grandfather was born. And when he went to enlist there was no record of his birth so they had to track down the midwife who delivered him and convince her to write up a birth certificate so that he could join the army.

There was a little more conversation about the changes

in the house and the land surrounding it and I mentioned

that the owners of this house eventually want to tear it

down and build some new fancy houses on the property.

Mr. Carter looked at the plaster that was falling off of the sides of the house and noticed the original brick underneath that was cracking and falling off too. He grabbed a piece of it off the corner of the front porch about waist high and said something like this: Well if they're gonna be tearing it down soon then I'd like to take a little piece of history with me.

He looked down at the small chunk of brick in his hands and his eyes kind of sparkled, then he stuck the brick in his pocket and smiled. How cute is that?!

Lovin the summertime and the Fam.

We had a lot of fun with Brett & Katie & Sebastian this weekend! I freaking love my family! Everyone is super cool and easy to hang out with and we always laugh about the weirdest things--usually thanks to Jake's crazy sense of humor.

We ate some homemade tacos in the backyard--that's Jake's famous salsa that he's carrying. We also ate some Rubios and ate some Ernie's... We like to eat. I'm surprised the Shumway genes haven't evolved into some really fat jeans.

Ten years ago I probably wouldn't have said this, but it would be awesome if my whole family lived within an hour of each other. Knowing my mom we would end up having a party for every occasion!

And isn't Katie the cutest pregnant lady you've ever seen???? I don't know why Jade decided to stare her down like a vampire in this picture-- I think there's more to Jade than any of us know.

New Tattoo

It got really late really fast last night and a bunch of us ended up getting tattoos. Sharpie tattoos.

Selena and Ruthie are pretty good artists. It says Coco heart Jake.