ORGANIZED CHAOS

Maybe sewing is one of my outlets... Look what I made!

2009-01-21T08:41:00.008-07:00

Sam loves Thomas. He was with my friend Aimee at Joann's one day and when her daughter started begging for fabric he started begging for this Thomas fabric. Aimee lives down the street and is practically my sister. We are like second mom's to each others kids. We watch each others kids all the time. We tell each other we love each other when we get off the phone, a day doesn't go by that we don't talk. She was there with me the entire divorce and when it comes to dating she is like a mom, her standards are high-- she thinks nobody is good enough for me. I am mostly only allowed to go out with those who she finds for me ;) I'm a big girl and sometimes act like her teenager and go out with whomever I want. Anyway back to the fabric. She didn't buy it because, c'mon he isn't ACTUALLY her child. So she told me about it and Sam needed more jammies, so I got it and made him these. They are his favorites- mine too. They're made of fleece and so cozy, now I want some too! What's with the silly face? Its just Sam-- I love 'em!

I found this soft silky fabric with cozy flannel on the other side at Joann's and fell in love with it. Not only is it pretty, but you dont' have to worry about sticking to your sheets like regular flannel and the inside feels so nice! When the divorce first happend there were a lot of people that were there for me, but two in particular went above and beyond-- my two closest friends and yes Aimee was one of them. The one with the bird mask in my mice post is the other, her name is Shannon. I won't go into too much detail as to all the many things they did for me, but anything you can think of they pretty much did and probably more. So when I told them that I was moving to WA to live near my parents that very week, they sort of began to freak out-- Aimee even more so. She asked how I would move so fast and just matter of factly I said "I'll take what I can for now and come back for the rest eventually." Never mind that I couldn't eat or sleep, or even think straight, but I was making a huge life decision for me and my children and was going to pack up and move to WA just like that! People tried to talk me out of it, saying "you're moving tomorrow?! Maybe you should think about it for a little while. What about all the work you've done on the house?" My response? "I don't care about anything material right now- my house yeah its nice, but its nothing in comparison to what really matters to me." Well I undoubtably received more inspiration and blessings than I probably even know to this day, because each step led me in the right direction and I didn't leave. I eventually came to realize that I needed to stay here and at least get things figured out. A couple of months gradually had me in a strong enough postion to know I could do it by myself (and of course a little help from my friends). Hanging my own Christmas lights and catching my own mice were two things that gave me more credibility in my decision. So back to the Pajamas. I know I tell long stories with lots of tangents, I hope you can follow, if you know me you're use to it. It makes for easy conversation when you talk to me, we never run out of stuff to talk about! The nightgowns--I decided that since I had to be careful with money but I really wanted to give a gift to my two closest friends when I moved, that I would sew them a nightgown like the one you see Ashlin wearing. It would be something that was useful and nice and would cost a lot more to buy in the store. And its cheesy but I really wanted them to have something to remember me by after I left and knew when they put it on, a memory or two might flash into their minds. That was a comforting thought to me. So I began by sewing them these nightgowns. Shannon says her husband calls it her angel nightgown since she looks like an angel when she's wearing it-- of course that makes me happy. And of course she IS and angel . Ashlin loved them so much as did I, that we decided she needed one. You can tell when she puts it on she feels really good. She, not even knowing about what Shannon's husband had said, started calling it her angel nightgown. I love her in it-- she does look like my little angel! I want one now too :)!

9 dead mice, 9 dead mice, see how I run....

2009-01-20T20:12:00.007-07:00

I promise she is usually much more stylish than this.. such a good sport!

So as long as I have lived in UT which ok, is only 2+ years (this is my 3rd winter here) there was talk of mice around the neighborhood, but none really to speak of in my house. We did catch one in the garage about a year ago. However, nothing could have prepared me for what I found this year! It all started when my mom was out here to stay with me. She was in the basement bathroom and saw a mouse run in front of her while she was on the toilet (hope she doesn't care I shared that bit) she came upstairs freaked out-- it was funny sight :). We put out a trap-- one of those metal and wood old fashioned kind. Well it didn't trip, but the mouse ate it CLEAN of the peanut butter I put on it. So then I ran out and got some more traps all different kind and placed those strategically around-- still nothing! Too smart of a mouse I guess. So we left town for Thanksgiving and came back to find food was gotten into everywhere in my cold storage room. I really didn't loose that much, a couple bags of chocolate chips and a bag of crackers. I went out and bought plastic containers to put everything inside of. The only thing out was a bag of wheat that didn't quite fit inside a bucket- it was in a burlap type plastic bag. I folded it up really tight and placed it on top of a bucket until I could buy another bucket for it. Well eventually did catch that mouse and disposed of it MYSELF, while on the phone and humming a primary song :). We remained mice free for a few weeks until all heck broke loose! I was walking down to the cold storage to get Sam some cereal he wanted. As we walked he said "Is there a mouse mom?" and I told him not anymore we had caught it, but a shiver kind of went through my spine, like "Um why would you say that Sam?" I opened the door and didn't even walk in because right in front of me is a TON of mouse poop trailing out from between two buckets, one of which had the bag of wheat that they had no problem getting into. I had left traps out just in case and decide to see why it hadn't caught these guys. I was about to go grab a trap and check it out when ....... (are you nervous).... I caught a glimpse on a lower shelf a sticky trap with mice on it. I ran screaming! There were two, a mom and a baby, whom she led to its death :(! The bit about the mom leading it to its death was a nice addition to the story from my friend. This is where my friend comes into the story. She is the one in the picture and she's awesome. I called her and said "Um, hi mam... Is this the mouse hotline?" She said it indeed was, so I shared my problem with her. Her service was good because she came quickly and dressed professionally, disposed of the mouse with great humor and stayed to visit with me as well! She also came later that day (each time wearing that snazzy mask) because I caught 2 more mice! I also called the mouse hotline next day when I caught one more mouse and it was still alive on a sticky trap! That was just too much for me to even think about doing myself! So we were at a mouse count of 5 now. A day goes by and now I'm out of traps. I finally got some more and put them out. I checked later nothing. Then I remembered I had put a sticky trap in the bathroom and decided to check if it caught anything other than spiders.... there were THREE more baby mice stuck to it! I disposed of those MYSELF while on the phone with the mouse hotline and singing 3 blind mice! Not one of my fondest moments. It was one crazy week, one mommy mouse and SEVEN babies, but we have been mouse free for a good few weeks now. I need to figure out where they are getting in!

Its been months since I've blogged and I'm gonna blog about boogers!

2009-01-20T19:51:00.004-07:00

Hey everyone, I am not sure if I am back or not. I thought I would stop in to tell you something that is so great about kids. Its their nose picking! I catch one pickin' their nose and ask them not to (won't mention who because they might be embarrassed) but about an half hour later I hear the same child telling one of their siblings not to pick their nose! I love kids and how they clearly see the mote in everyone else's eye!

Alex turns 7 on Saturday. We are going to have a birthday party. Its a soda geyser party. I guess we will eat pizza and make soda geysers (you know like with mentos). He also wanted to make soda guns! Holy crap-- that is out of my area of expertise! He imagined something up that had a pipe of any type with a hole in it and a cap, that opens up to fit a mento inside then it explodes and you shoot it. A pretty cool I idea I must say! I thought he meant you shoot at each other, and when I said mothers would probably not like that, he said he meant a target. It was a good idea but we are moving to marshmallow guns instead-- I can do those! I'll let you know how it goes! Any other ideas in case it turns into total chaos and I don't have enough to do? A pinata is always good huh?

I hope to drop back in here every so often and fill you in on various parts of life! Most everyone who reads my blog now knows of the divorce I think. So I guess I am safe to talk about that. however I don't plan to tonight, other than to say things are going well. However as time goes on I might share a thought or to as a way to laugh or cry or vent or get an opinion. Ok so I just remembered a couple of you who don't know about the divorce. Crap... I think I'll post this anyway. I read back some of my older posts and decided that I really do like to blog as a way of journaling. I had forgotten the feelings I had during some of those events and the details. I am not the best journaler, but I do like to blog on occasion- its much more fun to share things with other people. I love you all! Thanks for the amazing support and love! I'll be in touch soon.

The last Tuesday of Summer (according to the school calendar)

2008-08-12T22:45:00.015-06:00

Today was a busy day the kind you come home from and you can barely function, because taking all of your kids with you FREAKIN' wore you out. I knew it would be a big errand day because so many things to do kept piling up. Plus I like to get it all done in one day because I know there is a very good chance I won't want to leave the house again for a long time. Besides on big errand days I neglect cleaning and laundry and that usually takes a while to get under control again. Who am I kidding? It is never much under control.

Here's how today went down: Ran 6 miles,made breakfast, cleaned up, cut my boys hair, cleaned that up,bathed them, went to Great Harvest (I was starving from the 6 miles),The Quilt Shop (it was next door), Micheal's (scrapbook paper is 25 cents right now), back home (to give Ed some food),the Libraray (our books were due-plus we shopped around), the bank (deposit a check), the Post Office (mailed Breaking Dawn to my MIL), Costco (looked for new pots n'pans for my birthday- more on that later), Sams Club (to make sure they didn't have better pots n' pans than Costco), then to Walmart (for the items I DIDN'T need 37 of).

I am now too tired to post about any of the things I have been needing to, but hope this might help you to see what the heck I have been up to. Its different stuff everyday. Obviously all of us get so busy in the summer with the kids home that we don't have energy to blog! If I haven't been on your blog too much lately please know I still love you and I will be back. School starts Monday... I will miss my kids and miss getting sleep. There are a couple things I won't miss namely fighting (it hasn't been THAT bad) and constant messes (although I actually think it might be Sam's fault and HE isn't going to school.)

Speaking of Sam-- he wanted to go to Sam's Club today, even saying "we going to my cwub?" still I am not convinced that he really knew what it was. Maybe he did though because we were at a stoplight and he saw Home Depot and he told me "oh Home Depot." How many 2 year olds know Home Depot? I guess for him if he is leaving the house (especially if its with Daddy) he has a pretty good chance he is going to end up at Home Depot. He is usually really easy to take and a lot of fun so Ed and I take him whenever we run somewhere- even for a minute. Today however he was almost souly responsible for my head being about to explode. I bet he had between 1 and 5 fits per store! He has to do EVERYTHING himself and refuses to sit in the cart lately.

We watched the movie "Penelope" as a family the other night. We all really liked it. However there was a witch in it for all of like 2 minutes that terrified Alex. I knew as soon as I looked over at his face that we would be having sleep troubles. That night he wouldn't go to bed in his bed and settled for falling asleep out in the hallway with the lights on. We put him in his bed when we went to bed, but he returned to our room and slept there during the night. The second night he stayed in his room during the night but still insisted on falling asleep out in the hallway. Tonight (night three) I put my foot down and said buddy you can't do that anymore, you've got to move on and we talked about it all. He wouldn't let me go and begged me to lay with him for just a minute. I was afraid if I did that that he woudl start to expect that every night. Still he looked so scared and I felt bad for him, so I laid there and talked to him for a few minutes which really did help him. When I am in my kids bed I see the room from a different perspective. Hoping to get him to see his room as not scary at night, I said to him "you have a pretty nice room." He said "thanks." Then he said "I like how the walls look purple at night." Me: "yeah thats cool." Him: "and like the sky in the day." I thought to myself about how I am so exhausted at night all I want is to get them in bed and go unwind. This made me realize that I was missing out on knowing some really special things like what he likes about his room at night. I have a brother that had these old fashioned looking soldiers on the wallpaper in his bedroom when he was little. My mom shared with me that she thought it was sweet because he had once told her he liked them because he felt like they were protecting him. So go ask your kids tomorrow what they like about their room at night-- you might learn something that you will remember even when you are 80 with fondness. He is about to lose some teeth and can barely eat apples, but manages somehow. It is a fun age. Oh also when he watches the Olympics he says "I just need to practice a little, then I can do that." This is while guys are placing their bodies parallel to the ground on the ring in gymnastics, or flinging their bodies around the uneven bars, or while Phelps is beating another world record. It is so cute how kids are so confidant in their abilities. I think what it is, is that some of those athletes make it look so easy.

Something about Ashlin real fast too. She knew for for 2 weeks she was suppose to write a note to a teacher or grandparents or her parents so she could pass it off for Activities Days. Every couple days she would talk about it saying she needed to do it but never did- taking resposibility since only she was there to get the assignment and I knew nothing about it, it was hers and she was reminding herself -a very good thing. So today she knew she had to do it because they were meeting again. So she did it and the sweet girl that she is, she wrote the sweetest note ever and left it on our bed. She chose to write to her parents- even though we stink. She is more than I deserve as a daughter sometimes. She has to start school on a new track which means a completely different class of students than her past 2 years. She might possibly not know anyone in her class. She told me she wished I could come with her the first 2 days of school. I can tell she is nervous and I wish I could. She just memorized the 13th article of faith, with no help from me. Once a month they get a cookie for each (up to two) articles of faith they recite to their leaders after church. This has been an excellent incentive. It is harder for Alex (he's 31/2 yrs younger though) but he gets it eventually. Sam just smiles and looks cute and copies whatever they tell him to say while jumping up and down (his own addition) and he gets a cookie. Ashlin is totally into the Olympics. She watches them with great interest and is her Dad's best company during to watch with. (I like it too, but I am always doing other stuff as well as watching.)I don't know how better to describe Ashlin, but I just know with her I hit the jackpot.

Ok none of it was fast, but I decided a little way in that I would just make this a journal entry. Sorry if I bored you out of your mind!

The Magnet Boards

2008-07-26T21:11:00.003-06:00

Here is the magnet board we made for Ashlin's friend for her birthday. She seemed to really like it.

Here is the magnet board we made for Ashlin a while back. We just got magnets for it, so she hasn't yet hung stuff on it. She would every so often tell me we needed to get her some magnets for it and a picture of me to hang on it. Isn't that sweet that she wants to hange a picture of her mom? She is really sweet.

This is a picture of a huge "A" we ended up picking up for her for her room. It was brown and meant to be crafted, so we went ahead and mod podged it too.

This a picture of her on her bed with her crafts. We have plenty more to do to her room, but I am waiting for the right idea to come around and really the time too.

4th of July fun

2008-07-24T23:09:00.002-06:00

Many of you have been posting your pictures of all the fun parades and activities you had on your Independance Day. Well I didn't go to our annual town parade (on the 3rd of July) because I volunteered to stay home with Sam who had started running a fever the night before. He continued to be sick the entire weekened following and it turned into quite an event. So any lack of pictures I am going to blame on this. Let me share with you the entire story.

Upon our return from Bear Lake, where we went for a family reunion (you can read about this on my sister Erin's blog or sis-in law Anna's blog- or when I finally get to blogging about it) we had a couple days to recover before Sam came down with a fever. I considered this typical and just waited for it to pass. The 4th of July was day 3 of fever with not sign of improvement. I had to keep him on Tylenol and Motrin around the clock. At night he would cry and wake up because he was burning up and he needed more medicine and a drink of water. Every night. So when there was no letting up I figured it could be something more and went to urgent care on the 4th. The Dr did the typical examinations for things that could be causing fever. There was nothing showing us how it could be viral, still sometimes it is and you never see the reason, so he sent us home to wait it out a couple more days.

It continued to be difficult and I sensed it was not normal so I called the On- call Dr the next day and she said she would definitely get a white blood cell count on him considering the length of time and lack of symptoms. Well I momentarily thought he was on his way to getting better and so I waited until the next day when it was clear he was not. We were now on Sunday--5 days and counting with fever. This time the kids urgent care with peditricians was open and that made me feel good. This lady Dr did take blood to check his white blood cell count, which she found to be elevated indicating infection warranting antibiotic injections. After the blood draw he was already mad about, he had to withstand an injection in each leg of antibiotics --which they tell me really burns. He was NOT happy.

After this all I am thinkng we are finally done and that he will be better and it will be all behind us. However the Dr sait that even though he would probably be fine by the next day that we still needed to follow up with his regular pediatrician. She said if for some reason things aren't better he may need another injection of antibiotic. So we went in the next day (Monday.) Our regular Dr was not in until Tuesday, so we saw a very new, young, nice female Dr. She was worried that Sam was not better after the prior days injections and that he wasn't showing us any reason for infection. We didn't know what was wrong with him and that wasn't good. It didn't appear that was even getting better. Yes -he was still running a fever of about the same tempurature as always- maybe just slightly lower. The antibiotic they gave him was strong and they had given him a lot of it, so it should have done something... So the Dr ran even more blood tests on him, the whole slew for anything it could be. In the end we didn't have a lot of results back yet but we did know that his white blood cell count had come down and that was proof that the antibiotic was helping. So she gave him another injection (just one this time) and told us to go home and we were sure things would be fine and we would move on. Sam HATED the Dr by now especially since it seemed we were going in every day of his life and sticking him with needles. I should also mention that with this young female Dr I mentioned to her that Sam didn't seem to be able to move his neck very well and she examined him and said he was okay for not having meningitis. If they can't move their head up and down that is a sign of meningitis and his problem was with side to side movements. We did however discover he had very large lymph nodes and that was what was hurting and making him not want to turn his head. I made the comment that they were humongous --they really were, it looked like Frankenstein- like big golf balls inside his neck on either side! I made the comment that he must be really trying to fight whatever he has and she just said "yeah" and we moved on. I wish I had gotten a picture to show now, but that is just not what I was thinking of or worried about when my son was feeling so crappy and truthfully I was about in tears throughout some of it.

Well the next day I got a call from our regular Dr who was back (mind you I thought we were already done with Dr's and he was fine) and after looking at Sam's blood work, said it came back abnormal and he wanted to see him. So we go in for our 4th visit to the Dr in 5 days. I took Ed this time so that I wouldn't turn on the tears and be as worried as I was alone the day before (the lady was talking about admitting him and ruling out some serious stuff.) The blood work was abnormal what did that mean? Well the numbers that measure inflamation were 90 and the upper level for normal is 15. We head in and Sam is doing much better the fever is down and he is happier,-- except for the face that he is at the Dr, which he definitely NOT happy about. The Dr seeing that he has been traumatized decides that we still don't have a reason he is sick and that isn't good but he is getting better and is about to say that we should go home and keep in touch about how things go, when we mention how large his lymph nodes are. Well-- he then tells us what important information that is. I tell him I had told the Dr the day before. I mean if she doesn't react at all to that, why would think it was so important? Anyway its a good thing we did mention it because we found a cause for the infection and after all this run around it ended up being fairly simple. His lymph nodes were infected-- the cause of all the problems! Sometimes they help fight infection and sometimes they are what becomes infected. He is at a common age for this infection. The Dr put him on an oral round of a fairly aggressive antibiotic and now he is fine. Hooray! If we hadn't taken care of this the lymph nodes can eventually rupture and then he would've needed a CAT-scan and surgery to drain them. I tell you this in case you ever have to deal with anything like this! The fact that he could actually turn his head as difficult as it was, was a good thing, because when they rupture it makes it so you really can't turn it at all from side to side. I had never heard of this and then all of a sudden I get a call from my brother and his daughter has got it too! Too weird. Where is all of this stuff in the What to Expect Books???

Summer and Smoothies

2008-07-24T11:18:00.006-06:00

I love smoothies all year round, but especially in the summer. Fresh fruit is everywhere in great variety all summer long and it makes it easy to come up with yummy flavors. I often freeze my fruit if I can't use it all, so I have frozen bananas, mango and strawberries in my freezer and I am about to add some raspberries as well. I especially love when I wake up in the morning and don't feel like a heavy breakfast, to make a smoothie for breakfast. I cools me down in the summer and in the winter, it just makes me cold! It tastes much more indulgent than it really is. In fact the one that I made this morning tasted like a sugared down version of a strawberry drink that Olive Garden was sampling out the last time we were there. I'm sure theirs had cream and other things carrying many more calories than this one did. My kids loved theirs and drank it all up. In fact they might get more excited for me to make smoothies than they do when I am making pancakes or waffles and smoothies are much easier. Sometimes when I have it and feel like being a little crazy I spray some whipped cream on top. That somehow tells my brain that what I am eating is very decadent, even though in reality it is quite healthy. Here's the recipe. I don't measure and what I do changes each time, so I'll just tell you what I did today. Here's one more picture-- of Alex enjoying his and its almost gone. I should have taken a picture of our finished product, the picture above is a stock photo that looked very similar. I wasn't thinking about it and I was too eager to drink it up (was hungry just off the treadmill) and my kids had many needs surrounding the smoothies, because its serious business in our house!

Tropical Strawberry Smoothie

2 cups frozen strawberries (unsweetened)

1 cup frozen mango

1 tub pina colada flavored yogurt(the personal size- not the honken ones. Mine was store brand western family-nothing fancy. I don't like that kind of yogurt to eat so much but it is great in smoothies.)

1-2 cups milk - I just pour the milk in until it not quite covers the fruit and yogurt.

Then I give it a good long whirl in my blender and it pours out oh so good.

Calories wise, you can see with nonfat milk like I used and the fruit the only reletively unhealthy thing is the yogurt. Most people don't think of yogurt as unhealthy, but I checked -the pina coloda yogurt I put in had 250 calories for the little container! That is a lot my friends. However it was really the only sweetner that I added and it also makes it creamy and adds flavor. So splitting a 250 calorie yogurt with a lot of healthy things between me and my 3 kids, works out pretty well. My kids love fruit, but it has never been easier to get them to eat it than in a smoothie. Also I am very proud to be saving what is it now $4 or $5 at Jama Juice for a better more nutritious alternative at home. And I highly recommend a little whip cream on top, it really is a happy thing.

I promised a post and this I am sure is not what you have been waiting for (all 3 of you!) I have been gone so long I really should update on what in the world I have been up to. I promise I will and I thought I would have time today, but it is going to have to wait until tonight or at least later this afternoon. Right now there are some kids being neglected and letting me know about it too. Actually they are doing okay right now and that is because I got them settled in so that I could finish this entry. I have a lot of fun stuff to share and I'll be back. Right now I am off to get a shower and then help my daughter mod podge a magnet board to give her friend tomorrow at her birthday party. Hopefully I can remember to get a picture of that and show you the results. She is suppose to wear pajamas as it is a pajama party and so I need to make sure she actually has something decent to wear to it! I might pull out the ol' sewing machine and see if I can whip her something together, you know like the mice in cinderella! Or maybe she can wear that crazy, huge, bright colored tie die shirt her dad got free at a Microsoft conference. He gave it to her and she sometimes wears it to bed. Ahh bad idea... and I AM just kidding. I think she would rather not go at all than go in that!

Big Breakfast Diet

2008-06-20T23:46:00.002-06:00

This is not going to be a long post. I merely want to point out how my last title is about how I am a pig and this next title is about an article that advocated eating a big breakfast while on a diet. Take from that what you will.

Anyway this is a great article so check it out. I love that it doesn't give carbs a bad wrap but encourages them. It goes on to show how low-carb diets are MUCH less sucessful in the long run. I have always hated and never even thought of trying a low-carb diet. Sorry for the strong opinions. One thing it doesn't say that I think is important is that the carbs we do eat should pack in a lot of fiber. Here's the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25286161/

So read it and twalk amongst yourselfs.

Proof that I'm a pig

2008-06-07T21:59:00.003-06:00

Tonight we went to a neighborhood BBQ and we had a watermelon eating contest which I was somehow convinced to compete in and I actually won. Up against some men and my husband included. I ate like the sloppiest, loudest, rudest eater ever. To make it worse I was laughing so hard that food was coming out of my mouth and at one point watermelon juice sprayed out like when you have drink in your mouth and someone makes you laugh. One guy declared after that that he was done. It wasn't my most attractive moment. My hair was sticky and glued together at places from getting watermelon on it and my make-up was coming off and watermelon was in my eye. So I don't win races that I run in, or anything else for that matter, but a food race... I can kick butt! What can I say I AM a pig.

wedding presents

2008-06-07T00:40:00.004-06:00

When Ed and I got married, we didn't register anywhere. Why? We were to busy in school, work and being in the sappiest of love ever. Life was overwhelming and we had no parents around to tell us what we should be doing- registering didn't really occur to us. I think that kind of thing was just not on my mind. So we got all kinds of things from all over and most all of it was really good. It was Christmas time- we were married on the 21st of December, so we got a lot of Christmasy stuff- a glass christmas platter, a christmas frame and christmas decorations. One thing we opened was a box for a Christmas tree stand. We figured oh good, we will need this next year, that was thoughtful. Ed's mom even made a comment about how pricey those can be so that was a thoughtful gift. So we never opened it since we weren't going to get a tree that year but stuck it in a closet and sent off a thank you note telling the Dyer family (yes Anna your family must have needed a new stand that year and used the box for a much better gift which they gave us) thank you for the Christmas tree stand. We never heard anything or discussed it since, I am not sure that they ever knew about all of this. By the way a few years later my Brother Brandon married their daughter Anna making us all family now. So finally the funny day came when I am not sure why, and it wasn't because we got a tree, but we opened the tree stand box and inside was a gorgeous 2 tiered plate stand. I LOVED it and about laughed myself to death thinking about how I actually thought they got me a Christmas tree stand and how this gift was so much more their style, and how I was a dummy for not looking inside, and about what the heck they thought when they got my thank you card. Their family has good classy taste and I should have known. I still have the plate stand 11 1/2 years later and it sits in my kitchen with fruit on it as I write. I have used it at babyshowers and bridal showers and other gatherings to make desserts and appetizers and other food look beautiful. I think next time I see Val I will tell her this funny story.

Weddings

2008-06-07T00:22:00.003-06:00

Tonight we went to the wedding of our next door neighbors daughter. It was very nice. We especially like that although there were cars up and down the street for as far as you could see, we merely had to walk out the front door and into the next yard. The weather predicted rain and although it was slightly chilly out there was no rain. The wedding was beautiful and fun, there was a band and dancing. It got my 9 year old daughter super excited about weddings and talking about what hers would be like. I told her that I would make sure she liked it all and we would plan together, but that I would be living my wedding through her. Which leads to a story. You see I got engaged 4 months after my parents left to serve a mission for 3 years- my dad was a mission president in Bolivia. I was 19 and I wasn't expecting to fall in love and plan a wedding, but I did and I knew it was right. So with my Mom in Bolivia my Aunt in Florida was nice enough to plan and take care of the wedding. I was in school and super busy and totally in la la engagement land. The end result was a very gorgeous wedding that I chose very little of. A surprise wedding if you will. I chose the announcement, the dresses for the bridsemaids etc and my dress. Other than that-- working over such a distance with the amount of time we had and the amount of stress I had with work, school and engagement, (I got a D in anatomy that sememster) I wasn't able to help much with the wedding. I think my Aunt did try to involve me and now that I think about it I was never home to get a hold of. Thinking about this now I am still trying to figure out what happened. Oh and during the short wedding planning we did have, I left for week around Thanksgiving to go visit my parents in Bolivia- it really was an insanely crazy time. The wedding was so nice and my Aunt has great taste and chose pretty much things I would have chosen had I been there for every detail, still it leaves me wanting to plan a wedding! So needless to say I am very excited to help plan Ashlin's wedding and I have lots of years to think about it!

This is totally new information

2008-06-07T00:02:00.003-06:00

Ok so when my husband leaves town I hate to cook and the kids and I eat most of our meals out. Well sometimes its too much trouble to go out and we just eat simple stuff at home, but this time we are out anyway and so we ate out. Ashlin loves Panda Express and had been wanting to go there. I love it too, but I always feel like I am at risk for eating too much when I go. I know that I have to plan on eating about half the meal and saving the rest. Which why the heck is that? I didn't have parents who made me clear my plate and I don't make my children. I think that theory about the need to clear your plate being a result of parents who encouranged it is crap because I still feel like I should eat everything on my plate and have to make quite an effort to stop myself from eating until I am uncomfortably full even though my parents never encouraged it. I am not sure if most of have this problem but I kind of think we do, at least I have had other friends express it. I wonder if naturally skinny people don't care....
So as for my discovery. I like to get the steamed veggies, but don't want to have to replace a meat choice with veggies but learned I don't have to you can get veggies instead of that really fattening chow mein or rice and it puts you back into a diet friendly meal. I got half veggies half steamed rice and two meat choices and it was perfect. I still had to save some of the meal for later, but I was so pleased. At least now I can get fresh veggies somewhere when I go out to eat- that is my biggest problem with fast food- very little fresh vegetables or fruit. Lame thing to blog about? I don't care... you can tell what kind of stuff I get excited about. Hey- I studied to be a dietician. I told my younger sister (who also studied to be a dietician) and she was totally stoked too. I don't have a weight loss blog to put this on-- my blog functions as everything for me. Which I guess since this is a diet-ish entry I may as well mention that I did finally reach my 10% and stay there and was actually below it during the heat of the kitchen renovation (still not finished I promise Iwill post when it is), but am back at right around the 10% again. Who won the throwdown? I still don't know if it was sis-in-law Kariann ( I think it was) or my sis Julie- they both say each other won. Still want to say see ya to another 5 or 10 lbs.

What Alex told me

2008-05-19T23:35:00.005-06:00

I posted two yesterday and I was thinking today about how I needed to post what Alex said to me the other day. I always see those cute kid quote posts, so here goes my third post in 2 days. K, so first picture me laying on the ground trying not to fall asleep and Alex sitting nearby me and something catches his eye.

Alex: Mom what is that? (touching my underarm)
Me: What is what?
Alex: That-- your growing a beard in there.

In my defense this was on Sunday and I was dead beat tired from my week-- I am sorry if I forgot to shave the night before when I finally got in for my bath at 1:30 in the morning. Yes that is what happened. All the dust I talked about cleaning up in my earlier post, moving all my kitchen stuff back from my living room into my kitchen, cleaning every corner of the house and every bathroom, doing laundry, going to soccer and Costco and helping my kids set up the playpool outside, cleaning off the porch etc, basically catching up on WEEKS worth of work in one day and I still didn't get it all done. That is why I got a bath so late, went to bed so late and somehow overlooked my underarms. I think my hand were too overworked to be able to hold the razor anway.

Ironic birdhouse

2008-05-19T00:03:00.004-06:00

This is an ironic picture. Let me tell you the story. This bird had been trying to build a nest on this light/gutter for weeks. We felt bad though because it would get windy and we kept finding the beginnings of the nest had blown on the ground. Unrelated to this, Alex had been wanting to build a birdhouse (he loves nature) and so Ed set up one family night (pictures below) where he cut out and helped the kids each assemble their own birdhouse. They decided to help the bird out with the nest problem by hanging one of the birdhouses there for it, but as you can see the bird ignored the house and finally succeeded in building its own nest. I just think it is so funny to see a bird sitting up there with a perfectly good and vacant home below. But this news just in-- we saw a bird sitting on the peg and looking into the house through the hole. We think we may have a contract, but he is still thinking about it as there is some very prime real estate available to birds in this neighborhood. It might be too cramped having a neighbor so close- I mean these places are built right on top of each other- where's the privacy?

A MONTH

2008-05-18T23:50:00.003-06:00

Its been a month since I have posted - almost exactly. I am feeling bad and neglectful. However that is indicative of my life. In the past month we have worked backbreaking days on our kitchen - doing the long awaited remodel. It is almost there, but we are taking a short break from any continued work as we have company in town- Ed's brother and his wife. They drove all the way from South Carolina taking 2 1/2 days to get here. We have a fun but busy we ahead I am sure. Our kitchen is looking quite nice even though it is not yet done, but I'll wait until the end to post pictures. The hardest part of the project so far has been putting the new wood floors down. We had rip up the old ones, get the new ones down (took 2+ long days), sand them (another entire day) stain them (no walking on them after that) then 3 coats of polyurethane. This meant the heart of our home the kitchen and family room were off limits for an entire week. We hated it and ate out every meal- which got very old. It was so cramped with all the furniture being moved out and our refrigerator was in the entry way, just inside the front door- kind of funny when people stopped by- embarassing more like it. We had a very thick layer of dust on literally EVERYTHING in the entire house!!! It took a lot of cleaning to get rid of the dust and I am still finding it. We didn't get to bed before 12 or 1am a singe night because we had to work late. If I never did another wood floor again it would be too soon. We are done with the wood though and it looks great, and it really feels like we earned it. It also was good for weight loss. We both lost a few pounds as we barely ate (when we did eat it was BAD) and we were burning up so many calories. So I'll post pics later! Not of us and weight- which is bound to find its way back on, of the remodel.

Sammy boy

2008-04-17T23:17:00.021-06:00

A few weeks old

Samuel Andrew Lee

I was tagged to write some facts about my little Sammy- now two and a half years old.

1. He was born 2 weeks early and still weighed a hefty 8 lbs. On Columbus day by a Dr. who sang his own made up songs during the birth and the time thereafter while he was stitching me. It was weird and annoying. He has been a robust boy ever since. He ate a lot and was such a good nurser that all my pregnancy weight came off pretty quick plus a tiny extra. That still left me heavier than I wanted to be, too bad I ate pretty much whatever I wanted, it was fun, but I could have used it to my advantage to lose more weight!

See how chubby he was! He is playing with his brother who he thought and still thinks is the coolest person EVER!

2. Sam's middle name is Andrew after his brother that was born stillborn 3 days early, and 5 years prior to him. Andrew is also his Dad's middle name. Sam was born with the tons of dark brown hair just like Andrew and also like his older sister Ashlin. Alex too had tons of hair but it was blond. Sam had his first haircut at about 4 weeks old.

3. He has his dad completely and utterly wrapped around his finger. He gets away with things he should not because he melts his dad's heart with his endearing smile and mannerisms. Apparently the feelings are reciprocated because when he isn't following Alex everywhere he is following his dad. He is his dad's best company out in the garage. Ed even lets him get in his old 65 corvette that he is fixing up to play. He puts on Ed's sunglasses- If he sees Ed wearing a hat he has to have his on too.

4. Here are some pictures of him rockin' it out with rockband. He likes to play anything Alex is playing- Lego Star Wars- anything- and he will sit there patiently for a long time and "play" but usually his controller is not plugged in. He is getting wise on that though, so now it is sometimes plugged in and his guy just walks into walls and falls off of buildings. I tried to get it on video but he stopped-a month or so ago he was sitting on the ground messing with the rockband guitar and singing oooh oooh- bah-yee, ha-yee (you know the song that goes oo-ee- oo- I look just like Buddy Holly, oh- oh- and you're Mary Tyler Moore?). It was much cuter to observe than explain. I figured most 2 year olds stick to songs like ABCD or Twinkle Little Star, but Buddy Holly was a little unexpected. He often busts out into song and rarely are they children's songs.

5. He loves candy and snacking. He always grabs the oddest container I have in the whole kitchen and fills it with cereal to snack on. He has gotten pretty good at getting his own food.

When I try to help him he gets mad and says "no I do yit!" Anytime he notices that I am about to run the mixer he runs full speed to see what I am making. He insists on pouring everything in himself and tasting it often. He also asks me what I am making a lot. I'll say bread (or whatever it is) and he will repeat like 7 times, "oh bed?" "mommy make bed?" I guess you can say that if something is happening he is always there- not about to miss out.

6. Dad was always his favorite and when we would go on walks if he caught me pushing the stroller he would freak out. The problem was that my height was much better for pushing the stroller comfortably than his dad so we would try to trick him. He would turn around occasionally to check and I made Ed stick close by so we could pull the switch if necessary.

7. His favorite show right now is "Curious George" or Dorge. He also likes too too- "Thomas and Friends." He asks for them all day long. He likes playing with trains and setting up track but he gets so mad when he can't get it to work that he screams like he is hurt- which we don't much like. He also likes an R2D2 robot thing that Ed was given for Christmas-- it responds to commands. Here is a video of him trying to command R2 who he calls doo too. You can see him yelling "no" at Alex when he tries to help. You can also see that he has no idea what to say besides doo too. Then you can see him whisper like his dad is doing in the background trying to keep the older kids away.

PS If wonder why so many of our pictures are of us wearing pajams and if we wear them all the time. The answer is yes. We love pajamas and we wear them a lot especially when it is cold outside.

Oh I forgot to tag people:

Eli Wood

Shelley Parker

Logan Ginos

Addy Allen

Annika Wood

DARN YOU Bobby Flay!

2008-04-03T10:25:00.012-06:00

Ed and I like to watch "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" on the Food Network (while I'm cursing people I should add my two sisters Julie and Erin for introducing me to the show!) EVERY TIME I watch his show I end up not being able to get my mind off the food that was throwndown until I make it. There is no other show, no anything, that has a power over me like this! Here are some of the things that I have made while under the Throwdown trance: Chocolate Chip cookies (that were good almost like the Ben's Cookies I have posted about in the past), Sticky Buns (those are sitting in my freezer- which is where I had to put them so I would stop eating them), lasagna (I made that one healthier as I do most of the recipes and I posted it), chili (although this one I was already making for Sunday dinner when we just happened to watch an episode about chili) and then there was pie. The pie and chili were our Sunday double feature. The entire family was salivating because I turned Throwdown on while we were all still fasting. I know not smart. So having the chili to break our fast was a good thing. But when were done we were all, really still thinking about the Blackberry Peach Pie Bobby made and won with. So--I made it(I was lucky enough to have both those fruits in my freezer) and it WAS awesome. Ed didn't want me to ruin the peach/blackberry (peach is one of his favorite fruits, being a southerner) by trying whole wheat in the crust, like I ruined the hockypucks ... I mean-biscuits I made on Easter. So I made an apple pie as well trying whole wheat in the crust. They were both amazing! I did use some white flour in the crust as well as the whole wheat but I honestly liked that crust better than the all white flour crust! I used all the regular stuff in the crust like you'd expect shortening, flour, salt and water, but picked up the hot tip of grating a little bit of cold butter into the dough as well. I haven't successfully made a crust in years- honestly. I have failed so many crusts in the past that I had gone strictly to using store bought roll-out crust when I need to make a "homemade" pie. I also am embarrassed to admit that although I have made plenty of pies in my life I honestly don't remember a time that I have made a two crust fruit filled pie by myself with no help. Usually its a cream pie or strawberry or pumpkin or something with one crust. So I was really excited to see if I had it in me. I was worried it would turn out too runny or crumbling apart or something, but I was an actual success! We have been eating pie ALL week-DARN YOU Bobby Flay!

This is a picture of Bobby's Blackberry Peach abomination.

Last night I watched another Throwdown. You are going to tell me to stop watching them, but there is no way THAT'S going to happen. This one was soft pretzels. I have always loved soft pretzels in all their over priced, 3 dollars per ounce or two of high-carb, low-fiber, doughy, salty, buttery glory. So I didn't stand a chance. He even had a recipe for pablano cheese dip to accompany it. So today yep I made pretzels (with whole wheat). It is now out of my system. They were no Auntie Anne's (those are my favorite) but they were pretty good and I ate my fair share. DARN YOU Bobby Flay!

Bobby's pretzels

The next one is Cheesecake. That frightens me. I have never made a baked cheesecake ever. There are a few reasons: 1)you have to have a special pan 2) you have to let it rest for a really long time like overnight or something, I feel like it right then not a day later! 3) it takes like 5 blocks of cream cheese which I never have that much on hand 4) they are just way to fattening -to have the ability to make it would be far too dangerous 5) Mine would never in a million years turn out as good as the Cheesecake Factory's and so what's the point? The fear is there though and its real. Because like I said his Show has a hold on me, every time I watch it I have to make it! I think its because watching them make it, I can see the steps and the tricks and then believe that I CAN actually do it. And the food looks so so good. Bobby Flay- I am NOT going to make your freakin' Cheesecake! I'm on a diet for cryin' out loud!

And thats Utah for you

2008-03-27T08:26:00.005-06:00

I am a pretty lazy blogger but today I knew I had to post when I woke up and looked outside I was so shocked, it was snowing! Now yes I know I live in Utah and yes I know it snows here, but its officially spring and Easter is over. The forecast did say flurries and a drop in temperatures, but the 60's we had all last week and over Easter weekend gave me a false sense of security that the snow was done with. The temperatures are high enough that it won't stick on the streets, but it is sticking on my newly blossomed daffodils and on my starting to green up grass. One thing you can say is that the weather here is not predictable or boring. Arizona had great weather all winter and freakin' hot weather all summer, but you pretty much knew what you were going to get. The truth is if it fluctuated between 105 to 115 it didn't really matter that much it was still hot and sunny. I never watched the weather there, unless the seasons were changing and I was hoping for the temps to drop, oh around Halloween or Thanksgiving. I watch the weather here pretty religiously. When I saw the snow outside I had to
take some pictures and pause in my laziness to blog about it.

Here are my daffodils and sprouting tulips with snow all over them
A shot of it all from the front of the house

The kids begged me to get out Easter decorations which I have very little of. Ashlin and Alex took their baskets and started putting them on their heads. Then Sam caught on. His basket is tiny and makes it look like a monkey in a marching band. Don't worry that was the last minute basket I could find for him last year, but this year he has a bigger one. It was perfect last year for a one year old though. I especially like the way the tag is still on and falls in front of his face.

I think the brand is Crayola- they came out with a new kind of sidewalk art using paint instead of chalk. It washes off and out of clothes too. The kids got a set to share for an Easter present. They loved it. Alex has a goal to pain the entire driveway in. Because of this we went through the full 2 bottles within an hour. That was Sunday. Well on Monday Sam couldn't stop asking for more paint. He remembered it out of the blue. So Sam and I had to go back to the store to buy more- each bottle is just under $2. Worth it to me because the kids have so much fun with it. As you can see the snow is going to help clean the driveway. It looks like Alex is going to have to start over again and I will be needing to buy A LOT more paint:).

Diet Murder

2008-03-11T23:17:00.002-06:00

Today was diet murder. I started out with a good workout and a healthy breakfast. Then we headed off to playgroup water bottle in hand. After that we had just 15 minutes to get lunch (Wendy's) before heading off to a field trip at a very scary place I will say more about later. At Wendy's I ordered a dollar menu bacon cheesburger! and a side salad. Why did I do that- well I usually try to get a small burger and a side salad with low-cal dressing but the addition of bacon and cheese was just wrong. I got that because I was in a hurry and couldn't think--she was waiting for me to order and I was having trouble making a healthy decision in the 5 second pause I had to look a the menu. So then the burger came and I realized I forgot to tell them to leave OFF the mayo. So after a quick debate as to how dry and flavorless it would be, I wiped off the mayo with a napkin and decided that the bacon and cheese and vegetable and the beef would lend a good enough mixture of flavors and moisture-- I was right it was good. So I downed that and the salad and we were off to the field trip to Sweet's CANDY FACTORY!!!

If I had any diet responsibility at all I would have arranged to have Ed go or just never mentioned it to my kids, but the truth is I wanted to go as much as my kids did! It was a really cool field trip and tasty too. I have seen all kind of shows about about how things are made and seen the factories and such, but have NEVER personally been in one that I can remember. So we saw taffy being made and sampled it, and we saw jelly beans being made and sampled them, and we saw orange jelly sticks enrobed in chocolate being made and sampled them (holy crap it was good- so fresh and I am not usually that much of a fan) we also saw cinnamon bears being made and I got to sample one too (I LOVE them). This place even covers cinnamon bears in chocolate and they are so good. The chocolate enrobing kitchen smelled AMAZING. So I sampled all of the things above plus a carmel peanut chocolate covered thing. On the drive home I was literally feeling sick. It wasn't that I had eaten THAT much candy, it was really just one of each of the things I mentioned above-- could be worse. It was just so much sweet all at once for me. So worked on recovering during the drive, home and told myself I would not eat anymore candy today. So when I got home I went to show Ed the candy that I bought (I forgot to mention that) the factory had a little candy store that sells all kind of fresh candy. I then began to sample all of it. There were huge chocolate covered marshamallow eggs, an easter candy mix, some saltwater taffy, grape sourballs and a mixture of chocolate covered nuts (my favorite). I kept eating the nuts and eating them because I had to try all the different kinds several times- there were dark and milk chocolate on pecans, brazil nuts, cashews, peanuts, walnuts and almonds-- I hope I tried them all I wonder if there are some nuts I missed I need to go check! I followed this up by a little walk outside and a healthy dinner-- my homemade version of Chili's Grilled Chicken Carribeann.

So it was a bad day as it was (I also sampled a couple bites of cookie throughout the day) but then my favorite neighbor came by with the most amazing chocolate cake I have ever eaten. She had told me about the recipe she had and so she was bringing it by for me to try and to get rid of some of it. I had decided by this time it was a lost cause that the diet was not happening today and that there was no way I was leaving that chocolate cake alone tonight. So I ate it but my kids wanted some so I hesitantly gave them each some of mine knowing it was for my own good, but it was not an easy sacrifice. I want the recipe really bad, but am not sure if I am to be trusted. Here is the strangest thing about my diet murder today- I have been sitting here hungry and wanting more food! I am in no place to eat more after today or after the high numbers on the scale I have been seeing lately-- hopefully due to the time of the month. Also because I saw a full body pic of myself and it was a wake up call. Losing weight has made me feel so good because my clothes fit better etc, but the picture made it very obvious that I am not there yet I have a ways to go! It was diet murder, but it was really, REALLY yummy.

Hackjob Hair

2008-03-11T22:15:00.007-06:00

This is Ashlin before we cut her hair-- this is a silly picture back from December. So seeing as it is March her hair was even longer.

She had been growing out her hair for Locks of Love for around 2 years I think now. Sweet girl huh? She really is. Her hair was beautiful in many ways, but a little hard to take care of. We both were ready for a cut. I had recently seen an old picture of her with shorter hair and thought she looked so darn cute. Still I was patient not wanting for her to cut her hair after so much growing and hard work before it was time.

Well the boys were due up for a cut and so as I cut their hair and she was feeling some desire to join the ranks. She was ready for a cut. So we measured it out and she had 10 inches which is the minimum for locks of love, but the last inch was not such nice hair- bad ends and not thick, but quite sparse. So I trimmed off the bad ends measured again and got 9 inches. So I then decided to research and see what would happen if we cut now. I had remembered Hilary Swank cut her hair for Pantene, so I decided to check out their site. It turned out you only need 8 inches for them, so we decided we were good to

go. So we followed the instructions and put her hair in a good tight ponytail and I chopped! It was very scary! It was a lot of hair and I wanted to make sure the hair she wasn't keeping was usuable for Pantene and that the hair she was keeping looked decent and wasn't TOO short. I had to chop and chop and chop to get throught it all. I was really afraid because it wasn't making a real clean cut. I just kept tellng myself if I mess up we can take her to a salon to get it fixed and that hair does grow back. I DID know that cutting from a ponytail at the back of her head it would end up in an A-line cut, where her hair in the front was longer and the back was shorter- which I wanted. It was already pretty cute as soon as the ponytail was cut and the hair fell forward, but it needed some cleanup. She looked in the mirror while I had to run and help her brother- it wasn't fixed yet but she said "I already think it looks cute!"I was relieved. So I evened out some areas to make them straight and in my amateur way tried to do some layers in the back. I quickly realized it was well beyond my ability and that we needed to take her to a salon or to one of my friends who is a beautician and ask for help. Well I first called a couple friends and one line was busy and the other wasn't home, then we got busy and still haven't fixed it-- it looks good enough for now, but I do need to get her in somewhere to get the professional touch. Doing hair that short is hard, it has to be precise. I keep catching her looking in the mirror and smiling which is so cute. She also gets really excited to see friends who haven't seen her hair yet. I love her so much and am so glad to have a daughter with such a big heart. I also am just glad to have a daughter. She is like a best friend and she is so forgiving of me. Really, she tells me that I am the best mom in the world and means it, and I'm far from it! I guess I only need to wait a few years 'til she's a teen and her mind will quickly change. I hope not though- I hope we are buddies forever. I usually can't imagine anything but the sweet little girl she is, but every once in a while I catch a glimpse of some major attitude!

Family reading night, turned soda geyser

2008-02-17T15:48:00.005-07:00

Last Friday night was an activity called Family Reading Night an my kids school. They are having a reading competition at school and basically this month they are suppose to read as much as they can to win. They are competing against other schools and if they win they get to have a Jazz player come to thier school and an ice cream party. It must be a good incentive because the boy next door (same age as Ashlin) told me he has spent some extra hours reading because he really wants to win and meet the Jazz player. His mom at separate times has told me how little he cares for academics and reading and that he would rather, anyday, be outside playing basketball, or doing jumps on his bike or rollerblades off a ramp etc. My daughter enjoys winning as much as the next person but told me she does NOT care to meet any of the Jazz- but the ice cream sounds good. My kindergartener doesn't quite understand, but really likes winning and meeting cool people and ice cream too, so he wants to win.

Back to reading night. Every minute of reading done that night was to count toward this competition. It was Friday and my husband just got back into town late the night before and it sounded pretty nice to us to put the kids to bed and watch our Netflix "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." The last thing he or I felt like was going to the school. My kids were begging me and I knew once I got there it would probably be pretty fun. I also realized that since it was Friday not many people would go and so it shouldn't be overly crowded and that was a nice thought.

So we went. As a nice sidenote I was grateful when I got there because the sign-ups for parent teacher conference were still out and I had forgotten to sign-up that week even though I had been to the school like 5 times! So even if the evening did turn out to be a bomb, that would be worth it. :) The evening wasn't a bomb though. There weren't tons of people there, but just enough. The kids got to pick out candy like it was a movie theatre. Then we rotated to different locations around the school and heard some really fun stories. One was about how a little boy wanted an Iguana (it was cute- called "I want and Iguana") and they had a real iguana there for the kids to look at. We went on to hear several others "Bad Dog Marley" also cute and they got to hold stuffed animal dogs (Bonus: Alex's said "Yo quiero Taco Bell" when you squeezed it). A older man read part of "The Hobbit" and he used an English accent when he read and did a decent job, only I am not sure if he was actually British or not- I think when he said "thanks for listening goodbye" that he might have lost the accent. He might be getting his tutoring from Brittney. There were a few other cute books (in case you want ideas for your kids) "No Talking" a chapter book by Andrew Clements. Also, I can't remember the name but one was about a french mouse (no, not ratatouille he's a rat) and the lady dressed the part in a french princess-ish outfit and she used a pretty good fake french accent.

The kids each won a $5 coupon to spend at the bookfair which was open for shopping at the end of the night. This is our second bookfair this year-- we have a bookfair that coincides with each of the two parent teacher conferences, that way they know the parents will get to the school to spend money. It works and I always spend too much, kind of a sucker for books. The books they have there are always really good ones and they are usually paperback and pretty cheap. Plus the school gets like 50% of the profit. I was looking for "Twilight" -have you all heard of that New York times best seller about vampires?? Everybody I know has read it but me. They didn't have it. I do have a copy from the library now.

Each of my kids were very excited to go in and find something to spend their $5 on. Ashlin found a chapter book called "Lily B. On the Brink of Cool." It is all pink with a cartoon diva girl pictured on the front. Alex had picked out a really cute tadpole counting book (like the ladybug one if you have seen that) but he was willing to put it back along with anything else that I asked him to, AND his left leg if I was just willing to buy him... a scientific soda geyser kit he found. It was $15 (the price of 3 books) and it came with a tube of mint mentos (50 cents at the grocery store), a foam rocket that looked like it cost them 5 cents to make (cheaper looking than happy meal or dollar store toys) two types of salt- rock and table (both of which we have at home) and one last thing that I guess was what was suppose to make it worth $15. It was a tube that screws onto your soda bottle with a pin that holds the mentos up until you pull it out using an attached string, allowing the mentos to drop into the soda while you are far as the explosion immediately takes place. I bought it even as I watched so many parents around me say "no" to similar items and listening to others say "well you don't have enough money for that, how about this?" See, I'm a sucker. He did have $5 to put toward it...

Really I knew that Alex wasn't the only one who would enjoy it. All the kids would enjoy it, including the grown-up kids, my husband to be specific. He was pretty excited about it. He picked up 1 bottle of diet coke (didn't realize we needed LOTS more), which we now know performs the best for this experiment. We also tried non-diet sprite, and a bottle of seltzer water, which both barely put up a fountain at all. We have been fans of Mythbusters and others performing this experiment before and were excited to do it ourselves. I have video of it below you should give it a watch.

I got "tagged"

2008-02-12T17:47:00.006-07:00

I'm new enough to blogging that I have never been "tagged" before so I am actually kind of excited about this- Mandy. That is not an open invitation to everyone else to tag me (I already get asked to sub for everything in church because people know I won't say "no") it is just my first time and the first time is always kind of exciting. But beware you might get tagged by me now! I have answered about a million things like this via email, but now bloggin's the in thing.

10 years ago I was... Barely pregnant with my first child, while going to school part time at BYU and working full-time for Utah Valley Regional Medical Center at the Family Practice Residency Clinic.

5 things on my 'to do' list today: Well this is for tomorrow now. My only plans tonight are to relax for a bit and then go to bed.
1. Get up and get Ashlin off to school so I can exercise and shower before my VT's come at 9:30
2. Get Alex's school work done, get him lunch and off to pm kindergarten .
3. Go VT at 1pm
4. Fold the loads and loads of laundry that I have been avoiding for a couple days now.
5.Take the kids to the library to return the books we finished reading and get new ones.

Things I would do if I became a billionaire:
1. Pay someone to finish our home (the addition parts we haven't finshed yet and to do what remodeling we have on our list) I guess that is if I didn't just decide I had enough money to just scratch this home alltogether.
2. Give some to charitable places anyone or thing that needed it (not necessarily a particular organization)
3. Travel to some really cool places all over the world that I have never been before... NY, HI, Cancun, all places tropical, Germany, China, Africa, France, Itay.
4. Invest
wonder if I should switch anything above out for lipo?

3 of my bad habits:
1. Staying up too late
2. touching my food with my fingers (I am a lot better at this now- because Ed asked me to be)
3. being late (getting better- we have 9am church and I haven't once been late AND I have to get all 3 kids ready alone because Ed is at PEC)
boy this subject wasn't a fun one, fessing up not easy.

5 Places I've lived:
1. California
2. Washington state
3. Arizona
4. Utah

5 jobs I've had:
1. Hostess and Server at Mel's Diner and the Skyroom Restaurant at BYU
2. Janitor for OBGYN office
3. Museum of Art Cafe at BYU (did catering and food prep- was the designated smoothie maker at Skyroom)
4. Did a lot of regular babysitting and nannying. Not just for my aunt every friday, but later for the owner of Mel's diner -was the afterschool mom while their mom worked, also came home from college one summer to work full time for a mom while she worked as a nurse.
5. Patient service rep for the Family Practice Residency, at UVRMC Hospital in Provo. That was fancy for scheduling appts and checking patients out.

Things most people don't know about me:
1.I originally studied to be a dietician but have since changed my career path several times and am currently unsure what I will graduate as- because I will graduate.
2. I held and office in the future Homemakers of America while in High School and even went to a regional meeting representing that office instead of school one day. I don't remember which office. The reason I joined was to have it on my admission papers to BYU- I figured they dig that kind of stuff. I didn't take it seriously enough, but maybe I should have since I currently am a Homemaker of America.

Now I tag: (sorry)
1. Erin Ginos (I didn't do any other sisters or sis-in-law, because I didn't want to use up their options)
2. Becky Parker
3. Kim Johnson
4. Erin Allen (but she will have to do it when she gets her internet up and going she just moved to London!)

PS. I realize the time stamp on this is for when I started it at around 6pm, but I had to stop and didn't get to finishing it until 11pm. So don't think I am THAT lazy, to say that I am relaxing and going to bed at 6pm.

Not a recipe

2008-02-11T17:16:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I have posted a "real" entry, not a recipe. I write entries in my head all the time, but then forget them later and never post them. Well this morning my entry was all about how my pants are fitting so well!

I have really only lost about 5 pounds and because it isn't ALL that much I wasn't very excited about trying on old clothes- I was afraid that they wouldn't really fit much better. Still, I feel better and looking in the mirror, can tell just a bit that I am looking better. A friend told me the other day that I look better. Well I thought she was just saying that because she is really nice. She knows I am working on my weight and she too is doing Weight Watchers. She worked hard to convince me that she really could tell- I still don't know. For the almost 2 years that I have known her (since I moved here) she and I have talked about losing whatever stupid pounds we have in mind. We run together, we ran a half marathon together. We have had a lot of good talks on our runs, but the overriding conversation is losing weight, during which time neither of us were really having any results. So at the same time that I started to get serious and decided I would make a concerted effort to get the weight off once and for all, she coincidentally had started Weight Watchers with the same determination. She's funny and tells me about how her husband gets grossed out because she weighs herself before and after pooping and she will be down like a whole pound. So you are getting the point of what a nut she is. She served a mission in Paraguay and has worked a lot in politics before becoming a mom and has some really silly stories-- many about poop.

So that was a nice tangent. Back to how my clothes fit. Today I was getting dressed and most of my pants choices weren't right for the shirt I had on. Then I spotted a pair of pants that I haven't worn in months because it was just one more pound at a time that caused them to not fit right or comfortably. I nervously pulled them out and slipped them on. Then came buttoning the button, the one that last time I had tried it, I was afraid it would come off from being pulled so hard. It buttoned pretty nicely, I would have no problem with it being looser, but I would qualify it as "fitting". So then came checking out the butt, I've seen better, but definitely passable! The legs, no problems there, they looked great. So there you have it, only 5 pounds and I am regaining some of my wardrobe. I'm not there yet, I want to say goodbye to another 5-15 pounds, I'll just have to see where I need to be to take full advantage of my wardrobe and also to make sure that I look OK in a swimsuit. I'm not asking to look like a model, just like a mom who is trying to take care of herself with some level of success.

I was talking to my sister Erin today, we were discussing the new exciting development of being able to wear these pants and other weight loss things. We both have found that one place we are thinning down to our chagrin is our chest. C'mon of all the places to keep and lose weight on my body why does it have to leave there first and leave my butt, thighs and belly last! She and I have both started weight training and this includes exercises which increase muscle in the chest, but seems to effectively be shrinking that area. Whats a girl to do? Maybe we ought to work out every other area and leave the chest flabby! We are just hoping that it stops soon so that we don't look like the chick on the front of Runners World Magazine, Paula Radcliffe. Don't get me wrong she is totally amazing. She ran the NY city marathon 10 months after giving birth and she won. She ran and trained throughout her entire pregnancy. She did slow it down from 5:30 min. miles to 6:30 min. miles and found it very REALAXING! She ran through the WHOLE THING.
She said this same guy would always see her out running and say "should you be doing that?" I mean she was obviously booking it, big ol' belly and all. She was even 10 days overdue. She's amazing!, but I don't want my chest looking like hers.

So there you have it no recipe today, just a bunch of blabbering about weight loss.

Have your lasagna and eat it too

2008-02-06T14:39:00.001-07:00

My friend requested that I post this recipe...

My sister Julie was talking the other day about how she made lasagna but couldn't eat more than a couple bites because it was so high in calories. This is a lasgna that you can eat without it ruining your diet. It doesn't taste much different than the good old traditional kind, but it is.

There are a couple reasons it is lower calorie. The most effective change to lower the calories in this dish is using spaghetti squash instead of noodles (trust me it tastes great EVERYONE in my family ate it up). I got the idea to use spaghetti squash from Roni's website, she has a lot of good ideas. I still don't think I would have tried it had Erin, my other sister, not tried it first and told me it was really good. Spaghetti squash has 35 calories per cup, while pasta has 215 per cup- that is a lot of difference in calories, and pasta offers very little actual nutrition.

The next reason it is lower calories is I use very lean ground meat instead of fattier kinds or sausage. It still tastes like I use sausage though, because I put all the sausage seasonings in my meat when I brown it. Then a few calories are cut by using part skim ricotta instead of the full fat kind. You could go fat free too if you wanted, I just was a little afraid to go that far this time- I was going to be feeding it to my family and the new spaghetti squash thing was enough new for one meal. I like the ricotta alone without egg or parsley added so I don't add that (and even keeping the egg out saves some calories). It also saves dishes and time.

It is sort of like making lasagna using spaghetti. My husband said several times how surprised he was at how wonderful it tastes and how you can't even really tell its squash, it tastes like vermicelli-- which he loves. If you don't want to go through the trouble of making the lasagna you could even make meatsauce and eat it over the spaghetti squash noodles. Ok onto the recipe

SPAGHETTI SQUASH LASAGNA

take a whole spaghetti squash and stab holes in it with a knife, then put the entire thing in the microwave for 12 minutes on high. Then set aside until ready to use.

Brown:
1 lb lean ground meat (chicken, turkey, pork or beef or a mix- I used 90% lean beef)

While browing add:
1- Tbl fennel seed (this is one of the biggest factors in giving it a sausage flavor)
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp garlic (just throw some in - I don't measure well)
1/2-1 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or some pepper flakes(like you put on pizza)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp italian seasoning (or use some basil and oregano)

Add: 3 16-oz cans of tomatoes however you like, crushed, diced, whole(then crush them) some tomato sauce whatever. Also another way to lower the calories here would be to add some cooked pureed veggies, carrots and celery- or shred some carrot in. I had some leftover tomato soup that called for pureed veggies and I threw that in.

Add more to taste:
garlic 1 Tbl or so
salt
sugar
pepper
italian seasoning
then let it simmer for about an hour. Simmering is important so that your meat is tender and you don't bite into something rubbery or hard to chew. It also gets all the flavors of your seasoning to come out into your sauce.

Then its time to layer:
-start with some sauce on the bottom so nothing sticks
-then an even layer of the spaghetti squash
-then ricotta (spread over top, right from the carton)
-mozzerella cheese
- then sauce again
- squash again
-ricotta again
- then do more sauce and end with mozzerella on top

This is all the layers I was able to fit. Bake in a 375 degree oven until warm through- about 30-45 mintues. I put a larger pan under the dish because mine was full and overflowed some.
I just made an 8x8 for our family and I had stuff leftover.

When you serve it, it looks good (and tastes good) to spoon some sauce over the top of each individual serving.

Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn

2008-02-04T22:56:00.000-07:00

I was starving today when I got home from errands. That is always how my day goes, I've got to start packing healthy snacks. I wasn't even gone very long. So I ate and apple and when that didn't touch it (the hunger) and I was about to start eating things I knew I had better not, I remembered this recipe- if you can call it that, for popcorn that was low-cal. It is SO easy. To me it has a similar idea to kettle corn in that it is lightly sweet and also addicting. It really hit the spot.

So what you do:

Air pop 1/2 cup of popcorn - it will make a nice sized bowful.

Then spray it with pam and toss it to get the pam to coat evenly (this makes the cinnamon sugar stick)

Then sprinkle on cinnamon sugar (whatever ratio you like) but only about 1-2 Tablespoons to control the calories.

I also sprinkled a very little bit of salt to give it the kettle corn, sweet and salty flavor. But really you don't need much salt at all if you choose to do that, like one or two shakes.

Nutrition info: I didn't divide it into servings because I almost ate the whole thing but also because it is easier to figure out that way. So the popcorn alone has 345 calories and 1 tbl of sugar has 50 calories. I used only 1 tbl of sugar, so the whole bowl wass just under 400 calories.

This was good to fend of my sweet tooth. I hope you like it-- I obviously did. I don't know about my family because the kids were at school when I made and ate it. And like I said there wasn't much left after I got done with it. Alex ate the other bowl- the one with just salt and pam on it, I made that incase I didn't like the cinnamon one. If you are scared you will eat the whole thing like I did, then just make half-- I know I will next time.

How to lose 3 pounds in one day...

2008-02-03T22:35:00.001-07:00

Weak stomach? Read with caution...

It all began with an insatiable appetite late Thursday afternoon. I got home and was ravenous and did not stop being hungry for more and kept eating until 8pm. (Sound pretty good so far huh?) I started to notice troubles as I put the kids to bed that worsened as the night continued. A lot of gastro-intestinal upset. I went to bed and as I laid there I said to Ed that it was weird that I was feeling dizzy and that it wasn't the first time that night. When I closed my eyes I felt like I was still moving.

I fell asleep to wake up to increased discomfort. My body felt bad and I couldn't get comfortable. I gave up and went downstairs and turned on the TV. It was 3am and almost all the channels were off air, but there was a great episode of "Christine's Court" (who the heck has heard of that?) I watched it anyway. I kept getting worse and not knowing what to do with myself went upstairs at which time I new it was going to happen. Yep, to the toilet and threw up--there was nothing left. It was horrible. I admit the thought did come to me that my voracious appetite of early that night had been forgiven. I even thought that I had gained my place back in the running for the throwdown competition! I felt a little better and the indigestion left, but I was still very aware of my aching body. I went down stairs wanting to feel horrible alone, with nobody to bother. I slept on the love seat-scrunched up. I should have chosen the couch.

The next day I continued to feel really bad. If I got up it became much worse. I was nauseous and laid in bed all day falling in and out of sleep while I watched TV and sipped water and a can of lime soda. I can tell you how happy it made me to have my husband tell me he took the day off of work and he was handling everything! I honestly can't remember the last time I just got to be sick and heal. Usually I have to get up anyway. Somtimes Ed couldn't take the day off, or I had a newborn that needed to feed or Ed was out of town or whatever. It was heaven for a sick person. He was awesome and got me things I needed and checked on me. Too bad we had to cancel a babysitter for that night, we were actually going to get out!

I started to improve a little by that night and by the next morning after a great nights sleep I felt tons better. Still had that day after feeling like you got beat up, but it sure beat the way I felt the day before. I got on the scale in the morning before eating and the results were crazier than I thought. Down 3 entire pounds in 24 hrs! I couldn't wait to call my "throwdown competition" sister Erin, who knew from when she called the day before that I was sick. I had to rub it in. We both knew it wouldn't last, but it was still really pretty cool. Of course most of it was water weight. After weighing today I know that some is already back on. Not all, so let me see if I can run with this and turn some lemons into good ol' lemonade! Of course when your body has spent the last few days with very little food and had to fight a virus it can make you hungry. I am going to have to be on my best behavior to not destroy the one good thing that came from this crappy weekened.

So it isn't really a useful method in the end. However if you are unlucky enough to get hit with stomach flu this season, just think of how skinny you will get. Believe me that is the ONLY thing that you could possibly enjoy from it.

Alex's birthday

2008-01-28T23:27:00.000-07:00

Alex just a couple weeks old.
Alex 9 months old

These are Alex at 1 yr and some change.

This is Alex now! Ha ha don't know why he's not smiling, we are on our way out to celebrate his birthday. Going bowling and to Sweet Tomatoes his choice. He is a happy kid don't let the picture fool you.

Here are the other two ready to go. Sam is happy, though sleepy you'll see...

And we're bowling...

Sam fell asleep on the way, it was a 1o minute drive.

He's a good sleeper, so the good parents that we are, we laid blankets down and let him sleep on the floor of the bowling alley. All you OCD's are freaking out. He was rested and happy for the restaurant,and Ed and I were able to bowl without swapping holding him back and forth, risking him waking up. He did get in on the action for the last 5 mintues, it was all he needed- 2 times to bowl.

Here we are at Sweet Tomatoes. Where Alex and I both ate too much of a good thing (it was all healthy). He was sick afterward the kid doesn't eat much and overeating really is an uncomfortable feeling for him. When we left he kept thinking he needed to throw up, he has a sensitive stomache. He did opted to do cake a different night.

Opening presents. A monster truck from Grandma. Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga from Dad (and mom), another webkinz, a toy guitar (mom and dad) and magnet bugs (grandma).

The next night we did the cake.

He's growing up. I can't believe it when I look at those old baby pictures....

Roller Skating

2008-01-28T22:57:00.000-07:00

When I REALLY didn't feel like exercising on Saturday, the idea of roller skating came to my mind-- don't ask how, I don't know. I quickly realized this would be something my kids could really enjoy and I could still get my exercise while having fun. By the time it was time to go I really felt like staying home, but I had promised the kids and I still needed my workout so I we went. My 9 year old, her friend and my 6 year old son. We walked in and my 9 year old immediatley notices there are no walls around the rink and says "I can't skate around that." We of course are going to anyway. So we get a package deal to skate and do one other thing (you can pick laser tag, the jungle which is a HUGE indoor play area, or you can bounce in the bounce area) plus you get a bunch of tokens for the dimecade. It was a good deal all in all. We started out skating and both my kids were really difficult to teach and made very little progress. My 9-yr old spent the entire time wheeling around on the carpet area instead of the actual rink because it slowed her down and made a fall more comfortable. My 6 yr old went on the rink if I held his arm (a great workout --holding up all his weight) while he slid his skates EVERY direction with no specific plan but to move them A LOT. If I didn't hold him he sat on the edge. Several people came to ask if they could help and gave tips, which I thought was really nice, but I felt kind of bad taking their fun time. So I accepted and then eventually convinced them to move on. After a while we decided it was time for the kids to go to the jungle area. When we we got there we discovered an entire other rink. This one had two sets of walls, an outer wall and inner wall. It was basically a track that circled part of the jungle (the jungle had a bridge that crossed over to another area) and the bounce area. Why didn't I have this for my 9 yr old earlier? I had no interest in the jungle so I was glad to see that they could go play while I got my exercise in. I skated my butt off around that track dodging kids who were going the wrong way, little guys on scooters (yes they can ride rasers around) and people who weren't looking at all as to where they were going. I need to add here that I wasn't too great on the skates and in the beginning had an embarrassing fall or two until I warmed up. I looked for other people as bad as me and didn't see any, all those people seem to be really good!! It has been a serious long time since I last skated. It came back pretty well because by the end of the night I wasn't falling and was able to dodge the said people above. As I skated around and was surrounded by all the youngins I felt so young again! I started to think of myself as this little teenager thing again. Whatever. It felt great. The kids finished in the jungle and came back to skate on the walled rink. I arranged for Alex to get a scooter by this time and he loved that. Ashlin, I wanted to work on her skills. I passed her about 7 times while she clug to the edge sllllllllllllowly creeping along. Thankfully her friend had some ability, but she didn't like to leave Ashlin. Finally the place was going to close so the kids hurried up and used their tokens on the games where they won tickets and redeemed them for cheap prizes. It was a great night. I still can barely lift my right leg to move it. I must have pulled something because my left leg doesn't feel that way. I guess I am not THAT young after all. This would have never happened to me 10 years ago.

Snow, snow and more snow.

2008-01-28T21:05:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to post these pictures of the last snow for a week. This is how our Martin Luther King day, with no school turned out. We got this huge snowfall. This was the most we have had since we've lived here, but its only our second winter. I have lived here before for school and we did have a snowfall or two like this, but not often. It was still around with very little melting despite a warm 37 on Saturday! Then today another whopper. The winds combined with the heavy snow were bad, resulting in a short aiport closure (not too common here) a lot of closed roads and at least one fatal accident. We are expected to get more tonight and tomorrow in the day. Ashlin left to school in snowboots and I thought, "She probably doesn't need to wear those, all the walk areas are clear," but we were in a hurry and it never hurts to wear them, just in case. I was glad when she had to trudge her way home in the snow from the bus. If you are thinking how bad I am for not picking her up-- I thought about it, but getting the car around in the unplowed snow is really tough, then hard again to get it up our steep driveway!

Ed out shoveling the snow with Ashlin playing in it. She loved it.

Can you see how deep the snow is?

Always eager to get suited up not wanting miss out on a single thing. I love him when he gets in his snowgear, it makes me want to bite him even more...Mini snowboots, mini gloves, mini hats and coats in a big puffy ball, need I say more?

So I have a newly aquired love for tulips and daffodils. When I was growing up my parents always wanted to go to fields of tulips and stuff. I thought it was kind of cool to see but wasn't my idea of an awesome outing. Tulips and daffodils come up in early spring, peaking through the last bits of snow. The tempuratures outside become perfect and the world is beautiful. These flowers look amazing and you driving around town and most houses has them cheerfully annoucing spring has arrived. Fall use to always be my favorite time here, but now Spring is giving tough competition. Below are pictures of what I am dreaming of and looking forward to is the snow keeps falling and falling and falling. Don't get me wrong I don't hate it, but I look forward to spring like a child does Christmas.

We had more daffodils than this last year and we didn't get a picture taken of any. We only got this picture because it was so cute of Alex and his cousin Adam out sitting so cutely together.

Whats better chubby babies in puffy wintergear, or chubby babies in a pool wearing nothing but a diaper?Toss up.

Praise to the Man!

2008-01-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

I learned this morning of the passing of our Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley from Kariann's journal. It came as a shock, even though I had wondered at every conference for the past couple years, if this talk could be his farwell. He was 97 years old and his health, while absolutely amazing for his age, was deteriorating. He had lost his wife a few years ago as well and publicly shared his deep love for her and admitted that getting along without her would be difficult.

When ordinary people die they are often glorified and their faults forgotten. President Hinckley is truly extraordinary. He deserves to be glorified. His faults which were never apparent, must have been few and needn't be forgotten when they can't be remembered. He was truly a great man who touched the lives of innumerable people. As I read the comments left for him on DeseretNews, my heart was further touched at the outpouring of love, praise, mourning and devotion for him from people of all faiths. His service was done with great energy, spirit, wisdom and cheer. The impact of his life was great his impact will be eternal. I wish only I could witness his work continue as it did here on earth, in the heavens with renewed energy, ailed no longer by his aging body. My heart is filled with emotion both of joy and sorrow for a life greatly lived and for a man who will be greatly missed.

Rosemary Artichoke White Bean Hummus

2008-01-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, another hummus recipe and its a good one. We had run out of hummus and I was missing it. I spread it on wraps, eat it for dip with veggies, and eat it with crackers or baked (homemade) tortilla chips for a snack. Last time I made hummus (I posted it- traditional) I was grabbing stuff out of the pantry and saw a jar of artichokes. I thought, "hmm that would be really good in hummus- I should try that sometime." When I was at the grocery store yesterday I looked at their hummus selection and saw one called garlic artichoke. I almost bought it, but it was so expensive for such a small amount. Plus I don't usually like store bought hummus as much as homemade. Plus it had a lot of fat and calories compared to my homemade kind. So I resolved to make my own. I like that you can use different types of beans to make hummus so I decided to experiment here. I had navy beans in my pantry needing to be used-- the end result, GREAT. Here I came up with this recipe which I will list below. I was pleasantly surprised by how godo it was and will definitely make it again. Ed loved it, Sam loved it and Ashlin liked it we all chose to eat it for lunch, except Ashlin. She never has liked hummus, of any kind from any place, as much as the rest of us. Oh and this time I have a picture and the nutrition info.

ROSEMARY ARTICHOKE WHITE BEAN HUMMUS

1 can navy beans drained and rinsed
1 jar marinated artichokes drained
2 Tbl tahini (if you have it)
1/4-1/2- broth of choice
1-2 tsp garlic pwdr to taste (or use 1-2 cloves fresh. I was lazy)
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
2 tsp lemon juice (just a splash)
a sprinkle of pepper and cayenne
mine didn't need salt because the broth and beans and artichokes had enough already

I blended it all in a food processor but if you use the more broth a blender should work well. The artichokes were blended, but I think next time I might chunk them up, because I think chunks of artichoke would be really good in it.

Nutrition information: 1/2 cup
Serving size 1/2 cup. Servings per recipe 5.

With tahini No tahini added
165 calories 126 calories
4 g fat a trace (tahini adds healthy fat and protein, makes it taste better
5.3 protein 3.5 makes it creamier, and makes it a more complete snack)
4.6 g fiber 4.6

The tortilla chips and veggies were really good with this. I learned that beans and rice or beans and corn tortilla make a complete protein. So these chips with the hummus should make a complete protein. I bought a package of corn tortillas it is only 110 calories for 2 of them. I cut then in triangles and lay them on a foil covered cookie sheet, spray them with pam and sprinkle them with salt. I then bake them at 475* for a few mintues then flip them and bake them for a few minutes again. I make a whole bunch and put some in a ziplock for later. 8 chips has 110 calories- not bad. 1 gram of fat (plus whatever the pam adds) 2 grams of fiber and 3 grams of protein. I don't know how this compares to store bought baked kind but I don't like those as well and they break whenever you dip them.

I am off to take the kids roller skating. I was looking for a different kind of exercise from the regular. This works to make the kids happy too. I have tons more to post. Pics from the last snow we got (its was a BIG one) Pics from Alex' birthday. And Rockband- one reason I have had so little time to post or do anything else lately! Stay tuned.

I am hoping to win this food scale.

2008-01-23T08:27:00.000-07:00

Check out Roni’s new contest! I can win a Nutrition Smart Scale from Eat Smart and so can you! Click here for details!

One sweet talkin' sister-in-law

2008-01-21T23:28:00.000-07:00

So last year around this same time my sister-in-law Kariann talked me into training for a marathon along with my older sister Julie and younger sister Erin. It was a goal I had always had and this time opportunity had knocked at just the right time. Us girls emailed, chatted and ran our brains out. The time finally came and I completed my first and only marathon (Salt Lake City Marathon, last April). It was one of the most amazing and gratifying experiences ever. I doubt that I would have run a marathon to this day or for many days after had she not talked me into it. It will always be a highpoint for me in my life.

So here I find myself introduced to another challenge by Kariann. This time it is a Throwdown the Pounds weight loss competion. Kind of like the Bobbly Flay thing only in this one we are avoiding the food and hittin' the treadmill. It involves the same gang as last time, Julie, Erin, Kariann and I. I am the last to post about it- you can read all their input on it on their individual blogs. Kariann was the instigator and so her blog has the most details. I am always scared to start these challenges. Just as I seriously doubted my ability to complete a marathon, I seriously have doubts as to how I will finish in this competition. I also however have enough confidence in myself to enter. I can be stubborn and competitive when necessary. Lets just say she's convincing but she didn't have to twist my arm TOO hard. Mostly because they are things I want to do anyway I just need someone to give me a nudge. Really opportunity knocked once again at just the right time. I had just begun a serious attempt at weight loss, one that was years in the making. I had been waiting for that spark ever since my last baby was born and just when I thought it was there another peice of cake showed up. You would think that running a marathon alone would melt all the pounds away. I thought so too, it turns out that people rarely lose weight while training for a marathon. Wish I had known that when I started, I guess it is good I didn't know, or I might have never done it.

So each person has sort of posted their course of action (you know like Bobby Flay does). So here's mine: I am going to eat around 1300-1400 calories a day, but more importantly I need to make sure to be slightly hungry when I go to bed. When that happens I know I am losing weight. I will choose higher fiber, lower fat, lower calorie foods. And oh man, I getting good at this- I am getting giddy! For exercise I will continue to rotate between different types of exercise so my body doesn't get too efficient at one. I will use my orbital glider, my treamill and floor exercises such as jumping jacks or jump rope, squats, weights and sit ups. Today I started with weights, then went to the orbital glider to warm up further, then ended by rotating a 2 min sprint with a 1 min. walk for the remainder of my workout. When I finished I felt like I had gotten a really good workout! I am down 3 pounds since I started a week ago and so hopefully I am doing something right.

So who will win? I thought Julie's point was very good on her blog. The $25 in the form of gifts cards that we are each throwin' in the pot is cheap in comparison to what it costs to get this kind of motivation someplace else. So whether I win the Throwdown or not, I really can't lose- well except in pounds. The first person to lose 7% of their bodyweight and maintain it for 2 weeks wins.

What will it be next year? She got me fit, she's getting me thin. She's one sweet talkin sister-in-law.

Hummus Recipes

2008-01-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

I have had a couple requests to share my hummus recipes. One is a traditional Chickpea hummus and the other is a Black Bean hummus that I had had at restaurant and then came home and after researching Black Bean hummus recipes, came up with this. Because of my love of food I will probably post recipes on here whether you like it or not, whenever I come up with something I liked a lot- especially if it was healthy, which is going to be the case with my cooking from now on. I wish I had pictures of these recipes but I don't, hopefully I will add those later.

BLACK BEAN HUMMUS
1 clove garlic (more if you like)
1 (15 ounce) can black beans; drain and rinsed (or boil your own beans, it takes longer and you have to add more salt)
Juice of 1 lime (about 2 Tbl)
Zest of 1 lime
1 1/2 tablespoons tahini (if you have it—I didn’t add this but I did add probably the same amount of canola oil instead)
2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Black pepper to taste
1 tsp Chili powder
Cilantro like 2 handfuls
If too thick add chicken stock

The way I often make food is to add stuff then taste it, add more of anything I think it needs, then mix, taste, add-- until it tastes good to me. The best way to blend the hummus is in a food processor. Don’t chop anything just stick it all in there. If you don't have a food processor you can use a blender, but you will have to thin it quite a bit. If you don’t have the food processor and your blender doesn't work well for it, you can mash up the beans by hand and chop everything separate and then mix it together.

TRADITIONAL HUMMUS

1 can of Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) drained and rinsed (again you can boil your own if you want)
2 cloves of Garlic
3 TBL Tahini (I eyed it by throwing in a glob-and it was great)
¼ - ½ cup of chicken stock (or whatever kind you like)
1 tsp lemon juice
½ tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp coriander
2-3 Tbl EVOO

I adapted this recipe from the one on Greenlitebites.com -- I have a link to that site under weightwatchenrecipes in my blogs list. The original doesn't call for tahini, evoo or coriander. I can' t have hummus without tahini, I have made it before without and it was not right to me. I had to throw it out (black bean hummus is fine without though). I can find tahini in any health food store or grocery stores with a health food section. I have never added curry or coriander or chicken stock to my hummus in the past and I know the restaurants don't do it. I skeptically decided to do it this time and really like it. The stock helps to make the hummus the perfect thickness without having to add a ton of oil or lemon juice or water (water waters the flavor down). I loved the addition of all of these things, it is the best hummus I have made at home I believe, Ed loved it too. You can omit the oil if you are worried about calories- I will try that next time, but I know olive oil is a staple in hummus. Most restaurants also use a lot of tahini, more than I have in this recipe.

Again I throw all this stuff in a food processor and mix it up. Again the blender will make it thinner and if you need to you can mash it up by hand, but it will probably not be as smooth.

Sleep

2008-01-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

Sleep is one of the very most important things to me period. If I don't get sleep I am sluggish, grumpy, and I end up inevitibly getting sick. However in light of the weight loss topic that has been common on my and my family/friends blogs, I wanted to discuss a segment I watched on a local show called "Studio 5" reguarding sleep-- in a minute. First I want to bring up what Anna (my sis-in-law) wrote in her blog that her baby boy has RSV and that she has been up a lot at night with him and thus getting hardly any sleep. She said this made it hard to exercise and made her want to eat more. She wondered if anyone else was this way. For me-- absolutely it is and has been for a long time. When I don't get enough sleep I feel way too sluggish to exercise and in order to revive the energy that I lack I feel the need to eat. The first time this happened what when I was newly married. I was in college and up early for classes. I was also working, doing laundry, cooking and shopping for two people, and also had to fit in my studying. During the day I couldn't resist stopping by the candy counter and to get candy, I craved sugar. I gained weight. Then I remember a few years ago, I had started up jogging again when I had stopped for a while. I was getting up at 5:30 to go and going only 3 days a week 6 miles a day, but that was more than I had been doing! I was in decent shape, I also made sure to go on walks whenever I could. I even started wearing a pedometer to make sure I got in the recommened steps per day, which I easily did on the days at I ran. That year I was so tired all the time, it is practically a blur. I remember wanting to eat a lot to make up for the lack of energy. I was so tired all the time I remember just feeling like a zombie. I would try to get into bed earlier, but that meant like 9 or 9:30pm to get me the 8 plus hours I needed and that never happened. Nothing could quite get me to where I felt rested, so instead of losing weight I gained and continued to gain until it finally came to a halt too high. It stayed and has been difficult to budge since, even with sleep. So back to "Studio 5" I was watching it ther other day while exercising and was interested to hear a medical sleep expert come on and talk about sleep. She said... well here I got the exact quote from the website, "A recent study found moms who got less than five hours of sleep a day when their babies were six months old were three times more likely to be carrying eleven extra pounds at the child's first birthday than those who get seven hours." She went on to talk about the things we need to do, some of which are: make sure we have a regular time to go to bed and get up and stick with it. She didn't even recommed sleeping in on weekends, which I love to do. This last Saturday I slept in and it messed my bedtime up- I wasn't tired. She also said to not nap unless you are a mother of a new baby, then you might have to. She said adults need 8-9 hrs of sleep a night, I know I do. Some people claim to not need as much, how can that be. I had a neighbor in AZ who said she only ever needed like 4! I haven't looked up anything more on this subject, but this confirmed what I knew all along (I have heard a few other comfirmations of this idea before as well) that not getting sleep is likely to cause weight gain. Something to sleep on....

Numbers

2008-01-16T22:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some numbers:

5pm: The time that Alex's friend called to have him come over and play webkinz.

5:17: The time we left to his friends house

25: The tempurature it was outside when we left

5:20: The time we arrived at his friends house

7: The number of times I had to ask Alex to get his shoes on so we could leave his friends house.

6:30 The time we left Alex's friends house (we all went in while I looked at the newly finished basement and talked to the Mom)

22: The tempurature outside when we left.

6:37 The time we arrived at Carls Jr., which I had promised (Dad still out of town).

$11.40: The amount I paid for dinner for all us! A good deal for something my kids love to do--- play on the huge play equipment.

7: The number of times I asked the kids to get ready to go home.

0: The number of times I had to ask the kids to come after I told them no webkinz

7:35: The time we finally left Carls Jr.

15: The tempurature it was outside when we got in the car. It was SO COLD! In AZ I couldn't touch the steering wheel on hot days. Well this is the first time I had trouble touching it because it was so COLD!

8:36 The time it was when all the kids were in bed

20: The approx. number of times Sam asked for Dad at bedtime

10:37: The time it was when Ed got home

1: the number of seconds Sam fussed before Ed jumped up to go check on him.

4: tonights forecasted low

1202: The amount of calories I ate today

2: the number of ounces I have been consistently dropping a day

8: the number of days it will take to lose 1 pound at the rate of 2 oz a day

PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

2008-01-15T22:43:00.001-07:00

Whenever I am eating mexican food I think that I could be from Mexico because I like it so much-- salsa, chips, beans rice, hot, mild, burros, tacos, baja whatever-- I love it. Then when I eat Italian I think it could be my favorite-- pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, stromboli, crusty bread, salad, garlic! But recently when I got my hands on some good Middle-Eastern falafel and hummus I thought "I love this food so much you would think I was Middle-Eastern myself." What it all boils down to is that I love food, all kinds of food- with great zeal.

I went to Park City (just me and Sam) for a quick outlet trip. Literally quick, I had just dropped Alex off at school and had 3 hrs to get there and come back and the drive itself is about 40 minutes. So I didn't have much more than an hour and for me and the Tanger outlets, that is nothing. I had excercised showered and then run out the door, and it was past lunch hour so I was really, really hungry. Well I knew that Park City was likely to have something yummy and I decided to go see what I could find. When I saw Reef's Middle-Eastern Restaurant, there was no question, no choice to make-- I was there in seconds getting falafel to go. The experience thereafter can scarcely be put in words. I have to quote what my husband told me about his meal later that night (he was out of town) because it was exactly how I felt "I don't remember the last time my spot got hit like that" his was breakfast (yes for dinner) and it was apparently very good. A picture would have been nice, but impossible, it was gone way to fast. It had been a loooong time since I had some good middle-eastern food. We had tons in AZ and I partook regularly. Since moving to UT we don't have much. I know there is some in SLC but I don't drive that far into a busy city usually just for that. Although I seriously have considered a regular trip to Park City just for Reef's. To elaborate on the Utah thing and please nobody be offended, but a lot of my friends that are born and raised here would turn falafel down flat because it is so unusual to them (I am gauging this off of some opinions I have gotten in reponse to hummus). Lets face it if you want good burgers fries and fry sauce, then you can go to any UT town where they, no question have got something that will kick butt. Utah has a lot of other good food too. But if mexican or middleastern is what you are looking for then the butts...not so much. I had to search for over a year before I found some decent gnocchi. Anyway now if anybody was offended hopefully this will help. I sadly admit, that I am guilty. I too turned falafel down based purely on the description once. I was at a Whole Food Grocery store in AZ (we are getting Whole Foods here now BTW) and they had a little "to go" bar with various foods sold by the pound. Falafel was one of the things offered and it looked good (like a huge meatball) but the description turned me off I am sure it said something to the effect of "ground chickpeas and spices put in a ball and fried.], " because that is what it is. I was missing out, it is delicious. To help you picture how this can actually taste good is to compare it to a meatless patty something a like a gardenburger. It is like that but better! Served up warm in a pita with hummus or tzatziki, cucumber and tomato-- heaven. Okay so they are fried and that isn't so healthy so I came home and googled some recipes and found some that you could bake. So I tried baking some up tonight and Sam and I liked them. Ed was not here and the other kids thought they were allright, not their favorite. I think if they were fried they would taste better, but doesn't everything? I can settle for the lower fat VERY healthy alternative.

Ok now that I just bore my testimony of the falafel. I am going to explain why I am so proud to be an American and that is that I have the best of all the worlds! I can love all these foods and eat them all and I don't HAVE to PICK! In Italy you get Italian , in Mexico - mexican, and in the Middleast mostly falafel (it is like their burger) and lamb and well middleastern food-- you get the picture. In the US you can get all of that and Indian (love it too) and Thai and Mimi's Cafe and Crepes and well again , you get the picture ANYTHING! Now that is one amazing country.

In Style Haircut

2008-01-15T15:47:00.001-07:00

Under the title of Haircut Hayday below I talk about a thing that is on InStyle.com that you can use to see yourself in different celebrity hairstyles. I kept trying to get them to post to my old blog but it would never work and I gave up. I have discovered however with this blog I can post them. So here they are... Oh and I looked and looked but could not find a picture of just me, only of me holding kids and babies. The one I used is of me holding Sam on his blessing day so you see part of him behind the hair.

There they all are! A little better on the originals and some more than others! It was fun.

Poll

2008-01-15T15:16:00.000-07:00

On my last blog I wrote (then transferred to this blog) a little story/blurb about sugar vs. non-sugar cereal. If you want to read it then you can scroll down- it's called The Cereal Debate. I wanted at the time to put up a poll, just for fun, but myspace does not have that option. Now that I am on blogspot I was THRILLED to find out that I could put up a poll. I am glad to see that so far I am not alone when it comes to cereal choices. I can see this poll thing being kind of a big deal for me, because I just really like them :) (giggle). So stay tuned as I think of more ways to use them!!! Thank you for all who have and will participate in the poll! Oh and you couldn't read the poll with my old template, so I changed it, wasn't planning on keeping it necessarily anyway-- its all under construction-- still is.

Fat matters, Carbohydrates Count but Calories are King!

2008-01-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

That is ,I think, the actual title of my new calorie counter book. When my husband went to Walmart the other day I asked him to check and see if they had any good calorie counting books. I had looked and never found much, but whenever it is a new year there is always tons of that stuff out and I figured there was a good chance they'd have one now. Anyway the book is kind of cheesy on the cover, but pretty useful- he did a good job! And as cheesy as the title sounds it is really true. Well maybe to you the title isn't cheesy but there is this guy on the cover with a cheesy smile and a crown on his head and big flashy words. I studied to be a Dietician (didn't finish) in college and learned a lot of good basics. I had been a die hard fat gram counter which was the fad at the time. However I had already figured out by the time I started in the program that counting fat didn't work. Not only do you end up craving and really actually needing some fat eventually, but that you always end up eating way to many calories thinking they are free and they aren't because things can be high in calories and still low in fat. The carb thing was just starting back then, and what I learned saved me from ever trying that. I think a life without any carbs is a very tragic life for me. So I am so pleased to see these fad diets going away and the basics that actually work coming to the surface again. People are realizing that there is no secret way to sucess nothing extreme or unusual, but the classic rule of don't eat more calories than you burn. Doing that helps a person to eat more fruit and vegetables because they are naturally so low in calories, as a result we are so much healthier. People are also eating more fiber and healthy carohydrates and fats. That is so exciting to me I can barely stand it! Its obvious from the route I chose in school that this subject is really interesting to me. However it seems like the past few years you would never know that I cared so much about this subject because life got crazy and I began not to care so much. Cooking dinner and getting my family to eat what I cooked was hard enough, the last thing I could worry about was what I was eating. I belive and have always believed in balance, but didn't practice it very well. Well I think I am back. I have the excitement now that I couldn't get as much as I wanted to for past few years. I hope I can get my family to enjoy some of the things I am going to be needing to cook! Here's to a new blog, a new body and a new year!!!

Peer Pressure

2008-01-14T09:55:00.002-07:00

Here I am at Blogspot. I honestly was getting used to the myspace and learned how to make my blog look decent and learned how to blog pretty quickly and everything. I was quite happy there, but I would see my sisters and other people get like 9 or more comments while I would get TWO, usually from my sisters who took pity on me. If it was a lucky day I would get one from my husband or another friend out of nowhere. This may not improve the prospects and if not, then I'll just know that, what?, my blog is crap. Anyway I don't want people to feel undue pressure to comment (okay yeah I do). No it just was more thankless than mothering to write blogs and know that I could never even ask a question in it (I love those type of blogs) and expect responses because I am the only myspacer. I do however get plenty of request from all kinds of weirdos wanting me to add them to my friends list. Uhh no thank you-- My list is reserved for only the BEST! You'll see that I have added a link to a recipe blog, with has recipes that are low calorie and look beautiful and tastey. I got the link from my sister, who got it from our sister-in-law who got it from her aunt. Watch out Rachael Ray. I will still watch you, but there's someone else. Someone who knows what it is like to have a child and who has actually had to do Weight Watchers like most of us and who makes a normal salary (probably)intead of the million dollar disposable income you have. Oh and Rach, you know I like you and I don't mean to hurt your feelings but Roni is less annoying. This girl does video posts of her making the foods and I have already started to plan on when and how I am going to make her recipes-- she lists the calorie and fat and fiber count and everything too. She also has a really cute little boy that helps her with the stuff sometimes. I still like Rach and her meals but I am going to have to figure out what I can do for calories and stuff for her meals, because her servings are HUGE and she has a love affair with EVOO and drenches her food in it. I blame her for some of the weight I am dealing with. Thanks for finding this girl for me all of you, but from the beginning -- Becky -- her site is awesome.

Bladdy Blooh Blah Blah

2008-01-14T09:55:00.001-07:00

Bladdy Blooh Blah Blah
Bladdy Blooh Blah Blah means I am just blabbering. I learned that great saying from Micheal on The Office. I miss The Office.
Last night I watched Biggest Loser (because Erin got me hooked) okay and some of those people lost like 50% of their body weight! So I don't expect that, but why not like 5%, I would settle for 1% that would be more than a pound-- but I won't tell you how much more! Anyone watching? Gotta watch something during this stinkin' writers strike!
I have been neglectful of my blog because we have been spending everday all day getting our living room ready for Christmas. Today Ed put 4 coats of polyurethane down on the wood floor and that completes our work on it. Soon we can move everything in (when the poly cures). I went to way to many stores with all my kids today looking for furniture for it. To bad the couch that I specially designed and dreamed up cost $2000-- thats not happening. I think we have figured out what we are going to do. The colors will be red, green, brown - and will involve toile. I found some awesome fabric at a new favorite store called Calico Corners. They however are the ones that quoted me the $2000 on the couch. To some people $2000 is a perfectly okay amount to spend on a couch. To some $4000 or more is fine. To my husband $1000 is ridiculous and $500 is perfectly fine, but less is even better. He fully expects me to furnish my entire house through RC Willey scratch n' dent. And really I have done quite a good job of that, but there comes a time in everybody's life where the scratch n' dent doesn't meet their needs. That is where we have found ourselves. So I think we have found a good alternative to the $2000 couch. It will be purchased as a special order through RC Willey and will take a couple months. I looked through their store and nothing was right, they had some okay sofas that the fabric was wrong. I looked through the special order fabrics and think I found something that will work. It is a velvet like fabric, in a chocolate color that has a diamond pattern cut in it. To special order wasn't anymore expensive either. I will use this awesome red toile with tan and brown for pillow and maybe curtains and stuff.
Oh one other thing I am really excited about is that Ed and I got to go out just the two of us this week for like 4 hours! We need to get out more I admit, maybe if we stopped working on the house for a second that could happen. This week was a swap with my friend down the street. So we went to Lowe's to return the wood floor sanders and looked at the kitchens there to see what we want to do in ours-- the next project. We went to look at furniture and we went to lunch. The most exciting part of the day was lunch, almost always is, to someone who enjoys food as much as myself. We went to a place called Citrus Grill- if you ever get out here I highly recommend it. The food is kind of trendy and eclectic and SO delicious. I got a roasted veggie sandwich that was out of this world. For the appetizer we got something called black and white hummus (we love hummus) and it was amazing. The black hummus was made of black beans mushed with cilantro and lime and probably garlic and cumin or something-- I am not exactly sure but it was GOOD. The white hummus was white beans with rosemary and pinenuts. It was good but lacked some of the depth of flavor the black had. They were served with chips and this amazing foccacia type bread. I am going to try to make the black bean one for a family Christmas get together we are having. It is a tradition that started last year to get together and eat appetizer type foods all night long (I love appetizers- who doesn't) and have the kids exchange very inexpensive dollar store type gifts. I am looking forward to it. Maybe this is where my inability to lose 1% of my body weight comes in!
K I am feeling the need to get some pictures up here again. The problem is.... haven't taken any lately. I want to put my finished living room up but am afraid that is so boring. See to me it is huge, we have put so much of everything we have into it that it is like a huge accomplishment. I need to post more family pics too, so surely after Christmas is over there will be some blog-o-rama's going on!!!
I tried to post my celebrity haircuts I wrote about earlier but couldn't get it work-- might try again. Did anyone else try it ever?
I haven't had a cold in long time and I keep thinking about it kind of like you do when you know you are about to get your period. You know it is about to happen because it always does and every day your thinking "is this the day," then the next day- "or is this the day?" I have gotten away with not having a cold for so long you would definitely be picking up a pregnancy test by now if it were your period. I hope I didn't jinks myself! I need to go to bed. Not only because I am tired but when i am this tired I get slap happy and start to write crap like I just did!

Elf

2008-01-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite Christmas movies, actually all time movies is ELF! I love it we have already watched it like 3 times this season. That is a lot for our family, for one movie,-- when mom is included let me say that. I don't get tired of it I laugh and laugh and laugh. Ashlin is funny because she seriously has a talent to quote just about any part of the movie. She'll just pop out with some quip and I giggle and wonder where she got it. Then she says "remember that part in Elf where bladdy blooh blaa blaa." See my memory is so bad I can't even recall. One that she quotes all the time though is "What's a Christmasgram I want one!" only she will insert other words instead of Christmasgram. I can't wait to watch it again. Most of the times I "watch it" I am doing dishes or cooking or something but not actually sitting and watching, maybe next I can actually sit and watch! Sam (turned 2 in Oct.) even watches parts and gets they are funny and laughs out loud. Like the part where Buddy springs himself off of the couch and onto the Christmas tree to put the star on top. Oh I love Christmas! Still no decorations up. But we worked our fingers to the bone today -- my body aches all over. We are still getting the living room ready. We should finally be able to start floors (we are putting wood in) tomorrow. We finshed trim and paint and lighitng today. A new entryway chandelier, some recessed lights, wallboxes, chairrail, crown, the works. We want to die but we love our living room so far.

Haircut Hayday

2008-01-14T09:53:00.002-07:00

December 09
In need of a Haircut

I have been feeling like I have needed a haircut for weeks now. My hair just doesn't look or feel clean on the ends anymore. I love the feeling of clean cut ends. I have been planning to go get a cut for the past two weeks but Ed has had to leave town both weeks for a couple days and so things have been so busy. As I mentioned the kids are out of school which makes it harder too. I still haven't found a hairdresser I love, it seems my haircut is just as bad whether I spend $10 or $30 for it. This week is the week I told Ed I was going to go and get it done. I saw Hillary Swank on the Rachael Ray Show (you will hear me talk about this show as I watch it a lot for recipe ideas and other stuff- it is what I exercise to) and I loved her hair. It was fairly short because she had donated it to Pantene who has a charity like Locks of Love. Then on another RR (just know that means Rachael Ray) they talked about this website which, I have listed below, where you can upload a picture and see your face with celebrity hair on it. They've got a lot of choices. They had Katie Holmes has a cute do similar to Swanks, didn't work so well on me. I tried my hair with several styles. I sent them to my email so I could try to post them here, it was a lot of fun. When I get them I will post them, they still haven't actually gotten to my email. Anyway you should check out the site. You can change the hair color and everything, it took me a second to get it all fine tuned. Anyway here is the link- have fun!
http://www.instyle.com/instyle/package/general/0,,20053589,00.html

Too Many Stores

2008-01-14T09:53:00.001-07:00

My kids are out of school (off track because we do year round school.) I caulked all the trim in the living room-- remember the job I was avoiding last night, its done! Then we went to the library, Ikea, Wal-Mart and Target. I should not have done all of that. I was so worn out by the time we got home and Sam was literally screaming out loud in the last store. I don't know why I did all that. I guess it is the hope that tomorrow we won't have to go anywhere, or hardly anywhere. I'm suppose to paint the living room tomorrow. How am I going to do that with all the kids home and hanging around and Ed out of town. Don't ask. Okay so the point of me telling you all of this except for you to cry for me more. Is to ask you all... do you go to too many stores with your kids? I wish I could put a survey where you click the dot that says 1,2,3 or 4 in response to my question- How many stores can you go to at a time with your kids? I saw a blog that had one of those little survey things. I love those!

The Great Cereal Debate

2008-01-14T09:50:00.000-07:00

How many of you allow your kids to eat sugar cereal and what do you consider a sugar cereal? The story: I was in the cereal isle on two different occasions when I heard two different mothers visiting with two different friends in the isle. Both times just as I was walking by I heard the mom say to her own set of kids (they were bored while she chatted and so she was trying to keep them productively occupied) "Go pick out some cereal.....(short pause) not a sugar kind!" Growing up my mom didn't buy sugar kinds for a long time. Non sugar cereal included Cheerios, Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, Chex and Raisin Bran (it passed even though it has sugar- more than Frosted Mini Wheats) Sugar kind included cereals like Fruit Loops, Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms, Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Puffs etc. So we would pour ourselves a bowl of Cheerios, then we would go grab the sugar bowl and scoop a bunch of sugar on it, way more than would have come on any "sugar cereal". I remember a mound of sugar sitting in the bottom of the bowl with the milk after the cereal was gone-- gross! I also remember my brother Brady tricking me one time and pouring the whole thing of sugar in when I wasn't looking-- it tasted so bad! He could barely keep from cracking up. Brothers... (That was mostly for Kariann's benefit and anyone else who knows Brady--yes the guy who wears free shirts not just at home, so does Ed) So anyway remembering all of this, I have decided long ago that I am going to buy sugar cereal. I am not always going to be there to adjust how much sugar they put on and if I let them have no sugar at all they would never eat it. I buy it, and this situation in the cereal isle, made me feel kind of crappy for it. My kids love Raisin Bran and Frosted Mini Wheats and I feel pretty good about that. However Alex isn't too much a fan of cereal and I end up making him an egg and toast most of the time. See so its okay--! Ok so let me know what all of you think about sugar vs non-sugar cereal.

Sad Sammy

2008-01-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Sam when he got run over by his big brother, who was going down our steep driving on a big wheel, that had no brakes. Little Sammy was at the bottom and started up the driveway right as Alex was coming down and plowed right into him. He looked really bad right at first- real bloody. There were two boys walking up the driveway crying and only one was severely hurt. Sam started throwing up a couple hours later which was cause for concern. I was told to go straight to the ER. They did a CAT scan to check for cranial fractures or for bleeding on the brain- he had neither. We were very blessed. We were all so worried. Poor little boy. When we went to church the next day he got a lot of gasps and everyone wanted to know"what happened!" We took this a couple days later when we had recovered enough emotionally to be able to take a picture. This happened sometime in August.

Blog startup

2008-01-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

This is my blog startup. I have put this off because I always figured I would be a lousy blogger. My opinion hasn't really changed- I still think I will be lousy- updating every what--6 months! I'll try to be better. I always figured blogs were for people who, well, write regularly- like in a journal or for people who like to scrapbook or for really young people. Ed talked me into giving it a try recently and I decided to agree because I was getting ready to post some Halloween pictures. I figured I might as well have one main place I can post them to be viewed- there is something to be said about that. I tried having a webpage years ago and it took so much time! Ed promised me this is easier and less time consuming. I hope it is or else this isn't going to go very far. Anyway enough of that attitude- this is going to be a great experience that will help me to share my family with you. I have enjoyed the rest of your blogs, so now is my turn to share.