The Weists...how did we get here???

kudos

2012-02-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

This morning's post is dedicated to All-American Rejects. I had just decided I didn't have any more to give to my morning run when this song came on my ipod. I couldn't help it-- I dead sprinted an extra 4 laps on the track until it finished. Thanks, guys.

Etsy Fever

2012-01-19T22:13:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to...ahem...point out the new widget on the sidebar over there ------------>

I'm selling bracelets on Etsy! They're a little kitschy and a little cute and a little adolescent (the teenagers in my neighborhood love them) and also a little fun. You're certainly welcome to buy one, even if you're 50. It'll make the cool kids *jealous.

(*Disclaimer: I have never been cool so any claim to know what will make cool kids jealous is totally fabricated and clearly says I have no idea what I'm talking about.)

Thanks for looking!

Bring it on 2012

2012-01-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

I feel bad when I don't blog. The neglect of the blog sits like a brooding animal at the back of my mind, nibbling at my conscience until I convince myself it's been too long since I last blogged and I may as well just shut it down all together. So I get on Blogger, sift through the links, peruse past posts, chuckle over the comments of my friends (some of you are hilarious, by the way) and then fall in love all over again with blogging.

I guess I did that tonight.

I also take pictures, dozens and dozens of pictures each month. They are carefully stored on my computer and there they sit. Doing nothing.

Does anyone out there scrapbook? I can't bring myself to do all the froofy cri-cut stuff where you have all these paper accoutrements in awesome layers angled around each other on the page...with one picture. But I can handle it if it's just cutting and pasting and writing cute stuff and adding some fun paper with stickers or something. And yes, I'm 12.

But I have NO scrapbooks of my children, just boxes and folders and computer files full of mementos. Will someone please come and organize me so I can make scrapbooks for my children? (Yes, mom, I agree, we need to get my craft room in order so I have a place to work. Will you come over one night after the kids are in bed and do it with me? Will my neighbors too? That'd be great. Thanks.)

What other random thing can I bore readers with....food? My kids love barbecue sauce. Which is why, every day that I teach piano lessons and I finish right at dinner with no time to prepare anything we eat quesadillas with some kind of meat and barbecue sauce. Doesn't matter what else is in it, they'll eat it if there's barbecue sauce. Come to think of it, I'm kind of like that with chocolate sauce. Or Nutella. I've eaten that on tortillas before. I guess it's true about apples and trees and all that.

(Speaking of which...about piano lessons, not about barbecue or chocolate sauces or Nutella or even apples...if anyone's interested I'm teaching piano again...)

See, this is why I don't blog more. I could bore anyone to tears without even trying.

I'm trying to declutter. I got this burst of energy the last 10 days or so that translated in my brain as "you have too much stuff and your house is messy and unorganized and cluttered and wouldn't you like to live in a place that looked like it belonged in a magazine with only a few tastefully selected items on each surface and all color coordinating and bringing life and energy into your living space?" My head voices are long-winded like that. Of course, I can declutter all I want. I will never be able to make a house look like it belongs in a magazine. I need to bring in some talent for that. One thing at a time...first I have to convince my husband that it's OK to throw things away. The stories I could tell of the things he keeps ("we could totally use that!") and after months of sitting on a desk, the floor, a bookshelf, it hasn't been touched and I just throw it away. See? He never even misses it. (Except that he does occasionally check on this blog and might actually KNOW that I do that stuff now. I love you sweetie! Let's go watch 'Hoarders' k?) Just trying to do my part for our family. Keeping my sanity, that's what's good for our family. (On a related note, I found a website that is currently my inspiration: Discardia. If any of this un-cluttering nonsense appeals to you, check it out. It made me happy.)

There is quite a list of things that I'd like to work on, improve, change as this year begins. I never actually made a list of resolutions or anything like that, it's more like just a feeling of things changing or getting ready to change, of wanting to be different somehow. Better different. That obnoxious, talkative burst of energy that pushes me to become more how I envision myself and less how I apathetically settle into life. Does that make sense?

However, it is 9:00 and I'm feeling more settle-ish than energy-ish so I'm settling in for the night to watch (again) "Once Upon a Time" from this week. *excited giggle*

What about you? How do you make changes to yourself or your life, especially on those long days where all you want to do is put in a movie and fade into oblivion???

Lessons Learned

2011-12-13T22:54:00.000-07:00

Just thinking tonight about some of the things that I've learned that last few years that I never would have learned without my children in my life.

1- You can't imagine how something so tiny and adorable one moment could be so irritating the next.
2- Impromptu dance parties are the spice of life.
3- Adjustable waists in pants are brilliant...but they never get completely dry in the dryer.
4- Never would I think it permissible to wipe another person's nose with my hand. But it totally is.
5- The amount of sleep I get is directly (and negatively) proportional to how early everyone wakes up the next morning.
6- You think that there's nothing worse than a sad, sick child that you want to heal immediately but can't...until they all get it and then it is definitely worse.
7- It is possible to want to desperately protect someone with your own life and still want to strangle them in the same moment.
8- The amount of time it takes my children to break something personal to me is directly related to how sentimental I feel about it.
9- I never realized how much my own parents loved me until I held my first child in my arms.
10- I don't know how I ever lived without having a little head nestled on my shoulder. I also don't know how I'll live when that time is done. I can't even think about it.
11- My kids can make even the most simple, mundane task absolutely exhausting.
12- It is in all likelihood possible to go literally crazy from saying the same things over & over & over & over...
13- It's easy to know what my kids size will be in the next year so buying a size up for them on the clearance rack has been the biggest money-saver ever. (Already have Miss Em's Christmas clothes for next year).
14- When people say how important it is for women planning on being stay-at-home moms to get the best education possible because it will help them teach their children... they are exactly right.
15- I am not as patient as I thought I was.
16- I don't have to give up my life for my kids. I can still have one of my own, too, with my own goals and plans. It's just bigger than I planned it to be.
17- It took me a while to figure out why scriptures teach us to "become as a little child" because, honestly, sometimes they are hellions. ('Submissive'?? He obviously never met MY kids!!) But they are THE MOST FORGIVING little things on the planet. I'm trying to be more like them.
18- I forget how amazing and exciting everything seemed when I was a kid. The world seems brighter when I see that through their eyes and I remember. (Sprinkles! Puppies! Trampolines! Snow!! The list could go on & on.)
19- Phases pass.
20- I never imagined that watching my kids all help each other unload the dishwasher would bring me such exquisite joy.

Twenty seems like a good place to end. Plus, it's late and I still want to read for a while. It was nice to sit here and think about the good things I've learned as a mother. It's a crazy, upside-down, unrelenting, rewarding, exhausting job but it's the best one I've ever had.

Alert the media!

2011-12-01T16:55:00.001-07:00

I want it known that I made doughnuts today!!! (If you're curious I used THIS RECIPE but I swapped the strawberries for cranberries.) I have never, in my 32 years successfully fried anything. Ever. In fact, I've only unsuccessfully tried 2 or 3 times. But now I've made doughnuts. And they're not too shabby. I even fried some plan dough, sprinkled it with sugar and spread it with some vanilla honey butter (from some cinnamon roll thing I tried earlier in the week) and it was divine. My whole life will now be divided in 2 sections: B.D. and A.D. (before doughnuts and after doughnuts).
I'm going to celebrate with some fried dough.

Letter to Stephanie Meyer

2011-11-22T11:22:00.001-07:00

(So I published this note on Facebook but usually when I have an opinion I want to make it heard as much as possible (as my sweet, patient husband can probably attest) so I'm copying it here as well. If you're tired of hearing anything about the Twilight series, if you don't like reading the personal rantings of people you don't know, or if are a Latter-day Saint and you loved the latest Twilight movie, then I apologize in advance. This is kind of long so in the off chance that you actually do make it through the whole post, I'd appreciate a comment about your feelings. It caused a bit of a stir on my friend's Facebook page when she linked to it and it led to some rousing discussion, so please feel free to share!)

‘With great power come greatresponsibility…’ how many times have we heard that in as many contexts? Truisms tend to do that, get repeated invarious settings. And here’s the thing:they’re always true. And this case isno different. Stephanie Meyer has been“given” great power in terms of worldly influence because of herpseudo-celebrity status. People (women,mostly) sit up and take notice to what she says, what she writes and what sherepresents. The problem is that she hascome to represent the LDS church because she is a member of that church. So for the millions of women world-wide (whoknow the name Stephanie Meyer, acknowledging that there is a large portion ofthem who don’t) who are also members of that church we take very personallywhat she produces. I am one of thesewomen. Her writing, her movies, anythingwith her name tied to it will be a representation to the world of what Ibelieve, of what millions of women world-wide believe. We want to be women of God. We want to stand for honesty, integrity,morality, family togetherness, and love.

So itwas with great chagrin that I have watched her legacy play out in themedia. Her books were generally eitherloved or hated. People have differenttastes so there is allowance for that. Infact, although I haven’t always appreciated everything about her books I couldalways say one thing: they stayed true to what we believe. The characters represented virtues similar tomy own and I never found anything incongruous with the LDS beliefs. Until the movies started. ‘Twilight’ the book was a delightful, quickread full of (albeit admittedly strange) romance that—and here’s the kicker—wasCLEAN. Morally clean, I mean. I loved Edward’s “old fashioned” ideas ofabstinence. There was nothing gratuitousor graphic. So I admit to beingdisheartened when watching Kristin Stewart in the movie making out with RobertPattinson on her bed in her underwear. Really? Come on, that’s not whatwe stand for. I grimaced for Young Womenof our faith (and others) all over the world.

Disregardingall that happened in the intervening years I’ll skip to the latest movie,‘Breaking Dawn.’ While readingStephanie’s books I admit to being continually pleased at the cleanliness ofthe writing, the themes, I felt there was even an almost subconscious influenceto teach young girls to be morally clean, to save their bodies, not getinvolved in sexual activity. And in thebook ‘Breaking Dawn’ the main characters are married before they have sex. Totally in line with my beliefs. However, the thing I loved most about thosescenes – that they were clean – was totally wiped out with the production ofthe movie. In the book I loved thatStephanie glossed over the intimate moments between husband and wife, leavingroom for the individual imagination to take over, and only returning to themarital bed the next morning. Nothinggratuitous, nothing graphic. Perfect. And how dismayed and disappointed I was tosee that Stephanie Meyer, as PRODUCER, no less, allowed that basic virtue,moral cleanliness, to be taken over by Hollywood and reduced to a graphic,gratuitous, uncomfortable sex scene. Whywas it so uncomfortable? Because I’m aMormon, just like Stephanie Meyer, and she has basically just declared that Ithink that was ok – desirable, in fact. But she is wrong. I don’t thinksex scenes in movies are ok. I think thepublic sphere is not the place for panting and moaning and naked bodies. I would be mortified if I had a teenage girlwho wanted to see that movie. I amalmost more horrified that a fellow Mormon would have the audacity to producethat scene in a movie. Even as I writethis I am filled with anger. Disappointment. Humiliation. Resentment. (Strange words for a Christian to use, perhaps I should calm down for aminute…)

Sadness. That is what I am left with. Great sadness that in seeing (many, many,many) dollar signs, Sister Meyer has sold out. She sold herself out for millions of dollars, and in doing so sold outthe rest of us as well. Congratulations,you just found the price of your integrity.

So Iwant to make it perfectly clear, I do not condone what was in that movie. Any woman who professes moral cleanlinesswould not be happy with that movie. (Yeah, you know that uncomfortable feeling you got watching thatscene? You know what voice that was andshame on us for ignoring it.) Now I amfar from perfect, there are probably a handful of people that could rightfullycast stones at me and the difficult thing for Stephanie Meyer is that there aremillions more that know her name and could cast stones if they wanted. But I will still not sit idly by and have someonein the spotlight, someone who has let LDS women down, dictate to the rest ofthe world what I believe. In allprobability I will never have that kind of spotlight but it doesn’t mean Ican’t have a voice.

A Little Revealing

2011-10-04T23:06:00.000-06:00

I have not been able to concentrate on one thing for more than 20 minutes since 7:30 tonight.
Can you develop ADD overnight?
It's more likely that I know I should be doing something else and I'm avoiding it.
It's really helping me to number my sentences right now.
Can you develop OCD overnight?
(No comments allowed from my husband about me already having OCD. I don't. *whispered*I don't.)
I think Facebook and Twitter have made me dumber: I can only think in sentences of about 140 characters.
Except when I read Jane Austen, then I feel smart and my sentences are longer and peppered with Victorian language.
I love Jane Austen.
I know it's not Jane Austen but I'm re-reading 'Jane Eyre' and I still love it just as much as the first dozen times.
Michael just got home.
It's 10:53pm.
I had to stop writing so we could fill each other in on our days.
Although there wasn't much to say since we've already spent roughly a cumulative of 40 minutes or so on the phone together during the day.
He calls me whenever he's at Costco getting gas in his truck, just in case we need 400 rolls of toilet paper or a double pack of elephant-sized bags of chips or a 17 lb. bottle of vitamins.
I think this is possibly the most boring blog post I've ever written.
Don't comment on that.
(Michael, this means you, too. Again.)
Now my husband is waxing philosophical on me and demanding more attention so I have to actually listen and answer questions so I will end this.
But since I'm OCD I can't end on 19.

Summer recap

2011-09-11T20:53:00.000-06:00

This doesn't even come close to re-capping our summer, but I thought it would be nice to prove that we are all still alive. Emily's hair is getting longer (actually I think this was taken a few months ago...it's past her shoulders now) and is regularly in either pigtails or, more recently, braids. Yay for having a girl!

The kids have been CRAZY loving the pool at G&G Snow's house. I think we were there about twice a week for the entire summer and still going strong. The pool is getting a little cold for the wimpy mom over here but kids don't care about silly stuff like numb appendages when there is fun to be had!

This is a freaky photo of me with all of my "Joseph" makeup on. I participated in the Herriman community theater doing a production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" which was crazy-busy, a TON of fun and a great way to make new friends in my community. For anyone that doesn't know me it doesn't actually look like a lot of makeup...trust me, it is. I'm usually good with a little blush. The black eyeliner in this show took me about a week to take off. But I didn't mind cause I had a blast. I also have to send MAJOR, ASTRONOMICAL, UNBELIEVABLE props to my sweet husband who picked up all of the slack during the rehearsals. For the last 3 weeks I was gone EVERY night and for half the day on Saturdays, while he took care of kid-duty, bedtime duty, sometimes meal duty. He did all the major outside work as well, but our front garden looks like rubbish piled on top of weeds because that was my job and I was never around to do it. Oh well, there's always next year.

We had our first garden! We grew an insane amount of tomatoes (all of which were mushy...can someone tell me what we did wrong?) and cucumbers, different peppers, onions, garlic...and the best part was how much the kids loved to help weed, water, and generally care for the garden. They also loved to harvest, which is what is pictured below. David is carrying an onion inside for me.

Michael and I did our first triathlon in years. It was a little pathetic but at least we finished! This is a 'before' picture at some ridiculous time like 5:30am. Just 2 hours later I was nearly drowning in icy water that felt about 2 degrees. Yikes, just thinking about it makes me panicky. Good experience but I'm not sure I'll be doing an outdoor swim again anytime soon.

Emily took this picture, I just thought it was cute. Also, it shows the families' favorite hangout...mom & dad's bathroom. Why is that?

Also cute. Love my boys.

I have a ton more photos but they're all still on my camera and it will take me an hour to download and blah, blah, blah... I'm lazy and want to go eat ice cream with Michael. I love weekends.

On a more somber note I was thinking of all the things I've done in the last 10 years since the Sept. 11 attacks. Just 2 weeks after that happened I was boarding a plane for England to serve an 18 month mission for my church. (It was strange because I got used to the British calling it "11th of Sept." cause they write their dates differently, with the date before the month, and I had to get used to it being called "Sept. 11th" when I got back. Anyway I found while being away that most people were sympathetic, supportive and almost apologetic towards me as an American. It was an interesting perspective to have after such a nationally traumatic event.)
After my mission I met an adorable guy who made my knees weak, we got married a year later.
We bought our first house.
We had our first baby. A boy. We became parents and changed forever.
We moved to Asia (for reasons we can never quite explain) and had a life-changing experience and met some life-changing people. We also had a little girl who changed our family dynamics forever. For the better.
We moved back to the US.
We had a baby boy. He's the happiest little goober I know.
We changed jobs at least 4 times.
We lived in at least 6 different houses.
With tragedy striking 10 years ago and every day, everywhere, somewhere, since then it makes life seem that much more precious and I feel almost anxious to hang on to every second. My favorite parts of my days are when I'm with my family. Like today, playing Uno. So silly and unimportant but also so memorable.

I can't even imagine what my life will be like in another ten years.

I can't wait.

Free

2011-07-04T11:57:00.003-06:00

I have been a bit emotional this weekend. I have felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for this country during the patriotic celebrations. The fireworks and festivals are fun opportunities for family togetherness, but the most central part has been my own contemplation about the founding of The United States of America and the precursors that paved the way for the beginnings of this great nation. I've thought a lot about Mormon (an ancient prophet that Latter-Day Saints believe lived over a thousand years ago on the American continent...if you're curious, you can learn more about him here) and how he and his son watched the destruction of their people but looked forward to the day when the land would once again become "a land of promise" and that their faithless, wicked brothers would be taught the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I've thought about Nephi (another ancient prophet from The Book of Mormon) who also saw in vision the destruction of his people and prophesied of gentiles (that's us!) being directed by the hand of God to travel here, to settle here, and to once again establish it as a great nation.

And if you read accounts of the early settlers or our great founding fathers, their faith is foremost in their minds, their recognition of the hand of God in their successes and in preparing a way for them to obtain their goal of a republic free from oppression. They absolutely understood that their cause was just and that God supported them in their efforts. They were great men of faith, vision and understanding and I have wanted to weep with gratitude the last few days for their choices that have provided a a place for me to raise my family in the way that I best see fit. It all comes down to these fellas...

...and this beautiful lady...

I thought of these people, my precious family, as I sang 'The Star-Spangled Banner' on Sunday in church and tears streamed down my face as I contemplated the words:

Oh, thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and presesrved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust!"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"

How much they recognize the power of God in their struggle! How succinctly Francis Scott Key summarized their faith, their devotion, their TRUE patriotism in his stirring poem! I wept as I sang it again today at a morning devotional our church organized and I thought of the story behind the national anthem and how Francis Scott Key searched for visions of the flag in the night,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it cathes the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream;
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"

Again, I thought of my family, my children, and my responsibility to teach them about the founding of this nation, about the hand of God in directing His great work and fulfilling His promise to make this "a promised land." It was stirring in a different way than I usually experience around the Fourth of July when I'm excited about fireworks and family barbecues and I feel simple pride in our great nation. This year has been more of a spiritual experience as I've realized that my patriotism is directly tied to my religious faith. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for God's power. We wouldn't have the freedoms we do (and we must fight for them still!) if it hadn't been for our righteous founding fathers and their passion for their great work. This country as we know it has been thousands of years in the making, preparations were made far before ships landed at Plymouth Rock. God prepared and cultivated this land Himself and I hope we can remember Him better in our celebrations.

However you celebrate may the spirit of this day be with you and your family!

Growing leaps and bounds

2011-06-08T22:51:00.005-06:00

A friend of mine was talking about turning 30 and looking forward to all of the good things the next decade of her life would bring. So I wanted to take this moment to commemorate the tremendous growth I have experienced in the few short years at the beginning of my thirties:

1- I have learned to like avocados. Seriously, I had my first avocado as an almost-teenager in the kitchen of the neighbor of a friend and I almost vomited. So. mushy. I'm not sure what I expected, but that was NOT it. It's a fruit, but it's savory. Wrong, on so many levels. (For this same reason I absolutely despise durian. If you've never had it, thank your lucky stars. Maybe in 20 years I'll have the same revelation I've had about avocados. But I doubt it. I seriously doubt it.) Anyway, somehow I've decided that avocados are OK. I regularly buy them and make guacamole! No, I've never eaten guacamole before my 30s either. Tried it, still thought it was nasty. Look how much I've grown as a woman in her 30s!

2- Blueberries. I have always eaten blueberries, but never REALLY enjoyed them. Same deal with avocados...I thought they were mushy. I'm assuming most people have aversions to food because of the texture issue. I used to force myself to think about something else when first biting down on a mealy-blueberry. But now, as a maturing adult, I can eat blueberries and not try to divert myself from the fact that I'm eating a blueberry!

3- Tomatoes. I NEVER thought I'd get over this one. Tomatoes gave my the dry-heaves. Again...a texture thing. But after years of forcing myself to nibble on them here and there, getting used to that texture in my hamburger-layering, I can eat tomatoes. And not just on stuff, but I can stick an entire, plain, slice of tomato in my mouth and chew it up, not running for the nearest garbage can but actually enjoying it. Growth.

I just wanted to share these little gems of thought in case there is anyone out there anxious about moving into a new decade... because there are always new wonders to discover, like the fact that you, too, can overcome aversions to mushy foods! They can actually become palatable to you! Just imagine all of the doors that will open up to you! You're welcome.

Exercise & Music

2011-05-31T21:35:00.004-06:00

Michael & I competed in a few runs & triathlons when we were dating and then newly married, but after our first child things sort of fizzled out and we both got completely out of shape. Thanks to a physical where Michael found out he had fairly high cholesterol for his age, the subject of getting into shape became something of interest in our home again. Thus, a few weeks ago we registered for the Herriman Black Ridge Triathlon to be held at the end of July. We've both eased ourselves slowly into training again, but after a comment made by our son last week things have been kicked into high gear. We were talking about the race and John piped up and said to his daddy, "I bet mommy will beat you."

Wooo-hoohooohoooho, did I get a kick out of that. Good to know where mom stands. Daddy also thought it was hilarious, but more in a challenge sort of way. I believe his exact words were:

"Oh, it is on. It is on."

So now we're fighting over whose turn it is to go to the gym at night ("you went last" "no, you went last" "no, you got to go twice last week") or at least that's how it sounds in my head. I'm itching to train every night, increase my running times, actually get ON a bike (probably important at some point, right?) and increase stamina while swimming. I've already dramatically improved my running time (although, it's hard to do anything else with a 16-minute mile) but still have miles to go. So my question is for anyone out there who has done any sort of training or even an exercise regimen...how in the world do you do this with 3 little kids? The only way we can swing it now is to take turns going at night after the kids are in bed, so we each get a turn every other night. Is there anything else that works for anyone else?

The kids are into it as well. I started them in a little tumbling class today that lasts for a few weeks and they had a blast learning to somersault and back-bend and cartwheel and balance. I was surprised how much they learned after one class, so we'll see how they're doing in another 2 weeks.

In other news, I'm thinking it's about time to start up piano lessons again. Sometimes it scares me to death because I'm not trained in pedagogy (teaching) and just knowing how to play and knowing how to teach are two different things. On the other hand I know I'm a capable teacher and I love watching kids progress through steps of learning and seeing them accomplish things. I am passionate about piano and I've had amazing teachers myself, so I hope that in some way the passionate part is contagious to my students and that I can channel some of the great things I learned as a student myself. I'm also remembering that I have to continually challenge myself on the piano and be an eternal student as well so I don't lose what I worked all of those years to gain. It has been a miracle having a piano in my home again after so long (thank you to Sean & Min for storing it the last few months and to mom & dad for taking care of it those couple of years while we went gallivanting around the world) but I hope I don't ever have to part with it again!

So anyone in this area let me know if you're interested in piano lessons this summer, for yourself or your kids...I'm thinking Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, probably morning, but I'm flexible. I will take all skill levels, but if you're seriously advanced (like trying to get a music scholarship) I will recommend a few teachers who are better equipped than myself. I also take all ages so don't be shy if you are middle-aged and always wanted to learn to play the piano...I promise by the end of summer you will!

(It's 10:00 and Michael is still working out. Dang! He's going to be ahead of me, I'll need to get a really good session in. Tomorrow is my turn!)

In Honor of Judgment Day

2011-05-21T08:32:00.002-06:00

For those of you who don't know, the Rapture is going to be today. That's some helpful information to have right there.

So my first obvious musical choice in honor of the end of the world was REM's iconic anthem "It's The End of the World As We Know It" but my awesome hubby had a much more elegant idea:

Johnny Cash - When the Man Comes Around. Awesome.

(Other suggestion was Walking on Sunshine but that seemed a little arrogant.)
Anyone have any other musical suggestions as a soundtrack to the massive upheaval that will be going on today? I for one plan to grab some marshmallows to roast and a good cd mix to listen to while I dance with my kids.)

Enjoy the end of the world!

*update: and the song winner is... Wham's 'Wake Me Up Before You Go Go'. Win.

motivation

2011-04-29T15:03:00.002-06:00

Raise your hand if you find it hard to keep up a blogging burst of energy. I, myself, seem to have fizzled. Trying to figure out how to get it back. Stay tuned.

(ps- on an unrelated note, i had an awesome birthday this year! i never realized how wonderful my friends and family are! i also realized how AWFUL i am about other people's birthdays and what a difference it really makes to get a phone call/card/email/or even an obligatory facebook message. i am resolving to be better.)

over and out, for now...really stay tuned, though...

Birthday Fun

2011-03-29T20:32:00.008-06:00

OK, so we had a couple of birthdays. Like, a long time ago.
But I'm going to put some pictures up because they're still cute! Even though they're 2 months old!
So basically right after Christmas, I have 3 birthdays within a few weeks of each other. Yikes. So lets look at birthdays!
This was Emily in her new birthday dress momma made for her. I've never done that before and I didn't have a pattern, just used a smaller dress she used to wear as my basic pattern. It turned out a MESS at first and my mom had to help me a ton (thanks mom!) but basically it ended all right.

Opening presents with cousins!

More presents!!

And more presents!!! She loves her princess dress.

Her cake BEFORE it was cooked. It was fun to cover it with frosting and surprise her when it was cut. John helped me decorate it while she was taking a nap. What a sweetheart.

OK, I cannot be held totally responsible for this. I think we found this in one of my old boxes (you have to understand, it wasn't too long after the 70s when i wore this and...and...ok, i just have nothing else to say) and she was DYING to try it on and twirl with it. She's also commandeered a similar one in pink. She wears it to church. Help me.

Daddy spending quality time playing "Zingo!" with the kids. It's Bingo with pictures and it's fun. Emily pulls it out about every other hour of the day. She kinda' likes it. (This was a Christmas present not a birthday present, but it was a cute one of the fam.)

Moving on to the next birthday...

Little Dew's favorite present...another homemade one from me. Seriously, it is hilarious and awesome how much he loves his Domo (it's Japanese). From the moment he saw it, he growled fiercely and proudly at it and then he laughed hysterically. And he's been doing that ever since.

Opening presents...the anticipation...

I tried to get a ton of pics with the birthday boy but for some reason he was more interested in playing with the presents, the boxes, the wrapping paper...

I made him a Domo cake to match his stuffed animal...here is the preparation stage. Please don't try this at home. I'm a professional. (Or I just followed somebody else's blog tutorial and cut a rectangle off the end of a 9x13 cake to make the arms. But still...I had to, you know, use a knife.)

And the final product! I think he's adorable. I made the mouth, teeth & "David" out of colored melting chocolate.

The obligatory stuffing of the face...

Those eyse...there are no words.

All done!

Cleaned up and ready for bed. My baby is one. I can't even...there's no...how did this...I just can't believe it.

Brothers. This picture makes my heart melt a little.

Oh, just look at my little brood. When they play together it makes me happier than anything on earth.

I was going to continue with John's birthday but Blogger + my internet = RIDICULOUSLY slow. It takes over 10 minutes to download 5 pics at a time. So I've reached my limit for the night. To be continued...

Crafty

2011-02-03T21:28:00.005-07:00

I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a crafty person. But I think with the two older rugrats becoming more aware of holidays it has made me excited to celebrate Valentine's Day this year. Thus, I spent an inordinate amount of time this week searching for tutorials on making Valentine wreaths. And gracious are there a lot of them! But the first one I found that seemed to be sort of at my level was this...

...from little birdie secrets. Her idea was fast, cheap & easy, my favorite combination. (Basically it consists of shoving squares of fabric into a foam heart using a pencil. No-skill-required-project here I come!) I have a few tips, if anyone wants to try it:

She emphasized ensuring the fabric goes in the same way every time. I found that it didn't matter, sometimes I would have it front side going in, sometimes back side--both ways showed the front & back of the material equally. Did that make sense? If not, that's why I don't do craft posts.
You know those little plastic sample cups they hand out at grocery stores with free samples? When it's something dry that doesn't make the cup gross I stick it in my bag to take home and stack them in my measuring cup drawer. They're the perfect size for kids to play with and for this project I grabbed one and dumped my glue in it. It was a great size instead of wasting a whole paper bowl and ensured that I used less glue. And it was free! Money-saving tip of the day. You're welcome.
You can let your kids help! They may not be quite strong enough to push the pencil into the styrofoam by themselves but it doesn't matter much about glue getting everywhere, it will just help the fabric adhere in more spots to your foam heart. My kids thought it was great fun and wanted to help through the whole thing.
I used a 9" heart form (from Hobby Lobby) and it was just under 3/4 yard of fabric to cover the front & sides of the heart.
To finish, I just made a loop of ribbon and stapled it with a heavy duty stapler on the back. Worked like a charm.

And here is the final reveal...

...hanging on my front door!

And a close-up of the cute fabric (also from Hobby Lobby--LOVE that place) that has now left me in a conundrum. I hardly ever use my front door since I'm always taking the car which is in the garage...which means that I will never see my lovely wreath. Should I let visitors (& my husband, who does use the front door but who also could not possibly care less about holiday plumage) enjoy the fruits of my labor, or should I turn the wreath hanger around and stick it on the INSIDE of the door, where I can walk by and look at it all day?

What would you do?

All Moved in With No Intention of Moving Again. Ever.

2010-12-31T10:30:00.005-07:00

So this post is WAAAAAY overdue since we moved in almost 2 months ago, but we were too busy enjoying the holidays in our NEW HOUSE (!) to worry about things like the internet. But we are definitely getting settled (although, allegedly, there may be a certain craft room in the basement that looks like a bomb exploded in it) and learning our way around our new area. Admittedly I have taken zero photos of the house itself. I live here. I know what it looks like. But I thought I'd post a few pics from the last 2 months that sort of show the house in the background but that are mostly just us.

So here is my beautiful family sitting in our basement in their cute new chairs from Christmas. See that DARK green color on the walls in the background. Yes? Well, it's even darker when you're actually standing in the basement. Add in a smattering of cheap lighting and you have a cave under your house. Don't get me started on the basement (I'm sure I'll have more to say over the coming months as we find remodeling projects to work on) but needless to say we are excited to paint it a more suitable, LIGHT color and stick in some canned lighting. For colors I'm tending toward the white-blue tones. Any comments?

And here are the kids in their Christmas PJs on Christmas Eve! Also, it's the kitchen! Not much to look at here but I'm really liking my kitchen. The window in the background looks out on our lovely backyard that leaves me completely intoxicated. I love it more than words can say. Let's see if I can find a picture...

sigh....this sight makes my heart go soft...my gorgeous kids playing in my now-most-favorite place on earth. This backyard. I can't explain what my fascination is but this little piece of land just completes my life. I can barely keep house plants alive but you better believe I'm still chomping at the bit to start a garden here. Wish me luck with that. (Better yet, wish the plants luck...)

The kids' new room complete with bunk beds!!! This room is nearly twice the size as their last room so everyone is thrilled with the arrangement. In fact, I'm toying with the idea of eventually putting all THREE of the kids in here. The other night my mom stayed with the kids at bedtime and she said the two oldest were talking to each other for a while and every so often baby Dew would chime in with his two cents because he could hear his brother and sister from the room next door. All signs point to...sharing.

And, finally (because I'm tired and want to go to bed) the family getting ready to decorate Christmas cookies...with a fuzzy view of our cute little living room in the back, complete with fireplace! I heart it. I've never had a mantle before and I realized before Christmas that I needed to buy stocking hangers because we actually had a need for them!

Have I put a picture of my short hair on the blog? I'm sure I have, I cut it last August...but I find as I go through our pictures that out of every 100 or so photos, I'm in probably...one. Because I'm always behind the camera. Wait, I just remembered another one!

OK, this is just to show off my hubby's handsome mug. Even bald (the festivities of New Year's Eve included the shaving of the heads...thanks a lot Tennyson) he makes me melt. Ummm, also that is our bathroom. SO...that concludes this totally complete tour of my new house. And as far as I'm concerned this is my house for at least the next 10 years. Thank you 2010 for being, like so many before you, a year that was so good to us. Here's to another! What about you, was your year good to you?

Moving Day!!!!!

2010-12-04T08:04:00.003-07:00

We are moving today!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found out yesterday that it will take 10 days to get our internet installed which means I will be out of commission for a while. So I wanted to officially announce that we are moving today! I am sitting among a pile of boxes and dirty carpet and remains of junk drawers and who knows what else and we are leaving to pick up the moving truck in about a half hour (eek!) so this will be quick. We are saying goodbye to our adorable little townhome (it's for sale or rent, if anyone's looking) and heading to a house with 5 bedrooms and a yard! I can hardly wait, I get giddy every time I just walk through it. So I will miss you for a while, internet. Hope everyone is enjoying their start to the Christmas holidays.

I'll be posting pictures in a few weeks, so stay tuned...

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T21:19:00.003-06:00

Quick shot of the kiddos with daddy right before we left for trick-or-treating. It had been raining for about 2 hours before we left and as soon as we sensed a break in the rain we busted out the costumes and dashed out so we didn't miss our window. But thankfully there was no more rain while we were out! There were knife-like gusts of wind and frigid temperatures, but no rain.

John = Robot, Emily = Goldfish, David = Turtle (sort of)

Mostly, David's trick is being cute.

Happy Halloween, everyone! Hope you all still have your fingers and toes. Mine are recuperating tonight and will hopefully be fully functional again by morning.

Lessons

2010-10-21T20:59:00.005-06:00

Wow, has it really been a MONTH since I posted last?!?! What is happening to this Autumn? And shouldn't it be winter by now? This time last year my kiddies & I were BUNDLED like Stay-Puft Marshmallow Men. We couldn't go outside without coats, hats, mittens and boots. And now...I've played soccer outside every day this week with John in our t-shirts. Some of those times we've played without shoes or socks. We went to the park yesterday with friends and had to take our jackets off cause we all got hot. Can it be??? Will they actually be able to trick-or-treat this year without jackets OVER their costumes???

*weather check*

Yikes. Strike that last statement/question. Just checked the weather and it's dropping to the 40s in a few days. So much for my fantasies of going to the pool on Christmas. Good thing my kids like playing in the snow.

On a completely unrelated note (sorry, my ranting about the weather will hopefully be short-lived this year) I had a thought tonight about parenting. Since I've had children I am struck at least a dozen times a day by the parent/child construct and its relationship to ourselves as children of God. I see the way my children sometimes view me, the way I view them, the opportunities as well as punishments that I dole out based on performance...the list is almost endless. And since I seem to have a hard time remembering all of these learned lessons, I thought I'd write down at least ONE that occurred to me tonight. I had been dealing with the oft-experienced meltdown that occurs at the dinner table, calmly demanding that the dinner provided had to be eaten. I finally pulled out the big guns and declared that "only children who eat their soup will get Rice Krispy Treats," something we had planned to make together after dinner. At some point in this debate John informed me, "you're not a very good mother." Thankfully I know his moods well enough (and how he feels about me) to not take it to heart and just shrug with a smile and say something trite like "I'm sorry you feel that way." Because in reality, I feel like I'm a better mother because I allow them to make choices. They can choose to eat dinner and get dessert. Or they can choose to NOT eat dinner and NOT get dessert. Either way, I'm not making them do anything against their will (that is not always the case...sometimes kids are just dumb and don't make good choices so they need adults to help them along...especially when they're under the age of 5). And I knew we'd be fine within the next few minutes. And we were.

Fast forward about 2 hours and I had put baby Dew to bed, only to hear him crying within 20 minutes. I assumed he was just fussing and getting settled, so I left him to his own devices. Eventually I want him to learn to calm himself down so he'll be happier and healthier in the long run. Sometimes he can do this, sometimes he can't. So it turns out tonight was one of the times when he was NOT going to calm himself so after a while I went to him to hold him, feed him, change him, do whatever it is he needed. He has a long time until he needs to be able to take care of himself so I'm happy to do it for him. As I held him and rocked him, I assured him how much I loved him, even though I left him alone for a while (he was still sniffling and upset from the effects of his crying) and that just because I didn't do what he wanted right away didn't mean I didn't love him. In fact I was listening the whole time, waiting on pins & needles for him to calm down, to learn for himself what to do in that situation. But when he needed someone to take over I was right there.

So that got me thinking about the earlier situation with John. They both thought they wanted and/or needed something right away. David needed comforting and wanted to eat (again). John wanted to avoid the yucky soup and dig right into dessert. But as the loving mother I want only what's best for them, or at least what I deem best during that situation. Just because I don't give John exactly what he wants when he wants it doesn't mean that I'm a bad mother or that I don't love him. Just because I "ignore" Dew's crying doesn't mean that I don't love him. Or that I'm really ignoring him, for that matter. I want them to learn from their experiences. I want them to make choices and see what the results teach them. Of course, baby is only 9 months old, so I'm not going to be real technical on this last one with him. When I realize that he's not getting it yet, I'm ready to jump in and help him feel better. (I'm also a big softie with each subsequent kid because I'm realizing that I have limited time in which to hold babies...and I'm going to squeeze every last drop out of that nirvana of baby time. And anyway, how could you ignore this face?)

And that led me to my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Do I think He's ignoring me? Do I imagine that He is unconcerned or somehow impotent because I'm not getting exactly what I want when I want it? Could it be as simple as that I just need to eat dinner before I get dessert? Or that I just need to learn to solve things on my own so that I can grow? I don't think the fact that we cry, ask, beg, despair, etc. about life and don't seem to get a response has much to do with the way our Father feels about us, except to indicate that He loves us and wants what's best for us. Not to mention that He actually KNOWS what's best for us in any given situation. There are plenty of ways that I fail as a parent because I can't always see what's best for my kids or I lose sight of it because of my own failings. But I still believe He knows what's best and have come to trust it completely. But sometimes I still need reminders, so I'm glad I got one tonight.

Randomness on a Friday Afternoon

2010-09-24T15:19:00.002-06:00

1. I was in a car accident this week. It wasn't my fault. The other driver's insurance company denied my claim. This made me angry.
2. I don't usually yell at people. As long as my children don't count as "people" cause I yell at them.
3. That makes me sad. I love my kids more than any other people on the planet--why would I yell at them and not everyone else?
4. Well, I did yell at the insurance adjuster who told me my claim was denied and wouldn't tell me why. I also apologized to him. But I still think he deserved it.
5. So I took my car in to get it fixed and now have a rental car for a few weeks.
6. The rental is a 2010 Dodge something-or-other. A minivan. I HEART IT.
7. I'm already sad thinking about having to give it back when my own car is fixed.
8. One day I think I'd like to own a new car. Just for kicks.
9. My kids were so good through the whole switching-cars thing that I took them to McDonalds for lunch and to play on the playland. I never take them there. Nothing wrong with playlands, I just hate having to eat there.
10. By and large, fast food is nas-tay.
11. Except Frosty's from Wendy's. That is ambrosia right there.
12. I got a video from Redbox last night. Prince of Persia. It was seriously awesome, not what I was expecting at all. I highly recommend it.
13. I tried for over half an hour to get it to work, but it kept stopping when it got to the movie, so I called Redbox to complain. They gave me promo codes for 2 free movies to make up for it.
14. After I got off the phone I tried the movie one more time and it worked.
15. I felt a little guilty.
16. But not that guilty.
17. I AM GOING ON A DATE TONIGHT WITH MY HUBBY!!! This makes me happy.
18. That is all. Apparently 18 is my limit with random thoughts today.
19. Thank you, and good night. Wait, make that 19...

growing pains, part 2

2010-09-14T13:31:00.000-06:00

(See notes on previous post. Blubbering, Twix-eating, lamenting baby growing up, etc. Typical mothering syndromes, it comes with the territory.)

growing pains

2010-09-14T13:24:00.000-06:00

I am happy that he's so excited to crawl, I really am. At least, that's what I keep telling myself. Then I go cry in the corner and eat a Twix. Why do babies have to grow up?

no such thing as too much awesome

2010-09-09T22:21:00.003-06:00

We send out this ecard (from someecards) to our wonderful husband & father, who epitomizes awesomeness. And we are sorry we didn't get to spend more time with him on his birthday, the stud. But we appreciate you busting your chops with full-time work AND school AND being a good friend when someone needs it AND still managing to stay awesome. So here's to my own Captain Awesome. I love you, babe.

things motherhood has done to my brain

2010-09-08T20:36:00.006-06:00

Yesterday I made zucchini chocolate chip cookies. My beautiful friend Mitzi found the recipe HERE and I made them at her house...they were pretty awesome, especially using a fresh zucchini from her garden. Mmmm...so I decided to make them again. I got all the ingredients mixed together and was ready to add the zucchini at the end, so I grabbed the grater and started shredding that sucker. But, wait...it seemed really...watery. Are zucchini's supposed to be like that? And...what the? Why are there SEEDS in my zucchini??? I stopped grating and pulled the zucchini back to investigate. Can't you just imagine the puzzled look on my face? Go ahead, imagine it. Suddenly, the smell hit me. You know how zucchinis smell...no, that's wrong, zucchinis don't smell. It smells...refreshing. Seeds, fresh smell, water...WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? I'M GRATING A CUCUMBER TO PUT IN MY ZUCCHINI COOKIES!

If you actually compare the two, they are nothing alike. Cucumbers are bumpy with a smooth, plastic-like skin. Zucchini don't have bumps but they are rough with these almost imperceptible coarse little hairs, like some guy with a five o'clock shadow. Cause, you know, I'd hate for you do to something embarrassing like CONFUSE the two of them.

So, now I had a bowl with half of a grated cucumber. And no zucchini. I turned the oven off that was preheating and rounded up the kids, mumbling about needing to buy a zucchini. Then John & I had a little lesson at the store about the differences between cucumber and zucchini. When you're a parent you don't want your children to make the same mistakes you've made. You know, you want to protect them from the pain and suffering of vegetable confusion. Also, let this be a warning if you are at my home: I might someday make a carrot cake with squash. Or a fruit tart with eggplant. **Eat at your own risk**

In case you are a complete moron like me* and need a refresher:

ZUCCHINI

CUCUMBER

*sheesh. seriously, this makes me feel like a complete moron. you are welcome for making you feel better about yourself.

Some Favorite Things From the Last Few Days

2010-08-23T20:18:00.008-06:00

In no particular order...

My two-year old sitting on the stand with me at church so I could lead the music...I asked if she wanted to sit on the floor (she was having a hard time with the self-collapsing chair) at which she protested, "But then I won't be able to see all the people!"
Leaving my almost-ready-for-bed kids in their room while I went to hunt for the bedtime book (we're starting 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'). Upon my return I find them huddled on one bed in a tight embrace, grinning up at me: "We're giving hugs!"
Going to John's first soccer game. It deserves its own blog post. It was...hilarious. Like parasites attacking an organism. And each other. But it was also pretty sweet. John scored the most goals out of anyone on either team. And we found out later he was horribly sick. Way to suck it up and play anyway, buddy!
My big boy started school today!!! Literally--the biggest boy in the house. Not my son. I'm so proud of you honey and I hope your first day rocks. I'll see ya in 2 years.
Had a brilliant idea of a store I want to start. Think baking. Never thought of running a store before but it suddenly sounds fantastic. And exciting. And most likely will just be a pipe dream, but it's always nice to have something to fantasize about.
Just found out I've lost almost all of my baby weight. Which is weird cause I still don't fit in a lot of the pre-baby clothes, but hey, small victories.
Little Dew now has 2 teeth! Is it just me or does each child subsequently grow faster and faster than the previous ones? My first baby was a baby forever. Now, I have a seven month old who, I swear, was just born a few days ago. Why has time suddenly done a sprint for the finish line?
I cut my hair. I like it.
My marvelous husband surprised me with flowers for the first time in...a long time. Beautiful roses, no less! I've moved them to various parts of the house to make each room smell divine. They have opened so beautifully today and they make me smile wistfully each time I see them. Thank you, sweetheart!
My kids! Although sometimes I wanna strangle them, they also get the biggest kick out of tiny things and it makes life brighter and sweeter.
I made up a treasure hunt at the last minute for an activity tonight that included hugging, running, silly dancing, saying nice things and cupcakes. It was a happy way to end a somewhat stressful, grumpy evening.
Held a Sunday school class on the topic of Job and it turned out better than I could have planned. People can really surprise you when they decide to open up. I also realized that I could do a lot better in the "being grateful for things" arena...whether they are good things or not. Job was pretty awesome.
I'm pretty awesome. Sometimes that just feels good to say. Try saying it (and really mean it!) without smiling, I dare you.
Just writing about stuff that has happened recently makes me remember more and become more grateful for all my blessings.

that would be weird

2010-08-19T23:41:00.003-06:00

Do you ever have somewhat heated debates in your head with people about situations that have never actually happened, but potentially could someday, just so you can be prepared with what to say?
Yeah, me neither.

you know you're a parent when...

2010-08-08T20:49:00.006-06:00

For those of you considering parenthood, here is some food for thought. And of course this is a PURELY hypothetical situation off the top of my head.

Imagine that you have three children. Can you see them? They're so adorable, the apples of your eye, you can't imagine life without them. You see them? Right. Now imagine you put the two oldest ones to bed for the night and you are thrilled at the sight of them snugly in bed with an evening of rest in front of you. The youngest is a baby, just a few months old, so you put him to bed a little later, let's say around 8:30 or 9:00, and you spend the evening relaxing and enjoying time with your spouse. Just for argument's sake, let's say you go to bed around 11:30pm. This may not be your normal bedtime but since this is hypothetical just go with me on it. You are puttering around, doing last minute things, finally saying your prayers before bed and as you're just about to climb under the covers your baby starts fussing. Oh, sure, it may be small at first, but you've been there before, you know this isn't the start of something good. You're also probably desperately trying to get your baby back on a normal schedule after a week of vacation and so far have been unsuccessful. So you know that you don't want to pick him up or feed him or give him any encouragement to be awake. But, as his crying picks up a bit, you also know this could go on for a while and you're determined to let him cry it out. Hypothetically.

So, what do you do? Don't bother getting in bed because you'll just lay there frustrated, listening to him cry, debating about what to do. It's best to ignore it completely, so you go into the other room and look at houses for sale online. I mean, allegedly that's what someone might do. In this hypothetical situation.

Anyhoo, let's say that an hour passes with a few stops and starts in the crying but nothing is really changing, so you finally go cover him up and rhythmically pat his back to get him to relax. It's now around 1 am. His crying subsides but he's still making small whimpering noises which you know is a bad sign, but you've slowed the crying a bit so you leave again and go back to the computer. The crying continues. At full force. Around 1:30am you're wondering why you're so determined to ride it out and can't remember what the point is of listening to the crying, so you go back to his crib, pick him up, and commence bouncing. The bouncing helps, to a point, but if know anything about these imagined children they are probably all pretty darn stubborn and if they know anything it's how to wait it out until they get what they want. After bouncing for almost a half hour, you can hardly feel your feet anymore and you're afraid any moment you'll lose your equilibrium or else just plain pass out from exhaustion. So you give up pretenses of putting baby back to sleep and go back to the office and let him watch a video with you online. You wanted to finish watching that episode of "Ugly Betty" anyway. He sort of falls asleep while he sits on your lap but immediately awakes at the slightest sign of movement. It is now approximately 2:15am. You've forgotten your name, the names of your beautiful, stubborn, hypothetical children, and your reason for staying up with this baby. He wins. You hang up the white flag and feed the poor starving kid. At approximately 2:37 in the morning you dump him back in his crib, climb under the covers and pass out.

You think you're done, don't you? It's cute how you think that.

About an hour later you hear child-like mumbling at your bedside and wake to find your oldest child standing over your sleeping spouse whimpering something about it being too dark in his room. You grumble at sleeping-spouse to scoot over and everyone squishes into the bed and fall back asleep.

Nope, still not done.

About an hour after that (so where are we, around 4:30 in the morning? I've lost track) the baby you stayed up with for 3 hours starts crying again. At this point, you've lost all will to live, including the sensitive, nurturing, mothering part of living and you shove sleeping-spouse to wake them and loudly state that they need to take the scared-of-the-dark child back to their room to sleep. Barely-coherent-spouse rouses the sleeping child and says he has to go back to his bed because the baby is crying and he won't be able to sleep. Interesting logic because obviously he was sleeping fine, but everyone is tired so thankfully there is no argument. You flop yourself back onto the pillow and bitterly mourn the loss of the days before you had children and you could sleep for 8 hours if you felt like it. You don't really keep track of how long the baby cries this time because it's obvious at this point that time has stopped and this night will never end. Either you fall asleep to the crying or it only lasts around 5 minutes because the next thing you know, there is light outside your window and your lovely middle child, who has had beautiful, uninterrupted sleep all night, is in your room at 6:30 am, rousing the baby you struggled with all night and gleefully playing with him. You lie there in a half-asleep stupor for about 30 minutes before you give up and resign yourself to the life you've chosen. The life where sleep is a distant memory.

Of course, this is all hypothetical. It's not at all likely that this will happen to you when you have kids, and certainly not all in one night. And to those of you expecting children, maybe for the first time: We welcome you to parenthood.

On an unrelated note, we went to DisneyWorld. Go Mickey!

(I know, this doesn't actually show them AT DisneyWorld--it's in the hotel. But I adore this picture of the three of them.)

Tastespotting. It's that good.

2010-07-23T21:03:00.004-06:00

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Tastespotting? If you haven't ever been there, go right now. I'll wait....

(taps foot, hums a tune)

...did you try it? Actually, if you'd never seen the site and you clicked over you'll probably be there for a while and won't come back to this post so I should have said goodbye.

Anyhoo...

If you haven't seen it before it is basically a foodie site. It hosts a million (ok, not literally) but a LOT of pictures from food sites anywhere in the world that you can click on and be sent to a corresponding site to find the recipe. I could spend hours clicking from page to page, opening tab after tab after tab, exploring the various sites, going back to tastespotting, finding more pictures, which leads to more sites...you can get lost after a while if you're not careful but I love getting lost in that world. What makes it even better? I notice that a VAST majority of those pictures/recipes are of sweets. Brownies, cheesecake, muffins, cupcakes, cookies, ice cream, tarts, chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate...and hence my addiction. It is a well-established fact that I am a lover of baking. I'm not fabulous at it, but you can nearly always find some sort of baked good at my house. And I love that. I want people to come to my home and be able to look forward to something sweet or gooey or moist or chocolatey, as long as it is homemade. OK, there is plenty of the other stuff at tastespotting--rices, salsas, salads, meats, veggies, grilling, you name it. But I have to confess I usually pass over most of those (except the Asian dishes--most of them come from authentic Asian sites so the people actually know what they're doing--I tend to pay attention to those) in favor of the baked goods. It's the chocolate. I can't get enough.

For example, after putting kids to bed this evening I decided to relax by browsing through tastespotting. And after looking at just 2 pages I had opened up separate tabs for blueberry cheesecake squares, peanut butter cookies, bruschetta, spicy coconut noodles, spicy sesame-roasted sweet potato chips, some sort of chocolate cake and a couple others that I can't remember because my brain is full of recipes right now. Then, if something catches my eye on the food site I'm on (like the one for blueberry cheesecake) I wander around that site for a while until I remember what I was doing and find myself back at tastespotting, looking at luscious pictures and dreaming about making dessert tomorrow. In fact, just writing about it, looking at the pictures again, I may not be able to wait. If I start something now (around 9:30pm) what are the odds I'll finish and be in bed by a reasonable hour? And what are the odds that I won't eat half of the goodies right before bedtime? Hmmm...all signs point to slim-to-none.

I think I'm OK with that.

Speaking of food sites, I also find some great things at Tasty Kitchen, like these Muffins That Taste Like Doughnuts that I made this week and were, I kid you not, one of the EASIEST recipes in existence, and were also one of the best things I've ever made in my life. Seriously, try them TODAY. This has been a public service announcement.

Conquering the Elements

2010-07-12T14:00:00.003-06:00

I love to bake, but I don't really bake pies. Once a year I'll do pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving and I love it, but I'm hesitant enough about it that I stay away the rest of the year. Today, however, I found myself with a TON of blueberries that were going to spoil if I didn't use them...so I made a pie. With TWO crusts (top & bottom), something I don't have to do with pumpkin pies. So it was a double effort, double win. As I pulled it out of the oven, I felt like my mother. Triple win. (Not that she bakes pies either but she's amazing and seemed to bake a lot when I was a kid so when I bake something I usually think of her). It was beautifully golden brown, piping hot steam was wafting through the vents I cut in the top, and the solid weight of it made my mouth start to water, just knowing that heaviness came from fruity, juicy, blueberry goodness.
You remember that scene from Cast Away where Tom Hanks' character works & works & works & finally sees a spark of flame that he builds into an enormous fire:

"Fire! I. Make. Fire!" he says, as he beats his chest in a way that can only be described as manly. As I pulled my blueberry pie out of the oven, I felt the triumph that only comes from creating something.

"Pie! I. Make. Pie!" I shouted to no one in particular. My kids don't even bat an eye anymore. They've learned to ignore their crazy mother.

(by the way, I used THIS recipe, if you're interested...easy as pie)

Need a Lift?

2010-07-07T13:18:00.006-06:00

We went to Payless Shoes today to look for another pair of sandals for Peanut. Her current pair is white--or at least they used to be white. After being worn every day for 2 or 3 months they look more like a pair of sad, saggy elephants. Anyway, as we were leaving, she caught sight of this ad, at which she quickly exclaimed: Look, mommy, it's YOU!

Ummm...OK, if she was vying for favorite child she wins. She is now officially my favorite person in the universe.

A little politics on a Sunday afternoon

2010-07-04T14:02:00.004-06:00

Michael and I teach a Sunday School class at church every few weeks. I realized that we are teaching next week so today while everyone took naps I started reading our designated chapters in the Old Testament as well as some supplemental material. The subject of next week's lesson is "King Solomon: Man of Wisdom, Man of Foolishness" and describes the ascent and downfall of Solomon (who, incidentally, followed exactly in the footsteps of the previous two kings--his father, David, and Saul). And although the lesson really focuses on the spiritual aspects of humility and pride, I found an interesting quote that I thought pertained rather exactly to the state of our nation and, really, our lifestyle today that I wanted to share. It struck me because we seem to have sunk into a one-track mind regarding government, leadership, stewardship, and prosperity with no understanding of the variety of philosophies that exist regarding economy, wealth, growth and progression. It almost--ALMOST--makes me want to study economics, just to feel I have a greater grasp on the history and philosophy of the subject and therefore have a more valid voice to stand up and be heard.

As a preface, this is in reference to the remarkable fame that Solomon experienced due to his renowned wisdom, his remarkable building projects, and his unprecedented wealth. Unfortunately, these latter two achievements came at the expense of his people. He began taxing them heavily and relying on forced labor to see the fulfillment of these grand designs. So if you're feeling in the mood for a little politics, here is a (long, sorry) quote from "People of the Bible and How they Lived" from the Reader's Digest Association:

"The life of the common man had been disrupted. In the past a man's wealth had been calculated mostly by the land he owned, the number of flocks he had and the size of his family. Solomon's sweeping economic changes altered that system. Land was no longer of supreme importance--in fact, it may have become somewhat of a burden. The more land a man owned, the more crops he could grow, and thus the more he would have to turn over to the king's officers when collection time came around every 12 months. Likewise, flocks were surrendered to tax collectors and sons were forced to serve on month of every three in the king's labor force.

"Now wealth was calculated not by property ownership but by the amount of money a man controlled. Certainly more and more money in gold and silver came into Israel every year, but very little of it ever filtered down to the average Israelite, who had to surrender so much of his livelihood to the king's coffers. Instead, the money was used to pay growing international debts, salaries for the full-time government officials, commissions to merchants and artisans in the king's employ, temple and palace upkeep and other expenses."

For the first time in Israel's history, there began to be a distinct difference between 'rich' and 'poor.' The king and his household were rich; the common people were poor. In between were the salaried civil servants and the merchants and artisans, many of whom had organized craft guilds by that time. Such class separations had not been know in the Israel where a shepherd boy like David could be anointed king--only 50 years earlier." (emphasis added)

I'm not going to start waxing philosophic about politics and pretend like I know what I'm talking about. (Although I have been pondering lately about the difference one voice can make and the responsibility we have to speak out, but that deserves another post all to itself.) In this case, I merely wanted to observe that the more things change, the more they stay the same. That is all.

Good night, Gracie.

A Matter of Perspective

2010-07-02T01:45:00.000-06:00

Most moms I know can never hear this too much. It helped me tonight, I hope it helps someone else.

random list

2010-06-16T21:14:00.003-06:00

The house is so quiet and it's only 9:30.
That's the first time that has happened in...ever, I think.
I'm making a list of slightly interesting things happening around here in hopes of avoiding the MOUNTAINOUS pile of clothes in my laundry room.
We had awesome potatoes tonight stir-fried in curry seasonings.
My hands are going to smell like curry for a while.
As will our house.
My baby is asleep in his swing and he keeps momentarily waking up to look at me with drunk eyes.
I like the idea of sleeping in a perpetually moving swing but I'm afraid it would make me sick.
A hammock would be better.
I used to occasionally sleep in a hammock outside my apartment in college.
Not always by myself.
That sounded naughty.
But I'm not going to explain myself.
I think it's more fun that way.
Tonight we had great fun dancing to some favorite family tunes after dinner.
It's a fabulous way to burn some calories, create some memories and bring on the giggles.
We saw a strange thing the other day: a couple of police cruisers pulled in front of us in a mass of traffic on the freeway and carefully swerved back & forth across all lanes until everyone slowed down. We assumed they were preparing us to meet a roadblock or a serious traffic jam up ahead, but at the next exit one of the police cars got off the freeway and another veered over to the carpool lane and pulled someone over, and we kept going with no sign anywhere of any major jams or incidents.
Weirdness.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Here's a thought: it's not even 10pm and I'm going to bed.
Sing hallelujah.
Over and out.

lameness

2010-06-15T22:46:00.000-06:00

It really is no excuse but I am reminded why I have slacked off in the blogging department on days like today when I don't shower until 5pm. And not by choice.
That is all.

Sheer Bliss...literally.

2010-06-02T15:52:00.004-06:00

Michael & I splurged and bought ourselves some ice cream this weekend. His favorite indulgence is Ben & Jerry's Phish Food, but I'm not a big fan of stuff with marshmallows in it (unless it's a Smore, then bring 'em on) so I went with a new choice, something I had my eye on for a few weeks whenever I'd trudge around Walmart with the kiddies. And boy-howdy it did not disappoint.

In case you can't read the fine print that says "Sheer Bliss: Pomegranate with dark chocolate chips." *wipes drool off face* That's right. POMEGRANATE. WITH DARK CHOCOLATE. I don't think I even need to describe the delectable goodness. I knew I had made a good choice when our cashier starting raving about how amazing it is and practically wouldn't let us leave until he had recited a few sonnets about it. But I got it home and took one bite. Oh my. So much creaminess, so little time. To give an idea, the basic ingredients are something like: cream, milk, sugar, 100% pure pomegranate juice, cocoa butter...I'm sorry, I'm drooling again. Plus, my yumminess came in a metal tin that I can keep forever (I think it's going to hold all the Nerf gun darts that have infested my house) and Michael's got all soggy as it sat out and is now rotting in a landfill somewhere. AND it was only $2.00, which was ridiculously cheap for a pint of amazing ice cream when you consider that most brands are twice that. So if you see a metal tin of ice cream in your grocer's freezer that says "Sheer Bliss" on it, you need to believe the marketing hype because it really IS sheer bliss.

Thank you for your support.

Sheer Bliss has never heard of me. I just REALLY like their ice cream.

pizza sauce

2010-05-27T15:06:00.005-06:00

OK, this is it...I promised pizza sauce that would change your life and here it is. Now, just don't look at the picture.

Ack! I said don't look! What are you doing? Ick! Ick ick!

Ok, ok, let's ignore the fact that I have NO idea how to take pictures, and also ignore the fact that I couldn't even be bothered to at least wipe down the sides of my tupperware so it looked presentable, and ALSO ignore the fact that when I realized that last fact I was also too lazy to go re-do it and I uploaded it anyway...and let's just focus on the consistency of that sauce. It. Is. Chunky. Period. So if that's not your style, then maybe this isn't the pizza sauce for you. Actually, I take that back. You'd just have to add another step at the end and stick it in a food processor to blend up all the chunks. But I, for one, LOVE the chunks so I'm leaving them in. I figure as long as I have teeth I may as well enjoy chunks in my food. My teeth are so bad I probably won't have them for long. Sigh...

But that's another post for another day. Today, there is pizza sauce to make. And here are the ingredients:

onion
fresh garlic
vegetable broth
tomato paste
Italian seasoning (you can also use basil, rosemary, oregano, etc. I used a mix)
black pepper
crushed red pepper
crushed tomatoes
sugar (opt)
balsamic vinegar

Now, I need to be honest, I mostly followed a recipe from an old copy of Cooking Light that was a special pizza issue. But I'll also be honest...my version is way better! Take that, Cooking Light. So here's what you do.

Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan at medium-high heat, add 1/4 cup finely chopped onion and saute for a few minutes. Add garlic (I'm usually pretty liberal--you can never have too much garlic--so I added a couple cloves, minced) and saute 30 seconds. Stir in 1/4 cup vegetable broth, cook another minute. Add 2 Tbsp. tomato paste, 1-2 tsp. dried seasoning (pick your favorite!), black pepper & crushed red pepper (again, to taste...I'm a wimp so I used more black pepper and only a few violent shakes of the red...plus my kids had to eat this), and one 14.5 ounce can of crushed tomatoes, undrained. Make sure they're crushed! Don't try to use diced and squish them up yourselves (ok, that's something I would totally do) but it will ruin the consistency of this glorious stuff. Then you'll reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Then, I'd suggest tasting it. If it seems too acidic, add 1-2 tsp. of sugar. This usually depends on the type of tomatoes you use. I think mine needed it. Keep simmering for another 15 minutes or until it reaches your desired consistency. Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 tsp. balsamic.

Be still my beating heart. I dipped my finger in this bad boy and almost fell down in the kitchen. The best part was that, unbelievably, it was BETTER the next day. So if you made this the day before and put it on a pizza the following day, or, dare I say, after TWO days!!! Whoa, I'm having a hard time keeping my heart rate down just thinking about it.

I have a standard pizza dough recipe that I generally use, but just to mix it up I made Pioneer Woman's basic pizza dough from her cookbook and then made half the pizza with the drool-worthy red sauce and pepperoni, and half with pesto and Roma tomatoes. It looked like this:

Ack! Wait, didn't I say no looking at the pictures?!! Ew, now you'll never want to make this pizza. Honestly, what was I thinking? (After looking at the picture again I also remembered that I put some leftover jicama/black bean/avocado chunky salsa up in the top right corner, cause I figured anything would be good with this sauce...aaaand I was right.) But trust me. It was so good, I made the exact pizza 2 days later (minus the weird leftovers). And I had no complaints.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go drizzle the rest of that pizza sauce over some ice cream. Oh, did I just say that out loud?

Happy Saturday

2010-05-22T13:00:00.007-06:00

This has been the best day. Ever.

The kids let us stay in bed until 7am and then Michael got up with them and played "big boy" games (translation: first-player shooter/airplane flying computer games) while I slept another half hour. I finally got up at 7:30 to feed David after he'd slept 10 HOURS last night. FOR THE SECOND TIME THIS WEEK. Yes, it's true, I have the best baby on the entire planet. No offense to anybody else with babies, but it's true.

Then, my awesome hubby took the two older goobers for an outing so I could stay home and relax and play with the baby some more. They got back for lunch and we danced to our favorite "Chuck" soundtrack while I made grilled cheese sandwiches. Seriously, there are few things that are quite as awesome as dancing with my family. Some current favorites include:

Step in Time (Mary Poppins)
Old Bamboo (Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang)
various Sesame street songs/videos on youtube
Sesame Street alphabet songs
basically any Pop songs on the radio
Bee-Gees' Stayin Alive (thanks Apryl!)
my "rock" station on Pandora (includes Eagles, Journey, U2 & Keane)
our favorite songs from the TV show "Chuck"
oh, and Fisher Price versions of "Row Your Boat" & "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

Can you spot the ones that might have been influenced by the adults in the house? I like a good old fashioned Disney musical as much as the next gal, but sometimes you just have to mix it up a little.

Now I'm working on some desserts for our family gathering tomorrow (we're finally doing the baby blessing...he's only 4 months old, I guess better late than never) and dessert-making is probably on my top 10 list of favorite things to do. I routinely scour foodie blogs for dessert ideas, although for this one I fell back to an old favorite that my mom used to make that's a chocolate pudding/whipped topping/layer deal. With nuts. Yum. And I'm just getting started--that's just dessert #1. How many do you think is too many? With 12 adults and 13 kids (ages 2-tween) I'm thinking there's no such thing as too much dessert. Maybe we'll throw some fruit in there, just to keep the sugar level from rising too high. Honestly, we have NO room in this house to host that many people (it's supposed to rain tomorrow, but maybe we could boot the kids outside to go play in the rain! Kids like rain, right?) but I love my familia and think any excuse to see them all is a good excuse, even if we are jammed in like sardines.

So besides the pudding goodness I'm thinking Better Than Sex Cake, which I haven't had in ages and, although I think it's inaptly named, it's still pretty darn good. Hmm. Maybe Pretty Darn Good Cake would make a nice name alternative. Anyway, after that I'm open to ideas. If you could pick anything for dessert what would it be? Some type of cookie? Or do you prefer cupcakes? Maybe something rich and creamy, like cheesecake? Cold--ice creams, shakes, frozen pies? I need at least one more idea and I have until tonight to get any necessary ingredients. Better yet, if you have links to sites with good dessert recipes I will be your friend for life!

(And since my life has been consumed by food lately, I plan on posting a pizza sauce recipe later that is to die for. Seriously, I wanted to marry it. Or eat the whole thing with a spoon, whichever would have been more feasible. Either way, you MUST make the pizza sauce, and soon. Your life will never be the same. Which, strangely enough, is what I told my husband about my cheese slicer. Actually, I think my words were something along the lines of "my life being devoid of meaning" before I got my cheese slicer. But now it is complete. I have a cheese slicer AND the perfect pizza sauce recipe. And two of my children are asleep. Aaaaaannnd...I'm going to take a nap. Best. Day. Ever.)

dream a little dream

2010-05-03T22:42:00.002-06:00

I've been inwardly lamenting lately the fact that I have fallen victim to the "I'm too busy to blog" monster. I have loads of pictures (I think still on the camera), I have stories every day that range from infuriating to fall-down hilarious, and I usually find it is a great stress reliever. But here are the usual thoughts that fill my day that I can only assume are less-than-interesting to anyone who might read this blog and that therefore prevent me from writing it down:

Just how much dealing with bodily fluids can a person handle before they go postal?
How can a little girl love the potty so much and want to use it at exhaustingly regular intervals throughout the day, but poop in her pants for 2 weeks straight? (Again with the bodily fluids. Oy.)
When is Mary Poppins going to show up and snap her fingers to clean my house and fold my laundry?
And how can such little people produce such grotesque amounts of laundry anyway?
With the amount of complaining that goes on during meals ("that's disgusting" or "i don't want to eat this") I sometimes wonder if it would be better for my sanity to invest in a lifetime supply of frozen meals? There would still be the same amount of complaining but at least I wouldn't have wasted any time on it.
And speaking of making meals for a family, why can't we live off of cookies, brownies, cupcakes or anything containing a main ingredient of chocolate? At least then we'd all enjoy eating dinner. And the leftovers.
How do other full-time moms exercise? Honestly, it is a mystery of epic proportions to me. Someone please enlighten me. I'm desperate to figure out some kind of work-out schedule.
I would really appreciate it if the person who is letting their dog take a dump on the grass outside the back of our house would pick it up afterward. It's a common area so let's just be respectful of us common folk who use it, k?
Wow, that's a lot of complaining. Don't I think about anything positive?
Well, probably not at this time of night, which is the only time I get for myself.
Maybe I should just go to bed so I can relax and feel refreshed in the morning.
I would also probably do better during the day if, besides exercise, I could have a nice, relaxing shower without it being interrupted by screaming, waking up the baby, fighting, breaking things, etc.
Speaking of which, I have a funny story...

I was telling my friend Lisa about a dream I had last night and realized it was too priceless not to share. In this dream I was driving around in my minivan with all of my kids. I kept driving to different houses, even some hotels, not sure what I was looking for but I would stop and try to get out but these obnoxious sheep were following us everywhere. They kept trying to squeeze their way into the car, or into the houses/hotels I was visiting. Finally, I drove into a neighborhood with a house that was some sort of B&B. And then it also finally clicked what I had been looking for...a shower! A quiet, relaxing shower with no noise, no interruptions or disturbances of any kind. So, of course, to achieve this sort of nirvana I had to leave the kids in the car (which apparently I was more than happy to do) and I made my way into this house. But there were those darn sheep following me. So I distracted them by throwing a ball one direction and running in the opposite direction for the door to my room. I made it in with only one sheep slipping in behind me but I wasn't finished yet. I jumped over that persistent sheep with tunnel vision for that bathroom door. Everything else blurred and I could see a sort of glow emanating from the room that was my goal. I nearly slammed my own hair in the door but that stubborn sheep bumped its nose on the outside of the door as I locked it shut and shouted in victory! I turned in triumph to my prize...a gleaming shower, nearly glowing with glory. I swear I could hear angels heralding the coming joy. A shower! A shower! It is all yours!!! Immediately I turned the faucets as hot as I could handle, filling the wonderful room with glorious, relaxing steam. I was ready to step into my new-found wonderland when, in the distance I heard... Bang! Bang! Bang! I wanted to cry. Someone was banging on the outside door to my room. Even though I couldn't see who it was, I knew that someone had found my kids unattended and they were coming to demand that I resume my parental duties. And right outside the bathroom that obnoxious sheep was pawing at the door like a puppy...

Of course what puts the icing on the cake is that I'd been asleep for less than an hour when I was woken from this very telling dream by, 1) my husband snoring, and 2) my baby crying. My analysis? Momma needs some "me" time. Or a vacation. Or a live-in nanny.

Or a sound-proof shower.

Preferably with lots of steam.

unbirthday wishes

2010-04-13T13:13:00.003-06:00

I was doing a little online window shopping for my birthday last night. You know, all of the fun of shopping with none of that pesky walking around at the mall. I found this fun site at Sundance with three fun things that I would love to see window shopping but probably wouldn't actually buy.

First, this fun sham that would really work in either my bedroom or my living room. I'm having decorating issues around my whole house lately, but both of those rooms have green themes in them and I think the stripes in this pillow would add some needed whimsy.

Now this is just adorable. How could you possibly pass this without wanting to try it on? (One of the obvious disadvantages to window shopping on the web.)

Oooh, I saved the best for last. If you are a jewelry hound I recommend visiting their jewelry section. I just looked at their alluring banded rings (like the fun, simple brushed metal number above) but there is quite a bit more to look at if you're looking to update your accessories. The earrings were tempting me too, but I decided it was time to go to bed. But I have some time now, maybe I'll head over there again. Or find another window to look in. A girl's gotta' do something while her kids are watching "Mary Poppins" for the 28th time.
(On a completely unrelated note, has anyone heard that there will be a Sephora store coming to Utah soon??? I read that wickedly wonderful news somewhere but can't find any confirmation of it. If anyone has any news I would appreciate you sharing it. In the meantime I might die of anticipation. Talk about a FUN place to window shop!) Also if anyone has some favorite online window shopping spots, please share. I have a few weeks until my birthday so I need to get in all the looking I can. Thank you.

a little taste of awesome

2010-04-08T20:01:00.005-06:00

Found a fabulous website tonight that I had to share. We have been craving food we came to love in Malaysia so tonight for dinner I whipped up this CHICKEN SATAY with some store-bought peanut sauce which wasn't a keeper, so next time I will make her PEANUT SAUCE as well.

If you're in the mood for something different I recommend checking out rasamalysia.com. Personally I am literally giddy to the core about making me some ROTI CANAI (pronounced "cha-nigh"). If you've never experienced its wonderful buttery/oily goodness (due to the abundance of ghee used in its making) you are seriously missing out. It's kind of a tricky stretching/folding/wrapping process to make them but I'm determined to learn. My world is not the same without this roti. Do yourself a favor and learn how to make this immediately. You will not be sorry. And then invite me over cause it's rude not to share.

april fools!

2010-04-01T12:58:00.003-06:00

Actually, these "eggs" wouldn't fool anyone, but since it was April Fools Day we decided to make a treat that sort of looks like eggs but is actually full of chocolatey goodness.

My talented 4 year old took the above picture. As you can see I do NOT excel at crafts that require a delicate touch, such as dipping things in chocolate. But they're colorful and fun so I guess that's all that matters.

Oh, and the fact that they're filled with crushed Oreos doesn't hurt anything.

I found the recipe HERE. (I don't think you can even call this a recipe, since it consists of a total of 3 ingredients, one of which is the dipping chocolate on the outside. So if you'd like an easy - albeit messy - snack, give these a try this weekend.) Oh, and Happy Easter!

spring cleaning!

2010-03-31T15:34:00.002-06:00

Thanks to my bro. for tipping me off to the new templates at blogger drafts. I love changing things up and regularly getting new designs. It reminds me of college and how we changed the furniture around every 3 weeks. You've got to keep things interesting somehow. I can't wait to play more with my new design! Speaking of which, I think it's time we rearranged some furniture...

march madness

2010-03-24T07:57:00.005-06:00

Mad props have to go out to my sis-in-law Anj, who is insanely awesome about decorating. Her house looks like this year-round and I also have to admit I am a little insanely jealous. She has more creativity in her little finger than I do in my whole body, no joke. You just have to take a look over there and you'll be sure to get some ideas of your own. And then maybe I won't be alone in my jealousy.

snowybliss.blogspot.com

snowing

2010-03-20T12:56:00.003-06:00

We took some extended Snow Family pictures around Thanksgiving and I forgot to post some. There weren't a lot of keepers, but at least this shows how our family looked at the time. Aren't they adorable??? I love these guys!

Random Thoughts on a Sunday Afternoon

2010-03-07T13:06:00.004-07:00

-That big, handsome boy on the left just turned 4 last month. He absolutely ADORES his little brother.

-I made him this cake for his birthday. It's supposed to be a ship.

-Two kids are sleeping, one is at church with his dad. I love quietness.

-But I also miss church. It's such an uplift for my week. Does that make me odd?

-I'm having a hard time remembering the last NEW book I read for fun. (Wait! Collection of short stories from SIL Cathy-- that was it. It was such a great gift.)

-I would love to read a new book every week.

-Maybe after my newborn baby isn't quite so newborn.

-And maybe someday I could actually go to the library to look for books for myself and not spend my entire time corralling and shushing little goobers.

-I can't remember the last time I looked at books for big people. (Wait! Seattle trip with the posse, visited the bookstore. That was it! Good times. Good times.)

-I'm having a hard time motivating myself to blog. Can't think straight and/or stay awake long enough to compose a single cognitive thought.

-On the other hand, babies make me happy.

-Other things that make me happy: this little girl. She is 2 and drives me insane sometimes. But she's also my best bud.

-I'm listening to the sound of silence. It sounds like plugged-in electrical appliances. And short, shallow baby breaths.

-I wonder if nursing babies seems weird to someone who has never done it before. I don't even think twice about it anymore,

-I'm now writing this while I nurse. It's surprising how fast I can type with one hand.

-When thought of in terms of breastfeeding, the term "nursing a beer" seems downright crude. And Freudian.

-But did I mention babies make me happy?

-Sometimes I wish I had a ton of money to spend making other people happy. Then I realize that a can at the food bank would probably make someone happy. I don't need a ton of money for that.

-This is my mom. She makes me happy.

-My husband makes me blissfully happy. But he doesn't like to be photographed much. I can't find a picture of him.

-That is enough thinking for one afternoon. I'm going to go wrap my head around a 10 minute nap.

For Your Consideration

2010-02-11T16:57:00.004-07:00

My amazing sister-in-law, Aimee, posted this article on her blog and I was so touched by it that I wanted to link to it.
Foyer de Sion Orphanage

She has been working with the group collecting donations (mostly food & medical) to send to the kids there, so if anyone wants to help (or if you'd like any information about adopting children from Haiti) you can talk to her. She has recently become something of an expert.

stuff in my purse.

2010-02-02T14:57:00.003-07:00

i know, what an exciting blog title. but i was sitting in a car sales office recently (where i ended up being for 2 HOURS) and during that boring, stare-at-the-walls down time i thought about how random a mom's diaper bag can be. what sort of treasures do i have in there that i don't even think about? how long has some of that stuff been floating around in there? so i decided to make a list. exciting, huh? but, if you want a glimpse into the day in the life of a stay-at-home mom, here it is.

small side pocket:
chapstick
victoria's secret minty lip shine
babies-r-us gift card with remaining balance of $3.49
costco receipt (holding onto it so i can return something)
appointment card for OB
baby hair comb
blue pen
mail key

large main compartment:
Swaddle-Me blanket for wrapping baby (AWESOME gift from friend Nichole)
nursing cover
3 newborn diapers
one almost-empty pack of baby wipes
wallet (don't even get me started on what's in there)
small superman figurine (gift from John's friend, Zach!), complete with cape
ziploc bag of almonds
checkbook
onesie, size 0-3 months
newborn socks
ziploc bag of dum-dum suckers
small horse figurine
garage door opener
teething toy shaped like a duck
antiseptic hand sanitizer from nu skin
fridge magnet with instacare phone numbers
compact mirror

...aaaaaaand there you have it. i know, like i said, pretty exciting stuff. it makes me wonder what do you carry around in your purse? if you're a mom, is it similar to mine? if you're not, obviously you won't have diapers and baby socks in yours, but what things do you need on a regular basis? if you were stuck in a car sales office for 2 hours with nothing to read (note: i often have a book in there...figures the one time i need it...) what would you do? if you had an i-phone i'm sure it wouldn't be a problem, but for the rest of us little people... i had to content myself by munching on almonds and reading company mission statements on the walls. yawn. so be prepared! you never know when you'll need some good literature on hand. pack your favorite austen novel, just in case.

sibling rivalry

2010-02-02T13:50:00.003-07:00

The only fighting going on here...

is over whose turn it is to hold Dew.

These are some seriously proud siblings. Just wait until he learns to do something exciting, like eat solids. They'll probably make me throw him a party.

Welcome to the family, baby Dew.

Winter in Review

2009-12-29T20:20:00.002-07:00

I was going to post pictures from the last 2 months of our comings and goings, but our internet has been SOOOOOO slow the last few days so there is no way in Hades I'll even be able to get pictures up here. (I can't even get the "Add Image" page to load.) Not if I want to go to bed before 2am. Which I do. Because I'm sick. Cough, cough.
But trust me, they are great pictures. Christmas parties. Christmas presents. A trip to St. George with cousins. Funny dress-ups. Their first snow. John's first haircut at a barbershop. A bridal shower trip. Dancing, dancing, and more dancing. Did I mention my kids like to dance? Oh, how they love to dance.
I'm sure I would think of more witty things to say, but I'm sick. Cough, cough. And Michael is working late so I have no one to cuddle me to sleep. I've been threatening for years to replace him with a body pillow (oh, especially when i'm pregnant...how i want a body pillow!) but I'm afraid it will be too cozy & cuddly & snuggly & sleep-inducing and I'll never be able to leave home without it. So instead I'll cuddle with a book and dream about not coughing again (which is ironic because the coughing is probably what will wake me up in a few hours-- that and the fire searing through my throat). Happy end of 2009!

Bitter Sweet

2009-12-10T14:18:00.004-07:00

As a book lover, I was incredibly saddened to read this piece of news in a Publishers Weekly article. Kirkus Reviews is one of my most trusted resources in recommending books. They have nearly always been spot-on in their descriptions and reviews and if they give something the green light I know that I have to put it on my must-read list. Obviously with the advent of computers things have been changing for the last few decades in the publishing industry--including the upsetting trend of library and bookstore closures--but this one seemed to hit particularly close to home simply because it is a personal preference of mine among book resources. Please take a moment of silence to honor our world changing at a frighteningly rapid pace. Thank you.

On to other more happy moments, I had particularly memorable one today. While attempting to encourage John to take a nap on our couch, I sat on the floor next to him and lay my head on the couch cushions next to his head. After about two minutes I think he decided that I was asleep and he threw part of his blanket over my entire head and whispered, "Here, mom, you can sleep with me." I tried to murmur quietly, "Thanks buddy, I love you," to which he replied, "I love you, too, mom" and kissed me on the forehead. Life seriously doesn't get much better than that.
Hope you're having a wonderful Christmas season so far and taking time to enjoy the small moments.

happy november!

2009-11-20T12:17:00.004-07:00

in honor of this wonderful month wherein i am allowed to start putting up christmas decorations next week, we decided it was time for new family pictures. okay, that's not why we had them taken but that doesn't change the fact that i am still ridiculously excited. michael can usually only stand having things put up the day after thanksgiving, but i think i might cheat and just get the lights out a few days early. there's nothing quite so wonderful as christmas lights inside at night while snow is falling outside. (mostly because it is WARM inside. it's not as fun looking at christmas lights while standing OUTSIDE. i am most assuredly NOT a fan of cold this year.)

anyhoo, that was a long way of saying that november seems to be a good time to post new family pictures. here's our photo from last year:

and here's the new one from this year:

and next year we'll have another bambino with us! (ok, technically he's already there in the bulge protruding from my abdomen, but he's hiding behind my clothes in this particular picture. anyway he'll be cuter when we can actually see his face and fingers and toes in the picture. for now you'll just have to use your imagination.)

party of 5

2009-11-10T20:20:00.006-07:00

Yesterday I was glancing at a registration card Michael had filled out for a computer product he had bought, and one of the questions it asked for demographic purposes was about the number of people in his household. Next to that question he had written the number "5"...my initial reaction was something like, "Five?? Why would he put five? Is he trying to mess with their statistical data or something?" Until it finally dawned on me that, although the child in my womb doesn't technically count under that statistic, for all intents and purposes we do have 5 people living in our house. It was lucky I was standing next to a chair because I had to sit down. Just a few years ago (5, actually) we were getting married and it was just the 2 of us. And just barely before that I was a party of one, living a missionary life. And before that I was part of a large household, but no one I was related to because they were roommates in college. And just a few years before that I was living in my own household with my parents and we were a family of seven. SEVEN. That was a full-fledged, full-of-bodies, sometimes-too-many-people household, from my point of view as a child. And suddenly within 5 years of marriage I find myself TWO PEOPLE AWAY from that demographic!

I think I need to go lie down with a cold rag on my head. Please wake me in 30 years when they're all grown up.

*(Although I've learned more in the last few months that a parent's work is NEVER done, you don't ever stop worrying about or doing things for your children, and sometimes you find the need to sacrifice things for them, even when they are adults. Sorry, mom & dad, if you didn't know what you were getting yourselves into when you started having kids 40 years ago. Thanks for sticking with all of us anyway. We love you.)

But I'm afraid that before I know it, my family will have gone from something like this: (the Snows, circa 20 years ago)

To something like this: (the Snows, 3 years ago)

Yikes..................

Bring it on.

out this week

2009-11-02T14:34:00.004-07:00

I have plans this week. Big plans. I need to go buy this book.

And then I'm going to...*squeal*...have it signed. I'm so excited to be a groupie.
(This is a snapshot of part of PioneerWoman's BOOK TOUR. Be there or be square.)

some perspectives on snow

2009-10-27T15:55:00.002-06:00

-The last time we experienced temperatures close to 25 degrees, it was in Celsius.

-Three year old boy response to playing in snow for the first time: I am so happy! I am so happy!

-One year old girl response to seeing fat flakes of snow for the first time in her life: (In terrified voice) Pick up please! Pick up please!

-Mom (a Utah native) response after seeing snow for the first time after 3 years: How soon can I fly to the beach?

-Least favorite thing: cold, wet clothes.

-Favorite thing: the quiet.

-Saddest thing: putting away sandals.

-Funniest thing: kids will play outside by themselves because they think dogs don't like snow (they're terrified of dogs).

This is going to be an interesting winter.

no description necessary

2009-10-26T14:43:00.002-06:00

more to come...

2009-10-20T14:51:00.004-06:00

A neighbor of ours is trying to build up her photography portfolio so we went out with her this week and took some pics of the kids outside. They turned out GREAT! Here are just a few, but I'll post more soon.

(it was BEAUTIFUL outside and the sky made for the most perfect blue backdrop)

Fun stuff around the web

2009-10-14T21:03:00.005-06:00

We have come across some fun finds on the internet lately and, since I currently can think of nothing original to say, thought I'd share the wealth.
First, this is probably best for Utah-dwellers, but I am fascinated by the "vinyl decorating" industry boom from a few years ago and the fact that it still alive and well. However, most of the producers seem to WAAAAAYY overcharge, in my humble opinion. But I stumbled upon this gem of a place with a sizable collection and reasonable prices.

SCRIBBLEIT

Personally my favorite feature is the "Create Your Own" center that is awfully fun to play with. I sent a request for an additional design on something I created and, even though it was about 8pm, got a reply immediately and felt so good about the exchange and service I received that I'm happy to refer them to anybody. Plus, check out those Christmas countdown blocks and tell me you don't want one.

OK, next is a youtube video that has become a staple as basic as water around our house. In fact, it is REQUIRED that we watch it every morning before anyone has eaten or changed clothes or gone to the bathroom, or Emily will have a serious fit. We're usually happy to comply--it keeps them occupied while I make breakfast. My friend Lisa introduced me to it and if you have young kids you've probably seen it (it's had 1.2 million views, after all) but I'm posting it anyway. If your little kids have NOT seen it...you're welcome. Also, I'm sorry.

Finally, since I spend all of my time with tiny ankle-biters, here are two more kids' sites that my children love and I highly recommend.

STARFALL.COM -- this is absolutely what taught John his ABC's (also taught him how to navigate on the computer with a finger/track pad when we was barely 2 years old...what is the world coming to???)

UP TO TEN -- this has stuff for kids of all ages, but the balloon labelled "Boowa & Kwala" has the most resources for activities for my children. Just under that one option are literally HUNDREDS of pages of activities, games, music, etc. The character accents can be a little strange at first but other than that I have no complaints and haven't tired of doing these pages yet with my little goobers.

There are a few more online gems we've found (like the "Glee" videos of the mash-ups from last weeks episodes) that have been playing non-stop at our house, but I should save some for later. Being pregnant is killing my brains cells and I am quite sure as the months go by that I'll continue to be devoid of inspiration and need fodder for the blog.

It's a...

2009-09-28T10:49:00.005-06:00

BOY!!!!!! (New blog background changed in honor of the little squirt.)

I guess a mother's intuition IS right. I've been expecting a boy for months already. Time to get out all of John's old baby clothes and start washing. This momma bird is ready to nest.

Terrifying stuff that makes you laugh later

2009-09-18T13:24:00.003-06:00

I finally loaded the pictures from my camera on to the computer and realized that some of them have been sitting there since June. Whoops. I think I just assumed our life wasn't interesting anymore since we are living in Utah and not tropical Southeast Asia but I came upon this picture that reminded me of a terrifying/ridiculously funny story I never blogged about.

We had just moved back and the kids were adjusting to a lot of "new"...new climate, new clothes, new people, new food, new house...John even got a new bed. (Actually for the first few weeks he slept on a pad on the floor and thought it was awesome since we told him it was like camping. How long before he won't buy outright lies like that anymore?) But as soon as he got a new little bed we put the two kids into the same room to sleep and crossed our fingers that it would work. The first few nights were a little rough-- a lot of crying and wanting the other to be quiet and wanting/not wanting a light on, etc. Finally it seemed things were going smoothly. We'd put the kids to sleep in the basement and creep upstairs for reading, watching TV and general grown-up time.

So one night not very long after John had started sleeping in his bed, I was watching TV but losing consciousness fast, so I started closing things down and getting ready to crash for the night. Before going to sleep I always check on the kids, make sure they're asleep, cover them back up (they have inevitably worked their way out of the blankets), and give them final kisses goodnight. It was dark when I went into the kids room and John's bed looked...funny, somehow. I groped around in the dark to figure out what he'd done to the blankets and found that his body wasn't on the bed. Shoot, he's fallen out, was my first thought and I craned my head to the other side to look for him as the first wave of small panic hit. He wasn't there. He wasn't in bed. He wasn't on the floor. He wasn't in the room at all.

I quietly ran to the other room where he had slept on the pad and turned on a light. A quick glance around there showed no sign of a little boy anywhere. Still panicking slightly but trying to keep calm I ran upstairs to tell Michael. John's not in his bed. I can't find him. So now we're BOTH a little panicked. We start looking in some of his favorite hiding spots: the coat closet, behind the bathroom door...all the while calmly but deliberately calling his name. "John? John! Where are you buddy? You need to answer mommy RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I'M GETTING NERVOUS HERE, BIG GUY...(big breath)...ok, John? John!..." You get the picture. By this time Michael had gone back downstairs to do another basement search and I had discovered that we hadn't yet locked the front door for the night. A horrible thought hit me. I had heard kids playing outside at the neighbor's house about an hour previous and it occurred to me that the never-fail Pied Piper call for any kid is to hear other kids playing. What if he had snuck upstairs and outside to find the kids? It was pitch black out now. We were in a new neighborhood and he didn't know his way around. What if he was lost outside? When Michael came up empty-handed he could see horror on my face and as I told him my thought he immediately rushed out the front door and asked me to check out back.

I flipped on the outside lights and called out the back door. No luck. Not even a neighbor kid in sight. Shaking slightly, I went back to an armchair behind me in the living room and knelt down for an extremely quick but fervent prayer. Please let us find him. Please let him be safe. Not knowing what to do but wait for Michael I stayed on my knees, thinking. I had a flash of 2 memories simultaneously that lasted less than a tenth of a second.

The first memory was of my mother losing her retainer and gathering Jared & I around an armchair just like this in our old living room and praying to be able to find it. Immediately after the prayer, we lifted up the couch cushion and there it was. Flashes of inspiration.

The second memory was more recent. John had discovered he could fit his whole body underneath these armchairs where I was praying (there are 4 of them) with flaps on the sides running down to the floor so that he was completely covered. He hid under there a few times when playing Hide & Seek. Laying on my stomach and moving to each chair I pushed those flaps up and under the LAST one, this is what I found:

Well, this isn't EXACTLY what I found. I did find a little boy curled up under the armchair, sweating like crazy and fast asleep, but I actually opened it on the other side and found that not only had he curled up and gone to sleep, but he had taken off his pants and his pull-up so as I stuck my head down to peer under this last chair I was greeted with a naked bum in my face. It was such a shock/relief/hilarious event all in one that I let it out in short, shaky, hiccup-like giggles while the knots that had been wrapping themselves around my heart and lungs over the previous 15 minutes slid off like they'd been tapped with a magic wand and lay in a slithering pool in my stomach. I wanted to vomit a little bit but decided some deep breaths and "thank-yous" to the Almighty would suffice. I ran to the still open front door and called to Michael who thankfully had stayed in the area, looking in bushes and on front porches, and I tearfully told him John was just fine. We of COURSE had to document the experience with pictures and I took one of the BACK view that I initially received but decided against posting it online. I'm sure you understand.

He stayed asleep while we transported him, put his pull-up and pants back on and slipped him back into bed. And we learned our lesson to lock the doors immediately after bedtime. I also learned, just as I did when praying with my mom for her retainer, that the first place you always look is under the chair.

erin recommends...

2009-09-09T21:29:00.003-06:00

It was my sweetheart's birthday today! I want to write a wonderful, glowing sonnet of his masculine qualities, embarrass him with memories of things that make me love him, and tell him how enamored I am with him and am so lucky to have him. And maybe I will...tomorrow. But right now my stomach is speaking louder than my heart. So I wanted to write about...food. (Give me a break, I'm pregnant.)

In honor of the big day (which I'm sure he wanted to ignore but his doting wife and children won't let him) my mom graciously agreed to watch the kids so he and I could go out to eat. Mealtimes are so much more pleasant for mommy & daddy when we don't have 2 other (soon to be three! eek!!) mouths to feed.

"I spilled!"
"Bite, please!"
"Can I have some more water?"
"I don't want to eat this."
"After we eat this can I have a treat?"

None of those comments peppered out dinner this evening, which made it all the more enjoyable. Having said that, I think even a screaming baby through the entire meal could not have put a damper on this wonderful feast. We found the most AMAZING Indian restaurant in...a strip mall, of all places. Squeezed in between an embroidery store and a hair salon. Here is a picture of their awesome sign.

(Picture taken from the GANESH website).

Don't let any tacky signage or bizarre location fool you, Michael and I agree it is comparable (and even possibly better) than some of the Indian food we had in Malaysia, and that is really saying something. I honestly can't remember having ever eaten better Chicken Tikka Masala and I'm already drooling over the leftovers I'll eat tomorrow that I wanted to shovel down my throat tonight but couldn't in good conscience since I was already rolling out of my seat.

I recommend looking at their site to check out the weird hours (only open for dinner on Mondays) but we showed up 20 minutes before they opened and with no one else in sight they gladly turned on the lights and the fans for us. We also had the pleasure of speaking to our host who, when asked, showed us the lentils that are used in the kitchen, basically gave us the recipe to the vegetable curry of the day, and even told us where they bought their spices and mangoes and encouraged us to go check it out. (We certainly couldn't have enjoyed that conversation with kids there, so thanks again mom!!!!!) Now, if I could just learn how to make that stuff myself, I'd be one fat, happy momma.

Anyway, if you're looking for some good eats this week, I HIGHLY recommend it. Here's the info:

777 E. Fort Union Blvd.
Midvale
(801)569-3800
(Don't be thrown for a loop if you call, just be prepared to speak with STRONGLY accented workers. I didn't ask but I assume they're all from the same Indian family. They're very sweet and patient but just be ready to listen carefully.)
ganeshindiancuisine.com

(ps- you can check out their ENTIRE menu online. you know you wanna.)

gratitude

2009-09-02T13:45:00.003-06:00

My kids are such wonderful reminders to me of how to be grateful. John was praying last night and took time to make specific mention of how he was thankful for the suckers we got at the bank..."a strawberry one for me and a bubble gum one for emily"... and requested that we get to go there again soon for more suckers. Come to think of it, that prayer was answered because today I had to go again for something else. I wonder if tonight he'll be thankful for "the tangerine sucker for me and the cherry sucker for emily." Note to self: it never hurts to be more specific in prayers. :)

stranger things

2009-08-27T23:09:00.003-06:00

Most surreal night ever. We had our friends over tonight to play games after our kids went to bed. They are expecting their first child and are excited and of course there was baby talk about my deliveries, how things are going with her pregnancy (her due date is in about 2 weeks), and the nature of parenting. We had hardly started our game when the mother-to-be excused herself to the restroom (job hazard of being pregnant--needing to pee every 40 minutes or so). She poked her head out a minute later and announced to the unassuming crowd in the room that her water had just broken. Seriously. There was about 3 seconds of tomb-like, unbelieving silence, then Michael & I started clapping, saying congratulations and hurrying the deer-in-the-headlights expecting parents out the door and on the way to the hospital. (By the way, I hope you enjoy the waterfall image to tie in with the story. You're welcome.)

Honestly, I think it's the coolest thing ever that it happened at my house and now we can be a part of someone else's birth story. That was a few hours ago so I'm going to call them before hitting the sack and see what the progress is. How crazy that one minute you can think you're settling in for a nice night of game-playing and suddenly you have a new baby to take care of and your life is changed forever. I think I will go hug my kids now.

sunbeams all around!

2009-08-23T15:52:00.002-06:00

Happiest thing on earth: my toddler making me sing at least 17 times a day, "Jesus wants me for a sun-BEEP!"

Happy summer...while it lasts!

recently

2009-08-20T07:58:00.004-06:00

I spent the weekend on the most awesomest trip ever to Seattle with a bunch of my friends from high school. Four days spent laughing, shopping, eating, sleeping, and doing whatever we wanted (including ordering pizza and watching in-room movies at night--I'm 30 years old and have never done that before, how is that possible?) and having no responsibility whatsoever. I had the misfortune to LOSE MY CAMERA CHARGER so I couldn't take any pictures...but I'll try to steal a couple from someone's Facebook page.

(Oh, look, found some! Not sure what is going on with my hair but everyone else looks fab.)

(Aaaaaand, a lovely open-mouth shot. Best seafood bisque I've EVER had.)

On another note, Michael and I just celebrated our FIFTH anniversary. It's hard to believe two people could pack so much into 5 short years. We have 2 (and a half) kids, we lived overseas for 2 years, we've lived in 5 different places of residence, we're on something like our 5th job (some of those were simultaneous), and we still enjoy being together! :) We decided we'd make our anniversary day a 'Happy Birthday to Our Family' party. So we took the kids out to dinner and celebrated our family's 5th birthday! Then we can go out this weekend with just the 2 of us. I can't find anything wrong with celebrating something twice, just means more cake. :)

I love you, sweetheart, and I hope the next 5 are just as adventurous!
-xoxoxo

Sunday Inspirations

2009-08-09T14:31:00.002-06:00

Today my cousin Wendy taught our Relief Society lesson and it was about...well, Relief Society. You know, the usual bit about its organization, how it works, what the purpose is, etc. It's a great lesson to have and I love hearing about it cause I love Relief Society, I really do. But here's the kicker. I've heard a thousand times about how the whole thing started because of women who wanted to help with work on the Nauvoo Temple. They started sewing shirts for the men, started getting organized, turned to Joseph Smith...and voila, the Lord turns around and thanks them for their efforts by sanctioning an official women's organization. OK, I knew that part. But for some reason the thing that stood out to me today was the fact that the WHOLE entire was started by two women. TWO. One woman and her seamstress decided to help out, they got some other women to help, and apparently it snowballed from there because the Relief Society is often touted as the largest women's organization in the world today.

It was so inspiring to me to think that two women with some determination and desire to serve could make such a world-changing difference for good. I wonder what change for good I will make in the world.

a moment of silence...

2009-08-07T21:12:00.002-06:00

I was listening to the oldies station in the car the other day and was mortified to hear "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. On the OLDIES station.

Wait, did you hear that sound? In case you missed it that was the sound of my adolescence crashing and burning unnoticed by the side of the road. It was a relatively quick and painless death, but it is dead, nonetheless.

But to make me feel better I got a wicked awesome haircut today. So there is balance in the universe.

btw...

2009-07-31T20:26:00.003-06:00

...we are unexpectedly expecting! Surprised but still excited. Baby #3 is due to make an appearance at the beginning of next year. That is all.

snapshot

2009-07-23T21:06:00.002-06:00

My night: Lying in a peaceful, exhausted semi-coma on the couch while my little boy ran around with only a shirt on, his boy bits and naked bottom bouncing around the room with him, and occasional shrieks from my little girl as she was chased by said brother and tackled to the floor. Then fell asleep on same couch while hubby took care of bath time. Now getting ready to watch Burn Notice and fall asleep with my clothes on. Happy 24th to you too.

coming soon...

2009-07-08T22:53:00.003-06:00

We moved into a new house and are thus without internet for about 10 days (gasp! whatever will we do?!!!) I'll tell you what we'll do, we'll piggyback off our neighbor's unsecured connection because what they don't know won't hurt them. But we talked to the cable guys today and they can't get here for another WEEK so web-time will be sporadic at best. But then we will return to your regularly scheduled program. Thank you for your support.

seeing the opposite of "green" (what's that? red???)

2009-06-26T20:18:00.005-06:00

(rare political vent on our family blog. if it bores you, feel free to skip. if the governing rule of this country concerns you, feel free to chime in about it here or write something on your own blog. get the word out, copy it and send it to your congressman, do whatever it takes, but make sure you keep the power with the people and not the management.)

Michael & I were fairly disheartened to see the most recent energy bill pass in Congress today. (You can read about it HERE or do a Google search for "energy bill" and I'm sure you'll find plenty of other news coverage). Of course the reps. from our Republican-dominated state voted against the bill (Michael did his civic duty today and called them to make sure they knew where he stood) but as I read some of the news coverage about the passing of this bill I couldn't help but shake my head in wonder at how out-of-touch most of the politicians in this country are. They are swayed by powerful contributors, they are swayed by powerful leaders (from other members of congress to the President himself), they are swayed by news reports, they are even swayed by whatever recent scientific trend has reared its ugly head. They get their cushy payrolls and their expanding expense accounts, living the high life (as long as they keep receipts that they can write off as "part of the job") but they don't know anything about who they work for. The people. You know, the citizens of this country. Politicians are voted for by people who expect them to REPRESENT them and their interests. If you live in a farm state, you expect your representatives to vote for bills and push ideas that support your farm or agriculture business. If you live in lower-income areas you expect your representatives to pass literacy initiatives and keep job production on the agenda.

The main issue behind this bill at first glance appears to be carbon emissions. And really, in the midst of the tanking economy, the failing joke of a "stimulus" package, the rapid job loss and the declining health care affordability, what average-joe American gives a hoot about carbon emissions??? But really, reading between the lines, that's not the point of this bill at all. The world in general has developed an ominously unhealthy opinion of the United States in the last decade. People blame it on George Bush, but whatever the reason I have found myself in recent years, when visiting other countries, almost cringing at the prospect of answering the question "Where are you from?" (although, sometimes for safety reasons, it's best just to say Canada. Thanks for being there for me, Canada.) What I do notice is that some of the points made in the news reports show how proud the supporters are that the US will now be a world leader on climate change. It looks like the Obama administration is using this energy bill as the new "face" of America for the world to see and ultimately respect once again. Will it work? It hardly seems likely. Probably for the more environment-conscience European countries, but for major exporters like, oh, I don't know, say CHINA? They couldn't possibly care less about the environment. They care about their bottom line. And for the bill to include language saying we won't import from countries (like China) if they aren't compliant to our energy bill??? What a joke. Check the labels on EVERYTHING in your house. If at least 70% of them don't say "Made in China" (or Vietnam or Bangladesh or some other Asian country with a government that only cares about its high rollers and not the real people) I'll eat my own head. I think if this administration is hoping for a makeover, they've only gambled on the jobs and the income of the average American against putting Obama and the US back in the limelight. And I'm afraid they've made a losing bet.

fathers & stuff

2009-06-21T15:43:00.007-06:00

I had fun with John during church today. A couple of times he put his head on my lap for a few minutes and actually listened to the speakers but he would only recognize phrases here and there, not the entire message. But it was fun to see his eyes light up when he recognized something and he had to repeat it. So there was my little parrot in my lap, excitedly squawking out words like "missionary!" and "temple!" and "Nephi!" At least it got him to pay attention for a few minutes.

I had a thought on my way home from church. I realized what a great tool prayer is to teach my kids about the nature of God. Even from the age of 2 or 3 there's no need to attempt vague, indefinable explanations about a supreme being and where He is or what He's like because they develop their own ideas and images as they talk to Him several times a day! Utilizing the principles we use in prayers I can teach my children about God, Jesus, our relationship to deity, the creation of the world, an endless supply of teaching points to reference based on the simple conversations we have every day with a Heavenly Father. Today I feel thankful for prayer.

Another thing I'm thankful for, that should go without saying, is fathers. My own father has been pivotal in my own development and I feel utterly incapable of expressing my gratitude for having been born to my goodly parents. That is a fact I have been aware of and grateful for since before high school and my appreciation for them has only grown in the intervening years.
And I would be completely remiss if I didn't express my love and appreciation for the father of my own children. I can't even begin to count how much he does. I can hardly list the number of chores he assumes on a regular basis in addition to the rigors of working to provide for our family. Most of what he does would stress me out beyond capacity but he does it without complaint and still makes it look easy. I fall in love him more every day when I see how much our kids adore him and how much they love spending time with him. You are the best thing in my life, sweetheart. Happy Father's Day.

2009-06-17T21:14:00.002-06:00

I can't remember if I've linked to this site before, but it is absolutely one of my very favorite things on the planet.

A couple of warnings:
1) Do NOT click on the link below if you are hungry. It's like grocery shopping right before a meal. Bad idea.
2) You have never even imagined how many websites there are devoted only to food. It might blow your mind a little bit.
3) Your calendar may become completely booked for the next 6 solid weeks if you have ever felt the slightest urge to make a recipe you've seen online.
4) The pictures only make it worse.

That being said...you're welcome.

TASTESPOTTING.COM

secret time

2009-06-15T21:20:00.003-06:00

I have a few secrets I need to get off my chest.

There are couple of things...

...that I love more than anything else on the planet.

And I can't believe that someday I will look like this...

at my own kid's graduation.

Congrats Mac (and also Sean & Min)...hope the next 18 years go a little slower...

(Secret #2: it was nearly 8 pm today when i realized i'd been wearing socks from 2 different pairs all day. i like to ensure that i am always at the cutting edge of fashion. poor emily, she doesn't stand a chance.)

of interest

2009-06-10T15:59:00.002-06:00

Interesting thing #1: this is one of the coolest photo groups I have ever seen. I am mesmerized with watching the slide show and would love to do something similar with some old photos of my grandparents around St. George.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/lookingintothepast/pool/show/

Interesting #2: My little 3 year old boy (like just turned 3 a few months ago) can eat an entire Costco hot dog by himself. Have you seen those dogs? Those suckers are freaking enormous. I'm going to start saving now for when he's a teenager. Heaven help us.

may in review

2009-06-09T10:32:00.007-06:00

Nothing better than running through the sprinklers.
Am I really going to post pics of my little boy in his underpants? Too late.

Going to see Thomas in Heber with G&G.

Chillin with my peeps.

Feeding sheep & goats at Thanksgiving Point. I'm so proud of him for not freaking out about this. Trying to get him to do this on previous occasions has proved...upsetting.

Going on a "hay ride" with buddies. Although there was no hay. And really all we could see were the new developments of townhomes going up around the farm. But we were on a wagon being pulled by a horse, so that's cool, right?

And it was a long day for everyone.

Of course no end-of-spring would be complete without a summer 'do! Here John is sporting his own handiwork with the clippers when daddy left him unsupervised for a few seconds.

So we buzzed it all off and now he looks like my adorable little cueball.

life lessons i learned in college

2009-06-05T21:28:00.004-06:00

Whenever John & I go to the grocery store alone (like we did today...sick baby was at home with daddy sleeping for 5 HOURS. seriously.) he insists that I "run really fast" with him in the cart and we both go "wheeee!!!" and inevitably at some point I will jump up holding onto the handlebar and coast with my feet in the air for a few seconds. And every time I do that I am reminded of a story...

Once there was a college girl who worked at OfficeMax. Her boyfriend got her the job because she wanted some spending money and that way they could spend more time together. (aahhh, ain't that sweet?) But this job was INCREDIBLY slow and equally as boring. To pass the time she and her co-workers would occasionally have races down the aisles using the shopping carts. These carts were incredibly sturdy (office supplies can get really heavy) and so, even using a completely empty cart, these fun-loving college students could run full tilt, jump up on the handlebar, and lock their arms, leaving their legs to dangle and using only upper body strength while they coasted to a victorious finish line.

But let's say that one day this silly college girl was out playing with some friends who were visiting from out of town. Let's say that after putting their names on a ridiculously long list at Pizza Factory they decided to stroll over to Food4Less grocery store while they waited. And let's say that this certain girl had picked up a few items and put them in her cart. Now you must sympathize that as she walked down an aisle, instinct sort of took over and without thinking twice she began hurtling toward the end at full speed. And then just imagine that she was in familiar territory, back at good old OfficeMax and the wind was flying through her hair and she wanted to feel the exhilaration of coasting and so impulsively she pushed herself up, feet off the ground, wheels spinning excitedly beneath her. Silly girl. She didn't realize that the carts at the two stores weren't weighted the same. And that would explain why her friends saw her running in one moment and slammed down onto the floor in the next. And then came that crux each person experiences when witnessing the agony of defeat, deciding whether to be worried or to laugh. And, as often goes with good friends, of course the laughing completely won over. Especially as they watched the nearby patrons running wildly in the opposite direction pretending not to have seen anything.

Poor, silly college girl. Her knees were never the same after that day (they had taken the brunt of the fall) and, to this day, she can never run down a store aisle with a grocery cart, her little boy telling her to "run fast! run fast!" without experiencing some minor trauma and ghost pain in her knees. But she learned 2 important lessons that day. 1) the carts at Macy's are COMPLETELY INFERIOR to the carts at OfficeMax. 2) when choosing friends, make sure they will laugh WITH you when you fall down in the grocery store so you don't feel like a complete arse.

Mom & dad, aren't you glad you sent me to college? See how much I learned???

slanted reporting

2009-06-03T22:03:00.004-06:00

Upon seeing the giant purple bruise above John's right eye (it looks like he's wearing 80's eyeliner...I keep expecting him to turn around and be wearing apple red lipstick with it) one might ask the question: What happened to John's eye?

Mom's Answer: I was pulling the sheets off the bed and he was playing and stuck his head right next to my body at the exact moment I was yanking a tucked-in sheet out from under the mattress and my elbow went right into the side of his face.

John's Answer: Mommy punched me in the eye.

Like my parent's always said to our teachers growing up: We won't believe half of what they say about you if you won't believe half of what they say about us.

baking with cake mixes

2009-06-02T21:16:00.005-06:00

I've hardly begun on my scathing health care article, but since it's already 2 pages in Word that's probably a bit much for a forum like Blogger, so I'll have to find somewhere else I can send it. Like the state legislature. Or the president. So instead you get this...

On Memorial Day I made THIS cake from allrecipes.com (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that site) and I wanted to share it with you. I adjusted a little, but this is basically how to make it. (By the way, FIRST time I've ever made a layered cake where you slice and put a filling in the middle and I was extremely proud, thank you very much...but it's actually super easy so you have to try it.)

1 package yellow cake mix
8 ounces cream cheese
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice
2 (8 ounce) cans mandarin oranges, drained
1 (3.5 ounce) package instant coconut cream pudding mix
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

OK, first thing: Drain both the fruits and reserve juices of both, mixing them together! You can use the juice to make the cake! Just make cake according to box directions (baking in two 8 or 9 inch pans) but use half water/half fruit juice. (I also may have used applesauce instead of oil, but I honestly can't remember. Either one will work.) While it's baking, whip up the frosting. As follows:

Whip cream cheese and add confectioners sugar. Stir in drained fruits and slowly add a little of the juice. Blend in pudding mix really well, keep adding juice as necessary. Will be fairly runny. Fold in whipped topping. You can still add more juice, or if it's too runny stick it in the fridge for a few minutes while you finish with the cake. The pudding mix should make it thicken up.

Once the cakes are cooled, slice them in half horizontally (kind of hard for me but even though I am challenged by my cutting/slicing/scissor/knife abilities I still did it--and so can you!) and then start layering the cakes: cake, frosting, cake, frosting, cake, frosting, cake--then spread frosting over all. Whoa, it's a lot of frosting. Oh, yeah, save a few mandarin oranges to place decoratively on top.

But I gotta' tell you even a week later of being stored in the fridge it's still super moist and I munch on it every night. John & Michael aren't real big fans but the girls of the house love it! If you try it, let me know what you think!

witching hour

2009-06-01T22:43:00.004-06:00

I was all set to sit down and write out my scathing comments on the condition of the health care industry in this country when I got a delightful, serendipitous call from my friend Miow Lin and spent a good part of the evening chatting with her about the good things in our life and now I'm way too uplifted to get upset about politics right now (ugh, except the fact that health care & politics are even in the same sentence is getting under my skin right now)...phew! So I'm not going to think about it because I want to end the night on this euphoric high that I caught talking with a woman in love. Ooops! Did I just say that?!! Sorry, Miow Lin, I outed you. You didn't even have to say it, it's written all over your face and in your voice. I'm looking forward to finding out if this certain someone is the man of her dreams. I've written about Miow Lin before on this blog, so I'm sorry fellas, it looks like you lost your chance. Which is a shame because she's definitely one of the coolest people on this planet. Oh, well, you snooze, you loose...

Anyway, on a MUCH lighter (and extremely polar opposite) note, Michael & I found what is possibly our new favorite show on television.

I'm not even sure which channel it plays on (possibly TLC??) but it's called "Operation: REPO" and it's basically this family/business that does vehicle reposessions and they re-enact actual reposession confrontations. Hoo boy! People are VERY attached to their stuff! And they throw a fit/scream/shove/shoot/threaten and throw stuff when someone tries to take that stuff away!!! And in true trash-TV fashion, most of the dialog is indecipherable because the ratio of bleeping versus actual words definitely favors the former.
OK, here's a quick lesson for those paying debt on any personal property, it's really important so pay close attention: IF YOU HAVEN'T FULLY PAID FOR SOMETHING IT'S NOT FULLY YOURS. UNTIL YOU FINISH PAYING IT OFF IT BELONGS TO A BANK OR CREDIT UNION OR LENDER. IF YOU MISS ONE OF THOSE PAYMENTS THEY CAN (and probably WILL) TAKE IT BACK. And they might possibly send a 400 lb. Puerto Rican like the dude on this show and you do NOT want to mess with him. Normally I despise ridiculous reality-type shows and I feel uncomfortable watching people in embarrassing situations, but somehow this feels different to me. If you're dumb enough to treat something as your own property that is not paid for (which makes it NOT your property) you deserve to look like an ass on national television when it is repo'ed. Especially if you're going to climb on top of your car or scream at your husband and chase it down the road. It's gone lady. Just give it up. Oh, and PAY THE BLASTED BILLS.

That is all. Thank you.

Oh, and happy June.

News & news

2009-05-18T09:37:00.002-06:00

I just have to state how much I love reading The Asia Times online. It makes me grateful that I have access to a journal that makes me feel intelligent rather than speaking down to me like I'm in 5th grade. (No offense to 5th graders, but you'll feel the same way when you're 30 years old.) At the same time I happen to agree profoundly with everything this particular journalist has to say in his article. I'm afraid I feel rather strongly about the Obama administration and some things they appear to be doing to our country, and I find myself slightly afraid for the future stability of the USofA. But I'm glad to know other people feel the same way.

THE TIMES

In other, unrelated news, I now have a genius one year old who is starting to repeat every word we say and has now added to her repertoire the following:

cracker
cake
cookie
(notice how the first are all foods? yeah, that's my girl.)
baby
grandma (sounds like "bama")
grandpa (sounds like "bapa"
stroller (sounds like "RORO!" this one is always shouted.)
juice
walk
poo
owie
cup
down
shoe
this
that
outside
blanket
apple
book
nite-nite

Stay tuned for more exciting toddler developments.

stuck

2009-05-16T12:30:00.002-06:00

i've been feeling somewhat downtrodden in the blogging department lately. i mean, i live in Utah, of all places, and my life just seems downright...ordinary. let's see, this week we saw 'Star Trek' (it's AWESOME, you must go immediately), took kids to pet animals at Thanksgiving Point, ate burgers & fries at "Five Guys" (also AWESOME and you must go immediately), went on walks, read books, wore socks & still froze our booties off at night...really riveting stuff, i know. i love seeing my friends that i've missed, i love having good diapers for my baby, i love having family close by...but i'm still missing our exotic life and our good friends in malaysia. i miss the wet market (man, that place smells like a sewer but there are some GOOD deals to be made), i miss the food, i miss being warm, i miss hanging with anne all day while we swap recipes/share local deals we've found at stores/swap child-rearing advice, i miss singing with my girls from church, i miss our ENORMOUS house and our awesome house-help, heck, i even miss the geckos. what do i have that i can blog about now??? taking a walk to the grandparent's house?? so maybe it will just be a while before i feel like our life is really interesting and we actually have something to write about. (no one wants to hear people complain about their stress about money, house, insurance, job, car, etc...and that's sort of my life right now...that sounds really interesting, huh?) :)

HOWEVER, that have been a few funny things that we've witnessed as we help the kids adjust to the new life, climate, food & culture. my favorite one so far has been with john and the television. we never had one in malaysia and he really only watched movies on our laptop, so he was excited to find we could watch cartoons on grandma & grandpa's one television in the house! i left him in there one morning while i fed emily some breakfast and he came out to me complaining, "mommy, i don't have any cartoons." i came in to help him turn the channel and just started laughing when i realized it was still in the middle of the show, but i had to explain to him what commercials are! he still doesn't get it and that complaint is regularly elicited from his mouth. "mommy, i don't have any cartoons!"

heh-heh, silly boy, how i love you. ok, so that wasn't really interesting. if i can't get out of this funk i think i may have to stop blogging all together. this is just too depressing. anyone else have this problem? something that you use to get yourself out of a blogging funk? suggestions would be appreciated by the management. thank you for your support.

There & Back

2009-05-06T21:30:00.004-06:00

So we made our journey from Malaysia less than a week ago and somehow we survived the ordeal. It took 2 overnight flights, a day's rest at a dayroom in the Tokyo Narita Airport, some grumpy tantrums, some uncomfortable sleeping positions and some majorly cold weather.

Packing up. (I didn't take any pictures of the empty house, or of our last day with friends because it was too depressing. I try not to think about it so I don't start crying.)

Our dayroom...

...at Tokyo Narita! Such a cool airport, makes me want to visit Tokyo. (Notice the shorts, sandals & t-shirts...it will be a while before we see that combination again.)

One of the many shuttles we took over the course of 3 flights.

Our little ones were such a troopers.

Although the jet-lag did us in at our final destination.

Aaaaaand THIS is what greeted us the morning after our arrival. Nothing says welcome home like fog in May.

My little ones look SO different in jackets/pants/tights/socks/shoes that aren't sandals/etc.

But hanging with the cousins makes everything right with the world.

I would write more about the transition of an international move, leaving friends, finding old friends, remembering how much I hate having cold feet when I go to bed or being cold when I get out of the shower or needing to wear a jacket in my house because it's so COLD (sensing a pattern here?) but I am still in somewhat of a fog and can hardly seem to create a coherent sentence. I'm not even going to proofread my post for errors or complete nonsensical sentences (say that 5 times fast). Hopefully I'll feel back to my bloggy self soon.

*Well wishes for the day: Wherever you are, may you always have warm feet.*

happy birthday to me

2009-04-27T09:46:00.004-06:00

This is the face of a happy girl on her 30th birthday. And although slightly bittersweet because of the upcoming goodbyes it was one of the best birthdays ever. There was Royal Masala pizza from Pizza Hut, there were 3 kinds of cake, there was karaoke, there was watermelon, there was a slumber party-type rendition of 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' and there were lots of laughs. I got to dance with my sweet husband, sing with my beautiful little boy and spend time with people that I love. It just doesn't get much better than that.

I never met a chocolate I didn't like.

2009-04-24T08:17:00.005-06:00

Trying to keep things as normal as possible (hard to do while half of our things have been either thrown away or packed into boxes or sold) earlier this month we did some finger painting. I don't have finger paints, so we used chocolate pudding! (Thanks, mom, for the idea, it was a huge hit!)

Here we are getting them set up-- just dump a little into a bowl and go nuts.

Or, if you're my baby girl, you find a better use for that chocolate on your paper...

That's right, get it ALL off...

...oh, wait, you missed a spot.

That's my girl.

2009-04-20T06:57:00.005-06:00

HAPPY EASTER!!! (Wearing their new Easter clothes from Aunt Cathy!) We can hardly tear them away from church on Sunday because they're having so much fun with their friends.

So the day after Easter we decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip to Melaka, which is a historically rich & colorful city. It's only about a 40-minute drive away so we thought we'd just spend an hour or two and then drive home. Instead we were there basically ALL DAY (which was only a bad idea because we didn't come prepared with sunblock and were walking around all afternoon with clear skies...ouch) and we loved it! Here's a short summary of our day.
We played for a bit at this fountain...

... which is in front of this famous church.

We got to walk around on this cool boat (they made us take our shoes off and it felt wonderfully refreshing to walk barefoot on the cool planks inside the hull after nearly boiling to death in the heat outside).

Everyone was very happy to be here.

SO very, very happy.

Although things started looking up once there were "big guns" introduced into the festivities.

Such a good, sunburnt time was had by all. We drove MUCH slower on the ride home to ensure maximum nap time was given to all participants (including mommy).

Or maybe there's something in the water...looks like this guy was drinking it.

And now, to end with an unrelated anecdote...

Occasionally John will come into our room in the morning and play quietly for a while before climbing into bed and demanding breakfast, which means that Michael and I are still asleep while he does this. He also knows how to use the camera-- turn it on, point & shoot. And quite often he's actually pretty good at it. After downloading pictures from my camera to the computer, we were going through the scenes from the last month and were surprised by this image:

This is the picture of two completely oblivious, unconscious parents being used for photography practice. That is the kind of devoted, attentive care I give to my children. What can I say? They deserve the very best.
His attention to centering and lighting is quite impressive for a 3 year old. Although, in the interest of full disclosure, he also took this one:

Hmmm...maybe he needs to keep practicing.

Time To Say Goodbye

2009-04-14T00:30:00.004-06:00

(If you follow this road up and veer to the right, our home is just around that bend)

I know I haven't been perfectly forthcoming in my comments about our visit home, but after repeated emails and Facebook confrontations I thought it was about time to come clean. After close to 2 years living in Malaysia we have bought one-way tickets back to the United States at the end of the month. (Holy moly, that's in 2 weeks!! So much to do...) We do have tentative (and hopeful!) plans to return next summer to Asia for a scuba diving visit if our finances will allow, but for the immediate future we are planning to once again take up residence in Utah. And while we are anxious to be back near our family and friends we left behind, we find ourselves grieving for the friends and life we will now leave behind in Malaysia. We have come to truly love this place and our lives here, we are loathe to leave our friends that we love, we are dreading having to leave the warm weather behind and brace ourselves for cold temperatures and dry desert air, and we are deeply saddened at the thought of leaving the country we have learned to call home.

I can hardly imagine going weeks at a time without eating a fresh mango. I can't imagine wearing socks every day. (I can't imagine wearing socks at all...I don't remember the last time I did. My kids don't even own a single pair.) I can't imagine having to drive 13 hours through 3 states to get to the nearest beach. I can hardly bear to think about leaving our beloved food stalls, curry shops, outdoor markets, authentic ethnic restaurants (banana leaf, i will miss you!!!), and the warm, lush, dense, green jungle that now surrounds our home. Of course it comes with drawbacks as well: snakes, civets, roaches, mosquitoes...but all of those things have made our experience more raw, more real, and more memorable.

We have probably learned more about our family than I can ever put into words. I have learned more about people, about the nature of selflessness, and about the intangible, transient nature of our possessions than I ever imagined. In fact, I didn't imagine it. If I had never lived here, I never would have realized what I was missing, or that there were eternal principles I barely knew existed. I am sure some of the most powerful lessons learned here, what I will take back with me and will stay with me for the rest of my life, will be the examples I was shown by others. The natures of sacrifice, stewardship, charity, and consecration have been further opened to my view through the loving example of friends, and occasionally strangers, who have truly shown us a better way to live. I hope I can be a better person for having lived here. If I can use those lessons and apply them to our family for the rest of our lives, it will have been worth a hundred times the money it cost us to come here. This has been one of the most valuable education I've received, along with my LDS mission, in terms of the life-lessons taught and the improvement made to my own quality of life. Just like any principle, though, it will depend upon my own practical application and ability to put into daily practice the things I've learned. It might take a while, but I hope this experience has made me a better person. I hope it has made all of us better people.

We really are excited to see those of you at home that we've been missing for so long, to see our nieces & nephews who have surely grown beyond recognition, to reconnect with friends that have gone through their own hills & valleys in the last 2 years, and to experience some other things we've missed (GOOD milk, pepperoni, artisan breads, and berries, to name just a few) but for now we are still mourning the coming loss of our Asian home.

(This is the same view as the picture at top...notice the isolated stop sign? The jungle was completely cleared out because of neighbor's complaints about overgrown vegetation, snakes, mosquitoes, etc. It feels very symbolic of our departure at this time.)

Malaysia, we will miss you.

a sacred time...

2009-04-10T23:37:00.003-06:00

I wanted to add that I know the Lord lives and that he can and does give us comfort in our most troubling times. I have without doubt been given that comfort when I needed it most, from the time I was a child even until today (especially today...why doesn't life get easier as we have more practice!) I can never express my gratitude enough for the guidance, hope and joy that is brought into my life by following the Savior.
We hope you all have a glorious Easter weekend!!!

DING-DING-DING!!!

2009-04-05T03:24:00.005-06:00

We have a winner folks!!!!

I always suspected it, but now it is confirmed that Jens is the smartest person I know.

(Picture found here)

That's right, just as I was about the reveal the secret ingredient (aka: mystery meat from the last post) he swooped in a guessed CROCODILE!!! That's right, we ate crocodile and I must say it was nothing spectacular. We sort of compared it to eating tough/slightly chewy chicken, but it was also smothered in ginger and I think it's hard to go wrong with a dish smothered in ginger. I'd probably eat a big bowl of rubberbands if there was enough ginger. And garlic. You can also never have too much garlic.

When we first tried to get John to "try the crocodile" he wouldn't even go near the stuff (imagine that), but after Michael convinced him it was really "just chicken" he ate a quarter of the plate. Even after revealing the mystery meat's true identity he kept happily munching away. Now when we ask, "do you remember when we ate crocodile?" he gets this glint in his eye and says "yeah, that was yummy! let's do that AGAIN!!!"

So was my assessment wrong? I assumed that no one I knew had eaten crocodile before, but I may be off. I mean my parents live in Africa and several of my friends/family members have served missions in Japan and they eat some FUNKY stuff. So proudly proclaim if you've eaten crocodile before! Or see if you can trump it with something more exotic. Or bizarre. Or just downright disgusting.

Oh, and last but not least, I am a woman of my word and I meant it that I would send something to the winner...so Jens you can expect a mystery present from Malaysia in the next few weeks. Only thing is, I won't be mailing it. I will be hand-delivering it to your door. See you soon.
(heh-heh, you like how i just threw that in there? you weren't expecting that were you? we're all about keeping you on your toes on this blog.)

Same & Different

2009-03-30T06:56:00.003-06:00

I have a confession to make. A total, white-trash, nervous laugh, embarrassing confession...

I have Christmas lights up in the kitchen.

They've been there since December and can't bring myself to take them down. It's a single string of simple white lights on a white cord, so they're pretty unobtrusive during the day and blend into the background of the tile. But at night, when it gets dark, I turn off the kitchen lights and turn on this little string of magic and I'm instantly transported to a bizarre sort of state-of-perpetual-relaxation where nothing can penetrate my serenity. That silly little string of lights in the dark makes me sigh and smile softly and release my wrinkled brow (that tends to crop up at some point or another during the children's bedtime routine) while I stand mesmerized and tranquil, even if it only lasts about 10 seconds. It's worth the social faux-pas embarrassment to be able to end my day that way.

I just wanted to share that.

And onto to completely unrelated news.
Some small comparisons of my children and why they are different. Or really the same.

This one LOVES the pool.

So does this one.
Well, don't all kids? By the way, there is nothing cuter than a baby's chubby little tummy sticking out in a swimsuit.

This one LOVES being outside but HATES the grass.

This one couldn't care less about grass, dirt, sand, gravel...as long as he can play ball.

This one LOVES playing with everyone's shoes. Wow, I REALLY need to shave my legs. (Haha! Just kidding! That's Michael's leg. But for those that really know me, you believed that for a second, didn't you?)

Oh, wait, this one loves to play with shoes too! Yes, those are my heels for church. And a stocking footie. (And yes, Michael is appalled with this picture.)

They BOTH love to play and/or eat in this little cupboard that I've left bare in the kitchen exactly for this purpose. Little peas in a pod...

And since this has been a string of totally random, unrelated posts, let's end on something completely different. It's...THE MYSTERY MEAT OF THE DAY!!!!

We went out with friend's this weekend and ordered this dish for everyone to share. It's pretty covered with scallions and a few huge strips of ginger (mmmm...) but would anyone care to guess what kind of meat it is??? I'll give you a hint: it's not chicken, beef or pork. And it was actually quite delicious. OK, those aren't really good hints, but they narrow it down a bit for you.
I would love to hear your guesses, although I don't think anyone would get it. In fact, I'm so confident that I'll give a prize to anyone who guesses right. Let's hear it, any ideas???

Name that creature!

2009-03-29T09:20:00.006-06:00

This is the side of our house. It appears that giant pipe carries rain water from the roof so our home doesn't fold in half like wet newspaper.

Check out those black smudges all the way at the top of the pipe.

What ARE those things...are those...

...wait...are those FOOTPRINTS?!?!?

Why, yes. Yes they are.
And they wrap around EVERY pipe like this around our house...probably a dozen of them.

It took me the LONGEST time to figure out what these were. I immediately thought of monkeys, but the footprints are wrong. They look like CAT paw prints. Those are just TOO oddly placed to be cats. Then, one day Michael saw one of these on the wall around our house:

And it all fell into place.

Wait, what? What IS that thing???
Are you telling me you'd never heard of a civet? Me neither. So I looked it up on Wikipedia.

WIKIPEDIA says: "Civets are omnivorous, supplementing a meat diet (both hunted and scavenged) with fruit, eggs, and possibly roots." Of course, it's Wikipedia...so I had to find a better source.

And I did. HERE.
This site says the civet "stalk their prey and pounce on it from a hiding place in the underbrush." Great. Good to know they have a perfect hiding place ON MY ROOF. The site also calls them "timid creatures" that prefer the "flight" of the Fight-or-Flight instinct. Unfortunately, that provided little reassurance a few weeks ago when one of them crawled up on the roof at night (apparently they ARE nocturnal creatures) and crawled around for a good 1/2 hour. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with this, but:
a) I still haven't seen the civet(s) so I have no idea how big it/they is/are.
b) This was pre-Google search so for all I knew they could eat babies for brunch.
c) The noise this civet made crawling across my roof at night was disturbingly similar to the sound a dead body might make as it was drug right over my head on the roof. *shudder*

Actually, now that I think about it, that doesn't make sense. These guys are more cat-like and would prowl lightly on their padded feet. Maybe it had killed a chicken and was dragging that? Man, that would have to have been one BIG chicken. Shoot, there goes my civet theory. Gulp...what if it was a snake??? That would have to have been one BIG snake. *bigger shudder*

We have a contractor coming to fix a leak in the roof tomorrow. Maybe I should warn him first...

It's 4am...

2009-03-27T14:06:00.003-06:00

So this is what I'm doing at 4am...watching Twilight again (for some unknown reason...it's like a train wreck...I can't look away), catching up on Google Reader, laughing at Pioneer Woman, reading scriptures, watching Ugly Betty, listening to Michael snore, and wondering how long it will be before this blasted room actually cools down to an acceptable sleep-appropriate temperature without a working air conditioner.
These are the serious issues that keep me up at night.

OK, just that last one.

Maybe this is a good time to post a "Grateful List" for the day:

-for overhead fans, how would i live without you?
-for an awesome pizza dough recipe that i used for breadsticks tonight. they were a big hit.
-for kids who go to sleep at 8...shoot, that just means they'll be up in 3 hours. dang it.
-for new sheets from ikea. and a pillow that cost more than it should have but still makes me smile.
-for canned veggies...taco soup, how i love thee. one day i'll use fresh stuff from my OWN garden.
-for homemade banana bread. mmmm....bananaaaaaas...
-for internet that works...sometimes.
-for kisses on my arm by my little boy.
-for crazy dancing as a family to john mayer.
-for clothes from friends!
-for dried cranberries & cadbury chocolate.
-for finally being tired.

night.

We Want You!...to lose some weight!

2009-03-24T08:40:00.006-06:00

Michael & I were cracking up over this Malaysian headline found at MALAYSIASUN.COM (click on the link to read the article)

"Malaysian Army Wives Urged to Join Slimming Programme"

This program sounds innocent enough (slimming offers abound at spas here, nearly standard fare along with manicures and pedicures) and a nice perk for the spouse of someone working for the government. However, the article claims that the purpose for creating this program (which is not offered at a commercial spa, but is a unique program specifically targeted at the wives of army officers) was bluntly the unattractiveness of the women. One of the key phrases in the article mentions the women as "unable to catch the attention of their spouses" which said to me that they were having problems with philandering officers and decided (as per usual fare in the muslim community) that it is the fault of the woman for not being attractive enough. So instead of teaching the men self-control or fidelity or any of that mumbo-jumbo, the Malaysian Army officials have decided that the wives need to make changes...by getting makeovers!

My favorite part is that the title of the program (which the article says is a rough translation from Bahasa to English) is "From Fat, Frumpy and Lumpy to Slim, Fashionable and Glamorous." Sign me up, I'm ready to label myself Lumpy! And Michael's favorite quote says that the participating women were "found to be lacking in the area of personal grooming and unable to catch the attention of their spouses"...nothing says "I love you" like a trip to the slimming spa because I think you lack proper grooming habits!!!

If you click over to the article be sure to read the (two) comments at the bottom...they are entirely true and also hilarious (from a politically motivated sense). You're in the Army now...

Just wondering...

2009-03-24T01:34:00.002-06:00

Rainbow of Batik, originally uploaded by Annievict.

Would anyone be interested in some cool Asian fabrics? I found a place where I can buy them fairly cheap and I could either bring them back to the US with me (if we manage to get there this year) or I could ship small amounts. If you're interested in buying some just leave me a comment. If there are enough people I will take photos and post them here so you can see the selection.
Thank you, that is all.

ps- if you want some cool ideas on what to do with batik fabric, just do a general search on flickr for "batik fabric"...the first couple of pages alone have enough projects to keep the most craftiest crafter busy for a few weeks.

You have to be a parent...

2009-03-24T00:45:00.003-06:00

(I apologize and warn in advance about the graphic...er, gross...nature of this post.)

I was just thinking about how life changes so much when you become a parent. There are stages of growth for a baby, but the parent grows with them at each step: learning how to recognize certain cries, learning about feeding them, learning how to set boundaries, learning how to teach sounds and letters...and then you try learning how to potty-train. Oh. Everyone who has done it is sitting there nodding their heads right now. And depending on how recent their experience was they are either grimacing or laughing. Jerks.

But seriously, it has been MONTHS of figuring out how to do this with our now-3-year-old-boy. In the course of that time he learned that he liked to pee in the potty but NOT go #2. In fact, he adamantly refused. Every day I would ineffectively plead with him to poop in the potty before he took a nap, and every day I would resign, put the diaper on, only to be summoned by his calls about 45 minutes later when he would have woken himself up from a VERY short nap by pooping in his diaper. Not only were we being ridiculously unsuccessful at the potty training, but he was grumpy from having short naps as well. Argh.

One afternoon, roughly 3-4 weeks ago, I about had a coronary when he jumped up from play, ran into the bathroom, and came out totally bare from the waist down, declaring that he had just gone potty. By himself. Without me asking him. And when I went to flush I found he had gone pee AND poo. No pleading, no coercion, no threats. It's like he just suddenly decided he wanted to do it and that was it. Since then he has pretty much been potty trained. There have been the invariable accidents here and there, which I totally expect, but they are few and far between considering what it took us to get here.

Again, I was thinking about how being a parent changes you...because the other day when I was getting him ready for bed and he ran into the bathroom by himself, I could hear "plop-plop" coming from the bathroom and I thought how ODD it was that such a disgusting sound could make me so ridiculously happy that I would be grinning from ear to ear. It was like music to my ears. Like I said, I think you have to be a parent.

I'll Drink My Avacado, Please

2009-03-18T07:45:00.001-06:00

I must start this post by saying how much I generally despise avocados. On rare occasions I can smoosh a teaspoon of guacamole onto a burrito and mix it in with the other ingredients so I can't really tell it's there...but if you try to get me to eat a PLAIN avocado I will probably run away...after I've vomited on your shoes. In Vietnam the word for avocado roughly translates as "butter fruit" and THAT right there is a good reason to lick my own feet before eating one. Just thinking about the mushy, creamy (*gag*), butter-like flesh makes my throat close involuntarily. Agck.

Speaking of avocados and Vietnam...I was introduced to the most amazing creation today. I almost want to put this in all-caps because it's that good. In fact, I think I will...AN AVOCADO SHAKE. Seriously.

I took a day shopping with my friend Anne and while eating at a great Vietnamese restaurant, she offered me a sip of her avocado shake that she'd been drooling about all morning. After politely refusing the shake about 17 times, she refused to take the hint and made me just dip in my spoon and lick it. I agreed to do this for a few reasons:

1- I wasn't actually eating a WHOLE avocado (hence, no mushiness) so I figured I could wash it down quickly with my lime juice.

2- Anne has excellent taste and in my year and a half of knowing her can hardly recall a time she suggested something to me that wasn't absolutely to-die-for...food, shopping, beach destinations, you name it...except durian. I don't care how much you love it, Anne, you are WRONG about durian.

3- Since living in Asia I've tried to keep as my mantra a phrase used often by my awesome friend Apryl: You have to try everything at least once. It's helped me have a better experience while living here.

So I dipped my spoon and licked. Then I dipped my spoon again and slurped. Then I dipped it again and I think I might have moaned embarrassingly. (We're friends, so Anne didn't grimace when I did this. The moaning or the double-dipping.) Can you just imagine how wonderful it was? You want a shake to be creamy. Check. You want it to be sweet. Check. You want it to be filling. Check. You want to dream about it until the next time you can have one. Check, check, check. Even after I was filled up from my meal, I ordered a shake of my own for take-away and sipped happily away until I was so full I thought I'd burst. But I would burst happily.

I am dreaming about making my own shake, which is apparently very easy to do. I found a few recipes online and they all basically involve: an avocado, some ice, some sweetened condensed milk, maybe some regular milk, maybe some sugar, and maybe some places put a touch of Hershey's syrup in it. aruaghghgabbbblbll...sorry, let me wipe that drool off my chin. We don't currently own a blender, but I'm thinking this shake might be a good reason to get one. Please go make an avocado shake. I promise you won't be sorry.

(picture found at awesome website that i read Coconut & Lime)

When Snakes Attack/Climb on Stuff...or The Dangers of Living in the Tropics

2009-03-12T00:03:00.007-06:00

I have these pictures sitting in my hard drive and admittedly they make me feel sqeamish just being there. So here's the story.

About a week after John's birthday we were relaxing in the morning, I believe the hubby was eating breakfast and John was playing in the front room near the giant glass doors that look out to the front yard. I was in the kitchen and I heard a blood-curdling shriek from John, not like he was hurt, but like someone had sucked his soul out of his bellybutton (not unlike the noise I made when Michael tried to make me watch "I Am Legend") and we rushed out to find him doubled over, shaking and screaming from pure fear. I barely managed to decipher the word "snake" from his quivering little voice and looked at the glass door where he was pointing and I think I literally gasped in horror.

At the far right edge of the glass door is about 1/2" - 1" of open space between the door and the frame, and in that tiny space were the undulating curves of a snake madly thrashing its way up the wall right outside the door. Did you ever play "snake" with a jumprope in elementary school? You lay it on the ground, grab one end and wildly shake it so that it makes waves through the rope and the other end thrashes around and you try to "bite" the other players with the loose end? THAT is exactly how this snake looked and, trust me, it was not like a jumprope. It was, in fact, remarkably creepy. Not least because it was doing this in a VERTICAL position, climbing up a COMPLETELY FLAT WALL. Now I can imagine snakes climbing in an upward motion...obviously they could slither up a tree because it is ROUND and the snake would be able curve itself appropriately around a tree or a pole or some kind of vegetation. But this wall was a 90-degree angle and completely flat!!! So with the waving/thrashing, half of its body was inside and half of it outside. Unfortunately, as it climbed higher and higher (and, trust me, nobody was going close enough to get a better look) it seemed to disappear right into the door frame and was gone without a trace.

Not the best way to start your day.

So I tried to calm John down, take him in the other room, settle him down for a nap, while my ingenious husband sprayed WD-40 all around the door frame to smoke the sucker out. It worked. After it drug itself out to the porch he attacked it with my broom. So there were 2 casualties...Snake: 0, Broom: 0, Michael: 1...you're my knight in shining armor, sweetheart.

And here is the unfortunate culprit (right outside the front door on the patio):

Thankfully we have a wonderful lady named Tumeni who comes a couple times a week to help in the house and she cleaned up the (urp)... blood. I gave her a big hug after that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

2009-03-10T09:19:00.005-06:00

OK, have I seriously not posted pictures of John's 3rd birthday yet? *scanning back through blog...* Nope, I have not. Well, shame on me. And here you go.

"What are you doing with that camera in my face, woman?! I was sleeping!"
This picture was actually the day BEFORE his birthday, but I thought it was nice to see what his annoyed teenage face would look like in 12 or so years when I wake him up at 6:55am to tell him about the trip his dad & I took to the hospital on the fateful day of his birth...
minus the pink mimi, of course...
on a related note, we have successfully rid ourselves of the blight of the mimi!!! we told him that when he turned three there would be "no more mimis!!" and made him repeat it back every time so it would be burned into his brain...and he bought it! we also threw in a story about how the monkeys needed them so we would go throw them in the jungle to give them to the monkeys. seems to have done the trick. after his birthday he hasn't used one since!!!

Anyway, back to birthday festivities...

After lunch the kids did a treasure hunt that took them around the house while we set up the cupcake-decorating station in the kitchen. There are a few pictures of the hunt.

Cute Janella is reading all of the clues for our fearless group because, well, she's the only one who can read.

The treasure hunt led them to the kitchen to decorate their own cupcakes.
These kids are all so adorable I want to kiss them!

After they finished their own cupcake, I let them decorate a WHOLE cake (you should have heard the shrieks of pure joy that accompanied this announcement). It was originally supposed to be John's b-day cake, but it turned out absolutely awful and so did the (blue) frosting...I'm pretty sure I spit it out when I tasted it. Thankfully I have a recipe for a SUPER-EASY chocolate cake that I can do start to finish, including baking time, in about 35 minutes, so I set the nasty cake aside and made a new one before we had lunch. I decided last minute to let the kids play with the bombed cake instead and it turned out to be a great activity for them so it didn't have to go totally to waste.
(by the way, that is my awesome friend anne in the background...yes, she is SWEEPING MY KITCHEN as the kids make a huge mess with sprinkles. i *heart* her. thanks anne!!!)

Trip to Singapore

2009-03-01T22:36:00.004-07:00

Our spontaneous trip to Singapore a few weeks ago was great fun, even if the thing we did most was take a bath. Our kids have a mini-bathtub from Ikea at home so having a REAL bathtub is like having our own POOL. We took FIVE baths in less than 48 hours. For reals.

But other than that, some stuff we did...

We rode the train. Last time we came here, John was shorter than the sign.

We ate at this food court place in Chinatown.

And had some of these yummy gyoza.

And fruit from this stall. They have these in Malaysia too...you can pick out whatever fruit looks yummy and they'll bag it up with little sticks to poke and eat it with. I got some red dragonfruit, water apples, pineapple and watermelon for about $2.50...mmm...
Yes, that's how we live it up when we travel abroad.

2009-02-26T23:58:00.005-07:00

Yes, we did have a ~~one-year~~ THREE year old birthday party (two kids, i mean who can keep track of all the birthdays?) but I'm way behind and those pictures are still on my camera so you can see the ones that I've actually loaded onto the computer.

This video was taken a few weeks ago so by now Emily is a much more proficient walker and usually chooses to walk instead of crawl. But it is adorable anyway so I thought you'd get a kick out of it, those not around to see her learning to walk. By the way, the high, piercing shriek you hear is not an exotic bird outside...that is the sound my daughter makes ALL. THE. TIME. It only becomes increasingly excited or agitated, depending on her mood, which only means that it gets louder and more pronounced. If this girl isn't a singer when she grows up I will eat my own foot.

There is a park just around the corner from our house and we'll go on walks with a detour via the park. It is tiny but perfect for our tiny kids, as long as we aren't covered in mosquito bites when we get home.

John bored with the swings and inspecting a huge seed instead.

Standing on a "relaxation path" that is covered with stones. He doesn't like walking ON it...just INSIDE it.

Emily refuses to even stand up on it. And I don't blame her. Take a closer look...

...I tried walking barefoot on this and had bruises on my feet for 2 days.

But daddy is willing to sacrifice his backside to pose for a family picture. (Minus mommy as the photographer.)

How I Spent Chinese New Year 2009

2009-02-18T07:43:00.005-07:00

Here are some of the things we either ate or learned about during Chinese New Year this year. (2009 = Year of the Ox). If things are listed in quotes, that means it is the closes I can come to a phonetic English spelling of the Chinese word. These words I believe are also Cantonese (???) but don't quote me on that.

Love Letters = thin, wafer-like sheet of slightly sweet biscuit that is either rolled into a cigar shape or folded into quarters. Deadly because they are so light you don't realize how many you've just eaten.

Sliced Root, Fried (couldn't figure out what the English name was) = kind of like a water chestnut...if you put the root (which sort of looks like an onion) into water it should grow beautiful, full, heart-shaped leaves. I took one home and it has been in a vase of water and has only sprouted white, flimsy arms...will keep you posted.

Pineapple tarts = awesome. Flaky pastry crust around a moist, pineapple center.

"Long Yoke" = cured/dried pork, like a sweet, moist jerkey.

Prawn Crackers (not my favorite) with Achar (definitely my favorite). Achar = spicy pickled vegetables (like carrots, cucumber & cabbage) with ground peanuts and sesame seeds on top. Achar = awesome.

Green Pea Biscuits = not green peas. These are a sweet/savory mini-cookie that took me a while to figure out were not actually made from peas. In the bulk-foods area of the grocery story, there are large bins labeled "green peas" that are quite obviously lentils. Thus, these biscuits are made with what we would call Lentil Flour.

"Kuih Bangket" = tapioca flour biscuits. Good but quite dry and crumbly. Imagine eating corn flour.

Mandarin Oranges = "Gkam" = a word that sounds like "Gold", which is why you take them to your neighbors to wish them good fortune.

"Hoong Bad" = red envelopes with money in them, given especially to children.

We also went out for a traditional meal on the very LAST night of Chinese New Year. These are our awesome dinner companions.

We came specifically for THIS dish because it is ONLY served at Chinese New Year so this was our only chance. It started out looking like this...

Then after we all jumped in with chopsticks and stirred it up together (the point is to try and lift it as high as you can, to ensure the coming year is prosperous)...

It looked more like this...

...and then you don't take any more pictures because it is SO good that you have to shovel as much in as you can before it is all gone. At least that's what I was doing. (Thanks to ANNE for taking these pictures!!!)

And finally for some more recent events...

A sign of things to come. John with his "Valentine" last weekend...

(Let's play a fun game...it's called "Insert your own caption for this picture." There were just too many to choose from, I couldn't decide.)