You choose

Dress up?

Or Dress up?

Halloween Fun

So the school doesn't allow you to "make" treats (ie homemade cookies) to bring to class and I am in charge of the treats for the Halloween party in class tomorrow. It took a little bit to figure out something fun to make and eat for the kids that I could BUY all the ingredients for. Here is what we came up with...

Swamp Juice

FINGER food

And worm burgers

End Result

So Kylene's fundraiser for Taylie raised

$1432.00

Awesome huh? But even better, she helped me feel like I was doing something and I get the impression from the people who helped that they felt that way too.

"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."

Thanks Kylene.

Every little bit counts

I don't have a large following and I am sure that very few people actually read my blog but I wanted to do what I could to help.
What a small world we live in.
(Taylie's Family)
Short story long. I am kind of picky about who cuts my hair and for a long time after I got married, I would drive home to have the same lady cut my hair. Then Steve FINALLY convinced me to try his friend. Her name was Lacey Abbott. She was fabulous and she cut my hair for a long time. Then for a while my mom even drove up here to have her cut her hair. What a sweet, kind girl she is. Anyway, Lacey moved out to Richmond and we haven't kept in touch as much. But a few months ago, we found out that her four year old daughter had been diagnosed with Leukemia through the NEWSPAPER. What kind of lame friends were we that we only heard about it second-hand.

I thought, "I should do something." .

Then Steve's old roommate who married Lacey's roommate emailed and said they were coming to Logan for a 5k for Taylie.

And I thought, "I should do something."

Then today a friend sent me an email along the lines of 'Help Taylie' by posting a link on your blog and a donor will give $2 for every link.

So I thought again, "I should do something." And this time I am following up on it.

Go to Kylene's site and tell her you are posting a link to Taylie's site.

Then post Taylie's link on your site and your Facebook account and your Twitter account and tell everyone you know to do the same. Every link is worth $2!

In some small way, maybe we can help. Maybe it is not much but I am finally doing something and it feels good.

Twiners

This is as close as we get to matching.

We call it co-ordinating.

More Eating!

More Yummys

The best peach pie (take 8). Yes, that is eight peach pies that I have made... and then consumed.

Yummy!

The good news?! I learned a new trick when glazing homemade donuts (mom remind me to show you).

The better news? They tasted FABULOUS and looked just as good.

The bad news? I ate ALL the donut holes. Who says bigger is better?

Because I must

Do you have an inner "Bobby"?

Firsts

What not to wear...

...while huckleberry picking.

Please ignore that my feet are upside down. Some days are like that ;)


*Look closely those are scratches, not flaky skin.

Today I feel...

...a little vintage, a little ancient.

Why? I spent last night (meaning post-children's bedtime) feeling like a vintage domestic goddess and an ancient Egyptian goddess.

Steve? You ask. Oh, he helped some and then bailed for a nice bed.

First up, Peachy Pear jam. Courtesy of some California peaches and pears and a recipe from a friend's mother. She informed me it came from a "really old cookbook" called something like 'Recipes for the Good Farmers Wife' (circa I am guessing 1960/70ish). From the title, it HAS to have been printed pre-feminist movement. At any rate, it was yummy. A little bit peachy, a little bit pear, and a little bit spicy.


Next up..a little pampering. I vaguely remember hearing that ancient Egyptians thought the epitome of wealth and cleanliness was hairlessness. And since we all know we are descended from apes (in my case, my dad), it never hurts to get rid of the unwanted hair that evolution has leftover.
Being too cheap/broke to go for electrolysis, I opt for the ancient remedy. Sugar wax. The home version is cheap, effective and easy. A little sugar, lemons and water and you are good to go.


Who says being a goddess is easy? For me, it was tough work.

First Friend Party

We had our first "friend" birthday this year. This was the highlight of the party for me. I was actually quite impressed with my skills.

This was the highlight for Matthew. If you can't see, he is snitching the Lego candies we were using for our Lego chopsticks relay.

If you ask Conner, he would say this was the highlight for him...PRESENTS!!

But I really think he had the most fun doing this: Beating friends with "lightsaber" noodles!

More Summer Fun

We went with my mom and aunt to suprise my sister for her birthday! Steve went to CA to be with his sister while she went through the temple for the first time.

Steve said he had a lot of fun...but we have the pics to prove that we did.


I promise we didn't tell them to pose!

Thanks Bomma and Rachel and Shannon for such a fun time!

We are...

...the champions!

Soda Springs 4 on 4 July 4th volleyball champions that is...and we got t-shirts to prove it, but no pic?!

Something blog worthy*

So the fam packed it up and went at the crack of dawn to the air show! Being airshow amateurs, we left the chairs elsewhere, the big umbrella in the car and the cooler full of cold stuff and vittles home in the cupboard and fridge. We also didn't know that "snag a spot" should have been first on the agenda, not waiting an hour to walk through a c-5. And that was without waiting to go through the cockpit.

!

About midday, we figured that my mom, Matthew and I could leave and return much better prepared. The good news is we were in only the second row of cars. The bad news: an hour wait to come back through the metal detectors. As we went to drive away, the "lucky" ones whose job it was to monitor the parking lot ALL (8) came to my window at once to answer my questions. But can you blame them, bored, hot and a cute girl is calling at them for help.

"Yes maa'am, you would have to follow the crowd (including an unlimited line of cars that faded off into the distance) when coming back in" and "No ma'am, you wouldn't be able to return to the one of MANY parking spots at the front, including the one you had just vacated but rather park out here in this nice empty spot miles away at the end of the line" and "yes ma'am, we think walking from BFE is a great treat to get to come to an airshow" and "no ma'am, we don't care if you have a baby here and a stroller already inside"

So I did the only logical thing. Pulled over and called Steve. So after sitting in the middle of the lane of traffic for 15 minutes. Finally, one of the others (no I don't mean the oh-so-anxious ones from the first) came over and asked if I need help. "No, just waiting to get a hold of my husband so I can pick him up."

It all worked out because since I technically could not get into line following all the others on account of the end being no where in sight. I just acted like I knew exactly what I was doing, that I hadn't already been given such polite instructions, and turned around and drove back. Parked in my exact spot. And sent my mom in for the boys.

We took a nice break in the air conditioned commissary where I got a few fun deals. Then went through possibly the slowest drive thru at a fast food restaurant ever! I mean how hard is it to nuke 6 Junior Whoppers.

Having being refreshed and rejuvenated by my "Simply Lemonade" I got for $1, we decided to go back to the Thunderbirds. Ignoring the hordes of people, who had no idea that once they went inside they were too late to find an open sight line to the flight line and would probably miss half the show anyway. We pointed ourselves in the opposite direction. Found a nice spot of lawn and watched the rest of the show from there!

Conner informed us for the first time ever what he was going to be when he grew up. Any guesses? Yep, he was going to fly planes. Later in the day after a visit to the biggest plane he had ever seen. "Mom, I want to fly the biggest plane in the world. The so-so-so big one. Mom, what is the biggest plane in the world?" A little later I asked him if he was going to jump out of planes too, as we had just watched more jumpers. He scoffed, as only a five year old can do to his mom and said, "No, I am going to fly them, not jump out of them." And finally as the capstone of the day. Big was no longer the winner. But rather FAST! he was going to fly the FASTEST plane in the world. "Mom, what's the fastest plane in the world?"

**Luckily, I am the smartest mom ever and answered all questions by referring him to an upcoming trip to the aerospace museum where I am sure we could find out the biggest and fastest planes.**

Bet you can't guess what he had just watched?

The THUNDERBIRDS!

My baby was entranced. With more oohs and aahs and pointing than had been exhibited to this point in his life. My older one was like a hawk searching the skies. And my darling? Well, he was just like a kid. Who says we spend all day in the sun to show our kids something cool? I think we secretly do it for the kid inside us all.

Conclusion: We will be doing this again.

*or at least something I don't want to forget!

Less is more?

I don't have a huge following on this blog, but just in case anyone noticed (or didn't), I have backed way off on my posts, etc.

I thought at first my blog died in the war against Facebook. And maybe that is partially true because I do manage to literally kill a lot of time there. But then I read This post, by a MUCH more visible blogger whose blog is a great place to lurk.

It occurred to me that I am not the only one who might feel that blogging is at once rewarding and deflating.

Anyway...for those of you who love to blog (and whose blogs I love to read), more power to you. But for me and mine, we'll see you when we see you.

So-Big

Matthew went to his 9 month check up a few weeks early, turns out he is only 8 months. The results? He DOES have a sinus infection. He is TALL for his age. And he is EXTREMELY talented.

Those leaflets the doctor gives about development, etc. have a way of releasing hidden talents. For example, the flyer said, "Baby may enjoy playing games. So-Big and Pat-a-cake being favorites." Or something like that.

So we came home and played "So Big"...the rules are as follows: lift baby's arms high above head, while saying in a high, drawn out, sing song voice "SOOOO-Big". Then repeat (over and over and over and over...you get the idea). Pretty soon your baby should do this action by himself.

Matthew adds a whole new dimension. Since he thinks he is big enough to stand up all by himself, that is what he did. And here is where the TALENT comes in. He stands and then reaches his hands high above his head (in So-Big) fashion and promptly sits back down again. Knowing that he has just accomplished a great feat for a child of his age, he promptly claps for himself.

If you encourage him by repeating the words, "SOOO-BIG" and "Yay Matthew" at the appropriate intervals, he will do it over and over again.

With all his talent, it is too bad he is camera shy!

Computer Woes

It died....a slow, long drawn out death. We even preformed surgery, but alas, it is still dead.
The worst part? I knew it was coming. I even bought a new 500 GB harddrive a couple of months ago, in order to stem the loss that I KNEW was eminent. Then, I proceeded to not do anything with it.
So the day it would not wake up was quite sad and I was sick to my stomach thinking of all those lost pics, files, docs etc.
Thank you to a dear computer doctor (or geek, whichever you prefer) friend who saved the day and retrieved the majority of the contents of my hard drive. Never mind that it took him 5 hours to do what should have taken an hour. We even thought that this procedure might end up extending the life of the dear machine. But in just two short days, it had a relapse and slipped into a coma, never to be useful again.

I compensated the friend nicely, by offering tax advice...which just proves once again the old cliche of nothing being certain but death and taxes!

S.....L......O........W

So the title describes the current situation exactly and yet not at all.

I am SLOW in blogging about anything that has happened lately....so you are all probably SLOW at checking to see if I have updated, if you even check anymore....

But really the reason I am SLOW is because my computer is SLOW lately and Steve usually leaves his at work and because since it is lovely inversion time here along the home front, it feels like life is SLOW so there isn't much blog about that wouldn't SLOWLY put you to sleep.

The reality? MUCH different.

It is actually because everything is passing so QUICKLY that I don't have the desire to blog. My nights are QUICKLY over before they even seem to begin, due in part, to Matthew's QUICKLY emerging teeth - 4 - count them 4, in a week.

I have realized that if I don't start updating, I will QUICKLY lose track of all the pictures and events and milestones that have so QUICKLY passed me by.

Matthew is QUICKLY crawling. Like a little sidewinding crab (is there such a thing as one of those?). He does not allow his knees to touch the floor and kind of skip-hops with his feet. If it sounds like those extra movements might SLOW his crawl, you would once again be mistaken, as he is QUICKER than his mom many times. I really should post of video of it, but I haven't been QUICK enough with the camera to catch him yet. However, he does SLOWLY stand up by himself, think extra wide ballet plie.

So to those who were wondering...we are well, still alive and might QUICKLY decide to blog more...but who knows, sometimes I prefer the SLOW life!