Snowed in!

May 29, 2011
We woke up this morning to see snow covering the ground. Snow. At Bear Lake. In May!!!

I have never in my entire life been to Bear Lake with snow on the ground.

I did wonder what happened when it suddenly got quiet after a quick and crazy rainstorm when we went to bed. Now I know. And I was NOT happy about it.

Ride

May 28, 2011
With a cold, wet weekend upon us, Jeff and I took advantage of what little break in the storm we had (not to mention a babysitter.... thanks Emily and Jesse) to take a spin on the 4 wheelers. We figured it might be the only shot we had. We were right.

It was cold. Muddy. And snowy. Yes, snow. I quickly realized two things. First, we are not cold weather adventurers. Had we been stranded, we would have frozen to death. I managed to scrounge up a pair of thin, cotton gloves in the old Bear Lake trailer (thank goodness my Grandma is a pack rat) that at least kept my hands dry. Not warm but dry. So between them and my windbreaker, I was at least able to make it back to "the property" only half frozen.

And second, I really hold Jeff back. I'm hoping my granny-speed, ultra paranoid riding isn't symbolic of our marriage and that I don't truly hold him back that much. It became fairly obvious as I saw him turn around to check on how I was doing that he was hankering to kick it up a notch. When we took a break for me to pretty much sit on my frozen hands for a few minutes, he took off at full speed. I suddenly had visions of what craziness this man does alone on these things or worse yet, when accompanied by testosterone instead of estrogen.

It was a good ride. I'm just hoping next time we get to take water instead of hot chocolate!

Cold start

May 27, 2011
This is NOT the way I envisioned the start of our Memorial Day weekend.

Even if Jeff told me, "That's how memories are made. Bad weather."

Ruined

May 26, 2011
Cole has singlehandedly managed to ruin my laundry basket. One woven strand at a time. Apparently the "sticks" he manages to yank off of it make for great swords or guns. I'm not sure. What I am sure of however, is that I'm completely annoyed every time I try to keep our stinky clothes contained with a lid that is quickly shrinking in diameter.

Cheeto mustache

May 25, 2011
Yep. That's a Cheetos mustache. I was somehow talked into going on a walk to the cafeteria before heading home today.

The reason for the Cheetos mustache though, well that's an entirely different story. I had upset Pearl with a talk I had given her. When she started crying, I tried to cheer her up and distract her by getting her to make goofy faces at me. Apparently today at school she say OMG. And not with the "gosh" ending. Trust me when I say, she did NOT pick this up from home! Her teacher was shocked and told me as soon as she had said this, realized what she had done. She started bawling hysterically and said, "Heavenly Father is mad at me, isn't He?" What do you say to that? Uh, yeah he probably was mad.

It did give me a chance to try and teach her about repentance though. Tonight we said a prayer before bed and told Heavenly Father we were sorry for saying mean things and that we would try harder to only say nice things. I hope my teaching sticks.

On the way home

May 24, 2011
Nothing special today, just made a stop at a park on the way home from work. With the wet and cold spring weather, we had to take advantage of some sunshine while we could!

I passed my test!

May 23, 2011
We are very proud of Pearl. She passed her test to go into kindergarten this fall.. a year early! We are very lucky to have an all-day kindergarten program at our daycare. We are also very lucky that they let a few four-year-olds each year enter the program a year early. Which means she should be reading and learning about all kinds of things we've forgotten in just a few months.

We'd been prepping Pearl about her test for a few weeks, reminding her when she went to Ms. Penny's class that she had to listen and do what she was told. We'd also brushed up on our numbers, letters, and sounds just in case she had some attitude the day of her test.

Well, test day finally came and when I asked Pearl about it, she excitedly told me, "I listened! I passed my test!" After receiving the official confirmation that in fact, she did pass her test, we celebrated with a frozen custard.

Pearl is such a smarty-pants. She obviously takes after her mother!

Chalked

May 22, 2011
And I quote from Jeff... "Why do you dwarfs always have to ruin my masterpiece?"

He was referring to his "Fern" written in blue and yellow sidewalk chalk, which was promptly sat on by this little Aggie bum.

Assemble the minions

May 21, 2011
Jeff will hereafter be known as "The Martha Stewart of the minions."

The man researched, purchased, and assembled an army of minions for Cole's Despicable Me birthday party. He said he wanted to have a minion decorating contest so he prepped two boxes of twinkie minions and then had everyone add arms, legs, and hair to them.

They looked and tasted fantastic.

Rice cooker

May 20, 2011
It might have helped our dinner situation had I actually turned the rice cooker on instead of just plugging it in.

Becky

May 19, 2011
A few weeks ago I got a pleasant surprise from my best friend growing up. She sent me an email saying she was coming to Utah to help her parents pack up for their mission and had a few free hours to go to lunch with me.

I was thrilled!

Becky is one of those wonderful, beautiful persons that you can go a lifetime without seeing or talking to and then when you do finally meet up, you can pick up right where you left off. I've never felt an ounce of judgment from her, even when I probably deserved it. Becky is the best listener in the entire world! She has always (and still does) let me ramble on and on and on, even when I know she is bored out of her mind or completely annoyed with me! I love that about her and really do try to listen to others as good as she does (stop laughing, it's true I do try to listen!). She is an awesome mom to four boys, one of the most spiritual souls I know, and completely selfless. And, she is a fantastic navigator... it didn't even dawn on me when I told her where we were going for lunch today that she might not know how to get there. She was always the one who drove us around because she was the safest and most reliable driver who could actually get us where we needed to be. She even planned our entire road trip one summer to Nauvoo, IL (among other detours we took). Becky is just one of those friends you completely trust with anything. I even tried bribing her one time to just raise my kids for me because I have so much trust in her. Obviously, she's not crazy though since she said no :)

So when Becky and her cute family moved to Washington last summer, it suddenly hit me that we had grown up and my best friend was moving away. I'm not sure why it didn't dawn on me earlier since we both had graduated college, gotten married, moved out of Cache Valley, and between the two of us had had six kids.

But no matter because for a couple hours today, we picked up right where we had left off.

Happy birthday Fern!

May 18, 2011
My baby turned one today.

I am in complete denial.

To prove my refusal to believe Cole is now a big boy, I made him wear this goofy, baby outfit that had a big cupcake on it and "Baby's 1st birthday" written across it. It was not becoming of a big boy, especially one who needs a hair cut every month!

The girls I work with even threw Cole a mini-party during staff meeting today. They brought a cake and let him dig into a slice of it. I was grateful he wasn't in much of a cake destroying mood - with his cold, teeth coming in, and not sleeping well last night - because I really didn't want to try and wash orange frosting out of his clothes. He sort of poked at it with a spoon and then squashed some frosting between his fingers. I have a feeling though this was a good warm up for his party on Saturday.

And since I puked my guts out for nine months and continue to sacrifice sleep for this handsome little devil, I figured I better get a picture with the birthday boy so someday he knows how much I love my baby. Always, always my baby (even when he's 16 and embarrassed by me telling him that).

Happy birthday Fern!

Peace be unto you

May 17, 2011
I needed peace today. The last six months or so have been life changing, chaotic, unreal, heartbreaking, and emotional to say the least. And it seemed to hit a new high this week. I couldn't take the turmoil, anger, and confusion anymore. Maybe someday I'll tell the story... but for now, it's not mine to tell.

I stayed up late into the night praying to know what to do to gain some sort of peace in my soul again. The thought I had over and over was to go to the temple. It's been an eternity since I've been. With puking pregnancies then new babies and few options for babysitters, it's just really hard to find or make the time to go. I felt a tad guilty for dropping the kids off at daycare and telling everyone I had to run a personal errand for a few hours. When I got back home, I almost turned around and went back to work. Especially once I got to the parking lot and saw how ridiculously crowded it was. I felt nervous for some reason and unsure if this was just my own mind coming up with this idea or something I really needed to do.

But I figured I had dusted off my temple bag and dragged myself there in the pouring rain so I might as well go. I'm glad I did because for those 2 1/2 hours everything was still and quiet. The rage was gone. The peace I so craved was there. I figured I'd have to sit in the Celestial room for hours until some divine inspiration came. It didn't. But within just minutes of entering the temple, the peaceful, quiet reassurance that things would be ok came. The temple truly is the House of the Lord. A place where the veil is thin and Heavenly Father makes known to His children His love for them.

And for the record, I know this picture has the angel Moroni cut in half but it was freezing cold and snowing when I came out. Yes, people! Snowing! In May! I was trying to get a picture of the gorgeous tulips in front of the temple but with my skirt soaking up more water than I cared for and my feet in mud, this was as good as it was going to get.

Love-hate relationship

May 16, 2011
My vacuum and I have a love-hate relationship. I remember begging everyone to get me a new vacuum for my birthday or Christmas or my anniversary. Really, any major gift-giving occasion. It took years before I finally convinced Jeff that if he did in fact buy me a new vacuum, that I wouldn't divorce him or at minimum never speak to him again. And when the birthday finally came and I got not-any-old-run-of-the-mill vacuum but a brand spankin' new $400 Dyson... wow! I was pumped!

And so my Dyson and I went on our happy little way, spending every Saturday morning together, as the routine was to clean the house that day.

Well, fast forward five or so years, no cleaning routine whatsoever, and two kids, and the Dyson and I see each other at lot. Too much. Like after every single meal! Seriously, it's a Dyson! It shouldn't be subjected to sucking up spilled rice, peas, corn, noodles, graham cracker crumbs, and smooshed cereal from breakfast. It's way more powerful than that! Some nights I think it tries to hide from me just so it doesn't have to get drug out of the closet to vacuum up spilled food again. But then again, I'm probably the one who is really trying to hide from it.

Gator country

May 15, 2011
I went over to round up the family for dinner at David and Vickie's and unbeknownst to me, was stepping smack dab into alligator country.

Pearl's imagination never ceases to amaze me. She had everyone convinced the yard was full of alligators... it's been quite a blustery day so there were branches everywhere. Her and Vickie were stabbing them with sticks and smacking that poor old willow tree to death trying to kill all those gators. Even Cole wanted in on the action, swinging sticks wildly and running around the yard. Then Vickie made her whole day when she told Pearl she could take home as many sticks and branches as she wanted. And so we came home with about 10 alligators and this "giant" Pearl is holding in the picture.

"I'm going to marry you into next week"

May 14, 2011
Today's picture is technically from yesterday. But I couldn't resist posting something to remind myself of Pearl's latest antics.

Let me explain. Jeff often teases Pearl that he's going to "judo chop you into next week" or "pa pow you into next week" or "pummel you into next week." She finds it hilarious! Well, a few days ago she told me, "I'm going to marry you into next week" with this scornful look in her eyes. It was not a compliment. It's moments like these when I stop and think what in the world have we gotten ourselves into with this sassy, strong willed, smarty pants, music loving, affectionate, feisty, little pip squeak?

Heaven only knows.

Zoo Day

May 13, 2011
It cost me $22 and a major headache to have Pearl tell me her favorite part about the zoo was this.

And there wasn't a single fish in it. It was just a place for the tigers to play in. And all four of them were taking naps.

We should have just gone to the pet store and looked at the fish tanks.

Ms. Sara

May 12, 2011
I knew the day would eventually come but it still was a real bummer.

Ms. Sara's last day.

Ms. Sara has been Pearl's teacher for two years. She's taught her the alphabet, how to count, play all sorts of imaginary games, be nice, share, more songs than I know, and did all the potty training. She knows what Pearl likes, what she doesn't like, when she's got a new outfit on, or when she's gotten a haircut. She unpries her off my legs when she's throwing a fit and I'm trying to get to a meeting that I'm already late for. They go on walks to the cafeteria together for treats and Ms. Sara sits by her everyday during nap time until she falls asleep. She's been a huge part of our life. And we're going to miss her terribly.

Pearl has cried everyday for two weeks about her leaving. She's going to be totally lost without her. I'm happy for Sara, moving on to bigger and better, but I admit I have a lot of selfishness in me too because I'm terrified of what will happen Monday when I drop Pearl off at school and Ms. Sara isn't there to give her a big hug and "kissie" as Pearl calls kisses. It was probably a good thing Pearl was all hyped up about going to a new dentist this morning (which I hear went amazingly smooth... Jeff took her) and then getting to pick out some flowers and give Ms. Sara her jar of Hershey Kisses afterward or else she might have totally lost it at school. Although she did wake up during nap time in tears and asking things like "Who will be my new teacher? I don't have a teacher anymore. I will miss you Ms. Sara." It even brought Ms. Sara to tears when I came to pick up Pearl and say goodbye.

And to think, we're going to have to do this all over again in a few months when Cole moves up to the toddler class and has to leave Ms. Nora. And I know that trauma won't go nearly as good as today's.

Funny sister

May 11, 2011
Cole sure thinks Pearl is funny sometimes.

Forgotten

May 10, 2011
It was raining when we left the house this morning. So naturally Pearl had to wear her rain hat, rain coat, and rain boots. Oh and carry her umbrella.

Which was fine until we got to school and I had a sudden realization that I had forgot to pack real shoes for the day. But there was no way I was going to mention this small fact to a three-year-old who panics and throws a banshee screaming tantrum at the drop of a pin with no warning and for no apparent reason. I was secretly hoping she'd just forget about changing out of her boots into shoes. Or be in one of her moods where even if I had brought shoes, she would have refused to put them on and tromped around in her rain boots all day any way.

I was wrong. Pearl did remember we had forgotten her shoes. And she threw one major screaming fit. I so wanted to just tell her, well you should have remembered to grab your shoes, pinning all blame on her but really, can one expect a pipsqueak to remember shoes? There was just no use threatening, bribing, or screaming at her to just wear the dang boots all day. So I promised her that if she stopped crying I would drive all the way back home to get her shoes.

I kept my promise. Pearl stopped crying. And her teacher told me I was one good mom. Maybe. But I was really just tired of the screaming.

It made my whole day

May 9, 2011
It made me whole day when Jeff said all he wanted me to pack in his lunchbox was the rolls I made. Oh, and some jam. I've waited years for him to be so excited over something I cooked.

Of course, I slaved away making them on Mother's Day. But I figured his pleas for rolls would make for a happy husband. Which would trickle down to a happy wife and then happy kids.

It worked.

The gun show

May 8, 2011
I was going to post something special about being a mom today but when the "gun show" came into town during dinner, I just couldn't resist sharing.

Pre-kids, I would laugh and roll my eye at other friends who were parents and often let their kids eat with their shirts off. I'd think, can't you keep them from spilling all over themselves?

Then I had kids myself. And messy ones at that.

So tonight with the potential for Koolaid to ruin my favorite shirt of Cole's and his refusal to keep a bib on, I decided to just strip him down. And that's when "the gun show" as Jeff dubbed it appeared.

Yep, three of the four of us were half naked within mere seconds. Being a prude myself, I stayed fully clothed and just rolled my eyes at my now naked son, daughter, and husband. Cole and Pearl were giggling hysterically and Jeff was clapping and reciting lines from "The Nutty Professor" (...."look at my little Hercules.... he's so strong"....). Cole was delighted with all the nakedness and muscle flexing! And I sat back and thought, yup, this is what Mother's Day is really about... family, food, and laughter. Not the naked part.

It's just a good thing we have a rule about wearing pants.

Mother's day birdhouses

May 7, 2011
For Mother's Day, I let Pearl pick out some paint, stickers, and three birdhouses - one for Grandma S., Grandma J., and Vickie. I figured it would help keep her occupied while Jeff worked in the yard and what Mom/Grandma doesn't love a homemade gift from a child? Since Vickie loves ladybugs, Pearl also put some ladybug stickers on each one. She had a lot of fun painting and deciding which birdhouse would go to which grandma. The tall purple and pink one went to Jeff's mom, the yellow and pink one to our neighbor Vickie, and the all-blue birdhouse goes to my mom (her house is all blue so the birds will know where to go... according to Pearl's logic). After all the paint dried, we let Pearl and Cole dip their hands in some turquoise paint and put hand prints on the birdhouses.

And it must have been a bird theme this year, because Pearl spilled the beans on my Mother's Day present... a new bird feeder.

Breakfast in bed

May 6, 2011
I giggled when I saw our local grocer's ad today. It had a big heading "make Mom breakfast in bed" or something like that with a picture of a box of Cheerios.

I couldn't help but laugh to myself.

You see, one time I had this grandiose plan to serve my parents breakfast in bed. I can't remember why, but let's say it was for Mother's Day just to make it more fitting. Well, the only thing my brother, Jesse, and I could really make was cold cereal, OJ, and toast. So we told our parents to stay in bed until we came back in with a surprise. We found a T.V. tray and loaded it up with a ginormous bowl of cereal, topped to the brim with milk. We knew our gesture would land us some serious brownie points until....

I tripped over one of my Dad's shoes and milk and Cheerios went flying everywhere! I was crying, Jesse yelled at me for not watching where I was going, and my parents just laughed hysterically. Which didn't help my crying. My Dad said he found Cheerios in his shoes for days.

So while it's a nice idea, I really hope no one serves me breakfast in bed for Mother's Day this year.

Cinco de Mayo

May 5, 2011
To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, we had these delicious baked southwest egg rolls, courtesy of Mel's Kitchen Cafe. They are delish! And a much healthier version of any southwest egg rolls you'd get at a restaurant. And they are way better tasting too. Muy bien!

Even Jeff was excited to have them for dinner. Well, he might have been more excited about the fact of just having dinner in the first place, even if it was almost two hours later than normal. Something about getting home a tad later than planned and two kids pleading to go to the swings at the park threw me off schedule.

Here's the recipe.

Baked Southwest Egg Rolls with Chipotle Dipping Sauce
*Makes about 2-3 dozen

Rolls:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow or red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 (about 1 1/2 pounds) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 green or red pepper, diced small
1 jalapeno pepper, membranes removed, seeded and finely minced or 4 pickled jalapeno rounds from the jar
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
10 ounces frozen, chopped spinach, defrosted and liquid squeezed out (wringing through a kitchen towel works great)
1 cup frozen corn
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2-3 cups shredded cheese, such as Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack or Cheddar
2-3 dozen small, fajita-size flour tortillas

Chipotle Dipping Sauce:
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup salsa
1 teaspoon minced chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (if you are opening a new can to only use 1 teaspoon, freeze the remainder in a freezer-safe ziploc bag and pull out and thaw as needed)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two rimmed baking sheets with foil and lightly grease with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the dipping sauce ingredients. Mix well and set aside or refrigerate until ready to serve.

In a large 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 3-4 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the cubed chicken breasts and peppers and cook over medium or medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add the rinsed and drained black beans, spinach, corn, cilantro and seasonings. Mix well and cook until the mixture is heated through. Add the cheese and stir well, cooking, until the mixture is hot and cheese is mostly melted.

Warm the tortillas. I place 5-6 between two damp paper towels and microwave for about 45 seconds. Place some of the filling on each tortilla and roll up tightly, egg-roll style, folding in the edges. Place seam side down on the prepared baking sheets (secure with a toothpick if needed).

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, until the rolls are lightly browned and heated through. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

Picture day

May 4, 2011
If the old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" is true, then I think it's fairly obvious how school picture day went.

Luckily, I've learned to not have very high expectations.

Sticks

May 3, 2011
I just happened to call my Dad tonight who surprised me by saying he wasn't at home. He was only 10 minutes away from us. Apparently I forgot to look at my brother's lacrosse schedule because Sky View was minutes away from battling it out with West High. Once Pearl realized not only were Grandma and Grandpa in town but that her Aunt Kimmy was also with them, she started the begging, "Please can we go to Kurtis' lacrosse game? I'll eat my dinner really fast."

I felt it was a pretty safe bet that we wouldn't be making it to the game with that sort of promise. It seriously takes Pearl an hour to eat dinner! She "dicks around" as we often phrase it at our household, squirms up and down off her chair, and gets distracted quite easily.

Well, she surprised us all and we showed up during the second quarter to cheer my brother on to victory. He happened to score two goals too... the stud.

And while Cole was happy to be outside once again, he wasn't too happy about not being near the playground (or dog who happened to be at the park). He fussed and squirmed until he finally confiscated Kurtis' lacrosse stick.

Something tells me the whole sword fighting, stick wielding, weapon obsession has begun.

Monkey bread

May 2, 2011
To shake things up a bit around here, I decided to have Pearl help me make some monkey bread, or as Pearl called it a giant doughnut. I thought Jeff would enjoy a sweet treat after dinner... one that took him back to his single days. His best friend growing up, Palmer, made monkey bread at least every Sunday if not a few more times during the week. A big group of us would gather at his parent's house for monkey bread and games or a movie. The rule of thumb always being that girls had to outnumber guys. With years and years of practice, those Palmer boys sure knew how to make one gooey delicious treat. I on the other hand apparently did not pay close enough attention to their secrets because my attempt turned disastrous. Unless you like crunchy monkey bread. I'm blaming it on the bundt pan.

Anyone have secrets for making a gooey monkey bread?

Please bless the food

May 1, 2011
I know I'm not a great cook. But I try.

Tonight I made this chicken casserole that my Grandma (who was a fabulous cook) made for me when I'd come to have lunch with her and my Grandpa while I was attending USU. Me and my Dad had a lunch date with them every Thursday. It was awesome and one of my favorite memories.

So this casserole is sort of a home-cooked, delicious, comfort food for me.

Until my family chokes it down and reminds me it will never be as good as my Grandma made it. I'll admit it turns out to be more of a creamy chicken noodle soup instead of a casserole, and I didn't have any side dishes or dessert but Pearl could have at least humored me and blessed the food during the prayer. That twirp refused to say "thank you for the food" (which is a given with EVERY single one of her prayers) or even "bless the food to taste yummy" after several prompts from me. Jeff, in the meantime was trying not to burst into hysterical laughter. I gave them both the evil eye and told them they had to eat it or starve. At least Cole and I enjoyed a hot meal.