Jo Mama

2010-08-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

My little brother received his mission call last night. He'll be going to the North Carolina Raleigh Mission, reporting to the MTC in November 2010! We're so excited. It was fun to have everyone in the family make guesses about where he would go and post it on a world map. We were there with him just a few weeks ago and hoped he would get his call while we were there. We missed it by a week and a half. We're grateful for modern technology. We were able to be there via webcam. Such a fun experience.

I'm so proud of him. He'll be a great missionary and it will be a wonderful two years of his life!

This is my family (my family, sisters families, brother and parents) right after my brother was ordained as an Elder (received the Melchizedek priesthood) , this summer.

Still Alive...

2010-07-16T14:28:00.001-07:00

I'm still alive here. I just have been busy. Busy having summer fun with kids, siblings, parents, cousins, friends, grandparents, etc. It's been a great summer. Lots I need to post about. I have taken so many pictures. But for now, since my husband has most of our pictures on his laptop (which is 1500 miles away) and I have the camera but can't easily upload the pictures, I thought just a few words would be fine.

Before I forget, I wanted to jot down a list of yummy foods that we have eaten while we've been visiting family, most of which were made at home.

Spring Rolls with peanut dipping sauce - homemade by my sister, but we got to assemble them so we'd know how to make them later.

Pad Thai - homemade by my lovely sister

Clean-out-the-fridge-and-pantry veggie quesadillas

Crab cakes - from scratch, made by my awesome cousin

Build your own burger at "The Counter" restaurant in Seattle with many choices for everything, including 5 different choices of meats. We ate there right after our 1/2 marathon and marathon!

EASY creamy chicken enchiladas

S'mores bars

Sandwiches with all the fixings on whole wheat sandwhich thins, the ones that look like thin hamburger buns

Banana oat bars - made from food storage foods

Cafe Rio-like foods at my cousin's house, and we did also go to Cafe Rio once! - YUM!

Dick's drive-in in Seattle - I remember liking the burgers a lot more in the past. The shakes are super delicious and the fries are greasy, but still yummy. But I actually like In 'n' Out burgers a ton more than Dick's. The choices, or lack of, seemed similar to In 'n' Out's.

Ivar's - best fish and chips and clam chowder! Although, I was disappointed that one time when I was there, I ordered Smoked Salmon Chowder and I didn't realize it until I was on the freeway, that they had given me Clam Chowder.

Green Curry - made by my talented sister

Bubble Tea - I thought it was yummy, but Grant and some of my kids thought it was weird with the tapioca pearls in it.

Super yummy Corn on the Cob. It was so easy to just soak it in water with everything still on it, cook it on the grill over the fire (camping), and then peel it (schuck?) and eat it! Oh so yummy. And EASY! That's the way to go! I'm doing that from now on!

Homemade BBQ chicken pizza that my sweet cousin made. Loved the crust!

Grilled Cheese Tuna Sandwich. YUM! It doesn't sound like much, but... Man it was good! We had Tuna and pepper jack cheese with avocado and lettuce. It was mouth watering. I think I'll make this again and also add thinly sliced tomatoes and onions. Maybe even substitute alfalfa sprouts for the lettuce. Really, the possibilities are endless. I just am mad that I never tried any of those things before. You could also do chicken, turkey, or salmon instead of tuna. Oh yum!!

Fresh Crab caught by my wonderful uncle!

S'mores with butterfinger bars (thin), s'mores with carmel/chocolate bar, and s'mores with some other type of chocolate bar that I can't seem to remember right now. :-)

Mango Salsa - the most wonderful ever! My amazing aunt made it. We had a delicious meal at her house! We always do!

I wish I had pictures of these amazing foods! I feel like I'm forgetting many great meals people have provided along the way. I'll try to add them later, as I think of them. I am so grateful for the friends and family that have fed us and provided a place to stay. We are so blessed and loved spending time with everyone we have been able to see on this trip.

Hopefully I'll get around to posting recipes of some of these soon! Let me know if there's one that is listed that you would like a recipe for.

It could have been MUCH worse...

2010-05-26T01:17:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday afternoon, my 2-year-old baby fell off the ladder to her brother's bunk beds. She fell onto a plastic tape dispenser (that was already in half, so the middle part was sticking up farther than the outside) and broke it. It made a perfect little circle on the crown of her head.

As I was quickly comforting her, I was feeling her head and suddenly my hand felt wet. I looked at it and saw blood. My husband looked at her head and said, right away, "Eww. That's deep. She's going to need stitches."

We rushed everyone into the car and headed for help. We stopped at the nearest prompt care to see if they could do stitches on a head of a baby. Nope. Because it was a fall and she was so young, they sent us to the hospital because they thought she would need a CT scan and they obviously can't do that at prompt care. (The hospital ended up not doing one anyway. Still glad I went to the ER, though.)

We didn't go to the ER in the first place because it is so dang expensive. We had an ER visit from when Owen was about 2 years-old and it was ridiculous how much it cost. So we wanted to avoid that if we could.

Anyway, we got to the hospital and luckily they got us right in. Poor Grant didn't get to go with us. He stayed in the lobby with the kids (and walked around the outside of the hospital and treated the kids to Dairy Queen, across the street).

It took about two and a half hours in the ER to get her all fixed up (there's always so much waiting in hospitals. It's likely only going to get worse, right?)...

They originally said they would do stitches (which I expected), in which case they would have to shave a portion of her hair. They also said it would be likely to scar and the hair not likely to grow out of where it would scar. Then, a doctor came in and suggested staples. Brilliant, right? (I was thinking, "What? Are you crazy?? Staples on a two-year-old?") Well, whatever. But then when they said they wouldn't have to shave her hair at all and it shouldn't scar like the stitches, I was sold! Get 'er done.

She was wonderful in the hospital. When a nurse or doctor would come in and have her do something for them, she would and she held still and quite for everything. She didn't cry the entire time. She didn't even flinch when they were putting the staples in. Youch!

All of the nurses loved her. They kept coming in saying she was the best patient they've ever had! Better than most adults. One young guy nurse even asked her if he could keep her. He kept saying, "You have no idea how wonderful she is!" Um, yep, I know how wonderful she is. I love that girl! It was a pretty good ER visit, because it was her and not any of my other kids. Enough said.

These photos aren't very good because they were taken on my dinky phone camera while in the ER.

In pretty good spirits.

She got her head wrapped to hold in the anesthetic gel, for twenty minutes.

Ouch! Before staples.

Hopefully everything goes well in the next few days with healing and she'll be staple free by next Monday. We feel blessed that she didn't need a CT scan and that it wasn't something harder or more oddly shaped, that she fell on. It was nice that it was on a Saturday when Grant could take care of the kids and we didn't actually have much plans except Saturday errands. It could have been a lot worse. I'm happy that it wasn't.

Wow! A Beautiful Birth Story

2010-05-05T22:49:00.000-07:00

(My baby Girl, born at home 2002)

(My baby Boy, born at home 2005)

(My baby Girl, born at home 2008)

Okay, by now, most of you know that I have home births, right? (And most of you think I'm crazy. I'm okay with that. As long as you're still my friend anyway.) :-)

Well a few nights ago, I was trying to catch up with some of the blogs I follow in my Google Reader and I saw CJane's blog and remembered that the last time I read her blog, she was pregnant and due any day. I immediately clicked on her blog to see all about her new one! I guess she had her a few weeks ago. And, I really didn't know that she was planning a home birth! Okay maybe I had read that once before on her blog, but with a brain like mine, I probably just forgot.

I was so excited to read her birth story. I laughed and cried. Happy cries as well as sad. Such a beautiful birth story. All births are miracles, but natural births really are indescribably amazing.

So, if you're interested, here's her story in four parts. Enjoy!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

*Just making sure you caught the fact that those cute baby pictures are three of my four kids (moments after they were born), not CJane's cute baby. You'll have to head on over to her blog to see her gorgeous baby.
P.S. I feel bad not posting a picture of my first-born. But, I just couldn't easily find a newborn baby picture of him, it was just too long ago... plus, he wasn't born at home, so in a way, I feel it doesn't fit in in this post. (Though I love him just as much!!!)

Have you ever wanted to...

2010-04-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted to:

Be a fly on a wall in someone's house (or life) that you think has a really great family, because you want to find out how to do the great things they do?
Home school your kids just to have the freedom to go and explore the world like a child again (and for so many, many other reasons), but you have a hard time wanting to take your kids out of a pretty darn good public school (as far as public schools go)(and you also lack the confidence in teaching your own kids)?
Throw almost everything out of your house and start all over again, with a more simplistic approach?
Paint almost every room in your house and add a back-splash and a chair rail, all in a six month period while pregnant?
Take a month long road trip with four kids, not including your husband?
Completely get rid of your TV? (No more movies again... unless you watch them on the computer)
Get rid of your Wii after only 4 1/2 months of owning it?
Rent a big motor-home and tour the country with your kids?
Completely change your family's way of eating? (go from eating out occasionally to cooking only from scratch and go from occasional junk food to no sugar, no processed junk, etc... you get the idea)
Work really hard at living frugally so you can pay off your house in a few short years?
Run a marathon while pregnant but you are so tired all of the time, so it is hard to find the time to run when you should?
Take a spontaneous, fun trip with just your husband? Maybe a cruise? Maybe surprising your spouse with it?
Throw away almost all of your kids toys while they weren't around? (Ya, I'm crazy. And a mean mom.)
To be in four or more places at once?
Pack up and move, to have a new adventure in a new place?
Have a lot of money, so you could secretly help a bunch of people in need?
Live out in the country with a lot of land for you and your kids to explore and have a mini farm? (But still close enough to a decent sized city, so you don't go insane).
Be way more organized but don't know where to begin?
Spend hours and hours uninterrupted, blogging, sewing, photo organizing, etc., etc., ??
Go on a sisters trip without any kids? (That may happen someday - if I EVER stop having kids - ha!)

Well, I have. I've wanted to do all of those at one time or another (or maybe all right now... kidding - sorta). Some of them are more thoughts or dreams, some of them can become a reality. I just wanted to share some of my random thoughts from my head lately. There are many more that I just can't think of right now, because I have a pregnancy brain right now. (I love that excuse. And I really, really believe it! It is so true, especially this fifth time.)

What are some things you have "wanted to do"?

Disneyland 2010

2010-04-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

*This picture was not taken at Disneyland. It was taken by my 7-year-old daughter, at a park in San Diego, the day before we went to Disneyland. I just thought it was a fun picture of me and my kids. And I was also so impressed with my daughter's photography skills. We'll be sending her out to make her own money soon. ;-)

I really do need to get better at posting more often. I used to blog a few times a week. I don't know what happened. Oh wait, yes. Yes I do. I got pregnant. I got tired. Oh, so tired! When I used to blog at night after the kids went to bed, now I zonk out. So here I find myself spending the morning hours blogging, instead of doing laundry and dishes or playing with my kids!!

Oh well. Let the guilt go, right? Maybe I will be less tired soon... in the 2nd trimester. Or, when I stop training for a half marathon. Or... no longer have little kids. Well, since I can't wait for the last one, I'll just have to do the best I can for now.

So here's some pictures from our Disneyland trip on April 2nd: (They are in no particular order, and with no captions, because I am too lazy... or tired.... But, I figure if you really want an explanation about something, you can just ask and I'll respond. Sound good? Thanks.)

We really did have a blast at Disneyland. It was everyone's first time, except for me. It was fun though, because I hadn't been for about 13 years. Many things have changed. We managed to only spend $135 for admission (total for a family of 6), $14 for parking, and $0 in the park for food! I really loved that we could bring in our own food! And since I never take my kids to McDonalds, we told them if they didn't ask for any souvenirs or food from the food stands, etc... the whole day, that we would take them to McDonalds for happy meals on the way home from Disneyland. It totally worked! Except the kids were all asleep before we left the parking garage at 11pm. We ended up going to McD's on our drive home to AZ two days later. That was good enough for them! :-)

P.S. I also thought I should mention that the reason why I look really frumpy in all these pictures is because I was trying to hide the fact that I was pregnant, so I could go on all the big rides. I was approved by my midwife, to go on the big rides, if I was feeling okay. Since I don't usually get sick during my pregnancies (yeah, I know, lucky me.) I was good to go. I wanted to wear something that would hide my growing belly a bit better. The shirt I wore did the trick. I felt bad a few times, when I'd see the signs that said, "Expectant mothers should not ride this ride." But then I reminded myself that I was only about 10 weeks along. If I was more than about 15 weeks, I would not be riding them. Right?

Has anyone else been on roller coasters when they were pregnant?

Our Easter Surprise!

2010-04-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

We were visiting my grandma, in California, for Easter. Easter morning my kids found some surprises in their baskets.

The first surprise was that there were five baskets out (we have four kids).

Then they found the shirts and figured out the surprise!

Yep. The Andersons are adding a version 5.0 to the mix. :-)

Another surprise we had on Easter was to be there, sitting at my grandma's table, when we felt an earthquake that lasted about 40 seconds. It was a 7.2. It was centered near Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. About 120 miles away from us. It was the first time anyone in my family had ever felt an earthquake (except for my family that lives there, of course). My kids were all hyper and excited. Made for a very exciting Easter.

We also had another "first" over the weekend. We went to Disneyland for the first time. I have been many times in my life, though not for about 15 years. But my kids and husband had never been. It was sooooo fun!! I will have to share more about that later!

Winner of the "Shoes"!

2010-03-27T02:41:00.000-07:00

Yay! The next lucky lady of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Shoes is: Crystal of Semi-Crunchy Mama ! It's funny, even though she was the only comment, so she totally wins by default anyway... I was secretly hoping she would win because I loved her comment. I think it would be so fun to have a Girls Night Out planned, to wear these shoes to. What fun!

I'm so glad you get to have these for a visit in the New England part of the US, Crystal! They've sure been fun to have in AZ! Email me at alenajo[at]gmail[dot]com with your full name and address and I will get these beauties out to you ASAP!

Thanks for playing, Crystal, and enjoy the shoes! It will be fun to see where you wear these shoes and to see where they go next!

The Traveling Shoes Need a New Home

2010-03-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

Wow! Has it really been ONE MONTH since my last post? Why do I do that? Now I need to catch up a bit!

First item of business: a giveaway (of sorts). It's time for the Traveling Shoes to say goodbye to Arizona. They need a new home. I need to have a Giveaway for the shoes! I should have been done with them two and a half weeks ago, even though I have loved them and wish I could keep them forever! :-) The last time I wore them was Saturday, March 6th, to the Saturday night adult session of Stake Conference. Such a good night. Nice date with my hubby. I wore the same outfit as I did here. (If I had these shoes for keeps, I guess I'd need to go out and buy some more shirts to go with them...)

So, if you'd like to have a chance at winning these beauties to wear around for a month, then leave a comment about yourself and where you'd wear these shoes and how you found my blog. Thanks, and good luck! I will leave the comments open until this Friday, March 26th at 10pm PST. Then I will draw a name. If you leave another comment letting me know that you referred friends or other bloggers here, then let me know and I'll put your name in the drawing twice. If you put a link to my blog, on your blog, let me know and I'll put your name in three times.

These shoes are super cute, comfy and fun to wear and blog about! Who wouldn't want to win a month with them? I guess if they aren't your size, you wouldn't want them. But, maybe a friend would!

Thanks for stopping by. Good luck!

Outing #3 & 4 with the Shoes

2010-02-22T07:37:00.000-08:00

Friday night is date night. We were planning to go running together last Friday. My husband and I are both training for the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, in June. We rarely get to run together, and since I'm also training for the Ragnar Relay Del Sol, this coming weekend, I thought it would be fun to run our scheduled 10 1/2 miles together. We can only do that when we have a baby sitter.

Earlier that afternoon, my sister-in-law asked us if we wanted to go to see the movie, The Lightning Thief. Originally I said no, because we were running. When I told my husband, hours later, he said, "I think we could go, and run later. Maybe Saturday." So that's what we did.

I wore the shoes (and the same, matching shirt) to Cafe Rio and the movie theater. The movie was great! That's about the perfect level of scary/suspense for me. I was even tense enough through the whole thing, that my husband's hand hurt and my neck could've seriously used a massage after wards. My 9 y-o saw it a week ago (before me) and he LOVED it. My 7 y-o would have had nightmares for the next year, had she seen it. It was my second time at Cafe Rio (I can't believe I've lived here for 5 years, and never went until a few weeks ago)! I am in LOVE with Cafe Rio! (I'm so grateful to some friends who introduced us to it!)

The fourth time I wore the shoes was two days ago, to church. I didn't take any pictures, but my friend, Amy, gave my ugly toes a beautiful paint job. (Thanks so much, Amy!) (I should still take pictures of them, soon.)

Outing #2 with the Shoes

2010-02-19T05:44:00.000-08:00

My second outing with the shoes was actually last Sunday. I've been too busy to post. I wore them to church. Saturday night I realized that I still hadn't painted my toenails, so I quickly did a little french tip on my toes and called it good. I love that they matched this sweater perfectly. I always wanted to have shoes that matched it! I guess it'll only last a few more weeks, though. Darn! Wish I could keep them forever.

I've got to wear them again soon, because my friend, Amy, just gave me a pedicure last night! Can't wait to show you!

Sewing with Kids - part 1

2010-02-15T12:57:00.000-08:00

Santa gave my 7 y-o a sewing machine. While Grandma (my mother-in-law) was here during the holidays, we made some time to sew with her! They made a girly cover for my daughter's boring computer chair. She did an awesome job and actually did a lot of it herself. She learned how to make a casing for elastic. The fabric we used was just from a pink sheet we bought at Ikea for $2.

BEFORE

AFTER

Valentine's Day Cards 2010

2010-02-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

I found this idea on this site. We had fun making them and giving them out to friends and family this year for Valentine's Day. (We actually have some packages ready to go out to long distance family. They've been sitting in the packages for a week, on my counter. Why is it so hard for me to get to the post office???)

_____________________________________________

And we finished our Valentine's heart garland last week. My daughter actually did most of the sewing herself. I didn't even know she was doing so well. I left her doing it all by herself. When I came back to check on her, she was almost done. This picture doesn't show the colors very well, but you get the idea. It was fun to have it up for the lovely little holiday.

Outing #1 with the Shoes + New Haircut

2010-02-15T09:07:00.000-08:00

I had my hair cut and highlighted a week ago, today. (I'm finally posting this today, because I had a busy week last week.) That was the first place I wore these cute shoes!

(Goofy picture of me)
After the cut and color! It looks like not much has changed, but she cut at least a couple inches off and did a great job. I love it! (Thanks, Heather!)

After I arrived home from my haircut, I took this picture myself. It turned out pretty bad, so I played with it in photoshop... (It doesn't look much better I guess and I should've removed those wrinkles around my eyes!)

Friday Fun

2010-02-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

Here's what I did today:

Sick kids, home from school. Watched many movies...

Sick baby, in my arms all day (my back hurts now).

I cut out felt hearts to make a valentine garland like this, only with pinks, reds, and whites (and lots more than the picture shows). I hope my 7 year-old and I will find time to sew it soon (like before Valentine's day). It shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

I also spent time catching up on blogs in my Google reader. Carrie at This Mama Makes Stuff had a great post about what gear she uses while running, most specifically while training for her upcoming marathon (and of course I'm interested in that). I use the same water bottle belt as her (I LOVE it) and I just recently got a garmin forerunner (which I also LOVE)!

I should have been reading this today, while I was holding my sick baby... Book Club is Tuesday and I have quite a bit left.

I was also hoping to get a chance to paint my toenails today so I could wear those cute shoes. But that didn't happen. :-( Maybe tomorrow.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Shoes

2010-02-03T22:01:00.000-08:00

Look what I got in the mail yesterday!

I won something! (Thanks, Thelma!!) I get to keep these adorable shoes for a month, and blog about it. Then I get to send them on to the next lucky gal!

Several weeks ago I saw a post on While They Sleep, that peaked my interest. (Actually my interest is usually peaked there. She is very talented, inspiring, and fun. And I love the title of her blog.) I read the whole post and was really wanting to find out about Thelma's shoe adventures.
I checked out Thelma's blog and entered the drawing. I also found out that we know some of the same people. I grew up with her sister-in-law and she is in my sister's ward right now. Anyway, she keeps a very interesting blog!

So where did these shoes start, you ask? I hope I'm getting this right. They started with this lovely lady Diane (Thanks, Diane! What a fun idea)! Diane sent them to Christie (a talented, crafting blogger. Check out her blog). From Christie they went to Thelma. And now they're with me!

Now my challenges are to: find things to wear them with, remember to take pictures of me wearing them (and take good pictures - I struggle with that all the time), get my toe nails painted and looking much cuter than they look right now (I also struggle with that frequently), blog about the adventures, and most importantly get enough readers that this can be fun and they can go to someone I don't yet know, who lives far away (but if I do know you personally you could still be a contender, obviously). Can you guys help me with that last one? Spread the word, will ya?!

The thing about these shoes is they're size 9. Lucky for me, I am a size 9. I used to be size 8. Then my feet got a bit bigger with each kid. (I want to be done having kids, even if it's just for that reason... j/k). Anyhoo. I tried them on right away and I think someone with narrow feet or people with size 7 1/2 - size 9 feet, could wear these.

I hope to have a giveaway contest around march 3rd, to pass them on to the next lucky lady.

A super surprise about the package was the Dark Chocolate Flipz. (Thanks, Thelma! So nice of you)! Yum! I had never tried them before, but now I'm hooked! I am loving dark chocolate these days. (That's another story.)

Where should I wear these?? You'll have to check back to find out.

See you soon!

Another Green Smoothie Recipe

2010-02-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

Remember my other green smoothie? We've been making them a lot around here. We try to change it up a bit every time, just to see what we like best. The other day I bought a few bunches of other types of greens. I set out to make a smoothie this morning and got all the greens in the blender and I realized I was out of pineapple juice. I didn't even have any cans of crushed, tidbits, or chunk pineapple. I usually use that as my base with the greens. It helps a ton with the flavor and texture.

Well, I had to improvise.

Here's what went into my blender today (in order):

spinach
kale
collard greens
3/4 cup of water
2 lemons (ends cut off, peeled, then cut in thirds w/ seeds removed)
1 kiwi
1 orange
1-2 Tbsp blue agave syrup
3 Tbsp plain yogurt
swiss chard
1 scoop (probably about 1 & 1/2 Tbsp) ground flax seeds
1 banana
about 8 frozen strawberries
about 1 & 1/2 cups frozen blueberries
sprouted chia seeds

It was soooo yummy! I think it's the yummiest yet!

(The only crazy thing that happened to us while making it was my baby [20 month-old] turned the switch on the blender while I was washing the swiss chard, but the lid was only half way on. We had quite the mess to clean up. It was on the blinds, window, counter, wall, blender, grain mill next to it, the baby, me, cupboards, etc... you get the idea. Cooking with kids can be fun. But, you always have to expect the unexpected. And expect to make time for cleaning up A LOT more as you go...)

If you try this, let me know what you think.

Time for a Hair Cut?

2010-02-02T12:55:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking about cutting my hair.

This picture of me was the only one I could find with my hair down (taken 3 months ago). From the looks of the pictures, 95% of the time I have my hair in a pony tail. Apparently I need to wear my hair down more often and my husband needs to get the camera on those days!

What do you think? Cut it short or leave more length?

I may just trim it a bit. Either way, it has to happen soon. It's been way too long since it was last cut and the ends look gnarly!

Friday Gratitude

2010-01-29T15:16:00.000-08:00

10 things I am thankful for right now:

A warm house
My husband. He's so selfless. So good to his family.
A nice run this morning - wet road, but barely any rain falling down.
A date with my husband tonight
My husband's job and the flexibility that he has to work from home a few days a week.
My laser printer
Internet and email
Good health
Arizona's winter weather
Older kids that can play with/entertain/help/teach the younger kids.

Life is good. Really aren't we all so blessed?!

I am trying to think of something I can do to help with some relief in Haiti. What are you doing? I'd love some ideas.

Also, I really appreciate your comments about my "Confessions" post. I'm really okay. I think it sounded worse. Sometimes you just need to get it off your chest, though. Thanks for listening (reading). You are all such good friends. Thanks for the support! You are wonderful women and I am grateful for your friendships (that should've been one of my "ten", eh?) and good advice. {And I am definitely up for a girls trip sometime! Anyone know someone with a cabin up north?}

Have a fabulous weekend!

Shadows and Paper Airplanes

2010-01-26T22:53:00.000-08:00

While my sister and her family were here for a few days at Christmas time, we went to the park by my house and made a bunch of paper airplanes and had a little contest. Their uncle is apparently quite the paper airplane builder! We were having fun with the shadows as well. Maybe it's one of those things where you had to be there. Oh well. Enjoy.

Random Confessions...

2010-01-26T22:04:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I am choosing to share these. But, I think somehow I will feel better by getting this off my chest.

What I am like lately:

I have been a horrible mom and I know it. (The second part is what makes it hardest. I'd rather not know. At least it would be easier to live with myself...) I can't believe I just admitted that. Out loud.
I have an incredible sweet tooth. The cravings are getting worse, even though I know I should be training for a marathon. (Uh oh!) Any advice? One thing that might help is hiding the chocolate chip buckets from myself. (Is that really possible?)
I waste time on the computer everyday. (I wish it was not such a magnet. I feel like checking my google reader is like some people's tv. It helps me unwind. But then I just feel like a bad mom and wife. And my house is getting messier. Hmm...)
I already messed up on my one-and-only-New-Year's-Resolution. (It would be better if I just got back on track with it, rather than just completely giving up. But for some reason there is not as much of a strong desire, because I already messed up. {Maybe it's Satan working hard against me}) Does anyone else understand this?
I can't keep my house clean and I have lost control of my kids chores and after school routine. (I actually have no desire to get them to do their chores. I have a desire to have a clean house. I clean the house while they're at school. The house gets messed up within 30 seconds of them walking in the house from school. I let them play for awhile. I tell them it's time to do chores. It doesn't happen. I don't push it, because I'm busy and don't have the energy either. I also don't like the way I feel when I am fighting with them about it. So, I'd opt for letting it go. But, that is really not in anyone's best interest that I do that.)
I'm lazy. (Isn't that obvious from reading the list so far.)
I am getting so many white hairs on my head and I'm only 30!! I know, I'm blonde. But I can totally see them!! What the...? I know why people my age color their hair...
I am so lost in what I am supposed to be doing with my calling. I am getting some things. But, I wish I had someone to hold my hand while I do every little thing (even on the computer. I so stink at doing things on the computer).
I'm jealous of my husband. He gets to go on a skiing trip for four days in Park City. I want to have 4 days totally alone. (What would I actually do? There is too much to do. Maybe I need like 4 YEARS to myself.) Does anyone else ever get jealous of their husband? I also am very happy for him. It's mixed emotions I'm feeling. For sure.

Sorry if this list seems so negative. I'm fine, really. I just know there is room for improvement. Maybe someday I'll share a list of improvements that I've made. Ha... Ya, we'll see.

I'm still debating with myself about whether or not I should really post this. It's weird. Or rather, I'm weird. I know that.

Have a great day! Thanks for being my friend despite my weirdness. :-)

Kids Rock Marathon

2010-01-22T14:24:00.001-08:00

Okay... Well. I just was in the middle of this big, long post about our whole kids rock marathon experience when Firefox crashed and I hadn't save a thing on my post. Lost it all. So... I think I'll just bullet-point the highlights of the weekend.

Friday night expo was fun. in conjunction with the rock n' roll arizona marathon
We rode the light rail to down town and back. kids first time.
We made it back really late from the expo. late to pick up our babysitter. late to the activity at our church. :-(
I signed up to run the Rock n' Roll Seattle Marathon on June 26th, 2010 (first marathon for me!) and my husband signed up for the R 'n' R Seattle 1/2 marathon (first 1/2 for him)!
The kids ran the whole mile and had tons of fun!
There were like 4,000 kids participating, from K-6th grade.
We went out to In 'n' Out Burger on the way home. (yeah, good, healthy example. uh huh.)
happy that my kids had a good experience with a running event for them
(I almost forgot) At the expo we were on the escalator and the guy behind us was Gene DeFronzo. He's an elderly man who's ran more than 400 marathons. Amazing. My husband recognized him from watching some videos about him online. What an inspiration. I think that's what pushed my husband to register for a half marathon a few minutes later! ;-)

If he can do it (400+ times), I can. Right?! Now I just have to figure out how I am going to train and get my body ready for the marathon in June. Any advice??

High fives. It's so nice to see a familiar face when you're on the course.

I was lucky enough to get to run with my 1st grade daughter.

High fives close to the finish line.

Wii Wii Wii, All the Way Home

2010-01-19T13:23:00.000-08:00

Don't really know why I titled it that. I just thought it was kinda funny... er... cheesy. Oh well.

So yeah. Umm. For Christmas my family got a Wii from my in-laws. I was super hesitant. Okay, I guess I should clarify. We got some money from my in-laws and we could do what we want with it. In the past we have chosen to get a few annual passes to places like the zoo and museums and such. This year, with much apprehension on my part, my husband went all out and bought a wii for our family.

Of course being the psycho-path, paranoid mother that I am, I was worried about fights over the wii, chores and homework left undone, and tv/wii zombie kids (that never do anything else and never read again therefore flunk the third grade, etc.). Well I expressed my concerns with my husband many times before Christmas. Since he knew this was important to me but also knew I never have time to sit down and come up with rules, he came up with them on his own and presented them to me! (What a wonderful man I have!) I LOVE the rules he came up with. I also think it was dang clever of him to add the "ii" to words that end in a long "e" sound. Funny guy.

So, without further ado: Our family's rules about the wii:

Wii Harmonii for the Anderson Home

Perspective:

The Wii belongs to EVERYONE in our familii. Wii are sharing The Wii.
The Wii is for FUN!

Rules:

When wii spend time with The Wii wii will be polite to each other. Yelling, arguing, hitting, fighting, or crying will result in an offence.
The Wii's controllers will bii treated respectfullii. This means wearing the wristbands and using the controllers gentlii and with care. Disrespecting the controller is an offence.
The Wii games will be handled carefully by big kids and put away in their cases when not in use. Treating games improperly is an offence.

For the first offence on each day, have to stop playing for 15 minutes or do a chore.
For the second offence, you have to stop playing for an hour or do a chore.
For the third offence, you cannot play for the rest of the day and do a chore.
* chores will be chosen by mom or dad or babysitter

Play Time:

The Wii may only be played when the living room, kitchen and kids bedrooms are clean; and the dishes are done.
If we have homework and/or chores, wii only play when mom or dad say those are done too.
The Wii may be used on school night’s onlii with permission from a parent.
The Wii will bii left alone on school days before school.
The Wii will not be played on Sundays.

If you try to start the wii or are playing during a time when you're not supposed to be playing, you are banned for that day (or the next eligible day).

Fine Print:

1. Punishments are to bii determined by mom and dad only. They have absolute control to extend privileges or assign punishments at their sole discretion for any reason.
2. The kids will try to be reasonable and not play when there are other fun things to do or when there is work to do.
3. Older kids will bii nice to younger kids, teach those who don't know how to play, and play 'kids games' when younger kids are present.
4. Older kids and parents will let the younger kids win (throw the game) sometimes just to make it fun.
5. Parents will try to bii reasonable and allow the kids to play when they have earned it.
6. Parents will give a five minute warning when it's time to turn off the Wii. Players should use this time to finish or save their game. After this five minutes, the parents can turn off the Wii as abruptlii as they want.

X_____________________________________

X_____________________________________

X_____________________________________

X_____________________________________

X_____________________________________

X_____________________________________

We are having a lot of fun with the wii. And so far, so good with the rules. There are some times that my kids are little punks when I law down the law... but it's okay.

I'm Back

2010-01-14T09:56:00.000-08:00

{Random picture of a tortoise that I took at the zoo over the holidays. They were getting him to move fairly fast by tempting him with prickly pear cactus. It actually was really juicy!}

No, I didn't go anywhere. I've been right here at home! But I haven't felt much like blogging lately. Can you tell? ;-P

First I was busy with company for Christmas and family in town for New Year's. That made it difficult to find time to do anything in our normal routine. Obviously I don't care though. Laundry, dishes, and blogs can wait... when you have company and you're having fun, right?! We had sooo much fun and we'll have so many wonderful memories. So glad they came to visit!

Then I wanted to relax, take a breather, get back into normal life (get my kids back on a routine of going to bed and getting up for school) and clean my house.

I also have a new church calling that requires me to be on the computer a lot... but not blogging. I have been trying to start to wean my baby from nursing. The problem is that every time she sees me in the computer chair she wants to nurse! That makes it hard to get anything done on the computer! (She's sleeping right now...) For the last month, I've been busy working on things for primary, which also equals no time for anything extra.

This last week, I've finally started to find a bit more time to blog, but I just haven't felt like doing it. Oh well.

I've had plenty to actually blog about, though.

Hmmm... Maybe I should make a list of things I've been wanting to blog about, so I will be able to get to them later. I'm sure I'll forget a few right now.

Christmas with my sister
wii rules in our house
sewing with kids
making baby pajama pants
the new couch
gardening right now
Holiday recipes that were new to me in 2009
hiking with kids in az
My baby's baby doll and the quilt from great-grandma
paper airplane contest and shadow pictures
running, getting ready for the Ragnar Relay
a bike race/ride roommate reunion possibility - in UT
totally funny videos my daughter makes by herself (all the time) {She would be so mad if I shared them}
my need to quilt
My Only New Year's Resolution, and other goals
etc...

So, we'll see how I do with coming up with these in the near future. But for now, I hope I am at least coming back into normal life enough to blog way more than I have in the last three weeks!

Ah, yes. I'm ready to be back.

{Me, carrying my baby in a backpack. Hiking down from a hieroglyphics trail behind the Superstition Mountains.}

P.S. Does anyone want any zucchini, yellow squash, and/or Bibb (limestone) lettuce from my garden?? I have some I would love to give away. First come, first serve. (obviously local only)

Christmas Hot Pad

2009-12-22T01:34:00.000-08:00

With scraps from the zig-zag quilt. I wanted to try out the swirl quilting style. (There's definitely room for improvement, but it sure was fun!)

Christmas Zig-Zag Quilt, Done and Gone

2009-12-18T05:37:00.000-08:00

I wish I had more time to write about this. But I'm just too busy today!

Just pictures for now. Maybe I'll get around to writing about it soon...

Almost done!

2009-12-15T21:12:00.000-08:00

I'm working on the last step - binding! I hope to be able to show you "finished" pictures tomorrow.

My Garden Today

2009-12-04T14:42:00.000-08:00

Sorry for so many posts today. I'm trying to play catch-up with so many things, now that the R.S. progressive dinner is past us. I've been catching up on laundry and primary stuff today as well.

This is part of my garden. Those huge leaves are part of the pumpkin plant that is growing way out of the garden... in fact, taking over the garden! I don't know if there will ever be a real pumpkin coming out of it. We have seen a bunch of little ones starting all over the place, under the yellow flowers, but they get to a certain point and then seem to shrivel up.

Here is the view from our grass. In that box, there is a row of walla walla sweet onions, a row of green onions, a row of carrots, a row of cauliflower, and two rows of zucchini. I have learned, for next time, to not grow that many thing in one 4x4 box and also to not grow the zucchini rows so close to each other and other plants. The poor carrots and cauliflower can't see the sun.

Yummy yellow squash. This one's just about ready. We've probably picked about 10 of these in the last couple of weeks. It looks like there are many more to come!

Here we have Roma tomatoes, cilantro and pumpkins. You can barely see cilantro in there. I think half the row is gone now. We used some in our salad dressing yesterday. I need, so desperately, to put some tomato cages around those tomato plants. My wonderful husband bought some for me a few days ago, but they are so huge, I have to find a way to cut the bottom stakes down a bunch to make them fit my garden better. I've got to find my tin snips and try them first.

This may be my favorite vegetable to eat fresh from a garden! I am so disappointed in how these have grown (or not grown). We planted two rows. But more than half of them didn't make it and most of the other half is not growing well. This is a picture of our tallest pea plant (stalk?). I haven't picked any of them yet. Can't you just taste it from looking at it??

Ahh, zucchini! We've made a few batches of zucchini bread, even some with chocolate. We've been harvesting even more zucchini than yellow squash. My 7 year-old daughter goes out every day after school and waters the garden and checks for new veggies to harvest. She also keeps the weeds under control. What a gal!

Some type of lettuce. I haven't been wanting to try this because early on we had some critters stealing a bunch of it. It's been growing back a bit. I don't know much about how to grow this stuff. I need to research it so I'll know what to expect.

Carrots with zucchini leaves in the background.

This is to show how much I messed up, but will learn for next time. Here you can see three veggies growing way too close to each other. There's zucchini, cauliflower, and carrots.

Walla walla sweet onions. I have NO idea how to grow onions. I really need to do some homework here. I guess I could pull one out to see how big the bulb is getting under the dirt.... These are much bigger than my green onions. I was really looking forward to using fresh onions from the garden. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

Cafe Rio Spicy Ranch Dressing

2009-12-04T14:21:00.000-08:00

Here's another recipe from last night's progressive dinner. {I have one more I really want to post, but I have to get it first. It was the wassail. Ohhhh, YUM!}

I don't have a picture for this one. But, it tasted really good. Confession: I didn't really try it with salad (I tried a spoonful when I was done making it). I heard from others that it was good.

Cafe Rio Spicy Ranch Dressing

3 Tomatillos
juice from 1/2 a Lime
1/2 C. Buttermilk
1/2 C. Mayo
1/2 C. Sour Cream
1 pkg. Dry Ranch
1 C. Fresh Cilantro (I used some straight from my garden for the R.S. dinner) :-)
5 Green Onions
2 Garlic Cloves
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
4 tsp. Sugar

Blend until smooth. (Start with pulsing a few times. Then blend well.)

The salad we had was Romaine lettuce mixed with spinach. We had many toppings to choose from including black beans, corn, tomatoes, red peppers, olives, avocados, fritos chips, red onions, and cheese.

(Wish I had been at the "salad" house to try some...)

Chicken Enchilada Soup

2009-12-04T13:39:00.000-08:00

This may be my new favorite soup.

I tried it for the first time last night. This is one of the soups that we served at our R.S. Progressive dinner. They were all wonderful. We had Corn Chowder, Black Bean soup, Taco soup, and Chicken Enchilada soup. This was my favorite.

It's not a good "dieting" soup...

Chicken Enchilada Soup

2 Cans Chicken broth (I used four cubes chicken bouillon and four cups of water)
1 8oz. pkg. Cream Cheese 1/3 less fat (we used regular. I think either would be just fine)
1 large can green enchilada sauce
1 & 1/2 pints half-and-half (The recipe says "fat free". But, how in the heck could half-and-half be fat free?)
1 can corn, drained (You could use about a cup and a half or frozen, instead)
1/2 rotisserie chicken (lemon pepper is best) de-boned and cut into bite sized pieces
1 & 1/2 C. instant white rice (next time I'm going to try it with regular rice, maybe even brown. I'd have to increase the time a bit).

In a sauce pan, heat the broth and cream cheese until smooth. Add enchilada sauce, half-and-half, corn, and chicken.
**At this point you could 1: Heat until hot, then add the instant rice and simmer until rice is soft, OR 2: Add regular rice to the pot, spray a {large} crockpot with non-stick cooking spray, then add the soup into the crockpot, cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 4-6 hours.

{The picture I used is from leftovers today.} This was so yummy. When I got home last night, I passed up the leftover cheesecake and had a small bowlful of soup. And then another. And another. (Yep... that was 3!) Uh huh, I probably gained 10lbs last night. It was well worth it!

Green Smoothie

2009-12-04T13:12:00.000-08:00

Yummy Green Smoothie! It may look gross, but it really is quite delightful!

Wondering what's in it?

For this one I filled my blender half full of spinach leaves. Then I added half a can (20oz. can) of pineapple, but all of the juice from it... and only the 100% juice kind. Then I blended it for a bit. Actually, I pulsed it a bit, then blended it until the green really came out and the chunks were all gone. It was really smooth! I added a banana and a scoop of ground flax seed. I could have had it just like that!

Since my 4 year-old son got the bag of strawberries out of the freezer this morning and filled the bag with water, I needed to use them. I then added strawberries, frozen blueberries, and a few spoonfuls of plain yogurt to the blender and blended until smooth. It turned out more brownish/purplish/redish. But, OH-SO-YUMMY!! I love it because I know we are getting some "greens" and my kids just love smoothies anyway!

You can really add anything, in any amounts. We've just been experimenting around here. It's fun. They always turn out a bit different. I liked the one with peaches in it, the other day.

Here's the proof that my kids LOVE it:

Peace

2009-12-01T18:13:00.000-08:00

I got bored (for a bit) with piecing the zig zag quilt. (I'm sooo slow at quilting. Ugh!) So, I needed a new small project. Over Thanksgiving weekend I decided to use a few scraps from the zig zag quilt to make a Christmas banner. I had some cream felt leftover from making the birthday crown awhile ago. I wanted the felt to be thick so I double it. I then decided it should be reversible. I was going to put another Christmas word on the other side, but thought maybe I should go with a word from a neighboring season/holiday. So, the other side says "Fall" with a fabric leaf on the extra square. I hung it on the mirror in my living room. The only thing I don't really like about that is that you see the fall colors and letters. Oh well.

I free handed the letters on parchment paper and traced them on the fabric. My artistic husband helped me. :)

I used dark green thread to zig zag around the letters (before I attached the Fall letters felt squares to the back).

Easy peasy! But, I thought it would be a two-hour-or-under project. Nope. Not for me. I'm slow! I also broke a needle and stuff like that. When I was done, I was happy with it, but wished I had spent the time quilting instead.

Thanksgiving weekend

2009-11-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving morning we met some out-of-state friends at the zoo and had a little "turkey trot" of our own. We ran a few times around the paths of the zoo "before normal zoo hours" (it's a member benefit)! Some of our kids rode bikes and the little ones sat in jogging strollers. It was so fun. I am really bummed that we didn't actually get any pictures of us all together there.

While everyone else was off looking at the new Komodo Dragon exhibit, I snapped a few photos of this cheesy ham.

At the Turkey Trot at my kids school.

I pushed my little kids in my neighbor's jogger (mine was in repair) while I ran with my other two around the school a few times. I ran with each of them separately. I think it came out to be about 3 miles total. Not bad for an elementary school. It was a very fun event.

Of course we ate very yummy food on Thursday. I was sooo stuffed. It actually hurt! We got together with a few of my husband's brothers and their families and my mother-in-law was in town. My family made broccoli salad, spiral sliced ham, mashed potatoes, and rolls. Oh, YUMMY! Everything was so stuff-your-face-good!! Darn, no pictures of the food either. I thought I got more pictures of everyone during the meal. I guess my brother-in-law probably did, but that doesn't help me right now. Anyway...

I did a little crafting over the weekend, too. I'll post about that tomorrow, I think. :-)

Christmas Quilt Progress

2009-11-23T14:23:00.000-08:00

Yay! I'm making progress! I am so grateful to my husband for letting me quilt on Friday night, while our kids were being babysat. We hung out and watched Twilight while I quilted. (We were preparing to see New Moon the next morning. LOVED it!) He actually helped me a bunch. He lined up squares and drew a diagonal line on them so I could sew them. He also helped me the next day by watching the kids for hours while I was pluggin' away in our room, piecing this quilt together.

I'm only about 1/3 of the way through the piecing. But I LOVE seeing the progress! I am a slow quilter, but I still have hope that I will find the time to get it finished. I have about three and a half weeks left.

Scotcheroos

2009-11-20T13:59:00.000-08:00

Guess what? I was featured on Little Birdie Secrets for their virtual cookie exc hange! I feel so honored. Thanks, Little Birdies! All the other cookies look delicious, too. I am grateful for some new recipes to try this holiday season. Can't wait to try them!

Here's my recipe for Scotcheroos:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C. creamy peanut butter
1 C. light corn syrup
1 C. sugar
6 C. rice krispies cereal
1 2/3 C. butterscotch chips*
1 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips*

*(You can adjust the amounts of the chocolate and butterscotch chips to your liking. For example, if you aren't a big fan of butterscotch these are still good when you switch the measurements of the chocolate and butterscotch.)

Coat a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray. Combine peanut butter, sugar, and corn syrup in a large saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until melted. Remove from heat. Add cereal and stir until thoroughly coated. Press onto bottom of prepared baking pan. Microwave the butterscotch chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips together in a large microwaveable bowl on HIGH power for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave at additional 10-20 second intervals, stirring until smooth. Spread over cereal mixture. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes or until topping is firm. Cut into squares and then triangles if desired. Makes approx. 20 bars or 40 triangles. Optional (and pictured): Melt additional dark chocolate chips and/or butterscotch and/or white chocolate, separately, about 1/4 cup each. Use spoon to drizzle stripes back and forth on the pan, with each variety. (I usually only use two different kinds.) Refrigerate again to let the chocolate harden. The scotcheroos pictured are with dark chocolate and butterscotch drizzled on top. I like the look of it better than plain, if I am taking to a party or giving as a gift. When I make them just for my family I completely skip the drizzled chocolate on top. It's yummy either way.

Peanut butter (I used crunchy), sugar, and corn syrup melting together in the pot.

The rice krispies mixed with peanut butter mixture, pressed into the greased pan. They're actually really good just like that. If you're pressed for time or short on chocolate and butterscotch, just serve these. Just warn people that they have peanuts in them... they aren't regular rice krispie treats.

Topped with chocolate butterscotch mixture. Great just like that, too.

Just with butterscotch spoon drizzled. (It's a lame job of drizzling and ugly picture, I admit.)

Dark chocolate and butterscotch drizzled on top. It looks really good (and tastes good too) with white chocolate drizzled, too. (Though, not really in addition to. That would be a bit much!)

YUM!
... And super easy. I usually cut them smaller than this picture shows. I would cut them in half. They're more bite size that way. (I don't feel as bad about eating them, then.) :-)

Giveaways!!

2009-11-18T10:52:00.000-08:00

Sorry if I fooled you with that title. I'm not hosting a giveaway. But, V and Co. is!! Go check it out and leave a comment for a chance to win! These things are gorgeous! If you don't have a camera with a strap like that, you could probably think of someone who would like it for Christmas.

Go check out *Shey*[B]'s etsy shop for all of her choices. Honestly, they are gorgeous! (I made one awhile back, for my camera, and it's okay, but nothing compared to hers!)

Okay, here's another one. The Burnt Daisy is having a giveaway. She has an adorable blog and makes beautiful decorative letters. Check out her "Believe" giveaway.

Good luck!!

Goals Report

2009-11-16T13:45:00.000-08:00

Were you wondering how I did with my "goals" last week?? Probably not. I just figured I'd report anyway.

There were eight. I think I did better than if I had not made those goals and posted them, but I still didn't accomplish everything. I felt pretty good about how I was doing until I looked at my list again. :-P

The first one was eating healthy. Um, I tried. Sorta. Okay... I didn't give it a 100% honest effort. Bummer!
Make new schedule and stick to it. Grr... I really wanted to do that. But, I had a hard time because I was trying so hard to stick to #5. I always ran out of time to do things when my kids got in bed and before I needed to go to bed and coming up with a schedule was one of those things.
Be a nice mommy. Hmmm.... well, I really tried. My kids would beg to differ. Let's just say, there's still room for improvement and above all I need to learn patience and meekness. (Some answers for disciplining would help too.)
Start the Christmas Quilt. Yay! This one I can honestly say yes! I have cut almost all of the squares for it and now I just have to figure out some further measurements before I can start sewing the front. I hope to do some of that this week. Woo hoo!
Get a good night's sleep every night. I did alright with this one. (As long as you think going to bed by 10pm and getting up @ 4:30am is a good night's sleep.) I didn't get other things done though because for some reason we had things going on in the evenings as a family and my kids were always going to bed late (9:30pm - shudder)! Then I would crawl into bed shortly after.
Get my laundry all the way done. Those of you who know me well, know that was a huge deal and I was in for it when I made that goal. I hate when I do that to myself. I make a goal that seems possible, but is not realistic. Okay. I guess it could be realistic. And, I did get A WHOLE LOT of it done. I actually stayed on top of folding it when it came out of the dryer too! That is a major accomplishment in and of itself. It usually just piles up for a few days until someone in our family (or all of us together) gets around to folding it. I actually gave my 8-year-old a job of folding a load of laundry each day and getting paid for it. It worked. That was helpful. I was happy with how much progress I made, but I have to be honest. I still had a few loads to do by the end of the week. Then I was too tired and sore on Saturday to finish those up.
Have for self-control and discipline. Well reading the results from my goals, you wouldn't think I had practiced more self-control and discipline.... But I really felt like I had stepped it up from the "normal" for me. I think even if you don't completely accomplish the goals you set, if you try you're still using more discipline than normal. Right?? {please say yes}
Exercise everyday. I did do this. Some days it was a pretty lame effort and no one else in the world would count it as exercise, but I did at least some situps (crunches) or some squats everyday that I wasn't running (but not nearly the amount I was doing over the summer when I was doing the 100 pushups, 200 squats, and 200 situps challenges). I should start those again. Hmmm... Anyone with me??

Okay now, that was a bit much for a goal report. Sorry. I actually meant to post something else and just have my report at the top (as a little blurb). Ha ha! I am quite a rambler, aren't I?

Oh, and I have a blog (the Lazy Organizer) that I totally love. I found it awhile ago (her link is in my side bar as well), but haven't had as much time to read her past posts until more recently. I adore this woman. I think I'd like to be her, a few years in my future. I think in her past, she was like I am now. Did that make any sense?? Well, check out her blog if you'd like. She's really interesting and well, you may not agree or want to be like her, or put her on a pedestal the way I do, but you may still find her life intriguing and at least interesting. Hopefully.

Oh, and I made two different batches of zucchini bread last week. One was regular and one was chocolate zucchini bread (with chocolate chips as well), and my kids still don't know that it had zucchini in it. I had a few zucchini from my garden that I was able to harvest (the first! Yipee!), and I hope to post about that soon. My garden is going crazy and I want to show you! It's so fun!

For now, I'd better get back to being a mom.

Have a great Monday (evening... now).

Run from the Sun 1/2 marathon

2009-11-14T14:57:00.000-08:00

I'm not in love with this picture of me... but I wanted one of me with my race shirt, bib, and medallion on.

This is quite a long post. I don't expect you to be interested in it at all. I wrote the long version for me. Kind of a journal entry, so to speak.
But here are the highlights for everyone else:

Expo was smaller than I expected. Food was a little lame. (But it was their first year doing this race. You're thinking, 'Take it easy on them!' , aren't you?)
I beat my 2:20 goal by 10 minutes!
I got sick the night before the race and gargled w/ salt water. It helped. I was okay for the race.
My wonderful family was there to cheer me on!
My kids loved the kids party and junk food that was provided
I got a free massage! (only my legs. I'll take what I can get.)
It was cloudy and rained for a bit.
It was a fun race and fun family event.

Now, to skip the long version, scroll down. There are pictures at the end of this boring, long post. :-) The pictures are more interesting. (I think)

The long version:
The Run from the Sun event was fun, today! The expo was last night and I hate to sound ungrateful, but I expected more. More booths, more freebies, more food! There was a free pasta dinner provided by BJ's (okay, really I paid for the race, so... ya know. I guess it really was pretty nice of them, though). I guess I just expected a little more from BJ's. I was a little disappointed because it was rotini with spaghetti sauce, a caesar salad, and a little crust of garlic bread. I could have easily made it at home. I also went away still hungry. (Grant and I went on our date after this and we ended up going through the drive through at Panda Express, for rice, right before we went home.)

Last night I started feeling really sick with a sore throat, headache, and stuffy nose. Man, that scared me! I was so worried about how I would feel while running. I had some vitamin C and throat lozenges before jumping in bed. Throughout the night it got worse. I woke up at 2:30am and gargled with salt water a few times. Yuck! I've never tried that before. {I TOTALLY SWEAR IT WORKED!} My throat felt quite a bit better immediately. I then took Umcka cold medicine. That helped too! When I woke up at 5:30 to get ready, my throat felt a bit better. I gargled with salt water again. Took more Umcka, then put some Ricola's in my pouch for the race.

I was feeling only a bit sick by the time we started the race. I wished I had taken some Tylenol right before the race, because I had a headache for the first half of the race.

This race I only stopped once at a water station to grab a sip of some electrolyte drink. I was so grateful to have my water bottle belt (I know... I had that on my Christmas wish list... I'll probably still wrap it and put it under the tree when it gets to be a day or so before Christmas. Just to remind me that it was for Christmas). I think that helped me with my time and helped me not lose momentum (or whatever... you know what I mean).

I was getting really tired and sore by the 1oth mile. I had to make it into a mental game at this point. Really I was breathing fine and not too exhausted. Just my legs were tired and telling me to stop. I told them to keep going. I even felt like I was going faster at that point. I may not have been going faster but it just seemed like that because I was starting to pass quite a few people in the last three miles. That was really enjoyable. Such a motivation, for sure! At abut the half way point I came up on a guy that I could never really seem to pass. After awhile I decided to just keep up with him. I did that until about the last mile, when he started going much faster and I lost sight of him when we got to the stadium at the finish line.

Pacing myself was hard. I knew I should start out slow so I wouldn't get worn out too early and end up slowing down during the second half. I didn't pay much attention to the time until I realized I was at the 4-mile marker. I looked at my watch and it had been 40 minutes exactly. I was excited at the prospect of finishing with a 10-minute-mile. I know that's slow for most people. But for me, it's something I have to work hard for (at this point in my running career). I had originally made a goal of finishing in 2 hours and 20 minutes. When I saw myself running a 10-minute-mile mid-way through the race, I changed my goal to 2 hours and 10 minutes, with always trying go faster, to try and beat that goal too.

I thought there were advantages and disadvantages to running a 1/2 marathon that is a two loop course. By the time I got around the first loop, I was tired and didn't know if I could finish the whole thing. I also thought it was hard when I was running the 2nd lap and I would see things for the 2nd time but remembering how much farther I still had to go. It was helpful when I was getting to the last few miles and I would see things repeating and it felt like I was so close. Kind of weird...

It was a fun race. A flat course. I passed the temple twice (that was fun). It rained a bit. My kids had fun. They loved the kids party and junk food. I loved the massage after the race. I was happy with my finish. Not too many participants, not too few. I ALMOST got hit by a car, twice. I bought two new pairs of running shoes ($50 each - Road Runner Sports was there selling all shoes for $50). We got lots of free stuff. Great volunteers. Fairly well organized (besides the fact that they didn't have a place to keep your purses and bags). All in all - Very fun time!

My sweet husband cooked a very yummy Pad Thai dinner for me tonight. I was in heaven!

I wasn't with my family when they were driving to the race, but they snapped this nice picture on the way. Are there really two rainbows?? Isn't it beautiful?

My awesome kids waited for me at the corner where we started our second lap of the race. That was such a great motivator, to see them there, cheering me on! I am so grateful for them!

I believe this is me right before I saw my family at the start of the second lap.

My kids, enjoying very non-healthy snacks at the event. (Why are they feeding our kids junk? Aren't they supposed to be promoting health??)

My kids had a blast at the kids events. They had bounce houses, bracelet making, face painting, junk food, etc. (They were going to participate in the Family Fun Run, but I had just finished my race and ... it just didn't work out.)

Minutes after I finished... drinking a protein enhanced chocolate milk. It looks my kids enjoyed these, as well!

I liked this photo because it's my awesome, supportive husband, my messy-faced (red licorice) baby, and the gray, cloudy sky!

This little guy was so cute. He just came up to me and hugged my legs, looking up and smiling at me. He said, "Hi, Mom. I love you." Then, we lost him for a few minutes. What a scary feeling! After we found him again, we moved the GPS tracker from my water belt pouch, into his shorts pocket! When we lost him (that first time), I also was separated from my friend whom I went with and whom I run with a few times a week. I never ended up finding her again and therefore have no pictures of us together at the race. :-(

Getting ready to leave the race.

It was a good race, good event! I hope they do it again next year!

Goals for the week

2009-11-09T07:56:00.000-08:00

Really quick. I went to Blissfest. It was fun. Beautiful stuff there! I wish I had had more time to spend browsing through all the booths. I was there too late to see Stephanie Nielson :-(. I spent some time at Heather Bailey's booth but didn't actually meet her. She was there (actually mostly at another booth) but she was always talking to people and I just didn't have the guts to interrupt or "wait in line". Plus I didn't know what I would say... "Ummm.... I love your stuff!" ??? I also forgot my camera. :-( I really would have loved to take pictures of everything! Oh well! Also, all along Main street in downtown Mesa there were booths set up and some of the streets were closed off for events. It was very cool. I wondered how often they do this and if it had anything to do with Domestic Bliss and Blissfest.

Okay, so onto my goals for this week.

Eat healthy (to prepare for my 1/2 marathon on Saturday) (any advice on how to eat healthy? It doesn't come naturally to me)
Make a new schedule and stick to it (I am in desperate need of a schedule for my family and myself, so I can make it through the Holidays - and life in general. Things need to get done, ya know!?)
Be a nice mommy (I've been crazy lately and my kids deserve better)
Start on the Christmas quilt
Get a good night's sleep every night (the schedule thing should help, as long as I stick to it)
Get my laundry all the way done (100%! - It's pathetic. It's been awhile since it's been 100% done)
Have more self control and discipline (that could be a whole other post! Ha!)
Exercise EVERYDAY (either run or strength train. something. but taking it easy, so I'm not worn out for Saturday.)

Wish me luck.

Do you make weekly goals like that? Or are you just way more "together" than I am? What are your goals??

Two Crafty Things Today: one online, one in person!

2009-11-06T07:02:00.000-08:00

Thing 1:

Ooooh. I'm so excited!! When I opened my google reader this morning and saw the post from Heather Bailey, I was so happy and so sad at the same moment. There is a craft fair event in Mesa this weekend (yay!) and it's Friday night (tonight) from 6pm-10pm (NO!!! I can't make it at that time!!) Oh wait... As I kept reading I found out that it going on (10am-5pm), on Saturday also!!! Woohoo! (Now if I can just fit it in...). Heather Bailey will be there along with Stephanie Nielson (nienie) and her husband (don't know if they'll be there both days, though), and many more!

I don't want to go alone. Anyone want to go with me? I asked one of my crafty neighbor friends and she reminded me that she would be out of town :-(. So, let me know if you're interested in joining me!

Here's a link to the Domestic Bliss blog (that's the boutique store where the craft event is at).

Thing 2:

Some of my favorite craft bloggers (click there to read about them) have been chosen to participate in a crafter's challenge. It's called So You Think You're Crafty (S.Y.T.Y.C). This is the last day to check out their "anonymous" first-round project and vote for your favorite. There are some REALLY beautiful creations. Very talented women, I tell you!

When you go to the So You Think You're Crafty blog you click on "this week's challenge" on the top tab. Look through those crafts and vote. Then you get to see the results so far.

It's fun! Go check it out. Don't forget to vote! And come back here to talk about what your favorites are. (It's SOO hard to decide).

Spare time = quilting. Now I just need to find "Spare Time"!

2009-11-04T07:50:00.000-08:00

Seriously! Do you remember me talking about wanting to make a Christmas quilt for my husband's boss' family? Well, Christmas is right around the corner and all I've done so far is order the fabric and wash it. It's been patiently waiting there on the shelf, for weeks, to be cut and pieced! I was just waiting for all of the craziness of October to end (not really on purpose. I just never found "Spare Time"). I guess I did think to myself that the beginning of November will be less busy and I'd find the time!

We're in NOVEMBER! It doesn't look good for me and that quilt!! I need a whole Saturday to myself, my cutting tools, and my machine! I don't see that happening this month though.

Enough rambling. Sorry.

I bought Moda's Figgy Pudding for the fabric...

and I want to do a zigzag quilt similar to these:

(found here at Film in the Fridge)
{I'm seriously loving her blog. I just found it. She inspiring in the quilting department. Very talented!}

(found here at A Quilt is Nice)
{Also a very talented quilter. I've learned a lot from her blog. She has beautiful stuff.}

I really hope it doesn't take me too long to make this quilt. I hope to be able to show you some pictures of progress very soon! And, if you see Spare Time can you tell him to stop by my house, please?! I need him!

P.S. Did you notice I was successful with my posting of pictures from other sites?? Yay! Thanks for your help. :-)

Busy Halloween Week

2009-11-02T08:05:00.000-08:00

Three of my kids, with three of their cousins.

It's been a week since my last post, but it seems like weeks! We've been so busy that I feel like there should have been multiple blog posts from each day last week. There just never seemed to be any time to blog about things. Now, I guess I'll try to fit it all in at once and only share a few of the more interesting things that we did.

My baby chick. I need to send this to Little Birdie Secrets. I got the idea from them.

I stayed up so late one night making/altering this Draco Malfoy costume.

Preschool Halloween Party:

7-year-old birthday party on Halloween Day:

We did crafts and snacks. I think they had fun. :-)

6 and 7-year-old's use a lot of mod podge!

This pic is of the mummy pizzas before they went into the oven.

And... Our dinner and dessert last night:

We made these Stuffed Pizza Rolls from The Best Bites blog. (see my last blog post about them.) We used our own homemade pizza dough recipe (I should have my husband post that here on my blog sometime...) This was SOOO yummy! A bit more work (just took a bit more time to assemble) but WELL worth it! Really, dipped in warm sauce, it's so much better than pizza! You've got to try it! We'd like to try this one next time.

And here is my family's first ever Pizookie! We all just grabbed spoons and ate it straight out of the pan together! And of course we LOVED it! (We don't usually have dessert after dinner - in fact it's really quite rare here.) We DO usually make cookies on Sunday evening, though, and last night we decided to bake it a little differently! Thanks to some awesome friends for introducing me to these yummy creations! (I live in a cave, apparently!)

My New Favorite Food Blog

2009-10-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love good food! Who doesn't?! I'm not exactly sure how I found this amazing food blog: Our Best Bites. But when I did, I searched around on their site for about an hour (I could easily spend tons of hours there) looking through some delicious recipes!! There are also some fun and yummy Halloween treats, perfect for a Halloween party. I personally was looking for ideas for treats for preschool this week, and my daughter's birthday party (that just so happens to be on Halloween).

I also can't get over their recipes for fall. They have so many great sounding recipes... like Pasta with Pumpkin Alfredo (Um, ya. I LOVE that idea), Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream Sandwiches (I've died and gone to heaven!), and Crumb-Topped Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bites (Oh, my)! I never really liked pumpkin when I was growing up, but just in the last few years I have completely fallen in love with it, in almost anything. I sorta like pumpkin pie (has to have a ton of whipped cream accompanying it, of course), but I REALLY like other pumpkin stuff. I think it all started when I was pregnant with my 2nd baby, 7 years ago and we stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home from a midwife's appointment (super far away). I decided to try a pumpkin pie blizzard that day. I've been hooked on pumpkin stuff like that, ever since!

Didn't mean for this post to get so long. I tend to ramble. I just wanted to share this wonderful site with you! Have fun browsing through their awesome recipes! And even more fun making and eating your creations!

Don't know yet what I'll be making... first....

*On a side note: Anyone want to teach me how to get a picture from another blog to show up on my blog? I'm obviously not blog/internet savvy... yet. (I should probably just ask my husband. But he's too busy!)

My Christmas Wish List

2009-10-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know... we still have two months until Christmas. But, I have some things I've been wanting. So, why not wait until Christmas, huh?! Here are some things I'm hoping for: (Santa, are you reading this??)

new running shoes
a grain mill/wheat grinder
a water bottle belt (may look like a "fanny pack") - I hope I can last that long. My long runs may get too long before Christmas to wait...
ChiRunning (my own copy!)
Dave Ramsey books for kids

There will likely be some changes to this list in the next few months, but it's a good start!

What's your wish list??

New Mexico for Fall Break

2009-10-19T07:44:00.001-07:00

Here's what we were up to last week. In random order. I may try to go back and add captions sometime. ...and I may not. :-) We had a blast in New Mexico! Sometime soon I need to post all about my friend and all that I learned from her last week, just by being there in her home and observing her as a mother. But, that's for another day...

Quilt Finally Finished

2009-10-11T12:08:00.001-07:00

Friday night I finally finished this baby quilt that I have been working on for two months! I don't have as much time to quilt as I'd like. This is what the package looked like, folded together with the bow, when I delivered it to my friends. Sorry for so many pictures. My husband and I took quite the photo shoot of this quilt. It was actually quite hard to want to give away. I fell in love with it as I was finishing it up. Once I got to their house, it was so fun and easy to give to them... and their baby is SOO cute!!

So much blood, sweat and tears went into this thing. I LOVE this quilt. {Probably because I spent so much time with it!}

Front of the quilt.

Back of the quilt.

Doll quilt on top of baby quilt.

Doll quilt label with baby quilt label. (Some names were smudged in photoshop). Thanks, Amy, for printing these out. Thanks, Grant, for designing the labels (with my initial ideas, of course). You guys are the best!

Baby quilt label.

This is the first time I've made a quilt label. It was harder than I thought. If I had originally bought and used the right kind of printable fabric, then it would've saved me a lot of time and effort (and Amy's ink). If you ever want to use them, make sure you get the "colorfast" printable fabric sheets, instead of the kind that you have to "dry clean only". What good is that on a baby quilt??

Doll quilt label (back of quilt) on top of the front of the baby quilt. I posted this one only because I really liked the detail and the colors.

This is the two of the quilts folded together, again, just turned around. I really like the look of all that quilted-ness, binding, crinklieness together. That's all.

Now I have to make a couple more, similar to this... but twin size, for MY girls. I have quite a bit of the fabric left over (did that on purpose). My 6-y-o daughter kept adoring the quilt as I was making it. She kept asking me to make one for her, like it. My 1-y-o daughter would take it, lay it out on the floor and lay down on it, whenever she saw it. We grew quite attached to it. Glad a beautiful little girl can enjoy this quilt and the doll quilt, when she's old enough to carry her own babies around.

Now it's on to the next quilting project...

Best Wedding Video Ever

2009-10-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

Okay. My husband just had me laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my cheeks, when he showed me this video!

Best Wedding Slideshow Ever from Olde English Comedy on Vimeo.

Fun, huh?!

King for a Day

2009-10-08T09:16:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th Birthday, Buddy! We love you!
(Poor guy, was sick on his birthday. He had to celebrate it many days later.)

This little man really makes life fun around our house. He's always making us laugh... he's always laughing himself. He loves to run around and jump off the couch (and anything else). He loves to climb and seems to have no fear. He LOVES babies. Especially ones that are the same age as his baby sister (so, I guess it's always changing). He runs right up to babies, where ever we are, and gets down at their level and right in their face and says, "Hehe. Hi, Baby!" and then hugs them. He loves trains! He has Geotrax and he plays with them almost every day. He likes to build "the biggest track in the world"! We are so blessed to have this guy in our family. :-)

On a side note: I made this felt crown, worn by the birthday boy, for a Sharing time skit for Primary a few months ago. When I was making it, I remembered seeing a crown at Cakies and I thought of what a fun "birthday crown" it would be. (Though mine is not nearly as cute as hers. Mine looks like a Pope hat in the pictures. But I assure you, it has more of a crown look in person.) So, I put velcro on it and made it small enough to fit our baby's head, and big enough to fit my husband's head. So we'll all get a chance to wear it on our birthday!

Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Me...

2009-10-06T00:53:00.000-07:00

{This was a weird, cool, "freak of nature" peach to find in our box! This nature-branded "A" was a sign... that the peaches really belonged to us. ???}

Listen to the "Peaches" song, by The Presidents of the United States of America. Thanks Deb, for reminding me of this group recently! Anyone else remember them?

Well, I finally finished off those peaches. Actually did about a week ago. Ya, I'm finally getting around to posting about them. I only want to post this for me anyway. Next year, when I get peaches I just know I'll be trying to remember all that I did with the peaches from 2009. So I'm just saving myself some trouble. Right?!

Anyway... here's what I did with approx. 60lbs of peaches:

Ate them, washed, straight from the box. Ate them cut up. Ate them blanched, peeled and then cut up.
Made peach-apple sauce. (mixed with some existing apple sauce).
Made some fruit leather. (twice). Pureed peaches mixed with apple sauce.
Peach-mango salsa. YUM! I made two batches of this and I finished it so fast. I say "I" because I was such a pig, and literally I ate most of it... with chips, while no one else was around! SO YUM!
Dehydrated peach slices. These went fast... I mean we ate them fast. They take so long to dehydrate, though. We eat them faster than they take to make. We dried about 8 racks full.
Peach pie in a jar. (twice)
Frozen peaches. Six, gallon sized bags.
Peach crisp (cobbler? I never know which one to call it.) The one with the oat mixture on top. Yummy.
Peach syrup (so yummy on german pancakes, or regular pancakes).
Is that all? Really? I feel like I'm missing something.

Next year I'd like to try canning some and I am looking forward to trying my friend's peach-strawberry jam recipe!!

(The "Pie in a Jar" didn't turn out as pretty as I had hoped, but it was so good. I think I just needed a different crust recipe. ...maybe...)

Conference Cakes through pictures (lots of them)

2009-10-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

Conference weekend was wonderful. The only thing that could have been much better was my husband's health. I think he has the swine flu. Who really knows, unless he goes and gets tested. But, he's sicker (is that a real word?) than I have ever seen him (the last 11 years).

When I was all set to make these, I realized I needed to make some changes to the recipe I posted here before. So, I will make some changes there, but I will also post pictures we took of the process here.

The dough, glossy and sticky and ready to go in the fridge overnight to rise.

The dough rolled out to about 1/2" thickness, on a floured surface.

Spreading the soft butter on the rolled dough. {Wow, that's thick. Don't think about the calories.}

We sprinkled a layer of sugar over the buttered dough and then cut into squares using a pizza cutter (it doesn't pull the dough).

The dough, all cut. (Didn't really need this picture, but posted it anyway. Isn't it beautiful?)

My kids, adding the "belly buttons" (that's their favorite job while helping make these).

A closeup of the belly buttons...

The little spoonful of butter in the "belly button".

My kids adding the brown sugar to the butter in the "belly buttons".

On the greased pan, ready to go in the oven.

This is what they looked like when I pulled them out of the oven. They don't look completely done, but that's the way we like them... just barely done. Not browning on top. They actually taste great as a cold leftover as well, when baked like this.

Ready to eat, at the table.

We always eat these with homemade hot cocoa and homemade whipped cream (that stuff's just so much better homemade... especially the whipped cream). We like whipped cream on the plate and in the cocoa. That way you can eat the cake dipped in whipped cream or dipped in hot cocoa. Oh YUM! :-)

Conference Cakes

2009-10-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

**I made some updates to the recipe on 10/6/09.

I really wish I had a picture of these to post with this. I'll have to post the recipe first and add some pictures after we make these for Conference in a few days.

Last Sunday my 6-year-old daughter told my husband that she was excited for General Conference. He asked her why and she said, "Conference cakes! And the start of hot chocolate season!" (I guess in Arizona we feel like we can't possible bear to have hot cocoa between April and October.) I thought that was pretty fun that she at least has a fun tradition that she looks forward to and associates with General Conference. We also make the on Christmas morning... which we call Christmas Cakes, then.

Here's the recipe, if you'd like to try them:

Conference Cakes

2 C. warm milk

3/4 C. sugar

2 beaten eggs

1/2 C. butter (1 cube)

2 tsp. yeast

5-6 C. flour

{You will also need to have extra butter, sugar and brown sugar for the top of the dough when rolling out. I don't have exact amounts for those extra ingredients. Just guess.}

Mix milk, softened (can be melted) butter, and sugar. Make sure your milk mixture is warm enough to activate the yeast but not too hot to kill the yeast. Add yeast, stir, then add the beaten eggs. Slowly add flour one cup at a time, mixing between cups (you may not need all of the flour, so be sure to mix between each cup and only add flour until dough is glossy). Beat until glossy. Dough will be sticky. Let rise overnight. In a big bowl, covered, in the fridge. (I have to make it the night before! *Update: My sister says she just starts it a few hours before they want to eat it. She lets it rise in the oven for about an hour. She puts the oven on 400 degrees for one minute, then turns it off and then puts the bowl of dough in the oven to rise.)

In the morning: Roll out on counter top to 1/2" thick and spread melted butter on top. Sprinkle with sugar. Cut into pieces, about the size of the palm of your hand (it doesn't really matter what size). Put onto greased cookie sheets. Poke a little belly button "dip" in the middle of each piece. Put a glob of butter (1/4 tsp. size is fine) and a pinch -or two- of brown sugar in the middle of the belly button. This recipe should make enough for about 12 people. You may end up using about 4 or five cookie sheets or baking stones, etc.

Bake for 12-15 minutes at 350*. Serve with hot chocolate and whipped cream!

{Let me know if you have any questions about the recipe, or if there's something that doesn't make sense in the recipe}

We have these for breakfast, but we usually end up eating them during the first half hour of the first session of Conference, while we watch or listen. We usually dip the cakes into the hot cocoa. We like to put whipped cream on top of the cakes and on our hot cocoa. We also like to make our own whipped cream. It's the best!

What General Conference traditions do you have in your family?? Also, let me know if you make these and tell me if you liked them!

House needs help!! I need a maid....

2009-09-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

This is what my table looks like at the moment. Yuck! Yes, it's been worse... WAY worse. And, yes... this is only a small percentage of the mess you would find if you came into my house at the moment. But, I only wanted to post this small amount for you to see. I don't think anyone would enjoy seeing my WHOLE mess. So, I am committing myself to cleaning my house today! Woohoo! So fun, huh?!

Honestly, I can't believe it has gotten this bad. Well, I have been doing nothing but nursing sick kids back to health, and reading emails, blogs, etc. In other words, I've been wasting precious time! Like right now....

I am not coming back to the computer until I have my kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom clean... and some laundry washed, dried, folded, and put away. So it could be days before I check my email! Well lets hope not. I need my house clean, almost as much as I need to check my email!! Right??

So, no one stop by unexpected. You'll wish you hadn't!

~~~Oh, and one more thing: Nesting Place is having a giveaway day. It started Monday and I guess she is extending it through tonight (Wednesday). There are 24 Awesome giveaway contests. Beautiful stuff! I really want to win something - though it is highly unlikely. But, I would equally love it if any one of my friends won something, also! All you have to do it comment on a specific giveaway post and you could be randomly selected! You can comment on all 24 giveaways if you like! So go check it out!

And, I'm off to clean! If I come back to check my email, you know my house is clean (for at least a few rare moments, anyway... until my kids have their mess-making way again)!!!

Cutest Little Baby Buddies

2009-09-28T07:56:00.001-07:00

My baby adores her little friend here. Who knew 1-year-old babies could play together so well?? I love having this sweet girl over because I know my baby will be playing happily for hours (...and I can get a lot done)! Honestly, I've never seen babies play together as well as these two.

I'm just so bummed that our friends are moving!! I wish they could stay... but I know that's part of life. I wish I could keep this little one here with us. Can I adopt her? ;-)

One short moment of discontent

Goodbye sweet little friend. We'll miss you!

My First 1/2 Marathon!

2009-09-27T22:43:00.000-07:00

I'm kind of embarrassed to even post this. But, I am so excited that I reached my goal of running a half-marathon that I couldn't resist sharing my joy. When I started my training I didn't have a specific race in mind. Then the soonest I could find one was in November (which I registered for a long time ago). I felt like registering for a race was my only way of keeping myself really committed. Since I had started my training in the summer I knew I would be ready by the end of September, which would leave about 6 weeks to improve my speed before the November 1/2. Well, about two or three weeks ago I was searching for races again and I found a small race a couple hours away from my house. I decided to go for it, since I would be ready for it that very weekend.

It was so much fun and SOO hard. While I was running, I was telling myself I would never run this course again. I will definitely run another half marathon, but never that course. I have now changed my mind. I think I wouldn't mind trying that course again next year, if they have it there. The course was on a gravel/dirt road with a five-mile-long hill that increased in 1000 feet of elevation. It was crazy. I ran the whole thing, just to say I did... but I was wondering (as I was babystep running up the hill) if it would've been faster to walk with big hiking steps instead. I think I would do that next time. But, for my first half-marathon I really wanted to run the whole thing.

It was fun. I ran slow and my finishing time showed that. But, at least there will be a definite time to improve on - it will be easy to accomplish that. I wasn't the last one to finish! I had to pee so bad during the race and knew there was a bathroom somewhere along the way. I ran for at least four miles, having to pee. I finally asked someone and they said I had already passed it. When I got to the turnaround point, I headed up into the woods for a minute and went behind a tree. Hopefully no one was camping close by...

This is at the starting line.

Here I am, finishing.

I wore a skort that I had been thinking about getting for months. I am not as impressed with it, now that I have it. In fact, after seeing the race pictures, I wish I hadn't worn it for the race. Oh well. Running skorts aren't all they're cracked up to be. But maybe that's just with me and my legs... ;-)

I can hardly wait for the next half-marathon and I plan to train for a full marathon early next year! Woohoo!

Homemade Croutons

2009-09-24T14:07:00.000-07:00

{Yeah, I know... It's not the best looking loaf of bread. Little bumpy on top. Oh well. Better for croutons then, right?!}

What do you do with bread that is getting dry and old? (before it turns green) Sometimes I just throw it away. Sometimes I make french toast for dinner. This time I decided to make croutons. I started by cutting up the bread in bite sized cubes.

Pre-oiled-and-seasoned

I sliced off the burnt bottom crust and set it aside. I put the bread cubes on a large cookie sheet. (I don't always burn the bottom of my bread... it just happened the last time I made bread - darn it).

This picture was taken just after they went in the oven.

I added olive oil (just until I thought they were wet enough). I sprinkled with dried basil, dried oregano, Jane's Krazy Mixed-up Salt, and some garlic salt. Didn't measure. Sorry - I often just improvise. We kept them in the fridge in a bag {actually... the bag that the bread was originally in}!

They turned out a little overdone for my liking. I forgot about them. They must not have been that bad, my kids liked them. My kids actually ate them as a snack. They didn't last long.

***Update 9/25: I forgot to mention how long I had it in the oven and at what temperature. Don't even know if it would really help. I started it out at about 275* and it they were in there for about 20 minutes. I was getting impatient and turned up the temperature to 375*, but didn't change my mindset - oops. I left it in there for about 10 more minutes and they were a little on the done side. So, take from that what you will, to come up with your own temp and time. Or just keep checking on them (more frequently than I did). Next time I might try 325* for 20 minutes and checking every few minutes after the first 10 minutes. ***

Pie in a Jar

2009-09-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

Ever since I saw this post on Little Birdie Secrets, I've wanted to try making these scrumptious little treats. I just love personal sized treats. Whenever there is pie around I feel like I eat too much or there is too much left over. This is just great as a small gift when visiting a friend for the day or as a little pick-me-up.

This really was way easier than I thought. Everything went REALLY fast. I made some this morning and gave it away to a friend around 10am. I felt a little funny about giving it away because I technically haven't tried baking it. I told my friend that I hadn't tried it yet and she said she'd let me know how it turned out. If I really wanted I could just bake one of the two I have left in my freezer. But, those are already intended for some special friends.

(I had the crust up over the top of the jar so I could make sure I had enough to squish the top crust with it. It worked well and there was a little left over.)

The crust recipe I used was from an old church cookbook. The recipe was titled "Best Ever Pie Crust". I figured with a title like that, I couldn't go wrong!

2 cups flour
1 cup crisco
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk

Cream 1 cup flour with the crisco. Add remaining flour and dry ingredients. Stir in milk. May use spoon or electric mixer. Roll out for double pie crust or 2 single pie crusts. For baked shell, fill unbaked crust with uncooked pinto beans. Bake at 450* for 15 minutes. Gently spoon out beans.

{Of course I disregarded the second half of the instructions, while making the pie in a jar.}

For the filling I just peeled 2 medium sized fresh peaches and cut them up in small pieces. I added some sugar (didn't measure - but I guess it was about 1 1/2 Tablespoons). I added about a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg. I also added about 1 Tablespoon of flour to thicken the juice.

This yielded about 3, half pint jars of pie filling. I still have some pie crust dough leftover. So, I think I may whip up some more tomorrow. {... if I can find any more of my little jars.}

I also found a great post about this on Not Martha.

Two Posts: Sprouts and Peaches

2009-09-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

This morning I went out to the garden to finish planting the seeds (thanks to my wonderful husband who watched my little helpers - inside - while I was in the garden. Thanks, Hun!) When I pulled off the burlap covering the garden boxes, this is what I found!!! Wow! I only planted the seeds five days ago! I really wasn't expecting sprouts yet! Maybe I wasn't even expecting them at all! I was so freakin' stoked! I ran inside to tell my husband. I was almost as giddy as I was when I first learned to stipple a quilt.

My yellow squash sprouts. Woohoo! The peas still haven't made an appearance, but that's okay. I have enough excitement for one day! (Oh, wait... I also have peaches!! That's pretty darn exciting, too!)

Here's one more. It's blurry. Sorry. I mean, you get the idea, right?! K- enough about my sprouting squash!

Peaches: Ah... mmmm... Utah Peaches!

My sister-in-law ordered these through her mom. My husband picked them up last night. We have approximately 60lbs (well, now maybe only 58lbs) of peaches in our possession. Yikes! I better get busy!

They smell so wonderful. So does my house. These peaches are so soft, juicy and sweet, with the right amount of tartness. Yummm! I've already had three... or four today. So I don't really know what I'm going to do with all of them, but I need to decide soon, before they go bad. I'm thinking: blanch, slice and freeze some, fruit leather, dried peached, can (if I can find someone who can help me), peach pie filling(?), peach syrup, and of course eat a bunch. {Cobbler, peaches 'n' cream, peaches on cereal, in oatmeal, etc.} Are the possibilities endless? I guess. But whatever I do, I need to get creative and BUSY!

Getting the Fall Garden Ready

2009-09-15T14:52:00.000-07:00

Our dirt is ready! We have to buy dirt for our garden, because here in the desert our dirt is like clay. We used a mixture of mulch, garden soil from Home Depot, manure, fertilizer (which makes my stomach queezy to use - so we probably will go organic next time), vermiculite, and peat moss. I really don't know if we got all of the amounts right for the mixture. But we're gonna try it anyway! I'll post pictures when we actually start seeing some sprouts.

Here's our lovely dirt in our lovely 4'x4' box that my dear husband made.

Here are our three boxes in our slightly elevated garden spot. Next to the tree my dear husband planted a few months ago... to add some shade to our backyard! (Woohoo for shade in AZ!)

We covered the boxes with burlap to protect those poor little seeds from the harsh sun, keep the soil more moist (it drys out soo fast here), and keep the birds away.

Now, if I could only have a way to keep THIS One away! She loves to help me. She loves the dirt. We go out there to water the garden and she gets SOO dirty! She scoops up the dirt with her hands and shovels it out of the garden box. It was quite difficult to get the seeds all planted on Saturday (wih my husband gone for the day). She kept getting into the dirt and stirring up the seeds. A few times she even took out the labels...err... stakes... telling me where the row of what vegetable was. I gave up after planting two different veggies. I planted two rows of peas, and two rows of yellow squash. I need to get out there and plant the rest of them when my husband is home. ...{Maybe tonight... Hopefully tonight!}

I have a bit of leftover burlap I didn't know what to do with. There wasn't enough to put over any gardens or plants. I thought I might use it in some Fall crafts or a Halloween costume, etc. And today as I was looking through my favorite blogs, the answer came to me! I found a post at The Nesting Place who posted a link to Fabulous K who made this adorable and easy fall burlap banner! So that's what I'll do!

Christmas Quilt - gift

2009-09-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

I am going to make a zigzag quilt like this one at a quilt is nice. I'm making one for my husband's boss and his family. Every year we go to a Holiday office party at his house and I always hand make something. It never really feels like enough, though. This year the quilting bug has bitten me again. It's really been years since I have quilted. I think I had forgotten how much I love it.

I thought I should get started soon to have it finished by mid-December. Only because we have Halloween and Thanksgiving and three kids birthdays in our family, etc., etc. to worry about between now and then.

Right now I am having a hard time with fabric. I just can't decide!! There are the "okay" ones at Joann's and Hobby Lobby. They are fair priced. Then there are the designer ones online that I like a whole lot more, but are almost twice the price of the "okay" ones. ... and then there's shipping, if you buy online!

I've got my eye on Michael Miller's Funky Christmas, Free Spirit's Christmas Snow Flower, and, Moda's Figgy Pudding. (That's just a few of my favorites.) I'll probably end up with none of those and just go with what's cheapest. Unless there's a miracle... in the form of a super, smokin' deal on one of my favorites!

A quilt and a skirt

2009-09-09T09:45:00.000-07:00

I love Amy Butler fabric. I had some leftover Amy Butler fabric from a bag I made last April (I never posted a picture of it). I knew I wanted to piece a quilt with the leftover fabric, but I really wanted a few more fabrics to make the quilt more interesting. I went to the store closest to me, that carries some Amy Butler fabric and found out they were on clearance for 40% off! I got much more than I needed for just that quilt. Who wouldn't?

{The back of the baby quilt}

{A closeup of the front}

I made a stacked coin quilt and a matching doll quilt for a friend who is adopting a baby girl any day now. (Hopefully she won't read this before I finish it and give it to her!) I still need to quilt it and bind it. But I am excited about how the piecing turned out!

{Front of the doll quilt}

{Back of the doll quilt}

I have so much extra fabric leftover that I want to make skirts for my girls and they have also requested a quilt each. Well, technically my 1-year-old didn't, but her 6-year-old sister requested one for her. She loves it when they have matching stuff. Since they share a room and bunk beds that will be shared in the future, I thought I could accomplish that request. It will probably take me till she's in a twin bed, to get the quilts done anyway.

I had originally thought of making a simple skirt with the Oliver +S lazy days skirt pattern . My daughters already have a few of these. But, I was ready to give them something different. Just yesterday I found such an adorable skirt made by the ladies at Roots and Wings Co (you have to scroll down a bit on that post - it starts with a Halloween craft). They used Heather Bailey fabrics that are sooo adorable! I'd love to find some of her stuff at 40% off! Anyway, they got the pattern and tutorial from this lovely blog. Shelly Detton of the 7 Layer Studio.

I will be busy making those matching skirts for my girls.

... and finishing the quilt, of course! (quilting it is my favorite part!)

I hope to show you the finished product, soon!

Blog Design and Being Busy

2009-06-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for awhile because we have been so busy. But I have had so much I want to post. The foremost thought on my mind, when I think about this blog is the lame design. It's really boring and dumb! Admit it!

The problem I have is lack of knowledge in the computer department, though we don't lack that in my house. My husband is a web designer, computer programmer, etc. He wants to help me, but he's always so busy.

When I first started the blog, I the look of it about twenty times (or more) and then settled temporarily on a style I just don't like but will have to do for now. I hope I can find the time soon, to design what I truly want in a website/blog. In the meantime, I'll try to post things rather than just being busy (or lazy - that may be equally true)!

Homemade Pinata

2009-06-18T20:24:00.000-07:00

My kids wanted to throw a surprise party for their favorite babysitter. They wanted to have a pinata. Those are easy to find around here, but not so cheap. I knew we could easily make one. I looked online for instructions. This is a very novice try at making one. There is definitely room for improvement. I'm sure my kids will want one for every future birthday.

I found these links on About.com after I made ours. There are so many good ideas out there.
Of course Family Fun Magazine has a good one. Here's a video that shows how to make one.

Basically you start with:

A balloon
strips of newspaper
flour
water
a bowl that will fit the balloon

(optional: glue, rubber gloves, decoration for the outside)

Blow up the balloon and tie it. Mix one cup flour and two cups water together (add a few tablespoons of Elmer's glue, if you want). Lay down some newspaper to catch spills. Have the balloon on top of the bowl to make it easier to lay the glued newspaper strips on it. Dip the strips in the flour/water mixture and gently squeeze off excess. Put strips all over the balloon in one full layer, leaving a hole at the top (where the tie is) as big as a fist.

Allow that layer to dry and add another layer. Repeat until you have at least three layers. The more kids (or older) you will have at the party, the more layers you may want to have. It took our pinata about 7 hours to dry completely after each layer (we live in dry AZ, though - everything dries faster).

My kids decorated the pinata with dad (while I went grocery shopping). You could decorate it any way you like. I saw one video online that just had the final layer of paper as colorful construction paper in a mosaic design. Very pretty.

When you are ready to fill the pinata you could put some extra newspaper inside with the candy. We didn't completely fill the hole. We just put the candy and paper inside until it was full, then stuffed some tissue paper at the very top. This way the candy wasn't flying out the top. I'm sure you can come up with ideas to cover the hole better. I was lazy.

When it came time to whack at the pinata we used a hole punch to put two holes in the sides and didn't have twine (we were at a friends' house and we forgot our twine) to use, so we used a bungee with hooks. It worked, but ended up ripping through the pinata. We made some bigger holes down lower. That worked better, but looked silly. Oh well. The kids loved it.

Doll Quilts

2009-06-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

About two months ago, I finally bought myself a darning foot for my sewing machine. I didn't know it would be so cheap (under $4)!! I should've bought one years ago! I could've been "free motion" quilting for years. I haven't quilted in years. I guess it's probably because I have been busy with little ones. Well, that's not exactly a good excuse, since there are plenty young moms out there that find time to quilt and sew and craft. They're just the supermom types! But... not this mama!

So, back to the doll quilts. I bought the darning foot to try my hand at stippling a quilt. Yahoo!! It was so much easier than I thought it would be (you should totally try it, if you haven't yet)! It was so much fun. I sat in my kitchen until 1am the first time I tried it, and I was so giddy as I was moving my quilt all around under the needle! My husband must have thought I was so silly as he was listening to me from the other room.

I thought making doll quilts would be a good way to practice my piecing again and for sure on practicing the stippling. My girls would be less critical of my early mistakes, than anyone else would be. So here are my first two doll quilts. I hope to make some more, before I start making baby quilts again, and eventually twin quilts for my kids beds.

Here's the first one I made (don't know why the broken pencil made it's way into the picture):

And a closer look (don't look too close. It was my first time. Go easy on me):

Here's the second one I made:

The back of the second one:

A little more of a close-up, to show a little more of the stippling:

The second quilt I made is adapted from the whirly giggle quilt I saw on Crazy Mom Quilts blog. It would've been all whirly giggles and less white, except the border maybe. But. I wasn't thinking when I cut the fabric. I had my fabric facing back sides together and the whirly's were sewing opposite. It wouldn't have worked out right. Bummer. Oh well. Now I have enough of the other that I can make another quilt! :-)

The first one I made, the stippling was much too small (in my opinion). The second one was a little better. It looks fine for a doll quilt size. These pictures were both taken pre-washed. They looked very scrunchy/crumbly/quilty after being washed. Yum!

First Blog Post

2009-06-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog entry (on blogger) in years. I hope I can keep this up. I'd like to use this blog to share ideas about motherhood, sewing, crafting, decorating, health, exercise, etc... whatever is on my mind!