Arrrgh! Kiss Me Booty!

Tell me these don't make you crack up!

I found these transfers at Joanne's Fabric one day and just had to get them for a friend that just had a baby. Every time I think about it I laugh. I've been feeling kind of cranky lately and was actually getting another one to put on a shirt for myself when I don't want to be tested.

I think the Kiss me Booty one would give the general idea.

"Here we see the 10 adolescent in his natural habitat....it seems he is displaying some type of wild things call."

So Noah's birthday was on the 22nd of March. Sadly by the time Noah's birthday rolls around I'm just about birthdayed out but we did muster a sleepover and movie with some of his friends. Kirstin made his birthday cake.

I took 3 of his friends to see Diary of a Whimpy kid. I just have to state at this time, I'm eternally grateful for Emil's Mom that faithfully takes my children to see all the kids movies that they want. I'm not a fan of the children's movie genre. There are rare exceptions.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox was so funny. It came out this past fall so it should be for rent by now. Any adult would enjoy it. That's about all that I can think of right now.

Another recommendation. Creme Brulee. Have you ever had it? No? This is my new favorite dessert. I had it at an Italian restaurant once and it sent me scouring the internet for a recipe as soon as I got home. The fatal flaw? The top is suppose to be caramelized with a little blowtorch used for just such a purpose. The torches start at $35. I really tried to rationalize purchasing one but haven't been able to yet. Then to my utter delight and surprise I discovered frozen Creme Brulee at Traders Joes. It's $5 for a pack of 4 and totally worth it.

They are the bomb!

I'd even say it's Creme Bruhaha Delicious!

Temple, Ikea, & My niece Amber

This past weekend I went to D.C. with my niece, Amber. The weather was horrendous! (Rain, wind gust and cold!) On the up side we had time to drop by Ikea and I was able to spurge and get some long loved kitchen organization pieces.

Have I mentioned before that I think I may have a possible tupperware/rubbermaid obsession. I love to have containers for my kitchen stuff.

All the cereals are in plastic containers. Chips, oatmeal, flour, pretty much everything I have as a staple in my pantry has a plastic container. I don't know why I like it so much but I do. I think it may be a bit abnormal.

Anyway, sadly Amber wasn't quite as in love with Ikea as I am. When I asked her why she said "well I don't have a house" I guess that's a OK answer. Still, I am suspicious. Have aliens abducted my sweet niece?

We arrived at the hotel at about 9pm on Friday. They had booked a block of rooms for the girls and their leaders and we were in a suite with girls from Nags Head and Ahoskie. They had activities planned for us until 1am!

I am way too old to be staying up that late. I could not stop yawning! It was fun though. The next morning we were up at 8 and to the temple by 9:30. They had reserved a room for us and we got to hear from our Stake Young Women's Presidency as well as the Sister Tingey, the Temple President's wife and The Turleys, a young couple that live in DC.

They all talked about the importance of the Temple both in being worthy to attend by being morally and spiritually clean and pure and how it can help us in our lives after we have gone through for the first time. It was a very spiritual weekend and I'm glad I got to do that with Amber.

Did I mention that I saw Geraldine Weeks there? She was one of the speakers on Chastity on Friday night. She was so cute. We did all of our activities that night in our PJ's since it was a slumber party and when I got there she came up to me and said Hi. She had a cute pair of green PJ's, pearls and gold earrings on and proceeded to tell me that her PJ's and robe were wet since they had been on a carrier on top of their car and it had leaked. She just laughed. She is such a good sport and the consummate Southern gal.

Mom I told her I'd send this picture of us to you. She always asks how you're doing.

Well that's it for now. I'd better run I'm meeting with a friend today to do some lettering for her walls. Have a great day!

Squash Soup and the Picture

Here's the drawing I talked about in my last blog. I guess I must have accidentally deleted it before I posted the blog! Anyway thought you might like to see it.

Yet another recipe.... It's really good.

Winter Squash Soup Serves 6-8

2 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1 C. chopped onions

1 lb. winter squash (butternut, acorn...) aprox. 2 cups

1 small clove garlic, minced

2 1/2 C. water or light chicken stock

salt & white pepper to taste

dash of grated nutmeg

pinches of light brown sugar, if needed

1 C. milk or half & half

1/4 C. grated Parmesan cheese

1. Melt butter with the oil in a heavy sauce pan, adding the onions. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until onion is very tender & slightly golden, about 15 minutes.

2. Cut squash in half, and remove the seeds and fibers, lay on a plate with a bit of water and microwave until tender, about 6 minutes or so.

3. Scoop out 2 cups & stir into onions.

4. Stir in garlic, stock or water, salt & pepper, and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg.

5. Cover and simmer until all is very tender.

6. Puree mixture in blender or food processor.

7. Wipe out pan and return puree to it.

At serving time, add milk and return to simmer. Thin with a little more milk if the soup is thicker than you want it. Sweeten if needed with a little of the brown sugar. (I've never found this necessary) Serve hot with a dusting of the cheese.

The Trip Post

O'Malley

So I got back from my trip out west to help my parents with my Dad's surgery. It all went relatively well and now he is just back to having to take it slow and recover. He had a epidural this time around and I think that helped out quite a bit with the pain management.

Dad kept my busy reading his life history. Literally, he had 3 three inch binders with pictures and journal entries. I mainly cruised over the pictures because otherwise I wouldn't have made it through it all. He has lived quite an interesting life. He has kept everything! Mom, Sheila and I joked that his life history is what he's had in all those filing cabinets all these years!

I got to meet O'Malley, my Mom's cat. He actually looks a bit like Jess our cat.

I was able to see my younger brothers starting with Paul, the youngest. He is happy in love with his wife Nicole and it was nice to touch bases with him. He has quite a personality! Sadly I forgot to take my camera when we went to see him.

Kathryn, John, Luke, Mark, Melissa

My older brother John was able to come visit on Saturday and I was got to met his girlfriend. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of them! We went out to visit my 2 other brothers in Cedar City. Mark and Melissa were first with their 2 children, Luke and Maddy. I hadn't met Luke before so that was fun. They were so cute. Little Luke was just a big ole butterball and Maddy changed into her Snow White costume just for us. She refused to take a picture with us when she discovered we were planning on leaving.

Maddie (AKA Snow White)

David and Sally and their 4 boys live in the same city as Mark and Melissa and they were the last ones on that leg of the journey. It was fun to see all the little guys and read several books with the youngest one Will who liked to bring me book after book to look at the pictures. He was always smiling. Alex the next to oldest, was quite the talker just like his Dad, Noah the eldest added important facts Alex left out and little blond Jake was very shy and mysterious.

Sally was a sweetie, she made us oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. YUM!

Sally, Kathryn, Noah, David, Will, Alex, Jake

Sheila came on Sunday during a snow storm and she and I had a good time catching up. It's such a nice feeling to know your not only family but dear friends as well. She successfully got us all into the Olympic spirit and had us watching them by Monday night. When you're with family it seems like there's never enough time! I'm so grateful that I feel this way. I love all my brothers and sisters and I wish we lived closer to one another.

It was so nice to see my parents. They are such good people and the older I become the more I realize how blessed I have been to be their daughter. It seems that I have more in common with them now as well. That's a nice revelation.

Sadly my revelation that I had one bad rechargeable battery didn't come until I needed to take pictures with my parents and Sheila. Oh well.

Emil met me at the airport late on Tuesday night and he was a sight for sore eyes. It was so good to be home again. Even with the 4 loads of laundry that needed folding, the one load in the wash an one in the dryer. Other than that the house looked pretty good. I made dinner on Wednesday and they all said "A home cooked meal!" like it was their last meal on Survivor.

It's good to feel appreciated too.

Noah was asked to be an olympic official for his school. On Thursday and Friday they had 2 days of games for the preschoolers that attend at his school. He was so cute and took his job very seriously.

I came for the Opening Ceremony on the first day but the second day I had to go to a funeral for a family friend, John Kynaston. He died of a sudden heart attack on Monday. It was very sad to come back home to that. He was only in his 50's. His family is taking it as well as can be expected and strengthening each other. They are members at our church.

Love your families. In the end faith and family are what matter the most.

It's all about the Hair

Just a little over a week after her birthday ....

where she got hot rollers for her birthday.....

Kirstin decided to cut her hair for Locks of Love. Something I did myself a few years back. It's a great cause. So this weekend we went out and she got a new do!

It looks so cute on her. I think it makes her look older. There were a few tears at first as it didn't look anything like the style she had picked out but we did some retail therapy and came home with a new pair of shoes and some other goodies and she washed it and styled it herself and now I think she likes it. (It doesn't hurt that she'll be able to have the style she wanted in a month or so as fast as her hair grows.)

(this is a picture of me and my Dad in 1991 I think.

I loved those pants!)

Tuesday I leave for my trip to Ut for my Dad's surgery. I'm excited and nervous for him. I hope all goes just as expected and he can come home soon. I'm really looking forward to seeing my family too. It's been since Kai's funeral since I've seen them and it will be so nice to visit again. Plus I have my new little nephew Luke to meet! Say a prayer for Emil as he'll be holding down the fort here without me. He'll do fine. I'll take lots of pictures while I'm gone and let you all know how the trip was when I get back.

Snow Day!

This past Saturday we got about 5 inches of snow. Now I know for your westerners that's no big deal but here in the east, where every chance we have at snow always ends up as rain, we were pretty darn excited. We missed church on Sunday, school on Monday and a two hour delay on Tuesday. Today the schools already had a half day planned. The kids are in hog heaven!

The wind was just a whipping!

Here is our house looking so pretty covered in white. Blaze is on the left side in her green sweater from hiking.

Kirstin just happened to have 3 friends spending the night for her birthday so they had a blast! Her birthday is tomorrow and somehow she manages to stretch it out over several weeks. Imagine that! Here she is eating her snowball. She is such a pill!

Since her list of friends to spend the night is so large we usually do a church sleepover (all girls from church) then the next weekend she has her other friends from school sleepover. There was lots of hair braiding and movie watching but thankfully no drama. They are a good group of girls.

Since church was canceled on Sunday we were able to have a little service here in our home. While we were doing that there was such a sweet spirit. I'm so thankful for our little family and each of our children and their distinct personalities. Each so different and unique in their own way. After our service we went out to Kai's grave and made a snowman for the top of his gravestone. His was the only gravestone with a snowman. Kai rocks!

In the afternoon we took a walk down to the club house and went ice skating in the parking lot where the standing water had frozen. Emil M. took a spill early on and hiked it back home. He's not one for being wet. Blaze had fun spinning across the ice in pursuit of her ball.

I love this picture of the sea oats and the snow. This earth is so amazing in it's beauty! I think that God must be an incredible artist.

Last night Kirstin was chosen to help with the 6th & 7th graders that were inducted into the Junior Beta Club of which she is a member. (A bit more serious.)

Emil did get to go on his Manly Hike. They left last Tuesday but came back early when the storm moved across the state. They arrived back on Friday night but weren't really due until Saturday night. I'm glad they came home early. I'd show you some pictures but I can't get them from Emil's computer. They're being held hostage. They had a great time. He said it was the hardest trail he's hiked. One of the other guys runs marathons and said every day he felt like he had run a full marathon. Why you would want to do that and in the cold is beyond me so I am so happy that he had friends that wanted to go with him!

Kid Swap

You know that show wifeswap. I'm thinking of starting one called kidswap.

I'm really trying to work on Gratitude with Noah. This morning I said "you've got to list 5 things you're grateful for in your prayer this morning" Here's a portion of the prayer.

"I'm really grateful for these very comfortable pants,

they aren't at all like the other pants that I have to wear that are really uncomfortable and hard to button..."

Sigh! Sometimes I feel like mothering is an exercise in futility.