By request

A few pics from Pearls and Gloves:

This is me with Melody, holding the carebear that represented Deborah.

Mel is quite talented at self portraits. :)

We took off our gloves to eat dinner.

I thought this was pretty cool...

Last night's Enrichment night had something so cool, I had to tell y'all about it.

One thing I don't have in my emergency supplies is a way to cook. I don't even have a camp stove. Last night I learned about a really simple and easy way to solve that problem. You need just 4 things; an empty gallon size paint can, an empty quart size paint can, a quart of rubbing alcohol, and a roll of toilet paper. You smush the toilet paper to get it through the hole in the smaller paint can, then pour the entire bottle of rubbing alcohol into it. It'll take a little time for the toilet paper to absorb it, but it will take the entire bottle of alcohol. You then seal the paint can. Punch holes in the larger can around the top and bottom (for ventilation) then seal the smaller can inside the larger one. When it comes time to use it, open up both cans, put the smaller can onto the lid of the larger can, light the alcohol, then cover it with the larger can to give you a cooking surface. Apparently it's hot enough to boil water within half an hour. The heat coming through the holes punched in it is enough to warm you, and to roast pretty much anything you might toast over a fire. It lasts 6-8 hours, and can be replenished just by adding more rubbing alcohol. How easy is that? And if you have the storage space for just a can of paint, you have a makeshift stove!

Great weekend!

It would be silly for me to not blog about my weekend. It was great!

First off, this is just a silly thing, but it was important to me. In my piano lessons, we've been working on Fur Elise. There are two parts that have been giving me trouble, but this week Ashton was able to walk me through one of them, and in practicing the other with him there, I was able to figure out what I was doing wrong on the other one! I'm still not anywhere close to perfect, but at least I know what I've been doing wrong and can try to correct it. I love when a light bulb goes on in my head like that! That's my fizzy joy for this post.

My main event for the weekend was going out to a play with some friends. My friend Melody started a little group she calls Pearls and Gloves. We dress in black dresses and wear (you guessed it) pearls and gloves and go see local plays. The plan is to do a combination of full blown professional stuff in Seattle and smaller local stuff, but the idea is to support the theater. We had our very first outing Saturday night. We went to Everett to see a local production of Guys and Dolls. How is it I've never even seen this movie? How did I not know A Bushel and a Peck was from this musical? or Luck be a Lady? They're songs I grew up with and yet never knew their origins. Our night out was so much fun! Our original dinner plans ended up not working (Wait, we're in Everett? We passed Lynwood??) so we went to Olive Garden to eat. The food was excellent. The play itself was very well done. I was impressed. The actress playing Sarah Brown seemed a touch old for the roll, but she sang VERY well. We got pelted with eggs (plastic ones with candy or dice in them) and the band came walking down the stairs through the audience. It was well cast, well acted, and well sung. Overall I was impressed. We're planning on returning to that theater to see Annie in February. But our next definite outing will be Into the Woods at the 5th Ave. Theater in Seattle in November. As good as all of that was, really the best part was the company. This is a remarkable group of women and I am incredibly lucky to count them as friends. We had such a great time mostly because of each other! (But we REALLY missed Deborah who had a family medical emergency and couldn't make it.) Ok, that's my other fizzy joy for this post. :D

Then came Sunday. For just the third time in my life, I was asked to substitute for Relief Society. (I was also asked 3 separate times to substitute in Primary this week alone as well!) Normally that's something I like to do, but this time I was STRESSED over it. I didn't have the time I needed to prepare the way I wanted. Right before Relief Society was supposed to start, you would have found me pacing the halls shaking like a leaf. I can't remember ever being that nervous before! Fortunately it went well. The women seemed responsive, asked good questions, and made insightful remarks. It was a great lesson. But I came home absolutely exhausted!

That was my fantastic weekend. :)

Where are my sisters?? None of them have been on in forever!

It's Done!!

It's official. My back yard is fenced in once again. After losing a huge chunk of our fence to winter storms, my very handy husband and our neighbor have succeeded in getting it all repaired and replaced. No more stray dogs, no more bratty neighbor kids, no more unwelcomed visitors in my back yard. It took a while because we had to work around weather (pouring cement in the rain doesn't work) and schedules (8:00 PM in the dark doesn't work either), but it's done now. And it looks great! Scott and Randy did a fantastic job; better than the original builders in fact. I think I'm really lucky to have a husband who is able to do these kinds of repairs. They did it for about 5% of the estimate we got when we looked into having it fixed by a contractor. Well done, gentlemen!!

Sunday Post

Today may have been one of my favorite sacrament meetings ever. Instead of the usual speakers you'd expect to hear, the meeting was opened up to the congregation, sort of like a testimony meeting, but instead of bearing our testimonies, we could request to sing a particular verse of any hymn in the hymn book. Most people would give a short explanation of why they chose that hymn or what it meant to them before we sang it, so it became a meeting filled with testimony and a very strong spirit. There is so much truth and love in the hymns, and being able to sing so many of them was a really beautiful experience. It was a little surprising to me what was chosen. When one sister asked to sing the third verse of If You Could Hie To Kolob, I was really surprised. I didn't think anyone but the Sauters knew that hymn! It was really a very special spirit in that room, and I am so grateful I was there today to experience it. In case you're wondering, I did go up and ask for a particular hymn. It was really tough for me to pick just one hymn. There are so many hymns that I love and wanted to sing. For most of the meeting I was leaning towards Lead Kindly Light, but couldn't decide on one verse over another. Ultimately I chose the 4th verse of hymn #86; How Great Thou Art. If I were ever required to choose just one verse of one hymn that was truly my favorite, this is it.

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,

And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.

Then I shall bow in humble adoration

And there proclaim "My God, how great thou art."

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee

How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee

How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

Green Thumb wanna be

The Prophet said to plant a garden.

Oh won't you plant a garden too,

and share the many joys

a garden brings in health and love

to happy girls and boys!

My "playgroup" on Thursday was at my house. It was a beautiful day so we worked outside. One of the things we did was to clear out the area I used for a garden last year. I hadn't touched it at all since last year, so it was pretty overrun with weeds. But we got it all cleared out! It's a bit late in the season to be planting seeds, so I bought a few actual plants to transplant into my newly cleared garden. I'm kind of excited at the prospects. If it all goes well, I'll have zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant and watermelon! I hope they all survive the transplant process and give me some decent results. If so, next year I'm clearing out an even larger area and adding onions, peas and cantelope to my garden. I hate the work of the garden, specifically the weeding, but I sure love having home grown fruits and vegetables to eat. They just taste better. And the price of produce has gotten so high, I think a little work is worth the effort. Anyone know what it takes to grow jicama? And I'm thinking about asking Scott how he feels about planting apple trees...

Side Effects

Ok, I've been on this new medication for a few days now and I'm not sure I'm noticing any change as far as the real reason I'm taking it, but I'm definitely noticing some of the side effects. I'm having occasional dizzy spells. They're not major, but they come from time to time. Also, I'm dried out. Dry mouth hardly covers how it feels. If I don't have a glass of water by me, I'm not happy. And I'm hungry! I see why they use this to treat eating disorders. This is not a good medication for someone trying to lose weight. I can't seem to stop eating. I'm as bad as my kids; almost the minute I'm done eating a meal, I'm wondering what I'm going to have for a snack. I am definitely not enjoying this particular side effect. The good news is I do seem to be sleeping a bit better. In fact, every day seems a little better than the last as far as my sleeping goes. I guess I'll give it a few more days and see how I feel then.

Huh...

After quite a bit of prodding from Scott, I finally went in to see my doctor about my insomnia. I'm not quite sure what I expected, but it wasn't this. After talking about my symptoms and what I've done to help (like not reading in bed, giving up caffeine, and exercising regularly), she decided I didn't need a sleep aid. Instead she prescribed an antidepressant. I can't decide how I feel about this. I'm not sure I would have said I'm depressed. But she may be right; this may be the elephant in the room I've been ignoring. At this point I'm just not sure what to think. It's the same antidepressant I was on for a month in college, so I know I won't have any weird side effects, and I know it'll help me sleep. I guess there's just such a big difference between taking an occasional sleep aid and being on a daily dose of antidepressants that I'm having a hard time adjusting to it. This isn't what I expected to happen.

The one part of this that made me laugh was reading what else this medicine is used for. Here are a couple highlights;
bedwetting in children
migraine headaches
chronic pain
eating disorders
OCD
panic attacks
premature ejaculation

Sounds like just what I need! :P

Lesson Time!

Becca was in charge of the lesson for FHE last night. I asked her several times during the week when she wanted to work on her lesson, and she told me every time that she didn't need my help. She was sure she wanted to do it herself. She also kept telling me it was going to be "so cool, Mom." Being the independent girl she is, I decided for once I'd let her do it herself. Maybe I should have pushed her a bit harder. Our lesson was on...

...toilet paper. Yep, an entire lesson on toilet paper. Somehow she missed that the lessons are supposed to be spiritual in nature. But she'd planned her lesson, so we let her do it. When she went over the different ways of wiping your bottom (demonstrating over her pants), I couldn't help myself. I laughed. A lot. She'd actually put some thought into her lesson. We also talked about other uses for toilet paper (like wiping noses and cleaning mirrors), as well as things not to do with it (like playing with it, leaving it around the house, and cleaning trees with it). Little Becca did her very first solo lesson, and she was as proud as can be of herself. :) It's times like these that make me LOVE being a Mom.

Check it out!

Since I'm one who rarely looks at what other people have linked to their blogs, I'm sure none of you look at mine either. There's a real gem out there I want to make you all aware of. My friend Deborah has a blog all about the amazing food she cooks. When we hear Deb is bringing food to any gathering we have, we all start to cheer and drool. She's amazing. Y'all should check out her blog, and tell your friends. Everyone should have the goodness of Deborah, but since you can't have her (lucky me), you can at least read her blog and try out her recipes. I particularly recommend her trifle and spinach artichoke dip. Oh, and you have to try the cheesecake fruit dip. It's heaven! :)

Let's all share the goodness that is Deborah!

http://deborahsw.blogspot.com/

Mothers Day

As with my birthday, my family did more for me this Mothers Day than they've done before. I chalk it up to my kids being older and more involved.

My morning started at about 7:30 with Tyler plopping a bowl on my tummy and telling me I get breakfast in bed. He decided I should have a bowl of cereal so he took the crumbs from the bottom of the bag of shredded wheat and poured in my (expired) milk. My kids drink 2% milk, but I drink nonfat, so he was being so good by using my milk. He had no idea it was sour. It was such a sweet gesture.

Scott then went downstairs and let the kids know Mommy wanted to sleep in a little bit, so they needed to be quiet and leave me alone. They did. About 9:00 they came up with my second breakfast in bed; peanut butter toast and pineapple juice. It was very good. They also came up with gifts; a beautiful, bright spring bouquet of flowers, a cute balloon, some sugar free candy, and a poem and recipe holder Rachel made at school. It was all very wonderful.

At church, instead of the usual mums or pansies we're given, our ward gave out pies. Yes, pies. Full size 9 inch apple pies. I was impressed.

When we got home from church, I got to sit on the couch and watch a movie with my kids while Scott made dinner. He did a great job of it, and he did a full on dinner. He made a roast, baked potatoes with all the fixings, and asparagus. It was all delicious. And with the apple pie, dessert was covered! Of course, you can't eat pie without ice cream, so we pulled out my new ice cream maker I got from Mom for my birthday and made homemade ice cream to go with it!

It was a very nice Mothers Day for me. My family really made sure I felt loved and appreciated.

Happy Birthday to me!

Yes, the candles say 21, but really I'm 31 today. Between Activity Days, gymnastics, and my normal busy day I'm not sure we have time to celebrate today, but it is my birthday. So happy birthday to me!

A Mommy First

Today was the first time I've ever had to take one of my children into the emergency room. Rachel was riding her bike and fell down, splitting her chin open. It required 4 stitches. (The stitches are blue, something she's not happy about as blue is a BOY color.) She was incredibly brave through it, even though she said she was sure she wasn't that brave. She did NOT want to go in, and was sure stitches just weren't for her, thank you very much. She was actually fine when we could get her distracted. She played with a little magnetic table with sand and frogs for quite a while in the waiting room, and even worked a word search with me. It was only when a medical professional came near her that she got scared. When it was just us, she was happy and laughing and cheerful as can be! I did take a couple pictures with my cell phone (who would think to bring their real camera to the ER?), but I'm just too tired to deal with that tonight. I'll try to get them up tomorrow so you can see the injury. It wasn't pretty.
It was a long evening, but she's fine, and the stitches will come out in about 5 days. Hopefully the scar isn't too bad! Overall, my first ER trip probably could have been a lot worse. And she was wearing her helmet which I'm sure saved her from a worse injury.

Besides the injury to Rachel, the worst part of this was the 5 hours I lost in preparing my talk for church tomorrow! That's why I'm still up at 2:00 in the morning. But my talk is printing as I type. Now I just have to stay awake long enough to give it! Wish me luck.

Here are the pics:

My Not Date Night

Last night was supposed to be date night with Scott. We'd been planning it for a while. The original idea was miniature golf, but with my arm being the way it is, that was obviously out. We ultimately decided on dinner and a movie. But I had a bunch of girlfriends doing a movie night that I was supposed to be a part of, so we decided we'd stop by that before we went out. I talk about these girls all the time, but Scott doesn't really know them and he wanted to be able to put faces to names. Or so he said.

I walked in to find not movie night, but a surprise birthday party for ME! I was SHOCKED. I had no idea. And it wasn't just a party with the girls, they invited people from all areas of my life, getting them all together in one place. It was an amazing night. The food was excellent, the company even better, and the activities of the night were hilarious. I had an amazing time. But most importantly, I feel loved and appreciated by an incredible group of people. This is a huge change from a year ago where I didn't really have any friends to invite to a birthday party. I have amazing friends. And I am incredibly touched by all the effort and love that went into planning last night. My birthday is still a few days away, but already this is the best birthday I've ever had.

I don't get it.

I'm curious about something. When did women become PROUD of being irrational and difficult? When did that become something admirable? I have a friend who posted something about women and the "funny" things they do, like when they say "fine" it means they're right, they just want you to shut up and "that's OK" means she's just still thinking about what your punishment is going to be. There were several things on this list, all of which were negative female stereotypes. Within minutes of her posting it, three more female friends posted it as well. They think it's funny. Perhaps my discomfort and lack of sleep are restricting my sense of humor, but I didn't find it funny. I found it embarrassing, mostly for the women who take pride in being that kind of woman. I recognize women in general have their shortcomings, and I probably more than most. But instead of doing something to make that better, most women I know seem to enjoy being able to get away with their irrational and silly behavior because "it's what women do." I don't understand taking pride in shortcomings. I don't understand celebrating irrationalities. If we as women enjoy and promote our faults, how will we ever improve? If we laugh at our failings, who does that help? And what are we teaching the next generation of girls if we applaud this kind of behavior? Perhaps I'm ranting over nothing and I need to lighten up. I just don't understand celebrating such negative behavior.

OK, rant over. :)

Ouch

Friday night I started having a slight ache in my right arm. It wasn't bad, just a twinge when I'd reach behind me. It was still around on Saturday, but it still was just an occasional twinge of pain. But it's been steadily growing. I now have a pretty constant ache from my elbow almost up to my shoulder with some pretty painful shoots going through it when I try to do simple things like brush my hair or get dressed or even little things like opening my refrigerator or trying to lift something. I don't even have to do anything to feel it, I just have to move my arm around. I couldn't sleep much last night because there wasn't a position I could lay in that didn't cause my arm to ache. I hate my doctor and am trying to avoid going in to see her, but I feel like I'm slowly losing the use of my arm. Any thoughts? What could be causing it and what can I do about it?

UPDATE:
The pain got to the point of being debilitating, so I sucked it up and went to my doctor. When I can't even wash my hair or put on deodorant without crying out in pain, it's time to do something. I can do a lot left handed, but I can't do everything and my right arm was almost useless. Fortunately for me MY doctor wasn't available for 2 weeks, so I saw someone else. She was fantastic. After a very thorough exam, she determined I have multiple micro tears all along my tricep muscle. It makes using it at all very painful. You have to use your tricep in almost everything you do with your arm, but using it causes more tears and prevents the old ones from healing. So I'll have my arm in a sling off and on for the next week and I got some pretty nice pain medication to get me through until it heals. It's a relief to know it's something so simple, and as soon as my ibuprofen kicks in, I'm sure I'll be much happier. And I have Vicodin for night time so I may actually get to sleep tonight!

Welcome Connor!

Connor James Carnegie was born yesterday at about 5:30 pm, weighing in at a nice 7 pounds 11 ounces and measuring a bit over 20 inches long. He is the first child for his very excited parents. We are all thrilled to welcome a new member to the family! And my kids are so happy to have a brand new cousin, even if it is another boy.

Is it a play group or a work group?

I was invited to join a rather interesting (for lack of a better term) play group this week. There are only 4 women in the group at a time, and we get together once a week, alternating houses. The idea is to get women with similar aged children so they can play together, but while the kids play, the women work. Today we met at Heather's house. We finished painting her kitchen, washed windows, cleaned her refrigerator, swept floors, vacuumed, and hung a painting. And we were only there for 2 hours. It's amazing how much faster everything goes with help, and there were only three of us there today! (One of them has a very sick mother.) And I was surprised at how much fun it could be to clean out someone else's refrigerator. It doesn't seem quite so much like work when you get to do it with great people working along side you. The group is limited to four so that we each get the group at our house once a month to help with whatever it is we need done. You only have to commit for a month at a time, but you're welcome to be in the group as long as you like. I don't actually know these women yet since they were all in the ward before the change, but I have to imagine I'll get to know them all very well very quickly. Now I just have to come up with projects that will take 4 women 2 hours to do! Any thoughts?

Better

I went back to Fantastic Sam's last night and the manager there attempted to help with my awful cut. The result is better. It's still much shorter than I wanted, and I still have the bangs I didn't want, but at least the layers are even and well blended. I'm not in love with this cut, but I don't feel like it's so terrible anymore.

Sorry, Angela, I didn't get a picture before I left to get it fixed. I called them as soon as I got off the phone with you and she said if I could get in before they closed, she could fix it right away so I rushed off to get it fixed. But I will take a picture later today so you can see the end result. Good enough?

Ok, here's the picture! And yes Scott, I colored it again last night as well, so it's a much darker red than it used to be.

Token

I was out shopping yesterday at my new favorite store looking for cute things to put in my hair to help me until it grows out, and I found this:

I'm not actually participating in Self-Portrait Tuesday, but this made me think of it. I don't have any kind of good luck charm myself, and I didn't dress up for St. Patrick's Day. But if I ever wanted a little token to keep with me, I think I might just go buy this.

I don't like it. Not one bit.

After many months of not getting around to getting a hair cut, I finally went in on Saturday to fix that. I just went to the local Fantastic Sams down the street from my house. It's right next to the gym, which was my real destination, so it was convenient. They were very slow and actually had a bit of a discussion over who got me. I jokingly said I wanted whoever was best, but got whoever was next on the list.

I told her I knew I had a lot of damage, but I was hoping to keep as much length as possible. I also said I wanted some long layers in it. After playing with my hair a bit, she commented that I didn't really have any layers, and I said again I like my layers long.

Normally my favorite part of getting my hair cut is getting my scalp rubbed during shampooing. Sadly, there was none of that. I'm not even sure she got the roots of my hair when shampooing. She really concentrated on the ends. But that's not my real complaint. After shampooing, she combed my hair out and started to cut. The first thing she did was pull the front of my hair down in front of my face and before I knew it, SHE GAVE ME BANGS!! I haven't had bangs in years, and for good reason, and I certainly didn't ASK for bangs. But that was her very first cut. And it just got worse from there.

I lost about 5 inches in length, I have horrible, choppy, uneven layers, and the layers she did give me are all short! The layers stop a few inches from the end, then the bottom few inches are all the same length. This is quite possibly the worst hair cut I have had in my adult life. I've tried doing my hair curly (I looked like a poodle), I tried just blow drying it (it looks like an old lady cut), and I've tried straightening it with my flat iron (which just makes the unevenness and choppiness of the layers super obvious), and it's too short to even pull all of it back in a ponytail! I can get the back of it up, but the front of my hair just falls down around my face.

I didn't realize the cut was so bad before I left because I was just going to the gym, so I didn't even bother having her blow dry it. I just tied my bandanna around my head and left. It wasn't until after my shower later in the day that I realized how bad everything was.

No, I did not take a picture to show you because I don't want a record of this horrible cut. Until I figure out some way to make it look good, I'll be avoiding cameras. I guess the moral of the story is, when you have an option, don't just take the next hairdresser on the list. Find out who the best is and wait for that person. Or find yourself a good hairdresser and stick to them!

A beginning and an end

Because of the change in our ward boundaries coming up, last night was my last night hosting our recipe Enrichment group for my ward. As of next month I'll be in a new ward! I was a little sad to see it end, at least for the time being. We had 4 women in attendance (that included me), which is about average. This group never had the time it needed to build up a good group coming, though many women expressed interest in the group. We had a fun night talking about anything and everything that came to mind. Two of us made stuffed mushrooms, but they were so different it was nice to have them both. There was also a cold spinach dip served with french bread, a pineapple cheese ball, and a warm cheesy bread. It was all excellent. I'm glad I started this group, and I'm hoping someone liked it enough that they'll keep it going after the boundary changes. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to try to start it up again in my new ward. I'll let you know if I do.

So that was the ending. As for the beginning, I am officially a soccer mom! We signed Rachel and Tyler up for soccer and they both had their first practices this week. This will be a short season, just two months, so it'll be just enough for them to get a sense of the game and if they want to play in more established leagues (and it will give me an idea if it's worth paying for a more established league before I put in a lot of money into something they end up not enjoying). We ended up with great coaches for both kids. Tyler's coach is our neighbor, and her daughter, along with the little girl across the street are both on his team. This is really great for me since some of his practices will be at the same time as Rachel's gymnastics class, so he can go with them. Rachel's coach is also named Rachael, and it's a mother of one of the kids in her class, so she's met her several times. Both coaches have several years of experience and really know what they're doing. Not all teams have that. The district had more than double the expected number of kids sign up, so they called pretty much every parent who had a child signed up asking for people who would coach. As difficult as we're already finding it to get two kids to practices and games (and gymnastics for all three still), I'm excited that my children have shown interest in soccer. Scott played for years as a kid and really wanted his kids to play as well. We didn't push this at all, they told us about it (repeatedly). Rachel even read the flier she brought home from school and marked the last day for sign ups on the calendar to make sure we didn't forget! So we're off to start on our next adventure, this one being soccer. :)

Oh, I also had my first piano lesson last week! It was just an evaluation to see what I knew and what I didn't so he could start with a lesson plan for me, but even that was exciting and fun for me! I can't wait to see what I'm able to do with his help.

Fizzy Joys: unseasonably warm days, pumpkin candles, laughter, fresh fruit in season.

It makes me want to cry...

I found out today that in two weeks time, they will be changing boundaries for almost all of the wards in my stake. This most definitely includes my ward. And I've found out from a very reliable source (my bishop) that we will be changing wards. This has happened to us in the past, and I know this is a normal process, but this is a really difficult division for me. I feel more attached to my current ward than any other ward I've been in. I really feel like I belong in this ward, like I have a place here, and that I'm loved and wanted. I LOVE my calling and finally feel like I'm doing it well. Our primary is running smoothly with wonderful teachers and great kids who I have grown to love. My kids, especially Becca, adore their teachers. To be honest, losing Becca's teacher is actually the hardest part of this. Sister Bills has been the sunbeam teacher since Tyler was a sunbeam. She's been looking forward to getting Becca since she got the calling. These two seem to have a really special bond. Becca just adores her teacher, and is more attached to her than pretty much anyone she's ever known outside the immediate family. And after only 2 1/2 months together, they're being separated. I'm heartbroken over it. Sister Bills is heartbroken over it (she spent the majority of the day in tears, and the split won't even be happening for two weeks), and I'm sure Becca will be heartbroken when she understands what's going on. I know changes can be good, and I do believe the Lord's work is being done, but I'm still sad about what I will be leaving behind.

In case you didn't know...

DDR for the 360 is here!! I know because Scott came home with it tonight! I have to say, it's a lot harder than I thought it would be. I've gone through all the practice lessons, and very much enjoyed the "lite" version of the game, but the one thing I did in the regular version I failed miserably at! I guess I'll see if I can do a little better tomorrow. :) Anyway, in case you didn't know, I thought I'd let you know it's out and I have it. Any advice or tips anyone has to share would be greatly appreciated!

Sigh...

It's snowing. But it's not the fun kind of snow, it's dry and small and COLD, the kind that doesn't really stick, it just causes problems.

Becca is sick again. She was complaining of ear pain yesterday (but says she's fine now), but she has a fever again and doesn't want to eat.

My friend I trade babysitting with brought her kids over today even though they have diarrhea.

Becca's car seat is in Scott's car, so I can't leave the house today.

I only got about 3 hours of sleep last night.

I need a bright side to look on. Anyone have any suggestions?

Edited 7:30 PM: Becca and Tyler are both throwing up now. Just when I thought we were finally healthy...

Quite a prize...

The first graders at my kids school were challenged at the beginning of the year to read 100 books by the end of the year. This was a challenge Rachel took to with enthusiasm. Of course they were promised a prize if they did it, and Rachel finished her first hundred books quite some time ago. But we've continued to count her books and send in her book lists. Last week she hit 200 books! Nobody else has anywhere close to that many books, not in the entire first grade. The next closest is 110. And today she came home with her prize from her teacher for her hard work. It was quite a prize.

Included was a darling Hello Kitty pink book bag, two little notebooks (Rachel's favorite thing in the world), three little gel pens in pretty colors, Hello Kitty stickers, Strawberry Shortcake cards, and a $10 gift card to Target! She got all of that just for reading! I'm pretty amazed at how far her teacher goes to encourage her.

As we approached 200 books, with so much time left in the school year, I've been encouraging her to go for 300 books, but she's fought me on it. Then I talked to her teacher and told her I would appreciate it if she would encourage Rachel in this. Of course she's happy to do so. So I told Rachel her teacher wanted her to go for 300 books. She didn't miss a beat before she said, "Okay, I'll do it." Just like that, she was ready to do it. Do you think she likes her teacher? :)

Oh, and if she makes it to 300 by the end of the school year, she gets to order pizza to eat with her teacher.

Aren't we done yet?

For the past week, we've been sick in this house. There hasn't been a day when there hasn't been someone sick. It started with me. I woke up last Monday with a fever and a lump in the back of my throat that was very painful and made it difficult to swallow. (I can't imagine what I would have done without Russian Tea!) On Wednesday I found out it was strep and was given penicillin. Within 36 hours I was feeling significantly better. But I wasn't the only one sick.

Tuesday, the day after I first got sick, Rachel woke up with a fever too. But not once did she complain of a sore throat, so nobody thought she had strep. She had a fever for three days, as I did, but when hers broke, she ended up with a pretty nasty cough that no medicine could touch. She's doing much better now, with just the last remnants of the cough, so she's finally back in school.

It was a relief when she woke up Friday without a fever, but by lunch time, Tyler had one too. But his wasn't the 101-102 degree fevers Rachel and I had, his came in at 105!! After not hearing back from the doctor's office, I finally got a hold of a consulting nurse. She said as long as he had no other symptoms, wasn't getting dehydrated, and medicine was helping to bring the fever down (does it count when ibuprofen and Tylenol combined only brings it down to 103?), that he would be fine and there was no need to bring him in. We medicated him heavily and often, and he seemed mostly fine. But if we missed a dose, he became lethargic and miserable. Both my fever and Rachel's lasted three days, so we were all set to deal with his for about the same amount of time. Imagine our surprise when he got up on Sunday morning, just a day and a half after the fever first hit, with a completely normal temperature. He does have a slight cough, but nothing like Rachel's was. I just have to say, I do not like fevers that high. They scare me. And I hated seeing my little boy suffer like that.

Sunday morning Tyler may have woken up normal, but Becca did not. Each one of my kids has had slightly different symptoms for whatever this illness is. Becca's fever is about 102, which is closer to Rachel, but she's been the only one who vomited. And that she did just once, Monday morning. She didn't want to eat for most of the day, just wanted water, and nothing could get her off the couch. My other kids were at least active when medicated. We are on her third day of a fever, so I am hoping it is her last. It's been more than a week of sickness in this house, and I am ready to be done with it! We've washed all the bedding and disinfected all the surfaces in the house. Let's just pray Scott doesn't come down with it next!!

Fizzy joys: ibuprofen, clean sheets and blankets, Russian tea, snuggling with my kids, someone else to make dinner, Dr. Seuss books, sun breaks, fleece blankets.

Tagged, I think...

Jenn sort of tagged me to do this (Does it count if there's a question mark?), and I thought it was cute, so I'm doing it!

6 Weird Things About Me

1. I love peanut butter and pickle sandwiches.

2. I won't take medicine unless I absolutely have to.

3. I don't like artificial light.

4. Taking a shower is a chore, not something I enjoy.

5. Exercising makes me happy.

6. I think smoking should be illegal.

6 Things That Make Me Happy (Right Now)

1. Penicillin

2. Braeburn apples and green grapes on sale

3. Piano lessons :)

4. Rebecca's smile

5. Listening to Tyler and Rachel read

6. Mulberry candles

I don't really have anyone else to tag since Jenn tagged Mom and sisters and that's about all who read my blog. But I may take this over to MySpace and get a few people there to do it!

Valentine's Day

As a general rule, I'm not very fond of Valentine's Day. I don't like forced sentiment, and to be honest, my husband isn't very good at that kind of thing. But this year I had a WONDERFUL Valentine's Day, all thanks to my amazing husband!

First off, he created a really great online riddle game for me. It's along the same lines as weffriddles, if you're familiar with that at all. I've been sick all week (strep throat) and he knows I've been going a little stir crazy, so he knew I would appreciate the entertainment. And entertaining it was, and fun, and creative, and challenging. It was so much fun! I loved it.

Then he came home with my REAL present. PIANO LESSONS! Yep, he arranged for me to be able to take piano lessons. I get an evaluation to see where I'm at and what I need, then 20 lessons after that. I couldn't be more excited, and he could not have done better for a gift. I accepted a long time ago that my husband is not the best at gift giving, but he completely blew me away this year. They say the best gifts are those that are creative and unique to the person you're giving to (as opposed to something like red roses or a box of chocolates that everyone gives). Scott hit the mark dead on.

Even though I have strep throat and basically haven't been able to eat or sleep in days, Scott's thoughtfulness and love made yesterday by far the best Valentine's Day I have ever had. Thank you, Babe. I love you!!

Happy Birthday Becca!

Today my baby turns 4. I can't believe she's so old! I thought I'd follow the example set by others and make a list of some of my favorite things about my wonderful little girl.

1. She has the best smile I've ever seen.
2. She wants to be friends with everyone she meets.
3. She is definitely a fashionista in training.
4. Hearing her count in Spanish always makes me laugh. "Una, dos, bles, watto..."
5. Her excitement is contagious, and she gets excited over everything!
6. She loves to share.
7. She has stopped cutting her own hair!
8. She says funny things every single day, many times a day.
9. She loves to cheer other people on, and she'll cheer herself on.
10. She loves to shake her booty and dance.
11. She is adamant that you call her by her name, whatever name she happens to have chosen for the day.
12. She is incredibly smart and learns so fast!
13. She LOVES Sunbeams.
14. She wants to be everything when she grows up. Nothing is out of reach for her.
15. She loves digging in the dirt as much as wearing nail polish.
16. She is fearless!
17. A kiss can still make everything all better for her.
18. Her bear hugs can knock you to the ground, and she loves giving them.
19. When she does something, she does it with all her energy.
20. She wants so much to do everything her older brother and sister do, and most of the time she can do it.
21. She runs nonstop until she drops in her tracks.
22. Her mood can change from happy to devastated to overjoyed in a matter of seconds.
23. Everything is her favorite!
24. She wants to include everyone in everything she does.

25. She is generous with her love and affection.

I am so lucky to have my Becca. Every day I am thankful for her. Becca (or Jo Jo or Pinky or Baby or whoever you are today), I LOVE YOU!

I'm not dead, I promise!

I know, it's been forever and a day since I've blogged. I'm not even sure I can tell you why or what I've been doing. But I'm almost never home, and even when I am I have a difficult time finding time to get to blogs. So I'm sorry I haven't been reading or commenting on your blogs. I'm going to try to be better about that. And I'll try to update all of you on what's been going on with me. Since it's getting close to midnight, I'll be brief tonight, but I promise to work harder at keeping you updated!

Becca had her birthday party yesterday. Her birthday isn't actually until Tuesday, but we wanted Scott's family to be able to come, so we had her party on Saturday. We decided to do an ice cream party, and it was a huge success! We had a couple of buckets of ice cream and a bunch of different toppings so everyone could pick what they wanted on their sundaes. I'll try to get pics up tomorrow of that. Now she's thrilled to be 4 (even though she's not quite yet), and she had a wonderful time at her pink ice cream party.

Tyler had the interesting experience of losing his first two teeth within a few days of each other, both in public! His first tooth came out in Jack in the Box. We were done with dinner, killing time in between gymnastics classes, and I decided to wiggle it a little. To everyone's surprise, it came out! Then a few days later, he was wiggling his other tooth in the middle of Sacrament meeting, and to everyone's shock, it came out too! He pulled out his own tooth! It was hilarious.

Rachel is thriving in school. I'm wowed at how quickly she is absorbing knowledge. She has also, after just one term, been moved up into the advanced grade school gymnastics class at The Little Gym. Her skills there are progressing rapidly, and I'm constantly amazed by her and how much she can do in every aspect of her life.

I'm actually getting to the gym again. I trade babysitting with a friend every morning, so from about 10:30-11:30 every morning, you'll find me at the gym! It feels really great to get back to it. I feel better, I'm lag less during the day, and I actually sleep better at night. I'm not sure what else I have to say about my life. I'm back to no dessert in my diet, I'm finally feeling competent in my calling at church, and I've made so much of Jenn's popcorn for my friends that it's becoming famous!

Scott is doing well. He mostly still likes his job, even though he works late most days. He enjoys his calling and is overall happy and busy. He's enjoying his X-Box 360. It took him less than 2 weeks to finish Halo 2!

So we're all (mostly) healthy and happy and doing well!

BRRR....

(This will be my second attempt at this post as I lost power again when writing it the first time!)

Did you hear about our weather? I hear it made the national news. Not that I saw ANY news, national or local, on it.

Thursday night we had a pretty major wind storm come through the area. It raged all night long knocking over fences, trees, power lines, trampolines, and anything that wasn't nailed down. It was fierce and powerful. We had a tree come down a few blocks from our house knocking out our power about 5:30 Thursday evening. I had my first Enrichment class that night, so you can imagine how disappointing it was for me to come home to darkness. (We did the class anyway, just by candlelight and with only the bravest few.) We hoped power would be back up by morning, but that was not to be. We woke up to learn most of our area was in a blackout. More than a million people were without power. And it was COLD. Inside my house was about 55 degrees when we woke up, but it was easily 20 degrees colder outside.

My neighbor and I took our kids up to the mall where there was power, but nothing on our way up to the mall did. It was like that was the lone grid with power in a sea of darkness. Then my neighbor talked to her husband who is a lineman for Qwest. They were told not to expect power back to our area for 3-6 days! And then came the weather forecast that predicted snow!

But we were one of the lucky ones. My neighbor was able to tell the power company exactly where the tree hit that knocked out our particular area, and when we were coming home we saw two power trucks pull over right at that spot! About 2 hours later, my lights (and heat!) came on!! I can't tell you how excited we were. My kids were dancing around and cheering the lights, and I was saying a heartfelt prayer of thanks.

My power did flicker a couple of times, and even went off completely for about 5 seconds at one point (when I was attempting this blog the first time). But we've been fine ever since. And we are lucky. At church yesterday we learned that there are still many people in our ward without power, and the majority of the ward got their power back Sunday morning. So it has been a cold, long weekend for many. I am grateful we got our heat back so quickly. 24 hours without power was an adventure. Much more than that would have been pretty miserable.

But it's still COLD!

Easy as can be!

Thank you Jenn for giving me your incredibly easy and oh so yummy popcorn recipe!

I know it's not nearly as cute as yours, but for a first try I thought it turned out really well! I probably should have drizzled more chocolate, but I loved how it turned out! So thank you so much! I'm sure this will quickly become a favorite at my house!

Real beats fake any day!

After a decade with our fake tree, we decided it was just too sad to pull out yet again, so Friday night the family took a little outing to go pick out a live Christmas tree! There was a lot about 2 miles from the house, so we didn't even have to go far. Just walking onto the lot made me smile. I LOVE that smell! We spent about 20 minutes debating over size and shape and finally found one everybody was happy with. But when we got it home, we realized it was a little too big to fit exactly where we wanted it! It is quite a bit bigger than our little fake tree. Add to that the fact that my kids broke most of our ornaments last year, and our nice tree is looking a little sad. We are definitely in need of more ornaments. (Mom, is there any chance I'll ever get MY ornaments from when I was a kid? I'd love to have them if you're ever willing to part with them!) But you can't beat the smell. Every time I walk into my front room I smell it all over again. The smell does permeate all over the house, but obviously it's strongest in the room the tree is in. And it's wonderful. All the pine candles in the world can't duplicate this smell. I would much rather have a real tree with very few ornaments over a fake tree all decked out. The wonderful aroma makes it totally worth it! It is definitely my fizzy joy of the day!

Lazy?

I've noticed only Jenn has posted a blog since we got home from the cruise, and she's only posted one. What is up with us?? Are we just lazy about blogging? I know we're not lazy in our every day lives. I know we're all busy and getting back to real life has been difficult, at least for me, but we're better than this, aren't we? I want to know what's going on in your lives! Where are my sisters at? Where are Mom's deep thoughts? Where are the blogs???

I made divinity and Valerie's caramels last week. The divinity turned out perfectly and I did a much better job on the caramels this time, though this time they ended up a little bit hard instead of too soft. I'll be making both again next week along with all my other Christmas candy. The problem is I want to make it, but I don't want to eat it all! The calories are killing me, especially after the cruise. I wish you were all here to eat it for me!

Fizzy joys: divinity and caramel, having a kitchen-aid mixer, a brand new box of tissues, unexpected telephone calls from old friends, finding the perfect gift.

Ready for a change!

I've decided I think I am going to be the most grateful out of all of us for the change of weather we're going to get on the cruise. Have you heard about our weather the last week and a half? With the constant rain, flooding all over the area, power outages (three times and counting at my house), and winds so strong it blows cars off the road and half my fence down (well, maybe not half, but several sections), I'm ready for a little fun in the sun!! So bring it on! Mexico, here I come!

Believe it or not, I'm actually really enjoying the wind. In fact, I'm liking it so much, it's my fizzy joy for the day! I love the way it makes everything smell clean. I love how refreshed I feel when it blows directly on my face. I even laughed today at how my hair was constantly getting caught in my lip gloss! Why did I even bother to put it on?

Am I crazy?

I just volunteered to start and run a new Enrichment group for my ward! I don't know what I was thinking. Except that I thought the idea was wonderful (thank you Mom!) and I really wanted to do it. I figured this was the only way it would get done, so I'm organizing it!

It's going to be a cooking group, but the way it's going to work is we're going to have a category for the month, and everyone is going to come having cooked something from that category. We can compare recipes, talk about what we've found that works and what doesn't, and have some kind of demonstration on the topic. At the end of the night you'll get to take home any of the recipes you want, and we're even looking into getting recipe notebooks to keep them all together.

Our first class is Thursday, December 14th at my house. Our topic will be Christmas candy. I'm actually really excited about this one, and I personally plan on making 3 or 4 different things. The women I've talked to about this seem really excited about it, so I hope it's as fun and successful as it sounds.

Future topics I've been considering: breads and rolls, casseroles, Mexican food, brownies, food storage, cookies, and cheesecake. Any other thoughts on what I can do? What would you like to see in a class like this? I've never done anything like this, so I'm a little worried about how to make it a success. I would love any thoughts any of you have!

Oh, I've also volunteered to start up a book club. It won't be under the umbrella of the Relief Society since our Stake President won't allow it, but my guess is it'll be almost entirely women from my ward. I'll have to deal with that when I get back from Mexico too!

Halloween

I forgot to blog on Halloween! I'll be brief, but in case you were wondering, here's a picture of my kids.

Rachel was a gogo dancer, complete with knee high boots (which she already owned). Rebecca was a cheerleader, a costume chosen over a princess costume. Tyler was a karate master, even though it's actually a tai kwan do outfit. Becca carried her pompoms for all of about 4 houses before she asked me to carry them. And they were all bundled up so much it was hard to see what any of them were! But Becca was really good about telling everyone at every house that she was a cheerleader. We walked around our entire neighborhood, which took a little over an hour. Their candy buckets were full! They whined and complained for at least half the walk, but by the time we got home, they said it had been lots of fun. Go figure.

We also got the little necklaces and bracelets that glow in different colors for my kids. This was the best thing I've done. Each kid was a different color, with a bracelet on each arm plus a necklace I could see from the front and the back. In times when they got caught up in large groups at a door, it was very easy for me to spot my own kids and keep track of them. It made the entire night much easier.

I didn't have the time that day to do the full Halloween dinner we usually do, so I came up with something a little different. Of course we did the spider dogs. My kids love those. But I also made "pumpkin cakes." It was just potato pancakes with food coloring added to make them orange. My kids loved it! And it was pretty simple to do. So if you're looking for something different to add to your Halloween dinner, this worked great.

That's my Halloween recap. It's not much, but at least you can see how cute my kids were!

Relief

I had sort of a rough week. Besides being busier than normal, my babysitter for the first half of the week of the cruise cancelled on me!! I was so upset I was almost in tears. I had 2 1/2 weeks until we were to leave and 4 days of no child care! So it's been stressful for me. But I am happy to report that I have solved that dilemma and I now have child care arranged for all 8 days we will be gone, as well as transportation to and from the airport! There are still a few minor details to work out, but overall the main issues are taken care of! I am so relieved. And I'm happy with the arrangements. I don't feel like I'm going to need to worry about my kids, who they're with, or if they're happy or being well cared for. So now I feel like I can finally be excited about the cruise! And we are. Very excited! We'll see you all in 2 weeks!

Fizzy Joys: Cheddar chowder, Halloween candy, a full moon, pumpkin candles, and new lip gloss.

I was worried...

I was a little worried about school pictures. Rachel got a great one last year, but with her missing and half grown in teeth, I was worried about what she would come back with. I was even more worried about Tyler who tends to make goofy faces for pictures. Imagine my surprise and pleasure when they BOTH came back with wonderful pictures! Here they are!

The beautiful and wonderful Rachel.

And my very handsome Tyler.

Obviously I'm thrilled with their pictures. Aren't my kids just the cutest ever??

What a great weekend!

I got to spend last weekend with Jennifer and her family, and it was WONDERFUL! Here's the recap:

We met Friday late morning in Seattle and started with lunch at Ivar's. It was, of course, so yummy, and the kids had a great time sharing their lunch with the seagulls, much to the chagrin of Jenn.

We had to make a quick stop by Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe on our way to our next destination which was the Seattle Aquarium. It's right on the waterfront, just 5 blocks from the ferry dock. Becca got scared by the giant shark hanging up but loved the touch tank, Tyler couldn't pick what he wanted to see most and ran around constantly, and Rachel just wanted to do whatever her cousins were doing! Personally, I liked the arch of jellyfish myself. That and watching Ethan's excitement when he saw Dori!

Next we hiked up to Westlake in hopes of taking the monorail, but alas, it was still broken down. We did take a quick walk through the fountain where those who did it got drenched! Becca thought getting wet was hilarious, Emily didn't like it at all, and the rest of us were damp for the rest of the day!

Then we hopped a bus and headed off to the Seattle Center. The plan was to go to the Pacific Science Center, but we got there later than we'd hoped, and the line to get in was obnoxiously long, so we decided to play around on the rides there in the Center. My kids all loved the frog hopper ride the best. We sent Kate, Megan, Emily and Rachel up in the ferris wheel all by themselves! Then after some cotton candy to give the kids a sugar high, we trekked all the way back down to the ferry dock! We just barely missed the bus that would have taken us most the way, so we walked it.

We grabbed food to go (McDonalds for the kids, Ivar's again for the adults) and took it on the ferry to head home. Scott hadn't been on a ferry in about 20 years, and my kids had never been on one, so it was a real treat for everyone.

Once off the ferry it was back to the lake house. The kids watched a movie and ate popcorn. Or that's what they were supposed to be doing. In reality they played and jumped around. All 5 girls shared a room, and I'm amazed they got as much sleep as they did! Once kids were in bed, the grown ups got to play games. I don't think Jenn will be going out to buy Dread Pirate any time soon. Then Scott killed us at Scattergories! It was a fun, but late night.

Everyone but Jenn got a bit of a slow start Saturday morning. She was up bright and early with Ethan. What a ball of energy that kid is! We hung around the house, built fun stuff with Lego's (you should have seen Kelly's space needle and Eiffel tower!), fed the ducks, ate pink champagne cake (so yum!), walked to Star Valley for candy, went to Tony's Pizza for lunch, took naps, played more games, watched TV, had a late dinner, and finally left Jenn's family in peace a little after 9:00 that night. Amazingly my kids stayed awake the whole way home, They couldn't stop talking about all their favorite things about the weekend. But as soon as they were in their beds, they crashed hard and fast.

It was a wonderful, perfect weekend. It was so great to be able to have that kind of time with Jennifer and her family. At least for me and my family, it could not have been any better. Even though Tyler still can't remember Soren's name (he just calls him his buddy), my kids had a really wonderful time playing with and getting to know their cousins. I loved having so much time with Jenn! We never get that. I just can't say enough about how awesome our weekend was!! Thanks Jenn for letting us be a part of your trip!

(I've tried three times to add pictures to this post, but as is becoming all too common, they're not uploading!)

Books

I've decided that when it comes to books, I don't have a very good memory. I don't often remember what I've read, who it was by, or even how much I liked it. So I've decided to do something about it. When school supplies came out, I purchased several basic spiral notebooks. At ten cents a piece, I couldn't resist, even though I had no idea what I was going to use them for. One of them has become my book journal. I don't write a lot in it, but I do record what I read, who it was by, what genre it belongs in (though sometimes I make up my own), and either a brief description or a review of some kind. That way I can remember what I've read! And if there was something I liked a lot, when it comes time to find a new book, I at least have an author's name to use as a starting point. I also have a place at the end for book recommendations from others (and books I want to read but haven't gotten to yet) and a place to write down words I may come across that I don't know the meaning of, or am not 100% sure of the meaning, so when I have time I can go look them up! I'm hoping this will help me keep better track of what I read, what I like, and what I want to read next!

Fizzy Joy: Book recommendations! I want to know what you're reading and what books you love!

The Tooth

Yesterday I had to take Rachel to an oral surgeon. She had a molar that never grew in fully, and as her first permanent molar started coming in behind it, it was crowding out her "little tooth," as she liked to call it. The gums were also growing down around it, so it was slowly disappearing. Her dentist, who is very good, decided it would just be safer to have an oral surgeon remove the tooth, so we got up bright and early yesterday to take her in. Rachel was calm and matter of fact about most of it, even though she was thoroughly scared about it. She was so scared about it she wouldn't even talk to Scott about it the night before. But when we got there, she didn't even want me going back into the room with her. I usually don't go back with her at the dentist's office, but this time I insisted. At least until they started anesthesia. They started with the laughing gas, then put in an IV to administer the good stuff. I wasn't there for any of that though. And I certainly wasn't there for the procedure itself. They had to cut away part of the gum to get the darn thing out. They did knock her out completely so she wasn't awake for any of it, but she woke up crying. Her arm hurt from where they'd put in an IV and her lip was numb from the novacane which was a sensation she did not like AT ALL! Apparently it's completely normal for girls to wake up crying. She said even the teenage girls do it. But boys tend to wake up laughing. Go figure. Rachel cried all the way home. Even the doctor ordered milk shake didn't stop her. She just cried as she ate it! Once we got her home, back in her pajamas, and settled in MY bed with the TV on, she finally settled down. So I spent my day tending to her. I'm pretty sure she milked it a little, but mostly she was a hurting and sore little girl. She's back to normal and back to school today, and the tooth fairy brought her $2 instead of the usual $1 for this big and difficult tooth. I have to say, it's much different looking at a molar with all the large roots still attached as opposed to a little baby tooth that fell out naturally. I hope this is the last time we have to do something like this. Overall, not a fun day.

Fizzy Joys: Dental insurance, Russian tang (for when I'm sick, like now), naps, afternoon sunshine, season premiers for favorite shows.

Talent and Ability

I'm not sure if anyone knows this about me, but I've always had a desire to be an artist. I've always craved the ability to draw or paint or do something artistic. Even just today I put pen to paper and wanted so much to be able to draw something. But here's the problem; I have absolutely no artistic ability. It's not that I haven't had the opportunity or inclination to develop a latent talent, I just do not have the ability. I've tried. Even things as simple as a step by step lesson on how to draw Mickey Mouse just goes over my head. Try as I might, I cannot get my drawing to look anything like Mickey. I know there are people who say I can and do express my creativity in other ways, but it's just not the same. I can't look at a blank piece of paper and imagine what to put on it, and even if I could, I am not able to bring that vision to reality. Something just doesn't connect. There is that story out there about when Michelangelo was working on the statue of David, he said that David was already in the block of marble, he was just removing the excess. It's a nice idea, but totally foreign to me.

This isn't a blog to complain about something I cannot do. There are many things I do, and even some I do well. This is more a blog about something that's been on my mind lately. Do we have legitimate limitations or do we limit ourselves? Are we capable of anything we're willing to put the work into or are there things, try as we might, that we just are not able to accomplish? I truly feel I do not have the talent or ability to be any kind of artist, and yet, I've always felt the desire to do it. I struggle to reconcile my longing to do something with the reality of my complete inability to do it. Does anyone have anything to say about this? Am I even making sense? I would love to hear what you have to say.

Full!

I haven't been able to make a dent in my quart jars (and won't be able to this summer) but I did spend some time filling up my pint and half pint jars this week. I made 6 kinds of jam, 5 of them new and different! I wanted to experiment with combinations, so when I was done canning my peaches and pears, I thawed some berries and went to work. This is what I came up with:

Peach
Strawberry Peach
Strawberry Raspberry
Blackberry Pear
Strawberry Raspberry Blueberry Peach
Strawberry Raspberry Blueberry Blackberry Peach Pear!

I just had to do one with all 6 kinds of fruit I had on hand. I have to say it turned out quite well. I filled up a total of 45 jars in pint and half pint sizes and ended up with approximately 36 pints of jam! Add that to the pear, raspberry peach, strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, strawberry blueberry, and raspberry blackberry jam I already had on hand, and I think I'm pretty set for quite a while. I don't think we're going to be getting bored with any one particular flavor any time soon, do you? Anyone who wants to make the trip up to see me will most certainly be sent home with a jar or freezer container of the jam of their choice! So come see me! I'd love to share!

Fizzy Joys: a sense of accomplishment, snuggling, laughter, making new friends.

Empty?

I canned my pears yesterday, and it went surprisingly smoothly. I was able to do it all in about 3 hours. I only had 2 boxes of pears instead of the 3 of peaches I had, but I still got WAY less with the pears than peaches. I canned 42 quarts of peaches, but only half that with pears. Why is that? I don't know. I thought I would get about the same amount per box so I should have had 28 quarts of pears, not 21.
Then this morning, I took a little time to rearrange my canning shelves to get it organized. I am so surprised at how many empty jars I have. I have more than 4 boxes of empty pint jars, at least that many in empty quart jars, and a couple dozen empty half pint jars. Where did all these empty jars come from? I know I didn't do green beans or salsa this year, but I didn't think I did that many jars of either of those things, and that only takes pint jars, not quart. I still have jam to do, but only peach, and that'll only be half a dozen or so jars. I don't remember ever doing a whole lot more canning than I did this year, and yet I have way more empty jars than I should. I was looking forward to shelves overflowing with canned goodness and love, but I'm left with half empty shelves and boxes and boxes of empty jars. It actually makes me rather sad.

Fizzy Joy: the white beauty of pears when they come out of the canner.

Oh, one other totally unrelated thing. A few days ago, we had a really foggy morning. It burned off by about 10:00, but it was foggy for a while. Yesterday, when Becca woke up, I happened to be standing right by her bed. She opened her eyes, jumped up, looked out the window, and the first words out of her mouth (with great enthusiasm) were, "Hooray! It's not foggy!" How funny is that coming from a 3 year old?

Catch up time again!

I know it's been quite a while since I blogged last, so let me try to catch you up on what's been going on around here.

Last Thursday was Rachel's first day of school. This girl was so excited she could hardly be contained! The night before school she picked out which of her new clothes she wanted to wear and helped me make her lunch for the next day. She made sure she had every thing she needed, even double checking her supply list, to make sure she didn't forget anything. She was still in bed, but wide awake when I went to get her up. She got dressed faster than I've ever seen her get dressed! She was dressed and fed and ready to go in all of about 10 minutes, which meant we had more than half an hour before it was time to go to the bus stop! Of course we went down early. Of course the bus was late (first day, plus there's major construction near our house which slows down EVERYTHING). But she didn't look back even once. She was ready to start her day as a first grader! What's better is that she came home even more excited than she was when she left, and was up and dressed before my alarm went off the next day! This girl LOVES school. She likes her teacher, she has friends in her class, and she loves going all day long and eating lunch at school. There isn't anything she doesn't like about it!

I tried to post a picture of Rachel on her first day, but it's not allowing me to post it. But if you want to see it, check here: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/lizzybb/rachelschool.jpg

While Rachel was at school, it was time for me to start processing my peaches (pears should be later today, so more to come on that). I don't know why, but this crop of peaches was harder to process than others I've done. Usually I can soak the peaches in hot tap water in my sink and the skin peels off pretty easily. Not this time. I had to cut away much more than I wanted to and it took much longer than I remember it ever taking before. It was frustrating and my back ached terribly by the time I was done, but when I got up the next morning and saw that all 42 quarts of peaches had sealed, I was thrilled! 75 pounds of peaches is a lot to do in a day, but it is so worth the effort it takes. Plus my very kind husband helped with my last box after kids were in bed. Thanks Babe!

Scott had Monday off, and instead of just sitting around the house like we would normally do, we decided to actually do something fun as a family! We got up and packed a picnic lunch then made the long drive out to Sequim. Yes, Sequim. We took a slight detour to look at Troll Haven, a couple of houses made to look like a castle and other medieval buildings with lots of carvings of trolls (we forgot our camera so we don't really have pictures to share). Then we stopped at a little country store that has really great produce and interesting foods. Scott goes there for a ginger ale that is so strong I can't even drink it. They also have local flavored honeys, lots of organic foods, and lots of small brand (often local) foods. You're not going to fing Nabisco or Kraft in this store. They also have samples of some of the fruits in season. I got to try a kind of melon I'd never even heard of before, and Scott tried some golden honeydew. It's remarkably busy, but I totally understand why. We had fun just walking up and down each aisle looking at everything. We did get a few things from their bulk department. My choice was dried cantaloupe slices. YUM!! They're sweeter than candy and oh so good! Rachel wanted some raspberry flavored yogurt covered pretzels. We haven't tried them yet, but they sure do smell good! We got some more ordinary things as well, then head off to our real destination of the day. We drove down to Dungeness Spit. I knew the walk down to the lighthouse was probably more than my kids would want to do, but I thought it would be a fun place to go. Just out of curiosity, anyone remember just how far of a hike it is to the lighthouse?? Anyway, when we got there, our sun seemed to disappear. The hike down to the beach was fun, but chilly. When we got onto the beach, with the wind off the water, it was downright cold! My kids wrapped themselves in their towels while they ate lunch. They abandoned them soon after though so they could go play. There was a little fort made out of driftwood that someone had started to build that my kids played in. Rachel spent most of her time trying to make it better, looking for more sticks to plug up the holes. Tyler found some driftwood clumped together that he said was a spaceship. I got to climb up and be the look out for aliens and asteroids! Rebecca just ran around, doing everything and seeing all she could. Sometimes she would be helping Rachel, sometimes playing with Tyler, sometimes just doing her own thing. We walked long pieces of driftwood pretending they were balance beams, Rachel found a stick that looked just like a sword (and gave it to Tyler!), and they tried to build a sandcastle, but we didn't have any buckets (oversight on my part). We were told we couldn't take our frisbee or kites down to the water because it is a wild life preserve, so that particular activity was out. It was high tide so there wasn't much beach to play on, but my kids still had a blast. They definitely want to go back to the beach again. But next time we'll check the tide chart and take jackets. After a couple hours on the beach, we went a little farther west up to Port Angeles where we met a friend for a quick dinner at McDonalds. They had a pretty cool play area, so my kids played some more, running around like they hadn't just spent hours at the beach! Overall it was an exhausting, but VERY fun day.

Scott did manage to get a picture with his camera, but again it's not loading. Here's the link: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/lizzybb/spit.jpg

Today is Tyler's first day of school. He was up even before Rachel this morning! He's in afternoon kindergarten, so being up early isn't actually necessary for him, but he was up anyway! The moment Rachel left for the bus, he started asking me when was it HIS turn to go to the bus stop. I told him we had a few hours, but that didn't mean anything to him. I told him it would be after lunch, but that just got him asking if it was lunch time. I told him what time on the clock it would be when it was lunch time, but he kept saying we missed the time and we were late! Finally I just set a timer and told him when the timer went off it would be time to make lunch. Then after lunch we would do his spiky hair and take a couple pictures and then, finally, it would be time to go to his bus stop. He ran out the door so fast, he ran right past our neighbors without even knowing they were there! He was down to the bus stop before I was even down the stairs! His excitement definitely matched Rachel's. I can't wait to see how his first day went.

I know Scott and I really talk up school to our kids, but even I am amazed at just how excited they get over it. I really hope this excitement continues throughout their entire education. As a parent, it makes me so happy.

Fizzy Joys: dried cantaloupe, cozy blankets, old friends, tylenol, blogs, school starting, the sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing a large project, fresh peaches and pears, books that can be read in a day, surprise good mail, afternoon church, good advice.