Thursday, January 27, 2011


My mom has stage 3 breast cancer. It sucks. She lives in Idaho and I haven't seen her since the beginning of December, but hopefully will be making another trip down there soon. She found out before Thanksgiving. Strong lady, plowed right thru Thanksgiving and Christmas like it was nothing! Has already had 3 surgeries and going in for another one this week. Headed for Chemo on the 31st, she has been an inspiring lady if anything. She'd hate that I called her lady, so I'll call her a girl. :) I sent her a necklace that said "Fights like a girl" and had a pink charm. I wouldn't want to fight, I'd wanna curl up in my bed and cry, but my mom like just keeps going. I am sad that I am not there and that Britni is the only sister there, I don't like only hearing news thru the phone and not face to face. Dang it. So yea, inspiring GIRL. Haven't always seen eye to eye... who knew sneaking out in the middle of the night to go see boys was a bad idea? Apparently my mom did. :) But she has always been a go getter. You put her in charge of something and you can guarantee it's gonna be decorated, organized, serenaded, that there will be things to take home, and definitely well attended. So I'm posting this out there because well, honestly its a part of my life. Don't feel bad for me, I don't have cancer, but you can say a little (or a big one) prayer for my mom and pray for her to stay strong... I LOVE YOU MOM!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

My kids come up in the middle of the night and sleep on my floor. I know, it's bad. I'm lazy. But the thing is, it's totally my fault. They wake in the middle of the night, Paisley crying at the foot of the stairs because she can't haul her blanket upstairs, so I go get her. Beck is more quiet, he slips in and sometimes I wake up and he's wrapped up in my arms. I can't sleep when he's in my bed, me squished between Beck and Stephen, it just doesn't work for me. So I put him on the floor, then he crawls in bed with me, then I put him on the floor, this happens 3-4 times a night, then add the time I go get Paisley, and the time I wake up to go check that doors are locked, and the 2-3 times I get up to go to the bathroom, and no, I'm not pregnant, I have always had to go to the bathroom a lot at night. You add that in with aches and pains of lupus that make me toss and turn and not sleep, and as much as I love sleep and my bed, I probably hate it just as much :) But this is why when you call before 8:30, I am not going to answer... :) sorry....


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Thursday, January 20, 2011

I don't very much like to cook. I never really have. I don't like the idea of spending forever on something and then 15 minutes later it's gone! I'd much rather spend that time making a quilt which I can look at forever or painting something which will last a long time. But cooking? Much to Stephens sadness, nope, not my cup of tea. Not to mention that I am extremely picky, so that doesn't help Stephen out much either. If it's pasta, chicken, or pizza, you can count on it being shuffled thru our dinner meals, but if it's seafood, something I have to buy at a specialty grocery store, or something I can't even pronounce, you can guarantee that I will not serve it, let alone, use my hands to prepare and cook it.
Our first year of marriage I rarely cooked and if I did cook it was often the same thing over and over again. I blamed a lot of it on me going to school in Moses Lake (we lived in Othello at the time) and then working at the gymnastics center and not getting home until 10-10:30 at night. So how could I cook right? Well, even after Beck was born it did not get much better. I tried every once in a while, but at most maybe once or twice a week there was an actual prepared thought out meal on the table. The rest of the nights it was frozen pizza, a Costco lasagna, or cold sandwiches. As Beck got older I tried to cook a little more. And even after Paisley was born a little bit more. And especially after my friend Bethany started being an awesome cook, or maybe I just never noticed it before, I was able to call her and ask what "lemon zest" was or if I could substitute cheddar for mozzarella in a lasagna because, well, I didn't have any mozzarella and dinner was in like 20 minutes! My sister, Jakobi, taught me about "color" on a plate for my kids to eat better. I never really thought about, I'd plop down chicken nuggets and a vegetable here and there and call it lunch. But she says to me on a visit there once, "aren't u gonna put any color on their plates?" so now I bought the plates that have little sections in them and I put a whole variety of foods and "colors" on their plates. If there's only like 2 things say, yogurt and chicken, Beck is like, "where's all my food?!?" so I must say that I have improved leaps and bounds in what my kids eat, but I still struggle with dinner. I have made many improvements this last 6 months or so. What can I say? I crave the domesticness of it! I have tried many new recipes, granted it has 6 ingredients or less, many of which have stuck to our menu and made it into the rotation. I have started serving dinner earlier, I used to wait until Stephen got home, 7 or 8, sometimes 9, but now I serve it at 6 and I find that Stephen comes home earlier. I can proudly say I am up to 4 meals a week, with a frozen pizza thrown in there and left overs for the other meals. But not this week, sadly, this week was a strep throat week for Korbi, so it was a fend for yourself, peanut butter and jelly kind of week. So the hard part about all this change and trying to be the "dinner is on at 6!" kind of gal is that they don't eat your food. :( it's a wrestle with the kids to try the new baked chicken and ranch recipe, even if it is smothered in cheese... "Take a polite bite" is my new rule, and kids don't leave the table til they've tried it. And poor Stephen is running in the door at 5:50, to make it too a church meeting at 6:00, so he grabs a small slice of chicken off the kids plate, and let's all admit it together; reheated up food is NOT as good as it was right when it came out of the oven! So he's eating his for lunch tomorrow or 3 days from now on left overs night. So seriously? What do all these recipes and nights of torture get me? What I tell ya?!? For one day having piece of mind that you did everything you could to provide a nice family dinner where you pretended to think you all would talk about your day after giving thanks to our Father in Heaven for supplying this food? I guess. I guess I'll take it. That and my cute little recipe box! Heck ya!


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Friday, January 14, 2011


Some of the kids' art work over the past few months. The first two are Beck's and then the last one is Paisley's. We were in sacrament meeting and she just grabbed her crayon and started drawing a person. She was copying what I drew on the other side. Up until then she had only made scribble marks and a few lines and what she thinks are "circles."

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

I don't sit down to eat unless I am at a restaurant. And then that's only if my kids aren't with me.... After dinner is ready I eat across from the bar where everyone else is sitting and eating. It's a bad habit of mine, but it seems like such an easier spot to stand even if my feet ache and my knees hurt. Then if someone needs a drink or they spilled their milk, I'm right there BAM! To turn around and grab a rag from the sink or get a cup And fill it with water or grab the salt and pepper from next to the stove. There are probably lots of moms that don't sit down to eat. I blame the flabby pouch on my stomach on this very act of standing while I eat. Because when you are standing there scarfing down your food you don't get to sit and slow down and decide if you are still hungry, so I end up eating too much, or not enough so I end up going back to the kitchen for cookies at 10:00 at night. :) It's like I'm "on call" and I gotta be ready for whatever is thrown (literally) my way. And while I'm standing there taking random bites of food and begging kids to eat, I start doing the dishes before I have even touched my plate because the rest of the family is already done and plates are piling up in the sink. Then another add to the frumpy tummy is after the kitchen is all cleaned up I snap open a can of ice cold Mountain Dew because frankly, I deserve it. :) but one day I will miss those dishes in the sink or those fingerprint drawings in a pile of ketchup, but for now, my feet hurt and I am going to break open a Mountain Dew. :)



Thursday, January 6, 2011

I LOVE Goodwill/Derseret Industries/second hand stores. My favorite second hand store here is called the Calico Cat and it's for the humane society and yes, there are cats roaming around the store.... The Calico Cat is where I find amazing things. Not very many things, but amazing things.... Like the first Care bears I ever found, true vintage ones from 1984 for 99 cents! The Goodwill here is hit and miss. I have never been able to find good furniture there, but random things, yes. Like today a fully loaded Optimus Prime toy and huge Batman and Paisley got a stash of princess fairies and all this for under $5! Yeah! I admit that yard sales have much better/lower prices, but yard sales, sadly, are not year round.... So I will stick to my second hand stores for the months of October-April. :)


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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Thank you thank you thank you! Thank you to Stephen's old girlfriend that "Dear Johned" him while he was serving his mission in Anaheim California. Although I didn't meet him until 5 years later, you paved the way for my happiness! Thank you!!!!
P.S. The above picture is not his girlfriend (Although she does look pretty darn good!) That's him and his mother at the MTC.... :)






Sunday, January 2, 2011

Christmas Sunday Best

Forgot to post these pics of my "angels" in their Sunday best... I say "angels" because, well, as cute as they are, they are farrrrrr from angels.... :)

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Cabin 2010 after Christmas

Beck and Paisley sledding in front of cabin. Paisley is not in love with sledding.... not at all...not even a tiny bit...
I sure love my new cameraAshton, Taryn, Kylie, and BeckI love my new camera :) Beck, Kylie, and Ashton sledding down the road in the front of the cabin at Priest LakeSledding hill on the right side of the cabin
Beck's absolute favorite hands down was his Lego Batman game for the Playstation
One of Paisley's favorite was her Dora doll
After opening everything under the tree we took the kids downstairs to see what Stephen has gotten them. It doesn't fit in our basement very well, but it has been fun to have!Neither of the kids remembered that we still has stockings to do. It's fun that they are so young and I get to remind them about all the fun stuff!
Beck and Paisley both got zhu zhu pets in their stockings from Santa
Paisley's pink Christmas tree and a ring pop she got in her stocking