Here's to griping

I'm normally not a pessimistic person, but I'm having one of those days where I found myself saying "you've got to be kidding me" more than once. Here's what's bugging me today:

I went to K-Mart yesterday to get the girls some new boots. I don't normally go there and was excited to see long sleeved women's t-shirts for $4. So I bought a black one in XL (I've come to grips with my XL body). They also had gloves on sale. I figured I couldn't go wrong with a blue striped pair (they are very cute, I bought them in one size fits most). I donned the new items today and was sooooo annoyed. The sleeves of the new shirt were about three inches too short. I'm 5'9". Apparently that equates to having monkey arms. Now could my circumference make shirts have short arms? I don't know about that. The new gloves that I bought were about one inch too long on each of the fingers. Seriously? Why does my five year old insist on stuffing an entire roll in her mouth? That's not so bad, it's when she tries to talk to me and spits crumbs all over the floor, then I have to sweep. While we eat dinner I have to endure 20 questions (at least). Here's a sampling: Why is this spoon here? What am I supposed to use it for? What's this green stuff on the pear? Why is this quesadilla (really just a tortilla) folded in half? Why is that plate on the table? So on and so on.

So in conclusion, today I am a monkey-armed, stubby fingered, cranky about cleaning and impatient mama. But I feel a little bit better by submitting my gripes to cyber-space. Tomorrow has to be better right?

Fee Fi Fo Fum

OK, I know I shouldn't laugh, but it's so funny. Avery picked these pajamas last night and I thought it was so great. Obviously it's time to put away clothes that are too small. She kind of looks like a giant. Note the gift bag on the right. It's full of stuffed animals. She takes it up to bed with her and then brings it down in the morning. The first sound I hear in the morning is the rustle of the gift bag.

Sunday Dialog

The scene: Ashby sitting on my lap during sacrament meeting on Sunday.

Me: Ashby, can I eat your face? It's just so cute and I love it, can I eat it?
Ashby: No, mom.
Me: Please, come on look at those cheeks, you don't need them, please can I eat them?
Ashby: No, mom.
Me: Come on, what do you need your cheeks for?
Ashby: No, mom.
Me: Why?
Ashby: Because if you took a bite from my cheeks, my food would fall out through my cheek-holes.

Ashby: 1 Me: 0

This is so cool

Regardless of the ethical questions involved, you've got to admit that this video is pretty cool. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2008/01/13/mn.beating.heart.created.kare

Researchers at the Univeristy of Minnesota have taken a dead rat's heart, stripped it down to a gelatin mold and then made it beat again. They injected the mold heart with heart cells from a newborn rat and made it beat again. They are now moving on to research with pig hearts. Pig hearts are so similiar to human hearts that they can be used in a person. The scientists are also working with other organs such as, livers, pancreas, kidneys, etc. What that could mean for patients on an organ transplant list is truly amazing.

We love sprouts

Back in September, I went to our Stake Women's Conference where three different classes were taught about varying subjects. My favorite class was called "The Worth of a Bean." We got tons of good recipes using beans. I even got to try pinto bean fudge. I had heard about it before, but had never tried it. It actually wasn't too bad, it only had a little pinto bean flavor. My favorite thing that I brought home were instructions to make your own bean sprouts. We were also given a little plastic piece of netting that you put over the top of your jar. We have all loved the bean sprouts so much. Our favorite sprouts are from using lentils.

Day One: Rinsed and left soaking for about 12 hours.

Day Two: Rinsed and left alone in a place free from direct sunlight. Beans need to be rinsed every 8-12 hours.

Day Three: Any growth?

Day Four: Just how we like them!

The girls will eat these for a snack and Roger and I love them on salads. We love sprouts!!!

Work Hard in 2008

So if I had to sum up my nature in one word, it would be lazy. I'm about as lazy as they come. If I could sleep all day, I would. Nice right? The problem is that laziness has become synonymous with other characteristics throughout my life.
Laziness=crankiness, depression, obesity, filthiness, boredom, etc, etc.
So, you see the problem? With this characteristic on my mind, I decided to make 2008 the year of working hard. I'm not fool enough to try and set new year's resolutions that are completely the opposite of what I am. That will never work. So what I had in mind was doing things all throughout the year that will help me change my lifestyle into one I want.
Here are the top five things I will be working hard on this year:

• getting out of debt. It will be impossible to get completely out of debt this year, but I'm going to make as much progress as possible. I think that will mean getting a job, and I'm cool with that. I will also be better about managing finances, poor management is what started all the problems
• getting healthy. I've lost small amounts of weight in the past, but my approach is different this time. I think I'm kidding myself by thinking I can lose all the weight I want to in the next four months. What I really want to do is slowly change my lifestyle to be healthier, with the intention and expectation that the changes will stick.
• gardening. We have never gardened before and I know it will require a lot of work. Since I'm lazy I can see that the work needed won't get done, unless I really try. So that's what I'm going to do.
• being prepared. I have learned recently that things go much better when I'm well prepared. This extends into several different things, here are a few: food storage, church callings, family home evening and 72 hour kits.
• building a strong family. I don't need to elaborate too much, we all know what's out there, the only way to combat is to build a strong family. I will do this by making our home a home of peace, refuge and love.

I'm excited about this year. Every year is another year to make progress and do better than the year before. 2008 is going to be a great year.

Christmas 2007

It's been hard for me to want to blog lately because I haven't in so long. There's so much I wanted to write about, I don't know where to start! I was really nervous about Christmas this year. It's the first year we haven't been with my family. There are so many great traditions that we do with my family, I was scared we would feel sad this year. Who wants to be sad at Christmas? I did my best to plan things for us to do that would be so fun that no one (me) could feel sad! A couple of weeks before Christmas we had a Family Home Evening where we talked about why we celebrate Christmas and what we can do to make it special for our family. I had this idea to write ways we could bring love and peace into our home on some stars to hang on the Christmas tree. I will definitely repeat this activity in years to come. The girls did really well and I was glad we did it well before Christmas so that we could refer to the things we had written all through the month of December.

Here are the stars we made. They say things like "hug someone you love," "share with Avery" and "give gifts to those who are sick."

Christmas Eve was the day that made me really nervous. That's when my family has their big Christmas party where there's tons of food and a fun present exchange. We decided to fill time on Christmas Eve by making sugar cookies. I was really impressed at how well the girls did frosting and decorating cookies. They made a plate for Santa and they turned out awesome! We really had a great time and couldn't remember why making sugar cookies from scratch gets such a bad wrap. Thanks Brynn for the recipe, it definitely is a family favorite!

The window sill takes great pictures!

I think Avery ate 7 sugar cookies for dinner.

Ashby loves them too.

Roger thinks he's so funny. He reminds me a bit of Mike Myer's as the hyper-hypo kid. Or Stuart from MadTV.

Girls excited to leave cookies for Santa and go to bed!

Christmas day came and the girls were quite excited to see what Santa brought. I think he did pretty well myself! We had our traditional Christmas breakfast casserole and then went to an afternoon movie. It really was a wonderful day and I think the kids enjoyed themselves too. This was the first year where I didn't feel a huge sense of letdown on Christmas day. Every year after all the presents are opened I'm always so bummed it's over, it ruins the rest of the day! This year we tried to fill the days with worthwhile activities and I think it paid off. I felt very fulfilled and happy all through the Christmas season. I am so grateful for our little family and for all the time we have to spend together!

The girls with their favorites from the day.