10 uninteresting things about me...

Just for balance you know...

1. My house is quite often messier than it should be.
2. I haven't showered yet today, and am still in my pajamas (it's 2:30).
3. My kids ate kraft macaroni and cheese for lunch today.
4. I like corn dogs.
5. I don't exercise as much as I think I ought to.
6. I get embarrassed too easily.
7. My garden is weedy.


That might be all I'm willing to admit to publicly at the moment...

(I heard that some people think that blogs are the new way for mormon women to compete, so I just wanted to make sure no one feels that they are lacking compared to all the great things I do...)

I'm not tagging anyone, because really, who wants to post lame things about themselves?

Last aerial dance class tonight

And sadly, my sis was ill, and didn't come, so no video, which is a shame. It was just the teacher and I, so I got to do some awesome stuff- swinging was involved (think peter pan flying on a string).

I'm seriously thinking about signing up for another class this fall (the rest of the summer is going to be too crazy)- if any of you are interested, it's really fun!!!!

Ten interesting things about me....

I've been tagged by my friend Emily, so here it goes... (although I think most of my readers know these things already...)

1. I have ambitions to join the circus. Maybe not really, but I'm loving my aerial dance class, and am thinking that I might take another session in the fall (anyone want to join me?).

2. I enjoy making my friends eat weird food. For my 12th? birthday, I took my friends to an indian restaurant. I think they all liked it. I've also introduced several to the szesuan (that spelling looks wrong...) catfish at the Madarin (some of them liked it).

3. My friend Natalie thinks I'm a little bit of a hippy. In some ways, I am. I believe that we were given stewardship over the earth, and that we should take care of it, so I try not to waste things, or use things that I don't need. I garden and preserve the food for winter. I raise chickens for the eggs (talk about a years supply!). I don't wear a ton of makeup. And personality-wise, I think I revel in being a little bit different (although I'm trying to not let that make me feel superior- maybe that's a personality flaw...).

4. I'm a democrat. In Utah. Although, the more I learn about life, if Utah had a decent two party system, I think I'd look more into other parties. When I was little my dad would give us a dollar if we said we were democrats. (Don't worry, I don't take payments for party affiliation anymore). I think I'm fairly moderate on some issues, and others, I'm probably pretty liberal (which is not a bad word-as much as Sean Hannity would like us to think so).

5. I use cloth diapers on my baby, maybe that should have gone in the Hippy one...I don't eat off of plastic dishes regularly, the real thing is much nicer- same with diapers. Although I don't blame anyone for using disposables. New babies are a lot of work, and cloth seems overwhelming when you've never tried them. I got into cloth when A had diaper rash problems that wouldn't go away. I also sell them on my very own website- Green Peas Baby. And my store was named best "diaper dandies" (whatever that means) in SLC Weekly this year.

6. I'm building a "dry riverbed" in my front yard. My Mister helped get the landscape fabric in, and did the sod, but he's been too busy, so every day (or so) I haul several loads of rock from across the street. I was using 5 gallon buckets until my Mister fixed the wheel barrow. It's taking a long time, but it's looking great.

7. Another hippy one maybe- I am growing cranberries in my backyard. So far they're doing pretty well. I'm hoping to get enough in a year or so to start making cranberry juice and canning it.

8. My dream house is going to be passive solar, and have solar panels, and cork flooring, and, well, you'll have to come see my dream house book sometime.

9. I make my own yogurt, it's tart, and I love it. I also use it to make homemade sherbet. I love it with home canned apricots- with just a tiny bit of sugar so that it is still tart. I like tart things. My kids love yogurt but I didn't want them eating so much sugar. Plus it is satisfying to make my own.

10. I love BBC miniseries'. Other than Pride and Prejudice, which I love, I've more recently fallen in love with North and South. I just got the first disc for Cranford in the mail from netflix.

Okay, if everyone made it through that- I may not be as interesting to other people as I am to myself. I tag Becca and Emily (my sister) because she LOVES things like this...

Aerial Class #3

Just me and my sis...
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Funny things and Naughty babies

Me: What should we have for lunch?
A: Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches!
J: I'm retired from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

(I'm not terribly fond of peanut butter myself, so he must take after me.)

This is what happens to babies who are naughty at our house. (Just kidding- this kid just likes to crawl into small areas!)

Aerial Dancing

I'm the one with the darker purple top (the one that is NOT the instructor).

What foods don't you eat?

My friend Charlotte commented on the RIP post and made me think of what foods I eat, and what foods I am trying to avoid.

I have started buying nitrate free deli meat, since I'm uncomfortable with my kids eating so much lunch meat. It's harder to find, and our regular grocery store doesn't carry any. If I say I'm not eating meat with nitrates/nitrites in it, I'm also going to have to stop eating ham, hot dogs, and who knows what else.

The other thing that I've decided really grosses me out is jello. I LOVE jello. Especially red jello with bananas and raspberries inside and cool whip on top ala my granny (who died a few years ago). Gelatin just sounds nasty though. Thankfully, my sister found some vegan gelatin, and made some for us at a family party last year. It was a little runnier than granny's but didn't have the "ew gross" factor.

So what foods don't you eat, and why not?

(My mister loves it when I decide that "we're" not eating certain things anymore. He doesn't know about hot dogs yet. Sorry Mister. Maybe I'll be able to find some that both taste good and are nitrate free....)

RIP Chickie, Black, and Red (3/25/06-6/24/08)

In order to make room for the new chickens, we had to (ahem) "retire" the old ones.  We all knew this day was coming, and that this was "fulfilling the measure of their creation", but it was still difficult for me.  I'm glad they had a good life, not like battery cage chickens.

My sweet Mister took care of everything, making sure I didn't see anything that would be upsetting.  He came and told me after that he vocally thanked each chicken for providing us food before killing it, which made me feel better.

The boys wanted to see them (after they were plucked and cleaned) and were surprisingly not upset- although they thought it was gross.  We talked about how we were so grateful to the chickens for giving us eggs and now meat.  I think it's good for them to see where their food comes from.  

Mr. Gordon, Fred, Mario, and Little Jerry all seem to be doing well, and as far as we can tell, are all hens (although we're not so sure about little jerry (which is especially funny if you're a seinfeld fan)).  They are getting huge and are really hard to feed in the pen in the garage, because when you take the top off the fly up at you.  It's a little scary, and I've thought about wearing safety goggles (my eyes! my eyes!).

They'll be thankful for the larger pen out in the fresh air and sunlight. 

Joining the Circus

My sis (Hi M!) and I signed up for an aerial dance class together.  It isn't something I would have ever done on my own, so I'm especially grateful to M for asking me....

I love it.  Ever since our class last night, I've been trying to figure out how to hang silks from the ceiling in my house.  We decided that we need a barn.  

Note... This picture is not me, and I didn't do anything that interesting, but it gives you an idea of what I'm doing.  It didn't seem all that difficult, exercise-wise, except that I could tell my hands were going to be sore, but by the time class was over, I was out of breath and felt like I'd had a pretty good work out.  

Why I still read the Trib comments....

Usually the comments on articles are mormon bashing, and I try (unsuccessfully) to not read them.  This article, although not funny in itself (I don't advocate laughing at people who get attacked with shovels, really!), had the best comments.  My Mister and I sat last night (granted it was late) and laughed so hard we were nearly crying.

Check out the articleHERE, and if you need a link directly to the comments it's HERE

Rereading them this morning, they're not quite so rolling-on-the-floor-funny, but still amusing.

Here are the comments just in case they disappear from online...

This is the kind of headline newspaper people fantasize about!

A shovel? He may have been planning on more than urinating. (having a dog that we do poop scoop duty for, this one is my favorite)

It will be interesting when the name of the criminal is released.

I wondered where all my neighbors moved to.

Never bother a man urinating on your lawn while he is holding a shovel.

Looks like someone needs to be more discreet with their public urination. Its a skill that takes time, but once mastered, the world can become your urinal..

Not for the women :-(

Men have the power to water down bugs while camping and can write their name in the snow with urine. Maybe thats why "MEN" think they should rule the world.

Yard Updates on the house blog

House Blog Updates

Things that make you think it will all work out.

We've had a difficult time adjusting to having J home during the day. It feels a little bit like he is always in trouble, and I have been wondering if I need to let some things go, or keep doing what I'm doing in hopes that eventually he'll start listening and obeying. It's nice to know that even though they argue and yell and sometimes even hit each other, that they still love each other. (at least during cartoon time)

Rule of the Day...

If it looks nasty, put cheese on it.

I warmed up some spinach that I had frozen awhile back, and ran it through the food processor. I mixed it with baby rice cereal because CP seems to eat anything if it's mixed with rice cereal.

It looked disgusting. I didn't even want to test it to make sure it wasn't too hot. So I melted some cheese into it. It actually tasted okay. Not something I'd seek out for lunch or anything, but better than mashed up green beans for sure. He ate several bites and enthusiastically signed for more. Then all of a sudden he must have realized I was trying to pull one over on him because he signed "all done" and wouldn't take another bite, not even when I flew the spoon at his mouth with appropriate motorcycle and/or airplane noises.

We'll try again at lunch tomorrow.

Raise your hand if you had soggy cereal this morning.

I think it must be a mom thing. As soon as I pour milk on my cereal, all of my children start needing something, and by the time I get back to my bowl of whatever cereal was on sale, it's nothing but a soggy mess. I either need to learn to eat cereal dry, or hide in a closet to eat.

Today, A wanted a snack (really, a snack? I haven't even had breakfast yet!) and I had of course, just poured the milk. I told him I'd help him after I ate my cereal. He suggested putting it in the fridge so it wouldn't get soggy. He wouldn't give up. Thankfully I had just shoved the last bit of food in my mouth when I saw him scooping yogurt into a bowl, and was able to "help" him before we had a yogurt table cloth.

I'm not sure speed eating beats soggy cereal. Maybe, but just barely.

Today's A-ism

Did you know that, "Mindiana Jones has a bendy whapper"?

A says so.

If you can't figure out what a bendy whapper is, just ask.

My own About You non-email forward

You know how it goes... Copy and paste, then replace my answers with yours. You can thank me for not sending an email forward later (just kidding, I like getting those from friends!).

1. What does your spouse call you? Al

2. What do you bake/cook that you do better than anyone you know? I like most of the food I make, but especially my stir fry, and my cheesecake and orange rolls, and swedish pancakes, and butter mints (although I get the orange roll/cheesecake/butter mint talent/recipes from my mom (who got them from other family members).

3. What is the most important thing you do for yourself? I use to go running, but I've gotten a bit lazy about that. Now it's probably having time to myself to blog or read or play online scrabble.

4. What is your favorite thing to do with your kids? I love bedtime. I love how they smell after a bath, with clean damp hair while they sit with me and read a book. I also like to run around with them on the grass until we get so tired that we all fall down. I also love listening to them play together or by themselves and hearing the things they come up with.

5. What was the last date you went on with your spouse? I think we maybe went to Ikea? We usually get movies and have popcorn and smoothies at home. We are going to see two plays in June in Cedar City, which I am super excited about.

6. What made you smile recently? On tuesday night, I was at YW's, and my Mister was out in the yard. The kids were supposed to be in bed. My Mister had just mixed cement for the basketball stand when he heard A screaming. By the time he had the cement in place, and made it inside, A was in his bed asleep. He asked J why A was screaming, and J said that A went to the bathroom and needed help wiping. Since no parents were there to do the job, J helped him. I'm so proud of my boy! He does things like that fairly often, and it makes me think that he's growing up just fine, even if sometimes he doesn't listen as well as I think he should.

7. Where would you most like to be right now? Home with my family, during a power outage (as long as it was only a couple of hours before the power came back on).

8. What is your favorite job to do around the house? Vacuuming, maybe? I'm not so fond of doing jobs around the house, but I love how the house looks when it is clean, and there is something satisfying about having the lines from the vacuum all match up (OCD anyone?).

9. What is your least favorite job around the house? Folding laundry. I don't do it. (Thank you Mister)

10. What should you be doing right now, instead of answering my silly about you questions? Cleaning my house. :)

Coffee Tables are not for the belly

A said to me, "My teacher said we shouldn't drink coffee".

I said, "That's right, we don't drink coffee".

He said, "Then why do we have a coffee table?".

He suggested we call it a water table, or a milk table, or an orange juice table.

Baby Vampire

Racing Dad

The boys like to ride their bikes to the park, it's especially fun racing dad on the way home! (J is in the stroller with the CP because losing his bike riding privilege is one of the more effective consequences to not obeying).

In the second picture A is about to crash, but he immediately hopped up and said, "I'm Okay".

Baby Fauxhawk