Photo a Day: How You Feel Today

Today, I feel tired...

...just like my cat.

It's been a fairly busy few days.

I cut, packaged, and froze 80 pounds of chicken.

I had an eye appointment, and my doctor said everything is looking good from my surgery.

I sight-read some piano music for a musical number in our ward on Sunday. A few girls that were planning to sing couldn't make it, so the pianist had to step in to sing. She brought the music to my house 15 minutes before church started, I played through it once, and then played in sacrament meeting.

I also taught the gospel doctrine lesson (that's my current calling; I teach once a month), and had helped Jakob prepare his talk in primary as well.

I cleaned at my dad's office.

I had a short piano recital for some of my students. Jakob did great, I messed up a little (but I hadn't practiced all that much-I decided last minute to play at the recital). I decided to take May off of teaching, which is probably a good thing, because Pete just started working Wednesday through Saturday for 12-hour days. 48 hours of work, plus 8 hours of commuting time. He's a good man, that one.

I did my visiting teaching. Yay!

I went grocery shopping.

I'm totally caught up on laundry.

Pete and I watched "First Knight". "The law will judge YUH!"

I made cornbread for our ward's chili cook-off, which won a little award. Here's the recipe, from my kids' preschool teacher, Miss Karla:

Cornbread

1 cup butter melted

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup cornmeal

3 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

Mix butter, sugar, and eggs. Add buttermilk and stir.

Stir dry ingredients together and add to liquids. Stir just until moistened.

Pour into greased 9"x13" pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

And, I fed the missionaries last night. They ate SOOOO much food! I don't know what I'm going to do when my boys are that age, and eating me out of house and home. Note to self: quantity, not quality.

Today, I've done pretty much nothing. Even moms need days off every once in a while, right?

Photo a Day: Somewhere You Went

Monday afternoon was HOT. I don't know if I've ever said that about an Idaho spring before. So I called Pete and suggested we get some KFC and have a picnic at the park for Family Home Evening.

But Monday evening was a little windy, and started to get overcast quickly. We stuck with our plan and got some food and went to the park. After eating, my kids just played and played and played. It got windier, and colder, and even rained on us a bit. But my kids didn't seem to mind. They continued to play in the dirt/mud, slid down the slides and got wet butts, and ran up and down the steep hill in that park.

Not pictured: Brock, because he and Pete left to get some ice cream. Which we still haven't eaten. For some reason I always forget about having ice cream in our freezer.

Photo a Day: Fruit/Breakfast/Delicious

Here are some pictures of the fruit smoothies that my sister discovered during our health challenge.

This one had pomegranates in it, so it was a little seedy (as in full of seeds, not run-down). But it was still yummy.

I'm going to share the recipe again, just because it might be hard to find in the wall of text that was my report on our health challenge.

FRUIT SMOOTHIE

3 cups frozen fruit, any kind (we liked strawberry/banana the best, or a mixed berry kind) 

1 cup milk (or water or juice, but we always did milk)

1/2 cup yogurt (we did vanilla)

1/2 cup sugar

I discovered that when I put the fruit in last instead of first, my blender was a lot happier with me.



I'll make this for breakfast all the time now, especially on the weekends when Pete is at home in the mornings. It makes enough for two people to have their fruit servings for the day.

Kinda Like Lent, Or, 7 Pounds

Well, my family and I just ended our 6-week health challenge.  It was a really great experience. And now I'm going to write ALL about it!

We started January 2, and ended February 12. The different categories of the challenge were: getting 7 hours of sleep every night, eat three servings of fruit and three of veggies every day, no eating after 8 p.m., drink 64 oz. of water every day, exercising, and no sugar. Each part was worth 5 points, except for no sugar, which was worth 10 points.

7 hours of sleep every night. This one is easy for me.  I actually think that I need more like 8 - 8 1/2 hours of sleep. For a while a couple of years ago I was trying to go with about 6 1/2, and I couldn't keep my eyes open by the end of the day. My kids get their own breakfast usually, so when they do and I don't have to set an alarm to get up (like in the summer), I usually wake up at about 8 or 8:30 when going to bed at 11:30. During the challenge, I had one day that I didn't get the 7 hours, and it's because I was out way too late with a couple of my girlfriends, and then we had to get up early the next morning. So I got 6 1/2 that day.

I felt like, during the challenge, that I had really weird dreams the whole time.  Well, I have weird dreams a lot, but it seemed to be more than usual. Maybe I was getting more REM sleep time or something. So yeah, this part of the challenge was not so challenging for me.

Eat 3 servings of fruit every day. This part of the health challenge wasn't all that hard for me, either. The very first day for breakfast, I ate some oatmeal with peaches chopped up on top. It was really yummy! Before the challenge I would have had the oatmeal but no peaches, or no breakfast at all. I also had Life cereal with a banana cut up on top (before would have been Life cereal with a load of sugar on top). I would usually have one of my fruit servings in the morning, one at lunch, and one at dinner.

My sister Kar introduced us to a super easy smoothie recipe. It's 3 cups frozen fruit, 1 cup milk (or water or juice, but we always did milk), 1/2 cup yogurt (we did vanilla), and 1/2 cup sugar. We tried this with different mixes, but my favorites were strawberry/banana, and one that had raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries. YUM! It was an easy way to get all your servings in one fell swoop. (A serving size of fruit is generally 1/2 cup, so when we made this Pete and I would have half a smoothie each and get our servings in.)

I realized that I really enjoy having fruit for breakfast in whatever form, so I plan on continuing with that. I also liked having a variety of fruits so it wasn't just an apple every day or something.

Eat 3 servings of vegetables every day. This part was...surprisingly fun. Exciting, even. It was almost like rediscovering all the veggies that I liked, but just didn't take the time to buy or eat on a regular basis. Like broccoli, and green peppers, and cucumbers. We made Veggie Pizza at least 3 or 4 times during our challenge, which is SOOOO good. I also cut up veggies and stuck them in little baggies of one serving in each. That way we could grab a bag that was ready to go and know that it was a serving. Very handy. Though celery doesn't last very long that way.

Another thing that got introduced to me by my sister Lex was individual salads. They're called Ready Pac Bistro Salad. They are a salad that has all the cool, yummy stuff you'd want. For example, the Santa Fe one has little chicken bits, tortilla chips, shredded cheese, roasted corn, and a dressing that's like Thousand Island.  Oooh, yum!

The hardest part of getting my three veggies in was sitting down to a huge plate of veggies at lunch. I would try to get two servings in at that time. I kind of have TMJD, where my jaw will lock up sometimes to where I can't open my mouth, and I have to pop my jaw open, and then it continues to lock and pop while I'm eating. Like 80s robot dancing, but in a way nerdier, crappier, non-productive way. It's SUPER fun. I've noticed it comes on when I'm chewing hard things like carrots, or dense things like steak. (And forget about gum.) So during a lunch of carrots, apples, and celery, my jaw would be hurting and I'd be frustrated. I guess the lesson with that is to chop up my food into smaller bites, like diced celery instead or something. But I do love having a veggie-oriented lunch, which I plan on continuing now that our challenge is over.

And to get my last serving in of the day, I usually ended up cooking something with veggies in it. Most of my dinner meals are like that, so that was a no-brainer.

Here are some FABULOUS recipes you have to try. The first two are family favorites, and the last one is one that I discovered during this challenge:

VEGETABLE DIP

1 cup mayonnaise

8 oz. sour cream

1 Tbl. minced onion

1 tsp. dill weed

1 1/2 tsp. Bon Appetit spice (Shillings or McCormack)

Mix all ingredients together and serve with vegetables. This gets better if it sits in the fridge for a few hours.

VEGETABLE PIZZA

Thaw and flatten 1 loaf of frozen Rhoades bread on a cookie sheet.  Cook at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Mix together and spread on top:

½ cup mayonnaise

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 tsp. dry Hidden Valley Ranch dressing

1 Tbl. liquid Hidden Valley Ranch dressing

Then add on top:

1 cup grated carrots

1 ½ cups cut up broccoli

1 ½ cups cut up cauliflower

Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese on top.

CHEESEY VEGETABLES
24 oz. bag frozen California blend vegetables
1 stick margarine, melted
10 oz. Velveeta cheese, melted
1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed

Cook veggies according to package directions. Mix half of margarine with cheese and half with crackers. Add cheese mixture to veggies. Place cheese and veggies mix in 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Top with crushed cracker mixture. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until bubbly.

California blend veggies is a broccoli, cauliflower, carrot mix of some sort. I tried this with a carrot, corn, green bean veggie mix. I LOVED it.

No eating after 8 p.m. I'm not sure when the bad habit of eating snacks after 8 started for me, but rest assured it was a habit I needed to break. Because it's not like I was snacking on veggies. So the first night at about 7:30 p.m., I was still hungry, so I snarfed down some cheese really fast before 8. After that day, though, I was totally fine not eating after 8. Here and there I would get cravings for things, but I wasn't hungry, and there's a huge difference.

That's one of the really cool things about this challenge, is it makes you extremely aware of what you're putting into your mouth, and when. For instance, now that our challenge is over, Pete bought some Twizzlers Bites, and we were watching Downton Abbey (which is AMAZING: if you haven't seen it then WATCH IT RIGHT THIS SECOND FROM THE BEGINNING). I popped a couple of them into my mouth.  Then about 10 seconds later, I threw a few more into my mouth. And again. And again. I physically had to move them to stop eating them.

So now that our challenge is over, I need to continue to be aware of what I'm eating and when.

Drink 64 ounces of water every day. I didn't struggle with getting the water into me. I hated the aftermath of it though. I seriously had to use the bathroom every 2 hours, and would get up at least once a night to pee. UGH!  I hated that part of this. Drinking the water: good. Going through 500 rolls of toilet paper: bad.

To prevent the multiple bathroom trips at night, I would try to get as much water into me in the morning as I could. I would fill a 20-ounce water bottle, add some Propel or Crystal Light flavoring to it, drink it down halfway, then fill it to the top and drink it down all the way.  That way I figured I got 30 oz. in in the morning. Then I'd have 20 ounces at lunch and 20 at dinner.

Since I'm such a Coke lover, I thought I'd be going through withdrawals or something during the challenge. Before the challenge, I would have a glass (14 oz.) of Coke at lunch time. So roughly a can a day, which to me doesn't seem like all that much. Not good for me, but not necessarily bad for me, either. It was mostly my little indulgence, a way of pampering myself. But surprisingly, I didn't crave Coke at all the whole time. Okay, that's not true. The only time I craved Coke was when we went out to eat like at Chilis or Wendys. That's when I didn't want to drink water.

So I decided that now I'm not going to buy pop for myself to have at home. But if we go out to eat, I'm not going to stop myself from getting a Coke.

And yesterday, I had been so sick of peeing so much, that I went the other extreme and didn't have hardly anything to drink the whole day. And right before dinner, I felt kind of sick to my stomach. Maybe my bladder was cramping up or something, like FEED ME, SEYMOUR! So even though I might cut back slightly on the 64 ounces, I still need to keep hydrated. Also, I need to get more milk into my diet, so maybe I'll substitute that for my water at dinner.

Exercise. These last two categories (exercise and no sugar) were the hardest for me. The original challenge had 5 points for each 1/2 hour of exercise, up to 10 points a day (so an hour of exercise, for all you mathematically-challenged people). We changed ours to be 1 1/2 hours a day (so up to 15 points a day). This was the main category where I lacked in full points. (I got perfect points the whole challenge in fruits, veggies, no food after 8, and water. I missed the one night in sleep, and one day at the very end in no sugar.) I always got the first half hour of exercise in, and usually the hour, but getting that last 30 minutes was a bit of a struggle for me. I did it more times than not, but it was hard.

For the exercise, I did a lot of yoga, walking, and Dance Central. My parents have the Dance Central on the X Box, and it has a fitness section and you can choose the length and intensity of your workout. It was really fun, and I would get super sweaty doing it.

I would go walking with my mom; we mall walk. That's also way fun, because I get to chat with my mom as I push Ivy in a stroller. There are a lot of cute elderly people that are there. One guy that salutes us as he walks by told us that walking next to the walls for 1 lap is 6/10 of a mile. Since my mom and I do 5 laps, that's about 3 miles (we cut corners a little because of the stroller).

Pete and I would do the yoga, which I LOVE. It is so relaxing! I noticed that I got a lot stronger and more flexible after doing it for so many weeks.  At the beginning when I would bend from the waist and touch the floor, I could grab my ankles and that's as far as I could go. At the end, I had my palms flat on the floor.

So now that the challenge is over, will I still get 1 1/2 hours of exercise in? Maybe on some of the days. But I most definitely want to do something each day. Before I would make up the excuse of not having the time, but now I know I can find the time to exercise, even for a half hour.

No sugar. Okay. This is where my "Lent" reference comes in. One part of Lent is giving up something -like a luxury or indulgence of yours- for the 40-day span. In our challenge, we had decided that "no sugar" meant no candy, no chocolate, and no pop, including diet. I already explained the pop part. But that was only part of it.

The other part I had to give up was my weakness: chocolate.

The night before the challenge started, I cleared our house of chocolate...by consuming it.  That's right. That means I ate, like, 12 snack-sized Kit Kats so that they wouldn't be around to tempt me. The first few days were fine.  And then the cravings kicked in.

Now normally, when I would have a chocolate craving, I would have grabbed some chocolate without thinking twice. When there was none to be had during the challenge, and 10 points at stake, I would just have to ignore that craving.  And usually, about 20 minutes later, I wouldn't crave it any more.

There were some days, though, that it was all I could do to stop from jumping in my car and driving down to Sarah's Candy Cottage and devouring a whole pound of fudge. Seriously.

Yes, I missed one day and had a piece of chocolate cake. On day 41. Pete and I went down to Logan, Utah, for a basketball game, and we had dinner at Olive Garden. And the coaster had the picture of the cake on it. It was STARING at me. And Pete was the devil, being all, "Just get it. Just eat it. And get a cherry Coke, too." And you know what?  I figured that I had been great the entire time with NOT giving in, that one time would be fine. And oh, it tasted sooooo good. Which part of me was all, "I should stay strong. I've made it this far, what's another 2 days? Don't give in." But the other part of me was all, "CHOCOLATE CAKE!!!!!" It was totally one of those angel and devil on the shoulders moments for me.

The one thing I noticed about my cravings, though, is that it was always for the really rich, thick, amazing chocolate. Kit Kat or Snickers? Nope. Mississippi Mud Bars and fudge? Absolutely.

So, now that this is over, when I have chocolate, I'm not going to eat the whatever, filler chocolate.  If I'm going to have chocolate, I'm going to go for the big guns. Which means I'll have to make a specialty trip, or bake it, which means I'll have it less often.

Overall. I noticed that I ate more food, especially during breakfast and lunch, but I'm sure I was consuming fewer calories. Before I would crash in the early afternoon, and while doing this challenge I would still get tired then, but not the full-on crash. But I did fall asleep almost instantly at night the whole time too.

I ended up losing 7 pounds, which surprised me. I didn't set out trying to lose any weight, but it happened anyway.

I won the challenge, which means I get 60% of the kitty. (Pete came in second, and my sister Lex was 3rd.) Maybe I'll use my money to buy some new jeans for myself that fit me-mine are loose now, especially in the waist, which seriously rocks.

I think the rest of my family saw some changes, too, with weight loss or how they felt.

I'm glad that I did this challenge, because it changed me for the better. And even though I plan on slightly modifying it for "real" life, for the most part I'm going to keep on keeping on.

Bir-Cay-Ding, Part 3

Here is the third and final installment of the fabulous Bir-Cay-Ding. YAY!

(I would have gotten to this sooner, but we've continued to be busy.  I really will post about those things, too.  Remember: good things come to those who wait.)

So, the wedding.  First of all, I just want to mention that I'm so glad that Chris and Lexi got married, because Chris is a super awesome guy.  I can tell they fit each other really well.

July 30: pre-wedding
While we were getting ready after our horse ride and ski lift ride, Lex and her cute/awesome/amazing bridesmaids and Chris and his groomsmen were out gallivanting through the woods getting their pictures taken.

Then we got to join in the picture fun.  Lexi's wedding colors were a true orange and royal purple.  I was out with my mom shopping the week before, and we found these awesome orange ties, so we got them for my three boys and Pete to wear.  And Ivy was a flower girl for Lexi's wedding, so she had a way cute orange dress that my mom had made.  I completed the orange ensemble with a sweater and a white flowery skirt.  Which, I just realized, I don't have any pictures of myself.  I really need to hand the camera over to Pete every once in a while.

Here's Brock:

And Troy:

And Jakob:

Here's Ivy, holding Lexi's wedding bouquet.  Ivy was being shy at first about pictures, but then later on warmed up about it.

And here are my handsome boys.  I love how they all match, even Pete.

Here are Lex and Chris, ready to do the Toyota jump.  (Or is it Ford?  I really can't remember.)  Lex looks like she's getting ready to jump into some cold water or something.

The ceremony
I think I already mentioned that Lex and Chris chose Grand Targhee as their wedding site.  Lex really wanted an outdoor wedding.  Even though it was bright and sunny and warm earlier in the day, at about 3-ish it started getting cloudy and started sprinkling.  Then it started raining pretty hard for about 20 minutes or so, right before the ceremony was about to start.  There was a tiny little room just inside, and we asked if she wanted to set up in there, but Lex, being the weather girl she is (or something), said to wait just about 15 minutes.

And about 15 minutes later, it stopped raining.  Perfect!  It was a little cool out, so my kids were cold, but it was the perfect temperature for the adults.  It stayed rain-free the whole ceremony (it started getting windy near the end, but not too bad), and as soon as it was over, it started raining again.

Then the aisle walking began.  My parents led out, because my dad officiated!  Cool, huh?  He had been a bishop a while back at Ricks (which is now BYU-Idaho), and they checked the laws for Wyoming about marrying people, and it was totally okay.  Which, by the way, my dad ROCKED it.  I've always admired his teaching/speaking/officiating skills.

Lexi's friend Mark Doubleday, who is an EXTREMELY talented musician and composer, played his cello for the ceremony.  He's the one that helped Lex help me and Pete when we rapped at our ward talent show.  Let me find the link....okay, it's here.  And that's my cute uncle Kurt holding the umbrella for him.  Kurt also helped wipe down chairs after the rain for people to sit on.  He's such a great guy.

After the bridesmaids and groomsmen walked down the aisle, it was the flower girls' turn.  I really didn't know if Ivy was going to do her part.  In these kind of performance situations, she will either ham it up, or freak out and cry and scream or run away.  I really had no idea.  Chris' cousins, Maria and Julianna, were the other two flower girls.  The older girl, Maria, who is 8-ish, started to explain to Ivy what to do.  And Ivy got all excited about it.  So I sat down, but was at the end, in case I had to jump up and rescue Ivy.

But man.  She started throwing the flower petals on the ground.  And when she decided to do it, she was going to THROW the CRAP out of the FLOWER PETALS, DANGIT!  Maria had to kind of drag her down the aisle (they were both holding one of the baskets), and Ivy threw and threw and threw.  She had a blast.  And they were all just so stinking cute.

(That's a better shot of the dresses my mom made.  Cute, huh?)

And there's the beautiful bride, with Gramps.  My grandpa rocks, end of story.  His jacket was super sweet that day, too.  It was blue, and made of...suede?  It was really soft.  I asked him about it, and he said it was really really old.  But it was beautiful and in great shape for how old it was.  He's such a cute guy.

The flower girls stood there during the ceremony most of the time.  Ivy ran to my mom after a while, and I think Julianna jumped ship, too.  It's hard to see in this picture, but Ivy gets this confused look on her face.  She had it on during the whole ceremony.

There was a part during the ceremony where Lex and Chris read their individual vows to each other.  I got all teary when Chris read his to Lex.  (Um, and I just realized that blogger erased a bunch of what I had written right here.  Stupid blogger.  But let me sum up: Chris talked about how they met and how he knew they would be together.  Lex talked about how excited she is to start their life together.)

(Yeah, I probably just totally botched that up.  Lex, I hope you and Chris have your real vows somewhere.  I KNOW they are more eloquent than the craptastic summary I just wrote above.)

Like I said before, my dad did an amazing job.  Near the end, he read an Apache blessing of sorts.  I really liked it, so I found it on the internet.  For your reading pleasure:

Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness,
For each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies,
But there is one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place,
To enter into the days of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

It was just a beautiful ceremony. I cried, and laughed, and got chills...it was just so wonderful.  I'm so glad I got to go and see it.

Oh, and after Chris kissed the bride, he dipped her, and kissed her again.  Lexi's face right before the dip was so funny-her eyes got really big, and had a look of "don't drop me!"  It was funny.

Party time
Like I said, I was warm enough, but it was a bit chilly for my kids.  After the ceremony, everyone headed over to the tent they had set up, where we would eat dinner.  I ran and got jackets for my kids (because even though we were mostly encased, the cold air was still coming in).

Here's Lexi.  Doesn't she just look so beautiful and so happy?  Which, she had her makeup lady come up to the resort, and got her makeup airbrushed on.  Sweat free, smudge free, tear-proof...she's a thinker.

They had toasts, where the Best Man and the Maid of Honor gave little speeches, as did the parents.  Lexi's Maid of Honor was a girl named Kate.  Let me tell you, Kate ROCKS!  She told this awesome story about how Lex would talk about Chris when they first met, but they (Lex and Kate) had a nickname for him of Javier.  It was so funny!  Also, there was dancing later on, and when the DJ was doing a crappy job of picking out songs, Kate kicked him out of his chair and took over to find awesome boogie-down songs for us.

We had this amazingly yummy dinner.  There was a strawberry-spinach salad, and chicken (or fish, but I'm a chicken girl), and...is it called twice baked potatoes where you bake the potato then pull out the insides and mash them up and put them back onto the skins?  Well, if it's not that, then that's what we had but I don't know what it's called.  I'll call them Prettily-Presented Potatoes.

And here's their cake.  Chris designed it.  I know that their colors had something to do with their school colors or something, but I know I'm going to get it all mixed up.  They met at BSU, so that's the Bronco thing on the top tier.  And something about a team that starts with a C, which is also Chris, and something with a team that starts with an A, which is also Alexis.

I'm SOOOO into sports, can you tell?

But what I CAN tell you about the cake is that it was deliciousness wrapped in amazingness.  Each layer was a different kind of chocolate.  One was German chocolate, one was Mexican chocolate, and the other was...I know I'm not remembering right...like a double dark chocolate or something like that.  I had a slice of the Mexican chocolate layer.  It supposedly had cinnamon in it.  But all I tasted was super rich, moist, yummy chocolate.  Oh, mama.  It was so good!

Lex and Chris cutting the cake:

...And then Lex and Chris shoving the cake into each other's faces!  When Pete and I got married, I told him I would kill him if he got cake on my wedding dress, so he placed the cake nicely in my mouth.  Not Lexi and Chris.  Oh, no.  This picture below is Lexi, mid-fall.  Chris totally pushed his bride down!  It was funny.

The aftermath of the cake shove (you can't really see the cake smeared all over his face unless you enlarge the picture).  Chris:

And Lex:

But all was well.  They got cleaned up, and had their first dance together.  (I really don't remember if they danced before or after the cake shove.)

And here's the bride dancing with her dad.  I love this picture-such a sweet moment.  (My dad is so cute.  And Lexi's hair was to die for.)  Say it with me: AAAAAWWWWWWWWW!

At this point, my kids had had it.  They had gone to bed super late the night before, woke up super early that morning, and then had a really busy day.  Troy could barely keep his eyes open during the dinner. The DJ dude started playing music after the dinner, and normally my kids boogie on down, but they were not about to do it in public that night.  Ivy danced with me, but her tights kept falling down and pulling down her undies, so I'd have to keep fixing them.  She tried to get people to dance with us, like Pete or my dad or my mom, but no one was ready to boogie...yet.

Although, I danced with Ivy, and then I kept making faces at my kids.  Jakob was about to die from embarrassment at his dorky mom, but I didn't care.  Yep-I'm one of those parents, that thinks it's really funny to embarrass my kids.

We took the kids back to our room, told them to open the door under ZERO circumstances, and...then went back to boogie.

It was so fun to dance!  And, of course I don't have pictures of it, because I was too busy having a blast!  They played way fun music, some of which was old school (old school meaning when I was in high school, or even junior high).  Like, "Killing Me Softly" by the Fugees, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by the Proclaimers (which I first heard when I attended my first EFY at 14 years old-YIKES!), "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard, and "Cotton-Eyed Joe" by the Rednex. (Yes, quite the variety.)  They also had Beatles songs, and Black Eyed Peas, and Tao Cruz, and Beyonce's "Put a Ring on It".  Which, at that point, I wish I would have known all the dance moves to that song, because that would have been awesome.  I know, like two moves.

So, yeah.  WAY fun.  And Lexi's bridesmaids had some sweet, sweet dance moves!  After a while (a LONG while), we were worn out, so we went back to our room.  (Not to worry-we had checked on the kids periodically during the dancing.)  And, surprisingly, they were still awake for some reason.  I would have thought that they'd be out cold by then.  Oh well.

Well, that wraps up Part 3.  And I really did save the best for last, huh?

Bir-Cay-Ding, Part 2

'Kay, folks.  Here is the much-anticipated Part 2 of our awesome celebrations!  Aren't you SOOOO excited?

July 29-July 30: Grand Targhee adventures

We drove to Targhee on Friday, and checked into our room.  It was awesome!  I should have taken a picture.  There was a hide-a-bed in the upstairs/main level of our...I'm going to call it "suite".  There was also a mini fridge and a half bath.  Then downstairs there was a full bath and two rooms.  One of the rooms had a king bed, and the other room had two bunk beds.  The kids were way excited about that.  So we had Jake and Brock on the top two beds, and Troy and Ivy on the bottom two.

Lex and Chris had a kind of golf game near Grand Targhee, and then they were having a dinner afterwards with the wedding party and family members. So, we got just word-of-mouth directions to get to the golf course, which is at a place called Teton Springs, which is very, very beautiful-it's near Driggs (where you turn to get to Grand Targhee) and Victor. 

So, the people we talked to were all, "Just drive through Victor, and then it's just right there with a ton of signs-you can't miss it." We had also heard, "It's a little bit farther than you think.  Just keep going, and you'll see the sign-you can't miss it." The golf course is called Headwater, by the way. So we were looking for signs showing a golf course, or for Headwater. Shouldn't have been too hard.

Well...we drove, and got through Victor, and kept looking for signs.  And soon we were heading up a canyon. Both Pete and I were all, "Oh, it will show up any minute. I'm sure it's around this bend in the road." Um, no. We were heading to Jackson, which is about 20 miles from Victor. I think we were about halfway there when we decided to turn around. Neither Pete nor I had cell phone service because we tried calling for directions.

So we went back to a gas station we had seen earlier to ask directions. The guy was all, "Go left, then right, then left. You can't miss it. Oh, and the sign says 'Teton Springs'". Yeah, that would have been nice to know in the beginning. We had been right on top of it, and just didn't know what we were looking for. So once we got there, it was great. And we showed up right in time for the dinner.

It was SO yummy!  They had these chicken and/or steak fajita things, and a salad with a cilantro-lime dressing (I'm in love with cilantro).  And for dessert: peach cobbler, with blackberries in it!  YUM!  So, so good.

It was really nice to meet all of Chris' family.  Honestly, though, from that night, names-wise I remembered a guy named Chad, who was Chris' brother's buddy that drove with him.  Go, Chad, the Random Dude!

That night we went swimming at their pool.  The main pool was pretty cold, but the super deep hot tub was really nice.  Afterwards, we went back to the suite, and Pete and I watched TV, which reaffirmed the fact that we don't miss regular TV. (We don't have any form of television; we just watch stuff online.  You know, where you get to see exactly what you want, when you want, without commercials. It's luxurious.)

The next morning (July 30), Pete, Jakob, and I went horse-back riding.  I had gone a handful of times growing up, but Pete had never ridden a horse before.  We would have taken everyone, but the other kids were too young for it.  My awesome parents watched our other kids while we rode.  Jake's horse was named Cammanche, Pete's was Spirit, and mine was Butch, which was funny to me because I had a cat while in high school named Butch that loved me a lot.  The horse stuff was right on Targhee's grounds.

Pete told the rancher dude that I had ridden "a bunch of times", so I think the dude thought that I was super experienced.  Um, no. That would be my other sister, Brianna, that rode and trained horses for years and years.  So Butch was a little...strong-willed. And apparently, hungry. 

We went on a trail up the mountain, and it was very beautiful.  Butch kept trying to eat every two seconds, and he kept wandering off the trail. The rancher told me to pull up on the reins and kick him  a little and he would stop. Yeah, right! If I kicked him, he would just start running, and then he would stop and eat some more, and then wander around. After a while I put my reins behind the horn on the saddle so he couldn't reach down as far to eat the grass.

I definitely had fun riding, but it was like a wrestling match the whole time. And when I got off, my knees were hurting from the stirrups. I'm such a city slicker.

After our horse ride, we did another ride: the chair lift up the mountain.  I've ridden on this lift about a thousand times in the winter, but never in the summer.  The chair is lower in the winter, because you're standing on a bunch of snow to get on.  I also think they ran it slower than they do in the winter.  Here's my mom and dad with Brock and Jakob:

We went up Saturday morning and Sunday morning.  On Sunday it was cloudy, so the top was pretty cold.  But Saturday it was nice and warm and sunny.

Another thing: I've ridden up chair lifts a million times.  But to get back down you either had to bike, walk, or ride.  We opted for ride, but it's pretty trippy to see how far you've actually gone up.

So here's my family with the valley behind us.  At the top of the lift there's a little trail, and you walk to a platform to overlook everything, including the Grand Tetons a couple of ranges over.

Here are the boys with the Grand Teton behind them. I was a little nervous about my run-around kids.  Why, you may ask?  See the little rope under Brock's arm in the picture below?  That extends out, though you can't see it because of the snow (yes, snow) in the picture.  But on the other side of that rope is a very, very, very steep cliff.  So I told the kids they had to stay on the platform at all times.

So of course, Troy being the close listener that he is, started running around on the entrance of the platform.  I grabbed his arm, and tried to show him the IMMINENT DEATH that awaited him if he didn't stay on the platform.  Which, in 4-year-old translation, means I was just being a mean mom because I wouldn't let him play wherever he wanted to. That is why he's being a grumpy pants in the picture.

My dad took the boys down below the platform (where the ski hill is), to an area that still had snow on it.  They tried to make snow balls to throw at us.

And here's my family again, this time with the Tetons behind us.  Ivy had gotten a combination of sun lotion and bug spray in her eye, so she rubbed it and whined the whole time.  (You can see the rope behind us in this picture.  In front of the rope = nice happy beautiful pictures.  Behind the rope = IMMINENT DEATH!)

These next two pictures were taken on Sunday, after we rode the lift back down.  We were chatting with my parents and my two aunts and two uncles that had come for the wedding.  And my kids, being the self entertainers, decided to play with sticks and dirt.  Seriously, why do we even buy toys for our kids?

Alrighty.  I know I suck, because I should have started this train of posts with the most interesting event - the wedding. But instead, I decided to save the best for last.  And I'm going to stick it in its own part.  Soon to come: Part 3 (the final part) of the Bir-Cay-Ding extravaganza!

Memory Monday: Cookie Monster

First off, here is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've come across.  The cookies stay plump and soft.  Though, after this post, you might not want to use it.  D'oh.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Combine in bowl: ½ cup butter, ½ cup shortening, ¾ cup sugar.
Add: ¾ cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, 2 eggs.
Then add: 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. salt, 2 ½ cups flour.
Stir in: 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Spoon onto cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 9-11 minutes.


Maybe my cute sister Brianna can help me with the timeline on this story.  I'm going to say early teenage years for me, and she's 3 1/2 years younger than me.  So if I was 13, she'd be 9 ish.  Beej, if you read this, maybe leave a comment if you remember.
My family often made little goodies to munch on. Lemon bars, Mississippi Mud bars, No-bake cookies, etc.  And cookies.  I love me some cookies.  And now I'm getting all hungry thinking about cookies.  They are a definite weakness of mine.

After devouring one (or most likely more than one) cookie, I had a bit of phlegm built up in my throat.  Anyway, Beej and I were being dorks, and I was telling her how to make a loogie.  It's like that scene from Titanic.

So, I was joking around, and was like, "Dude, what if I spit a loogie at you?"  And she was like, "No way!" and started running off.  So I grabbed her, did the whole Leonardo DiCaprio loogie-making moves, and had a humongous loogie in my mouth.  Brianna goes, "Nooooo!" with her mouth all wide. 

And I spit.  And it landed right in her mouth.

I promise I wasn't aiming.

Of course she ran over to the sink and tried to clean her mouth out.  I felt bad, but it was also really funny (well, to me, anyway).  I've never been able to get that good of a loogie before or since.  And I've never been able to spit very far at all, except for that one time.  I attribute that to the cookie phlegm in my throat.

So there you have it.  Fun with phlegm.

(Go to about 1:15 on this video to see how I normally spit.  Not that I'm all out there practicing or something.)

Amazing, Awesome, and Addicting

1. Last week it snowed.  A bunch.  Then the snow decided to drift all over the place, meaning, my driveway.  And I was out shoveling Wednesday morning while pies were cooking in my oven.  I'd have to shovel one little area about three times, because I couldn't lift a 2 1/2-foot layer of snow with the shovel in one fell swoop.  Then, to my utter surprise and delight, a big huge blue tractor drives up.  At first, it looked like my neighbor, but then it kind of didn't.  He asked if he could clear the snow for me.  In less than two minutes, he had cleared my entire driveway.  Like I said, I couldn't tell who it was for sure, because he was all bundled up, and I had my glasses on that were getting all foggy with tears of frustration, then tears of relief because he came to help me.  So, if anyone knows who this kind fellow is, please let me know so I can thank him (I gave him a thank-you wave, but that doesn't seem sufficient enough), or let him know that I'm so grateful.

2. I've seen two terrific movies and a play this last week.  Movie one: Harry Potter.  A-MAZ-ING.  I heart Harry Potter.  End of story.  Movie two: Tangled.  I just about bawled during one of the scenes, when the two main characters are on a lake.  It was just... so beautiful!  I had to keep swallowing really hard to stop myself from crying.  WONDERFUL movie.  The play: the people from Playmill put on "White Christmas" at a local theater here.  They did a great job.

3. We had Thanksgiving Wednesday night because my sister and her fiance had to jet out of town unexpectedly Thursday.  It was actually really nice to have Thanksgiving dinner the night before.  And then we went to the movie Thursday and had leftovers afterwards, so it's like we still had Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving.

4.  These little Heath bars are like crack!  I should just buy the big bar of Heath, because I think I would consume fewer calories that way.  These bad boys are so addicting, and I could probably eat 20 or so of them without batting an eyelash.

5. Another thing I'm addicted to: these amazing pants!  I wish I could give a pair to everyone I know.  And then we could start a fashion trend of soft cozy fleece pants, and then I wouldn't have to change out of them to go places to look acceptable-ish.  They are $9, at Walmart.  You will not be sorry if you run out and grab some!  I have pink, and purple, and polka-dot now.  They can get a little static cling in them, which usually I hate, but with these I feel like it's an extra warm hug for my legs.

6. And if that wasn't enough, I'm addicted to another thing: the Hunger Games books.  I CANNOT put them down.  I read nonstop Saturday and Sunday, and finished today.  And now I'm having withdrawals.  LOVE them.  Read them!

7. Monday I finally got my snowblower to run!  I hate that things like lawn mowers and other outside machinery have a pull-string starter thingy.  I have to pull the string with all my might to get these items started.  I had tried two or three times (at like, a hundred pulls each) before yesterday, without success.  Then Pete suggested I bring it in the house, thinking that getting the machine warm would help it.  So I hauled it into my kitchen, cleaned it off with baby wipes (seriously, who knew those things could be so handy in wiping things other than baby bottoms?), and then a couple of hours later took it out.  It started after about 5 pulls, which is amazing for me.  Once it was going, I wasn't about to stop until my whole driveway was cleared again.  I even got all fancy and cleared my sidewalk.

What has been amazing, awesome, or addicting in your life lately?

Memory Monday: Molten Chocolate Cake

This may not have been the first time I had Molten Chocolate Cake at Chili's, but it's the first time I really remember having it.  Which is weird, because dude.  It's chocolate.  You'd think I'd remember the very first time I tasted this yummy gooey goodness.

Chili's was one of the hot new restaurants to land in beautiful Cache Valley, Utah, when I was in college.  So it was a given that when one of the roommates suggested we eat there, we were all over it.  We invited some of our guy friends to join us, and for some odd reason, Pete was the only one that took us up on the offer.  Yep, Pete was pimping it with 5 very hot women.

When we sat down, Pete ended up sitting across from me at our table, and we were on the end.  Good food, good company.  When the waiter asked if we wanted dessert, I looked at Pete and asked if he wanted to split a Molten Chocolate Cake with me.  He had never had one, so sure, why not.

As we waited for our dessert, we started talking.  And...clicking.  The group conversation became a me-and-Pete conversation.  Rachel, the roommate sitting next to me, had to basically snap us out of our connection.  "Um, hello!  There are four other people sitting here at this table!"  I realized that we had been leaning into the table, eyes completely fixed on the other's.

When the dessert came, we split the cake, halfway down the middle, and pushed the ice cream to the side.  That's how we still do it.

Molten Chocolate Cake had never tasted so sweet.

A Smattering

There are about 4 million things that I haven't blogged about. Because I'm a winner like that. But now I wanna, so I'm gonna.

-I love my calling. And the ladies I work with are A-MAZ-ING. End of story.

-Jakob had a dance competition last Saturday. He was awesome. I seriously had tears in my eyes that I had to choke back while watching.

-My parents, who are The Awesomest Parents of All Time, have taken me and some of my sisters to a couple of different plays. One was "Forever Plaid", which is one of my favorites, and the other was a Shakespearean improv by a group called iO Theater. Seriously, so funny.

-I suck at improvising.

-My parents also paid for a hotel room in our town, and we swam at the really warm pool and ate pizza and watched a movie. Did I mention that my parents are the awesomest of all time?

-My cute sister Brianna, who I call Beej, came to visit from New York where she lives. We watched the Olympics, and we went skiing, and it was so very very fun.

-I'm in love with the men's skating now, more so than the women's.

-Pete and I are going to go out to New York beginning of June to visit Beej and her hubby Spencer. We're going to see the Sacred Grove and Niagara Falls. Cool huh?

-We paid off our minivan with our tax return. YAY!

-Pete and I went skiing for an afternoon a while back. It was the first time for both of us in years and years. It was really fun, and a beautiful day.

-I've had an awesome cough/cold/sinus thing for the last week and a half. It's been oh-so-awesome. But I finally went to see the doctor, and he gave me some stuff, and it's finally going away.

-I hate waking up during the night, but I especially hate waking up coughing.

-Ivy has been talking more and more, which is wonderful.

-I was totally going to potty train Ivy this month. I'm thinking it's not going to happen. I should. But she's so little.

-Sweet moment #1: Troy was trying to teach Ivy how to pray the other day. "...say 'thank you for this day'..." And Ivy says, "...dis dahey..."

-Sweet moment #2: Jakob realized that this fall, Brock will be going to the same school as he is. He just got so excited. Jakob: "And we can eat lunch together, and go to recess together, and I'll help you on the bus!"

-I love that my little boys are all buddies. Sure, they'll fight, but it's not very often.

-Funny moment: In the car, on the way to Brock's preschool, Troy was singing "Twinkle twinkle little dragon", instead of "star". For whatever reason. And Brock says, "Troy, sing it NER-MAL!"

-I have zero drive to digital scrapbook right now. I know that once I start, it'll be great and it will go super fast. But it's just getting started on it.

-I have a ton of other more pressing "projects" that I always have to get done before even thinking about the digital scrapbooking. So not only do I not have the drive, but it's also really far down on the priority list.

-Other projects that I want to do but am clearly not finding the time to do: spring cleaning, repainting my walls, and practicing some new piano songs.

-I can't wait for it to get warmer outside.

-My tulips are starting to poke out of the ground. Just barely.

-Tulips make me happy.

-I love teaching piano.

-Lately I've been taking a little afternoon nap, before Jakob gets home from school. Ivy's down for her nap, and the boys generally let me sleep. It's awesome.

-I got my hair cut a little while ago. And I love it. I can just blow-dry it, and it looks fine for the most part (well, to me, anyway). I used to hate how fine my hair was, but now I'm at peace with it.

-I'm also at peace with my super duper white skin. Porcelain. Or reflection. Either or.

-I need some new books to read. Not that I have time to read, but still.

-The Sherlock Holmes short stories were really fun to read. Maybe I should do one of the Sherlock Holmes novels.

-I have a massage/pedicure gift that Pete gave me for Christmas. I used it today, and it felt AWESOME. And now I have 5,000 gallons of energy. It's amazing what a little relaxation and some painted toenails can do for a girl.

-I helped in Jakob's class on Monday, and the kids had to make up a math problem about cookies. After listening to 18 stories about cookies, that's all I could think about. So my boys and I made chocolate chip cookies after dinner that night.

-Cookies are one of my vices.

-Coke is another one.

-Last time I went to the store they were completely out of Coke. Inexcusable, Walmart, to keep a girl from her Coke.

-All of my boys' pants have holes in the knees. And of the pants whose holes I patched, new holes have appeared below the patch, because my boys have grown.

-I'm thinking I'll just leave the holes in the pants. Because white trash can be a statement, too.

-There are also holes in my couch.

-I want new couches. I'm trying to convince Pete that that's what he wants for his birthday.

-I'm in a purging mood. There is SO much that I want to toss out the window!

-I teach my last week of Troy's preschool next week. Hallelujah! (Don't get me wrong; they're cute kids. But the six of them plus two more of my own plus me equals pure chaos.)

-My boys have all drawn pictures for me in the last few days. I love it.

-Life is good.

The end.

Can You Smell What's Cookin'?

I am about to proudly present my project that I've finally finished. And because I'm counting it toward one of my Young Women projects, you get to hear all the nitty gritty details. Lucky you!

Behold:


Yes, that would be my super organized, super amazing recipe book. Isn't it pretty? But wait, there's more!

Here's the before shot:


At one point I was trying to hand-write all my recipes and keep them in a box. But my writing sucked on some of them, my pen sucked on others (where it smeared or bled all over), and the contact/lamination paper also was not helping things. I also had other recipe books and recipes from Relief Society, etc. I decided I wanted all of my most-used recipes in one spot. So I started typing. I even typed up the recipes that I don't have a written recipe for. That way, someday when my boys start to cook, they can't pull a "I don't know how" excuse on me. (Also someday, when everything I do is electronic, my recipes will already be on my computer.)

After I typed everything up, I categorized them all, but I kept it simple: dinners, breakfasts, desserts/pies/cookies, and sides/salads. I decided to put all my dinners together, but then arrange them so that they are chronological instead of like chicken all together and burger stuff all together. That way, in one week, we'll have a chicken meal, then something with rice, then a pasta meal, then another chicken meal, then a beef meal, etc. (Does that make sense at all?)



I was really surprised when I ended up with about 6 1/2 weeks' worth of dinners that I like and are easy to make. Sure, some things are similar (like burgers and cube steaks), but those things I also spread out as best as I could. I stretched the meal schedule out to 7 weeks, inserting a night here and there where I try out new recipes or we go out to eat somewhere.

I also threw in easy side dishes that can go with that dinner. For example, next to chicken noodle soup, I put "bread", which could mean rolls, or scones, or French bread, or muffins, etc. And not that it's set in stone, but just as suggestions.


After I got all that done, I decided to make a grocery list for each week. I wrote down all the things I need for each meal. Where things repeated I just added them all together (if I need 2 cans of tomato sauce for one meal and one for another, I put down "tomato sauce x 3" for that week). Then I made it all nice and neat, where I mentally walked through the grocery store; so I listed all the meats together, and all the canned goods together, and all the produce together, etc.

Also on my grocery list, I wrote down things to check on. For instance, I might need bread crumbs for one meal, but I don't need to buy a container of bread crumbs every time I go to the store. But I do need to make sure that if I'm getting low, I need to pick it up when I go shopping.

After that, I wrote down things to prepare. Someday, I will get to the point of having a lot of freezer meals added in to this fabulous little system of mine. (Also someday, maybe I'll get breakfasts and lunches rotating and going in here, too.) But until then, it would be nice to at least have a few things done ahead of time, mostly cooking the meat that needs to be cooked. I have a bunch of meals that call for cooked, chunked chicken. If it's already cooked and chunked, then I don't have to spend the time that night doing it; I can just scoop it up and stick it in, or pull a pre-measured bag out of the freezer. Badda bing.

Even though I've still been putting this together this week, I started following my first week's meal plan. I loved not having to think about what I wanted to make/eat for the week. I loved having it all right there. I love the idea of eating something only about 7 times in the whole year. I love that I won't get in a cooking rut. I will love having things pre-cooked, so there's not a rush to get things in the oven or whatever else. And I love that there's still some flexibility with trying new meals, because some of my favorite recipes have been new ones.

Doing this has also helped me realize that I have a lot of really yummy dessert recipes, so I decided that either Sunday night or Monday for Family Home Evening I'm going to make a dessert of some sort.

D&C 109:8-Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.

And because I've rediscovered some fabulous recipes, here are a couple that I'd like to share:

WILD RICE SOUP2 Tbl. Butter

1 cup celery, sliced (2 stalks)

1 cup carrots, chopped

½ onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

3 Tbl. Flour

¼ tsp. pepper

3 cups cooked wild rice

1 cup water

1 can condensed chicken broth

1 cup half-and-half

1/3 cup slivered almonds, if desired

1 Tbl. Parsley

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook celery, carrot, onion, and green pepper in the butter about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender. Stir in flour and pepper, wild rice, water, and broth. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in half-and-half, almonds, and parsley. Heat just until hot. (Do not boil or soup may curdle.) May also stir in 2 cups cooked chicken with the half-and-half.

Mmmm, so yummy, and so easy!

TEXAS BROWNIE SHEET CAKECombine 2 cups flour and 2 cups sugar in a bowl.

Boil: ½ cup butter, 3 Tbl. Cocoa, 1 cup water. Stir into sugar and flour while warm. Add ½ cup buttermilk, 2 eggs, 1 tsp. baking soda, and 1 tsp. vanilla. Pour mix into cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

For frosting: Combine ½ cup butter, 3 Tbl. Cocoa, 6 Tbl. Milk.Bring to a boil. Add 3 ½ cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 1 cup chopped nuts (if desired). Spread on cake while frosting is still hot.

Oh, how I love you, Texas sheet cake.

And one more, for good measure:

LIME JELLO COTTAGE CHEESE SALAD1 6-oz. package lime jello (or other flavor, if preferred)

1 20-oz. can pineapple tidbits, drained (or other fruit, if preferred)

1 24-oz. carton cottage cheese

1 12-oz. Cool Whip

Mix dry jello into drained fruit. Add cottage cheese and fold in Cool Whip; chill. Add 2 cups of marshmallows, if desired.

This week I made this cottage cheese salad with strawberry jello instead of lime, and I put in fresh cut-up strawberries instead of pineapple. I also did not add the marshmallows. Oh, it was SOOOO good! Yum.

So there you have it. The thing that's been keeping me away from the internet. But aren't you so glad that I shared my tidbits of wisdom and yummy goodies with you?

Bits of Heaven

This is a raspberry filling cream cheese icing donut. YUM! Oh, my mouth waters just thinking about how scrumptious it is. I got them from Walmart, but they don't make them all the time. (Otherwise, I'd be buying them all the time.)

And how cute is this note that Jakob wrote to me and Pete? I think it's pretty clear-cut, so I won't translate, though I will explain that this week Jakob is the star student in his class, where he makes a poster about himself, and gets to bring something for show-and-tell.

Also, I've been actually accomplishing things on my "to-do" list. Like, actual projects. For instance, I wrapped all my Christmas gifts yesterday. Of course, then I had to hide them because the kids kept trying to sneak peeks in the ones in bags. So they won't be under the tree until, oh, probably Christmas Eve night, I imagine.

I also made these little window hangy things. Sure, it's a project that little kids could probably do, but I did 'em! And they're pretty cute. The gingerbread man looks like he has a sweat band on his head instead of frosting, but I'm okay with that. More things keep getting added on to the "to-do" list, but it's mostly things to go to rather than things to just do. It's nice to be able to actually cross stuff off.

Troy has done tremendously with potty training. He takes himself, and really doesn't care anymore about stickers or treats for going-he just likes to be able to go. I think I'm ready to move him to the real Big Boy undies.

Also, I have Coke. Ah, heaven in a bottle.

What have been your bits of heaven lately?