Movin On Up

We have moved Lori many times over the years, and had the great pleasure of moving her again last Friday.


Randy, Jared, Austin, Landon and I (Robyn was working and the girls were at a sleepover at my parents' house) did the honors. Randy and Jared took care of all the heavy stuff and made many trips in Jared's truck.


Poor Lori, we kept commenting on how much stuff she has, but really we all know how it goes.

We just kept piling it into her new place.

Austin and Landon took a few breaks. One time they crammed themselves into the back of my car surrounded by Lori's stuff. They thought they were being funny, but the joke was on them because they packed themselves in there long before we were ready to take over the next load.


Luckily she was only moving around the corner to a bigger apartment that will cost her less, so the travel time was minimal.

She treated us to lunch at The Pizza Factory after all our hard work.


My dad and Andrew stopped by to see Lori's new place and to help move things around, so we were able to get her place in functioning order in no time. Lori hooked up the TV and DVD player so Andrew could watch Finding Nemo, but he wasn't very keen on having to get off the couch when we needed to move it.

We gave Lori a hard time, but we were actually happy to help her move, that's one of the perks of being part of a family right? Plus, it was great to give Landon and Austin their first taste of helping someone move. We told them that this will be the first of many, many, many moves they will help with over the years as they serve in the church.

**Have you moved a lot?
How do you feel about heavy lifting?
Do you like starting over?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Hooray for a new week. I need to have a meeting with myself to decide how best to spend my time. This time of year I'm always full of good intentions, but often fall short due to poor time management.

Sunday Thoughts

I was in charge of the lesson for this month's visiting teaching message and chose to share some thoughts from Barbara Thompson's Conference Talk entitled "Mind the Gap ". I loved this talk and especially loved these thoughts I shared during my visits.


I made cards for the sisters I visit and used Michelle's great photo from her recent visit to London.


Why is it that we so often have gaps between what we know and what we do? Maybe it's human nature and a matter of maturity, but this talk brought this concept to my attention and made me want to convince myself and others of the love the Lord has for them.

Each time I read this message (3 times) out loud to the women I visit teach I felt the truth of what I was saying and the power behind knowing this for sure.

**Have you read this talk?
What do you think of these quotes?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I love feeling spiritually regrouped and recommitted each Sunday. It's kind of frightening to me to think of NOT feeling that way each week.

Day of Thanks

Our Thanksgiving Day was highly enjoyable, though mine ended with a headache which is why I am 2 days late in posting about it (the next day was busy and ended with a headache as well).


Our pies turned out beautifully, thick crusts and all! We took the chocolate cream pie with us and kept a vanilla cream pie for ourselves.


Lori drove with us and once again looked like a love child Randy and I produced in our teens, you'd never guess she's 33!


We gathered at my aunt and uncle's house again this year. It is officially the place where we go for Thanksgiving. I think I've only missed a 2 or 3 there in 20 years!


Landon opted for plain turkey, potatoes, ham, corn and roll. I don't know how any son of mine could eat things gravy-free, but he does.


Whitney hardly ate anything (what the?) she had a roll, ham and some corn. This from a girl who usually loves gravy on everything just like I do, but she feared there were lumps in the potatoes (there weren't) and didn't have any. Thanksgiving is no time for feeling skittish!

Randy enjoyed everything.

This was my plate of goodness. I opted for ham instead of turkey, but made sure I had lots of gravy. I think there was some cinnamon in the stuffing this year, and that threw me for a loop.


One of my aunts made these little signs and placed them all over the tables. This is our first Thanksgiving without Grandma Dot, last Thanksgiving was the last time we saw her alive. She always sat so quietly observing everyone, that I could almost picture her there watching us all.


It was cute to see all the 2nd cousins playing together, they hardly ever see each other so it's impressive that they are so good to jump right into playing comfortably.


Landon played football outside with Austin and a couple of the boys.


My uncle had stuck little post-it note questions under some of the chairs (there was one under my chair but I hurriedly stuck it under Randy's chair instead) and had the recipients answer the question out loud to the group. The answers ended up being rather sweet, especially because the majority of the group there have spent all our Thanksgivings together in that house.


The annual talent show did NOT disappoint this year and little Emma stole the show again. This picture is blurry (I had serious lighting issues for the talent show) but am including it because she was sooooo darling. She had no fear, great confidence and some seriously sassy moves for a tiny 5 year old!

Whitney chose to show several pieces of her art she has made during her art class (this video only shows 2 of the 7).

Landon did a lip sync to "Ice, Ice Baby" and knew every word.


I am not a fan of pumpkin, apple or pecan pies, that's why I always make a cream pie for Thanksgiving.


I actually got a piece of my pie this year (last year I was too late and the kids had eaten it all). It never holds it's shape, but it always tastes great!

Everyone seemed to linger a long time this year so we didn't end up leaving until after 5:00pm (we'd gotten there at noon) and were too exhausted (and headachy) to drive to Eagle Mountain (as originally planned) for more festivities. We rescheduled for Friday evening instead, which was a good plan because I felt wasted and irritable with my headache. I have been so spoiled this year with few headaches thanks to my daily B-12 and Feverfew vitamin regimen that I feel betrayed and bewildered when I get one now. It's not good.

**How was your Thanksgiving?
What's your favorite pie?
Do you love gravy?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I'm headache free today and oh so happy about it!

Thanksgiving Eve

I'm not feeling very Thanksgivingish and am kind of bugged by that because I usually enjoy the anticipation and festive feeling that comes along with it. I don't know if it's because of the nice weather we've been having or if my whole life-clock is off (I think it's this) but I'm not in any type of zone, groove, or festive kind of place. I'm not sure where I'm at, but I'm not there.


Tonight's pie-making process was better than I'd foreseen because Lori and Randy both helped. Michelle's awesome cream pies involve constant stirring (like 15 minutes of stirring) so it was nice to have company and help. Lori did all the stirring for the chocolate filling, then Randy and I took turns for the vanilla filling.

I also made Michelle's grandma's pie crust recipe, which is supposed to make 3 crusts, but after Randy's rolling pin duty, it only yielded 2, plus 6 small pie crust cookies. The first crust (shown here) is a little on the thick side, but I'm hoping for the best.

**What are you bringing/making for Thanksgiving?
Is your life-clock off?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Landon and Austin built a fort today, Whitney got in their way...I miss school hours.

Paris-Inspired Outing #3--Mini Outing

I took myself out for a mini Paris-inspired outing last week before my photo shoot in Salt Lake. I ended up going to Hagermann's Bakehouse for lunch and a very pleasant hour of reading.


I ordered a fantastic sandwich (the Real Roast Beef I think) which had grilled bread, melted cheese, tomato, onion, cucumber and roast beef. It was perfect. We really need to be more inventive with our sandwich making skills around here, that cucumber added such a nice crunch. I had a blondie for dessert, and stayed until I finished my book. Good times.


After lunch I checked out the clearance racks at Old Navy (didn't find anything I had to have), checked the bargain shelves in Barnes and Noble hoping to find the next book in the series I'm reading, but struck out there too.

Then I did a quick limp through Target to buy dum dum suckers to stock my camera bag (prizes for kids). It was a very budget-friendly, nonexciting outing.

So while this wasn't my best Paris-inspired outing, it was still good. Why haven't I ever gone out to lunch and read before these outings? It seems like a no-brainer to me now, but that's not something I ever used to do.

**Have you started doing anything different lately?
When was the last time you took yourself out on a date?
What are you reading?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Seriously, we're 2 days away from Thanksgiving and a month away from Christmas Eve...what's going on?

Look At What I Can Do

Breakfast anyone?

Defeated By A Gag Reflex

Whitney came down with a cold this weekend, so before sending her to school this morning I wanted her to take some DayQuil. What a bad mother I am, how could I possibly have thought this would be a good, doable idea?



It has been less than a year since the gagging-cough medicine incident of 2008. Can you believe she hasn't taken any medicine since then? It isn't because she couldn't have benefited from it, it's because she never wants it even when she has a headache. She usually just goes to bed and wakes up fine. This system works pretty well most of the time, but occasionally I think she needs to take something, and that's when the histrionics begin.


These are the remnants of today's lost battle. First I tried to have her swallow one DayQuil pill. It took 15 minutes of coaxing, crying, yelling, gagging, and water sipping (not gulping which would have helped) before she ended up with a sticky pill, orange-tinged fingers and a face blotchy from crying.


So we moved onto the DayQuil liquid, which I hadn't started with because she hates the taste of medicine. I poured the tablespoon of medicine into the middle cup (originally it was the only cup) but she fretted about how much was in there. She kept saying, "My body says no" and I kept saying, "But your mother says yes" but neither one of us was willing to listen to the other.

After a total of 25 minutes of medicinal stand-still in the kitchen (meanwhile Landon had left for school and I still hadn't dried her hair yet) I poured the tablespoon dose into 2 smaller cups, but she ended up sticking her tongue into one of them to taste the medicine (never a good idea) and then the crying escalated. She was wearing me down, but I was determined not to give in to her 9 year old logic.

She finally took a drink of the medicine, gagged, coughed and then spewed it on the counter. I was so mad and dismayed at the same time, but my instinct to clean was immediate so I took care of the spill and didn't freak out (she's lucky). I was rendered speechless, did some head shaking and gave up.

I ended up drying her hair and driving her to school. She isn't allowed to watch any TV today, and we're going to start practicing pill-swallowing with M&Ms or something, because this is ridiculous.

All this before 9:00am. Freakin kids.

**What would you have done?
Any tips for me?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I can't decide if this morning's medicinal stand off was funny or outrageous, but I'm leaning toward outrageous. It must be too soon for me to laugh.

Sunday Thoughts

I got an email Friday night (around 10:30pm, after game night) indicating there would be a leaf-raking service project at the home of an older couple in our ward. We had let Whitney go home with Adam and Amy so she could have a sleepover with the girls, so she missed this opportunity, but Randy, Landon and I were there to help at 9:07am (Landon was running late) Saturday morning.


We were only 7 minutes late, but there was already a big crowd of people raking leaves. I was surprised to see so many children (the youngest was 2 years old!) all helping with the raking or the bagging of the leaves. What better way to teach kids to serve than to start them young?!


It was rather chilly outside for the kids, especially when the wind picked up (I never felt cold because I was working hard and had gardening gloves on) and after an hour and a half Landon was freezing and grumpy. I wish he wouldn't have felt that way, but I'm 38 and he's 11 so our perspectives on service differ from each other (I have to keep reminding myself of this). He ended up running home to take a shower and recover, but Randy and I stayed to the bitter end.


After finishing at this house, we ended up joining another family who'd been there raking to rake the leaves of another family who'd been there raking (did you follow that). We crossed the street and had our little raking party and were done in a hour with their whole yard (it would have taken them a lot longer by themselves), and then that family followed us home and helped rake our leaves!


We did NOT expect them to do this, and didn't think we had that much to do, but ended up filling about 10 bags of leaves with their help. It was wonderful!

If you had told me the night before that I'd spend 4 hours happily raking leaves the next day, I wouldn't have believed you. But it didn't feel like 4 hours of work, it felt like 4 hours of soul-lifting service (even to ourselves) and was such a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

We're really trying to teach our kids and ourselves, that ...."Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
--Matthew 25:40

**How did you learn to be a hard worker
and to give service happily? (Have you learned?)**

Comment Window Tidbit: We had so much to do after church today (meetings, home teaching, tithing settlement, and a court of honor) that there was no chance of taking a Sunday nap. This was a good thing as I think last week's nap ruined my sleep for the entire week!

Six for Saturday--Leaves Everywhere Edition

{click photo to enlarge}

1. I took this photo of our frost-covered leaves earlier this week and just love seeing the tiny details going on in it. Our two big trees finally surrendered most of their leaves, but I enjoyed the golden blanket they created on the lawn...at least until today when we raked them up.


2. I took myself to the movies on Thursday to see the Michael Jackson movie "This Is It". It was sooooo good! I loved all the dancing, the special effects, and seeing behind the scenes of his tour. It's sad to think that tour isn't going to happen.


3. Yesterday I had an appointment to take family photos for someone and was a little panicked when I got to the park and found a windstorm going on.


Wind = challenging photo taking, especially when small children are involved. It all worked out, but still.


4. We participated in a leaf-raking service project with a whole bunch of people from church today and my big orange jacket treated me right again. I seriously don't know what I'm going to do if it ever gets too beat up to wear. Sure I feel like a pumpkin or a construction cone when wearing it, but I also feel covered while maintaining the perfect temperature stasis during chilly, fall outings so what's a girl to do? I'm too practical for my own good.


5. I have no idea what the context is for this photo because it's one Randy took while I was in Paris, but it's just funny.


6. This is another photo Randy took while I was gone last month. He managed to take care of crazy-hair day for the kids with very high marks from them. Landon liked it so much he decided to become a punker zombie for Halloween so he could do his hair like this again.

**Have you raked leaves this week?
Have you seen that movie?
Do you have a less-than-fashionable
article of clothing you can't bear to part with?**

Comment Window Tidbit: There's nothing like raking leaves with friends for 4 hours to make you feel good from the inside out!

A Confession

In the past, I have mentioned my disdain for the hordes that surround the sample stations at Costco. As a matter of principle, I NEVER stop at these, ever. I begrudgingly go around the swarm of ginormous carts with orbiting children all stopping to eat their micro bite of chicken tacquito or get their taste of pita chips. It's silly really, but I take issue with the congestion created by the sampling. I never just wander Costco, I'm usually in a hurry (my fault I suppose) and don't appreciate experiencing a traffic jam in there. (My sister even has a co-worker who likes to use Costco samples for his lunch!)


But the week of Halloween (I'm not sure why I'm just now reporting this) they caught me by surprise and were giving decent sized samples of their glorious cupcakes! I strolled by, then processed this information and the lack of a crowd, and shamefully turned around to get one. I'm not proud of this, but it's true. It was a white cupcake with lots of tasty, orange frosting and I loved every second of it. In fact, as I did the rest of my shopping I couldn't stop thinking about the cupcakes. I wasn't about to spend $16 (though they had a $3 off coupon) on a 20 cupcakes (oh that they sold them individually!), even I'm not that weak (maybe that's just my bank account talking though).

But as I shopped I kept thinking about the cupcakes. Ohhhh tasty cupcakes. I began to hatch a plan involving me removing my coat and pulling my hair back so as to appear to be a different person so I could get a 2nd sample (the fall comes quickly my friends). But since my plan didn't take shape until I was on the other side of the store, and because I couldn't bear the shame of it all, I proceeded to the check out unsatisfied. They had a display of cupcakes there to mock me further, but I held strong.

I've had several weeks to get some distance from this incident and am happy to report that I've been to Costco multiple times since and haven't done any sampling (even this week when they had Ruffles potato chips). Apparently the white cupcake cast a spell on me (the chocolate had no appeal) and it is now broken. But I fear that one day I will meet the cupcake sample station again and will have a choice to make. Don't you judge me.

**Do you have any confessions to make?
Would you fall for a sample like this?
White or chocolate cake?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I seem to be experiencing some motivation issues. This week has been nothing like last week with its great weather and high productivity level, perhaps I'm in a funk.

New Favorite

Here's my favorite quote from last night's episode of Modern Family.

The husband says this to the camera after his wife gives him 5 coupons for hugs for an anniversary gift.

“Um, things I want...robot dog, night vision goggles, bug vacuum, GPS watch, speakers that look like rocks. I love my wife, but she sucks at giving gifts…I’m sorry for the pay channel language, oh…yogurt maker, I can’t NOT think of things I want.”

I forsee a long, happy relationship for me and this show. I have rewatched all the episodes so far and will be buying the dvds when they come out. Oh l'amour.

Quotable runner ups:

"You're not a Fandau."

"She threatened our child and that's what you're worried about, a segway?"

"She has a dark sense of humor, remember Halloween?

When she came as Sigfried and part of Roy.

It was too soon."

"When we go to Cabo, we have to get a hotel with a swim up bar because this running back and forth to the bathroom is a fool's game."

**Thoughts??**

Falling Down on the Job

This is the note Whitney left for the tooth fairy after she failed to take the tooth 2 nights in a row. Whitney didn't want us to see her note, but then she left it like this on her bed one morning so I guess it wasn't top secret after all. Notice she has started using the Obama mint tin Kristi left for her after staying in the kids' room last May for her tooth box, I think that's funny.

I had to remind her that sometimes if the tooth comes out after working hours then the tooth fairy's schedule is too full for that night, and sometimes she doesn't work holidays either, hence the delayed pick up.

**Do your kids have a special tooth box?
Is the tooth fairy ever late on the job for you?
How much does the tooth fairy leave at your house?**

Comment Window Tidbit: There is no sign of our mouse, I'm beginning to think I imagined the whole thing. Except for the "evidence" in the garage of course, but I set 3 traps out there and haven't caught anything yet. What's going on? Last night my own hair touched my cheek and I about jumped off the couch because I thought it was a mouse!

Caramel, Zookeeping and a Girl

The book club girls (sadly, minus Michelle again) met last week at Collette's house to reconnect with each other and discuss The Zookeeper's Wife.


I made caramel popcorn for the first time in a long time and forgot how long it takes (about 45 minutes), I ended up with more popcorn than caramel so I made an extra half batch of caramel to add to it which resulted in goo-rific caramel corn.


We found out Jana is going to have a baby girl! We are so excited that after 5 cute boys she will be having a darling baby girl....woohooo!! Amy had already heard the news from her husband (who's friends with Jana's husband) so she brought her this pink blanket.


Amy also brought us all something from her trip to India; she'd made these darling boxes to put the gifts in.


This is a blurry (I had lighting issues) shot of the little terra cotta lamp Amy brought us from India.


We did spend some time discussing the book and all agreed that we didn't like how it kept going in and out of story form to facts then back to story form. I have such issues with nonfiction, and didn't realize this book fell into that category until I started reading it on the plane to Paris. $#@!


We heard all about Amy's trip to India (is it wrong I have NO DESIRE to go there?), Jana's crazy household, Collette's family weekend, Jenn's husband's couponing and my trip to Paris. Good times.

**Does India appeal to you at all?
Have you read this book?
Do you make caramel popcorn very often?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I set 6 mouse traps today, 4 of them are neck crushers and 2 of them are trap door kinds that lure the mouse in and then close behind them. I'm just trying to figure out if they end up starving to death or suffocating in there though, because that's not very nice either; at least the neck crushing is fast right?