Updates

Now that it's been an entire week since my last post I think I'd better write a thing or two, though I doubt it will be interesting to anyone but me.

Well, this week my children have declared themselves to be fish.  We finally seemed to get enough summer weather to validate the purchase of a pool pass.  I bought it on Thursday afternoon and by Saturday night the kids had already logged at least 7 hours in the pool.  They just love it.  Their toes may be bleeding from the bottom of the pool, their eyes totally red and puffy despite the goggles, yet they will not be stopped.  It's pretty great.  Bundle is okay with the pool - she'll tolerate it for about one hour and then I have to beg for mercy from husband and friends alike to hang out with the big kids while I take her home.  You may be alarmed when you see my big kids - they are turning a lovely shade of golden brown despite the fact that I am slathering them in sunscreen.  Poor Bundle seems to have inherited my complexion - the pasty blueish white kind - and she and I can look forward to many years ahead of envying her siblings together.  Bitty has the cutest white "X" on  her back from her swimsuit straps and I love the sight of Stomper's trunks hanging just a bit low, the tan on his back ending abruptly and the top of his little white bum shining in the sun.

In other news, my dear father has begun the second year of his 8th decade - we celebrated his 71st birthday this week and it was fun to have my brother Adam and his family there with us to add to the party.  We ate pasta and salad and wicked wicked flourless chocolate cake.  Here's dad blowing out his candles - you may notice the smokey atmosphere from the fact that the only type of candles mom had in her drawer were the trick kind that keep relighting themselves - dad puffed and puffed on them until he just about collapsed.  And due to all the puffing I'm not sure the cake remained entirely sanitary, but hey, we're all family so we ate it anyway! Slather something chocolate in raspberries and whipped cream and I'm happy.

 

The grandkids, who were ecstatic to see one another, topped off the evening with a fantastic fashion show showing off quite the range of outfits: fancy ladies, Santa Claus, ninja warriors and ... what was Stomper?  An Evil Chinese Emporer?  I can't remember.  Something like that.  Oh yeah!  An Evil Egyptian King. He was wearing this long black sparkly skirt of my mom's and it was pretty funny.  Whitley is staying in SLC for a month or so with the kids and I'm looking forward to being together as much as we can.

Troy is recovering from his surgery well - he finally got his staples removed and is much more comfortable since.  I'm doing well in that the summer days are passing - I don't think this is going to make much sense but it feels like I'm trying so hard to be busy that I'm missing summer.  I keep thinking about summer from one year ago with my tiny new Bundle - she's huge! And cute!  And totally destructive!  But that's how 1-year-olds are, and by this time next year we'll be in a totally different place.  Hard to imagine, but time seems to pass whether we want it to or not!

Troy's New Best Friend

Not the Father's Day we were planning on, that's for sure. 

So picture this.  It's Saturday morning, early.  You've just called your neighbor and had him drive your husband, who's been in agony for more than 15 hours, to the hospital, .  The phone rings, you rush to get it, and hear your husband's voice, calm for the first time in a day, say to you, "I have a new best friend.  Morphine....  Oh yeah, and I'm getting my appendix removed today."

Thank you, modern medicine for bringing relief to my husband, because those were some seriously crummy hours he spent.  Of course, he's got a pretty awesome wound on his belly now, held together by staples, which the kids like to get a glimpse of at least twice a day.  And of course, most of our summer plans have been put on hold at least briefly.  I mean, if the man can't shower for a couple of days he certainly won't be taking the kids swimming for a while, and he's not allowed to pick up his baby again until mid August.  Sorry, hand-built bathroom vanity, you're back on the waiting list.  (You're so close, and you're so beautiful, you're worth the wait!) And I guess I'll be in charge of the tomatoes for a least of couple of weeks - I hope I can do them the justice that Troy did last year. 

So, yeah.  Troy's home, recovering bravely, and we're all grateful that his little appendix there stayed in one piece until we could get it out of him. By the way, he's the second of four people in our ward bishopric to have this happen in the past couple of months, so maybe the other two guys should be on the lookout.  Is a preemptive appendectomy out of line?

I Love You, Alton!

I think I may have a problem.  I mean, I definitely have a problem.  You know how I could tell?  (And these were NOT the first clues, by the way.) Well, there I was, on the living room floor, all my babies sound asleep in bed (I love today - the kids played non-stop from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and then fell into a coma) and what was I doing?  Sitting with a book nestled in my arms.  Only I wasn't reading it. I was totally distracted by a new cooking show on the new cooking channel. My mouth was hanging open, I was reaching for a pen to write down a recipe, plus I was simultaneously judging the new chef on her kitchen, outfit and presentation.  (I loved her kitchen, she was a bit of a talk-through-clenched-teeth-while-you're-smiling snob, and I'm going to try her petite-four recipe.) And what was the book I was just about to get to?  Well what else? A new cookbook.  Yes, I have a problem.

I'm so excited about this new cookbook - I got it for my birthday.  It's Alton Brown's latest - the first in a trio of books that will cover ten whole years of his show, Good Eats, which I love.  I love it so much that I don't actually watch the show because every time I do, I can not relax and enjoy it.  I start to panic. I have to grab a notebook and pen and furiously scribble down everything that comes out of Mr. Brown's mouth before I forget it.  Thank you, Alton:  I don't have to do that any more because he's put every episode down on paper - this book covers the first 80 (!!!) episodes and I'm thrilled.  It's quite a hefty tome.  One problem.  It's not too easy to navigate due to the fact that it's organized chronologically by episode rather than by subject matter.  A wee bit daunting.  So guess what I'm going to do.  Yup, I'm going to pull a Julie/Julia project and cook my way through every episode.  THAT's how much I love Alton.

No, I'm not going to blog about it all; the only reasons I bring it up at all are 1) to declare my undying love for Alton (I love you too, Jamie Oliver, don't  you worry) and 2) to tell you that I successfully made FANTASTIC steak the other night.  I've never made really tender fabulous steak before, and thanks to Alton, I did.  And if you happen to see me at a local liquor store in the near future, do not worry that I'm becoming an alcoholic.  You may rest assured that I am only purchasing more cognac to use in the gorgonzola cream sauce to go with the succulent steaks.  (Sorry, vegetarians, I can never join your ranks no matter how much I love vegetarian cooking.)  I had wondered if buying a whole new type of liquor was truly necessary for this sauce and I gotta say YES.  It WAS.  Mmmm.

Want to know the secrets? Well go buy the book.  It's the first recipe in there.

Good night, Mr. Brown. See you in the morning. (The next section is a beginner course on eggs....)

One Tradition I'm Willing to Let Go

Last year Stomper begged and begged for a mohawk and we finally decided to let him get one the week school let out.  Not one to be on the forgetful side, Stomper requested a repeat this year.  Last year his hair was pretty short and we gave him this wide thing - ugh!  It looked so trashy! Like this little flap of carpet or something. Well, this year his hair was quite long and we narrowed the 'hawk and spiked it.  He still had his face paint and oh man, I think I don't want to keep this tradition going.  It's actually a little painful to take him places.  And frankly, I think the hairdo affects his personality - he was so surly!  I was pretty happy to have Troy slick the thing off on Saturday morning, but now Stomper is very sad.  Apparently he doesn't care for being bald.  I, myself, am just glad to not feel that I need to purchase a selection of wife-beater tank tops for Stomper to match his rockin' hair 'do.

Heaven Help Me.

Well, today was day #1 of the 2010 summer season.  Actually, it was just day # 1/2, since Stomper actually had school until noon today.  Sigh.  I've been reading all you people's blogs about Yay Yay Summer is HERE! and I am feeling more like I want to go fetal and crawl under the bed for the next 12 weeks. 

Let me ask you this.  I'm a nice person, right?  Right?  So how come my kids fight so much?  Troy and I are not fighters at all - blah blah let's not get into this.  I'll just say that the kids had a rough day.  Lots of crying.  Bundle is sick and miserable and wouldn't sleep all day.  She insisted on walking around like usual but was weaving like a drunkard and kept falling down and injuring herself.  I think Stomper was thrown off by the end of school - maybe I don't realize how sensitive he is to change - but he was just a stinker today!  Luckily the kids pulled themselves together by this evening for our school's annual last-day-of-school Family Fun Carnival and they had a great time.

There was a super terrific face painter on hand.  Observe:

(It should be noted that the artist did not add the blue lips - that was Bitty's snow cone color of choice.) Pretty terrific, though, don't you think?  I couldn't bear to have them so excited for their face paint and then just wash it right off so I let them sleep in it.  Am I a bad mom?  The paint isn't smeary or greasy - it's dry to the touch so we'll see how it holds up over night.

Well, I guess I'm posting this entry in hopes that you'll send out your prayers and wishes for us because if the rest of summer is like today was I'm putting the kids in summer school.  I should give them a break really, and myself too.  Transition days are hard.  I kind of love how sad Stomper got when we talked about him missing school.  He really did love his teacher, and I'm sorry to say that I don't think that I ever got one photo of them together.  Maybe we can pop in there next year for a quick shot.

Good night.  I'm going to bed so we can try again tomorrow.

Life With a 1-Year-Old

This just says it all.  Here is Bundle during her first birthday party, epitomizing the ultimate 1-year-old. It's a little hard to see the scabs on her nose and forehead from when she did a face-plant on the back porch a few days prior, but they're there in full bloom.  She is sitting in a self-made puddle of limeade, which she acquired by stealing someone else's cup, and promptly began spreading it around with her hands.  She's covered in dirt, which she was happily stuffing in her mouth, and due to the limeade, stuck to her face really really well. She won't eat food, but she'll eat dirt.  This is my life.  And I love it.  (And I'm tired.)

We had a lovely bash in honor of our completely oblivious little birthday girl.  She enjoyed the company and the attention, and even seemed to enjoy the presents.  Of course, she loved the cake, which is the whole reason we throw birthday parties for our babies.  We love to see them go nuts with the cake.  You don't even want to be reading this.  You just want the pictures.  Here you go.

I adore her.  She's such a lovely little girl, and I'm thrilled that she's mine.  I'm less thrilled with her newly acquired toddler antics (throwing the remote into the bathtub, loving nothing more than eating pebbles, learning how be a really great biter, lots of back arching, learning an impressive fake-cry, playing in potty water any chance she gets) but am surviving in hopes of a brighter future.  

Oh.  I just totally love her.  Of course, she's asleep right now, which makes all the difference!

Proud Parents of Another Preschool Graduate

She did it!  Bitty has pushed through, buckled down, stuck to her guns and completed... preschool.  Now she only has 13 years of schooling left before she can consider 4 -12 additional years.  Wow.  I just totally depressed the crap out of myself.
But on a lighter note, we were happy to celebrate with Bitty, her teachers and the rest of her classmates yesterday morning.  They had a great year and I really enjoyed her sweet teachers.  The graduation itself was a little nuts - we arrived at 10:15 and I wasn't back in my car until 12:30.  There were some songs from the kids (I was so happy that Bitty didn't implode and go fetal; she actually sang!  With a huge smile on her face!) and a little graduation presentation.  Then there was a magic show.  Then there was a celebration of summer birthdays.  Then there was food.  Troy could only stay for the beginning so I chased little Bundle around that gym for two hours - that was too long, just so you know.  But Bitty was happy and proud, and that made it worth it.

And now summer begins.  I might need a little help.  Already in the past 36 hours since the graduation ceremony I have played pretend with Bitty almost non-stop.  I don't think I can do a whole summer of that, but Bitty has assured me that I will be fine.  "Mom, you can be in the game WHILE you clean up after us!" 

I can't sign off without throwing in my favorite Bitty quote from the past few weeks.  The other day she came up to me and said, "Mom, you know I'm not just a regular Karate Space Monkey, right?"  Oh I know, darlin', I know.

The Affadavit

This totally cracked me up.  A couple of Sundays ago, our friends The Irvines stopped by for an evening visit.  They brought with them two wonderful things. (Besides themselves, of course.) The first was a plate of chocolate-dipped strawberries and big hunks of cheesecake.  Did you hear me?  Chocolate-dipped cheesecake.  Woah.  You only need a little extra insulin to get through it, but trust me, it's worth it.  The other wonderful thing was this:

So funny.  I guess Troy has been absorbing too much Twilight information from his wife and the rest of the planet lately, because when there was a conversation between two people in the church office, one of whom happened to be named Jacob, and Troy was on his side of the argument, that's what he was quoted as saying.

You heard it, folks, he's team Jacob, and I can't say I blame him one little bit.