Flashback Friday

Just going through old pics and photo projects today, making a quick-n-easy photo book for my dad, and I found some great pics that I couldn't resist sharing.
Wow, I should do more digital scrapbooking!

Sue, I take it back. I guess you have taken a family photo of us in the past five years. Good job!!!!

What's the Secret in Our Holiday Pic?

Guess the two clues in our pic. You may want to click on it, so you can see the larger version. Okay, not too big of a mystery, if you've been paying attention to my blog for the past few months. Hint: it's something we're wearing/holding. As many picky things as I found in this photo, the amazing thing is this is only one of four, and this is the only one where we're all in it. It was done in five minutes, in the freezing, blowing cold, with the camera propped on a ladder (tri-pod is missing). I'm just grateful we got it done at all. And believe it or not, this is possibly the best family photo we've had in years, pretty much due to my overall cheapness for professional photos. I don't know if Sue finds this annoying, or just a relief. Hmmm... an opinion Sue? But, I guess I could have done it cheap at Wal-Mart, or the like, too, and I never did. But I take tons of candid pictures, so what is my problem? I just don't know. Sorry, the babbling took over again. Moving on -

Kids are kind of fun, you know? Once I got all the presents wrapped the other night (due to much nagging from Dani, bless her heart), Dani and Gil were so excited, it kind of got me in the holiday mood. I've been baking and make two goodies:
1. Creamy Mint Cookies - Make a sugar cookie recipe, then add a bag of creamy peppermint chips (I found this in the baking section). Very yummy, a big hit at our house!
2. Peanut Brittle
Maybe I'll even get my visiting teaching gifts delivered tonight.

My Christmas Wish

This is my Christmas wish, in two parts:
1. No more sick kids for at least a month. And to really wish big, no more barfing Connor for at least a year. Yes, he threw up again this morning. That makes 12 days of nasty illness. Is there some kind of song about that? Merry, merry, merry.
2. To get my mental energy back, so I can spend some quality time in my craftroom. I'd like to remember the joy I used to get from making cards for everyone.

Say a prayer, or a lot, for me. And the good thing is, it doesn't cost anything.

Holiday Cheer

WARNING: not a pick-me-up blog post

Boy, we are going to get an "F" on our Christmas Spirit report card. I set up a tree, put out the nativity scenes, bought all the holiday loot, and seriously, that's about it. It's driving Dani crazy. I really feel sorry for her. I am in a perpetual fog, and I just can't seem to get motivated to do anything. Oh, and I ordered a lifetime supply of various versions of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" online. Some of the themes were Redneck, Nurse, Grandma, Mom, Dog, Texas, and a few others I don't remember off the top of my head. If they come by UPS on time, I'll bring them to the party Saturday. Should be fun. We always got a kick out of those on Christmas Eve. Doesn't have much to do with the Savior, I know, but it's a kind of Christmas tradition. Creates fun memories, that sort of thing.

After Sue's holiday post, I spent a few moments strolling down memory lane, remembering how my mother made Christmas special. Some of my favorite things were the Nativity she set out, in a special place. I always loved it. Decorating the tree was special, and it was always a real pine tree, so the house smelled wonderful. I miss that. We eventually went with the fake Christmas tree here at our house, but we sacrificed the flavor of Christmas, I think. Many of the Christmas tree ornaments were special wooden German ornaments my parents bought when we lived in Germany while my dad was in the army. I especially loved the German wooden music box my mother has, and the wooden Christmas pyramid, which has various horizontal "windmills" (don't know how else to describe it) that when you light candles, are turned around by the heated air, and make bells ding. I went shopping online for these Kathe Wohlfahrt things a few days ago, and they were about $300 to $500 a piece, and I thought, "Oh, well, maybe when I win the lottery." Of course, I'll have that much extra dough for decorations after the kids grow up, and they won't be at home any more to appreciate them. Sigh... I'd love to take a Christmas vacation to Rothenburg, Germany some year. It's very festive there, in a traditional sort of way. And of course, my mother baked. Maybe I could do some more of that. I thought about it for a few minutes this morning, but then the urge left me. Maybe it will come back later today. If I can just get my visiting teaching done this week, I'll feel a bit more of a sense of accomplishment, like I'm not totally a loser.

Man, I am just a little ray of sunshine, aren't I? Good grief. Sorry about that. Had another episode last night with Connor. He was doing pretty good Friday and Saturday, then last night, he started throwing up again, over and over. My theory is that it's not a reoccurence of his week-long bout with a stomach virus, but a new 24-hour stomach flu he picked up in nursery yesterday at church. I'm beginning to consider keeping him away from nursery for a few months, although that's probably pointless, considering the fact that I have several little kids in my home every day, who bring their own cooties from home. Man, I hope everyone will stay healthy so we can come Saturday. Otherwise, we'll have to stay here. I just started bawling last night, as I waited for Zen to find someone to give Connor a blessing. I didn't have the faith of a grain of mustard seed last night, more like faith of a small microscopic molecule, if that. I was feeling all sad that Connor's sick all the time, despite blessings, and I just felt low and sorry for myself, like my lack of faith and goodness were the source of the problem. Not a noble sentiment, I know, but I just couldn't seem to stop the bawling. Poor Zen, I know he wanted to help me feel better, but I couldn't let my crummy feelings out of my mouth, they seemed so selfish.

Well, here's a spiritual thought: we were given the assignment in Relief Society yesterday to write our testimony in the front of a copy of the Book of Mormon, which they passed out to us. I wrote mine, then threw a reference to my favorite scripture, which is 3 Nephi 17, the whole chapter. I'd give just about anything to have been there, you know? I'd give up Christmas loot for the rest of my life if I could just be a bump on the log at that event, and the principal events of the Savior's mortal life. Totally worth it, you know?

Summer Guest - Thanks for the Mood Swings

Not much interesting to talk about these days, but I'll write some random stuff. I think I just broke my rear end again. Like an idiot, I went down the back snowy steps this morning to the garage in my flip flops, to get a jug of milk out of our extra fridge in the garage. My feet slipped out from under me (how could that possibly happen in flip flops in the snow?), and I landed hard on my rear end. Ouch! I think I broke my butt again. And, yes, it was all very dumb, and it's because I have less mental faculties since Summer Guest moved in. I mean, I'm kind of a dork anyway, but now I'm especially stupid.

Summer Guest has sure given me some crazy mood swings. This weekend I had a headache almost constantly, although I am grateful it wasn't a migraine. Connor was sick with diarrhea & vomiting, and I spent just about the whole weekend on the couch with him. I felt totally nuts, deep in the dumps and was sure I was the lowest worm on earth. This morning I felt pretty enthusiastic and chipper. What could possibly be wrong in the world? Life is fantastic! After all, I haven't accidently maimed anybody in daycare yet, and I still exercise every morning, so it's all good. Yeah! Wait... I think I want to cry again for no good reason. Okay, I'm a total psycho.

Connor's still sick, but running around playing like he's not, so it could be worse. I think our water bill this month will look like a summer water bill. I bathe his rear end everytime I change his diaper, to keep the sore butt to a minimum. I am so thankful for running water. What a great blessing! We're so spoiled with indoor plumbing, you know that? No smelly outhouses, no literally frozen toilet seats, no hauling buckets of hot water to have that once-a-week bath, and fresh drinking water whenever you want it.

Zen took the kids sledding yesterday afternoon. Do I have any pictures to show for it? No!!!!!! Monkeys!!!!! Uuuughhhh! So, today I am pictureless, but I sure left lots of babbling for you to read!

Thoughts From Summer Guest

"FEED ME SUGAR!!!!!! Here are the kinds I like:"

1. Lucky Charms (original or generic, who cares?)
2. Mommy's sugar cookies (the soft chewy kind, no icing)
3. Honey Bunches of Oats
4. Fresca
5. Key Lime Pie
6. Donuts, basic sugar-glazed
7. Milkshakes
8. Apples, oranges, all berries & juices
9. Chocolate (almond-toffee Treasures when I can get it)
10. Sweet breads (cinnamon rolls, banana bread, Mommy's made-fom-scratch buttermilk pancakes)

"Other things I crave:"

1. V-8 (really yummy!)
2. Lasagne
3. Chicken & cheese taquitos
4. Mixed nuts (sometimes with dried fruit)
5. Homemade chicken noodle soup (yummy!)
6. Tortilla spirals (the kind with cream cheese and various fillings)

My Apologies

Okay, I really hit a wall this past weekend. I had a migraine Saturday, with the spotty vision, nausea, and blinding pain, the kind that lays you flat, literally, and makes it so you have to go away to a dark room, curl up in a ball, and just wait it out. I only get them about once a year, thank goodness, but man they are no fun. Sunday, it was better, but my head just felt bruised. Monday I was totally lethargic, yesterday was more productive, but today the lethargy is back. Sheeeshhh.

I think I'll have to issue a retraction on my guilt-trip last week. I'm so not good with the blogging these past few weeks, maybe month. I blame it on my summer guest for the time-being. Hopefully it gets better. Okay, a few random pictures for your pleasure:

This was Nov. 30th, and Connor and I had one of those random nights, where he woke up in the middle of the night, and decided he was fully-rested and rarin' to go. I, of course, was super-tired, and not in the mood to play, by any stretch of the imagination. I set him up with his Cars movie, two sippers of milk, a bowl of dry cereal, Cap'n Crunch Berries I think, and a bowl of popcorn (shush! it's not your kid!), and I tried to sleep on the couch. Makes me tired just thinking about it.

We're sooo slacking on the holiday celebrations, but I did get Dani to make Christmas cookies. I made the dough, and she went to town with the cookie cutters. Unfortunately, they were all gone by the next day, much to Dani's irritation. Hhhmmmm, holiday hazards.

The Online Baby Gift Registry

I started shopping around online (always dangerous) and it occurred to me that it would be really cool if all the expectant mothers would make a list of baby stuff needed/wanted. We could:
1. Write a blog post just addressing this issue, providing links to all your favorite online stores & products (most of us don't live close, and some of us are in shopping Siberia and do most of the decent shopping online.)
2. Make a sidebar/page-element addition to your blog.
3. Write a whole new blog!! It would be just like the Family Reunion Blog, only dedicated to our Family Online Baby Gift Registry, and anyone could contribute.
4. Please include links and color preferences.

This would be really cool, because not only could we buy new stuff for everyone, we can all keep our eyes peeled at D.I., KSL.com, and other places where we can pick up quality used items for cheaper than new (almost all of my baby furniture was second-hand, even the crib, but it's lasted forever.) What do you think?

My Foggy Brain

Well, it had to come back to this sooner or later, so lets dive in to my foggy brain. Hhmmm... oh, what was I talking about? I got lost there for a minute. Oh, yes, my fogginess. I mix up my kids names all the time. Gil is Connor, Dani is Gil, Connor is Gil, is Gil Dani? you get the picture. Maybe I should just start calling everyone "hey, kid" and be done with it. And I seriously can't get motivated to do anything these days. It's a struggle getting out of bed in the morning Monday thru Friday, I tell you what. Here is my early-morning routine, step by step:
1. Turn off the alarm at 4:50 am. Try not to go back to sleep. Hah!
2. Throw back the covers, sit up, and turn on the light.
3. Walk five feet to the bathroom, use the facilities, then sit back down on the bed and tell myself I just have to get going (this can go on for a while). I can't break my three-month streak of exercising everyday except Sunday (yes, I exercised Thanksgiving morning). I have to be ready for July, because I'm seriously determined to do anything I can to avoid a c-section this time. This is about endurance, baby. And I AM NOT GAINING BACK THOSE 30 POUNDS I LOST!!!!! I realize I will gain anywhere from 10 to 20 pounds for my Summer Guest (yes, that's my average), but I have to get myself set for the four months AFTER the arrival, because that's when I REALLY gain weight. Uughhh. No nursing weight-loss for me, more like the Nursing Hippo.
4. Stand up, go find my exercise clothes. Try not to get distracted by the always-ginormous piles of laundry in the laundry room. I start a lot of loads of laundry at 5 in the morning. I may not get back to it until 9pm at night, hence the ginormous piles of laundry.
5. Put on exercise clothes. Locate MP3 player.
6. Step on my Gazelle striding machine (an infomercial impulse-buy thing four years ago), and start going. I am soooooo slow when I start. It's a miracle I get a mile done in thirty minutes these days. But in my defense, I keep the resistance on, too. When I can get to the rec center, and use one of their elliptical machines, it measures over two miles, so that makes me feel better. If I can make it through the first fifteen minutes, I can usually go a lot faster the last fifteen minutes. I almost double my speed in those last fifteen minutes.
7. Whew! Mission accomplished. Now I shower and get dressed, read scriptures with the fam, then face my day with all the little kids.

Man, exercising is a lot harder now that Summer Guest is coming. My body is soooo not into making an effort on anything. Weird thing is, I either feel inexplicably stressed-out over nothing, or I feel kind of buzzy, just sort of floating. Hyperaware vs. Clueless. Blechhh.

Thanksgiving & Kickin' Off the Season

Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Holidays! Well, we've hit the big season, evidenced by the amount of time I had to stand in line outside GameStop Friday morning, freezing my little toes off. I was not as well-prepared as some of the shoppers were, with their camp chairs, blankets, and thermoses of hot-chocolate/coffee. But, despite the hardships, it was mission accomplished. Whew! Just one of the things I was willing to put up with, living in shopping Siberia, like I do. And I was NOT going to pay an extra $200 to buy the dumb thing on eBay. Period. Isn't Christmas fun?! Let's feel the love and peace of the season, already!

Okay, let's catch up on the past week. Man, what's up with me and blogging lately? Remember the days when I used to blog four or five times a day? I don't know, I'm in some kind of fog, but let's catch up before I digress onto my foggy brain. Thanksgiving was fun. We had a great trip down, really, but I was glad when we got there. Can't wait until Connor is older. We might be able to handle a road trip that lasts for more than three hours. We'll see. And Little Summer Guest is going to make that even more interesting. Hhmmm... Here are a few pic highlights from Thanksgiving:

Zen's sister, Mickie, had two little baby chickens boxed off in a corner in her livingroom, I assume so they wouldn't freeze in the cold. Anyway Connor just loved the baby chickens, and only knocked their boxy pen over three times, I think.

Dani also loved cuddling the baby chickens. Never fear, I was ready with my little bottle of Germ-X hand sanitizer. I don't know, maybe it was a "summer guest" thing, but I was having a case of the heebie-jeebies about chicken germs.

All the Allred clan, chowing down.

Connor's favorite thing was "punkin" pie.

We also got started on our holiday decorating. Most of us are kind of humbug (I'm reluctant, because I know most of it will be destroyed by the daycare kids if I put it out). Just a tree would be fine. But Dani dragged us all kicking & screaming this weekend to at least get the Christmas tree set up. A few hightlights:

Dani & Connor

Hey, these two actually cooperated on something!

I'm sure there will be more pictures of the tree, we're taking it in slow stages (don't ask), but it will get done eventually. Oh, I also put up my wood nativity sets. They were a curiosity the first day back with daycare, but I'm not too worried. Little kids are why I only collect wood nativity sets, for the time being. Speaking of catching up, here are a few pics from the morning after our first real snow:

Enjoying the school holiday, Dani "led the troops" that morning, urging everyone outside to play in the snow.

Dani introduced Connor to the concept of the snowball fight. I think he liked it, little imp.

Freezing, but having fun!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

It's our first real snow of the season, fallen just in the past few hours. We had a few "sprinkles" in October, but none of it stuck to the ground. So, this is the real deal, and our first snow of the season, in my opinion. Gil and Dani just couldn't resist, although it was ten o'clock at night (no school tomorrow) and freezing outside!

My Little Thanksgivings

Sorry, I'm such a blogging slacker these days! Okay, 'tis the season. Here's my little Thanksgiving list:
1. Zen - Like he said, he's not a woman (i.e. not so good at the "venting feelings" type of conversation, which isn't always contructive anyway), but he's absolutely fantastic at being a good provider, great at getting us to do fun stuff together, he's always so mellow and not moody (unlike those of the XX persuasion in our family, thank goodness), has no vices (unless you count world of warcraft), he's a great dad, has a strong testimony, says kind things, is willing to help, and is just an all-around great guy!
2. All my kids - Gil (Mr. Funny & Responsible), Dani (Best Smile & Loves to Play), Connor (Cars Fan & Loves His Mommy)
3. My testimony - sometimes it seems like I have so far to go, it's discouraging, but I appreciate my Savior and all the sweet gifts the gospel brings.
4. All my family Sister Friends - I love my Mom, sister, Aunts, cousins, and sisters-by-marriage. You're the best!
5. Blogging - pretty much the same as #4, but I am thankful for a place to write my feelings, where I get to interact with the people I love. I've even gotten Zen to leave a few comments - always some variety of "CATS", but it really makes me laugh everytime, thanks Sweetie!!
6. My nice house - not all that outstanding by some worldly standards, but it fits us just fine, and hey, I have a craft room, for crying out loud!
7. My craftroom - grossly underused, but I'm trying to remedy that situation! Major inspiration credits to Katy & Liz! I wish I had a crafting buddy! (You know, like some people have an exercise buddy.) Maybe I'll have to find one locally, you know, come out of my shell, and all that...
8. My job - Okay, I'm honestly not enthusiastic about doing daycare all the time, and some days are better than others, but I'm really thankful it allows us to pay our bills, and hopefully get out of debt in the next three or four years.
9. An almost-tragedy passed uneventfully - I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that last Thursday, something not-very-wonderful happened with Connor and the little baby I tend, and while the baby was fine, it scared the holy monkeys out of me, and I cried about it off and on this past weekend, for no good reason. I am VERY thankful all turned out well.
10. Vacations! - I'm really looking forward to this Thanksgiving vacation, and plan to goof off as well as work in my craftroom, but mostly goof off.
11. Beautiful printed papers & cardstocks - Need I say more?
12. Delightful rubber stamps - Ditto #11, so many stamps, so little time.

Randomly Friday

Well, not much in particular to talk about today, and there's not much activity on the family blogs, so I thought I would post a little something.




Kind of disturbing isn't it? This is the sight that greeted me when I walked in the door from my Cub Scout Pack Meeting. It had been a long, hard day and I was so glad it was over. Apparently, it all caught up with Connor, too, and he was so tired he sacked out on the stairs, maybe waiting for me to get home. Warms my heart.

The Cowboy Memorial Bloopers

I'm saved! I'm saved! My camera has been found! And, I win the Doofus of the Week Award. When I couldn't find my camera yesterday, and Zen said he didn't remember unloading it from the car, I assumed that meant it didn't make it home. You see, he's pretty thorough about the unpacking, not wanting a bunch of junk in his car. So, it never occurred to me to look in his car. Dumb, I know. But it slipped into my head to look today, and there it was, in the back of his trunk!!!! Aaaaarghhh!! All this drama over nothing! (Cheeks red with embarrassment.)

Oh, and an honorable mention goes to my mother, who so willingly and graciously drove out to the State Hospital today and looked for my camera. FIVE Gold Stars for you!

Here are the Don Cox 100th Birthday Cowboy Remembrance photos from this Saturday. Some of these are just begging for additional captions (hint, hint) -


Now you know why it took us forever to get out of town Friday night.


Battle of the Century at Grammie's house. Hi-yahhhhh!


The cousins chillin' at Grammie's, playing dominos.


Connor and his favorite toy, Lightning McQueen. This is just sooo "little boy".


The cutest "seefood" this side of Texas.


Do I know you? Are we related?


Four cousins at the State Hospital church. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall... well, we are at a hospital, of sorts.


Did you say, "cheese"? I thought you said, "booger"!


An awesome cowboy cake!! Good thing there were so many kids to help eat all that yucky yummy icing.


Let's not think about how much extra love got spritzed on top of that cake.


Yum! Let's eat a bunch of sugar, and then sit quietly and respectfully for a very nice and heart-felt program. Hhhhmmm...

Okay, there are almost no relevant cowboy photos in here, and this is all very tongue-in-cheek for such a special day, but at least the pics are about Don Cox's descendents, so it's all good.

P.S. Okay I just read all this before posting, and I feel somewhat disrespectful. After all, it was a nice program, and I'm glad that we all decided to remember our great cowboy forefather. But, I guess our tongue-in-cheek humor is a family trait, too, so I'll let this blog post stand. Yee-haw!

P.P.S. Mom wanted me to put a note on here about more pics on the Reunion blog. Here's the link:http://coxfamily07.blogspot.com/

Back in My Day...

Thanks to Jenn for giving me my first "rattling pitchforks" comment. It's some kind of status symbol, right? I feel so special! I was going to blog the Saturday get-together, but lo and behold, I think I've lost my camera. Aaaaaaaaagh! The last place I remember seeing it is the church at the State Hospital down in Provo, so I would appreciate any help you could give me. And, yes, I already emailed Liz, so hopefully I will be able to recover my camera. But I hate the idea of losing those pictures, because some of them were really cute, and I wanted to blog them. Darn it! Anyway, there probably won't be any pictures forthcoming until I get a camera, one way or another.

So, despite the camera drama, today's blog post is about a funny comment Zen made to the kids on the drive back to Wyoming Saturday night. We'd had enough of the dvd player, and turned it off to listen to the radio. There's not a lot of selection in Rock Springs, Wyoming, so we were reveling in the variety along the Wasatch front. I made everyone listen to disco, of all things, on B98.7. That's when the kids started complaining. So Zen, in all his Dad wisdom, says , "When I was a kid, we didn't have dvd players. Sometimes, we didn't even have radio. We had to sing songs - both ways!" For some reason, that just made me laugh, and laugh, and laugh... and I knew it would end up on my blog. Sometimes, parenting together can be wonderful.

Lack of Cultural Refinement

Do you ever feel left out when people start quoting the classics? Do you sometimes feel like a hick? Not feelin' quite genteel? Do you stick your foot in your mouth frequently? Well, come join our family!

Some kid (cough Gil cough) accidently reset my desktop yesterday, and I went back through my selection of desktop backgrounds to pick one that matched my mood, and this one struck my fancy:



Reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes, our favorite! You can tell by this mangled pile of books:



I soooo wanted to put a Calvin and Hobbes clip up here, but I figured I'd get busted for copyright violations of some kind sooner or later, so I won't bother. But trust me, Connor was totally making a Calvin and Hobbes face. Here's another Calvin tribute:



Katy recently had a blog post about her favorite holiday movie, White Christmas, and it made me laugh, because our favorite holiday movie is Christmas Story, with Ralphie's quest for a bb gun, his mother who hasn't had a hot meal in 10 years, and his dad's eternal war on the furnace. Classic!

So, as you can see, we are a supremely culturally refined family! Especially with our appreciation for gassy humor and redneck jokes!

P.S. In our defense, we at least read scriptures together at 6:30am every morning, Monday thru Friday. We're not totally hopeless!

Chicken Bacon Fried Rice

There has been a wonderful flurry of recipes lately on the family blogs, so I thought I'd post one of my own. Please excuse the detail here, but I'm one of those annoying fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-hardly-ever-measure-anything type of cooks, so when I made this recipe tonight, I tried to measure everything and take detailed mental notes, so it could be duplicated by anyone. Again, the English-major wordiness is coming through:

Chicken Bacon Fried Rice
cook these separately:
8 cups cooked white rice (start with about 2-1/2 to 2-3/4 c. dry rice, then add double the water & cook until the water is absorbed & the rice is soft)
3 chicken breasts, cut into chunks and cooked in skillet with 1 or 2 Tbsp. oil
8 oz. bacon, cooked, drained, & chopped
5 eggs, scrambled, season with salt & pepper (cook 6, if you really like eggs)

cook these all together:
3 stalks celery, chopped
4 to 5 stalks green onions, chopped
3 teaspoons minced garlic (I buy mine pre-chopped in a jar), or 3 to 4 finely chopped cloves garlic
1-1/2 cups frozen peas & carrots (bag of veggies in the freezer section)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce (add more if it's not salty enough)

cooking directions
1. Cook the rice. Completely cool and set aside. Otherwise, you will have a mushy mess when you combine everything in the end. This is a step you can do ahead of time, or the night before, so that it all comes together quickly when you get home from work, or running errands. Ditto for the chicken and bacon.
2. Cook the chicken, bacon, and eggs each separately and set aside.
3. Put 1 or 2 Tbsp. oil in your main cooking pot. Stir-fry all the veggies & garlic until they are heated through and a little soft, but still mostly crunchy.
4. Add the brown sugar & soy sauce. Cook for about a minute or two, just so the sugar dissolves and it heats & coats everything.
5. Add the chicken, bacon, & eggs. Mix.
6. Add the rice. Turn off the heat and toss everything together.
7. Enjoy!!!

Recipe alterations - Take out the chicken or bacon and add ham, or just add more veggies and make it a vegetarian dish. Take out veggies you don't like, and add some that you do. Whatever. As long as the rice to sugar/soysauce ratio stays the same (plus/minus some soy sauce according to your saltiness preference, I think you can alter anything else.


This recipe made a huge pot of fried rice, and this was all that was left! Sorry about the non-professional-cookbook photo, but trust me, it's totally yummy!

What Do You Do When You Need to Cry?

I'm having one of those totally random days, when I feel like running away for about a week. I think I just need to cry my eyes out over something. But realistically, my life is pretty good. We're all safe and healthy, employed, able to pay our bills, and don't have any major drama going on. So, what do you do when you need to cry and let off steam?

P.S. Sue, you still have a comment to leave on my "troubled rear end" post!

Hi, My Name Is Bob

Okay, it's probably a teenager thing, but Gil has adopted a phrase that indicates any number of things. And that is, "Hi, my name is Bob." (Sorry, Zen's-brother-in-law, it's not personal, I don't know where he got it, it's a mystery) What does it mean, exactly? Well, I'm not entirely clear on the issue, but here are some of the uses:
1. "Yes, I'm a dork."
2. "Just wanted to say hi."
3. "Needed to have some random words fall out of my mouth, pressure release thing."
4. General random nothingness.
5. Another variation is "My name is Jimmy."

Gil has been teaching this phrase to Connor for a while. When Dani got home from school yesterday, Connor was in the tub. I didn't hear the start of this cute bit, but I'm guessing she got Connor to start saying it, and then he wouldn't stop! He kept screaming at me to come watch him say, "My name is Bob" over and over and over. Of course, it didn't help that we kept giggling. At one point, I made Gil go in the bathroom and sit with Connor - "This is basically your fault, so you get to sit in here and listen to your brother."

Thank goodness I'm not very fertile!

Sorry, I took a break for a few days, and ignored my blog and everyone else's. I wanted to leave my Halloween post up for a while, but now I'm moving on. Plus, I had ELEVEN kids in my house Friday! It was a flashback to this summer, when I had days like that, too. Some days the universe converges, and I have everyone here at the same time, and Friday was one of those days. I had my three kids (there was no school Friday) and eight daycare kids. At least it was good money that day. Thank goodness it's over. Whew!! I'm so glad I don't have a busload of my own kids, and that mine are spaced a good ways apart. I was really glad to see the weekend, and even though I had a lot of things I could have done Saturday, I spent it vegging instead. Mental Health Day. I figure I spend all week picking noses, wiping butts, doing laundry, serving five meals a day, and cleaning house, and a lot of Saturdays I hang up my housewife hat and just veg out with the kids, generally doing nothing constructive, except exercising and a little grocery shopping.

Wanted - Some Experienced Advice

Could the more "mature" women in our family give me advice on something? About the last six months or so, I've found that I literally can't sit on my rear end anymore! If I sit on a surface that is not really padded, my tailbone hurts a lot when I get up! What can I do about this? Do I have to start carrying around a special orthopedic pillow, or something?!!! It's so irritating!

Sorry if that was TMI (Too Much Information), but I need help!

Still Going!

I'm a little afraid of packing on the pounds these days, due to my summer guest. My appetite has really gone up, which is unusual, because all the times before, I lost interest in food the first three or four months. I was really afraid to step on the scales this week, but I finally couldn't stand the suspense, and weighed myself this morning. Still the same, thank goodness! I guess my body is just compensating for the needed increase in calories by making me hungrier. We'll see what happens. If I can just keep exercising, I'll be pleased with whatever happens. I've totally got my daily routine down now, where I get up at five, exercise, then get ready for daycare. I'm just waiting for the extreme exhaustion to hit me, and I'll have to drag myself out of bed to exercise. I hope I don't have to deal with that, because I know how easy it is to break the exercise habit. Sometimes, all it takes is just one missed session, and a whole string of excuses follow, and before you know it, you've lost the habit. So, my one healthy goal right now is to just keep exercising!

Say Boogers!

29 Oct - What a handsome bunch! They were all looking shaggy, especially Connor, so I sent them all to the hair salon barber.


There are no normal picture faces in my family. I kept trying to get a smile out of Connor, so I told him, "Say boogers!" to get him to laugh. So, what did he do? He stuck his finger up his nose!

A better picture of Connor's "do". He's just so cute!

My Little Summer Guest

This was my revelation at Girls' Weekend, which is probably common knowledge by now. Maybe this is a test, too, to see who, besides the bloggers, is actually reading the family blogs!

I just can't keep from blogging about this. I'm holding off telling the kids for now, mostly because I'd like to see this pregnancy "stick" before I tell my daycare parents and everyone in our ward. So, the blogging code will be Summer Guest, because my kids read my blog occasionally, and I'm going to hold off telling them until January, if I can. So, I'll change my home page away from my blog for a while, and add some extra blog posts, so the kids won't see this particular post. Then, the rest of my posts can be about my pregancy, but still be in secret code. I'm not too worried about discovery. Gilean is very perceptive, and will probably figure it out anyway, but he can keep a secret. Dani can't keep a secret, but is mostly clueless. She just read my response to Sue's recent post, and didn't get it at all. Anyway, our little summer guest is due at the end of June, but will likely be here the first week of July. That will make four summer babies for me! I guess there's just something about the fall...

I Paid $40 For That Candy, Mitts Off!!!

Aaaahhh, another Halloween past. More candy wrappers to clean up, more goodies to confiscate (i.e. "For every candy wrapper I find on the floor, I get a piece of candy out of your candy bucket, and I get to pick which one!") Sue and Katy get the "sweet deal" award for the duck costumes from last weekend, but I was after something specific. Connor has definitely hit the terrible twos (can you say Drama King?), so we (me & Dani) voted that he be Connorzilla for Halloween, hence the dragon costume. Not a lot of selection in town, so I shopped online (a dangerous activity I seem to be doing more & more) for one. With shipping/handling, I paid $40 for Connor's costume this year. So, after taking Pookie trick-or-treating tonight, I told the older kids, "I paid $40 for this candy, so it's mine. Mitts off!" Ummmm... yes, I did steal candy from a baby. I really don't think he's going to miss it. But, I have to say, I'll probably just swipe the good chocolate and give the rest back to him, a few pieces at a time. As we passed candy out at the trunk-or-treat in our church parking lot, I said to all the parents of little babies, "Now, baby, you share your candy with Mommy & Daddy!" Wink, wink. You can totally work the candy thing the first few years. Then, they keep an eagle eye on it, and it's harder to take the good stuff without incident. Dani was Medieval Chick (it was Dead Medieval Princess, but the wig was mangled, so she went for pretty instead), Zen and Gil were hunters (with more planning ahead, they could have been some kind of Dead Redneck I-Took-My-Beer-With-Me-Hunting Zombies), Connor was Connorzilla, and I wore my many-years-old--but-only-wear-once-a-year Halloween t-shirt. Okay, enough blabbing, here are the pics:

Hey, I don't think we've ever had a family Halloween picture. Sweeeet! And, I think it's one of only a handful of family pictures we've had in the past five years. Can we get an intervention for that? Does anyone have an inside connection to a professional photographer?

Connor took some time warming up to his costume, and the dragon head kind of bugged him. But he was so cute!

Dani says, "Am I done yet? Are you kidding me? I'm going to fill this thing to the brim, sister!"

At first, Connor just wanted to run around at the trunk-or-treat, but it didn't take long to get the vision of begging candy from people out of the back of their cars.

Aaahhhh, Connorzilla got pooped out lugging his full pail of candy around. More for me! And he's not awake to watch me swipe it, or to object when I take it away and hide it.

What was the haul this year? Well, it was pretty decent. Dani got too cold and didn't fill her bucket all the way, Connor filled his little ghost pail, Gilean did additional trick-or-treating with his friends, so his might actually last into next week (ha!), and we've still got leftovers from the candy we bought. If any of you didn't get your fill on Halloween, I could bring the leftovers to the Cowboy shindig next week. Better your dentist bill and protesting bathroom scales than mine!

Man, Sock Money Is Good Money, Baby!

Helga Von Spankin' (see Jenn's blog, where the name originates) has made another appearance. I got so fed up with finding socks lying everywhere, that I told the older kids I'd deduct $1 out of their ledger for every pair of socks I found on the floor. So far, they both have lost $6 each. Easy money, baby!

Girls' Scrapbook Getaway Weekend

FABULOUS!!! We sure had a great time! Thanks again to Chris for arranging all that. I'm sure we all agree, we'll have to do that again! And maybe more can come next time. Man, I wish I'd taken more pictures!! Especially one with all of us with our stuff spread out. Oh, well, maybe one of you has one. And, I forgot to get a picture of Jenn's headband. My bad! And I just realized - I was in more photos this weekend than I am the entire year put together. I gotta hand off the camera more often! Here goes:

A fabulous place to stay!

Across from the inn. Those old, but wonderful, Park City houses. Thank goodness I don't have to walk those stairs all day. Bet old Park City is full of young people!

Houses on the mountain-side in Park City. Waiter, would that be three mill' or four?

Where we ate dinner Friday night, on my birthday. Pricey, but very yummy!

Sue 'n Me! People say we look a lot alike. Huh?!!!

Hey, what a good-lookin' bunch! Awkward moment: this guy in line with us at the ordering counter kept flirting with me. I was just confused! I'm thinking, "Now, I know I lost 30 pounds, but not even a 100-pound weight loss is going to make men start flirting with me. What does he want? Would he just go away and leave me alone?!!!" I was having a high-school flashback, where the jock flirts with the mousey girl so he and his friends can mock her later. I'm not trying to insult myself or anything, I'm a pragmatist, but I think he was doing that because he was a little drunk. Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered talking to me. Can you tell I've been married a long time? Whatever lame single social skills I used to have, are long gone now.

We went next door to this candy place (name?) after dinner, and my brain kind of drooled over the candy apples, but I was so full from dinner, my stomach told me I couldn't have one.

We were all full from dinner, and it was uphill on the way back, so we all got on the trolley. Some of us (camera chicks) probably embarrassed everyone else by taking pictures of the trolley, while holding up traffic. Thanks for your patience, trolley driver!

Chris, the ill-fated Treasure Mountain Inn employee.

Thanks for the birthday loot, Mom!

I found these cool gift pails online at Stampendous. The fuzzy socks were a big hit!

I saw this after my morning walk, and found it humorous. Nice pink car seat up front in the Corvette. Park City - where even the babies ride in style!

The breakfast cooks. Jenn and my Mom helped, too!

Man, this makes me hungry all over again! Chris, thanks for rounding up the maple syrup!

Marathon shopping! Man, my feet hurt! Next time, I'm wearing tennis shoes, instead of Dani-style-fashion-before-practicality cute sandals.

Shopping loot! Amazing what you can haul away from a good sale!

Dorkin' it up for the camera! Aren't I so cute in my handmade headband! Liz gave all of us basic white headbands, and we were given instructions to decorate our own with the supplies we had on hand. So, I used the pail decor to make my headband. I must have done something right, because I was told several times I should start wearing headbands. Although I'm sure they don't have to all be this over-the-top. And don't you just love that jingle necklace? It just caught my fancy, for some reason. I must have been feeling festive.

Thanks for the goody bag, Liz! Looking at your scrapbooks and giving me some fabulous supplies, have inspired me to get back into scrapbooking by hand. Those supplies are just so darned fun!



Here we have Miss Buggs Bunny and her alter ego, Dracula. Apparently, Sue had a surprise peek at her drinking glass while in the bathroom, and decided to demonstrate her new look. Sookie! (Sue, am I allowed to steal that and apply it to you?)

Did I really haul this much stuff with me? Can I fit it back in my car?

Well, it was a great time. Hope we get to do it again soon. I reserve the right to add more pics to this post. So don't be surprised if you find changes later.
Love, Becky