Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all those that I didn't send a card to. And also to the others, i.e. Ashley N., Ashley R., and Cami, and a few others, whose cards are still in my purse.

Annabelle the . .. ???? Reindeer???? Wishes you a Merry Christmas Eve.

(It's fun, the things I find on Photobooth)

Someday I'll

These are the things I find when I stay up late chatting with my husband on the computer. All things I want to do, that will go in my folder on my desktop and probably never come out again. But wouldn't it be so great if they did?


Tutorial HERE


Tutorial HERE


Tutorial HERE

Red Dress

About a year ago I saw a gorgeous red dress in Anthropologie. Of course I wanted it, but I couldn't afford it. And I've ALWAYS wanted a red dress. Now I check mod cloth and I see this one. I want it. $90.00. I have no problem spending that amount of money on a dress, because the dresses I have in my closet I have had for years. And this one is bright, hip and long enough. But Hy's in school and it's not in the budget. Seriously . . . I'm trying to figure out how to swing it. And then I'm also telling myself that it would show up and not fit right and I'd be disappointed--that's how I try to make myself feel better.

BFF

For those who knew me from any time prior to 1996 or so, you may be wondering what my best friend is up to. I did some photos for her and I thought I'd share. She has a fabulous husband, super cute and cool kids, and she runs a preschool. More on my photo blog.

Tooth Fairy

This kid. I tell you. Is always a good time.

She lost her first tooth, and the tooth fairy came and even left some fairy dust (pink sugar cookie decorating crystals)

She came to me the next morning,

"Mom, the tooth fairy came and brought money. And there was fairy dust"

"But there is a problem. I sprinkled some on me, and Annabelle sprinkled some on me and I STILL can't fly!"

(which reminded me of when I encouraged her to try harder when she was trying to fly once)

And then when she came home from school today she said, "Close your eyes . . . now open your mouth . . and don't peek"

Then she put a sticker on my shirt. Why she had me open my mouth??? No idea.

The Goods

Remember when I talked about my favorite new lipgloss in THIS post?

Well you can get some at this boutique. I'm sure it will be filled with super cool stuff besides the lipgloss.

So go get some What's your Virtue lipgloss and other goods.

Buy it --now

This is a MUST this holiday. I saw the title in Target and started reading it when I realized that OF COURSE it was written by Mo Willems--our favorite childrens author.

You see, he write books for adults disguised as childrens books. So both mother and child enjoys.

This one is fantastic.

Crafty Hankerin

I got a hankerin' to do some craftin'

My tree needs help and I think these are the solution.

Who's in?

Cicily, I'm counting on you.

Rich

Trader Joe's dark chocolate Sea Salt Caramels

So amazingly delicious! If you like sweet and salty--this is your gig. Course chunks of sea salt on top with dark chocolate.

The description on the box reads:

Buttery smooth caramels drenched in Belgian chocolate, then sprinkled with crunchy rock salt from the Dead Sea.


That's right my friends. Just one is all you need.

Sunday Post

One of the 14 year old girls gave the lesson today on Education.

These were my two favorite quotes she used.

"Too great care cannot be taken in educating our young ladies. Great responsibilities will devolve upon them. To their hands will be mainly committed the formation of the moral and intellectual character of the young. Let the women of our country be made intelligent, and their children will certainly be the same. The proper education of a man decides his welfare; but the interests of a whole family are secured by the correct education of a woman”
------George Q. Cannon


“Education has always been recognized by the Church as the number one obligation of each generation to its successor and of each individual to himself. Each one of us is a divinely endowed, eternal, and intelligent being. It is incumbent upon us, therefore, to encourage and keep alive the questing spirit, to learn and continue to learn everything possible about ourselves, our fellowmen, our universe, and our God”

----Hugh B. Brown

Doing the dishes

I was doing the dishes after breakfast this morning, and I was running the hot water from the tap and rinsing the dishes, then putting them into the dishwasher. And I thought, "I love HOT water" . And then I thought how I'm pretty good at not wasting water--and that made me remember that one time I heard that Jennifer Anniston only takes 3 minute showers to conserve water. Good for her--not for me. So then I thought how I take long hot showers and how I LOVE every minute of it. Then that made me think of the term "carbon footprint". Then that made me think of Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Gore.

I have always wanted a show like 20/20 or something to do a comparison. A TRUE comparison of celebrities versus a family like mine. I don't think anyone would ever do it properly because media is biased. But if someone could, I want them to look REALLY LOOK at the environmental impact that I have compared to any of them. They jet around the world making speeches and creating videos all about what we SHOULD be doing for our planet. The only trips I will make today will be to run my kids 1/4 mile to the bus stop, and possibly 3 miles to the gym. And maybe, if it's a spicy day, I may go 1/2 mile to the grocery store. And that's a big day during the work week.

I recycle, anything and everything I can. I don't let the water run while I brush my teeth. I only wash FULL loads of laundry. And I don't think I'm that environmentally friendly. But I guarantee you that the movies that they are in create quite a footprint.

THINK ABOUT IT. How hypocritical is someone that takes a PRIVATE jet with full crew to different places around the world and tell everyone to "conserve, live GREEN"? Guess what, Dear Al, there is a thing called "Technology". It's called teleconferencing. I'm pretty sure with your connections you could hook up with a local TV crew and stream your round face to the EU or Russia or Madagascar. HMMMM, no jet fuel, no emissions from the limo, etc. etc. Well hell, if that doesn't work, you can come use my MAC with the built in camera and you could ichat away. Or make a video on photobooth and put it on you tube. EVEN CHEAPER! And if that doesn't work, you could at least call up Leo. Maybe you could jet pool to your next summit--they might even let you fly in the fast lane.

So bring it on. Let's compare. I'll take you on with not only me, but add in my husband and four kids. In fact, you could probably factor in most of my neighbors and it wouldn't even come CLOSE. We are too middle class for that.

It's all of us who actually live and do, more than those who talk and front. We are the ones making up for everyone else. But we are used to that--aren't we.

And THAT makes me proud.

Sunday Post

One of the great things about being Mormon is that you start public speaking when you're about 4. About once or twice a year you get assigned to give a talk in front of all of the other kids. Today is Annabelle's. The topic she was assigned was "My family and I can give service." So Hyrum wrote her talk, and I inserted the Veteran story. This is what she will saying in about an hour:

*Good Samaritan Story (she'll tell the story of the Good Samaritan from memory)

In the Bible, John 13:35, it says:

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples,
if ye have love one to another.

One way that we can show love to other people is by giving

service. It is also a way to act like Jesus acted. He spent

His time giving service to others. He:
healed sick people,
fed the 5000 and
taught anyone who wanted to learn.

My family and I can be like Jesus when we:
help those who are sick or
be friends with someone who needs a friend.

On Wednesday I went to the Veterans Day parade with my family. We saw a veteran sitting all by himself. My sister, my friend and I went up to him and said, “Thank you for serving our country”

Then we stayed and talked to him for 15 more minutes. He told us that he served in the marines a long time ago, and his great grandfather was in the civil war. My mom said that we made his day, because she saw his really big smile while we were talking to him.

I know Heavenly Father wants me to serve others, and it
can be fun, too.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Capt peed in my shoes

A cat peed in my shoes. Well not really, at least I don't think so. But I have been randomly smelling cat pee around my house. Not on permanent objects, just illusive air. I hate cats, so it's really pissing me off. There are stupid cats that come in our back yard and poop if I don't throw rocks at them first. If I can catch the little jerks.

So I can smell it--and it's driving me BIZONKERS. So the other day I took off my sneakers, and there it was. THAT SMELL. What the crap? So I took a wiff of my sneaker. There it was. How the? What the? So it's been ME this whole time? What is SERIOUSLY WRONG with my body chemistry that my foot smell is cat urine like? G-R-O-S-S.

Just thought I'd share.

Antidotes are welcome.

Vetans Day

Today I thought it was important to teach the kids that Veterans Day just isn't a day off from school. So off we went to the parade. I went down early to get a spot and the kids were just playing around. I spotted a veteran sitting all by himself just behind us. So I told the kids to go up to him and say "Thank you for serving our country" or something of the like. They were too shy so I sweetened the deal and told them they got 5 mini candy bars each if they did it. They were still a bit shy about it but off they went. They were out of ear shot for me to hear what was going on, but the smile on his face said it all. It was great, they stayed there and talked to him for 15 minute about who knows what. They did come back later and report to me that he was in the marines and his great grandfather fought in the civil war. I was proud of them. It was great to see so many veterans, most of them donning some sort of apparel to identify their service. I wish the kids could have gone to each and every one of them. Next year, we're going to come up with something.

So as the parade started I taught the kids (like my parents taught me) to stand when a flag is being presented. So we stood, with hands over hearts as the initial flag passed. Then each time a flag passed we stood. But since it was Veterans day, about every other parade entry had a flag. That was a lot of standing and sitting. So I told the kids, due to the circumstance, they could sit. Then I noticed, that same gentleman they spoke to. He stood for every flag . . . and saluted. I appreciate our freedom, but I think he does more. Which reminded me of this quote that is coming from memory so it's as close as I can get:

"For those who fought, freedom has a taste the protected will never know"

I think my generation and others only vaguely understand. I kept turning around to check, and sure enough there he stood, saluting EVERY time. And another veteran in a scooter and with a cane struggled each time to stand. And there I sat. I won't ever understand. I can IMAGINE. But I don't know. Before the parade started a WWII plane flew over head a few times. I sat there thinking, how great that must have been to the prisoners, or soldiers who were feeling like they were alone and were fighting or waiting for something and to see those planes fly over head. Then they knew they were free or someone was there to help. I think there is so much to learn from that generation and the others who fought in the following wars. Wars that involved people that others were connected to. I'm not connected to anyone serving right now. I feel so distanced. And the wars seem so separate, so unpersonal. That's the only way I can explain it.

So I'm glad I went to the parade for the lessons I learned today. And hopefully my kids learned a little to.

Sunday Post

I'm Mormon, and for the sacrament we have bread and water. The bread is broken into pieces and placed on a tray that is passed down the aisle.

So today, during the bread passing, Annabelle says "I wish there were whole slices of bread instead of them broken into pieces" And I'm thinking--ok teaching moment here. So I respond, "We have the bread to remind us of Jesus, we just need a little piece to remind us to think about Jesus."

She looked at me and said, "I'd think about Jesus more if I had a WHOLE piece of bread."

She may be onto something.

How to Accesorize

I've mentioned it before. I HAVE TALENTED FRIENDS. My talented friends have businesses. Check these out. These products will be at Blissfest.



WHAT'S YOUR VIRTUE LIPGLOSS

If want the full story on the lipgloss go HERE. It's a result of a mom realizing that lipgloss names are SO TRASHY that she didn't even want to buy them. So her and two other girls (one of which is my uber talented graphic designer friend MOLLY) started a lip gloss company to change that.

What's my virtue? Curiousity. It also happens to be NieNie's as well. Go there. Get some. Support these ladies in changing the tide of sexualized products to teenagers.



And then there is my other friend Cami a.k.a. MIMI. She can do just about anything crafty and cool crafty, not your mom's crafty. She made this headband, which I wore to church and got a BAZILLION comments on. And then the necklace, she made that too. Again, BAZILLION, comments on. And she had tons of other cool necklaces and headbands, and also baby headbands (not your typical) and SUPER DUPER cool binkie clips. Coolest ones I've ever seen.





NECKLACE








So this Saturday, go down to Blissfest Market--Downtown Mesa 10am-5pm. This stuff makes great stocking stuffers. Anyone would love this stuff. I'm in Young Women's and they all loved it. Go get some for them and for everyone and support your local talented peeps. And my peeps.

Not local? You can get the lipgloss online. And as for cool headbands, Mimi is starting an Etsy store soon--I'll keep you posted.

Halloween

Next year remind me that it is expensive and way too time/labor intensive to pursue ANY of my halloween ideas. The witches are cute--and I love it now, but seriously. Next year I'm going the borrowed costume route.

For more pics click HERE.

Sunday Post

I taught the Young Women today and this was the final quote in the lesson. The lesson was "Courage to Try".



“It takes courage and commitment to follow the promptings of the Spirit because they may frighten us as they lead us to walk along new paths, sometimes paths that no one has walked before, paths of the second mile, of acting totally differently from how worldly people act. For instance, we may be prompted to smile when someone offends us, to give love where others give hate, to say thank you where others would not find anything to be thankful for, to accept jobs that others would be too proud to do, to apologize where others would defend themselves, and to do all the seemingly crazy things that the Spirit prompts a righteous, honest, listening heart to do”

Elder F. Enzio Busche:

Mid baking confession

I have pumpkin shaped sugar cookies in the oven right now and they are due to come out in about 6 minutes.

Somewhere inside I hate to say this. I don't know if I think it makes me a bad mother, or that I wish I were that mother that wouldn't say the following . . .

I HATE MAKING COOKIES WITH MY CHILDREN.

Maybe it's because they are 7 5 and 3. I think if I just had the 7 year old helping, I'd be ok.

And sugar cookies. THEY ARE THE WORST!

I am baking sugar cookies for the ward fall festival tomorrow. I waited until the 1 year old was napping, so I'd have less to deal with.

I had 5 year old help out with the mixing. I did OK with that. She is in charge of turning on the Kitchen Aid when I tell her to, and she does pretty well. It's when she asked to help pour in the ingredients that the tension in my shoulders started. The flour she got MOSTlY in, it was that titch that fell out onto the counter, onto her pants and bit on the floor that made me audibly growl.

But that was OK.

But now, now is the worst part. The rolling out. "mom can I help" and I want to say "Yes dear, just come over here and I'll stand behind you with the rolling pin and you between my arms standing on a chair and we'll roll together". But all I think is . .. "NNNOOOOOOOO PLEASE NOOOOOO". So far I just keep telling them . . in a minute.

While I was trying to get my pumpkins that were slightly sticking to my surface up and to the cookie tray I glanced over and saw 3 year old rolling her slices of lunch meat ham around in the flour residue with my rolling pin. GGGRRRRR.

So I cleaned that up---as much as possible. And told her she was banished. BANISHED. But she hung around and took hand fulls of flour out of my flour jar and spread it on the other half of my clean kitchen island and some on the floor for me to clean up later.

Then, I caught 5 year old licking, and I mean a slobbery kind of lick, the spatula I was using to pry up those cookies that were stuck just a little to my rolling surface. Then out of my mouth came " For Real?? would you want some other kid licking a spatula and then making cookies for us to eat?" And I got a big blank face. She probably would like it. What does she care? Just earlier she had said that she'd clean up the pretzel mess the younger siblings had made while she was at school, by eating them off the floor. and she did.

Well there is the beep. I'm off to roll more dough, and take deep breaths to lower my blood pressure.

And for those of you coming to the ward Fall Festival, I washed the spatula.

B-Fast

I was talking with some of my friends the other day and my friend said, "You make breakfast for your kids EVERY day?" I said, "yes, EVERY day". She was baffled, and said "Like what do you make?" So I told her--you know the usual, french toast, scrambled eggs, pancakes etc. etc. And she was shocked that I had time to feed my kids and that I made food every day. And she's a homey make dinner sort of person, so I was shocked that she didn't.

For example our breakfast this week was:

Monday--Homemade Buttermilk waffles, with homemade Buttermilk Syrup (I'm usually not this ambitious on a Monday but I was up at the break of dawn. And I make a double batch and freeze the extra for toaster waffles)

Tuesday--Swedish Pancakes with Strawberries and whipped cream

Wednesday--Scrambled Eggs, Toast, OJ

Thursday--Cinnamon Toast and Hot Chocolate

Friday--Oatmeal (Coach's brand--have you tried it? It's de-lish) and toast


So question is--am I Normal or abnormal? My mom always made breakfast for us, every morning. So I thought everyone did this. We do have cereal some mornings--usually Sunday, so it's not like I'm supermom. But really--what are the stats?

Going on a Date

I'm calling a babysitter.

MAC you've done it again. I'm setting a date with my husband to come your store.

Why?

MAGIC MOUSE (yes I watched the video and squealed with delight)

Do I need it? NO. Do I want it? YES

I've turned into a gadget nerd. We go on dates to the MAC store. Yes we do.

And we love it.

Not our best

My kids looked poor when they went to school today.

The only thing missing was high waters.

I kept laughing and they kept asking why.

Slap in the face

On my trip to Target this morning for diaper rash cream. I heard the news on NPR.

And the Nobel Peace Prize goes to . . .

Barrack Obama

To which I responded out loud to no one:

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FREAKIN' KIDDING ME"

He's done nothing. NOTHING.

They played the audio at the press conference. Audible gasps are heard after the announcement. Apparently I'm not the only one who thought he was undeserving.

Even the expert they were interviewing said "He has done nothing to merit this award"

Apparently, because you're THE OBAMA you get all sorts of accolades you don't deserve.

The expert noted that Europeans LOVE the Obama, but Middle America, not so much.

We all know why. Because in Middle America, you earn your rewards. You don't get International awards because of your "ideas". You have to prove yourself, and that he has not done. Even the expert said it. In fact she said the deadline for the nominations was 12 days after he was elected. 12 DAYS.

She went on to say that it is all about his Vision of Hope and Change, and that he can lead the international community to come together for peace. Let me reiterate. He had done nothing. But he "can" in theory.

Barf.

So scoot over Martin Luther King, and Mother Teresa. What did you guys ever do for Peace?

You could have saved yourselves a lot of work and time by just talking about change.

That is what we want to teach American kids. You don't have to do anything, and you can get a highly prestigious award (or what used to be).


Next up: Obama get's MTV's artist of the year award for singing along in the presidential limo. (question is will Kanye cry foul and take away his moment? hmmmmm)

The tunes of SYTYCD

I heard a song on So You Think You Can Dance last night and i loved it. But I didn't know who sang it. So I googled it. And there is a blog that tells you all the songs and the artists. And this person is on top of it. They have last night's episode up.

Check it

Oh and the song:

"Beautiful Day" Kerli

** I'm playing the song while this post is up.

For your listening pleasure.

Spending Money

I went shopping today. It got a little out of control and I didn't stick to my budget. Check it:


Some sweet duds from Modcloth:






My Matte Black with Blue rims cruiser--love it!



Oh wait, when I'm window shopping I don't have a budget!

9:00 am and a clean house

Why is my house completely clean by 9:00 a.m. including a load of laundry-washed, folded and put away? What else am I supposed to do while Hy is at the ER with Kizzy? Clean. Last night around 2 a.m. I heard crying, so I went in to her room and she was on the floor. She had fallen off the bed. So I put her back in bed, and she continued to cry--which woke up Beck. So then I told her to try to quit crying, and I held Beck for a while and tried to get him back to sleep. Then I put him down, he was still awake. And I laid down with Kiz. She'd calm down, then she'd yell out "It hurts! My Shoulder hurts!" Then she'd calm down. That was enough to wake up Hy, he came in and took her into our bedroom. Then we looked and couldn't see anything, but then he'd push on a part of her shoulder and she'd yelp out in pain, but she could move it. So the she slept in our bed and would wake up periodically and cry. So around 6:30 a.m. Hy decided to load her up and take her in.

Diagnosis: Broken collar bone

Just from falling off a normal sized bed. I guess it's not fully broken, it's bent. Random. So of course when she showed up home in her little hospital gown, I had to break out the big camera. The powershot just wouldn't do it justice.

Now isn't this just sad :(

Crappin Good

I've found it. The BEST ice cream on a stick. EVER. I LOVE Mounds candy bars. So when I spotted this in the freezer case that has all the healthfood/organic stuff in it at Fry's Marketplace. I had to try it. Expensive but good. It's like a Mounds Candy bar, but it's an ice cream bar, dark chocolate and all. Holy cow. It's called, Frustix. And I checked out their site and that is where I found the second picture. They have Dark Chocolate Almond Creamy Coconut. I have GOT to try that one next.

My birthday presents

Thank you everyone. Fab birthday--and I made out with some rad gifts.







$1,000 Gift card to this store:




I would get to meet him


Here

Go shopping

My birthday is Friday. You have two days to shop for me. Anyone can do this. Find what you would buy me (if money were no object) and link it in the comments.

You don't have to know me in real life to buy me a present.

Do it.