Perks

Robert started working for a snack food company back in November that's located here in Mesa. His job is to develop new products and improve on the current ones. They make a lot of their own flavored popcorn, peanuts, and trail mix. He gets a lot of samples of things from companies from all around the country to try in his product development. Sometimes he gets things he can't really use and sometimes there's a surplus. In those cases, he can either toss the stuff (if it's something weird like xanthan gum) or brings it home. This week, we struck gold. He brought home this to begin with:

That is 8 Madagascar vanilla beans, folks! If you have ever bought these at the store, you get something three in a bottle and they cost about $15. And, according to the Food Network's Alton Brown, the Madagascar variety is the best. Then on Wednesday, he came home and gave these to me:

I didn't even know that these things existed! They are SO good. These people have figured out a way to slightly dehydrate pomegranate arils (those juicy seed things inside pomegranates) so that they maintain their nutrients but can be coated in dark chocolate. Genius!

I once had a history teacher in high school (Mr. Smith) who talked about one perk of being married to his wife was that her parents ran a travel agency so they could go pretty much anywhere for practically free. That is a pretty cool one and hard to beat, but one major perk of being married to a chef/food person is the connections to cool things in the food world. And that he values good quality kitchen appliances more than most men so I never had to negotiate when I wanted a stand mixer or food processor. Just a random thing, I guess, but this was an important part of my week! :)

A quiet moment

We have this backyard that I love/hate. I love it because the boys can spend quite a bit of time out there, all by themselves, playing with their toys, the dog, digging holes, etc. Sometimes I have to jump in and stop them from screaming because our neighbors are REALLY close (we have three outside walls and four neighbors' yards attached to them) but other than that, they love it and so do I. Here are pictures of an evening when I was tired of their whining and fighting and was trying to make dinner in a small kitchen with both of them underfoot. So, I found some bottles of bubbles that Craig got for his birthday, opened up two of them, and sent them outside.


Ah, the peace and quiet that reigned. We went through something like five bottles up bubbles. Most of them ended up spilled in the dirt, but so be it.

Why do I hate the yard, too? Because it's DIRT. It comes into the kitchen, it breeds more flies in the dog poop than grass would even when I pick it every. single. day. Sometimes twice a days, actually. The dog gets filthy so she spends all her time out there (except when she sleeps in her kennel in the living room at night). And the boys are covered in dust and mud (from the dog's water dish) on a daily basis. However, I am enjoying having cool enough whether for them to go play in and don't mind the daily baths since I know that in a few weeks or so they'll be stuck inside with me after 7:00 in the morning due to the heat.

By the way, here's how I spend time with Jade, our ever-growing Rottweiler--through the glass in the door. I love her, but not enough to let her play inside with all the dust and dirt covering her. We're working on putting in grass, needless to say.

Kissy-face

When I was pregnant with Craig, I crocheted an Eeyore stuffed animal for him using a pattern book I bought at a fabric store. Then when I was expecting Ethan, I did Piglet. This time, I decided it was time to get Pooh himself out of the book and into reality. Here are some pictures I took of Pooh with Ethan, since when Pooh's around, Ethan only puts him down long enough to eat, and sometimes not even then. I've been keeping him up on top of the bookshelf lately, just so he doesn't end up outside in the dirt or covered in spaghetti sauce. Ethan loves to kiss anything and everything with a face and to make us kiss them, too. Stuffed animals, toys, his penguin pillow pet, people, smiley face stickers. He will literally walk around, carrying Pooh, kissing him over and over again, running into walls. So, I decided to take pictures of him because this is something I want to remember about my sweet little boy.


Here he's going in for the kiss. I kept missing the moment because my camera has kind of a long delay.

Pooh's about as tall as Ethan, if he were standing up. :)


So sad. This was right after Craig had taken Pooh away from him.


Our moods change very quickly.

I love his expressions. He does this one when he's waiting to surprise you with a "boo" or anticipating a tickle or surprise from you.

Sometimes we're not affectionate, but more playful with Pooh. Like when we put him on the floor, face down, sit on his head, and spank him. (BTW, notice my sandal tan line on my foot? That's from wearing sandals 360 days out of the year....don't you wish you lived in AZ? :))

Mommy gets lots of kisses, too.


This is a horrible, but funny, picture of Craig. It doesn't really look like him at all. It's funny because he kept wanting me to take pictures of him, too, so he'd stand there smiling, waiting for the click so he would know he could relax his face. This time, though, the camera wasn't working right so by the time I got the picture taken, his smile became more of snarl.

Scenes from a birthday party

Thanks to my life-saver friend, Kristian, I got the pictures from Craig's birthday party! And without further ado, here they are!

Here's Party Central. It was a really nice day...a little too windy (we never did get the candles lit), but a very nice temperature.

Craig with his green balloons...I included this picture mostly for those of you who wanted to see a belly-shot of me. 25 weeks and counting!

Pizza and juice--did you know that Capri Sun is now making a 100% juice? That's what we had for the party and all the parents were surprised to see it. Thought I'd pass the word along.

Craig wanted the pinata, so here we are. This was chaos, but the kids loved it.

Opening presents. I think this one was from my mom and dad. Craig was so excited each time he opened one that he would want to play with it right then. We kept telling him to open the rest of the presents and we'll play with them later. I kind of felt bad, though, because I don't want him to just rip through everything without learning to appreciate it first and say thank you. But we don't want to be there all day, either. It's a double-edged sword.

All of Craig's little friends were helping him get through the unwrapping. The older kids knew the routine and were quick to help move along the process. :)

What could it be?

An orange bike! With a size 3+ helmet that we had to return to Walmart for a 5+ for my little blockheaded Swede.

Here's Craig with Cody, Kristian's son. They were our neighbors when we first moved to Mesa. Craig wasn't quite 18 months yet and Cody was 5, but they have always loved playing together. Even when we moved to Fountain Hills a year later, Craig would always ask me where Cody was. We've been able to keep in touch and now that we're back in the same stake as them, we were able to make it to Cody's baptism! They still love playing together...even more now that Craig is getting to be such a big boy himself.

Ethan always seems to blend into the crowd during things like this. Here's where I found him at one point...sitting on the table, eating candy from the pinata, wrappers and all. His face is blue from a sucker, I think. He did really well, considering we went straight through his nap time. On the way home, both Craig and Ethan passed out in the car and stayed asleep when I put them in their beds. They both took three hour naps that day.

It was crazy, busy, and exhausting, but a lot of fun. Now I know why we rarely did blow-out parties when we were kids. This wasn't a blow-out, but any means, and it was still a lot of work. My mom usually let us invite about four girls over and we would either do a slumber party or do something like go to Roller King in Modesto. Of course we had cake and presents, but it was all very low-key. I think I may follow in those footsteps.

Birthdays

Last Saturday, the 30th, was Craig's and my birthday. He turned 3, I turned 30. We had a nice party for him at a park in the town we just moved from, Fountain Hills. It's only 20 minutes away and all but one family of friends lives up there. Everyone seemed to have fun. We had pizza, cake, a pinata, and opening presents. I tried to keep it simple, but even just those few things made for a pretty hectic party. Just herding 10 kids for each event was difficult. Thank goodness for helpful parents and our adult friends who were there. We forgot the camera, sadly enough, but a friend of mine was there who had brought her's! She took a lot of pictures for me and I took some, too. I'm just in the process of communicating with her to get them. So, those will be posted later.

We've been taking Craig and Ethan periodically to play with the bikes at Walmart and Craig seems to be getting the idea of how to use the peddles. Last year, we got him a little plastic tricycle and he never did like using the peddles. Ethan uses it now and just pushes himself around like a Flintstone. But, when we brought out the REAL bike (with training wheels, of course) Craig was ecstatic! He's getting the hang of it, too.

When I asked Craig what kind of cake he wanted he said, "Orange!" I wanted chocolate, so I made one layer a white cake mix and dyed it orange and the other I made chocolate. It turned out well. Then I asked him what kind of presents he wanted and he said, "Orange!" Luckily, when we went to buy the bike, there was a perfect orange one, just his size. When I asked him what color balloons he wanted he said, "Green!" So, he got green balloons. It was really fun planning his party this year. We did a Thomas theme and I loved being able to get his input. This was his first real birthday party with friends and everything...it's fun seeing him grow up and become more of a little boy and less of a toddler.

As for me turning 30.....that's another post.

Happy Easter (I remembered pictures!)

I had forgotten to hype up the visit from the Easter Bunny throughout the week for Craig so he could get excited about finding his basket on Sunday morning. As a matter of fact, I had forgotten to dye eggs, too. I remembered to boil them on Saturday night so we dyed them Sunday morning. Luckily we have afternoon church. So, Easter morning comes and I tell Craig that the Easter Bunny had come the night before and hidden baskets for them somewhere in Mommy and Daddy's room (perhaps in the cupboards under the sink?) and to go look for them. Here's where they found them and after they dug in:

There was a lot of candy on the carpet yesterday morning. They loved their visit from the Easter Bunny, though. :) Later, we (mostly I) dyed eggs. Here's the end product.

Nothing fancy, but fun. Craig helped put the stickers on and smeared some chocolate on a couple of them. He also gave one or two a nice spider web crack, which made him sad but I told him it would be okay. Then the boys had naps and we all went to church. When we got home, we had our Easter egg hunt. This was the first year we've done one for real. Previously, we've kind of pretended or didn't even try because Craig wasn't old enough to really get it, but this year he was all over it. He's even asked to do another one today with our plastic eggs. I think that will be a good afternoon time-killer. Ethan caught on quick, too, with Craig to follow around and watch.

I love having a backyard to do stuff like this in, even though it's all dirt, dead grass, and paving stones. For dinner we had fajitas (neither of us felt like having the traditional roast or prime rib and we are not "lamb" people). I planned on making creme brulee for dessert, as our something extra special, but it wasn't until I was putting them in the oven that I realized they need to set up and chill for at least two hours, if not overnight. I've made them once before but somehow forgot that crucial step. So, I guess we're having creme brulee for dessert tonight. :)

How was your Easter?

Bacon-Cheese Pull-Aparts

I've been experimenting with different breakfast ideas lately. We're all getting kind of tired of eggs and toast or Eggos. I found this recipe on the Pillsbury website, I also had several Pillsbury coupons and there was a good sale going on them this week, so I tried it. These turned out really well. Very cheesy, bacony, crispy in the right places and soft in others...I highly recommend you try it.

Bacon-Cheese Pull-Aparts

1 egg
2 tbsp. milk
8 Pillsbury refrigerator biscuits
1 2.1 oz. pkg. precooked bacon, crumbled (or about 1/2 cup cooked and crumbled left-over bacon)
3 oz. (3/4 cup) shredded cheese (cheddar or colby jack)
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions (4 medium)
I actually forgot the green onions and they were still good.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or grease a 9x13 baking dish. In a large bowl, beat egg and milk until smooth. Separate the 8 biscuits and cut into quarters. Gently stir biscuit pieces into the egg mixture until coated evenly. Fold in bacon, cheese, and onions. Spoon mixture evenly into the baking dish and arrange in a single layer. Bake at 350 for 23-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into squares.

More family visits!

Last Thursday my brother and his family drove about 11 hours from Colorado Springs to visit us for a few days. He's in the Air Force so they move around every few years. Coincidentally, we've moved around, too, so for about the last four years, we've been within 10 to 12 hours from them but never managed to visit each other. Yay for them for being the first to get it together and make the trip! We'll have to go there sometime this year, for sure. It was really a lot of fun having them here. They came in early enough on Thursday evening that we were able to have dinner and head out to the Mesa temple pageant. The kids were tired and somewhat cranky, but we made it through. I've been wanting to go for the last couple of years, but never made it since I knew it would be hard with little kids and being so late at night. But it was worth it.

The next day we went to the Children's Museum in Phoenix. Unfortunately, I had forgotten the camera for much of our activities. The kids really seemed to have a great time. To finish off the morning, we had lunch on the front lawn of the museum. The weather was really great, too. We got home in time for naps (almost all of us got to sleep, which was awesome) and then got dinner together to take to the great splash park in our old town of Fountain Hills. We had steaks, chicken, potato salad, and corn. Robert got the grill ready and the meat cooked while the rest of us played in the water. These are the things I love the most: eating outside, playing in water, corn on the cob, being with family, watching my kids have fun. This was the very best day I've had in a long time. There have been other good ones, but this will be classified as one of the very best.

The next day was Saturday so Robert was with us and we all went to the zoo. I did remember the camera then and Robert took the pictures. First, we saw the stingrays.

Craig and I are on the far side of the pool. One stingray kept swimming up to Craig and trying to nibble his fingers. He kept saying, "Mommy, he likes me!" I'd let it stay for a second, but then shew it away. I'm sure they wouldn't let you stick your hands in there if they bite or have nasty teeth, but it made me a little uncomfortable anyway.

After that, we walked around a bit, saw the big animals mostly, and made it to the camel rides. By now, it was getting to be lunch and some of us (mostly us pregnant and sore ones--me--and those under the age of five) were getting tired and hot and hungry.

We saw this golden eagle just "sprawled eagle" in his food trough. We thought that was pretty unusual. Here's a picture of all the cousins together:

From oldest to youngest, there's Eden who's the only girl and she's 8 1/2. Then there's Andrew, in the orange shirt. He's 6. Then Craig in the striped shirt, Jake in yellow is only about 6 weeks younger than Craig, and Ethan (hiding behind Eden). It was so fun to see them all interact and play together. Craig loved Andrew and loved his "big boy" ways. Before he learned his name, he would call him "the big boy." Oddly enough, though, Craig and Andrew are close in weight and wear the same shoe size, but Andrew is taller. Jake, who is closest in age to Craig, was closer to Ethan's size in many ways. Andrew loved Ethan, though, and was always sharing with him. I think one of the best parts of the whole time they were here was just having the boys so well occupied all the time. They just loved playing with their cousins, or "friends" as Craig calls them.

This is my last picture. There's Lani, my sister in law, and in front of her is Craig and Eden holding hands. It was so cute. Craig loved to walk around, holding hands with any of his cousins. Jake is in the yellow to the left, Andrew in on the far right, and Scott (my brother) is pushing the stroller.

The best part of the zoo day was when we sat down and had lunch by the water/splash pad area. While Eden and Andrew were riding the camel, Robert got lunch from the car and met us by the water area. Again the kids played in the water and we all ate. Robert had made California rolls for the adults (the kids had peanut butter and jelly) and they were so good. At some point, Craig got shot in the face with a spray of water and freaked out then a few minutes later was accidentally hit in the face and given a slightly bloody nose. That was when I decided to keep him out of the water and let him dry off. I bribed him with a snow cone. There's something so perfect about the zoo and snow cones.

That night Scott and Lani offered to watch the kids while we went out. We took them up on it so we went to P.F. Changs and it was every bit as good as we've heard. Then we just walked around a few stores before getting home early enough to spend a couple hours talking about the old days and old friends with them and going to bed. They were off by 7:30 Sunday morning.

It was such a fun few days and I am so glad they came down to visit us. Now I am that much more motivated to make the trip up there to do it all over again. :) Thanks guys, for coming, and for all the fun! Craig will be talking about his cousin/friends for months, I'm sure.

Catching up

Things have been busy around here the last few weeks so I'm behind in my blog posts. First of all, as you probably know, my mom flew out here to take care of Craig and Ethan while I did my 25 hours of student teaching the week before last. To fill in some details of that week, I'll tell you it was really fun in a lot of ways, but REALLY HARD too. Craig and Ethan both decided to not sleep well for almost the entire week, the worst of it being the first few nights. Also, on Monday morning (after being up with either Craig or Ethan off and on and only getting about 4 hours total and being up since 4:30am) I came down with a cold. I was stuffy and miserable the whole week and felt so guilty for being in a room full of kindergarteners and possibly passing my germs along to them, but I had no choice. There wasn't enough time to postpone it and my mom was already there. Most days I felt like I was walking around in a stuffy, caffeine-assisted fog. The upside was that I was able to come home and take naps most days. I can't imagine what I would have done if I had to take them to a day care. The mornings would have been chaos with getting everyone fed, dressed, and out the door in time and I would never have been able to sleep like I did in the afternoons to make up for the sleepless nights. So, in the understatement of the year, I say, "Thanks Mom!"


Friday night was the father/son campout so Robert took the boys and they were off by 5:30.

My mom and I went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (I love that place) and then to see The King's Speech (PG-13 version :)). It was a lot of fun and a great movie. They were going to be gone until the afternoon, but after getting a phone call at 6:50 in the morning, I found out it had snowed on them! Poor guys.

They actually had a great night sleeping, ironically enough, but weren't able to do any of the planned activities since they had to get out before they were snowed in. I took my mom to the airport in the morning and ran a couple of errands, and by the time I got home they were all here, warming up and watching T.V.

So, that was our week the week before last. The next post will be about this last week, which was also fun and eventful, and much better slept.

Phew!

I am here and I have survived. This week I spent five hours a day (from 8 to 1) Monday through Friday doing observation and student teaching in a kindergarten classroom. My mom flew in from California to be here and watch the kids. It's been busy and a big change in our routine, but it has also been fun. Today was my last day since I only need 25 hours. It was a good experience for me. I had a really great teacher to watch and some good experience teaching my own little portions of the lessons to individuals and small groups. I'm going into Secondary English teaching (high school) so it was different than what my teaching experience will be, but great experience nonetheless. I am glad it's over, though. This has been looming over me all semester and I'm relieved to have it done. Tonight Robert is taking the boys on the father/son camp-out so my mom and I get to have some time all to ourselves. I'll try to get some pictures of them leaving and coming back...this is a first for them. :) I'll post more later.

Albers Cornbread

Since I tore myself apart in the last post, I wanted to show you that I do have some self-esteem left, thanks to the lovely members of Tasty Kitchen. I post maybe one recipe every six months on that website, but once in a while I go on there to see if anyone has tried my recipes and what they thought. I checked those reviews right after posting my last blog entry and found several more comments on a recipe I submitted last September for cornbread. I was so encouraged by their comments that I wanted to share it with you. So, here it is. Let me know if you try it and how you like it. It validates me. :)

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/breads/albers-original-cornbread-recipe/


P.S. Since I first did this post, I went back to Tasty Kitchen and saw that this recipe was listed on their homepage as one of the most popular because of all the reviews it's received and they are all a full five mittens! I am so honored...I need to explain, though. This was the recipe my mom used for years and got from the back of the Albers cornmeal box, so it is not original. The special part about it, though, is that Albers changed the recipe on the back so it has less sugar and more cornmeal so this is kind of a lost recipe.

P.P.S. While you're there, check out my latest recipe submission for really quick and easy cinnamon rolls. Make them for conference this weekend. Actually, here's the link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/breads/really-quick-and-easy-cinnamon-rolls/

The Worst Mother of the Week (at least) Award

You know how there are things you know your kids shouldn't be playing with? And then there are the things you know you should baby proof but they never really seem to notice them so you never get around to it? Don't you hate it when those two things come together and your baby has a near death experience?

What do you mean that's never happened to you? Well, I will tell you my tale so you can avoid being as careless as me and avoid the guilt that instantly ensues. Let me begin this by saying everyone is okay now, but it was a close call. I'm not really sure how everyone turned out alright, especially Ethan, but there it is. Angels were watching over him.

Ethan LOVES playing with these:


Sometimes they are the only thing keeping a total melt down at bay, so I cave. Yesterday I was trying to get a bunch of homework done (I have deadlines coming up) so anything that would keep them quiet I let them have. Ethan was walking around, just holding the keys as he played with other things. After quite a while passed, he came up to me, holding out the keys with a cringe on his face. I looked the over and noticed the black marks on the side of one key and the key ring. Those were new. He wanted up and then he wanted me to kiss his fingers. I asked him to show me what happened and he led me down the hall to this:


It actually looks a lot worse in person. So, my little baby boy stuck my keys (that I shouldn't have been letting him play with) in a light socket (that should have a plug protector in it) while I was ignoring him and typing away on the computer in another room. Can you think any other crimes I committed against motherhood yesterday?

I only tell you this so you can learn from my mistakes and so I can somehow cleanse my soul through this confession. I really don't know how he got it to spark like that without being electrocuted. The laws of physics state that if he were holding onto the metal key while it made contact, he should have gotten a shock, too. The only thing I can think of is that the linoleum floor acted as a non-conductor so it never even went through him because it didn't have an exit point. Or he was just being watched over. Or a little of both. What ever the case might be, I've learned a valuable lesson and Ethan has turned out perfectly fine, and here's a picture from right after the incident to prove it.

The only side effect is that now he gives that light socket a wide buffer whenever he walks down the hall.

Ultrasound results

There's no mistaking that.

In honor of Baby Boy Leal #3, I have gone blue on the blog. I don't know if I'll ever make the blog into a family album, but I might regret this entry if I ever wanted to. Or little #3 might regret it more. :) Oh well, what fun is it being the mother of three boys if you can't embarrass them now and then?

As most of you know, I had my heart set on a girl, but as is usual in these sorts of circumstances (and as I knew before we found out) I've felt a measure of relief and peace about the whole thing. A girl would be nice, of course, but boys are usually more resilient and less emotional. We won't have to pay for any weddings, most likely, and they can play and rough each other up all they want. Not to mention that I already have all the clothes and boy paraphernalia to get me through the next century. There'll be a lot of camp-outs (the first of which is coming up next weekend and Robert is SO excited to take Craig and Ethan), sports, boy scouts (I see the words "den mother" in my future), and bad odors (since boys in general just smell bad). But there will be all those things anyway, even if this one were a girl. I have two sisters and a mother. I guess I've had all the girly-ness I need. It's time to jump into this boy stuff with both feet and my eyes closed. Wish me luck!

I thought I'd throw in a profile shot to off set the other one.

Initiation

Craig finally accomplished what he's been attempting for about 19 months...he gave Ethan a black eye. All I know is they were playing in Craig's room and, according to Craig, he had pulled out one of his plastic dresser drawers and was swinging it around when it collided with Ethan's head. As Craig puts it, "Efan hit his eye on the drawer" because "I was swinging it around." It was even bleeding from the corner a little bit. Poor baby. I could tell it was most likely an accident because as soon as it happened, Craig ran and hid under his blanket and kept muttering, "I'm sorry, Efan." Even now, as I asked Craig about the details, he apologized again without me asking him to. This just happened last night, so if it starts to look any worse, I'll be sure to document it.

Belly shot

19 weeks (approx.) yesterday

Who thinks I look more like 30? Who would dare admit it? :)

By the way, we're going for the gender-telling ultrasound this next Tuesday.

{Think pink thoughts}

Six Years

Today is Robert's and my anniversary. We were married in the Oakland Temple on March 18th, 2005. It was a Friday, like today. If I weren't lazy, I would get a picture from our wedding album (which took me half of these six years to put together), scan it into the computer, and put it with this post. Instead, picture me much skinnier, in a fluffy white dress, Robert in a really cool tux, and us kissing under a white umbrella. One thing I really liked about our wedding day (besides the obvious) was that it was overcast and very slightly sprinkling off and on. The temple provides these beautiful, huge white umbrellas for brides on days like that and, with the lighting being so subdued, it makes for great pictures.

After taking lots of pictures, we changed and the family left to go back to Sonora...about a two and a half hour drive. We, however, stayed in the Bay Area. The reception was planned for Saturday, which was an idea I got while hearing other peoples' wedding stories in college and always wanted to do it, too. It worked out really well since the temple is so far away. Plus, it gave me a second day to wear my dress. :)

We drove out to Half Moon Bay to a beautiful little hotel right on the seashore. We had dinner at a great seafood restaurant down the road that was built on a pier overlooking the water. Later that night we splurged and "rented" one of the hotel's movies (for $12.99) to watch. It was Lemony Snicket. I watched the whole thing, but Robert fell asleep. The best part of this room was the sliding glass door that faced the water. We opened it and shut the screen so we could hear the water and waves against the rocks all night long. It was awesome. That was pretty much our honeymoon. The next morning, we drove up to Sonora for the reception.

My mom and friends and family had been setting up the church gym and it was just as I had imagined and planned it. Everything was perfect and fun and pretty. We had good food, thanks to some of the ladies in the Sonora Second Ward, and dancing. And, of course, the cake was great, too. That night we left the church, drove around Sonora until people left the reception, went back to pick up our gifts, and headed out of town. As a wedding gift from my aunt, we had a hotel reservation in Angel's Camp, not far away. We stayed there for the night and the next day drove all the way through to Rexburg. Robert and I both had to work on Monday.

Yeah, we could have planned it for the summer when my internship was done and had more time to save for a honeymoon, but we were impulsive and couldn't wait to get married. I also remember how surreal it was when I took all my stuff over to our apartment before we left for California and hung my clothes up next to his in the closet. I could go on with the thousands of memories I have. Everything is still so clear.

Now, a (relatively) lot of time has passed, we have two and half kids, and life has taken us places I never could have imagined. There have been many ups and many downs. Some people have a magical first year, others say it was the roughest one they have yet experienced. I would say we were the latter. But, through it all, we have come out to be better people and each year gets better and better. All in all, through thick and thin, I am so grateful to have Robert with all our pros and cons to be my companion in this life. I vividly remember being single and the fun I had, but I also remember not having anyone to go to the movies with sometimes. Or watching T.V. alone on a Friday night. Or eating dinner alone. He has brought so much to my life and I want him to know how much I love and appreciate him.

Playing with the dog

I haven't posted any new pictures of our dog, Jade, since we got her. She was only 6 weeks old then and a teeny tiny puppy. Now, however, she's 6 months old and a little over half grown, I think. We'll see how much bigger she gets. She's loving the new backyard she has to play in. It's much better than being cooped up in the garage or out on the narrow patio of our old place. Craig and Ethan go out there and throw the tennis balls for her or play tug-a-war with her ropes. We let her in for part of the day and I've been trying to go out every morning for walks with her and the kids. Being a puppy, she still needs supervision or her desire to chew up all the kids' stuffed animals overwhelms her desire to not displease us and be put outside, but she's getting better. She's learning the rules and keeps them, most of the time.

The other day Craig was playing with her in the house and I got some good pictures. Ethan got in on the fun, too. I love that she is so good with them and pretty much lets them abuse her in every way and rarely makes a peep.

Here's the best one. Jade was so good the whole time they were sitting on her. I just kept telling her to stay if she tried to get up and she did.

I liked this for an action shot. Craig has a great smile going on.


Jade is so great about letting them reach in her mouth and pull toys out or just play with her mouth and face in general without biting down on them or accidentally hurting them. That was a concern of mine with getting such a big breed of dog, but she's really gentle. I also loved how Ethan was off on the side of this picture trying to steal the scene. :)

Car repairs :(

This is a cell phone picture, if you were wondering why it's so blurry and yellow.

The last three days before we moved, the van needed a pretty major repair. The steering has been really lose for a while and has had a slow leak since we bought it but we knew it would be costly. Plus, at the time, it was livable. On Wednesday before the big move, though, the steering went out completely. Luckily we had our tax return money and a quote on the repairs... roughly $2700. Robert talked to the mechanic at work and he decided he was going to do it himself. The part that needed to be replaced is called the rack and pinion. It also needed a new steering high pressure hose. Yes, it did take three nights out in the garage for a total of about 15 hours of labor, but that wasn't far from what Aamco had estimated for labor. However, the total cost, for parts and tools, was around $700. Everyone has little things they bring to a marriage that just make life a little easier. I must say that I am just so grateful that one of Robert's things is his way with fixing things, especially cars. If it weren't for him, I probably wouldn't have a van right now. There wouldn't have been an easy way to pay that much money for the van to get fixed. So, thanks Sweetie. You're one in a million.

One more thing...

As I was sorting through my files and filing it all away, I ran across a stack of papers my parents gave me. It's a bunch of stuff from when I was in school, all the way from elementary through high school. Diplomas, awards, reports, etc. One was a picture I drew of a camel smoking a cigarette. I'm not sure where that came from or why my mom would keep it, but there it is. I'm keeping it, too. :) I also found a piece of paper that said the following (in print and cursive):

My name is Sherry Lee Olson. My favorite colors are any kind of purples or blues. My favorite food is mashed potatoes. I like drama movies like Dance With Wolves (man with a naked bottom in this one...hmmmm), Regarding Henry, and Ghost. I'm 11 1/2 years old. I like basketball. The games I like are Corners, Slap Math (probably the last time I liked anything math related), and Heads Up Seven Up. I have two sisters and one brother. I hate nail biting and high pitched sounds. I usually read or take a walk. My favorite T.V. shows is Murphy Brown and Cheers. My best friends are Talea Ramsey, Kerrian McDermot, Maggie Sentieri, and a lot of others.

What 11 1/2 year old's favorite shows are Murphy Brown and Cheers? I guess that just shows that I was the youngest and went along with the crowd. I just pretended to know what the jokes meant and laughed along with everyone else...or asked a lot of annoying questions. I also thought it was funny that in the best friends part I added, "and a lot of others," just to be sure and state that I have a lot of friends. Status was everything back then. Know what? Even though my childhood was virtually carefree and rarely do I run across a truly unhappy memory, I wouldn't go back. Being a kid is rough.

Here We Are Together

I just wanted to post something to let you all know I'm alive and well. We moved, so that's what I've been up to. Two Saturdays ago, the 26th, was the official moving date but we've spent this last week making trips back and forth to the old place with extra stuff we couldn't fit in the moving truck and cleaning. I was fortunate enough to have my mom come out and help this last week. I am so glad she thought about coming out and helping...I never would have thought I needed so much help this time. We've moved two other times in the last 2 years and I managed those well enough on my own. At least I think I did. Maybe it was such a bad experience I've blocked it from my memory. It was so nice having her here so I could run off and clean the old place without having to deal with Craig and Ethan. I even got to go take my midterms and we still had one fun day to walk around the temple and downtown Mesa.

In case you're wondering, we moved from Fountain Hills back to Mesa, about 20 minutes away. Why? Because we found a place (smaller, but it meets our needs) with three bedrooms and a fenced yard. It's close to the same neighborhood we lived in when we lived in Mesa before so I know the stores and where all the parks are. Plus, Robert has a five minute drive to work. He's even considering getting a bike. We've even kept in touch with some friends from our old place in Mesa. I am going to miss Fountain Hills and there's something very sad about going back to a place you've made into a home when it's empty and void of all your things...physical and not. We had great neighbors there, too, but I'm sure we'll get to know the people here and make friends. It's just a process I hate going through over and over again. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the rent here is about $275 less per month. We just couldn't pass it up.

So, I'll be getting back into the swing of things here pretty soon. Since my mom was able to come and do A LOT of the unpacking and getting us settled, I don't have too much left before I get back into my old routine. There's just filing away all our papers and things (now that we got the filing cabinet in the house and out of the driveway), cleaning the tools and extensions cords off of the kitchen counter and putting them out in the tools box, reorganizing a few things, getting the last load of stuff out of the back of my van, and hanging pictures! Wish me luck!