Birthday Girl

Recently had a birthday. I can't really remember many of my birthdays unfortunately. Hopefully I fuss over my kids enough and I've documented my kid's b-days well, so the same thing doesn't happen to them.

We've been talking about a dutch oven party since the summer after being inspired by our camping trips and Uncle Quin suggesting one. So we did one for my b-day. Chris made four dutch oven dishes and Uncle Quin brought one as well. We found out that not many young people know how to work a dutch oven so we had lots of side dishes instead. And what I mean by "young people"is anyone in my age category ;0) of course. Hopefully dutch oven cooking isn't a fading skill. And although it was a lot of food there were hardly any leftovers. Afterward we went home for a game of Ticket to Ride with Loyd and Angela.

We did have a pinata, really meant for the kids. But I broke it after the second hit :0).

Happy Birthday to Me and a big thanks to Chris for working so hard to put everything together. And even though I try to be inconspicuous on the birth day, Chris never lets me. After all is said and done, I'm glad for the fuss other wise it would be quite a sad thing.

I didn't take this picture obviously......but I actually dig it. Very cool.

I Wonder

if the habit of biting nails is genetic. Chris and Vy seem to be mirror images of each other. He shares things with his dad that my other boys don't such as an ultra sensitivity to sun light. Chris is always complaining about it being too bright when he's not wearing his sunglasses. Vy is often seen squinting in his pictures when no other person is. As a baby he would cry during our walks until someone pointed out that the sun is bugging him and I became aware of his need for shade. And then there is the fact that I don't have to trim Vy's finger nails. Somewhere and at some point in his life, he picked up nail biting. This is not something he's seen us do. Chris bites his nails in private and thus we never, ever see him biting his nails. And just this past week, Vy started biting his TOE NAILS. I told Chris about this, only to discover that he did the same thing as a kid.

BTW, since I've moved to this city, I haven't been able to check out holiday books from our local library. Every time I try to check some out around the specific holiday to get the boys excited for Halloween or whatever day is coming, I'm too late. All the books are checked out.

This time I thought I'd be sneaky and go check out Halloween books early. It's...what....6 weeks before Halloween. To my amazement and disappointment........THREE shelves of Halloween books........EMPTY!!!

So what now? Do I go and check out all the Thanksgiving books and Christmas books in revenge. My passive aggressiveness at its best.

Some more fishing

This place was so awesome for these fishermen. They all caught several fish each. It was, for me, the best little fishing outing we've had so far. It rained, the fish were biting, there were lots of places to set up, the drive through the canyon was pretty, and it was fun. During this Labor Day weekend we also went for a 10 mile bike ride on the Provo River Trail. Love that trail. Wish we had one similar around here with lots of trees, a pretty river, and set far away from the traffic. Chris especially enjoyed the ride and wants to do it again.

First Day of School for Vy and Lolo

Vy had been asking to do something fun (a lot) lately. I myself was getting tired of the whole post surgery recovery process. And although still feel pain, I am feeling much, much better and enough to begin venturing out again. We went to check out the baby elephant yesterday but the public has yet to see her. I was told it would be another week or so. Guess we'll be back. Still was a fun last hurrah before school started today.

And after a waiting game, we finally got the o.k. yesterday for Vy to go to the same school as his big brother. We go to a school out of our boundary and they were unsure if they had enough students and permission to have a third session of kindergarten. He had already been assessed by his kindergarten teacher at another school when we finally got the o.k. Vy was disappointed since the other school had a better playground but still excited for the big day. And yes I was a blubbering crying fool as I saw him go.

And after months and months of preparing this homebody for preschool, I can say all the prep. work paid off. And although he was unsure going into his class, there was no crying, kicking and screaming. It was a joyous occasion.


I don't know what happened here to cause such an exchange of looks. But I imagine that Vy kept bumping into the boy in front and when the boy turned around to see who was messing with him, Vy got all stiff and had this look on his face. I'm thinking he was thinking something along the lines as this........if I hold really still, then he'll see it wasn't me.....maybe if I give this scary look he won't see that I'm embarrassed too and see right through me. How I wish I could be there to help him through these things. Hope he does o.k. No better than o.k.......fabulous. Hope he does fabulous, amazing things on his first day of school. And seeing that it is now time for me to pick them all up, I hope they all DID fabulous today.

25 things about me (as posted on my facebook January 2009)

1. I am a worry wart.
2. I am sensitive but try to hide that I'm hurt and often pretend to overlook things but really nothing goes by me.
3. I love to snuggle up to my hubby and kids.
4. I love to tickle torture and smother my boys with hugs and kisses.
5. I'm an expert at hiding, jumping out, and scaring my husband.
6. I scored a 75% on the 1930s marital test. http://www.magatsu.net/maritaltest/
7. I go back and forth about having any more children. I just don't know if I can handle any more worrying.
8. I have a bachelors and masters from BYU in Social Work and wished I had skipped out on the masters and just gone straight to work.
9. Things I wanted to be growing up included a teacher, then a fitness trainer/gym owner, a chemist, a journalist/anchor person, all before majoring in social work. Things I've wanted to do since is be a paramedic, nurse, photographer, and sometimes just go back to the good old waiting on tables day.
10. What I've done to make money include get good grades ($10 for each A, $100 for straight As), babysit, worked for a Veterinarian and did all sort of gross things, waitress, waitress, waitress, Discovery Counselor, academic counselor of the Multicultural Office at BYU, waitress, waitress, waitress, intern therapist for LDS family services, and Wasatch Mental Health, Intern Medical SW at UVRMC, make tamales, and once I was a seasonal worker at Ross. I bet I missed something.
11. I served a mission in Okayama/Hiroshima for my church. My saving graces were Rob Breedlove who watched over me, Amanda Rohner (my soul friend), Tim Smolka who talked my ear off when I was so stressed out and needed to be distracted, and Elder Call who always made sure to greet me. My mission was so hard and wonderful. I've never been so close to the spirit in my life and seen so many miracles. I had doubts for a long time whether I did everything I could on my mission. But, I've been reassured that I was great and did good things.
12. I cook a lot (not to be mistaken with baking, I don't do that a lot). I hate how fast food makes me feel even though it's convenient.
13. I'm a cancer phoebe and thus am very into antioxidants and making sure we get lots of them through veggies, fruit, herbs/seasoning and love orange and grape juice.
14. I want to go microwave less.
15. I am happy my boys have been game system free for going on 6 months. However, I want a Wii for the family interaction and to build my boys skills. Go figure.
16. Last year I ran the SL Half Marathon, the Ragnar Relay (180 miles in 30+hrs team of 12), the Provo trail Half marathon, and finally the Logan Marathon. This year...Provo City Half Marathon and Utah Valley Marathon.
17. I use to run the mile in just over 6 minutes when I was a kid. And once my brothers track coach was desperate for a mile runner in their competition that I joined in. I was in elementary school and had not been training but I am/was so competitive that I wouldn't let the fastest girl by me. I won and ended up throwing up afterward.
18. My fav. subject growing up was P.E. I loved playing sports, exercising, running, lifting weights.
Thus in college it seems like I took everything p.e. including dance classes (Latin beg and intermediate and social dances beg., int., and advanced twice before and after mission, racquetball, golf beg. and int., tennis, volleyball
19. I don't enjoy being pregnant but loved birthing.
20. I miss my family (parents, brothers, extended family especially my cousins, we were close growing up)
21. I want my husband and I to be better friends.
22. I can be shy/outgoing, quiet/vocal, laid back/high strung, worn out/full of energy, nice/mean, hopeful/disenfranchised, happy/sad, unsure/confident, etc.
23. I am easily happy for others because I don't like how jealousy feels.
24. I like to be helpful.
25. My final decision is often based on my gut feeling. Some call it intuition, others call it being irrational, I call it being in tune to the spirit. If there is a decision to be made, I often find myself standing there waiting to FEEL what is the right thing to do even if there is no rational justification.