Neighborhood Fun Run

Has it really been a week and a half since I last blogged?? Good grief, life has been busy. Really busy. Too busy. Many things I can't let go, other things I don't want to let go. So... onward.

In the midst of the nuttiness, our big kids participated in a a neighborhood fun run that was organized by my friend Terrah. There were probably 30 kids all together. They ran a grueling .83 mile route, half of which was up-up-uphill. They. loved. it. More notably, they survived it.Kinley running in the big kid heat!
Tanner getting ready, set, go!
Still smiling with only one block to go!
He's gonna make it! I can't believe he's gonna make it!
With his friend and running buddy, Max.
Looking forward to next year!
Tanner actually had a run-in with an unfamiliar older boy that swiped his ribbon and swapped it out for his that had gotten wet. I had to drag a screaming Tanner home (because I don't do Public Spectacle very well) and it felt really unfair to me that Tanner should be punished and miss out on the celebratory mingling because he was sad when someone had been unkind to him. I didn't find out the final details until he had calmed down at home and by then it was too late to do anything about it. When the boy's mother caught wind of the incident and figured out that it was her son, she found out who we were and where we lived, drove him over, and had him walk to the door by himself to apologize to Tanner and swap out the ribbon. It really meant a lot to all of us. They could have chosen to fade into the woodwork and we never would have even known who it was for sure. We live in a really great community.

Laurel Road Trip

Last week we took two of our Laurels on a road trip to volunteer at the LDS Missionary Training Center. We had a wonderful time! Here are the lovelies.We role-played with two sets of sister missionaries. This companionship will be serving in the Oakland Visitor's Center.
This companionship is headed to Rochester.
Waiting for our session to begin. Not my favorite picture of myself (nice gums and maniacal eyes), but I promised to post it.
I lived in the MTC for 9 weeks as a sister missionary. When I returned home from my mission, I spent one year teaching the new missionaries preparing for service in Latvia. It was so exciting for me to be back within those walls again. I love that place.

After our time with the sister missionaries, we stopped for some grub at the BYU Creamery. It was a perfect night with some awesome young women!

Wrinkly Feet

Someone's little critter took a nice, long bath.

Twisted Hot Cross Buns

This is a fun hairstyle for a fun-loving little princess.



It's a lot easier than it looks. I started off with 6 equal ponytails created out of very wet hair, making sure I pulled her bangs to the side because I prefer how it looks with Kinley's hairline.

Then I twisted the front ponytails across and attached them to the second row. Then I twisted the bottom/back ponytails across each other and attached them to the second row. I ended up with two ponytails coming out. I turned them into messy buns and used a flat iron to gently curl the ends over the knobs.

I get asked a lot how we get the twists to look like ropes. It's easy. I split the ponytail in half. I spin both halves clockwise. Then I twist them together counterclockwise. I keep twisting the halves as I go along to keep things tight.

Spray the heck out of the naughty little wispies.

Voila! Little princess!

Book Report Template

Kinley's teacher asked me to help her with a book report template to be done in newspaper format. It turned out cute and I think it's a great book report and activity idea, so I thought I'd share it.

Day of Hope

I Hate Crew's Guts

Literally.

I hate his guts.

We just got back from the pediatrician. Crew weighs 19 pounds and 2 ounces. The growth trend is a very reluctant "fine". For now.

I hate these conversations about his (lack of) weight. I feel like such a loser and a failure.

A G-tube? Really? Conversation to be continued in February.

Back to calorie-packing and and volume insistence. To be shortly followed by decrease in interest/joy in food and eating. Then comes refusal, rejection, rebellion, food striking. I love being the enemy. It's my favorite role.

Storytime

These photos make me giggle. How blase they are about Crew climbing all over them while they read books. His antics don't even phase them.

Spanish Rice

I was tasked with providing a Latin side dish for dinner with friends a few weeks ago. I was having a hankering for Spanish rice, so I tried a new recipe! Risky, but it paid off! I researched about a dozen different recipes and smashed them together with my fingers crossed.

Savory, spicy, sassy success.

I have added a few more spices since that first attempt and am now ready to share the recipe in its perfected-to-my-personal-tastes state!

Now, before I unveil this masterpiece, I must also encourage you to eat the leftovers for breakfast. Yes, for breakfast. I made two over-easy runny eggs and served them with half cup of rice. Yum. Yum. I tried it without realizing that this is actually a common dish! My natural culinary brilliance knows no cultural barriers. Cough, cough... I'm kidding.
Ingredients:
2 Tbs butter
1 medium onion, diced
2 tsp minced garlic cloves
3 cups uncooked white rice
2 cans chicken broth (14.5 ounces each)
1/2 cup water
1 10-ounce can or Rotel tomatoes with diced chiles
1 cup picante sauce
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 and 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Melt butter in bottom of pot. Saute onions and garlic until soft. Mix in uncooked rice, stirring often. When rice begins to brown, add broth, water, tomatoes, picante sauce, chili powder, cumin, and salt.

Stir well, cover, and simmer on low until rice is soft, approximately 40 minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure the bottom doesn't stick and burn. Remove from heat and leave covered for 5 more minutes.

Makes roughly 12 cups of rice. That is 24 half-cup servings, 90 calories each.

For more of our family's favorite recipes, please visit Vittles Divine.

Love You, Crew-vy

Amazing Ammonia

I was converted to the wonders and delights of cooking over a "gas range" while living in Russia and Latvia many years ago. Back then I lit our stove/oven with matches and a gut check.

Fast forward. The more modern appliances I have today no longer require nerves of steel or an ambivalent relationship with my eyebrows. (If you've never had to use short, stubby arms to light the inside of a gas oven with a match and a prayer, count yourself lucky).

I love my gas stove. Love it. But I don't love cleaning it.

I don't scrub the grates and drip pans as often as I should. My efforts feel so futile, especially when it's been a while. I have scrubbed these things for hours over the years, making mediocre progress with every attempt. Layers of dust, splattered grease, overflowing syrup, hard water splashes, and grime---sealed in place forever with flame. Occasionally, during ambitious moments, I have scrubbed them until I have bled from my knuckles and shredded Scotch Brite pads. I have soaked them over night with grease cutters, then washed them in the dishwasher just to have them look (and feel) exactly the same.

I considered buying replacement parts and just starting over. The cost was prohibitive.

I recently searched online for some sort of "As Seen On TV" cleaning product that would take care of the grungy build up once and for all. I found something better!

I bought two 64-ounce jugs of ammonia for $1.12 each.

I put the ceramic grates and metal drip pans into gallon freezer bags. The "recipe" calls for 1/4 cup of ammonia, but for $2 I could afford to be generous. I dumped 2 cups of ammonia into each bag, sealed them up tight, and set them in my sink for almost 3 hours. I flipped them over a few times during those hours. Just because. (I was glad I set them in the sink, as all the bags leaked a little and ammonia is b-a-d for granite.)

One at a time, I lifted them out of their bags and spent exactly one minute scrubbing each item with a blue, rough-sided "no-scratch" Scotch-Brite sponge.

The grime slid off the grates and drip pans. Slid the heck off. I kid you not, my range does not look clean; it looks brand new.

Cluck Cluck

One of my goals has been to fill my freezer with freezer meals. Before my week was so rudely interrupted with illness, I had made some good progress in this area. I went bonkers on 15 pounds of chicken breasts ($1.39/pound) and 8 pounds of chicken thighs ($1.69/pound).

I made:

4 recipes/meals of Apricot Chicken sauce (and ate one)

3 bags/meals of shredded BBQ chicken (and ate one)

2 recipes/meals of Thai Chicken Pasta sauce (and ate one)

4 meals worth of Asian Honey Chicken Thighs, ready to grill (2 posted recipes, and yes, we ate one)

I have just put them in labeled freezer bags and stacked them flat. I flush with pride and excitement when I peek in my freezer to check on them.

I feel so happy inside. I am (almost) looking forward to Round Two. I have plans for taco meat, spaghetti sauce, burger patties, enchiladas, seasoned shredded beef, sundried tomato pasta sauce, and pumpkin pancakes.

Cluck, cluck.

Lifestyle

I had a revelation this morning.

I realized that I have a certain, very specific kind of lifestyle. The life I live means that sometimes when I'm driving through our community, I can't tell if that "funny smell" that just hit me is from fresh manure or the backseat of my mini-van.

Either way, I wouldn't change a thing.

Bouncing Back

Crew seems to have just barely skimmed the edges of illness, thank goodness. I guess he has passed the weakest-immune-system torch to me.

Naturally

I made a post about sharing a spoon with Crew.

Then I posted about getting sick.

This is the next natural post in this tale. Crew is sick.

You saw that one coming, huh? Yeah, me too.

On the bright side, I no longer need to try to protect him from contagion, so we can get back to our snuggles, however mutually snotty.

Stoner Mistakes

Ugh. I can't believe I misspelled Light SABER on Tanner's scrapbook page, to be passed around to all the other Star Wars fans in his class for the rest of the year. It's practically his "permanent record" and I got it wrong.

Stupid Drunken Fake Nyquil Mistake.

"Sabor". Jeesh.

Friday Morning

I sent Kinley to school today with orphan hair.

Kindergarten assignments do not wait for moms to return to health, especially when those moms have procrastinated until the very last moment. I created these pages for Tanner's classroom scrapbook this morning. From my deathbed.Justin will tell you that I only have a cold and that I'm just being dramatic. I know this because that's what he told me. Ignore him. He just doesn't want to write the eulogy.

Fake Nyquil

The nighttime sniffling sneezing coughing aching stuffy head fever so you can drowse lightly, sleep with a coughdrop in your cheek, blow your nose all night, and redose repeatedly just-to-take-the-edge-off medicine, ending your week with a bang.

Sick and Tired of Sick and Tired

I can't believe it. I was having such a good and productive week. I am sick. a. gain.

And not very happy about it, thank you very much.

Of Course

I got up really early to make that last post.

Now Crew is awake.

He has categorically refused absolutely everything I have offered him for breakfast.

Back-arching, fit-pitching, food-throwing, bowl-plate-spoon-fork-sippy-shoving. The whole nine yards.

Little tyrant.

Now Mr. Sensible will cry all morning long because he's hungry. But won't eat.

It's That Good

Crew has a favorite meal. It is Apricot Chicken. I serve it over brown rice and add a heaping tablespoon of butter for our runt. It ranks well above any flavor of Haagen Dazs that we have offered him. Last night I discovered just how much he likes it.

For the last few days (since we have had the precious foodstuff on hand), Crew has been really temperamental during mealtimes. It was as though I couldn't feed him fast enough. He would scream between bites, even when his mouth was full. It took me a few days to realize that peace could reign at the table if I would just put the spoon down between bites, until he opened his mouth and/or signed with his hands for "more".

It was so strange.

He has been in time-out a lot the last few days while we sorted out his issue.

Last night I got to the bottom of it. The hard way.

After two trips to time-out, I finally realized that he would relax if I set the spoon down between bites and not touch it again until he asked for more.

Then...

While he was smiling contentedly at me with his mouth full, doing his arm-wiggle dance, I reached down, picked up the spoon ... and took a tiny bite.

He practically turned purple with rage! I learned that Apricot Chicken is not to be shared and Crew doesn't trust me with a spoon in my hand! Whooops! The mere act of holding the spoon concerns him (with just cause, it seems).

This also explains why he cries lately when I share with the little knee-beggar off my plate. He would prefer to commandeer my meals at will.

What's mine is his; what's his is his.

Things could be worse. Oh, baby, things could be a lot worse than a toddler that is possessive of his food. Trust me. Now if he would just eat enough volume to grow on...

One Small Step for Man

One giant step for Crewzer.

I don't have a picture of it and I'm not patient enough to wait until I DO have a picture to go along with this announcement, but...

Crew took his first independent steps this morning. Just two or three.

And he stood in the middle of the floor all by himself, distracted by our physical therapist and the iPad. For 60 full seconds. Perfectly balanced, completely happy, weight-shifting as needed.

Yes, I cried. You'd better believe it.

Empty Chairs and Occupied Minds

Tonight Tanner reminded us that we keep two extra dinner table chairs stored in our basement. He was so excited because two more chairs means that we can fit two more sons around our table at mealtime. How perfect is that? One for Crew and one for Dex!

Sigh...

I've been struggling a lot recently with feelings of undefined anxiety. The summer kind of got away from me with swim lessons, girls camp, and everything else. As I try to piece together a game plan for the fall, I feel overwhelmed by my own ambition/desires and depressed in advance over unfulfilled expectations. I don't feel focused enough, organized enough, connected enough.

There is so much that I want to be and do, so much that I have been avoiding or ignoring for a long time. And there is so much else that I'm excited about, but haven't been able to put into action for whatever reason.

Part of me feels compulsively driven to reorganize my entire life and stride forward with gusto. Another part of me spent a good chunk of today planning a desperate escape vacation-to-San-Diego-that-my-husband-shot-down.

Justin has been trying to help me through my gloom, telling me that I'm a good mom and a good person, thanking me endlessly for how clean the house has been lately. But even this accomplishment gives me anxiety, compelling me against all reason to vacuum the house... twice a day. Because once just doesn't feel clean enough to me. Er? He finally has the housekeeping wife he has always dreamed of, but it's coming with a big dose of crazy. Never thought he'd call me too tidy.

Fall is creeping closer and closer. Perhaps it's just that difficult time of year for me. That time of year that reminds me of my own mortality, the fragility of life, and the importance of making the very most of every day and every life experience. And then I look around and see how much time I'm wasting, how many hours I have squandered on Project Runway or Facebook...

This undercurrent of anxiety will pass in time. At some point, and at some price.

I Love Crew

I Am Invited

With Tanner starting school this week, I was already feeling a little wistful and kinda old. Then I found this in our mailbox, addressed to me:

Tanner Terrific

My one and only brown-eyed child is now a kindergartener! He has been so anxious to start this adventure. I asked him if he was nervous or scared about anything and he said, "No, Mommy, I always been so excited to go to kindergarten!" Wednesday was his big day! I made sure to be nice and sick all week so that going to school would feel like a welcome reprieve when compared to being cooped up with a hacking, coughing, lethargic mama.He attends afternoon kindergarten, so we still have our mornings together. He rides the kindergarten bus to school and then rides home with Kinley. He put on his Cars 2 backpack right after breakfast.
As luck would have it, Tanner's friend Haydn is in his class! His older sister is Isabel. We didn't even try to finagle this one, but we're thrilled.

Tanner was so curious to see what the inside of a big yellow school bus would be like. The kindergarten bus driver looks scary and grouchy but is actually really nice and funny. Unfortunately, Kinley's bus driver looks really nice and funny but is actually scary and grouchy.
Yes, of course we followed the bus all the way to the school.
The first day of school for our big boys.
Tanner is enchanted by the wonders of the kindergarten playground, a.k.a the Kindergarten Corral.
Two nutty and neurotic moms.
Standing in line, ready to go into their classroom for the first time!!
He had a marvelous first day of school and felt so big riding the bus home with Kinley. Day one accomplished!

Pushing the Envelope

Kinley is generally pretty unashamed of our relationship, blowing me kisses in public and greeting me with dramatic hugs and squeals after school regardless of audience. Walking her to the school bus stop this morning in my Minnie Mouse pajamas really strained the limits of her tolerance.

Cafeteria Kinley

At Kinley's school there are always student assistants in the cafeteria helping to stack trays, wipe down tables, and serve food. It has heretofore been a responsibility/privilege reserved for the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Last week I received a phone call from Kinley's new teacher. They are now (a little nervously) inviting 3rd graders to participate in the cafeteria rotation and chose the most responsible children possible to start the year off right. (Hey, really, that's what they said!)

They needed my permission, as she would be missing recess (and getting free lunches all week). I knew how much she would enjoy the opportunity, so I happily assented.

I mean, come on, who wouldn't sacrifice a few recesses for a hat like that?The reports I received from the school staff were hilarious. The principal emailed me that the 5th and 6th graders very slowly, gently, and carefully handed her their trays on the first day, like they were afraid they may startle her. "What a cute picture of gentleness I observed! Wish you could have been here to see her today! She did great!!!!"

Her teacher said that the big kids kept asking her when they started allowing first graders to work in the cafeteria. I asked Kinley how many people asked her if she was in first grade. She rolled her eyes and said, "quite a many."

"Quite a many? Do you mean quite a few?"

"Oh no, not a few. Quite a many."

Thanks to the runty genes provided to her from both parents, these are the conversations that she will have many times throughout her life. Quite a many.

Portrait of a Lady

Kinley was invited to a birthday party recently. The birthday girl's sister is a gifted artist and was tasked with drawing portraits of all the party attendees. I thought it was such a clever idea!

Daddy's Shoes

Hair Creations

Every once in a while, I accidentally create a magnificent coiffure. Like this.

First of all, please note that I have finally figured out how to french braid thin wispy hair. This is a skill that has eluded me for many years. I was shaking like a leaf through this whole process, but I did it!I wasn't exactly sure where I was going when I started, but I french braided down both sides of her head, across the front and down the other side to her ears. Then I pulled the braid away from her head and braided them out to the ends. I gathered everything else into a low ponytail and left the braids loose for a minute.

I joined the braids in the back and tied them together, and then tied them down to the low pony tail that I had already tied off. Then I turned the whole ponytail into a messy bun, flat ironing the ends to pull them over in a messy spray.
Voila, cute sister.