Snapshots

I was reading over my journal this evening and came across a couple of sentences that really struck a chord with me {anew}.  In April of 2008 I wrote:

... I need to keep a better journal -- even when it seems like there is nothing really happening.  Perhaps it is in the mundane, every day occurences that our true life story is told.

This has been that kind of week for me.  I haven't blogged since last Sunday mostly because there hasn't been anything all that "big" or "important" to record.  But at the same time, if I would have made myself sit down at the end of each day to just record SOMETHING -- I probably could have filled a few pages worth.  So, here as penance {and with very little fanfare}, are a few inconsequential and consequential happenings of the last week and a half or so.

• First up?  A peaceful and restful Sabbath day.  And no -- I am NOT talking about today.  Last week, however, we had a nice little window of peace in the afternoon after church.  I had promised to give Grace a pedicure after she had an absolute melt-down the night before because I wouldn't take her to a real place to get one, and I figured we might as well make it a true family affair and involved just about everyone else in the process.  Scott helped by filling up buckets with warm, soapy water for the girls to soak their feet, and Ethan decided he wanted to get in on the action by painting Jane's nails for her.  She was the only one who would consent to his plans.  Hahahaha.  As we soaked, filed, and painted, we pulled the computer desk out so we could watch Mormon Messages on the computer screen while we worked.  The kids actually really enjoyed watching the videos and I really enjoyed doing them a service.  It was a lovely Sunday afternoon!  

Grace got to go first.

Cute little lover boy just wanted to climb in the water.

 Cute little girlie bugs.

• Up next?  A picnic -- kid style.  Which is not to be confused with Gangnam Style.  Hahahaha.  As I was getting the kitchen cleaned up at the end of the day on Monday and trying to get dinner ready before Scott got home, I realized that the kids were making an awful lot of trips in and out of the house and dragging various items with them.  When Grace asked if they could move the kid picnic table to the driveway I replied with a "Sure -- as long as you can do it yourself."  Then, when Sophie came in and started gathering plates and cups and silverware and Ethan began rummaging around for food in the fridge, I decided I should probably go and check out the damage.  What I found was a full-on picnic.  They probably ate a full meal out there with the leftovers Ethan found and they even set up the Pack n Play to keep Alex occupied and a "hammock" for lounging in when they were done eating.  I just love it when they do crazy, creative things.  Even if it does make a huge mess.

Ethan is climbing into the "hammock" (a jogging stroller tilted back against the table) and Grace has climbed in the Pack n Play with Alex.

 Sophie is enjoying the chow.

• On the quilting front, I finally finished a quilt I made for my little sis, Sarah who just had her baby girl last Friday.  I haven't mailed it out to her yet, so I'll only include a couple of teaser pics until she has gotten the real thing.  But don't worry, because then I'll post more photos of this quilt than you'll ever want to see!  Hahahaha.  {It is my new favoritest quilt I've ever made, though.}

 I tried to get Jane's help in holding up the quilt to take a picture.  It was an exercise in futility.

Cutest little non-helper on the block!

• While we're talking about quilts, I'm super excited to finally have all the blocks done for Grace's baptism quilt.  I went with a theme of flowers for this one and used my awesome quilting bee buddies to create the following masterpiece.  I still need to finish the sashing in between the rows {ignore the white gaps} but here is the final layout:

 I'm pretty sure Grace is super excited as well.

• In more important news, Jane has been having another asthma flare-up this weekend.  Things seemed to be getting a bit dicey yesterday evening but she slept all night long and woke up this morning sounding MUCH better.  Whew!!!  I would really love to avoid anymore hospital trips for the rest of the year if possible!  (And for the rest of her life, really.)

 Poor little lamb was all tuckered out from coughing and fell asleep during a breathing treatment yesterday.

• And finally, there's no visual for this but our car has broken down once again.  Friday evening as I was leaving to take Grace to a girl scout gathering, my car wouldn't start.  We've been having problems with this intermittently for the last few weeks but it has always started up after waiting a little while.  No such luck this time.  It didn't start again yesterday morning {as I tried to leave in the wee hours of the day to go running}, it didn't start again in the evening when I tried it before going to the Stake Center for the General Relief Society Broadcast, and it still wasn't starting this morning for us to go to church {on arguably my favorite Sunday of the year -- Primary Program day}.  Luckily, we have really kind friends in our ward who let Scott borrow their mini-van to come back home and pick up the rest of us after his meetings were over in the morning and we made it in time for the kids to participate in the program.  The older kids did a great job singing and saying their parts even if Jane and Alex were a bit nuts in our pew.  Scott left right after sacrament meeting with the 2 little ones and I managed to scavenge a ride home for me and the older ones with some other friends who live near our house.  

And that is that.  It has been quite a weekend!  Hopefully, we'll FINALLY figure out what's wrong with the car when we tow it in tomorrow and even MORE hopefully, Jane will continue to improve so that any chance of a hospital visit will be completely out of the picture.  I feel like there will be enough going on this week without having to deal with that, too!

General Conference is coming up next weekend and I'm getting really excited to hear our prophet and other church leaders speak.  Back in April we started something new with the kids that actually worked really well and I want to use it again this time.  After culling Pinterest for any ideas I could find, I decided on creating "Conference Stations" to rotate with each new speaker {and a few extra treat bags for when the First Presidency and Apostles were speaking}.  I'm going to try to get everything organized this week and ready to go so that we can actually enjoy conference this time around without the last minute stress of finding things to keep the kids quiet and occupied.  I'll let you know how that goes.  Hahaha.

And that my friends is as mundane as it gets.

Roots n Blues n BBQ

After days and weeks and months of training, the big day has finally come and gone.  And it was awesome.  But, of course, I need to back up and tell the WHOLE story.  Because I know everyone is dying to hear every single detail.  Hahahaha.  To be honest, I was surprised that even my own children were interested in hearing all about it.  It was a pleasant surprise to see how much Ethan, Grace, and Sophie wanted to know at bedtime last night when I was rehashing the day.  They were SUPER excited about it.  Over pretty much almost every single detail.  Like how people were holding up signs and cheering for us along the way.  And like how it was still dark outside when we got to the race.  And how there were lots and lots of Porta Potties.  And how there was free BBQ at the end for the racers.  And how my friend {and their friends' mom} had to stop and tie her shoe right before we crossed the starting line for the race.  And how me and my friends tried to stay together for pretty much the whole entire race.  Sophie kept bouncing up and down with glee and saying "Is this our bedtime story you're reading us?"  And Ethan just lounged there in his bed trying to be all nonchalant but I could tell he was really into the story and Grace sat rocking in the rocking chair in Ethan and Sophie's room and finally calmed down from the fit she was having as she listened to all the exciting details.  It was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole day to see them hanging onto every word that was coming out of my mouth and getting super pumped up and excited for ME and then super pumped up and excited for themselves as they talked about all the races THEY are going to run someday.  It was awesome.  Complete with awesome sauce. 

And now for the Whole Story.  I went up Friday afternoon with my "running group."  There were 10 of us ladies from my ward who were going to be running the race along with one spouse from the group and another couple they were friends with.  The race was in Columbia near the campus for Mizzou and we thought it would be easier to be there the night before and not have to get up even earlier to make the drive over the morning of the race.  We all met up at the Olive Garden for dinner and it was so much fun!  Unfortunately, I discovered upon my arrival that the batteries in my camera were basically dead so I have no good pictures of our night out.  I'll eventually have some pictures to document the whole journey, though, because our "coach" ended up not being able to run due to a stress fracture and became our team photographer instead. 

{Side note -- Ethan's immediate response after telling him we ate at the Olive Garden?  "The Olive Garden is the second worst place to work for employees."  Hahahaha.  What what say what???  He went on to say that he had seen an article about it on Yahoo and that the number one place was McDonald's.  The funniest thing of all was how he got so serious and mature-sounding as he matter-of-fact-ly slipped in that little tidbit of information.}

After dinner we headed back to our various hotels before all the girls ended up in our suite where we had a mini Girls Night In complete with chit chat, story telling, and of course nail painting.  We decided we needed to pick a solidarity color and kept things very democratic as we voted between our choices of purple and pink.  In the end "Fuschia Bling Bling" won out and we ran with it.  {Terrible} pun intended.  Hahahaha.  All good things must come to an end, though, and eventually we all had to go to bed.  Here is where my LEAST favorite part of the experience came in -- I could NOT fall asleep to save my life!!!  It was so frustrating!  Every time I looked at the clock and saw the time ticking away it made me that much more stressed and anxious to just GO TO SLEEP so that I'd be rested in the morning.  In the end I think it was after 1:30 before I finally drifted off and my alarm went off at 5:30 to get the day started.  BOO.  Once I was able to pry my eyes open, get dressed, and get my contacts in I started to get really excited to get going.  All my stress and worry from the day before over the weather being colder completely melted away as we walked outside and realized the forecast must have been wrong and we would be running in the most perfect weather ever.  As we got to the race with daybreak on our heels I totally forgot about the fact that I was going on about 4 hours of sleep and I had 13.1 miles of running ahead of me.  It was so much fun to be there with my friends and to be ready to do such a big thing.

Girls Night!  {Pre-Nail Painting}

Me and Charity getting ready for the race.

Group shot Pre-Race.

Me and Tawny waiting for the start.

As the starting gun went off and we began our run {uphill} into the beautiful dawning day, everything felt perfect.  The first 3 miles or so took us through part of campus and then on some roads and highways before cutting over to a trail run through a park.  The parts of campus we saw looked really cool and the trail was BEAUTIFUL.  We were running through the park for probably 5 or 6 miles and in some ways it just felt like we were on one of our regular Saturday morning runs.  When Ethan asked, "How was the scenery?" I had to laugh out loud because the scenery was in fact the most beautiful part of the run.  {Not to mention it was such an odd question for a 9 year old to ask.  Hahahaha.}  The running of the first 8 or 9 miles during the race was just awesome.  It was once we hit the 10 and 11 mile marks that I started to run out of steam.  The last few miles of the race were run through a residential area with streets and neighborhoods that were just charming and beautiful.  And a wee bit hilly.  Not the easiest thing to manage at the end of a long race.  I really started to wonder if my feet could keep me going for that last mile or so.  In all honesty, the hardest part for me was that last tenth of a mile!  Once I saw the mark for 13 miles I was kind of done mentally.  It was at this point that I saw Scott cheering for me and snapping pictures on the sideline and I knew I could finish and I was almost there. 

Coming around the bend -- almost there!  Me, Tawny, and April stuck together for pretty much the whole race.  They both kicked my tail in the chute, though, as they sprinted for the finish line.  :)

In the finish chute.

After yelling for Scott to hurry and run to the finish line so he could snap pictures of me crossing over, I  forced my feet to keep moving one foot after another until I finally had that finish line in sight.  As an added bonus I saw our friends who had already finished cheering and waving at the corner.  It was funny because I thought I'd get really emotional crossing the finish line but I didn't.  I was just so glad and happy and ecstatic to be done that I didn't have time for tears.  It wasn't until I joined my friends on the corner to wait for the last few runners in our group to finish that the emotion really hit me.  With each friend that came around the corner and ran through the finish line I got a little choked up.  Being in this big group and clapping and waving and cheering them on as we saw them felt a bit symbolic {once again}.  And when the very last runner in our group came around the bend I remember thinking that this must be what Heaven is like.  A joyous reunion of friends and loved ones who are cheering and clapping and so excited to finally be joined together.  It was awesome.

Don't worry -- I'm not puking.

I'm alive!   I promise!

I did it.

I finished the race!

Parkway Ward sisters L to R -- (top) April, Davina, {Coach} Rachel, Leia, Charity, Jessica, Natalie

(bottom) Tawny, Karissa, Me

Roots n Blues n BBQ Festival Half-Marathon 2012

The whole group -- adding Karissa's husband Scott (in the back) and their friends Jaron and Meagan.

Fuschia Bling Bling Girl Power.

Apparently I was the only one who could no longer stand on their feet.  Hahahaha.

Once the race was over I grabbed a little BBQ and was flabbergasted to discover that I was so exhausted that the mere act of chewing my food was even more draining than I would have ever thought possible.  The original plan was to maybe stay around and check out the festival or campus or find something else to do in Columbia, but I was so wasted and completely out of steam {that 4 hours of sleep was REALLY starting to hit me} that I decided we should probably just hit the road.  Scott hadn't eaten anything yet so we stopped at a Friday's on the way home and ate some lunch.  The waiter who, bless his heart, was not the greatest {he never brought us our soup or salad but charged us just the same} made one grace-saving move in bringing me out a balloon where he had {wrongly} written "I RAN A MARATHON!!!" after I told him I was so tired because I had just run 13.1 miles.  Hahahaha.  After eating and correcting our bill we were on our way.  But first I had a little business to take care of.

Believe it or not, I actually DID get a little emotional as I carefully applied that sticker to the back of the car.  THIS is what made it real.  That and my hot mess of a hairdo.

I added in the "HALF" once I got to the car.

Once home I was basically good for nothing for the rest of the day.  I had a raging headache from being so tired and my feet and legs were justifiably aching.  After showering and trying to lay down for a while I was still really hurting, so Scott made my whole life when he instantly supported my idea to go and get a massage when I brought it up at the end of the day.  It was awesome.  If only I could end EVERY day the same way.  Hahaha.

Trying on my medal.

Well, folks -- that's it.  The Whole Story.  Will I do it again?  Absolutely!  I've got a new PR to achieve...

Chocolat

Apparently my definition of A LOT and Scott's definition of a lot doesn't exactly match up.  You see Scott was in Belgium all last week and since my personal motto is "when in Belgium, buy chocolate," I told him he had to bring back lots of chocolate for me.  He did his best and this is what he came up with  -- definitely not much by MY standards, but certainly enough to indulge in for the last few days.

 

He also {unknowingly} brought some chocolate back for the wunderkinden that is prohibited in the USA due to a 1938 FDA Act that bans the sale of "confectionery product[s] with a non-nutritive object, partially or totally imbedded within it, unless the FDA issues a regulation that the non-nutritive object has functional value."  Whoops.  Hahahaha.  According to Wikipedia, one of these "Kinder" eggs was seized from a woman's car during a random inspection while entering the US from Canada on January 10th of last year.  During this "seizure" she was also informed that bringing the egg into the United States could result in a $300 fine.  Yikes -- Scott brought back 6 of them!

 

Inside this plastic egg was a little plastic toy/figurine.  Very non-nutritive indeed.  Hahaha.

Half of my chocolate (and all of the kids') is already gone.  But that's okay.  The important thing is that I survived the week on my own and Scott is now back to help me!  Next thing on my horizon?  The "Roots n Blues n BBQ Half-Marathon" coming up on Saturday.  Now that I've finally gotten all the baby-sitting I need lined up for the big day, I've got nothing to worry about!

 Poor little supermuppet -- no Belgian chocolate for her.

Flashback Friday -- Hurricane Season

This flashback is from not so very long ago.  Two weeks ago to be exact.  When Hurricane Isaac hit New Orleans at the end of August, we were lucky enough to house a couple of refugees for a few days.  My mom and Jacob drove up and stayed with us until the flooding went down and the schools were ready to open up again.  The kids had a BLAST having them here and of course so did I.  I'm always up for company!

 Every kid should have a young uncle.  They're the funnest.

I think the game here was "try to break Jacob's legs."  Hahahaha.

As a kid growing up in New Orleans, I can only remember having to evacuate for one big hurricane.  I was maybe 13 or 14 and our whole stake was directed to Liberty, MS to bunker down until we could get back to our city.  It's funny how looking back I remember being really excited about it -- it seemed more like an adventure or a mini-vacation than anything else.  Making it even more fun was the fact that all of our good family friends were there, too.   I remember getting there that night and playing cards with the Gruwells in their room, doing some kind of impromptu variety show with other members of our stake {using flashlights for illumination since the power must have already gone out at that point}, and watching the rain just come POURING down the next day.

As an adult now, responsible for my own house and a bunch of little kiddies, I can't imagine I'd have the same kind of reaction to the news if we had to evacuate.  Thankfully, that shouldn't ever come to pass for us here in the landlocked midwest.  But as long as we're here we'll gladly house my family evacuees any day!   

A Pinteresting Post

Pinterest has a lot going on.  From recipes to art work to DIY projects and beyond.  It's a bit of a vortex that will suck you in for hours at a time if you're not careful.  I've pinned a few things here and there -- mostly with a "one of these days I'll try this" mentality -- but for tonight's post I have to share a recipe we've tried SEVERAL times now for the most delicious chocolate chip cookie you will ever taste.  I don't even really care for straight-up chocolate chip cookies all that much, but these are SO GOOD that I'm sitting here salivating at the thought of them and I'm borderline tempted to whip up a batch right now just to have a bite {and a visual for the post}.   Alas, it really is too late and I will end up eating the whole batch by myself.  Otherwise I would totally do it.

* * *

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies {Recipe found here}

1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon real vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar (You won’t taste it, I promise.)  {This is true.}
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional, but add 1/4 cup more flour if omitting)
1 (12-oz) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips {I like milk chocolate chips, myself, and use about 1 c.}
 
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a nonstick skillet, melt 1 stick of the butter over medium heat until foamy and golden brown. You’ll know it’s ready when the solids have separated and the bottom has lots of brown specks and it starts to smell so wonderful that you get light-headed when you catch a whiff. Pour into a bowl to cool and wipe out the skillet.  {Oh it smells SO good.}

3. In the skillet over medium heat, toast the oatmeal, stirring often, until fragrant and some of the oatmeal is light golden in color. About 3 minutes. Transfer the oatmeal to a food processer and grind until fine and powdery. I usually just turn it on and leave it alone for a full minute. Set aside.

4. If using, spread the nuts onto a plate and microwave in 30 second increments 2 or 3 times until toasted, stirring in-between. Set aside to cool.  {I've just toasted them in the same skillet after the oatmeal was done.  It worked.  Hahahaha.}

5. In a stand mixer, beat the softened butter, browned butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and vinegar low to combine, and then on high speed until fluffy and lighter in color. I beat mine about five minutes so that there’s plenty of time for all those sugar crystals to force air into the butter. (Alton Brown has convinced me this is crucial to making good cookies and since I do this and my cookies are always good, you should believe us both.)  {I've seen that Good Eats episode -- he knows what he's talking about!}

6. Add the eggs and mix until combined. Add the oatmeal and baking soda and beat for another minute. Next, add the flour half at a time and mix on low speed just until incorporated.

7. Add the chocolate chips and toasted nuts. Mix on low until incorporated.

8. With a size 50 cookie scoop or a generous tablespoon, drop the dough onto parchment paper 3 inches apart. 

9. Bake for 11 minutes or until golden around the edges. I use an airbake pan and usually bake mine about 10 minutes, but oven temps vary so just keep an eye on the first pan to judge the time yours needs. Remove from oven and let set on the cookie sheet for 3 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.  

 * * *

There's a line in the newer version of Little Women (with Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, a very young Kirsten Dunst, etc) that always makes me laugh.  It's during the Christmas morning scene when the sisters come down to breakfast and are so excited and surprised to see a full spread of food on the table and Amy exclaims, "Butter!!!  Oh isn't butter divinity???"  Hahahaha.  I've always full-heartedly agreed with that sentiment...until now.  Because now I know that it's browned butter that's divinity.  Go out and try these, folks -- I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Is it only Wednesday?

This is proving to be a VERY long week.  All five kids are FINALLY in bed and {mostly} asleep, though, so I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Dramatic points of the day included an early morning meltdown from Ethan who was trying to find a suitable container for transporting a crayfish home from school and an early evening trip to Crazy Town from Grace who was desperately trying to turn that sprained foot of hers into a broken one.  Because she really wants crutches.  And a cast.  Fortunately, all her jumping around and beating at her foot with various plastic toys and other objects did no {further} harm and she eventually settled down to do her 20 minutes of reading without further ado. 

Now that the kiddies are all in bed I get to jump back into my newest project -- a quilt I'm making for a new little niece who should be making her appearance shortly.  Sarah -- I know you said to go ahead and surprise you, but I can't help but post a couple of pictures as a sneak peek!  Hopefully, I can finish this up before baby Molly arrives. 

Happy Wednesday!

A Mom's Life

This is what happens when you have no clean jammies and 3 older sisters.

For reasons I still can't quite figure out, the start of the school year has not really given me a whole lot of extra time to get things done.  I {wrongly} assumed that once the three older ones were off for the day that everything would be a piece of cake.  Now, don't get me wrong -- it is still infinitely easier to take care of 2 kids than it is to take care of 5, but I am still waiting for a whole bunch of free time to fall into my lap.  Ha!  Between laundry, housework, meals, grocery shopping, doctor's appointments, dentist appointments, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, school stuff, church stuff, etc. -- there just aren't enough hours in the day.  And we don't even do any extracurriculars!  

Because everyone loves a travelogue, let me walk you through the high points and the low points of the last couple of weeks.  To begin with, I'm in the process of weaning lover boy.  He is also cutting his one year molars. This is NOT a good combo.  He has been an emotional wreck for the last little bit and even though this week is supposed to be the first week he's completely weaned, I can't NOT have mercy on the poor babe when he's waking up in the middle of the night and freaking out. 

How can I deny that little face?

In addition to that drama, I lived through dentist appointments for the 3 older kids and myself last week, endured a 2 hour delayed start for school on Wednesday, attended parent meetings for both Grace and Sophie's Girl Scout troops, and experienced a complete and total breakdown after the car wouldn't start in the parking lot in 100 degree heat (or at least it felt that way) after a grocery shopping trip with the two little ones right around nap time on Friday afternoon.  Fortunately, Scott was able to come to my rescue and the car started up again after a little while.  And luckily the day ended better then it started, and a high point of the evening {at least for me} was seeing how excited the kids were for the "new" shows that came on that night and then watching them altogether as a family.  It totally reminded me of being so excited for our TGIF Friday night shows when I was a kid -- although I'm not quite sure if "My Babysitter's a Vampire," "ANT Farm," and "Jessie" are quite in the same league as "Full House," "Family Matters," and "Step by Step."  Hahahahaha.

After my 12 mile run on Saturday, I came home hoping to be able to take it easy for the rest of the day and ended up being semi-successful.  I didn't snap any pictures, but it was an entertaining sight to see first Sophie, then Jane, and finally Ethan succumb to my pleadings to PLEASE rub my feet.  Hahaha.  And then, Sophie made my day when she agreed to play with my hair while I laid on the couch and popped in Pride & Prejudice.  I even managed to get a nice little snooze in while all this was taking place.  Before that happened, though, I had to get a picture of Sophie's get-up that she dashed downstairs to get changed into after watching the Bennett sisters getting ready for their ball.

On the prowl for her Mr. Darcy.

My time on the couch eventually came to an end, and after spending the afternoon yelling at the kids for making messes, fighting, not getting chores done, etc. (a definite low point), we were rescued by a call from some friends to come over and play after dinner so we could enjoy the beautiful weather outdoors together.  Everything is always better with friends.  

Ethan is taking orchestra this year at school.  He REALLY loves playing his newly rented violin.  He especially likes to set up camp right in the middle of the family room on the floor like this when the room is a mess and there is chaos and disaster surrounding him.  And he especially likes to do this when HE is the one who is supposed to be cleaning up the room.

This week had a fun start with some more doctor's appointments -- Grace sprained her foot while jumping on the neighbor's trampoline on Sunday, and Jane had a follow-up appointment with the pulmonologist yesterday morning and a dentist appointment this morning.  The rest of the week will be consumed with LAUNDRY {there are literally mountains that need to be moved}, visiting teaching appointments, and putting together boxes and bags for a charity drive {and FINALLY getting rid of all those piles in the corner of our bedroom} by Thursday morning.

And that's a wrap.  Whew!  If only Jane were still taking naps.  Then I would REALLY have enough time on my hands.  Hahahaha.  It's a good thing they're all so cute and I love them so much.  Because otherwise this job of mine would be the pits.   Hahahahaha.   

We've almost got a walker!