Nine Years

Nine years ago, I said yes to a crazy guy who thought we'd have a great life together. Boy, was he wrong!!! Kidding, of course. We have a really great life together. I've been reflecting more than I ever have before. We were teasing the other night about what we lovingly call "the single years," as in, the years before kids. Brandon called them the good years the other day, and while it was different, it definitely wasn't better. Yes, we could go out to eat whenever we wanted, we slept through church once, we slept all night every night, but there is a depth to our relationship now there wasn't before.

The good and the bad, ups and downs, laughter and tears, have made us get to know each other. Even the ugly parts that only your parents know about, and maybe not even them. Those are the things that have kept us together.

Sometimes it feels like it has been a long, winding road, and then other days it feels like last week I was curling my hair to pick him up from the airport the day he got home from his mission. I'm so glad I still get that excited feeling when he comes home. I love my husband more than I could have ever thought possible, and I can't imagine our life will get better, but somehow I know it will.

And we lived happily ever after.

O Christmas Tree

Jonah was admiring the tree the other day. Of course he couldn't just stand right next to it and look, he had to climb up on the trunks to look! (I tried to take it without the flash...)
As soon as he noticed me with the camera, the grin came out. He has figured out when someone gets the camera, you smile and say cheese. He can't quite say "cheese" so he says "eeee!" Then, of course, you run to mom to see the picture.
On another cute but random note, I was out checking the chickens this morning, and this is what Hyrum came wondering through the yard in.

The Dora backpack was his Donatello bag. Don't you know anything purple belongs to Donatello? He's very much to comedy relief here.

The other day he and Sterling came in to ask me a few questions about a map they were looking at. It was a big world map and they found Washington. For some reason, the makers of this map found that Walla Walla was an important city in Washington to highlight, who knows why, and Sterling was telling me how there is a state called Walla Walla. I explained that it is a city and it is even in Washington! Hyrum, in his cutest Hyrum I-can't-quite-pronounce-w-and-r voice, asked, "Mom, when can we go to Wawa Wawa?"

I just about died.

Lots of nothing

I'm too tired to post much today, even though I feel like I need to do something. I have a few things waiting in the queue, like pics from the craft fair, and Christmas decorating, but right now I have a question.

How can kids be up sick half the night and then be their normal, boisterous, rambunctious selves the next morning??? Hyrum was up with a stomach bug Sunday night from about 1am till 8am, and then Jonah was up last night for about the same amount of time with the same thing. Could I have a little bit of that resilience? Please? I'm pretty tired...

Snowy/Sick Day

Today we're playing hookie. Brandon is down and out with some sort of crud and Jonah woke up pretty stuffed up, so no church for us. Now, what exactly do you do on a Sunday when mom and dad have banned video games and most TV? That's a tough one, but if your mom is nice, maybe she'll build you a fort in the front room!!

(And take a picture with a camera she just got out of the car. Darn the foggy lens!!)

And if you're really lucky, she'll make a cake with the Never-Fail Frosting from saucysprinkles.com (her favorite place).

Of course, little boys must, must, must watch in wonder as the flakes start to fall. If you're lucky, you can catch one!

As the evening wears on, it's always nice to snuggle up in a cozy chair with a good book. (OK, this wasn't today, but it works.)

And maybe, just maybe, your mom will snuggle with all of you and read a book or two.

Halloween Replay

So, I had to make my kids dress up today in their costumes so I could take pictures. Brandon and I were in Florida over the weekend, so I missed out on all the festivities!! But I had to have pictures for our posterity, right?

Sterling had to be Batman this year. Apparently Batman was a hot costume, so he had many others to help him conquer evil.

Jonah got the hand-me-down costume I made for Sterling five years ago. Wow, that's crazy to think about!! But he sure makes a cute lion, if I do say so myself.

Hyrum was adamant about being a Ninja Turtle. This was fun to make and he has worn it every day since it was completed. That's what I love about making costumes. They wear them over and over. It's a labor of love.

And our pumpkins. Sterling wanted a scary faced one, and Hyrum wanted... can you guess? A Ninja Turtle. This is his mom's best Jack-O-Lantern Michaelangelo. He had a major melt-down about it the night it was down, but after a good nights sleep, he tried to carry it around the house and showed it to everyone who came to the door. I guess I didn't do too bad. And it's a good thing Grandma was here to help Sterling!!

And Grandma and Grandpa got to have all the Halloween fun with the kids. I'm sure they are grateful we're home so they can rest. My mom said she forgot what it was like to go to the store with three kids. Now they want to take the kids more often so I can get things done! Awesome!! I think she also forgot that as a mom with kids you just make it work and it's really not that bad. Or I've just lost my mind. That's a very distinct possibility...

A recipe to share

Uh, so I admit that I failed at my own recipe sharing idea. Having that many recipes to share turned out to be hard!! Especially recipes that I like and actually have measurements for...

That being said, I do have one I dug out of my box and made for dinner the other day.

Italian Meatballs

1/4 cup Italian dressing

1 pound 90 percent lean ground beef.

1 egg, lightly beaten.

3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs.

1/4 cup fat-free milk.

3 tablespoons finely chopped onion.

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic.

1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves.

1 teaspoon salt.

1/2 teaspoon pepper.

Shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)

In a large bowl, combine ground beef, egg, Italian bread crumbs, milk, onion, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper; mix lightly but thoroughly.

Shape mixture into 20 meatballs, about 1-1/2 inches in diameter.

Arrange on broiler pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Drizzle half of dressing on meatballs.

Broil 3-4 inches from heat until meatballs are cooked through (160 degrees), about 10 minutes, turning once and brushing with remaining dressing.

I got this recipe out of the Syracuse newspaper a few years ago. And when I say "a few," you all know that it's longer than that but I'm so not old enough to say how long ago it really was.

And speaking of denying my age, I got into my beast of a car the other day (which I really love, by the way) and looked behind me at all the carseats. I totally felt like there was no way I was old enough to have a vehicle full of car seats. Do you know what I mean?

Pumpkin Patch

I love our local pumpkin patch. It reminds of one we visited in Syracuse once. Lots of fun things to do and totally free!! (Except the pumpkins.) There's a little corn maze that you don't need a map for, plenty of pumpkins to choose from, farm equipment to check out, and my boys' favorite, the hay pile. A few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Jonah was so excited about the pumpkins. He loved them very much!

Here's a lovely shot of all the boys at the start the corn maze. We have plenty of shots at this spot where one of them is looking where he should be. All together? Fat chance!

The wagon! Jonah was sooooo excited about the wagon. He did not want to get out.

And finally, in the hay pile. Jonah just sat while Sterling and Hyrum jumped in around him. He laughed and laughed! They were funny doing their flips and pretending to slip off the edge.

As a side note, Brandon noticed the other day that it had been a while since I've blogged. Yep. That's true, and probably not going to change. This whole teaching my kids thing is keeping me pretty busy!!!

Sionara Facebook!

I'm sorry to announce that Facebook and I have come to irreconcilable differences and will therefore be ending our relationship. Please pass any condolences on to FB. I'm positive heshe needs it more than I.

School Daze

We're getting into the groove of school here. I figured it would be a big challenge, and that is proving to be true.

But there are cute smiles and lots of hugs and kisses. (Hyrum is making letters out of Lincoln Logs. Only straight letters please.)
The boys truly are pretty proud of their accomplishments. (We still don't have our curriculum books yet, so we're working out of two first grade workbooks I'd picked up to review and get into the swing of things.)
And fortunately, I only have to keep Jonah entertained with something for about an hour and then he goes down for a nap. It's amazing what can keep a one-year-old's attention! And when he's done, he throws it all on the floor. That's obviously the best part.

The only problem is, last week I forgot to do laundry. My own schedule needs some rearranging.

Bragging on me!

Look what I made!!

I know you probably could have done it too, but I'm pretty pleased that I could do it!! It's for a missionary night Brandon is hosting at our ward for the youth. He wanted them all to have their own invitation for it with missionary tags. I couldn't find a clipart I really liked, so my trusty Microsoft Publisher came to the rescue!

I'm happy to share, or pass along the easy-peasy instructions. If you are handy with Publisher, you could make them super quick.

Anyway, there will be some more bragging on me coming soon as I finish projects for the craft fair. Please don't mind my swelling head.

Dress-up!!

Yes, even boys play dress-up. Right now we have Batman, Spiderman, and...

Jonah the Lion!!

CAMPING! Camping! And... camping.

We've gone on three camping trips this summer. I'm seriously tired of doing all the laundry that follows, but we've had some really great trips.

The first was with Brandon's cousin and family to Diamond Lake in southern Oregon. Right after the van died. The logistics of this camping trip were interesting. We ended up borrowing my dad's truck to go down. We squeezed the boys into the back of a Ford F-150 extended cab and drove for eight hours. It actually wasn't too bad. We'll call it bonding.

The lake was amazing. And the weather was fabulous. I even got a sunburn one day! This is my idea of camping. It got pretty chilly at night but as soon as the sun came up it was nice and toasty.

The main goal for Brandon this trip was fishing. And he did plenty of it! He'd go out every morning around 5:30 and bring in his limit around noon. Then we'd spend the afternoon together.

The boys got to go out, too. This is a pic of Sterling, Hyrum, Dylan (back of the boat) and Ty (in the front). We met these cousins last summer and Sterling and Dylan hit it off. They were the best buds and this summer they picked it right back up again.

Hyrum caught his first fish!! He was not interested in holding it, thank you very much.

Sterling went out with the guys one evening. He lasted about ten minutes and then was bored out of his gourd. But, once you're out there, you're out there so he had to tough it out. That was his last fishing trip in the boat.

He did, however, enjoy riding one of the bikes. We tried to bring ours but those were not high on the priority list and when the back of the truck was full, bikes were left out.

Jonah pretty much kicked it in here for much of the time. Well, he crawled around and got filthy dirty, too. Isn't this a great shot? Kate, who we were camping with, has a fancy camera and knows all the lighting tips. She should go pro.

She got this great shot of Hyrum, too.

And this is what you get after five days of camping and fun. Three boys sleeping in the back seat.

But, wait, there's more! Next we went on a trip to the ocean in Oregon for a family reunion. Tell me if this was a crazy decision. It was 90 degrees and sunny at home. It was misty and 55 degrees at the ocean. Total cloud cover. I wore two sweatshirts and a jacket to stay warm. I was happy to be sleeping in the back of the suburban for this trip. The boys got to sleep in Brandon's parents trailer with their cousins. They loved that.

It was a short trip, so not many pictures, but...

Sterling got buried.

And soaked. BRRR!

Hyrum got a great view of the ocean.

And cousin Molly got a piggyback ride! As for me, I huddled by whichever campfire I could find.

The last trip was another shorty. A quick weekend at the coast here in Washington, where, again, it was plenty toasty at home but cold and rainy 60 miles away on the ocean. Go figure.

But we did enjoy jumping waves. Sterling also became a pro at riding his bike sans training wheels here! He's awesome.

Hyrum showed his boy side. Slugs. He loved them. Picked them up. Found them new homes by our tent. One even came home in our tent, unbeknownst to me until I put it up to dry out. Nice.

Don't let the crazy man in the shorts fool you. The water is freezing!

See? I had on two sweatshirts.

Our kids could play in the sand all day. Good thing we needed to eat or we would have never convinced them to leave!!

Even Jonah loved it. It was hilarious watching him crawl around in the sand. He did this crazy crawl that I might have to get my hands on the video of.

Phew!! That was a lot of pictures! I enjoy camping but I am very happy to have no more camping trips on this year's calendar. Maybe if we were going somewhere warm and dry I might change my mind.... Oh, wait, I just remembered it took me two days to finish the laundry from this last trip. Next summer sounds great.

What a day!

Our bishop has an amazing little piece of land with a hand-built cabin on Lake Cushman up here. He and his wonderful wife were kind enough to let our Relief Society spend the day there yesterday. No kids, no husbands, just a bunch of girls sitting around chatting.

We got to the lake and found out we had to cross the lake in a boat to get their land on the other side. It was beautiful.

This was our view when the morning clouds blew off. Just the setting and the company would have made for a pretty exceptional day. I invited my mama along to spend the day with me.

I was on the planning committee for this day and thought I knew all that was going on. I was extremely surprised to see tubes on the dock!!

My mom was pretty excited, too. She raised me to be a water-loving girl and as soon as lunch was over we were the first at the dock for a ride.

We had a blast. Here we are enjoying a nice ride. I should have kept my legs down like my mom did. My knees kept knocking together and I have some nice bruises to show for it.

And here we are holding on for dear life!! We were proud to say we didn't get dumped and we had soooo much fun. Maybe next time Brandon suggests we find a boat I might not talk myself out of it...

So, there was this other tube there. It was a two-person that was a little more wild and no one would go on it with me! Not even the young, just-graduated ladies. There was one young woman there with her dad, who was driving a boat, and I asked her if she'd ride with me. It was an awesome ride. Like, seriously, hang-on-for-your-life, air-borne kind of ride. We had a blast. And we have matching bruises this morning to show our tubing credentials. Mine's from my knee hitting my cheek-bone as we were being thrown from the tube and her's is from banging her eye into my shoulder as we were being tossed around.

I haven't had that much fun in a long, long time. I love playing on the water.

In the running

So, I've been nominated for the Meanest Mom in the World. By my son, no less! Here's the story.

The other day Sterling asked for something and I told him no. He asked me why I always say no when he asks for something and I jokingly responded because I like being mean. He thought about that for a while, obviously, because yesterday we were at Costco having pizza and smoothies (something mean moms always feed their kids) when he asked me for something again. My response was no and so he followed up with, "Mom, why do you like being mean so much?"

Yes!! My ultimate goal as a mother has been reached!! I now feel secure in my parenting.

Funny automotive story, by Brandon

So, I'm not the brightest crayon in the box when it comes to automotive technology. That's because growing up, my dad, who is a car genius, did everything on the family cars. I could barely tell you the difference between a gas cap and dip stick.

So, as you could imagine, after just having taken the plunge with the new Suburban, when I started hearing a whining noise on Tuesday when I left work, I was experiencing some sort of nervous diarrhea!

Every time I accelerated, it would make the noise, but would stop upon deceleration or coasting. I didn't want to be stranded in Lacey, so I figured if I could hit the highway and be on cruise control, I might be fine. The noise was pretty bad until I got up to 60, and then 70 (when the limit changed). So bad that while I was on the phone with my good friend Ed, he could hear it on his end.

What did it sound like? Well, it was something in between a mule and the noise Jim Carrey makes on Dumb & Dumber ("Wanna hear the most annoying noise in the world?"). It sounded like it was coming through my speakers, though my radio was turned completely off. Truly, it was like aliens had overtaken my car.

Sure enough, while cruising, it was fine. I made it home. I was thankful for that.

On the internet, I was reading possible issues, by Googling things like "honda accord whining" and "honda whining acceleration." The number of responses I found were like the sands in the sea: cool air intake, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, wheel bearing, improperly tightened belts, water pump... the list goes on and on. But I didn't really trust any of it since all these guys are your typical "resident tech" types.

When my father-in-law came over, I asked him to take a ride with me and see what he thought. We drove all over and had a problem hearing anything. And since it's impossible to fix what you can't identify as the problem, I was getting a little frustrated. I was about to give up and head home and... **WHINE** There it was! And this time, it was while I was slowing down! So I stopped the car right in the middle of the 50 mph road, since nobody was behind me and it continued. My father-in-law was about to get out when about 300 yards behind me, a car started approaching, so I started again and hit a side road. Of course, nothing! We drove around a little more and when I was about to give up, it hit again, and luckily, it was in a small parking lot. It was loud. Lloyd thought it was coming from the back. He got out. He listened at the side of the car as he moved toward the back. He asked me to pop the trunk. I did. And the noise - STOPPED AGAIN!

Baffled, Lloyd got back in and asked if he was dreaming or if it really stopped right when he opened the trunk. And was it really coming from the back? I told him I thought it might be.

We got going again and finally heard it. We were on a 35 mph road with nobody behind me. I quickly slowed down, popping the trunk and the same time I was stopping. Lloyd, risking life and limb, jumped out when I was almost stopped, and ran to the back. He figured out the problem.

So, at this point, to explain the issue, I think it prudent to give some background. The Friday before all this went down, I was in charge of a church activity. It was a BBQ with games and fun stuff (including a wiffleball home run derby). I had this megaphone. Well, apparently, the megaphone button was turned on and it was in the back of my car. And I think when certain frequencies were reached by certain car components, maybe in conjunction with some of the different towers around, there was a high-pitched squealing that was emitted from this stupid electronic megaphone.

I was thankful it wasn't major car issues; embarrassed it was something so stupid; and glad I would have a funny story to tell.

It's tough...

being a baby.

Especially after a hard day of playing at the park.

Brothers.

So, you say you'd like to play in the mud with your big brother, huh? Be forewarned, you may not enjoy it as much as you think.

See what I mean?

Love

(Warning: no pictures included. Feel free to turn back now!)

Do you ever have an awakening moment? Like you're just going along and suddenly you remember something or feel something out of the blue? I did this morning. We just got back from a camping trip in southern Oregon. It was a lot of fun, but it wasn't until we were all working to get things put away and cleaned up this morning that I really felt a closeness as a family. The boys were all out helping clean up the truck my parents let us borrow so we could go and they were getting along so nicely. I was inside and tuned into the Mormon Tabernacle Choir channel on Pandora. The first song that came on was about our Father's love and I was just overwhelmed.

A lot of pretty lousy things have happened since January. First my brother and all that was involved there, then my best friend moving, dealing with mandatory unpaid work days to try to make up for the gigantic state budget deficit, and my van exploding. I decided today that if I really wanted to, I could be very depressed right now. Just one of those events might have pushed me over the edge. Not to mention the pretty lousy weather we're having this year. In years past, having no sunshine for so long would really knock me out, but not this year. This year Someone Else is pulling me along. Someone Else is lifting me above the fog. Someone Else is blessing me with love I'll never understand.

How could Father love me so much? I've made some stupid choices, done some ridiculous things. Why would He still have hope for me?

I can only understand minutely from being a parent myself. I'll love them until they don't let me love them anymore. And I'll still love them. Just like He'll always love me.

Crazy!

Here's some rambling for you. I hope it makes sense, because I'm pretty tired.

Wednesday morning I was thinking in the shower (best place to think) that pretty soon we were going to need to figure out how to add a car payment into the budget. Who knows why I start thinking about crazy things like that.

Ok, I know. Small promptings. Maybe you don't believe me, but I get forewarnings. I need them. Too many surprises make for a crazy Sarah. Now here's why. On our way home from the library Thursday I pulled off the freeway and stopped at the light when my van started shaking like you wouldn't believe. I was scared. Terrified. Petrified. You get the picture? All out panic. Good thing it was only about a mile to my house! I got it to the driveway and did what any good thinking woman does. I called my dad.

HELP!!

We tried to figure out what was wrong over the phone with my best description. We were hoping for a stuck thermometer. That would have been best case scenario. I took the van to the church (4 miles up the road) for a presidency meeting that night and it shot up into hot, hot, overheating, hot as soon as I pulled onto the state highway. I made it to church, and barely home. It stalled on the way home. Yikes!

Brandon took it to a repair shop just a little further down the road from the church and it took him an hour and a half to get there. Five miles. One and a half hours. That's good time, right? Oh, well, he did sit on the side of the road 500 feet from the shop for half and hour waiting for good old dad to help get the van the rest of the way...

So, a quick diagnosis later reveals a blown head gasket. That's engine, folks. He said he could fix it for $3000. Uh, let's think. '98 Chevy worth maybe $2000. Sure! Let's pour $3k into it! Why not?

The lowest quote we got was $1000, and that's from my father-in-law who wouldn't charge us for labor. Plus we needed new tires, plus a tune up. That math just doesn't work in my head.

So, the hunt for a new vehicle we can afford begins! Going from not having a car payment to having to add one in is not fun! Who wants to do that? But we're looking.

Honestly, we're looking for one of these:

Does that make me overly Mormon? No comments, Paige. We're tall folks! We need a comparatively sized vehicle. What do you want from me?!?

I talked a guy down on one today. It was kind of fun. My husband was cracking up. We'll see what happens. Maybe I'll be posting about my new car soon. Hopefully sooner than later. I can't stand shopping and car shopping is about a thousand times worse. Wouldn't it be nice if we could custom order exactly what we want it our exact price range? Oh, the dreams.