October 09 Movie

I'm generally not someone who listens to bluegrass, but you know what? I think this song just might be on my list of top 10 best songs of all time. And the one part over the picture with me in it? Purely accidental. Sam half rolled his eyes and half smiled when he saw it. I'll admit that once I saw it, I wasn't about to change it. Somewhere deep inside I think I secretly hope that he feels this way about me. He's not exactly the most verbal husband on earth (while, on the other hand, I quite possibly am the most verbal wife on earth), so I often just compliment myself in front of him and hope that he agrees. Case in point. :)

Must Do Utah: Ensign Peak

I am blond. Most of the time I don't think I fit the blond stereotype. But sometimes I do.

See, when I was 13 I started noticing that whenever I ran, I couldn't breathe. It felt like someone put cheesecloth in my throat. And then a sumo wrestler sat on my rib cage. So did I tell my mother or go to the doctor? NOOOOO. Cuz that would be intelligent. Instead, I told all my gym teachers for the next three years that I had bad knees (which is actually true) and got permission to walk around the track while everyone else ran. And I dated only boys who didn't like to do athleticky types of things. And I learned where every single elevator was on BYU campus.

It wasn't until 11 years later, when I was pregnant with Elijah, that I had an epiphany: I have exercise-induced ASTHMA. You'd think that since my mom had it when she was young, and since I have three other siblings with the same thing, that I might have figured it out sooner. But NOOOOO. I'm not that intelligent. Actually, I'm just blond.

Why do I DO that with my neck?!!

So last night Sam and I went on a DATE. (Yeah, weird. I know.) And we did something that we have wanted to do ever since we met: we hiked Ensign Peak. It's a super short hike - not quite half a mile each way. But it's uphill. About a third of the way up my lungs decided to quit. The rest of me was fine, but those blasted lungs have a mind of their own. So of course I whipped out my trusty inhaler ... oh wait, no. I'm blond. No, instead I completely forgot my inhaler. Sam, being the kind, sensitive husband that he is, asks, "So, what should I do if your lungs collapse?" And I, being the snappy, sarcastic wife that I am, respond, "Call 911 and carry me down the hill." Yeah, my marriage ROCKS.

the valley as the sun started to set - click to enlarge

No, but seriously, we made it to the top just fine. It's so short that the uphillness is really not that big of a deal. Once you're at the top. It feels like a big deal on the way up when your lungs are freaking collapsing.

Anyway, "WHY," you ask, "is Ensign Peak so cool?" Because before leaving Nauvoo, Brigham Young had a vision of the Prophet Joseph and was shown the peak and where to build the city. Just two days after they arrived in the valley, Brigham and eight others hiked the peak and Brigham told them that this "'was a proper place to raise an ensign to the nations." Plus, you can see FOUR temples from the top. Awesome. Literally. As in, it inspires awe.

the sunset - click to enlarge

You should go. Really. We brought drinks and snacks and picnicked at the top while the sun set. It was LOVELY. So, here are directions to it. Make sure you look up the time the sun will set and plan to start your hike about 30 minutes before so you have plenty of time. You'll love it.

Five Reasons I'll Die Before 50

1) Monday lunch: handful of chocolate chips, handful of almonds, chocolate milk
2) Tuesday lunch: 5 pieces of licorice, three pringles, chocolate milk
3) Wednesday lunch: handful of chocolate chips, ovaltine
4) Thursday lunch: pack of fruit snacks, eight pringles, strawberry milk
5) Friday lunch: half bag of popcorn, strawberry milk

Big Hands

About a month ago I found Seara outside drawing these:

When I asked Sease about them she told me they were "hands". Later that night she drew this:


Either Seara has discovered hands, or else she has noticed that mine are abnormally large. (They are. But they are pretty and big. So I'll keep em. Not that I had a choice. But if I did, I'd keep em.)

Must Do Utah: Silver Lake

So you're thinking to yourself:

"I want to teach my kids to love the great outdoors. And I know I really ought to take them hiking. But my real concern is not if THEY can handle it. It's if I can handle it. I'm so out of shape it's sick."

Well, my friend, you have come to the right place! Meet the wimpiest hiker and hike around: Me and Silver Lake. We're talking boardwalk and flat path. With a huge lake, ducks, mountains, and basic gorgeousness. Yeah, I'm awesome.

We stopped by Aunt Lola's cabin so the boys could nap and we could read.

Now if only I had posted this before it was freezing outside. (Hey, but maybe there are great fall colors up there right now. In fact, for another week there probably are! Too bad Utah's autumn is only three days long. But if you do want to go, just drive all the way to the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. You'll see the signs for the lake.)

Quick Ketchup

Get it? Ketchup? Catch up? Yeah, I heard that one in 6th grade and am STILL laughing about it. So I'm easily amused. Sue me. Or send me your fathers/fathers-in-law. I laugh at Dad Jokes, so grown men tend to love me. When I was single they'd try to get me to marry their sons - just so they'd have someone to laugh at their lame jokes. I'm always willing to oblige.

Okay, enough rambling. I've fallen off the end of the earth. (Didn't you hear? It is flat, after all!) I don't have the time or energy to come up with entertaining blog posts. But I did just hook up my camera for the first time since August and I have all these pictures that I need to journal about. If you have trouble with insomnia, you've come to the right place! This will put you right to sleep. Here we go. Have a nice nap.

• This summer we went through a huge container of sidewalk chalk. Seara just couldn't get enough of it. You can see why I stick with just writing my name whenever Sam is drawing with us.
  
  

• Using rocks and balls in water (see single picture of Enoch), I tried to teach the kids sink v float. Instead it turned into "see how hard we can throw the rock into the water and how big of a splash it will make." The rocks promptly 'disappeared.' I'm gonna cry the day that the kids figure out what 'disappeared' really is. (And in case you were wondering, yes, smiling is against Seara's religion.)

• We made a volcano. I was supposed to put red food coloring in the lava to make it more realistic, but I really didn't want to risk a red food coloring mess. So we just had white, foamy lava. I'm such a party pooper. :)
  
  
  

• Elijah's favorite pastime recently has been sticking marshmallows to random body parts.
  
  

• Now that it is cold and we can't play in the water I've been taking the kids on near-daily field trips associated with what we're doing in preschool. We've gone to the zoo, the aviary, the Thanksgiving Point Barn, the aquarium, the grocery store, the library, the dollar theater, Cornbelly's, the Bean Museum, and the Museum of Peoples and Cultures. This afternoon we're headed to Wheeler Farm to milk the cows. Since I've done all but one of these trips alone (with three kids! I so deserve exaltation for that one. (Duck to miss the lightning.)) I don't take my camera. I may laugh at dumb jokes, but I'm not stupid.
  
  
  
  my only attempt to take a picture of the kids without any help
  
  

Pssssst! Psssssst! It's time to wake up! I think you drooled in your keyboard. That's gotta be bad. Sorry about that. Back to your lives, citizens! (Name that movie.)

September 09 Movie

Things

Did you know that I have never - NEVER - bought new clothes for any of my own kids when they were babies? And not once have a wandered through a store with my own child in mind and bought the clothes that I love most. In fact, in Elijah's nearly three years of life I have bought him a total of two items. Both shirts. Both for family pictures. Which means there were specific perameters. Enoch tops Elijah at two shirts AND a pair of pants. Family pictures again. Seara has gotten three outfits (you guessed it - family pictures) and a set of onesies. That's it. Sure, I have had moments where I wished that I could choose what my kids wear. And you bet I have longed to buy a few new outfits when I first found out the gender of each of my darling baby bellies. But the truth is, mostly I feel really grateful that I have a sister with kids just older than mine who is supremely generous with her old clothing.

Want to know what else I haven't? I've never had a changing table. Or a chest of drawers. Or a saucer. Or a bouncer. Or a play mat. Or a walker. Or a swing. (Actually I did get an old swing from a friend once, but it broke after a couple weeks.)

All my infant car seats were hand-me-downs from friends. I've only ever used cheap umbrella strollers for my infants. My crib was $10 at a garage sale. I fished my rocking chair out of a trash pile, but the arm rests ended up being too high for my monkey arms so I rarely used it.

I've never decorated a nursery. I've never bought pictures, shelves, letters for a name, decorations, display toys, or blankets. I've never painted anything for my kids' room. There were just always more responsible ways to use the money.

But the weirdest thing of all is that I don't really mind. Do I wish that I would have waited a few years to have kids so that we could have afforded more? NO! Never! The truth is, the children don't know or care. The truth is, fancy things don't make a whit's worth of difference in how your child grows. The truth is, things don't make you happy. People do. And I have three little people that are worth every single sacrifice I've made - and so much more.

Flu Shots

Elijah was only a few hours old when my glands started swelling and my sinuses started aching. For the next six months there wasn't a single day that at least one of us wasn't suffering from either a severe cold or a severe flu. We got every mutation of the cold and flu that existed. Weeks of sinus headaches became normal. Finding the kids - and their cribs - covered in vomit (or worse) was a regular occurrence. It was a miserable winter.

So every winter since then I have absolutely insisted that every single one of us get flu shots. And in the two and a half years since that winter ended ...

Seara has had one cold.
Elijah has had one cold and one flu.
Sam has had one cold.
And I have had three colds and two flues.

Honestly, it is a MIRACLE that my two toddlers have been so healthy for the last 2 1/2 years. I, on the other hand .... well, either the flu shots don't work on me, or else I need to wash my hands more often.

So we're off to get our flu shots this afternoon. Sam doesn't want to go. He swears that every time he gets a flu shot, he gets the flu. But we were supposed to go get our shots on Friday (didn't make it) and true to form, on Sunday afternoon Sam had flu symptoms. I swear it's all psychosomatic.

I'll let you know if we all get the flu this weekend.


_______________________________
Just got back. It was uneventful. (As soon as Elijah knew there was a band-aid involved, he was game. That's as good as it gets.) The most exciting part was when I looked in the passenger side mirror on the way home. And saw five ginormous, new freckles on my chin and cheek. My spaghetti lunch. How humiliating. Why do husbands not notice these things?!!

The Wimp

Yeah, I'm a total wimp. I don't mind admitting it. We all have our talents, mine just happens to be wimpiness. So when my friend Katie announced last week that she was doing the One Hundred Push Ups Challenge, I was intrigued.

Confession: I have never been able to do a single real (not on knees) push up. Not one. Ever.

Yeah. Am I the epitome of wimpiness, or what? Well, heavens. I'm Janae. I'm either on or off. 100% or 0%. So if I was gonna do the One Hundred Push Ups Challenge, I might as well do the Two Hundred Sit-Ups Challenge and the Two Hundred Squats Challenge, too. And Sam might as well join me. Isn't he so lucky to be married to a girl like me??

We started the six week program on Monday. And guess what? I did 18 push ups yesterday. EIGHTEEN. Yeah, be prepared to be amazed 5 1/2 weeks from now. To make a good thing even better, I took a before picture of my arm. That way I can do before and after pictures.

Be excited. Be very excited.

You're Not Allowed to Blog Any More

Look, guys. I've been busy. I mean, super busy. "Why?" you ask? Well, you see, it all started with the realization that Seara will start kindergarten in a year. (Yikes.) And that she hasn't done preschool yet. (Double yikes.) But yeah right I can afford preschool right now! If we could afford preschool do you think we'd be living in MY PARENT'S HOUSE? No. Definitely not.

So I decided that I'm doing my own preschool for Sease and Lije. (I know, I know. You're thinking, "Who is this, and what have you done with the intimidated-by-kids, never-want-to-be-a-teacher Janae that we all know and love?!" I'm wondering the same thing.) The last few weeks have been spent preparing: reading hundreds of curricula (is that how you pluralize curriculum?), scanning dozens of books, making scads of activities, and preparing my very own, individualized preschool. And thanks to my artist of a husband, it is one GOOD LOOKING preschool. (Sorry Sam.)

Well, in the midst of all this my google reader has been filling up with blog posts. I was weeks behind. This morning I finally tackled it and I'm DONE. I'm all caught up. Phew. (Thank you, Dora the Explorer.) But honestly guys, I can't do this again. So I've made a very hard decision:

You are not allowed to blog any more.

Millions of peaches ...

Number of peach trees: 1
Weeks of harvest: 2
Amount the kids eat each day: 6
Times the adults have had peaches & cream for breakfast: 10
Full-to-overflowing grocery sacks: 8
Workers: 4
Hours: 4
Gallon freezer bags with sliced peaches for shakes: 12
Freezer jam by jars: 40
Freezer jam by cups: 66
Freezer jam by gallons: 4
Large bowls of peaches still left in the fridge: 2
Weeks before peaches start coming out our ears: 3

Bring it On

They say that when it rains, it pours. I guess Seara's ER trip was just the beginning ...

 image from here

When we moved here from Maryland Sam left all his art supplies in storage.  We had the laptop so he could do digital art, and we figured that was good enough.  But suddenly the laptop battery stopped keeping charge, so you had to keep it plugged in all the time.  Then it started randomly losing free space - in one night it went from 20GB to 20MG.  Once that was fixed it stopped recognizing the power plug. That, unfortunately, was not fixable.  So to use it now you have to hold the plug in as hard as you can with your left hand and type with just your right.  Needless to say, we bought Sam a new computer.

Then there's the whole job thing.  Or lack of a job thing.  My friend Melissa's husband calls it "self unemployed operating an unintentional non-profit organization."  But I recently read that for each 10K you want, you should plan on spending one month job hunting.  So if you want $50,000/yr job, plan to search about 5 months.  Sounds good to me.  The longer we're here the better.  I'm shooting for at least a year or more. ;)

Okay, okay, back to serious things ... the car. We knew something was wrong when we left Maryland.  We just didn't expect the mechanic here in Utah to tell us that it was a miracle that we made it across the country alive!  And that we had to get a whole new transmission.  Three weeks later we had to replace the entire clutch.  (That's what we get for riding it.)  A week after that the check-engine light went on.  And couple weeks later we started leaking oil.  All that only made it that much funnier when a riding lawn mower ran into my parked car last week at the playground.  Yes, you read that correctly.  A riding lawn mower ran into my parked car. At that point I couldn't help but laugh!

They say that it's always darkest before the dawn. Well we surely haven't hit darkest yet, so bring it on.  I'm ready for the dawn!

Heard in Our House

Reading with Great-Grandma Baker

Announced loudly, while entering the sacrament meeting room, after dad (that detail is important) took her to the bathroom ...
Seara: Mommy, I went pee pee in the little boy potty!


While watching me change Enoch's dirty diaper ...
Lije: Hmmm...that's not yummy.  It's yucky.


Out of nowhere in the middle of the afternoon ...
Lije: Mom, you're the best kid I've ever seen.
Me: I'm the best kid you've ever seen?
Lije: You're the best kid.  I'm the fork kid.


While driving in the car ...
Sease: Mommy and daddy got married in the temple.
Me: Yup.
Sease: And mommy wore a white dress.
Lije: I'm gonna get married in the temple.
Me: Good idea.
Lije: I'm gonna marry Sisi.


During lunch one day ...
Lije: When you get married in the temple, you get married in the temple.
Me: Are you gonna get married in the temple, Lija?
Lije: Uh huh. But I have to get baptized first. When you get baptized you get wet in the water.
Me: Yup, you do.
Lije: Then I'm gonna get married in the temple. With Sisi.
Me: You're gonna get married to Sisi?
Lije: Yep.

Barbecue Picnic Dinner - Enoch was elated to be sitting at the 'big table'

As I combed her hair after a bath ...
Sease: You know, Mom, I'm supposed to be like afraid.
Me: Afraid of what?
Sease: Afraid.
Me: Afraid of what?
Sease: Afraid, Mom. Afraid is kind of like an amazing Jew.
Me: Oh.
(After much confusion and deliberation, I think she meant Esther. Esther was kind of like an amazing Jew, right? And Sease knows the story of Esther. We tell Bible stories at bed time.)


The next morning I told my mom about Afraid the Jew, and this conversation followed ...
Lije: A Jew is a girl.
Mom: A Jew can be a girl, but it can be a boy, too. Jesus was a Jew.
Sease: Yeah, Jesus was a Jew.
Lije: No! Jesus was not a Jew! Jew means you hold to the rod!
(So does that mean that only girls hold to the rod? ;)


Every morning during breakfast we do family scripture study, and I always wonder if the kids are actually listening. Well, today I got my answer. After reading one morning we had this conversation ...
Lije: What's hemla?
Me: What?
Lije: What's hemla?
Me: Hemla? Oh! Zara-hemla?
Lije: Yeah, what's Zarahemla?
Me: It's a city, where lots of people live. Like we used to live in Baltimore.

Sharing an otterpop with his little brother.

When he saw a bunch of his Aunt Anna's dance trophies ...
Lije: Look! Angel Moronis!


At lunch while discussing 'mommies':
Me: Who is Enoch's mommy?
Lije: Issagitar.
Me: [not understanding] Who is Enoch's mommy?
Lije: Issagatar.
Me: But who is Enoch's mommy?
Sease: [translating for Elijah with a "duh mom" sort of tone] It's. a. guitar.


Since everyone else in this house (Sam, my parents, my brothers) all call me Janae, Seara now does, too. She loves to compliment people, as well. Recent compliments include ...
Sease: Good brushing Sisi's hair, Janae.
Sease: Janae, I like your skirt, Janae.
Sease: Good downing the stairs with your feet, Janae.
(I was walking down the stairs. And I must admit, I am pretty good at it. :)


On the way to naptime ...
Lije: No! I don't want to take a nap! I want to watch Hannah Montana!

August 09 Movie

So my kids may not really know who Santa is, and when they see him they may call him "Hoho," but they sure know their scripture stories!

SuperMom August

Okay, I'm running out of new, innovative ideas! We do the same old, but I've already blogged about all those. I don't know if I can last until December (my plan is to stop then). So feel free to send any suggestions my way!

Making Playdoh - we divided the white playdoh in three pieces to dye them red, yellow, & blue ...

... then we divided each color in half, and divided one of those halves one more time (so there are three balls of each color, one twice as big as the other two) ...

... then we set aside the bigger balls and let the kids combine the smaller balls - red with yellow, yellow with blue, and blue with red. The highlight was while Seara was mixing the red and yellow, and she announced, "Look! Red and yellow make orange!"

No-Cook Playdoh Recipe
1 c flour
1/2 c salt
2 T cream of tartar
2 T oil
1 c boiling water

Mix dry, then add wet. Stir to make playdoh, then knead in food coloring.

Making Key Chains - Get a couple plastic crab boxes from your local grocery store food court - I only got two so they just gave them to me for free - and cut out the flat center. I would get bigger boxes that the one pictured here. Punch out a hole in the corner - you'll need to do it pretty far in, and make the hole bigger than it would be with just one punch. Color with sharpies, bake on tin foil at 350* for 1-3 minutes. It will SHRINK.

thanks for this idea, Rebecca!

Making Apple Pie - The easy way. We picked the apples from my parent's apple tree. We peeled, cored, and sliced them with the Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer. We added the ingredients, and plopped them in a store-bought, ready-made crust. The nice part about doing it the easy way is that the kids practically made the entire pie by themselves!

Apple Pie
2/3 c sugar
1/4 c flour
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground nutmeg
dash of salt
6 c thinly sliced, peeled tart apples
2 T butter or margarine

Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Stir in apples. Pour into the pastry-line pie plate. Cut butter into small pieces and sprinkler over apples. Cover with the top crust, seal edges, and flute top. Bake 40-50 minutes at 425*. (I cover the edges with foil the entire time I cook the pie so that they don't over-cook.)

Since you asked ...

To the question: "What is up with you guys?"

I used to answer: "Sam just recently graduated with his Master's Degree, so we packed up all our stuff, left it in storage in Maryland, and we are staying with my parents on an extended vacation until we get a job."

But since I've finally accepted that this is no longer an extended vacation (which is bad because I only brought summer clothes with us - nothing else), I have come up with a new answer.

So to the new question: "How is the job hunt going?"

I now answer: "Really well! We are still looking for a permanent job, but Sam is doing a lot of freelance work, with the Friend Magazine and other places, so we're keeping our heads above water. Just waiting for our miracle!"

Just figured you might want to know.

Trendy

trendy \'tren-dē\, adjective: marked by ephemeral, superficial, or faddish appeal or taste

CONFESSION: I have an aversion to things that are trendy.

I do. If I think something is cool before it becomes trendy, fine. I just don't get giddy school-girl excited. (High pitched screaming really annoys.) But if I haven't discovered it before it hits the trendy point, I veer far, far away.

For example, Harry Potter. I refused to read it for about five years. Everyone was so ridiculously excited that I was completely repulsed. I only ever read them because my little brother Liam gave me his copy of the first book and told me I could borrow it. He was 9. I was a sucker. And I admit, I loved it. Within four months I was caught up on the series. My grades suffered that semester.

This aversion to the trendy would also explain why I utterly refuse to read the Twilight Series or get a Facebook account. Sorry guys, you love them so much I'm revolted. I'm dumb like that. (And in case you are worried, I don't think less of you for liking them. I also hate bananas, but I don't think less of you if you eat them. Plus, I was proven wrong with the whole Harry Potter thing. I know better than to pooh-pooh on people for liking things I don't.)

my parent's house

Anyway, all this is to say that I recently discovered that I am trendy. See, apparently living at your parents is the cool thing to do right now. Who knew? And yes, I finally bit the bullet and admitted to myself that we LIVE here. I've called this an 'extended vacation' long enough. It has been three months. We live here, dash it all.

So now I'm trendy. This is repulsive on so many levels. ;)

Crushing

It all started the week we moved in. We went to church on Sunday, and the next day during lunch a little boy in Seara's Primary class told his mom, "Mommy, there's a new girl in my Sunbeam class, and her name is Sisi, and she is so cute, and she has the cutest ponies."

A few weeks later, at the ward party, they had this conversation:
Coleman: Mommy, look! There's Sisi!
His Mom: Why don't you go ask her if she's going swimming?
Coleman: [blushing and shying away] No ...

A couple days after that he called me (Yes, HE, the four year-old, called. The kid must be crazy smart.) and asked if Sease could go to his house to play. Yeah, he's totally crushing on her. If that's not the cutest thing ever, I don't know what is.

Family Foto Flops

Every year we take family pictures. And ever year I re-learn the same lessons.

1) Looking at the camera is optional



2) Breaks are crucial



3) Expecting children to cooperate is futile



4) If children do look at the camera, one or both parents do not



5) Did I mention that breaks are crucial?


ps. All these shots are taken at my childhood home. The one that has now become my children's childhood home as well. I'm a sentimental sap, what can I say?

pps. We actually did get some good shots. I'll post them sometime. Maybe next week, maybe around Christmas. I make no guarantees. :)