Apple Cider and Scones

I hope you aren't too disappointed by the title of this post. There are NO recipes here. Remember who's blog you are reading. I can decorate, throw a party, sew and paint like nobody's business... but I DON"T COOK!
So, sorry no recipe. That title is in reference to my Monday morning surprise visitor. Jessica had read my last post early that morning and decided to cheer me up with apple cider (she made from the apple harvest in her back yard and the homemade pumpkin scones she ground up the wheat to make)  just kidding it was Starbucks but I wouldn't put that other stuff past her! It's because she is having a baby any day now that I got store bought. And actually she did give me homemade choc chip cookies tonight after she watched my kids for me no less! Now you can see how I use and abuse my friends...be glad you don't live too close.
Back to subject...
Once I had enough courage to publish my last post, I couldn't believe the instant relief I felt. I realize now it's not only because I was able to release all of those feelings, but most importantly I knew that I had instant support just by putting it out there. I have been blessed with such amazing family and friends (cyber friends included) and just knowing that they know what I am going through is enough.
I am so grateful for the words of comfort and support. I can guarantee I will be reading that post again with all it's comments to help me get through a future bad day.
For now, I am out of my funk, thanks to all of my faithful readers for all of the love (I totally felt it) and here is some other good stuff that has lifted my spirit...
Eden is the VIP in her class this week so we had to make a poster.

This is what it looks like up close...

She very carefully,(almost annoyingly), picked out EVERY picture.

A few of her favorite things...cheddar cheese, cupcakes, cookies, soccer and dance.

Her three wishes...to go to art class again, to go back to Disneyland and to get her baby brother soon.

When she grows up she wants to be an artist.

Things she doesn't like...cats, broccoli and airborne.

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Remember how I mentioned the yelling problem I have? Well in Sunday School the teacher (who has 11 grown children) mentioned that she had a problem with yelling when her kids were young. One day a good friend told her that there were no screaming mothers in the celestial kingdom. So she decided she had to pray everyday for help. So that is what I'm trying to do. I made the commitment to stop yelling about a year ago and it worked for a while but sometime this summer I lost it. So the other night when the girls were in bed, I asked them NICELY and CALMLY for 15 minutes to stop talking. They wouldn't stop. So I lovingly marched into their room, turned on the light and in two giant, loving, swoops grabbed all of their dolls and animals off their beds, turned off the light, shut the door softly and dumped the loot in the hallway... WITHOUT saying a single word.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth that immediately happened afterward was CPS worthy. There was some "She is the meanest mom ever! Why would she do this to us?..." It was hysterical. Aric went in and tried to calm them down. He reassured them that I wasn't going to give them (the toys, not the kids) away to the local shelter but maybe the next day they could talk to me about earning them back.

So far it's worked like a charm. They have earned a few back by obeying the FIRST time, which is a major issue in our house, and doing extra jobs. AND...I haven't yelled for 2 days.

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More good stuff...

I got to hang out with my sister and Max A LOT the past few days because my brother in law took their four girls to New York for his sisters wedding. Max got so bored being with just his mom they had to get out of the house.

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I can't post a picture of it yet, but my bathroom is almost done!  It could have been done by now, because on Saturday Aric got all motivated and said he was going to work until midnight. After the soccer was done we got straight to work. But two hours later the power went out. Aric thought I did it because I was using power tools in the garage. But when all the neighbors started coming out we realized it wasn't just us. The power didn't go back on until almost 3am. So we hung out at Ev's until bedtime, then read by candle light and in bed by 10pm. Very Little House on the Prairie like. The girls thought it was awesome!

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Today I started getting our stuff ready for parent profiles. It's the #1 adoption website out there. It takes awhile but my goal is to have us up and running by next Monday.

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And last but not least. Aric and I were able to go to the temple tonight and it was everything I needed. Having temple blessings in my life... that's the best stuff of all.

By the way... if you are still hungry for apple cider and a pumpkin scone go visit your local Starbucks it will hit the spot!

Broken

I am sitting here at my computer because I'm having a rather rough night and I wanted to write my dear blog friend Erin. You see Erin and I are both on this adoption path together. We were approved only days apart. We e-mail each other frequently to vent and cyber cry on each others shoulders. Tonight I wish she could have been here in person. It's been pretty tough. I only write this publicly in the hopes that someone "out there" will not feel alone as they experience some of the emotions I am feeling.
In my last post about Jessica's baby shower, I mentioned how I was put on this earth to throw parties. For the most part I am a happy person who likes to have fun and enjoy life. But there is still a part of me that isn't so upbeat, and finding a reason to celebrate is a good way for me to keep from getting down in the dumps.
The majority of my heart is full. I have so many blessings that are impossible to even count. But there is a part of my heart that is broken. It is heavy and hurting because...
I hate infertility and I want a baby
Adoption is harder than I thought it would be
Eden saw my sister, with my newborn nephew, come to our door and thought it was our birth-mom bringing us our baby
I cannot always communicate my very complex and intense feelings to my husband
My brothers have issues that cause them pain
My mother in law is battling cancer...again
I have friends who are dealing with major issues in their marriages
I have two cousins who are hurting because of GOOD choices they are making
Maya is struggling with math and even though I have taught countless other children I can't teach my own
A young women we know found herself pregnant and wanted to place the baby with LDSFS but the dad didn't want to so now she is raising her baby as a single mom
That is just my top 10...And if that wasn't enough, I have the same concerns as everyone else. When and/or will the economy ever get better? How long will my husbands job be safe? Does my husband wish I was medicated? Am I a good mom? Have I screwed up my kids because I yell at them almost everyday because after asking them like 2o times, NICELY, to pick up their stuff they don't do it!?
I plead with the Lord daily to give me the strength to carry the heaviness of my heart. I ask him to help me endure this trial. I ask him to guide my path and to give me patience. Tonight the tears just flowed as I realized that I may ask for these things, but do I really believe that He will help me. Do I really trust him?
I felt like Peter as he recognized the Savior walking on the water in the storm. He knew it was Christ and decided to walk out to him. As he started to walk he became afraid and began to sink.  Jesus came immediately and saved him and asked him why he doubted. (Matthew 14:26-31)
There have been so many times in my life that I have seen the Lord's hand guiding my path and holding me up. And yet I still have moments that I doubt his reality. Tonight He reminded me once again that he is there. He hears my prayers. I felt His arms calm my shaking sobs and bring peace to that broken part of my heart.
This post is almost too personal to share and I can guarantee it will take me at least ten, okay 20 minutes to actually push the "publish" button. I just know that we have all felt like this. It's a side of us that we don't really share and reserve only for quiet "alone" moments. But I couldn't sleep until I shared what was inside of my heart. So instead of poor Erin getting an ear full, I share it with all of you.
I have a feeling tomorrow will be better.

Baby Momma gets what Baby Momma wants

My fabulous friend Jessica is having a baby girl very soon, I'm totally hoping she is born on my birthday Nov. 3rd...

So in honor of her FIFTH baby, Meghann and I threw her a shower. The theme was the colors white and yellow with black polka dots. Because that is what her nursery looks like.

I had this great idea to make some lemonade, add some 7-up and to make black polka dots I added frozen black berries to it. Silly me...I didn't think about how the black berries would melt and turn the punch purple! Oh-well...no pictures of that. But I did get pictures of Jane (Jessica's daughter) modeling some of the clothes.

It was open house style so we had almost twenty people stop by. It was a great time to visit and celebrate Jessica and her baby.

And lets face it, I was put on this planet to have parties. So thank you Jessica for giving me yet another excuse to celebrate something...

This also means that I have been ignoring my bathroom remodel. We are behind about three days. And since we have our last Saturday of soccer we will definitely be busy with that. So we are giving ourselves one more week. Stay tuned...

Sad Day...

So my Red Sox lost Sunday night.  We recorded the game so my reaction is a little delayed.  I wore my Red Sox sweatshirt in honor of them on Monday.  Oh well, there's always next year....

And actually it's probably for the best.  Now instead of watching hours and hours of baseball I can focus on this lovely project...

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This is what our main floor bathroom looked like before...

This is what it looks like now.

 

This is how it got that way...

 

 

We thought the worst demo of this project would be getting off this mirror. We went to great lengths to be safe and to make the smallest mess possible.  I duct taped the whole mirror. I started hammering but it wouldn't break. Then Aric started prying the mirror off and it seriously popped right off....Good thing I had my safety goggles on!

 

This is the mess inside my living room...the garage is even worse.

You may ask yourself why on earth are we doing this? Well, when we built this house we always knew we would redo this bathroom. I hated the wall to wall mirror and the weird little shelf behind the toilet, but it came standard with the house and we didn't want to break the budget. I did my best to make it cute but Aric just couldn't take the "girly-ness" any longer.

So on Friday night we started demo. We are tackling this all by ourselves. Our first surprise was the big whole that was created when we took off the tile. Which allowed for our very first dry wall repair. Then we had to get the cabinet out, but our water lines weren't allowing us to do it.  We ended up cutting our pipes and getting new fixtures. This is when we realized that the new faucet we bought needed longer lines. Once the cabinet was out we had to figure out how to pry up the sub floor. Sounds like fun huh...

It's even more exciting when you add the fact that we had soccer games until 1pm on Saturday and then later on, had dinner with some friends. We took Sunday off, after all it is the Sabbath and heaven knows doing this project would not have invited the spirit and besides that we had BYD (Bishop's Youth Discussion) at our house and I was in charge of it. Yesterday we spent most of our free time at Home Depot. Today I left my house at 8:55am and didn't get back until 3:30pm. That happens when you have to decorate for Young Women's in Excellence and help out in your kindergartners classroom. Needless to say, we haven't had much time to actually work. AND tomorrow I am hosting the most famous Jessica Romney's baby shower. She is so going to love going up the stairs to use the bathroom. 

So are you jealous yet?

Here's the thing, I'm actually happy about doing this project with Aric. We get to spend some quality time together AND save a ton of money by being so handy. This may surprise you, but we really work well together. And this is why...I read instructions thoroughly. If I have a question I google it and of course read very carefully. I'm able to figure things out pretty quickly, then I share that  information with Aric.  IF he listens carefully and follows my instructions to the T, things go rather smoothly. When this isn't the case, the girls remind us that we are talking too loudly and I loving, firmly remind Aric that I read the instructions and I know what I am talking about.  This may sound like I am being cocky and belittling Aric but he HATES reading instructions and actually prefers me telling him what to do when tackling a project like this.  You think I joke, but I don't.  So far only one hairy moment.

Anyhoo...our goal is to have it done this weekend. We'll be saying lots of prayers...stay tuned for the finished project.

#1 FAN!

I am a fan. I like sports.

I was a cheerleader.

Correction.

I AM a cheerleader.

I love the Red Sox.

I am a believer.

They came back from 1-7 to beat Tampa Bay 8-7!!!

I love my Red Sox!

I didn't give up on you.

Although I had a few curse words on the edge of my lips...

Thank you Papi! Thank you for finally stepping up in this series.

Thank you JD! Thank you for keeping the dream alive!

We are still in this!

(thank you Lee Lee for finding these great photos)

Thumbsucking 101

So my kid has been sucking her thumb since she was in the womb. She had to put her own spin on it by using boh-bah's. If you haven't read that post, you really should go check it out.

Fast forward five years. We told her when she was four that when she turned five and started kindergarten she had to stop. We have tried everything. The nasty fingernail polish, wearing gloves, scare tactics...germ phobia, nasty teeth, we gave her the "big kid" talk, you know the "only babies suck their thumb, you are a big kid now....blah, blah, blah, blah, blah". Didn't work.

During the day it isn't so bad, unless she is watching TV. So when she is watching a show she has to wear a mitten or glove. A very common phrase in our house is "Thumb Out!". At night time is when the thumbsucking is at its worst. So I have resorted to "the sock".

It worked for the first two nights we tried it. But then we noticed that in the middle of the night she would pull it off. So then we started pinning it, yes safety pinning it to her jammies.

That worked until she wriggled her thumb through a couple of badly placed pins. Maya usually falls asleep after Eden and she would yell "I hear her sucking! She got it out!"

So now we are using up to seven pins and a longer sock to keep that thumb out.

This HAS to work. The only thing left is cutting off her darn thumb! I would love some suggestions. My friend Amy suggested that we should just humiliate Eden until she stops. Which explains a lot about that family...now we know why Mike is so sensitive and why Aidan calls baby Jack names all the time. (I'm totally kidding...we love those guys)

For now we'll keep pinning and hope for the best!

Family Picture Time

I mean family "torture" time...yes it is that time of year again.  We are those people that take them every year.  I love photography and if I had the time and money I would take it more seriously but for now I just make my family put up with my photo sessions.  I think it's important to document every year.  It's fun to see how we have changed and besides our adoption website needs an updated photo.
So it starts with me trying to figure out what we are all going to wear.  Should we go casual, should we dress up.  How should I do my hair...how should I do the girls hair... Aric hates formal indoor studio shots so it has to be outside.  He also doesn't like getting dressed up.  He really has too much too say about this doesn't he....
This year I decided to compromise with him.  We get dressed up and do a casual outside shot.
I was going to just set up my tripod and use the timer but my friend Ashley volunteered to come along and push the button.  So I would pose everyone and have her be where I would be, then we would swap places and she would take the picture.  It was a circus.  Her six year old was trying to keep her 18 month old from running into the lake and my girls were dying because they just wanted to play with their buddies instead of take pictures.  On top of this we had very little time  because the sun was going down....
Here is what we got. 
The Good.

 

The Bad.

The Ugly.

The Funny.

The work it takes to get these pictures done is insane!  Poor Ashley did the best she could at trying to figure out what I was envisioning.  It is so much easier for me to be the photographer and not the subject.  Even though I'm not in love with any of these, there are definitely some good shots.  I've still got some photoshopping to do, and I decided this one would work for the adoption website...

And just for fun these are some family photos from the past...

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

So now you can see where we started.  And that is exactly why I do this family picture thing EVERY year.  Time goes by so fast and it's impossible to rely on our memory to keep track of how much we change.  When I look at these pictures it triggers my memory and I remember things that were going on at that particular time.  In that last picture we were celebrating Christmas early because Aric was leaving to start training for his job.  I was pregnant and didn't even know it! 
So if you haven't taken a family picture recently...go and do it!  I know it feels like torture but you'll be glad you did.