Huh.

Apparently potatoes and onions haven't been on the menu in a while.

Whatnots and what-have-yous

4/18/10

Thanks, Luke, for pounding my keyboard and hitting "publish post" before this was ready!

49 minutes later...
It has been a busy week. There was a baby boom here in Cedar City and Mark (who is on call) had to go to the hospital two to three times a day to examine a new batch of newborns and his phone was ringing off the hook with questions from parents night and day. And spring FINALLY dawned and nor was it windy (a miracle) and so we got the "project itch." I'm glad to be working on stuff, but things are going to be messy for a while. (As if that makes any difference. Madelyn ensures that it's always messy around here.)

We've been painting...

building some flowerbeds...

...and buying some manly stuff at a yard sale (a table saw wherewith to build a shed and an electric lawnmower to replace the piece of junk we currently have. It runs but doesn't turn off. So that's kind of a problem.)

Madelyn's been busy, too. I was folding laundry the other day in my bedroom and came out to find this:

"My hair was dirty."

Then this:

"Look, mom, I can shake out the water like a dog."

I took the kids down to Hurricane for Auntie Meg's 15th birthday bash on Friday. We went out for Chinese food and Madelyn talked the ears off my unsuspecting Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bill Murset, who were passing through on their way to start their six month mission serving in the Nauvoo, IL temple. This was my favorite picture of the night:

HAAAA! (Sorry, I probably shouldn't be laughing at her. But she's just sooo emotional!) Madelyn is a true Asian girl--she doesn't like PB&J, hamburgers, hotdogs, and isn't crazy about chicken nuggets, either. But take her to a Chinese buffet and she'll eat shrimp, crab legs, egg drop soup, lo mein, orange chicken, sauteéd mushrooms, etc. She regularly wants ramen noodles for breakfast. She sure didn't get that from me.

Here's a few more pictures from Meg's party. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find the Orajel. I think my little rabbit is about to get some top teeth!

Adventures in Scatterbrain Land

4/16/10
This is where Madelyn almost spent the night last night. She had crawled back behind the recliner where we keep her beanbag and fell asleep and we were so blissed out by the PEACE and QUIET that we forgot about her. I had been busy cleaning and was finally going to bed at midnight when I remembered she was still out there. Oops...

So I pulled her out and got her into bed*, at which point of course Luke woke up. (He has a sixth sense that allows him to detect when I'm either just getting to bed or just falling asleep, and then he wakes up and screams. It happens almost every night.) So I was feeding and changing him in the dark and got squirted as soon as I took his diaper off. I had to change both our clothes and wipe down the rocker and his nightstand. Which is why being a mother is so awesome.

In other news, my sister Meg is 15 today!! You can check out her blog Simply Delightful to see her ballet and photography talents on display. I can't believe she is so grown up--she was only four years old when I started dating Mark.

I think I just blew my mind...

*In which she later had a very effluent bloody nose

Busy times...

4/14/10

Are you ready for an obnoxiously long post? Alrighty then. You've been warned.

With stand-in child Luke last Saturday, in the throes of packing

Kevin (my brother) and Lori moved on Monday. They stopped by our house on their way to Hanksville to get our old microwave and to say goodbyyyyyyeeeeee

Note the ominous looking clouds...

Hattie and Madelyn playing princesses. Not that you care, but Madelyn is styling a Pink Floyd t-shirt (one of Mark's favorite bands). "Come on you miner for truth and delusion, and shine!"

Everybody had to give baby Luke one last squeeze. We're going to miss little Goldilocks!

Madelyn was none too happy about them leaving. In fact, she was furious.

Shortly after they drove away...

(As you can see, she got over her disappointment quickly.) Mother Nature sent a blizzard, rain and high winds for them to drive in. Similar to the 30 year storms we drove through both when we moved TO and FROM Albuquerque. What a special parting gift!

This storm was rather costly for us. Since Mark has an iPhone, the only network it works with is AT&T, which we detest. We get spotty coverage here at the house, and when it snowed on Tuesday neither of our phones worked at all here for a good 12 hours. Of course Mark was (is) on call and needed to be reached by the on-call service and the hospital, so he had to leave and go sit at his brother's house all evening in case someone was trying to call him. It was so retarded.

Luckily, after some brainstorming, he went out and got a magicJack internet phone thingy and was able to come home and set it up. So now we have another phone number, but we'll just use it for when Mark's on call as a backup. Why is it still snowing anyway?!? It's the middle of freaking April!!!

Anyhoo, I have just emerged from making another batch of jewelry. We're all quite glad that I'm done (although I already have a few more projects lined up....).

I hadn't even been planning on making anything for a long long long long time because #1: I was out of a lot of essential supplies so I'd have to shell out some $$ upfront just to get started and #2: (which perhaps should be #1) I have a super grabby, clingy 6-month old (who got a cold and cut a tooth this week just to liven things up) and an impatient 5-year old who wants me every 30 seconds for something or other.

But someone hopped on my etsy site and loved one of the necklaces on there and wanted four of them (but I'd only made one, and what's more, I made it from leftover beads from NM, which were all gone). So she requested that I find the beads again and make a set of four necklaces and earrings for the bridesmaids for her October wedding. And although 5x7mm pink topaz firepolished faceted teardrop shaped Czech beads may be found on every corner in ABQ, they certainly are nowhere near here. Thank goodness for the internet!

The finished product, finally

THEN I got custom order requests from THREE MORE people and then all my friends and cousins started having BABY GIRLS and of course there's MOTHER'S DAY coming up...........I made at least 20 bracelets, ten necklaces and six pairs of earrings, and when you take into account that a lot of them had multiple strands, it was like a million beads going on. No wonder I haven't seen the light of day (or the surface of my craft table) for two weeks.

Some of the baby/little girl bracelets

A "mom" bracelet to match some of the baby/little girl ones

A couple custom magnetic necklaces

Bracelets for my niece Emma's bridesmaids...I had made three of them already but then she needed two more

And then I got to thinking, "Hey--what about me??" I love bracelets and especially these new multi-strand ones I've been making. Sooo...

I'm keeping these. Luke has his eye on them. They look like some fancy teething rings.

I'll wait until after Mother's Day to show you what I made for my moms.

Now if only someone would come package all this stuff up and go to the post office for me. And clean my house and bathe and feed my neglected children.

This event was sponsored by SpongeBob SquarePants, who effectively kept Madelyn out of my hair for many hours. She's been watching it so much that she's picked up some new expressions.

She says, "Oh barnacles!"

And to add to the taunts she regularly exchanges with Mark ("Juice Goose!" "Bossy Pants!" "Chatterbox!" "Bummy Bum!") she now yells, "Chum Sauce!!" The first time she called Luke that, I couldn't stop laughing. The lack of sleep is clearly taking its toll.

Well, that's all I'll burden you with for now. Next up: mending and ironing!

I am a woman. I have issues.

(I am totally like this sometimes)

4/12/10

I will do a real post soon, but this is all the time I have for now. Should I start on my six loads of laundry before or after I go to Walmart?.....




P.S. That is a rhetorical question. Because by the time I pick up all the dirty clothes strewn hither and yon, pre-treat the stains, sort everything and start a load, my magical window of time to leave the house will have closed because someone's hungry/needs the potty/a nap/a diaper change/one more Spongebob episode, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.....

What I did last night:

4/7/10

Destroying the living room is a regular activity for Madelyn, so this was not much of a detour from the normal Tuesday evenings we enjoy here. I had gotten a package in the mail filled with lovely, puffy styrofoam, which she tossed in the air to make it "snow" and then for good measure, she took a baby blanket and flumph! made sure that she flapped a bunch of it under the couches and recliner. Without wearing any pants, of course.

As an added bonus, once we cleaned up and vacuumed, the couch cushions were all over the floor so we could act out "Humpty Dumpty", which she recently learned in preschool. The excitement just never ends.

(Yes, that's a Strawberry Shortcake bib. It's actually one of our favorite drool catchers because it's so big and absorbent.)

Crash!

Luke had his six month checkup yesterday also and at 17 lbs. 11 oz. was in the 50% percentile for weight and at 26 inches was 40% percentile for height. His head circumference was in the 25% percentile, but I always say it's better to have a dainty head than a great big watermelon one. Am I right? He had four immunizations and is very healthy and doing great. I love my little Mister.

Anyway, then I tried a new recipe from my friend Amber called Evil Chicken. (Presumably because of the fat content, or the fact that it's red.)

See? This is why I don't use my own food pictures. It looks gross!

It tasted like campfire food, probably because I used hickory smoked bacon, which I totally charred and so only used half of the suggested amount of 1 lb. You can prevent this by prepping the chicken BEFORE you start cooking.... It was very tasty but not healthy in the least. I think it turned out fine only using 1/2 lb. of bacon. There was still plenty of grease to go around.

Evil Chicken

adapted from Amber Williams' recipe

1/2 lb. bacon, cut into bite size pieces
1/2-1 lb. chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
2 T chili powder
1 cup brown sugar
up to 1/2 cup water, as needed
rice

In large skillet, cook bacon over medium high heat until nearly done. Do not drain. Stir in chicken and chili powder. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until bacon and chicken are fully cooked.

Add brown sugar and cook until dissolved and sauce begins to thicken, about 4-5 minutes. Add water if necessary to thin*, but keep in mind it's a glaze so you want it to coat the chicken.

Serve over hot rice.

*I didn't use any water when I made it and it was fine

By the way, my brother Kevin has just decided to MOVE on Monday to the middle of nowhere (a.k.a. Hanksville, UT, outside of Capitol Reef National Park) to manage a motel. Boo. So I suppose I'll have to start thinking about a proper send off. Any ideas?

Look what the Easter Bunny left me:

Luke 6 months, Madelyn 5 years

4/4/10

...Two cute little chicks! I've been wanting some new pictures of the kids for a while, and now that Luke can sit up pretty well, I decided that it was high time for a 200+ shot photo blitz in between sessions of General Conference. The hard part is going to be choosing which ones go on my wall.