Proof that I'm a pig

Tonight we went to a neighborhood BBQ and we had a watermelon eating contest which I was somehow convinced to compete in and I actually won. Up against some men and my husband included. I ate like the sloppiest, loudest, rudest eater ever. To make it worse I was laughing so hard that food was coming out of my mouth and at one point watermelon juice sprayed out like when you have drink in your mouth and someone makes you laugh. One guy declared after that that he was done. It wasn't my most attractive moment. My hair was sticky and glued together at places from getting watermelon on it and my make-up was coming off and watermelon was in my eye. So I don't win races that I run in, or anything else for that matter, but a food race... I can kick butt! What can I say I AM a pig.

wedding presents

When Ed and I got married, we didn't register anywhere. Why? We were to busy in school, work and being in the sappiest of love ever. Life was overwhelming and we had no parents around to tell us what we should be doing- registering didn't really occur to us. I think that kind of thing was just not on my mind. So we got all kinds of things from all over and most all of it was really good. It was Christmas time- we were married on the 21st of December, so we got a lot of Christmasy stuff- a glass christmas platter, a christmas frame and christmas decorations. One thing we opened was a box for a Christmas tree stand. We figured oh good, we will need this next year, that was thoughtful. Ed's mom even made a comment about how pricey those can be so that was a thoughtful gift. So we never opened it since we weren't going to get a tree that year but stuck it in a closet and sent off a thank you note telling the Dyer family (yes Anna your family must have needed a new stand that year and used the box for a much better gift which they gave us) thank you for the Christmas tree stand. We never heard anything or discussed it since, I am not sure that they ever knew about all of this. By the way a few years later my Brother Brandon married their daughter Anna making us all family now. So finally the funny day came when I am not sure why, and it wasn't because we got a tree, but we opened the tree stand box and inside was a gorgeous 2 tiered plate stand. I LOVED it and about laughed myself to death thinking about how I actually thought they got me a Christmas tree stand and how this gift was so much more their style, and how I was a dummy for not looking inside, and about what the heck they thought when they got my thank you card. Their family has good classy taste and I should have known. I still have the plate stand 11 1/2 years later and it sits in my kitchen with fruit on it as I write. I have used it at babyshowers and bridal showers and other gatherings to make desserts and appetizers and other food look beautiful. I think next time I see Val I will tell her this funny story.

Weddings

Tonight we went to the wedding of our next door neighbors daughter. It was very nice. We especially like that although there were cars up and down the street for as far as you could see, we merely had to walk out the front door and into the next yard. The weather predicted rain and although it was slightly chilly out there was no rain. The wedding was beautiful and fun, there was a band and dancing. It got my 9 year old daughter super excited about weddings and talking about what hers would be like. I told her that I would make sure she liked it all and we would plan together, but that I would be living my wedding through her. Which leads to a story. You see I got engaged 4 months after my parents left to serve a mission for 3 years- my dad was a mission president in Bolivia. I was 19 and I wasn't expecting to fall in love and plan a wedding, but I did and I knew it was right. So with my Mom in Bolivia my Aunt in Florida was nice enough to plan and take care of the wedding. I was in school and super busy and totally in la la engagement land. The end result was a very gorgeous wedding that I chose very little of. A surprise wedding if you will. I chose the announcement, the dresses for the bridsemaids etc and my dress. Other than that-- working over such a distance with the amount of time we had and the amount of stress I had with work, school and engagement, (I got a D in anatomy that sememster) I wasn't able to help much with the wedding. I think my Aunt did try to involve me and now that I think about it I was never home to get a hold of. Thinking about this now I am still trying to figure out what happened. Oh and during the short wedding planning we did have, I left for week around Thanksgiving to go visit my parents in Bolivia- it really was an insanely crazy time. The wedding was so nice and my Aunt has great taste and chose pretty much things I would have chosen had I been there for every detail, still it leaves me wanting to plan a wedding! So needless to say I am very excited to help plan Ashlin's wedding and I have lots of years to think about it!

This is totally new information

Ok so when my husband leaves town I hate to cook and the kids and I eat most of our meals out. Well sometimes its too much trouble to go out and we just eat simple stuff at home, but this time we are out anyway and so we ate out. Ashlin loves Panda Express and had been wanting to go there. I love it too, but I always feel like I am at risk for eating too much when I go. I know that I have to plan on eating about half the meal and saving the rest. Which why the heck is that? I didn't have parents who made me clear my plate and I don't make my children. I think that theory about the need to clear your plate being a result of parents who encouranged it is crap because I still feel like I should eat everything on my plate and have to make quite an effort to stop myself from eating until I am uncomfortably full even though my parents never encouraged it. I am not sure if most of have this problem but I kind of think we do, at least I have had other friends express it. I wonder if naturally skinny people don't care....
So as for my discovery. I like to get the steamed veggies, but don't want to have to replace a meat choice with veggies but learned I don't have to you can get veggies instead of that really fattening chow mein or rice and it puts you back into a diet friendly meal. I got half veggies half steamed rice and two meat choices and it was perfect. I still had to save some of the meal for later, but I was so pleased. At least now I can get fresh veggies somewhere when I go out to eat- that is my biggest problem with fast food- very little fresh vegetables or fruit. Lame thing to blog about? I don't care... you can tell what kind of stuff I get excited about. Hey- I studied to be a dietician. I told my younger sister (who also studied to be a dietician) and she was totally stoked too. I don't have a weight loss blog to put this on-- my blog functions as everything for me. Which I guess since this is a diet-ish entry I may as well mention that I did finally reach my 10% and stay there and was actually below it during the heat of the kitchen renovation (still not finished I promise Iwill post when it is), but am back at right around the 10% again. Who won the throwdown? I still don't know if it was sis-in-law Kariann ( I think it was) or my sis Julie- they both say each other won. Still want to say see ya to another 5 or 10 lbs.

What Alex told me

I posted two yesterday and I was thinking today about how I needed to post what Alex said to me the other day. I always see those cute kid quote posts, so here goes my third post in 2 days. K, so first picture me laying on the ground trying not to fall asleep and Alex sitting nearby me and something catches his eye.

Alex: Mom what is that? (touching my underarm)
Me: What is what?
Alex: That-- your growing a beard in there.

In my defense this was on Sunday and I was dead beat tired from my week-- I am sorry if I forgot to shave the night before when I finally got in for my bath at 1:30 in the morning. Yes that is what happened. All the dust I talked about cleaning up in my earlier post, moving all my kitchen stuff back from my living room into my kitchen, cleaning every corner of the house and every bathroom, doing laundry, going to soccer and Costco and helping my kids set up the playpool outside, cleaning off the porch etc, basically catching up on WEEKS worth of work in one day and I still didn't get it all done. That is why I got a bath so late, went to bed so late and somehow overlooked my underarms. I think my hand were too overworked to be able to hold the razor anway.

Ironic birdhouse

This is an ironic picture. Let me tell you the story. This bird had been trying to build a nest on this light/gutter for weeks. We felt bad though because it would get windy and we kept finding the beginnings of the nest had blown on the ground. Unrelated to this, Alex had been wanting to build a birdhouse (he loves nature) and so Ed set up one family night (pictures below) where he cut out and helped the kids each assemble their own birdhouse. They decided to help the bird out with the nest problem by hanging one of the birdhouses there for it, but as you can see the bird ignored the house and finally succeeded in building its own nest. I just think it is so funny to see a bird sitting up there with a perfectly good and vacant home below. But this news just in-- we saw a bird sitting on the peg and looking into the house through the hole. We think we may have a contract, but he is still thinking about it as there is some very prime real estate available to birds in this neighborhood. It might be too cramped having a neighbor so close- I mean these places are built right on top of each other- where's the privacy?

A MONTH

Its been a month since I have posted - almost exactly. I am feeling bad and neglectful. However that is indicative of my life. In the past month we have worked backbreaking days on our kitchen - doing the long awaited remodel. It is almost there, but we are taking a short break from any continued work as we have company in town- Ed's brother and his wife. They drove all the way from South Carolina taking 2 1/2 days to get here. We have a fun but busy we ahead I am sure. Our kitchen is looking quite nice even though it is not yet done, but I'll wait until the end to post pictures. The hardest part of the project so far has been putting the new wood floors down. We had rip up the old ones, get the new ones down (took 2+ long days), sand them (another entire day) stain them (no walking on them after that) then 3 coats of polyurethane. This meant the heart of our home the kitchen and family room were off limits for an entire week. We hated it and ate out every meal- which got very old. It was so cramped with all the furniture being moved out and our refrigerator was in the entry way, just inside the front door- kind of funny when people stopped by- embarassing more like it. We had a very thick layer of dust on literally EVERYTHING in the entire house!!! It took a lot of cleaning to get rid of the dust and I am still finding it. We didn't get to bed before 12 or 1am a singe night because we had to work late. If I never did another wood floor again it would be too soon. We are done with the wood though and it looks great, and it really feels like we earned it. It also was good for weight loss. We both lost a few pounds as we barely ate (when we did eat it was BAD) and we were burning up so many calories. So I'll post pics later! Not of us and weight- which is bound to find its way back on, of the remodel.

Sammy boy

A few weeks old

Samuel Andrew Lee

-

I was tagged to write some facts about my little Sammy- now two and a half years old.

1. He was born 2 weeks early and still weighed a hefty 8 lbs. On Columbus day by a Dr. who sang his own made up songs during the birth and the time thereafter while he was stitching me. It was weird and annoying. He has been a robust boy ever since. He ate a lot and was such a good nurser that all my pregnancy weight came off pretty quick plus a tiny extra. That still left me heavier than I wanted to be, too bad I ate pretty much whatever I wanted, it was fun, but I could have used it to my advantage to lose more weight!

See how chubby he was! He is playing with his brother who he thought and still thinks is the coolest person EVER!

2. Sam's middle name is Andrew after his brother that was born stillborn 3 days early, and 5 years prior to him. Andrew is also his Dad's middle name. Sam was born with the tons of dark brown hair just like Andrew and also like his older sister Ashlin. Alex too had tons of hair but it was blond. Sam had his first haircut at about 4 weeks old.

3. He has his dad completely and utterly wrapped around his finger. He gets away with things he should not because he melts his dad's heart with his endearing smile and mannerisms. Apparently the feelings are reciprocated because when he isn't following Alex everywhere he is following his dad. He is his dad's best company out in the garage. Ed even lets him get in his old 65 corvette that he is fixing up to play. He puts on Ed's sunglasses- If he sees Ed wearing a hat he has to have his on too.

4. Here are some pictures of him rockin' it out with rockband. He likes to play anything Alex is playing- Lego Star Wars- anything- and he will sit there patiently for a long time and "play" but usually his controller is not plugged in. He is getting wise on that though, so now it is sometimes plugged in and his guy just walks into walls and falls off of buildings. I tried to get it on video but he stopped-a month or so ago he was sitting on the ground messing with the rockband guitar and singing oooh oooh- bah-yee, ha-yee (you know the song that goes oo-ee- oo- I look just like Buddy Holly, oh- oh- and you're Mary Tyler Moore?). It was much cuter to observe than explain. I figured most 2 year olds stick to songs like ABCD or Twinkle Little Star, but Buddy Holly was a little unexpected. He often busts out into song and rarely are they children's songs.

5. He loves candy and snacking. He always grabs the oddest container I have in the whole kitchen and fills it with cereal to snack on. He has gotten pretty good at getting his own food.

When I try to help him he gets mad and says "no I do yit!" Anytime he notices that I am about to run the mixer he runs full speed to see what I am making. He insists on pouring everything in himself and tasting it often. He also asks me what I am making a lot. I'll say bread (or whatever it is) and he will repeat like 7 times, "oh bed?" "mommy make bed?" I guess you can say that if something is happening he is always there- not about to miss out.

6. Dad was always his favorite and when we would go on walks if he caught me pushing the stroller he would freak out. The problem was that my height was much better for pushing the stroller comfortably than his dad so we would try to trick him. He would turn around occasionally to check and I made Ed stick close by so we could pull the switch if necessary.

7. His favorite show right now is "Curious George" or Dorge. He also likes too too- "Thomas and Friends." He asks for them all day long. He likes playing with trains and setting up track but he gets so mad when he can't get it to work that he screams like he is hurt- which we don't much like. He also likes an R2D2 robot thing that Ed was given for Christmas-- it responds to commands. Here is a video of him trying to command R2 who he calls doo too. You can see him yelling "no" at Alex when he tries to help. You can also see that he has no idea what to say besides doo too. Then you can see him whisper like his dad is doing in the background trying to keep the older kids away.

PS If wonder why so many of our pictures are of us wearing pajams and if we wear them all the time. The answer is yes. We love pajamas and we wear them a lot especially when it is cold outside.

Oh I forgot to tag people:

Eli Wood

Shelley Parker

Logan Ginos

Addy Allen

Annika Wood

DARN YOU Bobby Flay!

Ed and I like to watch "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" on the Food Network (while I'm cursing people I should add my two sisters Julie and Erin for introducing me to the show!) EVERY TIME I watch his show I end up not being able to get my mind off the food that was throwndown until I make it. There is no other show, no anything, that has a power over me like this! Here are some of the things that I have made while under the Throwdown trance: Chocolate Chip cookies (that were good almost like the Ben's Cookies I have posted about in the past), Sticky Buns (those are sitting in my freezer- which is where I had to put them so I would stop eating them), lasagna (I made that one healthier as I do most of the recipes and I posted it), chili (although this one I was already making for Sunday dinner when we just happened to watch an episode about chili) and then there was pie. The pie and chili were our Sunday double feature. The entire family was salivating because I turned Throwdown on while we were all still fasting. I know not smart. So having the chili to break our fast was a good thing. But when were done we were all, really still thinking about the Blackberry Peach Pie Bobby made and won with. So--I made it(I was lucky enough to have both those fruits in my freezer) and it WAS awesome. Ed didn't want me to ruin the peach/blackberry (peach is one of his favorite fruits, being a southerner) by trying whole wheat in the crust, like I ruined the hockypucks ... I mean-biscuits I made on Easter. So I made an apple pie as well trying whole wheat in the crust. They were both amazing! I did use some white flour in the crust as well as the whole wheat but I honestly liked that crust better than the all white flour crust! I used all the regular stuff in the crust like you'd expect shortening, flour, salt and water, but picked up the hot tip of grating a little bit of cold butter into the dough as well. I haven't successfully made a crust in years- honestly. I have failed so many crusts in the past that I had gone strictly to using store bought roll-out crust when I need to make a "homemade" pie. I also am embarrassed to admit that although I have made plenty of pies in my life I honestly don't remember a time that I have made a two crust fruit filled pie by myself with no help. Usually its a cream pie or strawberry or pumpkin or something with one crust. So I was really excited to see if I had it in me. I was worried it would turn out too runny or crumbling apart or something, but I was an actual success! We have been eating pie ALL week-DARN YOU Bobby Flay!

This is a picture of Bobby's Blackberry Peach abomination.

Last night I watched another Throwdown. You are going to tell me to stop watching them, but there is no way THAT'S going to happen. This one was soft pretzels. I have always loved soft pretzels in all their over priced, 3 dollars per ounce or two of high-carb, low-fiber, doughy, salty, buttery glory. So I didn't stand a chance. He even had a recipe for pablano cheese dip to accompany it. So today yep I made pretzels (with whole wheat). It is now out of my system. They were no Auntie Anne's (those are my favorite) but they were pretty good and I ate my fair share. DARN YOU Bobby Flay!

Bobby's pretzels

The next one is Cheesecake. That frightens me. I have never made a baked cheesecake ever. There are a few reasons: 1)you have to have a special pan 2) you have to let it rest for a really long time like overnight or something, I feel like it right then not a day later! 3) it takes like 5 blocks of cream cheese which I never have that much on hand 4) they are just way to fattening -to have the ability to make it would be far too dangerous 5) Mine would never in a million years turn out as good as the Cheesecake Factory's and so what's the point? The fear is there though and its real. Because like I said his Show has a hold on me, every time I watch it I have to make it! I think its because watching them make it, I can see the steps and the tricks and then believe that I CAN actually do it. And the food looks so so good. Bobby Flay- I am NOT going to make your freakin' Cheesecake! I'm on a diet for cryin' out loud!

And thats Utah for you

I am a pretty lazy blogger but today I knew I had to post when I woke up and looked outside I was so shocked, it was snowing! Now yes I know I live in Utah and yes I know it snows here, but its officially spring and Easter is over. The forecast did say flurries and a drop in temperatures, but the 60's we had all last week and over Easter weekend gave me a false sense of security that the snow was done with. The temperatures are high enough that it won't stick on the streets, but it is sticking on my newly blossomed daffodils and on my starting to green up grass. One thing you can say is that the weather here is not predictable or boring. Arizona had great weather all winter and freakin' hot weather all summer, but you pretty much knew what you were going to get. The truth is if it fluctuated between 105 to 115 it didn't really matter that much it was still hot and sunny. I never watched the weather there, unless the seasons were changing and I was hoping for the temps to drop, oh around Halloween or Thanksgiving. I watch the weather here pretty religiously. When I saw the snow outside I had to
take some pictures and pause in my laziness to blog about it.

Here are my daffodils and sprouting tulips with snow all over them
A shot of it all from the front of the house


The kids begged me to get out Easter decorations which I have very little of. Ashlin and Alex took their baskets and started putting them on their heads. Then Sam caught on. His basket is tiny and makes it look like a monkey in a marching band. Don't worry that was the last minute basket I could find for him last year, but this year he has a bigger one. It was perfect last year for a one year old though. I especially like the way the tag is still on and falls in front of his face.

I think the brand is Crayola- they came out with a new kind of sidewalk art using paint instead of chalk. It washes off and out of clothes too. The kids got a set to share for an Easter present. They loved it. Alex has a goal to pain the entire driveway in. Because of this we went through the full 2 bottles within an hour. That was Sunday. Well on Monday Sam couldn't stop asking for more paint. He remembered it out of the blue. So Sam and I had to go back to the store to buy more- each bottle is just under $2. Worth it to me because the kids have so much fun with it. As you can see the snow is going to help clean the driveway. It looks like Alex is going to have to start over again and I will be needing to buy A LOT more paint:).

Diet Murder

Today was diet murder. I started out with a good workout and a healthy breakfast. Then we headed off to playgroup water bottle in hand. After that we had just 15 minutes to get lunch (Wendy's) before heading off to a field trip at a very scary place I will say more about later. At Wendy's I ordered a dollar menu bacon cheesburger! and a side salad. Why did I do that- well I usually try to get a small burger and a side salad with low-cal dressing but the addition of bacon and cheese was just wrong. I got that because I was in a hurry and couldn't think--she was waiting for me to order and I was having trouble making a healthy decision in the 5 second pause I had to look a the menu. So then the burger came and I realized I forgot to tell them to leave OFF the mayo. So after a quick debate as to how dry and flavorless it would be, I wiped off the mayo with a napkin and decided that the bacon and cheese and vegetable and the beef would lend a good enough mixture of flavors and moisture-- I was right it was good. So I downed that and the salad and we were off to the field trip to Sweet's CANDY FACTORY!!!

If I had any diet responsibility at all I would have arranged to have Ed go or just never mentioned it to my kids, but the truth is I wanted to go as much as my kids did! It was a really cool field trip and tasty too. I have seen all kind of shows about about how things are made and seen the factories and such, but have NEVER personally been in one that I can remember. So we saw taffy being made and sampled it, and we saw jelly beans being made and sampled them, and we saw orange jelly sticks enrobed in chocolate being made and sampled them (holy crap it was good- so fresh and I am not usually that much of a fan) we also saw cinnamon bears being made and I got to sample one too (I LOVE them). This place even covers cinnamon bears in chocolate and they are so good. The chocolate enrobing kitchen smelled AMAZING. So I sampled all of the things above plus a carmel peanut chocolate covered thing. On the drive home I was literally feeling sick. It wasn't that I had eaten THAT much candy, it was really just one of each of the things I mentioned above-- could be worse. It was just so much sweet all at once for me. So worked on recovering during the drive, home and told myself I would not eat anymore candy today. So when I got home I went to show Ed the candy that I bought (I forgot to mention that) the factory had a little candy store that sells all kind of fresh candy. I then began to sample all of it. There were huge chocolate covered marshamallow eggs, an easter candy mix, some saltwater taffy, grape sourballs and a mixture of chocolate covered nuts (my favorite). I kept eating the nuts and eating them because I had to try all the different kinds several times- there were dark and milk chocolate on pecans, brazil nuts, cashews, peanuts, walnuts and almonds-- I hope I tried them all I wonder if there are some nuts I missed I need to go check! I followed this up by a little walk outside and a healthy dinner-- my homemade version of Chili's Grilled Chicken Carribeann.

So it was a bad day as it was (I also sampled a couple bites of cookie throughout the day) but then my favorite neighbor came by with the most amazing chocolate cake I have ever eaten. She had told me about the recipe she had and so she was bringing it by for me to try and to get rid of some of it. I had decided by this time it was a lost cause that the diet was not happening today and that there was no way I was leaving that chocolate cake alone tonight. So I ate it but my kids wanted some so I hesitantly gave them each some of mine knowing it was for my own good, but it was not an easy sacrifice. I want the recipe really bad, but am not sure if I am to be trusted. Here is the strangest thing about my diet murder today- I have been sitting here hungry and wanting more food! I am in no place to eat more after today or after the high numbers on the scale I have been seeing lately-- hopefully due to the time of the month. Also because I saw a full body pic of myself and it was a wake up call. Losing weight has made me feel so good because my clothes fit better etc, but the picture made it very obvious that I am not there yet I have a ways to go! It was diet murder, but it was really, REALLY yummy.

Hackjob Hair

This is Ashlin before we cut her hair-- this is a silly picture back from December. So seeing as it is March her hair was even longer.

She had been growing out her hair for Locks of Love for around 2 years I think now. Sweet girl huh? She really is. Her hair was beautiful in many ways, but a little hard to take care of. We both were ready for a cut. I had recently seen an old picture of her with shorter hair and thought she looked so darn cute. Still I was patient not wanting for her to cut her hair after so much growing and hard work before it was time.


Well the boys were due up for a cut and so as I cut their hair and she was feeling some desire to join the ranks. She was ready for a cut. So we measured it out and she had 10 inches which is the minimum for locks of love, but the last inch was not such nice hair- bad ends and not thick, but quite sparse. So I trimmed off the bad ends measured again and got 9 inches. So I then decided to research and see what would happen if we cut now. I had remembered Hilary Swank cut her hair for Pantene, so I decided to check out their site. It turned out you only need 8 inches for them, so we decided we were good to

go. So we followed the instructions and put her hair in a good tight ponytail and I chopped! It was very scary! It was a lot of hair and I wanted to make sure the hair she wasn't keeping was usuable for Pantene and that the hair she was keeping looked decent and wasn't TOO short. I had to chop and chop and chop to get throught it all. I was really afraid because it wasn't making a real clean cut. I just kept tellng myself if I mess up we can take her to a salon to get it fixed and that hair does grow back. I DID know that cutting from a ponytail at the back of her head it would end up in an A-line cut, where her hair in the front was longer and the back was shorter- which I wanted. It was already pretty cute as soon as the ponytail was cut and the hair fell forward, but it needed some cleanup. She looked in the mirror while I had to run and help her brother- it wasn't fixed yet but she said "I already think it looks cute!"I was relieved. So I evened out some areas to make them straight and in my amateur way tried to do some layers in the back. I quickly realized it was well beyond my ability and that we needed to take her to a salon or to one of my friends who is a beautician and ask for help. Well I first called a couple friends and one line was busy and the other wasn't home, then we got busy and still haven't fixed it-- it looks good enough for now, but I do need to get her in somewhere to get the professional touch. Doing hair that short is hard, it has to be precise. I keep catching her looking in the mirror and smiling which is so cute. She also gets really excited to see friends who haven't seen her hair yet. I love her so much and am so glad to have a daughter with such a big heart. I also am just glad to have a daughter. She is like a best friend and she is so forgiving of me. Really, she tells me that I am the best mom in the world and means it, and I'm far from it! I guess I only need to wait a few years 'til she's a teen and her mind will quickly change. I hope not though- I hope we are buddies forever. I usually can't imagine anything but the sweet little girl she is, but every once in a while I catch a glimpse of some major attitude!