Owl and Bird Dress

I ran into some adorable owl and bird fabric at Walmart (of all places). And by adorable I mean irresistible, as in really really cute, as in I bought enough for her dress and then the two remaining yards on the bolt.
And then the miracle:
I actually sewed it into a dress for her. A dress with sleeves and button holes. Wowza. This is a big thing for me - a positive clothes-sewing experience.
AND
It was done for her to wear to church today. I might have been sewing the buttons on at breakfast this morning, but done is done. HOORAY!
Check it out!

My Thanksgiving To Do List:

1. Make Aut-yum Leaves and Acorn dough nuts for Jacob's preschool snack next week because they look so adorable and delicious.
2. Make 300 heart shaped marshmallows for Tyler's wedding. Never made homemade marshmallows? Didn't know you could? Try it. It's actually really easy - just takes time.
3. Finish a very exciting project with Blurb.com as my helper (more info to come - let's just say I'm trying my hand at illustrating...)
4. Print out these adorable tic-tac-turkey papers for all the little kids at our Thanksgiving dinner.
5. Prepare my YW lesson for church Sunday. It's on gratitude, what a wonderful coincidence.
6. Run six miles tomorrow. I've gotta be ready for my Turkey Trot.
7. Clean my house. Clean the church (it's our day).
8. Make pumpkin roll for my neighbor Nora. She's in her late sixties (I think), and has a terrific laugh. She's having a bunch of family over for turkey dinner and I'd love to make a treat for her to share.
9. Laundry
10. Figure out who's watching Colonel while we're gone.
11. Thaw out the pies Rus decided to freeze (that were fresh and would have been perfectly happy in the fridge...) that we're using tomorrow night for an elder's quorum social. Why, why, why.
12. Say thank you. To everyone.

What about you?

This morning I woke up to...

Poop.
Actually I woke up to Beau crying, 2 minutes after the alarm went off and 7 minutes before I really planned on getting up. When I opened my door I was hit with the smell of poop. Colonel's poop. I took care of Beau, convinced him to go back to sleep, and then walked back to my room.
"Colonel either has really bad gas or he pooped," I told Rus (waking him up), before heading to change my clothes for my run.
"I gave him Beau's cheeseburger last night. [Great.] Maybe he's lactose intolerant," [Right. Or maybe he got fed too late], Rus told me. Then he went downstairs and I could hear him dragging Colonel's crate to the backdoor. Poop it was.
I headed out for my run minus a crap covered Colonel - Regular Colonel wants to pee on every bush we pass and surely Colonel-With-The-Runs would be much worse.
When I came home I gave Colonel a bath in our bathtub. Gross. He wasn't caked with poop, which is the only reason I didn't hose him down outside - well that and the 20 deg. temperature.
I knew he appreciated the warm bath and nice smelling soap when he crapped right on my bathmat after his bath. If he wasn't appreciative he would have crapped on the carpet (my bathroom is carpeted - why, why why.)
I took him and the soiled mat outside. I'm learning such a profound amount of things owning my first dog - like this - a dog with the runs stays outside. Then while I was already dirty/sweaty/wet I cleaned out his crate. Fun.
I was just finishing up when Rus met me on the other side of the window by the hose. It was opened to help air out our house.
"Thanks for cleaning out his crate," he told me.
"Your welcome. Especially since you fed him a hamburger. I don't think he likes Del Taco," I replied.
Rus laughed and then countered by sweetly telling me I had poop on my shirt and pants. Considering the events of the morning I was shocked. No not really.
Dog.
Man's best friend.
Jury's still out for Women.

Loony to Lordsburg

We decided to celebrate Veteran's Day by going to the Botanic gardens. Bekah vividly remembered going there last year to take family pictures and playing in the leaves - an experience she apparently loved. She was a little disappointed to find only wet, un-raked leaves this time but countered her disappointment by saying we'd have to return next weekend. Jacob put in a request for "crunchy leaves" next time. Beau was there for the miniature train and didn't care at all about leaves. I was actually there to just pass the time until meeting up with Emilee and her boyfriend Chip who were up for a quick visit to tighten her braces, among other things. We had a fun, eventful family lunch that certainly brightened my day.
On Friday Rus convinced the whole family to play hookey. He wrote Bekah a note and invited her to miss school and go camping instead. She is reading well but her comprehension needs some work - it took some explaining before she realized she got to miss school.
We loaded up the pop up trailer and the Man Van and we were headed south by 10am. You know you've got kids when "first thing in the morning" turns into 10am, and "light packing" means three kids, a dog, two leap pads, a large cooler and a small plug-in cooler, a camera bag, two suitcases, five winter coats and five sweaters, a motorcycle helmet and boots (that didn't get used), the "big" diaper bag, and three backpacks filled with toys for each child. Oh and two parents, three bags of m&ms and a large Dr. Pepper for Rus.
Our camping destination was Lordsburg, NM. Rus's parents are building a house there and Rus thought he could help his Dad out for a day while the kids and I got some fresh air.
We stopped on the way down at Fort Cummings, a crumbling old fort on the road between Hatch and Deming. We had fun checking out the ruins and an old spring house that was built in the 1800s. To be truthful, Beau had fun collecting rocks and holding them in his shirt; Jacob had fun walking around the old rocks but was really envious of a big stick that Bekah found; Bekah was obsessed with keeping the bottom of an old glass bottle that she believed the Indians left there. I was just happy to walk around because my butt was sore from riding in the car. Rus loved checking out the ruins.We made it to Lordsburg around 4pm and visited/walked around Roger and Louise's house that is all framed up with the electrical currently being added. It's really neat construction because it's made out of rastra - a concrete foam block that is stabilized with rebar and concrete. There are no load bearing walls inside, which I found really interesting and appealing. The interior walls have metal studs and the floor will be a glazed concrete in all the rooms except the bedrooms which will have carpet. The south side of the house has five(?) HUGE windows that will - as Emilee pointed out - make it the perfect home for a cat as there are plenty of sunny places to nap in.
Just southeast of the house is a huge shop/shed made of metal. This is where we camped. Rus backed the pop up into the shop through a roll-up door. We used the electrical from the shop to power our pop up and used the water hook ups to fill up the tank in the pop up. This was a whole new kind of camping. The best thing about it was there was no light filtering in on us in the morning and so the kids slept until 7am. The worst part was that it was COLD - it got down under 20 degrees that night. Brrr. I HATE being cold. I went to bed with the kids at 8:30 because I was so cold and there was nothing else to do!
The next day I went for a run while Rus made breakfast and fed the kids. Six miles in one hour. The only impressive thing about that is that I actually went for a run. Tyler, Amy and I are doing a 10K turkey trot on Thanksgiving day in Mesa and so I've been running a few miles everyday and six miles on Saturdays. Colonel is my running buddy. I've had better - usually my running buddies don't pee on every bush they pass and make me carry a doggy bag just in case. Blech.
While Rus worked on installing conduit and screwing in (up?) outlet boxes, the kids and I built an adobe-ish fort. Bekah and I did the big rocks, Jacob pointed out other rocks for us to use, and Beau added the small rocks. It's amazing it got this tall at all.
Yes, Beau is still wearing his jammies, with a face to shame any mother. Jacob's hair had so much dirt in it his grandma told him it would turn to mud in the shower. I saw Bekah sliding upside-down down a hill and just cringed imagining the knots I'd have to comb out of her hair. But we did have a good time. It turned out that Rus's parents were only planning on being there till about noon, so we packed up and headed back home after having lunch at McDonalds with Roger, Louise, and Emilee who had driven over to see the progress.
It was a quick trip but a nice retreat. As always Rus and I got to talk a lot on the drive while the kids played and yelled and cried. I have a terrific best friend, even if he is a bit loony and loves long drives on deserted roads.

Doctor, Please

Really, what child does this? Is your daughter begging you to go to the doctor, saying her shots aren't up to date and she needs her vision checked?
I didn't think so.
Here's the proof:
"Mom, Please reminder to sign me and Jacob up for going to the doctor's.""Mom please don't forget to call the doctor today."November 18th, 4pm. There you go Miss Bekah. The health profession surely views you as a model patient.

Broccoli ala Worm

Saturday was reminiscent of one of my own childhood days. In a word - chores. I cleaned the bathrooms and then headed outside to clean up my droopy, frostbitten garden and save whatever surviving crop there was. I was surprised at the number of tomatoes and chiles that were plump and ripe and at the broccoli that looked just perfect. So later that night I made tacos...and broccoli. I steamed it, my favorite way, and then doled out portions to the kids, Rus and myself. I made cheese sauce for it too, and found myself scarfing up all of my broccoli before Rus even sat down. He was the one to discover a little white worm inside his tree trunk, dead of course. I looked to my own pile of trees to root out any worms and felt a little queasy when I noticed my clean plate. Yuck. I was suddenly disgusted with myself for not passing my broccoli through security before letting it into my mouth and stomach.
Gross, gross. Store bought produce never brought me any surprises like that!
Next important thing: Jacob read Hop on Pop in church yesterday. Not the whole book or even half, but he sounded out words on a couple of pages and proclaimed it to everyone as the sacrament was passed. "Dad! I read HAT! ED NED BED!" I was and am super excited for him.
And last: We had dinner at a friend's house last night. We see them about once a year and I love that it doesn't change our friendship a bit - we just have more to talk about. This time I was so happy that they were in their new house (kids ate in the kitchen, adults in the formal dining room), and couldn't see me make Bekah try a bite of homemade mac and cheese - which she gagged on - and then barfed into her cup. Blech. That girl's gag reflex is something else. Maybe I should trust her when she says she won't like it?

Sunday Morning

This morning was a long one.
No really, it was an hour longer - daylight savings time, you know...
I grew up in AZ and lived there 23 years, perfectly content to never have the time change on me in my sleep, so I still allow myself a few griping words each time daylight savings swoops in to mess up my schedule.
But, apart from all that, I had a really lovely morning. Bekah and Jacob somehow got Beau's braces off and helped him out of his crib. I'm not exactly sure how, but there wasn't any awful shrieking or crying, so I was appreciative. He came running into our room, yelling, "Russy!"
Yep. You totally read that right. Russy. I dare say I went from semi-asleep to laughing out loud at that one. Oh my. Rus just groaned as said, "Great. Now there are two people who call me that. My mom and Beau." (Hehehe...)
Beau then climbed on the bed and in his own language said, "Mom! Eat!" That kid's stomach is the first thing on his mind in the mornings...just like me. I was still happily cozy in my covers so I stayed put and he diverted his attention to his tote of toys in the playroom nearby. He ran there and pushed the whole tote back to my room, right by my side of the bed, and proceeded to throw his favorite toys up next to me - LittlePeople train with three cars and a tractor and the man that goes with it. Beau calls all men "Rus." So Beau climbed onto the bed, retrieved his toys, and the little train/tractor driver, a.k.a. "Rus," was jumping on Rus's back just a few minutes later.
"Rus! Rus! Russy!"
Seriously. How could you wake up sad to that? Rus tried to pinch me each time I giggled and encouraged Beau, but it was an ineffective deterrent.
Minutes later Bekah and Jacob joined the fun so I left them to tackle Rus so I could get them breakfast. We had waffles with Special Syrup. That's what I named the syrup because it's so sweet I only allow it on special days. Today was Sunday. Special.

And so this post isn't completely pointless, I'm going to share my recipe with you. I make these at least twice a week. I have the recipe memorized. I have a breakfast thing, you know.

Whole Wheat Waffles/Pancakes
2 eggs, separated
1 1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
1 cup whole wheat flour (or just white flour is fine)
2 Tbl. flax meal, optional
1 Tbl. baking powder
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

Separate eggs, placing the whites in a small bowl and the yolks in a larger bowl. To the yolks add the remaining ingredients. Beat egg whites with a hand mixer until peaks form. Use the hand mixer to beat the other ingredients until well mixed. Fold in egg whites. Use batter for either waffles or pancakes. Refrigerate any remaining and use the next day.

*Here is my super secret favorite way of eating pancakes - I pour the batter onto the griddle and let it cook until it has just set up. Then I top it with sliced bananas, chopped hazelnuts, splenda brown sugar and a dash of cinnamon. When it's ready to turn I scoop it up with a spatula, quickly rub the griddle with butter, and then flip it over onto the butter. The brown sugar kind of caramelizes and it is simply delicious. It doesn't need syrup although if you've made special syrup, it is an extra treat.

Syrup: (Half batch, just enough for me and my kids.)
1/4 cup buttermilk (or milk + a little vinegar)
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar

Bring to a boil over moderately low heat. Remove from heat. Add 1/4 tsp. baking soda and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. The mixture will froth up beautifully. Use immediately. Especially good with fresh berries. Or if you are like my kids you can put a little syrup in a little bowl and dip your waffles in it.

There. Happy Sunday! Happy Waffling!

Torture Revised

I am convinced that watching Jacob empty the dishwasher is a form of torture, similar to that of Bekah packing her lunch, both of which are equal to a steady drip of water on your forehead or being drawn and quartered.
I can't help but relive the details...
I emptied most of the dishwasher this morning, leaving only a bowl, two measuring cups and a cookie cutter on the top rack and a plate, cookie rack and the silverware on the bottom. I told Jacob the rest was his job while handing him a spatula and a big plastic spoon. He whined, cried "Why me!" and made his way, inch by inch to the drawer where he used the utensils to open the drawer (not a very effective means, if you ask me). Then he moped back to the dishwasher and stared at the remaining seven+ things. I pointed at each one and told him where they go, in case he'd forgotten since last time. (I wish I could forget the last time.) He picked up a measuring cup gingerly, with only two fingers and as little contact as possible and then let it fall back in. He whined again, this time only sounds, "Uhhh! Uhhh!"
I ignored him and turned my attention to Bekah. She is in charge of making her lunch everyday. She has to make her sandwich (PB&Honey), gather her snacks, and put it all in her lunchbox. This sounds like an easy task, but don't let that mislead you. The sandwich part is always the hardest. In fact today we worked out a deal where I make her sandwich once a week. Then there's the issue of the lunchbox. Bekah has two elmo lunchboxes, one flowered one, and a polly pocket bag that's meant for polly pockets but has only ever held perishables. Every day Bekah makes the insufferable decision of which bag to take. Today it's a walmart bag - every other one is apparently blacklisted. Watching her "make her lunch" is like trying to get a fly to go outside. She'll circle close to the pantry but then get distracted by the magnets on the fridge. She'll get out the bread and PB for her sandwich but then also find pen and paper to doodle on. She'll get everything out but not in baggies and then in baggies but not in her lunchbox. As the frustration swells inside of me I turn my attention to Jacob.
Somehow he has emptied the top rack of its four items.
He is now picking up silverware, one piece at a time, and dropping it back in the holder. Every once in a while a knife breaks free and winds up in the drawer, hopping from section to section in the divided drawer before landing in it's proper place. Slowly the forks and then the spoons meet the same fate, some of them swooshing into their slots like airplanes, some seeming to explode into the drawer with sound effects and all.
Eighteen minutes after starting, the last teaspoon is laid to rest and Jacob happily closes the dishwasher. He is happy now, pleased with himself. I am sitting nearby, drained from his effort, my fingers weary from resisting the impulse to take over at least fifty times. My jaw is clenched and sore and my head hurts.
Bekah has packed her snacks in baggies and has left the table a mess with an empty goldfish box and a mountain of walmart bags. It's my turn to make her sandwich and I do so in about thirty seconds. It's almost a relief to do it myself so that I don't have to watch her do it for five minutes.
Torture, I'm telling you. Pure torture.

Thirty Minute 1/2 Mile

"Mom, I want to ride my scooter," Jacob yelled at me, zooming by on his bike.
"Go for it!" I replied, ever the enabler.
"No! Around the block!" he yelled, now even farther away.
I was standing in my neighbor Nora's yard, catching up like only a SAHM and a single older lady can do. Two minutes later he came back by on his scooter with more important news, "Mom, Beau wants Bekah's scooter and it's stuck."
When he looped by the third time (some conversations are hard to get out of), Beau had freed the scooter and they were both ready to go.
...Around the block....hmm...I wasn't so sure about Jacob's idea because Beau obviously would not be content riding on the back of my bike. He wanted to walk/drag Bekah's scooter the whole way. While I was trying to decide what to do Beau had taken some initiative and was two houses ahead of me. I caught up, lowered the handles to Beau height (about two feet off the ground), and decided to pace myself for a thirty minute half mile.
This is how our walk went:
Beau would walk the scooter until it strayed off the sidewalk. Then he would reach down and grab the foot part and move it back onto the sidewalk, huffing and puffing just a little bit. He'd walk for ten feet and get distracted by a bug/sign/rock/electric meter and throw his scooter on the ground to inspect. (Poor Barbie scooter took a beating.) Then I would kindly/laughingly/impatiently call to him to catch up to me. He would pick up his scooter and start walking again when suddenly a car/newspaper/airplane would distract him again and down would go the scooter. I'd yell for him to catch up to Jacob (who was ahead of us, looping around patiently whenever he got too far ahead), and Beau would yell, "Okay," and run full speed ahead, leaving the scooter on the ground. I would pick up the scooter and follow Beau for another twenty feet until he realized I was carrying his scooter. Then he'd yell at me, I'd give it back and he would start walking with it again. At one point Jacob yelled for Beau to put his foot on the scooter and Beau did it for about three steps and gave up. Whenever the scooter started trailing in the wrong direction Beau would shake the handle bars vigorously and grunt, "RRRR," until Barbie was sufficiently chastened. He did that at least five times. He stopped twice to look at "dodjes" (trucks, obviously), and once to watch a "baby," (car, of course). He watched dogs barking, squished all offending ants, tried to steal one newspaper. On the last leg of our sojourn he ditched Barbie for good and instead lost himself in every crack and hole in the wall and sidewalk, at least until I told him there were bugs in there and he jumped at the mention of them and quickly rescued his hand. He does not have a good rapport with bugs.
By the time we made it home the breeze had lost its chill and my back was sufficiently warmed by the sun. Both scooters were still in good working condition and nobody was crying, plus I had been gifted the fixed memory of Beau's "I'm headed somewhere important" walk and his intoxication with every little detail.
Our walk was as refreshing as the rose I stopped to smell along the way.
Really.

Happy HallowEEEEn!!

(Bekah getting the GOO out of her pumpkin.)

"Mom, I want to be a robot for Halloween," said Bekah a week and a half ago, showing me a pen-drawn design of her costume.
I was surprised. And relieved. She had wanted to be a witch, contingent on me buying her a broom, hat, leggings, and wig from Walmart...which I did not want to do. I stalled her and it paid off. I'm not exactly where the robot idea came from, but it spread like the flu through our house until Bekah, Jacob and Beau all wound up with spray painted boxes covered in reflective tape. Then Rus chipped in, passing out the contents of his numerous junk reserves in the garage. We had sprinkler hoses, bike parts, license plates, a distributor, and even a cup holder. All of us got so distracted attaching random parts to each evolving robot that we stayed up way past bedtime one night...and I found the kids in the garage first thing the next morning. I have to say this was the best costume building experience I've ever had.
Bekah's original design had her head in the box with just a circle cut out so you could see her face, like this: (She drew the picture, I wrote the note). She wore it like that to school. Here she is, sitting with her class at school after their costume parade, looking very much like a little robot.The next day (Saturday) was the trunk or treat.
"Mom, I want to be a ghost," Bekah said one hour before the trunk or treat, as I was making dinner. She was holding a white sheet she had swiped from a closet. In my mind I could see the two choices clearly: say yes, ditch dinner, make her a ghost costume, and somehow conjure up a similarly cool costume for Jacob, because if she didn't wear her robot, he wouldn't wear his...or say no and endure weeping and wailing for the rest of the night.
"The kids at school all laughed at me," was her excuse.
I explained that they laughed a startled, happily surprised kind of laugh, not a mean laugh.
I explained this several times.
Then Rus called Bekah into the garage, cut a hole in the top of her robot so her head could poke out, took off the distributor, and made her a really cool face guard.
Problem solved, phew. That is why I have Rus.
Trunk or treat was a hit, and so was last night, real Halloween (I love that halloween stretched over three days this year. Love it like I love nails on a chalkboard - because I have the candy to prove it, and at least three weeks of "Can I have a treat now?!")
Rus's parents came down for dinner and we enjoyed a mummy calzone while the kids had Hot Mummys - hot dogs wrapped in pizza dough. We had candy for dessert. Lots of it. Then we visited our closest neighbors before camping out on our front lawn to hand out candy. Here are the kids from the front: ...And from the back:I love that Beau just had a mess of wires attached. I also love that if/when he fell over, he couldn't get back up by himself but was like a little stuck turtle.
The weather was perfect and the company was terrific. Beau got high on sugar and spend his time alternately tackling Grandpa and then Rus. (If Rus got up he'd say, "Rus! Sh-it!" hehehe...) Bekah handed out the goods. Jacob cuddled grandma. I snitched Take5s and tried to keep our pumpkins lit.
It was a wonderful All Hallows Even.