David and I both have wonderful Grandparents. They have influenced our lives for the better in more ways than they will ever know. Thanks to all of you (Grandma and Grandpa Parker, Grandma and Grandpa Ard, Grandma and Grandpa Porter and Grandma and Grandpa Shaw)!
A few weeks ago Grandma and Grandpa Porter came to Auburn to have a celebration for their 80th birthdays. They also had their 60th wedding anniversary last year, so it was celebrated a little late. It was great to see them and enjoy being together as a family. Their grandchildren wrote up memories of their grandparents when they were growing up. One thing that stood out to me was how they all mentioned how fun it was staying overnight at Grandma and Grandpa's and listening to the Cuckoo and Grandfather clock in their home. Grandpa Porter is extremely tall, so they also mentioned how exciting it was when he would swing them off his shoulder. Yikes! It was interesting to realize what things made a lasting impression on the grandchildren.
One thing that amazes me is how well Grandma Porter has dealt with her diabetes. She was diagnosed shortly after the birth of her third child. At this point in time the tools to measure and control your blood sugar were archaic at best. How she has managed to stay healthy despite this incredible obstacle leaves me awe struck. She has lived with this
for over 50 years! For those of yo
u who know how diabetes affects every system in your body, you understand what an insurmountable challenge that is. She has lived on a very strict diet the whole time and has adhered to it completely. She's said getting diagnosed with such young children at home, she had no other choice. She decided early on that she would be around to watch them grow up, which she has, as well as her grandchildren and now multitudes of great grandchildren. As diabetes runs rampant in my family, I commend all of you who live with this disease every day of your lives. Thank you for taking care of yourselves so we can be blessed by your presence.
The last two are pictures I stole from Lisa's blog (sorry, since I'm planning on making my journal with this I wanted your pictures since they turned out better). Is the problem with the camera or just the photographer? I think it's time to upgrade!
Last week I found this enormous (approximately 4 inch) caterpillar in my garden. I was trying to figure out why my tomato plant looked like someone had taken a chainsaw to it. Suddenly I spotted him. On the end of the branch was a multi-legged insect, binging himself on all my hard work. A few wasps appeared to be attacking him. Feeling he was being terrorized, I decided to spray the wasps to deter them from their assault. I hurriedly chopped down the branch it was on. We brought him inside, and he started to ooze green slime on my counter. Yuck! What kind of caterpillar does that? I trimmed down the branch and managed to fit him in a mason jar. We put a lid on and let him munch away to his hearts delight. Logan was thrilled to have a new pet. He even thanked Heavenly Father in his prayers for it (it was rather endearing). My curiosity overcame me and I got online to figure out what it was. My results turned up THIS. Disgusting! This thing makes a great diet program. I could hardly eat for the 24 hours he was oozing and defecating in the jar on my counter. I was completely repulsed. All I can say is after reading what this thing does to your garden, I concluded the best way to deal with him was to exterminate. Despite Logan's pleading he met his fate the next day. I couldn't bring myself to actually kill it; way too disgusting with a bug of this magnitude; so I left it in the jar and tossed it in the trash. Soo long hungry little caterpillar. If you didn't turn into a five inch wide nasty Hawk Moth with the intention of creating future generations in my beloved garden you might have had a chance.
I thought since I already posted a recipe, I'd add a couple more favorites to the collection. Many of my new favorite recipes come from Stick of Butter (loved the Cajun Chicken Pasta and the Gamelli with Yellow Squash!), but I have a few other favorites (don't worry, I'm not changing this into a cooking blog).
The first is a pie I made for a pie contest at Church. It won the "Emma Award" (a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth's spray painted gold).
Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Pie
1 9 inch pie crust, baked
1/3 cup chocolate chips
2 lbs fresh strawberries
1 cup white sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup water
Bake pie crust according to pie crust directions (I place a sheet of wax paper in the crust and weigh it down with about a cup of uncooked pinto beans or rice so the crust doesn't bubble up). Let cool. Melt chocolate chips in microwave (about 30 seconds at a time, stir, return to microwave and repeat process if not melted yet). Paint bottom and sides of baked pie crust with chocolate chips (I put a plastic bag on my hand and smeared the chocolate around). Set aside 1 full cup of berries. Arrange remaining strawberries in baked pie crust. Mash the reserved cup of berries and combine with sugar in medium saucepan. Place over medium heat and bring to boil, stirring frequently.
In small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water. Gradually stir cornstarch mixture into boiling strawberry mixture. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Let cool for about 15 min. Pour mixture over berries in pie shell. Chill for several hours before serving. Top with whipped cream.
The next is a recipe from Lisa, who got it from Becky, who got it from Taste of Home magazine? Soo yummy. It calls for some ingredients I never use, but once you have them you can make the sauce over and over again. I'm making it in a few days, so I'll post a picture then.
Chicken Pepper Stir Fry
1 each: small green, red, and yellow pepper, sliced(I usually just do 1 medium red and green instead)
1 medium onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 Tbsp olive oil (divided)
2 chicken breasts, cut into strips
3/4 tsp Cajun seasoning
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp honey mustard
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
In large skillet, fry peppers, onion, and garlic in 2Tbsp of the oil. Remove from pan and keep warm. Stir fry chicken and Cajun seasoning in remaining oil until juices run clear. In small bowl, combine brown sugar, cornstarch, water, lemon juice, mustard, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over chicken, return peppers and onions to pan, cook 1 min. Serve over rice. Makes 3-4 servings. (This picture I used tomatoes for color instead of red peppers-I was all out).
My garden is coming into full bloom. When we lived in San Jose my co-workers made this great A
vocado salsa almost every night. It uses mostly tomatillos so I thought it would be a great idea to plant some for my garden. When I was planting my seeds, Sam dumped the whole pack of tomatillos into several pots. I love red peppers and planted several of those too. Unfortunately I didn't label anything, so when the seeds sprouted I decided I better transplant all the seedlings to make sure my peppers made it into the garden. I didn't realize that peppers don't like to germinate until it gets above 80 degrees. So I ended up with 4 tomatillo plants and no peppers. I think in a few weeks I'll have about 10,000 tomatillos. Anyone interested in some tomatillos? I thought I better share the recipe if I'm pawning them off on you guys.
Avocado Salsa:
4 tomatillos (cooked)
1 jalapeno (cooked)
1/8 cup water (left over from cooking tomatillos)
2 cloves garlic
1 avocado (pitted)
1/2 Tbsp chopped cilantro
salt to taste (about 1/8 tsp?)
Put tomatillos
and jalapeno in pot, cover with water. Boil until tomatillo color slightly darkens (about 5-10 min). Remove from water and reserve 1/8 cup of water for later. If you like a lot of heat, add whole jalapeno. If you like it more on the mild side, remove and discard the seeds, and add half the jalapeno. Blend ALL ingredients in blender until blended but still slightly textured. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or until chilled.
Advisory: This is a boring post about potty training and what worked for me (not to say it will work for everyone).
Potty training is my LEAST favorite thing EVER about being a parent. After doing it with Logan, I had no desire to do it again. Maybe I could just wait until Sam's old enough to do it all by himself. Is 6 too old??? I've been telling Dave every time he mentioned needing to start that he better get me hopped up on Prozac first. You think I'm kidding? The constant power struggles I had potty training Logan brought me to the brink of insanity.
So, I put it off as long as I could. The final shove was that my diapers were almost gone and I'm not about to buy a months supply only to use it for a few more days. he's been interested since watching Logan for the last 6 months (this has helped greatly). Now the idea is old news and he didn't really want to start.
The plan: Put plastic sheeting (available in the paint department) all over the floor and furniture in the family room. We threw away all the diapers in the house. He knew we weren't going back. I pumped him full of Capri Suns so he had lots of chances to go. I 
put the "P
otty Train" in the family room so he wouldn't have far to go. If he got any in the potty chair he got an Otter Pop or a marshmallow (which he LOVED; thanks Heidi). I never forced him to sit on the potty. After Logan I was afraid that if I pushed him he'd push back. By the end of day 1 he was starting to get it. He couldn't hold it long enough to make it, but he was getting the idea. By day 2 he was starting to sit on the potty seat before he needed to go. Day 3 he ditched the potty chair and wanted to sit on the big potty. Only problem is he can't turn it off and on yet. He'll feel like he needs to go and sits down, then asks, "Why's it not coming out?"
Week one, here's our stats so far:
Tuesday: Accidents-I stopped counting after 10; Made it-half way 3 times
Wednesday: Accidents-1 (all over a new roll of TP; Made it-maybe 5?
Thursday: Accidents-0 and a #2!!!, Made it-???, all I remember is 0 accidents!
Friday:Accidents-1 so far (but it was right after he woke up); Made it-2 so far
My main goal this time is to not get mad when he has an accident. I just act indifferent unless he has success and then I make a big deal out of it. I think it has been much easier with Sam since I am trying to focus on the fact that he's just a cute little kid who is trying to do his best. I also realized potty training is not just about teaching the kid to use the "Potty Train" but much of it is learning to be patient as the child master this new skill. My attitude seems to greatly effect his performance.
Now we'll see how the next few weeks go; that's the real test.
Of course, things like this always happen at the worst possible time. Just minutes before our Joyschool was due to arrive, I was upstairs getting new clothing for Audrey since she leaked her messy diaper all over her onsie. I suddenly hear a shrill cry. UHHOH, what happened? I rush downstairs to find Sam standing just a few feet away. I didn't need an explanation. It was only a matter of time. So, to explain the whole situation, I'll start from the beginning. Audrey loves to barf. Every time she's on her stomach it comes up. We usually have to keep her on her back for a few hours to keep her from leaving her stomach droppings all over the floor. Since she's learned how to roll over, it has been an impossible battle to keep her from throwing up on everything. She just loves to roll on her tummy. We kept rolling her back over, and at times Logan even helped. A few weeks ago he did it and her arm was straight out when he flipped her. Her arm was bent backwards under her and pinned. She was screaming in pain that time, so I informed him that only Mommy flips Audrey over now. So this morning when I went upstairs she was on her tummy, which I didn't really care about for the time being, but innocent little Sam thought he needed to fix her. This time must have been to much for her little arm to handle. I rushed downstairs to see her and rushed Sam into time out. As I looked at her in so much pain, I realized she was flailing her right arm, but her left one was as limp as a wet noodle. My poor baby. My heart just broke for her! I figured she had dislocated her shoulder. Just then our preschoolers start arriving. Thanks to Laura who so kindly offered to take over for me, I left the kids at home and drove her to the ER, where we waited for about 45 min before the doctor did a thorough exam. He rotated her wrist and arm and wallah, her elbow (not her shoulder) popped back in to socket. What drama! She was a trooper the whole time though. Other than when they touched her arm she would only occasionally moan. She has always been a patient and happy baby. Watching her in pain and being unable to do anything for it was one of the hardest things I've had to do as a parent. It seems especially sad with her tiny little body:( Needless to say, I had a good talk with Sam about flipping her over. He's assured me he won't do it anymore. I could tell he felt really bad. My only hope is his nearly three year old brain won't have already forgotten by the time he wakes up tomorrow.
We had a relatively ordinary fourth. We spent the morning washing the cars, changing the oil, buying fireworks, and swimming at the pool. In the evening we went to Dave's brothers for a barbecue and to let off fireworks. Audrey was quite frightened, so we tried to get her to fall asleep in the house. The boys loved all the excitement, of course. Hopefully we don't have any future pyros here.
I couldn't get Blogger to let me post any more pictures on the 
last post, so he
re are some 
more:
Since it's been like a month since my last post, I guess I have a lot 
of catching up to do. We recently returned from an 11-day trip to see ALL my family. It was the first time my parents, siblings, and their families have been together in about 6 years. I think it was the longest Dave has let me stay there since I moved out (he gets bored easily). I think we all had a blast. My kids did not want to come home.
The boys spent a few hours at the trout farm catching something that resembled large goldfish, but they enjoyed every minute of it. We went swimming at Firstenburg and both the boys seemed to get over their fear of deep water quite a bit. I think the thrill of the water slide had something to do with it. This pool is becoming a new tradition for us. Why couldn't Rancho's multi-million-dollar rec center actually have something fun like this?
My brother has been starting up a photography business, Candent Photography, so we had a bunch of family photos taken. I'm quite impressed with this newly discovered talent. Judging by my photos you can see I obviously didn't get that gene.
On Monday my parents took the boys with them to their 
new beach house and Dave and I (and Audrey) stayed behind so we could go on our semi-annual date (it was so fun hanging out without shrieking and yelling in the background). We went to the movies, Gustav's (another family tradition), and even did a little shopping at the mall. In doing this I discovered that my sense of style is completely outdated. The idea of wearing a red dress shirt with white polka dots under a turquoise tank just seemed ridiculous. I couldn't picture myself wearing anything I looked at. My 10 year reunion is in October. It won't be long before I'm over the hill. Where have the years gone? Anyway, I finally let Dave pick out a shirt for me, which I actually liked (he hates shopping, so I was proud of him).
The nex
t day we met up with the kids at the beach. I forgot to take pictures, but the beach house was awesome! I'm so jealous that we don't live close enough to go more often. We got to stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and get cheese curds (aka squeaky cheese). I have been looking forward to sinking my teeth into those squeaky morsels for months!
After the beach we spent some time at the Oregon Zoo, checking out all the animals. It was supposed to be warm that day, so I hadn't dressed in a whole lot of clothing. Well, the sun didn't peek out until after 3PM. We were all a little cold and Audrey's toes were freezing! I sat down on a bench next to some woman who was trying to feed her baby. She overheard me saying how cold Audrey was and insisted that I take a pair of socks from her. She told me she had 8 k
ids and understood (no, she was definitely not Mormon). I was caught off guard by the kindness of a stranger.
The next weekend we took a short hike at Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River George. It was gorgeous, but hot (we saw the sun, can you believe it!)
On Saturday we all went to see Wall E. Besides the highly political message, it was cute. Sam had a love/hate relationship with him. At first he was really excited, but after the movie was over he said he didn't like him cause. Why? "Cause... said so!" He seems to have a new phobia for robots!?! Okay, whatever! It was great to see all my family and get to see some I've never met. I think most of all I was excited to see my 4 year old nephew Matthew. He's had some health issues so he hasn't been around any of the other visits I've had with them. I am in awe of him. He is so loving and sweet. I just felt this strong connection to him. I rubbed his back at one point and it sent shivers up my spine. He is one incredible little boy! Chris and Kerry, thanks for sharing your wonderful family with us! It was great to see everyone else too! We miss you all. Thank goodness for blogs, to help us stay close:)
For those of you who don't know Logan's personality, he is as brawny as they come. He has always had a ridiculously high pain thresh hold. Even as a small baby, he would fall down or bump his head and would just brush it off. As a result, I have wondered if he is a little oblivious to other people's feelings and doesn't realizing that things hurt them. I know part of this is just being a 4 year old boy. Well, he did the sweetest thing! We were at the pool and there were these gross little centipede looking things occasionally floating under the water. Logan saw them and started to scoop them out onto the deck. He exclaimed to me, "Mom, look! I'm saving Heavenly Father's creatures!" I think these bugs actually prefer to live in the water, but that's just a technicality. He was going out of his way to take care of them. I could have cried! He does get it, at least some of the time.
Not much has been happening around here. I have been going to the park and pool quite a bit (with the kids) and getting canceled from work constantly. I've kind of been in a rut this weekend. There's something about sleeping all day just to find out I didn't need to, that has been getting to me. After taking a three hour nap, I can't manage to fall asleep until after midnight, and then I have a hard time waking up in the morning. I'm not even getting to work and my job is still dictating my life. Come on people, have some preemie's out there, please!
Anyway, since life has been rather lethargic and uneventful this week, I'll write about Audrey (who, by the way, reminds me an awful lot of Little Cindy Lou Who, who was no more than two). Audrey loves to suck. She hasn't quite figured out how to suck her thumb, and hasn't ever cared for a pacifier, so this favorite past time of hers is a little difficult. Her solution? Suck on anything that passes near her face. It's not a soft, cute little suckle either. It is a ferocious, blood-thirsty suck. She could probably pull water out of a rock if given the opportunity.
In an attempt to get her to sleep better at night, and by order of her Pedi, Dr. Cutts, we try to sooth her back to sleep at night, instead of just feeding her every time she wakes up. Occasionally when Dave goes in her room at night to calm her back to sleep she feels his arm on her face and instinctively sucks on it. Rather than eventually coming to the realization that his forearm does not produce milk, she becomes more determined. Needless to say, we have been acquiring hickeys all over our arms. So, in case anyone was wondering, these hideous blemishes are the work of our sweet, tiny little angel.
Ahhh! I'm sitting in my kitchen looking for my missing recipes so I can make my grocery list and drag all three kids to the grocery store for our 2 week grocery shop, and I realize I'm hearing a soothing noise in the background. It seems familiar, but no, it couldn't be. Audrey's baby monitor is on, maybe it's just the white noise I turned on in her bedroom. No, that's not quite the same tone. There's only one other thing it could be. Impossible! The kids haven't even been outside today. Actually they haven't been outside for over 14 HOURS! I look out the window, everything appears normal. I walk over to the nozzle for the garden hose, and my thoughts are confirmed. Some cute little "Elf" must have turned on the water. What sweet little creatures! They were so concerned that our sprinkler system would not adequately water the thirsty grass and decided they should help out a little, YESTERDAY! So now we don't have to go to the swimming pool to splash around in the water, we can do it in our very own backyard. Hooray! Think of all the time it will save us! What will they think of next? Does anyone know how to render our nozzle unusable? I'm taking suggestions.
So we had an exciting weekend. On Friday we went to watch Uncle Tyler graduate from Sac State. Congratulations Tyler! Sorry I missed the the whole thing since Audrey was terrified from all the cheering. On Saturday we pretty much took it easy. Sunday was baby Kai's baby blessing. Unfortunately we forgot the camera for all these events. On Monday we went to Auburn and spent time with the family. Dave took some pictures in hopes that I would post them on my blog. Uncle Mike got a new gun, and the boys (aka men) went shooting on Grandpa Shaw's friends 80 acre property. So here are the results:
I teased them that they have turned into a bunch of Rednecks. They didn't dispute it (no offense to you country lovin' folks out there; I am a Randy Travis fan myself). So instead of having pictures of all the great and important things that went on this weekend, the only photos we have to remember this weekend are a bunch of shot-up milk jugs. Ye-haw!
So in conclusion to my last entry, I had a horrible night! I laid in bed for like 2 hours paranoid of every little sound. I finally fell asleep just after 2AM. Around 2:30 our neighbors dog, who rarely barks, started barking right near our house, so I was so worried he was barking at someone. I finally relaxed enough to decide that Heavenly Father would protect me, so I fell asleep. Audrey slept great, but woke up at 5AM. Perfect if I had actually gotten some sleep that night. We got back to sleep shortly after, but I never fully recovered. It's Sunday and I'm still exhausted. The boys had a blast camping. Dave was even thinking about going again this week. Yikes! Here are a few photos from the trip.
On to my oops...
So this morning I needed to shave pretty bad and we were running out of time, so I got this brilliant idea. Mom sent me some Nair a few years ago, and I've never found the right time to use it, so I decided to do it in the car, on the way to church. No one ever warned me it smells like a sulfur plant! I applied it and let it sit, no problems yet. I was going to use baby wipes to wipe it off and be on my merry way. I wiped it off and it didn't work terrific. I think I missed a few spots. Oh well. Then I realized the smell wasn't going away. I went the the women's restroom as soon as we got there, and tried to rinse it off. A little girl was in the bathroom with her mom and asked her if she had made a stinky because it smelled so bad! I didn't have the courage to explain what they were smelling. Now I was sure I had fixed the problem and went to take my seat. Shortly after I sat down I realized it still wasn't gone. I asked Dave and he could still smell it. I couldn't get rid of the stench! I feel sorry for all the young men we were sitting behind. I could hear them making jokes which I'm sure had to do with the scent. I went back in the bathroom and I finally tried to get my legs in the sink as modestly as I could. At last, it was nearly gone! So I've learned I need to limit shaving to the confines of my own home.
Here's some more pictures of the kids.
So Dave took the boys on the Father/Son outing his brother's ward was having. It's just me and Audrey. I have the whole house pretty much to myself. Sounds fun, right? It seemed so exciting until they actually left, and then I just wanted to go with them. Why can't women come on a Father/Son outing? I'm glad that they are spending time together though. So what did I do with my evening? This is the first night in years that Dave hasn't been home at night, and I'm not loving it. I had some recorded TV shows on the DVR and since I'm too cheap to rent a real movie, I decided to watch them instead. I was really fascinated with forensics for a while, so I've kind of gotten into those type of shows. Well, I was watching an episode of Cold Case, and the whole story was about some psychopath who abducts women and keeps them locked up in a dungeon. Great idea for Friday night entertainment, especially since my husband is gone. I already get freaked out a little easy even when he's home. So rather than getting extra sleep since I don't have two of my little ones to wake me up, I'll be up all night worrying about every little creak. That's what I get for not watching a chick flick! I can't wait for them to come home!
I couldn't get my computer to let me finish the last posting how I wanted, so I'll continue on a new one. I also got an assortment of chocolate candy bars. At church they gave each woman a really nice long stemmed rose and the priesthood boys walked around during Relief Society with trays of See's Candies . We voted they should do that every week. I put Audrey in the dress Dana bought for her for the first time today and it was adorable. I really wanted to take some pictures of her, but as expected, her messy diaper leaked all over it. It is a constant battle still to keep her clothes from getting bombed on. After church we had Dave's family over and he cooked dinner on the grill. It was great to be able to sit back and enjoy the afternoon while he slaved away (not that he doesn't help out a lot already).
So by the time I was able to get the camera out, the kids were in bed, so I just got a few. I hope everyone else had a good day!
Happy Mothers Day! This was probably one of the nicest Mother's Days yet. Nothing spectacular happened, but it was just enjoyable. I woke up this morning and the boys gave me this card. I'm sure Dave picked it out. I don't know if you can tell but she has those plastic wiggley eyeballs. It's pretty funny, cause that woman is soo me!
