random happenin's

can anyone tell me why my bread pulls away from the pan like this? it tastes fabulous, but it looks like monkey's made it.

Jace has taken to stuffing himself in boxes. I found him in an empty tide box the other day. He is always with his "dog dog" (that hairy thing stuffed in the laundry basket with him) and his "me me" (interpretation: blankey)

If you look closely you can see Mt. McKinley. She's the big one on the right. It is seriously so huge and this picture doesn't do it justice but from this vantage point it's about 250 miles away MILES!! i love the clouds floating in the valley below it.

If you look above and to the left of that little spit of land you can hazily make out Mt. Redoubt. It is 125 miles away from the same vantage point as Mt. McKinley. see how much smaller and closer it is? I'm hoping that makes mckinley seem bigger to you now. anyway Mt. Redoubt is a volcano that is due to erupt anyday. we've got our extra supplies, face masks, and lots of books from the library to read when she blows. you'd think my kids would be a little freaked out but in the morning prayer the other day quinton said, "please bless that Mt. Redoubt errupts today." he wants to collect the ash. any body else want some real live volcanic ash? i'll only charge you $29.50 plus shipping! not really.

we've seen floods and tornadoes in KY and OK, we've felt small tremors here in Alaska, so bring on the ash!

mike took avery on a "date" to burger king and the movies. she had to paint her nails and wear her new dress and tights, and she was in heaven. she keeps asking me when daddy's going to take her out again!

this moose was eating some breakfast not to far from our house. see how his hair is sticking up on his back? that means you shouldn't bug him anymore cause he's nervous. but he's just a wee bull. not much of a rack yet.

Burning Question of the Week #9

Aaahhh memories! if i ever find myself in the dentists chair, in labor, or waiting long hours in the er, i use the memory of fun and even embarassing moments to pass the time. i think of beautiful hikes, funny things my kids have said, mischievous teenage behavior, heck, and why not revel in that awkward first kiss one more time. so reading all of your blog rouses up old memories and fun times. let's play a little game! here's a list of memories in random order, let's see if you can guess which is you! so the burning question is..... DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN......?


1. .....we used to say "grubbin', and 311 was our favorite band by proxy, and adam, sean, and greg were our brothers, and listening to one roommates first kiss story was the most exciting thing that happened all semester?

2. .....we took a swing on the rope swing, rode four wheelers across the mountain, and you tried to convince us that a dip in Lloyd's would be better with no clothes on?

3. ......we sunbathed on top of the "turtle" and got caught by the entire football team?

4. ......we convinced our mom's that we could handle Fred Meyer on our own, snuck some bikini's into the changing room to try them on (scandalous) and you peed your pants in my shoe before we could even complete the mischief., we shaved our legs in pantyhose.

5. .......we climbed a tree with a bag of rocks to scare of all of our dogs potential "suitors"

6. .......we went shopping at the gap outlet in cinncinnati and a group of college boys pulled up beside us on the freeway and held up a sign that said, "show us your boobs."

7. .......we spent hours discussing my need to chop my hair just like yours, you told me great storie about your colorfully named roommates, you told me how to organize my shirts by color, you became not just my little sisters friend, but mine.

8. ..... we made doll clothes, a doll house out of a cardboard box, we laid on the side walk and kicked our legs in the air when cars passed by, we snuck on top of wagon wheel and threw water balloons at passers by, we "made it ourselves with wool" we slapped many boys, we dated all of blanding, we had each others backs, we slept on temple square and through general conference, we spent all of our free time discovering e-mail and it's use in our dating efforts in blanding.

9. .....i cheered for you and your "broken" hip at cross country meets, and i cheered for you when i saw you running in monticello 10 years later.. at the same pace.

10. ......you and your mom were quinton's biggest fans, and i was yours, girls b-ball ruled and you could outshoot any boy. bet ya still can.

11. .....we swapped teary stories in my living room a midst crying babies and snotty noses. we ate dinner once a week at chili's.

12. ..... we lived for book club, and a good run. i understood your tears and admired your courage, we had cinnamon/marshmellow rolls for thanksgiving, we stayed up late on new years, and ate shrimp and the best cocktail sauce on earth, we shook our heads at handle bar mustaches, wait we still do that.

13. .....we fought over who would be the queen of "the nut squad"

14. ......you had a pair of pink sneakers and a pair of blues ones and a v-neck pink sweater i coveted, we were the three musketeers, we hid in your bushes and threw water balloons at cars. we watched "mahana you ugly" on the big screen on the b-ball court, the b-ball team took state and we all wore orange vests.

15. ......we hiked across 3 miles of asphalt once a week all summer with 5 kids, two double strollers, 15 beach towels, a gallon of sunscreen and our only reward was the six flags beach. great conversations.

16. .......we tackled the crazy Lousiville 2nd ward primary... and won!

17. ....I was self-righteous and you were just cool. i wore all your clothes cause i spent all my money on one (ugly) shirt, i cried everytime you crossed the finish line, i stared at you til you woke up just to make you mad, we dated blanding boys (but only you kissed 'em) we hiked n. creek and rode bikes around town with jake, we flirted and ate our way through vegas, we were neighbors.


mostly my memories, hope that wasn't too indulgent. so what do you remember?

s h o e f e t i s h

they call me mellow yellow

No one told me the amount of urine i would be dealing with as the mother of boys. I was under the impression that once potty training was over, i'd be free of the stuff, clearly i was mistaken. the boys bathroom was recently fumegated by thier live in maid, oh i mean me, and i do mean fumegated. I scrubbed walls, toilet knooks and crannies, garbage cans, the tiolet paper dispenser, all with clorox and then i did it again, and then i scrubbed it AGAIN! After finding pee in every possible location and erradicating it, i marched down stairs and made an announcement. The boys are well aware of where pee is supposed to land. I'm not the kind of mom that cleans kids rooms, or makes their beds, they have that responsibility, and i do hand the boys clorox wipes quite often after they have hosed down the bathroom, but i've cleaned enough pee on the side, and it is soo over. So i said to my sweet little boys, who ironically themselves never smell of urine, I said to them, "Quinton and Austin do you want to get a dog someday?" Their eyes lit up with shouts of "yes, yes, oh please yes," and so like a good mom I squashed there glee with this little declaration.
"Well when you get a puppy, it's going to pee and poop everywhere, and to teach him that we don't pee and poop everywhere we will gently push his little nose into the messes. This teaches him that excrement is gross and belongs in certain places. So boys, if I find another dribble of pee anywhere but in the toilet where it goes, I will gently stick your nose in it, do you think that will help you remember where pee goes?" I get a few stifled snickers, but mostly horrified stares as I sweetly explain the new rules. I haven't seen a drop in two weeks.
Which brings me to the meat of this post! I had to give in and fumegate the bathroom so it could be used by our guests! Geoff and Annelisa and girls paid us a visit over the new year holiday and it was so much fun!!! We played the wii, shopped, ate, and Annelisa and I went to Twilight, which I actually thought was pretty good, although Jasper looks like a mental patient more than a vampire mastering self control. Anyway here's a look at our fun!

.....that ironman came to dinner

I've discovered that my favorite sentence begins with....."Pretend....."

Last minute teacher gift

1. run to target in between cooking dinner and cleaning it up

2. park as close as possible, run to the untensils section

3. pick the cutest/cheapest combination you can find of spoon rest or spoon holder

4. type up this little message

5. print it out on your home printer because i'm sure your not as cheap as me and you actually buy ink cartridges for your home printer/fax/copier.

6. tie on some fab scraps of christmas ribbon ya got lying around

7. eat lots of christmas candy for fuel.

8. tackle the rest of your insane christmas list

and that's it! i promised homemade christmas gifts, but i've yet to make homemade christmas gifts so.......

christmas decor bailout

here is some stuff i've been working on for my christmas decor. in these times of overly rich people profitting from hardworking middle class taxes, it's time to take the spendy out of decking the halls. i'll admit it, i like to make stuff anyway, tough times or not, okay i like to.....craft. ick. i said the word, let's get a new word, "crafts" reminds me of old mustard colored, toll painted, chunky words with little dots around the edges. let's call it "extreme diy decorating for very talented and motivated people." that makes it sound more productive. so before you start feeling bad that i made all this stuff, and thinking about how much you need and want to do, i am not self-promoting, i am sharing. so take these ideas and run with 'em people. switch it up, change the color, whatever just get........ew... craftin'.


Homemade stockings. just felt, ribbon, and some stichin'

Christmas banner, pinking sheers, fabric ribbon and painted letters. i used the punch out part of a lettering scrapbooking kit. does that make sense? anyway you could use anyfont you wanted, just print it out, cut it out, voila a stencil!

the ornaments. i made the white snow flakes and aged 'em with gold paint. those berries are just a pick from the....ahem.. "craft" store. I made the stars out of brown paper bags and gold paint and glitter, when we were in dental school, i still love 'em. and my fave ornaments are the olive wood nativities. you can only get them in Israel supposedly but i'm sure they abound on ebay.

the scrawny and skirtless alaskan tree. this is as beautiful as they get.

can't find a good star topper, i've looked for years and have yet to see one that grabs me. any ideas?

got this gold garland last year on clearance, painted some wooden tags gold (paper ones'd work too) and then used rub ons for the letters, tied it with some cheapo ribbon.


now i'm not pretending to be fancy and fabulous, some of you are probably thinking, "quick get me to the nearest potterybarn.com." i think that a lot too when i'm done with making stuff. but maybe just maybe i've got your wheels turning and maybe just maybe you'll share your wonderful ideas. next time: homemade christmas gifts! (oh stop cringing)