Binki Donation

Noelle bid a not-so-fond farewell to one of her very dearest friends, her binky. I was watching Super Nanny and one of the "naughty" kids was four years old and still had a binky. Nanny Jo said that after the age of two children really don't need binky's and that it could start to cause more damage to their teeth the longer they have it. Ok, ok its not nearly as hard as potty training (which we've put on the back burner) but I just decided on Thursday at nap time that we were going to implement no more binky's. I explained to her that we were going to send the to Grammy. (Sorry Grammy, it was a split second decision.) We've since modified the story to let her know that Grammy is going to give them to the new baby that is going to be a new cousin. She doesn't get the whole cousin part, but the baby part I think she's ok with. We're on day three and so far only small fits of rage that I don't have a Binky to offer. I was almost as sad as she was and wanted to sob outside of her bedroom door that first day because I was just as scared about trying this as she was sad that she was missing her friend. So here's a small tribute to the many binky's we've loved over the past 24 or so months.

Ooops!

While working on the previous post, I forgot I was filling our mini pool. Good thing it was all ready for Noelle when she woke up from her nap.

It looks much bigger than it really is, but look how full it is!

Reminiscing About The Good Ol' Days

My dearest Lacy "tagged" me and why not tell you a little more about myself, if I have to...(Disclaimer: I really loved high school and have some of the fondest memories of people who I haven't spoken to in a long, long time. I am also grateful for the friendships I've kept all these years. Forgive my reminiscing. I put way too much time into this post.)

1. If you could go back and tell your teenage self one thing, what would it be? Be true to yourself, which I think for high school, I did a pretty good job. I was wacky, way wackier than now if you can believe it. Loud, silly and fun. I also wore some strange clothes, that were way too big (thanks to the grunge era).

2. Did you do any extra curricular activities in high school?
Yes, I'll try to list them chronologically.

Freshman Year:
Freshman Class Senator - this made me feel so needed as a freshman, we got to do all the clean up after dances, and I met some new friends.
German Club - Only because I was in the class
Early Morning Seminary - Definitely extra curricular considering I choose this.

Sophomore Year:
Sophomore Class Secretary
Cross Country Team - I was pretty terrible, but they still let me come.
German Club - I don't even know why at this point

Junior Year:
Pep Club
Cross Country Team - Don't worry I gave up after my stumpy legs wouldn't go fast enough
Future Homemakers of America - Only because I could sew
Junior Choir - I haven't decided if this is extra, it was just a class.

Senior Year:
A'Capella Choir
Madrigal Choir
President of Future Homemakers of America
Baseball Fan Club - You know it!

3. What did you do with your free time?
Well since I was one of the few girls that didn't have much going on after school I usually just hung out with whoever wanted to hang out. During my senior year, on Wednesdays I went over to Mike G's house while his mom played cards at some one's house and we made out. Seems so stupid now. Cheered on my friends at a number of sporting events, girls and boys. Or go with Lacy to Don's so we could visit other friends who worked there. I roller bladed a lot and sometimes I'd just jog home after a sleep over since that was what I was into for part of high school. But really I worked, had odd jobs, babysitting and my senior year I worked at the Candy Barrel and Sunglass Hut.

4. Coolest thing you did as a teenager.
I really liked going with the Outdoor Survival Class on a backpacking trip to Southern Utah. Being in the musical my senior year was a lot of fun and I got to make some of the costumes. I dropped college algebra so I could go on a trip to Europe with my grandparents. (It was the only class that I couldn't miss for more than a day.) Also, since I was still technically a teenager, working at Camp K was probably one of the best learning and growing experiences of my life. Worst paying job of my life too.

5. Did you have a boyfriend in high school?
Yes, some of the time. And the rest of the time I was just shelling out "girl advice" to my guy friends, which I had a lot of.

6. Songs that come to mind:
Groove Me & Shoop by Salt-n-Pepa as sung by my freshman gym class
You Wear Flowers by Peter Breinholt
Did You Ever Look So Nice by The Samples
Beastie Boys, I can't remember the album, but solely thanks to Adrianne
My Baby's Got Sauce by G Love & Special Sauce - has a whole new meaning as a mother, might add it to my next home video of Noelle (Make sure you click to reminisce)
All Mixed Up by 311 -(Click to reminisce)

7. If you could change one thing, what would it be?
Keep my mouth shut at the inopportune times. This usually got me into trouble and in more than one instance offended people and was probably a huge turn off for friendships. I think I've done a much better job at this in my adult life, but can always improve. My sincerest apologies to anyone who reads my blog and was offended. You and I both know who you are.

8. What did you think you would be when you grew up?
I had no idea, but majoring in communication pretty much sums up what teachers always told my mom. "Rachel is a delight to have in my class, however she talks a lot." I don't remember talking all that much, but whatever. I did know that it wouldn't be in the sciences.

9. Picture of self.














10. Craziest thing you did in high school.
Toilet papering nearly the entire senior class of boys was a huge undertaking and we slept out on the football field and waited for them to show up at early morning football to discover 50 or so girls waiting. The best was that Amy snuck out of her house to come with us. We also did some crazy stuff when asking or answering to dances, which is totally Utah.

Meeting Milestones

Today we've met a milestone in the journey of childhood for Noelle. She has finally reached a height in which she can easily open up the utensil drawer, feel around for something interesting (since she is still too short to see into the drawer, I think the Sundahls call this action "Helen Keller") and then absconds with it to the outdoors. For a mother this is not funny. For the onlookers, maybe so.

The reason this is so vibrant in my mind is that I recall being a teenager and doing my daily neighborhood babysitting during the summers, and one family that I often tended for and are still our dear friends today, the Christensen's, once commented on the fact that she was missing some of her really good spatulas and spoons and could not figure out where her boys could have hidden them. It must have been a few weeks later but she was putting the cover on their sand box and noticed that her good utensils were being used to dig in the sand. As a witness to both moments in time, it seemed funny and perfectly clever that the big digging items would be perfect for the task at hand.

Fast forward to my life today. Noelle decided that she would take my good measuring spoons, my only measuring spoons for that matter and use them to dig in some potting soil. Then she put the potting soil in her new wading pool and because her dirty hands were wet, came back in the house to "clean" them off with one of my clean dish towels. The pool has now been emptied and cleaned out, potting soil on the kitchen floor and measuring spoons left outside to be discovered by yours truly.

Its official, life as I have known it, meaning a child who couldn't reach into my drawers to steal my kitchen gadgets, has changed. Luckily she hasn't figured out how to push the chair to the counter top to steal the rest that don't fit in the drawer. Heaven help us all.

Swimming

Happy Helper

Noelle helped me make some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. The easiest low fat treat ever.

Kickin' Arizona Style

We've been out in our backyard enjoying the "spring" weather of Arizona. It usually starts out with Noelle being fully clothed and then stripped down to the diaper.

I've tried to show her that there are easier ways to get a drink of water. But this desert heat does make a girl delusional.

Isn't she the sweetest thing ever? I'm afraid she has my same nose. Bulbous, sorry.

Crispy Crab Cakes Anyone?

If there is anything on a menu that draws Boo in, its usually the crispy crab cakes. He usually tells me how much he loves them and then reminisces about how his Nana used to make them at the beach house. Yummy!

He called me the other night to inform me that he was recommended a recipe by a fellow co-worker and that he'd like to make them for dinner. Fine with me, however this Utah native doesn't know jack about buying canned crab. Seriously.

After some debate of which recipe was better and trying to help Boo figure out how to combine the two recipes for optimal flavor we were pleasantly surprised with the outcome. (PS - That's my version aioli that you see on the crab cake)

For the Unconventional

This past weekend we celebrated the life of my step-brother Paul at his funeral in Las Vegas. Its always a good time when the family gets together and we usually end up laughing at silly things that are generally irreverent and doing things the unconventional way.

But that's ok, because we're unconventional people you see.

I come from good ol' divorce stock. Kind of like the feral child kind, but not the same. I am the youngest of four kids and then there are all the rest. "All the rest?..." you ask, yes that would be the rest of my family.

When people ask how many kids are in my family I usually give one of two answers, but I first ask "In my mom's family or my dad's family?" Then people cock there heads to one side as they process and then I just say there are seven kids in my family. Because no matter how you slice and dice it, that's how many there are with either parent. I could say ten, but then they ask what kind of van we drove and how we all fit into that little house and on and on. So seven, we'll just stick with that.

Divorce does unkind things to the family unit and I'd say for the most part our family, once again unconventional in our ways, has found a system that has seemed to work. If I break it down simply, its the fact that both of my parents have found people who love their kids as their own. Not all of our mixed family might claim us, but then again the feelings are probably mutual. There is also an understanding that we have an other family that is equally important in our lives. But sharing memories and delighting in life's successes and failures is what has made our family tight.

We've grown up together, sharing spaces, slamming doors, exchanging gifts and cars, cherishing nieces and nephews all the same as the conventional families in America. But really we're all lucky because we have four parents instead of two.

One Year Older and Wiser Too.....

Another birthday week is in full swing. My birthday was on Saturday and well there were just a few things I required and to sum them up it was to do absolutely nothing. I didn't even want to make dinner suggestions. I'd have eaten cereal if that was the choice made for me. I was in my bathrobe until 5pm and the only reason I bothered getting dressed was because someone rang my doorbell. I didn't answer it because I was ashamed of myself for still being in my bathrobe. So sorry whoever you were. But just in case you came back I put on clothes.

Boo continued taking good care on Sunday by making some dinner and even cleaning up his cooking disaster of a kitchen. He's a great cook and uses everything possible when making dinner.

On Friday night we went out to dinner with some neighborhood friends to a great restaurant called White Chocolate Grill. If you are ever in a city that has one, I'd recommend it. Good call Camille & Andrew. We came back to our house for some super awesome Lindy Coconut Cake.

As part of the birthday week continuum, a package arrived this morning that Boo had been anticipating. He has warned me that he and his parents got me a surprise, but due to some weather complications it was delayed. I knew it had been ordered from Costco.com and started worrying immediately of what it could possibly be. My first thoughts were this: a multi-phone system for our house. This was a likely guess because his mom and I were just at Costco looking at phone systems. Thank you for not buying me that. The second was maybe new pots and pans. I really want a saute pan and IKEA as the cheapest one, but a whole new set would be fine too, but not for my birthday. Maybe he got a crazy idea to buy me an iPod. Nice thought, but I have something else I like much more. I racked my brain and really couldn't figure out what it would be, but much to my surprise he pulled through. He bought a new camera. A Cannon PowerShot ELPH. Love it. We've talked about how nice it would be to have a camera that fit nicely into a purse or pocket so that we don't have to grow a new limb to hang our current camera on. Don't get me wrong, we do like the other one, its just huge.

So here's to Boo and his parents for getting something super out of the blue. Sorry for the earlier birthday disclaimer blog that made you think you'd have to send it back. Its fantastic. I really am excited and surprised. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Side note: For many of my past birthdays I have gotten electronics, which was why I posted no electronics in an earlier blog. To name a few, car stereo, cell phone, mP3 player. Boo may say that not all of these were "birthday presents" but really they were.

Remembering Paul

We learned sadly on Saturday that my step-brother Paul passed away in his sleep. No explanations as to why, except that he looked very peaceful. Its all very strange to us because he was only seven months younger than me. His life was only getting started really.

Some may think our family deals with tragedy in odd ways, and we do, but our coping strategy is usually to think of the good times and humor of life.

We were asked to write down some memories we have of him and mine mostly go back to his adolescent days (not sure if he ever got out of that stage.) When he came to visit for holidays or during the summer he always had some sort of gadget or device which could be used to torture us all. For example, one summer he got some humongous squirt gun. So you had to beware that Paul wasn't hiding around a corner waiting to drench his unsuspecting victims.

During a Christmas visit my friend Amity was over at our house and we all decided to engage ourselves in a game of Monopoly. Paul had gotten his hands on a can of mixed nuts and chomped on them during the whole game. Amity referred to him forever more as "Nut Cruncher."

In 2001 our family took a trip to Mexico and Paul had the time of his life. One night he and our brother Daniel decided to sleep out on the patio of our condo in the lounge chairs. He woke up with small bites all over his body from the no-see-ums. He looked like he had chicken pox. He was excited to show us all his spanish speaking skills and talked to all the locals, all the time.

Paul always had a grin on his face, sometimes it was the pure joy kind of grin and other times it was a mischievous grin. We all imagine that he probably had the pure look of joy on his face when his buddy Scarlet came and asked him to go to the dog park in heaven. We'll surely miss him and look forward to seeing him at another time, in another place.

Link to Paul's Obituary

What's Your Flavor?

What goes better with birthday cake? Ice cream, duh. (BTW...I have decided that my birthday week will start on my birthday, so someone can tell Boo he has a few more days to get me an awesome present, because I'm sure he hasn't yet. No electronics please.)



"Your personality is as friendly and appealing as strawberry ice cream (especially the kind with chunky bits of real fruit). You've got a slightly sarcastic sense of humor, and you rarely stress out or take things too seriously. You are cute and sweet, but with a mischievous side. You are a bit of a troublemaker, but only because you're determined to avoid a plain vanilla life."

This is funny, my friend A got the same thing which must be why we got a long great in high school. Apparently only 9% of the people who took the quiz were strawberry. I like being the minority sometimes. To find your flavor click here.