Recipes of the Week

I just posted 4 new yummy recipes on my Special Blog! Check them out! No-guilt muffins to Salmon with mango chutney!


If you already checked out the Macaroni and cheese recipe, I altered it. I forgot to add the bacon! As my friend Melissa says, "everything is better with a little bacon."

Jocelyn's 18 months

Jocleyn turned 18 months this week. It was her first time in the nursery. She did great! Of course, I was there substituting. But I think she'll do just fine.

And Jocelyn knows when she poops. We joke she'll be potty trained before Samuel. So after he nap today we let her talk in her crib before we got her and when I came in I found a surprise. A naked baby with a poopy diaper next to her. She had taken her diaper off and unfortunately smeared some on her dollies. Yay for diaper wipes! I just wiped them off and they're all good again!

Such a pretty pretty princess! Okay, so hopefully she'll work on her smile before she has to take school pictures.

2 dates in one week!

Tyler and I were able to go out twice this week, without any children! That's a record for us.

On Thursday night we were invited to La Vigna in American Fork. We won a drawing, to invite 3 other couples, to listen to a fire safety demonstration. But we got to eat for free! And at La Vigna! which is a pretty good Italian restaurant (hey, even Tyler likes it and my sister's Italian/Albanian boyfriend likes it too!). I don't know if I am a fan of the service. We went once before and I left my leftovers on the table and my server was chatting w/other servers instead of chasing after me to return my food. I always did that as a server, the latter. If someone left their food by mistake I would run after them to give it to them instead of throw it away. I was really ticked that I left it bcse I purposeflly saved half of it to eat the next day!

Anyway, we hired a babysitter (about the 3rd time we've had to since we've had kids) from the ward. She did a really great job and doesn't charge too much! I was really happy to know that we can go out more often and it won't break our bank.

Then on Friday night my sister's sister-in-law babysat for us so that we could go to an organ festival at the Madeleine Cathedral. It was really relaxing, even on the nearly 100 year old wooden benches. It's a beautiful church and if you ever get bored during a sermon or concert you can just look at the stained glass windows or painted saints on the walls. Even though Saint Joan was like a foot taller than the saint next to her....wasn't she like 14 years old? I thought it was bit exaggerated but kind of fun to see someone wearing armor in a church.

So, it was really fun to be able to go out so much this week! What a treat! And I was tagged about Tyler so I"ll blog about that later :)

Freeway drivers are crazy! Today as I was heading north on I-15 I watched a semi nearly drive split down the middle of a lane barrier as he realized he was taking the wrong exit. And then there was some weirdo who was side riding his motorcycle like women used to do side-saddle back in the day. His left foot was on the left peddle and then he lifted his right foot over to the left side of his bike and essentially surfed on the freeway going at least 65 mph. How stupid is that???? As we like to say in our house, "idiot!" or in French, "idiot."

Unfortunately, we have stopped potty training Samuel. We'll try again later and maybe we'll get to stop feeding him Miralax to unplug his system.

No kidding! Jocelyn drinks fresh salsa, soy sauce and pickle juice. Other favorite food items are raw onions and limes. (I'll post pictures when I get them....so stay tuned).

No sleep for the past two weeks has been exhausting. Our reunion last week has put the kids on an unusually bad sleep schedule. Samuel can't often get to sleep before 9:30 pm and wakes up b/w 6 and 7am! Ugh. Plus he fights taking his naps and is then super cranky by 5pm. I hope they get over it this weekend :)

You should buy the spicy chicken sandwich at McDonald's if you want to bun your mouth. I think they just season with a bunch of black pepper and it doesn't taste very good...

Moab Stum Reunion

Last week we went to my Stum family reunion in Moab, Utah. It's for my dad's side of the family and we have it every 2 years. It's a normal sized family, 1 grandma, 5 kids, 26 grandchildren and probably that many great-grand children. So there were a lot of us there and it was fun! We each had our own air conditioned cabins and thank heavens because it was HOT!!!! Plus the mosquitoes and sunburn combined with sunscreen and bug repellent were a bad combination. When are they going to invent a sunscreen and bug repellent combination? Well, I came to church tanned and burned in odd places while Samuel was sunless but bit ridden. His teachers thought he had the chicken pocks.





Before we went to Moab and after we went to Mt Pleasant we went to the Dinosaur Museum in Price, Utah. We have so many in Utah and Colorado that I want to take in while Samuel is still interested in them.



We went river rafting, swimming, hiking at Arches Nat'l Park, we ate, we lost sleep, we talked, we were bitten, burned and had a great time!!!! I love exploring and watching my kids as they discover rocks, arches, lizards, swimming and making new friends with cousins! I love family reunions!

starting at square 1

I wanted to post about how to potty train your child. But as Samuel has only successfully pooped in the potty one out of 5 or so weeks he's been trained and peed pretty well, we realized that our (my) yelling was doing the trick and that I am not ready to post how to do it bcse, obviously, I don't know how. Prayer is necessary and perhaps some intervention. So, we (I should say, Tyler) took Samuel to the pediatrician today because he hasn't had a BM in 5 days. Diagnosis: We're basically starting over with the potty training thing. Pumping him with fluids, myralax, high in fiber fruits which he refuses to eat...maybe this will force him to like pears and peaches...we'll see....he only eats apples and juice and raisins. That is the extent of his fruit consumption. We got new potty treats, and we should not punish him for having accidents anywhere (that was my fault....). So we get to try this again! Yay (waving a flag as if I were in Monty Python). Hope it will work this time. I hope it works this time, please, oh, please. We hope our prayers will work :)

Hannah and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day!

Sorry for 2 long posts in a day. If you get through this...hooray for you! :) I won't be offended if you don't.

Okay, I don't want to be a ventilator but sometimes it's nice to know that other people have these kinds of days too. Perhaps the title is being a little dramatic. Kind of like Jocelyn and her little fits or Samuel's fake crying. Or my mom's exaggerated stories of her childhood or Tyler's increasingly expensive quote of my sister Rosemary's prom dress. Or just like the infomercials that have to admit that dramatic emphasis is added. Perhaps my day was like that title.

Well, it started off with a new habit of running with my newish friend Stephanie (and I might add, my 20 week pregnant friend!!!). This is the 4th 6:30am session that we've done and I've increasingly gotten tireder and what seems slower. But it still feels great!

But then as I was doing some Pilates with Wendy I was distracted by Samuel and Jocelyn asking for a third snack since breakfast and them trying to be nice to Wendy's baby...I still feel I got another good workout though.

Then after my much needed and warm shower, I put on my denim capris. Or should I say, squeezed into my denim capris. I nearly cried. I felt like a belly of flab with two sausages attached. You know how there is that outer skin covering the meat and mostly fat? Well, that is what I felt like. And these suckers were stretchy and did not feel so tight a few weeks ago! So why do I work out at all? Or is it the cookie dough that I snarfed down a few weeks ago? Who knows...I simply know where the term "uptight" comes from now bcse when I am squeezing into clothing like this it certainly doesn't help my mood.


After this I turned off the TV (Samuel loves it when I put Jocelyn to bed or shower bcse it's a guarantee that he'll get to watch TV) and informed Samuel that we would get to go to the Wheeler Farm and a special movie tomorrow with Parker. He had just peed so I thought he was good. But I suppose in all of the excitement of the news, he wet his pants.....after a long weekend of accidents already. I was so mad. I decided that we were not going to the farm and would not talk to him for the next 20 minutes. I know, really mature. He kept nagging me to go, naturally. So then he decided at 11 am that he was hungry for lunch. So I gave him a PB sandwich and proceeded to check my email while he begged me to play mariokart. After shedding a few tears in frustration I remember myself falling asleep in the living room chair and awoke to the sound of banging from the bathroom. I vaguely remember Samuel saying he had to go the bathroom (hooray!) but was sorely disappointed to find a toilet full of 1/2 a roll of toilet paper. I tried not to lose my cool and had him clean up the mess himself, in which he cut the same finger that he cut yesterday. So after his hysteria was over I fed Jocelyn and he some more lunch I just wanted to leave. I went shopping and hope we don't get sick for leaving food in the car for a long time. And the internet didn't work at the Family History Library so I had to leave that early (ugh) and didn't get much done.

I didn't want to be anywhere. Not at home, not outside, not at the temple, not at the family history library, not at the mall, not anywhere. I think I just wanted to float around and relax and watch the clouds go by with the breeze brushing up against my face. I wanted to escape the reality that is my life. I want to escape toilets, underwear, cleaning underwear, food, money, dramatic fits, emails, etc. Tyler reminds me it's called escapism. Who doesn't? But the last two days have been really good full of clean house, exercise, healthier controlled eating, finished long lost projects and starting new ones! Yesterday was a great day so I knew today would be a let down but I suppose I just hoped Samuel would voluntarily go #2 on the potty and that I would feel slimmer today. Dream on!

I have a headache now but can look at my picked up living room while listening to Jocelyn coo herself to sleep. At least she's been easy lately :)

I hope you enjoyed this downer of a post...maybe got some chuckles or some remembrances of your own terrible, horrible, no good very bad days!

Keys

So yesterday I did something really stupid. In my haste to leave the trampoline place called Jump on it (which I will try to blog about later...it was really fun) with overtired and ornery kids, I placed Tyler's set of keys on top of the car, as I often do, to put the kids in their carseats (or rather shove Jocelyn into hers as she is kicking, screaming and biting). I asked Samuel to go around through my seat as their was a man standing next to his side of the door and it would be have been awkward for me to put him in his seat with him standing there. Anyway, I slammed the door as Jocelyn was buckled in and got into the front seat and leaned over to buckle Samuel into his. Then I saw my set of keys in the front console and forgetting about Tyler's up on top. (you see, I had dropped Tyler off at another location and we usually have both sets of keys when we go out together bcse one unlocks the car and puts the kids in while the other locks up the house).

So I drove off happy they were both situated and munching on some apple. When I turned to get onto the main road I heard a sliding noise and I figured it was something in the trunk, though I couldn't think of what it was that I left in the trunk that would roll around. Until I turned onto the on-ramp to I-15 did I remember. I heard the sound again but this time it slid across the whole of my car. I immediately pulled over (yes, on the itty bitty shoulder of the on ramp) and looked...about 3 yards down the road were his keys! I was so stupid! I could barely see them as a white suburban crunched over them. bits and pieces flying every which way and making terrible crunching sounds. No, I am kidding, it wasn't that bad. They had barely missed them. Because it was too far for me to back up and retrieve them, especially with a pack of motorcyclists (Andrea WH,... correct terminology, please) coming up I decided to drive on, get off at the next exit, turn around and get back on the on ramp, this time stopping short so that no one would hit my car....or me. After praying the whole way back to the first exit that I would not get hit by fast and furious drivers, I parked my car, turned on my hazards and ran up to the keys, looked for traffic and ran out to the middle dotted line of this two laned on ramp. I grabbed the keys and the ring that was stuck in the tar, just in case it would puncture a a tire (uh, huh, like that would happen) and ran back to my car.

Luckily, only the anointed oil broke away from it's chain, but was not smashed (perhaps it was protecting the rest of the keys?) and car locker things (what are they called?) were not damaged bcse those cost like $60 to replace and his mail key was bent (big deal, I have one) and his church and house keys are slightly bent, but still usable. Maybe that is a sign...that I need to be working on something.....Um, I can't think of anything...I go to Church regularly....moral of the story..don't be stupid and leave your spare set of keys on top of your car and then drive off! (or in the trunk lock, as I've done that before too!)

I'm still here

In case any of you were wondering (bcse I've received so many calls wondering why I haven't been blogging...haha) I am still here. I am well. I have been sort of busy.

I recently wrote a 10-minute play which was originally a comedy but turned into a drama. I'm pretty happy with it though and hope to turn it into a full length one day. I submitted it to a competition here in Utah...we'll see how it fares.

And contrary to popular belief (or hopes on any party's side) and contrary to any hinting about getting a bigger car, etc I AM NOT PREGNANT, nor want to be at this time. I am not sick due to pregnancy which can sometimes cause delays in the blogging world.

I am the same old, same old. Trying to lose weight, working, cooking, cleaning (my house has been clean for 24 hours straight! yipee!), finishing up some projects and trying not to strangle my children on a daily basis!

So you think you can dance?