Today I am NOT going to. . .

. . .get everything done!

1. Make a black forest cake
2. Call Maui car reservations
3. Clean up the kitchen and 2 weeks of neglected paper work
4. Make a fabulous lasagna dinner
5. Get the boys pictures taken with Grandma C.
6. Pay Dawn's $7 overdue lunch money bill
7. Take kids to school early at 8:00 and pick up at 9:30 (what a day)
8. Go out to eat with the birthday boy
9. Send Paige's late b-day present
10. Water the plants
11. Wash some undies
12. Put away folded clothes
13. Make a card for Matt
14. Orchestrate a party for my hubby complete with the above mentioned things as well as many homemade cards, decorations and treats by the kids
15. Stop blogging and get on with it

Blow out the candles for. . .

Matt! Happy Birthday sweetie! I love you and know you'll have a great b-day ;-)



Wishing you a year with a full fridge never running low on milk or cheese.
Wishing you a year with several trips to the orange and red playground down south.
Wishing you a year full of close proximity brotherly love.
Wishing you a year full of family, friends, and fabulous fun.
Wishing you every star and dream come true!

Winner Wednesday--Paige

Up until a few weeks ago, my sister Paige was writing a blog which featured "Winner Wednesday". She discovered she was pregnant quickly by the uncontrollable vomiting and sickness. She hasn't written since. She is the winner for Wednesday!

Paige is a sweetie. She has many beautiful characteristics and qualities. But the main consideration for being a winner this Wednesday is her willingness and determination to bring another beautiful baby into her family. She has one boy and one girl already. Both pregnancies landed her in the hospital several times. She has IVs up the yin yang to rehydrate her from all her vomiting (as well as a PICC line last pregnancy). She wakes up dry heaving and doesn't stop all day. She is often lucky to keep a few crackers and a drink of water down all day. She feels so guilty about the decrease in attention she has to give to her family, but she does her best.

I love you Paige. I have no idea how hard this is for you. I barely throw up when I have a bun in the oven. I just get a little hot around the collar. But I look up to you,Paige who so obviously puts your life on the line to bring a sweet spirit to the world. But what lucky kids who get to have you as a mommy!

PS Today I am NOT going to sleep until I have my little surprise ready to send you in the mail! (You know, your very late birthday present;-)

Feeling summery?

You have to watch this video from JCrew.

Via {Frolic}

The 5 Chinese Brothers, starring Dawn!

Friday, The 5 Chinese Brothers premiered on stage at Deerfield Elementary. Dawn Curtis stole the show in her role as the narrator! In her first ever professional production she showed the world, or at least the 1st grade class and their families, her superior acting and master of the art. We look forward with great anticipation for her next production.

Happy Memorial Day

Isn't it sweet to remember. . . Remember those who died saving our lives, remember the awfulness that gives birth to priceless freedom, remember God who gave it all to us. Please God, bless us, and all the world to embrace peace. We'll try to remember better, longer, more often.

So very thankful

"We're thank thee for our famiwe" Scott so sincerely prays every night. He's so cute. He just can't quite get the difference between "We thank thee" and "we're thankful for..." At least his little heart is thankful. Just like mine is for him.

So here's how it went down.

What I really wanted and didn't get. You can't see the top well, but it is divided into sections to put collections and doo dads in. How cute with baskets underneath!

We dropped Rachel off at 9:10 at school and set off for Ikea. The roads around Ikea were all policed and blocked off. Out of the 5 lanes on the road right by it, 3 were set up to go to Ikea, one was empty and one was being parked it. That is where I was directed. We parked, walked past the extra parking lot/fields, past the real parking lot, around the building where we found the end of the line. I got in line about 9:50. It was pretty quick and we never really stopped walking. As we got around to the front, we were greeted with free Ikea waterbottles and frisbees. We almost, well, we did actually miss the frisbees and Scott started crying. We found another cute-Swedish dressed girl who was giving them out, so I urged Scott forward, but he was too shy amidst all the pushy adults. So she ran out. So he cried. So a nice lady gave him hers. Thank goodness for good people out there willing to quell a few tears by giving up their freebees.

We got in the store about 10:10 or so. We were greeted by lots of blue and yellow smiling folks banging plastic balloon thingys together. We ran through the tunnel of people to emerge on the escalator (one of Scott's highlights of the day). It was so crowed that I was glad I'd already been to one to know what it was like. We didn't bring our stroller because I knew there were carts, however, there weren't any upstairs and so I carried Andrew and drug Scott along with promises of a cart downstairs. Ikea is like a maze that guides you through the whole store, each section, so as to not miss anything. Well, Scott was unhappy and it was SO croweded, we tried to sneak around people until we could find the stairs and get down to the carts! We made it and found just what we wanted, the cute plates, dancer figures, and a cool beach picture and frame. The checkout lanes weren't too long, but fairly slow. We made it out by 11:15 or so. Then we treated ourselves to a frozen yogurt and cinnamon bun at the exit.

It turned out pretty fun, crazy and not too inspiring. If you want to really see the inspiring Ikea, I'd wait for the frenzy to die down. Or go have fun in the craze and go back later for a more meaningful experience. That's what I'm planning on doing!

***Matt, don't read this, it is a surprise/secret/spoiler****

I mean it honey.

As a side note, today I went to Tai Pan and was WAY more beguiled by the things there and spent WAY more money than at Ikea. What fun! (Okay, so it won't spoil any secrets for you, just for me!:)

PS Today I will NOT start a new book. I need a little time to get my house in order. I just finished Wuthering Heights. We'll discuss later.

Ikea opens!

Our very own Ikea is opening today. I am braving the throngs of excited and crazed shoppers to participate in the historic occasion! I'll let you know later how it goes!


I love these plates. The subtle concentric circles are hard to see on the picture.


And I've liked these dancers for a long time.


Wish me luck!

And they're off!

Off to the races. Fast cars, fast women (no, just Brooke, Julie and Shayla, all studly awesome women) and lots of fun. Who would've guessed?

Shopping is hard

with kids. I dash off between dropping my kindergartener off and picking her up. We drive to the mall, kids complain about being hungry(30 minutes after breakfast?), can't squeeze between racks with my monster, but very neccessary, jogging stroller, face all sorts of shouted questions about how I feed babies while I try on swim suits that squelch my great feelings about the 8 pounds I've lost. Whew. Back at it after lunch. What's a girl/mom/wife to do?

I want a raise

Reuters released data that the work a stay-at-home mother performs is worth $138,095. I want a raise.

Back to real life

Do any of you have a hard time re-entering real life after a good book? I sure do. Do you want a more exciting/romantic/unusual/extraordinary/funny life than you really do? Do you regret the dishes, loathe the laundry and try to re-immerse yourself in the dream you wish was part your life, but not really? I'm sure you know just what I mean?

Anyway, that is my day today. Difficult.

Vampires devour blood. . .

I devour books. It's true. I am not very capable of reading a book a little at a time, unless I'm not loving it. But the truth is I love most books I read. I hope that is because I mostly like reading classics (I'm working my way through them). But I also read a lot of modern books, too. I am able to take the good a book has, and enjoy it. I liked all the Harry Potter books, I just finished Cecilia and Sorcery, I could go on. They aren't classics, but I really like them.

So that said, plus the fact that I didn't mention what I was NOT going to do yesterday equal another gone down to a fabulous, lazy day of reading. Days like yesterday are my favorite. My kids get a little frustrated. I kept honestly trying to put it down; my willpower is so weak. It's like Andrew and the sight of a cracker, it's like Scott and a truck, it's like an alcoholic in a free bar, it's like a vampire smelling blood. I CAN NOT RESIST!

So that brings me to yesterday. My mother-in-law left a book at my house Sunday to return to her sister who lives nearby. She thought I might like to read it before returning it. Well, I was a little sceptical. They had been talking about it before. It was about vampires in a normal world. They were SO fixated on it. It was all the rage. I was worried. Actually, I was pretty sure that I'd like it. I was just putting on a show for looks.

So yesterday all I DID do was make a quick Mother's Day post and read. And read, and get some quick lunch for my kids, and read and put in a movie for the kids, and read and put in another movie (I'm so bad, but Rachel was home sick so I didn't want her running around), and read and not make dinner and not get FHE ready and read. It was lovely.


So now the book, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. It was so good. I loved it. It was so romantic, devastatingly romantic in my opinion. And interesting and ponderable (a real word I'm sure) and gripping (I got that one off the back cover, but it was obviously true for me too). Last night, after the kids were in bed, I finished the epilogue. And then I reread some parts, parts that were romantic, parts that explained things I missed, parts that caught my eye as I flipped through the pages. I never do that, but I did.

You should definitely read this book. I loved it and will read the sequel New Moon as soon as I can get my hands on it. Ahhhh. Romantic. Ahhhhhhh. Really romantic and exciting and scary. Ahhhhhhhh. I read it too fast. I want to still be immersed in the story today. Oh well. That's what I get for being insatiable when I start a good book.

I must add that this is a young adult fiction book, read it knowing that.

P.S. Today I am NOT going to be able to stop thinking about it. Really.

Happy Mothers' Day

We had a wonderful Mothers' Day yesterday. Maybe it was a bit like yours. Scott accidentally on purpose spilled the beans about the surprise breakfast in bed. So I knew I was expected to stay asleep in bed until breakfast arrived. I woke up about 7:20, 20 minutes after the start of the preparations. Hearing the sqeals and protests of the kids told me things were progressing quite nicely. So I dozed back off. About 7:45 I was up for good. I stayed faithfully in bed waiting for the tray of delishiousness and love to come. This worked fairly well until baby Andrew found his way to my door (for the second time really) and pounded on it, crying, and yelling ma ma ma ma ma! It was all I could do to resist him. But I succeeded in waiting. The tray came in covered in cards, pictures, juice and fresh strawberry crepeps. Yum, and I mean yum. After a bit or two, we all moved into the kitchen because let's face it, a glass full of juice, stacks of paper, whipped cream and excited jumping kids do not equal anything good.

I also got a lot of sweet prayers. Scott started it off. Matt prompted him to thank Heavenly Father for our mom. Scott prayed "Bless mommy to be thankful". I am, for such sweet kids and husband. Rachel included in her prayer a little later to help all the kids "not get out too much toys and stuff." And they didn't, so I was even more thankful.

Matt gave a lovely talk in Sacarament meeting which I will post a little later. We had Matt's parents at our home for the day and his siblings joined us for dinner at 5. We had a great meal (lucious crock pot chicken and the yummiest carrot cake of all time prepared by the ninja husband, Matt) and great talks.

The whole day was wonderful, in fact, nie unto perfect! I love being a mother. I love nurturing my sweet children and raising them (and my husband). What a great privelage to be a mother. Thank the heavens I am one!

Springville Museum of Art

Delish spinach and beef salad, scrumptious cheesecakes, hot and sweaty dancing to a live band, fine performing arts all in the shadow of great new art from Utah artists. What a fabulous anniversary. The Art Ball at the Springville Museum of Art is a annual event celebrating art. What a fabulous night!

My friend, Amy Hintze, entered a drawing and was accepted to the show. So we decided that we would spend a lovely night and go see her work. It was awesome. Her picture was lovely in person. There were so many beautiful pieces there. My favorite piece was actually a statue that is part of their permanent collection.
It is by Avard Tennyson Fairbanks. He has also done many church statues you may have seen. It is nude, which I generally don't endorse, but don't catagorically deny either. This figure was beautiful. It was touching. I'm sure I wouldn't have understood it before I had given birth and nursed my own four children. It is a sacred feeling for me. It connects me to God, we nourish a spirit together. This figure embodied that feeling for me. I loved it. You should check it out next time you are near Springville, Utah. I mean it.

Pretty plants for my porch

Yesterday I planted my plant stand for my porch. Isn't it lovely. It generally starts out pretty and healthy. It degenerates from there from a lack of consistent watering, hot, hot weather, who knows what else. So enjoy it while it lasts. On second thought, if you just look at this post, it will always look good, even if it is young.

P.S. Don't be alarmed to see the nocotiana, it is just ornamental. I promise. Today I am NOT going to smoke my nocotiana.

Loving your body

I was just reading on a blog which I occasionally get sent to by another blog which I read often which I heard about on another blog that I read faithfully each day. . .
Anyway, it had to do with loving our bodies and accepting them. I loved this quote from one of the comments:

"I do love my body. I love that it gave birth (five times!), produced enough milk to make all five babies strong and healthy and juicy, carried me through Italy, Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Arches, Zion, Goblin Valley, Little Wild Horse Canyon, and University Mall during the Christmas rush; to the top of Mount Timpanogos, to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and up and down my stairs a million times each day. I love that it can twist into a pretzel during yoga, bend to pull a week, straighten to lift a child, and curve to snuggle with my husband."


Isn't that great! I love that I have a strong body too. I want it to be stronger to do even more things, so getting in shape is still high on my to-do list. But loving my body is now right up there too. I resolve to look in the mirror each morning and tell it that I love it. Won't it be happy!

My favorite Slaw recipe of all time

I like Kentucky Fried Chicken's coleslaw, I do. But I don't love most coleslaws. Let's face it, they can all be so different as to leave the question in your mind if they can honestly call themselves coleslaw.

Yesterday I was searching through my recipes and re-found my all time favorite slaw recipe. It is not at all a typical coleslaw. But it contains shredded cabbage and so it qualifies. Here it is.

Apple Slaw (it tastes a lot more fabulous than its name implies)

Mix together:
1 cup slivered tart red apple
1 c shredded green cabbage (I usually use a coleslaw bag and use much more than this)
4 very thin onion slices (I like to use purple onions)
1 tbsp snipped fresh cilantro

Mix together in a separate bowl:
1/2 tsp shredded lime peel
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1/8 tsp salt
(the recipe doesn't call for it, but I often add a little sugar, maybe a teaspoon or so)

This makes 2 cups, but trust me, you'll need a whole lot more.

Cool apartments

I found this cool apartment at www.apartmenttherapy.com in a contest for the coolest small apartment here.

I would miss color too much to do this, but I thought it was so well put together and nice. What exactly is it do you think?

I also like this one.

It was a little spare and modern for me, but softer than the first, which I like.

What do you think of them? What lessons can we use from them? I think I love the light in the second one. But it's a little hard to add windows.

P.S. Today I am NOT going to call any Primary teachers. It will have to wait until tomorrow.

Leering eyes

I wear disposable contacts. So each month on the 1st (or the 7th) I dispose of them. I like to throw them away in the toilet. I always hope that they will look like two eyes peering out at me. They never do. All I see are little ripples in the smooth stillness of the human excretion receptacle/throne. But each month I think the same thing and try it again.

Just thought you might want to know that about me.

Make-a-list Monday--Anniversaries

Ways we have celebrated our anniversary (in no particular order)

1. At the Anniversary Inn in Logan, complete with temple trip and food at the Copper Mill of course---twice I think.
2. A Bed and Breakfast in Park City
3. A B&B in Murray
4. At home with the kids
5. At home without the kids
6. Dinner at Sizzler then home (an early, very cheap one)
7. Dinner at Chef's Table and a B&B in Springville
8. And this year, the Art Ball at the Springville Museum of Art in Springville and a yet-to-come little diversion on some island in the Pacific!!!

P.S. Today I am NOT going to feel guilty about not mopping, because I did it Saturday! Yea! Everyone come look at it. We're having dinner on the floor tonight!

Screaming for attention

I know a wife who will quietly and cutely meow to her husband when she wants to get some attention. I'm sure it started out as a kind of joke, but it stuck. I know other women who wink at their husbands or rub their backs. I just scream.

It happened again last night. We were eating dinner and I was being slain. The kids were just so not-tired and showing it. I was just so tired and showing it. So I screamed. It got Matt's attention, just like it always does, but it didn't really change much. I think he tried to help more kids with dinner. But it certainly didn't stop the source of my slain-ed-ness.

A minute or two later I was still near-death. I closed my eyes and tried to will some energy to infuse my limp body. This is what I heard.
Dawn: Look I'm sitting down, I'm sitting down Mom. I'm sitting down, I'm sitting down. Mom! I'm sitting down. On and on and on.
Rachel: It's July 26th. Today is July 26th. It is July 26th. On and on and on.
Scott: see Dawn (Mom, I'm sitting down. I'm sitting down. On and on and on.)
Andrew: UuuUuuUuuuUUuUuuuuUuuu (as he bounced around on his somewhat wobbly steps.

I started laughing. Matt looked at me and started listening to it all also. We both just laughed. And so our kids knew they were funny, so they did their aforementioned parts even louder with giggling mixed in. But eventually they quieted down a little (after the tiniest bit of instruction) and we were all happy, even if we were noisy and crazy and busy and wild and slain.

Maybe I'll try laughing for attention for a change---if I don't forget.

P.S. Today I will NOT make lunch for my kids. I will be on a fabulous and cold field trip with my darling Dawn. Thanks Mom C

Value creation. . .hmmmm

Creating value. How do I create value in the world around me? What is value is the first question. To me value is increasing the joy, happiness, well-being of people. People are the real value, and helping them, creates value.

Can you create value monetarily? Sure, that would definitely increase people's well-being. Can you create emotional value? Of course, that is the kind that I think of most often. I feel like this and spiritual value are my primary jobs in life. I create value for my children by teaching them and loving them which in turn creates value for me and for the world. Of course, they will all create value on their own, some of each kind of value. (I, of course, have not listed all the "kinds" of value that exist.)

Creating value for others always creates value for yourself. Helping my kids be well adjusted certainly makes me happier and more successful. Helping an elderly neighbor clean up their yard creates value for all the people who will be passing by. So if you try to create real value for yourself, aren't you creating value for others at the same time?

I'm wondering how I should and could be creating more value for the people I love, and for myself. Hmmmm.

Nine years of love sweet love

Yesterday was my anniversary! It has been nine years since Matt and I were married in the Logan, Utah Temple. What a wonderful story it has been. Four kids, 3 apartments, two houses, 4 jobs, 2 college degrees, multiple callings, a kazillion (minus a few) trips to southern Utah, California, Idaho, Salt Lake, pediatricians, hospitals, Target, Thanksgiving Point, dance lessons, swim lessons, and now elementary school!

What a great nine years. Here's to more and more and more.

The princess and the post

Once there was a very sweet girl. She was so sweet that very early in her life she entranced a sweet boy, and they were married. They did not live in a castle home, but their home was their castle.

One day the sweet boy decided to take the sweet girl on a trip to see fantastic sites of red and orange with skies of blue. They couldn't bring their home with them, but the boy didn't want the sweet girl to have to sleep on the hard ground. So he took a trailer for her to sleep in. And she was grateful.

They saw many sites, walked long and at last settled in for a long rest. The sweet girl was so tired. She laid down and closed her eyes. But she couldn't sleep. She turned over and still couldn't sleep. She wiggled around and tried to get comfortable, but she couldn't. Finally sleep came is short naps, in and out of dreams.

In the morning, she awoke for good. She rose and thought to herself "Sweet boy is so sweet to bring this trailer for me to sleep in. But this trailer is not very comfortable. I wonder why." She lifted the cushion and to her amazement, she found two small, quite large, in fact, metal bars. "Oh dear," said sweet girl. "Sweet boy forgot to put the trailer bars in."

The sweet boy was so sorry. But it was through this long night that the girl and the boy realized she was in fact a princess for she felt the small bars through the soft cushion. So the girl was a princess and the boy was a prince, and they returned to their home which really was a castle after all.

Cute kids--mine!

Mormon documentary

Well what did you think? I thought it was okay. I was disappointed on the disporportionate number of comments shown by non-Mormons to Mormons. They focused a lot on the horrifics of the Mountain Meadow Massacre (and I am not denying it was bad) and relatively little on the horrors of the killing, raping, driving out of the early Mormons. That was disappointing.

And how about that psychadelic picture of the angel Moroni appearing to Joseph Smith? I will be watching again tonight and hoping for better.

PS Today I will NOT mop, again. I'm still putting it off. I will try to sweep however.