Ten for Tuesday

Seriously, I am so behind on blogging things. I have just had a crazy few weeks and blogging has not been at the top of my list. So here are 10 random bits of info.

1. Our little patient Ella is healing well physically, but I worry about the emotional toll it took on her. She has had two nightmares now that were obviously her reliving the stitches. She was screaming for me and thrashing and would shout, "My hand! My hand!" and "My mommy! My mommy!" Those two sayings are exactly what she screamed during the stitches and it totally breaks my heart that she is having nightmares about it.

2. I took a picture of Ella's stitches to show Andrew and when Ella saw it, she said, "Poor thing baby, so sad"

3. We went to a " trunk a treat" last night in the freezing cold. The kids loved it still, especially that they got to go around three times (or seven if you were Arick).

4. I discovered pink grapefruit Jelly Bellies and they are now tied with my other favorite Jelly Belly flavor, Juicy Pear.

5. I am starting to sell stuff on Ebay again, as well as on Craigslist. A little extra cash for the holidays never hurt, but I am mostly looking forward to reducing the stuff I have to clean up.

6. I am sad to hear one of my favorite shows, Pushing Daisies, might be canceled. I wish they would cancel some of the other muck that is on tv.


7. Have you seen this jewelry? This is totally on my wishlist. I love it. I would choose the light blue, pink and white crystals instead to make it just right. Type in "hand stamped silver jewelry" in the search box on www.etsy.com to see lots of beautiful jewelry in this style.

8. The kids have been requesting that I make the pumpkin soup I posted earlier. That is a huge deal!

9. Andrew and I are going to California soon sans kids and I am a bit freaked out being away from the kids.


10. I discovered a new herbal drink that I love. It is called Gingerbread Spice and with a little sugar free French Vanilla creamer, it is perfect. Just in time for the chilly mornings around here.

Our little patient

Last night was one of the days that I am sure will not make her favorites list. Just after the older kids got home from school, she tripped on her way to give me a hug. When she put her hands down to catch herself she place her hand on a trash bag ready to be taken outside. Unfortunately, an opened can left a horrible gash in her hand. I won't go into the gory details but essentially she had the cut as far as she could without hitting bone or muscles/tendons. She need six stitches to close it up and she screamed the entire time. It broke my heart.

Curry Pumpkin Soup

I love pumpkin based soups so I came up with this recipe for the cooking group I go to. It was delicious. Try serving in a pumpkin for a fun presentation.

Curry Pumpkin Soup

INGREDIENTS:
3 tablespoons butter
½ large onion, chopped finely
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons Madras curry powder
2 cans low sodium chicken broth

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1 cup Half and Half (fat free is fine) cream
2-3 tablespoons white sugar to taste
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:
Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Saute onions until soft. Stir in flour and curry powder until smooth. Cook, stirring, until mixture begins to bubble. Gradually whisk in broth, and cook until thickened. Stir in pumpkin and half-and-half. Season with sugar, salt, and pepper. Bring just to a boil, then remove from heat. Garnish with roasted pumpkin seeds (optional).

We are back from Atlanta!

We had a wonderful trip to Atlanta and I just had to share my favorite picture. Our visit to the aquarium was such a wonderful experience. We attended a special event hosted by the conference Andrew was attending that was held after the Aquarium closed. Our kids were the only kids there, so no competing for prime viewing space at any of the exhibits. And the food . . . OH MY HEAVENS! I had some of the best steak I have ever tasted. The biggest blessing though was that Andrew got to experience a little piece of Atlanta with us. It was great.

Enjoy the photograph (click on it to see it bigger), I will share more this weekend.

8 Favorite TV shows...
1. Monk
2. Psych
3. House
4. Pushing Daisies
5. 24
6. House Hunters
7. Good Eats
8. Any tv show that gets Ella's attention and keeps her out of trouble

8 Favorite Restaurants...
1. Sushi restaurants in general
2. Outback Steakhouse
3. Los Hermanos
4. The Cheesecake Factory
5. Tucanos in Provo
6. City Limits Diner in Stamford, CT
7. The Melting Pot
8. Panera Bread

8 things that happened yesterday...
1. I sorted 8 laundry baskets of misplaced items.
2. I snuggled with Ella and Ty.
3. I found friends on Facebook.
4. I made black beans and rice for dinner.
5. I worked on finalizing details for Super Saturday.
6. Organized papers.
7. I watch the Mentalist and thought it was pretty good.
8. I talked to Brianna about following directions better at school.

8 things to look forward to...
1. Jamie's visit to Nashville this weekend
2. General Conference
3. Less bugs
4. My photo session tomorrow
5. Our upcoming trip to Atlanta (hopefully we will have not troubles with obtaining gas)
6. Super Saturday
7. Fall Decorations
8. Hot chocolate or in my case hot french vanilla by Stephen's

8 things I love about Fall...
1. The leaves!
2. Apple picking (hope to go this weekend)
3. Pumpkin bread
4. Hot soup
5. Buying and making Christmas gifts
6. Lower utility bills
7. Thanksgiving
8. That my kids are in school

8 things on my wishlist...
1. A clean house
2. To paint my bedroom and bathroom.
3. To get my attic space organized.
4. A trip to Disneyworld with Brianna.
5. To get more sleep
6. A massage
7. Ella will start playing with toys and not my stuff.
8. Lots of fabric for my quilt projects.

Amy Butler Fabric for the girl's room
Heather Bailey Fabrics
Cotton Blossoms
Fabulous Fall - oerfect for my fall decor plans


I tag Cristina, Sandy, Gail, Kory, Ashley, and Sarah.

The tree that once was

Here is a pic of the tree that cost me a chunk of money. Money that would have been so much more fun to spend on a trip to Disney World. Ty, however, thought it was a great way to spend money. He had such a fun time watching the men use such "cool tools". The tree fell down a week ago and thanks to a neighbor who heard the first pop warning sound, kept my kids far away from it. The tree fell down about 30 minutes later.

My cousins

These are some of my favorite cousins. Our lives don't intersect often but when they do we always find it easy to chat. When I was little and we visited them in New York, I thought they were so much fun to be around, that I wished I could stay with them forever.

Hello!

So I have lots to share this morning!

-My mom and Craig attended the family reunion on Saturday and oh how I wish I could have been there. I adore my extended family and I wish I could know them so much better. We lived so far away from everyone so seeing each other growing up was very limited. I swear I have the most fascinating aunts of anybody. My mom said the reunion was wonderful and apparently several members of my extended family read my blog. How fun!! I just wish they all had blogs that I could read too. I miss having Grandma Ella D's letters, mixed up facts and all, so I could keep up with how everyone is doing.



-I found this picture of Brianna in my files and I love it. It isn't perfect but it is so her. The ponytail that she is determined to do by her self and the fly-aways from running around.

-I am missing Connecticut right now. Every year at this time we would go apple picking at our favorite farm. We would fill ourselves up with apple cider and apple fritters and pick about 20 pounds of our favorite apples: mutsus, honeyscrisps,empires, and more. Fabulous times indeed.

-Andrew was gone this weekend for a trip to Utah to see family and attend a conference. He partnered up with his brothers to surprise his parents and Andrew said their reaction was exactly what he wanted. On Saturday he had an almost perfect day. He met Ty Detmer (the inspiration for our little Ty's name), he went to the football game with his two brothers and his dad and of course BYU would smother the other team 44-0, and then he got to help his parents around the house (which he loves to do, must be because he is the first child). He got home safe and sound last night. Thank heavens! I am not good as a single parent and I don't like not having him around.

-I am struggling with getting a good night's sleep lately and I am just done with it. I don't want to say the word tired in reference to myself again for a long time. I dislike the fact that I can't just exist on 4 hours of sleep and be done. Yawn. Other than that, life is great!

Super Saturday Crafts

Here are a few of the crafts we are working on as part of a special event the Relief Society is hosting on November 1st. The items that are not shown are a darling heart shaped door hanging, the other options for the tiles, and a different FHE board. I am in charge of planning this and it is a lot harder than it looks. I am currently putting together an order form and hope to get that mailed out to the sisters tomorrow. What fun!

Google Reader

Okay, so you might have noticed that the blog has changed its look today. Well I have spent hours trying to figure out why my blog is not accessible by Google Reader. I have no clue how it got fixed, but I think it got fixed.

If you use Google Reader, could you add my blog and see if it updates for you? Please let me know if it works.

Special shout out to Sarah with an h. You should be able to now use this address on your friends list and have it update like the others. Let me know if that works.

Little Miss Sassafras turns 2

(This post is a few weeks late due to my hard drive failure and all the headaches that caused.)

Ella is two! And a mighty terrible one at that. We have never had a terrible two year old before, usually just the terrible three year old kids. However, three older siblings have helped Ella to grow up a bit faster just so she can keep up. Here is a list of the wonderful (or not so wonderful) things that Ella does:

She has figured out how to undo almost every childproofing item we have in the house. We thought we were safe because Ty is still trying to figure some of these things out. What a stinker!

She adores emptying out an entire box of cereal. If she gets to the frosted shredded wheat, she will lick off the frosting and put the wheat part back in the box. She does the same thing with oreos with the cream filling. Ewww!


Ella is ridiculously hard to photograph when it is me photographing her. These photos were very hard to get. They aren't perfect but at least you can tell what she looks like. I promise she does smile.

Ella is still a peanut and fits 12-18 month size clothes.

Ella is obsessed with Care Bears.

Ella loves blankets (a.k.a. Banket or Gankie). She can't go to sleep without one and she will wake up in the middle of the night if it isn't covering her. She is starting to show a preference for two pink blankets we have, but usually anything soft, including a towel, with suffice.

Ella gets at least 4 cup of water on my floor everyday. I would like to know whose ingenious idea it was to have a water dispenser on a fridge that doesn't have a lock, grrr.

Ella is talking very clearly and using sentences. We find her chatter to be the cutest thing about her. She loves to say prayers and repeat after us during scriptures. The funny way she says the Book of Mormon names has us all giggling.

She has to eat cereal and cheese everyday as those are her two favorite foods. Noodles come in a close third. She is no longer on formula but drinks powdered milk and water.


She loves to snuggle and expects to be snuggled when she wants it, even if it is not convenient for you.

Ella is a fish. When we go boating, we anchor the boat for a while. Then we hang out, jump off the back deck and swim, which makes her extremely happy.

We all love and adore this little girl despite all the trouble she causes. In the end though, the joy and laughter she adds to our home is worth more than the trouble, so she is a keeper. Our family just wouldn't be complete without her.


This is as close as to a happy face that Ella shared with me. Stinker.


Ella is staring in awe at an apache helicopter that is flying near us.


Ella does not think my attempts at getting her to look at the camera are amusing. Anybody else's kid and they are fascinated, but Ella, no way! I officially diagnose her with PKS . . . Photographer's Kid Syndrome.

Five for Friday

1. I am sick with a terrible head cold.

2. I am totally going to make felt food for Ella for Christmas this year. I hope to get her a kitchen and the food would make the perfect addition. You can see this cute food here: Cute felt food!



3. I have been visiting www.etsy.com, www.craftser.org, and www.marthastewart.com a lot this week to help prepare for Christmas gift making and craft day for Relief Society. Lots of fun ideas and I can't wait to get going on my gift making extravaganza for the Holidays. I always try to include a little homemade item when I give gifts, so much more fun than buying everything.

4. I am really looking forward to Church being in the morning again this next year. Sunday afternoon naps will be possible again. Yay!


5. The fifth fact is a tip. My favorite backup plan for dinner is Knorr's Pesto packets (thanks to a friend, Ruth Ann who introduced me to this years ago) that you can buy at the store for about $1.25. I can throw in shrimp or cooked chicken to make it even more filling. The best part is that the kids love it too, especially in their lunch since it works well at room temperature.

Andrew's dream room

Oh, did I say Andrew? I meant Ty. Right. We received our Pottery Barn catalog in the mail recently and later on we heard, "Oh cool!!!! Mom I want this room!" from Ty. Of course, being the huge fan that he is, I wasn't surprised that he needed that room. However, he told me it in that little 4 year old voice. You know the voice, the one that has magical powers and makes you want to cave in to whatever the voice is asking for. Or maybe, Ty has a little bit of the 'force'? Either way, I am now researching how I can create the look for cheap.

Buggies

Ella is convinced that the raisins in Raisin Bran cereal are buggies, but it doesn't stop her from eating it. We were all laughing about it this morning, and then one of the older kids said, "What if she thinks she can eat real bugs?" Well that quieted our laughter down real quick and we kept repeating to Ella, "Those are raisins, not buggies." Good times.

Ten for Tuesday

1. At about 4:45 p.m., I witnessed the neighborhood pit bull escape from his home across the street and attack a neighbor. When I saw the pit bull dash out of its yard, I slowed the car down to make sure that my neighbor, who was outside chatting with another neighbor, would be okay. As soon as I saw the dog bite her leg, I started honking my horn like crazy to scare or distract it. The dog came towards my car and I pressed the gas a little. That scared it away from the car and from my neighbors. I'm glad it worked! My neighbor seems to be okay, but there was quite a bit of yelling between the husband of my neighbor and I believe the owners of the pit bull later that evening. I plan on visiting my neighbor tomorrow to make sure she is okay. Talk about unwanted excitement in the neighborhood . . . not to mention an unwanted, attack pit bull!

2. I have discovered a great new children's CD. It is by the popular band, BNL. You can hear samples of the songs here. While I'm not thrilled with the name of the band, their music is teriffic. My kids LOVE the "Popcorn" song.

3. We asked Ty what he learned about in Church on Sunday and he couldn't remember. So we tried prompting him with some questions. "Did you learn about Moses? Did you learn about Noah? Did you learn about John the Baptist? Did you learn about _________? (insert Bible name here)" and he would always say "Yes." We asked him "Did you learn about Luke? and he started to laugh and said, "Mom! We don't learn about Star Wars at Church!!" (Of course I meant Luke, the author of one of the Gospels.) We got a great laugh out of that one.

4. Ty is obsessed with Star Wars.

5. I finally figured out a way to protect our games for the Wii/Gamecube and our DVDs. They are always being scratched and it has cost us quite a bit! I bought a locking CD case and I'm the only one with a key! The case is called Vaultz and you can buy them at Walmart. The kids have to bring me the game they've been playing to exchange it for another. It's working great so far. I just may have figured out a way to stop Ella from playing "scatter-the-expensive-games/DVDs-all-over-the-floor."

6. Ella has earned the nickname 'Destruct-o-girl' in our house. I seriously can not keep up with the carnage she leaves behind sometimes. The other day, I was cleaning stickers off of my wood floor and while I was doing that, she emptied out a box of cereal. While I was cleaning that up, she got in more trouble with another contraband! I have never had a stinker quite like this one. Of course, with three older sibling leaving her easy access to everything (i.e. forgetting to put the cereal boxes away in the locked cabinet), she pretty much has free access to things that were only dreamed of by our other 'destruct-o' kids.

7. When you lose your hard drive and you have to start all over, you quickly learn what you miss the most. I miss my bookmarks and my organized mailbox folders. And autofill for email addresses is such a time saving feature. Sigh.

8. Brianna is getting moody and I don't like it. I have been reassured by parents of other 10 year old girls, that this is very normal, but that is only slightly reassuring becuse they also say that it just may get worse. :( She is constantly testing me and her emotions jump from low to high to low again. Ugh!

9. We upgraded our satellite to more channels for the football season. I am so excited to have Monk, Psych, and HGTV back!

10. We all seem to be getting sick. Yuck. Andrew and Ella have it the worst. It is the back-to-school cold rearing its ugly head again.

Update on my computer

Apple repaired the hard drive and I have my computer back.  I won't know until next week how much data is recoverable.  I do have some data on my back up hard drive but not all of it.  I have learned lots of important lessons, most importantly to back up the entire computer, not just pictures.  It is going to take me weeks to recover from losing all of this.  Yuck.

A little surprise was waiting for me when I turned on my iMac.  They upgraded me to the newest operating system Leopard at no extra cost.  

This can't be happening!

Well my iMac broke. One year and two weeks after buying it, it is dead. The hard drive apparently doesn't exist. At first I didn't worry, because I have an external back up hard drive. But then I noticed, the hard drive wasn't attached to the computer and I suddenly felt nauseated. How long has it been like that? Ugh. The longer it has been disconnected, the more lost files there will be. This can't be happening.

This can be incredibly devastating to me. As I am unable to access the external hard drive, I don't know how much information I have lost so all of the worst case scenarios keep popping up in my head. Not good for my general emotional health.

I am hoping that it is only a loose connection somewhere and that is it. That would be the best answer. I am taking the iMac to Apple tomorrow, so please pray that this isn't a disaster.

Arick's Baptism

Today, Arick was baptized. It was such a nice day and the program, as well as the baptism, was wonderful. Aunty Maren talked about baptism and my good friend, Cristina, spoke about the Holy Ghost. After Arick came up out of the water, his smile was so big. I asked him if he felt different later and he said he feels 'grown up'. I just hope the he remembers the joy he felt forever.

Grandpa Craig and Gigi took us out to dinner at the Olive Garden restaurant afterwards to celebrate (thanks for the yummy meal!). We were all so full that we had to turn down the free birthday ice cream and told them to just sing the birthday song.

Seriously, whose kids do this?

Warning: the following post is about potty training and is not to be read at meal time. :)

I know that I am behind on my posts and pics . . . I'm just too tired these days. But I wanted to share a little bit about Ella. Yesterday was her second birthday! I can't believe my baby is TWO! Well, she received a "princess potty" as a gift. I really have had no desire to potty train Ella since she's my baby and since potty training has historically been pretty difficult and messy. Plus, she's only two . . . still quite young. However, Ella has been giving us signs that would indicate that she may be ready, in a few months, to take this big step.

Well, Ella has had us all fooled. That girl was so excited for her potty, she stripped down, sat on it, and did her business without the slightest problem. This potty has music that plays to encourage the potty-goer . . . although meant to be a reward, it kind of scared the pee out of her the first time she heard it! Andrew and I had a good laugh!

When we told her she was all done and we took her off the potty, the little stinker cried because she wanted to stay on it. Seriously! What kid just starts using the potty without being bribed or prodded to do so . . . and then begs to just sit there?!

Today she has been determined to keep using the potty and has had great success. She hates her diaper and wants to wear a swim diaper because she thinks they are underpants. Could she go without a diaper all day? Not yet. But in 24 hours she has had more success than our first three kids combined! Seriously, this just doesn't happen!

Yet, as exciting as this is, it makes me a wee bit sad (pun intended) to see my Ella leave babyhood behind (again, pun intended).

10 for Tuesday

1. My sil, Maren, takes more pics of my kids than I do. See them here.

2. Arick turned 8 this week and I did not take it well. I was teary eyed all day. He was spoiled with lots of fun gifts and attention. Brianna did not take that well at all, you would have thought she was 3, lol. I sense preteen emotional drama coming on.

3. Brianna and Arick started school yesterday. They both were assigned teachers that they adore, mostly because they are 'anti-homework' teachers. I can tell that I am going to like those teachers as well.

4. Brianna earned a Hannah Montana Piano book as a reward for her consistent piano practicing. She is beyond thrilled.

5. My favorite part of the Olympics so far is watching Michael Phelps. That guy is seriously amazing at what he does.

6. 5th grade girls are lame. They are obsessed about having boyfriends. Brianna is not (that we know of), thank heavens, but how long can I 'protect' her from this insanity? Ugh.

7. Andrew received a new calling at Church. He is now the Executive Secretary. I am sure he will enjoy this calling immensely.

8. My current obsession for food is frozen corn. A whole bag for lunch . . . yummy! My friend Gayle shared with me a corn on the cob recipe that I adapted to what I had around. I sprinkle olive oil, southwestern spice mix that I have, lime juice, and a little salt on my hot corn. It is so tasty.

9. Ty is obsessed with Star Wars. He wants to watch the movies over and over again.

10. Arick is finally clicking with the guitar. Like his teacher said 7 months of 'nothing' and then magic happens. He is doing so great now. I was very close to stopping the lessons.