On Sunday Nora was sitting next to one of the Primary leaders and she leaned over and whispered, "Quick, tell me the answers so I can get a treat."
Nora said she was going to name her daughter Alice. I asked her what she was going to name her son. She thought about it and said, "Coconut."
The missionaries in our church go by the title Elder (Elder Smith, Elder Jones...). The Elder's stopped by our house last night. We sent Nora to bed and she said, "Not until I say goodbye to the Elderlies!"
Nora got out of preschool, ran over to me and said, "Mom! I got to meet my teacher's husband today. He is one good lookin dude."
I'm back at my sewing machine after a summertime hiatus. I really missed it!
Today I'm going to get a head start on Christmas presents. I'm going to make Nora a baby doll quilt, and I'm going to cut some fabric for a quilt I'm working on. I also made a nightgown for Nora out of a t-shirt that got a grease stain on it. That was really fun and I want to make more... I might have to visit the thrift store to find some cool old t-shirts!
I'll post pictures when I get some finish products.
Update, here are some pictures of a few things I've been up to:
The worn out old swing.
The swing after I recovered it. The headrest was still in great condition, so I didn't cover it. But I wish I did, so I'll do that when I get some time.
The baby doll quilt I mad for Nora- it was suppose to be for Christmas, but she found it.
I'm just starting to get used to the new house. It's starting to feel like home.
There are so many things I love about it:
1. the kids have their own space
2. There is no computer in my bedroom
3. I have a place I can keep my sewing machine set up ALL the time
4. The pantry is BIG
5. It's really close to Ethan's school
6. The back patio is covered!
7. the dining room is open to the kitchen
8. we can grow into it, not out of it- no more moving for a long while!
I'm still putting pictures up and rearranging furniture, but I feel settled and content. There is a bit of drama with our washer, dryer and fridge. That's a story for another day, and it includes bounced checks (not ours) and people knocking on our door saying threatening things, hmmmm. But what's life without a little excitement?
Now that Brian has a job he loves with a great company and he's done with school, life really seems to be in a routine. It feels good. I'm so grateful!
We gave away Ethan and Nora's dressers before we moved back to Texas. Ethan's was too big and dangerous (he climbed up it regularly), and Nora's barely made the trip to Utah without falling apart- it wasn't going to make the trip back. Wes has never had a dresser. So last Saturday I went out in search of some dressers. I found a great looking dresser and night stand for Ethan, which I secured for $55 total. Then, I got a call from my mother-in-law that there was a dresser and night stand in need of a home. The father of someone she knew had passed away and they were giving his furniture away to people who needed it (like us!).
It was a great set, solid wood. Only, a bit dated for a little girls room. I wish I would've taken a before picture- sorry!
So I set in to refinishing. First, I pulled out the old handles and all the gold trim.
Nora came out and saw what I was doing and said, "Mom! Why are you destroying that dresser?!"
Then I filled all the holes with wood filler. I let it dry, sanded and then filled in the cracks and depressions. Then I sanded again and filled the cracks- and then- well you get the point. I had to do that several times.
I sanded the entire dresser and night stand. Just a light sanding.
Then sprayed them with primer. It took way more primer than I thought it would. The wood grain just kept sucking the paint in.
Then I coated all the pieces with a generous amount of antique white spray paint and attached some new handles.
I love how they turned out. For sure they aren't perfect- don't look too close, they could've used some more filling and painting. Just right for a little girls room.
Common Saying: You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit.
Nora's Saying: You get what you want, and you don't throw a fit.
Common Saying: Move your feet, loose your seat.
Nora's Saying: If you get up and move your feet, then you loose your spot.
And just a quick story about how Nora likes to substitue her own version of things....
She drew a lovely picture. Then she showed it to me. I noticed that she had glued some ribbon to it. I wondered how she had done this because I knew she didn't have any glue. So I asked and she told me she used tape. I looked closer, there was no tape. So I asked again, and she said, "I used my boogers."
Seriously the best Tortilla Soup I've ever had.
Don't forget all the toppings. You won't be dissapointed!
Hearty Tortilla Soup
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
6 corn tortillas, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes
3 bay leaves
6 cups chicken stock (I make it by boiling the bones of the rotisserie baked chicken listed below)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Chicken from one Rotisserie Baked chicken, shredded or cubed
Toppings:
Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1-2 avocados, cubed
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 corn tortillas, sliced and fried crisp (actually, we need more than this because we like to eat them plain)
Directions: First: Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add chopped tortillas, garlic and onion. Saute 2-3 minutes. Add cumin and chili powder. Saute additional minute to bring out the flavor of the spices (and make the house smell good). Add tomatoes, bay leaves and chicken stock and pepper. Return to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add salt if necessary depending on saltiness of stock. Second: While soup simmers is a good time to fry tortillas for garnish. Preheat 1/2-3/4 cups of vegetable oil in a small skillet. Cut tortillas in strips. When oil is hot enough to bubble when tortillas hit the oil, put in enough strips to cover the bottom. Strips are done when they start to turn a golden brown color. Remove from oil with a slotted spoon and repeat process with remaining strips.
Third: Remove bay leaves and stir in chicken. Reheat. Fourth: Garnish soup with shredded cheese, avocado and tortilla strips. Sour cream is optional.
This recipe is from the blog "Salad In A Jar"
Check it out, she has amazing recipes.
Ok, ok, I know I just left Utah, but opportunity knocked and I opened the door wide.
My little sister has had a rough last year with her chronic illness, and while I lived in Utah I could go visit her in the hospital, help her out at home, and watch her son for her. But when she went into the hospital this last time I was in Texas and I felt very far away and useless/helpless. I was mentioning to a friend that I would love to go see my sister and help her out, but I'd have to go in the next week or so and driving alone with three little kids isn't very smart or practical. Well, my friend said , "I'll go with you and we can split gas cost." Wahoo! We both went home and convinced our husbands that we were genius' to come up with such a great plan and a week later we were headed back to Utah. My friend just moved to Texas from Utah the same time as us- she was a bit homesick and so was her son.
The drive went really well. We stopped at my brother's house in Colorado Springs and spent the night. Then we spent a couple of hours in Vail, CO for lunch the next day. We rolled into Lehi about 9pm. My friend and I parted ways to go hang out with our own families. Now we are having a blast with our families and enjoying the beautiful Utah weather.
Wesley and Samantha, cousins 1 month apart in age.
Eating lunch in Vail, CO. Perfect weather, Yummy Mexican food.
Awesome playground in Vail. Pirate ship and sea monster right off the deck of the restaurant we ate at.
Kids, getting grouchy. Still 6 hours to go.
Emmy, Lorenzo and Nora playing at a fun water park in Highland, UT. The weather was absolute perfection.
The only thing that would have made it more fun is if Brian could have come with us. ;) (I miss you!)
Just kidding, she's not in Toy Story 3- BUT she looks just like the character Bonnie. So much so that I've had multiple people come up to me to tell me so.
Check it out:
I told Nora to just smile, but she wanted to do the same thing as the pictures... Ha ha so funny!
We are in Texas now. All moved in to our apartment...For three months. Then our house should be finished and we will move again. ugh/yay. I'm really hoping that this house will be a long time move (more than 2 years!). So moving to the apartment is move #12 for Brian and I and moving to the house will be move
#13.
I'm really excited about the house. It is just right. The kind of house that we could live in for the rest of our lives. This is the floorplan. (and don't worry, we didn't pay that much!)
So now I've got to remember how to live in 100+ degree weather all summer long. We've only been here 4 days and my tan is already getting dark. We will spend most days at the pool. That's what you do here, swim. And shop and eat, it's the Dallas way. I'm trying to avoid the last two because I'm still trying to loose my holiday weight, oh and I'm trying not to spend any money, we've got a down payment to come up with!
So if you don't hear from me for a while it's because I'm at the pool, or I haven't gotten internet yet, or just cause.
Nora, Wesley and I were in the tub and I said, "Three cute, chubby people in the tub!"
Nora said, "No, two!"
Nora has a hard time with numbers so I said, "No, three...One, two, three! (pointing at each of us)."
Nora insisted, "No two! One, two (pointing at just herself and Wesley)."
In my head I thought, oh, how sweet, she doesn't think I'm chubby!
Then she continued, "Only two cute people are in the tub."
Shocked and a bit hurt I responded, "You don't think I'm cute?"
To which she quickly replied, "But you're smart!"
And this Blog, uh wow, the How To's are amazing. jcaroline creative.
Sorry. You are about to spend way too much time checking out these websites, and then a lot more time planning a whole bunch of projects!
I've been having fun trying different ways to make fabric flowers lately. It's so fun because you can use stuff that you already have around the house. Since we are totally broke right now, it's my kind of craft! Here's a picture of some my creations:
Super easy, just a lot of hot glue (and finger burns), fabric, ribbon, and fire. Yeah, you heard me, fire! Many of the flowers have singed edges. It makes them curl and it seals the edges keeping them from fraying.
My mom says I never update my blog. I blame facebook a little. I also blame having a laptop where the pictures are all stored remotely on the network computer... But I guess when it comes right down to it, it's my fault. Forgive me?
Now that I've made amends, I recommit (but I don't promise) to be a better blogger.
I guess I should have mentioned that Brian graduated. It was a beautiful day, my mom kept the kids. Brian's parents flew up from Texas. We had a fun party the night before at our house. All the family that lives nearby and some close friends came. We had lots of food and fun. It was so awesome to see all of Brian's hard work from the last two years come to a successful end. The Lord blessed us with a good job and we are going to be able to live by Brian's family again.
Moving is bitter-sweet. I love Texas, being near Brian's family, the ward family I have in Texas, all my old friends and having a stable job- BUT I'm going to miss my family so much. This is the first time I've gotten to live really close to them since I moved out when I was 18. Everyone in my family (who lives in Utah) is 15 minutes away or closer. I love spending time with my mom. She loves my kids so much, and she is just so awesome. I'm happy that she was able to be there when I had Wesley- something she wasn't able to do with Nora or Ethan. We are so close, she is my one of my best friends. Plus, she ALWAYS has chocolate at her house, and she doesn't care how much of it I eat (but my waistline does!). Man, am I rambling on or what! I'm sure glad Brian went back to school and I was able to spend these last two years here in Utah.
I went to a local craft show today (touting: Not your Mother's Craft Show). It was really cool. Stuff I like to make, vintage, handmade, and (truthfully) pretty simple. I picked up the cards of the booths I liked the most and so I don't have to keep the cards AND so you can see the fun handmade items, here are the links:
We've been trying to live it up the last few months we are here...
On Friday we went to the Senior Celebration on Campus, it was so much fun!
Free food, games, back massages (ahhhh), free stuff (you know, water bottles, pens, candy and the like), give aways, entertainment and stuff like that. Like I said, it was fun.
Brian and I competed in a Newly Wed game. We got second, lost by one question. I think our being married for about 9 years longer than the competition actually put us at a disadvantage for some of the question. Questions like, "What's the strangest present your spouse ever got you?" Well, I have to go through 9 years of presents in my brain in like 10 seconds. That was hard. Oh well, it was a blast, and we really did know each other very well. We only missed ones that neither of us knew the answer to.
Ethan got to wear a snake around his neck. And to get candy he had to get it out of the tarantula cage. Nora wanted nothing to do with that!
Then while we were waiting for our ticket number to be called during the raffle, they had a dance contest... I looked at Brian and said, "Where is Ethan! We have to get him up there!" So we chased him down and convinced him to go on stage and dance in front of hundreds of people. The winner was decided by who got the most applause/cheering from the crowd. Ethan won! (and some other guy). It was awesome.
A little while later Ethan was with me out in the hall when BYU's President walked by.
I introduced President Samuelson to Ethan and explained that he was the President of BYU. Their interaction went as follows:
Ethan: "You're the president of the whole school?"
President Samuelson: "Yes, I'm the President of BYU. Do you want to be the President of BYU some day?"
Ethan: "Uh, yes. Uhm, no. I want to work at a pet store."
President Samuelson: "That sounds like it would be more fun."
I've been in love with all the fabric flowers out there, and I've been looking up some tutorials online. Then I think, Oh I can remember how to do that. Then I forget, and I forget where I found the tutorial. So now I'm sticking them here. I hope it comes in handy for someone else too!
I'm in the "I need to loose weight" situation again. But I'm currently nursing my son. That's a really hard situation to be in. I don't want to diet, cause I'd loose a lot of my milk, but it seems that when I eat enough to keep my supply up, I gain weight. Argh.
Not nursing is out of the question. Wes is my last child and I want to enjoy every minute of his babyness. I really enjoy nursing my kids. I just want to stop gaining weight. Hmmm, what to do. Sorry, I shouldn't be posting this. I just needed to think out loud with an audience. Thanks for being there for me.
Here is the picture of my most recent quilt. I have the toddler bed set up in Nora's room, so I wanted the quilt on it to match the one on her bed. I just threw this one together with left-over fabric, and I backed it with orange microfleece and didn't put a batting in it. It's super soft, and can be used as a throw when I don't have the toddler bed anymore.
