Costume Day

August 15, 2013
Nothing like a little pre-game rivalry on costume day at school. Only 13 days, 18 hours, 46 minutes, and 12 seconds to go! Not that anyone is counting down or anything.

Go Aggies!

Pajama Day

August 14, 2013
Spirit Week continues. Yesterday was backwards clothes day but I forgot to get a picture. You couldn't really tell that Pearl's clothes were on backwards and Cole wore a pair of shorts that he usually puts on backwards anyway.

The kids were thrilled about pajama day today though! They thought it was awesome to just roll out of bed and go to school.

I was a tad jealous.

Love looks like Mommy

August 13, 2013
Cole's teacher at school will often write a partial sentence and then ask the kids to fill in the blank and color a picture of whatever they wrote.

Today, Cole's picture said, "To Cole love looks like... his mommy."

I really thought I was going to cry right there at work. It sort of stings your heart to see something like that and know your kids are only at this magical age for so long when all of the yelling and nagging you do at them is forgiven in a blink of an eye and they love you unconditionally.  

I guess I am doing something right after all... or he's sucking up about something.

Crazy hair day

August 12, 2013
It's Spirit Week at the kids' daycare. Today was crazy hair day.

Not one kid had a three ponytail Mohawk or "alien buns."

When is the awning guy coming?

August 11, 2013
"When is the awning guy coming?"

An all too familiar question around here. After years of saying we're going to put an awning over the back patio, I finally saved enough money and committed to the project.

The only problem is our awning guy is on Hawaii standard time. Meaning our awning that was supposed to be done for us to enjoy for the 4th of July is still sitting in pieces in our backyard and has been for about a month. I figure since it took a month for him to order the parts, and then another month to get them here, and now a month of them sitting in the yard, that we should have an awning for Christmas.

Bunch ball

August 10, 2013
And "bunch ball" begins again!

Lazy morning

August 9, 2013
It's a lazy morning sitting outside eating muffins and juice and contemplating how we can expand our new patio.

Pizza

August 8, 2013
It's only taken me 11 years to finally make a pizza that left Jeff saying, "Ohhh, that's good!"

Thank you America's Test Kitchen for the St. Louis Style Pizza! Thin, cracker-like crust, smokey cheese, and a sweet tomato sauce all from scratch. Even the kids were begging for more!

No more Jiffy pizza mix or pizza cooked in a baking sheet pan for me.

New patio

August 7, 2013
Tonight Jeff finished laying the last few bricks on our new patio, put the concrete setting sand down, and gave it a good wash. Now all we have left is to pick out some retaining blocks along the back part (to create a flower bed), put the dirt back, plant some flowers, and we're ready for smores. Oh, and buy one of those freestanding fire pits. My original idea to build a small fire pit has been morphed into a grand sitting area instead. I'll admit at first I was a bit skeptical of Jeff's vision, but I absolutely love our new space!

Maxi skirt

August 6, 2013

I'm tired of feeling like an old, fat, frumpy mom. I so wish I could go back in time and tell my 17 year old self that my body I loathed and almost destroyed because I thought I was fat was beautiful and there would come a day I'd dream of having it back. 

So I've been trying to update a few things in my wardrobe and look more in style at work. Not that much is happening at home... still in frumpy pajamas and tee-shirts. They're comfy.

And so is this maxi skirt. It's so comfy in fact that I'm thinking of pairing it with one of my raggedy old tee shirts the second I get home. Oh, and the blazer I got on clearance for $10 isn't too bad either. Now if I could just muster up enough willpower and money to get a new pair of shoes... without holes in them.

Gorilla Nest

August 5, 2013
Pearl is a goof ball. And pretty creative.

Tonight she saw a whole bunch of leaves scattered in the yard and decided to be a gorilla and build herself a gorilla nest. She told me all about gorillas and how they build nests on the ground.

Apparently she is also a pretty good listener, when it comes to PBS kids and Wild Kratts.

Climbing

August 4, 2013
"It's not scary, Mom! Climbing is fun."

Boys sure are different than girls.

Cleaning the Church

August 3, 2013
A lady in our ward has been trying to track us down for at least two months. The reason? To help clean the church.

So I begrudgingly drug myself out of bed this morning and headed over to the church for my cleaning assignment. Pearl tagged along with me. Which probably helped with getting the easy stuff to do like cleaning the chalkboards instead of scrubbing toilets.

We're off the hook to clean again for at least another six months.

Beach Dog

August 2, 2013
I haven't taken very many pictures lately. Especially with my nice camera. I'm getting lazy or maybe I'm trying to enjoy the moment instead of trying to capture the perfect moment on camera. Or it could be that because I haven't been practicing much, I'm frustrated that I've forgotten a lot of the things I learned about shooting in manual.

Anyway....

We hung out on the beach today and this is about the only picture I took.

Blu loves the beach.

Lightning Storm

August 1, 2013
I don't like lightning storms.

I'm sort of a whimp when it comes to storms, wind, lightning... scary stuff like that.

But tonight it was on the other side of the lake.


So my brother and I sat out on the porch and tried to take a cooler picture than the other one. Jesse has a fancy phone with a better camera than my nice camera. The lightning was so bright that it would light up the huge, billowy clouds and the lake. It was a guessing game when to press the shutter. But considering I had to come up with a makeshift tripod with the picnic table and two blocks of spare wood I found on the ground, I think I might have won with this shot (especially if I could figure out why my stupid Photoshop won't let me resize and zoom in on pictures lately).

Best brother ever

July 31, 2013
This just goes to show that I have the coolest, most awesome brother ever.

He bought me a famous Bear Lake raspberry milkshake from La Beau's. Just for me!

And that I am his favorite sister ever.

Grouchy face

July 30, 2013
I told Pearl that if she didn't start smiling for pictures that everyone is going to think she's grouchy all the time.

I don't think she really cares.

Licking the bowl

July 29, 2013
My assignment for the family reunion was to bake my Grandma a birthday cake. She loves Texas Cake so that's what the kids and I made.

I'm sure no one will mind if the kids stuck their boogery, dirt-covered fingers in the batter, right?

Mom you nice

July 28, 2013
Fern-boy picked me these "flowers" after dinner tonight. He's always telling me, "Mom you nice."

Cherry Hill with Friends

July 27, 2013
Here's the honest truth.

I am a really bad friend.

It's not that I don't want friends. I do! I love having friends to giggle with and talk to and complain about life with. It's just that I don't make time for them. I used to. I was the type who sent birthday cards, heck even Happy St. Patrick's Day cards, to all of my friends. I never forgot a small gift or card or special occasions. I baked cookies and took treats to people. I stayed up late listening to friends' problems or took them out for ice cream when they were having a bad day.

I'm not sure what happened to that friend. She got married. And had kids. And got old and tired and selfish with her time.

But I am so incredibly grateful for my friends who still make time to catch up with me and force me out of my "oh I'm so busy we have this and that and I can find any excuse to not hang out with you even though I really want to" kind of attitude.

Like Nicole. I met her at work but now consider her one of my very best friends. Our kids are the same age and I just love her! She's a social butterfly and today was one of those times she was not letting me use my typical excuse to get out of having some fun.

We went to Cherry Hill for the day. On the one day in three months that wasn't blistering hot. It was raining and cloudy and cold. But we still had fun swimming, visiting, eating PBJs and the ever present in our home, Cheetos... remember they taste like salad.

Scooters

July 26, 2013
The kids have really been into riding their scooters lately. We end up at the school a lot on our walks with the dog. Lately the kids have found puddles there to zip and zoom through. They don't seem to care one bit that those puddles are stagnant, gross water.

Rocks and a movie

July 25, 2013
I was so sick of the whining and crying and flat-out disobedience (you know the kind where they look you right in the eye as you're screaming at them for the one gazillionth time to do something and they still don't budge) that I was ready to try anything - ANYTHING - to stop it! Plus, I knew I needed some serious rewiring in my parenting to start acknowledging good behavior instead of always ranting on the kids about what they aren't doing.

I had a brilliant idea come to me. Late, late at night when moms can't sleep because they are filled with guilt and remorse for everything they aren't doing right.

A vase and a whole bunch of rocks.

Every time we saw the kids doing something good or listening they got to put a rock in the vase. Before bed, we'd ask them what things they had done good that day. For every good behavior they could remember, they got a rock. We told them once all the rocks were in the vase, we'd go to a movie.

I'll admit there were a few days where no rocks made it into the vase and I thought we'd never get to see the movies before they left the theater. Sometimes due to my fault because I'd forget to have the kids put them in at the end of the day. And other days because even the bribe of a movie couldn't get those two to stop whining about everything!

But we all persevered.

I wish you could have seen the look of excitement and accomplishment in their eyes as the last rock went into the vase and we headed out the door to see Despicable Me 2.

Pee your pants kind of funny

July 24, 2013
This is one of those pee your pants kind of funny.

I went up to Logan to help my Dad today. After working, we celebrated with a BBQ with all my siblings. I can't remember why, but my Mom brought out a squirt bottle for something. No one really noticed it until my brother, Jesse, picked it up, looked at it closely, and then starting to laugh so hard I thought he was going to fall out of his chair, cry, or pee his pants.

Does anyone see something wrong with this picture?

I guess my Mom had put rubbing alcohol in a bottle of water to use for cleaning purposes and decided the bottle needed a warning label so we didn't drink it. What I'm wondering though, is if she sampled a little bit of that "alcahol" before she put it in there! And when I asked her why she spelled the word "four" that way instead of "for" she said she ran out of room to write... uh, "four" has one more letter in it than the correct "for" word.

Not four people uses.

Classic.

Handcart Days

July 23, 2013
People always ask if we love living by the park.

There are some advantages I guess. Like when the kids forget we have our own playground in the backyard and beg to go to the swings across the street. Free seats to watch teenagers making out or old guys tanning... that's always fun. Oh, and the kids know the exact second that the pool opens for the summer because they can see it from the living room window and remind me I'm the worst mom in the world for never taking them. Or trying to get out of our driveway when Handcart Days rolls around each July.

We try to avoid Handcart Days all together but this year with the Pioneer Day holiday falling in the middle of the week there wasn't a thing we could do but give the kids our last dollars and head on over for carnival rides and popcorn.

Business with pleasure

July 22, 2013
As part of my job I get to travel around the state visiting each of Utah's 12 local health departments. Since we were heading down to the Price area for my family reunion, I figured I would tag team the trip and do a site visit with my Southeastern Utah District Health Department colleagues.

Jeff and the kids are pretty good sports about mixing business with pleasure. As long as there is a park or museum and a McDonald's near by.

God's Country

July 21, 2013
When a coworker found out we were headed to "Castle Country" (aka, Orangeville near Joe's Valley Reservoir) for my Peacock Family Reunion they said that it was "God's Country"

I couldn't agree more.

Ooey gooey popcorn

July 20, 2013
I made two batches of my Grandma Jewkes' ooey gooey popcorn for the Peacock Family Reunion this weekend.

I could pretty much sell this at the auction and get my Dad to buy it for hundreds of dollars. It has a lot of sentimental meaning to all of my family.

And a lot of sugar.

Grandma Jewkes' ooey gooey popcorn
2 bags microwave popcorn (4 quarts)
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light karo syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups nuts (cashews or peanuts)
3 cups miniature marshmallows

Mix popcorn, nuts, and marshmallows in large bowl. Melt butter in small saucepan. Add sugar and karo syrup to melted butter. Bring to a boil and stir constantly for three minutes. Add vanilla to butter and stir. Pour melted butter over popcorn mixture. Cool and enjoy!

Whoopee

July 19, 2013
Do you ever get old enough to think that whoopee cushions aren't funny?

Public health professional

July 18,2013
I have failed as a public health professional.

Today my child held up his Cheeto and told me, "Cheetos taste like salad, Mom."

Fire me now.

But in my defense I do work in violence and injury prevention... NOT obesity prevention. At least he points out every single person on a motorcycle or bike or ATV and tells me if they have a helmet or not.

Holiness to the Lord

July 17, 2013
We took the Young Women to Temple Square today.

It was absolutely breathtaking with all the summer flowers in full bloom.

I am always in awe that the pioneers sacrificed so much to build the temple. Forty years - 40!!! - to build this beautiful house of the Lord. The sister missionaries who gave us a tour told us that Brigham Young was inspired to leave open rooms on the ends of the temple. He didn't understand why he felt inspired to leave the space empty but now that's where the elevator shafts are. Amazing!

We also heard the story of John Rowe Moyle. It's too amazing to summarize, so you get the full account below.

“John Rowe Moyle … was a convert to the Church who left his home in England and traveled to the Salt Lake Valley as part of a handcart company. He built a home for his family in a small town a valley away from Salt Lake City. John was an accomplished stonecutter and, because of this skill, was asked to work on the Salt Lake Temple. 

“Every Monday John left home at two o’clock in the morning and walked six hours in order to be at his post on time. On Friday he would leave his work at five o’clock in the evening and walk almost until midnight before arriving home. He did this year after year.

“One day, while he was doing his chores at home, a cow kicked him in the leg, causing a compound fracture. With limited medical resources, the only option was to amputate the broken leg. So John’s family and friends strapped him onto a door and, with a bucksaw, cut off his leg a few inches from the knee.

“In spite of the crude surgery, the leg started to heal. Once John could sit up in bed, he began carving a wooden leg with an ingenious joint that served as an ankle to an artificial foot. Walking on this device was extremely painful, but John did not give up, building up his endurance until he could make the 22-mile journey to the Salt Lake Temple each week, where he continued his work.

“His hands carved the words ‘Holiness to the Lord’ that stand today as a golden marker to all who visit the Salt Lake Temple.

“John did not do this for the praise of man. Neither did he shirk his duty, even though he had every reason to do so. He knew what the Lord expected him to do.

“Years later, John’s grandson Henry D. Moyle was called as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and, eventually, served in the First Presidency of the Church. President Moyle’s service in these callings was honorable, but his grandfather John’s service, though somewhat less public, is just as pleasing to the Lord. John’s character, his legacy of sacrifice, serves as a banner of faithfulness.”

(President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, “Lift Where You Stand,” Ensign, Nov. 2008, 55–56.)