UT for the 4th

Adios amigos! We are outta here tomorrow for a week in Park City. Wish me luck, our flight is at 6:45am. It is difficult getting Eric out of the house at that time let alone two kids. That's Delta for you. I'm sure it will be worth it though. Can't wait to hang out with my whole fam! It's been a while.

WARNING!

...images may not be suitable for all audiences...contains disturbing photos.

Eric to a T

I'm not sure where that saying came from...to a T...but this cartoon is just that. Eric, sitting at the computer while the kids are breaking things, commenting that I need to do something about it. I'm not sure that they depicted me all that well though. I would have been folding laundry if I were sitting on the couch. What surprises me most is that Eric is the one who saw this cartoon and brought it home for me. He openly admits that he is like this and has said those exact words before. He, who would have at least 2-4 more kids if I would let him. Yah, no wonder why he wants more kids...because this is his attitude towards raising them. This cartoon is going on the fridge.

Strawberry Picking

Today we joined the Ehat's at a local strawberry farm to pick some strawberries so that we could make jam. It was so dang hot and muggy that we only lasted one basket full. The boys were done after 10 minutes. We managed to get enough for 15 cups of jam. Way too much, but oh well. The strawberries were fresh and cheap. Only $8 for the whole basket, which weighed at least 5lbs. Next up will be raspberries when they are in season. Now I just need to make some fresh bread or biscuits so I have some good eats to smother in jam. That will be tomorrow. Yum. P.S. Ethan and Carter are the same age (within a week or so) - He looks about a year or two older doesn't he?

JDRF Event

Every year the JDRF has a Diabetes Walk that they sponsor to raise money for research. A few months prior to the walk they have a "kick-off" meeting/event to get us motivated to raise tons of money. They instruct us on how to write letters to companies, friends, family and strangers asking for donations. I guess I should be more passionate about doing so considering how badly I want them to find a cure, but I've never been the begging type. Along with the instruction for the parents comes some activities that all the diabetic children can participate in. Ethan has a great time meeting other kids who have D and especially the ones who have pumps. He kept pointing them out to me. The event is held at a hotel that has a water park attached to the the building...so after all the talk about the walk they let the kids go to the water park for free. Ethan was so excited to go today, unfortunately it was on a Sunday, but all the JDRF things are. Check out the video link if you want to see Ethan in action at the water park.

Saturday is a special day.

It's the day we slave around the house day. We mow the lawn, and we straighten the house, so Josie won't have to do it on Monday. I wash our clothes, and I empty the dishes, and we call it our pain in the ass day. Then we go to the Depot, and we work a little more, so we can be ready for Sunday.

Tagged...

Alright, I've been tagged as well. I thought I could avoid it but I guess not. Thanks Mandy! Here goes...

JOBS I'VE HAD:
1. Paper Route
2. Jamba Juice
3. Great Harvest Bread
4. Cleaning the Chi O house!
5. Dental Office Manager
6. Mom

MOVIES I CAN ALWAYS WATCH:
1. Jerry McGuire
2. Father of the Bride
3. Oceans 11

PLACES I'VE LIVED:
1. Plymouth, MN
2. Wichita, KS
3. Boca Raton, FL
4. Irvine, CA
5. Salt Lake City
6. Provo
7. Milwaukee, WI

TV SHOWS I ENJOY:
1. The Office
2. LOST
3. House
4. Survivor
5. Brothers & Sisters

FAVORITE FOODS:
1. Waffles
2. PF Changs
3. Bread of all kinds
4. Corn on the Cob

WEBSITES I VISIT DAILY:
1. Gmail
2. Google
3. My friend's blogs
4. Craigslist/Ebay

PLACES I'D RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1. California
2. Hawaii
3. In Bed

BLOGGER BUDDIES TO TAG:
1. Karen
2. Amy
3. Natalie
4. Julie

Put me in coach....

....I'm ready to sleep. I am exhausted, but I found this hilarious and thought I would share. Ethan's bedtime ritual consists of putting on pj's, brushing teeth, going the bathroom, tucking him in and shutting the door. He's pretty good about going right to sleep and not leaving his bed. I guess tonight was a different story. About five minutes ago I went in to test his blood before I went to bed and he was mysteriously wearing his Lakers headband. What possessed him to get up out of bed and put this on to sleep in I have no idea. It looked like it was doing a good job of keeping the sweat out of his eyes, although his pillow is still soaked. Anyone have ideas as to why he gets these? Diabetes? Growth hormones? Who knows. Good night now.

Breakfast for dinner

Eric is out of town for a few days so that means I can make breakfast for dinner. If he was in town this would not be allowed. He has very strict guidelines for his dinner menu and in no way can it involve maple syrup. So tonight Ethan and I made waffles in our rotating waffler. It makes great waffles. Here is the recipe that I swear by.




2c flour
2 eggs
2c buttermilk
1/4c oil + 2T
2t baking powder
1t baking soda
1/2t salt

The batter should be lumpy/on the thicker side. YUUUUMMMMMMY!

Butt White

After a long winter here in Wisconsin it was high time to get some sun. So after lunch with Eric we went to the Fox Point pool. I didn't realize it, but I guess Ethan grew a ton in the past year. Last summer he couldn't touch except for in the very shallow end of the pool. Now, he can go all the way to the 3 ft 6 in part and still be above water. Cohen loved the water, which I wasn't expecting. A lot of the babies I see at the pool don't like it because it is colder than their warm baths at home. Too bad Eric was stuck in clinic....

FLAKY

Today after a trip to the YMCA we headed downtown to meet Eric for lunch. He had two patients scheduled for today, both members of our ward. The first patient totally flaked on him. This after totally complaining of a tooth ache. LAME! And it's a good thing his second patient showed or else he would have written them both off for good. I have worked for three LDS dentists and all of them had had problems seeing people from their ward. For one, they always think they can get a huge discount because they "know the handshake". Second, they always think they can cancel whenever they want because "he will understand - family comes first". And third, they think they can be seen at a moments notice because they are in pain (probably because they haven't kept their 6 month appointments to prevent such emergencies). Unfortunately, Eric is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and therefore I can not see him turning away people like this. People gravitate towards him because he is so nice and talkative. He is genuinely interested in people and what they are all about. I guess I can't fault him for that. Maybe he will just need to hire me to be the bad guy. You all know I would have no trouble with that job title.

polish, Polish, POLISH!!!

The Polish (as in sausage) was last nights winner at the Brewer game. During the 7th inning at every game, the highly respected "meats of Milwaukee" race from dugout to dugout. This guy standing next to me kept yelling Polish, over and over...I guess he had made a dollar bet with his friend on who the winner would be. As you can see, he chose correctly.


We were sitting in the nosebleeds (the tix were $6.50) so the film isn't that great, but here's picture. There's the Polish, the Bratwurst, the Chorizo, the Italian Sausage, and the Hot Dog. The Brewer's managed to beat the San Francisco Giants 5-4 but it was a struggle to sit through. It had been raining off and on throughout the day so the stadium had it's roof shut. So... it was about 85 degrees and humid in the stadium. Cohen was tired so we decided to leave in the 8th. When we got downstairs it was a complete downpour outside. I really didn't mind though because we were all sweat balls from the heat. Ethan didn't like the rain though, he kept saying he was cold. I was wearing a white shirt which could have been bad if I didn't have my second layer on underneath!

Brainwashed

Ethan: Mom, who were you talking to?
Me: Karen.
Ethan: What is she doing today?
Me: She's at work.
Ethan: Girls don't work, they stay home.
Me: Really? Why do they stay home?
Ethan: To wait for Daddy's to get home.
Me: Mommy used to work.
Ethan: No you didn't. Don't say that.

Date night

Last night Eric and I went to see Oceans 13. On the way to the theater we were trying to remember when the last time we had seen a movie in the theater was, and I think we came up with February (I am not counting going to Shrek 3 with Ethan). That was the last time that the Brown's were in town. I can remember back to when we were first married in Provo and how we would see a movie every weekend. Now it's not that I am nervous about leaving my kids with a sitter, because I'm not. It's just that the options I have out here are very undesirable. The closest lds girl is just a few minutes away, but she's kind of pathetic. In her mind babysitting means...

ba·by-sit also ba·by·sit (bā'bē-sĭt')
verb
1. to sit on the couch and watch tv while kids entertain themselves
2. to avoid changing diapers at all cost, even if the thing weighs 4lbs
3. to allow the kids to trash the house and refrain from cleaning it up prior to the parents return home

Hence the reason I pay her $3-4/hr for two kids. So the other day I was on craigslist and I found a college girl who has four sisters (sweet) that wanted some babysitting work over the summer. So I send her an email. She's great! Eric was a little nerved out at the idea of finding a babysitter online, but thank goodness I did. She actually knows the true definition of babysitting and that's why I feel fine paying her more. My house was actually cleaner when I got home then when I left. NICE! Forget using young women. Plus she can actually drive herself home. BONUS! So it was good to get out of the house and not be worried about the chaos we would find when we got home.

It was a good movie. Better than Oceans 12. I like Vegas, so I appreciate the setting to be there instead of in Amsterdam or wherever that was. I'm sure more are on the way. They always leave it open-ended in case they want to make more. The ending was the funniest part. If you haven't seen it I'll just say that it actually involves Oprah. Go see it!

Project

Projects. I would imagine that it's considered a four letter word to most home owners. Every weekend it seems like there is some project (pardon my french) to do. If it isn't the lawn, then most likely it involves some sort of sanding or painting, in which case it falls on me. Eric isn't a big painter. He doesn't like it. He will wire a dozen pocket lights before ever volunteering to paint. I guess it's fine though, because I kind of like it. So here's the latest project. Our three season porch. It's in bad shape. I ripped off all of the old molding and screen and have started to prep it for paint. It's a big job. But don't expect the "after" pictures too quickly, this might take me a while.

Results are in...

Buy me flowers 6%
Take me out to dinner 53%
Remember, but do nothing 12%
Forget it all together 5%
Ask me to plan it 24%

Eric went above and beyond everyones expectations and accomplished two of the five! Dinner and flowers. Karen, so graciously offered to babysit last night so we could go out to dinner. We went to a new restaurant called BD's, it wasn't my favorite, but Eric really liked it. He's good at mixing and matching sauces which I couldn't get quite right. And for the flowers...look familiar? It was my wedding flower. About every couple years I buy a blue hydrangea plant but I always end up killing them. We'll see if I can keep this one alive. They are hard, especially in Wisconsin. Eric and Diane are the horticulturalists of the family so I might need to enlist their help.

So all in all it was a great anniversary. I could have done without the sex advice from my mom though. I'm not going to get into details, but it was way too much information. I thought once you hit a certain age you stop having sex. Guess not. It was just as awkward as the first sex talk I got 8 years ago. There I was just driving along in the car, and my mom starts using words like "making love" and "intimacy". It still makes me shudder. Sorry mom, I know you were just trying to help and be a mom, but it is kind of embarrassing.

This anniversary marked eight. Eight years of undergrad and grad school. Next years anniversary will mark the beginning of what I would call "real life" for us. Eric actually working. Not living off student loans. Not having Easter, Spring, July, August, Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. NOT HAVING MEDICAID. What am I going to do without Medicaid?? Die, period. I guess it's time though. We've lived the student life long enough. The year ahead is going to be nuts...

Flashback to June 12, 1999

I was never one of those girls who had their wedding planned from start to finish ever since they were 11. To tell you the truth, I never really pictured myself married or married with children for that matter. I was always going to be the working woman for some reason. During my first few years at the U and in Chi Omega, I saw girls get engaged left and right (I guess had I gone to the Y, I would have seen girls getting engaged left, right, up, down, front, back and side to side). But that never made me want it or jealous that it wasn't me. Probably because I was always dating the wrong guy (insert sentimental awwwwww here). So, I decided to go on a blind date one summer night, and like they say, the rest is history.

Don't you love those poses the photographer makes you do?
The cheesier the better!
We thought we'd play 9 holes before the reception.
Anne - see if you had a blog you could post all the
embarrassing photos you have of me!
Julie - be gentle!
Ditto to Molly and Martha
So, according to those anniversary experts I should be receiving bronze or pottery for my anniversary this year. Who came up with that list of gifts? For one thing, it ends at 60. Has anyone taken into account eternity? Poor Eric, he has to deal with me for a long time.

Good Book

Ok, I know, I know... I should be recommending a novel or an autobiography or something, but cookbooks are my type of book. Some of my favs range from the best snickerdoodle ever to great chicken parmesan. Yum.