"What's happening at the Hunts?"

My Baby

2012-01-16T15:46:00.000-08:00

Franklin has had only a little documented about him and his progress from newborn with troll hair to acne riddled infant with comb-over to the chubby cherub he is today. I haven't kept a baby journal for him, so I need to really catch up. He's by far been our most difficult baby. He has always wanted to be held more and cried more at naps and night time. He also has always had difficulty nursing. You would not believe it by looking at him, but from the start I called him a "lazy latcher" and have had pain and discomfort nursing him. When he grew so much (he's been in the 95th percentile or higher since birth) and the pain lessened slightly, I figured he was getting enough milk and did not seek anymore help with his nursing. A couple of incidents lately have led me to investigate a little further and I believe he is tongue tied. It may be a slight case, but it definitely has my radar going and I want to investigate further. His pediatrician (who declined to actually look at his mouth closely because he was "not cooperating") says that even if he is tongue tied, it's not a big deal and isn't he eating mostly solid foods now anyway? Well, this mom isn't going to take that for a final answer and I will keep you posted on that.

At 8 months old, he has 8 teeth! That is the fastest my kids have gotten their teeth. That further exacerbates the nursing problems. But he handles solid foods well- we went from baby foods to some real foods pretty quickly! First Cheerios were yesterday at church. Awwwww.

He also has problems with constipation and when he eats a full meal and strains to go- he throws up instead. Not pleasant and a little worrisome as well. He had his first non-food item to end up in the diaper. A silver Hello Kitty sticker. It was untarnished. I am sure it won't be the last.

For the most part, Franklin has been healthy and a fun baby. He is a lot like the little girl in the nursery rhyme who was sometimes very very good and sometimes horrid. When he is fussy, he can be a real pill- but when he's happy, he lights up the room. He continues to love his sisters and their entertainment. He adores his dad and I can't nurse one second that Stephen is around. Franklin would much rather be watching for dad than eating.

Over the last few months I have taken several pictures of his cute chubbiness. Here is a whole big line-up.

I LOVE his dimpled elbows- they are less so now . . . boo

One of my favorite moments is when they find their toes!!

Feet!

Fat knee caps are so adorable . . .

You can see why the nurses are always delighted to give him shots. Super fat thighs!

Doing my yoga moves

Favorite toy- hand drum. I worry about the South American glue he likes to suck on . . .

He loves pounding on anything and making noise- so different from my girls.

I am obsessed with his little hands and the dimples on the backs of them

Ticked off because I won't let him play with the camera

Closer!! Yess!!!

Ok, socks instead

Can I tell you something?

I am so done with this photo shoot. Check out my muffin top. . .

Pincher grasp! I was so excited when he pulled this one off.

Up, up . .

Success!!

We have been blessed to get the best hand-me-downs from friends in the ward. He is the best dressed person in our home.

After taking a bite, he puckers up and blows a kiss! Part of the tongue tied thing? Not sure.

Kiss goodbye!

Happy Holidays

2011-12-29T17:48:00.000-08:00

Well, how to recap practically the whole last month? Sigh. There have been many funny stories and even more fun people. I had a women's gift exchange and then we hosted both for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day- our house is not big, but we enjoy it anyway. We counted in 8 days that 47 party-ers had come to our house and that is subtracting our own family from the fun. I am really enjoying the break from school, once we found a rhythm, the days have not been bad at all. The girls have said some funny things lately. Odessa is always calling things "e-dorable". We had fruit salad with some pomegranate seeds and Ada said "I love pomegramma seeds!" There have been countless others, but those will have to suffice it for now.

Next year maybe we will have a real Christmas card to send out . . .

Christmas Eve revelers

Oh, the food!

A few willing participants in the Nativity

Matching babies

Matching Christmas Eve pajamas (totally unplanned)

AGAIN matching Christmas Eve pajamas, (starting to get freaky)

Yakkity yak, I could gab for hours with these 2

Here is what I wanted- a picture of Mandy and her necklace I made her when Grayson was born. I never craft!

Santa found us afterall

Christmas dresses from the grandparents- ready for church!

Then I looked down the hall and someone else had gotten ready for church too! I sewed the bottom of a onesie to his dress shirt so it would stay tucked in. See HERE for a tutorial. I did not cut off the ends of his dress shirt.

love the hat and scarf!

Adorable homemade skirts from Aunt Beth!

Excited about his first present

It's a glowworm baby

Note he is chewing on the wrapping paper, not the new rattles

Stephen's new rice heat pads

9 of the 12 kids we had Christmas Day- they were so well behaved!

A few of the rabble rousers- E. Rowley played guitar most of the time as Mark did the night before- live music makes a party!!

Yes, those are press-on Hello Kitty nails- they lasted about 3 hours

clear back on her birthday in Nov- the Mathew family was here to celebrate and took our pic

It's a packing box, with a baby!

No, it's a carriage with 2 princesses being pulled by a Unicorn

Complete with decorations on the sides

I wear my sunglasses at night

One weekend we went up to Leavenworth for the nightly village lighting. Pure madness, but gorgeous.

So, we had some Victoria Clipper refund to use and we took their charter bus up to Leavenworth. Sure beats driving yourself, although they don't tell you that you will have to listen to a "tour guide" talk the whole way. Anyway, we made friends with a couple of people sitting next to us. I asked where they were from, they asked where we were from.

Me: We are both from Boise

Andy (girl): Oh, I know some people in Boise.

Me: (oh brother, like we are going to know these people, Boise is not as small as people think!)

Andy: (continuing) They are veterinarians.

Me: (looking at Stephen and laughing) Well, we know 3 vets in Boise.

Andy: Are they the Hunts?

Me: No way, Chad and Julie Hunt??? Chad is his (pointing to Stephen) twin brother!!!

Andy: Julie is one of my BEST FRIENDS! I just went to Chile with her for (their other best friend)'s wedding!!! I am getting light headed.

As you can imagine, many exclamations ensued and we quickly became best bus friends. JK- too funny though.

The weekend before Leavenworth, we went up and got our tree. Best $10 tree permit experience so far and best tree so far.

His first car toy- given to him by an older couple at church, he loves it!!

Getting caught up in photos

2011-11-30T10:49:00.001-08:00

These pictures posted in reverse order, so you should really start at the bottom and go up. LOL

Our camera ran out of battery on Odessa's birthday. She had friends over for cake, it was a fun Sunday.

SO EXCITED to get some birthday money!

Cute 6 month old fashion shoot, sorry- there are lots

Laughing at Ada

He's rolling all over now- immobility has come to an end, I hate that . . .

For her birthday, we took Odessa and 2 of her best friends (who are twins) to the Zoo for a day of fun

The penguins follow your finger, they were very playful that day

Riding the carousel

Danica

The hippos were active- they didn't like the click of my camera though! Blew water at me and ducked under water

I have never seen this lion from this spot, that was cool

He found his toes on the changing table a while ago

I let the girls use some play makeup sometimes after church- Ada did great with no instructions! She has always been very naturally good with clothes and makeup, girly things.

But on her second try, things got a little scary . . . .

Our chickens who we thought were pretty dumb are actually quite smart at times. When it gets to be dusk and they can't get back into the chicken run to coop up for the night, they come pecking at the door to remind us to open the gate and let them in. If the light is off, they find a window with a light on and jump up and bang against the glass. It's hilarious, they have scared us more than once.

Sitting up in my overalls

This is the tree outside our living room window, it was so pretty to see the colors

I twisted the girl's hair into knots- but it's so straight, it didn't work very well . ..

This is how Stephen gets Franklin to sleep. I fall asleep too when he reads that book to me . . . zzzzzzzzz

On the ferry to Whidbey Island

Skipping in the rain in Coupeville- cute little town!!

on the wharf

cold and drizzly, but we managed!

This is their little public radio station, what a space and what a view!

Deception Pass state park for a little hike, the wind was INSANE, the water was gorgeous

Almost blown away

Much better on the hike- the Deception Pass bridge behind them

Lots of pretty drop offs and views

baby doll

in mouth

Debonair in the hand me downs- even a little clip on tie

Pike place with the Deweys in October!

Seattle Center fountain

Halloween with the Deweys- Raine and Carter

They wanted to be fairies this year even though they know virtually nothing about Tinkerbell and her friends. Even with underthings, they were cold and so I have convinced them to be firemen next year with big heavy coats and Franklin will be the Dalmatian. LOL

Before I had 3 kids . . .

2011-11-06T18:46:00.000-08:00

Before I had 3 kids . . .

. . . it was the exception to catch me out and about without make-up and I at least attempted to do my hair. Now no make up or hair is the rule and I have even showed up at church regularly with a wet head.

. . . . I showered every day, sometimes twice if I exercised at night. Now I have discovered just how many hours I can live with my unshowered self.

. . . .I rarely burned food or scorched pans. 'Nough said.

. . . we ate different menus weekly. Now I hardly follow a recipe and we have pasta in some form at least twice a week.

. . . I almost always folded laundry the very same day it was washed. Now there are weeks we use clean clothes out of the baskets for days on end . . . and I have also discovered the very maximum amount of days we can go without doing laundry.

. . . I rarely bought prepared foods, and especially not for dinner and I almost always made things from scratch for the parties I hosted. Now, I run to the store at 10pm the night before book club.

. . .we ate out to celebrate something, not because we were desperate to not have to do prep, clean up and dishes.

. . . I always tried to sign up and volunteer and rarely told anyone "I can't" or "no". Now I pass along the clipboard and look at the emails and feel bad- for a minute or two.

. . . Stephen and I used to talk and spend time together beyond passing off tasks "your turn to hold the baby" and "how about you do the dishes and I will get the kids in bed?"

. . . I didn't know what it felt like to function on just the fumes of sleep

But before I had 3 kids, I didn't love little boy clothes or get to laugh at my 5 and 4 yr olds doing tricks to entertain him or learn how to be even better at sitting still and just enjoying my baby.

Having a hard time

2011-10-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

Last week was the pits. I got this flu/cold from Odessa that turned into a really sore throat and no voice. I didn't have a fever, so I took my turns teaching preschool since it was my first week to teach. Not the brightest, but I felt ok enough to teach and didn't want to bum out on my very first week. Thursday we did a nature walk which included me pushing the loaded stroller up a steep hill to a park. Thursday night Stephen has meetings and so that night I was dealing with a very cranky baby and trying to get dinner for whiny 4 and 5 yr olds by myself. After dinner I was feeding Franklin and the girls were getting ready for bed. Since getting his teeth, Franklin has bitten me occasionally while nursing. My tried and true methods of training him NOT to bite have not seemed to work on him. Thursday night he bit me hard on both sides and after the second time (after shouting "NO!" and bopping him on the nose) I just burst into tears. He did not seem phased. The exhaustion of the whole day and feeling sorry for myself just came crashing in. I let myself enjoy a good cry for a few minutes.
Pretty soon Odessa came in: "Mom, we're wai-ting." (I was supposed to read them books).
Me: I just need a minute
Odessa: (following me into my bathroom) Why are you crying?
Me: I'm just having a hard time (using the phrase they use when having a melt-down)
Odessa: A hard time doing what?
Me: . . . being a mom
Odessa: (looking at my bathroom counter-top for a few seconds) Well, have you taken your vitamins today?

That response is SO Odessa. Instead of saying "awww, I'm sorry mom- let me give you a hug" like my other daughter would have, she looked for the obvious solution.
I burst out into giggles and thankfully, the worst of that week was over.

Let's Hear it For The Boy

2011-10-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, I totally came up with that blog post title after Modern Family last week- it was subconscious, but nevertheless . . . Over the last 2 years I have had several of what I call "literary moments". Knees knocking together (leading music), wringing of hands while speechless (raccoon with paws against glass door) and today- stopped in my tracks. When I used to read these "moments", I thought they were just silly descriptions. Back to today: I was moving about the kitchen with Franklin in arms and my train of thought ran thus: "Oh, how could I love this boy any more than I do? No one will ever be good enough for him . . . ." (this is where I stopped in my tracks) THUD "Oh, I feel so sorry for his future wife". I instantly realized how high a standard I would probably set for any future companions of my 5 MONTH OLD.
When I was recounting this for Stephen at dinner, I got a little misty-eyed.
Stephen: "Are you CRYING?"
Me: "Someday he's going to love someone" (bursting full on into tears) "MORE THAN ME!"

And those were my realizations today . . . .

What's growin'?

2011-09-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

This post is about how surprised we have been with the fruit growth this year- we did not expect all the trees and plants to produce the first summer after we planted them. We've had a lot of changes lately- Odessa in Kindergarten, Ada in preschool. More about them and Franklin further down and some sad news too . . .

We got 12 peaches and about 15 apples- mostly Honey Crisp! mmmmm

The strawberries went bonkers once we stopped pinching the blossoms - we have gotten a few raspberries and they continue to grow!

Since our tomatoes did poorly last year, we are especially proud of them this year- the beefsteaks have been delicious! And we didn't dream we would get any blueberries the first year- we got about 8 is all.

When I was out taking pictures one day, I realized fruits and veggies aren't all that have been growing. This picture is bittersweet- poor Tabby died last night, we don't know how, but we will bury her this evening. She was found on our neighbor's lawn and doesn't look like she was hit by a car. So sad, I have been crying quite a bit today . . .

Odessa on the first day of Kindergarten. She came in all dressed at 7:15 that morning- she was so excited. Ada does Joy preschool 2 days a week. I have to teach next week! ack.

Odessa has had an interesting adjustment to school- of course all the disappointments and frustrations from the day are internalized and come out at night- tantrum city. But we are slowly getting used to it I think. The first time she got a hot lunch, she bit into a plum and lost her 5th tooth. That was pretty exciting for the whole class of course- apparently they all wanted to see the bloody plum. She was student of the month and got to eat a popsicle with the principle, but just complained that she missed recess for it. Yesterday Jackson S. (not to be mixed up with Jackson C.) told her she looked "fabulous" while they were sitting in circle time. Yes, Kindergarten has been good to Odessa.

She's still coming up with money making schemes. She started washing the eggs when she brings them in and decided she should advertise as an "Egg washer"

Odessa: "I will charge 5 cents per egg . . . . but . . .(switching in to an infomercial voice) if they call right now, it's free!" That killed me- she has watched probably 10 commercials in her life and she wants to buy every single thing she sees.

And here's the star of the show.

Franklin will be 5 months Oct 5th, he weighed 19 lbs and was 28 inches at his appointment a couple weeks ago- yes, that is like 98th percentile and WAY heavy for me. He keeps growing out of clothes before I even get them out. He has cut his 2 bottom teeth and has been waking up at night constantly (we're working on that one). A friend asked me to describe his personality. He is such a boy. He laughs like a boy and farts like a boy. His poops are so forceful they actually sound like small bombs going off in his diaper. There is a grunt, then a BOOM! He thinks poop is hilarious, if you say poop he laughs and laughs- such a boy. He loves attention (last child syndrome?) he whines if I so much as turn my back on him to make dinner. So I have worn him in a sling a lot more than my girls. He loves to snuggle something in his face- he's finally getting his first stuffed animal soon. He wants his fingers in his mouth constantly and drools incessantly. When he is happy, he is really happy. When he's cranky, he's very cranky. He loves the girls and I can't even nurse when they are around very often- he won't eat. He also won't eat if I try and read- he looks at me as if to say "focus please, this is all about me right now". Yah, so that's Franklin. We call him Franco the most.

This shirt says "St Stephen's Knights"

I've been having more than one cooking disaster- 3 kids really throws me for a loop

Still loving the cloth diapering system, especially with this drying rack Stephen made- goes under the eve of the house so even when it rains they don't get wet. The UV rays do great getting out poop stains and air drying saves on electricity. Oh, that makes us sound even more like Hippies . . .

3 of the salmon Stephen has caught this summer at a beach about 1.5 miles from us. I can't tell you how cool it is to eat dinner knowing it was swimming in the Ocean that morning!

Blackberries from across the street and our take of strawberries for a day

We decided to boil the last double yolker we got- so funny!

Getting away from me

2011-08-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

This blog is getting away from me, as many things are lately. Franklin has started being more work instead of less, sleeping fewer hours between waking and eating! We went to Boise for 2 weeks and he slept 3 hr stretches compared to his 7 hr stretches here in Seattle. Was it the temperature? The lack of humidity? Who knows. Whatever the reason, the result was I felt like a zombie much of the trip. We still had a great time.
There were picnics, cousins and more cousins, swimming (and more swimming), pedicures, frozen yogurt and shaved ices, Big Bun, horseback riding, walks, amazingly good meals at home and babies, babies, babies. I got to meet Abigail, my sister's 6 month old - they live in Virginia and we try and meet up in Boise. Franklin was blessed. All 4 of my sisters and our parents were together for the last time before they leave November 7th for 18 months in the UK to serve as Welfare missionaries for the LDS church. They will most likely be setting up and continuing training in LDS employment centers somewhere in the UK- their actual residence won't be known until they get there! They are excited, I am excited for them.

Driving in to Boise- one of the many things I miss about it is the sunsets! This picture was taken THROUGH the window- you can imagine how much prettier it was in person.

Franklin's blessing: James Hunt, Stephen Hunt Sr, Stephen Jr, Ben Hambelton, Ryan Badger, Chad Hunt (2 of Stephen's brothers, his dad, my dad and brother in law)

The rest of the photos are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/tarahunt39/JulyAugust2011 in the first web album I have made in over a year. I quit my work from home job and am resolved to do a few more projects. I have started a Nutrition blog which is in a very infantile state, but you can see it at this link: Hunt for Healthy Eating

Out and about

2011-07-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday before the 4th, we met our friends Julia and Mike down at the Center for Wooden Boats for their festival. Lots of wooden boats were docked all around and the kids got to tour them. I stayed on dock and tried not to fall into the water while taking pictures and having Franklin in a sling. LOL

G.I. Joe reporting for service Sir!

4th of July Monday we had some new friends over for a BBQ- my first attempt at baby back ribs and they were so good! Our friends brought chicken too and the kids had hot dogs- Stephen got a crash course in how to BBQ all these meats on his charcoal grill.

The rest of the week included a trip to the zoo (my first outing with all 3 by myself) and rose gardens, a Dr's appt for Franklin (the big guy is in the 95th percentile for weight, 85th for height) and a birthday party for Odessa and trip downtown by bus for Ada, Franklin and I. Whew!! Considering the week before we went NOWHERE, this was a little more than I wanted to handle.

We start them on meat a little early around here. And "why is everyone so enamored with my hair?"

The next day his hair was greased down post bath and it makes him look so old!!

This last Saturday we met friends at Alki to watch the Pirates land on Alki beach. Frankly, I wish they would sail in on a tall ship and not a military boat accompanied by navy crew.

This Fire Ship was much cooler

A Jack Sparrow look a like was really funny to observe on the boardwalk

Chillin under the umbrella on Alki. We also went back to Alki this Monday and poked around the tide pool side with our friends the Viswanathans and the rest of the week we have relaxed and stayed home.

This morning's conversation at breakfast was a quick-fire back and forth between the girls before I could get any words in edgewise:

Odessa: Mom, do you like being a mom?
Me: Yes, I do.
Odessa: Yah, because you get to drive around and buy things . . .
Ada: And wear make-up and earrings . . . .
Odessa: And boss people around . . .
Ada: boss your KIDS . . .
Odessa: Most importantly (I am waiting here for her real nugget of wisdom). . . you get to ride roller coasters
Ada: and do whatever you want. . . but you know who gets to boss the most? DAD!
Odessa: And you get to buy tickets for your kids and watch them ride rides.

And there you have it- my job in a nutshell.

Photo shoot

2011-06-30T16:09:00.001-07:00

Franklin is outgrowing clothes so fast, I have been taking pictures of him in almost every outfit. I just hate that some of the adorable hand me downs or brand new gifts are not getting much use! Thankfully there will be 2 new boys in our ward by next month. He's also started smiling, so of course I have been whipping out the camera quite a bit. My favorite part of life right now is that we don't have to be anywhere or do anything on most days. What freedom! The girls are good to play in the backyard and of course get their quota of PBS kids. I am happy to be spending most of my time holding Franklin and even getting early morning naps.
I've had a number of friends or family members lose their babies or almost lose their babies over the last year and it's made me so aware of what a miracle it is to have a baby at all and makes me cherish him all the more. When he makes eye contact with me and smiles I get weepy- every time. Really hoping some of these hormones tone it down a little or I am going to have to get water proof mascara. Seriously, I am so very grateful for the miracle of a healthy birth.

Now a funny story about Odessa:
Saturday nights is is a program called "Swing Years" on NPR and Stephen likes to listen to it. They were playing a song sung by Bing Crosby and he started his famous whistling. Odessa was in the bathroom brushing her teeth and I heard her call in a voice that sounded just like she was 5 going on 15:
"Dad, that's enough whistling already!" (you could actually hear her rolling her eyes)
Me (from the bedroom): Odessa, Dad is outside- that's the radio.

Odessa: (long pause) Oh.

Ok, enough egg pictures already! But seriously, this is the biggest double yolker we have ever gotten, it's almost fully TWICE as big as the other eggs. Can you tell in my hand just how big it is?? Can you imagine the poor chicken laying this??

Tiger bottoms

Lion bottoms

Click on the collages to make them bigger- sequence is left to right, top row, then bottom

All smiles for the family until the girls got a little too close

The girls LOVE dancing for Franklin and he sat in that swing and watched them for almost an hour - without it swinging. That bottom left corner photo of Odessa was an impressive spin on her tippy toes! Last photo is totally posed : )

Got through his 4th Sunday like a champ! (the previous 3 consisted of at least one hour of crying)

Ahh, favorite photo of the week

Back at it

2011-06-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

Stephen has been home the last 3 weeks- keeping us all busy and having tons of fun. So much so, we took an overnight trip to the WA coast. Franklin slept 7 1/2 hours in the hotel room! Must have been the sound of the ocean. LOL We even took the Forks tour of some of the houses from Twilight - I posted those towards the bottom. The trip highlights: kites on the beach, Irish pub with probably the best clam chowder we have EVER, EVER had, old people love newborns, rainforest prettiness, fun diners, and finding a million camping places, hiking places and small towns we want to re-visit.
Today I am back on my own. It's 1pm and everyone is dressed and alive. Keeping it real: Having help is great, but there are drawbacks too I think everyone will admit. If there are 2 things that help kids behave, it's boundaries and routine. When other people take care of your kids, those all change. I realized this the first week Stephen was home. I thought "why are the girls fighting so much??" Anyway, it was a great learning time for all 5 of us. Stephen learned it's hard to deal with 4 and 5 yr old girls all day. He took them all the time, full time. Once when I finally made my appearance with Franklin, we were all eating lunch together (breakfast for me) and Stephen read a magazine while I fielded the girls' questions. I asked him if the magazine was that interesting? He said "sorry, I am just glad someone else is interacting with them". I knew JUST how he felt! And now he knows how I feel too when he gets home at the end of the day.

A funny series of pics caught when he just woke up and was passing gas happy

Long suffering Tabby, the "queen"

First Sunday outfit, I got a haircut, big sisters helping out

Hunt grandparents photo shoot

Ada turned four!!

"Hey!! Ballet shoes!!"

Demo-ing the gift

Ocean Shores WA, our hotel in the background

Bring your rain coats to the beach in WA!

A minute later she got knocked over by a wave- she couldn't have been happier, or dirtier

A girl with her kite

Mom at the beach

We took 2 drives into the rainforest on the peninsula and the kids took a nature hike with Stephen while I fed Franklin
The Olympic peninsula has 3 major economies, timber, fishing and giving Seattlites speeding tickets (no joke)

Forks visitors center

The other truck- the one they used in the movies

This was my view while nursing (lol) I hope I didn't end up in other people's pictures

By the end of the drive that day, I did need a date night! Look at those cheeks

"Swan's house"

At the hospital

"Cullen's House"

Same shirt on Ada- she is much older than Franklin above!! Thanks Bri!

Second Sunday- Thanks Mandy!!

"Grandma Linford" came for a visit

Pinky Swear

2011-05-27T19:50:00.000-07:00

We have fruit salad a lot of the time for dinner. Ada LOVES fruit salad and if she gets a plate full, she may not eat much else. So most nights I negotiate with her to eat some of her dinner before she can have any salad.
Tonight's conversation:
Ada: I am going to eat the rest of my fruit salad, and THEN my dinner.
Me: Ada, you have to promise to eat all your pork chop and potato if you eat your fruit salad first. Promise?
Ada: I PROMISE.
Me: Ok, pinky swear (holding up my pinky).

This led to a long discussion on how to pinky swear, what it means, etc, etc and the girls wanted to pinky swear on all kinds of things.
Later:
Me: Ada, you need to finish that dinner, you promised.
Odessa: And when the pinky goes up, there's no going back!

We about died laughing and knew that was too funny a line for her to come up with herself. Sigh. Turns out that PBS kids and The Electric Company strikes again!

Franklin Lewis

2011-05-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

Birth stories- ahhhhhh. Love them or hate them or scroll to the bottom and just look at pics : ).

Well, we finally had our little boy. But he didn't come on his own. Let me preface this story by saying I have always been soundly against my being induced. I had firm opinions about it and didn't want to consider it whenever any Dr broached the topic with me (my first OB said he would induce me on my 2nd baby because my first came so fast). I had 2 due dates- the 19th of April and the 26th. I had told myself and everyone else that I would go until the 27th- just to outlast my Dr and her predictions (and Stephen's) and also to wait until "Grandma" got here. My mom arrived on the 27th and we all breathed a little easier knowing we wouldn't have to call someone in the ward in the middle of the night (when I tend to go into labor).
When the 27th came and went, I was disappointed. Then it was so close to my birthday and frankly, I didn't want to share that day or have to have a child share theirs with me (Odessa has to share with Thanksgiving sometimes and it's hard for her.) Stephen had taken the week of the 25th-29th off work and still no baby, so on May 2nd, he went back to work (very disappointing to me and him). I had so many "false alarms" that I was getting very discouraged and tired of being disappointed and tired of being in pain. I knew he was getting big- he had felt bigger than the girls for some time and I had predicted he would be well over 8 lbs. I would go to sleep every night feeling crappy, and wake up every morning feeling fine and still pregnant. BUMMER.
At least my mom and I had fun- and boy! we celebrated my birthday for 3 days straight!

Two non-stress tests showed the baby had good movement, heart rate and amniotic fluid, but my Dr got more stressed out since she was going off the 19th as my due date.
May 4th- my father arrived and I started having some emotional breakdowns- just tired of being disappointed. I emailed my Dr saying that I would let her induce me on the 6th, even though I had an appointment with her on the 5th. Then later that day, (after 2 crying spells) I changed my mind and emailed her that I would be willing to just come in for my appointment and stay and be induced. I felt good about the decision, but it was also really hard to make. (Stephen says it would be so funny to get those 2 emails back to back.)
On the 5th, I went in at 11:30 for my appointment.
12:30pm They checked me in at the labor and delivery unit.
2pm- They finally started my IV antibiotics. Here is one important part about being induced: I have had the Strep B bacteria with all 3 of my pregnancies and with Odessa and Ada, I did not have the time before delivery to get the required 2 doses of antibiotics, so they make me stay in the hospital for 48 hrs to observe the baby and make sure they don't have the infection, etc. So before doing any induction measures, they wanted to get my antibiotics in just in case I delivered too quickly.
I was having a few contractions already since my Dr had stripped my membranes at my appointment.
Induction measures- I didn't want pitocin. But my cervix was already so soft and dilated enough that the other 2 options weren't necessarily going to do anything for me. I reluctantly agreed to 1 ml of pitocin per hour and we were all hoping that just a touch of it would set my own body's processes into motion.
4 pm- pitocin started- walking, walking, walking
6:30 pm- some strong contractions bouncing on the birthing ball
7pm- into the tub (my preferred method of pain relief that I used with both the girls) Contractions got easier and farther apart- very disappointing.
8pm- Out of tub and I said I just wanted to sit on the bed and watch some TV to get my mind off it (everyone was a little surprised things had slowed down considering my history) and I felt all this pressure, like everyone was waiting around. I had my Dr there and a resident was also attending me. At this point I called my mom to tell her nothing much was happening and to say good night to the girls. Odessa wanted to know if she would have a baby brother in the morning- I told her I thought so, but was starting to doubt if he would be a May 5th baby or 6th some time . . .
8:40ish- I started having some bad cramps that felt more like I needed to go to the bathroom. The contractions started in full once I got out of the bathroom and I bounced on the birthing ball.
They were so hard and so fast, I was pretty surprised. I could hardly breathe through them with Stephen's help. I bounced away.
9:30- I told my nurse to have the Dr come in and check me. Because of my history, both Drs were there at the nurses station and the birthing table had been prepared hours before- someone finally listened to me!
9:41 - Franklin Lewis was born! It was the most painful of all my deliveries and I was sure I tore a bit when he came out. He was all tangled in his cord and he was gurgling a little, but he was pink all over and I wasn't worried. Every one of my deliveries have had a moment where I probably should be frightened (because the staff or Stephen have been), but I am always overcome with peace that my baby is fine. They quickly clamped and cut his cord in a number of places to get it off his neck.
They put him right onto me, the first time I have ever gotten to hold my baby right away and it was as bit as wonderful as they describe. They didn't weigh him till a bit later and they never took him from my room for any of his tests or anything, I loved it. He was 9lbs, 21 inches. I only had to have 1 stitch, and that was huge shock.
Stephen and I enjoyed that night and the next day just the 3 of us and 3 lbs of strawberries and a half gallon of chocolate milk that he was able to go across the street for since we had a mini fridge in our room. The girls and my parents came the next morning to meet the baby. They let us discharge the next evening at 7:30pm.
Overall- I do not regret being induced. I got my antibiotics which was safer for the baby and awesome for me because it meant I got to go home. My parents were here for almost a full week after he was born and that was a huge help.
Would I be induced again? No. I wouldn't. The labor, delivery and recovery were all different, and I didn't like the way it felt. The contractions felt forced- it wasn't as gradual (obviously, since I have never had such a short period of hard labor). My body did not have as high of levels of adrenaline and shock afterwards I don't think (indicated by lack of shaking and actually remembering the details of this delivery).
Even though, overall it would seem this was an awesome delivery, I still prefer the crazy, unpredicted and a bit longer labors and deliveries of the girls. But I am happy he's here (SO HAPPY) and I have had a good recovery. Because of his size, he was very fussy until my milk came in. He eats a ton and sleeps a ton and is more happy now when he has very brief awake moments. Because my back still bothers me, I still sleep in the recliner and so when he's fussy at night I can hold him and he sleeps better and I love those times.
Stephen got me an i-pod shuffle for Mother's Day so I can download e-books from the library website and listen to books while I nurse. BRILLIANT. I am loving it and am halfway through 36 hours of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.
My feet are the size of bread loaves as my friend Becky would put it and I had to actually buy a pair of shoes size 12 to go anywhere. All the IV fluids and the pitocin as well can exacerbate that apparently. Bummer.
Stephen's parents are here now and Stephen will be able to take some significant time off after they leave. Feeling very blessed for all these things.
As for his name- that was a hard one. It took us until Monday morning to finally decide. We named him Franklin for my grandma Hambelton's maiden name and Lewis is Stephen's father's middle name (and his father before him as well). We felt really strongly about using family names and in the end, it was these names that had real meaning to us that won out.

Going home!!

Recap

2011-05-01T15:32:00.001-07:00

Well, I am finally getting around to posting about the last few weeks! Most of the things that happened here are out of order, but that's ok. I put the recipes at the bottom so if you are not interested, you can skip that part. It's now May 1st and baby boy Hunt refuses to make an appearance on his own. I will probably consider some induction methods this week . . . depends on how my Dr feels the baby is doing. So now he won't be an April baby- which I am actually kind of sad about. I have a May baby- Ada's birthday is in 2 weeks!

Speaking of April babies, here is a photo of our April birthdays celebration. Last year, a group of women in my ward started this awesome tradition- a bunch of them have April birthdays. So they do a 10$ gift exchange of items bought at West Seattle stores and eat out at a West Seattle restaurant. I took this photo after Ketsy had to leave. We had a great time, can't wait to keep this tradition up!

My birthday has been 3 days of fun- every day starting Thursday we thought "better celebrate tonight, who knows if I will be around tomorrow!" That made for some FUN DAYS! lol Mom and I are focusing on playing since there isn't a baby to take care of yet.
I really wanted a WinCo cake, so when I was there last time, I got one!! It was good for memories, but next time I think I will let those who offer make me something . . .

On my actual birthday, Ada made me a blueberry, blackberry, strawberry cake (she's hold "it") and Odessa gave me my favorite pipe-cleaner creation of hers. I got many other nice things for my b-day including shipped in Chicago pizzas from Lumanati's (Gino's East put me into labor with Ada, so Stephen was hoping . . . ) and a video phone to chat with the Grandparent Hunts, an egg cook book and a little shopping spree to body shop thanks to a great Groupon! Not to mention a couple dinners out . . .

Now on to Easter
The girls in their Easter outfits- their hair looked much cuter this Sunday with Grandma here to help : )

Remember last year? This will always be one of my favorite photos ever

Easter egg hunt!

Tulip festival in Skagit Valley:
We had the most perfect day. Stephen took Friday off work so we wouldn't have QUITE as many crowds to deal with as we would have on a Saturday. But it was Spring Break after all, so there was plenty of people to contend with. This is our third year going up to the tulip fields and usually we drive around, park for free where we aren't "technically" supposed to (don't want to pay for parking) and have never paid for the big garden admissions. This year, I wanted to do it the "right way" and so we paid for admission at Roozengaarde, a 3 acre garden complex with every tulip variety known to man (seems that way). You also get to walk around a couple fields of tulips. We all loved it.
After driving around looking at some of the other fields, we went into La Conner for lunch and found a cafe with patio seating where we enjoyed chowder and fish and chips. We got an ice cream recommendation and ended up eating cones, sitting in the sun and overlooking the river. That's when Stephen said "why don't I do this more often?" - meaning take a day off work since he NEVER EVER DOES. It was the perfect combination of amazing sunny weather, good food and great family time out of the city.

Recipes:

Marrakesh Stew (I actually learned last week that Marrakech is a city in Morroco- thanks to America's Next Top Model! And I am not ashamed of that fact.)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 large red onion, diced large
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
4 large carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch pieces
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
3 3/4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
2 small eggplants, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 can (15.5 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
Cooked couscous (optional), for serving

Directions

In an 8-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, 5 minutes. Add cumin, cinnamon, coriander, cayenne, and allspice and cook until fragrant, 1 minute. Add carrots, potatoes, and squash and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and broth (vegetables should be completely covered by liquid; add water to cover if necessary). Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook, uncovered, 20 minutes.
Add eggplant, stir to combine, and simmer until eggplant is tender, 20 minutes. Stir in chickpeas, season to taste with salt and pepper, and cook until chickpeas are warmed through, 5 minutes. Serve stew with couscous if desired.

(so this is the stew that Odessa loved and it was very good. We did serve it on couscous. I again subbed zucchini for the eggplant- too expensive.)

One of the main reasons I wanted to make every recipe from Everyday Foods issue 79 was the groups of recipes- crepes and versions of crepe recipes, frittatas and version of frittatas, and of course all those smoothies! What do crepes and frittatas have a lot of? Eggs of course! lol
Here are a couple of the crepe versions and 2 of the frittatas.

Crepes with vegetables and goat cheese

4 Simple Crepes
8 tablespoons crumbled goat cheese
2 cups roasted vegetables, such as bell pepper, eggplant, mushroom, and onion
Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 4 crepes on a rimmed baking sheet. Place 2 tablespoons goat cheese and 1/2 cup roasted vegetables down the center of each crepe. Season with salt and pepper. Fold edges over filling. Bake until cheese softens and filling is warm, 5 minutes.

We made 1.5 times the crepe recipe. We roasted bell pepper, mushrooms, carrot, zucchini, carrots and a potato sliced in wedges with olive oil in a 450 oven. We used white cheddar instead of goat because it needed to be used- these were very good, a big hit. The next morning we made the rest of the crepes with the batter and put strawberries, bananas down the middle with either vanilla-honey yogurt I mixed up or melted nutella drizzled on the fruit. DELISH!

Potato-leek Fritatta

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 leek (white and light-green parts only), halved lengthwise, rinsed well, and thinly sliced (1 cup)
2 cups cooked, cubed, peeled potato
Coarse salt and ground pepper
8 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a 10-inch ovenproof nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add leek and potato, season with salt and pepper, and cook until leek is translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add eggs and ricotta, season with salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Cook, undisturbed, until edges are set, about 2 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until top of frittata is just set, 10 to 13 minutes. Invert or slide frittata onto a plate and cut into 6 wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cook's Note

The frittata will appear to be mostly liquid on top when you transfer it to the oven, but as long as the edges are set, the eggs will finish cooking evenly.

Onion, Spinach and Bacon Frittata

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced (1 cup)
2 cups frozen spinach (from two 10-ounce packages), thawed and squeezed dry
Coarse salt and ground pepper
8 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup crumbled cooked bacon (5 slices)

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a 10-inch ovenproof nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add onion and spinach, season with salt and pepper, and cook until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add eggs and bacon, season with salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Cook, undisturbed, until edges are set, about 2 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until top of frittata is just set, 10 to 13 minutes. Invert or slide frittata onto a plate and cut into 6 wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature.

(both of these frittatas were huge hits- Stephen and I liked them and the girls really ate them well. I didn't substitute anything although I did add some cheddar cheese to the top of the spinach bacon frittata. We will be doing all these frittata versions a lot- I plan on making one strata or frittata a week to cut down on costs as we are getting 6-7 eggs every day).

Spicy Black Bean Soup

Ingredients

1 pound dried black beans, picked over, soaked overnight, and drained
2 large yellow onions, diced small
2 jalapenos, minced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 3/4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (from 2 limes)
Diced avocado, diced onion, cilantro, low-fat plain yogurt, and tortilla strips, for serving (optional)

Directions

In a medium saucepan, cover beans with cold water by 2 inches. Add one quarter each of onions and jalapenos and bring to a boil over high. Reduce to a rapid simmer; cook until beans are tender, 45 to 50 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer 1 1/2 cups bean mixture to an airtight container. Let cool, then refrigerate, and save for Mushroom and Black Bean Tortilla Casserole.
In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high. Add garlic and remaining onions; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until onions are soft and golden brown, 10 minutes. Stir in remaining jalapenos, cumin, beans and their cooking liquid, and broth. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook until beans are soft, 20 minutes (if necessary, add up to 1 cup water to keep beans covered).
Transfer 2 cups soup to a blender and add cornstarch. Puree until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids). Return to pot. Cook, stirring, until soup thickens, 1 to 2 minutes. Add lime juice and season to taste with salt and pepper. To serve, top with avocado, diced onion, cilantro, yogurt, and tortilla strips if desired.

Cook's Note

Instead of soaking dried beans overnight, cover them with cold water by 2 inches in a pot; bring to a boil and cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let sit 1 hour. Freeze leftover soup, up to 1 month.

(this soup was so good. I didn't sub anything. We had avocado, sour cream and chips on top- yum!! I just cooked a great big batch of beans for this soup and the casserole below- we doubled everything in the soup, made the casserole a little bigger to feed everyone).

Mushroom and black bean tortilla casserole

Ingredients

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 pound cremini or button mushrooms, trimmed and quartered
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 1/2 cups reserved cooked black beans from Spicy Black-Bean Soup, or 1 can (15.5 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
8 corn tortillas, warmed and halved
2 cups salsa
1 1/4 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (4 ounces)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until browned, 7 minutes. Add garlic and cayenne; season with salt and pepper. Add black beans and stir to combine. Cook until beans are warmed through, 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Arrange 5 tortilla halves in a 2-quart baking dish. Top with half the bean mixture and 1/2 cup salsa, then sprinkle with one-third the cheese. Repeat with another layer of tortilla halves, bean mixture, salsa, and cheese. Top with remaining tortilla halves, salsa, and cheese. Cover with foil and bake until center is hot and cheese melts, 10 minutes. Uncover and bake until cheese is bubbling, 5 minutes.

(again, really liked this recipe. I liked the mushrooms as part of it, they were delicious. Didn't sub anything, just increased the amounts slightly to fill a 9x13)

A bit about Odie-totie

2011-04-21T16:13:00.001-07:00

Allow me to brag about Odie for a minute:

Odessa and Ada LOVE to tell jokes. And most of them don't make sense and most aren't very funny. But when they copy a real joke correctly, it's pretty cute. They always end their made-up jokes with the "punch line" and a "GET IT??" and laugh hysterically. Frankly, I have had to say a couple of times- "No, I don't get it!"
So the other day I made this Markaresh Stew stuff for dinner- amazingly Odessa really like it and even had it for leftovers the next day. She says stuff like "I want to eat this for every meal forever!" pretty much every other night- I know, I am super lucky- but meaning to say I do not always take her real seriously. Wait until you see the recipe- it's from my Everyday Food challenge. Anyway, she comes up to me and says "that dinner you made was STUPENDOUS!" and then says "get it?" and starts laughing. And I give an absent minded "ha ha" and Odessa says "that's all I get for a joke like that?" which really catches my attention.
Me: "tell it to me again"
Odessa: "dinner last night was STUPENDOUS- get it? STEW-PENDOUS!"
and I then I could not stop laughing . . . I couldn't believe she made it up herself

Yesterday, Odessa FINALLY got the whole swinging of her body down at the monkey rings at the park and I was SO PROUD- I got a little weepy (hormonal, I know). I was just watching from a distance, she kept trying and trying and then she got to watch another girl, and then she GOT IT. She finally got it! She made it almost to the end of the line of rings- 8 out of 9. Ok, one reason I was so super proud is that she has wanted to do this for like 2 years- you know, you have to lift them up and they can just hang from one ring? And this time I had to sit down quite a ways away to watch Ada and so she didn't know I was watching her try again and again. And third- I don't think I ever could actually swing from ring to ring when I was a kid. I was one of the WORST kids at the chin-up test and the hanging time test they made us do in PE every year. No upper body strength whatsoever. Oh well. I really could not get over how excited I was! Seriously, crying. So silly.

In my next post I hope to put in the Markaresh Stew recipe, pics of the tulip fields and last week's activities. I make these forecasts so I will make myself post again soon!

Reading, Writing and Recipes

2011-04-07T10:08:00.000-07:00

Had to post a pic of this darling centerpiece from my shower- cute socks made into rose buds. My friend has some other pics of me at the shower, so those may come later : )
Stephen's work threw him a surprise "shower" this last week and asked me and girls to come down and be part of the surprise- that was a lot of fun. He came into "staff meeting" with a notepad and items on his agenda and instead there was food and gifts and his family! Too funny.

Odessa has taken a huge interest lately in trying to write words and books. She loves looking at a bird book we have and is very fascinated with parrots, so she has made a couple parrot books. The above is her first attempts at spelling "parrot", then each time we talked her through what letters made what sounds and she finally figured it out. The double r we just had to tell her about.

Pictures of the parrots

She really likes looking at other books and articles from the Friend Magazine and copying sentences from them.

These are the first and second pages of the book, copied

And then there are her homemade cards for us . . .
Recently she has branched out into writing words she sounds out herself. This card was made for the new baby- she saw a couple cards from my shower and wanted to make one too. See if you can figure out what she said.

Here is another card she made- this one for her Dad

And Recipes . . . I got tired of the quick tacos and spaghetti meals I was making almost weekly, so I went back to my Everyday Food and we have really enjoyed eating more healthy, creative dinners.
But I forgot or was too lazy to ever take pictures, so I just took pictures of the magazine photos! LOL

Chicken Sandwiches with White Onions and Peppers

2 tsp olive oil
1/2 small white onion, cut into wedges
1/2 green pepper, cored and cut into 1/2 inch strips
1 cup mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
2 tsp fresh oregano leaves
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 tsp red-wine vinegar
2 chicken cutlets
cayenne pepper
1 Tbs mayonnaise
1/2 baguette, halved lengthwise and insides scooped out, toasted
lettuce leaves

In a large skillet, heat 1 tsp oil over medium. Add onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, and oregano. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until pepper and onion are tender, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in vinegar; tent with foil to keep warm.

Add 1 tsp oil to skillet. Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper and pinch of cayenne. Cook until golden brown on one side- about 3 minutes. Flip and cook until chicken is cooked through, about 1-2 minutes more.

Spread mayo on inside of bread. Assemble sandwich with vegetables, chicken and lettuce. Cut in half lengthwise to serve.
Serves 2

So, I changed a few things here. Obviously, I needed it to make more than 2 servings. I bought some hoagies that were slightly crunchy on the outside and nice and soft on the inside. I doubled everything- except I left out the mushrooms. I felt the onion/pepper mix was sufficient without the distraction of the mushrooms and I think I was right- it was a really good sandwich. I happened to have cutlets because they were on sale, but if you don't have them, you can carefully slice a chicken breast lengthwise so that it's half the thickness it was before- may want to pound on it with the side of a small skillet a little too to flatten it. I used dried oregano instead of fresh and one step I WOULD NOT omit is the vinegar- it really adds to the sandwich. I did not use cayenne on the girls' chicken, but found it added a lot to Stephen and I's with the cayenne pepper and mayo combo- YUM. We all loved these although the girls mostly pulled the pieces apart and ate them separately.)

Mini Mocha Cheesecakes

2 cups nonfat cottage cheese
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbs + 1 and 1/2 tsp flour
1 and 1/2 tsp espresso powder
1 and 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
9 chocolate wafers (such as Famous)
whipped cream

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line 9 standard muffin cups with cupcake liners. In a food processor, combine cottage cheese, eggs, confectioners sugar, cocoa powder, flour, espresso powder and vanilla. Process until smooth, 4 minutes, scraping down sides as needed. Divide mixture among cups and place 1 cookie on top of each. Bake until fillings are set and cookies soften, 25-30 minutes. Let cool to room temp in pan on a wire rack, then refrigerate at least 1 1/2 hours (or covered, up to 3 days). To serve, invert cheesecake onto plates and peel off liners. Top with a dollop of whipped cream if desired (makes 9).

We LOVED these and they are super easy. I made them for a little dinner party with our neighbors after we had fish tacos- yum! They don't taste "light" at all. I left out the espresso powder and because espresso enhances cocoa flavor, it's important that you use high quality cocoa powder and vanilla- vanilla also enhances cocoa flavor. I used a little extra cocoa to make up for the espresso. You can also add just a dash of salt- it can also enhance cocoa flavor I think. My recipe made about 11 little cakes. They will rise just a little when baked and then sink back down when cooling, so I served 2 of these little cakes to each person. I made a cooked raspberry sauce with some of my raspberry freezer jam and served the sauce warm over the cakes with a dollop of whipped cream. Famous wafers are one of my favorite things to bake with- they make the best chocolate crumbs because they are like Oreos without the creme filling.

Parmesan Chicken with Mushrooms and Brussel Sprouts

1/3 panko or plain dried breadcrumbs
1/3 cup grated parmesan
1 1/2 lbs chicken tenders
2 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
coarse salt and ground pepper
3/4 pound brussel sprouts, trimmed and halved (quartered if large)
3/4 pound mushrooms, trimmed and halved (quartered if large)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees with racks in upper and lower thirds. In a small bowl, mix together panko and Parmesan. In a 9x13 inch baking dish, toss chicken with 1 tsp oil and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Arrange chicken in a single layer and sprinkle with panko mixture. Drizzle with 1 Tbs oil and bake on upper rack until topping is golden brown and chicken is cooked through, 15-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, on a rimmed baking sheet, toss mushrooms and brussel sprouts with 2 tsp oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast on lower rack until golden brown and tender when pierced with a knife, 20 minutes. Serve vegetables with chicken.

We really liked this too. Brussel sprouts are out of season and expensive, so I opted for a cauliflower instead since it roasts up nicely. The girls like it a lot.

This week ended up nicely- I had a girls night out with Hillary where we promptly acted like we were in high school and everything was hilarious. People out for the evening on Queen Anne probably assumed we had been visiting the bar scene there and not the self-serve frozen yogurt bar. That's why it's always fun to be with Hillary. Saturday night was games with friends Mike and Julia.
More fun to come this week with "April Babies" get-together and other outings- guess I am backing it in before the baby arrives!

Nesting

2011-03-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

Feeling so much more ready for this baby! Had some great girls time this week and a fabulous shower thrown by my friend Amy. It was supposed to be a second hand shower so people could just pass along their hand-me-downs, but somehow I ended up with a bunch of new stuff too . . . I have dear, sweet friends and I was so looking forward to this shower! I finally realized it was because most of the last few years all the holidays (including my birthdays) have mostly revolved around the kids. This was one event that I didn't have to share.
I was also gifted some NEW cloth diapers (I had been trying to buy them second hand) and now I feel I have a complete set of cloth diapers for this kid. We went with the Mother-ease kind- they are one-size and so they grow with your child. My top motivation for trying cloth is not having to run to the store for diapers at 10pm. I hate that more than anything. Second factor is cost and third is the environment. Stephen and I are funny that way- we don't do many green things unless they have a direct benefit to us in other ways.

Speaking of nesting- the chickens just passed a milestone today. We got seven eggs- one egg for each chicken!! We actually never really thought they would all lay one every day, we figured 6 eggs a day would be our top production, but wow! It's fun to give them to some people who really like brown eggs and one friend wants to trade his fish from Alaska since he's always going up there. Whoa. Yes, please!!!! I have been incorporating more eggs into our diet- my mom told me my grandma used to occasionally make an Angel Food cake and a Chiffon cake when they had extra eggs- all the whites for the Angel Food and yolks for the Chiffon. Brilliant. Odessa is not a cereal girl and I think she enjoys coming in from feeding the chickens and collecting eggs and requesting a scrambled egg for breakfast!

Role reversal

2011-03-18T20:48:00.000-07:00

No, this isn't about Stephen doing most of the housework around here lately. This is about Tuesday night. Stephen and I looked across the dinner table at each other and both realized: we were exhausted.
We started telling the girls that mommy and daddy were going to bed- could they put away the food and do the dishes, lock up and get themselves in bed?
Of course, they were ecstatic at the prospect, they want to be independent so badly. What ensued was I finally got up and put away the food, the girls did clear most of the dishes (you have to be willing to let a few pieces of silverware fall on the floor) and Dad went and laid on the couch and was "tucked in" with various kid's blankets numerous times by both girls. Then Odessa read a book she has memorized to him- over and over. He slept. Ada put me "to bed" in the recliner and read something to me as well . . . I faded in and out. We finally were coherent enough to give directions to get ready for bed and they really did change, clean up their room and brush teeth and potty all by themselves (some nights it's like pulling teeth, seriously).

At this point they still thought they were going to be the last ones in bed (Odessa even put Tabby (the cat) to bed in the pantry). When we had to break their bubble and wake up ourselves, they were pretty upset.

They are getting to be such good helpers- Odessa especially thrives on helping me out. She wants me to just let her try and carry that bag of groceries that's too big, she is always helping Ada find her shoes or get her jacket on and always helping me on errands. It's nice to see that a month before the baby comes how responsible they really can be when you let them.

Wed night at the dinner table, Stephen and I started spelling words for some reason, I can't even remember what started it, but I do remember the last part of the conversation. The girls were very engrossed in their fajitas and didn't seem to be paying attention at all.

Stephen: I also noticed you bought some S-O-D-A
Tara: Yes, for frappe tomorrow- it's St Patricks Day
Stephen: So you're going to put -I-C-E C-R-E-A-M in it?
Tara: Yes- to make a green drink
Stephen: What kind, mint?
Tara: No- lime . . . . S-H-E-R-B-E-R-T
Stephen: Oh, so not really -I-C-E C-R-E-A-M
Tara: I guess not- same difference (insert good-natured rolling of eyes here)
Ada: (pausing between bites) Good, because later we are going to L-E-G brush our teeth
Odessa: Don't forget G-E-B go to bed! (giggling)

Stephen and I could NOT stop laughing

Other notable events this week: egg production is ramping up! Yesterday we got 4 edible eggs- none pecked at or soft shelled, all hard and nice and whole (when they first start laying you can get some funky eggs). Take for example our double yolker there. We have gotten 2 of these and at least one egg that was supposed to be a double yolker but did not come out all together. Most of the eggs are pretty small right now, so you can imagine when we see a doubler! It's so exciting to open the coop and find eggs, seriously.

Here is the double yolker compared to the extra large egg we get from Smith Brothers

Odessa doing what she loves best

When we got a cat I said she would not sleep on my favorite chair. Ahem. Well, at least we keep a blanket on it . . . She was sleeping on the remote, so I moved it to where she's holding it. Look who runs the house?

Our glazed corned beef was oh so good- the girls were naming things a whole week before St Patty's that we could eat that would be green. If it had been up to them, we would have had salad, broccoli, cabbage (although they didn't like it) and peas. Note the lime sherbet frappe- lol.

I saw a recipe for coconut poke cake on FB this week. I had some flavoring from the Philippines for buco pandaan- which is like young coconut that was green, so I used it to flavor and color the cake "drizzle" and the custard that was supposed to go in the cake. Turned into a trifle, but it was still good.

I think I'll wait

2011-03-09T10:07:00.000-08:00

Odessa remembered she was to be her own boss Monday morning as I was fixing breakfast;
Odessa: "Wait mom, I am my own boss and I want a sandwich for breakfast"
Me: Ok, the bread is up there, get a chair. Oops, look- we're out. You had better make some.
Odessa: Um, maybe I will have a pancake after all.
Me: Ok, do you want to fix it?
Odessa: No, you can- I don't want to miss Cat in the Hat.

Throughout the day she decided that as she got older, she'd be able to do more by herself and was quite satisfied and delighted with herself for "figuring" this out.

At bedtime as I was closing the door she called out "mom?"
Me: Yes?
Odessa: I think I can wait until I get big to be my own boss.
Me: Sounds like a good idea. Goodnight.

My own boss

2011-03-06T20:25:00.000-08:00

I was really proud of my kids this week. They seemed to handle my work schedule really well, they woke happy and played together well. They played outside, they were super good at all our outings. But right now Odessa is throwing fits about not being able to "be her own boss" and I want to pull out my hair. I think tomorrow I will let her be her own boss- she can get her own breakfast, fold all her own clothes and in general take care of whatever she needs by herself. We'll see how that goes.

Nothing too major this week- fortunately I passed my 2 hr fasting blood sugar tests- whew. They took 3 samples of blood- I have great veins, but it doesn't matter how careful you are, I will bruise. Looks pretty nasty. Felt pretty nasty too to have gotten up before 6:30 and drink 100 grams of straight sugar on an empty stomach. I had to put my head down on a table and just snooze for a little while. They make you sign a waiver that you might pass out, so you agree not to hold them liable if you leave the premise. Awesome.

Stephen planted raspberry starts, blueberry bushes and a full size peach tree yesterday. We got 3 more eggs this week. Somehow those chickens only lay for Stephen. I checked their nesting boxes one afternoon and he came home and checked them like 2 hours later and there was an egg. He has found all of them! Seems unfair when I do my share of waddling out there in the freezing cold every morning to help Odessa feed them. Plus I food process all the scraps we save out for them into one nasty bowl of stinkin mash which they LOVE and come flying from all over the yard for. And yet no eggs for me. (yes, I now have to sort our garbage into 4 containers: scraps for the chickens, compostables we can't feed the chickens, recycling and garbage. Hilarious.)

The girls and I got to attend a children's theatre play Friday. There is a friend of ours from church that is in this theater group and we have been able to attend 3 of his plays- it's really nice of him to offer to get moms from the ward in. The girls LOVE the plays and he gave us a couple of the CDs from them for Christmas- we listen to Princess and The Pea and Snow White on a daily basis. Those songs are the first thing that pop into my head in the middle of the night when I invariably wake up. Sigh.

I almost forgot- the best part of this week was finding the strollers we wanted for the next baby on Craiglist for a fraction of what they would have cost us new. We are trying to be minimalists this go around- just a snap n go for when he's in a car seat and a Maclaren umbrella for when he's bigger. Super duper excited about the deals we snagged- THAT makes my week.

Twofer one

2011-02-27T16:59:00.001-08:00

I wanted to break this up into 2 posts, but oh well.
So I have had some thoughts about our yard lately. A few months ago, Stephen started doing some research on how to espalier fruit trees. Click on espalier if you want to learn about it- I had never heard of it though I had seen it. This way he could get more trees in a smaller area and keep them lower maintenance, plus make a kind of fence out of them for the front yard. He checked out books on it from the library and we talked to experts in the area about what kind of trees to get, etc.
So when I told people over Presidents Day weekend that we had bought 10 fruit trees, I got varied responses. LOL Stephen and I both grew up on an acre or more and our parents had/have many full size fruit trees, so of course 10 sounded like a ton of work to them . . . my dad said of Stephen "well, he doesn't lack ambition". This is so true. I started thinking back to all the places we have lived since we got married. Stephen is always trying to make use of whatever space we have, which some years was very little. My friend commented on having a "bountiful yard" and I thought back to what Stephen's twin brother said when he bought a duplex- he wanted his property to work for him (or something to that effect). Well, that's what Stephen has been doing all these years as well. He finds it amusing to see what will grow as well, but I think he just has this desire to make where ever he's living produce something- anything. Thus the chickens and all the future plans for the yard. So I thought I would document some of his doings over the last 6 years.
The first summer we were married we had moved into my grandparent's old farmhouse with a huge yard and garden area. We moved there in March and Stephen had filled the whole garden plot with plants in time for growing season. We got quite a lot of fruit and veggies that summer- those white gourds grew on their own and were quite the fun Halloween decor. The following summer we knew we would be headed to Chicago by August and there wouldn't be time to harvest much of anything. So Stephen decided we would grow a whole garden full of basil and cilantro and sell it at the local farmers market. We spent $25 on bulk seed and planted the whole garden plot. Needless to say, we got bags and bags of basil - the cilantro bolted to seed too fast. We took the bags down to the Boise farmers market and a veggie vendor said he would sell them for us at a cut. We made $25 and ate endless amounts of pesto that summer. Stephen was happy.
In Chicago we rented a duplex. The only summer we were there Stephen talked the landlord into letting us pull all the thistles in the alley behind our place and put in plants. We also got permission to plant in a 6 inch strip next to the garage with corn- these were the results.

It was HILARIOUS to drive by and see that row of corn next to the dentist's garage.

Once we moved to Seattle we were able to grow potted cherry tomatoes behind our apartment complex.

We bought our house last April and the first thing Stephen set on was getting the garden plot ready. It took a lot of labor to get all the trees, bushes and then turf out of the area we wanted it, but we did get a garden in and we had some success.
Staking out where the fruit trees in the front yard should go.

Hard to see them, but here are the 6 apple trees. The wire guides is where 3 branches on each side will be "taught" to grow. Dwarf trees will keep them from getting much beyond 5-6 ft tall.
Next to our side fence in the front yard he put in 4 cherry trees- they also will be espaliered. Plans include a full size peach tree, blueberries, raspberries and possibly an apricot tree.

Another note: Stephen is no carpenter, but I am amazed at what he comes up with. We have all this leftover fencing lumber from the fences they built last summer (Stephen, neighbors and his parents - I mainly hauled junk).

These are some boxes he made in less than an hour to put raspberries bushes into.

He designed and built the chicken coop complete with removable side for cleaning and a nesting box door to collect eggs (we got 3 this week!!)

The chicken coop now rests in the garden spot so the chickens can fertilize the garden- look at our girls now!

The littler box home he made with scratching post covered in leftover carpet that was left in the shop.
He wanted the clothes rack removed from the laundry/pantry room so we would have more floor space- so he rigged up this hanging rod from leftover lumber.
Finally, he tore out old sheet rock around our wood box that had water damage years ago and is filling in the sides of it with our lumber.

My other post was about our week- we've had crazy cold weather and the girls were DELIGHTED when we got some real snow that stuck to the yard. I didn't catch Odessa's real face here, but she was absolutely beaming scooping up armfuls of snow and moving them around the yard. She would live in Alaska if we let her- she loves the snow SO MUCH and will stay out forever in it.
This weekend I cajoled Stephen into going down to the mall- he has never been!!! It didn't hurt that the JC Penney rewards that were going to expire I encouraged him to use and find some work clothes that ended up being almost free- that's the kind of shopping he likes . . .
After the girls spent their allowance they've earned from feeding chickens and setting the table, we met our friend Hermes in the "Asian" wing of the mall where they have a Jollibee, Chow King and Red Ribbon bakery, all chain restaurants that are all over in the Philippines. The first time I discovered it, I couldn't stop grinning. So even though us American missionaries always made fun of the Jollibee food (Asia's McDonalds with funny tasting hamburgers) I tried their fried chicken at Hermes' urging and we got some Filipino spaghetti with sweet banana ketchup sauce and special hot dogs and ground pork in it- don't forget the grated "velveeta" style cheese on top . . . Oh I acutally miss that crazy spaghetti. Jollibee's was good, but the homemade stuff that I ate at people's homes was even better.
But the kicker was the halo-halos we got from Chow King. OH MY- they super size them American sized. They were delicious.
My back continues to be a constant pain, and my blood sugars were high when they tested me for gestational diabetes so I have to take another glucose challenge (2 hr this time, FASTING) and start taking better care of my body these last 8+ weeks of pregnancy. After the coming week which will be very busy, I am going to stop working so much and go to Physical Therapy, walk more and go to the dentist- finally.
And that is my insanely long post that should have been at least two. Oh well.

Last chance

2011-02-20T21:22:00.001-08:00

I try and not blog on weekdays- been really busy with this job lately which should change the second week of March.
I finally updated all my recipe photos with the recipes and reviews in the previous post. Here is what else we have been up to:

The girls set this all up themselves, so I had to take a picture.

We went with our friends to a YW fundraiser. Some young women in a ward in our Stake put on a Valentines dinner/dance. We had a really good time! The food was better than we thought it would be, they watched and fed all our kids in the nursery and we got to boogie to a few songs. They made a gazillion of these chocolate roses- that is 2 hersheys minis and 2 kisses- so adorable.

I had to make a few sugar cookies. We had choir practice, a youth fireside at our house and my daily need for a cookie at 4pm to worry about. We got all the bases covered.

This past weekend was busy with Missionaries dinner, baking bread, chili cook-off (I combined 2 recipes for a green/white chicken chili that didn't win but was very good) and cinnamon rolls for early morning choir practice (yes, I am done baking for choir for a while). In fact, I am done cooking for awhile altogether. We have leftovers galore from all the soups and breads.
Plus my back has been giving me a ton of pain lately- I can't sit, stand or walk for long without feeling like it's seized up or something. Transferring weight from one leg to another is hilarious- my pregnant waddle makes it seem I am must be in my 9th month of carrying twins. I have back braces and may go to the Physical Therapist soon . . . been sleeping on the recliner full time for a while now.

Biggest news is that we got our first egg today!! Stephen noticed a chicken fussing around under a rhodedenron bush and when he went to inspect found a warm egg there! This started a full blown, real life Easter Egg hunt around our yard in case those chickies had been tucking them other places. No other eggs yet, but that is ok. Now we know we need to put fake eggs or golf balls in the nesting boxes to encourage them to use those instead. (and yes, Odessa dressed herself up like that while I was napping and wore it out in the yard)

Pretty huh? I have lots of other thoughts about our yard which I want to post separately.

So many recipes so little time

2011-02-08T10:36:00.000-08:00

I am finally posting about the many recipes I have been making. I finally decided to make as many darn adjustments as I needed to- mostly to save money or use up something I have- and blog about why I thought those substitutions would work and what the outcome was. Taking classes titled "experimental foods" as part of my program in college is more helpful than I thought . . .

Ok, this is a photo from the web, but we took this stir fry to a Chinese New Year party and it was a hit- so good! I forgot to take pics. We all made dumplings together- so delicious!

Emeril's Broccoli and Cauliflower Stir-fry

1 cup long grain rice
2 Tb veg oil
2 Tbs minced garlic
3/4 pound broccoli- cut into bite size
3/4 pound cauliflower- cut into bite size
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
red-pepper flakes
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup oyster sauce

Cook rice according to instructions. Meanwhile, in a wok or large skillet, heat oil over high. Add garlic, cook 10 seconds. Add broccoli, cauliflower, bell pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, about 4 minutes. Add broth and stir to combine. Cook, stirring constantly until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Add oyster sauce and cook, stirring to combine, 1 minute. Spoon over rice and serve immediately.

(review: Made as is, and everyone loved it. I doubled it. Just in case you haven't used it before: Oyster sauce is not fishy tasting (unlike fish sauce)- it's rich and slightly sweet and a ton of Chinese dishes you love probably have it in them.)

Roasted Red Onion and Squash Pasta

2 medium red onions, cut into 6 wedges, layers separated
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch pieces
1 Tbs coarsely chopped fresh sage leaves
1 Tbs olive oil
coarse salt and ground pepper
1/2 pound short ridged pasta, like rigatoni
1/4 cup grated fontina cheese (2 oz)

Preheat oven to 450. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss onions, squash, and sage with oil. Season with salt and pepper. Arrange in a single layer and roast until tender, about 25 minutes, rotating sheet and tossing vegetables halfway through.
Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water; drain pasta and return to pot. Add vegetables and cheese and toss to combine, adding enough pasta water to create a thin sauce that coats pasta.

(review- I liked this, although I did use fontina cheese and it wasn't my super favorite of textures. We had this totally random winter squash that seemed dense like a butternut squash, so I used that instead of butternut and it was ok- butternut would have been even better. I used dried sage- not going to pay $2-3 for an herb for a meatless dish when I already splurged for the cheese. No thanks.)

Onion Focaccia

3 Tbs plus 1 tsp olive oil
2 pounds store bought or homemade pizza dough
2 large red onions, thinly sliced
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 Tbs cider vinegar
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Ramano
1/2 to 1 tsp red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 425. Coat an 11 x 17 inch rimmed baking sheet with 2 Tbs oil. Place dough on sheet, stretching to fit (if dough springs back, let rest 20 minutes and repeat.) Drizzle edges of dough with 1 Tbs oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 1 tsp oil over med-high. Add onions and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender and golden brown in spots, 12 minutes. Add vinegar and cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits with a wooden spoon, 1 minute.
Remove plastic from dough. With your fingertips, poke dimples all over dough, then top with cheese, browned onions, and red pepper flakes. Bake until golden brown around edges, about 30 minutes. Let cool on sheet 5 minutes. Cut into 20 pieces and serve warm or at room temp. (to store, wrap cooled focaccia in plastic and keep at room temp for 2 days).

(review- We all LOVED THIS. Stephen served his mission in Italy, so when I told him that I was making focaccia for dinner, he got excited- they used to buy it by the square over there from shops for lunch or snack. When he asked about the dough recipe and I told him I was to use my pizza dough recipe he was a little concerned ; ). Turns out focaccia should not be the same texture as pizza. So I added some extra yeast and left it pretty thick when I rolled it out- who stretches it on a sheet, I don't know? He deemed it perfect when he tried it. He really dislikes Romano, so we used parmesan which I always have on hand. One other thing that occurred to me- I just found out a year or 2 ago that when a recipe reads "skillet" they mean like a stainless steel pan or cast iron or something other than non-stick skillet. When they want you to use a non-stick, they say non-stick. They cook so differently, it really does matter.)

Ham, Zucchini and Gruyere Frittata

1 Tbs olive oil
1 cup coarsely chopped ham (5 oz)
2 small zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch half-moons (2 cups)
coarse salt and ground pepper
8 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese (1.5 oz)

Preheat oven to 425. In a 10 inch-oven proof non-stick skillet, heat oil over medium high. Add ham and zucchini, season with salt and pepper, and cook until zucchini starts to lightly brown, about 5-7 minutes.
Add eggs and gruyere, season with salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Cook, undisturbed until edges are set, about 2 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until top of frittata is just set, 10-13 minutes. Invert or slide frittata onto a plate and cut into 6 wedges. Serve warm or at room temp.

(review: ok, this is one I made one night when I didn't have a dinner plan. So gruyere did not happen- cheddar had to suffice. I was also short 2 eggs! So I did a hunt through my fridge and decided the full fat sour cream I had on hand might be thick enough to sub for some eggs. I did a search online before I started and found that yes, sour cream was an ok substitute. The sour cream did make it a little grainy in spots- I did not whip in the sour cream, it was left a little chunky. It was enjoyed by all and I LOVE that this issue has 4 different fritatta variations- we love cooking with lots of eggs).

Almond Date Smoothie

Blend 3 Tbs almond butter, 4 pitted dates, 1 cup low fat plain yogurt, 1 cup apple cider or juice and 1 cup ice.

(Review: Weird- the texture and taste were both kinda strange. I liked it better than Stephen who apparently thinks smoothies should always be berry/citrus based lol. We probably won't make it again, but it was enjoyable enough.)

Pasta with Eggplant-Tomato Relish

coarse salt and ground pepper
1 pound short, ridged pasta
1 recipe eggplant-tomato relish
4 oz crumbled feta cheese

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to directions. Reserve 1 cup pasta water; drain pasta and return to pot. Stir in relish and reserved water, then season with salt and pepper. Top with feta and serve warm or at room temp.

Relish:
Preheat oven to 450. On a rimmed baking sheet, stir together 1 can (28 oz) whole peeled tomatoes torn into small pieces, 2 unpeeled garlic cloves, 1/2 tsp ground cumin and 1 Tbs olive oil. Place 1 globe eggplant (1 pound) on top of tomato mixture and roast until eggplant is very tender when pierced with a knife and tomato juices are thick- 30-40 minutes. Let cool. Transfer eggplant to a cutting board and halve lengthwise. Scrape out flesh with a spoon (discarding as many seeds as possible); roughly chop flesh. Place in a large bowl. Peel and chop garlic and add to bowl. Stir in tomato mixture and 1/2 small red onion, diced small. Season with coarse salt and ground pepper. (to store, refrigerate in an air tight container, up to 1 week.)

(Review: This was really good. The feta didn't seem to set right with this dish- I have NO IDEA why all the cheeses don't seem to be working for me on these dishes. Maybe I am buying too low quality of specialty cheese . . . hmmm. But I have a hard time thinking of what cheese I would use instead . . . )

Sweet and Sour Chicken with Green Beans

1 cup long grain white rice
1 Tbs cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 Tbs vegetable oil
1 1/4 pounds chicken breast cut into 1 inch pieces
2 bell peppers seeded and diced large
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and halved
5 scallions, thinly sliced
2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbs chopped roasted peanuts

Cook rice. Meanwhile, in a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, and vinegar. Set aside.
In a large skillet or wok, heat oil over high. Add chicken, bell peppers and green beans, cook stirring frequently, until vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add scallions, ginger and garlic and cook, stirring frequently until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender, about 4 minutes.
Whisk soy sauce mix, add to skillet, and cook, stirring constantly until sauce thickens, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and serve over rice with peanuts on top if desired.

(Review: This was delicious, but I made some changes. Fresh green beans and bell peppers were way too expensive, so I opted to buy frozen instead. I got one bag of beans, and one bag of the bell pepper strips. I cooked the chicken by itself, and removed it from the wok. I then added the frozen veggies. The key to cooking with frozen veggies is to cook the water off and not cook them to death so they don't look too ugly. One method I use is to push the veggies into the edges of the wok to let the water cook off from the middle. Once I felt like the veggies were cooked but not over cooked, I added the chicken back and added the sauce. It came out pretty good. I am sure it would taste better with fresh, but just too spendy for me that week.)

Peanut-Banana Espresso Smoothie

Blend 1 cup low fat milk, 1 Tbs instant espresso powder, 1/4 cup natural creamy peanut butter, 1 ripe banana cut into thirds and 1 cup ice.
Serves 2 (big glasses) Calories: 307

(Review: I did not use the espresso powder since we don't drink coffee in any form, but I did sub some of my special cocoa powder and I thought this was DELICIOUS. Stephen is more partial to the fruity kinds like I mentioned, but I think this is a great sub for a milkshake any day.)

Catching up

2011-02-06T16:28:00.001-08:00

I have at least 5 Everyday Food recipes to share about, but first a little bit of family business post:

I got my hair cut and colored- a little fix of the at-home dying and cutting jobs I have been doing myself . . . this summer I want to take it back to the original dingy, dirty blonde that I won't have to do anything to upkeep ; ). This is the best it will ever look- so I documented it. She had flat irons I will not be investing in. I guess I will post a picture of my baby bump (more like a mountain) soon per requests.

Our free rare breed chick they threw into our order turned out to be a rooster. When he started cock-a-doodling last weekend it was super funny and sad. We have suspected for a while "Leah" was a "Leo" and would have to go. Stephen suggested eating him- and even Odessa knew that this was a possibility although she has held him from the time we got him as a chick. Stephen is so good about making sure the girls understand that part of having animals like chickens means they may die and you might be the one to kill them. But I opted to try selling him.
However- this picture does not do him justice, his tail feathers gleam green in the sunlight (yes, when we have sunlight) and he is fluffy and can puff out his neck feathers when he runs at you- protecting his ladies from the evil forces of . . . the people who feed them. Anyway, I always had this fear that one of the many Asians or Latinos that live around these parts might want him for cock fighting. Yes, I saw lots of cock fighting roosters in the Philippines and also the many different razor weapons they attach to the roosters claws - whoever loses usually is dinner for the winner's owner.
I posted him on Craigslist for $10 which is a lot for a rooster- some people give them away, but I got an email that night from a Vietnamese guy from Burien. When I asked him some questions he said the rooster was going to stay at his friend's house who also had a rooster. "No way" I thought- not selling my rooster to you. Luckily I had posted 3 of the laying hens (at least they are supposed to start laying by the end of the month or next month) at the same time. A super nice lady who has a farm on Vashon Island (short ferry ride from West Seattle) wanted to add to her 4 layers. So perfect. Oh and by the way, she was looking for a rooster, but would pick one up on Vashon for free- everyone had too many roosters to get rid of. I called her after agonizing about the Vietnamese guy and offered her Leo for free with the 3 layers. And so all 4 chickens went off together on Thursday to live a happy life on the farm. I was so relieved. And we even have her address in case we want to go see them sometime. Nicest lady ever.

Stephen was getting the girls out of the tub, I was making dinner and the State of the Union was blaring. All of a sudden I hear this live clapping coming from the living room. I peak in to see Ada- she has come right in, climbed up on the couch, is acting like she is listening attentively and clapping whenever everyone else does. She was SO SERIOUS and it was SO FUNNY.
She could not have been happier to get to watch TV long after PBS kids was over . . .

Super Smoothies

2011-01-22T11:52:00.000-08:00

So, in case someone missed it, I am doing a funny challenge to make all the recipes from the Jan/Feb issue of Everyday Foods. The main reason this challenge started was the 8 recipes for smoothies they have in there . . . I instantly said I wanted to try all 8.
After my first 2 posts about entrees I made with several substitutions/alterations my sister suggested I make this challenge about how I change recipes and if they turn out or not! Ha ha.
Since smoothies have like 4 ingredients in them, I tried my best not to alter these recipes at all. Stephen and I have started looking forward to these nightly treats. Here are the 5 we have tried so far:

Peach, Berry and Spinach

Blend 1 cup fresh or frozen peach slices, 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blackberries, 1 cup packed fresh spinach leaves, 1 1/2 cups white grape juice and 1/2 cup ice (if using fresh fruit). Serves 2, 160 calories

*I think this is my favorite so far, and it made enough for the girls to have some too. (this is the only smoothie I made substitutions to- I promise! I had frozen blueberries instead of blackberries and no white grape juice yet . . . because I know blackberries have more of an acid punch than blueberries, I used pineapple juice instead of white grape- turned out awesome)

Odessa loved it- and drank Ada's too

Pineapple and Ginger

Blend 1 cup fresh or frozen pineapple, cut into 1-inch pieces, 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced, 1/2 cup lowfat plain yogurt, 1 cup pineapple juice, 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon, and 1/2 cup ice. Serves 2, 156 calories

I love ginger, so I was a little disappointed in this one- it was a little runny and I didn't like the cinnamon, next time I would leave it out. It did have a nice warming effect from the spiciness of the ginger. Stephen liked it better than me . . .

Green Machine

Blend 1 cup packed fresh spinach leaves, 1 1/4 cups white grape juice or pear juice (I used white grape), 1/2 avocado, 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces, and 1 cup ice. Serves 2, 193 calories

I was also really excited about this one! But too much apple maybe? It was really thick which I like but it also tasted a little like drinking applesauce, so I think half an apple in this one would be fabulous. This was Stephen's favorite so far . . .

Cucumber Blueberry

Blend one medium cucumber peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces, 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1 cup white grape juice or pear juice, and 1/2 cup low fat yogurt. Serves 2, 164 calories.

I loved this one! Wouldn't change a thing . . .

Berry Orange

Blend 1 orange, peel and pith removed with a sharp knife, quartered, 1/2 cup lowfat plain yogurt, 1/2 cup raspberry sorbet, and 1/2 cup 100% cranberry juice. Serves 2, 169 calories.

We both LOVED the taste of this, but a couple texture things- the membranes on the orange still are a little chunky and I blended it so long that it was pretty runny. I think next time I would blend the orange and juice together until super fine and then add the other ingredients and maybe throw in a bit of ice to thicken things up a little. Very good- what's not to love about raspberry sorbet?

Incidentally, I did find all the juices I needed in the frozen section much easier and much cheaper than in the regular juice section (that's a no brainer I guess, but I was surprised how easy it was to get 100% cran and white grape and pom there vs already made and bottled).

Ok, 3 more coming up soon! Oh, Almond Date, aren't you excited??

Name Game

2011-01-14T17:25:00.000-08:00

Most of you know Stephen and I are pretty tight lipped about baby names. Part of the reason being we have such a hard time deciding on a name together. My pregnancies consist of many nights like this: I lay in bed with a baby name book reading aloud names I like and Stephen responds.
"Hazel" - "No"
"Vivian" - "No"
"Adelle" - "No"
"Nola" - "No"
"Nora" - "No"
"Ada" - "hmmmmm . . . . might work"

Seriously, we usually can only agree on 2 names through this entire 9 month process . . .
So I checked out a couple of unusual baby naming books from the library and one actually walks you through these exercises of how to come up with a working list of names. Last night I was reading a section on combining parent's names or grandparent's names. This is the conversation that ensued:

Stephen: Be-phen (Stephen and Ben- our father's names)
Me: St-en!
Stephen: Lew-ben (Lewis- middle name of his father, Ben- my dad)
Me: I think most people use the parents of the BABY'S names
Stephen: Ta-phen
Me: St-ara! How about middle names? (his is Boyd and mine used to be Ann)
Stephen: B-ann
Me: Ann-oyd . . . Annoyd!!!!

This is the point where I burst into uncontrollable laughter until I started crying which was not hard considering the week I had . . . but at least the belly laugh I got helped me out of my funk.

Next Recipe: Spice-rubbed fish with lemony rice

2011-01-13T12:32:00.000-08:00

We have been holding on to the last package of halibut Stephen's dad caught in Alaska. These are like worth their weight in gold, so you have to be careful when you select a recipe for them.

Spice-rubbed fish with lemony rice

4 tsp unsalted butter
1 small yellow onion
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 cup basmati rice
1/2 tsp poppy seeds
1 TB lemon zest + 1 Tb lemon juice
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 medium zucchini, halved and cut into 1-inch pieces
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 # cod or other firm white fish cut into 4 fillets
2 tsp coriander spice mix

Coriander Spice mix
Stir in a small bowl:
1/4 cup ground coriander
1 Tb each: ground ginger, paprika, coarse salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground pepper

In a med saucepan, heat butter over medium. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft, 4 minutes. Stir in rice and poppy seeds and cook one minute. Stir in lemon zest and lemon juice, broth and zucchini and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook 13 minutes. Sprinkle spice on top of fish. Arrange fish snugly in a single layer, spice side up on top of rice, cover and cook until rice is tender and fish is opaque throughout, 5 to 7 minutes.

Here is my notes: (I usually don't make so many changes to my recipes, it just happens that I decided to make the last 2 meals late in the game and was not going to the store). I didn't have zucchini or basmati rice. I used spinach which I threw in at the end and wilted it and brown rice which changed the water amounts and cooking time- still it was really good. I didn't make all that spice rub, I am not good at using those up, so I lessened all the amounts and made enough for the fish. We had about 2# of fish, so I put just salt and pepper on some of the pieces and broiled them all on a cookie sheet together (no room in the saucepan plus steamed is not my favorite way to have fish). I rubbed a drizzle of olive oil over the fish fillets because you can imagine a dry rub broiled would be . . . really dry. Wallah! It was very tasty, enjoyed by all. The girls never fail to eat copious amounts of the halibut- maybe because it was caught by grandpa? Anyway, we usually run out of fish before they run out of appetite but I saved enough of the plain fish for fish tacos the next night. Those we had on toasted corn tortillas with pico de gallo and cabbage slaw- so delicious. What a nice way to say farewell to the fish. Thanks Steve! We talked about personally helping you fund another Alaskan trip . . .

(by the way, the cat was going nutso over the smell of the fish- here she is begging for some)

Cold and clear

2011-01-09T22:12:00.000-08:00

My mom and dad came for a visit last week over the New Year. We had a great time and New Years Eve we decided to take a day trip to get out of the city. It's been forever since we took a ferry anywhere, so we headed over to Port Townsend and Poulsbo but it was a killer cold day even though the sun was super bright. I must say Port Townsend is my new destination of choice- we have got to get back there this summer to explore. Here are some photos . . .

From the Ferry

The Olympic mountains looked so amazing!

She knows how to take a picture- needle in the background

See what I mean?

Mt Rainier from ferry- not it's finest moment, but it never ceases to impress

Ok, I couldn't stop taking shots of them . . .

From the peninsula- outside Port Townsend in Fort Worden State Park- loved this place!

Looking back East at Whidbey Island and the mountains on the mainland behind Whidbey

Point Wilson Lighthouse at Fort Worden

They loved climbing the rock wall surrounding the lighthouse

Stephen even got them leaping around

Mom and dad

With the girls, the Port Townsend/Whidbey Island ferry in background

My Nordics

Port Townsend has several really gorgeous houses and buildings- they had their heyday in the late 1800s

On to Scandinavian Poulsbo

Ummm . . . . delicious!!

Surrounded by amazing pastries, we all found at least one we wanted to try

Goodbye Poulsbo and the peninsula, we'll be back on a warmer day!

Thanks Mom and Dad for spoiling us, we had a great time!

Trash talking

2011-01-06T15:21:00.001-08:00

One of Odessa's My Little Ponies got chewed up on the legs by a visiting canine a while ago. We hid it from her and she hasn't missed it much- until yesterday. She was crying about not having a pony collection anymore. I thought a damaged pony was better than no pony, so I pulled it out. Not so. Hysterics ensued. I finally calmed her down with 2 bandaids to cover the mangled hooves of the pony. Several small plastic chunks are missing.
Today in the car she was ruminating that when the dog who chewed on the pony started feeling sick, she would have to have surgery to remove the pieces from her stomach (this has been months now) and then they would take the pieces and make something else out of them (like all good plastic- it would get recycled, right?).
I had to explain that the dog probably just pooped out the pieces and they got thrown away in the garbage.
Odessa: So it would go to the compost?
Me: No, dog poop can't be composted, it would go to the garbage.
Odessa: What do they do with garbage?
Me: Ummm . . . . nothing really
Odessa: It doesn't get recycled?
Me: No.
Odessa: Where does it go?
Me: Into a big pile called a landfill or dump.
Quiet for minute . . . .
Odessa: (under her breath) Sounds like littering to me.

A few minutes after that she came around the idea of a big pile of garbage and how fun it would be to sled down it because of course it would be slippery.
And that started a whole new conversation . . .

Bean and Cheese Enchiladas

2011-01-06T12:59:00.000-08:00

I forgot to take a picture before they were dished up. I was interested in making these for 2 reasons- homemade enchilada sauce has got to be cheaper than my favorite Trader Joes enchilada sauce and the instructions were to heat the filled tortillas and then pour the heated sauce over individual enchiladas right before serving. This is a method I have been trying at my house recently to cut down on tortilla sogginess. I will admit I cheated on the filling- I did not have the cottage cheese to blend into a nice, smooth filling and add beans to- I wanted to use rice and black beans, so I did.
I have decided if you want the recipe, I will email it to you. At least for this one- I may be more motivated next time and actually post it.
Sum up- homemade sauce isn't AS good, but it IS good and of course cheaper than my favorite kind . . . although I think Cooks Illustrated has a homemade sauce that is just as good or better, maybe I better dig that one up and do a little taste-off.

New challenge

2011-01-05T20:55:00.000-08:00

I have lots of things I would like to do in 2011, but one of them is just silly enough to blog about. I want to make every recipe from this month's issue of Everyday Food and blog about them. Do I have time to do this? Not really. Will I do it in a month? No way. But it's high time there were some food entries on this blog.
Let the games begin.

Christmas Recap

2010-12-27T14:17:00.000-08:00

Our community Christmas event calendar was a bit lacking this year, but oh well. We did take the girls to the Nutcracker, which was the highlight- theirs and ours. Being the penny pincher that I am, we drove clear to Enumclaw for the performance- about an hour away. It was a fraction of the price of tickets closer to town. Of course it wasn't the level of performance we would have seen in the city, but a 3 yr old and 5 yr old really don't care. The best part was watching their mesmerized faces as they sat on their knees in their seats and watched all the ballerinas. They know the Nutcracker story well, so that helped.
Other holiday notables: I had my first annual Favorite Things Christmas Party with about 15 ladies. We all picked our favorite thing under $5 and bought 3 of them. Then we drew numbers and swapped at the party- lots of fun.
The girls got to see a darn good Santa at the primary Christmas party- they loved telling him what they wanted for Christmas.

After the party, we went up into the mountains with another family in the ward to cut down our $10 Christmas tree (turns out being cheap is not always the best idea) and due to the amazing amount of snow, the blizzard conditions and the stuck nature of many vehicles surrounding our friend's truck, we were there for hours and I decided a nice Christmas tree farm is maybe the way to go next year. I had to chuckle that our friend with his small truck and chains on his tires pulled out huge truck after truck who hadn't planned and then gotten themselves in all kinds of pickles. It was fun to watch the Jeep Wranglers who were outfitted to seriously do major off-roading drive up and over huge drifts and then orchestrate all the towing and manuevering of vehicles to get us all down the mountain with trees. Stephen had to practically army crawl across the snow to pick out our tree- the mountain was so steep and the snow so deep. Not our finest tree ever, but everyone was just so happy to get out alive, we didn't care what our trees looked like one bit. Here are a few photos of the house- we have loved decorating with the pine boughs and holly from the trees in the backyard.

We attended a lovely dinner party with about 50 other people at a gorgeous home in West Seattle . . . whew- such a fine house and such fine food! And we finally hit downtown on Christmas Eve and saw the gingerbread houses at the Sheraton hotel (I almost passed out waiting in line- that was fun). The girls and I did the Seattle Center one day without dad- we breezed through the main building with Christmas stuff and spent most of our time at the Pacific Science Center.

Christmas Eve they opened pillow cases and PJs, then we headed up to Everett for a super fun night spent at the Romneys.
Lots and lots of favorite foods and got to meet some new friends too.

Christmas morning looked like this:
I got a dollhouse at a thrift store and decided I would like to furnish it with Playmobil furniture, so all the grandparents and aunts and uncles who bought for our family pitched in and purchased one or two rooms to the tune of 7 furnished rooms for the girls! They opened each room separately and we put them all together afterward. All the pieces are adorable- moving parts, lots of tiny details- note the sink full of dishes already. LOL
The other favorite gift was the long-coveted music/jewelry boxes with dancing ballerinas. However, I have listened to the same 3 bars of Swan Lake SO MANY TIMES it's kind of going to drive me nuts . . .

Christmas night we had take and bake pizzas and about 4 billion other foods with 2 other families in the ward and the missionaries- we seriously should have tried to get the whole mission zone in there to clean it up- thankfully everyone took leftovers and we were able to give the other food to a family who needed it.
Because . . . . Sunday night we had our good friends from our previous ward over for a formal dinner! Whew. It was a great dinner- they are kind of our "Seattle grandparents" and also we had our friend and real estate agent over- it's so fun to show your home improvements to the person who saw your house and yard at it's very lowest points. lol
They all spoiled us rotten with side dishes and presents- the girls got some coveted books! Hooray! To finish off the weekend we got to see our friend Hermes for a long over due visit. And that was the whirlwind that was Christmas weekend. I was DREADING this morning- Stephen going back to work and me starting my work projects again as well, but it hasn't been as bad as I thought and we have my parents visit to look forward to this week. Plus I am still listening to Christmas music- the season lives on!

All I ever need to know I learned from PBS Kids

2010-12-17T17:49:00.001-08:00

(Ada HATES having her hair combed, hates ponytails and her super fine hair was always tangling, so last Saturday, I whacked off more than 6 inches. She loves it- she could pull off a pixie,
but maybe when she's older : )

We've had seriously horrible periods of time when my kids watch altogether too much PBS kids. Pregnancy nausea, moves, overloaded with new stay at home job . . . etc.

I've got "those kids" who will sit riveted to a TV as long as you let them- sometimes you can't get them to blink, let alone respond to you if it's on. Dangerous, I know. So thankfully, I am glad PBS tries to make their stuff educational and this is my tribute to them . . . . . and my bad parenting skills.

Stephen is often surprised by something the girls tell him at dinner or when he gets home and he used to ask me "how do they know about that?" and my response was always "PBS Kids, where do you think they learned it?"
I can't tell you how many explanations begin with me saying "remember how on Curious George/Sid the Science Kid . . . this and that happened and so that's why . . . . "
Plus I attribute Odessa's ease in picking up reading and writing comprehension to many of their literature programs.

Some funny moments that led Stephen and I to surmise that all we really need to know we learn from PBS Kids:
Odessa started using words from The Electric Company appropriately at the dinner table such as "dubious" and "fatigued". While we knew she could probably copy cat a sentence she heard, we were surprised she could also tell us the definition.
She and Ada took a tumbling class and promptly informed their teacher that the tumbling wedge was an inclined plane and made it easy to move things up and down an area- thank you Sid the Science kid.
Ada spent 15 minutes in the car the other day explaining to me that we have rubber tires and why they are so much better than the wooden wheels they used to make.
But it was after Odessa identified some Cirrus clouds while we were all driving somewhere that Stephen pounded the wheel in excitement and declared: "Our kids don't need to go to school! They learn enough from PBS kids, who needs public school?!"

What a deal!

2010-12-08T19:53:00.001-08:00

We needed curtains for our living room- big purchase, big decision, big deal. We also have big leaks in our 33 yr old windows that needed to be blocked. Plastic on the windows needed to be covered despite the excellent plastic-ing job Stephen always does . . . .

Small business Saturday (after black Friday): Went to IKEA to check out curtains (don't judge, also visited small businesses later) - the curtains I wanted were all sold out.
Cyber Monday: Get ads from JC Penney- window treatments 60% off! Find some online I like. Stephen wisely suggests we go in and look in person.
Monday night: Fall in love with a totally different curtain: Studio Trilby design in Huckleberry color. Love. But it's only Buy one, get one 50% off- nothing like the online sale.
Tuesday morning: Check online- Huckleberry all sold out and discontinued online. Boooooo.
Tuesday afternoon: Return to Penneys to buy curtains. I am told if I wait until Wed, I can open a Penney's account and save another 20%. I put them on hold.
Wednesday night: Return to Penneys, FINALLY buy curtains. Hip hip horray.
Saturday morning: Buy curtain rod and hang curtains. Love curtains.
Sunday: Decide we would love them even more if there were 2 more panels- 4 is just a little skimpy and they are too flat.
Monday morning: Call Penneys to see if they have 2 more Huckleberry panels and if they are still on sale.

Sales person: No, they are not on that sale, but they are on a better sale now.
Me: Really? I bought 4 last week, any chance I can get the better price on those?
Sales person: Yes, if it was within 7 days we can make the change.
Me: Really? I also applied for the Penney's card to get the 20% off, any chance that would also apply? (I learned these skills from my mother. If you don't ask, you never know)
Sales Person: Umm, yes that should be ok.

Monday night: Take receipt to Penneys to buy two more panels. Turns out the new sale is 50% off! Saleswoman returns the previous four panels, rings up all six, gives me the 20% off (on ALL of them- which I was not expecting) and says: "I now owe you $.07- that will have to go back on your card."

I walk out the door with two new panels and a $.07 credit. Oh, what a joyful, joyful season.

We're having a baby . . . .

2010-12-02T20:12:00.001-08:00

. . . . BOY!

We are excited- I don't think either of us knew how strongly we felt about it either way until she told us and we saw for ourselves- a NUMBER of times that it was a boy.
Frankly, I had been gearing up for a girl. I just thought it would easier- I have all the clothes and toys and even a name picked out this time around. But shifting gears is A-OK and I really wanted a son for Stephen to teach all his cool "guy" stuff too like scouting and hunting and building stuff . . .

Ultrasound went well today- I got more choked up about the fact that all 4 chambers of the heart were there and 2 legs and 2 arms, etc, etc. This pregnancy has been so unlike the other 2 that I just couldn't relax and not worry that something might be wrong. There are no guarantees, but at least seeing what looked like a healthy baby was reassuring. I just wanted to get this out there in case people didn't see on Facebook what we were
having : )

Newest member of the family

2010-12-01T13:51:00.001-08:00

SIKE! The ultrasound isn't until tomorrow. Even then, don't know that I will have pictures of the future little Hunt to post. Meet Ella Lilly- our new cat. We got her totally randomly- let's just say her owner couldn't take care of her anymore. It just so happened we were planning on getting a cat the same week Ella came to us. We had promised one for Odessa's birthday since she has been asking for a pet since she was . . . . hmmm . . . . able to say "doggie"? A cat was the compromise. Much less work and stink than a dog. Ella has been a very skitterish, very good cat- she's a teenager by cat standards we think. Need to get her spayed and checked out and then she can go outside more. Going to be a great mouser we hope. Very good with the girls.

The girls got an art easel and they have been painting nonstop. This is "Ella" by Odessa

She likes to cuddle- sometimes

Snow last week was such fun for the girls and wreaked havoc on the roads. It took some people 8 hrs to commute home, cars were abandoned. Stephen walked the 6 miles home from work because all the buses were stuck behind cars that couldn't go over the bridges. Being Stephen, he didn't walk though- he jogged.

It's fun that we have a few inclines in the yard that made great sledding trails

On a different note:
Stephen's Grandpa Fife passed away 2 weeks ago and the funeral was Nov 27th, which just happened to fall on Odessa's birthday. Stephen flew to Boise Friday after Thanksgiving, so we celebrated Odessa's birthday early on Wed before Thanksgiving. It's been nice to hear all about Grandpa's life from stories and things that Stephen shared from the services. Although all will miss him, especially Grandma Dove- he has been ill for a while and it was a blessing I think that his suffering came to an end.

Odessa's birthday:

She got her coveted ballet slippers

An umbrella from Ada

She finally got to open the package that came from Grandma and Grandpa- it was a raincoat with horses. I think she would have been just as excited if it had been an educational book- she just LOVES getting packages and mail!

She wanted the "fruit cake" like mom got on her birthday. Little does she know they come from Chinese bakeries in the International District near Stephen's work LOL. She loved it . . .
On her actual birthday, the "girls" went out for fun. IKEA playland for them, IKEA shopping for me. Lunch was Odessa's choice- Chinese food. She got to take her birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa to the $1 store and get crafting supplies- yippee!

And finally, the Thanksgiving feast that I promptly refused to eat leftovers of. I am definitely going to do something different than turkey next year! We had a nice meal with a friend away from his family. Hope yours was joyful!

So behind

2010-11-20T11:27:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a busy few weeks since Halloween. I have been working on some projects for work, Ada was really sick . . . . after Odessa got better . . . .
I am just updating with photos for now.View from the computer room, all of our Japanese maples turned colors- but yellow or red, not all the same- so that was really pretty. We have 3 of them.

Odessa lost her other bottom tooth, and the left tooth started growing in

Then a couple weeks later she lost the other top tooth- now she has all 4 front teeth missing

Odessa made hair bows for Ada that made her look like Nellie from Little House . . . .
(note the "smiley eyes" in this photo)

Ada was REALLY sick for a few days, and her smiley eyes definitely were frownie eyes those days- hard for me and her

These pics were actually when she was on the mend, but whining about something because she'd gotten so used to me doing everything for her. She even had me holding up her sippy cups of juice for her a couple of days. A world of difference between her and Odessa as patients!

A little while ago we cleaned out the garden, this was our "big haul" - next year we will start earlier with the warm crops . . .

We did get a ton of carrots

While Ada helped me in the garden, Odessa helped dad keep the chickens happy while he finished the coop and we moved it to the garden spot

The chickens are getting so big, bigger than this photo. One was killed by a falcon last Sunday. We have been letting them out sometimes when we are home, but everyone was napping and a falcon swooped in and got one. We did get the chicken away from the falcon and buried it for Odessa's sake and because we don't want the birds thinking there is a free meal at our house.

I heart Halloween

2010-11-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

Someday I will really get back into the swing of Halloween. My house will be spookier, my costume more thought-out . . .
When I was too tall to trick-or-treat, I turned all my efforts into pumpkin carving, creating spooky porches at my house (for trick or treaters that never showed up) and collecting Halloween decorations.
I've also decided that someone out there should start selling the Ultimate Bag of Halloween Candy. They would have to get the cooperation of all the candy companies, but think of how awesome this would sell! (keep in mind, some of these candies no one likes, but they are a Halloween tradition!)
You would have your standard 3 mini candy bars of all the classics:
Milky Way
3 Musketeers
Snickers
Butterfingers
Kit Kats
100 Grand
Hersheys
Reese Pnt Butter Cups
Reeses Pieces
Crunch Bar
Mr Goodbar, etc.
then a handful of the following:
M&Ms, all kinds
Skittles
Starbursts
Tootsie Pops and Tootsie Rolls
Dots
Sugar babies and a Sugar daddy just to rip your teeth out
Smarties
mini boxes of Nerds
mini Twizzlers- red
some Gobstoppers
Double Bubble
Sweet Tarts
Bit O Honey
those weird black and orange wrapped peanut flavored taffy things that your mom made you throw away because it came from "that house" down the street . . .
Am I missing anything??

We had a great Halloween Party at the church Friday night and a fabulous Mystery Dinner at friends Saturday night. The menu was full of things like Festering Sores, Moldy Scabs, Buzzard Brains and Monster Mush and we had no idea what we were ordering. Odessa and Ada somehow got the bread, jello dessert, brownie and punch on their first try- way to go kids! You get to order as many times as you like, but have to eat what you got first. SO MUCH FUN and we are totally doing it next year. Sunday took a turn for the worse as Odessa got a stomach bug and we have been staying in ever since.

Lining up for the costume contest, there was trick or treating in the halls, jack-o-lantern contest and games for the kids, dinner and cupcakes

Can you see Ada's shoes? They had ribbon ties to make them look like pointe shoes.

Odessa wore my wig, so I could not be Elphaba this year. lol. She was Pocahontas.

Odessa drew the picture she wanted on her pumpkin, Ada requested an upside down crazy face.

Stephen won the jack-o-lantern contest with his pumpkin on the left. The girls were really bummed we didn't all get ribbons! lol

Pumpkin Farm

2010-10-31T14:33:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went up to Snohomish to a pumpkin farm. No arguing that the weather forecast was for bad storms, we had a Groupon to use and by George, we were going!!

We got on a list of about 4oo people willing to adopt one of these kittens. Think we will get called?

The rabbits were also a huge hit

Then it was time to pick out a pumpkin. We ended up walking to 4 different fields to find just the right ones.

Despite the rain, dad wanted to teach the girls mini-golf, so we golfed! They were hilarious.

Hay ride out to the corn maze. We listened to the drivers description, looked at the map, talked our friends the Coles who we had just run in to and decided to avoid the mud and just ride back to the start. Good choice.

The kids enjoyed the hay maze in the barn instead- look at that slide! Made Odessa go flying.

"COOOLLLLDDDD" sitting in a puddle just to enjoy the cow train.

We had a great time, even better that we ran into our friends. I guess the crowds were a lot smaller than on days when they have better weather. It was not much like a farm, more like a fair! But a good time was had by all.

Shout it all out

2010-10-27T10:55:00.000-07:00

I am not a real "shout out" kind of person, but there are several things that are missing from my blog lately. This post is almost for catch-up purposes so I won't ever forget . . .

First, to elaborate on the this wonderful taxi driver - whose taxi number I should have written down so I could make one of those phone calls of praise to his company instead of complaints. We got off the bus about a 1/4 mile from our house, up some rolling hills, around some corners. Stephen had to use both arms to hold a sleeping Ada and I was pulling our one large suitcase and holding hands with a zombie-like Odessa. We did not get far from the stop when a taxi passed us, then turned around and pulled over. I waved him off thinking "no way am I paying a taxi after all the work we have done to take the bus". He rolled down his window and said in broken English "I take you where you need to go for free, no charge!" And I knew he meant it because we really were pathetic to behold. Turns out he has 4 kids- little boys and is from Somalia. So sweet and talked about when you offer to do something for free people still think you are trying to get something out of them (like the pessimist I am). I think the hardest part was when he pulled up to our house and said "nice, strong house, lucky kids to have a house like this" and I thought of the 6 of them probably crammed in some apartment on Delridge. That's why I wish we had gotten his number, to pay it forward somehow and pay him back. Whenever I see a taxi now I peer at the driver to see if I will recognize him.
Second, I wish I had mentioned that my mom was supposed to go on our Victoria trip with us. It was quite a shock the Saturday before the trip when she pinched a nerve in her back and ended up flat on her back. After seeing 2 Drs Monday, she decided Tuesday morning not to fly out to us that night. That was sad. She is much, much better now and we are so glad she didn't try and over do it and make her back worse. When Ada asked her on the phone if her back was better and my mom answered yes, Ada said "then you can come to our house now". They are looking forward to a "make up visit" from both my parents in December!

Third, people have been really nice to me since finding out I was having a hard time being sick with this pregnancy. Stephen has been an angel, you would not believe what he puts up with. I also have to tell you about my friend Hermes and how he made us dinner one night- my favorite Filipino dish, Tinola. Which is PERFECT for a pregnant woman because it's essentially the best chicken soup ever with lots of ginger in it and green papaya and leaves of some sort . . . hmmm I forget- anyway, it was to die for. You pour it over rice. My cousins got to partake of some of the leftovers and they also fell in love with Tinola. Seriously, one of the sweetest things anyone has done for me. He also fed our chicks while we were gone along with my friend Hillary and her family. Thanks guys!!

Last but not least, I never blogged that my sister Alyssa is also expecting- she is about 4 months ahead of me, due in January. This was a HUGE surprise to everyone- they told us in a tricky way at the family reunion this July. They led us on a treasure hunt that ended with a ultrasound photo! The roof of the condo I think jumped 2 feet as we all flipped out. I think the son-in-laws were blown back by the blast and realized their wives and sisters-in-law were all a bit more dramatic than they had even imagined. It was sheer joy. Alyssa is my oldest sister (far left in the photo) and this is their first baby. My two sisters in between each have 4 kids a piece. So you can imagine the fun of talking to her about maternity jeans and birth plans and how she is going to "survey monkey" us all to find out the most essential baby items. TOO MUCH FUN.
I didn't blog about her being pregnant when we got back because it was still a secret, but now it's too fun to not include somewhere in my writings. (btw during the reunion someone assumed I was the oldest- in fact I am pretty sure it was the photographer )
And THAT is me playing catch up . . .

Victoria, BC

2010-10-18T09:07:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday we took off for Victoria BC on the Clipper ferry- and came home Saturday night. To keep my commentary on the trip brief, I will use the "dos and don'ts" list . . .

If you are crazy enough to agree with your transportation planner husband to take the bus to the ferry terminal and home again, DO make sure you have the correct bus fare for both going and coming. This will help you avoid stress and embarassment at 6am and keep you from finding a mini mart downtown at 9pm.

Do change your plans if you agreed to take the bus home- don't do it. If you don't have any West Seattle friends in your cell phone who can pick you up, take a taxi. Because eventually a taxi will take pity on you at 10:20pm trying to drag luggage and sleeping children home from the bus stop and drive you for free anyway and then you will feel terrible (and terribly grateful too).

Do remember your medicine, especially if your medicine prevents you from throwing up on your trip. Note: next trip to Canada, be 100% healthy- don't have the stomach flu, be post miscarriage or pregnant. Just don't.

Do book your vacation package through the Clipper- they always put you in sweetest hotels with excellent customer service! Like the Grand Pacific across from the Government Buildings.
Do go visit Miniature World- one of the more kid friendly things to do in Victoria.

Do "ohh and ahhh" at the Empress lit up at night while walking home late from Chinatown.

Do get up early enough to join the "duck man" at the hotel to help him feed the ducks. Your kids will talk of little else.

Do giggle to yourself when the bazillion Japanese students staying at your hotel act like the paparazzi around your kids and won't stop squealing "kawaii" (cute) at them.

Don't go to Butchart Gardens in October- they still charge $23 per person and your kids may not enjoy it $23 worth

Do go visit Hatley Castle. Your kids may think Princesses once lived there and the gardens there are very lovely and extensive- plus just $4.75 instead of $23!

Do keep an eye out for hummingbirds- they love the rose garden and have nests in the area . .

Do enjoy the lovely greenhouses- original glass and build, just so spectacular

Don't feed the ducks at the Japanese pond and garden
Do sit on the bench in the "Croquet lawn" and just soak in the tranquility and beauty of this place and enjoy the fact you have seen only 3 other people in the last hour

Do visit the Royal BC Museum, it's very much worth it

Don't eat at tea houses, they just don't have the best food . . .

But DO go to Willie's Bakery on Johnson and order a large orange juice. It's worth every penny. In fact, when your kid knocks her glass over you may be tempted to lick the juice off the table.

Don't miss one last chance to say goodbye to inner harbor, such a lovely city and such a lovely day!

Cousins and babies and chicks, oh my!

2010-10-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend was so fun. My cousin Sara and her family came for a visit, they have 2 little boys . . . we took them downtown for a little sight seeing. They loved Pike Place . . .
Sunday we went to our friend's baby blessing up in Everrett and had a wonderful time at their house afterwards with their family and friends.
Last week we got the baby chicks in the mail- yep, that's how they do it! Even the feed stores get theirs in the mail, so you might as well go that route . .

Stephen just has to put the finishing chicken wire on the open part of the coop- that little side door is where the nesting boxes are and we can easily gather eggs (when there are some)

He modified it to make a good brooding area- it needs to be at least 95 degrees for the chicks!
The whole side of the coop comes off for easy cleaning
One of our 11 Rhode Island Reds, they look bigger than even 3 days before! Every day they get more real feathers and get bigger

This is the one rare breed they sent, they throw it in for free. We don't know what kind it is, but right here it's a little sick- and you can tell it won't be as big as the Rhode Islanders. I found out what was wrong and this chick is on the mend now

The girls are getting good at scooping up the chicks and the chicks are getting good at letting them hold them. Domesticated chicks! That's what we need. By the way, we will be selling some of the chicks, we can only have 8 and besides that I am not sure the coop is big enough for 8. We built it with 3 in mind . . . then they upped the limit to 8

Odessa takes her ballet practice very seriously, they are both still taking lessons at the Community Center

I picked up this knight costume at a thrift store thinking one of my friends with a boy would want it for Halloween, but I think we will keep it so the boys that come over have something to dress up in! Ada at once insisted he dance with her after he was done slaying some dragons

Once they got the twirling thing down, they were having a riot! It was SO ADORABLE

I haven't had salsa in 7 weeks and . . .

2010-10-11T12:41:00.000-07:00

I keep the oven fan running all day long . . . .
I have to avoid looking at fast food signs when I drive and I change the channel when their commercials come on . . . .
I also haven't eaten chocolate in over 7 weeks!
Did you guess yet? Many of you know already (because I have a Varsity letter in whining)- I am pregnant. And about 10 times more sick than I ever was with Odessa and Ada- which really threw me for a loop. There were a couple weeks I just felt like curling into a ball most days. Good thing the girls are so independent and Stephen so nice . . . and patient . . . and long suffering . . . .
After trying lots of alternative remedies for morning sickness, my Dr finally prescribed me some Zofran. This was heaven in a bottle. In fact, I started taking a half dose right away because a whole dose made me feel too good to be pregnant. So a bit of the nausea remains, but it's manageable. I even cook a bit! If you want to have a debate about medicated vs non-medicated pregnancies, don't leave me a comment. Feel free to call : ). It took me a little while to be ok with this decision.

We are pretty excited! We have been trying to get pregnant for a LONG time (for us). With both Odessa and Ada it was like first or second try- for real. We have been trying since May of 2009 with an 8 week miscarriage in August 2009 (maybe another blog post, but I always knew that pregnancy wasn't "quite right"and wasn't shocked to miscarry although I was shocked by the hormonal aftermath it created.) So you can imagine our surprise each month when it still didn't happen.
But ok, now I am due in April (again) and all seems very well. In fact, too well. I am super sick and my tummy is SUPER big. Already. Not cool. In fact, before we even told the girls, Ada asked me why my tummy was so big: "do you have a baby in there?" she asked. Sheesh! They have been SO SWEET. They include me in every prayer "bless mommy to feel better" even in front of the entire primary at an activity after which several teachers turned to smile at me. Secret out? Not sure. The girls would also draw me special get well drawings, bring me blankets and cover me up . . . . they will make great mini-moms.
We officially told them last night . . . starting with a book about becoming a big sister we used when Ada was born.
Me: Ada, what you need to be a big sister?
Ada: . . . . . . . to be four?
Me: No, not really- Odessa was a big sister when she was 1 and a half years old! What do you have to have to be a big sister?
Ada: . . . . . grown up?
Stephen: No . . . . what does our family have to get, to have, for Ada to become a big sister (pointing now to the baby in the book).
Odessa: (lighting up like a Christmas tree) WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A BABY!!!!

And then the pandemonium broke loose. Ada spent much of the night being a dog and then a baby. Despite her months of wanting a baby so badly, I think she has realized she might have some competition once one actually arrives. Odessa was just thrilled- I couldn't get her to stop rubbing my belly. She even crawled into bed with me this morning and asked if I had grown bigger from last night. Great. I am excited to take them to my next appointment and have them hear the heartbeat. When I first heard it was the moment I think I let myself really believe I was pregnant.
As for our anniversary- it was de ja vousish for us. I also had morning sickness on our second anniversary and we ended up eating at a Greek restaurant that night. For this anniversary, I had a Groupon for (you guessed it) a nice Greek restaurant. I am not really TRYING to solidify never wanting to eat greek food again in my life, but if you have to pick a type of food . . . well you can't hate Italian food for the rest of your life!

School's in session

2010-10-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

My kids are not in preschool. Since they are both tall and Odessa will be 5 in a month, they get asked the preschool question almost daily by someone. But we did like the idea of them having some kind of structured learning at home and we definitely liked the idea of them having little desks they could play with. Two Craigslist phone calls, one late night trip later and we had 2 little desks for them. I had a bunch of pre-K workbooks and they LOVE playing school. You can also tell from the mess that they love using them for art and have tons of paper everywhere. These also came in handy during our church conference since the desks are in the computer room and we have to watch General Conference on the internet. We got them all set up with food, then listening activities and coloring. It was pretty su-weet.

What else is sweet is the spider webs around my yard. I have not destroyed one of them since I want them to eat the noxious flies that reside in the carport and sneak into the house. I caught the most perfect one I have ever seen on camera. It gets us in the spooky mood- we'll be decorating for Halloween soon! Most of you know it's my second favorite holiday and I have almost as many Halloween decorations as Christmas. They have been itching to get out of the boxes as this is the first year we aren't apartment bound.

Women's Conference

2010-09-28T09:05:00.001-07:00

Saturday night our church had it's worldwide women's conference that was broadcast from Salt Lake City. The women in our church 18 yrs and older belong to the Relief Society, the largest women's organization in the world. We had several speakers and their messages were inspirational, but rather than share something in particular about what they said, I wanted to share something that occurred to me just in the time I was listening. Many people who read my blog are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I hope those who aren't will bear with me talking a little spiritually today.
I think many friends and family can identify with the fact that sometimes your faith in God and the gospel message seems strong and other times it seems weak. Sometimes you are growing in knowledge and your beliefs and hopes and testimony and sometimes it just seems to stagnate. Frankly, I had such great times of growth in my teen, young adult years and serving a mission for my church that in comparison, the last 6 years have seemed a bit lacking. This is most definitely my fault as I have slacked off in my study and prayer.
I decided Saturday night during that conference that I wanted to make a list of all the experiences that led me to believe in God, that he knows me and my name, that I believe in my church and the Gospel we preach. I have had little and big experiences my whole life that my testimony is based on. Each testimony building experience is like adding another block to my foundation, something that keeps me solid in faith. I love that I often reflect on these experiences, but I wanted to see them grouped together on a sheet of paper and see how powerful they looked when built on one another. Like the memory of when I was 14 years old - I had a great experience listening to a speaker at a youth conference where I felt Jesus' love for me and just knew He had died for ME or the time on my mission in the Philippines when I prayed so hard asking God why I felt like He left me all alone out there and it was like He came up behind me and whispered in my ear that He was right there and always would be.

I know this list will be a treasure I always keep. I wanted to share this experience in church Sunday and in our Relief Society meeting there was about 2 minutes of dead space when I could have easily gotten up and shared, but I waited and I missed that chance. I just didn't want to let it go without recording it and hope maybe it would help someone else as well.

September 18th 2010

2010-09-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

Happy 6th Anniversary to my honey. More about our anniversary to come in a later post . . . .

She's her father's child

2010-09-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

When Odessa kept pulling out these 2 green items and insisting they matched because they were both green, I vaguely remembered having the same discussion with her father a couple times about shades of green. Chalk it up to another "you're your father's daughter moment" She is so much like him, it's uncanny.
(btw- the pants are much more olive green than the camera picked up, I promise! lol)

Slackers do not work on Labor Day

2010-09-12T13:44:00.000-07:00

I've been a slacker lately. My sister Alyssa and her husband Jeff were here for Labor Day weekend and we had SO MUCH FUN with them. I did not take any pictures. Such a slacker. See, these pictures would help convince the rest of you how much fun you would have if you came to see us in Seattle. So I can give you a play-by-play until my sister sends some of her photos . . . I will warn you- I think one of the best things about Seattle is food and actually food tours are one of the most popular tourist attraction around here.

Saturday we went to Fisherman's Terminal to buy some salmon and I finally found out the difference between like 5 different kinds of salmon- the guys down there are awesome. Then we went to the Lockes and saw some salmon trying hard to head inland and not get killed and eaten by us . . . we ate lunch in Ballard (some of us even had salmon for lunch) then headed off to the Pacific Science Center- fun for kids and adults! Plus now we have like 12 IMAX tickets, who wouldn't want to get in on that action? They have the coolest nature IMAX shows there. We cooked our salmon that night with green beans from the garden among other things . . .

Sunday Alyssa and Jeff hopped on the ferry to attend Jeff's brother's wedding in Poulsbo. If you come and don't have a wedding to attend in Poulsbo, we will take you there. You need to ride on a ferry and see some of the quaint towns on the penninsula and islands that are so cute and so Scandinavian.
Monday we picked them up from the ferry and headed straight to Pike Place market. Being yocals, we know to get in line at Beechers for some cheese, get in line at Pike Place Chowder and get some chowders like smoked salmon and seared scallop and then cry when my favorite fruit and veggie stand is closed for Labor Day and I can't get the peaches I've been talking up. Seeing as how the cream from the chowders was seeping into our bloodstream, I couldn't tempt anyone to stand in line for the mini doughnuts- but when you come, we'll get some. We enjoyed the rest of the market, most especially the flowers and the fact that we were stroller free. On the long walk back to the car Alyssa and I used a coupon at Dahlia's bakery to buy a most scrumptious loaf of flax pecan bread. HELLO. Meanwhile, outside the bakery, Stephen pulled Odessa's loose tooth out and she jumped for joy for 5 minutes that she was finally getting a dollar from the tooth fairy. We drove them to Gas Works Park where we walked around and then by request, we drove across the 2 floating bridges that cross Lake Washington (Jeff's an engineer ya know). We all got so hungry in the car we tore off chunks of the flax pecan loaf and ate it with Beechers cheese curds. With one last stop at Cupcakes Royale, we were set for the night. We had a BIG salad, the rest of the bread and cupcakes for dessert. We bid them a sad goodbye Tuesday morning- there were still so many places to see and foods to eat!

Thursday was Stephen's birthday! It was a small fanfare year.
The girls kept calling him BIRTHDAY BOY! and giggling

Looking at the photo book from Mom and Dad Hunt

He requested carrot cake and on his birthday we walked down on Alki Beach

Saturday was Volunteer Day and I went up to the Seattle Center to help with the Alzheimers fundraiser- memory walk. They raised almost $320,000! I got to block traffic at an intersection for walkers- it was so much fun. I felt like a traffic cop.
Saturday afternoon we went to the Puyallup Fair and had the best time we've had with kids so far. No stroller (can you tell, Stephen really wants them to toughen up?) and we just had a blast doing mostly the things they were interested in doing. There was a whole building of dog breeds with one of each out for you to pet- heaven for the girls. They got to see the miniature ponies and watch a bunch of dance classes perform on stage- another thing they dream about. We got to eat our favorite foods and see some horse showing and we ended up staying past 8- which was way longer than we planned. SO FUN. Sigh. I love fairs.
This dog was seriously twice as big as Odessa and could have fit her head in his mouth

She was so good at milking the cow that the dairy maid offered her her job

You should have seen Odessa, she would turn the wheel and lean into the curves just like she was really driving. A dad close to me noticed and pointed it out to his wife "watch this girl, she holds the wheel on the straight-aways and turns on the corners!" I told him we were signing her up for Drivers Ed soon.

Give the world your gift of Art

2010-09-03T12:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks Kristin for posting this, I think it's absolutely fabulous. At first I was thinking 'what kind of art can I share?' but I think everyone has creativity to offer the world

"children are a blessing" (repeat 3 times)

2010-08-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

Ada has been going through a phase lately. I can't identify or name this phase, but let's just say that a group of us moms decided that the terrible twos are wrongly accused- we think the terrible threes is the real problem in childhood. Something about being three . . . .

Anyway, they have had a couple funny moments regardless (btw- Odessa has been an Angel lately, and I know she is trying extra hard because it tickles her pink that Ada has been so naughty and she is not the one getting into trouble anymore).

Mandy, Cohen and 7 week old Greyson were over, Mandy was holding him and rocking in the chair, he was awake- so of course Ada was fawning nearby.

Ada: When is HE going to grow up to be a SHE?
Mandy: (laughing) Never! He will always be a he.
Ada: (dissapointed) Oh
~then she leaned really close to his face with her eyes bugging out of her head and shouted "GOO GOO GAA GAA"
We busted up and asked her if that's how babies talked? "Yeah" she said

Stephen has a lot of nights where he comes home, grabs a bite to eat and heads out the door for meetings. Last night he left the 3 of us sitting at the table.

Ada: Where are you going?
Dad: To a meeting.
Ada: Where? At the church?
Dad: Yes.
Odessa: I'm DUBIOUS about that.
Me: (laughing) Oh you are? Where do YOU think he's going?

We almost died. I don't even think I have ever used the word dubious in a conversation. That's what you get when you let them watch Electric Company I think. She's got the memory of an elephant.

Just a journal entry

2010-08-24T10:34:00.001-07:00

We've had some busy and exciting days lately. Stephen's calling as ward mission leader throws a lot of unexpected things in our path. I am starting to feel a little like a den mother or something, I am not used to entertaining his friends/co-workers so much. I've had some fun adventures too.
The girls and I finished 2 weeks of swim lessons every morning in Magnolia. Leaving an hour early to get there "just in case" was tough- the girls often had to be woken up. Most days we got there in 20 minutes, but with so much water and hills and city, Seattle has so many bottlenecks and there just aren't many other ways to get places if there's an accident or some other aberration.
The girls did great, I saw huge improvements in the every day schedule and I will always do everyday lessons from now on. I will also not schedule them in the 2 week period when the teachers are all leaving for college. Although this wasn't hugely disrupting for my kids, by the end they both had different teachers than they had started with.
I saw all my first ward friends a lot last week. Wed I stayed in Magnolia for their mom's group, then Thursday I had a super fun shower for my friend Mandy.
Stephen got some guys night out time Friday and Saturday! I had to prepare a talk on Working in the Home for Sunday, so it worked out for me that he was out and about.
Sunday we had a going away party to attend for our previous ward's bishop. They are moving to NYC and we are excited for their new adventure. This was the 3rd time in one week I got to see all our old friends, and I really appreciated how important many of them are to us. We had combined family night and BBQ with some friends last night and I've got two events this week and then I think things will start to S-L-O-W down a little.

My talk about working in the home was a little tricky to prepare. Our ward is small and has a very diverse group of singles, widows, husbands who stay at home with kids and both parents working scenarios. I tried to look at the work we do at home as breaking down to really being the work we do to further our own personal and spiritual growth. So if you're working on that growth as an individual, a couple or as a whole family, a lot of the principles apply across the spectrum. And as we are instructed to become as little children, can't we apply the scriptures under Family, Children, Responsibilities toward: to each of us in some way? We can realize we have responsibilities to ourselves as well as a spouse and children if that applies. There are 40 wonderful scriptures under that heading in the topical guide for those of you with a King James LDS issued Bible. Scriptures that cover everything from teaching the commandments to not chastising too much to "bringing up in light". I really grew a testimony of the importance of working in the home, and not just from a child caregivng standpoint. There are lot of things we do at home and I'll admit a lot of it is wasted time, but there's a lot of important things that happen too and the potential for great and wonderful growth.

The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

2010-08-16T16:30:00.001-07:00

Sunday was not my day. But it ended well for a couple reasons and compared to many, I have little to complain about. But let me try anyway . . . .

I could not find the apartment of an investigator that needed a ride to Church. Stephen has early meetings so he was already at the church. I called her twice before leaving, but no one ever picked up. When I finally found the woman, she proceeded to chew me out for many things, only one of them being late. I was astounded and confused. She made claims that were not true and accused me of all kinds of craziness. I felt a lot like Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice when she tells Darcy's aunt that she can't have anything more to say to her because she has insulted everything about her (to sum up). Even though I had started out for church over a half hour early, we were incredibly late and the chorister really can't be late. She was convinced I didn't know where I was going because I could not tell her the actual address of our church building. When I got there, the missionaries came out to meet her, Stephen came out to park the car for me and all 3 of them knew in no uncertain terms that the drive had gone beyond horrible.

I took over for my pinch hitter chorister for the sacrament hymn. As I sat in church I thought about how this woman had made me feel. I realized her opinion was one opinion and she didn't have the power to make me feel so bad about myself unless I let her. Not surprisingly, she left mid-way through church to find one who would help her hire a lawyer for some legal issues she was having. Not to make this a cultural thing, but later I realized we had somewhat similar experiences with a woman in Chicago we used to pick up for church. She liked us and never insulted us directly, but there was often this undercurrent of "boy, you don't know nuthin' bout nuthin'" Which to a 70+ yr old black lady who's seen a lot in her hard life, we probably seemed like we didn't. This woman's main theme yesterday seemed to be more of "you don't know nuthin' and you ain't gonna ever know anything" and she was MALICIOUS about it.

My day perked up with a successful potluck after church. I like our ward, it grows on me more each week.
After church we were relaxing in our yard, talking over the chicken coop when Ada needed something and I got up to go inside. I stepped on a REALLY sharp pine needle and when I tried to brush it off from between my toes found it was a bee instead! Ouch that hurt. That's when I decided it was NOT my day.

But fortunately Stephen pampered my foot and the girls fought over whose pillow I should put my foot on. We had a friend over for dinner, had chocolate cake and ice cream and another friend brought over his fresh caught rainbow trout to cheer me up! How nice to have friends and family to listen and care. So really, it turned out to be a pretty good day after all.

Other events at the reunion

2010-08-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

We did a lot at our reunions in Boise and one thing both families did was pretty important. We got to go to the temple as families and do some temple work for our ancestors. It was particularly special because we were able to do the temple work for my grandmother and seal her for eternity to my grandpa. We also sealed my father to his parents, which was so special! There is nothing like thinking of people you knew and loved having the opportunity to spend forever together. It's still up to them of course, I believe we have free agency to make choices before and after we appear here on earth for our short test in life. It was a sweet, sweet day my friends.

Kids

2010-08-13T20:52:00.000-07:00

No caption needed here

After standing in line so patiently (one mom said there should be face painting at the grocery store checkouts) the girls got their faces painted

Odessa got a giraffe, Ada a fairy peeking out from behind a mushroom

My little snow leopards

Odessa's "headset" she made with a pipe cleaner

Odessa's best work of art to date: After camping in the back yard (long story) she drew herself in her sleeping bag, camping, in the grass, at night, with 2 angels to keep the bad dreams away

Anecdotes as of late:
We were walking back to our car from Lincoln Park beach (a long walk) and I was trying to inspire the girls.
Me: Hey, when we get home we can have some Capri Suns!
Odessa: No! I want to wear shorts!

They both beg to ride their bikes, but they are TERRIBLE at it (I know, they need more practice! But their dad is supposed to handle that . . . . )
Anyway, we only got halfway past to the neighbor's driveway when Odessa tipped hers over and skinned her knee and started WAILING.
I told Ada to turn around and she got the drift her ride was ending before it began and she started WAILING - near the middle of the road. That's when I started laughing hysterically at the craziness (just then a nice neighbor driving by slowed to watch our train wreck -and to not kill Ada). Me, laughing hysterically flanked by my two WAILING children. That's a typical day in the life . . .

O, Idaho (yes, I love you too Canada)

2010-07-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how busy this summer has turned out to be. It's like when you wake up early and so you mentally think you have all this time to get ready and get out the door, and then you are much later than you would have been if you had woken up late. My summer feels that way. I went in to it thinking we didn't have a lot on our plate except a couple road trips in July, but now every week we've been home has felt packed.

Last week was spent in Boise and Donnely ID for the Hambelton reunion. All 3 of my sisters and their families were there, 20 of us in all. It was a super great time together and I am looking forward to these reunions every other year for both sides of the family. I will admit this is important because I went to both reunions with that usual worry about family drama. My fears were for the most part unfounded and I also will admit I know a lot of the drama can start and end with me, myself and I- so I made a goal not to let that happen.

I loved to see the budding cousin friendships, I loved playing all day on the beach, I loved not feeling guilty eating all the good food my sisters and mom cooked, I loved taking pictures of 1 year old Finley and seeing the 150+ slides from the 70's and 80's my parents scanned. Good times. Between these 2 trips to Idaho in one month we had 2 sets of family photos taken in the same shirts, I got 2 Hawaiian shaced ices, 1 TCBY waffle cone. Some things must be done while you are in Idaho- shaved ices and TCBY being on the top of the list.
While staying in Donnely, we spent a good deal of time in McCall which is a family tradition. When we were growing up we spent part of every summer and winter there, either camping at Ponderosa or staying in our friend's condo which she graciously loaned to us at least twice a year. I LOVE MCCALL. Some of my best memories were made there.
We wrapped up our week in ID back in Boise with the Hunts at the Fife family reunion. We got to see lots of cousins, Aunts and Uncles on Stephen's mom side of the family.

Uncle Brian entertaining the kids with corporate team building exercises?

Stephen is the guy to wrestle, no matter which side of the family we're with

Tiny girls taking on giant Jeff!

No explanation needed, just "ahhhhhhhhh"

Just stay clean for pictures!

"there were never such devoted sisters"- don't we all look supremely happy with life? (Ok, I just look smug.)

Since being home I have started working for a research group putting together power point presentations. I have just started this enterprise, more to follow as I really get going. A family member works for them and introduced me . . . and I am really excited about the opportunity to use some skills and make some extra money.

We've also finally used our motorless, heaterless hot tub as a kid's pool and broken out the slip in slide. Now if only it would stay warm enough to use them more often! Stephen uses his spare minutes to work on the chick-Mc-Mansion which will house 3 very comfy chickens someday.

We went on our first fishing trip Saturday! No pictures because the battery died : ( Our friend Hermes who is much more experienced with fishing spots around here went with us to Lake Washington. The girls have been practicing with their poles for months, so they were pretty good at casting, but I forget how much of fishing is getting the darn lines straight and hooking worms or "glitter mallows" as they use now. Alas, no fish. We are determined to try again. Fishing in the sound is the next challenge although I think we would like to go camping and fish in a river or stream too . . . more our Idaho style. I am seriously thinking the neon yellow glitter mallows would look awesome in some Rice Krispie treats . . . .

Fourth of July reunion

2010-07-08T16:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the Hunt family reunion in Boise. It was great to have everyone together and we had fun playing volleyball at Eagle Island State Park, eating, swimming, sewing projects and hanging out. I think the stars were the 2 new babies, Edwin and Morgan. I am also looking forward to seeing our family pictures. Here are a few I took.

Uncle Bryan givin some love to Edwin, Nathan and Beth's baby

After the family game (a riot) the guys played a little more

Hunt Citadel, complete with two bridges- impressive

This captures the personality of happy Edwin well

"caught me!"

Some of the Hunt men after father Hunt BBQ 10lbs of Alaskan Halibut he caught (and after we devoured every bite of it)

Mom Julie with Morgan- can she get any cuter?

Yes, she can

Thanks to cousin Sarah's 4th of July bows she made for all the granddaughters

Don't forget the flag cake. One strawberry for the cake, one for my mouth- says Diana

Of course the weekend would not be complete if we hadn't given every small child a lit firework- even those in their PJs

And those using it as a sword

You would think since she talks of little else when at home, she would show some excitement here

And that's where our weekend had to come to an end! At my father's suggestion, I told the girls for every mile on the ride home that they did not complain, I would give them a penny- for any whining I took a nickel away. Well, they walked away with over 4$ a piece! At least the ride home was nicer to sit through.

No bad guys allowed

2010-06-23T16:04:00.000-07:00

In case they didn't get the memo, this sign is on our back door

No bad guys allowed! (especially smiley ones)

Learning moment or let-it-go moment?

2010-06-21T14:00:00.000-07:00

Ada talking to Mandy who is 8 months pregnant:

Ada: Your baby sure is getting big!

Mandy: Yes, it is!

Me: She's going to have a baby next month!

Ada: How does the baby get out of your tummy?

Mandy: Uhhh, I'm going to let your mom explain that later.

That's a let-it-go moment.

Odessa overheard me telling someone that the Man with the Yellow Hat and Dr Wiseman should just get married already:

Odessa: You know what would be crazy? If a woman and a woman got married! (laughing) Then they would have to wear the same clothes! Ha ha ha ha ha.

Me: Um, well actually sometimes a woman and another woman DO get married . . . .

This turned into a learning moment. Sigh. It's so hard to tell when to have which.

Ode to the Dad

2010-06-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

2007

When Stephen walks in the door at 6pm he immediately becomes super dad. He jumps right into playing with the girls, usually still sweaty and in his biking gear. He plays soccer or tag with them if they're outside or becomes whatever villian or prince they demand of him when playing inside. Yesterday alone he was Dr. Calico, Balto, Phoebus, Hercules, and Prince Phillip- all within about 15 minutes. That's exhausting! Then he helps them set the table for dinner.

2010

He's always willing to play games with them and do things to help them learn things like reading. He has a new plan to leave Odessa a sentence every day with a secret message about something she gets to do that day. It's working pretty well, she enjoys sounding out the letters.

Stephen's also in charge of bedtime routine which we established so he would get some quiet time reading with the girls every day. He is so great at helping them pick up their room before bed. He never lets them go to bed in a messy room. It used to be a game of seeing who could get to a toy first to pick it up. Now they are all helping robots. If you have seen the Sesame Street episode where Telly and Elmo and one other (?) monster become the Alphabeta-bots, you will know what bed time is like at my house. It's hilarious to hear all 3 of them talking in "robotese". Odessa is Bot 1 and Ada is Bot 2. Sometimes the girls need "reprogramming" by tickling when they don't follow orders quite right.

Having Stephen take over for me in the evening is such a huge relief. I can do a night on my own ok if I have some notice ahead of time, but when a meeting or home teaching kind of springs up, I wonder how I can ever do it without him!

I have been trying to save money and not make many trips to the store lately, so Stephen got to pick from the things I had on hand for his Father's Day pie yesterday. Mixed berry from the freezer, sweet potato pie (I have never tried it!) or chocolate cream. He wisely chose mixed berry and it turned out I had blackberries, raspberries and blueberries- all picked last year locally and frozen. I have to tell you, this is the FIRST time I have made pie that it tasted as good as my moms!! The filling set up just right, not too runny or stiff. The crust was done, but not burnt and so flaky. I was SO HAPPY that our night could end with the perfect ode to the

When your kids threaten to not be your children anymore

2010-06-17T19:36:00.000-07:00

Conversation in the car earlier today.

Ada: Mom, I want some gum
Mom: No
Ada: Please I want some gum?
Mom: No Ada, you already had a piece today.
Ada: Well . . . . I really want something to chew.
Silence
Ada: Well, if you aren't going to give me a piece of gum, I am not going to be your daughter anymore. I'll just walk away from you . . . . . . and my bike . . . . . and walk on the sidewalk . . . . and cross the street by MYSELF . . . . . . then I will go to the other sidewalk.

Odessa: Ada, I will miss you.
Ada: Yah.
Odessa: A car will hit you!
Ada: Well, I am very brave. If a car hits my elbow, I will be very brave.
Odessa: You might get flat.
Ada: I think I will be on top of the car.
Odessa: No, under the car.

This went on and on about the logistics of "the hit". I was just busting up in front. Finally, it was decided.

Ada: Ok, I will stay.
Odessa: Good.

Whew, that was close.

Yard work- ughh

2010-06-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

Our computer has had a complete over haul. Better last another 6 years . . .

Things are warming up in Seattle, it's wonderful. Some of the plants in our garden are popping up. The girls are taking swim lessons in Magnolia and doing really well. Odessa is in the 4 yr old class, and Ada follows in the 3 yr old class and they both have the only male teacher- Owen. Ada tells her dad over and over about what she did at swim lessons and that "you know what dad? He's a BOY TEACHER!" She loves Owen. I was thrilled to find that 4 of my friends from my old ward have their 3 yr olds in the same class as Ada. Good times chatting by the pool.

Stephen's parents, Nancy and Steve were here last week/weekend. They helped us haul all the brushes and trees Stephen has cut down since moving here. There were 3 truck loads to the dump! Then there were 3 truck loads to the dump of fencing materials. Stephen is now pulling out the ivy between our backyard and the neighbors and that will go to the dump too . . . the square footage of this yard relative to the amount of plants that need to be constantly removed from it seems impossible.
Stephen, Steve and Brian (neighbor) built the side fence. We still have to finish the back although the posts are in, so technically the hard work is done. I can't believe all the yard work that was done last week! I had no idea . . . . even the old fence had to be cut into pieces to be hauled away . . . . so much work. Thank goodness Steve and Nancy were here. They helped so much. The girls are pretty independent and so they will work and play by themselves, so I don't have much excuse not to join the fray outside. I thought I would love yard work once I had my own place. I think it is a learned love.
While my computer was down, I read some books. I recommend the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Hunger Games. I re-read Sense and Sensibility for various reasons.
I got called (or asked) to be the chorister in my ward (congregation). This is how the conversation went:
Bishop: We'd like to extend the call to you to be ward chorister of the West Seattle Ward.
Me: You're joking, right?
Bishop: No
Me: This is a joke, right?
Bishop: "laughing" No
Me: You realize I have no musical training whatsoever, right?
Bishop: It doesn't matter, I feel very impressed that this is the calling you should have.
Me: Well, ok then. . . .
Turns out I am ok at this calling and even though my knees actually, physically, knocked together during my first time conducting (another "literary" moment), I think I will enjoy it. The organist I work with is the coolest, I couldn't ask for a better partner. She made "bok-bokking" noises at me Wednesday night when we practiced "The Day Dawn is Breaking" and I decided against it for this Sunday. Too chicken. I think it's hilarious that she is already teasing me. I would not even flinch being up in front of my friends in my old ward, I know they would love me no matter how much I messed up. But I hardly know anyone yet in this ward, and that makes it more nerve wracking. Oh well. I am always practicing at odd moments throughout the week, so you might catch a glimpse of me conducting to my dashboard at a stop light or while I am doing the dishes with one hand at the kitchen sink. If my neighbors didn't think I was crazy before, they do now.
Forgive the following LONG series of pictures and captions- I am making blurb books out of my blog, and so it's become more important to me document things I really want to remember.

The grassy patch where we put our garden- after Stephen cleared a ton of holly, a bush and some other tree. The girls were most likely digging for worms- see below. She LOVES worms. Gross.

The grassy patch after digging up all the sod. Now it's a garden and little things are popping up.

Side fence that needed replacing, the huge pile of stuff Stephen dug out of the yard, the back fence with debris also in front. All the debris and old fence is gone now, it's amazing the difference.

The house with the rhododendrons finally in bloom, and azaleas in the back yard, bushes on the side- whoops, double photo. Oh well, I am not doing the collages again.

Afterward: Bushes are gone, side fence is done!

Sidewalk chalk is the new favorite thing. Odessa has got her first and last name, working on her middle name. lol

They are both really into dancing, see Odie's pouty face? She was mad Ada has a tutu

Grandpa dancing with the girls, they love having a prince to dance with!

Computer down!

2010-06-02T09:12:00.001-07:00

I have a lot of things to blog about and pictures to up load, but this wheezing dinosaur needs to go in for another check up. It keeps crashing on me. Hopefully I will be back up soon. Ciao!

Bada is 3

2010-05-18T15:32:00.000-07:00

Ada Jeanne = Ada Bean = Bada. Such is the progression of Ada's nick name. She turned 3 on Saturday. We had an invitation to a pool party for another friend's birthday and so we thoroughly enjoyed swimming together as a family even if it wasn't technically to celebrate her birthday. lol
She has been dressing herself for some time, and some days she looks really cute! She picked out this outfit and looked so much like she was ready for tennis, I had to take a picture (above).

Early in the morning of her birthday she got a helmet and officially got Odessa's bike. Odessa got a freebie used bike from our friends. Stephen is the diligent one- he worked with Ada for an hour until she could pedal the bike easily. I can't imagine how long it will take for them to graduate from training wheels!
Later in the evening, we had Ava and Ellie (sisters) over for a Princess party and dinner. For the party, we read Princess and the Pea and played a game where they sat on 3 pillows, trying to guess where the pea (ball) was.

After hunting in sand for gems to decorate their crowns with, the girls had a photo shoot. My girls have been wanting fans for a long time, they were a huge hit.

We served them Ada's favorite foods and used fancy plastic goblets. No one spilled! Ellie is only 2, and she immediately held her goblet up and as if to say "I can't drink from this, get me a cup" So funny.
Ada's big present was some other dress up clothes (she wears the Cinderella dress daily!)

She wanted a pink kitty cake

This is Stephen and I's favorite thing about Ada- her moon shaped smiley eyes. She's always turning the charm on, a real princess I guess! We can't imagine life without her.