After August Awaits

Baby's OK

2012-02-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

We had a bit of a scare over the weekend, and an even bigger scare yesterday. I started spotting over the weekend and felt really low, but it let up for a few days so I thought I was in the clear. Then yesterday I had heavy bleeding and some cramping, and I thought for sure we were going to lose this baby. I was really sad, because I'm so happy to be pregnant right now and I honestly don't know if I'd want to try again if I did miscarry. So it was a tough day. I was finally able to get in for an ultrasound in the afternoon. It sure wasn't like seeing Dr. Urso and Krista back in Havasu, with their outstanding personal attention and investment. But ultimately, there was a healthy heartbeat and the baby's OK. I'm so happy about it. Now I just have to be on pelvic rest, and I'm not allowed to bend over or lift anything. That's a tough thing because of my 3 little children. But I have great, helpful friends. And as always, Chris is awesome.

Dark Secret

2012-01-23T20:22:00.000-08:00

I hate confessing this, but it's at the forefront of our lives at the moment: I'm having really big, bad, embarrassing mood swings with this pregnancy. Like, quick little bursts of irrational and uncontrollable anger. And if you know me, you hopefully think I'm mostly an easygoing person and that this isn't something I do. Even when it's time for mine and Chris's semiannual argument, I tend to stay pretty reasonable and calm unless I'm super duper provoked. But not right now. Right now it's almost like I'm looking for a fight, like I'm daring anyone to mess with me. Super irritable, super unforgiving of simple little accidents (which happen all the time with the tiny company I keep), and really impatient and smug. It's such an ugly set of feelings. Anyway, so this really sucks for me. For us. I'm embarrassed about it, and I hate it oh so much. Tonight I did a little Googling about it, and that only pissed me off. Well, it did make me feel a little better to know I'm not the only one who goes through it. But when I read suggested ways to cope with it I wanted to punch something. Walk away, write it out, take a mental health break... Dumb. What I do is lean on Chris a bunch, and he's so fantastic, and I stay as lazy and stress-free as I can. Which of course, means getting out of our routine and watching lots of television and letting things go undone. But that's OK right now. I hope it passes the minute I get into my second trimester. Or preferably sooner.

In other news, you should know and be forewarned that I have no hope of being anything but chubby until this baby is out and is a few months old. OK, that statement was more for me than it was for you.

Up to Speed

2012-01-22T20:21:00.000-08:00

I'm not even going to try and update everything that's happened since the last time I wrote. I will say that we moved to Boulder City in November, had a lovely holiday season, and just found out I'm pregnant again. That's all I can muster for now. And once again, I'll try to do better!

Learning to Fail

2011-09-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

We've been pretty maxed out lately with my back pain, with Chris having an extremely stressful period at work, and just with the daily crazy demands of time and energy that come with having kids so young. There has been a lot of frustration and discouragement and tears under our roof lately. This week is particularly tough. I got a cortisone injection yesterday and I'm sore from that on top of my regular pain. Chris has until Friday to pass a series of tests for a new drug he's taking on, and he needs to work in Henderson all week long. So it was a tough few moments this morning when we were getting ready to part ways.

I'm not much of a sitter and wallower, and things had definitely piled up, so I made a call. I called Norma Jean, my ward Relief Society president, and filled her in. She sent over the compassionate service leader, who happens to be her mother-in-law Algie. I also sent a text out to a handful of girls who have been generously offering to help all through this trial of ours, and let them know exactly what I need this week. One thing I know not to do in a time like this is to force willing, helpful people to guess how you need help. Instead, I just spelled it out for them. Their responses, and Algie's tenderness, were overwhelming. I wanted to be mothered, or mommied really, and Algie gave me that. How sweet and empathetic and funny and tender she was, I'll always remember that and hope to emulate it. I made up a little schedule of things that I need done this week - outings for Olive and Lucy, picking up the house and doing laundry, and dinners - and my friends filled in all the holes for me. And they all offered to do more than what I had even asked for. Amazing. Generous. Good women.

And so the big lesson I learned today is how to receive service. I think the hardest thing is letting everyone know that I don't have things under control, I don't have it all together. I've really had to check my Mormon Mommy pride at the door.

Speaking of which, I was talking with Friend A tonight about Friend B who is just exceedingly talented and creative, and I said, "Friend B really does it all, doesn't she?" And Friend A said, "She can't fail." For me it was interesting that I had this conversation today of all days. Before today I would've felt threatened and insecure about my own achievements hearing Friend A say that about Friend B. I would've wanted Friend A to say such a thing about me! But after today, I'm pretty comfortable and confident in saying I can and do fail.

And that's the lesson, again, that I learned today. It's in the knowing that I can fail, in the knowing my weaknesses and limits, and in the asking for help, that I'm actually really strong. I'm strong, or strengthened, because of the girls who rallied around me today and filled in all the gaps for me. There's also a lesson here about the Atonement of Jesus Christ; it's only effective when we confess our inabilities and impossibilities, and rely on Him to fill in the gap.

I read a couple of great articles tonight about receiving service. I liked this one and this one, but the bit that articulated what I was looking for is this:

"The time will come in all our lives when we will need the assistance of others. For the time being, we may feel confident, important, and powerful, yet we should acknowledge our need for others. Tragedy can and does strike without a moment’s warning, and we could suddenly find ourselves on the receiving end of charity. How hard it will be for us then to receive a humble offering from a friend or neighbor if we are not used to both giving and receiving.

Again we are taught by Christ’s example. Not only did he give in the purest form of the law, but he gratefully and humbly received the ministering of others throughout his mortal life. Indeed, even his burial place was borrowed."

No better place to end this.

Everyone's Got All The Answers

2011-09-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

I don't know, this was one of the image results when I typed in "herniated disc."

If you want unsolicited advice from everyone in the world, herniate a disc. What a rude and ungrateful thing to say! I know, I'm sorry. I guess I can't help but be amused at everyone's answers to my problem...

Heat it; ice it; see a chiropractor; definitely DO NOT see a chiropractor, they're not real doctors; see MY chiropractor, he is LITERALLY the best chiropractor in the WORLD!!!; go straight to an orthopedic; go straight to a neurosurgeon; let the body heal itself, you know the body can do remarkable things on its own; go swimming; get a massage; don't get a massage; stretch and exercise; do THIS stretch; DON'T exercise whatever you do; get acupuncture; take some of MY prescription pain medicine; use an inversion table; and my favorite: don't pick up your kids.

Here's what I've done so far and my plan going forward. Now be aware that I may not have chosen your suggested path. Don't take it personally. I still love you and your answers.

My guess is that the injury happened when I had George back in April, because that's when the pain started. For the first 3 months (MONTHS!!!) I didn't know what it was and thought it would go away. I've had back issues before (you remember Twisty Back), and they've always worked themselves out within a couple of weeks. So that's what I thought would happen here. It wasn't until we were on our huge road trip in July that I turned a big bad corner and knew something must be done. See, sitting in the car is the worst. THE WORST. (Oh, I've mentioned that before, haven't I?) So when we were in the car for so long, I think I must've really aggravated it. That's when I decided to see Dr. Huffman, a chiropractor in town. He's great, I really like him, and I really really like his nurse Phyllis. I've been seeing them 3 times a week for the past 5 weeks. Each time I go I do electrical muscle stimulation, the decompression table, ultrasound, and get adjusted. When I wasn't showing signs of improvement after the first 3 weeks, and after our little road trip to Vegas last week aggravated the thing so badly, we decided I should get an MRI. So I did that, and there was no surprise in finding that I had a herniated disc and that it was causing a lot of pain in my sciatic nerve. Dr. Huffman thinks the injury is manageable though, and feels confident that with 2-3 more weeks of the same treatment I should improve enough to not need more drastic treatment measures (cortisone shot, or surgery). He has casually mentioned that getting massages may help. I haven't asked him about acupuncture yet, but I do want to hear his take on it and so I'll ask him about it at my next appointment. So the plan is to do my regular treatment for the next 2-3 weeks. I might throw in some massages and/or acupuncture. I have and will continue to try and take it somewhat easy, but I will NOT not hold my children. I won't exercise because Dr. Huffman says not to, but I will do the stretches he showed me. I won't put heat on it because that worsens the inflammation, but I will put ice on it because that brings the inflammation down. I will take my prescribed pain medicine if it gets bad enough (I just try to avoid taking medicine as long as I can so that I can be lucid and functional). After that, if nothing has improved, then we'll talk about the cortisone shot and/or the surgery.

Don't get mad at me for writing this! I really do appreciate everyone's interest and concern. Even more, I super duper appreciate how helpful some of you have been. It's just funny to hear everyone's answers, and how some of them completely contradict the next guy's. Anyway, it's not over yet but I've got a plan. And we'll just see how that goes.

Pedestals

2011-08-31T21:57:00.000-07:00

When Chris and I got married Bishop Leatherwood told us to always put each other on a pedestal. For me, it stuck. We talk about it a lot, and I can confidently speak for both of us when I say that we are really so happily married. I think it's because we're well-matched and super good friends, but mostly I think it's because we're both constantly putting each other on a pedestal. I could be wrong, but it seems lately like we might be in the minority on that one.

A few months ago I had a conversation with a friend that went something like this:

Me: I'm so tired lately.
Her: You should go to bed right after you put your kids to bed.
Me: Yeah, but I like to stay up and hang out with Chris.
Her: (gives a smug snicker) Oh, that's because you haven't been married long enough.

I just kind of gave a courtesy laugh at the time, but I actually felt really irritated at that conversation. First of all, it was kind of a rude and insulting thing to say, implying I don't know the ins and outs of marriage because we've only been married for a couple years. But more importantly, why does being married longer mean that I somehow get to be less considerate of my husband? I like to think I'll always be as considerate of him as I was the day we got married. And actually, the more I grow with him the more I want to consider his feelings first in everything. It just seemed like a self-entitled grouchy-wife thing to say, and I didn't like it.

In other news, my cousin recently told us that he has always put his wife on a pedestal and it has gotten him nothing but a spoiled self-entitled wife and no reciprocation. He said he loved his wife, and that he's in it for the long haul, but he's not happy. I was really really really bummed when he told us that. And I had to wonder if that's more the norm than the dynamic Chris and I have. I mean, it would seem the principle of putting each other on a pedestal only works for the greater good if both parties are doing it. So did Chris and I just luck out that we both feel like doing that for each other? Are people out there really OK with not reciprocating when their spouse puts them on a pedestal??

I don't know, it just bums me out. Love each other, you guys. Be generous. Be considerate. Don't get all comfortable and lazy, bossy and self-entitled. Put each other on a pedestal.

Sciatica Schmymatica

2011-08-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

The kids and I tagged along with Chris on his weekly trip to Vegas for the purpose of helping Brandy move in to her new house and to see the Pionkes. The trip was a flop - Brandy's AC wasn't working so no unpacking got done, Lucy threw up in the middle of the night and that was a big debacle, and Olive was a naughty little biscuit so she wasn't allowed to see the Pionkes. But what took the cake was our ride back to Havasu yesterday. I've never been in so much pain, and that includes the very worst part of childbirth. It was so awful. I was gripping the seat and bawling my eyes out. I probably would've even screamed if it didn't hurt so bad to do it. I just wanted to be perfectly still, and every tiny jostle in the car was excruciating. I could not believe it. Chris kept asking if we should pull over, but I knew that would only prolong the pain. When we finally got here he helped me out of the car, and I just sobbed in his arms. I cannot believe how painful this is, and being in the car is just hell. All I could think about during those seriously intense 2 hours was how this was really affecting my quality of life. On the minimal end, I can't even sneeze or laugh without cringing. On the maximal end, I wanted to get pregnant for the last time right now, and that's totally out. Plus, it's so hard to keep up with the housework much less get down and play with the girls. So beyond being really painful, this thing is really breaking my heart. The treatment at the chiropractor is helping very little and very slowly. After yesterday I decided I really need to do something more aggressive about this. So, the MRI is set for Monday and we'll go from there.

Merge Urge

2011-08-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

I merged my blogs. All here. This is the blog Chris started when we first got married. That's what the title means - after August (which is the month in 2008 when we got married) awaits whatever. Get it? Neat. Anyway, everything's here now. Not the kids' stuff, they need their own spots. But everything else. Anyway, I've been thinking lately about doing better about journaling and about blogging more often and with more candor. High hopes.

Our Anniversary

2011-08-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Chris and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary yesterday. Courtnie came to babysit last night and we went to Martini Bay for dinner. It was kind of a bummer though because first our food was overcooked, then when they brought the newly cooked food out I burned my hand on the plate, and then that food was undercooked. We just laughed it off and went looking for a yummy dessert. We ended up at Smiths, and got a French silk pie from the bakery. (I made Chris wear that hat the whole time we were in the store, even when we ran in to a friend from church and talked for a while. Really cute). About 30 seconds after we got home, while we were chatting with Courtnie, Olive threw up. So the rest of the night was spent taking care of her while still trying to salvage a little bit of romance. George woke up promptly after we finally got Olive settled to bed. So we ate our pie while I fed him. We were exhausted by the end of it. It was a pretty funny comedy of errors, but we'll take it.

Jenny's family came to visit!

2011-08-02T07:46:00.001-07:00

They got here late Friday night, and we stayed up talking for a while. Olive woke up and she and Alexis got in our bed and watched TV for a while. On Saturday we spent a couple hours at the beach. I think the highlight of that event was when Chris threw all 210 pounds of Mark from his shoulders into the water. After lunch and some naps we took the kids to play at Bubba Jump. They had a great time. We got pizza for the kids and left Josh in charge, and then we had dinner at Rusty's and talked for a while. Mark said it's always a great conversation with us, and we definitely feel the same way about them. We love Jenny and Mark! They left us on Sunday morning. We stood out on the driveway and waved goodbye to them. When we came back in we realized they had left Alexis! She was in here writing us a sweet little thank-you note. We laughed, and went back outside just in time to see them coming back down the street to get her. It was funny. We're happy they came to see us.

My Woobie

2011-07-28T03:00:00.000-07:00

32's as good an age as any to outgrow your blanky, although I haven't. We're finally all unpacked from our summer travels, laundry's all caught up, house is back in order, and so I'm officially declaring it: My woobie is lost and gone forever.

The story of my woobie(s) is a simple one. My first memory of the first one involves my crazy 80s teenage sisters tearing it to shreds in front of me. I guess as a measure to get me to get rid of it? I was only like 4 or 5. That one was blue and red. The next one that I somehow trained to fill the need, was yellow. I can't remember for sure, but I think I lost that one in the fire. So then my light blue pillowcase became the thing. That one lasted all through high school, through my friends making fun of me and doing vile things with it and even helping me make up a song about it, through one semester of thinking I could outgrow it while away at college and a second semester of realizing I just couldn't, and even through my entire mission. The demise of that one was tragic. I had gone on a road trip with a friend. When we got back into town after the trip, just a mile or so from home, I threw my pillow with my woobie tucked neatly inside the pillowcase, into the bed of her truck. Yep, it blew out. I don't know what I was thinking. And although we retraced our steps a bunch of times, it was never recovered. So I went without a woobie for a while, that is until my next pillowcase learned how to fill the need. It was white with blue stripes. It saw me through my darkest years yet, and then into the light and happy first years of my marriage. My kids have cuddled it, and Chris would often find it and bring it to me with a grin on his face. I left it in a hotel room once last summer, and Chris was the one who insisted we go back for it. We told the guy who let us back into the room that it belonged to Olive. At some point after that it tore into two pieces, I lost the bigger piece, and I was left with just a strip of fabric. Even as just a strip it got the job done. And then a few months ago while we were driving on the highway I asked Chris if it was weird that I had a woobie at my age. He said it kinda was. So I erratically threw it out the car window. Without hesitating he turned the car around and went back for it. I really was willing to let it go then, but I really was glad he went back for it. Man, I love that thing. But somewhere in the middle of our incessant packing and unpacking and moving around this summer I lost track of it.

And so it's gone. Cuddling with Chris and/or the kids does fill a close need. But gosh, there's just something to be said for reaching under my pillow and feeling the familiar cool soft feel of it and making a sharp little granny corner to rub my finger over. But I'll be OK. I'll be OK.

The Picture of Amy Barragan

2011-07-28T02:28:00.000-07:00

I drank a lot of Mountain Dew right before bed tonight and have had some trouble sleeping. I had the first few lines of my next post come to me in bed just now, and didn't want to forget them. So I came out into the living room to write them down in here and found that people had commented on my Amy Barragan post. And alright "What-ever", who-ever you are (who are you by the way?), you win. This and this are the best I could do. She's the one in the collage that's not Jennifer Aniston or Zooey Deschanel. And while Craig thinks she looks like an alien, I actually think she's pretty pretty. No matter, she's enigmatically awful. If you know the story then you know. But if you don't, you probably wouldn't believe it without losing your bottom teeth when your jaw violently dropped to the floor. Happens to everyone who hears it. This whole scummy spousal support thing is just icing. I'm not saying Chris shouldn't have handled the end of that marriage better, and I wish I could turn back the clock. But his crimes and my crimes, for which he and I have both apologized and paid for, are massively dwarfed by hers. For which she has never once even acknowledged much less given him the slightest hint of a, "Hey I'm really sorry I screwed with your life for 6 years," or, "Wow I can't believe you hung in there and treated me so well for so long even though I was impossibly cold and withholding." But wait, this is just supposed to be about the spousal support. Thing is, I really wish I was righteous enough to say I handled this thing with the quiet dignity and grace that I should have. But instead, I've indulged the want to defame her and make some serious fun of the constant pretense she lives in. Shoot, I didn't mean to get this far. I hope I didn't forget the lines that came to me in bed a few minutes ago.

Another trip to Goodyear.

2011-07-27T16:05:00.000-07:00

We had to throw in one last little trip before calling it quits for the summer. We went to Goodyear to see Papa and Oatsie. Had a lovely time.

A few days in Vegas with Brandy's family.

2011-07-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

Brandy is house hunting in Vegas, and Chris had to work 4 days there last week, so we booked the same hotel and made a trip out of it. It was fun! Not to mention super helpful to have Sarah and Julia play with the girls. I hope they find a house soon; it'll be fun having them just 2 hours away. Here are a few shots of our few days together:

Isn't it weird?

2011-07-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

Isn't it weird how we pay Amy $2,000 per month which in the first place is obscene because spousal support is just scummy and yet we still get calls from Toyota because the car is in Chris's name and she's late on her payment every month and even let it get repossessed and then reclaimed it all on Chris's credit and yet she had plenty of money to go on a trip to Thailand recently and when we were a couple hours late remembering to pay her on June 30th because we were on vacation and because they don't have Chase in North Carolina she was all over us like white on rice saying she expects us to meet our obligations but yet she doesn't meet hers and we were like besides what do you need the money so fast for anyway it's not like you pay your bills? Weird.

By the way, I'm plenty aware of how tacky and ungraceful it is for me to post this and I know that by doing so I'm forfeiting the credit of handling this with quiet dignity and I know I'll regret it and maybe even delete it at some point but right now it just feels so good because it's the only power I have in the situation.

Our Big Trip to NC

2011-07-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

We drove to North Carolina, spent a week in Charlotte and a week in Sunset Beach. It was the best vacation I've ever been on! I narrated the trip via Facebook updates; here they are...

6/24 2:05 pm
start: Lake Havau City, AZ

6:38 pm
‎5 hours in: Tucson, AZ

8:06 pm
The Thing...a bust :(

11:53 pm
Just passed thru El Paso...how many strip clubs and Whataburgers does one city need? Plus it stinks.

6/25 1:12 am
don't know exactly where we are, but we just saw the biggest brightest shooting star

1:26 am
My turn to drive!

3:57 am
beginnings of the sunrise

7:03 am
‎18 hours in: San Antonio...Halfway there! Kids have been sleeping great!! Chris and I, on the other hand, are kinda delirious!!!

8:59 am
breakfast at The Guenther House, holy cow this is good food

1:09 pm
‎24 hours in: Houston...begging for death or the end of this state, which ever comes first

4:01 pm
stopped to see alligators

4:45 pm
swamp people!

6:33 pm
dinner at mason's grill in baton rouge-blackened alligator, bayou shrimp with grit cake and etoufee, and the most unbelievable cajun shrimp burger; super friendly people, and my girls both ate the alligator! fantastic!!

8:54 pm
calling it a night in new orleans

6/26 7:40 am
beignets at cafe du monde in new orleans

1:04 pm
‎48 hours in: montgomery, al

3:13 pm
gnarly traffic in atlanta

5:49 pm
Just saw our first sign for Charlotte! The home stretch!!

9:23 pm
End: Huntersville, NC. We made it! And I'm gonna go and ahead and brag about my kids and say they seriously did awesome!! We had such a blast on the drive, and now the real fun begins!!

6/27 8:34 pm
day 1: pool with little miss emilee, dinner with sarah and jeff, and down time with scot and ann...i'm happy!

6/28 5:45 am
Bojangles doesn't serve cinnamon biscuits anymore. I'm devastated.

6/29 8:53 am
day 2 (yesterday): drove to apex and spent the day with tisha and curteis, swung by pittsboro to see emily, enjoyed the day's thunderstorms, and talked/laughed/philosophized with scot and annie; having a great time

8:53 pm
day 3: a lovely visit from nancy, a trip to ann's work to see the new(ish) evernham shop, lunch at lancaster's, some fun alone shopping time, a lovely visit from sarah, and then we ate a yummy dinner that chris cooked and a yummy cake that i baked - fun full day!!

6/30 7:30 pm
day 4: visited my pals at acn, had the hottest food i've ever eaten (thom mak huang, thai sticky rice, and asian spare ribs) at olay's and tho's (loves from chris's mission), and finished the day off with some of scot's famous bananas foster-happy camper

7/1 8:58 pm
day 5: showed chris west meck where my parents went to high school, hit a little lao market, lunch at bbq king (yum!!), jumped on the tramp with my girls, lisa and nick got here, dinner out with the whole crew and then ice cream with just chris and george, and then some chatting and hula hooping to round off the day :)

7/3 10:49 am
day 6 (yesterday): drove to the beach and had lots of talk time with lisa

7:20 pm
day 7: church at the shallotte ward, played on the beach till georgey couldn't take it anymore and then he and i napped for a while, the girls and chris stayed out (probably too long) and then came in and napped, went for an evening walk on the beach with the rest of the family, and then hung out at dad's place and talked and laughed heartily -- perfect

7/4 6:03 am
making homemade biscuits and gravy-chris made the gravy, i made the biscuits--so good

7:08 pm
day 8: chris and i made homemade biscuits and gravy for a select few, gramma gail watched george while we took the girls to the beach, chris surfed and i boogie boarded, made food for our big family dinner (chris made sliders, i made strawberry shortcake and chocolate dipped strawberries), and watched the fireworks in calabash -- happy happy 4th!

7/5 9:07 pm
day 9: went to wilmington to see the uss north carolina where chris's grandpa served in ww 2, had shrimp sandwiches at ella's in calabash, took lucy to the beach while chris and the others napped, more shrimp for dinner at capt nance's (my girls ate shrimp!!), took in all the knickknackery at st. nick nacks, and then made treats and talked and laughed with mom and lisa and laurie and the teenagers

7/6 8:53 pm
day 10: played on the beach with chris and the kids and everyone else, pedicure with my mom - had fun and laughed hard, dinner at king's, barefoot landing, and finished the day eating a "hot now" krispy kreme from one of the original kk stores, mmm!

7/7 9:32 am
on the pontoon boat in the channel, and there are dolphins playing right beside us!!

8:46 pm
day 11: chris went golfing with scot down in myrtle beach, the kids and i went with everyone else on the boat - went tubing (olive went with me on the tube and didn't really like it; then laurie and i went together and had a blast), saw dolphins super close to us, went swimming - and then we left the girls with megs and gess while the adults all went to dinner, dad surprised us by showing up with ashley and caroline!

7/8 7:26 pm
day 12: went tubing on the boat again (i stood up with no hands!! ...and then i wiped out!), and just hung out with everyone at dad's beach house on our last night together - we start our journey home tomorrow morning.
Big News: LUCY TOOK HER FIRST STEPS TODAY!!

7/9 7:21 am
start: sunset beach, nc

3:16 pm
stopped in atlanta for chili cheese dogs and fried pies at The Varsity

4:50 pm
just passing the talladega speedway, it's huge!

5:37 pm
driving thru some of the tornado damage in birmingham

7:44 pm
‎12 hours in: tupelo, ms

9:19 pm
sleeping in memphis...the whirlpool suite...classy

7/10 6:51 am
‎23 hours in: Graceland, and then crossed the Mississippi River

11:34 am
I just got us thru Arkansas, and now I've handed the wheel back to Chris because my sciatic is killing me :(

3:22 pm
ribeyes at cattlemen's in oklahoma city...oh, and coconut meringue pie!

5:18 pm
another state down. i can't be sure, but i think chris was quietly reliving his glory days while we were driving thru oklahoma.

7:44 pm
‎36 hours in: amarillo for the night

7/11 6:58 am
off like a dirty shirt

11:29 am
stopped in albuquerque for some new mexican cuisine, and to let the girls use their legs

2:22 pm
‎54 hours in: back in arizona

6:02 pm
played in the plush grass in flagstaff, our final refueling spot

7:53 pm
End: Havasu. Home

10:12 pm
This was the funnest fullest vacation! We really made the most of it and had such a blast. I'm totally sold on taking big road trips as a family. We're already talking about the next adventure! I ache leaving family and friends and I ache that it's over. But more than anything, I'm super enamored with my kids and have a such a huge renewed crush on Chris. Happy!

Trip to Utah

2011-06-17T21:56:00.000-07:00

I had 3 goals for this Utah trip: (1) shop, (2) talk with Laurie, and (3) go to the Chicago reunion. Here's what happened instead: I got the stomach flu, and spent almost the whole time dying in Drew's bed. And then Chris got it. Huge bummer. But here are a few pictures...

Pictures of Sadie's Visit

2011-06-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

Such a fun time. I love Sadie.

George's Blessing Weekend

2011-05-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

Chris's parents came, along with Anna, and my parents and Laurie's crew came too. Craig came too, and took pictures. Sadie was here. Dad rented a house, and we all hung out there and swam and ate and relaxed. Laurie recorded the blessing and I transcribed it, and it's in George's journal. It was really sweet, and Chris was really inspired. It was a happy weekend. We love this boy!

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T22:04:00.000-07:00

Slept in, perfect french toast breakfast, flowers and a new mommy's necklace, lots of help before and after church (which is NOT the norm), yummy lunch, little nap, awesome dinner and dessert, and lots and lots of love. Thanks, Chris and kids, for a great Mother's Day!

Acoma Ward Silent Auction

2011-05-08T21:55:00.000-07:00

We love our ward! We had a BBQ and silent auction the other night to raise money for the youth to go to camp this summer. Lots of items were donated, we raised over $600, and I must mention that the item that went for the most money was...An evening with Chris Barragan!! Here are some pictures of the fun night:

My Birthday

2011-05-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

For my birthday, Chris surprised me by getting his parents to come up for a couple of days to stay with the girls while he, George, and I went up to Vegas. We stayed at the Loews at Lake Las Vegas. It was really nice. I got to do a little shopping, have a fun Cinco de Mayo lunch, sit by the pool, see the Pionkes, and spend time with Chris. I gotta say, he and I always laugh a lot together, but we laughed super hard together on this trip and I really loved our near-alone time together. And I also gotta say, I forgot how easy life is with just one kid! Man!! Anyway, we had dinner at the Hash House a Go-go at the M, and it was so so so good! When we got back to the hotel that night, I was secretly wishing I could eat cake on my birthday but I was pretty full so I forgot about it. I had climbed in to bed ready to go to sleep when there was a knock on our door. It was room service bringing up a little chocolate lava cake with ice cream and berries. Lovely! Chris took a picture - pay no attention to my attire, please. It was a nice getaway. But I was as excited and twitterpated as a schoolgirl when we got home to Olive and Lucy. Happy Birthday to me!!

Easter

2011-04-24T20:03:00.000-07:00

Arrival of George

2011-04-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

For pictures and details on the arrival of George, I'm going to be lazy and just point you to his blog.

George's blog

I Watch Rated-R Movies. And I'm a Mormon.

2011-04-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

I made that my title just to get your attention. Let me now put it into context.

My friend Jenny posted this article on her Facebook page today. I read the article, and am happy that my own sentiments have found a public voice in that of the soothing sounds of Doug Wright in the Morning. Just kidding, I don't know what the name of his show is, I just know his voice is downright smoooooooooooth.

If your standard for movie watching is solely based on an absolute "no rated R movies" because of some elusive commandment handed down generations ago, then you aren't using your God-given ability to think and choose. (By the way, I'm going heavy on the boldness with a little dash of sarcasm just to drive home the point. If the no rated R movies thing is actually written somewhere in the annals of the Church, I'd genuinely like to have it pointed out to me. I haven't ardently searched for it, but I can't readily find it either). I realize this is a really risky thing to say because some people may use it as license to watch just any old trashy movie or television show. But if you know me then you know my media standards are actually pretty strict and that that's not at all what I'm trying to say.

What I am trying to say is that I think the big misstep that members of the Church commit is using the no rated R thing as the end-all of our media standard. Unfortunately we don’t actually get to go nuts on the PG-13 movies in seemingly good conscience just because they’re not R. It’s just not that clearly delineated. And so, despite all the cultural tugs, we’re going to have to actually use our minds, and the spirit, when deciding what we're willing to take in. We certainly cannot let the MPAA be the deciding factor. Learn WHY a movie is rated what it’s rated, for crying out loud! (There are a bunch of sources for this. I use the IMDB parent guide, but I know there are other ones out there). Have an honest inventory with yourself where you figure out what things are destructive to your spirit, and then don’t see movies with those things in them! For me, I cannot stand sexuality especially when it’s in the context of foul humor (Don’t Mess With the Zohan comes to mind), and I get really worked up about some types of violence (even the television edited Goodfellas upsets my tender little heart). So although one of those is PG-13 and the other one is edited for television, I must avoid them if I want to keep close to the spirit. And what about TV? If the standard is simply not to watch rated R movies well then television is just a free-for-all, am I right? I mean, the Church hasn’t come down and said no TV-MA shows, so that must mean anything goes, right? No. Again, unfortunately we don’t get to be that lazy; we gotta do our homework and use our best judgment.

The best source I’ve found for what to base my media standard on comes from a Church news release in response to controversy surrounding the show Big Love.

Despite its popularity with some, much of today’s television entertainment shows an unhealthy preoccupation with sex, coarse humor and foul language. Big Love, like so much other television programming, is essentially lazy and indulgent entertainment that does nothing for our society and will never nourish great minds. Parents who are casual about their viewing habits ought not to be surprised if teaching moral choices and civic values to their children becomes harder as a result.

For that reason and others, Church leaders have consistently cautioned against such entertainment, joining with other religious, education and government leaders in inviting individuals and families to follow a higher road of decency, self-discipline and integrity.

The phrases from this statement that I burned into my mind, and that direct my media decisions are, “lazy and indulgent,” “does nothing for our society and will never nourish great minds,” and, “a higher road of decency, self-discipline and integrity.” For me, that means I do watch some rated R movies and I do keep super duper clear of some PG-13 movies. It means I don’t watch It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia or Family Guy no matter how much it pains my soul not to. It means being picky about what my kids watch, and not lazily putting them in front of Nick Jr because it’s “like preschool on TV.” It means I don’t have to enjoy NBC’s Thursday night lineup just because everyone else does. It means I take a step away from the thick of the hype and from the MPAA ratings, think critically, and decide from there.

Lucy's 1st Birthday, and Papa's 60th

2011-03-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

Chris and I sang Happy Birthday to Lucy when we went into the girls' bedroom in the morning. After that, when I got her out of her jammies and changed her diaper, I noticed a horrible rash all over body, and there wasn't much birthday fun for a while after that. I didn't want to overreact, but it was pretty alarming. We decided to head to the ER. Nestor and Rosemary got there just in time to stay home with Olive while we went. Sure enough, the doctor there let us know that Lucy was having an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin she's been on for her ear infection. They gave her an oral steroid and some Benadryl, and sent us on our way. She slept for most of the day. She woke up just long enough for us to go to the park and have dinner and cake for her. While she was sleeping, Chris took Nestor flying. When they got home we presented him with the gift we had all gotten him - a new Macbook. He was pretty thrilled. We gave the girls dinner, and I had made a chocolate cake for Lucy and Nestor. Lucy had fun eating her cake. We put her back to bed, and had a babysitter come over to be with Olive until she went to bed. We took Nestor and Rosemary to eat dinner at The Refuge. It was lovely. I think Nestor had a pretty memorable 60th, and in spite of the ER drama I hope Lucy felt loved and happy on her 1st.

Jimmy's Family Came To See Us!

2011-03-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

They got here Friday night, and we took some Little Caesars down to Rotary for the kids to eat and play. When we got home, Olive and Rosie took a bath together and then all the kids camped out on our bedroom floor in their jammies. They watched Aladdin and ate popcorn. We ordered Havasu Pizza and played Trivial Pursuit. On Saturday morning we took a scenic drive down to the Parker Dam. We actually saw wild donkeys down there! After that, we took the kids to Bubba Jump and let them go nuts for an hour. Then we came back and had lunch. I stayed with Lucy and Aria while everyone else went to the Aquatic Center and swam. We gave the kids dinner, and then we had 2 babysitters come over and hold down the fort while we adults went out to dinner. We stayed up and talked for a while after that. On Sunday Chris and I left the kids with them and went to Stake Conference. Afterward we took a picnic down to the island and hung out for a while. They got on the road from there. It was so fun! We really loved having them!

"Not Even For Wearing That Hat?"

2011-03-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

Papa and Oatsie and Anna came up for a quick little visit. We had a good time. Olive enjoyed bossing Anna around and having a playmate. Anna, I don't think, really enjoyed Olive at all. But she was a good sport. The best part of the weekend was when we were all piled in the wagon on the way home from the park. Chris had previously arranged with Brian Stock to pull Nestor over and scare him a little. Brian did a routine check at first, but then he asked Nestor to get out of the car. He started questioning him about his nationality, and asked if he'd ever been arrested. When Nestor said no, Brian said, "Not even for wearing that hat?" And that's when Chris and I lost it, and the game was over. It was funny! That night Brian and Leslie came over and played Trivial Pursuit with us and Nestor and Rosemary. Also, super fun. So glad they got to visit!

OK, So It Wasn't Quite Over

2011-03-03T18:17:00.000-08:00

Remember my post about going to see Dr. Weaver and then having to go to the ER? And how I called it "Now That It's Over"? Yeah, it's not quite over. At least not the part about the billing issue with Dr. Weaver's office.

I called her office the day after I had been there and to the ER, talked to a woman named Dawn, and very cordially and very clearly explained to her that I had not received sufficient treatment and would like to not be billed for my visit. She was very warm, and she described the hectic day their staff had had when I was there. I told her I'm an understanding, reasonable person, and that I was sure it was a tough day. But the fact remained, I had not received proper treatment and I didn't want to be billed. We also talked about me returning the nebulizer they had sent me home with because I didn't need it - I told her I would get it back to them as soon as I was back on my feet. We had a friendly exchange, ending with her promising that Dr. Weaver would be calling me the next day regarding the billing and my complaint about the quality of care I had received.

Dr. Weaver didn't call me the next day. In fact, it was a few weeks and a few unreturned phone calls before I received a frigid voice message from Dr. Weaver that said something along these lines: "This is Dr. Weaver. My staff informed me that you're refusing to return our nebulizer. You need to return it right away." I quickly called her office back, and was miraculously put through to her. She was rather combative at first. Assuming the friendliest tone I could muster despite my frustration, I explained to Dr. Weaver that her staff must have confused the message because I never said anything that resembled a refusal to return her nebulizer. She became quiet, so I jumped at the chance and told her my perspective on the whole experience. She muttered an excuse about not wanting to put a pregnant woman at risk with doing an ex ray, and I rebutted that a pulmonary embolism is far more dangerous than the risks of an ex ray. And I said the bottom line was that I just really don't feel I should be billed for the lack of service I received. She said, "I'll have my billing person call you. But you need to bring the nebulizer back right away." No acknowledgement of bad service, no compromise, and right back to demanding that I bring back the nebulizer.

Again, no one ever called me back like she said she'd have them do. And frankly, I put it out of my mind until yesterday when I received my ER bill in excess of $7,000. After picking my jaw up off the floor and realizing this bill had cleaned out our HRA, I decided it would be best to try again with Dr. Weaver's office. I thought if they didn't bill my insurance that at least a little bit of money would be put back into our HRA. And I thought I really deserved better customer service.

Today I started with logging in to my BCBS account online. Much to my dismay, the claim had already been processed and paid. I called Dr. Weaver's office and they told me that since the claim had already been closed that I would need to contact my insurance company to have them dispute it. I called BCBS and explained the whole situation to them. They told me I could file a Quality of Care complaint, and write a letter of appeal about the billing.

I did file a Quality of Care complaint, and BCBS of Arizona will follow up with Dr. Weaver about that. I'll also be writing the letter of appeal because Dr. Weaver's office claimed that she saw me for 60 minutes, that she gave me 2 injections, a breathing treatment, and that I used their nebulizer. What actually happened is that she saw me for 60 seconds, gave me 1 injection, a breathing treatment, and a nebulizer (but I never even filled the prescription for the medicine to use with the nebulizer because the ER doctor told me I didn't need it, and he was right). So that's where I'm at - Quality of Care complaint, letter of appeal, and a big fat onion on the LHC Orchids & Onions Facebook page.

I genuinely hope Dr. Weaver is better with everyone else in the world than she was with me.

I won't shop at Best Buy ever again.

2011-02-25T10:51:00.000-08:00

I just want to add my testimony to that of Brother Tovey about how seriously bad Best Buy is. I had a couple of returns to make there the other night, one item I had a receipt for and the other I didn't. We dealt with the no-receipt one first.

First the girl, let's call her Sassy, said they didn't have any stock of this item so she couldn't take it back. Not for a refund, not even for a store credit. This baffled me because she had scanned the bar code and the item clearly came from Best Buy. Sassy asked if I was sure I didn't have the receipt; I said it was a gift and I definitely did not have the receipt. She asked if I had the phone number of the person who gave it to me. I gave her the number and she pulled that person up successfully, but then said there was no record of that person buying this item. I thought all this was weird and frustrating, and I was about to say "fine whatever" and take it back. But then suddenly Sassy said she could offer me the last sale price of the item as store credit. OK, why didn't she bring that up at the beginning of all this nonsense? So, I ended up with a stupid store credit of 20 something bucks.

I thought for sure the next one would be seamless because I had a receipt for it. Sassy looked at the receipt and said, "Oh, the Christmas return period ended a couple weeks ago." I said, "How do you know it was a Christmas gift? Just because the purchase was made in December?" She repeated herself, "The Christmas return period ended a couple weeks ago." I was dumbfounded, and then my buddy Amber chimed in and said, "So if we hadn't given you a receipt for this you would've been able to give us a store credit for the last sale price, like the other item, right?" Sassy said yes. Amber slyly took the receipt out of her hand, and said, "Then why don't you just forget we gave you a receipt?" Sassy took the receipt back and said, with plenty of attitude, that she couldn't do that. She said she could, however, ask her manager if they could make an exception and proceed with the return even though we were outside the Christmas return period. I told her to go do that then. Miraculously, they were generous enough to grant us the exception, and I got 10 bucks and change put back on my Visa.

Some time during the transactions the customer at the register next to us was beginning to raise his voice and become visibly upset about his return situation. So I asked Sassy, "Do you guys get a lot of hostile customers?" She said, "Oh yes." I said, "Well, with all due respect to you, that's because you guys have terrible return policies." She said nothing, but glared at me. As we were leaving the store, Amber and I both declared we would never shop at Best Buy again. And then I sheepishly said, "Wait, what am I going to do with this dumb store credit?" And she said, "Just use it for a gift for someone else." And I would, but I just don't hate anyone that much. Not even Sassy. And I'd really rather throw it away than have anyone put any money back into that place. Not on my watch, sister.

I don't take my kids grocery shopping with me.

2011-02-24T20:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we met Amber and her kids for lunch. I'll just say it: Olive was a bit of a nightmare (screaming, jumping on the table and chairs, running all over the restaurant...you get it). I was pretty upset with her at the time, but then the more I thought about it the more I realized I had totally set her up to fail. She was reeling from a day and a half of bad sleep, hotel room cabin fever, and catering to my agenda for our quick Vegas trip. And besides all that, when is sitting in a restaurant while your mom chats with her buddy and pays only agitated attention to you a good or fair thing for a kid? Did I really expect her to be her usual delightful self in that setting? It got me thinking about other situations where I have set my kids up to fail. Take grocery shopping, for example. I have a pretty stringent routine that involves ad matching and coupons, and I really like to take my time. And let's face it, kids in a grocery cart usually equals kids grabbing for things on shelves, demanding every candy or toy item they see, and being extra obnoxious because distracted Mom is only giving halfhearted attention. In that situation I'm unable to focus sufficiently on either the kids' needs or the shopping process, and neither one ends up being a success. So I decided a long time ago, I don't take my kids grocery shopping with me. There are just certain places or outings where my kids don't belong, for their sake and mine. There are exceptions - church, for example, is one place where my kids are just going to have to learn to behave no matter how painful it is for me and them. And certainly there are times when I don't have the luxury of leaving them behind, and those are the times when the standard for behavior and discipline has to be different than it normally is. But ultimately, just leaving the kids behind for those certain outings is really the best way to set up both them and me for success.

Here I Go Again on my Own

2011-02-24T20:01:00.000-08:00

I'm determined to get my RTR legs under me again. So. There's that.

Olive's Birthday

2011-02-05T21:54:00.000-08:00

To start out the day, Chris made Olive a breakfast of star-shaped waffles and yogurt. We put a banner up on the garage so that everyone would know it was her special day. The morning and early afternoon was full of me saying yes to pretty much everything she wanted to do (we watched Happy Feet and ate marshmallows and danced and played). In the afternoon we took a trip to Walmart to pick up a few things, and I had made a "Birthday Girl" sign for her to wear around her neck so she got lots of attention there. In the evening we had a few friends over -Britnee, the Jensen kids, and the Stock family. Everything is "I want chocolate" these days, so naturally I made her a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting (it was really yummy, if I may say so).

She had fun grubbing on that. Next Olive opened her presents - some of the highlights were a light-up pair of Beauty and the Beast high heels, a pedicure set complete with hot pink fluffy flip flop slippers, and a Dora nightgown. The rest of the night was a total melee, running around with the Stock kids and getting into EVERYTHING. The house was just total carnage when it was all over, but both Chris and I agreed that it was so worth it seeing Olive have such a blast. She had a full fun day, and we love our little 2 year-old girl!

Chris is busy, and it's teaching us both.

2011-01-31T21:53:00.000-08:00

Chris was called to be the executive secretary to the new bishop (Rhett Burgener). He's on the phone seriously a ton, and on Sundays he's at church from about 9 am to about 5 pm. It's definitely a different weight than when he was Elders Quorum President; it's much busier and heavier. Also, the week after he started the calling he had to be in Florida for a week for work, and he's been really pushing harder with work in general (this past Monday he started a big 13-week push for a new drug indication). So, what I'm getting at is that he's gone more and much busier. We're both striving to deal with the changes gracefully, and we've felt lots of help from on high. It's been hard. But more importantly, it's all a very good opportunity for our family to grow spiritually and to appreciate our life together more. We're learning, and we're happy.

Now That It's Over

2011-01-16T19:53:00.000-08:00

The morning after we got home from Santa Cruz it became clear that I hadn't evaded the sickness that Chris and the girls all got like I thought I had. Without going into too much gory detail, I'll just say it was also clear that mine wasn't the same version as theirs. And after a few days of feeling rotten, I called Dr. Urso's office and asked them to call in an antibiotic. Two days on augmentin, and I was feeling nothing but worse (short of breath, coughing a ton, totally worn out). I called Dr. Urso's office again and explained how I was feeling, and they said they'd call to get me in to see the town's only pulmonologist, Dr. Weaver. They said there was a risk of a pulmonary embolism, and I needed to be seen right away. At that point I started to worry. A pulmonary embolism has big scary implications, and I knew just how bad I was feeling. We considered going straight to the ER instead, but figured seeing the pulmonologist would mean a good thorough check of all things pulmonary, plus a cheaper bill than a visit to the ER would incur. Little did I know.

Dr. Weaver's office called and said they could squeeze me in, so I headed over. I was coughing and exhausted, and the simple task of filling out the new patient paperwork was honestly so taxing. I was practically lying across two or three chairs in the waiting room desperately listening for my name to be called. 45 minutes later, it was. I figured once I got behind that door, they'd see how urgent the situation was - especially since I was 27 weeks pregnant - and they'd get me all taken care of. No such luck. The nurse casually took my vitals and asked what was going on, then left, and I waited some more. The nurse practitioner eventually came in and casually took notes in the computer. She didn't seem to notice my being doubled over in the chair and almost gasping for breath. I looked at her with tears in my eyes and said, "I'm really worried. I'm pregnant and I know this could be pretty serious." She said, "You're in a safe place," and kept typing away. Then she gave me a breathing treatment. That's when Dr. Weaver came in. She took 2 or 3 listens at my chest while I was doing the breathing treatment, and acted like it was no big deal. She said I was having an asthmatic reaction to a cold I had caught, rattled off some prescription for the nurse practitioner to give me, and then started to leave the room. I said, "Wait, how do you know it's that and not pneumonia or worse?" She looked at me and said, "Oh, I guess I don't unless I order a chest ex ray, but you'll have to go to the hospital for that." I was baffled by the whole exchange; I really thought a pulmonologist of all people would want to be especially thorough on a pregnant woman who was so short of breath. When I left there I talked to Dr. Urso's office again, and they said forget the order for the chest ex ray and just go straight to the ER. So I did.

Six hours in the ER got me a bunch of blood work, a flu screen, a cat scan, and a really warm friendly staff and doctor. They determined it was pneumonia, treated me for it, and I was cozy in my own bed by 10 pm. I was laid up for a few more days, but was noticeably better by the next morning. By the time I finished all the meds they had given me (prednisone, azithromycin, and the augmentin I had already started), I was as good as new.

You may be thinking at this point how absurd the pulmonologist visit was, and don't worry, that's not lost on me. I have a call in to them, and I'm waiting to hear back. I told them I really don't want to be billed for that visit. We'll see.

I would really like to never experience this whole thing again, mostly because I hated how inconvenient it was to my life. I didn't unpack from our Santa Cruz trip until like 2 weeks after we had gotten home. I had to park the girls in front of the TV way more than I'm normally OK with. One morning super early I just laid there and cried, feeling guilty for neglecting Chris and the girls and the house. Chris sleepily rubbed my back and said, "It's OK." And then I called my mom and she talked me down from that emotional tower. It is interesting and kind of tragic, though, to be sick when you're the mom.

The biggest and best thing about this was allowing people to serve our family. I had a ton of help through the whole thing - Rebecca and Lizz stayed with the girls while we were at the ER, Doone and Melanie each took the girls on different days so I could rest while Chris was at work, other friends brought dinner to us a few times, and Becky and the young women from our ward did a deep clean on our house. It was humbling, and so so appreciated.

But I am so glad it's over.

that's a wrap

2010-12-31T18:04:00.001-08:00

Hours away from the end of 2010. Here's a few photos to round it out. Our cute girls in the tub (or kitchen sink, as it were), Olive sledding for the first time during our Thanksgiving trip to Utah (alongside her cousin Alexis), the girls in their Christmas dresses, and our family at Chris' birthday ballgame in Half Moon Bay on Christmas Eve. Another good year. Another good one to come. We're happy.

Chris' Magical Meatball Sub

2010-10-26T20:59:00.000-07:00

Chris made this the other night. I can't tell you his recipe because it's a deep dark secret. So why am I even posting this, you ask? Because it was oh so good.

Our trip to Chicago

2010-10-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

First of all, the weather was perfectly fall and we love love loved it. The leaves were colorful and falling. Sometimes we could smell burning leaves, sometimes we could smell wet leaves, either way it was wonderful and nostalgic. We wore sweaters and jeans, and put our girls in the same. I didn't realize how much I love (and now miss) the landscape there, especially in comparison to Havasu. Lisa's family livesin Crystal Lake, and their town couldn't be anycuter. Lovely old houses with tons of character, a quaint downtown, but still plenty of shoppingand other resources, and the Metra to take you right into the city. We really loved it. Here's how the whole thing went down:

We flew out of Vegas on Wednesday evening, and the flight was as much of a nightmare as you can imagine it being with 2 babies in tow. We couldn't sit together, so that was tough. Lucy actually did OK. She was sleepy in my arms for the first hour or so. Olive was screaming and

contorting in Chris' arms for that time. After a while we traded kids and seats, and Lucy fell asleep in Chris' arms for the rest of the flight. Olive did some more screaming and contorting, but also made friends with some other kids and was a little bit playful for a while. But mostly, she screamed and contorted. We got into Chicago very late, had some difficulty and frustration getting our rental car and baggage and finding our way out of dumpy Cicero. We landed at Lisa's house at some unsightly hour, and she and Morgan got out of bed to greet us before we all crashed into bed.

On Thursday Lisa's family all had to go to work and school, so we let the girls sleep as long as they could and then decided to drive to the city. We drove along Lake Michigan up Lake Shore

Drive and saw Soldier Field, the Shedd

Aquarium, and Buckingham Fountain. We could see the Sears Tower (I refuse to call it whatever it is now) and the Hancock and Navy Pier. Then we drove out of the city a little bit in search of the Frank Lloyd Wright museum in Oak Park. Except we took a wrong turn and ended up in Niles where we had some delicious gyros at a little Greek dive. Yum! We made our way back to Oak Park and got to the Frank Lloyd Wright house just as the last tour of the day was wrapping up. Darn it. Still, we walked around and took pictures and enjoyed it. It was 3:30 by this time, and we had reservations at the Lou's in Crystal Lake at 6:00 with Lisa's family and Sadie and Gabe. You'd think we had plenty of time to get out there, right? Wrong. Traffic was ridiculous. I remember experiencing it when I lived there, but that was 10 years ago and traffic has pretty much become a foreign concept to me since then. There we were inching our way down 290, cramped in this awful tiny Toyota Matrix rental, and doing our best to resist getting totally grouchy. We made it to Lou's just after 6:00. The pizza was just as good as I remembered it. And it was delightful being with everyone. Afterwards we went back to Lisa's where she made everyone these huge ice cream sundaes. I was sufficiently full of good food, and plenty sleepy, by the end of the night.

Friday was my favorite day. Lisa and Morgan both took the day off, and we all went to Goebbert's. Goebbert's is the pumpkin farm that I grew up going to with my family every year. We saw lots of animals, most of which Olive had an aversion to. Lisa bought her tickets to ride the

camels and the ponies, and she pitched a fit over both of them. So I took her ticket to ride the camel and went on with Morgan. It was funny. As for the ponies, Morgan just walked around holding Olive next to them because she refused to get on. We picked a couple of tiny pumpkins for Olive and Lucy, had some apple cider donuts, and took some fun pictures. From there we grabbed Portillo's for lunch. Chris had a Chicago dog, and I had a variation of the same. I won't admit how I changed it up because it will rob me of any Chicago-bred dignity I have. We drove around Palatine and Barrington and showed Chris all of our old houses, and did some reminiscing. It was sad and sweet and funny. After all that fun, we let the girls take an afternoon nap and then it was time to gear up for Nick's football game. I had t-shirts made for all of us, including the girls. I put them in their feet pajamas and then jeans and shirts over them. It was cold that night - somewhere in the 40s - and we downed a ton of hot chocolate at the game. Sadie was sweet enough to drive out and meet us at the game. I can always count on her to be a superfan with me. The girls did pretty well. Lucy was bundled in the Baby Bjorn all night, and stayed pretty quiet. Olive was entertained by Morgan and her buddy the whole time. It was such a thrill to watch Nick play. He's so talented. We're really proud of him. His team won 31-0! Chris was rallying the crowd like crazy. I was slightly embarrassed but mostly just so amused. It was a fun night, and such a great day in all.

On Saturday Morgan had a volleyball tournament. She's a tough little cookie! She's really competitive, a little too hard on herself, and such a pretty girl. Her team went all the way to the championship game and came in 2nd place. We were super proud of her. Immediately after her last game, she jumped in the car with Chris and me and the girls, and we met Sadie and Gabe at Wrigley. We had tickets to tour the park at 1:30 (the last tour of the year) and barely made it on time. The tour was really interesting, and it was fun to be there. Chris' favorite part was the press box, mine was the dugouts. After the game, we went around the corner to Gino's East. I wanted Chris to compare Gino's to Lou's and decide which one he liked better. Trouble was, Olive was pretty delirious with exhaustion by that point, so she was kind of tough to manage. Then she took a really bad fall and got a huge knot on her forehead. After that, she was totally inconsolable. We had to call it quits at Gino's, say bye to Sadie and Gabe there, and make our way back to Lisa's. I was bummed that Chris didn't get to try Gino's, but Olive really needed to rest. We ended up grabbing Portillo's for dinner (Chris and I both got Italian beefs - so good), and laying low at Lisa's for the rest of the night.

I decided we should really just lay low on Sunday, too. We had planned on going out to Arlington Heights for church to see who we could see there. But the girls had been carted all over creation, and I thought it best for everyone's health and sanity that we just take it easy. It was a nice day. Morgan took Olive out on her little electric moped, and Olive absolutely loved it. It was pretty funny to watch. We took a long walk with Lisa. We grilled burgers and brats, and ate out on the deck. Olive wanted to help Lisa clean up after dinner, but she walked right into the iron patio table and gave herself a black eye. So now she's got a big bruised forehead, and a black eye! I think she looks cute; pitiful, but cute. We talked, and laughed, snacked, watched football, and I made cookies. It was a nice quiet day.

On Monday morning, I got us all packed and ready to go. We stopped by Lisa's office and Morgan's school, and said bye to them. I hated saying bye. From there we drove to a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Crystal Lake and looked around. Then we got on Northwest Highway and took it almost all the way to the city. When we passed through Palatine, I showed Chris some more nostalgic spots. We were going to go to the original McDonald's in Des Plaines, but missed the turn and decided to just keep going. We went to Navy Pier, walked up and down the pier, took pictures, had Garrett's, and rode the ferris wheel. From there we drove up Michigan Avenue so Chris could see the famous Magnificent Mile, got to see Millenium Park and Buckingham Fountain again, and then hit the road for the airport. We grabbed sandwiches at Potbelly's, and they were tasty tasty. We returned the awful car, got through the airport madness, and girded up our loins for another daunting flight. It wasn't as bad as the first flight, but it wasn't fun either. Olive finally crashed in my arms as soon as the plane started its initial descent into Vegas. Needless to say, she wasn't too thrilled when she was woken up by us trying to make our way off the plane. We were tired and hungry and grubby and ready to sleep for days. It was stressful and crazy, but delightful and memorable and lovely. We miss Lisa's family, and we love Chicago. Wanna go back!

Our First Time on Lake Havasu

2010-09-26T04:38:00.001-07:00

Thanks to our generous friends, the Jensens, we finally got out on the lake for the first time yesterday! Here are some pictures to prove it:

Lake Havasu really is so lovely. How have you not come to visit us yet?

Banana Cake with Chocolate Fudge Drizzle

2010-09-19T19:06:00.000-07:00

We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight, and Chris was making a yummy tri tip so I wanted to busy myself with a good dessert. I made this banana cake and chocolate fudge drizzle, and both Chris and the missionaries were dying over it. Here's how it goes:

Banana Cake Ingredients:

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

3 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup vegetable oil

4 bananas, mashed

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Banana Cake Instructions:

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add the beaten eggs and oil, and stir just until the dry ingredients are wet. Don't overmix! Add the bananas, and then the vanilla. Pour into greased 13x9 pan and bake at 350 for 25-28 minutes. Definitely check it with a toothpick, but my advice is to take it out when it's still just a little gooey because you'll cool it in the pan and it will still bake a bit more. Cool it in the pan on a cooling rack.

Chocolate Fudge Drizzle Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 stick butter

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

Chocolate Fudge Drizzle Instructions:

Combine sugar, cocoa powder, butter, and milk in a saucepan and blend together. Allow to boil for 2 minutes, but watch it carefully and even give it a stir or two to avoid burning it. Take it off the heat after the 2 minutes, and add the vanilla. Stir well. Allow to cool completely; it will thicken.

When both the cake and the drizzle have cooled completely, pour the drizzle over the cake and serve. So good!

We Really Are That Happy

2010-09-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

Chris and I were asked to do a little lesson/discussion at last night's Relief Society Back to School activity. We talked about how getting back to basics is so important to the strength of our marriage and family. Here are the basics:

1. Daily prayer (personal, couple, family)

2. Daily study of the Book of Mormon (personal, couple, family)

3. Regular temple attendance

4. Service

5. Family night/date night/quality time together

6. Weekly inventory

Prayer and scripture study are obvious, aren't they? But so vital to the life and strength of a marriage and family. We originally just kept saying "scripture study", but as we got further in our preparation of the lesson we knew we had to specify the Book of Mormon. There is an undeniable power and influence that comes into your life as you are elbow-deep in the Book of Mormon each day. Other scriptures and conference talks, etc, should come into play as well.

Temple attendance is another rattled-off answer that weighs so much. Regular temple attendance is a real safeguard to our marriage and family. And it is very easy to say that because the temple is 2 hours away and because we have 2 little girls that "this just isn't our season to be regular temple attenders." But it's never not anyone's season to make every sacrifice necessary to be in the temple regularly. We're told to be in the temple as often as our circumstances permit, and I believe our circumstances can permit a little more than we're permitting them to right now. We need it that badly.

Selflessness facilitates spiritual progression. It's important for us to be serving each other within the marriage and family. When Chris and I got married we were given the advice to always put each other on a pedestal. If we could just remember that all the time, and serve each other accordingly, our dynamic would be even more harmonious than it already is. Also, serving others together as a family helps us feel the spirit together and draw much strength from that. Selfless service is as important to our strength of spirituality as any of these other elements.

Family night, date night, and quality time together as a family are obviously big contributors to our strength and success as a family. For us, we make sure we're laughing and getting out and mixing it up as much as we can. All of us need that excitement.

Chris and I try to bookend each week with a Sunday night inventory. It's always begun and ended with a prayer, otherwise who knows what direction it might go. We take that opportunity to see where each of us is at spiritually and emotionally. It's a needed and fantastic opportunity for good communication.

We had a really good time putting this together, and we challenged the Acoma ladies to apply the basics and then testify about their experience doing so in the next testimony meeting. I'm eager to see how it goes. In our own family, I know every one of these elements is so important. And I'm thrilled to have a husband I don't have to drag along to be on the same page with me about them. It's why we're as happy as we are.

Turtle Brownies

2010-08-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

I needed to use the rest of a can of evaporated milk, so I looked around and found this recipe. I made it last night for a party at church. All's I can say is, oh my gooooosh!

Couple of tips: Don't bake the first half of the batter for the full 15 minutes that it calls for. I'd say 8-10 minutes is plenty. You don't want the bottom to be more done than the top, or worse even a little burned. I wouldn't bake the whole thing for the full 30 minutes either. If you're anything like me, you want these things to be gooey. Taking them out somewhere between the 20-25 minute mark will ensure that. You're going to want to let them cool in the pan on a cooling rack, so they'll still be baking when you take them out of the oven. So definitely don't overdo the oven time! Oh, and I used a fudge chocolate cake mix as opposed to a milk chocolate or some other variation. I think the darker chocolate makes for a richer accent to the caramel. Holy cow, I want another one right now.

Ingredients:

1 pkg. (18.25 oz.) chocolate cake mix

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup butter, melted

35 (10-oz. pkg.) caramels

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

Combine the chocolate cake mix and nuts in a bowl. Add 2/3 cup evaporated milk and the melted butter. The batter will be very thick. Pour half the batter into an ungreased 13x9 pan. Bake for 15 minutes.

Heat caramels and remaining evaporated milk in saucepan on low-medium heat. Stir constantly until caramels are melted.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the baked brownies. Pour caramel mixture over brownies. Drop remaining batter by heaping teaspoon over the caramel mixture.

Bake 25-30 minutes at 350.

Havasu Has a Hold

2010-08-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

Boulder City is one of the cutest towns I could imagine. Historic, small, green (-er than anywhere else nearby), cool (-er than most places around here), far enough from Vegas not to feel like Vegas but close enough to have access to the minimum shopping requirements... It's the kind of place we'd hand-pick; just totally us. The bulk of Chris' clients are in Henderson which means he has to be up there 2-3 days a week. It gets old. So we would casually watch for places in Boulder City to come available, but the thing is they rarely do. We wanted a historic house that had been redone in the heart of the city and in our price range. If it didn't meet all those criteria, it wasn't worth it. Well, last week I found a place. I couldn't believe it when I found it, it was perfect! When Chris got home that day I ran to the door to meet him and tell him all about it. He was excited too, and we jumped in the car and drove up there. The house is great, adorable and neat with tons of character. And it's within walking distance of the cute downtown area and a couple of lovely parks and the church. We loved it. On the drive back home all I did was imagine our stuff in that house, and how great it would be living there. The only obstacle we would have to get past was talking with our landlords about getting out of our lease early. I did that, and they said it wouldn't be tough to do at all. So it should've been a cinch, right? The trouble was I kept feeling a tug on my heart about leaving our ward here. But being that the situation in Boulder City was almost perfect, I couldn't sort out my feelings all the way. I sat on it for a few days, and then yesterday we went back to see the house. We loved it again, and the agent was really aggressive about showing her interest in us. It should've been a slam dunk. But when Chris and I got in the car to mull it over, we shortly came to the conclusion that it just wasn't right. We both felt, in our individual ways, that the spirit was telling us we belong here in Havasu, and more specifically, in the Acoma Ward. We're not sad; I mean, who knows how complicated we would've made things if we had ignored those feelings because of our excitement about Boulder City. We love the Acoma Ward. And we feel like this is where we belong right now. We're happy to stay put.

Elders Quorum FHE

2010-08-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

Chris had this idea to have the Elders Quorum host Family Home Evening last night at the park. I'll admit, I was a little worried about the turnout because it didn't seem like it was communicated very well. But there ended up being a great turnout, and it was really fun! Here are some pictures:

Chris & the Brown men playing bocce ball.

Olive & Ethan going for a ride.

Some of the guys playing ultimate frisbee.

Roasting wuff-'ems.

Hanging out.

We had a great time. Word on the street is we're going to do it on the 2nd Monday of every month, so you should come next time!

Hip hip...George!

2010-08-04T21:21:00.000-07:00

I made this silly promise to Chris at the beginning of this Yankees' season that if Jorge Posada hit 30 homeruns this year, I would get pregnant again before the end of 2010. What, 12 is almost 30, isn't it?

It's true. You heard me, IT'S TRUE! Pick your jaw up off the floor buddy, cuz we're having another baby!

I'm sure you can imagine the slew of inappropriate jokes and judgmental comments we've heard so far. I'll actually be holding a contest to see who can come up with the most original one, so please don't bore us with your "That was fast" or "You guys didn't waste any time" nonsense. So far, Mike Pionke's in a strong lead with his, "Congratulations on getting pregnant for the 6th time this year," followed by genuine spontaneous laughter. I LOL'd on that one. A close 2nd place was Oatsie's, "Oh Brooke your poor body," to which I replied, "Hey, you did it this way too," to which she replied, "Yeah, but I was in my 20s!" Ha!

In all seriousness, we're really thrilled about this. I'd be lying if I said there was no worry or wondering going on, but Chris and I both love this adventure of a life we're creating. We'd honestly have it no other way.

Oh, and I'm calling it now: it's a boy. I know it. His name is George.

"Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment."

2010-07-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

That's one of my favorites from Elder Uchtdorf. I made these today. Sure, they aren't the work of a master seamstress, but I feel fulfilled.

Honey Bee Cake

2010-07-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

I made this tonight, minus the decorative honey bees. The texture was beautiful - moist and dense and perfect. The glaze was amazing. Our friends who were here for dinner seemed to enjoy it, and Chris liked it a lot. But he and I both said we'd like to see how things go without the honey. So I'm going to try my own variation next time. In the meantime, anyone want to come over and take the leftovers off my hands? It's not helping my diet any to have this thing around.

HOT

2010-07-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

Here's the forecast this week - 118, 119, 122, 120, 118, 118. Yesterday I did the hot-feet dance and I wasn't even barefoot. No, if I had been barefoot my feet would've been destroyed. Instead, the heat of the pavement just melted one of my best flip flops and made it unwearable. Getting in the car means being so very careful not to let the metal buckles touch your skin, because it's death if they do. It also means carrying a towel or something with which to open the door handles or shut the trunk, for the same reason. The feel of the air outside is not unlike the feeling of opening the door to a preheated 425 degree oven. The only difference is that you can shut the oven door. The air outside is just endlessly and relentlessly hot. HOT, I tell you.

lucky duck

2010-07-12T23:32:00.001-07:00

Saturday was ward temple day. (Thanks to Amber for taking the girls and making it easy for us to go). We did sealings. It made me feel so so so thrilled about looking forward to our sealing day, and we had a little inspiration about a little George. So so so glad we went. (Is there ever really any good reason to miss ward temple day? I've looked, but I haven't found one).

Anyway, between that magical day and our trip to Santa Cruz during which I saw how many people love Chris so so so much, I'm re-realizing what a lucky duck I am to be his wife. He really is that great, and we really are that happy.

Our Trip to Santa Cruz

2010-07-09T21:56:00.001-07:00

Playing Catch-up

2010-07-09T20:37:00.001-07:00

OK OK, I'll get right to it.

January was all about getting settled into our new little place in Havasu. We left the house on Rainbow and moved into a detached triplex at the north end of town. If you ask me, there isn't an inch of Havasu that doesn't closely resemble Baghdad so there really isn't a lovely part of town. But we do like this house better than the last (except for the part about not having a pool anymore); it suits our needs and we're enjoying it. We went to the park nearly everyday in January. Which brings me to my favorite picture from that month: us holding hands with Olive while walking through the park.

February 4th was Olive's first birthday. She danced and went to the park for a picnic and ate lots of cake, so you know she celebrated properly.

March 26th is when Lucy Catherine Barragan joined us. I couldn't have asked for a better birth experience. Everything went so smoothly and naturally. Papa (that's Nestor) got to be in the room for the birth of his fourth grandchild, and it all happened on his birthday! Oatsie (that's Rosemary) stayed with us for a week, and she was a huge help. Laurie and her crew came to be with us for a few days afterwards too. I was happy to be with them and have them dote on my girls. Lucy was pretty and peaceful newborn, and when we brought her home Olive immediately hugged and kissed her. One of the greatest sights my eyes will ever get to see in this lifetime.

April brought Easter and General Conference, but was mostly just about all of us getting used to having Lucy around. It was a pretty natural transition, and now it feels like she's just always been there. Here's a picture of the girls in the double stroller for the first time.

I turned 31 in May. To celebrate, Amber and I went to dinner and to see Mystere at Treasure Island. It was so fun! I also had my second Mother's Day in May. So far I've had a new kid at each Mother's Day of my married life. I don't plan on keeping that up!

The heat in Havasu really started cranking in June, and so we got ourselves a punch pass to the aquatic center in town. We've been going almost every Saturday. Olive is such a fish! She startles other parents because of how fearless she is. She needs almost no help when she has her floaties on, and she loves to go under. Lucy doesn't like the water much yet, but she has been under and I'm sure she'll grow to love it too. We have a lot of fun in the water. Also in June, we celebrated Chris' second Father's Day. He really is a great father; we're pretty crazy about him.

That's all I'm gonna give to this game of catch-up. See you in subsequent posts!

don't call it a comeback

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

we're back. updates and pictures and all that to come.

i'll also be reviving reserve the right.

if you care. or dare.

Strawberry Crumb Pie

2010-04-28T19:06:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

For the crust -

1 stick butter

3 oz. cream cheese

1 1/4 cups flour

pinch salt

For the crumb topping -

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup oatmeal

4 tbsp. butter melted and slightly cooled

For the filling -

6 cups (2 pounds) strawberries, quartered

1/2 sugar

2 tsp. lemon juice

2 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch

Instructions:

Combine butter and cream cheese and process until smooth. Add flour and salt and process just until mixture comes together to form a ball. Form dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

While the pie crust is chilling, prepare the crumb topping. Combine sugar, flour and oatmeal in small bowl, and toss. Add melted butter and stir until thoroughly incorporated. Refrigerate.

Preheat oven to 350.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to a thickness of 1/8-inch and fit it into a 9 or 10-inch tart pan. Return pie crust to the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Then bake for 18 minute or until golden. Remove and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Increase the oven temperature to 375.

In a mixing bowl combine the strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch. Toss to combine. Spoon mixture into pie crust and spread crumb topping evenly over the top. Bake in the middle of the oven for 1 hour, or until filling is bubbly and crust and crumb topping are golden brown. Transfer to a rack to cool to room temperature before serving.

Stir Fry Sweet & Sour Chicken

2010-02-18T17:36:00.000-08:00

Not hard at all, and pretty darn yummy. Forgot to take a picture before it got eaten all gone.

Ingredients:

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

sesame seeds

1 green bell pepper (julienned)

1 clove of garlic (chopped)

2 1/2 tbsp. coconut oil

1 jar La Choy sweet & sour sauce

Instructions:

Cube chicken into desired chunks; set aside. Heat oil over low heat. Add sesame seeds and garlic; mix together. Turn heat up to med-high, and add chicken. Stir fry chicken until thoroughly cooked, then add bell pepper and sweet & sour sauce. Stir and turn heat down to low. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes until pepper is soft and tender. Serve over rice.

Oh, and a couple of things about this one...

(1) I used olive oil instead of coconut.

(2) I added pineapple. You could add other stuff too if you want.

Easy Blueberry Muffins

2010-02-09T09:21:00.000-08:00

I had some blueberries, and I had a craving, so I made these. My muffin pan is a sixer, not a twelver, so my muffins are oversized and there's only 6 of them. Where's the 6th one in the picture, you ask? Guess. So good!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup self-rising flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup oil

1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin pan. Beat egg; stir in milk and oil. Add dry ingredients. Stir until flour is moistened (texture will be lumpy). Stir in blueberries. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Bird in a Pie

2010-01-22T17:43:00.000-08:00

I saw this recipe on TV the other day, and tried it out tonight. Chris said it's the best thing I've ever made.

Ingredients:

(For the crust)

5 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for board

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons dried thyme

4 teaspoons dried sage

4 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-tablespoon pieces

12-16 tablespoons cold water

(For the filling)

3 tablespoons butter

1 sweet onion, diced

1 medium shallot, diced

5 celery stalks, diced

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups hot chicken stock

1 rotisserie chicken, meat removed and chopped

2 cups frozen diced carrots and peas

2 teaspoons dried sage

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 egg, whisked, for egg wash

Special equipment

4 (5-inch) aluminum pot pie pans

Instructions:

(For the crust)

Combine 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons thyme and sage in a food processor, pulsing until combined. Add in 2 sticks of butter, 4 tablespoons at a time, pulsing after each addition until mixture forms coarse texture. Slowly add in 6 to 8 tablespoons cold water while machine is running, 2 tablespoons at a time until dough balls up in processor to one side. Remove dough onto a lightly floured board, cut in half and form into 2 (8-inch) rounds. Wrap each tightly with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator. Chill for 30 minutes prior to rolling out. Repeat to make second batch of dough.

(For the filling)

In large saute pan, melt butter over medium heat; add onions, shallot and celery. Saute until just starting to brown. Stir in flour and saute for 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in hot stock, stirring well. When bubbly and thickened - about 5 to 6 minutes - stir in chopped chicken, carrots and peas, and sage. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Let cool while rolling out dough.

(To assemble pies)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On lightly floured board, cut the rounds of dough in half. Roll pieces into 6-inch rounds, about 1/4 inch thickness. Place a round in the bottom of each of the aluminum pie pans, and lightly press the sides and bottom to fit the shape of the pans. Generously top with filling until full and slightly mounded. Top with second piece of crust and pinch seams together. Cut 2 small slits in top. Brush with egg wash. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, or until tops are golden brown and filling is bubbling.

I Want a Son

2010-01-21T17:59:00.000-08:00

I read this article today while in the waiting room at the doctor. I don't think you have to be a total Yankees fan, or any sports fan at all really, to appreciate it. The things I loved about it were first, the excitement I felt at the thought of being the mom of a little leaguer, and next, being super impressed at the person Derek Jeter seems to be and at the values his parents taught him. I also really appreciated the reference to this poem:

Build me a son, O Lord,

who will be strong enough to know when he is weak,

and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid;

one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat,

and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishbone will not be

where his backbone should be;

a son who will know Thee - and that

to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.

Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort,

but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge.

Here, let him learn to stand up in the storm;

here, let him team compassion for those who fall.

Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goals will be high;

a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men;

one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep;

one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his,

add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor,

so that he may always be serious,

yet never take himself too seriously.

Give him humility, so that he may always remember

the simplicity of greatness,

the open mind of true wisdom,

the meekness of true strength.

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper,

"I have not lived in vain."

-General Douglas Macarthur

So, reading all this made me want a son really bad. Don't get me wrong, I love love love my Olive and cannot wait for Lucy to get here. But I'm not gonna lie, I want a son.

Conan = Class

2010-01-13T14:20:00.000-08:00

I hate Jay Leno and his big chin. He's not funny. He doesn't make me laugh. He sucks.

I love Conan O'Brien and his big hair. He's very funny. He makes me laugh heartily. He doesn't suck.

So all this drama with the late night lineup on NBC makes me mad. I think Conan's handling it with grace and professionalism. His statement, for example, oozes class...

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/12/conan-releases-statement-on-late-night-situation/

I'll follow Conan wherever he goes.

We went to Utah...again

2010-01-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

Ashley's reception in Utah was on Saturday, so we made the trip. I took a shameful amount of pictures, and by that I mean almost none. But it was a fun time, and I'm happy for Ashley and Paul.

Here are a few shots I did actually take:

Olive gives good hugs these days. Here she is hugging Merick.

Looking out the window on the plane.

Cozied up between Laurie and Shane, two of her favorites.

With Oscar.

Exploring the hotel in Henderson we stayed at on the way home.

Paper Heart

2010-01-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

We watched this last night as the activity for Family Home Evening. We both got bored and distracted, and ended up turning it off. That's all.

some Christmas pictures

2009-12-30T20:52:00.001-08:00

Dec. 9 - Olive and her buddy Bohdan at Chris' company Christmas party.

Dec. 19 - Olive enjoying every minute of sitting on Santa's lap.

Dec. 20 - Olive in her Christmas dress.

Dec. 24 - Santa (Chris) trying to wake up Anna on Christmas Eve. She wanted nothing to do with him.

Dec. 25 - Olive's first Christmas morning.

Dec. 25 - Happy 33rd Birthday to Chris!

slammed

2009-12-11T14:05:00.001-08:00

packing, cleaning, putting the furnished house back the way it was when we found it, moving boxes, being a relief society singer, furniture shopping, christmas not-shopping but needing to, baking, laundry, planning trips, chasing olive, and feeling more pregnant and pooped than usual

Baked Potato Soup

2009-12-01T18:13:00.000-08:00

This was dinner tonight. Sooooo good!

Ingredients:

2 large potatoes

3 bacon strips

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

3 T. flour

1 t. salt

1 t. dried basil

1/2 t. pepper

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup half-and-half cream

1/2 t. hot pepper sauce

shredded cheddar cheese

minced fresh parsley

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. Wash and fork potatoes, and then brush with olive oil. Bake on baking sheet for 1 hour. Cool and then cube potatoes (you can also skin them if you want to; we like the skin on). In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp. Drain, reserving 1 tablespoon of drippings. Dice bacon, and set aside. Saute onion and garlic in the drippings until tender. Stir in flour, salt, basil, and pepper; mix well. Gradually add broth. Bring to boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes. Add the potatoes, cream, and hot pepper sauce. Heat through but do not boil. Garnish with bacon, cheese, and parsley.

Our Thanksgiving trip

2009-11-30T20:18:00.000-08:00

started on Monday because Chris had to work in Henderson for 2 days. That meant 2 days of fun with Amber which I loved and needed. We drove to Jimmy's on Tuesday night, me driving the whole way while Chris read The Lightning Thief aloud (which by the way, we can only give 3 stars to...a few too many Harry Potter rip-offs to not get irritated during the otherwise compelling story).

On Wednesday morning, we got to be the lucky ones to pick my mom up from the airport. I love picking people up from the airport, it's always such a delightful thing, especially when it's my mom. She doted on Olive while we drove over to the Gateway to see Ashley try on bridal gowns. I won't post the picture of the one Ash chose, just in case Paul is peeking, and I also won't post the one of her in her underclothes. What do you take me for? That was a sweet sweet thing; she looked lovely and all of us sisters cried. Naturally, lunch was in order after that and so many of us met at some burger place by Thanksgiving Point. The rest of that day was spent relaxing at Jimmy's and making last-minute Thanksgiving dinner preparations. And then Jimmy said we should go to the Mayan for dinner. So his family, us, and my mom met there and ate, hoping to be dazzled by the supposed facelift the place had undergone. Yeah, I should've gone with my instincts on that one. I've always hated the Mayan, and that night wasn't very different. Our server sucked. Seriously sucked. Chris' order was wrong too. Oh, and when the guy brought the bill over, he literally threw it into my mom's lap. That last part pushed me over the edge, and I took the whole thing up with management. I will say that they took pretty good care of the bill, which made me feel somewhat better, but I think I would've needed to see our server fall off one of the highest rocks into the shallow pool in order to feel totally recompensed. Anyway, I've learned my lesson and I won't be giving it another chance.

Thanksgiving Day for me started out with the hard work of making 5 batches of homemade rolls. I also made some homemade stuffing, my aunt Dawn's recipe, which turned out to be a hit. Jenny had all 45 of us over at her house (yes, 45...and that was without Scot's and Lisa's families!) She's always such a great hostess - so laid back about all the kids running a muck and wanting everyone to be together no matter what. We managed enough sane time to go around and have everyone name what they were thankful for. I love hearing what my nieces and nephews have to say, and everyone else for that matter. These are the people that matter most to me, and having them bear a bit of their souls is precious to me. It was a really nice time and dinner was good too.

Friday morning many of us met at the Draper temple and did baptisms and confirmations for some family names my dad had compiled. It was a sweet experience, being Maddie and Gessie and Ethan's first time, and doing the work for family members who we know and love. I especially loved being baptized by Chris, that was neat for us. (By the way, you should've seen his whites...I didn't know they made capri versions of those). Shane watched Olive for us. She's his special friend, and we love Shane to death. We had him with us for the rest of the day, so we were happy. We did a little Black Friday shopping, emphasis on little, and ate chicken sandwiches at Chick-Fil-A. That evening a bunch of the boys were in a football tournament down in Provo, so we went to watch and cheer. They played hard, and Chris made the winning point in the second game they played! I was so excited. Jenny and I both were running up and down the field with the action, it was fun and probably pretty funny to see 2 pregnant girls doing that. The boys ended up coming in 3rd place out of 8 teams. Not bad! Everyone got pizza and hung out at Jimmy's after that. Ash and I had a conversation about the temple, and that was a favorite moment. I'm so happy and excited for her.

Saturday Chris and Olive and I ran errands with my mom, and then we ditched Chris and Olive and headed to Ashley's bridal shower. That was a good time. We laughed (cackled, really) and cried and Ashley scored with gifts. The rest of the night was spent grilling and watching BYU beat Utah (yay!) on tv. We called it a relatively early night that night so we could get some rest and head home early the next day.

I came away with a ferocious cold, but I will say it was worth it. Chris read aloud again on the way home on Sunday, which made the 8 hours go by fast. We're glad to be home, but had such a lovely time with my family. Miss them and love them. And so thankful for them. And for you.

What do we live for

2009-11-19T15:22:00.000-08:00

if not to make life less difficult for each other?

Here's a picture of George Eliot, the lady who penned this line. That wasn't her real name, by the way; she used a male name figuring people would take her more seriously that way. Interesting, huh?

I digress.

This month is a pick-your-own visiting teaching message, and I'm curious what you chose. I picked President Monson's talk What Have I Done for Someone Today. When Chris and I first got married we had this vision of doing or being "something for someone somewhere" each day. I'll admit I've been less than perfect at remembering that vision, but reading this quote and this talk gave me a strengthened resolve about it. I can honestly say I'm way less wound up and stressed about stuff when I stop worrying about my own life and start thinking about making someone else's life easier. Today when I visited two of my girls, I asked why this is an important principle. One of them said, "Because it's not about us." I ponder that seemingly simple response, and I'm very affected by it.

So anyway, what did you choose?

Bruschetta and Cheese Stuffed Chicken

2009-11-19T09:59:00.000-08:00

This was another yummy one. Little tip though, if you're only feeding a couple of people then cut the stuffing mixture down. We had a lot left over. You want your oven to be preheated to 350.

Ingredients:

1 can Italian style diced tomatoes, undrained

1 1/4 cups shredded mozzarella

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, or 3 tablespoons dried basil

1 pkg. chicken flavor stuffing mix

8 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1/3 cup Italian Parmesan dressing (or just mix some Parmesan into some Italian dressing)

Instructions:

1. Combine tomatoes, 1/2 cup cheese, basil, and stuffing mix, and stir until just moistened.

2. Place 2 chicken breast halves in a large freezer bag. Pound the chicken with the side of a heavy can, rolling pin, or meat mallet until it is 1/4 inch thick. Repeat with remaining breasts.

3. Place chicken on a large cutting board, and spread the stuffing mixture evenly over it.

4. Tightly roll up the chicken.

5. Place seam side down in a 13x9 baking dish and drizzle evenly with the dressing.

6. Bake 40 minutes.

7. Sprinkle remaining cheese, and bake another 5 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

2009-11-18T20:45:00.000-08:00

I know, I can't tell them apart either.

Birfday with an F

2009-11-18T19:14:00.000-08:00

We get to see Craig and the Pionkes almost any time we want to these days. So when Craig's birfday came around, and Karly planned a little surprise, we got to go. Amber and Karly put up decorations, and then we all watched for Craig out the window and argued over how we would jump out to surprise him. The picture of his feet is the one I took when we yelled "surprise" - guess I wasn't looking. He didn't know Karly was going to be there, so that was a sweet little reunion to witness. It was a fun night. I'm happy to have such good friends kinda nearby.

That Intelligender's Full of S, Man!

2009-11-09T14:34:00.000-08:00

You may remember that I took the gender prediction test and it said I was having a boy. But we had our ultrasound this morning, and it's definitely a girl! The anatomical evidence of her femininity is in this first picture. The second one is just so you can see her lovely face.

Chris and I both got all teary when Dr. Urso told us the news. We had been feeling pretty sure it was a boy, mostly because of the gender test. We had even settled on a name. But every time I said out loud, "I think it's a boy," there was a little tugging in the back of my mind. I even said to Chris on the way to the appointment this morning, "You know, there's still a good chance it's a girl." And the other day I came across a girl name I really like. I guess somewhere I still had a feeling it was going to be a girl. And it is. I'm delighted that Olive will have a sister so close in age. It's still weird to think there's more to life than Olive, but I'm sure we'll like our next girl a little bit. Anyway, that's our big news. Chris is sorely outnumbered!

9 Months

2009-11-09T13:59:00.001-08:00

Olive is 9 months old. I guess this means she's been alive outside of me as long as she was inside of me. She's 27.5 inches long and 18.11 lbs. Average in size, but the doctor said she's advanced socially and with her motor skills. She got 2 shots, one of which was the H1N1 vaccine. As usual, she handled everything really well and earned herself a chocolate shake. She has been pretty fussy since the appointment though, and this picture is the best one I could get with her growth sticker. In other news, she's going to have a little sister...

Yankees Win!

2009-11-04T21:16:00.000-08:00

Chris seriously laid out the attire he wanted me to wear today (top right picture), and Olive had her pink Yankees hat (courtesy of Uncle Dave) on all day. Our house is happy tonight - Yankees Win!!!

Proof of her Personality

2009-11-04T14:43:00.000-08:00

Olive's personality is coming out more and more these days. So far it seems like she's funny and stubborn. See what I mean?

She's been doing this a lot lately. I marvel at how she got the idea to do it in the first place, and at how she remembers to do it over again each day.

When she doesn't like something, she makes these stiff little karate hands and she grunts. I'm scared of this possibly being an indication of how she'll react to being told no throughout her life. Yikes!

An Olive for Halloween

2009-11-02T10:08:00.001-08:00

Yet Another Trip to Utah

2009-10-31T07:02:00.000-07:00

...read Catching Fire on the drive, stayed with the Ellermeiers, celebrated Garrett's birthday, went to the Smarty Pants Book Club meeting, got free food at Chick Fil A, did the Larry Miller corn maze, went on a bumpy hayride, checked out guns at Cabela's, made pumpkin cookies, attended David and Heather's Halloween party, hung out with the Nobises, saw Ethan rock his football game, had dinner and laughter with the Wards...

Swinger

2009-10-31T06:27:00.001-07:00

Olive had her first couple of encounters with a swing recently, and loved it. Here's proof.

caught kissing in the mirror

2009-10-31T06:21:00.000-07:00

Chicken Parmesan

2009-10-31T05:47:00.000-07:00

Here's an easy one we tried last night, and liked.

Ingredients:

1 sleeve Ritz crackers

4 chicken breasts, each cut into 3-4 strips

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

dash of garlic powder or garlic salt

1/2-1 cube of margarine or butter

Instructions:

Preheat to 350. Crush Ritz crackers and mix with cheese and garlic. Melt the butter. Dip chicken into butter, then coat evenly with cracker mixture. Place into ungreased baking dish and pour any remaining butter and crackers evenly over chicken. Bake for 30 minutes. While the chicken is baking prepare 4-6 servings of angel hair pasta according to the directions. Heat your favorite ready-made spaghetti sauce (or make your own). Serve chicken on top of a bed of angel hair pasta and top with spaghetti sauce and Parmesan cheese.

Chicken Enchiladas with Creamy Green Chile Sauce

2009-10-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

I made this for dinner and the below for dessert a few days ago, and both were received quite well.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter or margarine
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 cans or jars (4.5 ounces each) chopped green chilies (un-drained)
Vegetable oil for softening tortillas
12 corn tortillas
2 cups coarsely shredded cooked chicken or pork
2 cups shredded Mexican-blend cheese
1 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup sliced green onions
1 can (2.5 ounces) sliced ripe olives, drained
3 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
Chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Instructions:

In saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Sauté onion until transparent. Stir in garlic, salt and cumin. Stir in flour until well combined. Slowly stir in broth. Add chilies and stir well. Reduce heat to simmer; cook, uncovered, about 15 minutes. (Sauce can be prepared to this point, cooled and refrigerated 24 hours in advance.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place as many tortillas on 2 cookie sheets as will fit in a single layer. Brush lightly on both sides with vegetable oil. Bake 3 minutes to warm and soften tortillas before rolling. Stack on plate and cover with foil to keep warm while filling. Repeat until all tortillas are warmed.

Combine chicken or pork and 1/2 cup of the green chile sauce. To fill tortillas, place 2 tablespoons chicken mixture and 2 tablespoons cheese across center of each tortilla. Roll up and place seam-side-down in shallow 13-inch by 9-inch baking dish. Pour remaining sauce over rolled enchiladas; then pour cream evenly over entire mixture and top with remaining cheese. Sprinkle with the green onions and ripe olives. Bake, uncovered, in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped tomatoes and cilantro, if desired, and serve.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Homemade Oreos

2009-10-27T16:15:00.000-07:00

Maybe you've tried these before, but if you haven't you gotta. They're ridiculous. In a good way. A really good way.

Ingredients:

1 Devil's food cake mix

2 eggs

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 package cream cheese

2 cups powdered sugar

vanilla or mint flavoring

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. Mix cake mix, eggs, and shortening together and roll into 1-inch balls. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet 5 minutes or longer before removing. Whip cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla or mint until fluffy. Frost half of the cooled cookies. Place one unfrosted cookie on top of a frosted cookie.

Pink Stuff

2009-10-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

OK, so this is a favorite in the Eaton family. I don't personally love it to death the way my siblings and others seem to, but their votes way outweigh mine. It's really tough, so pay close attention.

1. Dissolve Jell-o flavor of your choice in 16 ounces of sour cream.

2. Fold in a full container of Cool Whip.

3. Mix in thawed berries or fruit cocktail.

4. Serve chilled.

Lee Family Stroganoff

2009-10-01T11:57:00.000-07:00

This is a recipe from my sister Brandy. Sometimes Chris and I make it with chicken instead of beef. Either way, it is sooooo good. I fed it to the missionaries the other night, and they each had 3 huge helpings.

Ingredients:

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

2 lbs. lean meat (London broil, round steak, or sirloin are good)

1 onion

1 cube beef boullion

1 jar mushrooms

1 pt. sour cream

white rice

Instructions:

Cube the meat. Lightly flour and then brown the meat. Throw everything, EXCEPT sour cream and rice, into the crockpot. Cook at least 3-4 hours on low setting. Add sour cream right before serving. Serve over white rice.

Golden Shovel

2009-09-26T15:34:00.001-07:00

We went to the Golden Shovel game last night. It's a big football game between Lake Havasu and Mohave High Schools, which are pretty fierce rivals (we saw several confrontations and one nasty girl fight - Chris loved every minute of it). So, the deal is whichever school wins the game each year gets the honor of having in their possession the Golden Shovel: a shovel, if you will, that is gold in color and apparently very coveted. Havasu's had it for a few years now, and this year proved to be no different. We won the game 28-21. I forgot how much I love high school football. Chris and I donned some purple and gold so as to show our Havasu spirit, and we even put a little purple bow on Olive's head. She was popular. It was a fun night.

I'm 82% Sure

2009-09-22T09:52:00.001-07:00

I got this Intelligender Gender Prediction Test in the mail yesterday from Heather. We were really excited to try it out but realized you have to take it first thing in the morning. So I jumped up at 5:30 this morning and had at it.

It says we're having a boy!

When I came back to bed, Chris groggily asked what color it was and I said, "army green," - which means boy - and he said he had had 2 dreams where he saw it turn green. And he said it was like Christmas waiting all night for me to get up and take the test. Guess we're a little eager. The test says it's about 82% accurate, so there's still a chance it's a girl but we'll know for sure in about 7 weeks. But for now, we're taking Intelligender's word for it.

Nestor's Noodles

2009-09-21T21:52:00.000-07:00

My father-in-law served these a few months ago, and then I found myself dying for them last week. They're yummy!

Ingredients:

7 ounces dry Chinese noodles or spaghetti

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped green onions

2 tablespoons finely minced garlic (about 2 cloves)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

Instructions:

Boil a large pot of water and cook the noodles according to package instructions. Drain the noodles and wipe the pot clean. Place the noodles back in the pot and set aside. Get another pot or pan and switch the stove to medium-high heat and add the butter. When the butter is sizzling and bubbling, add in the green onions and the garlic. Fry for 1 minute until very fragrant, but be careful not to let the garlic burn. Add the brown sugar, soy sauce, and oyster sauce, and stir well to mix. Add the noodles and toss well to get the sauce evenly distributed throughout the noodles.

Desperately Seeking

2009-09-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

I got a text from my sister Jenny today asking for some dinner ideas. I think we've all been at the point where we're so sick of making what we always make, and so we start seeking for something else to try. It occurred to me then that a blog like this might be useful.

I'll be posting recipes I like and stuff you send me. I'll try to keep it organized by labels so things will be pretty accessible. And if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Here goes Recipehead!

Our Blessed Olive

2009-09-12T05:20:00.001-07:00

We finally got to bless Olive on Sunday. Chris gave a sweet blessing, and then Olive grabbed the microphone and said a few words herself. I guess that's the risk you run blessing a 7 month-old. After it was over, Chris lifted her for the congregation to see and she let out this laugh-yell thing that she loves to do. The bishopric member who was conducting made a comment about how vocal she is. Funny girl. It was sweet and special, and it meant so much to us having so many family and friends there for it. We love you people.

As usual, Craig came through with some great pictures. We are lucky ducks to have him around.

Cow Tipping

2009-09-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

Have you guys ever done the Johnny Lingo Enrichment activity? We're doing it tonight, and I'm in charge of Cow Tipping. Thanks to those of you who suggested great cheap/free date ideas. Here's the flier I'm putting out.

Video Star

2009-09-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

Here are a few recent videos of Olive.

She loves bathtime:

Papa had her laughing so hard:

And although she definitely prefers standing up, she has started crawling:

Our Vacation

2009-09-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

Back In The Game

2009-08-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

So much good is happening for us these days. Chris and I went to the temple together for the first time on Saturday. We didn't actually get to go in together - we took turns with Olive while the other one went in and did initiatories - but still it was great. And we each had a lovely experience. Yesterday we spoke in sacrament meeting together for the first time too. Our topic was the temple, which we were really happy about because it's something that we've worked hard on lately. I really loved hearing Chris talk. He was so charismatic and articulate, and his content was great. Listening to him made me feel dazzled and have a crush on him all over again. Then yesterday was the first time I was supposed to start teaching my Gospel Doctrine class. Olive was having a meltdown though, so Chris warmed up the class while I fed her real quick. I was a little frazzled when I got in there, but I managed to get my legs under me after a few minutes. I am so thrilled about this calling. Our stake president called yesterday after church and asked if I would speak in Stake Conference. We'll be at Mikey's wedding that weekend, so I can't do it. I'm super disappointed but he said there will be other chances, so we'll see. He also called Chris later on and told him he wanted to meet with him this week. He told him to bring me along, so we're thinking that means some kind of calling for Chris. And we're really looking forward to it. In other news, I'm still having a hard time trying to figure out a way to help with the income from home. I'm making small efforts, but nothing significant yet. Chris' job situation is slightly volatile in this economy, but we aren't freaking out. Sometimes the only way to explain how we make it through the month is that we paid our tithing and things somehow fell into place. Olive's doing great. I took her to her 6-month checkup today, and the NP said she's perfect. We started her on vegetables a few days ago, and it's fun to watch her experience new tastes and textures. The NP said her bottom teeth are about to poke through. I'm excited and a little scared for that. She's getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth, so we think she'll start crawling any second. Our camera got ruined in the Arizona heat a couple of weeks ago, but Craig is letting us use one of his cameras. It's waaaaay nicer than the one we were using before! So it's been fun taking pictures of Olive with a nice camera. Her personality cracks us up. We think she's pretty witty, but then again how couldn't she be with us as her parents? The heat is starting to slowly crawl back down to more reasonable numbers. Still in the triple digits, but much more bearable. I'm looking forward to the fall and winter months. I guess our last item of business to report about, if you hadn't already heard, is that I'm pregnant! We're really happy about it. Both Chris and I are a year apart from most/all of our siblings so we wanted our kids to be close together too. Olive and the new baby will be about 14 months apart. So, yes we'll have our hands full for a while. But we can't wait! We're really thrilled about it. I think that about catches us all up. I can't be sure, but I think I might be becoming recommitted to blogging more regularly again. We'll see.

A Little Behind

2009-07-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

OK, I know, I'm a little behind. But in my defense, I'm SUPER conflicted about what to post on here and what to post on Facebook and how much you'll all hate or love the overlap. It's something I can't figure out. So my first question to you is,

How do you decide what to put on your blog and what to put on your Facebook?

I really want your answers.

Here's a quick little update on each of us:

Chris has spent the last few days enjoying the Homerun Derby and the Allstar game. I really love how big a baseball fan he is. He started a strict diet the other day; I was supposed to start it with him but I have about a third the amount of willpower he does. So. He's doing great, and I'm sitting here with some of my homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Olive is kinda starting to sit up. She stays put for several seconds before toppling over. She likes to play on the floor but she inevitably rolls over on to her belly and then starts whining. My first inclination is to pick her up or roll her back over, but I feel like she'll never crawl or solve the problem on her own if I do that. Which leads me to my second question for you people...

How long do I let her fuss on her tummy before I help her out?

Seriously, I want your answers.

She's also really good these days at holding things, picking things up, and putting them into her mouth. She's eating rice cereal, and we'll probably start her on vegetables before too long. She's way more vocal and even seems a little sassy sometimes. She giggles a ton, and I think I'm starting to see dimples in her lovely cheeks. Bottom line is we can't get enough of her.

As for me, I got to go out to Sunset last week (as you can tell from my Facebook photos). It was great to see everyone. The bain of my existence right now is trying to get Olive to sleep through the night, or at least for more than 3 hours at a time. It's tough. I've been having a lot of fun with Mary Kay. I'm constantly brainstorming about ways to earn and/or save a little more money for us. I have about a million projects and goals going on, none of which get my steady attention because of Olive and because it seems like I'm always cleaning this house! I've decided not to go to Henderson with Chris as much, just so I can get more done around here, get into more of a routine, and possibly even make some friends. And lastly, I'm wishing all the time that people would come visit us.

That's about it for now, Olive and I gotta run to the store.

2009-07-12T21:38:00.001-07:00

7. He's as irreverent as I am at church. (We seriously gotta grab the reins on this one actually). We were sitting in the pew right behind where the deacons line up for the sacrament. One of the deacons farted right in front of Chris' face. We had a split second to look at each other before we erupted with laughter and had to leave the chapel. It was ridiculous. But I love laughing that hard with him.

2009-07-02T13:12:00.001-07:00

5. He brought me sunflowers today.

6. And a smoothie.

2009-06-29T10:51:00.001-07:00

3. He forgives and forgets really fast.

4. He goes with me to the doctor when I'm feeling scared of her, even if that means setting his particularly busy work day back an hour.

Why My Husband Sits on a Pedestal, a New Series by Brooke Barragan

2009-06-20T12:38:00.001-07:00

1. Olive's been wide awake and ready to play at around 5 am lately. This morning Chris took her into the living room and kept her occupied. I got to sleep until 9:00!

2. I like a clean house. I don't like to do my house cleaning on Saturdays though, I'd rather do it while Chris is working during the week so we can all hang out together on Saturdays. But it got away from me this week. So this morning when I woke up I got right to work so as to hurry and finish before our Saturday fun. Chris gladly pitched in - he vaccumed the whole house, Windexed all the windows, and hung the laundry. Everyone has different things that just really ring their bell and make them feel loved (says Dr. Chapman), one of my huge ones is getting help with the house.

Stay tuned for more reasons why Chris is on a pedestal.

Barragans in Havasu

2009-06-16T14:32:00.001-07:00

Oatsie and Papa and John and Anna came to see us for the weekend.

(We LOVE visitors!)

We ate like kings, we watched the Yankees lose to the Mets and then the Mets lose to the Yankees, we swam, we slept, we watched movies, and we played Scrabble thrice.

(I FINALLY beat those

brutal Barragan boys!)

They really are brutal. Well, I guess I shouldn't throw John in the mix. Nestor and Chris gloat like obnoxious little boys when they win, and when they lose they pout and make up a million excuses. Rosemary kept herself busy fussing over everyone, and Anna kept everyone on their toes. We had a really great time.

(Here's some proof):

She's 4 Months Old Now

2009-06-16T14:08:00.001-07:00

We took Olive to the doctor on Thursday for her 4-month checkup. She's just under 16 pounds (which is what Chris had guessed; he's so in tune) and 25 inches long. They kept saying how perfect she is, and that was really gratifying for me. She got 3 shots, after which she and I both cried. I hate that! But she definitely earned herself a chocolate shake.

In other news, the doctor said we could try out some rice cereal if we wanted to. My thought all along has been to just follow Olive's lead - if she seems interested in something I'll help her along, but if not I won't force it. We gave her some rice cereal the evening of her doctor appointment and she took to it really fast. She figured out the spoon right away, and she seems to really enjoy the cereal. Guess she was ready!

We love our pretty girl!

The Deal Is Sealed

2009-06-07T16:44:00.000-07:00

Chris and Olive are napping, and the house and my heart are warm and quiet. We just got home from our weekend in St. George with so many of the people we want to know forever. Even moving here in February in the wake of giving birth and having everything be different, this is the first time my heart has felt so heavy since Havasu became home. I hope the heaviness subsides soon, and I hope for more and richer exchanges with the family and friends in my life.

David's a popular guy, and fortunately for me our family and a lot of our friends are overlaps, so I got to see lots of people I like this weekend. Chris and I drove to Henderson on Thursday morning so he could get some work done while I spent the day with Amber and Tisha. I was glad for a little undivided time with them even though it was small. We had good talks and I gleaned some good mom advice from each of them.

That evening we picked up my mom from the airport in Vegas and spent the evening talking and doting on Olive together. My mom amazes me. She has 29 grandchildren and I still felt like Olive was the biggest deal in the world to her this weekend.

Friday we drove to St. George and met up with about 60% of my address book. We lunched at In-N-Out with some family. That's where Timmy got his first gander of Olive, and I loved him loving her. The Bryners showed up there too which I was thrilled about. They are some of my favorites. We got some good alone time with them.

Later at the temple, a few of us were commissioned to corral the children while everyone else was inside watching the wonder. I didn't have time to feel rotten about not being inside because of the chaos and comedy outside. Chris and Craig did a great job keeping the kids laughing and playing. The three 5 year-old boys came awfully close to having a throwdown, and we had a few wanderers, but all in all the chaos was fun. When everyone came out of the temple and all the children were safely returned to their parents, the sweetness of seeing David's family settled in on me. I'm so happy for them.

Dinner that night was at the Pasta Factory and I was wishing I had more one-on-one time with everyone there. We all went to the hotel after that and swam and talked until the hotel staff had had enough of us.

Saturday morning most of the family met at Brigham Young's winter home and took a tour. Then we headed to Zion National Park and went for a short hike. I got to talk with Ty and Leslie, and had a little alone time with Torrance. That was lovely. After a sleepy drive back to the hotel and a quick nap we grabbed dinner and then met up at Jimmy's timeshare place. We sat and talked there until we tired ourselves out.

A lot of goodbyes were exchanged there, and some were exchanged the next morning outside our hotel. I am so blessed with such rich family and friend relationships. And during our drive home yesterday I thought a lot about how much I loved the time I had with some of them this weekend and how much I hated not having more time with each of them. I can't say exactly why it was harder for me this time to say goodbye, but believe me when I say I'm planning lots of trips right now.

2 Big Things in 1 Little Night

2009-05-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

1. Chris took me to see Phantom of the Opera in Vegas. He got the tickets for my birthday, and we went last night. I had only ever seen the movie, per Jenny's urging. I'm usually too much of a cynic to enjoy anything this dramatic or fantastic or romantic. Which I think is why I can't get into the Twilight books, and why I annoy myself and others with comments like "oh please" during TV shows and movies. I actually decided the other day that I want to be less cynical and more romantic...who'll teach me? I digress. Phantom of the Opera has been the only exception to my cynicism. I've watched the movie about a thousand times, each time feeling totally romanced by the Phantom or Raoul or even Christine (that actress is ridiculously beautiful). So seeing the show last night, I was like a kid on the edge of my seat the whole time and either smiling huge or crying at any given point. It was awesome.

2. We left Olive with a babysitter for the first time. The Pionkes generously agreed to hang out with her while we went on our hot date. I held back the tears long enough to hang on to some dignity in front of Amber, but as soon as we got in the car they spilled over. Chris stopped the car and said a little prayer and we were on our way. I think the prayer helped a bunch because I was able to relax and have a good time. I did miss her, and I wasn't disappointed that the show was over in under 2 hours.

So there you have it, our 2 big things in 1 little night.

Memorial Day Weekend in Utah and a Surprise Party For Me

2009-05-27T11:04:00.000-07:00