Plenty of Fresh Fruit

now doesn't that look all Valentine's-y? And scrumptious? One thing I really do Love about Los Angeles is the constant opportunities to get fresh fruit.

there was an old man at the street corner selling today, and as we passed by I let Connor pick out a carton of strawberries. And I said thank you and we crossed the street. Then Fletcher burst into tears.

"What?!" "Honey, what's wrong?"

"I wanted to get some cherries!!"

So back I went.

As you prepare for Valentine's Day, think about leaving little notes of love and affection and gratitude for members of your family around the house. (Or you could take a page from Karalenn's book, and leave a pair of naughty underwear in your husbands briefcase; set up so that when he pulls out some necessary book for the day, the underwear come flying out with it)
(in front of everyone)
(oh yes she did)

How do I Love Thee? #10

Craig was home sick from work yesterday. he stayed in bed for most of the day, and then got up and moped around a bit and then sat down to wiggle his thumbs in front of the xbox. He insisted that I could do nothing for his relief, and that he just had to ride this one out.
By midafternoon I was going nuts. He was boring.
I couldn't do anything for him, and there was no good conversation happening, and so I abandoned him for a couple of hours, left him with the kids while I was running errands etc., and then came home to make a late dinner.
After which I totally ended up in horrible pain for the remainder of the evening, totally needing his help and consolation and keeping him up most of the night with my cough.
And then this morning, still sick, he gets up, gets connor ready for school, and sets fletch up so that he can amuse himself while I sleep in.
Even after a day of being sick and being treated like a loser by his wife, he still turned around and treated me like a queen.
I am grateful for him every day.

Thanks, Aunt Pattie, for your thoughts this week. I appreciate
that you understand that the members of the LDS church have been
truly saddened by the passing of a wonderful man and great leader.

I've been trying to think of whether I should post something about the passing
of President Gordon B. Hinckley, and was feeling all inadequate about it.

And then I read This. And I thought I could never have put it better.
So, Go visit K.M. at her blog, and bring some tissues.

Good Morning, Blogworld! I am "better" now and therefore trying to come up with something interesting to blog about, so that I can be guaranteed to feel like I accomplished something today.
Has anyone ever done this? It was so fun! We made grapes float in the middle of a glass of water! The boys and I did this experiment two days ago and I'm still geeking out about it. It's from this book.


Now, many of you know that Fletcher is becoming resident photographer here, and that we bought him his very own digital camera to use. Well he still prefers my digital camera because the view window on his rather sucks.

So I'm in the shower yesterday (can you see where this is going?) and the door opens, and a little shadowy form walks in and I think, "he must have to go potty". I hear the chink of the toilet seat and then I see him hop onto the toilet and then suddenly I am completely BLINDED by this flash of light.

I screech, naturally, and haul open the shower door enough to poke my soapy head out. "Hey! What are you doing?! You can't take pictures of mommy in the shower!" and of course his face is just glowing and pleased and he is completely ignoring me and taking more pictures; of the rug, the toothpaste, the towells.

I reached out and snatched the camera from him and pushed "play", hoping that THE picture will just be a foggy reflection of bubbly-shower-door-glass.

Well it wasn't. That camera has a strong flash. I screeched again, hit delete, and sent him out, out, out of the bathroom, him still smiling and unconcerned with the dreadful consequences of someone else ever seeing particular pieces of his artwork.

THIS LINK will take you to a cute sheep design for a shirt by cafepress.

saw another that was really funny:

"I (heart)* sheep"

*as a friend


HAHA!

Kids are getting better. Honey and I are getting worse. Which leads me to:

How do I Love thee? #8
"I'm sick." he says, as he shuffles past me this evening.
"Tell me about it" I say.
He does.
"sounds bad" I say. "sounds like we have the same thing. Wish we didn't. Wish it was just you" I laughingly joke at him.
"Me too." he says.
awwwwww.

a little something to get you through the dark hours of my sick leave.

awwwwwwww.

feel free to leave me links to more sheepy cuteness.

we have all been plunged into the sniffing, coughing, slobbering feverish depths of winter. hope to be back into the swing of things in a couple of days.

i still love my husband. :) and i'll give you more reasons why later.

when my brain works enough to think of them.

all this special V-Day posting has me feeling excessively generic. i mean, stuff has happened, you know? and nobody gets to hear about it. how sad for you all.

so here i am giving you a bit of my January. i made a lot of lists, as per usual. normal ones like grocery lists and things to do today lists, but also a couple of motivating ones like:

Projects, 2008. You'll notice that Robin's Christmas present is on there, as well as her daughter's quilt, which was supposed to be a birthday present. last august.

and ones like this next one, which, now that I think about it, I kinda hope you can't read - maybe just do me a favor and not enlarge the picture, eh? It's called, "Things that Must be Done in Order To Be Happy" which is mostly my whole, 'get this done, girl, or you are never going to feel good about yourself' which, i realize is slightly unhealthy but seriously! I. Need. A. Motivator.

All that shiny stuff in the bowl? yeah, that's fat. floating on top of my chicken noodle soup. i may never be able to bring myself to eat cns again. and that, folks, is saying something.
here's the REAL picture of Connor's famous cake:

It was so good. I kindof want to cry just thinking about it. I don't think I actually ate a real meal the next day. Just cake. (hey, if stephanie plum can do it, so can I)
Poor sweet boy has been sick all week with a lungs-thing and hasn't been able to go to school. he's really not very broken up about it.

And This:

this is why I'm addicted to eBay. my go-to search? 50's dress pattern.
And that white one up there, on the right?
You guessed it, it's a Marian Martin.

*sigh*

one great way to say "i love you" is by baking that special someone a treat! friends, neighbors, family, the lady down the street who could stand to gain a few pounds... and, baking treats for others is a service project that the children can get into as well! let them pick something for their friends, and then help you make it!

make sure to wash hands. i'm just saying.

How Do I Love Thee?
#7

This one is my favorite so far.
I get at least one phone call a day from my husband.
He calls me to say that he's bored at work. He calls to say the meeting sucked. He calls to say that it's raining really hard and isn't that awesome?! He calls me when something good happens, or he has a cool conversation with someone from work. He calls me when his coworker's wife, who I probably will never meet, is pregnant.
Why?
I didn't really think about it until recently, when hannah let me borrow this book about "love languages" and we all got into analyzing eachother for a couple of weeks. (it was fun. almost as fun as "color code". i recommend these books for those who are lacking in fun) I got all discouraged thinking, "how does he show his love?" ( I mean, it obviously wasn't by washing dishes...)
But then one day I hung up the phone with him for about the 5th time and I realized, that's it! He talks to me. He includes me in all of the things that he is involved in. He tells me how he feels. When he wants a buddy to chat with, he calls me. ME. He bounces ideas off me, he confides in me, he values my opinion.
It makes me feel soooo good.

I snatched this picture from Heather Bailey's blog, head over and check out her entry on Kissing Balls! So cute. My mom used to make these out of Christmas cards every year, and then she would put glue along the edges and then glitter them. I always thought it was so pretty!

make some heart-shaped pancakes this year! it's fun for the whole family! :) use chocolate chips and berries to make cute faces and decorations on them.

How Do I Love Thee? #6

He stays home from work on occasion, just because he thinks I'll be
happier if he's home that day.

looks like our internet has decided to break my addiction by only being available for a couple of hours every couple of days. so that's fun.

Today's Valentine's Entry is going to focus on RED VELVET CAKE.



I've never made one, but I watched Martha Stewart make one once, so that sorta counts, right?

I thought so. (and no, I do not have the recipe for the exact, above cake)

And HERE is a cute link to some random person's blog who has some really awesome pictures of making one.

and here is a recipe courtesy of the wonderful February issue of a magazine I get:

3 eggs
3/4 c butter
3 c all purpose flour
2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/4 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1-oz. bottle red food coloring (two tbsp) (or you could use TWO bottles like the girl in the blog!)
1 1/2 c buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp vinegar

Buttercream frosting (get your own recipe for that, this is going to be a bear to type up as it is).

1. Let eggs and butter stand 30 mins. Heat oven 350. Grease and flour 3 8x1.5 in. round baking pans.
2. combine flour, cocoa powder adn 3/4 tsp salt; set aside. In large mixing bowl beat butter on med-high 30 seconds. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until combined. One at a time, add eggs; beat on medium after each. Beat in food coloring on low.
3. Alternatelyadd flour mixture and buttermilk to egg mixture; beat on low-medium after each just until combined. Stir together baking soda and vinegar. Add to batter, beat until just combined.
4. Spread in prep'd pans. Cook 25-30 mins. (may appear marbled)

then ya make yer buttercream frosting and then spread it between the layers, on the top and sides, and voila! Pretty red V-Day cake.

aaaannnd... How Do I Love Thee? #5

I'm wrong a lot. In our 9.5 years, we have established this. And I have a bad temper. (okay so does he, but whatever. this isn't about that)
If we get into an argument, which is blessedly rare, I am usually happy to declare myself completely over him and unwilling to ever speak to him again, etc etc.
He always apologizes first.
Always.
Even when I'm the one being a total jerk.
And then as soon as he says he's sorry, I suddenly realize (naturally, this hapens AFTER he has apologized) how totally wrong I was and how much I love him and how wonderful he is, etc etc.

Poor guy.
He puts up with so much.

we're just about to leave on a date and I didn't think I had time to post a
"How Do I Love Thee?"
But I realize that I do, after all.
Number 4:

i'm a smart person. tests have proven it. grades have proven it. but i don't seem to retain much besides useless trivia. and i end up having all kinds of questions. questions about who fought which war in what years. questions about scriptures and doctrines.

got a question? ask Craig. he knows. all of it. any of it. he'll have an answer. this has been a little frustrating to me as far as scriptoral/doctrinal questions go - - i mean, he's a convert! he's only been in the church 14 years. and he knows way more than me. it kills me. i love it. i have had friends come over with deep and serious questions for him, and they've always gone home with an answer that they understood.

he's like my oracle, or something. :)

i love it that i managed to marry a man that i thought was smarter than me. seriously, i kinda grew up "knowing" that boys were stupid and there was nothing anyone could do about it. it was just the sad, sorry state of mankind.

glad to have been proven wrong.

bloody internet! it is supposed to be fixed for good now so i hope i can get on with daily posting. the post for today is going to be short and sweet-

aaaaand the winner IS........ Catherine!!!
Ho boy. She's gonna be excited.

It's in the mail Monday! Happy weekend everyone, and to those who are here in LA, I had a ton of fun at girls night last night - I'm so glad we did that!

the perfect gift - A Perfect Day

my friend hannah is getting her masters degree in "things you cannot talk about in polite company because it is all too depressing" (we are all very proud of her). the last semester of 2007 was a rough one, and she wanted to do something for her dear and enduring husband to thank him for being patient and loving through it all.

one of her classmates had an idea, which she used, which I am now going to tell you all about, because it was an awesome gift. a great gift for say, Valentine's Day even! here's what you do:

Make a little book, with as many pages as you want. Each page has two parts. On the Left hand side, Hannah wrote a bit of the story. On the Right hand side, she made a cute page with a pocket to hold a gift card. On the front of the book, you write/stamp/rubon "____'s Perfect Day", substituting, of course, your loved one's name for the blank line. :)

In this case, as you can see, gift cards were purchased from Best Buy, Romano's Macaroni Grill, Baskin Robbins, Borders, and some place that I can't tell. Hannah began her husband's day with something like, "he woke up and spent a couple of hours playing video games" - with accompanying card to Best Buy. Next he got a card for lunch at a favorite Mexican place. And then the bookstore, etc. All the places he loved best, he got to go that day. Or at least have a gift card to go whenever he wanted.

This would even be a great gift for a son or daughter, or sibling, parent, you get the picture. There's your idea for the day! On to.....

How Do I Love Thee?
#3!

most of you already know this one, but it's a fun fact about our relationship and one that will probably get us into trouble when it's time for our own children to grow up and get married.

my craiger proposed to me 5 days after our first date.

I said yes.

He refused to let me say "I love you" because it was "way too early!" and yet there we were, deciding to get married. now, nearly 10 years later, I have no regrets, and a load of things to be grateful for.

VALENTINES GIVEAWAY!

my internet went down and posting didn't happen yesterday. We resume today with extra fun - a giveaway! Make a comment on this post and I'll (randomly) chose a winner on Saturday and have it mailed out. You'll get it in time for V-day! Included:

12 sheets romantic cardstock in pastel pink, blue, green
romantic post-it note pad
romantic magnets in lavender, green, black
red glitter alphabet stickers
6 yds valentine ribbon
2 gel pens, one red, one pink
crafty box with buttons, ribbon, epoxy stickers and heart confetti.

Yay! I am so excited!

Here is a Valentines Craft Link and

"How Do I Love Thee" number 2:

Sometimes on weekend mornings the boys stay out of our room in favor of more entertaining pursuits. Craig and I will lay there and chat for a bit, and then usually he'll end up pulling me close, snuggling in, and promptly snoring in my ear.
I totally make a fuss about it. "I could be up and accomplishing all this stuff" I say, or "Oh, FUN for me, let me lay here, wide awake, while you snore in my ear." But secretly, I love it. I love that he loves falling asleep with me in his arms. I love that it's so natural and easy for him.

But don't tell him I said so.

So It's January 14, which means that Valentines Day is a month away, and being the Romantic that I am, I thought it would be fun to post something Valentines-y and Love-y every day for the next month - defined by me as a cute picture,a crafty link, a reason why I love my dear husband (which is going to be hard actually, he's just so awesome. how do I get specific?), and maybe even a cutsie lovey story about someone I know.

*Be prepared. Any story you have told me is fair game.*

So HERE'S A LINK. I didn't try very hard with this one but I've always liked the woven stuff.

And, Day One of "How Do I Love Thee":

My husband and I can have complete conversations made entirely of quotes from the Star Wars IV-VI trilogy. We do this often, to keep our tongues sharp and our imaginations honed. Or maybe because we're geeks. But he accepts and embraces my geek-dom, which no other guy in my life ever did. Which is why I married him. Or at least, it's the first reason.

Alright. I realize that I'm heavy into the YouTube right now but bear with me.

This is why YouTube was invented. So this video could be made.



Also, the Masterpiece Theatre version of Persuasion was good, although if I didn't already know the story I think I may have been totally lost.

Lucky for me, I also got to see The Sarah Connor Chronicles, because it was on at 8.

I do realize that my focus on video entertainment is, perhaps, extreme. Sure. And this is why I don't have cable. I know my weaknesses.

But doncha think that this little obsession of mine is part of my endearing charm?

I thought so.

I'm facing a difficult decision. This Sunday is the pilot episode to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (featuring Summer Glau of Serenity fame) and it is also PBS's remake of Persuasion, their first in a series of Jane Austen films. (this one also features a Whedon-written cast member, Anthony Head from Buffy as Anne's rediculous father)

What to do?! How do I choose?

Okay, no. I'm totally kidding myself. I know what I'll be watching:

Connor got bribed with chocolate cake today. (and no, this picture is not the one we made) He decided that he wanted the best tasting cake; READ: with chocolate chunks, sour cream, and dry pudding mix as ingredients. Oh Yeah.

He also decided that he wanted it to be healthy.

So he said we would put sliced strawberries and some orange zest and juice in the whipped cream between cake layers.

Man, if that equals healthy, I am a health nut All the Way!

Every time I do this, I'm sad for weeks afterward. The curls are so cute! So precious and perfect! They soften his little mischeivous expressions.

But, it's not MY hair. It's not MY choice. And when a little boy says, "I wanna look like my brother!", it's too sweet to say no.

*sigh*

Here's our new and "improved" boy, looking all grown up without his baby curls. Hopefully they'll be back for summer beach-ing......

Apparently I'm going through some kind of extreme emotional strain or something because I've been on the verge of tears all day long. Over stupid stuff like Fletcher saying, "oh mom! you look beautiful!" when i was in my pajamas....

anyway, I had to do sharing time for the primary kids at church today, and was all stressed out over that, and then all touched at how awesome and wise and responsive the kids were.

And then one of the primary kids was baptised this evening, and I kept thinking about how Connor is going to be 8 this year, and that he's going to be baptized, and how he's so big -- I was choking back tears the whole stupid time and then on the drive home I had this conversation with Connor:

Con: "So Mom, when is it that people get to throw their hats in the air?"

(I know, random, right?)

Me: "You probably won't get to do that until you graduate from highschool. So you'll be around eighteen."

Con: "Oh. So, that will be right before I go on my mission, right?"

Me: "Yep."

And then I burst into tears. It was too much for me! He's not even baptized yet and already thinking about his mission! Now I have a headache and I need chocolate.

On a completely unrelated note, I would like to inform everyone who was aghast at THIS POST, that Craig did the dishes the other day. For no reason at all besides that he wanted to do me a favor while I was out running errands. Let's hear it, "awwwwwwww".

He loves me.

Gettin' full.

my week in purple. i've been using the yarn that my Mom gave me over Christmas. much of it is purple, as that is her favorite color, and a lot if it is hand-spun (by her), hand dyed (by her), wool.

which, awesome.

i've taken a bunch of pictures and wanted to set up an Etsy shop today, but my camera just isn't giving me the quality I want. So Hannah is going to trade camera-using for pants-hemming and we'll do it on Friday.

woot!

New Year's Resolution:

I gotta stop drinking. Haha! I'm kidding. I've never actually been inside Weaverville's tavern - (yep, it's a tavern, folks. not a bar) It even still has the old-western swinging doors. No joke) - but I thought Karalenn might enjoy more pictures of the hometown. So many trees! And the shops on main street (as well as the Diggins, there) still have the false fronts that they were built with back in the late 19th century.

I have been trying to spend the morning looking back on last year, and looking forward to the next with a sense of purpose. Trying to pick a resolution for January (I'm going month by month this year - it keeps up the fun) and trying not to think "i need to get in the shower" and "i need to organize my sewing room" because it's putting a cramp in my long-term focus.

I bet if I just got in the shower, and organized my sewing room, then I'd be able to focus just fine, but I'm going to go ahead and be stubborn about it.

I did manage to make a list of all the projects I want to do this year. Well not ALL - but at least the ones that have been nagging at me for quite some time now. I'll post it tomorrow.

Had a fun New Year's Eve party with friends last night. Watched a movie and clicked over for the ball-drop at midnight. Dick Clark kinda freaked us all out. He looks like he needs a looooong vacation. We had lots of good food and fun for the kids. No pictures - my camera sacrificed it's batteries to an xbox controller, and then I never bothered to put more in.

My feet are warm in my new slippers and my belly is warm with Stephen's Mint Cocoa - and I'm feeling very dull and non-witty-and-interesting right now. Bummer for the blog, but it's a nice feeling to have.

The warm-ness I mean. Not the lame-ness.