Crazy Eights. Tag, I usually don't play tag....

Tag from Talia:) I usually ignore tags, rude, I know. But It sounded fun this time. We'll see how fun it is at the end!

Eight things I did yesterday: (TODAY)

(wow, yesterday was a really laid back day... I'm going to have to change that to today. It's 11 p.m. now anyway)

1. Colored Cinderella pictures with Naomi

2. Let James try my orange juice

3. Watched Naomi shove a huge piece of tofu in her mouth and then regret it but swallowed it all anyway...

4. Read a play by Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

5. Talked to my mother in law and my sisters mother in law

6. Dressed James in his pj's for bedtime

7. Fed James bananas that he did NOT like, too lumpy?

8. Went to church

Eight places I like to eat: As you can tell, I have very fine taste.

1. Home, when Zach is cooking

2. Olive Garden

3. Chick-Fil-A

4. La Madeleine's

5. Ben and Jerry's (that's food right?)

6. McDonald's (only because there aren't enough Chick-Fil-A's)

7. HAPPY SUSHI!

8. Formosa, or Mandarin Garden- it's been a long time...

Eight shows I like to watch:

1. Dancing With The Stars

2. Life on Mars

3. Eli Stone

4. The Office

5. Samantha Who?

6. CSI Miami

7. Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses

8. Go Diego, Go

Seriously though, I don't have 8 shows I watch, more like 3 or so regularly. And 7 and 8 I don't really LIKE to watch, I just seem to all the time. Sigh...

Eight things I look forward to:

1. Skiing

2. Sleeping-in vacations

3. Christmas

4. Zach's graduation and job:)

5. Summertime

6. Seeing my all my family over the holidays

7. Reading good books

8. Being totally recovered from surgery

Eight people I tag:

hmmm, how about...

1. Ruth

2. Heather J

3. Ashlee

4. Natalie F

5. Brooke

6. Jenna

7. Cassie

8. Michelle F

And some picures thrown in for good measure. Pictures make blogs a little more entertaining. I think so anyway.

Zach put James in the sink because he was tired of holding him and it seemed like a fine idea. Indeed, James liked it, especially the dishsoap;) So I got my camera. Naomi insisted that she get in the sink too. We convinced her to wait a minute or so, because she wouldn't fit with James. Oh the agony. So there you have it, James and Naomi in the sink.

Two Weeks

I've been having a very lazy past two weeks. It's been wonderful;) My mom was here until Tuesday of this week helping me with my heavy weight champ(lin) and Naomi and everything else that goes on around here. It was much needed help, she did my dishes so many times.... I hate doing dishes, that was the greatest.

I am feeling better than I expected but still sore of course. I'm doing a bit better every day. I don't want to get my hopes up just yet, but I'm letting little thoughts of skiing the Beav in Utah after Christmas sneak into my daydreams. We will see.

Today is Thanksgiving and I am of course thankful for so many things. I always have enough food to eat and a comfortable place to live. I have a wonderful little family and a great extended family too. In comparison to so many people in our world, I have so much. It's sometimes mind boggling. I am, as they say "seriously, so blessed" ;) We have some friends coming over, the Ferguson's who are bringing 1/2 the food. It will be fun to spend the afternoon with them.

Naomi is so observant, she watches everything I do. She is getting so good at so many things, like using the mouse on the computer. She can get out a dvd, open the cd drive, load the dvd in and start a movie herself- she even seems to know where play is on the start up menu. She can pause and play movies too. I guess it is evident what we have been doing a LOT of the past few weeks.....

James is nigh unto crawling. So close. He is up on all fours rocking and launching forward. He usually ends up crawling/scooting backwards. That makes him so very frustrated. He also is pulling up to standing. He needs help a bit with that but he loves it. He loves to be standing, holding my hands. Naomi likes to help too, but then she forgets that he can't take off with her as she nearly drags him around the living room;) She is waiting and waiting for him to hurry up and grow up so he can play with her!

My mom and I took Naomi to the mall to see Santa last weekend and she walked right up and sat on his lap. I was thrilled but admittedly a bit surprised. She then wanted to get off and talk to him standing in front of him. When he asked what she wanted for Christmas she said "presents, and presents and lots of presents!" Smart girl. Later in Macy's they had a table with postcards where you could write a letter to Santa and mail it in their big shiny red mail box. Naomi sat down with me and drew squiggly lines as she dictated out loud that she was writing that she wanted "a dolly and a barbie with a long, long dress and a puppy and presents and candy and treats,.." etc. It was pretty adorable. She is also warming up to having her picture taken, obviously.

Naomi and James are so funny in the bath. James loves the water like crazy. And Naomi on the other hand likes it now, loves it now, but never on her face. When she was James' age she would get so mad if the water got on her face. James isn't even phased if water is poured over his head. He kicks non stop in the water and even doesn't seem to mind the after bath getting dressed part too much. Naomi likes to get wrapped up too in her hoodie towell and then sit infront of the space heater for a while. I totally understand where she's coming from. There are few things worse than being cold. James must take after Zach...not like that's a surprise at all!

Last night Zach stripped James down to his diaper and we got out the camera of couse. His chubs are so cute! He seems to be loosing a few rolls but there is plenty still left. We sat around and listened to Christmas music and watched Naomi dance. She was darling. I'll try to load a video but I've never been able to do that successfully yet.

Update- the file was too large, I'm going to try a smaller video of James.

Also, lastly, I've been busy (sitting of course) making all things darling for little girls hair! I opened an Etsy shop and have listed for sale some Christmas hair clips. I have more non-Holiday clippies to list as well. It has been fun, I love creating things. Naomi likes to get her hand in there on the action as well. Her very favorite clips are the green ones with rhinestones. I favor the candy cane ones with the red button. We'll see if anything sells. If not then I have loads for Naomi and to give to friends. My shop name is NaomiBaby, that name is linked.

Surgery Update

Hi everyone,

This is Zach reporting on Trisha's surgery. Everything went well. Better than planned. Trisha is enjoying a few pampered nights at the hospital sharing a room with Shaquanda "what is the strongest pain medication combination you can legally give because none of this is working, and I can't stop grunting and talking to myself" DeShane, a middle aged DC resident who asked the doctor if she couldn't just take some of the IV pain killer home with her. As for the cyst it turned out to be Trisha's right ovary gone 'Chernobyl.' So that was removed along with the right Fallopian tube. The doctor said it was about the size of a football although we are all a bit skeptical because the radiology images never indicated anything that big. It was kind of like a fishing story where he would indicate that the cyst was "thiiis biiiig" making an oblong sort of motion with his hands that was never the same size and got larger every time we asked. However there is no doubt that the resident surgeon that helped "reel it in" had the trophy cyst stuffed and mounted on his wall. Which is kind of a bummer because I was hoping we would get it in one of those formaldahyde jars---oh well. Anyway thanks for everyone's help and prayers, we couldn't do it alone and love you all.

Jamesy-baby & surgery tomorrow

James is such a sweet, lovable baby. He is always so easy to get a smile or laugh out of and he gives hugs so freely. He has his moments of course, but he's really such an energetic happy little goof. I love having him! He was sick last week with a yucky cold, we all were, he was so sad and just wanted to be held. A few days after he started feeling better I took Naomi and James for their flu shots. Their doctor checked them over and announced that James had an ear infection. Poor baby. I felt so badly, I didn't think it was more than a cold and he was so happy by then.

Naomi had 3 ear infections her first winter back to back, it was horrible. Interestingly enough, she hasn't had one since. I'm hoping this won't be the norm for James, having sick children is awful, for everyone.

The other day I heard James squealing in the other room. I peeked around the corner to see what was so dang exciting and I saw this:

Cheetah had plopped down right in front of James. He's not quite mobile yet, getting close as you can see. She must sense that James is safe:) He is totally fascinated by her, I catch him watching and studying her all the time. Hopefully he can continue to be nice to her as he gets faster, we'll see though.

As for other things, I'm getting surgery tomorrow (!!!) and I'm mourning the fact that I won't be able to hold James much for quite a while. I'll can have someone set him on my lap for me though. He's just too heavy (22 lbs or so), and I am getting abdominal surgery. The much talked about cyst that was discovered at my 20 week ultrasound when I was pregnant with James (a year ago!) has finally met it's end. Tomorrow it will be removed. I am a little apprehensive about the whole thing, obviously. The idea of anybody, even skilled surgeons, cutting into me makes me feel funny. The cyst is thought to be on or is my right ovary, so that ovary will be coming out with the "mass" as they call it. Apparently a lot of people have cysts but they are generally much smaller and often come and go on their own, sometimes due to pregnancy and their cycles. My cyst is not small, it is 10x9x15 cm and it has not gotten smaller, much less gone away. Sigh. So it's large enough that a laprascopic procedure will not do the trick. I will be have a vertical scar, down the middle. They won't be cutting through any muscles but the recovery will be much the same as for a c-section patient, although my uterus won't be touched. So that means 6 weeks before any kind of significant lifting, i.e. James.

I have wonderful friends helping us through the first few days here and still others bringing us meals and then my mother is coming to save the day so Zach can go to school, study and pass his finals, James will be held, carried etc and Naomi will have her Grandma Stevie to play with! I owe a lot of people a lot of favors after this one;)

I'm being optimistic that I will recover fast and easily. At my 6 week mark we are flying home (our original home) for Christmas to be with our families. I'm also a little bummed that I likely won't be feeling good enough to hit the slopes this winter, the first in a few that I'm not pregnant or with a baby that won't take a bottle. Sigh again.

Enough of the pity party now though. It's not like I'm the first mom to have surgery, I'll be fine and starting in January we will be as good as new, or almost;)

I'll post all about the horrible hospital food and how I got to watch all the lame TV I could possibly stand and read tons of books while my dear friends and husband took over my mommy job for me:)

I Voted

I got a sticker too. It ensures treats at places like Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and the like today and tomorrow.
I noticed that most, and I mean probably about 90% of voters there this morning appeared to be part of the younger crowd, like under 30. I was impressed and proud:)
The real story is that I waited in line for an hour and a half!!! I got there at 7:30 a.m. Polls opened at 7. The line was about the same when I finished voting. Zach stayed home with our kids, that was so nice of him. He's going to vote this afternoon, hopefully the line isn't too much longer for him.

I wasn't really expecting the line to be that long. Maybe it's just this election has a much higher voter turnout than past elections, and maybe it's be because I'm from Utah that I was a little shocked at the turnout.

I'm glad I've done it. So get out and vote!


http://www.benjerry.com/features/i_voted/
http://www.starbucks.com/sharedplanet/news.aspx
http://www.krispykreme.com/images/hot_vote_now08_pop.jpg

Pie

I am a cake girl. I pick cake over pie always. My mom makes the best chocolate layer cake I've ever tasted. She uses two round cake pans and then slices each round cake to make four layers with whip cream between them and then covers the whole beautiful cake with chocolate frosting. I love it. So do most people who've tried it. I wish I had a picture to post.

So when it came to birthdays I would always request a chocolate cake, never a pie!

Once I got married (nearly 7 years ago!) I started to make a few different pies. I started out easy with banana cream (my dad's favorite) and chocolate cream (of course). I later added a new favorite of mine, key lime pie. It's delicious. I'll post the recipe below if I can find it. I first tried key lime pie at good ol' Village Inn in Logan, UT. I was instantly hooked. Some of my favorite treats are related to that discovery. I love Stewart's key lime soda and Yoplait key lime pie yogurt.

A week or so ago Zach started talking about how he loves pumpkin pie, and is excited to have some for Thanksgiving. I've never baked a pie;) So I shrugged it off. Then I spotted the cans of pumpkin at the grocery store while I stocked up on chocolate chips (for cookies- I love to bake cookies). I grabbed a small can and turned it around. It was Libby brand and they have a pie recipe on the back. I realized it called for really simple ingredients and I could give it a try. We were going to the Piersons for dinner and trick-or-treating that night so I thought bringing a pumpkin pie to a Halloween dinner was so appropriate.

I enlisted Naomi's help with the stirring and together we made a darn good pumpkin pie! I had to bake it for 25 extra minutes past the recommended 45. I made a second one yesterday, same thing with the cooking time, I guess it varies with ovens quite a bit.

I was so pleased when the pie turned out to taste really good! I definitely did it the easy way to start. I used canned pumpkin and frozen pie crusts, but it was a great start. I'm hoping that if I go to the extra effort of making my own crust and even buying a pumpkin it will turn out heavenly. We will see.

I've always loved to bake and I'm so excited to finally realize that pies aren't so tricky! I have a delicious apple pie recipe I need to try, maybe this afternoon.

So I am turning pie. So long cakes, you have taken a back seat (for now).

Not the greatest picture, just visualize a perfect slice on a pretty plate with a large dollop of whip cream on top;)

And just a few more halloween pics I missed, Naomi was proud of her pumpkins.

I don't like daylight savings...

This is Naomi and her Power Ranger Ship Tower!

So daylight savings is not something I really look forward to, anymore. Not since I have children. That and I am lazy and annoyed about having to change all my clocks. I like that my computer and cell phone change automatically.

"Fall Back" should be a great way to catch an extra hour of sleep. It used to be, and I think I remember it being lovely. When I was a teenager I used to argue with my dad that I should be able to stay out an hour later Saturday night. I don't think that was ever a successful debate on my part. In fact, I'm pretty sure he tried to turn it around on me in the Spring, saying I should get home an hour earlier.

Anyway. Having kids and changing times kind of messes with the balance we try so hard to obtain around here. Just when I have these little stinkers sleeping until 7 a.m. or so (instead of 6!!!), we go and "fall back" an hour. Keeping them up at night for a later bedtime works some, but it's not a fix all. Kids have an internal clock and it's tough to change it.

So what I'm saying is that instead of an extra hour of sleep, we end up with an extra hour of awake time. That means tired kids. And it also means that they have the tendency to wake up at 5:30 and think it's 6:30. Kids, or rather babies and toddlers, have no inclination to "sleep in". I think that is a skill you pick up when you hit your teens.

Tonight we put our kids to bed at about 7:30. It felt like 8:30 to them, which is a little late nowadays, so they were dragging. Tomorrow I won't be surprised if they wake up at 6 a.m. because it will still a bit like 7 to them. I guess what I'm saying is that it's going to be a while before I get to sleep past 6 again.

Darn daylight savings.

And some pictures too of course.

Carving pumpins on Halloween

Happy Halloween 2008