A few pictures to catch you up

Jon on his 33rd. He requested Lemon Bars. I'm always happy to oblige that request. Isn't he handsome?


Our birch tree fell down in the latest storm of unusual winds. Actually, just one of three stumps fell down. But with each wind, the ground would swell and peel back, so the rest of the stumps had to go. Jon shimmied up the tree with a chainsaw to top off the limbs. We were on a blanket across the street in the neighbors front yard watching. Hoping that my children wouldn't witness their father falling to his demise, chainsaw in hand. It didn't happen. Now the question you're really wondering about: Why is Jon wearing a sweatband? To keep his glasses on. Couldn't find his CHUMs that I incessantly tease him about.


Candid photo of our back yard and back of our home. I decided to start documenting it in its lived-in state. This home will always hold a place of happiness in our hearts.

Zinnias from Esther's cutting garden. We actually have about 15 out there right now waiting to be cut.

My eco thrift polyester quilt is perfect for all sorts of occasions. For Tahoe, it was just right. I am mad about the vintage fabrics, and the leisure-suit feel of it all.

Do you just want to eat up this little darling?

Phoebe in phlight.

AWAY WE GO

I have been avoiding my blog lately. Busy? Yes. Distracted? That too. But the real culprit has been dealing with the unknowns. (Many of them.) We've toyed with so many options over the past few months that my brain is tired. But, we have finally come to a conclusion. The Penske has been rented; the realtor has been contacted. We are making our way to the Beehive State on November 8.

The decision has been anything but easy. No burning bush or still small voice. Just baby steps of recognition . . . we do feel the hand of God in this decision. And while I've never really felt that Sacramento is THE PLACE, saying goodbye is going to be harder than I imagined. And while we're moving into the arms of family and friends, we will sorely miss the life we've built here----the family we've made out of once-strangers. The world is full of good people----I have found so many of them here in our little corner of the world.

We still don't have many of the answers. There is no job awaiting us in Provo. There is a home. There are people. But, we're going to have to figure out the rest of the details upon arrival. Which is scary, but exhilarating.

We're on our way.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make CREAMY DELIGHTFUL!

So, this summer's been a bit of a bust. Let's just cut the crap and get it out there: Jon has joined the ranks of the unemployed. I've had my share of bawl-a-thons, but in the end realize that there are better things in store for us. What? We're not sure, yet. But, we are sure that we are loved, taken care of, and we'll survive.

So, in the midst of all this, Jon has lost 8 pounds. WHAT THE? He's a skeletor to begin with, but the stress hasn't helped matters in that department. Me, on the other hand.....hmmm.....let's just say I don't own a scale for a reason. I'm chubbier than I've ever been in my whole life, with the exception of being 9 months pregnant. 7 months? Let's not go there. That's not good news, friends, but things will change. A time and a season for everything.

Anyway, I've been attempting to eat better during this crisis. No baked goods. This is certainly not a foolproof plan, as evidenced by what I'm going to share with you. I felt a hankering for brownies the other day. I don't even love brownies, but I love my mint brownies, ala becca claire. But I didn't have mint, and I didn't really feel like mint anyway.

So I baked the base brownie, then added a chocolate cream cheese frosting. A to-die-for combo. Esther had one bite, and then kept saying, "Please, can I have some more creamy delightful?" I loved the name and had to adopt it. I think Creamy Delightful is so darn delightful.

Here's the recipe.

CREAMY DELIGHTFUL
Brownies:

2 c. sugar
1 c. butter
4 eggs
2.5 c. flour
4-1 oz unsweetened choc squares---melted
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla

Mix ingredients together (Do the whole wet and dry thing if you believe in that. I don't.) Bake at 350 for an undisclosed amnt of time. I usually do it for about 25-30 mins. But then again, the recipe says 300 for 20 mins. But that's just way too gooey. ***THIS TIME 27 mins was perfecto!

Creamy Delightful Frosting
1 8 oz block cream cheese
1 c. semi sweet chocolate chips, melted
a few cups of powdered sugar (sorry, i never measure)
a bit of vanilla (1-2 tsp?)
some skim milk or other liquid of the milky variety...enough to moisten.

whip the heck out of it, and spread on cooled brownies.

And I have a perfect picture of skeletor Jon eating creamy delightful, wearing a shirt with a short bus on it that says, "i believe in you" which i do. I know he'll find gainful employment soon . . . and perhaps it will mean I can return to my motherland. But my camera will not upload said picture right now. Go figure. Hopefully later.

A Great Birthday

Had a birthday yesterday. 33. Monumental. But not really. It was a lazy-ish day {for me}. Jon broke the Sabbath and bought me a jelly donut for breakfast. I felt so happy that just because he's now in the Bishopric of our local congregation, he still isn't too good to get a donut for his wife on her birthday. When I thanked him last night and told him how I felt, he said, "5:30 am doesn't count as the Sabbath." Agreed.

When Leah finally woke up at 8:15, she came up to me and said, "what are you doing up? This is your birthday." (Nevermind that Jon left the house at 5:30 to retrieve my donut, and then went straight to meetings after the drop-off. And Phoebe woke up promptly at 7:12....what's a birthday mom to do?) So Leah took Phoebe out of the room, and Esther too, and shut the door. I pretended to sleep for 5 minutes so she could feel she had done a great job. And she had. Talk about melt-my-heart-cute.

He made my favorite roasted green bean tomato salad, and some rosemary bread that is to die for. For dessert, we had FAMILY FONDUE. Fruits, pound cake, and marshmallows to dip into milk-chocolate and non-allergenic chocolate for Leah and Phoebe. Phoebe's favorite part was fingerpainting with it. Leah's favorite part was biting marshmallows in half and sticking them on everyone's foreheads. My favorite part was chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, and family, family, family. Jon finished off the night by doing the dishes and playing fast Scrabble with me. {This all took place in between my obligation to speak at another ward's conference and his youth fireside, and my birthday nap. Somehow, it all fit in.}

A short and sweet thank-you note:

Thanks, Jon, for the splendid day!

Lots of love,

The 33 year old.

Just a Few of NYC

Darlyblog is replete with NYC photos. Enjoy! I certainly did . . .

I'll be back soon with some new goals, thoughts, etc.

More of My Phoeberoni

She is a total ham. Knew just what to do when I whipped the camera out. I always said that my my 2nd and 3rd children would have as many pics of them as the first. Doh! I blew that promise. Better make up for lost time.

After a New York Minute, I Came Home to This

Just returned from one of the best trips of my life to NYC with gal pal Lindy Lou. Let's just say it was incredible. Pics can be seen at darlyblog, if you please.

I'll post a few here, too, plus someday in the future I'll download why this was a life-altering trip. This is my personal blog, right? So I can do that here.

One of my highlights of the trip was coming home to my 3 sleeping daughters. I especially missed Phoebe, since I've never even spent a night away from her in her short 16 months. I missed her morning breath, her kooky smiles, her "mama" whines, her love of blueberries, her dancing, and just about everything else about her (minus the blueberry-poopy diapers). So last night while Jon took the older gals to swimming lessons, I had a little Phoebe Photo Shoot. She's so sweet!

Growing Up

I decided I needed to catalog lovely Leah on her last day of 1st grade. She is getting so old; for her birthday, a friend gave her 7 books from the Weather Fairies series, and she has read them ALL this week. What the? She wasn't interested in much independent reading until then, and now has gone berserk! I love it. For each book she finishes, I bank $2 into her book fund. She's already at $18 in a week. I better lower the ante or I'll have to get a job. Since I don't already have one. ;0

But, here she is with her sisters....I hope they are always best friends.

We Love Cuzzies

Why didn't I get more pics when Ben, Becca, Bella, and Peter were in town? Because I'm a doofus on the roofus.

We had lots of fun with our Harmons. We spent some quality time chillin', spent some good times at the zoo, Ernesto's, EcoThrift, a bit of shopping, some crafting with Becca, some more quality time on the couch, and also had our selves a few Beverlies (44 oz-ers for you not in our beverage circle. A visit with Ben wouldn't be a visit with Ben unless a few drinks were had. Smiles were had, too, and so were tears, and laughter filled our hearts and warmed the air. Reference, anyone?).

Harmons, please come visit again.

Someone's in the Kitchen . . .

It's Phoebe! Now if I could only get her to do this in the REAL kitchen...

Birthday Girl

Leah's party was a success! We had a lot of messy activities, i.e. Gak, Ooblek, and Diet Coke and Mentos bombs, plus water balloons, a BBQ, and decorate-your-own summer journal. (I adapted great party ideas from here). A few kids weren't so into the mess, actually just one wasn't, and everyone else was gung-ho and ready to get dirty. Especially Leah when she put GAK in her hair. Remember, this is glue, borax, and water, with a heavy concentration on the glue. Took a long time to come out. She looked pretty punk for a day.

Schutz Shakes with Schutz Girls

These photos didn't fit in the last post. Enjoy...

Schutz Shakes

A few Saturdays ago, I decided that we needed to add a little bit o' festiveness to our current repertoire. Schutz Shakes came to me in the shower (a coincidence, I think not; besides, all of my brilliant ideas come to me in the shower---my only few minutes of peace and quiet--unless, of course, Esther decides to come in with me after I've already gotten her bathed, dressed, and ready for the day).

So we bought ice cream, and candy bars, and bananas, and Mexican chocolate syrup, and berries, and Cap'n Crunch, and had some friends bring the contraband peanut butter. (Don't worry, we made Leah and Phoebe's shakes first with Haagen Dazs sorbet and frozen berries. No ER trips for this party.) We used mini cups and made lots of shakes. Luckily the Paulsens brought their Vitamix. Our silly Osterizer was put to shame!

What ensued? Taste tests, shakes, more taste tests, refills, ooohhhs, ahhhhs, and lots of fun.

Before the party started, I had my resident sign-maker, Leah, make a poster. I don't have a picture of it, but it said:

"THE HOSE WHERE SCHUTZ SHAKES ARE MADE." and it had lots of volcano-looking creations all over it. You can tell we don't have shakes very often. ;)

Thought I'd leave you with a little pic of the Schutz Shakes Players. If you want to come for Schutz Shakes, June Edition, drop me an email. You must live near Northern California, unless, of course, you're up for the drive.

Sorry about the clauses and commas.

One Minute in Esther's Life

She's four (and a half!), fickle, fancy-free, fancy, friendly (uber----more on that later), frustrating, and mine; love her, I do.

Rewind

I like how in my last blog post (over two months ago), I said I'd have more time for blogging. Ha!

Highlights since last posting:

Leah's 7th Birthday
Leah finishing 1st grade
Esther finishing Preschool
Phoebe getting bigger, cuter, and more personality-full every day.
Visits with family and friends
Summery weather
a few nervous breakdowns (oh yeah, this is supposed to be the highlights section) . . . .

I must catalog with photos, because if I don't, this chapter of our lives could be lost forever. Please oblige. And then maybe when I get caught up, I can actually post something of more substance. I still do think, even though I hardly have time (or peace and quiet) for that anymore.