Blog Giveaway

So First of all, I'd like to pose a question: When you leave a comment on my comments spot, do you have to do that annoying word verification thing? What is the purpose of that? It drives me crazy.
Next here is a cute gift shop who is offering a giveaway if you leave a comment on her blog under the item you like best.
i'll have to do one of those giveaways so I can get more comments on my blog :)
What is every one doing for their labor day weekend?
Have a fun and safe time!

Extra Produce

I finally made a crayon roll for Brenna. It turned out ok for a first try. The next attempt will be a pencil roll for Aisling. Hopefully these will help them not lose any crayons/colored pencils at school.

We will be going to Abram's sister's cabin 1 1/2 hours north of here for the weekend. We are really excited, we only get to go up there every couple years or so. It should be really fun. There are loads of huckleberries to pick and the weather is supposed to be more cool and enjoyable. I'm going to bring this FABULOUS cake for all of us to eat. It sounds gross, but it is so delicious!!! If you have green tomatoes in your garden this time of year, you must try this cake.

Green Tomato Cake

3 c. Flour

2c. Sugar

1 t. cinnamon

1t. cloves

3 eggs

2 t. vanilla

2 t. soda

1 t. salt

3 c. grated green tomatoes

1 ½ c. vegetable oil

Mix sugar, oil and eggs together in a bowl; mix together remaining dry ingredients and add to egg
mixture. Add vanilla and fold in tomatoes. Pour mixture into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 300 F for one hour, cool and frost. ( or pour frosting over while still warm!)

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese

1 butter cube

4-5 c. powdered sugar

Vanilla to taste

Here is a neat little tidbit for you: if you don't have any eggs and are right in the middle of baking something, you can substitute 2 TBS oil & 1 TBS water for two eggs. Pretty cool, eh?

'Fair Days'

All the other kids are 'Baa'-ck to school.
We are enjoying a visit from our spanish friend, Mari Carmen.
It was about 100F yesterday, but today it is in the 70s. How wonderful!
We don't have any plans for Labor Day weekend, like usual, but I have been trying to book a trip through bonus time with my parents' trendwest membership. We thought about going to Daytona Beach, but the weather there is poo-poo because of Hurricane Faye. So my main efforts have been to try to get to San Diego. ( Sorry Jessica, we looked into flights to Dallas and they were about $550 each.) They actually had 4 nights in a row for next weekend the 5,6,7,8, but we didn't act fast enough and they got booked. I am totally bummed. Abram has never been to California, so he isn't excited to go there. But I wouldn't care where it was, What we really want is some warm place we can sit on the beach and play in the sand and water with the kids. Whenever we go to the Oregon Coast, it is always too cold to enjoy it. But San Diego is supposed to have lovely weather year round as I understand it. Some people are actually lucky enough to have family that live in places like that. They can go visit whenever they want.
Anyway, maybe I'll implement "the Secret' and see if it works. :)

The Secret

Have any of you watched The Secret or read the book? It is the same principle that's outlined in Napolean Hill's book Think and Grow Rich. Abram and I watched it a year and a half or two years ago. We thought it was interesting and I was willing to give it a try. But like usual, I didn't know what I wanted, so I couldn't send any vibes out to the universe! Then we started talking about going to Hawaii. So I very vaguely thought about that and on a whim put a surfboard sticker on my billfold so I would inadvertently think about it whenever I saw it. It was pretty amazing how it all came together in the end. Things seemed to work out perfectly and from the day we looked into booking a room to the day we left was less than a week. We were able to go for 10 days and spent about $2k- it even worked out perfectly for Abram to take the time off work. I have suspicions that it was The Secret at work!
I never did anything with The Secret after that, but we just watched it again last week. Abram has been talking about going to South America to climb Aconcogua. He expects it will cost at least $3500 plus about two weeks away from work. I told him he could go if he came up with the 'extra' money somehow. I tried to convince Abram he should give The Secret a try. I myself hardly gave it another thought other than, "I'm married to Bruce Wayne and we are really rich" ( Can you tell we just watched Dark Knight?) ha ha ha!! Anyway, since then I've received two random, unexpected checks in the mail. One was only $25 but the other was $250. Not Bruce Wayne, but not bad!
Today Abram called and said he got a check in the mail for $1000.
If any of you have seen the movie, they talk about getting checks in the mail. So weird!
So what do you think? Coincidence, or The Secret?

Hook up the I.V.

Maybe this is strange, but I don't really know what I want. The times I have sat down to make a list of what I want out of life, the list has come back mostly empty with a few generics. I think some of this is partly because of the stage of life I'm in right now has me pretty limited. I have a nursing baby and three other relatively small kids. So I guess I keep thinking I can do things with my life later.
I recently heard an ad on the radio about some I.V. thing that stood for Intentional Vision. It really struck me when I heard that. I have just been letting life happen. I haven't really taken charge of it. I want to have a life with intention, because I know when I set my mind to something I can accomplish it.
It makes me feel bad about the time wasted, but excited to start this new path.

I talked to some moms over the weekend. It seems the consensus is that I need to use the cry-it-out method. I feel really bad about using that with babies. I don't mind as much when they are older and I know for sure they are Okay. But maybe it is better to do it when they are younger and not so set in their ways. I feel like they'll think they have been abandoned and it will hurt their little psyche and make them feel like the world is unsafe and they can't trust people. But maybe it will just help them learn to mind. Someone said that it taught babies to respect you. ( Do babies need to learn that?) The only one I really did that with was Brenna and we all know how unstable she is. I mean she rips her hair out for heaven's sake! I must've mentally disturbed her. :) please tell me what you have done with success with your own kids.

The Busy Last Days of Summer Break

Today was the last day of swimming lessons. The girls did a great job. I was a bit disappointed in Brenna's class. I felt Brenna was ready for more than what they did. But maybe the rest of the kids weren't ready. Brenna got to go off the slide into the water and she went twice and wanted to go more. Only one other kid went off it and he had to be coaxed for about 10 minutes before he actually slipped and went down the slide. Brenna had a great time.
Aisling really amazed me today. She went off the HIGH dive! She told me on Wed. that she was going to do it. I guess I should feel bad to say I didn't believe her. I honestly thought she would get up there, stand up there for about 10 minutes and then turn around. There is no disgrace in that. But I really thought she would be too scared. This is my girl who just recently started playing on fast food playgrounds. She was always too scared! She gets scared walking on uneven ground, reflective floors or anything with gaps. I was amazed she made it up the ladder! She just walked very carefully to the edge, looked down and jumped! No hesitating! Incredible! I thought she was awesome. I don't think I jumped off any diving board 'til I was in my late teens. :)
Last night we had our annual "august birthday party", something we've been doing forever. We originally had 4 august birthdays and then when we started having kids of our own, the number grew to 9. We had a terrific time thanks to my sister for putting together the T. Family Water olympics, complete with opening and closing ceremonies, medals and lots of water. She is already scheming for next year's celebration.
We had delicious mexican food, a T. family favorite. I was given a wonderful sweet pork recipe with a refreshing and tasty tomatillo dressing recipe. I made that last night for the party and I think it was well received. Just email me for the recipe.

I also received instruction and supplies to make these fabulous hair flower clips. Wow!


Today the kids got to attend their monthly service project party. It is a wonderful group hosted by a sweet lady in our ward, Amity H. She comes up with the neatest ideas. This month we made edible flower arrangements. Aisling gave hers away at the party, but Brenna's recipient wasn't home when we stopped by. They were very easy and a delightful gift to give or receive.

My adorable little boy is exhausting me. I need some ideas. He is up a LOT during the night, and seems to be hungry! He doesn't just suckle and go back to sleep. He wants the full meal. I am feeding him almost every two hours and it is wearing me down. What did you all do with your babies? He'll be 6 months old next week. He is starting to crawl around and starting to eat a little bit of rice cereal. He is just the cutest guy who loves his family so much. He just lights up when someone walks into the room, and that of course makes him all the more endearing to us!

Getting Ready for School

We are preparing for school. Aisling will be staying home for school again and we are excited about all the fun learning we get to do. Brenna will be starting preschool learning this fall as well, so I no longer have to feel guilty about not teaching her earlier. (Aisling could write her name at 3, oops!)
We are also going to be involved in a local home-school co-op. They meet every fFriday with an assembly, pledge of allegiance, etc. Then the kids have 3 classes and a lunch. The parents take turns each semester teaching and helping out. Aisling gets to take Art, Fairy Tales and Folk- Lore, and Geology. Brenna will get to take ABC's and 123's, Play Time, and Music N Movement. I am really excited about it.
We went to go get school supplies for the girls and I was looking at the lame-o pencil boxes they had for sale ( I'm ashamed to say we went to China-Mart)and junky backpacks. Very disappointing. So I got online knowing I could find something beautiful and long-lasting and handmade. If any of you haven't heard of ETSY.com, check it out. It is a treasure trove of artisans at your fingertips. Just look at these! I think they are a bit expensive but they will probably last a long time and they are just lovely. Now I gotta find something to sell so I can justify spending that kind of money.

Party in The Park

We actually did something fun for once. Unfortunately we have no pictures to document the fact.
On Friday we went to Settler's Park. Those of you who live around here know it is a really awesome place and just gets better and better as they add on to it. They now have a musical area and a rock climbing area. We went to play in the water area and cool off and they were having a huge 'benefit' party so there were jump houses and barbecues and Princess Belle walking around and a ton of people. They were also setting up for their Friday night movie where everyone sits/lays all over the lawn and watch a family movie on a giant projector screen. The kids were very sad we weren't staying to watch BEE movie. But it didn't start til after 9:30. We had a great time playing in the water, climbing the 'mountains', running around on the playground and making songs on the giant gongs, chimes and so forth. The town we live in isn't as bad as I thought. ;)

Happy Birthday, Grammy J!

Today is my grandma Joan's Birthday. Unhappily she passed away in June. But I have been thinking of her all day, how we would love to go visit her, share our pie with her, have a big august birthday party like we used to. I miss her so much! She was the most fun grandma!
I try not to feel sad about her being gone, knowing how happy she is reunited with her husband and other loved ones. I wanted to share this sentiment my cousin shared with me, with you.

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: "Here she comes!"

Blackberries

Last night we went across the street and picked blackberries. There was a huge bush growing across the canal which couldn't be accessed really. We did treacherously get a few off that bush, and a few more off another. We thought, well, maybe we'll have enough to bake a pie. So we brought them home and dumped them into the colander and measured about 10 cups! :) We made blackberry milkshakes last night and I'll be baking some pies today. Who has any vanilla ice cream?

Crazy Good Luck, or more?

We have been trying to get into swim lessons. Well, let me rephrase that. We *tried* to sign up at the local pool, but we were too early, they hadn't opened yet the two times we swung by. They also didn't take reservations over the phone. I had gotten so busy or preoccupied that I forgot about it. This morning it was on my mind, and I felt like, 'let's get in the car right now and go down there'. I even had the girls grab their swim suits . So, unbelievably, today was the first day of the very last session, and they had one opening each in the two classes I needed and on top of that, they were the only ones of those classes that were at the same time and they were starting right that minute! The girls jumped out of the car and got in their suits and had their first lesson right then. It couldn't have been more perfect! I spent the time trying to comfort Rowan that she couldn't get in and then the rest of the time trying to keep her out of the pool and the men's changing room.
A cool side note, Lynette A. had two of her kids in at the same time. So I got to visit with her and maybe we'll arrange a little carpooling. :)

Homemade Whole Wheat Bread

I am very excited about the new recipe I've been using to make our bread. Our old recipe was great, but it was half wheat/half white. This new recipe is so quick and easy. No need to wait around for it to rise or anything. It used to take half the day or more to bake my bread, but this morning I got it all done before church at 10:20. To tell the truth, the thing I am most excited about is this brilliant idea to bake your bread in juice cans. The reason I really love this is because my kids won't eat crust, so they end up throwing 1/3 of the sandwich away and thus have to eat about 3 sandwiches before they're full. The juice can bread has only a crust on the top on a minor one on the bottom. And the bread is all round so it is easy and fun for kids to eat. Here is the link. Please check it out, it is SO COOL! http://creativehomemakers.blogspot.com/
2008/06/to-die-for-whole-wheat-bread.html
Ok, so I don't know how to do a link yet, but there is the address instead. :)