Summer

I've enjoyed this summer more than any other in my life. I am sad to see it go, but I will cherish the many happy memories.

The Race

I entered my first race today. Being almost 5 months pregnant my goal was to complete the 5K and not pee my pants.

160 people in the race. Including children, grandmas, grandpas and actual runners.

I wasn't able to run very much because it bounced my bladder around too much, but I finished in a long but exciting 45 minutes.

Barry won!!! Of course Barry won.

The guy in second place thought he won, but the officials informed him a guy pushing a stoller beat him. ;)

What they didn't tell him though was that same guy fell threw a roof yesterday. :(

We went on our evening walk yesterday -it being our last summer Friday-night together before Barry goes back to work. Turns out our elderly neighbors were re-doing their roof. Turns out it was a high priests activity with the Elders recruited. We sadly walked back home and Barry put on his work clothes and work shoes and rode his bike back.

I was proud of him for going, but I was sad we missed our evening together.
Ellie said we should pray for him to be safe. So we prayed he wouldn't fall OFF the roof while helping out.

He came home 3 hours later and said he fell THROUGH the roof. ACK! Fortunately he was able to catch himself with his arms before he fell all the way through. His legs went through their sheetrock, making a dandy hole in their house and a quite a mess.
(I should add in here that the house was old and wasn't built to code, or this wouldn't have happened)

Luckily he just seriously scraped up his chest, cut his arm pretty good, and got some massive bruises and a very sore body.

Perhaps next time, Ellie and I need to be more specific in our prayers, but we're VERY glad he's okay, We're also very glad that the home owner gave him a bar of soap to clean up with. A HOMEMADE bar of soap. I have found another soap maker. She has tons of stuff too, and says I can bring my kids over and we can make soap together. :)



I wish this was a better picture. This is often the scene when I look out my kitchen door, Barry and James working on some project together. Here James is learning how to light a fire with flint and steel.

Egg Rolls and Cheeseball Cake

I've decided pregnancy is all about being irrational.
My motto has become, "It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to agree with my tummy"


Okay I admit it, I was suppose to do my monthly grocery shopping on the 25th of July, I am still yet to complete it. Here's the problem, FOOD.

Lately the scene in our house has played out at the dinner hour.


Barry: Hi honey, what's for dinner? I'm starved.

Jill: Hawaiian Chicken

Barry: Mmmm that's sounds great .............. ................uhh where is it???

Jill(with disgust): Oh. I didn't make it

Barry: What!?!

Jill(with a frown): We'll we didn't have any brown rice.

Barry(Hands on his hips): We'll we have 100's of pounds of white rice.

Jill(gulping and wrinkling her nose): Yeah, but doesn't the thought of eating that sticky, starchy, smelly white rice make your stomach churn?

Barry: No!

Jill: Oh.

Barry (exasperated, gazing into an empty fridge): We'll what am I suppose to eat?!?

Jill(walking out of the kitchen): Ellie's having a tortilla smeared with peanut butter, maybe you could try that ....just don't let me smell it.


Normally I'm a whole grains, fruits and veggies kind of girl.

Lately I've been Fats and Oils, Fast food, Deep, Fat, Fried kind of girl. Say it with me, Deep! Fat! Fried!

I've had this intense craving for Chinese food. In fact I bought myself a package of frozen egg rolls, just to satisfy this craving, and my are they nasty...tasty ..nasty.

Most days for lunch I heat up the oven(and the house) to 400 degrees. Then I peak in the oven and watch my single little delicious package of processed carrots, cabbage and white mystery meat saturated with oil and MSG come to it's hot crunchy goodness. Barry is bewildered by this. How can you eat THAT, he asks with disgust? "I don't know" comes my simple reply as I take another crunchy bite with a smile but equal disgust, "but I can!"

Cream cheese has also been in my dreams.
My lovely mother brought me up a half dozen packages of cream cheese to add to my stash when she last came to visit.

Our family has been enjoying cheese ball after cheeseball. Too many cheeseballs

After three in a row, and the heart burn starting to get to me. I knew something must be done.

SO with my last 5 cream cheeses I decided to make my first New York Style cheese cake. My favorite dessert in the whole world.

After a half an hour prep time, 70 minutes of baking on a hot summer day, then 45 minutes more for the topping to cook, then a hour of letting the cake sit in the cooling oven, it was ready to be removed.

It was truly beautiful, a work of art.

I blended and strained raspberries for a sauce. Then after refrigeration for 12 more hours, the cake was ready to eat.

I sliced my piece, drizzled raspberry sauce on it and took a bite.

Mmmmmmmmmmm decadent goodness...Mmmmmmmmm ........Ewwwww..mushy... tangy smelly cheesy..........ewwwwww. I don't want this.

I handed my piece to Ellie.

She takes a bite, "Mmmmm this is a good cheeseball cake Mom."


Anybody know a good recipe for egg roll dipping sauce?



(Authors side note) After three days of watching my family enjoy my hard work, I once again tried the cheesecake and surprisingly found it quite to my liking. IN fact I ate a big piece for Pre-Breakfast(a necessity when your preggers), Breakfast, and then another piece for Lunch.
Around Dinner time with a belly ache that could kill a horse, I decided I wouldn't eat Cheese Cake again for a very very long time.

Nothing to blog about.

The Zoo and Bear Lake

My picture rule is not to take pictures without somebody in them, but I was just awed by this siberian tiger, the biggest cat in the world, it came real close to us, and it was so big and furry and scary looking............



Most endangered cat in the world.








Their mouths were open because they wanted the mommy bird to feed them. I did eventually, we went to Panda Express. I recommend their orange chicken. Mmmmm.



Ellie and her cousin Hannah, at the American West Heritage Center.



Before I met Barry he volunterred at the AWHC and they wanted him to build a cabin. So he began, all by himself and it was very hard work. One hot day he found out everyone else there (the people just sitting around), were all getting paid to work. So he quit. Here stands the cabin that Barry built .....well started to build.
Hey at least I know he can do it, and the one thing I made Barry promise me before we got married was that he'd build me a cabin in the mountains. (A finished cabin.)

We took a quick trip to Bear Lake last week. Ellie and Natalie spent most of the time out in the lake and I couldn't get a good pictures of them, but James loved the sand and the seagulls.

Jogging with Daddy

Monday through Friday, James and Barry get up early and go jogging together. James love its. He's ready to go from the moment he sits up in bed. He was sick a few days last week so Barry left him home. James was so sad, wandering around the house saying Dad, Dad, and trying to open the doors. Barry says sometimes he just jabbers the whole way. When they get home, James comes and finds me, gives me a hug and tries to tell me all about their run.(Mostly gibberish) Then he sits down by Daddy and they do their stretches together. It's very endearing to watch as he tries to copy the Daddy he loves so much.

This day James was so tired that before Barry could even finish his stretches he curled up on his legs and went right to sleep.

Washington!!!

This weekend we drove up to Washington to pick up Natalie. We drove and drove and drove. We decided to take a new route to see the sites, .....we saw them for 12 hours. Ugh! We stopped in Cambridge on the way up and stayed in a delightful little motel there, with a pool. Barry's student owns the place so we were treated to a free night's stay, a barbecue dinner, and some sightseeing. We even toured the local grocery store which they just had purchased. Sorry we have no pictures, I was feeling pretty rotten, well actually super-duper rotten by then.





On the way there, we got out of the car because Ellie puked. It's always good to get some fresh air after that. I believe this picture is .........in the middle of nowhere.



James tired and dirty







Ellie going crazy



Seriously crazy



Camping lite. Barry thought we didn't even need ketchup for the dogs. I insisted. We had no plates or anything. I didn't pay much attention to the packing of the camping stuff because I planned the whole time to talk Barry out of camping and stay at a motel somewhere along the way. I lost out, due to shear lack of effort due to intense car sickness. Things were okay though, and I got to try out our brand-b-new tent. It arrived in the mail last week. Barry said it was hand sewn just for us.(big yea) The other campers thought it was a Tee-pee.



James rejecting snacks. Pretty sad day.






James puzzled. After yelling STOP DAD! STOP over and over, Dad would just keep on driving, and driving and driving. (Can you tell I don't travel well)



A smile from my boy.



Kids going crazy.



Last half and hour I pulled out all the stops, and broke out the suckers. They were a lifesaver. Truly.



My favorite picture from our adventure. I love my sweet family.

Perfection

I've always been paralyzed by the need for perfection, never starting a task, goal, relationship, or anything that couldn't be perfect was my way of dealing with my inability to succeed perfectly.
So I have ended up a person with a life filled with few experiences, few great relationships and many underdeveloped talents.

Fortunately, God lead me to a man who will try anything, work towards any skill, no matter the difficulty, take on huge tasks with little hope for perfection and sometimes even completion. Yet after ripping my hair out from stress from watching such craziness, I have seen so many great things accomplished. Things I would have never thought possible. I have seen miracles falling into place because of his mere exercise of faith in stepping out into the dark realm of trying with the possible risk of failure. I have been inspired by the immense growth of a man who is not afraid to run in the race of life, and though he trips and falls, he's setting his stride, smoothing his gait and getting faster every day. While I'm still standing there at the starting line debating if the race is worth the entrance fee, for I know I can't possibly win, nor even finish on my own.

Yet, for the first time in my life, I want IN on the race anyway, I want IN for the journey, for the experiences I will have along the way. So with my crooked legs and knock-knees I've decided to start jogging and see where I can go.

My husband is an amazing person. In fact, hands down the most amazing person I've ever met. He is brilliant, but still interesting to talk to. He is good at a million things, but yet still humble. He is my best friend, and my forever sweetheart.

But above all, Barry is an extraordinary father. I couldn't be more blessed and pleased than to have him be the father of my children.







......So why not add another.


We're excited to welcome Baby #3 in January, on Barry's birthday.



P.S A few of you know this pregnancy has been a rough road, but the doctor thinks we're in the clear, so a big thank you for all your thoughts, prayers, and small kindnesses they have been much appreciated.

Lately I've been struggling with insomnia. Usually when I can't sleep it's because I'm worried about something, health, money, kids, animals. Lately though, it hasn't been that at all.

I lie awake in bed with random questions turning over and over in my head until I can't stand it anymore, I find with a small poke, a yank of the covers and a well placed ice cold foot though, Barry is also conveniently awake to ask my all important questions to. "What is pewter made of? What do you think the room temperature is ...in Calvin? etc."

Last week Barry started sleeping downstairs. He claims it's just too hot upstairs.

Currently I don't mind.

Now there is more room for the laptop on the bed, which I can consult at all hours of the night to find answers, more thorough answers then "Hmmphm lead and tin I think, maybe in the 300's or something..... snore".

Tonight I tried a sleeping pill. Now my heart is a racing, and I'm not feeling the least bit drowsy.

Why would a sleeping pill make your heart race?, Barry wants to know.

I want to know too ...I think I'll look it up.

In the mean time my little family has decided to camp out in the yard tonight.

I wasn't invited.

but I don't mind, what's a better gift to a mom, than an empty house, fresh popped buttery popcorn and an endless streaming of undisturbed movies from Netflixs

With just a few slight guilty glances out my window at a snug little tent. I'm settling down for a long summers night.