Our Talent

We had a talent show at church last week, and all of the performance slots were filled up by the time I decided to take a look at the sign-up sheet. That really was just fine with me, but I thought we really should do something to participate. So, Hannah and I made some origami to display. We were going to make a bouquet of flowers. It turns out there are not very many beginner flower designs, so Hannah had more fun decorating paper than folding it. She did make a great ladybug, frog, and crane. She also designed a couple of her own flowers. I thought that was pretty neat. I would much rather take a pre-designed piece of paper and follow the instructions someone else has come up with. I guess my talent is being a copycat. :) Anyway, it was fun working on this project with her.

A Little Romance

See, Nate? Romantic poetry really isn't that hard to come up with.

Is this what you were expecting, Nikki?

If Nikki ever needs proof that I love her -- here it is. My fantasy of becoming a professional cake decorator died today. I am DONE with cake pops. Who ever said there was anything wrong with a truffle without a stick? Cakewrecks could have a blast with these puppies. If you want a really good laugh, you could check out Bakerella's rendition of these that I tried to copy. Just don't tell me how hard you laughed. It's not funny to me yet. How does she get the chocolate so smooth?!

I forgot to get the styrofoam block that you're supposed to stick these in to dry. My colander was the best idea I could come up with. So sad! Oh, I also accidentally bought white candy melts with pastel sprinkles in them. Hmm, not quite the canine look I was expecting.

And the best of them all.....

Okay, I can laugh at this one. Not sure what breed of dog this would be. I still don't know why Nikki wanted a dog cake for her birthday, and I am pretty sure I will never let her look at Bakerella's website with me again. Her birthday isn't for 2 more days, but I'm going out of town on her birthday, so I went ahead and made her cake pops tonight. And tomorrow Hannah and I are going to surprise her by getting her out of school early to go get her ears pierced. Maybe that will make up for these ugly puppies.

{dramatic intake of breath}

 

Oh, Nate, I am so sorry!!!

That's what I said last night as I started giving Nate a haircut. I don't even know what you call those things that you put on the end of the clippers to keep from buzzing his hair when you cut it, but I forgot to put it on. My mind is always in 5 different places at once, and I think that is probably a bad trait for your hairdresser to have. I was talking and moving along at a 100 mph trying to get this haircut done before I went to finish up my preparations for my sharing time at church today. I got partway up that first strip of hair and froze. He handled it so much better than I did. I was crying and laughing and was just hysterical, and he stayed so calm!! I don't know how he did it. It is such a good thing our roles weren't reversed in that moment! He wanted me to just buzz it all off, but I couldn't do it. His hair is just too pretty. This picture is just halfway into the haircut, and I never did get a picture of the finished product, but I was able to blend it in a bit. I wasn't crying anymore by the time I finished it, anyway. He didn't mention any comments from church today, so either it wasn't too bad or it was so bad nobody could come up with a decent remark. :) Hopefully by the time he makes it home this weekend it won't even be noticeable at all. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Nikki

I took some pictures of Nikki in her baptism dress this afternoon. It's hard to believe she's almost 8! It was cloudy outside, so I might do it again another day -- she certainly won't mind! There are only a few times a year when I really wish I had a great camera, and this is one of them. Which of these pictures do you like best?

A Couple of Months in Pictures

First of all, today is April 30th. Fifteen years have passed by since Mom and Dad have been gone. However, it is the April 30th of fourteen years ago when our family was sealed in the temple that makes this a sweet and tender day for me. I'm glad this anniversary is in the spring when all things are growing and becoming beautiful again. It's a wonderful reminder to me that death is not the end. There are beautiful days with amazing blessings to come.

So, on to the pictures that I have procrastinated posting for the last couple of months.

 

 On Sunday, Mike & Sherrie came over for dinner after church. Lydia and Hannah were going to hide the eggs for the littler kids to have an egg hunt, but Hannah didn't want to go outside. She was afraid of the bugs, and I do have to say that we have A LOT of bugs here. So, we all remembered this picture of my dad getting ready to cut the grass, and advised her to take the same approach. She quickly agreed and had a great time hiding the eggs!

 

 We were getting things ready for dinner, and I turned around to see these two cuties up on the counter ready to cause trouble help.

I didn't get a picture of baby Ainsley drinking Julie's salsa, but I wish I did. Julie, I made your fresh salsa recipe and she LOVED it. So did the rest of us, but I got a good kick out of seeing her immerse herself in the bowl!

 I didn't get many pictures of Easter, but here at least is proof that we did dye some eggs.

 We have the coolest children's museum in Raleigh called Marbles. Spring break was last week, so the kids and I headed there one day. They had so much fun, and I did too!

 In March, we took Hannah and Ryan on a field trip to a farm to see all the animals. Ryan could have stayed and played with the chicks all day. He loved it.

 We also took a field trip with a homeschool group to a roller skating rink. Nikki happened to have school off that day and got to come. We were all pretty wobbly, but at the end of the day everyone wanted to go again.

The poor man's recliner. This is Nate watching the NCAA tournament sitting on the girls' beanbags. It actually is pretty comfortable. It gave us a good laugh.

The Guacamole Song

I am no connoisseur of guacamole. I only discovered a few months ago that I like avocados. But I got several avocados in my produce box yesterday from our weekly produce co-op, so I wanted to make some guacamole. When I thought about looking for recipes, this song was the first thing that came to my mind. These guys are actually from the Raleigh area, and they can be really funny. Well, if you're up really late and you're really tired and you're at the stage where everything is funny. :) I like their fast food folk song, and their T-shirt war video is pretty cool.

Anyway, I made this guacamole yesterday and really liked it. Those of you who know good guacamole -- does this look like a good recipe? Anybody have a guacamole recipe to recommend? I still have a few more avocados.

Scotty

Scotty used to bag my groceries before he left for Hollywood. The grocery store is covered in signs and flyers for him. They even have a table of cakes and things from the bakery decorated in his honor as you enter the store. Sadly, this has been one of the few years I haven't watched American Idol very faithfully. But I did vote for him tonight. I thought it was really funny when I read online that you could vote for him as much as you want, but only your first 50 votes would count. They would really let you vote the whole two hours after the show and only count your first 50 attempts?! Thank goodness Nate read the fine print. Anyway, Go Scotty!! It would be cool if he came back to my grocery store, but that would be just too sad. He won't come back though -- he really is good. So, go vote for Scotty at americanidol.com. Just don't waste your time with more than 50 votes!

Umm, what should this title be?

Wow, I really only made one post in March, and here we are well into April. I do have some pictures that I have been planning on posting, but I never seem to get around to it. And I'm not going to do it tonight either.

I guess there are a few things that have been keeping me too occupied to blog. For one, I am trying to accept the fact that I'm going to homeschool Nikki next year. I could spend a long time writing about that one, but I don't have the energy for it tonight. What it comes down to is that it will be really good for our family, and when I can get over my selfishness and complete my grieving process, I will be really grateful for the wonderful opportunity this will be. I get excited about it when I think about actually getting into the material we'll study, and then I get really scared and freaked out when I think about what my life is really going to be like.

#2 big life upheaval in the mix: Nate is contemplating a career change. While we are pretty sure he has avoided the current lay-offs in his office, there still is not much work coming to their department in the foreseeable future. His career path is also evolving more and more into the need for computer programming skills, and he has hated that since the first week he ever took a programming class at BYU. So, he is thinking about going into accounting. Right now he is studying to take the GMAT, which is required for the graduate accounting program at UNC. Although, it is really neat to be sitting in Raleigh, NC where there are so many good educational opportunities around us. We'll see how it all works out. Wouldn't it be great if he went to UNC, though?

So, lots of change, but it's really lots of good change. Wait, isn't that the story of my life? I guess since we aren't planning on moving this year something else big had to happen. I think I have made it sound quite dismal, but that might just be because it's getting late for me. I should have waited until the morning to write something on the blog, but I don't have time to sit down in the mornings!

If You Marry a North Carolina Girl

Last night Nate asked each of us how our day was, and Hannah couldn't think of anything to say, Nikki didn't have anything to say, and I just said, "Ahh, it was fine," and Ryan said he watched Cars (we didn't count how many times he watched the movie). Nothing special, nothing bad, just normal. I guess that's good, but then again, I think we need to add a little spice in our life today. We'll have to see what we can do. My sister sent me this joke today. I wonder if Nate would find it as funny as I do -- might hit a little too close to home for him. :)

IF YOU MARRY A NORTH CAROLINA GIRL

Three friends  married women from different parts of the country.

The  first man married a woman from Indiana. He told her that she was  to do the dishes and house cleaning. It took a couple of days,  but on the third day, he came home to see a clean house and  dishes washed and put away.

The second man married a  woman from Michigan He gave his wife orders that she was to do  all the cleaning, dishes and the cooking. The first day he  didn't see any results, but the next day he saw it was better.  By the third day, he saw his house was clean, the dishes were  done and there was a huge dinner on the table.

The third  man married a girl from North Carolina. He ordered her to  keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry  washed, and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the  first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see  anything but by the third day, some of the swelling had gone  down and he could see a little out of his left eye, and his arm  was healed enough that he could fix himself a sandwich and load  the dishwasher. He still has some difficulty when he  pees.