Done!

They are married! I cried a little during the ceremony, but not due to any other stresses!

Nice.

Drake doesn't live in an appartment

When we moved to this grand gated community I took to calling our place an apartment lest anyone who heard the location of our home suspect that we lived in the 500K+ part of the community.

"Where do you live?" they ask.

"Oh at ********, in the apartments just behind Food Lion" I say.

So I suspect this is how the word apartment came into my 3 year old's vocabulary. Also we talk about how we will "someday live in a house without neighbors downstairs and it will have a yard where you can play in the mud." It's a promise.

We've been finding some friends here in paradise who kindly let us visit and enjoy their house-ness. Tuesday when we came home from one such visit M said: "Drake doesn't live in an apartment."

"Hmmm? What does he live in?" I asked.

"A house." came the response. "I hope we will someday live in a house. The first place we ever lived was an apartment and the second place we live now is an apartment." All in a tone of statement. Not complaining, just observing.

"Maybe the next place we live will be a house M. Would you like that?"

"Oh that would be wonderful. We would have so much fun!" she said.

Today we submitted and offer on this house.

Can't taste again

I got sick a few days ago. Not enough sleep does that to me sometimes. So I had some sinus headache stuff going on and then I couldn't really taste so I wasn't really interested in food. As interested in food as usual...

Last night I could taste again! Spaghetti with italian sausage, Yum!

This morning I can't taste again. Oatmeal. could use some taste receptors to help...

dehydration

This morning I was really sensitive to sounds. My kids were doing their usual things but I was so annoyed by everything. Then my brother woke up and I mentioned the situation to him. He asked if I was thirsty. I had been but hadn't connected that with the heightened senses.

The body is pretty amazing.

wedding slideshow

when making a slide show for a wedding how should the pictures be sequenced? I'm thinking 3 Him, 3 Her until the end when it will be pictures of THEM.

Thoughts?

th Best friends

A friend is someone you can pose for pictures with and give them the rabbit ears while they're not looking.
A friend is someone who doesn't mind that you've stuck a Smencil through their windows or that you're making them pose for another picture.
This is a picture of our visit to Daytona last week.

I feel really blessed to know some awesome folks. Ladies day at the beach was hilarious and just what my soul needed as we head into 2 weeks of wedding prep. Thanks friends. You're the best.

P loves the swing. We're so lucky that Grandma has that awesome tree and has let us put up swings for the kids in it. Super cool.
Birds will be birds. What you see in the back ground of us is a rare view of a peacock strutting its tail feather. M said of the event "That bird can make music with it's feathers!" It was actually kind of creepy to see it trying so hard to impress the white peacock. We posed for this picture and a nice lady offered to take it of all of us. But then we were stuck there very close to the romantic scene long past when I'd have preferred to have left them alone. Awkward. Poor birds.

Alfredo Sauce

My soon to be sister-in-law has requested that I put all my recipes together for her. So I am going to make a start of that here. I thought of doing a separate blog for it but my blog is about what I'm doing and this is what I'm doing.

It was a busy day. An awesome day of fun, activity, and 3 water events: Beach, splash pad, pool. M went to bed with just a little crying.

So we had a yummy dinner of alfredo sauce over rainbow alfredo noodles, fresh green beans, and cantaloupe with a side of jokes about fruit that had a big wedding because they cantaloupe. I'm terrible at telling jokes. But I make yummy food.

This Alfredo Sauce recipe was gifted to me by Jen K who is awesome. Each batch covers about 2 servings of noodles so you can multiply it as needed.

1Tbs cornstarch
1 Tbs powdered milk
1/4 tsp basil
1/2 tsp lemon pepper
1/4 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup milk

It's really yummy and mostly shelf stable. Jen told me that she mixes up a batch and puts it in an old Parmesan cheese can. Someday we'll get to the point of needing all her cool tricks for feeding lots of people. But for now, though we have 3 children, only one of them eats real food (and by real food I mean non-peanut butter food). So it's only a little more than just feeding the two of us.

G swam all the way across the pool by himself today. I've been letting the kids take turns swimming without their float suits. I'm so proud of him every time he thwarts death yet again.

Crying

Today was a day of drama for M. When she woke up from her nap an important piece of her outfit was missing and she would not put up with and of the offered alternatives. Crying, crying, crying for a long time.

It may have been the 9 easter marshmallows she ate on the way to the playground... I was letting G have more because he was trying so hard to say it right, that when he did I had to give them to him. So then I couldn't not give them to her for saying it right too.

Candy, what a bane.

ah Gainesville

Today we went to town and visited lake Wauburg, and no I'll never learn to spell it correctly. P still works for the University so we don't feel bad continuing to use that "in."

P went to the Friends of the Library Book Sale and I got to hang out with the fantastic M, Z and A. It's really cool seeing the kids develop and how their interactions change.

We hung out with the extended family and I got to help P's little sister with a fancy hair-do for the Mormon Prom. Cool!

I started braiding my own hair when I was 12 as a way to keep it from getting tangled at night. So now I can actually braid my own hair better than I can another person's hair. But I don't do a shabby job either.

We have a lot of family coming into town over the next 2 weeks. My oldest sister and family will be here Wednesday through Saturday. My youngest brother will be here Saturday, Sunday.
Then many and assorted family will be here in 2 weeks for my brother's wedding. Wild!

It was a great day in Gainesville. I love that town.

Cold Feet

So I'm in love with like 2 houses, how to choose! And it is really reminding me of how scary and wonderful it was to fall in love with P. I mean a house in not for eternity, but it's a big deal.

One house is close enough to G's school that we could walk if we're feeling ambitious. P could definitely bike to work if he gets a job at the school near that house... If, if iF. It has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths, enough for the family we hope to have, but it doesn't

The other is really like some dream house come true. It's the kind of house people move into once they are established rather than just scratching by as we are. Yet they are in the same price range.

when do you talk about the horrors of life

There is a church downtown that has a display of mini crosses up to represent children aborted. I don't know if it's per year or per month, in the US or abroad, but it's a lot. M has asked about them and I tell her that they are for remembering children that died. "Why did they die?" she asks.

"I don't know M" I reply.

New Movie

Yeah! I love making movies and remembering what a fun month we had
and how cute the kids are.

Mother's Day

M has this little 6 inch butter knife we found at the thrift store. She loves to use it for cutting cheese, hotdogs, bread etc... Today she was playing in the utensil drawer. I looked and saw that the knife was in the spoon slot. M said. "I put my little knife in the spoon drawer so that nobody would (pause) recognize it."

Really?

Love that little girls use of "U-cabulary" as she says it.

Yesterday we went to the temple. After watching General Conference I felt the pull to make the sacrifice and go. The 2 hour drive became a 3 hour drive. Then I was in the temple for 3 hours because not enough people to do the 2:30 or 3:00 session.

I am so grateful for the temple. It is hard for us to go right now, but it is possible. I'm grateful that we can go. I am so grateful for the blessing it is for our family to be sealed for time and all eternity.

I'm so grateful for a husband who went with me and watched the kids at the park so I could nurse the baby and go to the temple. The plan was for us both to get a turn, but it didn't work out that way. He's the best.


I told P thanks for making every day Mother's day.

P.S.
On our way home we made the mistake of stopping by Daytona Beach. Nasty in so many ways - from the excrement on the floor of the bathroom, to the expletives being broadcast at high volume by a friendly DJ on the boardwalk.

incognito

I should wear a big wig and crazy glasses more often. It's really liberating.

Instead of having a bad hair day, I could just have a big hair day.

Dance Marathon

We got to participate in the Dance Marathon at UF this past weekend. What an event! 700+ college students dance/stand for 26.5 hours. 200+ college students are there as support and facilitators. 20+ families get to come and share their inspirational stories. We were among the families and our kids had a blast running wild in the ODome and in the bounce house allllllll day.

G loves Grave Digger. It's creepy. It embarrasses me... When we showed up our family "Host" Grant took G off to color. G drew his favorite thing. Grant saw the big wheels and dashed off to return with a 10 inch Grave Digger toy. Wow!

Grant was one of the dancers last year and G had played with him down on the floor. Grant remembered that G loved monster trucks so he'd bought him one. Total awesome coincidence that he picked out G's favorite.

We listened to conference with the family on Sunday. It was great to let the kids run around and play with the toys at Grandma's house. Then switch locations to Grandpa and Grandma's house for another session. I use to wonder why people just watched the Sunday sessions. Well when you have kids it makes more sense. I love General Conference. It's awesome.