Vistor?

Lachlan remarked the other day that we should leave the front door unlocked so that "Jesus can come in our house and he will use our tub."

It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "cleanliness is next to godliness."

The Name Game

Jack is obsessed with "what's it's name, what's his name, what's your name?"

Here's his most recent discovery during a diaper change:

Jack: Hey, dis my weenie! What's it's name?
Me: Your weenie's name is Penis.
Lachlan: (bursts out laughing, like real laughing) Penis! It's name not penis!
Jack: Yes, him name penis. (now he is also laughing)
Lachlan: Mom, you crazy!
Jack: Mom, you name him penis. Dat so funny.

Carver Reunion: Last Call

I'm posting this in two places...
JUST IN CASE:

Things to know before you go:

1) USU Campus @ 11AM. Go to the large quad in the center of campus on the east side of the Old Main Building. It is the one with the giant A on the steeple.
2) You can park in the parking terrace or the A/B Lot right next to the University Inn for FREE on Saturdays.
3) T-shirts are only for alumni and those who ever attended USU. I'm really sorry that there is some confusion about this--I'm breaking the news now so that we won't have any smeared make-up right before the pictures.
4) Ice cream is for everybody.
5) Lunch: bring your own 'main dish' AND something to share with everyone. There are no food assignments. Plates, napkins, utensils, cups, lemonade, water WILL be provided.
6) Lunch will be held at the Agricultural Systems Technology and Education building (ASTE). It is located at 1490-ish North and 800 East. Directions will be given after the pictures on the Quad. This building is held slightly off campus. You cannot walk to it from campus. Drive around to the back of the building for parking.
7) Bring a sweater, dress in layers. Trust me, it has not been very warm and the weather on Saturday will be questionable.
8) There are nice bathrooms in the ASTE building. It will not be an "outhouse" situation.
9) There is plenty of room for frisbee and other games. If you have such items, please feel free to bring them. We are hoping for a chance to get moving around after lunch.

I'm really excited. I hope that you drive safely.

Cheesecake Factory

As in...I'm going to be as big as a factory if I don't quit eating cheesecake.

I baked one.
It was a success. Last week I baked a Raspberry Rhubarb pie, it was good. This was better. The Raspberry Rhubarb recipe was from the current issue of Cooking Light. I'm a huge fan of that magazine. I've also been subscribing to Cooks Illustrated. It has slowly been inspiring me to get out of my comfort zone, hence the cheesecake. I used a friend's recipe and their (Cooks) tips for success. As you can see, I did have one little crack in the top. I have to admit that the eggs weren't quite room temperature so that may have been the culprit. The texture was very good. I even made my own cherry "sauce" for the top. I just used the standard Betty Crocker recipe. Very easy, but the sauce could have stood for a bit of lemon juice and maybe a tab of butter to richen up the flavor.

I also tried the Miso-Glazed Salmon and the Grilled New Potatoes, recipes from Cooks Illustrated for dinner last night. I had every intension of taking photographs, but completely forgot as pure chaos erupted right before we sat down to eat. The salmon was better than what you can get at the local steakhouse and if I would have known how easy it was to prepare...highest recommendation.

Mood Swings

Jack's mood changes every five minutes. He's either a two-year-old or post-menopausal. Either way, it's a wild ride. When he starts bawling (especially if he's in his room), he'll throw himself on the bed and start to ramble on about how mad he is, how everyone is mean to him, how he needs his daddy to come home from work...I would love to get it on video because it is really pretty funny. It is nearly impossible, however, because if he catches you looking at him he will yell, "You leave me alone!"

We call this, "Television Coma"--seriously, I don't even think that he breathes.

Cannot leave the house without a crocodile, dolphin or whale. Here he demonstrates that he has caught a crocodile. He is constantly telling me to "be careful or a crocodile will bite you."

Loves a good coat of toenail polish. Orange is his current favorite color. Wants to wear orange, eat orange, drink with an orange cup...yesterday, he told me that he needs an orange pillow.

When Insects Attack

Jeff is in charge of the church garden. He took the kids with him one night. While working, he hears Lachlan scream, "Dad, the bees are biting me! Help!" He looks over to see her covered in mosquitos. Jack was standing right next to her, he doesn't have a bite on him. It's a miracle she didn't get malaria.

Storm Watch

In the industry, this is what they call a 10-year rain event.
The kind of rain storm that only happens once every 10 years. These are the weather events that ruin people's basements, break tree limbs...and shred a farmer's crop.

This year it was my crop.
My hard work.
I got tears in my eyes just looking at my tomato plants without any tops, sunflowers without any leaves, zucchini that was completely wiped out...nothing even left.

Pea-sized hail for 10 minutes will do that...
sigh.

Somebody Needs a Tic Tac

Overheard in the kitchen:

Jeff holding Lachlan.

Lachlan: Dad, You got poop in your mouth?

Jeff: What?

Lachlan: Eww, you no talk no more.

Deep Canyon Hike

I decided to hike Deep Canyon in Mendon to the Wellsville ridge Saturday morning. It's been a while since I've done anything "athletic", so I was a little concerned that my plans might be too ambitious. At the very least, I hoped I would make it to the top of Deep Canyon. At that point, if my legs still worked, I would try to walk along the ridge and maybe check out the view from the Wellsville Cone.

The 4 a.m. start time was almost a show stopper. I like waking up to the sound of rain unless it is four in the morning and I know I'm going to be walking in it shortly. If it were just me going on this hike, that would have been it. Luckily I was supposed to pick up my neighbor so I dragged myself out of bed and threw some stuff together for the hike.

We made the trailhead just after 5 a.m. We hiked in the rain until about 6 a.m. when it began to clear and it started to get light enough that we could see without headlamps. Here is a shot of the trail heading up Deep Canyon in the morning light:

The hike up Deep Canyon was beautiful. Fresh and cool with lots of birds singing. This was in contrast with the vicious, cold wind we found as we reached the saddle at the top of the canyon. We hunkered down behind a big rock and layered up while we decided if we wanted to go on or go back. We decided to go on until we got tired or one of us got hypothermia.

Behind the "Windbreak"

The trail continues in the clouds

There aren't any more pictures until we stopped for lunch (breakfast?). I decided to avoid frostbite and forego the shot of white, swirling clouds during this part of the hike. We stopped to eat behind a large band of rocks that blocked most of the wind.

A nice spot for lunch

It was obvious that the storm was quickly moving east as it started to clear up on the Box Elder side of the mountains. We waited around hoping the sun would come out to warm us up and the clouds would clear and give us a view of Cache Valley. We never got the view we wanted but the sun did come out on our hike back down the ridge. In the picture below, Cache Valley is on the side still covered in clouds.

No view of Cache Valley but still a beautiful sight

Rose, thanks for sitting this one out since it was not a good hike for the kiddos and a big thanks to Dan for keeping me going. This was a fun hike that I would do again.

From Failure to Reflection

I love my friends. I know that some of my closest friends are also relatives, which may, to the rest of the world appear as an obligation. But we know the truth don't we.

Having girlfriends in particular is important.
I didn't always feel so strongly about this. There was a time when I would have said that having a best friend (for me that is Jeff) would have been enough. Forever. Yeah, I would have said that would have been enough.

But that was before,
when I lived for my education and my job.
Don't get me wrong. I've had the most wonderful lot of friends my entire life. I tend to attract a lot of attention (not always for the right reasons, but nonetheless).
But there was a time when I just had my girlfriends on the back burner and I was okay with that...

Then I quit my job to wait for our adoption to be finalized.
And I had a horrible pregnancy. And a failed adoption. And post-partum depression. And then adopted a child who (for a while) I thought was probably severely handicapped.

And my girlfriends have always saved me.
You always know that I want to have a Diet Coke with Lime.
You forgive. Even when I don't deserve it.
You validate.
And sometimes we just need to know that we aren't completely crazy awful people for having confessed our darkest secrets.

I know that there are people who have worse problems. Worse heartbreak. They have bodies that fail, children that are sick, tragedy that seems so overwhelming that you can hardly breathe when reading their stories. Some of these women are your other girlfriends.

I love you even more because you recognize that MY problems are hard for me. Even though they are less so than someone else's. That says a lot about the kind of girlfriends that I have...

Oh, I am so blessed.
so blessed.
so blessed.

Failures

"Something" ate my precious Scarlet Runner Beans. I was so shocked by their rag-tag appearance this morning that I immediately turned to pesticide. They are on life-support. It doesn't look good for them.

Beans are susceptible to failure.
I've been feeling like a bean.

The kids are eating me alive. I was awake at 2:30AM this morning. I laid there and seriously contemplated how long it would take for them to even notice if I went missing...
...15 minutes? till they needed a drink? someone to wipe their butt? dinner time? or maybe it would be when all the toilet paper rolls in the whole house were finally emptied and they had used up every "Kandoo"?...

Because I'm feeling like a bean, I think that it would be the last one. It wouldn't be dinner time because if I didn't cook them any food they would be thrilled at the prospect of just eating cold cereal and not my "nasty" creations.

If you really want to know what is really bothering me...here it is (and seriously, if you're going to pass judgement or make a comment like "oh, Rose, these are the best times of your life", please do me a favor and move along):

Sometimes I just really think that being a mom is just the worst most shitty time of your whole life. And there isn't a damn thing you can do about it because you signed on for this task and you are supposed to be loving it. And it always seems like every other "mother" that you run into has nothing but good to say about her life and how much she loves it, and oh, isn't it so cute when kids put their toothbrushes in the toilet and pee their pants until they are four years old. AND to THAT I say, NO, NO, NO, I do not like those things. And I just want my kids to grow up and quit spilling their milk all over the carpet and I don't want them to hit each other with sticks and throw sand on other people's children.

This bean is on life support! I honestly don't know if I can do this--

I'm tired and I've changed my mind.
I need a time machine, please.