How We Celebrated

Our family birthday tradition, as it is with so many families, is to take the birthday child out to the restaurant of their choice. After days of saying "I like it all, mom. You can pick your favorite restaurant," Jack finally chose the Iowa Machine Shed.

We also tell our wishes as soon as we make them. I've been teaching my kids since they were old enough to wish for things that unless you tell me your wish, it won't come true.

If I don't know their wishes, how can I fulfill them?

Jack wished for a gift. Nothing specific. He just was just hoping for A Gift.

Wish Granted. The next day (on his birthday) he received a multi tool and books. He was delighted. He also gifted his siblings with new books.

He was able to spend the day at Adventureland with two friends:

His birthday dinner was Rice and Beans. He had three helpings.

Then we took everyone to see Shakespeare in the Park. The play was As You Like It and the weather was miserable. Nobody complained though and I was beyond moved to be sitting on a picnic blanket with my family partaking of the Bard.

We were sitting at the bottom of a hill on Stage Left, so the action was difficult to see at times. During intermission we moved our blanket up the hill, to get a better view. Then, when the actor playing Jacques was sneaking around the forest, he used our family as a hiding spot! Stella and Creed were so involved with the action on Stage, they didn't even notice he was sitting on our blanket.

Creed (Henry) wants to see A Midsummer Night's Dream next. I think the Utah Shakespearean Festival is performing that this summer, so we should be able to make that work! If I'm not mistaken, it's the play Fred Adams is directing in the Globe.

We came home and had birthday cake. Robert made his world famous Chocolate Creme Cake.

I'm done talking about Jack's Birthday, but I reserve the right to lament how fast he and his siblings are growing up.

Different Elements of Everything

An Interview with the Birthday Boy

Favorite Snack: Olive oil and balsamic vinegar with bread or apples and peanut butter

Favorite Dinner: Beans and Rice

Favorite Cuisine: I like different elements of everything.

Favorite School Subject: Reading

Favorite Hobby: Legos or Reading

Favorite Book: Ender's Game

Favorite Sport: Tennis

Favorite Band: The Aquabats and Barenaked Ladies

Favorite Movie: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Favorite Color: Red & Black

Favorite Personality Trait in Yourself: Smart, polite, respectful, responsible

Would Like to Develop More: Patience

Favorite Physical Trait: I am handsome and strong.

Favorite T.V. show? Mythbusters

Favorite game: Nexus Ops (this is not a video game. It's a board game. Click on the link to learn more.)

Biggest Regret: Spending my money at the arcade.

What is the hardest thing you have ever done? Moved to Iowa

What is the thing you have done that makes you most proud? Read the Book of Mormon cover to cover in three weeks.

What is your goal for this year? to get more daring to try new things

What would you like to teach younger generations? pick up after yourself.

What are you most looking forward to this year? Moving to St. George

If you could have dinner with any three people, who would they be? I can't narrow it down. Harry Potter, Ender Wiggin, Master Chief, Bill Gates or Bill Cosby

If you could have three wishes, what would they be?

1. A wallet that magically appears in my pocket if I lose it and always has $200 in it.
2. Tap into any knowledge instantly.
3. Read other people's thoughts. I told him I would never want that power. I do NOT want to know what people are actually thinking. His reply? I want to read people's thoughts so that I can help resolve conflicts.

What are you most worried about? All the nuclear weapons in the world.

What would you do with a million dollars? First I would pay off dad's student loans, then I would buy an XBOX 360, Halo Reach, Ninja Plus, some cool Apps for dad's IPOD touch, everyone in my family something they want and all the people we are related to something small. And I would have my watch repaired.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Successful. That means that I would have lots of money, be a good person with a wife and kids, faithful, a return missionary, and we would have Family Home Evening.

I want to hold on longer

Twelve years ago today, I turned to Robert and I said "I think this baby is on his way."

He was born the next day.

He was the first grandson on both sides of his family.

Tiny fingers. Tiny toes. He was passed from one set of waiting arms to another like a loaf of bread. Or a football.

Then I blinked.

Breaking Bread

"Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts!" ~James Beard

Have you tried the Sullivan Method for your breadmaking? They claim it is so easy, a six year old could do it. Stella, our resident six year old, was busy doing six year old things all weekend and couldn't be bothered to bake, so I turned to our ten year old to see if he was interested in learning how to make bread.

I figured, what better time is there to have the oven at 475 for two hours than a day when the heat indexes at 110?

The recipe was indeed easy, and the result was truly satisfying. The crust was thick and crunchy and the middle was soft and chewy.

It would be the perfect addition to a hot soup in October. Or February.
Okay, okay, it's great with a salad, too but I don't know if I will be able to bring myself to heat the oven at dinnertime again anytime soon. Maybe I'll have to bake it in the early morning hours when we are sitting at a balmy 90 degrees.
I'm sick of this humidity. I am looking forward to the dry heat of St. George.
Two Weeks to go!!

Round Two

While I waited for the movie to start last night, I learned that Cartoon Network is releasing a new Thundercats series. I used to LOVE that show! I think I've written about my love for those kitty cats before.

Also, Ginnifer Goodwyn and Christina Ricci are both in new series for ABC? I'd say that American Broadcasting Company is stepping up their game. I've been hoping for the return of good writing to primetime for awhile. I'm done being stuck with the fallout of the writer's strike. (See: crappy reality tv, and too many musical montages in anything with a written script.)






And finally, I'm sitting here waiting for round two to start. Creed didn't want to come with us last night because he wanted me to prescreen HP7pt2 so that I could tell him when to close his eyes.






Today I am in costume.

Bittersweet End of an Era

Me: I just need to quickly blog about what we are doing. Hang on.

Him: (mockingly) Blog? Really mom?

Me: Yes. My readers are all wondering what we are up to!

Him: Do you mean grandma and Sara?

Touché, young man. Touché.

To be fair, I also meant him and his siblings and their offspring.

And you, of course!

Here we are, all settled into our good seats for our three hour wait. We both have books and Coke.

See you on the other side, muggles!!!

(I can't believe I'm not in costume. MAJOR FAIL. At least I carry with me the knowledge that I was sorted by the actual real life sorting hat. Gryffindor, in case you were wondering.)

Sometimes I go on dates with people that aren't Robert.

It's not as scandalous as it sounds.

I took Creed (Henry) on a date. We had ice cream.

I believe he chose a Vanilla Cookie Dough Concrete mixer.

I had a small cup of Chocolate ice cream (custard) with Peanut Butter Sauce.

We decided to spread some anonymous cheer around our neighborhood. We acquired some inexpensive note cards and wrote positive, uplifting messages on them. Then we drove around town delivering them in places where they were sure to be found. Creed even approached a couple of strangers exiting a restaurant and offered them his notes.

There was a lot of giggling and running around trying to avoid being seen. I would pull up next to a parked car and he would jump out of our car, place a notecard under the windshield wiper of the parked car, then jump back into our car and we would zoom away in a fit of laughter.

I learned that he and I have very different styles when it comes to an uplifting message.

I included poetry and famous quotes.

Here's an example:

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Creed took the "laughter is the best medicine" approach and went for those laughs.

Observe:







And here he is in Valley Junction pausing for a photo.
Dating my kids is one of my favorite activities. I love getting them all alone for an hour or two.

Inependence Day/Filipino-American Friendship Day

Happy July 4th.

We used to celebrated by roasting an entire pig and inviting everyone we knew to help us eat it.

Those were the days.

As an homage to that time, we had pulled pork sandwiches yesterday. They were delicious.


I made a flag cake the first year we were here, and I haven't been able to get out of it since. It is one of my favorite desserts of the year and the only time I buy raspberries.

We had a bunch of people over to help us eat the food. We have a great group of friends here.

I'm looking forward to next year when we can legally light fireworks again...oh, were you unaware that it is illegal to light any firework besides sparklers in Iowa? Well it is.

Home Again, Home Again

We spent the last week in St. George experiencing all of the stress that comes with trying to find a place for your family to rest their heads for the foreseeable future.

I'll spare you the details of our tour of the St. George rental property market. Despite the fact that we had tons to do, it was nice to affirm that we still like each other outside of our parenting rolls, even after 14+ years of marriage.


And even though I am really excited for the day when the last child moves out and I have Robert all to myself again, I am giddy with the thought of wrapping my arms around the little monsters by the end of today.

Positively giddy.