People Watching

People I've noticed around here:

1. Obvious runners- people that are walking around with their tiny running shorts, visors, obvious runner muscles over-exposed mocking you (hahaha I'm a runner, look at us we're fabulous) and smoothie in hand.

2. Girls in bum cheek shorts strapped into harnesses jumping on a trampoline- ever exposing more bum cheek. A quick fix for that: stop wearing bum cheek shorts.

3. Skinny Utah sauntering moms. No fair- I am going to petition Obama as part of the fairness doctrine- those of us with extra weight need to have the gov't pay for our tummy tucks and lipo or all those naturally skinny moms that immediately shrink back down into pre-prego body wear fat suits... it's only fair.

4. Very forward presumptuous children that talk to me in the elevator. Don't talk to me- I'm a stranger. For all you know I could be carrying...some...kind of... children destroying something or other. (really I don't mind- as long as you don't need slapping and the little girl that talked to me could probably benefit from a good slapping, but that makes me presumptuous so...)

5. People that stand uncomfortably close to you in the grocery line or in the pool. Respect the bubble people- Respect it!

Cryptosporidium

I went swimming with my chillens yesterday in Park City. And when I say swim- I mean stand in the pool- keep Ezra from drowning and try to keep from getting rammed into by all the little kids that don't know their perimeters. When you walk into the pool area there is a sign warning about swim diapers and diaper covers because of Cryptosporidium or if you're well acquainted with it it's just crypto (also known as the 'pukin' and dukin' disease). Every splash, every jump, every accidental water up the nose- was leading me closer to this inevitable end- puking and pooping. I don't want it please.

Fish

My children went fishing. I ate fish. It was all good. Funny, I thought it would be mostly bad. (well it was for the fish, 2 swallowed hooks and went belly up as soon as we threw them back- don't worry you enviro wackos they flipped over and swam off eventually)

Pure Joy

What would it be like? Thanks Red, Ezra loves his rides down the driveway in this thing.

Another Collage O' Cagey

I had to do another one because Cagey is so dang sweet. He loves to sit as close to you (or on you) as possible. He loves chocolate and he says the craziest things.

Donut Truffle Cake

oh- so you saw the chocolate donut truffle cake and wanted to know how in the world I did it? Yeah, I know you do.

1.
You bake the most delicious chocolate cake from scratch in your bundt pan. Then you shave off all the ridges and a little of the bottom to make it look curved.

2.Then you add your chocolate cream cheese frosting (made from scratch of course) all over for a crumb coat. Then take your vanilla cream cheese frosting and pipe a wavy line around the middle to make it look like a wavy line of glaze.

3.
Then you fill in the top of the cake down to the line with your vanilla frosting and top with assorted Lindt truffles. I would've made homemade truffles, but I'm getting a little lazy in my fat years. A closer look- the smell would knock ya down.
This is what Cagey asked for- a chocolate donut truffle cake. It was good.

Collage O' Cagey

Cagey is 5! He opted for a Chuck E Cheese birthday party. He has them all planned out through age 10.

1. 6 yrs - IHOP birthday
2. 7 yrs - Olive Garden birthday
3. 8 yrs- Texas birthday
4. 9 yrs- Outback (the restaurant) birthday
5. 10 yrs - Australia birthday (or ASStralia as Cagey says)

George eats a chihuahua

I can't even explain this, but thanks George for giving me something to blog about.

You can always go DoWNTOwn!

What started out as a crummy bum day (and if you've ever had a crummy bum you know how bad it is) turned out to be kinda fun. We decided to follow the promptings of the song and just go downtown. I love downtown New Bern. When we first moved here I remember going to Stake Conference downtown and saying to Jeebs, "this is like those cool little tourist towns you get to visit every once in a while and now we get to live here!" I have always wanted to just walk around downtown and go into some of the shops or just window shop. Everybody has been talking about going around finding the bears. There are a bunch of painted bears downtown and all over the city. You go find the bears, answer questions about them and when you find a certain number of bears you get free stuff at a few businesses. So- I googled it and figured out where to get a questionnaire and a map. We picked up our map and our questions and we were off! Whoever thought of it; genius. We were out getting exercise- reading, writing, and even shopping! I ended up only buying some water and black licorice for Jeebs which Taylor broke into later and pulled out her filling. So after the a/c in the car acting funny, the dishwasher clogging up, the washing machine pooping out and Taylor losing her filling- I made hotdog fried rice for dinner with canned pineapple on the side. It was actually dang good.

Irony

My washing machine started dumping water all over my kitchen floor this morning. It took about 15 towels to mop up the mess. I have all those dirty towels hung over the table and chairs outside on the patio. All those dirty towels and no washing machine to wash them in. There must be some kind of curse because 2 years ago the week before we planned to go to Utah our dryer quit on me.

Ezra likes to tackle anybody that is laying on the floor or the couch. These boys are crazy. Cagey got a pillow case out one night and put it over his head- he made the mistake of laying on the ground and when he tried to get up Ezra tackled him back to the ground. Cagey was screaming, "Ezra, I'm not a pillow! I'm not a pillow, Ezra!"

Fringe Benefits

When you work from home there are certain fringe benefits:

1. Searching for your mouse every morning because the baby thought it'd be awesome to hide.

2. Breaking up fights between kids during working hours

3. Taking out the trash during work hours.

I'm sure there are more, but those are the top 3. I love you Jeebs- you are so longsuffering.

Smackdown in Wonderland

I went outside to check my garden this afternoon and instead I found that big nasty smoking caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. He wasn't smoking, but I assure you he wouldn't have had any trouble holding onto a zigar-att with his big sticky feet grabbers. He had eaten over half the leaves on my tomatillo plant. Before he could light up and start encircling me with intoxicating fumes I had to smash him. I picked up Cagey's baseball bat and smacked the *#%$%# out of him, literally. I took a picture of that too- you wanna see it? of course you do! Go ahead click on it and get a good look.That green gluck is my dang tomatillo plant that smug little nasty thing enjoyed before I smashed it out of him. Sick yet? I was dry heaving in the backyard. I really need to stop gardening- until it's my last resort for food.

Dinner at home

I snapped a few pics of our dinner. Cagey is sad because our dinner isn't "from a place". Taylor is sick of me taking pictures. Jeebs is choking it down. Ezra is eating a ton o' green beans which will aid in the filling up of his diaper later. I'm trying to make a face to make my face appear thinner than it really is.

The actual proposal...why not add the real thing

Jeebs proposed twice- I guess subconsciously it wasn't enough for me. The first time he proposed with a ring pop. We were going for a drive in the mountains. We were constantly escaping to the mountains because it was cool and I had to keep up the facade that I was an "outdoorsy" girl. (I lied about being the outdoor type) Well, at the time I did want to be in the mountains to escape my air conditioning nazi of a roommate.

We drove up through Provo canyon and headed towards Kamas. We stopped at a gas station to fill up and somehow I just knew he had bought a ring pop. I guess I should back up and say we had "dated" for maybe a couple of weeks, but on the drive back from Texas to visit my family we started talking about marriage...and how we knew we were going to get married. (Another story for another time) Jeebs got back in the car after paying for the gas and he had that little "I have a surprise for you" air about him. We drove up and around the High Uintas until we got to a place we had hiked just a few weeks earlier. We decided to pull over and get out. I walked ahead and plopped down on a rock- Jeebs stood beside me and we talked about our future. I was scared to death and thought things were moving at rocket speed. Then Jeebs had to put the throttle to ludicrous speed and got down on one knee. It was surreal...and scary. The only thing I remember is that he had the ring pop and he said something about marrying him and I said, "I guess so." I just have to add- we drove home by way of the billboard that had the picture of the ring I wanted. The only ring I wanted- I pointed to it and said "that's what I want." He didn't see it and I wanted to be surprised with what he got- and I was surprised (yet another story).

The second time: He picked me up from my sweltering apartment and he told me we were going somewhere so he could give me something that was round and had something sticking out on one side. Jeebs had his famous Jeebs smirk- which let me know there had to be a twist. We drove to Bridal Veil Falls and I was excited to see my ring (that's what it had to be right?) We got out and he went around the back of the car and popped the trunk. I got out and he had a big bouquet of flowers and an American Eagle bag. I took the flowers looking them over for a ring, nothing. I took the bag and opened it. There was a visor inside- round, with something sticking out on one side. I knew there had to be a catch, but I saw nothing. After looking at the visor and then putting it back in the bag Jeebs prodded, "Try it on." I put it on and asked how I looked- still not understanding what was going on and trying not to show any disappointment with this anticlimactic gift. Then he tells me the tag is sticking up and as I went to shove the tag down inside the visor I felt it. I pulled it out and Jeebs again got to one knee and proposed again. I think that time I actually said, "yes". We walked down the trail towards bridal veil falls as a newly engaged couple (this time with a ring) and all I could think was, "I am scared to death and Jeebs must not have seen the ring on the billboard!"

Tomatillos!

Tomatillo salsa and dressings will be coming soon! Lots of Cafe Rio nights- yum.

Recurring dream

For the last several years I've had this same dream that I am only dating Jeebs and waiting and waiting for him to propose. Sometimes it's a little scary because I realize we've done things that only married people should do and I think in my dream, "oh my gosh, what are we doing? we've got to go talk to the bishop!" Then I wake up and thankfully remember that we are indeed married- phew! Last night I had the dream again- this time he had taken me on a very romantic date and I was sure this was the night he was going to propose. He took me on a cool hike- that was partly outside and partly inside a weird building. He also designed a really pretty necklace and gave it to me. But, no proposal. This dream is getting old- when the heck is he going to propose? We have 3 kids- it's time honey.

Maybe it's because our life is so dreamy :)

DAy after DAy

Tates is sick- writhing in pain with her stomach. She hasn't thrown up, but she cries and cries in waves. Cagey has whined about his stomach too, but he's not crying or throwing up. Ezra just whines and cries because that's what he does and he has 4 teeth coming in. These are the days that try women's souls. There are illegal fireworks going off everywhere and we just saw a fox come out of the woods, right after seeing something else dart through the dark backyard- Jeebs and daddy say it was a rabbit. If it were a rabbit that is the biggest dang rabbit I've ever seen. Maybe a were-rabbit.

Update: Tates finally puked and I was unprepared. I was holding her in her bed as she writhed around in pain and then suddenly said, "I have to throw up!" I jumped off the bed and grabbed the first thing I could get my hands on. It was a hat box I creatively mod podged and Tates put all her little trinkets in it. I grabbed it, ripped off the lid and held it for her to puke in. She had already put the vast majority of her stomach contents on the floor. On top was the bag of her most prized legos and she seemed to stop mid-heave and look at me as to say, "I'm not puking on my legos ma!" I ripped out the legos and let her cover the rest of the contents in vomit-o. Oh how I hate vomit-o!

Bonnets by Bonnie (or vogueing pioneer style)

My mom has been struggling with a pinched nerve in her neck. She pushed through the pain and made me this bonnet today for my sing-time. That is pioneer power! Pioneer children complained as they walked and walked and walked......not momma.

Finally

We got out of the house and rode the Minnesott Beach ferry. It was so cool- it's one of the ferries you just drive onto. I've never ridden one like that and the best part- since I haven't yet received my Obama money- it didn't cost anything. We went to Beaufort afterwards and took a ferry tour. We finally got to see the wild horses on the banks of Carrot Island! Our tour guide said they were males, but Jeebs was able to positively identify one as a mare. I won't describe his identification process. Pretty sure we saw a movie being filmed overhead as well- I wonder what movie? Man, has anybody received their Obama money yet? I'm just curious.