I found this today

Jeebs really needs an office. He was on the phone in a meeting for 3 and half hours- trying to hear. If you can't tell, that is our closet. Nice. (Please buy our house) Soooooo then I wondered...
What am I going to make for dinner? I went to Harris Teeter and decided whilst I was there to make fajitas. As I drove home without the bell pepper I planned on getting- I wondered if I should go to Sonic and just get burgers. The would make the kids happy- I haven't had a Sonic burger in forever- I could get Jeebs a red velvet cheesecake blast that he's been talking about fo'evah. But, I held strong and decided just to endure the whining and groaning. I made beef fajitas, fresh pico, souped up some store bought guac, and fresh refried beans made from canned pintos. I got home at 6:30 and the food was all on the table ready to go at 6:50-sans help from husband- super Nessa moment.

I piled up my plate with all my Mexican goodness and made a much smaller version for buggy who was full of chocolate chips and free samples from Harris Teeter. It was a thing of beauty. I should have taken a pic, but I didn't, cuz I was hungry. How many people partook of this feast? One, me. Yep. Jeebs would usually eat, but he came out of the closet- hehe- after 7 pm- coming down with the flu. Hooray for my miraculous yummy dinner. I should just relive my college days and live on eggs and rice.

PS SUSAN!! you are the big winner of the super duper big fun awesome prize!! I have no idea what it is and Jeebs told me in a nice smart alec way that "even [he] could have gotten that one". Whatever- so be excited be very excited- it's coming...some day...some how :) Way to go Susan and quit losing your kid in the store!! hehehee

"...shine like the top of the Chrysler Building!"

What movie? I'll send you something if you guess it right and you're not my momma- who never reads my blog anyway so it doesn't really matter. No really, I'll send you something, like my super secret super duper pizza sauce. It's not really secret, I might just post it someday.

Okay- I'm getting off track. I made an amazing discovery and y'all probably all know about it already, but it's amazing to me. Do you have water spots all over your faucets that you can't wipe off? Probably not, but I do. Whenever we show our house I like everything to be clean and as shiny as possible. I clean my bathrooms and make it all nice, but my faucets always look dull even after cleaning them. I've tried baking soda, vinegar, windex, a combo of all three- bathroom cleaner- yada yada. Nothing made them super shiny. I bought some silver cream at walmart and tried it today, but it didn't do much either. I finally decided to try my glass top stove polish. I had tried it before when we were showing our house and it looked like it got rid of a bit of the spots, but I didn't have enough time to keep polishing and scrubbing. WELL, I did this morning! I rubbed that stuff on there and VOILA! a shiny beautiful faucet. It took a heck of a lot of elbow grease and polish (note to self: get more polish) but I can see myself in those suckers now. They look brand new and it makes me so happy. Homemakers of the world UNITE! Behold...

Before:
(as I loaded up this picture Ezra held his hand under it like he was going to catch some water drips)

and after:After making this discovery- I looked on the label and it says, "for glass and CHROME stove tops." So, I'm not really as amazing as I think, but I still had to share.

Umm

Made pozole, and Texas sheet cake- then as an afterthought- thinking I might not have enough food- I made my homemade salsa. It was the biggest hit of the night. I have to say my homemade salsa is pretty dang good. Men are so funny- they also took seconds of cake. I really wanted to try it, but I resisted. I love Texas sheet cake! My salsa is very easy- it's just canned diced tomatoes, cilantro, onion, garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper, and a little jalapeno for heat. Blend it all together in the blender and magic happens- yum. Try it and you'll love it and then you can take it to a meeting with a bunch of bishops and they'll love it too :) I'm so tired, why am I blogging? gotta go to bed..........

Yang's PoZole (thanks Page)

It seems only fitting that I be making my sister's pozole today on her birthday. I have to make a dinner for a meeting of all the bishops of the stake so I decided pozole would be easy and tasty. I have never met a man that doesn't like this stuff so I hope it's a hit. Here's a step by step:
Soak guajillo and ancho dried chiles over night.


The next day boil a couple of these- or one of these and some pork- with 1/2 chopped onion, salt and pepper. Doesn't that look tasty? After it's done, debone the chicken and add it back to the cooking broth.

In your blender (note: I got a new blender, what up??) puree 1/2 onion, 4 cloves garlic, 1 tsp salt and your chiles. Remove the stems and some of the seeds before you stick them in your blender. Add some of the chile water too. Note: do not squirt the chile water on your favorite maternity sweater (I could hear my sister "stupid gee!")Remove your chile mixture and puree a 28 oz can of peeled whole tomatoes. Then add your chile mixture a little bit at a time back in until you get your desired level o' heat.Dump that out and saute it with 1/2 chopped onion until the shine goes away. I don't really know what the heck that means- cuz I think the shine always stays, but that's what yang's recipe says so there ya go. Oh- then add 1 to 1 1/2 tsp of mexican oregano. Add all that back into the chicken and chicken broth.
Bring all that up to a boil and add a #10 can of hominy (drained). Then let it simmer for an hour.This is what you get- a red hot pot o' steaming pozole. It's a lot better the longer it sits- you eat it with tortilla chips. The best part is the fresh lime wedges you squeeze over it. Lime is yummy and makes everything better! There ya go- it's cheap, easy and it's Jeebs' absolutely most favorite thing to eat. Yang saves the day again! I hope I have enough for 18 men- yikes.

And this is the scarf my momma made me- don't look at that dirty mirror- I have no idea what the kids did in there.
Don't hate because I'm so freakin' hot- and my mirror is so freakin' nasty. What in the heck do they do in there!?!

The thing about peace

After I found out my sister had cancer I prayed and fasted like I had not prayed and fasted before. I remember after breaking my fast feeling one of the most peaceful feelings in my life and I knew everything was going to be okay. While I was pregnant with Ezra I had many blessings and prayed for peace and comfort- although anxious I knew things would turn out okay. In my mind things didn't turn out okay- my sister passed away 9 months after her diagnosis, Ezra was not able to be born at home and after he was born my blood pressure stayed extremely high and I was in the hospital for a week. After Jeebs lost his job 2 years ago- I felt peaceful again. Jeebs had an offer on the table and I thought all was taken care of. Jeebs, on the other hand, did not feel good about taking the job. I couldn't believe it- you have no job, you have a job offer, you take the job, right? I trusted Jeebs and we were blessed beyond measure. He was able to do plenty of contract work to make ends meet and then some. After he waited it out- did some contract work for this same company- the job offer increased enough to cover the expense of our health insurance. That, in my mind, was a good outcome. But after thinking about all of my life experiences I have come to realize the peace comes from knowing that Heavenly Father is in control and is aware of you. His outcomes are the right outcomes. I just have to keep repeating it and repeating it in my mind. Courage. Courage. The gospel is great, isn't it?


PS Happy Birthday tomorrow Gert! I'll be thinking of you all day

FRUCTOSE! was the word of the day

If you want to know why- read this. It happened again today. ARGGHHH and FRUCTOSE!!

Ezra's artwork

I have to post this because I'm impressed with this little guy's dexterity. At 18 months or so he was holding pens, pencils and crayons correctly. I don't think I've had a kid yet that was entertained with just a plain piece of white paper and a box of crayons. I just realized there were no crayons left out of the box when he was done. I gave him a plain piece of white paper and a big box of crayons. He got up to the table, colored for a bit, returned his crayons to the box and then got down. Later, after Taylor got home he was freaking out wanting something out of her backpack. He found a small pencil she said he could have and I ripped out a piece of notebook paper for him to scribble on. Here are his creations...
He also freaked out a little today because he thought I got rid of his piece of ham. When I showed him I hadn't- he stuffed as many pieces in his mouth that he could before I stopped him. What a boy.

Dear Grandma,

(Tates and Me at the Eastman Gun Range)

Thank you for teaching me through example your whole life. You had the courage of your convictions and instilled righteous traditions in your home and in ours. Because of you no one can convince me that guns are bad and they make people violent, hormone pills won't hurt you, staying home with your children makes you less than a working woman, modesty and morals are old fashioned, sewing is easy (cuz it's not), and that butter and real mayo are bad for you. Happy Birthday- say hi to yang for me. I love you and miss you both.

Nessa

PS My grandma was a white, Christian, conservative, gun totin' woman who never shot anybody.
PPS I don't think my grandma actually toted a gun- but she was a member of the NRA for at least 25 years. She was a city gal and gun totin' doesn't accurately describe her :)

An Insurmountable Task

9:45 Friday morning the phone rings, a realtor wants to show our house between 1 and 2. Our house is in no way ready to show, but we can swing it. If you want to sell your house you have to show it, right? Right. After non-stop cleaning until 12:45, no working for Jeebs, we leave the house and are off to sit in Taco Bell and see how much junk we can stuff down our gullets. I hate eating junk food, but sometimes you just need some, not really, but whatever. 1:45, after Jeebs has put in our 3rd and final order we head to pick Percy up from the groomers. 2:05 we head home and hope the people have already come and gone. No dice. We call our realtor, no answer, leave a message. We head to Taylor's school to wait the 40 minutes for her to get out (we were first in line). 2:35 ish our realtor calls and tells us the people no-showed their realtor, so they aren't coming today. No showing- a big deal?- nope not just one time, but at about 3 to 1 ratio of no shows to actual showings- YES. I am getting discouraged. We have to 1. get people to actually come to their scheduled showings, 2. fall in love with our house enough to pay the uh hum sort of higher than market price- which is about 12k less than what WE paid for it (thank you again Obama) then 3. pass inspection- we have a few things that need to be repaired and I have no idea where or who to go to to get them fixed, and finally 4. keep them completely interested and in the game until the whole thing is finished. For the cherry on top- this has been going on for 3 plus years. It just seems completely insurmountable. I do not want to have another baby here and I'm praying for a miracle.

Messy Living Room

This is what it looks like when all 3 of my chillens play DDR. I was really embarrassed by how messy my living room was, but I had to post this because it's so funny. Really, this is what my living room generally looks like in the evenings after Tates has taken over the love seat with her school junk and Ezra has drug random things in here. Notice my scarf on the floor and the bakugan that are never played with just drug around by little brother and randomly scattered. argh.Tates also likes to take over the couch with some of her stuff and Cagey can never find his shoes because they're random places through out the house.


After being home so many days in a row I had to do a Pier 1 and Target run. My Pier 1 run was pretty successful, the Target one, not so much. I got this cute hat door hanger thing from Christmas 75% off. I thought they were so cute, but there was no way I was paying full price. Anyway- I thought if I put a glittered heart over the little snowflake I could make it work for Valentine's Day. I think it needs something else- like a border around the heart or something- suggestions? I think it's pretty dang cute and I love Valentine's Day- because Jeebs always gets me the most awesome presents hehehehe

I'm a rock climber!

Okay really I'm not and only Shelly will get that title. But, I had a guy take me rock climbing once. It was one of the funnest dates I had ever been on except I was terrified. When I think about heights- or really the falling from the heights- it makes my lips go numb. We went to Rock Canyon in Provo and did what this guy called a beginner climb. I was doing fine and then a pack of boy scouts hiked by and one smart alec yelled "you're gonna fall!" That didn't rattle me as much as the wedgie the harness was giving me. A wedgie that won't quit with a guy at the bottom of the rock looking up at your derriere. It wasn't one of my finest moments, I'm sure. When I got down he told me that the harness that I was counting on to save my life, keep me from plunging to my death, and slowly cutting me in half was, indeed, on upside down. I'm glad I didn't die because it was fun and I can tell everybody I've been rock climbing- even if it was a wimpy little climb. He took me to Denny's afterwords, I hate Denny's. It wasn't a deal breaker though- the deal breaker was when he basically told me I was dumb and he was smart. Funny- I was the one going to BYU and he was still lamenting about not getting in. hmmmmmmmmKKKKKKK

20 months old

Ezra usually helps his brother and sister get the clothes out of the dryer after they start. This time he started all by himself- without being asked. What was his mother doing? Playing dance dance revolution of course. You can send mother of the year awards directly to my house.

Cagey playing DDR

We are all loving dance dance revolution. It is hilarious to watch Cagey- if he could just stay on the beat he'd get it down. For your viewing pleasure....

Fiery flames O' Hell

Remember about 2 years ago this post? Yeah- it was freaky, real freaky. Well, Monday morning we awoke to another nice surprise. We slept in because it was our last day to sleep in and around 9:30 Jeebs ran out to get donuts (a flatbread, egg whites and sausage sandwich for me) and milk. About a half minute after he walks out he comes back in which was sort of freaky telling me, "We have to start locking the car at night- the ipod is gone, and so are all the adaptors and cables." Who goes into somebody's driveway and ransacks their car? Especially a car with an NRA sticker on the back- they probably weren't smart enough to know what NRA means (it means we will shoot yo' punk A down!- in case you didn't know). When he got back he told me that his nice pocket knife/gadget thing was gone and all the spare change- excuse me just the quarters, ya know because nickels and dimes are too hard to deal with. If you are so poor you have to rob my car at least have the decency to take the nickels and dimes- I don't even feel sorry for you. I don't feel very safe in this neighborhood after these two incidents among other incidents that haven't been documented. The more I drive around here the more I think- wow this isn't that great of a neighborhood.

It really bugs me to have things stolen from us because we would never entertain the thought of taking things from others. I don't even let my children touch other people's cars in a parking lot. I won't even tell a white lie to get Taylor out of the hell-hole of a school she's in- for fear of 1. being dishonest and 2. taking the spot of somebody who has a legitimate reason for going to that school.

So- live it up Beatrice, whoever you are, hope you enjoy the 2$ worth of quarters and the 5 year old ipod...and the fiery flames of hell lickin' at yo' butt!

Forgotten Christmas events

I completely forgot to document these things in pictures so I need to document them here while I'm thinking about it. I think I like doing Christmas-y things more than Christmas day itself. I love playing and singing Christmas music, baking cookies that make everybody sick, and decorating with sparkly things.

This year Tates and I got tickets for the Nutcracker downtown. I knew it probably wouldn't be anything like the Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov version, but it would be something fun for us to do together. We got dressed up- as dressed up as Tates would let me dress her up- and headed out sans the boys. The best part to me was the singing group from Craven Community singing Christmas songs before the show started. Taylor sang along and told me that "daddy should play this song while we're opening presents" during their rendition of Carol of the Bells. The show was pretty bad, but it is a fun Christmas tradition to carry on. I remember as a little girl trying out for the Nutcracker ballet. I didn't realize at the time that my ballet school was definitely what my BYU dance teacher called a "Miss Sally" school of dance. I'm kind of glad Tates isn't into that because I would feel I was wasting my money at any of the dance schools here.

We also decided one night that we would go see the live Nativity that one of the church's does here. It was really cold and felt so Christmas-y. It's nice because you stay in your car and just drive through and listen to the story of Christ's birth. We just had a time explaining to Cagey that angels don't really have wings. I love the Christmas season and I'm always a little sad when it's over, but this time I'm just glad to be getting closer to June when I get to meet our new addition.

Let's Go Canes!!

Jeebs got tickets to the hockey game New Year's Day so we drove to Raleigh early and had a fun, tiring day. We ate at PF Chang's- shopped Crabtree mall and then cheered on the Canes and watched them beat the Devils. There weren't as many fights this time so it wasn't as exciting to me, but still fun. We sat right down from the organ- what a fun job. Where can I sign up? (guess I would have to learn to play the organ and that dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dudda dudda duda!! song- you know what I'm talking about.

Out with a bang

We decided to send 2010 out with a bang- so New Year's Eve morning we loaded up the guns, ammo, targets and chillens and drove out to the boonies to shoot.
Jeebs was in his element- guns, soda pop bottles and tromping around in the boons. He is a southerner at heart.


I have to say the high point of the morning was getting to wear my late Christmas present from Jeebs. He got me my first pair o' Oakleys. I have to admit I thought it was ridiculous to spend so much on sunglasses, but I am in love- they are like blankets for my eyes. He got them for "cheap" on steepandcheap.com (thanks Tessa). They just really make me want to go snowmobiling somewhere.

The low point of the morning- too much sugar free candy and no bathroom in the woods. I won't go into details- woe was me.


That night we went up to the church for some DDR and Rock band with the youth. It was fun for me because I am addicted to Dance Dance Revolution. I forgot to take pictures- dang it, but I snapped a quick one as we were leaving. I didn't get Ezra in the picture, but he looked something like this.