Stupid Keys, Stupid Dog, Stupid Wings

At first I wasn’t sure, but now I KNOW I have definitely been having cravings! Cravings for really really spicy foods and then really sour foods. In fact, I couldn’t find anything around the house spicy enough to satisfy my taste buds. Not even the tapatillo on EVERYTHING was doing it’s usual trick. So I jammed on over to the new Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch with Sam and got the second hottest wings they serve, called ”wild,” to go. Sam had parmesan garlic wings.

We ate them on the way over to Jake’s school to enjoy the first grade “Celebrate America” program. I don’t have any kids in the first grade but I love to go because a large amount of kids under the age of 7 in the spotlight is just begging for some good entertainment. Public nose picking, outrageous outfits, funky hair. I love it.

Anyway, about halfway through the program my tummy starts to rumble and I feel sick. I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna upchuck quite yet but as I make my move to find an exit (just to be safe), my keys fall off my lap and down under the bleachers. We were sitting at the very top. Greeeeat. So I concentrate on breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth til the show is over. Sammy crawls under and snags the keys for me. Monkey children can be so useful.

We are on our way back out to the car when all the sudden Jake tells me he has to “go.” He has to go REALLY bad. Now, I don’t know if most of you know this but my first born takes an unusually long time to poo. It’s so bad that we try and plan our outings AROUND his poop schedule just so we don’t wind up standing in a public bathroom for half an hour. But I’m still feeling nauseous so I take a chance that he can hold it and zoom home.

But that puts me back in the car where the left over wings are and the desire to puke gets even stronger with the smell lingering. The second we get home I tell Jake just to run inside. In his haste though, he leaves the gate open and what happens? Da da da daaa da daaaaaa! Out runs Rincon!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that Rincon comes to me when I call, but at times like this it would be nice if he were more obedient to ANYONE else! In fact, it would be nice if he had enough brain cells to learn to just stay inside the fence, like Molly does. But, can’t teach an old dog new tricks and he’s already too far away to hear me so, back in the car I go!

I had just gotten enough fresh air in my lungs that the smell of wings hit me full force again and I almost lost it. Dry heaving all the way until I find Rincon and hop him inside the car.

I made it home just in time to spend the rest of the evening clinging to porcelain. Just in case you’re wondering, “wild” wings burn just as much coming back up as they do going down. Needless to say, my cravings for the spicy are COMPLETELY gone.

ps- Rincon just came to snuggle my cold feet while I type so I guess I have to forgive him.

Dear Baby,

Dear Baby,

I just wanted to tell you, that even though you are still so small, I love you.

If you could have only seen the look on your father’s face when I told him I was carrying you, then you would know just how much you are loved. I have never seen him as happy as when I tell him I’m pregnant. When he speaks of you, a small light glows about him. It reminds me of the day we were married.

Your brothers talk to you all the time. They whisper funny jokes to you that make no sense and then laugh hysterically. They tell you what their favorite dinosaurs are and hope that you will like to play dinos too. They always make sure to be soft with mommy now so as not to hurt you. I don’t know if I’d expect as much when you get out… but you’ll learn to like roughhousing.

Until then, rest peacefully. Safe and warm, knowing that love and happiness surround you.

All my love,

Mom

Crash and Burn

I decided that I would try cross-country skiing today. So, I went to the sporting goods store, rented me some skis, boots and poles and gave it a shot out at the local golf course (which is a popular cross-country skiing place in the winter).

Things I learned:

Cross-country skiing is hard. J

Things I didn’t expect:

Falling down. I never imagined this would be a problem. I mean, how hard can it be? Just step and glide right? Apparently not so easy for me. And it always happened on the downhill which is supposed to be the funnest part!

Overheating. I wore waaay too many layers and it got hot, fast!

The smell. Although skiing next to the iced over ponds can be scenic, you're basically smooshing over a thick layer of snow covered goose poop. Yuck!

Things I did well:

1. ….ummm, choosing not to ski on the path close to the road so that people wouldn’t see that I looked like a doofus?

Overall consensus:

I've been watching too much Olympics.

Anyway, on a better note, I came home after my cross-country experience and made something new. Fiesta Raviolis! Mmmmmm! Soooo good! Inspired by the sister’s café (my old roomie from college). Except I deep fried my raviolis and finished them off with taco toppings.

Shane Koyczen

I absolutely love that they found this guy on YOUTUBE. How amazing was his presentation? So much heart and depth to his words. Loved it!

Here was my most favorite excerpt:

"Because we believe in generations beyond our own

Knowing now that so many of us have grown past what we used to be

We can stand here today, filled with all the hope people have when they say things like 'someday'

Because we are more than just a laundry list of things to do and places to see

….

We are the abandoned hesitation of all those who can’t wait"

You Don't Know Me, But I Love You

This month's Valentine goes out to my beloved Stephanie Nielson, who doesn't even have a clue who I am but I love her so much. Her most recent note of inspiration as she was headed out for yet another painful doctor visit concluded with "ps- If you carry on, I will too."

How ...whats the word I'm looking for? Generous? Thoughtful? Simple? Profound? Kind? She knows we all keep tabs on her and often have her in our prayers on a daily basis, yet here she is STILL thinking of ways to help US! Finding ways to make the pain of her situation count for even more by showing us how to properly appreciate life.

I sat and thought for a moment what I have to "carry on" through. It made me think how trivial my last post was. Granted the humor of it was meant to be expressed through my complaints but really, how bad is it to go to a simple gyno check up? At least I didn't have my entire epidermis burned off and replaced!

This also makes me think of my son, Jacob, who is absolutely terrified of blood. When he gets hurt he normally cups his hand over the injury and comes running to mommy. He'll look away if he thinks it's truly bad and will ask, "how bad is it mom, really?" After I can pry his tiny fingers away I can see how miniscule it seems to me. Nothing a band-aid won't fix generally.

I often wonder if this is how Heavenly Father looks at our so called "catastrophes." Jacob's cuts seem small to me because I've seen a lot worse. I've had a lot worse. How insignificant our complaints must seem to Him because, He's seen a lot worse. He's had a lot worse. Yet He still deals with us with MORE tenderness and patience than I would my own Jacob.

So maybe next time we face something difficult we could all take a moment to ask ourselves.....How bad is it, really?

Humm. Perspective.

I truly love you Nie and pray for you and your comfort, strength and family all the time. But, mostly, they are prayers of thanks for you.

Gyno Visits, Booo!

The things we do in the name of health! I had to go to the gyno today for a check-up. Talk about a pain in the ….. (no pun intended). Men complain about having to turn their head and cough. I don’t mean to belittle your discomfort men but, pleeeeease! That lasts all of 2 seconds. At least you don’t have to put your legs in stirrups and have an enormous heat lamp lighting up your whoo hoo for deep inspection!

First thing I noticed is that it must have been a while since my last check up cause I felt super uncomfortable. Course I was wearing an entire outfit made out of paper but I still don’t remember feeling this shy before. Seriously, it’s a miracle women don’t have to go through some sort of therapy after an in-depth gyno visit. Talk about being exposed and violated! I tried to be tough about the whole thing but I walked out of there feeling like I just needed a hug.

Not that she was ever rough or unprofessional about it. I do actually remember at one point noticing how soft her hands were while she performed the breast exam. Nothing sexual mind you. After you’ve breastfed a child or two it’s easy to mentally switch from boobs being something intimate to public property when in a hospital setting. I wanted to remark on it and maybe ask her what kind of hand lotion she used but decided that was creepy and not the right moment.

The whole thing reminded me of going to see my last doctor (same office building) who use to talk my ear off about cloth diapers and how his wife still breastfed their 4 year old. I always would walk straight out of those appointments wanting to eat red meat and throw trash on the ground just to reassure myself that I would never be that Hippi-ish! Nooo thank you. I’m into disposable velcro and kicking my kid to the curb after a year. When they can unbutton the shirt FOR you, there’s something wrong. …Very wrong. *shiver*

Creamy Possibilities

I've been trying lots of new things lately. My personality is such that I have to keep occupied with lots of new and exciting things to keep me sane. And, what can be more exciting than making your own cream cheese!? Real nail biter huh?

Alright so not all THAT exciting, but definitely new! I got the recipe out of this do it yourself preparedness book from Jamie and Rich for christmas. I'm not sure that I'll ever be forced into a situation that requires me to know this for self preservation, but you never know, cream cheese factory workers could go on strike at any moment and then what will we do?!

Well, if you have a dairy cow near by, you'll be ok. Next best thing for me was cream from the dairy isle. Right next to the cream cheese ironically which was on sale in abundance for $1 a brick, but who wants to do things the easy way?

Heres the process as printed in the book:

Now, you'll notice in the description that it says to suspend the cream in a clean "cloth." In hindsight, even though they didn't specify (and I had no idea what I was doing) I'm pretty sure they meant cheese cloth. But looking at the stuff, you'd have to use a lot of layers of cheese cloth because it's woven pretty lose and the cream would just drain within seconds instead of hours. Anyway, for this I craftily used a pillowcase which I washed by machine and then by hand and then boiled in water just to be safe. Still don't know if that was the best idea, but I liked that it was already in "sack" form and was easy to pour liquid into. Personally, I thought it was genius!
The book recommended to hang the cream for 24 hours (longer if needed) but when the 24 hours was up, it was still pretty liquidy. So, I hung it for an additional 24 hours. The cheese eventually coagulated to the sides of the cloth and came out looking like this:
In this picture I am draining off the remaining liquid in actual cheese cloth that I discovered at the Hippie store (The Real Food Market). Turns out 2 cups of cream yeilds about 3/4 cup of cheese. You'll have to excuse these last pictures. I couldn't find the camera and had to use my phone so they are blurry. But you can see how nicely it turned out once you stir it around.
It was a little more bland than regular cream cheese but the texture was what really threw me. At first it was exactly the same texture as store bought cream cheese, but then it just kinda melted in your mouth. Very butter like in that sense. Little weird, but good. Given these properties, I decided to make my tiny morsel into chocolate cream cheese frosting by adding a little salt, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder. It was the BEST chocolate frosting I've ever had!

The most interesting part of the whole process was just learning how to do it. I was surprised to see how easy it was and that I didn't need any crazy machinery. I don't know that I would use this knowledge on a consistent basis though because store bought cream cheese is much more inexpensive. It was however, very educational.