Because I'm Random

I went to the mall by myself on Saturday and I came home to find the guys hanging out in the backyard. Jason hates the camera and hides. Whatever. At least I have cute kids.

Eli looks really, really scared here. I guess I would too if I had Zach man-handling me. Which I do have sometimes.

Eli is sooo cute. He has the best squealy laugh ever. And the cutest little chin and nose.

So, I have lots of projects going on right now and I'm really excited about a couple of them. I just need more time to get to them. I read about this fabric giveaway at M & M Studio and I know just what I'd do with that fabric. I'm not sure when I would do it but I still think it's cool fabric.

I get these emails from my favorite store ever, Anthropologie. I like a lot of their clothes. I like comfortable clothes but also fashionable. And I love it when an item is both. However, I don't know what it would take to get me to wear these. They are saying these are the newest "off the runway darling." Whatever that means. They look really comfy but I think they are hidious for anything besides going breakdancing with my peeps on back-to-the-80's night.

And now this is about the 10th time I have gone back to edit this post to get the stupid spacing how I want it. And it's still now how I want it. Cheap crap.

The One With a Birthday and Valentine's Day

I made a variation of this cake for Jason for his birthday. I didn't want to make the whole cake cuz then we'd eat it all and I'm glad I didn't because the icing was all wrong. Instead I filled 8-7oz ramekins and then cut each in half to layer the frosting. Then I threw the rest of the batter away (I would have halfed the recipe but that never works quite right). It had a buttercream icing recipe so I thought it be really good. It calls for 2 sticks of butter (wow!) and a bunch of egg yolks. But then it said for this cake you could take out the yolks (which I'm all over because I avoid yolks whenever possible) and to add in a tbsp of water. Well, it tasted funny. So Monday night I made different frosting for the leftover cake. I used my basic recipe and it was much better.

So someone brought up something about Valentine's gifts for teachers. I was all set to not do one, as I don't really do teacher gifts. But then Gigi told me about her sanitizer gift. Well, that was Wednesday and Zach's "friendship" party was on Thursday. I didn't want to go to the store for sanitizer and I didn't have a new one laying around. But I did have a small Kleenex box. Zach is all over cutting shapes and glueing and such. So we made a little gift for his teacher. It was kind of cute. (Star Wars is totally Valentiney.) Zach secretly made me one as well and gave it to me Saturday morning. He glued a heart on a bag of M&Ms he found and gave those to Jason. He didn't even mention that he didn't get a gift from us. He was worried that Jason and I forgot to get eachother something. Oh, and Zach has decided that his named is spelled Zack, with a K. Because there is no "huh" sound in Zach, just "kuh."

On Sunday I decided to make some little apple pie tarts. I was going to make them on Valentine's day but we still had ice cream left over from Friday night. My crust was a little dry but I was too lazy to start over again (which I normally do because I want a perfect crust.) I used my normal crust and apple filling recipe but cut the apples into little pieces. They made for a quick little treat.

The One With Money, Eating and Other Goings-On

We started teaching Zach about money. He can do jobs or read me a book for a quarter. He even wiped Eli's poopy butt for a quarter. We made this Juice Carton Wallet to hold his money. He looks at the Lego website all the time at the sets he wants to see if he has enough to buy it yet. We went to the store and he choose this. He was so excited. Funny thing, he was looking on the Lego website at the Pirate sets he wants, which he does almost daily. He did two jobs and wrote them on his job list. He gave himself $99.99 for one job and $19.99 for the other which just happen to be the prices of two of the sets. He's catching on.

I took Eli to the hospital for a Feeding Team appointment. I know, I had never heard of it either. His pediatrician was concerned about him because he hasn't been gaining very much weight and he wasn't swallowing food. Which is also probably why he wakes up 1-2 times a night starving his head off. Poor kid is hungry. He loves to chew and gnaw on whole foods but he doesn't swallow them. The feeding team is a speech-language pathologist, occupational therapist and dietitian. They look at how he eats, what he eats and reactions. They said that developmentally he's fine but the way his tongue is "humped" (I'm making an example with my hand so you can tell how is tongue is--can you see it?) makes it harder for him to swallow. I didn't know this, but the Gerber Nuk nipple encourages the tongue to stay that way. But because it started that way, he would only take the Nuk when I switched to bottles. Makes me say, "huh." Anyway, they gave me recommendations that basically consists of making him eat pureed baby food. And add some butter for more calories. He's doing a lot better now.

I think the Cumberland Elementry School crossing guard is hilarious. Her husband (partner, whatever) sits in their truck and she sits in there with him in between crossing people. For the longest time I thought she had this funky old lady bufont (sp?) with a hairnet over it. I have recently realized that it is actually a fur skin hat.

My hairdresser called me the other day. I thought it was totally random. She wanted to let me know she doesn't work at the salon anymore. She has to call me again to let me know where she's moving to when she figures it out. Kind of funny. I've been going to see her there for 6 years now.

The doctor I work for decided to have people on-site do my job. So, I'm out of that job. Plus the other company I worked for finally dissolved so I'm out that, too. Which is all okay with me. Actually I new it was coming and I still have our other business to run which has become the red-headed stepchild. And I'm doing some work for the best boss ever. I'm feeling change coming around our house and it's welcome, it just may be a while before it happens.

I'm also really annoyed with this stupid blogger thing because it keeps adding spaces between my paragraphs and I don't want a bunch of random spacing. No matter how many times I delete the spaces and save it, it adds more spaces. Stupid crap.

I love talking to my sister because we can say anything and we still like eachother. I talked to her today and told her how annoyed I was with shopping right now. Seriously, annoyed. And she told me I was fat and ugly, my nose was getting bigger and I'm getting wrinkles. And that when people see me they think, "poor girl, she's just not quite there..." The funny part about it is that she is also fat, ugly, big nosed and wrinkley. And seriously, the girl wears pjs, socks with flip flops, and drives a golf cart to take her kids to school. And people think I'm not quite there?

The One With Random Pictures

Have you checked out this post yet? Did you guess right? I'll let you know at the end.

You have another test. Answers at the end but don't cheat.

Two boys, same outfit.

This is Zach and Jason summer of 2004.

I love these pictures of Zach. It was December of 2004. We were staying in Chicago because Jason had a class or something. Zach and I spent the days walking around downtown shopping.

I'm so glad I didn't loose these pictures during my great hard drive debacle. This was Easter 2007. Jason and Zach wearing pink. It was adorable.

Oh, yeah. So in that post both pictures were Zach. Have you made your decision about this post yet? The first picture is Zach, the second is Eli.

The One Where It's Been 8 Years

I remember when I first told my bishop that I was getting married. He asked how me met. We gave him the usual, muffled don't-look-at-me-like-that-yes-I-know-there-are-creeps-out-there-in-cyberspace 'on the internet' answer. He gave us this look like, "I don't say a word, I think you're crazy, but I don't say a word." He said, "OK," you know, in that tone of, "if you say so, I still think you're crazy but whatever." Now it's the most popular way to meet someone at 19%! (according to my latest Redbook mag)

(Ahhh, the skinier days...)

Thanks to Jason I've learned the following:

How to ride a dirt bike.

How to scrape ice off my car.

That rebooting solves almost any computer problem. And he'll always ask if you rebooted before helping to fix it.

How to jerry-rig almost anything.

Since we "can't take it with us" we must enjoy it now.

How to shoot a 9mm and other random guns.

If there is someone in your house or on your property that you need to shoot, you want to use the shot gun.

You don't have to be perfect and that you don't even have to try to be perfect because you can't. I think this is my favorite one. What a load off!

I'm stronger than I think I am or act like I am.

All about servers, RIS, PACS, hardware, software and other computer related things that I often just smile and nod about. Ya, I'm listening...

If you wait for everything to be perfect before doing something, nothing will ever get done.

How to trust.

The One With All The Pictures

Random pictures in no particular order. (I think I'll have to do a post with pictures of all my different hair cuts. Every picture I see of myself my hair is different.)

What child is this? Zach or Eli?

One of my first times at the range. I think he's dead.


Daddy and Zach. I love this because Jason has a real smile.


So, this guy is hot. Real hot. Especially all decked out in riding gear and jumping a few hundred feet in the air. Man I love him.

Eli has a lot of catching up to do.

Biggest sister, Larisa; Mom; Me; Middle sister, Francesca.

We're at our favorite past-time mall in Orange County, CA, South Coast Plaza. We would go there after school to hang out. We would go to Sanrio (Hello Kitty) and they had little gum, candies and trinkets for like 5 cents. We'd spend 25-50 cents there and loved it.

Matt and Zach. Cousins only a month apart. At my sister's old house in Utah.

Me, my sister, some cousins, Zach, aunt and uncle in Utah at my sister's.

My dad, mom, me and Zach at my sister's again.

My dad's parents and me and my mom's mom. December 2001 at my college graduation.

What child is this? Eli or Zach?

Jason's parents (grandpa is holding Zach so he's covered up) and their grandkids several years ago.

Zach, my dad, and Zach's cousin Matt at the LA temple when my grandma got married a few years ago.

My mom, me, Francesca, Larisa. I'm not sure where this is. Maybe Boston. Just us girls flew to New Hampshire, where Larisa was living, for her 30th birthday. July 2006. We went to Vermont, Boston, somewhere else...? Hmmm where else did we go?

The One With Zach Funnies

I love 5 year olds. They are so funny! Zach loves those As Seen on TV commercials. Whenever they're on he is glued to the tv. I was in the shower just now and Zach came in. (Our shower door is textured but clear so he can see me but it's all blurry-like.) He noticed that I was shaving and got very upset.

Zach: No! Mom! You need one of those pink thingies.
Mom: What pink things?
Zach:The things that you go like this and does this.
Mom: Whu?
Zach: Yeah, so you never need to do that anymore. You don't have to shave anymore.
Mom: Oh, right! One of those things. I don't have one of those.
Zach: Well, you have to call the number and get one.
On and on he went telling me all about it.

Can you guess what these As Seen On TV products are before looking at the link?
He asked for three of these for Christmas so we don't have to raise our heating bill (one for him, mom and dad.)
We need one of these so our money doesn't blow out the door.
If we got one of these we wouldn't have to lift a finger!
His favorite commercials feature this guy--think Mighty Putty and Mighty Mend-It.
He told me he wants to go to the place with Logan that you wear the thing around here (wrist) and you get your tickets and has the cage. Place=?*

I asked him if he wants to grow out his hair like his cousin Matt. He said yes but he doesn't want the dots. What dots? Matt doesn't have dots on his hair. No, here, on his face. Dots=?*

He is the child that understands to put the thingy on the thingy, or vice versa. But what he does with that direction will change everytime as everything is a "thing that does this."

I always ask Zach why I lose everything. He said I should just put everything in a box. That's a good idea, but what if I lose the box? Well, you'll just have to buy more things, he said.Today I was looking for something and asked him why I lose everything. He said I should just write it all down. Smart boy.

*Answers: That place is Tropicanoe Cove. Those dots are freckles.