A Decade of Love: 6 Month Anniversary

I like to mark just about any anniversary so I made sure we did something totally awesome for our 6-months of dating mark.

We went out to dinner at one of the taco shops we frequented. I was pretty used to being the only non-Spanish speaker there and felt I could order on my own at this point. The one we went to that night is 70% kitchen and sweltering hot even in January. Then someone opens the door and a blast of frigid air chills you, the door shuts and it's sweltering again. It's all part of the experience.


Then we went to Iceberg and got ridiculously big shakes and made ridiculous faces.

You can see where our kids get their photogenitics photogenicism photogenicity photogenicness. Bah! One of them has to be a word!

And here are some other things we did that January. We went to the Dye family cabin in Scofield.

 Justin misses this coat. He loses it in Alaska 7 months later.

We never could be serious for very long.

This is in my parents' front yard. My brother Thomas pulled us around on my tube with the 4-wheeler. My dad was in Alaska at the time and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have wanted us to do this on his lawn were he home.

 I don't have any pictures of me wiping out but here's proof that I did.

The Post With No People

Allow me to show you a few points of interest around my house.

1. The neighbors' wall tent. Our new neighbors put up this wall tent in their backyard to store all the stuff that had previously been lining the side of their house (their garage is full of stuff). It is an improvement over the old barbecue and yard tools. Unfortunately, it is also home to a few neighborhood feral cats. I watched a cat carry a lifeless baby gopher in it's mouth right into the tent. The neighbors are in for a few surprises come spring.

 2. Sarah's map of the United States. Do you notice anything on this map that you have never ever noticed before?

 What about now?

Whaaaat? you say? What the piece of Minnesota in Canada! I noticed this the other day as I was walking past and it stopped me. How have I graduated college and looked at maps a lot and never noticed this? Naturally I went straight to Google maps to solve this geographical mystery. This little notch of America is technically a "practical exclave" and goes by the name of the Northwest Angle.  152 people live here. I imagine this bit of knowledge will be a final Jeopardy answer at some point or at least the winning question in Cranium. You're welcome.

3. The pancakes I made on a school day. Contrary to how I portrayed my breakfast making skills in my last post, I actually like making pancakes and I'm quite good at it. I like to eat them too. I am just not focused enough in the morning nor allow myself enough time to make them on a school day. Well last week I attempted it. They turned out great but Sarah missed the bus.

 4. Sarah's sunflower sprout. Sarah brought home a cup of dirt with two sunflower seeds inside. To my dismay the seeds have sprouted and are growing at an alarming rate. What do I do now? Transplant it into my yard? Last summer I looked out my kitchen window and noticed a tiny sunflower springing up so I put down my spatula, tore it out then went back to making dinner.

 5. My new coat. It has been over 12 years since I bought a coat. Thank you, after Christmas clearance.

 7. The cribbage board shaped like a boat. I got this for Justin for Christmas. We play cribbage when the kids are in bed sometimes.  I was terrible at keeping score on our old board because I would get mixed up and change directions. So this was kind of a gift for me too. I haven't won with this board yet which makes me think it was only due to mixing up my score that I ever won.

 8. Our new license plate sticker. Both of our cars expire in January (not such great planning). One of the new stickers arrived in the mail the other day and it was weird for me to see a 17 when I'm just now getting my mind around 2016.

 9. Henry's snowman. I just like it.

 10. When I came downstairs from putting Erica down for a nap, I found this on my kitchen rug. Henry told me a rabbit put it there to make a snowman later.

 11. Henry's boots. After a couple of days of Henry's soaked socks, I figured out the reason why. He wore down the soles of these boots quite a bit last spring dragging his feet while riding the balance bike and they finally cracked through this week.

So there you have it. An entire post with no cute faces of cute, misbehaving kids.

January: The Worst of Months

That title is going to annoy Justin. He asserts that no month can be worse than another, just like Mondays can't be worse than Fridays. He likes all the days and months and seasons equally. Yes, they're different, he'll concede, but they all have good things. Time is what you make of it.

Well what do you make of time that is frozen, ugly, bleak, boring, and never ending? Because that's what January is. But I am trying to be more positive about January now that we are half way through.  Here's my list.

Things January is the Best For
1. Clearance sales
2. Making me think it's never too early to buy Valentine candy
{{foot tapping, gazing around}}
3.

I'll have to come back to that.

Here's what we've been up to. Justin has been working boatloads (I'm trying to refine my language) of hours on a big, never ending project. Sarah has two dangly teeth that I just want to yank out of her mouth but she won't let me. Henry can clean his room and walk into preschool by himself (he's done each once but I'm trying to be positive, remember?) Erica likes to tell us to not say things. "Don't say cute!" "Don't say sleepy!" It's super cute. For now. As for me, I've been running to windows and outdoors whenever the sun is shining, like a lizard basking on a warm rock.

Onto what you're here for: Pictures with explanations.

Erica let me put her hair in pigtails and didn't pull them out. Progress! I just love me a toddler in pigtails.

 This is in the morning before church and she wore them all day.

 Henry wanted his picture taken with Camping Mickey that he just found. Apparently he'd been lost for a long time.

One of Justin's Christmas presents from me was a pie every month. I don't like pie or making pies so this is extra generous of me. But I like the culinary challenge. January's pie was a chocolate cream pie. We all agreed the chocolate was too dark. The texture was great but maybe next time use semi-sweet instead of unsweetened.

 We all agreed the cream was the best part. Henry requested next time we make a pie that's just whipped cream.

 For a couple of days Sarah and Henry were really into making stairs for Erica. I don't know why.

 Erica loved being the center of their activity. I did not love being blocked out of the dishwasher. The game is now banned.

Here's how our mornings go around here on a school day: At some point around 7:30 I finally come to grips that I have to get up as these children are not going to feed themselves. Well they'll feed themselves bread and chips right out of the bag on the couch while they watch cartoons. Henry has usually been up for 20-30 minutes already and is watching TV. Sarah may or may not be awake and may or may not already be dressed and watching TV with Henry. Erica is just waking up and kicking the wall from her crib to let me know she's awake. I get Erica up, come downstairs, call the other children to come upstairs and start taking breakfast orders. "No, I'm not making pancakes, that's Dad's thing." "I know you want cereal. That doesn't help me. What kind?" "Henry, have you gone to the bathroom yet? Because if I pour the milk and you leave the table, your Life will be mushy and you won't get more." "Sarah, less talking, more eating." "Erica, I'll get you a cutie after you finish the toast you ask for." There's some loving things like "What's everyone excited about today?" and "Guess what has to be clean before you can play??" Sarah brushes her teeth, washes her face, gets her shoes on while I make her lunch, then I do her hair then she runs out to meet the bus in front of our house at 8:28.

This is from Monday. Sarah: Why are you taking pictures of what we're doing?

 Erica gets 90% of her daily calories from whole milk. Cuties, Chicken in a Biscuit crackers, and boiled eggs round out the other 10%.

Henry was waiting for his pancake to warm up in the microwave (leftovers from when Justin made breakfast) by sitting on the heat vent. I did the same thing when I was a kid. Kid, teenager, college student...last week.

Yesterday Sarah's class did their animal report presentations. Half of the class chose snakes. I know all about snakes now. The other half did tigers and kangaroos. Sarah's report was on kangaroos.  At the end they had a question and answer portion. There was never really a consensus on any answer. Sarah is the third shortest kid in her class (she can name who's shorter than herself) but like the 4th oldest.

And that's pretty much our life thus far this year. What do you like about January? How many times can your kids handle the Bean museum and the mall playground? Which store has best toy aisle?

New Year's and Justin turns one year older

Justin worked from home on his birthday. "Work from home" means he went over drawings while the kids ran around really loudly asking him to do stuff. 

 These chocolate covered almonds are his Cadbury mini-eggs. And they work well to bribe the children to do housework.

 Erica was super excited to watch him open presents.

 I got him a chicken leg smoking rack.

 And a woman's shoe organizer.

 He went shooting with his friends that afternoon and then he and I went to the Black Sheep Cafe for dinner. We had never been there but had heard good things. Those good things were accurate because it was delicious. The last couple of times we went out to eat the service and food were disappointing so it was extra wonderful to eat a good, fun, interesting meal. Our love of eating new food is one of the 3 things we have in common.

Then we went to my parents' house to pick up the kids and eat birthday pie. This pie. It has dethroned cheesecake as Justin's favorite dessert so that's saying something.

 I call this picture "Blessed"

 Sarah made him a birthday paper airplane.

Sarah really wanted to stay up until midnight but we didn't even think the two of us would make it so we had a pretend countdown at 10. Thank you Netflix,

 Then we let her watch another one.

 Happy New Year (East Coast)!

Good-bye 2015. The year that brought me the worst cough I've ever had, the worst sinus/ear infection known to man (my left ear will never be the same), a finished basement, and the return of one set of parents and the departure of the other.

Hello 2016. May you be full of healthy, growing children, an awesome 10-year anniversary, a decent newly elected president, and a garden that actually grows something.