Updates on Stuff

Last night: Easter Eggs

Can you believe it's snowing again today? And is supposed to continue till the weekend? I think it was almost 70 degrees yesterday (albeit windy like you wouldn't believe). I went out running this morning...tried to convince Mike-L to go with me, but he wimped out. Just kidding. Mainly it was because we have a 19 month-old who doesn't babysit himself. Couldn't find my iPod (Which of you kids horked my iPod!?)...but that's OK...sometimes I like to just hear what's happening around me (even if I go slower).

Things are gearing up for the second annual NPA (our kids' school) 5K in a few weeks. I'm in charge of finish line/race course again this year - which is fine with me. I think that's the funnest place to be at a race. The race raised a lot of cash for the school last year, and I think overall, was a big success. Anyway, my sister, Beth and her husband started up a race-timing business this year and have volunteered to donate their time, equipment and expertise for our race (woohoo!). We just had to buy the magnetic timing chips. This makes my job this year about 100 times easier. Still I've got some logistics to take care of - and that's been occupying some time lately.

I've also been working on garden planning for this season. I've got my seeds ordered and the garden mapped out...I just need to get out there one of these days.

In other news: we're talking a lot about whether to put the house back on the market this year.

*Big Exhale*

Every time we put this topic on the shelf for a while it seems to resurface. We've been out looking at houses here and there, but then we just can't bring ourselves to put the house up for sale. It was such an ordeal last summer, all for not. Do we really want to deal with that again? It gets harder to think about moving the longer we're here...but if we're ever going to make the change now might be best. In case you were wondering, law school appears to be on the back burner again. Mike took the LSAT again a while ago...and did better, but, in terms of feasibility right now, it would be really difficult.

Anyway, I'm kind of tired of trying to decide, so if anyone knows what we're supposed to do, let me know. :)

Simple Food: Bread.

Making our daily bread is a long tradition in my family. I'm sure I was the only kid in my elementary school (besides my brother and sisters) who's sandwiches were always made with homemade bread. I got a lot of questions. My sister Holly had it even better. Because of a wheat allergy she had to bring RICE CAKE sandwiches to school. (hahahaha...Sorry Holly, that's still funny to me.)

Growing up, making the bread was a rotating chore, like vacuuming. Still, I never got really good at it. After I got married I didn't really bother with it at all until about 5 or 6 years ago. Mike's mom took me to a bread making class at Bosch - and I was inspired again.

Making a big enough batch in my Kitchen Aid has been an on-going challenge (not enough horse-power for bread dough) so lately I've ditched the mixer (since I don't have a super sweet Bosch) to do it my Grandma Sampson's way: by hand.

In fact this was her bread making bowl...another thing I inherited before she died.

She had this idea about soaking her wheat after she ground it for a few hours...some mystical voodoo thing about the 'living' wheat germ. I don't know. My brother-in-law, Bruce, follows her method with fantastic results. Anyway, somehow my kids actually prefer homemade wheat bread. Whenever I make it they eat all the loaves within a day or two -- toast, butter & honey, sandwiches. I can't complain. I just need to make the time to bake more. Mmmm. Warm bread.

Boogie Nights.... and Boogie Days

The "Thanks Paterec" party was dynamite (again). Here are some highlights:

Dance like you're Irish!

Bros-in-law.My mom even wrote and produced an original play with all the kiddos entitled, "Thanks, Patrick." It was awesome.

Today Jess and I went to Snowbird with my sister, Beth. We had lots of fun. It was a REALLY beautiful day up there.
Beth in the parking lot at lunch.

The last hour of the day we made videos of our dance grooves (I'll let Beth post the vid. of herself on her blog). Here are a few :




Hope you've had a good week too.

Bring on the Blarney

With a name like SULLIVAN St. Patrick's is always a big deal for my family. One of the most festive times of the year.

Stuff we love about St. Patrick's Day...

* The annual family party. Besides our Halloween get-togethers, this is the most anticipated celebration of the year. This year's Patty's bash will take place tomorrow instead of today - since my parents are out of town till then. The invitation this year was created by Grace:("Thanks Paterecs" - my madre loved it so much she kept it, and sent them out as written.)

There will be lots of music and dancing/Irish stepping, corned beef & cabbage (of course) & soda bread, crazy wearing of the green, games, cousins, the blarney stone.... We're all looking forward to it.

*The other "tradition" (I say that loosely) my kids eagerly await is the once-a-year Lucky Charms breakfast ...(I'm rethinking this one after I got the "shakes" this morning about an hour after breakfast - and had no energy to go running. How do people survive on that stuff regularly? *bleck* If it didn't have a leprechaun on the box...)

And now...back by popular demand...(ok, just one or two requests), Mike's JibJab from last year.

Viva St. Patrick's Day!

Take It Easy

Lampposts in the snow remind me of Chronicles of Narnia

We had possibly the last snow of the the season yesterday...but then again, this is the Rockies, one should never say never. It was such a pretty snow. The huge fluffy, wet kind. Tentatively we'd planned to spend a day at Snowbird - but Mike worked late the night before and................mostly it comes down to us just wanting to do squat. So we spent most of the day indoors - reading, movies & what-not. We took Jess to the barn, ran a couple of errands...but that's about it. Low-key days are too few and far between.

Bookshelves and more Bookshelves

Our project yesterday and today...

I've been eagerly waiting for Mike to suddenly become carpenter-guy and make me some awesome built-in bookshelves...for like 5 years. So finally I opted instead for IKEA...Mike got pretty good at putting them together though.

(Let me draw your attention to super cool embroidered table-topper my mother-in-law, Jacque, gave to me for my birthday. It's beautiful. I love it... not least because it was begun in the hospital room where I delivered Sully - she worked on it all that day - and just recently finished it.)

...Pluto having a look...

I told Mike it made us more like grown ups to have more sophisticated bookshelves in the living room...what do you think? Do we seem more mature to you now?

35

My birthday was busy.

We woke up and rushed to the church to clean it before a scheduled baptism. It was for a good cause - and really wasn't a big deal. + Mike took us to breakfast after.

Later we picked Jessie up at the barn (someday I'll truly be able to say she was raised in a barn) - and came home. Sully went for a nap and Jessie went for a shower. Finally, around 2:30 we headed out with all our gear and the Space Donkey to do some snowshoeing. Our first destination was too slushy/muddy - so we went instead up Millcreek Canyon. We didn't really need snowshoes - it gets a lot of cross-country ski traffic. We walked up a ways to the same place I went with my brother and his family a few weeks ago. We packed down a nice little sledding hill and had some fun.

Get 'em up.

Mike's intention here was to get the dog to pull him down the hill - as you can tell, Jupiter wasn't clear on the plan.

Even though it was a lot of driving when all was said and done, and the kids, dog and parents had been cranky more than once - it was good.

After we'd dropped the kids off at home with dinner and instructions Mike took me downtown for dinner and to see The Young Dubliners. Good, fun, Irish. I could have passed on the stumbling drunks (Irish rock probably lends itself to that crowd)... but really good music. Thanks, Mike!

35 years. Where did it go?

Various

Running in the falling snow was WET today. When I got back I was damp through two layers, not to mention my feet. While I was running I was thinking I should have worn goggles instead of sunglasses - I kept having to wipe them off, and melting snow dripped down into my eyes.

Sully in my glasses after my run...after I wiped off all the slush.

(*side track* Nike+ says: 2.28 miles @ a pace of 8:04/mile - and Tiger Woods came on at the end to say "Great job! You burned some SERIOUS calories!" Hahahaha. I love that feature...but I wonder if Nike is rueing their decision to have Tiger cheer us all on, considering his recent mega-contraversy. Last time it was Lance Armstrong telling me how awesome I was.)

I'm happy to see the snow. #1. Utah needs it. #2. We're snowshoeing tomorrow for my birthday. So, snow is good.

Check out this pretty moon shot I took the other night with our point and shoot from our bedroom window.

We went to parent-teacher conferences yesterday. Overall it was much more positive than last time. Everyone is doing pretty well as far as grades are concerned, and more improtantly everyone's teacher is pleased with and supportive of our children. Noble's teacher had one concern: one or two drawings she's found on his work. Here's one she showed us.

I was thinking, "Yeah, we definitely need to have a talk with him." She asked us if he plays a lot of computer games, etc. We told her we don't even have any violent viedo games (unless you count Lego Star Wars - where the guys break into Lego pieces).

After talking to Noble, it turns out this drawing is pretty much plagiarised from Diary of a Wimpy Kid (his favorite book series - totally funny books): I hope I'm not infringing on any copywrites here -> (if you look closely you can read a little of the context of the drawings)

I'm thinking of emailing this to his teacher in explanation...but then Mike pointed out that they might mistake the meaning and ban the books (pulling them from the book fair shelves where we saw them last night). Anyway, we were relieved, although it reinforced to me how TOTALLY impressionable he is.

Ahhh....parenthood.