I was looking around in the picture file on Steve's computer and I found an entire huge file that I never knew existed. It has a ton of old pictures in it. I had so much fun looking at them last night. I thought I would share a few with you.
First there are the pictures of the bedrooms I decorated right after we bought our last house. This was Zac's room. My sister-in-law, Sheila, helped me paint this wall. It was so much fun. It was kinda hard to paint over it when Addy was born, but we did. Slathered a nice purple right over the top.
And this was Emily's room which she eventually shared with Aubrey, after she came along. And when Addy came along, we painted over it with a nice army green for Zac.
And BLAH! This one makes me want to vomit. This was Steve's and my old room until, of course, Addy came along and I very happily painted over this one with bubble gum pink for Emily and Aubrey.
I had almost forgot that I used to have short hair. This was back in the day when Steve used to highlight my hair. Good work baby! I might have to put you to work again. I forgot what a good job you used to do.
The awesome pumpkins we spray painted one year for Halloween.
I have given them far to many warnings, and now, the fingernail polish goes in the trash. Emily and Aubrey have a nice little array of fingernail polish that they have received as gifts. I told them they could keep it as long as they keep it up where Addy can't get into it. But for some reason they don't seem to be able to do that. So in the trash it goes. This child. I love her. I love her so much. But she makes my right eye twitch nervously. This isn't the first time she has done this, and now we have fingernail polish on the carpet in Emily's room, on the floor in the girls bathroom, and on several of Addison's cutest outfits. And now on her shirt Uncle Sam brought her home from Mexico. Here is a picture of her toes she painted a few weeks ago.
So I had to go and get a new phone today. Not one of my most favorite things to do ever. Ya know, for me, I just could care less what my phone looks like. As exhibited in the above photo. I liked my phone. It has been a good little phone. Except for this past weekend when it wouldn't charge. And then it died. And it still wouldn't charge. I really didn't want to have to go and get a new phone, but I really didn't like not having one either. So I broke down. How did people ever used to live? Before cell phones. Anyway. Steve had a defective phone several months ago and he upgraded, but they sent him a replacement so I took the replacement in to have it activated as my phone. The man there thought I was crazy for wanting to activate such a dinosaur. I don't even think it is a year old. And he kept talking about Steve's new phone that is a couple of months old like it was an old phone. I had no idea phones had such a short coolness factor life span.
Anyway, he kept telling me I didn't want to activate such an out of date phone. I could get a new one for practically nuttin. He said, "Unless you just don't care about things like that". So I picked up my red dinosaur and said, "Does it look like I care?" (I don't know if you can tell by the pic, but the face is so scratched up I can hardly read what it says) He said, "No, I guess not." But alas, he talked me into this cute little new one:
But this is why I am really irritated though. Since my new one couldn't hold a charge or turn on or anything, they weren't able to transfer my data over. I had like 100 phone #'s stored on that phone. I kinda feel like I'm walkin' around naked now, without my digits. Not to mention how much I hate learning how to use a new phone. I was very comfortable with my red dino.
You know what is really annoying? Craving cereal and realizing that you don't drink milk. Downright irritating. So I'm just eatin' it straight out of the box right now. Not the same. But it is fruit and yogurt special K. Only there is too much of the K and not enough of the yogurt clusters.
I put my memory card in the computer to download pictures just a minute ago and found about 50 pictures like this. I guess I know what Emily has been up to.
And unfortunately I don't know enough about what this one has been up to. Here she is all complete with self applied mascara and lipstick. Notice the dual bruises on her forehead. Last week she came running across the driveway to me and biffed it. She knocked a bruise into one side of her noggin. Then the very next day she was coming down the stairs and took a little tumble and added the second bruise. The day that happened she had these 2 big knots and she kinda looked like a Klingon. I am scared to take her into public because I am sure people are going to think I might have something to do with the various array of bruises on her body. I guess in a way I do. She has inherited the grace that my family so perfectly exhibits.
Zac had his first Court of Honor the other night. He received 5 merit badges. He worked hard over the summer to earn those. I would post a picture, but I am in it, and I am feelin' much too vain right now. But really, you should see me. Scary! I kinda can't believe I was out and about in public like that. But I digress. Way to go Zac! He earned all 3 citizenship's and his swimming and life saving merit badges.
The other night, my neighbor invited me and a few other neighbors over to make jewelry. It was so much fun to get together with my neighbors and have a girls night. I am sad I didn't take any pictures, but here is the jewelry I made.
Addy got her first real haircut about a month ago. Ii is cut short and it is so cute on her. She loves her new hair and she gets very angry when I try to brush it. She says, "NO! The girl fixed it and made it look pretty! DON'T MESS IT UP!"
This is one of my favorite things to make because :
A) It is easy B) It smells good all day long while it is cooking C) I always have all the ingredients for it on hand D) It is versatile E) Everyone likes it
I just put chicken breasts in the crockpot and dump in a can of black beans, corn and rotel tomatoes. I use mild rotel, because despite me Texas heritage, my taste buds are babies. I let it cook all day in the crockpot and it really does smell terrific. Now you get to the options. Sometimes I just serve it with chicken breats intact and all the mixture over it, with rice and salad on the side. Sometimes I dice the chicken and serve the whole thing over rice.
But my most fav-o-rite way to serve it is as smothered burritos. Mmmm, mmmm. I shread the chicken, mix it with cooked rice, load it into tortillas, smother them with green burrito sauce, add a little (or a lot) of cheese, and bake. Oh yeah. It's that good. My mixture above made 2 pans of burritos this size.
When my grandmother was here visiting, I had a little chance to explore my roots. We went to Tolman Park. Tolman is my mother's maiden name. This park is named after our ancestors. I thought I would include some pictures for those of you who might be interested, but feel that you live too many states away to come and visit.
We were also able to visit the Thomas Tolman Family Genealogy Center (we are direct descendants of Thomas Tolman) and see many pictures of our ancestors. It is something I have been meaning to do for a long time and I am glad I was able to experience it with my grandmother and my mother.
We also had a little family bonding time while making a recipe for
Grandma Tolman's Refrigerator Pickles
I, for my whole life, have hated sweet pickles. Blah! But back when we had my mother's birthday party our friend Kami brought the refrigerator pickles she made from this recipe my mother gave her. I refused to try them, but Kami guilted me into it saying something about my heritage, blah, blah, blah (I ♥ U Kami!). So I tried them and I actually liked them. Here is the recipe if you are interested. It is my great grandmother Tolman's recipe, and it surprisingly easy to make.
Mix in large bowl: 4 cups sugar 4 cups vinegar (white or apple cider) 1/3 cup plain salt (not iodized) 1/4 tsp turmeric 1 1/2 tsp. celery seed 1 1/2 tsp. mustard seed
In gallon jar (or 4, 1 quart jars) place sliced, unpeeled cucumbers and alternate with layers of sliced onions (about 2 medium onions). Pack tightly in jars and pour liquid over them. Put lid on and refrigerate. They will be ready to eat in 7 days. These can be kept in refrigerator for up to 8 months. Juice can be reused during this time if all the cucumbers are eaten. Needs no processing.
It is funny having these in my refrigerator because I can remember always seeing and avoiding them in our fridge growing up because I thought they looked so nasty.
My last post started out as a stuck in my head post and turned into a favorite movie clip post. The Big Chill is one of my very most fav-o-rite movies ever in the whole entire world. The only thing is, I haven't seen it in like, a decade almost. I gave it up for lent, or somethin' like that. But I do listen to the most fabulous soundtrack on a regular basis. After I did that post yesterday, I sat and watched a bunch of clips. I almost feel like givin' in and watchin' it. I mean, I practically did watch it yesterday with all the clips.
But it made me start thinkin' about my favorite movies. I have 5. I don't think I could put them in any kind of order of which I like best. You already saw some clips from one. Here are the other four, like I said, in no particular order.
Move that melon of yours and get the paper if you can, hauling that gargantuan cranium about!
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
And how can you not love this one? I mean, could you possibly find a more smokin' cast than this? You know what I'm sayin'?
And of course, the movie I can quote from beginning to end.
So, now you know my top 5 favorite movies. What are yours?
Oh, and you get a *bonus point if you can tell me what movie the title of my post is from. It's another one of my favs that I can recite by heart.
*Bonus points have no cash value. Actually they have no value at all. Other than bragging rights. But then, who would you brag to, really?
This song was on the radio last night. I went to bed singing it. And I woke up this morning singing it. It just so happens to be in one of my favorite movies and in one of my favorite scenes from said movie:
On September 2nd, Zac turned 12! Can you believe that? We had a party with some of his friends after school that day. It was a "Video Game" party. We had 3 different systems set up for them to play on. You might recall last March, when both Emily and Aubrey had parties. And all the screaming, running around, crying, fighting, drama we had. In the middle of Zac's party, I turned to Steve and sighed. "Ahhh", I said. "The difference between girl parties and boy parties". I would rather throw 100 boy parties than throw 1 girl party. At this party, there was no screaming. No running. No crying. No fighting. No Drama. It was so pleasant. I just sat back and relaxed and they played video games the whole time. The other difference with boy parties. They don't care about organization. I said it was time for cake. They all gathered around me at the counter where I was getting the candles ready. I tried to get them to sit around the table, but no. They just wanted cake, and they wanted it now. So we just stood in the middle of the kitchen and sang Happy Birthday and divvied out the cake. I put it on plates, but they probably would have been fine if I just plopped a chunk in each of their hands.
Twelve is a special birthday for boys in our church. When they turn 12 they have the opportunity to receive the Priesthood. Zac was ordained on Sunday as a Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood. It was a very special day for us all. My little boy is getting all growed up.
Wowsers! I have been a bad, bad blogger lately. I haven't blogged in 2 weeks! And I was on such a roll. We have been a little busy around here and well, the blog gets pushed to the end of the list. I have a lot of catching up to do.
The above photo is a picture of Aubrey I took when we went to visit Steve in Arizona earlier this year when he was working. I entered it in a photo contest and was in the top 10. But alas, I just found out today that I did not win. Oh well. Life goes on. Life goes on....
♫ SINGING ♫
Desmond has a barrow in the market place
Molly is the singer in a band
Desmond says to Molly - girl I like your face
And Molly says this as she takes him by the hand
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
(Kristy, I think of you every time I hear this song)
KRISTY! My dear sister Kristy and her husband and 3 children are in Russia! Yes. Russia! Even though they lived in DC (or there abouts) when they lived in the United States, and I hardly ever saw her, I still knew she was only a few, lots of states away. But now. I think about her everyday now. I wonder how she is doing. How she and the kiddos are adjusting. Why she wanted to up and move to the other side of the world. KRISTY! I love you. I miss you. One of these days I will get skype so I can talk to you!
Tonight was one of those nights with Aubrey. I was putting her in bed and she had a "I miss Papa" breakdown. Poor little girl. I was trying to calm down her hysterical crying and I handed her a stuffed dog on her bed that my dad gave to her for Christmas right before he died. I told her to hold it tight and it would help her feel better. Oh boy, that just made it worse. She started crying even more and said that whenever she holds something that someone gave to her who has died, she can feel their spirit and it makes her even more sad. I looked around her room and I was like, "Aubrey, how much stuff do you have from people who have died?" Because as far as I know, she doesn't even know anyone else who has died.
Addy is not allowed to watch Dora anymore. She is learning very, very bad things from that show. There is one episode where Dora makes something Chocolate with her Grandmother. She says "Bate, bate, cha-co-lat-tae". Which means stir the chocolate. So Addy's new favorite thing to do is to "make" things. When I catch her with a chair pulled up to the counter, dumping anything she can find into a bowl, and I ask her what she is doing she says, "I'm making ingredients!" And then she says "Bate, bate, cha-co-lat-tae" while she stirs her ingredients. She has made some pretty major messes. Today it was the pot of leftover mac 'n cheese from lunch, all the grapes from a brand new huge pack from Costco, and cucumber. I wanted to bate her booty.
I have been contemplating moving my family to a nudest colony, just so I could stop doing laundry. It has really been killing me, the laundry, lately. But then, I remembered how I used to do laundry in our old house. I don't know what happened, if it was the craziness from building a house, or moving or what, but I totally forgot how to do laundry. But that's OK, because I remember now. I have been doing it for over a week this way and I am so very glad I remembered. For like, the last year, I have been doing all the laundry in one day. I hate it. It takes forever to sort, then I have piles of dirty laundry everywhere, then I am in a hurry to switch the loads over so I can get them all washed, but I don't have time to fold all of them so I end up with piles of clean laundry all over. Then by the time I fold them, it is an awful task because it is a huge amount to fold at one time, and then my kids have a hard time putting the laundry away because the stacks are so huge.
So this is how I used to do my laundry and how I have started doing it again. I just wash one load everyday. It is so much easier. I hate myself for doing it the other way for so long. We have 3 dirty clothes hampers. One in Zac's bathroom, one in the girls bathroom and one in our bathroom. If I am washing whites that day, I go around to the 3 hampers and get all the whites out, stick them in the washer, then the dryer. No 30 minutes of sorting. No piles of clothes everywhere. It only takes me a few minutes to fold. And the kids can easily take their little stack of clean clothes and put them away everyday. HELLO! All moms out there! Spread the word! You don't have to live with a bunch of naked nasty people! You can stay at home and manage your laundry, one day at a time.
And now, because this song is stuck in my head. And because you can never have too much of the Beatles:
