Kool-Aid is gross without sugar.

I have a nasty cold and Kali claimed to feel sick too, so we stayed home from church today.  I woke up from a nice 2 hour nap and found her watching a movie drinking hot chocolate, eating chocolate, marshmallows and Doritos.  After a light chastisement I found these two Kool-Aid packets on the counter... but no Kool-Aid.  She came up to me immediately and confessed that she tried to make Kool-Aid but it was gross, apparently she tried twice with the same result.  I had to laugh. I showed her the directions and the part about the sugar.  This girl is really learning to cook in the kitchen, and I hope that she can really take over when her little brother comes... with a gentle reminder to read the directions and instructions.

Torrie Christmas Card

We started the year with a little business/pleasure trip to Chicago, IL, it was just Spencer and I. And in October and November we also enjoyed a family vacation to California with a few Utah stops in between.  It sure is nice to get away and see something different.

On June 23^rd, Kali turned 8 and was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints by her Dad. She is a great little girl, I've seen her develop into a very compassionate and loving person. She is definitely a better person than I am. She started grade 3 this fall and had a bit of a challenge at first not having many friends in her class, but it didn't take long for her to make new ones. Her first report card was almost straight A's, she loves school and her teacher, she makes us so proud. She's also been busy with extra curricular activities like piano, hip hop dance and achievement days.

Our big surprising news is that we are expecting a baby boy in April. We've prayed for a baby for years, and with some medical intervention it worked. We are pretty excited about the whole thing, it really is a miracle.

So, Spencer still enjoys his job and the variety of things he works on, he has a lot more responsibility and is the senior Mechanical Engineer. He's the vice chairman for the Medicine Hat branch of APEGA, the Alberta Professional Engineer and Geologist Association, and will be the chairman in February. I think it just means going to meetings in Edmonton and reporting back to the executive committee here.

He's been released as Scout master after 5 years and they put him in the Elders Quorum presidency, but I think he's been subbing in Primary for over a month straight. He still really enjoys the outdoors and looks forward to ice fishing, archery, camping and starting fires.

I'm still in the Primary Presidency, and I love it, the kids are pretty awesome and I love the spirit I feel when teaching, I think it's helping me grow. I'm still running my recycling business and I think I can still do it with a baby since it's only one morning a week. My morning sickness is lingering like it did when I was carrying Kali, but now I have 2 people to rub my back and get me water, I really have been blessed. Other than that I try to keep myself busy helping out at school and hanging out with my friends during the day. Life is good.

We hope with letter finds you well, and that you are thinking about our Savior this Christmas season. We are trying our best to give gifts to Jesus, and not focus too much on materialism. We'll be home this year for Christmas and look forward to being together where we can take time to reflect on the season. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Love, Spencer, Jenn and Kali Torrie

Had another Ultrasound today...

I had another ultrasound today, but this time I remembered to invite Spencer.  Ultrasounds are pretty fun, if you can watch what's going on a get it all interpreted by the tech.  It's a good distraction from my full bladder anyway.

So she shows us all the parts, and it looks like a pretty healthy baby so far.  Except that our little "girl" has a penis.  

At my last ultrasound the tech told us she was certain it was a girl, she even showed me.  

This changes everything.

People think I'm old

I've had a couple experiences in the past weeks that have devastated me.  Both happened at church.

There was a lady who is less active sitting in front of us in sacrament meeting, and I've known her since Kali was in Kindergarten.  She's a grandmother of a boy who was in Kal's class.  I was talking to her about the primary presentation that was coming up the following week and chatting about this and that. She turned around and saw Spencer sitting with us and asked: "Is this your son?"  I almost died of embarrassment and laughter at the same time, while trying not to cry my eyes out.  I said, "No, Spencer is my husband."  She replied that he looked like he was eighteen.  Okay, he does have a baby face, and we've heard that before, but really??

The next episode happened on Saturday.  We had some friends who were cleaning the church with their 5 kids and we offered to help them so we could share babysitting for the Elders Quorum party that night.  We were able to finish pretty fast, with just the garbages to be taken out.  I was sitting on one of the chairs in the foyer, and all the kids were playing.  Then this old man came in looking for his boots, he talked to my friend's husband for a couple minutes, took a look at all the kids and came to me to ask if I was the grandmother of all these kids.  Was that some kind of pick up line? I was pretty mad, and Kali was too, she wanted to go up to him and tell him off.  Maybe he's retarded.

So, in light of these events, I realize I must have something to change.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

It's my friend Suzanne's birthday tomorrow, I am her visiting teacher, and she raves over my cupcakes.  Since I love fishing for compliments, I made her some guaranteed to please cupcakes.   I've really wanted to make Salted Caramel cupcakes for a while and this was a great opportunity.

I made my normal from scratch chocolate cupcakes but followed a recipe from a blog I found.  The caramel sauce was also from scratch and very easy, followed by a really easy icing recipe.  Here's the link to the blog I found http://cookiesandcups.com/salted-caramel-cupcakes/

I tested them at every phase and then the finished project.  Dang!!  They are good, Suz really liked them too.  Funny thing, I told Kali about them and she was so excited.  Then she tried one and hated it. Oh well, I think Salted Caramel is more of an adult taste anyway.  I'm glad she doesn't like them... more for me.

21 Weeks!!

I'm 21 weeks Pregnant!  I'm over half way... I thought it would take longer to get here.

• I had an ultrasound a couple weeks ago, seems like so far the baby is normal.  They couldn't see some of the spine or a good face shot so I get to have another one in December.
• I've been feeling pretty good, but pretty fat. 
• I'm trying to wean off the Diclectin, which is causing a bit of nausea.
• My placenta is growing in front of my belly, so it makes it hard to feel the baby, except when I'm being kicked in the bladder.
• My brain would really like to eat healthier, but my body is asking for the opposite.

I'm sounding like I'm complaining, but really it's great.  I have a super awesome husband who just loves to lotion my feet and loves my pregnancy body (he's nuts).  He said he's been waiting for so long for me to be big and pregnant, and he loves it (or lies).  I love that guy.  He's the BEST man in the world for me.

My new due date is April 1st.  I'm a little nervous to meet this new little one, I just hope she's like Kali.

No pictures :(

We just got back from an amazing holiday and I can't upload any pictures, since my desktop computer crashed.

We went to California, just the three of us, and we drove.

We rented a car in Great Falls and had a great time being together.  We stopped in Logan, UT to visit two of Spencer's brothers then in Cedar City to visit Spencer's sister, it broke up the trip nicely.  We planned this trip maybe six months ago, and finding out I was prego didn't deter us, I love vacations!!  We were gone almost 2 weeks, and didn't fight or get annoyed at each other, it was just pure bliss, I really LOVE being with my family, they are the BEST!!

We did Disneyland, California Adventure, SeaWorld, Universal Studios, and hit up Huntington Beach and Santa Monica Beach. I loved Cars Land in C.A., it was so awesome, probably my favorite part about the trip, and the hour wait for Radiator Springs Racers was totally worth the wait.  Also, it was Halloween while we were there, and the initial plan was to go trick or treating in Beverly Hills, sounds pretty sweet.  But too bad Kali got heatstroke the day before and threw up all night, so we spent Halloween day watching movies in our hotel.  I made her get dressed up that night, and we went to Huntington Beach where they closed off a few blocks to traffic to give out candy and set up a bunch of bouncy castles.  Kali had fun I think, and I liked how safe we felt in that area.

I can't say that I love LA, it's a bit too busy and big and smoggy for me, I'm a small city, Medicine Hat kind of girl now. And I did all the driving in California with my trusty GPS, currently named Jack, but sometimes he really ticked me off.  ((Side thought: Our GPS used to be named Doris, when she was speaking in a female British accent.  But I hated having a woman telling me what to do!! So I changed it to Jack.))  The freeways can be a little overwhelming, and traffic can be pretty crazy, it amazed me to a stupor to see people texting and driving on those freeways.

Spencer and I have no desire to do that trip anytime soon, we were probably in that car for 60 hours, no joke.  But for me, I just loved being with Spence and Kali, holding hands, exploring and having fun together.  It really brought us closer together, and I am still enjoying being with them.

Fifteen weeks

I think I'm getting over the tired phase of being pregnant, I can sometimes get throughout the day without a nap.  Every once in a while I throw up, but I have been blessed that I have only thrown up when someone is home to help me.  Spencer and Kali treat me pretty well and Kali doesn't cry anymore when I get sick.  I'm thankful that this pregnancy is a little better than my first and taking 4 Diclectin per day really helps.
On Monday, my brother in law did an ultrasound and we got to see our little one toe tapping and waving at us, it is quite a miracle.  Dr. Torrie thinks it's a boy but confessed he's not an expert and it's still a little early to tell.  We have our official ultrasound on November 8 and we hope to find out the sex.

Big News

This is Kali.

She has some big news!!

She has wanted this for a long time.

The expected time of arrival is April 4, 2013.

She has a sick Momma and an overjoyed Dad.

Grade 3

Kali is officially a grade 3-er.  She started last Wednesday and loves it.  Her teacher is Mrs. Harrison who is a very cool lady.  Kali has complained to me that she hates weekends and days with no school, we'll see how long that lasts. 

She has been growing up so fast and has taken to cooking and baking which is perfect, since I've developed a hating relationship with my kitchen lately.  She is learning to cook food we can actually eat but my favorite has been the cupcakes she made on Saturday.  They were chocolate cupcakes with chocolate mint butter cream icing, mmmmm.  Here's her enjoying one of her cupcakes.

I love this little lady, she is so awesome.  

My little girl's baptism

The Soap Saver

I love Bath and Body Works soaps.  

I don't love when Kali uses a full pump on her little hands.

Last night I came up with the idea of putting a restricter on the pump.  Genius, I know.  But it took Spencer to come up with the BEST idea.  He used a zip tie so it only pumps a little bit. 

 I love it, he's the best .

Now I can enjoy my favorite soaps a little longer.

Beautiful Heartbreak

When I was at Women's Conference, Hilary Weeks entertained us with some songs, comedy and acting.  

She is very talented.  

Now, usually I am not the biggest fan of church music but I really enjoyed the songs she performed and I bought the album today from iTunes.  I even almost cried watching her video and I'm not at an emotional time of month.  Here is a link to her video "Beautiful Heartbreak", I hope you enjoy it.

I noticed when I listened to Hilary Weeks today, I think about things eternal.  I like that.

I love my Savior and crave the Spirit to make me a more useful servant.

BYU Women's Conference

I just got back from BYU Women's Conference Saturday night, it was really fun.  I went with my sister in law, Tonya and some of her friends, there were six of us in total.  We left on Tuesday and stopped in SLC before heading to Provo.  We did some shopping at the new mall downtown and spent some time on Temple Square.

We laughed a lot, like pretty much the whole time.  We lived like students in the dorms, I couldn't imagine having to live like that for any extended period of time, a couple of days were barely manageable for me.

The Conference was great, there were a lot of great, inspiring speakers.  The thing that surprised me was how disrespectful some ladies were, the conference commitee asked us to follow a couple rules while we were there.  For example, don't leave a session early especially while someone is talking and don't save seats.  People were always getting up and leaving with 5-10 minutes left, just so that they could get a head start on the next class in another building or area (we had to wait in line and sometimes the classes would fill up).  I thought it was so rude that people would do that, so to give them the benefit of the doubt, we had a standing joke that those people probably had diarrhea.  When they would leave, we would say, "Oh, they must have diarrhea." One time we were meeting up with our friends because we skipped a session to go shopping and we thought we would catch them as one of the sessions was ending.  We saw some older ladies walking from the Marroitt Center and the session hadn't ended yet, one of the girls yelled out, "There are some diarrhea ladies!"  We laughed and laughed.  But what I couldn't believe was that at the very last session of the conference Elder Anderson was speaking and people were walking out early.  That really bugged me.

And as for saving seats, I often walked to the front of the sessions and sat in seats that people  were "saving".   We ended up getting some great seats.

One thing that I noticed was how hilly it is around BYU,  my friends walked so fast and must have been in great shape.  I will definitely be better prepared next year.

I loved the atmosphere and making new friends, I would like to go again, maybe next year.

It was a HOT one.

I think Medicine Hat broke a record today.  It was 30 degrees today.  

I LOVE Summer!  

Kali and her friend had a blast with the neighbour's niece and nephew on the trampoline.  They had the sprinkler going with a bottle of dish soap and some water guns.  It was a perfect day.

Mango Cupcakes

I've been looking for a white cake recipe that I could make from scratch and actually found one yesterday.  I tweaked it a bit and thought they turned out really good.  I LOVE a dense, moist cupcake.  

I wanted the icing to be a little different so I puréed a mango to make this icing.  It was really good.  I kinda like/love cupcakes.

I made a bag today.

I made a bag today with some scraps that I had bought from Ikea.  I didn't use a pattern, and it only took me 2 hours.  Plus, I actually like this bag.

My little lady

I convinced Kali to do a workout DVD with me tonight.  We were both working hard when she looked over at me and said, "Mom... you look like... a Chinese lady."  I think it's funnier now than when she said it.  So, halfway through the DVD, it froze and stopped so we went to the basement to do some TaeBo.  I got it all set up and was waiting for her.  She came down in some workout clothes and with an... Ice Cream Sandwich?  What the heck?  Where's mine?  JK, I waited till my workout was over.  I like this age that she's at, we have some serious fun together.


Kali, has always drawn me pictures and written me notes, but now they have more of her in them.  She has given me some funny ones, and some guilt encouraging ones, some sorry ones but also love notes; I love those the best.  

This morning I couldn't find my keys anywhere and this is the note she put in my lunch box.

Last week, she put this note on my bed before she went to bed:

These notes make me feel so loved. I think if notes are a Love Language, it's certainly hers.  

I love that girl! 

Back to School...

Kali had Spring Break this week and we tried to have some fun with friends.  We spent Monday and Tuesday with Erin and her kids.  We played outside in the beautiful weather, dismantled a picnic table with crowbars, hammers and a drill, the kids loved it.  We hiked, visited the second hand store, and relaxed, it was perfect. 

 We spent Wednesday in Taber with my sis-in-law, it was so fun too.  The kids played, we ate some Utah scones, checked out all their animals, stepped in cow poo and played with our baby nephew Spencer.  I love Tonya, she is so easy to be around, one of my greatest friends.

 I even got to see Grandma Great, I drove her to her hair appointment, we had a nice little visit, she is a wonderful woman and very loving.

Saturday, I worked on a Amy Butler Messenger Bag that I have been trying to figure out for a couple of  weeks.  I bought fabric from Ikea a while back that I thought would be cool.  I am horrible at 

working with patterns and this was not an exception, I got so frustrated and even with my

limited sewing abilities was able to some how finish it without much cursing.  

But now I hate it!! 

 I can't stand to look at it.

Maybe in a few weeks or months I will bring it out and like it, even with it's imperfections.

Back to school tomorrow, back to getting up early, back to routine and going to bed early (starting tomorrow).  Back to having all day to myself again, back to having a nap in the afternoon if I want to (not that I have in a while, but the option is wonderful), back to spending lunch with Spencer alone, back to normal.  Normal is good.

New shelf

I've been working on building a shelf and finished today.  It's really sturdy and super heavy.  Kali thought it was a bunk bed and Spence said it stays with the house if we move. I think it's sweet.

Skittles Ad

I found this ad today and thought it was funny. 

Kali's sewing

Kali wants to take a sewing class but to save me the $60 per month, I thought I would try to teach her today.  We worked on a kitty today, filled it with wheat and now it's a fancy wheat bag/toy.  She made some wheat pillows today too all by herself.  

I put the sewing machine away after lunch, she brought it out this afternoon and threaded it all by herself and started sewing a larger pillow. Maybe she can take over all my mending.

Seven Habits Hero

Kali was chosen as one of the Seven Habits Heros in her class by her teacher. This is from the little ceremony they had for the grade twos and threes and the parents. I think she's a pretty great little lady.

Ward Luau

My Primary buddies and I put on a Ward Luau on Friday, it was really fun.  We greeted our guests with plastic leis, and lots of people dressed up so it was fun. We prepared Hawaiian haystacks for dinner.  We had rice, a home made chicken sauce recipe, red peppers, celery, green onions, pineapple, shredded coconut, cheese and dry chow mien noodles.  It was really good, minus the onions and coconut which I am allergic to ;).  For dessert we had mango ice cream and raspberry sorbet with little umbrellas sticking out.

As our entertainment some of the boys in our ward did the Haka, they were awesome! 

 The kids and two Dads had a hula hoop contest on the stage.

We had a video instruction f for learning the hula and we had limbo.  

It was VERY well received, and I am very well relieved that it is over.  

Problem solved

Kali's teacher took care of business today and she is a happy girl. Makes for a happy Mommy.
I have been thinking about the similarities between Kali and I today and it shocked me. She is very sensitive and is easily hurt. Guess what, so am I. If someone offends me, which often they don't know they could be doing, I take it as a disgrace to me, my family, home and country. Revenge is often at the forefront of my mind. Although it usually doesn't make it any further than that. Kali is easily hurt too, but she just cries. She is a better woman than me.

Children's Cliques

I am a little stressed out today.  Kali has been telling me about this girl in her class that started a "club".

It started out with 3 girls, then they invited Kali. 

The club was going to meet for sleepovers on Fridays. 

I shouldn't have got involved.  

I told Kal that clubs aren't very nice and they exclude people, so she told her "friend" that she didn't want to be in it (plus, we don't do sleepovers).  Now there are lots of people in this "club" and the ringleader won't let Kali's other friends play with her.  What a little bleep.  I am really mad.  I heard her mother did this to someone else when she was younger too and ruined her self esteem.  What should I do?  She's only in grade two, and it's just going to get worse.

Jenn's Edo-like sauce

I tried to make some addictive Edo sauce at home a couple weeks ago and we just loved it.  Spence is a big fan, so we've had more stirfrys lately.  We were running out of the bottle I made, so I thought I would try it again but this time write down my recipe.

1 cup Kikkimon soysauce

2 cups cold water

2 Tbsp. Cornstarch

Wisk this together in a sauce pan before cooking on medium heat.

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

4 cups brown sugar

I know it's a lot of sugar, but hey, it's good.

So I just store it in a quart jar or water bottle for easy pouring, and keep it in the fridge.  I hope you like it.

Side note:  We went to Edo right before we left for Chicago, Spence and I both agreed that my sauce is better.  

Dental confession

Okay, I had to make Kali a dentist appointment this week and thought we should all go.  

I have been afraid of the dentist since I was young but thought I would buck up and be a good a example to Kali.  

Confession time:  I haven't had a cleaning in probably like 16 years and I haven't seen a dentist in about 10 years.  

I know, it sounds bad, even to me when I say it.  

So, when the hygienist looked in my mouth she was completely surprised, barely anything to scale and no cavities. 

 I couldn't believe it.  

I had horrible teeth as a kid.  

I credit my Oral-B electric toothbrush.   

Chicago trip

Spence had an engineering conference in Chicago and I was able to tag along.  We flew out of Great Falls, which was nice cause it's such a small airport.  In Chicago we stayed at a hotel down town called The Silversmith, it was a nice enough place.  We didn't rent a car but were able to walk everywhere, which kinda freaked me out at times, I was always looking over my back to see if anyone was following me or planning to rob me.  We must have looked like tourists too just gawking at the tall buildings and taking pictures.  Luckily we came out okay and safe... there was a lot praying going on.
Kali stayed in Medicine Hat with my friend Erin and her family, so she had 4 siblings for a week.  We almost had to fight to bring her home when we got back, they love her and she loves them.  Good thing she was so excited to see the gifts we bought her.
Here are some pictures we took in Chicago:

Spencer and I went to a good Mexican type restaurant called Chipotle,  we had burritos and these good salty lime chips with guac.

That is a good burrito.

This was us with the Chicago theater in the background, there are lots of fancy theaters down town.

These pigeons were everywhere, they kinda freaked me out. They would let you get quite close to them which is why Spence seems to think that there should be no real hunger with the transients down town.

I set this picture up at the Planetarium with the sky line behind me.  This was alteast 2 miles from my hotel so I got a nice walk in everyday.

This picture was taken in front of this huge shiny silvery bean in Millennium Park.  We were facing the bean and this was the reflection, Spence had the camera on my shoulder and took this picture.

This is a picture of me under the bean, the reflection of the flash was crazy awesome.

On Sunday Spencer's wonderful cousin Heather, who lives in Chicago, picked us up for church and fed us dinner at her place.  She made a killer soup!  On our way to the church building we passed this man who was carrying like a hundred bags of cotton candy on this huge stick, it looked like a rainbow stick and stuck up like 15 feet up in the air behind him.  Too bad it was Sunday, I'm a sucker for cotton candy.

Monday night we went out to Oak Park on the Subway.  No one pushed me on to the track or robbed us which to our friend Jesse, was a miracle.  Jesse is doing a Facial Surgery residency and we went out there to have dinner with him and hang out, thankfully he drove us home after.

These are the gates to the subway.

Spencer on a creepy bridge with a reverse flowing river behind him.

It was quite beautiful.

We went on a date to the John Hancock Observatory, this is the view.  The tallest building you can see is the Sears tower.  On our way we walked through the Magnificent mile, there are some major shopping stores on this street.  Spencer is so lucky that those kind of things don't really matter to me.

This is me at the Sears tower on the Ledge.  It's a glass ledge that sticks out of the building a couple feet.  It's 103 floors above the ground, and the elevator ride is super fast which popped my ears pretty good.

This is some Chicago stuffed crust deep dish pizza, too cheesy for my taste. I prefer Panago.

This was at the Shedd Aquarium, yet another 2 mile walk from my hotel.  It was okay, I wish they had more sharks.  I did get to see some dolphins and beluga whales tricks though, I was able to watch a 4-D movie where I got wet, so it was a pretty good day.

We went out looking for a good hotdog place and only found this one nearby our hotel. I think it tasted like a hot dog I can make at home.  

This was my City Pass, it was such a good deal, I recommend for anyone going to a big city to get one.

This was at the Field Museum of Natural History.  2 miles from my hotel.  I meant to go to the museum, aquarium and planetarium all on the same day since they are all in the the same area, but one day I ran out of time, one day only the planetarium of them was open and the last day I had to go to the aquarium and the Sears tower.  It felt so good to walk so much but my feet were pretty sore.

This is the most complete dinosaur in the world, it's a T-rex named Sue.

Okay, I went on a Chocolate tour one day... didn't love it.  It was a great idea but for $50 bucks and google search I could have made a way better chocolate tour for myself.  I found this cupcake shop a couple blocks down from my hotel, definitely worth the walk.  Their cupcakes were nice and dense, not from a mix and the icing was pretty okay ( not as good as my own).  They had lots of flavors to choose from and the shop was very cute.

All in all, it was a fun trip, fun to be away from home, fun to go somewhere, fun to be with Spence alone, fun to have someone else clean up after me and make my bed everyday. But being in a big city and staying downtown kinda freaked out this small city girl.