I Didn't Marry My Best Friend...

Four years ago today I married my best friend.

Wait.

No I didn't.

I married Shane.

I had only known him for 5 months and it was a crazy, whirlwind romance, most of which was conversations over the phone since I was in Arizona and he was in Utah.

I was certain of only two things:  one, he was hot; and two, he was good.

Deep down to the very center of his core good.

I needed someone good…the hot was just a bonus. :)

I had no idea what the reality of our life together would be, but I hoped it would be special.  I hoped he would be kind, I hoped he would be honest, I hoped he would love me and my kids, I hoped for a fairytale.

So the first morning we started our "real life" together and the kids and I were eating breakfast and he took his bowl of cereal upstairs to watch ESPN on the TV in his room I was worried.

Very, very worried.  (although I have to admit, I thought it was hot that he was watching ESPN).

Anyway, it was the first sign that things weren't going to be exactly as I hoped.

I reasoned in my mind that he had been a bachelor for the last 34 years and perhaps he didn't know this was not okay.

I took a deep breath and walked upstairs to the room, smiled my best smile and said, "Nope.  Not okay."

He wasn't angry at me for this (which is what I was expecting).  Instead he smiled, apologized and realized that he was just doing what he had always done.

...And then he joined us.

He has been with us ever since.

Shane spent the entire first year of our marriage rubbing my back every.single.night and assuring me that he would never leave.

Never ever.

He knew I needed to hear that, even though I never told him I needed to hear that.

He still rubs my back every night.  You may think I'm exaggerating when I say "every night" but I assure you, it is every night.

He no longer has to assure me that he's here to stay because I know it.

Somewhere, over these past four years, I have realized that our reality is better than a fairytale.

It's real.

I didn't marry my best friend, but he has become my best friend.

He's everything I hoped for…

...and so much more.

Observant Owen...

We have a token system at our house for doing chores.

Make your bed, clean your room, and brush your teeth every morning = 1 token.

Do an extra job = 1 token.

You can get just 2 tokens a day.

When we started this the kids would ask me constantly, "Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom….what can I do for an extra job?"

And then I would wander around the house trying to find something for them to do:

  "You can wipe down the bathroom counters."  "You can empty my bathroom garbage."  "You can take out the recycling."  "You can fill Jersey's food and water."  etc.

You get the picture.

One day I realized that I had an opportunity here to not only teach them how to work, but also how to be observant.  To see things that need to be done on their own.

Brilliant!

So I started telling them to look for something that needs to be done.  I figured this would train their eyes to see these things.  It's been great and they are finding things to do on their own for extra jobs.

But today I realized that it is working even when they aren't looking for extra jobs.

I had made cookies earlier today and put them on my island to cool.  When I took them off and put them away the wax paper and cookies left behind that gross oily spot on the island.  I hadn't gotten around to wiping it off and a little while later Owen was walking by and said, "Whoa mom, this needs to get wiped off!"

Now you tell me, how many 7 year old boys notice a counter that needs to be wiped off?  No, no wait.  You tell me how many 37 year old boys notice a counter that needs to be wiped off?

Someday Owen is going to make some woman very happy.

Besides me. :)

p.s. I do happen to know one 38 year old boy that is great at wiping down counters and he makes this woman very, very happy. :)

Baby Mayzie...

My sister, Allyson, done had herself a baby on April 3rd.

She's awfully cute and she's named Mayzie.

We were there for about an hour to visit and she didn't cry a peep even once!

And….I got to change her first poopy diaper ever. 

So Mayzie and I will always have that. :)

Owen and Morgan were enamored with her.

(Olivia was at synchro)

They couldn't believe how small she was or my stories that they used to be that small.

Allyson and I kept sharing details of birth and delivery and Owen was shocked and disgusted at each one.  Just wait my son…sooooo much more to it. :) 

Here you can see the baby hunger in my eyes.  I suppose this is why they keep such tight security on the maternity wards these days because I just wanted to run out of there with that cute baby. :) 

Love her! 

Welcome to the family baby Mayzie!

Shane's iPad Cake

So somebody had a birthday yesterday.

38 years old this guy is.

He may be born on April Fool's but we have made it a family rule that BECAUSE he is born on April Fool's we will never play any April Fool's jokes on him.  

It makes him exempt. 

(we may have learned this the hard way in prior years. :) )

So, as is custom for me, since Owen's first birthday when my neighbor, Jenalee, taught me how to make special cakes for the people I love according to what the interests of that person are at the time, I made Shane a special cake.  

For Owen, at age one, it was an Elmo cake. (pretty easy)

For Shane, at age 38, it was an iPad cake. (not as easy)

*(I fear for future reference if I do give credit to Olivia now for helping me come up with this idea I shall hear it for the rest of eternity.  So let it be known, Olivia came up with the iPad idea!)

But then...I had to figure out how to do it.

Now let it be known, this is simply a labor of love.  

I'm no professional (obviously) and I have no special tools, so what I do I make up as I go along or try to find a YouTube video to help me out.

This was my second fondant cake ever.

Here is what I came up with:

Shane is taking an App Design class for his PhD right now and is really enjoying it...and spending plenty of time on it.  That's how I knew he was interested in it...you see how that works.

So that's where I came up with the oh so clever: h"APP"y birthday.  

That wasn't Olivia at all.  That was all me. :)

The many hours this cake took was worth it to see how excited Shane was about it.

He loved it! :)

We didn't have 38 candles, but I did have a 3 and eight other candles that Lana tried to put on the cake in the shape of an 8.  Can you tell?

Here is Shane making a wish.  

I'm hoping it was for a million dollars...or world peace I guess.

Let's hope it comes true...

...whatever it was. :)

Food Resolution...

A little while ago I posted about hating food here.

I have since consulted with my food mentor, Melanie, of www.melskitchencafe.com and have come to discover what the problem is.

Walmart.

I can not food shop at Walmart and have any desire for eating.  It's sucks my will to eat right out of me.

It's disgusting.

I shared these feelings with Melanie and she assured me that these feelings are, in fact, normal.

Here is a direct quote from Melanie herself in regards to Walmart:  "I lose all the excitement for food when I go there. I hate that place. Toilet paper? Yes. Pork tenderloin? No."


Such wise words from my favorite foodie. :)


So my friends, if you are struggling to find a desire to make dinner or eat anything besides pre-made frozen meals, I'd suggest venturing out to a Farmer's Market or a fine foods grocery store.  And by "fine foods grocery store" I mean ANYTHING but Walmart.

I prefer Fry's or Sprouts. They are a little more of a drive, but so worth it.

There is more to life than dirt cheap prices because you know what you get for dirt cheap prices...Walmart food.

Gross.

Nope, not okay.

So yesterday Shane and I went to see The Hunger Games, which I loved and this post has nothing to do with that.

BUT…

While we were there we saw a preview for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

I'm sorry, what?

Are you serious?

Somebody really walked into the office of somebody else and said, "I have the best idea.  Abraham Lincoln AS A VAMPIRE HUNTER!  Want to front me millions of dollars to produce it?"

And then, the somebody on the other side of the desk was actually convinced somehow that this was indeed a good idea and was willing to shell out the cash.

This has just reiterated to me the fact that:
1. America scares me.
2. Some really stupid people are rich.
3. I'll probably never be rich because I can't buy into stupidity and that seems to be what America is all about these days.

Shane said it just proves that you can put any two things together.  

So I'm wondering what kind of "mash-up" is next.  Sesame Street & Zombie's?  President Obama as a synchronized swimmer?  Little Bo Peep: Dragon Slayer?

I think it proves that there are some really disturbed minds in this world.

Does anybody else see this as so wrong?

I'm pretty sure Abraham Lincoln would have a problem with it.

I undertand he is supposed to be the "good guy" by slaying vampires, but he's holding a head with blood everywhere and an axe in his hand.

Seth Grahame-Smith, I don't know if you were trying to honor Abraham Lincoln or what, but you've gone too far.

And P.S., can we please be done with vampire movies already?

Ugh...

I have a problem.

It's food.

The problem is, I don't like it.

It mostly just irritates me.

I recognize this is a problem since one must actually eat food to sustain one's life, which irritates me even more.

The three main issues I run into are these:

1. Nothing ever sounds good...well, sometimes things do, but rarely.  Unless somebody else makes it, then it sounds great!
2. My kids hate everything so just about every time I make a meal they don't eat it and tell me they don't like it.  Always fun.
3. It takes so much work to put together a meal that will be eaten (or not eaten) in 3 seconds so I figure, why not make a bean burrito that takes a minute to cook and a minute to eat.  The ratio makes more sense to me. :)

These thoughts make planning meals for my family very difficult.

The other thing is supposedly everything on this planet is "unhealthy" so it's all garbage anyway.  That thought also deters me from meal making.

I've spent half the morning looking for meals to plan for the week and even though I have access to the best food blog in the world (www.melskitchencafe.com) my stomach and brain just won't get on board to make the plans.

I'm at a loss.

We will accept any pre-cooked meals if you'd like to contribute to our cause.

Please deliver between 5-5:30pm.

Thank you. :)