Is It Naptime Yet

I’m grateful for…

1. … late night/ early morning conversations with my husband.
2. … loved ones who tell you you have a nice singing voice. (I just need to believe it more myself.)
3. … my mind and spirit.
4. … rainy days, even if they keep you from going to the park, but allow your girls to play Wii fit at their aunt’s house all afternoon.
5. … little girls who occupy each other by telling crazy, made up, knock knock jokes to one another while riding in the car.

I’m listening to Saturday Night Live and the Jonas Brothers are performing. Whenever I hear they’re on I always want to listen and I think they might be good because, I mean c’mon millions of young girls love them, but I hear no talent, well no true talent. I mean they can sing and play guitars, just not very well, at least not very well live and that’s where I measure true musical talent. And the song I always hear them perform is just stupid. I think if I had a daughter who was into them and listened to them nonstop my ears would start bleeding.

They’re just not that good.

And now my other thought deals with cash checking places. I was heading towards the freeway and while waiting to make my right turn onto Charleston I let a car pull into the lane in front of me. It was a nice new, at least 2008, Camry. This person was leaving a check cashing place in a brand new car, and this particular drive only leaves the cash checking place so I knew they were coming from there. Then as I looked into the drive I saw an Hummer H2 or Hummer H3 at the window of this check cashing/ advance place. I hate to say it but if you’re driving a new car or especially a Hummer, I hope you don’t need cash advances, and that you have some sort of savings, c’mon you have at least a $30,000 car and you need to cash your check at a check cashing place. That’s sad.

I just don’t get it.

Today the girls had a dentist appointment. It’s their second one and it went just fine and dandy.

The hygienist let me know that Lilah’s two front bottom teeth are loose, and she thinks she’ll lose at least one of them before the next visit. Her top are a little loose too, but she thinks those are still a year away.

I don’t know if Lilah was happy or nervous about this news because she knows once she loses her teeth thumb sucking will be a no. Lilah has already stopped sucking her thumb for the most part but she forgets on some days and we have to remind her to stop. We are taking a logical approach with her by letting her know it’s not good to thumb suck when you have adult teeth coming in  and she should stop now so it’s easier once she starts loosing teeth and this seems to be working just fine. The hygienists says that Lilah’s jaw is normal and that as long as she stops thumb sucking before she looses teeth it should be fine.

As Lilah’s appointment went on I could see her physically shaking in the chair as the hygienist worked on her.  She totally gets that from me and I felt so bad for her, but  Lilah was brave and just mostly annoyed that she couldn’t stop the shaking.

Eden’s appointment was directly afterwards  and she did just fine also. Neither have cavities and all is well, except my baby is growing up and will be loosing teeth soon, which is totally gross to me. I’m gonna have to learn to hide my disgust of loose teeth and the gums right afterwards. Yuck.

On a cute note Lilah is now wanting to avoid hard food that hurt her tooth or might make it loose. I think she’s just nervous about loosing the tooth and not knowing if it’ll hurt or what to expect since it’s a first.

For the first time I am auditioning for a play, at least if I keep my nerves and find some sort of accompaniment for the song I want to sing. (Lullaby of Broadway)

Really it’s Lilah who is the driving force behind this because she so desperately wants to be on the stage, or TV, and this year the annual play that some friends participate in will be Wizard of Oz and I figure the girls would be perfect munchkins. After seeing Hannah in Aladdin even Eden wants to audition, though she wanted to be Dorothy, no doubt because she was Dorothy for Halloween in 2007, but I told her she might be Toto or a munchkin. Judy says they take pretty much anyone who auditions because it’s usually the same people each year, with a few newbies who join for a year or two.

My family has gone to the play each year the Lee’s have been it it, around 12, except the one year they weren’t. It was a church stake play and now has grown to be a foundation play and it turns out quite well each year.

I hate singing in front of people but I have a secret desire to perform and have always wanted to be in the play with the Lee’s.

I have only sung a solo once in my life and it was the last concert of my senior year of high school, and I had been in choir the whole four years of high school. I’m a good choir singer, not the strongest sight reader since I sing Alto, but I’m OK if I have someone to help me get the part down, though after not being in a choir for 8 years I’ve gotten rusty and only sing Alto if I really know the part and even now I wonder if I’m hitting the right notes.

I think the play will be really fun to be in and I’m excited for the girls. I’m just nervous about me singing and doing the little dance steps they show you that day and I don’t want to assume they’ll take everyone so I have let the girls know that they may not get in it or be the part they want, since Eden wants to be Toto but that’s kinda a starring role for a little kid and I’m not sure she’d get it since she’s a newbie and so young.

I searched on-line for some voice warm ups so I can somewhat practice and get my voice more prepared in the week and a half that I have and maybe I’ll be able to stay in tune for the 16 measures I’m suppose to sing and get over my nervousness, though I doubt I’ll get over my nervousness.

Wish us luck and hope everything goes well for Eden and Lilah.

When I let everyone who attended sacrament meeting on the day of my talk know that my husband was not a believing member of the church I got mixed reviews. Most were very supportive and just didn’t know, some where upset that Jon wasn’t who they thought he was.

One woman had previously given Jon a compliment on what a wonderful father he was and how she watched him and thought he was so great. Then that day I gave my talk she was so upset and said “I can’t believe I told him he was a great dad.”
Of course I came to his defense and said he is still a wonderful father and husband and that is why I stay with him but she just didn’t get it.

Yesterday at the end of Relief Society I was talking with a sister my my ward, Sister Brinkerhoff. I really love this sister and though I don’t know her extremely well she’s always been very kind and talkative when we’ve sat next to one another and genuinely concerned.
I had sat next to her for the third hour of church, or Relief Society in this case, and at the end she mentioned that I should go get my girls and get home. I told her that I don’t have my girls today because they’re with their dad this Sunday and we talked a little about how I let Jon have a Sunday with the girls because he allows me to take them to church. Then she gave the compliment of how cute he is with my girls and what a good dad he is.

It really touched me because she knows the situation, but can see past it and see what a wonderful father he is and not how he’s ruined my chances of having an eternal family or is a horrible man who did not honor his priesthood.

Then we exchanged some goodbyes and joked about not wanting one anothers trials, what the lesson had been about last week and she had taught.

I really love this sister and her friendship, and am grateful to be in a ward with wonderful people who are supportive of me and my family.

1. Hot granola fresh from the oven.
2. Sisters who let you spend all day at their house because you have no where to go.
3. I’m thankful to be healthy and back to normal!
4. Gospel lessons that go well.
5. Wonderful Relief Society sisters.

On Saturday the girls and I headed over to my sister Carolyn’s house to make cookies. It was to give Jon time alone to study and Carolyn’s co-worker was supposed to come over because we weren’t able to make Christmas cookies with her and she wanted to see Carolyn’s house. Instead her husband made her go to some timeshare thing so they could get two free airline tickets since they need to fly to their niece’s wedding later this year.

I packed what I thought was everything I needed and headed over to Carolyn’s. She had ordered pizzas for lunch so we ate and then got started making cookies.

While I was pulling everything out I realized I had forgotten the shortening for the frosting but since Carolyn lives so far from civilization the nearest store is like 5 miles away and I figured we’d just make cookies and the girls and I would have to frost them at home.

Then as I looked through the  basket I realized I left the heart-shaped cookie cutter I borrowed from Sam at home on my counter. So now I had to go to the store.

We finished the dough, and the girls and Carolyn settled in watching some TV while I went to the store.

I got shortening, cookie cutters, and some chocolate chip cookie dough since that was the cookie Derek requested to be made since we were coming over. (I almost did not buy it because Derek is so spoiled by his parents but I like chocolate chip cookies too and figured I’d take some home also.)

I got back and we baked cookies and then decorated them like the sweetheart candies you buy, only I don’t buy them and could only think of a handful of phrases. Carolyn was funny and I love some of the phrases she came up with.

Here’s the pictures of what I left with Carolyn on Saturday, and what we have left this morning. I don’t think I’m suppose to eat five cookies a day, but that’s what happens when you love sugar cookies and they’re in the house. Jon has also been eating them, so I think my ‘eat all you can get’ mentality kicked in, yeah that’s why I eat five a day, to get them out of the house sooner so Jon won’t eat them. I’ll take the hit. (I have had none today, but will probably eat one after lunch and one tonight. I just love sugar cookies and you have to eat them before they get stale and the girls would rather have candy.)

Carolyn thought of: Heart U, Nice Bum, Hot Stuff, Hot Lips, Heart Breaker, (which was made with the last of the frosting and we didn’t have enough of either color so she did half and half). I made:  I heart you, Love, and Cutie Pie.

I also made a Babe, Hey Babe, Dad and a Sexy cookie, which Jon ate. Carolyn attempted to make a sexy cookie with sprinkles, but she only could fit  “sex” on the cookie and decided to make it all sprinkles. (It’s the yellow cookie with sprinkles in the previous picture.)

Eden only ate maybe half a piece of pizza but she had three cookies, I guess she takes after her mom.

Lilah had lots of fun decorating them for other people and then having us eat them, she did eventually eat one.

We had lots of fun at Carolyn’s house and left around 5:30pm. I was so sleepy on the way home because I get sleepy in the afternoons and it was a very relaxing drive home.

The girls had so much fun since they got to play and jump on all of Carolyn’s pillows. Lilah was sad that we don’t go to Carolyn’s more often and said we should go there whenever she needs to bake cookies. I probably would visit Carolyn if she lived closer and if she wasn’t so busy working all the time. I just hate taking up all her free time with my two silly girls.

It’s funny what Internet has done. I started blogging 3 1/2 years ago because a friend was, and then slowly, a lot of people started blogging.

Then I joined MySpace around 3 years ago. I was into it at first but slowly I’ve not done anything on there. I heard about Facebook at a friend’s baby shower and joined that also, before it was open it everyone, and you still needed a college e-mail address and I never really got into it.

Now Myspace it out, blogging is in, and Facebook is the busiest thing ever.

I just don’t have time and in a way I feel it’s so artificial.

The Internet has connected us to people we would not see anymore, or who have moved far-away and we want to stay connected with. It gives us instant updates, as long as that person updates often. It’s a gift and a curse.

It causes us to keep up relationships with hundreds of people from our past and present, but really do we need to know every detail of every one’s life? I admit I do get caught up in checking people’s blogs or web pages, so I am not immune to wondering what people are doing.

I know blogging helps us keep up relationships with lots of people, but I think it takes a different effort  when we write about what is going on, the mundane and the exciting and in more than two sentences.

I think I’m a blogging snob.

I read so many blogs, and I love most of them. I love connecting with old friends, but I am selective. I choose blogs of people I find really interesting or really care about. I have about 49 blogs that I follow on my Google reader, but only 20 listed on my blog.  About half are very public blogs and the other half personal blogs of friends I’ve found.

I actually lurk on a lot and never comment. Out of the 49 I follow I only comment on 6-8. Some blogs I read because I find it interesting how different I am from this person I once knew or was friends with. I also like to know what’s going on and read how I relate to the author.

I read a lot of blogs, but Facebook and it’s chaos kills me. It’s such an information overload and I feel like it’s so much of the little things that sometimes the big things are lost. The intimacy of blogging just doesn’t happen.

I also hate the whole friend thing. I’m pretty selective of my friends on Facebook and MySpace. I have like 50. In some ways I wonder if people will remember me, because I have this freakishly good memory in some ways and I worry about being rejected or the person going, “Uh, how do I know you?”, but I also feel like it’s so superficial and so unrealistic to be friends with so many people.

Sure it’s a great way to connect with a lot of people and get the word out, but I just don’t get it and I wonder if there are people you really wish hadn’t found you, but you want to be polite and then you end up inviting them to your wedding or some wonderful life event, when you could care less about them.

I’d just rather have 5 good friends than 100 not so good friends and in my whole life I’ve only had about 5 really wonderful friends because I am such a cautious person and don’t easily open up, but I’ve also been very giving and been burned.

And I’d rather read a real personal perspective of what’s going on in ones life, I like the effort that is put into blogging.

A friend of mine did the 25 random things and mentioned how she loved getting mail. Maybe we should all start writing letters to one another and mail the details of our life to hundreds of people everyday, but that would probably get annoying.

What can I say, I’m a blogging snob.

But if you’re on Facebook will you be my friend?

(I know this was a bit of a random post. Part of me wants to drop of the face of the Internet world, but the narcissist in me says that there are some people who might care about what I have to write and I like to record the fun things the girls do. )

I was talking with Eden this morning and I asked her where she got her blue eyes from. Her reply.

DNA.

We talk about DNA in our house and how it tells our body what color our hair is suppose to be and what not. I just never knew Eden was listening so closely.

I was wearing my robe yesterday and Lilah was spanking my rear end. You want to know why?

She said it was and “jiggly and fun.”

Yeah. I hope she gets my jiggly rear end when she gets older and her children let her know. 😉

Today I went to Home and the Range. It’s an activity for church where we get together and share ideas about food and home and is specific to our little ward.

Today our focus was on bread and since Chris, or the woman in charge of Home and the Range, always provides soup or food some some sort, I offered to bring soup to this activity.

I made the following stew, which is really good and practically everything in it is something you can have on hand in food storage. Jon actually had my cook book open to another recipe and I saw this one and thought, “Hey we have everything but the tomatoes.”, so I bought the tomatoes and he made it while I had gastritis, and I ate it since it was before I knew I had gastritis and I was still eating some regular foods and then laying on the couch in pain because all I knew was I had to eat but eating caused pain and I had so much pain because beans and tomatoes are like the two worst things for someone who has gastritis, but it was good regardless, and today I enjoyed it pain free.

I think it’s a great recipe and it’s so easy, and it uses food storage, especially if you store beans like we do, but only have one recipe to use them, except the fact that your husband just cooks them and eats them with rice for lunch.  So if you have some good bean recipes, share them, I need them.

Tuscan Bean Stew

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons ground sage
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (33.5 oz.) can peeled plum tomatoes with basil, undrained, cut up
1 (15.5 or 15 oz.) can kidney beans
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained, rinsed
1 (15 oz.) can garbanzo beans, drained, rinsed
1/3 cup dry red wine*
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Heat oil in Dutch oven or 3- quart saucepan over medium heat until hot. Add sage and garlic; cook and stir 2 to 3 minutes or until garlic is tender.

Stir in remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer 15 to 20 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally.

*I use 1/3 cup water with chicken bullion, or chicken broth, instead of red wine. You can use any red wine substitute you want.