a whole lotta nothin' going on around here

Monday: he tinkered with his bike. It's pretty fun to ride.

Tuesday: went and did some shopping for things like dish soap and an Easter dress for Lily.

Wednesday: he shampooed the carpets.

Thursday: we went and saw The Hunger Games. At one point I leaned over and whispered, "That's not how it happened in the book." He leaned back over and said, "Psst....this isn't the book." After the movie we went and got some tacos at a hole-in-the-wall. Whatever they put in their green salsa/sauce is pure tongue-tingling magic.

Friday: nothing so far.

It's been a good week.

Mr. Smith is on Spring Break this week.

Yesterday he tinkered around on a bike that he's semi-restoring.

Today we're headed to the big city to do some shopping.

My break from running is now officially over.

Yesterday was my first day back.

Today's run was just as awkward.

all warm and fuzzy inside

You know how it is.

You sell something that means a lot to you and can only hope that it's taken care of, loved exactly how you loved it.

You wonder about it from time to time. Feelings of regret for selling it, but also knowing it was for the best.

Earlier in the week, I get a text from my sister-in-law telling me she's going to send me a picture. And when I see it, my heart skipped a beat and I got all warm and fuzzy inside.

It was our Blue Car. The Volvo that had been a part of all our married life up until about 6 months ago when we decided to sell it.

Anna had seen it in a high school parking lot and went over to say hi.

It made me feel even more warm and fuzzy when she said that he was sitting there waiting for his mom. The day before he had installed a new alternator, had hooked it up wrong and the car was overheating.

Awwwww.....

Only those who have owned vintage Volvo's (or those who love older vehicle's that require lots of tender loving care) can understand how lovely that is. Having empathy and understanding for all the hard work, love and attention it takes to own a car like that, not everybody is able to have those feelings. And they are missing out.

It made me happy to see our Blue Car again.

And even happier to see that it was being loved exactly how we loved it.

this happens

This is what happens when I cut onions.

Aaron walked in the door from work as the uncontrollable tears were streaming down my face. He thought someone had died. He was relieved to find out I was only cooking dinner.

This is what happens when you turn the wrong burner on while a carton of eggs are on top of said burner. Blake came in the kitchen and asked if I was, "cooking fire for dinner."

And this is what happens when you blink.
Wait for it....

Almost there....

There it is.

His two front teeth are officially growing in.

i must be crazy to be in a loony bin like this

I don't know if you've noticed or not, but I haven't been running.

I can't even remember the last time I went on a run. I think it was maybe around the middle of January. Don't quote me on that, I'm probably wrong. Also, don't tell my husband I just admitted to the slight possibility of being wrong. He thinks I'm right all the time. At least that's what I tell him. And just because I think I'm hilarious, here's a conversation we had on Saturday night after he got home from the store:

him: "I just thought of something awesome on the way home."

me: "Me."

That has nothing to do with running, but it popped in my head and I thought I'd share.

That's a perfect example of what not running has done to me. Made me all scattered brained. I used to be able to go for a run and think things through and figure things out and solve all the world's problems.

But since I haven't had that daily dose of my own personal "physical therapy", I feel as if I've flown over the cuckoo's nest. Which by the way, I saw on t.v. the other week, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. I know it was probably all edited and stuff, but I really liked it. Aaron and I sat and watched it and thought it was a pretty funny movie, in its own crazy way. Reminded me a little bit of 'Cool Hand Luke', another one of my favorite movie's.

"What we've got here, is a failure to communicate."

Some of my other all time favorites are 'The Dirty Dozen', 'The Great Escape', 'Clue'. Oh, one of my all time favorite movies ever made is 'Scavenger Hunt'. It was made way back before I was born, and has its cult following. It is so funny. There are so many, many, many one-liners in 'Scavenger Hunt'.

"I am not a short order cook! I am a master chef!"
"They killed Buzzy!! They killed Buzzy!"
"Zey have keeled Monclaire!"
"Vhy don't vee put it under a meecroscope and make zem smalla'?
"John Crapper."
"Well Einstien, look at me. A second ago I wasn't standing here talking to a moron."

I could probably quote the entire movie.

Are you still with me? Back to the why of this post. I haven't been running because that problem with my knee came back. I decided to stop being a man about it, and actually talk to a professional to figure it out. We have a friend whose dad is a physical therapist who really knows his stuff. He used work for some professional team yeeears ago, so I trust him. Before I even finished telling him my symptoms, he knew exactly what was wrong and what I kneed-ed to do. Punny.

So I have what's called Pes Ansirine. Easily fixed and won't be a chronic problem, assuming I take care of it properly. Which means I have to start stretching. I hate stretching. Stretching is for people who do yoga. But I suppose since I'm not getting any younger, I can no longer go running and not stretch. So I decided to cut back on the running and take it really easy while I nurse my knee back to health. The consequences of such action has really caused my thoughts to not make any sense.

Oh, and I really love 'Chariot's of Fire'.
 

assembly and pancakes

Yesterday morning, right as Corgan and Lily were leaving to catch the bus to go to school at 8, Lily hands me an envelope and says, "Here, this is for you."

"To the Parent's of Lily Smith", is scribbled across the front.

Corgan then says, "Oh, yeah, I got one, too", and gives me his.

I didn't think much of reading them right then; emailed to me the day before was a pancake recipe that I had started to make with Blake and Cade. Sometimes I am that super-great mother who cooks with her kids. Most of the time they just get in the way and I get ticked and tell them to go do something more interactive and stimulating such as watching t.v. But yesterday morning I was super-great.

Anyways, a few minutes later, just after I had Blake add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, I opened one of the envelopes.

"Dear Families, 

I am excited to be writing you today because I would like to include you in a little secret that concerns your child.

Your child will be recognized as a STAR Student at an assembly next Tuesday, 2/21/12. This assembly will occur in our gym on Tuesday morning from 8:30 until 8:55 and we invite you to join us for this recognition."

Blah, blah, blah....Sincerely, the Principal.....I didn't really read the rest of the letter.

What I did do was look at the clock and it read 8:05. Oh, snap!

Blake and Cade were awaiting their pancakes and the four of us needed to get dressed and look presentable in less than 15 minutes. I go into fast mode and quickly pour out one batch of pancakes on the griddle, grab some clothes for the boys and myself. I go back to flip the pancakes and notice that they have barely cooked at all. What the heck?! Aaron had just mentioned a few days earlier that we should probably get a new one, we got the griddle as a wedding present (thank-you Maria Worton Bybee!...how awesome is it that I can remember who gave us that? pretty awesome.)  So the dang pancakes weren't cooking. I grabbed a skillet out of the cupboard and turn the stove on high, and throw the pancakes on that. Go in the bathroom and wipe the flakes of mascara off from under my eyes and throw on some more. Glamourous, I know. I then opened up the fridge to grab some milk and notice the light was out, and like a good math teachers' wife, put 2 and 2 together and realized that the circuit was out.  Ran outside to the box thingy and flipped the switch back to the "on" position. But by that time, the pancakes were already done on the stovetop. Told the boys to hurry and eat, that we had to leave. Put their shoes on while they're eating. Roll up a pancake and dip it in some syrup and take a bite....then I had to pause and have a moment. It was a really good pancake. I'm not a pancake type person, french toast is where it's at, but these pancakes were really good. After I had my moment with my food, I throw jackets on all of us and out the door we went at 8:22.

And per usual, whenever I'm in a hurry, every single grandma this side of the Mississippi decided to be driving in front of me. I then spend the entire car ride screaming in my head for them to drive faster or get out of my way, sprinkled with a few appropriate curse words. I've learned my lesson about vocalizing my occasional swear word in front of the kids. Parrots, they are.

We find a close parking spot, and into the gym we four went, just as the elementary kids were being herded in.

I'll turn around now so you all can pat me on my back.

It was a nice little assembly to be at and watch my two little elementary schoolers get their little awards.

{can you tell which one has taken sports pictures before?}

And to top off the day, I find out last night, that yesterday was National Pancake Day. Even when I'm not paying attention, I do awesome things.

Like my STAR Student kids, they were STAR pancakes. After we came home, an hour after mixing the batter together, I cooked up the rest of 'em. Still good. I can't give you my awesome kids, but I will give you the awesome recipe.

Featherlight Buttermilk Pancakes Source: Cooking.com
Active Time:  20 Minutes Total Time:  20 Minutes Makes about 18 pancakes
Cooking.com Tip: The secret to making these amazing pancakes is the lumpy batter. So whatever you do, do not overmix the batter! To cook the pancakes, use a heavy large griddle. A very low-sided griddle, makes sliding your spatula underneath the pancakes and turning them over easy. The griddle's large surface area allows you to cook a large batch of pancakes each time. INGREDIENTS 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 cup sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups buttermilk 2 cups sour cream 2 large eggs 4 teaspoons vanilla extract 3 tablespoons unsalted butter Additional unsalted butter Pure maple syrup, warm
DIRECTIONS Whisk first 5 ingredients in large bowl. Whisk buttermilk, sour cream, eggs and vanilla in another large bowl. Add to dry ingredients. Stir until batter is just blended but still lumpy (do not overmix). Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter on griddle over medium heat. Pour batter by 1/3 cupfuls onto griddle, spacing 2 inches apart. Cook until bubbles break on surface, about 3 minutes. Turn pancakes over. Cook until bottoms are golden, 3 minutes. Transfer to plates. Repeat with remaining batter, adding butter to skillet as needed. Serve pancakes immediately with butter and warm maple syrup.

I love me some Pinterest.

The other day I saw this tutorial about using the sock bun to make curly hair. I know what you're thinking, "You already have curly hair. What are you trying to do, make it curlier?"

Not really. I thought it would come in handy if I ever straightened my hair and then wanted to curl it without a curling iron. Follow?

Well, you guys, it totally worked/works! For real. I went and cut up and old sock, put my damp hair in the bun thingy, slept on it overnight, and wonder of wonders, it turned out looking like this:

The awesome picture was the best I could do by myself. But I think you now have some motivation to try it out for yo'self.

under the weather again

I called the operator to see if they had a listing for Substitute Mom's. I couldn't find it anywhere in my phonebook.

They just laughed at me and hung-up.

forcing it down

When I was a young gal, and I happened to get sick with the sickness of sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, aching, stuffyhead, fever, my parents would have to chase me around and hogtie me down just to give me that crappy concoction that suspends all those symptoms and allows a nighttime of sleep without waking up. 


I hate liquid Nyquil and any of its generic counterparts. When they came out with liquid gel-caps, all was well in the world of medicine again. The last time I sent my husband out to by drugs from the grocery store, he made the mistake of getting the liquid stuff. By the time he got home with it, I didn't care, I just wanted some relief.


Since Friday evening, I have again been battling the sickness of sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, aching, stuffyhead, fever. It's manageable during the day, but when eventide creeps up, so do the symptoms. Saturday, I had no choice but to give into my foe of pharmaceuticals and drink that stuff. Yes, I could have bought the gel-caps, but when the $100 bottle of medicine is sitting in my cupboard, my cheap self is forced to use it up.


Just the thought of taking it makes my stomach turn and I can feel the dry heaves fighting their way out. I have to work myself up, just to throw back the two tablespoons worth of meds. I also have to have at the ready, a chaser to follow it down. Sunday night, it was a glass of water, followed by a few tortilla chips and fun size Snickers bars, followed by another glass of water. All the while, my fingers are tightly clamped on my nostrils to further prevent even the faint taste of it on my tongue. After it's securely in my stomach, I spend the next half hour with the feeling of it involuntarily coming back up. But then the magic of chemistry happens in my body and the drugs do their stuff and I'm able to sleep without the sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, aching, stuffyhead, fever...


...so I can rest medicine.




   

peaked my interest

Pinterest.

It's there taunting me with all its pretty pictures of things I could bake, paint, craft, cook, refurbish, eat, laugh at, inspiring quotes, the list goes on and on.

But twice, those inspiring pins have gotten me off my lazy butt and outside on a run.

This was what I thought of on Saturday, when 4:30 in the afternoon rolled around and I was tired, it was too late in the day, I didn't really feel like going on a run:

And yesterday when it was snowing and freezing cold outside, I thought of this guy and how awesome he is:

I love Pinterest.

the plow man cometh

Mr. Smith gets to stay home from work today.

Our kids still had to go. Around here they don't ever shut down school for anything.

But where Mr. Smith works, they're getting freezing rain.

And now I have someone to fold laundry.

batten down the hatches

It's about time Old Man Winter showed up.

hair whisperer

From the time I can remember, my Aunt Denise would always tell me two things anytime I saw her. 1) never, under any circumstance should I get bangs or she'll kill me. And 2) whoever I marry will be in love with my curly hair almost as much as he loves me.

She was right about the second one, and I know she'd make good on the first one, so I've never had bangs.

But this shout out goes to Jake Thompson.

Edward Scissorhands wishes he was as good as this guy.

He is the co-owner of Lunatic Fringe in Sugarhouse, south of Salt Lake and when I was down visiting my sister, I had the profound opportunity to have him cut my hair.

As you can tell by my stupid, little smile, I was pretty excited about gettin' my hair did by him.

He had a lot of hair to work with. The longest layer was only a mere 5 or 6 inches from my waist.

Jake is so good at what he does, took him less than 30 minutes from the first cut of the scissor to make the frizz on my head a thing of beauty again.

We bonded over the fact that we both have been blessed/cursed with naturally curly hair. And how during our formidable years of teenage scrutiny, we had no idea how to tame the wild beast on top of our heads. I actually wore my hair up in a bun from about the middle of 7th grade until I was going into 10th grade. All because two boys in my English class thought it was soooooo funny to throw mini paper airplanes into the bucket of fuzz that was my hair. True story.

He called me "love", the entire time.

"Alright, Love, what would you like to see done?"

"Come back with me, Love, and we'll condition your hair."

I loved that.

If you are within a thousand mile radius of this guy, go to him for all your hair needs.

He's classy, quietly funny, and knows hair like Columbus knew the world was round. And he'll go to the ends of the earth to make sure you're happy with your hair.

a list

-i'm in Utah.

-flew in Monday morning.

-i'm here to spend some time helping out my sister and her new baby.

-i hate flying.

-lincoln is such a cute baby.

-aaron has all the kids with  him.

-i love that man.

-i really hate flying.

-i woke up Tuesday morning violently ill.

-both ends.

-i told you it was violent.

-i'll tell you again, i hate flying.

-i'd rather drive.

-when i wasn't Tebowing in front of the toilet, i was wishing a swift death to come upon me.

-i was getting so dehydrated my kidneys started to ache.

-i told krissy it was nice of her to let me come to her house and have her take care of me.

-she's nice like that.

-i'm getting my haircut today by a dude who won a NAHA award this past year in Vegas. it's like the Academy Awards for hair. kinda a big deal.

-no pictures 'cause i forgot the camera cord. 

-be prepared for an on-slot of photos after i get back home.

-the baby is cuter than cute.

-i hate flying.

news

Great news!

We made over to the west siiiiiiiide for Christmas Break.

More great news!

Dentists appointments all around. Two and a half hours spent getting the family's teeth checked out.

Sad news.

Baby boy had four shots yesterday and is feeling like a furnace on fire with hot coals thrown on top.

But he's oh, so cuddly.

blotter patrol

We live in what some people call a "small town".


The nearest Target or Walmart is just over 30 mins away.


The nearest airport is 2 hours, either direction.


About the same for the closest temple.


Sometimes it's easy to forget how we live a nice, comfy bubble, seemingly untouched by the demons of bigger metropolis towns.


And then we read the police blotter in the newspaper, and we're reminded that we still do live in a one-horse town.


The following are actual incidences people dialed 9-1-1 to report.


Laugh-on, friends. 


-A man reported that he was having trouble getting the title to a vehicle he recently purchased and the last owner sent him a text message advising that she was going to report the vehicle stolen.


-A neighbor reportedly was trying to push the door of a house on River Avenue.


-A cow reportedly was loose on No. 6 Road.


-A dog reportedly tried to kill a chicken on Manastash Road.


-A man on Chestnut Street wearing a leather jacket and gloves reportedly was acting strangely, being belligerent and boasting that he had done time.


-Four dogs reportedly were covered in porcupine quills on Burbank Creek Road.


-A woman on Colockum Road reported receiving a suspicious call from a woman who said she would send a national health card and needed the some information.


-A person reportedly attempted to flag down a driver on Bullfrog Road near Roslyn.


-A person on Cowboy Lane reportedly needed a pilot light relit.


-A red US Cellular flip phone reportedly was lost on North Ruby Street.


-Loud voices were reported on First Street.


-A German shepherd reportedly was barking for five hours on South Poplar Stree


-A man with long hair and a beard reportedly was yelling at people inside a business on University Way and talking about the end of the world and telling them they all were going to die.


....and the most frightening of all....


-A puppy reportedly was seen running up a path at Central Washington University.

satiated

My friend had a baby a few days ago.

I went to visit her in the hospital.

I got to hold the teeny, tiny babe.

My uterus was not hungry for one of its own.

Guess that means we're officially done.