Dead Pig Smell - Yum! Yum!

TAKE NOTE: When you take a container out of the fridge that has obviously been in there for WAY too long and what used to be pulled pork is now unidentifiable, no ordinary person would open it because there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO OPEN IT. My husband is not an ordinary person and my office now smells like dead pig. Grrrr!

2009 Young Family Photo at Kopperskogen

I finally got to taking our family photo today. We started with the typical "everyone stand and look pretty for the camera" photo . . .


But in the end we decided it just wasn't us and went with this instead . . .

Julie & Julia

What a fabulous movie. Great story, fabulous food and some amazing acting by Meryl Streep as Julia Child. Julie & Julia really delivers. I heart warming look at a woman reaching 30 and searching for who she is. In her search she reaches out to do something. Not just something, but to make every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook. As we watch her take this challenge on we are taken back to Julia Child in the 50's when the cookbook is born.

For you guys out there, it isn't just a "chick flick." Robb and I both enjoyed the comedy intertwined in both the lives of Julie and Julia. Plus if you have ever known someone who sets a goal for themselves and is determined to see it through, then you will be able to relate to many parts in this movie.

It is a definite must see in my book.

Yum! Yum!

"Mom if you are going to write yum, do it right. It needs an exclamation point so people know you are saying it loud." No better way to express the fabulous cookies the three of us made. When I say "three" I use the word very loosely. What actually happened is I mixed, rolled, cut, scooped, baked, cooled, mixed and mixed and spooned and baked and cooled some more all while the girls continually asked me if they could sample just one. The sample requests started as soon as I had dough in the bowl and didn't end until they got one after all the cookies were made.

They abandoned me somewhere during the first hour of cookie making after the decorating was done. They had no interest if there wasn't decorating of cookies to be done. They ran off to their room to enter into pretend world. They sounded like they were having so much fun that I made the mistake, mid cookie baking, to glance into their room. Scary! (Note the exclamation point.) That really is the best way to explain it. It is almost as if they knew I was preoccupied and so they thought "now is the time for our room to suffer a natural disaster because what can she do about it? She has to watch the cookies baking in the oven." I quickly brought them back to reality when I told them they would not get any cookies until their room was cleaned up. This meant that the animal hammocks had to be put back up in the corners and the animals needed to be in them, the art stuff put back away, ponies and barbies and clothes (clean and dirty) needed to be put where they belong, new clothes put away, shoes in the closet, bed made. . . the list goes on. This seemed to work as a great energizer until Grammy stopped by and suggested they needed the energy only a cookie can provide. Thus they got a cookie and all ideas of cleaning were quickly out the window.

I entered into the picture the plastic garbage sack. There was hysterical crying and running and really the quickest feet I have seen in awhile. The room was cleaned with the help of mom, Grammy and the garbage sack.

Long story short, we got the cookies made and the room cleaned out. It was a win win day.

Cookies Take Two

About to embark upon the adventure of a day of baking cookies with my beautiful daughters. I will definitely fill you all in upon completion. :)

Looking forward to Christmas Eve.

I realized this weekend that I have yet another reason to be excited for Christmas Eve, other than the fact it is the night before Christ's birth. This will be the first year since our kids were born that we are going to have dinner at our house. In fact, it may very well be the first Christmas Eve that we have had dinner just us since Robb and I were married over 13 years ago. I am so excited. The girls and I will be able to get dinner ready, get all dressed up for service, go to service and then come home to a fabulous dinner just the four of us. Then the girls will be able to take baths, get in pjs, leave out goodies for Santa, say our prayers and thanks for our many blessings and get all tucked into bed at a decent time. I almost can't express with words the excitement I have for this. I didn't even know it was possible.

How about you? How do you normally spend your Christmas Eve? Are you busy like we have been in the years past, visiting family and friends near and far? I would love to hear how you spend your holidays. What parts do you look forward to?

New Moon

The new movie in the Twilight series is out with mixed reviews. I am not one of the avid readers of the books, but I admit I did see the first movie (only after I could get it on demand and watch it in my own home) and actually enjoyed it. Was it an epic? Definitely not. Did it entertain? Yes. Isn't that what a movie is supposed to do?

For all those out there that were upset that it didn't follow the books exactly, did you really think it would? I tend to set my sights low when a movie comes out after a book. Books are always so much better. Plus if you go into it just expecting an entertaining movie and not the book you are usually much more satisfied.

I think there is only once that I have read a book, seen the movie and they were almost identical. In fact I remember being in the movie theatre, having forgotten that I had read the book, and I thought I had seen the movie before. Amazing.

What are you thankful for?

What an amazing holiday. I truly love Thanksgiving. I love to have a holiday dedicated to remembering all that we have to be thankful for. I think too often we have holidays that have been taken over by the consumer world and I really love that Thanksgiving is, above all else, a holiday to say Thank You.

I encourage you all to look at your lives and see all that you have to be thankful for. Family, friends, a home a job, there are many reasons to be thankful. Even when we feel like our world is being turned upside down, it can be helpful for us to focus on those things we are thankful for.

I am so thankful to God for my girls. My girls get bigger and bigger each year and I am thankful I am able to watch them grow and watch them experience so much. With each new thing it is as if I am experiencing it for the very first time. Love it.

I am also thankful to God for my husband. He is amazing and wonderful and I love each and every day we have together. I love the life we have together and the life we are building.

I am thankful for my entire family, my work, for the outdoors, for gardening, for crafts and time with friends. Thank you God for truly blessing my life with amazing things and for giving me a holiday where instead of focusing on the things that I feel are going wrong or the struggles I might be facing, I can rejoice in all that I have to be thankful for.

Claira Mae

This is a picture of Claira Mae. She is the daughter of a childhood friend of mine. I have included a link to a message from her mom about the current struggle she is going through and I urge you to all pray for this beautiful little child and her family.

Friends : Megan & Amanda

There really is nothing like a good friend.

Amanda

Being a senior in high school is such an exciting time. One part of your life comes to a close while another new and exciting part waits just around the corner. This last weekend (as you saw in a previous post) I was blessed to take pictures of Megan out at Scenic Beach State Park. The experience was made even better because Megan brought her good friend Amanda with her. It was great to see these two together who have known each other since 7th grade. They are on such a journey together and I wish them both the best.

Here are a few pictures of Amanda. A truly wonderful young woman.

The Gum Novelty

My oldest daughter came to me the other day at the office and asked me for a piece of gum. This isn't an odd request. In fact it is something she asks every time she comes to the office. I am pretty sure that gum is a drug of some sort that her body is addicted to. I came to this conclusion quite abruptly. The other day when O came to me asking for a piece of gum, this is how the conversation went:

O: Mom, can I have a piece of gum please?
M: Sorry honey, I don't have any gum.
O: But mom I really need some gum. please?
M: O, I don't have any gum so I can't help you.
O: I need something to chew.
M: I have carrots or apples in my lunch. You can have some of those.
O: I don't want carrots or apples. I want gum. I need gum.
M: You don't need gum.
O: But mom, my teeth are soooo bored. They need gum.
M: . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

How am I even supposed to respond to that? I wasn't even aware that teeth could get bored.

Megan at Scenic Beach State Park

This last weekend, despite the weather, I headed out to Scenic Beach State Park to meet up with Megan and her mom to take Megan's senior pictures. The weather didn't cooperate as much as we would have liked but we were still able to get some beautiful pictures and we tried to have a little fun along the way to keep us warm.

Megan is a wonderful young woman. I wish her the best as she finishes her senior year and embarks upon the fabulous journey in front of her.

Meet Noah.

I recently came across Noah in a blog by Me Ra Koh and it tugged at my heart. Here is an excerpt from that post.

Dr Tom Curran is a radio personality, and he is in the process of setting up a 24 hour (live) online Rosary where people around the world can meet together online and pray. One of the prayer requests last night was for a family in Michigan where 5 year Noah is in the final stages of his 2.5 year battle with Neuroblastoma…a particularly vicious form of childhood cancer with a 0% chance of survival. (If you’ve read the amazing book Gloria’s Miracle you know how ruthless this disease really is.)

Well, Noah is probably not going to make it to Christmas so the family is going to celebrate the holiday this coming weekend. Apparently, Noah likes Christmas Cards and receiving things in the mail. The request was sent out to have people flood their mailbox with Christmas Cards encouraging Noah in his final struggle! If you could take a moment to send him a Christmas Card in the next few days, it would really be appreciated!

The news about Noah’s early Christmas has spread through a number of radio stations. I encourage you to join those sending Noah Christmas cards. What a great way to show our children compassion and love towards others. I have included Noah's address below. It was given to the Catholic radio show as well as many other blogs.

Noah Biorkman

1141 Fountain View Circle

South Lyon, MI 48178

My prayers go out to this family during this struggle.

Halloween - Jury is still out.

I have not yet decided if I really like the Halloween holiday. I suppose you could say the jury is still out. The costumes that are out there for purchase are overpriced and in most cases either cheesy or sleazy. Nothing I would want to wear and definitely nothing I want my girls to wear. Getting lucky this year, or so I thought, my oldest daughter found a costume of her auntie's from when her auntie used to dance. She was sold immediately. :) Then my youngest decided she wanted to be a gypsy. This seemed easy to me. I could grab some scarfs or scraps of material and sew them around the top of a skirt, add some jingly bracelets and necklaces, a head scarf and she would be the most fabulous little gypsy. So we discussed this and she looked at me with these big wide sad eyes and said "mom, that's not a gypsy." Huh? What do you mean that isn't a gypsy? Sounds like a gypsy to me. So we tried a few more suggestions and it was obvious that what I was thinking of as a gypsy and what was in her little head were two totally different things. So with that we headed to the costume store.

We ended up with what I believe is a perfect compromise. It isn't a gypsy, but our Ellie was the most precious and perfect Dorothy there ever could be. :)

Nighty night nap time.

I have definitely been blessed with two totally different children. My oldest has never been too fond of naps. I can't remember a nap where I didn't have to rub her back or her feet or her face or arms. She just loves to be sung to, cuddled and for me to run my fingers along her skin. There have been quite a few times that I have actually fallen asleep doing this only to be woken up by her exclaiming to "keep rubbing mommy." And so when my youngest came along I was sure nap time would be the same process. I was wrong. My youngest LOVES her naps. In fact she gets quite upset and sad when she doesn't get them.

This year is my sweet E Claire's last year of preschool. They meet 3 afternoons a week from 12:30 until 3. I am not sure whos idea it was to have it in the afternoon right at her nap time, but she doesn't like it. Every morning she will ask, "Is it a school day today?" If I answer yes I automatically get a sad face and the retort "that means no nap today, huh mommy?"

Now don't get me wrong she thinks school itself is fabulous but she loves her naps WAY more. On school days I will pick her up and she asks me if I have her blankie because she needs "nighty night nap time." I figure this is my ballance for my O who doesn't want anything to do with naps or going to bed at night.

Gotta love their differences. :)

Hood River, Oregon

Another fabulous weekend with my wonderful girlfriends has come and gone. It is hard to believe that we have been getting together every year for 6 years now. This year we all met up in Hood River, OR where we found a great little house right in town. It was the perfect size for those of us that made it this year. It was clean, well stocked, and easy to find. The owners were great to work with and the cost was amazingly reasonable. We will definitely keep this in mind if we ever head back to Hood River.

One thing I have discovered is it takes WAY more time to get groceries in a store you have never been in than in a store you are comfortable and familiar with. It took me over an hour to get all the groceries for the weekend and I was by myself. Totally insane. Next time I will definitely contemplate getting the groceries at home and taking them with me.

Friday night everyone arrived. We had some great appetizers and snacks, drinks and visited. After heading to bed and getting a great night sleep we were ready for the day Saturday morning. We had cinnamon marble bread french toast with butter syrup, bacon and scrambled eggs. It was all delicious. We all got ready and headed out. We were blessed to have Kathy's little one Rebecca with us. It was so much fun. She is such a good baby.

Saturday we explored downtown, visited the Harvest Festival which included dodging in and out of the rain, had lunch in a cafe and snapped lots of pics of each other as we had a blast. What better fun could there be than hanging out with girl friends?

Saturday night we were back at the house for a fabulous dinner that had been cooking all day in the slow cooker and games and more visiting. Simply it was an amazing weekend and I can't wait until next year at Long Beach/Ocean Shores.

Bert & Loni

Here are our two new additions to our family.

Loni

Bert

Two cute little sleepy kitties.

Ellie, Bert & Loni

Nightmares.

My oldest had her first nightmares last night. It was such a sad moment. She woke up and came in our bedroom with tears covering her face. I pulled her up onto the bed and she cuddled on my lap crying. I asked her what had happened and she just told me that there were scary dreams about spooky things. So we laid there and talked about all the good happy things she could dream about for the rest of the night while her daddy rubbed her back. These were some of the suggestions that came up:

1. Butterflies.
2. Wild horses
3. Unicorns
4. Rainbows
5. Disneyland (This was a top choice for Olyvia. She said it was probably the best idea.)
6. The beach
7. Being on TV with Rachel Ray (Another very good idea in Olyvia's book.)
8. Cuddling with mommy (This was one of my favorites.)
9. Fields of flowers.
10. Her new kitties.

After this discussion she was in a much better mood and ready to go off to her bed and dream about Disneyland and Rachel Ray.

Testing my patience.

I really am not sure if I am winning. In fact, I am pretty sure that I am loosing the test my oldest daughter is currently putting me through. It is as if she knows when I am on my last nerve or can no longer take the arguing or screaming or fits because it is then that they get worse or louder or totally unbearable. I know that this is not only a test for me but a lesson for her as well. Each moment is a teaching moment. How I react is going to teach her how she should behave in the future. I understand that. My question is how do I survive the process?

Time all to myself.

I tried to have free time all to myself last night. I made two big mistakes. The first was thinking I could get some free time to myself and the second was actually attempting it.

I decided to take a bath and maybe even work a Sudoku or read some of my book that I haven't been getting to (A Tree Grows In Brooklyn). I ran a nice hot tub while listening to my youngest beg over and over and over again to please come in the tub with me. Lip out and everything. I asked her ever so nicely to please give mommy just a few minutes of quiet time in the tub and then she can join me. I admit I was probably begging just a little. My sanity needed the time.

As I lower myself into the tub ever so slowly enjoying the nice hot warmth of the water, I hear my oldest say "where are the kitties?" This may seem like a normal questions, except that we have a pretty small house and if they can't be found chances are they escaped to outside and that would be bad. I listen for a little and am hearing no sense of urgency to find the little kitties and so out of the tub I go to assist in the hunt. I ask my wonderful husband if he has looked in the cubby and under the desk to which he replies "yes." So I skip those locations and look everywhere else. This included walking around outside wrapped in a towel with my husband's slippers on calling our two new kitties. The humor in that is that they probably don't know their names yet so I am not sure what good I am doing by calling their names. Back upstairs I go. Again I ask Robb if he looked under the desk and he replies "yes." I look in all the cubbies, under the beds, in cupboards, under couches and everywhere else I can think of except under the desk because Robb is adamant that he checked there.

By this time I am starting to get frustrated. My bath water is getting cold I just know it and the amount of time I have for some alone time is slipping away while I search for the kitties. I decide for the heck of it to look under the desk. Guess what? There they were looking up at me with their big eyes all sprawled out enjoying some lazy alone time. With that I stood up, practically fuming. So upset that precious minutes from my alone time had been stolen. I went to the bathroom and locked myself in. Lowered myself back into the tub and sank all the way under the water. I didn't want to hear anything except my own breathing for as long as possible.

New Kitties

I think I was on something. That is the story I am sticking to. I could go with "I was drugged by their cuteness" because that would work also. Either way nothing could have prepared me for the cat poop massacre that I just had to deal with.

I suppose my first mistake was trying this new crystal cat litter. It is HORRIBLE. It doesn't clump and it doesn't stick to poop. And as far as I am concerned that is a definite necessity.

Picture this . . . Robb walks in the bathroom while the girls are in the shower and asks them if they pooped in the shower it smells so bad. I tell him it was probably his cat (Bert has already had a few that could peel paint.) and he says "Wow! Some cat." He then proceeds to go about doing whatever it was that he was doing before he smelled the atrocity. I then go into the bathroom and it still smells horrible. I ask him if he cleaned the box and he says "No."

No? Why the heck not? I tell him he either needs to clean the box or finish making the bed with the fresh sheets I just washed. He of course chooses the bed. I head to the bathroom and get in there just in time to witness Bert trying to cover up his poop with the horrible crystal cat litter and it isn't working and the poop is getting thrown all over the toilet and the walls. I go in really quick like and scoop him out of the box while trying to not get any poop on me. I then notice these little poopy paw prints heading out of the bathroom. I realize that those have to be Lonni's since I am holding Bert. I yell to Robb to grab her and sure enough Lonni's paws are covered in poop. I check Bert's and his are also. I hand the two cats to Robb and tell him "You get the poopy paws if I have to clean the poopy walls and floor."

So that is how I spent my Saturday evening. I cleaned cat poop off the toilet and the walls in our bathroom. I wonder what the week has in store for me. I can't wait. Maybe after I get over this little poop incident I will post some pictures of the little trouble makers.

My answer in a not so golden wrapper.

Ellie started school this week and since Monday I have been wondering how it was going to go. I wasn't worried about whether or not she would have a fun time or if she would make friends. I knew that she would have a fabulous time. What I was concerned about was if having school right during her normal nap time would be such a good idea. I have learned the answer to my question. No!

I learned this while in Walmart this evening. Ellie and I stopped there on our way home from gymnastics to grab a few groceries (laundry detergent, bleach, silk). I didn't even make it into the store before sweet Ellie turned into psycho screaming Ellie. It was a pleasant experience for sure as I zoomed around the store gathering the few things I needed and flying towards the checkout as fast as I could. Went right for the self check, avoiding any unnecessary contact with other humans, paid and went straight for the car.

The one positive . . . fastest trip through Walmart ever.

Sam Murdoch

I was recently given the fun opportunity to take pictures of the girls' past babysitter and her boyfriend.

Proud Mom Moment

I would have to say that one of the proudest mom moments ever is seeing my beautiful girls excited for their first days of school. They both talked about it weeks before it happened building up to the big day. This year was a really big year for Olyvia. It is her first year of all day school.

Here she is on her way to her first day in Mrs. Hawkins' first grade class.

There were a few kids that were still clinging to their parents but my daughter just reassured me everything would be just fine with a quick, 'love ya mom.' My cue to head out.

It was all old hat for Ellie as she started her first day of her last year in preschool with Teacher Sue. She too was extremely excited and after a quick picture outside of her portable. . .

I had to chase after her to catch up with her.

After washing hands and signing in, she went straight to the rug with her friends.

I really feel blessed that my girls are so comfortable where they are at and that they are establishing a love for school and education at such an early age.

I wonder. . .

Recently I have come up with some great ideas for things I wanted to blog about. You may notices that my blog has not been bombarded with new posts lastely which may lead you to ask, "where are all these great ideas?" Excellent question.

All these fabulous ideas I have gotten have either come while I am driving down the highway and can't stop to write them down or when I am just about into lovely dream land and don't want to get out of bed. I think to myself that I can remember the idea if I just repeat it to myself multiple times. Then I sit down to blog and instead of the wonderful amazing idea that I had running through my mind earlier, you get this.

So, I appologize for my inability to remember these great ideas and I promise that I will try and keep a notebook with me at all times, even under my pillow if necessary, so that you don't miss out on any wonderful tidbits I might have to offer.

Toffee

We have had a loss in our family. Something we hate to see our children go through is the loss of a family member. Robb and I had our first experience with telling our children that their pet kitty had disappeared. There were a lot of tears and our youngest exclaimed "Don't be sad sissy. She will be back tomorrow" as our oldest shed buckets of tears.


Olyvia wanted to know all the details but I had to tell her that I really didn't know. I explained that she could have been caught by a wild animal or she could have been sick and wandered off, but that I just didn't know for sure. Watching her struggle with this was sad for me as her mother. I could see her trying to grasp the meaning of it and then all of a sudden she stopped crying, she looked at me and explained to me, quite matter of fact, that Toffee had gone to find her mommy and would be fine because if she was lost that is what she would do.


And so our wonderful kitty went to find her mommy. She will be missed, but we enjoyed all the fun times we had with her.

'Night' by Elie Wiesel

'Night' by Elie Wiesel is an amazingly powerful true story of a young Jewish boy who is taken from a ghetto with his family to a concentration camp as told by Elie himself and translated by his wife. The book details the horrors of seeing his family ripped from his life and his father murdered by the Nazi soldiers. I was crying in the first chapter and there were parts of the book where I was actually sick to my stomach and had to take a break from reading. That said, it is definitely on the top of my "best books" list and I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially those searching for a first hand perspective on the atrocities that occurred at the hands of the Nazi's during WWII.

***** A definite must read for all.

This book was highlighted on the Oprah book club and her website offers some great resources.

What have I read?

Earlier today someone mentioned that, while on my blog, they were surprised not to see more posts on books I have ready. I then realized she was right and I couldn't believe it. So I have decided that I really need to do something about that. Plus, by sharing my love for reading I can hopefully encourage another to read a good book.

I am going to rate books on a 5 star scale in relation to all books I have read. Should it happen that I read a book I don't want anyone to have to suffer through it, it would receive zero stars. I will also try to give a brief explanation of what I thought of the book. I would encourage anyone who reads my reviews of the books to comment, especially if you disagree. Many people will have differing opinions on the same book and I love to discuss those in a outlet such as this so others can review the debate, read the book and then make their own opinions.

Enjoy and happy reading!

Michaud Family Photos

Rencently I had the amazing opportunity to take photos of a friend's family. They hadn't had family photos in a while and had asked me if I would take them and I was honored. The family is a very close and it could be seen in how they interacted with each other and how the kids interacted with each other. It was pure joy to see it. Here are a few of the pictures from the evening.

A beautiful day at the beach.

What a beautiful evening it was. I met up with Sara and her wonderfully spunky daughter, Hanna, at the beach. It was great to see her and Hanna enjoying each other so much in such a beautiful place. Hanna was intrigued by everything and I loved following her around and capturing her beautiful personality as she went.

Leilah turns 3!

We had a great time last weekend at my niece's 3rd birthday party. My sister decided to hold it at Silverdale Waterfront which proved to be the perfect location. The kids could play on the playground, there was concrete for them to draw on with chalk, grass to run in, and beach to explore. Plus it was a beautiful day. I was able to get some precious pictures that I want to share with all of you.
Is she a beauty or what? Oh, and she loved the watermelon.