Pickled Herring. . . Yum?

When I was dating Robb I was introduced to many new things. One of the most unpleasant of these was pickled herring. The sound of it alone was horrible enough to know that I never wanted to try it, but to smell it. Goodness, I was pretty sure there wasn't any food that smelled quite so bad. The only time we ever have to be around this appetizer was during the holidays when at his family's Christmas gatherings. Robb himself does not partake thankfully so I don't have to worry about kissing pickled herring mouth. Yuck!

You might ask, where does this story take me? This year we spent Christmas evening at Robb's mother's house with his mom, grandparents, aunt, cousin, dad and his dad's wife. His dad and Dee were invited last minute when they had to cancel coming to Poulsbo at the last minute because of the snow. Robb thought it would be a great idea to bring some pickled herring with us and I agreed. Little did I know that later in the evening some might actually touch the inside of my mouth. If I had known, I never would have agreed.

Long story short, later in the evening Lindsey, Robb's cousin, was being coerced into trying some. In a last chance to get free from it she exclaimed, "If Jessica does it, I will." She figured she was pretty safe since the chance of me doing it was right up there with the possibility of the moon falling out of the sky. We all watched as her mother tried it.






Now Robb couldn't be shown up by his aunt so he ate one.

A little less harsh of a reaction almost made me wonder if he actually liked it. Thankfully, he assured me he did not.

His grandfather was very proud and was still trying to convince Lindsey to partake. She was still holding strong to her statement that if I did it she would, but they were still trying to convince her to do it.

I just couldn't take it anymore and said "Lindsey, you just can't think about it, you have to do it" and I stabbed a piece with a toothpick and popped it into my mouth, swallowing it whole. There was definitely not going to be any chewing. Now she was stuck. There was no option but eating a piece now that I had. and so she did only she chewed it. Brave girl!

January Question of the Month

This is my fourth attempt to get this post up. Each time I sit down to write a post something distracts me or pulls my attention away. It is usually my beautiful girls and because of that, I don't mind being pulled away. They are so precious and growing so fast. The little things they say or the expressions they have.

That said, lately we have waging a war against the whines. We have discovered that our youngest has quite the sweet tooth that was made worse over the holidays. Because of this we have decided that there will be no more sweets. No candy, no cookies, no cake. She was to the point where she wouldn't want anything and wouldn't eat anything and then begged and begged for the goodies. Not gonna have it. We are slowly pulling her out of the abyss of addiction that she was finding herself in, poor little thing. She isn't too happy with us when she wants a goodie, but she is quickly realizing that the fits don't get her what she wants. That is a hard thing to do though, to be the parent. To hear your child being upset but still standing firm in what you know to be the best for them. They don't always like it and a lot of the times truely hate it, but making the decision to stick to it is one of the best decisions a parent can make. The following through of punishments is tough, but in the long run very worth it.

I remember a couple books that were really helpful for me when Olyvia was young were the What to Expect and The Girlfriends Guide books. I definitely suggest them to anyone pregnant or with young children.

This month I want you to think of one of the times it was really hard to "be the parent" and what helped you get through. You don't necessarily have to have children for this to apply to you. If you have babysat children before or have grandchildren, nieces and/or nephews then this applies to you as well. I look forward to hearing.

Bringing 2008 to a slicing close.

It was December 27th and I was busy in the house getting ready for a party we would be having that evening. Ellie was napping in our bedroom and Olyvia was helping me in the kitchen while also watching a movie. It was around 3pm. I had just sliced open a bag of greenbeens to get them washed and ready to cook up to go with dinner. We were expecting about 6 people over to the house around 5:30 for dinner, games and movies. I hear Robb coming up the stairs. He opens the door and says "I think we should probably head to Urgent Care."

Thinking he is joking or overexagerating I say "What?" and when there is no change of facial expression I ask "You are kidding, right?" He replies, "No. We should go to Urgent Care like, RIGHT NOW!" Still in shock and not knowing really what to do. Standing there in my slippers with a knife in my hand and beans in the other I ask "What did you do?" He replies, rather urgently, "I cut my leg and we need to go to Urgent Care right now!

I spin around in a few circles in the kitchen trying to figure out what to do. Do I clean up the beans and turn off the stove? What about the oven? The slow cooker is on? I need to get Ellie but she is napping. After I spin a few times, I run into the bedroom throwing off my slippers and putting shoes on. I grab Ellie, grab her some shoes while telling Olyvia to get her shoes on quick because we have to take daddy to the doctor. Luckily we had already packed the girls because they were going to be going over to their grandma and papa's house to spend the night. I grab all their stuff and we run down the stairs. I throw the girls into the jeep, pretty sure that I buckled them although I can't actually remember much of those few minutes.

We all got into the jeep and drove out. I tossed the cell phone at Robb who is sitting in the passenger seat, blood dripping out of the bottom of his pants leg , and tell him to call my dad and let him know that we are on our way to Urgent Care. I had called him quickly before leaving the house but being in such a quick hurry hadn't had time to really explain anything and I think I actually might have hung up on him.

It took us record time to get to Urgent Care and we pulled into the parking lot and I ran in to let them know that we were there. My dad had already filled them in on the situation. Robb got out of the car while my dad helped the girls out. We were led straight back.

The nurse took a look up the pant leg to see what we were looking at and all she said was "WOW!" and then proceeded to let us know she was just going to leave it until the doctor came in. When the doctor came in what we saw was none to pretty.

Below are some of the pictures we took with our phones while the girls attentively watched the doctor stitch up their daddy.

After we were back home and the party was over. . . yes, we made it home in time for me to finish getting things ready for the party and we had an awesome time (pics of that to come) . . . I was able to figure out what happened that caused this horrible wound. He was chopping wood with a very sharp Swiss ax he had gotten a couple years ago as a Christmas gift. He was being safe, leaving his leggs apart should the ax swing between his legs he wouldn't hit them with the ax. The problem was, the ax went all the way through the wood and bounced off the chopping block, coming up at an angle off to the left and slicing through his leg. If only he had been less carefull I guess . . . One of those things that just happened I suppose. I think I will just put him on sharp object restriction for a little while.

The Traveler by Daren and Daniel Simkin

I had stopped in Starbucks a couple days before Christmas to grab a gift certificate for someone and while waiting in line was caught by a book sitting on the shelf. For those of you who have frequented Starbucks, you know that they often have books on their shelves that they are promoting. This book for some reason grabbed my attention. Possibly it was the simple cover of grays and whites or maybe it was the little child carrying such a large suitcase. Either way, I picked it up, flipped open to the cover flap and read what it was about. Upond reading this short paragraph I knew this book was for me. A simple fable about a little boy's search for the best way to use his time.

This is something I have been doing a lot lately. I have been wondering how to best use my time or how to best spend it. Not wanting to waste time on the stuff that isn't as important and to make sure I am giving plenty of time to the things that are. So I set the book on the counter and decided I would take it home and read it; I would see what this fable could teach me or what light it could bring to my quest.

After bringing it home it sat on my coffee stand for almost a week before I finally picked it up. The book took me only about 15 minutes to read, but the message it tells is clear. I encourage you all to pick up this book and read what it has to tell you. Put yourself in the fable and see what it tells you about your time.

For me I learned that I need to cherish every minute with my family. My girls are growing and growing and I will never get these minutes back. I have to not take time for granted, but enjoy each second. I look forward to putting to practice the vision this book has shown me as we embarq upon a new year.

Christmas Eve & Christmas Morning.

I am very blessed. I have a wonderful husband, fabulous children and an extended family I love. What more could a woman ask for? Not much.

This year we spent Christmas Eve with my family hanging out during the day before heading to church and then back to my parents for dinner and a sharing of gifts. It was a great day.

Olyvia got the wedding barbie and wedding Ken and was VERY excited. I was excited that they were barbies that are fully clothed and don't have makeup on. Thank you mom.


Santa brought Ellie Claire a soft baby with really long legs that she fell in love with right away.


Santa knew just what to bring Olyvia, a red and white checkered tie. She is very excited to get to wear it to school in the new year.


After church we took some pictures in front of the tree - my girls were very patient as I wanted to get them from every directions.

Olyvia helped dice up apples for the apple and red cabbage slaw that we made to go with the beef tenderloin. It is always such a delight for me to watch her cook. She is so serious and careful as she makes each slice methodically. She is turning into a wonderful chef.

Leilah, Kristin and Nate hung out for a few hours during lunch. It was great to see Leilah so excited and running around. She sure is a bolt of energy but I just love to see her expend it. What a joy.

Ellie wanted to be my present so she asked if she could put a bow on her nose. I told her that of course she could and then I grabbed my camera - just like any good mom. :)

What an amazing Christmas we had. I feel wonderfully blessed to have been able to spend it with such great family. I look forward to the coming year and all the many more memories we will share together.

Jose Girls.

On Sunday when we pulled into the church parking lot and stepped out of the car I was excited to see that there were two beautiful girls building a snowman in the parking lot. I went over and asked if I could snap a few pics. Here are some that I took. What beautiful fun girls.

Snow at Kopperskogen!

Although many will not agree with me and may want to silence me immediately, I have to admit that we were all VERY excited about the snow. We just wanted it to keep snowing. The only difficult part about it is that not everyone is as comfortable with it as we are and it seems to slow down business as usual when it comes to work and shopping. That aside, we got outside as much as we could and as much as our girls would let us, filling up on plenty of hot cocoa in between. Here are some pictures of some of our endeavors.

After the big snow there were only a few that made it out last Sunday to get to church. When we got out of the car Ellie immediately started walking around making fresh footprints in the virgin snow fall.

At home, Ellie was reaching her maximum outside point and really wanted to stay in the nice warm jeep. After snapping a picture of her we convinced her to get outside and play a little longer.

Because of the precarious roads, Sam wasn't able to get to our house to watch the girls so they came to work with me for a couple days. They loved it and I loved having them with me.