Sip a Pop

We just got done having home-made popsicles. I enjoy having the homemade popsicles so I can control what goes in there...less sugar! I found some really cool popsicle molds, they have a straw at the bottom so there is no mess and you get to sip the extra juice! Whoever invented the Sip-A-Pop is a genius! :)

Oaklen's 2-yr-old pictures

We recently got Oaklen's 2-yr-old pictures taken. Here are the many faces of Oaklen, he's such a happy kid!

ACCESS Barbeque

On Wednesday night my family and I went to Sugarhouse Park for the annual ACCESS Program Barbeque. I am a former ACCESS student, and when I went to check-in, the girl saw "1998" and said "whoa!" So...I guess I'm old. I unfortunately didn't see anyone else there from my year, but I of course recognized the professors and university staff. It was great food, plus it was free! :)

The ACCESS Program is a scholarship designed for women pursuing the science & math majors and fields of study. I was one of the lucky 27 women chosen to be apart of that group for my year. We met during the summer after I graduated high school (yes, summer school right after I graduated!). Each week we were introduced to a different department within the college of science. We worked with some of the professors, and we'd write a team paper every week. It was hard work but yet fun getting to know girls that had the same "nerdiness" that I did. :) The fall semester we each did an internship/lab with one of the departments. I got a stipend each semester that helped cover a significant amount of tuition.

I'm grateful for the opportunity that I had to be in the ACCESS program. I made friends there that carried me through my college years.

Camping at the Hendriksen Reunion

Last week we went camping in Wallsburg. It was for the OJ Hendriksen Family Reunion. We all had a great time, here are some pics, click on this big image to view the smaller images more closely.

Ashley has recovered

When I was 5 yrs old I got a doll for my birthday. It was a baby doll that I named Ashley. She is the size of a 3-6 month old baby so when I used to carry her around by her arm, some people thought that I was mishandling a real baby!

She's been through a lot...
1. If you look at her eyes she has a "cataract" in her right eye. It's always been there, it must have been a faulty eye that missed inspection.
2. My sister and I performed "surgery" on her. We got real scissors to pretend to cut her open but then actually really took a snip from her soft-clothed belly. I put a band-aid on it and it's been there ever since.
3. Another time, Holly and I were fighting over my Ashley doll and we accidentally pulled her arm off. I used medical tape to bandage her back up. Then I made all my family members sign her "cast." I even helped my two cats sign it.
4. And finally, when we moved to our current house, her head fell off! Her head was starting to get loose and the roughness of the move must have been the final straw. I was saddened when Darrell brought my precious doll over to me to announce she had been decapitated. Some people that were there laughed, but I was sad.

Ashley has been in a closet for a few years with her head off. It made me sad every time I happened to open that closet and saw her with her head off, pretty creepy. This year for my birthday, my mom took Ashley over to the doll hospital and had her head put back on. She's good as new! (Although I specifically requested to keep the band-aid on her chest and the tape on her arm since those were fond memories.)

Thanks for bringing Ashley back to life! :)

Salem at 4 months was the same size as my Ashley doll.

My little mouse

The fridge lock only works when it's actually latched...this morning Oaklen went downstairs by himself and noticed the fridge lock was unlatched. He took that opportunity and got in there.

By the time I got downstairs to get him he had gotten the big brick of cheese open and was walking around the house chopping on the huge brick of cheese. It was almost too big for him to hold!

He was quite happy, then he smiled at me and said "cut it." I cut him a small piece, put the cheese away, then LOCKED the fridge. :)

Oaklen enjoying tofu in his hair

Curly Hair or Straight Hair

Look to the right side bar, I've added a poll. We're getting family portraits soon with my mom's family and I don't know if I should wear my hair curly or straight. Please help me decide! :)

Non-stereotypical

Joke:
Q: "What's a husband's idea of doing housework?"
A: "Sitting on the couch and picking up his feet so the wife can vacuum under him."

I have heard this joke before and thought about it last night as this actually happened. Darrell was sitting on the couch reading a magazine, and he picked up his feet so I could vacuum.

Someone passing by the window probably would have thought "Geez, what a lazy guy!" But on the contrary, Darrell is NOT a lazy guy. He always gets up early and works hard all day long. It's a rare occasion when he gets to "take it easy." Prior to sitting on the couch, he was up on the roof doing repair, then he put in a little fence between our yard & the neighbor's yard, and later helped put the kids to bed.

I'm thankful for such a wonderful "go-get-'er" husband. If anyone knows him you'll know that he doesn't quite "fit the mold" of the typical man. He's "just Darrell" if you know what I mean. That's why I love him.

Salem's first trophy

Salem's tee ball games have ended and the last day was the most exciting. He got a trophy! It was so fun to watch his face when he knew he'd be getting a trophy of his very own.

The teams met in the little theater of the Jr. High School and gave out the team pictures and the trophies. Here is a picture of his pleased face:

Roses

I can complain that roses have thorns...
Or I can rejoice that thorn bushes have roses.

As I go on my daily stroll with Oaklen, Salem and the limo (double stroller), I stop and smell the roses. They are so beautiful right now!

We visited our friend this weekend and her yard had the most beautiful roses, and they smelled good too. When I got home I started noticing all the beautiful roses around my neighborhood. I have two rose vines on the side of my house that are in full bloom right now and I'd love to get a beautiful rose hedge to fill my yard with lots of color.

I have boys!

Both times when the person giving the ultrasound told me that I was having a boy it didn't really phase me. I thought "oh that will be just fine."

Well...now that they are 2 and 4 1/2 I'm now realizing that I HAVE BOYS! :) I'm going to have little boys running around, pouncing, tumbling, fighting, crashing, yelling, doing sound effects, being rough, and just being little boys! Then...I'm going to have teenage boys, I don't even want to think of what's in store for me then! :)

It was surreal when I went to Salem's first teeball game. I am used to going to dance practices and other girlie stuff. I never had gone to a ball practice. I sat there thinking "I have boys! Oh my goodness, what am I going to do?"

I guess the best thing I can do is just LOVE THEM, sit back, buckle up, and enjoy the ride! :)

Unwinding song

Darrell got out the guitar last night and played Nutshell from Alice In Chains. He introduced me to that song years ago, and I love it! I like to listen to it when I need to "unwind."

I often listened to it on my way home from work when I was pregnant with Salem. Salem really likes this song too, I wonder if it's because he heard it in the womb.

Here is the song, this is a live version but it's still good:

Oaklen's 2nd Birthday Pics

It's been a few days since Oaklen's birthday and now here are a few pictures from that day. It was a fun day. We let him open our (immediate family) presents in the morning so he could play with them all day. He loved the lawnmower, books and toy guitar/violin. Then in the evening was the family party. He got clothes, the fisher price airplane and bus, books, balloons, coloring book & crayons, and a cow-themed bowling set.

I like to make "themed" cakes for the birthdays. What better cake to make for Oaklen than a turkey cake? No, it wasn't made out of turkey, it looked like a turkey! :) Whole wheat chocolate cake, with strawberries for the accents.

Thank you to all who participated in his special day, and for all the gifts, hugs & kisses! :)

Grocery shopping is bad for my blood pressure

I now know why they have blood pressure machines at the grocery store. It's for all those people trying to figure out their convoluted sales!

I went to Albertsons today because there were some great deals. I ended up saving over $150 (53%) + and an extra $30 off, but I always wonder if it's worth all the stress. I could just feel my heart hurting and my blood pressure raising as we went through the store.

Like I said, the sales are quite convoluted...buy 10 of these items and save $2 at checkout, buy $10 worth of these items and you'll get $3, and don't forget about buying $50 worth of these items within the next month and you could get a $10 coupon on your next order. It's unbelievable! I think the store really wants you to make a mistake or miscount so you'll still buy the items but not actually get the discount.

I was thankful that I found a "drive cart" at the store so Oaklen & Salem could ride in there. I'm also thankful that both seats in the "car" part of the cart had a steering wheel. That way the boys wouldn't fight over it. I debated going later in the day so Darrell could be with the boys and I'd go by myself, but I wanted to get it done in the morning.

My blood pressure goes up when I grocery shop for the following reasons:
1. I'm always nervous that the boys are going to "melt" at the store and I won't be able to make it through. We had quite a few screams in the aisles but it was great at the end in the produce section since they had a little TV monitor advertising fresh vegetables and how to cook them. It was suddenly silence in the cart! :) They liked watching that so I took advantage of that moment and stopped to finally figure out the coupons that I had used.
2. The sales are so crazy that I have to keep counting the number of items that I got in order to get the discount at checkout. Usually at the end I have to run to another aisle to get one more thing to make it 10 items or $10 worth.
3. The checkout today actually went rather smoothly but I'm always afraid that I'm not going to get the discount, coupon won't scan, etc. Guess how long my receipt was? Over 5 feet 4 inches! I put the bottom on the ground and held it up, it was taller than me! (Most of that was from the string cheese that they had to scan individually.)
4. Today was a "stock-up" day so I got lots of items and my cart was overflowing. I was hoping that I could make it through with just one cart and luckily I did.

And here's the clencher...would I do this all again? Absolutely! I have created a monster, but I can't NOT do it! :)

The Faith of a Child

Here's a script from this morning...
Heather: "Salem, it's raining outside, will you please change into pants instead of shorts?"
Salem: "But Mom! I prayed to Heavenly Father to make it stop raining!"

He refuses to change into pants. :)

Drop Biscuits

Salem loves to make these biscuits. They're fast, easy, & healthy. We just made them for lunch and they're great with any meal.

I make them "drop biscuit" style so I don't have to have the time or mess when rolling out the dough. The recipe can easily be doubled.


Drop Biscuits
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup milk concoction*

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Grease cookie sheet (optional)
2. In large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt & soda. Using a pastry blender (or two knives or forks) and cut in oil until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Add milk concoction and stir with spoon just until moistened.
4. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm. Makes about 10 biscuits.

* I say milk concoction because you can use whatever. I usually put half plain yogurt, half milk, plus a little bit of vinegar. You could also use buttermilk, milk with lemon juice or vinegar, all milk, all plain yogurt, or even water!

Notes:
1. You could also just do step #2 and make a homemade biscuit mix. Store in the fridge and use within a month. When it comes time to make the biscuits just add a cup of the milk concoction and bake. Or use the baking mix to make waffles, pancakes, or other things.
2. If you don't like the "healthy taste," you could easily change the whole wheat flour to white flour, or the canola oil to other oils, margarine or shortening.
3. If you didn't want to use the drop biscuit style, reduce the amount of liquid (milk concoction) to about 3/4 cup. Roll dough 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a round cutter or the top of a drinking glass.

Happiness is... Part VI

Happiness is...
* Living in a walkable community.
* Darrell getting up on Saturday morning anxious to do yard work or home repair.
* The pitter pat of little feet upstairs (when Oaklen gets up from his nap.)
* The boys imitating the noise from the coffee grinder every morning.
* When everyone likes the meal that I make for dinner.
* Discovering that I can check out past issues of my favorite magazine from the library.
* Oaklen saying "a-waw-boo" (I love you.)
* Exercising to my own music with my own moves (I probably look hilarious, but it's fun!)
* Salem & Oaklen playing hide & seek.
* Darrell making a magnificent meal out of nothing.
* Getting on the bathroom scale and it reading "88 lbs" (but then Oaklen getting on and saying he weighed 1 lb; later it was fixed.)
* Darrell making waffles.
* Oaklen speaking in two-word sentences, or using adjectives ("shoe off, white cheese, daddy sleep, wash again.")
* Salem's drawings.