What's On My Dish?

I created a food blog a while ago and am finally going to announce it here. Go to What's On My Dish? to read recipes and other food related posts there.

Ihave a calendar of my family's menu in the side bar. I planned out my meals back in January & February and it was great! I stopped doing it when the baby came but now I'm starting it back up again. If any of you want to plan out your meals, the easiest way to start is to just write down what you had for dinner each night, then the next month you can get your ideas from what you had last month, or start adding new things.

A few times people have asked for a recipe from me and I didn't feel comfortable giving them my personal blog address with the recipe. Now I can give them my food blog address. Please feel free to give anyone my food blog address so that my personal blog stays unread by just anyone.

This food blog is dedicated to my first set of dishes (pictured below.) I loved the dishes but after 7 1/2 years, it was time to let them go. I have now gone to plain ol' white Corelle Ware since they go with everything and are kid friendly. :)

Visit What's On My Dish?

Ode to Oaklen - Sept 2009

Here's another round of Ode to Oaklen...

Imagination
I wasn't one of those kids with a huge imagination, so now as an adult I get to enjoy Oaklen's imagination.

Who needs toys when a 3-yr-old can do this?

Turn a paper bag into an organ
Use a foam block as an inside lawnmower
Make the laundry basket into Scuffy the tug boat
Use my bedspread as a human ball
Open and close the closet as a cuckoo clock
Use cowboy boots and a fire hat for a fireman costume with his "fire package" backpack.
Aboard the stairs to drive his airplane (with a seatbelt and everything)

I've heard him playing with his Bob the Builder & Wendy figurines. He speaks in narrative like: " 'Oh no' said Bob. 'I'm coming to help' Wendy yelled." I can tell he's used to to reading books.


My little munchie
He's still always trying to get into the fridge and eat. He's made quesadillas, waffles, and has cracked eggs all by himself.

Here he is one morning with a bunch of string cheese. I got up early to go to the temple and came home to see him awake, sitting on the couch, happily eating cheese. I managed to catch him when he was on his second string cheese.

Oaklen is pretty good at cracking eggs. He doesn't even get any shell in it. This picture shows that he cracked an egg and the yolk made a heart shape. Isn't life grand? :)
One Sunday morning I got up and heard Oaklen downstairs and knew he was up to something in the kitchen. I managed to get the camera as I approached him...I ended up making waffles that morning even though I hadn't planned on it.



Toilet Training
It's been a week since he's been using the toilet. We've had a few accidents but I simply can't be mad at him because he's always so happy. 30 seconds after I clean him up he's running around happy as can be.

Singing
He loves to sing and is often singing at any given moment. Many people smile at him while we're shopping, and say to me "Well, at least he's a happy kid!" His favorite song is How Firm A Foundation. The primary is learning it this year and even though he's in nursery, he has learned it since we, as a family, sing it all the time.

Here is Oaklen singing the first few lines of How Firm a Foundation:



Orange - He still loves orange. In nursery he always chooses an orange crayon and he has used up almost all the orange stars that they get to put on their scripture verse each week.

He loves to be orange man and wear his orange backpack:

Heavy Machinery - He still loves to watch the garbage trucks, street sweepers, excavators, trains, you name it!

Pencils - Whenever he sees a big jet in the sky making a white line, he says "Hey there's a giant pencil!"

Friday Frugal Tip - Clinique Pencil Sharpener

If you think that your cheap eye liner or lip liner pencil is no good, think again. Take a look at your sharpener; a good sharpener will make all the difference.

I found this gem:
The Clinique pencil sharpener. It sharpens the pencil perfectly, even the cheap wet & wild brand. I discovered this about 10 years ago and have had one ever since. Recently I got another sharpener that was included in one of my cheap eye pencil packages. I thought I'd use it for my back-up make-up bag. NO WAY! It ruined all of my pencils, and was hard to use.

Last week I happened to be passing the Clinique counter and picked up a spare Clinique sharpener. Did it break my budget? Nope, it's a whopping $1. Now that's a sharp bargain. Pun intended.

Ezril - 6 1/2 months

My baby is already 6 1/2 months old! We started giving him a little bit of solid food last week. His first taste was millet. It's a good first food for babies. (Just grind up the grain and cook with water.)

As we gradually give him food, his diapers will gradually loose their sweet "new-baby" smell. :( I'm savoring those last few wiffs. :)

He's quite a joy in our lives, he's a happy baby and is always sticking his tongue out as you can see in some of the pictures below.

Salem's 6th Birthday Review

I'm a little late posting this, but here is Salem's 6th birthday review. His birthday was on a Friday so we did many things with our little family on that day, then had a big family party on Sunday evening.

This is the sum of Friday's activities
* Breakfast in bed
* He got to open one present in the morning, it was a Darth Vader mask!
* We went to Sugarhouse Park and played on the playground
* He got to go to Toys R Us and redeem his $3 gift card from Geoffrey's birthday club. He chose two wrestler action figures.
* We went to the library and the librarian gave him a sticker and helped us find some books about birthdays.
* We got to meet Darrell at Olive Garden for lunch.
* We played with moon sand at home.
* We went bowling
* At the bowling place he opened a present and it was a fish bowl and goldfish crackers. It was a clue to where we were going next...
* We went to the pet store and Salem got to pick out two goldfish. He named them immediately: Zinner and Miguel.
* We brought the fish home. (Unfortunately Miguel died the next day and Zinner died on Monday. It's okay...we had funerals and talked about the plan of salvation, we even sang "I am a Fish of God.")



On Sunday evening we had a family birthday party. Salem and I had been making a pinata for this occasion for a few months. We made it out of paper mache so it took a while to dry and do another layer, then we forgot about it and finished it up a few days before his birthday. It turned out really cute.

Our friend Rachael posted pinata instructions on her blog and that's how we got the idea. Salem did most of the work and it was pretty easy. We decided on doing a spiderman head since the balloon looked like a head. What did we fill it with? String cheese of course! :)

Here are some pics from his family birthday party. I made a goldfish cake for him. Thank you family for coming and the fun gifts!

A Somber Occasion

Today marks a somber occasion for me and my family. It's the 20th anniversary of my father's death. September 10th will always be a dreaded day in my mind.

Last year for his birthday, I wrote a nice post about him. Go ahead and read it again if you'd like...I just re-read it and now don't know what to say. All of my memories are summed up in that blog entry. I prayed to Heavenly Father last night asking to bring forth some memories to my mind, I have faith that he will.

Here are some random things that I'll tell you:

* My dad's death was sudden; he was killed on a motorcycle, a girl was in a car turning left and didn't see him. We of course didn't' expect it.

* I always try to remember what we did the few days before his death, but can't remember hardly anything. The one thing I do remember is coming home from my friend's birthday party the day before and he and my mom laying on their bed watching TV. I came in and told them about the birthday party and stared at their bare feet. The day he died was on a Sunday so we went to church that morning and I remember him working on the motorcycle in the back yard later.

* I listened to "In the Living Years" on the radio close to the time of his death and now it reminds me of him every time I hear it. The new children's songbook had just been published and we (some primary children) sang "Love One Another" with the sign language for his funeral. Every time I hear that song sung in primary I get emotional.

* He was buried in his cub scout uniform since he was a cub master for many years. I often go to cub scout meetings now (for Primary) and feel weird seeing that green scout uniform. I'm not necessarily traumatized by it but does feel weird. I'll get over it.

* The night he died, and after everyone left, my small family went into my mom's room and said a family prayer. We weren't in the habit of saying family prayer so this one particularly stood out in my mind. We all knelt down, held hands and prayed. After the prayer was said we all cried to our hearts content.

* When I was told that my father died, I didn't cry. I'm sure I was in shock, plus there were tons of people there watching me and I probably didn't want to cry. A few hours later my neighbor (Miss Margene) took me into my room and just hugged me. She let me cry and it felt good to cry without anyone watching me. Between tears I said "It's like he's going on a mission and never coming back."

* When my best friend Tracee found out about it, she found a few random things from her room and put them in two bags for me and my sister as a gift. It was sweet of her to do that. When I saw her, she gave me a big hug, a real meaningful hug. I was always used to hugging people bigger and older than me so it felt nice to hug someone the same size as me. That hug is my most memorable hug of all time.

* A few weeks ago I remembered that 10 years ago I sent an email to many friends entitled "Cherish life." I went back to my old email address to find what I had written and I couldn't find it! I found a few replies from friends but couldn't find the original email. If any of you know what I'm talking about and happened to save that email, please forward it to me! Anyway, the email was talking about cherishing life and that you never know what you have until it's gone. This may sound morbid but I often think "what if this were the last time I would see [this person]? Would I regret something I did or said?" I try always make sure to hug my loved ones and verbally say "I love you." PLEASE don't hesitate to say I love you, it may be the last time.

* I have a necklace locket and in it holds a picture of my mom & dad. The picture of my dad was the last picture that was taken of him. It was up at our mountain property, he was in the background of the picture being taken of me, my sister and some of my mom's friend's kids. His face just happened to be the perfect size to stick in the locket. I'm glad.

* That next year after he died, I remember having a dream. I don't want to say it means anything, but when I think about it, I am happy, so I'll share it. Here is what I remember from my dream:

It was very bright and white, I was a little girl playing and waiting in a room with other people. I think my mom, brother & sister was there. The "camera" (my mind) took me out in the hallway to see my dad dressed all in bright white carrying a bag. I ran to the hallway and jumped up to give him a big hug. We both smiled because he was home.

That's all I remember, I don't know what it means. I'm not trying to prophesy anything but it's a fond memory. Here is a picture of he and I before I was baptized. I don't really like that we're not smiling but I like the "all white" picture.
* On January 29, 2002 I escorted my mom, and sister to receive their temple endowment. After the session, we were all sealed as a family. (Darrell did my dad's temple endowment a few years prior.) The phrase "Families Are Forever" always seemed incorrect for us. Now "Families Can Be Together Forever" is the correct phrase.

I love you Daddy!

PS - Darrell thanks for making waffles today. I don't know if you realized it or not, but it was perfect to have them today. I even found some old Mrs. Buttersworth syrup in the pantry to put on them. It almost tasted just like how my dad used to make them.