deal of the day...

If anyone is interested in an excellent massage, my friend Jennifer will be at my house this weekend and is willing to fit a few into her weekend. She is charging $20.00 for a half hour. She is the best massage therapist I've ever had and I have been to a lot. Give me a call if you're interested.

What sounds good?

As I mentioned before, I am taking part of a biggest loser competition put on by my sister-in-law. I have done this competition once before and it worked really well in taking off the extra pounds put on by "I'm pregnant, so I can eat this" mentality, especially with Diesel because I kept telling myself "this is the last time I'll be pregnant and be able to eat whatever I want" and boy did I ever :) Dieting isn't probably the funnest thing I've ever done. I think a root canal might have been less painful and it definitely didn't take as long. It is crazy how much things sound better to me right now than they ever did before. For instance the kids want me so bad to make puppy chow (see picture) for them, which is very yummy, but I can't because I know I won't stop at just one or two pieces, but I will eat it until it is gone, possibly licking the powdered sugar off the bowl. That is one problem with having OCD. I can't stop thinking about it until finally I just say eat the rest of the two cheesecakes in the fridge and then I don't have to worry about it anymore because they will be gone (8 1/2 months pregnant with Karlee). If you've ever had Wynden's caramel popcorn you know that it is really good and really fattening, but it is way better the next day after it has hardened up. Wynden has made it a few times lately and about 3/4 of the bowl is leftover for the next day. I start picking at it and then just go for it, so by the time he gets home it is gone and he sees the bowl empty and looks at me and says so shocked "you ate ALL of it!"

This weather has been amazing for January. It is so warm out. I am a hot person. I don't usually wear a coat, so I can't say that I didn't need to wear one, but my kids took theirs off while we were playing outside yesterday. It felt so good to be outside after being indoors while we've battled the flu the past couple of weeks. I can't wait for spring.

Pass the can opener please!

The first year we were married we had an automatic can opener. It was nice (not that I cooked a whole lot that first year). I thought it was a bit of an eye sore on the counter so I gave it to ARC. I thought it is better to have a manual one anyway in case the power went out or whatever right. Well I have like three in my drawer and it takes all I have to get those suckers to open a can. I guess you can blame it on tendinitis in my wrists from years of sports and probably old can openers too. The other day in Target I was killing time waiting for a prescription and I saw it....One touch Hands free can opener as seen on TV. It has changed my life, well not really , but it has made opening cans a lot easier on me. You simply place it on the can, push a button, and then magic! It does take batteries, but I'm always good for those (if worse came to worse one of our thousands of battery operated toys should be able to help me out). Anyway not a bad $19.99 investment.

What if...

After I finished writing the last post, I started thinking what if turkey did have aphrodisiac in it. Would my husband let me seriously eat anything else. I'm pretty sure that us wives would no longer be allowed to cook, but instead our husbands would slave away every night in the kitchen creating anything with turkey in it from turkey pot pie to turkey lasagna. We wouldn't have cows outside in our field, but a huge array of fat plump turkeys. There would probably be turkey bars on every corner. If a girl got into trouble, one might say well I did see her eating turkey quite a bit lately she was asking for it. I did I mention that sleep has been void in my life lately, any questions...

It's the stuff in the turkey don't you know...

During Thanksgiving time, I bought a cheap turkey from Safeway. I didn't really have any room in my freezer, so I took it to my parents house and we agreed to freeze it there and then eat it together. We had it for dinner last week and after dinner (even though my mom made everything) I was so tired. I told my mom I was tired and it must be because of the stuff that's in the turkey (tryptophan), which reminded me of a funny thing I use to tell people. I knew turkey had a substance in it that makes you tired (from the toy Seinfeld episode of course), but for some reason I mixed it up with a different term. I remember telling people all day at the coffee drive thru that I couldn't wait for Thanksgiving blah blah blah and you eat so much and then you're tired because turkey has aphrodisiac in it. I probably talked to oh 15 people or so that day about this. I also worked at Izzy's, so I'm sure I threw it out there too. Now in case you're confused an aphrodisiac is an agent which acts on the mind and causes the arousal of the mood of sexual desire (straight out of Webster himself). No one corrected me, no one laughed. At least spare me the embarrassment of saying it to someone else people. I see people all day long and have to come up with some material to get me through the day, but no one did, no one said anything. That is until I said aphrodisiac in front of my well-educated youngest sister-in-law a few years later. I"m pretty sure she laughed.

Diesel, so like is he going to drive a truck one day? Heard them all!

It is hard to believe that my baby is 8 months. It is sad t

o think that this will be the last time we will have a baby around until I am a Grandma (that sounds crazy). I love babies, one might say I am addicted to them. They look at you so adoringly, forgive so easily, and love unconditionally. Yes they can be a lot of work, but it is worth it when you get them out of their crib after a nap and they squeeze you tight and give you a slobber on your cheek. I am glad we named him Diesel, it is so fitting. His favorite thing right now is to make these loud deep engine like noises and he loves it if you do it back to him. He is my biggest baby, growing like a weed. He loves to eat and may be classified as an over-eater not knowing when to stop. He only wakes up 2 times a night now - thank goodness! He is doing a crawl like movement (I call it the break dance move the centipede). He has started pulling himself up on things sometimes making it impossible to get him out without breaking my back like when he crawls underneath the table and stands up holding onto one of the legs of a chair. He loves our railing holding onto the bars he just grins down at us. He has found the stairs and has tumbled down two steps already (let's face it who hasn't fallen down our stairs though) at least it is a soft landing compared to my brother-in-laws where their stairs are basically straight up and down and every single person in my family has fallen and it is no picnic when you get to the bottom (wood floors). I love Diesel's smile it lights up his whole face. Sadly I'm afraid that this next year I will see the most changes in him. He will move out of baby stage to a toddler. But for 33 years my parents still refer to me as their baby, so I guess Diesel will always hold a special place in my heart as my last baby too.

Hallie's year in review

Hallie, Hallie, Hallie....Well she is two now. What does that mean. She is still so young to me. She is younger to me than any of her siblings were at this age. She has her blanket and her thumb still. She loves to be held still. She is still wearing a diaper, with underwear over it of course you see I bought her underwear a couple of months ago and she just likes to wear it over her diaper, which means no interest in potty training. The others were day potty trained by 2 1/2, technically I have until the 27th of this month (only if there was a potty training fairy and she was to visit our home would this happen). She still has the nickname Hollerin' Hallie. She actually has come up with a new scream and what she does is sticks her tongue completely out of her mouth while she is screaming it is the weirdest looking thing you've ever seen and if you get her too mad she will spit a little. But you can't beat her cute little voice that tells her cute little stories over and over. Her hugs and kisses that she hands out very sparingly are so sweet and tender. She loves Diesel and is so caring towards him. Before Diesel was old enough to move around I would sit him in our recliner and she would sit beside him forever just sucking her thumb with her blanket. When she sings "I am a child of God" it makes me smile with how much I love her. She is still my little girl, my baby girl, who will only let me put her to bed at night. I love it when the three olders are at school and she has all my attention when Diesel is sleeping, she acts like such a little princess loving every second of me all to herself. I look forward to another year of Hallie :)

A look back at Hunter's 2009

Let's face it Hunter never has a dull moment whether it is crashing the golf cart into my niece's car or wrestling a 28 lb. crying Karlee to the floor. He is definitely all boy and I love him for it. He has enjoyed Kindergarten so much this year. He just asked if when they go back to school after the break if he goes to first grade now. He was disappointed when I told him wrong break. I am so glad that he loves school. He especially loves hot lunch at school, he'll try anything and loves it. I think that the food is sick compared to when I used to go back in the olden days. Hunter will start basketball this month and he can't wait for that either. I hope that it is a little more entertaining than tee-ball (shoot me in the head). Hunter loves to have his back scratched, will tell the absolute honest truth (an older lady once gave him a hand held maze game and he's like "I already have one of those at home") we're working on his manners, and he can be such a good helper to smaller children, who are not his siblings. The picture of Hunter with his tongue out is from when we were in California and we went to Knotts Berry Farm, Hunter was suppose to put sunscreen all over his face, but instead he hurried and spotted it on his face. That night I couldn't stop laughing at him. He was red polka-dotted with a sunburn it was hilarious looking. I look forward to another year of surprises hopefully ones that don't require a doctor :)

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone enjoyed ringing in the New Year. We actually stayed up until midnight this year, only to be awakened an hour later by a sick Lexi. Poor girl will never forget this New years :) (Neither will mom and dad). Goals this year for me I guess would be spend less (I put that in there for Wynden), Get more organized and get rid of the clutter, and lose the rest of Diesel weight that is still hanging around uninvited. Wynden and I are going to be competing in the Biggest Loser put on by my sister in law. If anyone is interested let me know. I played two years ago and lost 20 pounds. Anyway I am excited for a new year. So many things change in a year and I look forward to seeing and experiencing those changes in 2010.