*LAAAA AAAH AHHH AAH AHH...CLOSE TO YOOOOU!*

okay, i LOVE valentines day! i HAD to do a little blog work just for the occasion including the appropriate mood music! *sigh*

yeah, when i was younger and unattatched it wasn't so great...and let me think, i think there was actually maybe ONE valentines day that there was someone in the picture (before i was married)...but, okay, so unimportant!

i know there are those who tend to take the attitude of "it's just a holiday manifactured but the card and candy people to bring in buisness" and this is what i say to you: PPPPPBBBBTTT!

what's wrong with having another day that helps you appreciate your sweetie and what they mean to you. yeah i know you should do that everyday but i'm not that perfect.

anyway, this valentines day try to make your valentine feel special. you don't have to go out and buy candy and flowers, or plan an extravagent date...just put some thought in it...think of why they are so special to you and act accordingly. i find it's the small heartfelt things that are much more meaningful!

have fun!

all in the attitude :)

one of the things i am trying to work on this year is my attitude. i am the type of person who likes things "just so"...i like to know what is going on and therefor not so good about spontaneity. i'm not necessarily a control freak, i just like to know what to expect. and when things don't go the way i have anticipated i stress and worry...and therefore i become grumpy. i really want to see a lot less of "grumpy christina".

today has been one of those days where "grumpy christina" could be found.

i found out yesterday that this week will be a short babysitting week...which means less $$. :( i have been a little congested and it has been causing me to have headaches and have been making me feel a little run down. we got to bed later last night and even though there was no school, i couldn't sleep in because i had samantha's 9 month check up. to make things even better, bekah woke up early and came into our room and we found out she had an accident. :( so i had to get up and get her clean underwear and pajamas. when we got up and started getting around , bekah fell back asleep on the couch. i hoped she would wake up on her own because she does NOT wake up well. after i had fed and got the other girls dressed i woke her up. luckily she was okay. we all piled into the car to leave for the appointment, and turned the key and nothing our battery was dead! we don't have any jumper cables and even if we did i still would be late for our appointment. so i called to reschedule. the girls were disappointed because they were looking forward to seeing our doctor who is also a friend. so back into the house we go and the girls proceeded to tear their room apart...and clean up time has not been pleasant lately.

but this is how things ended up:

yeah i have been tired and headachey, but thanks to ibuprofen, i have been functional. yes, we did get to bed a little later last night, but it was because we had some friends over and we thoroughly enjoyed it and didn't mind one bit getting to bed later because of it. :) bekah did have an accident but because i hadn't put the girls' clothes in their room yet, i just had to go to the foot of our bed to get her clean clothes. and with her coming in our room made sure that i didn't sleep in too late. bekah actually woke up really well and was happy and got ready quickly and we were ready to go when i was wanting to leave by...that usually doesn't happen. the battery being dead was an inconvenience but the office was already open and was able to reschedule for tomorrow and being a short babysitting week, i happen to not be babysitting tomorrow anyway! that made things a lot less complicated! :) i really didn't have anything else i was committed to today, like picking noemi up from school (there was no school today) so of all days for the battery to die, today was a pretty good one! and, yes the girls did make a mess of their room, but they are so gosh darn cute!

i went to go and check on them and to possibly scold them for not cleaning and this is what i saw:


i caught them off guard and sometimes it is so hard to stay upset with them. i love them so much...how did i end up with 3 cute kids??

domestic diva??

wow! i feel quite satisfyingly domestic right now. :) i have made two batches of homemade baby food. it is really easy and so much cheaper than buying it. i made about 46 oz for right around $3. but that was because the price of the sweet potatoes were $1.79 a pound.

it makes me feel good to know exactly what my daughter is eating and it actually tastes good...some of the jarred stuff are really bland. and i control what goes in it. i don't have to worry about salt, sugars, dyes, or preservatives.

here are the steps that it took:
first i baked the sweet potatoes and scooped out the 'meat'.


then i put the potatoes in the blender with the liquid of choice to thin it...i chose apple juice and water. puree!


next i put the puree into a freezable container with sections. ice cube trays are popular, but i use freezer trays made especially made for baby food...the sections are larger and it comes with a lid so i don't have to use foil or plastic wrap to cover it.


place in the freezer for a day or till completely frozen solid. lastly, i pop 'em out and place the cubes in a freezer ziploc bag for storage in the freezer until i need to thaw and use one. they can last longer in the freezer, but for best results, use with in a month.



for recipes or other information on making baby food (such as what foods are age appropriate...etc) check out: www.wholesomebabyfood.com.

:)

todays quote!

*noemi was helping bekah wash up after making a sticky mess from candy she just ate. there was some unhappy sounds coming from the bathroom and bekah started her ornery cry*

troy: noemi, what's going on? why is bekah crying?

noemi: i don't know. she's complicated!

hey...she's putting that kindergarten education to use!

disclaimer!

okay, for those who read through my last post....i just wanted to say that i DO NOT advise or endorse in any way meeting people on the internet or internet relationships. it is VERY dangerous. we were very, VERY lucky. please, please please don't try to do this just because it worked for us!

thank you

our story! our LoooOOOooong story :)

thanks heather for posting yours...i have had blog block!

i aways LOVE hearing (or reading, as some cases may be)the stories of how people's relationships began. even complete strangers' stories...they are just so fun.

SOOOO why not post our story?? i do LOVE telling it!

okay my story starts out with a couple of other guys...just to clear up some confusion....

the date: DECEMBER 31, 1999. some friends and i were just getting our car which was in the parking lot of the church building where there was a new years eve dance. i was ready to party it up...it WAS the last night before the big 2000 after all! i had noticed this good looking guy who still had that "returned missionary" look and i made a mental note to keep an eye out for him. ;) as i entered the cultural hall (the gym for those who don't know) i heard my name and there was a girl that was in some of my high school classes. she was a friend, but not a close one. i really wasn't in the mood for catching up...i was on the prowl. LOL! but i didn't know how to politely excuse myself so i was stuck. here i was with my back to the room having conversation that i HOPED would die soon so i can move on. out of the corner of my eye i saw someone approach. i turn around and who was is?? the VERY same guy i was to keep a look out for...and he was approaching ME!! we started talking, but it was hard to hear each other so we went out into the hall. we continued talking and enjoying ourselves and then he got a phone call. he was told about another dance somewhere else and was dance hopping. he asked if i wanted to go too. i wasn't sure if he was asking me to come with him or just come along. ahh the stress. but since i had come with my friends i figured i better leave with them ESPECIALLY since i just met the guy...he coulda turned out to be a real creep. well he got my number before he left and i went back and found my friends and told them all about it.

the next morning, he called and asked me on a date! wahoo! we hit it off and continued talking and going on dates...i really started to like him. one night, my dad told me he predicted that i would be married by the time the year was out (this was like in late january or february). i was elated because he has always been right about things like this. but alas, that comment from my dad was the kiss of death! every date after that the guy (ammon was his name) became less and less appealing to me. then one night ammon asked me what i was looking for in a husband. talk about pressure! i really did not feel appropriate to bear my soul, so to keep things light, i joked "i don't know, a guy who is alive and breathing". his reply: "oh because i don't know what i'm looking for in a wife yet either". yikes! i really dodged a bullet there! that coulda been REALLY awkward! shortly after that we began talking less and seeing each other less until not at all. but he really DID get me thinking...i knew basics of what i wanted in a husband but i never thought about it seriously. a few weeks after he had asked me that question i actually wrote down what i was looking for in a husband. nothing superficial like i want him to have blue eyes and be 6'3"...blah blah blah, but things like, is patient, loves and is good with kids, has an appreciation for music, is intelligent but does not make me feel inferior.

time went by and a guy i worked with had a son who just got off his mission and started working at the charter school we were working at. he was very good looking and i was interested. he would come and talk to me and my friends but he had already known my friends and i never officially introduced myself. just when i vowed to ask him if he wanted to hang out with us and see how it went from there, i found out he had just started another job. NOOOO! i got his email address from his dad because to call him and have him not know who i was would be beyond humiliating. so i wrote him a cute, funny and witty email introducing myself and showing interest. the next day his dad told me he got my email and he giggled and laughed. i figured that was a good sign. but then a couple of days had gone by and i heard NOTHING back. i felt stupid! so on april 4, 2000 after checking my email like THREE times at work i was in need of SOMETHING to lift my spirits after feeling so rejected and i jumped online onto ldschat to flirt. i saw a guy with the screen name of "azboy" and thought well at least he's from arizona and we'd have that to talk about. i messaged him and really the conversation fell flat. i was talking to other guys too by this time. finally in one last attempt to liven up the conversation i asked him where he was from. he told me "page". wow! my older brother's wife was from page too! crazy...it's a small town! what are the chances? come to find out...yes he knew her! well things definitely picked up and we talked for a while until i had to go...i was at work (bad, YES i KNOW!) and he asked if he could call me. um...give my number out to some strange guy off the internet?? i thought, oh well, why not....he lived 2 hours away and it would be a long distance call. it's not like he's gonna call anyway. i got home and i KNEW he wouldn't call. then 2 min after i had fully resigned myself to that the phone rang and it was HIM! AAAAAH! we talked easily...his voiced seemed familiar and it felt like i had known him for a long time. we talked until i had to get ready to go to my institute class. he asked me if he came down if i would meet him...by this point i had no problem with that. he ended up coming down THAT NIGHT...and despite my bad directions, was sitting talking with my family by the time i got back from my class. we went and walked around, talked and flirted. i liked him...and yes we kissed. i know, i know...fast mover, absolutely! LOL we were out till like 3 in the morning...i didn't want him to go. i worried i may never see him again, with him being so far away...and i really felt a connection with him that i had only felt once before. it scared me! the next morning i checked my email and i had an email from the guy that i had written previously! i felt torn...come to find out, the reason why it took me so long to hear back from him was because he was having problems with his email account. now there are 2 guys. but as torn as i felt i couldn't stop thinking about the guy that i had met, whose name was troy. troy called me that night and we talked for over an hour. the next day again, troy was all i could think of. i couldn't believe i was this head over hills for him already. that night we talked till late in the night again. i was doing my laundry when we were getting ready to hang up. i had just started the washer filling up another load when troy said something that i couldn't understand. i asked him to repeat it but he didn't want to. finally i got him to and he said "i love you". HOLY COW! i had just that afternoon realized that i loved him too! (i forgot to mention, when he called me the night after he came down, he told he doesn't say i like you or i love you unless he knows he means it...this after i had originally told him i liked him..duh i KISSED him!)anyway, i told him i loved him too....this is 2 days after we MET! wow!

i was still in contact with the guy i was previously interested in and the following weekend i went on a date with him. as we were walking to his car when he came to pick me up something hit me: this was a wasted date. i had already met the man i wanted to spend the rest of my life with. i felt bad through out the rest of the night because it was clear that this guy really liked me. poor guy! but the weekend after that troy came down again for our first "official" date. we went to the easter pageant. LOL his family met us there....our first date was with his family...it was fun and a little weird on my part since i knew i wanted to marry him...but he didn't know it yet. a few weeks later he felt it too and we began talking about it...and were basically unofficially engaged until june 18, 2000 he officially proposed to me and on september 20,2000 we were married and sealed in the mesa, az temple!

*okay i forgot to mention: that first night he came down...as we were talking i kept remembering that list of husband-ly qualities i was looking for and subconsciously checking them off...i kept trying to stop myself...i JUST met the poor guy. but from the first night i knew he was everything i was looking for*
that's my story! :) now that i have bored you to death....go and post yours!

out of the mouths of babes

okay here are a couple of quotes that amused me the past couple of days:

(12-31-07)

*we had asked our girls if they wanted to do anything special and they told us they wanted to go to the mall to play in the play area there. i was kinda giving them a hard time.*

me: but it's not fair. there is a play area for kids, but nowhere for grown ups to play!

noemi(my 5 yr old): but that is what all those shopping stores are for!!!

(1-2-08)

*i was sitting on a toolbox next to troy while he was finishing grouting some tile he put in*

bekah (my 3 yr old): mommy, can i sit on yours lap? (i love the way she talks)

me: *seeing there is not enough room because i am wedged between a table and troy* no, sorry sweetie, there's not enough room. mommy's too big and fat.

bekah: no, your just big.