I'm still around . . .

For some reason it seems life hits hard some weeks and my to-do list is ever growing.

I've got some birthday posts to catch up on and lots to do before our trip next week.

But . . . 

I did find a deal on an Alaskan cruisetour and got it booked today. It's our way of celebrating 15 years in June.

Tyler mentioned to me this morning that he wished he had the camcorder running to capture this morning as 3 of our 4 school-age children left for school.

• Kiersten was the first, but she just goes earlier and quieter than the rest.
• Awhile later Ashlyn left, strutting down the street all peacock like as she thinks she's bigger and older than she is.
• Nate walked out the door with his head in a book, stepped in the horse manure in the middle of the street, looked at his shoe, and continued on his way, head still in a book.
• Erik slammed the door on his way out, all in a huff because of a disagreement he and I had over his chore list, and streaked down the road in at least a t-shirt and shorts. He rarely wears a coat and sometimes a jacket, even in the winter. I learned long ago to not nag. If he's cold he'll dress warmer.

Unquestionably a crowd pleaser

The sliders were a smiley face.

That's code for "please make this again."

I definitely can see that I'll need to stock up on some roasts. It was such an easy meal, similar to french dip, but way better in my opinion.

Nate's comment at dinner went like this: "If you compare this to the Tree of Life, this is just about as good as the fruit."

That pesky Pinterest

I have fallin' in love with Pinterest.

Deeply.

For an organized person it is the best thing to hit the internet in a long time. I once heard a poll on the radio where the listeners were asked if they could only have either Facebook or Pinterest, which one would they choose. For me it was a no brainer.

Tyler likes to tease me and ask if dinner or my latest cute gift is from Pinterest.

I use it mainly for recipe ideas. I'm always looking for good recipes that my family will like. I also love that when I find something on the internet, instead of bookmarking the page that I'll never go back to, I can just pin the image to one of my many boards.

Tonight's dinner is Slow Cooker Three Envelope Pot Roast Sliders and for dessert we have Mint-Chip Ice Cream Brownie Squares to commemorate St. Patty's Day. Below is what I gave the kids and Tyler this morning while we ate green eggs and ham with green blueberry muffins and green orange juice . . . our traditional St. Patrick's Day breakfast.

And then today I received an email from Tyler with one line:

http://mommyimhungry.blogspot.ca/2011/05/bacon-mushroom-honey-dijon-chicken.html

Is he a clandestine Pinterest-er? I think he would like me to make this for him. Hmmmm . . . 

I was planning on this for tomorrow's Sunday dinner, but maybe we'll have to change things up a bit.
(Crispy Cheddar Chicken from Jaime Cooks It Up!)

Ash, the seamstress

Ashlyn's birthday is coming up.

During a family party she received a sewing kit.

The next day she was determined to start sewing.

I told her to wait.

Her dad was kind enough to pull out the sewing machine and try to help her.

I intervened and showed her the basics of sewing and away she went.

 Her finished product.

 A bag for our Oregon trip coming up.

She's already filled it with stuff to take.

15 years

Fifteen years ago today Tyler took me to the Logan Zoo and while we were on the little bridge overlooking the little fish, he "fished" for something in his pocket and asked me to marry him. I looked at him incredulously and said, "Are you serious?"

But then I said yes.

And that was in the days before anyone ever took a lot of pictures. I wish we had had a camera that day. The picture below was our first "official" picture of the two of us that I'm sure a roommate snapped one day.

Funny thing is our very first outing together (I wouldn't call it a date) was fishing at Porcupine Reservoir in Cache County.

Since my birthday was the next day, he let me open my present early which was a pair of roller blades. Rollerblading is still one of our favorites dates. We like cruising the Jordan River Parkway and then walking up the hill either to Iceberg or the opposite direction to Tio's Mexican Restaurant to eat and then cruising back to our car. (This particular day we brought Ash and Kiersten along and I rode my bike.)

After the zoo and birthday present, Ty took me out to eat at my first Korean restaurant. That was the first time I'd tasted anything like octopus or kimchi. It was definitely a new experience. I'm still not very fond of either, but bulgogi and japchae have become some of my favorite foods to eat. I'm sure Tyler is quite pleased that I've become very proficient at making them at home. Our kids even have developed a love for Korean food.

Consistency is the key

Our stake president issued a challenge at our previous stake conference to read The Book of Mormon by November. And then a couple of weeks later the talks in sacrament meeting were on The Book of Mormon. 

Our little family is reading The Book of Mormon for the second time and I'm hoping that we can finish by November. I think we can do it.

For me it all started 6 1/2  years ago when we moved to Stansbury Park. Our magazines hadn't quite caught up to us yet when President Hinckley issued the challenge to read The Book of Mormon by the end of the year. So I didn't even know about this challenge until September, and by that time I was a little discouraged that we would be getting a late start. I even contemplated NOT doing the challenge, but after much thinking I KNEW that this is what my little family needed. I began our family scripture readying knowing that we would not finish by the end of the year. And three years later we finished. It was such a good feeling to know we had been obedient to a commandment.

Since then we have continued to read the scriptures. We aren't perfect. Weekends and summers are very difficult for us to find a good time to consistently read. But I know we have been blessed for our efforts.

Tyler and I escaped to St. George several weeks ago to take in the home show. It seems silly since we've already built, but it was fun to get decorating ideas. Although I found myself several times saying, "What a great idea! We'll have to remember that for the next house we build." Just to clarify . . . that will never happen.

We decided to leave the three oldest at home since they had school and activities that weekend. A bonus was their aunt and uncle live next door and would be around if problems did arise.

That Monday morning following our get-away weekend, I got the kids up to read scriptures and had them turn to the chapter we were on. Nate piped up and told me that they had already read that chapter. He told me how they had gotten up Friday morning and read scriptures by themselves before heading off to school.

I have been blessed with amazingly good kids, but I know it's the consistency in reading scriptures that has blessed us. That habit has been instilled in them. I love The Book of Mormon. This past year in reading I have learned so much as I have read with different eyes. When you realize that 532 pages cover 1000 years of history, you then know that everything contained within those pages is critical to our day.

Major power surge

Wednesday evening the lights didn't just flicker, they went on and off and then boom!

Erik was upstairs on the computer and thought the TV up there had exploded, which it did, along with the computer he was working on and the one next to it and the DVD/VCR combo.

We also lost our range hood lights which were halogen and not cheap to replace.

I've noticed several light bulbs out and our outside eve lighting doesn't work.

Tyler's office survived, but the surge protector everything was plugged into did not.

The smoking electronics set off the fire alarm and poor Ashlyn was in the tub at the time.

The exasperating thing about this whole deal is Tyler fought with our electrician to put in a whole house surge protector, just hook it up to the box. Tyler even bought one at the Home Depot, but it was the wrong size and the electrician said to not worry about it, that he'd get it sorted out. Ya, that didn't happen. We shouldn't have paid him until it was done right. But with home building, we learned you just pick your battles sometimes.

Anyway, it looks like there's enough damage to warrant a claim, although I'm a little hesitant to file right away. There's likely to be something else to stop working due to the surge.

Some good news in all this is that my kids are going through computer withdrawals and they actually pulled out a board game to play together today.

When we get kid computers functioning again, we may just have to implement an electronic fast every now and then :)