Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Belch Man

Andrew's class has been working on creating superheroes. Each child came up with their own hero, designed their costume and thought up what super powers they would have. Last week they found out that they had to make one piece of their costume at home. Crap! I hate assignments that fall on the parent's shoulders.

The superhero that Andrew created was Belch Man. He wears a belt that holds soda cans and when evil is approaching he grabs a can, pops the top, drinks it and kills the enemy with a giant belch.

Here is the belt that we made. Andrew helped with the design, the picking of the supplies and he did some of the spray painting. I did all the fancy sewing. (Sarcasm)


I hope we get a good grade!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

To Provo we Will Go

I am on a quest to find good Mexican food in Utah. I saw an ad for this and thought it looked good. I like my tacos and all but they aren't really my thing. I prefer a plate of enchiladas with rice and beans. Yes I know it says Taco Grill but I thought they might have some other stuff. They didn't have enchiladas so Paul and I got tacos de carne asada. He said they were like the ones you would get on the streets while he was on his mission. We all enjoyed it but it isn't going to satisfy my carvings. I didn't like the beans at all.
After that we headed to Fat Cats for some bowling.






I started out fine but then started really sucking it up. Emma thought her MyMeeba would be a good luck charm. It helped.
So then she wanted it back.
And it helped.

Our family has mad bowling skills. Check out those scores! I want it known that I was the only one in the whole family to get a strike.
Bad News for my Butt

The Creamery is back in all it's glory!!!!!
This used to be our favorite place to go as a family. See this menu board? There was a time when there were only a few flavors on there. It had been years since we were able to go and enjoy their ice cream. Years! I was so happy to see Sparkle and Peanut Butter Trails that I almost wept tears of joy.
Where else can you get your whole family ice cream for about eight bucks? Emma got Cherry Cordial flavored ice cream.
Paul got a fried Oreo sundae. Yes that is a real deep fat fried Oreo. Heaven help us.

We also got garlic and natural fries. Yum, yum double yum.
Andrew got Egg Nog flavored ice cream. I got the Peanut Butter Trails and made Paul promise to bring me some Sparkle home on Tuesday.
Yesterday was the Festival of Colors. In India Holi announces the coming of spring and the passing of winter. That's a festival I can get behind. I really wanted to take the kids and go but Paul was not interested. He kept saying "I'm not letting you in the car like that." Bah Humbug.

Everywhere we went yesterday we saw kids that looked like this.

Everyone was covered in colored chalk. It was quite awesome. We can't wait for next year.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Les Misérables

Back in January our high school was putting on a performance of Les Miserables. A couple of boys from our ward, including Emma's piano teacher's son, were in it. We had every intention of going but by the time I got there to buy tickets all the shows were completely sold out. We had no idea it would be so popular. When I told the kids it wasn't going to work out they both got upset. Emma even cried. They were so disappointed. I felt terrible about letting them down and if my kids want to watch a musical you better believe I am going to encourage it!

I posted on Facebook how I felt like a bad mommy for letting this opportunity slide through our fingers. One of my friends, Cindy, said that it was coming to the Scera Center for the Arts in March. I was so relieved. We immediately bought tickets and last night was the night we got to go.

I was worried about taking Andrew. He is a little young but you need to understand our obsession with this musical runs deep. It was one of the only non-church music albums that Paul was able to listen to on his mission. (Which I find hilarious due to it's subject matter) He knows it forwards and backwards. We were able to see the Broadway version in San Francisco making a dream of Paul's finally come true. We have been singing it to our kids since they were young. For crying out loud we named our cats Marius and Cosette. (R.I.P. Cosette) Anyway he wasn't going to miss it.

We got to see the school edition performed by the Scera's Youth Theater.


During intermission they had some of the children out "begging" for donations. This is young Cosette. Andrew thought she was really cute and asked for a picture with her, after giving her some money of course ;)
Andrew was a bit wiggly and Emma had some questions throughout but they both said they loved it and I am guessing we will be putting the music on their Ipods soon.

This is Madame Thenardier. She and her husband were really into character. They did an excellent job.
This is my personal favorite, Javert. He had one of the strongest voices and was a good actor. He was pretty dang easy on the eyes too. Andrew had asked for a picture with him, Javert obliged and then Andrew started looking around as other characters passed by. I had to say "Andrew look at the camera" to which "Javert" gave me a funny look and then it dawned on him. He told us his name was Andrew too. Did I mention he was really handsome?
This is Gavroche. This kids is amazing! The talent that these young people have blew me away. The actress playing Fantine was only 15 and totally awesome!
Here is Andrew and Marius. He just had to tell him we had a cat named Marius. The poor kid probably thought we were insane.
Here are the kids with Cosette. She was very talented as well.
We didn't get a picture with Eponine but she was one of my favorites. Her voice was just beautiful. We couldn't get over to Jean Valjean either.

Overall these kids did a really good job. There were a couple of songs that got a little hard to listen to but it was still really fun to see it again and to see this version. I can't even put into words how happy it makes me that my kids love musicals and have a desire to learn more about this world. I can't wait for the day when we can all go to New York and watch a show on Broadway and know everyone in the family will enjoy it. It's a total dream of mine.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Costco Comes Through Again

I think any mom out there will agree, some nights making a home-cooked meal is not on the top of your things to do list. It may be because you have been busy driving all over creation for your precious offspring (like today) or it might be because you just don't feel like it (like today). Either way when everyone gets home, everyone is hungry, and everyone still has to eat something, right?

Most nights I still "cook" something but once a week or so it's Costco to the rescue!

They have all these fabulous pre-made meals that make you look like you tried, or at least cared, a little. This week we "made" this. It comes with two packages that say they serve four. If you have big eaters it might not. I made a red-potato salad during the afternoon to serve with it and chopped up some fresh fruit while it was warming. It was a delicious meal. We both really really liked it. The kids wouldn't even come near it. Their loss.

It couldn't have been easier. I opened the plastic pouch, slopped in it a baking dish, covered that sucker and stuck it in the oven for 15 minutes. I really loved how the package warned me that the contents and the baking dish will be hot when I removed it from the 350 degree oven. No kidding?

Anyway, I can't remember what it cost but it was probably between $10- $15 dollars and it will feed Paul and me four times. Not bad. I will definitely buy it again. The kids? They can nuke a hot dog. Picky little buggers.

Come on Spring, You Can do it!

I know you want to.
I can tell you're trying.
I'm more than ready!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

A Case of the Blahs


Lately, this whole month, I have been feeling rather blah. I have been reading a lot but the house is pretty much a pit (Okay it isn't that bad but piles are growing), I haven't felt like blogging or doing much that is blog worthy, scrapping or quilting. I am way behind on all of those things. I've just been
Our poor neighborhood has been hit hard this year with illness. We are fortunate that we have gotten off as easily as we have. Some other families have had a much worse time than we have. Bad Germs!
The month started with Andrew getting really nasty vomit sick. (Don't Google vomit sick, I'm warning you!)
Poor little guy. I felt really sorry for him. That illness came on right at the time of month where I have the most energy and I feel the best. Instead of being uber productive I was being a caregiver, and that's okay, but I didn't get much done.

In the middle of the next week I get a knock on my door at 11:30 am. It was the Relief Society presidency. Imagine my embarrassment when I had to explain to them that they had gotten me out of bed. I felt really tired so I was going to just relax for a minute and I totally fell asleep. I should have known I was catching something.

A few days later I had an incredibly
really itchy eyes and no energy. I took my vitamins like crazy keeping the symptoms from getting too much worse but I felt a little poopy for almost a week.

It didn't take long for Andrew to catch it. He morphed it into a hacking, phlegmy, cough on top of the sore throat. Fun!

He missed school on Monday and half day on Friday because the cough sounded so bad. When he stays home not much gets done. I should be feeling that surge of energy again but so far nothing! Yesterday I was just going to crawl into bed and waste the day away but Paul got me out of the house and then I was able to do some of the things that I needed to do. I actually made a potato salad for dinner, but honestly, I almost talked myself out of it. LOL!

As I've said, I have no motivation or energy to do much of anything. I am doing the basics, I get done what has to get done, but that's it. I feel like I have been faking my way through my life. Does that make any sense?

I am so ready for us to all feel 100% and to be back to our normal, energetic, happy selfs.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Unconventional turns Conventional~Sort-of

Friday night we got a call from Paul's parents. They said they were watching the twins and wanted to know if we would like to throw Emma and Andrew into the mix so we could have a date night. Umm, YES!

I was all for it and pretty dang excited. Paul on the other hand was worried about missing the BYU basketball game. Because I am awesome, loving and giving I told him we could have an unconventional date. We could get take-out and come home to watch the game. It wasn't the most exciting plan for me but like I said, I'm awesome, loving and giving LOL! (yes I am kidding) It made him very happy and that was my goal.

We were NOT on the same page food-wise. Nothing he wanted sound good and visa-versa. We formulated a plan that would make us both happy and we would avoid televisions so the game wouldn't get spoiled.

Our plan was to get dessert to go from Zupa's first. That went off without a hitch.
Score! Turtle cheesecake and some chunky brownie caramel thing.
Then we were going to go to Paradise Bakery to get Paul a Thai wrap, to go. We wait in line for our turn and tell them what he wants and they are sold out. Oh no! Still to this moment he is sad and craving a wrap, I'm not even kidding. So we left very disheartened, but not before helping ourselves to their chippers.
If we had been able to stick to our plan our next stop would have been to Los Hermano's for an order of chips and salsa. I had an itch and it needed to be scratched. I wanted to munch on chips all throughout the game. After we got chips and salsa we were going to drive through Taco Amigo and get me some of their crack fries and a tostada.

Since our plan was totally derailed we had to improvise. Rubio's was right across the parking lot, it would cure my chip craving and we could "dine in" without seeing a TV making our date night a bit more conventional and well, date like.

Rubio's it was.
Yum Yum! (The thatching in this picture and the colors makes me think of Cheeseburger's in Paradise in Lahaina. I miss Hawaii.)
Yes I ate the whole burrito.
After he took this I took a ton of pictures of him.
He could hardly eat because he was laughing so hard. The poor people behind him thought the paparazzi were in town.
After we gorged ourselves on "Mexican" food we went home and watch BYU lose the basketball game. SAD! It was still fun for us to spend time together and watch the game uninterrupted though.