Friday

Today was a busy day. No school for the kiddos, Matt took the day off, and after we took this one to get a haircut.....

...... we took the kids out to lunch and to go see Where the Wild Things are. I've read a lot of reviews panning the movie and I have to say, I agree with those critics. It was visually stunning and the music was great, but in my opinion, forgettable. I watch movies to be entertained, not to bleed to death over. I prefer movies with a plot. Between that and that stupid Sookie Stackhouse book I just read, I feel like I just had a lobotomy.

No offense to anyone who loved it.

I'm still playing with photoshop, trying to see what I can create if I step outside of scrapbooking and came up with this. I don't have anywhere near the skills of my brother-in-law, Brian but I still manage to create enough to keep myself entertained.

Fun with Photoshop

In my never ending quest to avoid housework, I played around with photoshop tonight and created this. I'm sorry Abbie has no right hand. I'm not actually good at photoshop, I just enjoy using it.

Tis the Season...

.....for this Arizona girl to start whining about the cold weather.

Get use to it.

I think it's awfully pretty, but I still have not accepted that snow and sleet are part of life.

Yesterday it snowed all day long, it was chilly and it made me want to light pumpkin spice candles and light a fire in the fireplace. Except we got rid of the fireplace when we started to remodel the house. Too much work and money to update it, and it was too ugly to look at every day. No fireplace. No pumpkin spice candles in the house either.

So, I took some of that pumpkin overkill from last week and made 2 pies using the pumpkin butter. The house smelled wonderful and the kids gobbled it up. For me, it was really lacking in flavor, so from now on, we'll just use canned pumpkin for pies.

I got new cookie sheets last year for Christmas, but I still use the old rusty one for spills and things like fish sticks. It's ugly, but works just fine.

And yeah, I but premade pie shells. I have yet to produce an edible homemade pie crust. Mine is like, spit it out of your mouth when I'm not looking terrible.

It still beats the pie MeMaw made 4 years ago for Thanksgiving dinner. She made a berry pie and it looked lovely. Sunnie took one bite and discreetly spit it into her napkin. She then quietly warned everyone to avoid the berry pie.

Memaw cut herself a nice big slice, took one bite, spit it onto her plate and announced loudly "This tastes like sh*t! Who made this pie?"

Um....you did MeMaw.

Apparently she added salt instead of sugar.

Everyone died laughing. I absolutely love her and I love that she's a Texan and not afraid to drop an S bomb in front of everyone.

In other unexciting news....Taylorsville Trick or treaters, the Olson Bunch is ready for you.......even the Jensen Clan.

First Snow

Last night and today we got our first snow of the season. It's sticking to the ground, but not the roads, they say it should snow all day and into the night. This family full of desert rats will be sure to bundle up.

This is my little Romy, heading to school. Every day when I drop her off, since kindergarten she does a sign language "I love you" and waves at me until she is out of sight.

It's such a nice way to start the morning. She's a sweet kid and I love her.

Lotsa Pictures

I've been whining and complaining enough this weekend, so this post is mostly pictures.

And some whining.

But mostly pictures.

Friday night we had signed up to the stake blood drive, so even though I was doped up, we headed over to donate. the guy that stuck me was new and went right through my vein and I wasn't able to donate, and instead left with a bruise that is as big as a golf ball. Oh well, it looks worse than it feels.
Saturday was my sister in law's baby shower. She's due to have baby Lilly (Lillie?) in November and we're all looking forward to her arrival. Mom and Marshell threw the shower and it turned out really great. we enjoyed spending time with the babies who are already born, too. Abbie and Rocco just keep getting cuter and cuter.

Look at that face. Isn't he just perfect?Abbie was too funny, trying to scare me. She's just too sweet to be scary.

Paige looked radiant. I think she got about 400 blankest as gifts yesterday, and the one I crocheted was added to that pile. Her nursery is green and while i couldn't bring myself to make a green blanket for a baby girl, I did choose some yarn that had enough green in it to match the decor.

Matt & the boys went outside and tossed around the rugby ball while Paige opened her gifts and it was a nice afternoon for everyone.

Last Pumpkin Post, I Promise

Just when you thought you'd heard the last of me droning on about pumpkins, I have one final pumpkin post until I do pie next month. I figured 2 posts in one day about the same subject would work, as I need to make sure that if I'm going to beat a dead horse, I need to do it all at once and be done with it.



I made rolls and pumpkin soup for dinner tonight. It turned out great and all of the kids except Zane (the child who will chew on his own shirt like a goat when hungry, but who thinks soup is nasty,) enjoyed it. The recipe was easy and I decided to post it. I will spare my readers a picture and instead, am posting this one of Rocco giving us all his best "Yo- where my pumpkins at?" pose.

Easy Pumpkin Soup (crock pot recipe)

5 cups mashed cooked pumpkin, or pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups half and half
4 cups chicken broth/stock (I was out so I dissolved 4 chicken bullion cubes in 4 cups water)
1 stick butter
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 TB onion powder ( the recipe called for 1/2 c sauteed onions, but onions are nasty, ew)
1/2 tsp nutmeg

I put everything but the pumpkin in the crock pot on high until the butter had melted, then I stirred in the pumpkin. It cooked for about 1 1/2- 2 hours on high. It has the consistency of potato soup, so serving it with rolls or biscuits adds some substance.

This was way easy and had a high "You rock, mom!" factor on a cold autumn day.



Matt said it was a little bland for his taste, so he added more salt, but it was perfect for all of the kids. Matt also thinks squid is good food, so I'm not changing the recipe based on his palette. :P


I love you Matt and you're way hot, but squid is disgusting.

Pumpkins....

Last night while high on my happy buzz from the pain meds, I decided to let the kids carve their pumpkins.
Only the 3 little ones even wanted to, so that left me with a lot of pumpkins leftover. I'm not posting the finished product of Grey's because he decided halfway through that it would be funny to not carve a face and instead just make a hacked up mess.

Not everyone shared his sense of humor, so while his is on the porch, it's too stupid to post.

I know, you thought nothing was too stupid for me to post. I'm just chock full of surprises. I'm a regular surprise machine.
So there you, go Romy and Jane with their jack-o-lanterns.

With all that extra pumpkin I decided to go ahead and give preserving some of it a try. I found some really easy to follow tips and guidelines on this website: http://www.theneitherworld.com/pumpkin/recipes/index.htm

She gives a really good tutorial on the basics of making a pumpkin puree, and how to toast the seeds among other helps.

We toasted....

and made pumpkin butter (5 jars) and come Thanksgiving we'll see how pumpkin butter does as a substitute for canned pumpkin in pie.

Tonight we're having pumpkin soup and if it turns out that everyone has just had way too much pumpkin this weekend, then we'll order pizza, but we'll probably lie to the kids and tell them we're only ordering pumpkin pizza.

Mmmm....just the sound of that makes you kind of want to puke a little in your mouth, doesn't it?

I Whine, Therefore I Am.

As I type I am trying to distract myself from the pain of this X#!&$* toothache I am dealing with, waiting for the dentist to return my call.

I was cursed with pretty crappy genetics when it came to teeth. My front tooth grew in with a hole in it, I kid you not. I had hypodonita- meaning my two side front teeth- never existed. Often people with it get sliver teeth, at least you can build those up and crown them, I just never had any hint of those teeth. As a teen I lost one of the baby teeth there but not the other giving me a midline that was so far off there was no way I was escaping braces.

I wore a retainer with 2 fake teeth in it until I was 29 when, with some help from my mom- okay with my mom offering to pay for the whole she-bang I was able to get my Marilyn bridge. That beauty cost 10 grand. With every child I have lost at least one tooth and needed a crown and spent hours getting extensive emergency dental work done while 8 or 9 months pregnant. My teeth have just always been crap.

Last week, one of my teeth started to really hurt pretty badly.
Did I call the dentist?
Of course not, I took some Tylenol and stopped chewing on that side. That fixes everything.
Monday it started hurting worse.
Did I call the dentist?
Of course not. I just started digging at it with a toothpick like a Redneck, trying to relieve the pressure.
Last night the tooth started to hurt so bad I skipped knitting group and spent the evening promising Matt I'd call the dentist today. Of course, today, my dentist's office is closed.

So here I sit, freebasing this stuff and waiting for the dentist to return my call and give me a prescription to get me through the weekend until he can pull the damned thing.


It's my own fault. I put off calling until it was too late. I just HATE going.Every time I go, it takes forever, it hurts and it costs a ton of money. It's not like the problems are ever really fixed either. Kind of like how Matt feels about going to mediation.

I am going out of my head this hurts so bad and on top of feeling stupid for doing this, I am starting to consider some drastic moves to get out of pain. I know where Matt keeps pliers. I also know where to get ahold of some ice skates to do this Castaway style, if needed.

***Update- between the time I started this post and I finished it my dentist called back and I am now drugged up for the weekend, with a emergency appointment lined up for Monday morning.

I can put the ice skates back in the closet for now.

Sadie

Last night we planned to take the kids to go see a movie, I don't really want to see. At about 4pm I was saved by a knock at the door. It was a brother from church in desperate need of a babysitter for his granddaughter. Someone told him "Go ask the Olsons, they have lots of kids and they'll help you." I don't know who sent him to our door, but it makes me feel really good that someone would think of our family as people who help others.

Clearly they haven't spent enough time with my children who for the most part won't even scoot over 2 inches on the couch to give another sibling room to sit. Kids who won't pause the Wii long enough to go and get toilet paper for a sibling who has been yelling for help, trapped on the can for 15 minutes. Kids who will them laugh at the trapped toilet child for having a red ring on their bum and thighs from having been trapped on the toilet.

Anyway, I was spared having to go to the movie and instead had a quiet evening watching Miss Sadie. She was a way easy baby, never cried, ate all of her food, didn't poop while at our house- they don't get any easier than this kid- and she's adorable, too.


About 45 minutes before it was time to take her home, she started to get tired so I went upstairs and rocked her in the family room. As she slept she'd pat my chest every time I stopped patting her back. It's been a long time since I rocked a baby to sleep and it was really nice. It didn't make me baby hungry, but when the time comes that I have grandbabies, I look forward to some quiet nights, rocking them to sleep.

And if they poop or cry- I'm giving them back to their parents.

Family Home Evening

Every so often we have the opportunity to do Family Home Evening at the Golden Living Center. We feel it is really important to teach our kids that it is important to give something back to our community. Being LDS, we have lots of opportunities to serve in the church, but it's important to us that the kids learn to reach out beyond that and do a little more. Of course, The Golden Living Center is in our ward, so technically it's still church service, but it still reaches outside of the usual routine.

The kids love going and meeting the Grandmas and Grandpas and seeing the smiles as the kids sing and talk to everyone. Matt gave a really good lesson and Zane read a story about how important it is to have the right attitude. Matt pointed out that Laman and Lemuel both did the same things as everyone else, only they whined and complained and no matter what, they grumbled and felt that they had it harder than everyone else did. As a result they went through their lives learning nothing and their posterity suffered from their pride and inability to commit themselves to simply following the Lord.

It was a really good lesson.

We're not a family full of saints, we have our problems and our faults, but we have some really good kids who are teachable and kind to others. Kids who are learning that it's more important to be good than to look good. Nothing in life matters if you don't actually learn the lessons that God sent you here to learn. I hope that no matter how far they go in life, that they always are able to see the path that leads them to places where light dwells.

Evenings like tonight make being the Mom feel really good.

Return of the Conference Cupcakes

In case anyone noticed, yeah, I gave up on the LOAD challenge this month. October just gets busy. I'm still going to try and participate in the activity, but I took a week off and I am okay with not completing it. I knew I was pushing it because October is always a crazy month for us. There are lots of school activities going on, all of the wardrobes transition from shorts to sweaters and the house starts to get ready for winter in a bunch of different ways.

I harvested the rest of the garden, except for one pumpkin I am hoping will orange up by next week, but we ended up with 14 pumpkins when I swear I do not remember planting pumpkins this year. I know Roe had a packed of seeds she picked out, I'm going to guess she went behind me and randomly planted them. No worries, I am always just happy when anything grows after years of being frustrated that I couldn't even get one successful citrus tree in my yard in Arizona. As I gathered up the rest of the veggies, I found this guy, looking shiny and perfect and I'm excited to make Eggplant Parmesan with eggplant grown in our little weed patch.

Today was stake conference, so I whipped up the cupcakes I blew off when it was General Conference and after the session, we went and delivered them to some of our friends in the ward. Matt got to talk with Lisa M.-they are a new family on his home teaching route and the Moore's enjoyed what would have been the Colette's share of cupcakes, since they were out of town. I write that only to tell Sarah that,lol.

I made my blueberry cream cheese cupcakes and the kids all decorated regular ones. I think I have a recipe bouncing in my head for some apple pie style cupcakes I'm going to mess with once everyone recovers form the diabetic coma brought on by today's batch.

Stand and be Counted Among the Weenie Brigade

We are a family of weenies.


Matt tries his best to help us all overcome our utter weenieness, but it's no use. We embrace the weenie within each of us. We are the Olson Family Weenie brigade.


Tonight we decided that for the Halloween season, we'd rent a scary movie. We hooked up the Clearplay and popped in The House on Haunted Hill. We sent the little girls to bed and set to spooking. I'd seen it on TV a few times, I didn't remember it as being too gory, but it scared the pants off of me.

My memory isn't quite what it use to be.

It was really scary.

15 minutes in I told Matt it was too much. He rolled his eyes, paused the movie and asked the kids what they thought........Matt was outvoted by my fellow weenies. (Weenie Warriors...Unite!) Not only was he outvoted, but it was declared "Sleep in Mom and Dad's Room" night.

And it wasn't enough to just shut the movie off, we needed to put on something cheesy that wouldn't scare us even a little bit.

Emma suggested "Star Child" the little known sequel to "Saturday's Warrior." It's little known because it is so campy and cheesy, the kids are laughing their heads off at how awful it is. It's a good awful, but lines like "Star Child rides across the sky on his unicorn reminding us all that we're children of Ephraim......" you can't help but laugh and forget about the scary psychopathic killer from the house on the haunted hill.

For Today.......

Outside my window...the sun is melting the frost off my front lawn. My front lawn is made up of crabgrass and dandelions. We need to re-seed the whole mess. Bleah. I'm closing the blinds.

I am thinking...I should not have had KettleCorn and Diet Coke for breakfast.

I am thankful for...a funny and hot husband, good friends old and new, my family and early release from school on Fridays

From the kitchen...like I said..kettlecorn and Diet Coke. Not my best choice. Yesterday it was candy corn for breakfast though, so this is an improvement.

I am wearing...a tshirt and "wii: pajama bottoms.

I am reading...Dead Before Dawn. Eh. I'm sick of the author describing what Sookie is wearing at length and that every single man who is not related to her is secretly in love with her.

I am hoping...that my path in life keeps going the direction it is going now- diverging from another path.

I am hearing...Tracy Chapman that I downloaded from itunes the other day.

One of my favorite things...is an empty house with the radio blaring with my "mom" music.

A few plans for the rest of the week...Stake Conference this weekend, maybe I'll do some crafting

A picture to share... sometimes when you're in knitting group you can mooch cute socks from your friends...thank you so much Joie, for these, I love love love them. Like I said, you're officially added to my conference cupcake route

Eh-

Pictures of my guys playing ball together make me happy. :)

Today after school we're going Halloween shopping. I could try to be supermom and spend hours making elaborate homemade costumes, but I think the happiness factor is met with costumes we can buy from the store and we can tweak them here at home. For my kids it's all about the candy and people will give you candy on Halloween even if all your costume consists of is a T-shirt that reads "this is my costume." (Trust me on this one, Zane has done it.)

My personal self esteem is not wrapped up in having the world's coolest costume for my children and since my kids don't care about that either, we're going to Target for our costumes this year.

It's okay, Halloween isn't a competition and while there is nothing wrong with super fancy labor intensive costuming, it's not my cup of tea. Get your candy, eat it until you puke and stay up late watching campy horror movies. Wake up with a lollipop in your hair and listen to the parents complain about wrappers being everywhere. Done and done.

Day 13

It's a quick digital page, but I'm happy with it. I brazenly scraplifted pretty much everything from Kyla's layout from yesterday at LOAD except the color scheme and title placement, but she always has so many cute ideas and a great eye for design.

Today we took Zane to the soccer shop to pick up a rugby ball so he can practice. We opted for the more expensive leather ball so he can really get a feel for what he'll be handling in the spring. We're all so excited for him to be playing, he's going to do great and probably put at least one kid in the hospital come rugby season. Pain is your friend....you want a sport with sissy pads, play football- rugby is for men!

Day 12

Eh, I don't love today's layout. My head is still hurting from yesterday and I was rushed for time today. I'm not fully present during this round of the LOAD challenge, October is a month that gets super busy on me and I haven't even given a second thought to decorating, Halloween costumes and the many other fall activities that need my attention.

Sunday we all played Settler's of Catan and enjoyed rootbeer floats. I considered doing a warm cider, but why drink apples when you can have soda and icecream?

Day 11

I did this layout late last night- after midnight, so it counts. Good thing because after church I got a massive migraine and conked out in my bed.

Maureen and Ruth gave the lessons at church today and they are my two favorite teachers. I always tell Matt that I want to be Ruth S. when I grow up. What I love about her is that she is real. When she teaches, she doesn't pretend to be something she isn't, she conveys a spirit and a strength that cannot be denied. It's one that affects me every time and I sit there in awe of this woman who doesn't have all of the answers, but with her whole heart and soul she knows they are there and she knows that in this life, it is required of her to do her best and to endure unto the end.

It was because of Ruth that I found peace with the whole issue of having a baby with Matt. She will never know how desperately we needed the answer, and we needed the answer to feel right and to fit into some sort of parameters that we understood. Through one of Ruth's lessons, through listening to her share her testimony, the answer came and it felt right. After years of struggling with the issue, I felt complete peace and never questioned it again. She has helped me get my feet on solid ground more times than she will ever know.

Frightmares, Rugby and Days 8 & 10

Clever title, eh?


Lots of pictures to make up for the verbal diarrhea I have had lately here.

Last night we took the kids to Frightmares at Lagoon. We always get season passes with the intention of going to the Halloween events at lagoon, but we never go. This year we bundled up and hit the park and had a blast. The rides seemed faster and scarier in the dark and the 6 spoiled children who went talked Mom into buying them caramel apples when we were finished.

This picture is just too creepy to keep to myself.

This morning we went up to the University of Utah campus and caught their last rugby game of the season. We're still learning how the game is played, but we're looking forward to watching Zane play in February.

My layouts for Thursday and today...I'm not posting yesterday's because it's digi and I'm annoyed that I couldn't do a paper layout every day, but I'm human. I'm really happy with the "Snap" layout.

Day 7 -Re-Packaged

Yesterday was one of those days- one of those Sybil days. You start off feeling one way and by the time you rest your messed up head at night, you realize you ended up with a completely different day than you started with. The weather being 30 degrees in the morning and 65 by suppertime doesn't help.

I've been tense lately, stressed out. I've been dealing with it by sort of retreating from life, it's how I deal.

I woke up with cramps so bad I could barely move. I got the kids to school and went back to bed. I thought abut running a load of dishes to keep my kitchen spotless and remembered I bought paper plates for a reason. Forget it. Oh wait. I didn't have paper plates. We were out. And we were out of bread and Pop Tarts, too. Pop Tarts. I'm not going to the store for Pop tarts. We only got Pop Tarts on Christmas when I was a kid. My kids were too spoiled. But we were also low on Diet Coke. THAT I could not ignore, so I bra'd up and went to Walmart. My head hurt and I felt like crap and it took me 2 hours to get everything we needed and then I still forgot milk.

I came home grouchy. I went back to bed until it was time to pick up the kids. Then I went back to bed.

As I'm lying there- grouchy and annoyed Oprah comes on. I am not a huge fan, but I had the TIVO set because Nie was going to be on. I turned the TV off to let it record and then turned it on again. Top Chef was going to be on later and I knew if I didn't watch Oprah when it was actually airing, I wouldn't watch it for a month.

Nie- beautiful Nie comes on and chats with Oprah. Nothing life- altering or profound is really said, she's just there, happy to be alive, happy to have her family and happy to live in the moment. A woman visits her home and sees her beautiful family portrait taken before the crash, she asks Nie if she misses that. Nie, in her beautiful voice says "Yeah, I miss it. But that was what was then, and this is what is now. And I still have all of this. " and she motions toward the picture.

Dammit Oprah.

Nothing was lost in the flames, it only was repackaged. The new wrapping wasn't as pretty, but it was stronger and more beautiful.

The same burn unit that saved Nie, saved my son. We feel a quiet connection to her. Parker watched her and sat silent and I could see he had a connection. We had a fire too. He was burned too. The same angels that administered to Nie, administered to my child and they saved him. They saved us all. After the fire, I was not the same. There are parts of that experience I talk about, parts I still am unable to voice. Parts I share only with my husband, parts I share only with my children, parts I share only with Parker, and parts I share only with God.

I remember the fire like it was yesterday and yet I also remember the fire as though it were a dream. It's fuzzy around the edges and razor sharp in unexpected places. When the worst of it was over, I remember feeling so strong, so clear on who I was and what was important. I remember knowing I was a good mom and in that role, I could see my little family through anything. I remember knowing who I was and what my life was about. I remember being aware that I had my own story about the fire, that Parker would have his own story and Zane, who was just a baby would have his own story as well. The direction of all of our lives was changed by that fire.

And it was okay.

We were okay. We have some shared stories, some shared strengths, some shared broken places we hold almost sacred, but we were okay and we would be--okay.

I realized that everything I had after the fire- I still have it. Nothing has been lost, just repackaged.

Blast you Oprah.

No more wasting my days- my moments on things that are beneath me and do not do justice to the trials and experiences I have already overcome. I am better than this. We are better than this. I am remembering who I am and the kind of mother I am.

The path isn't what I thought it would be. I accept that. But it still runs in the same direction, it's still straight and it still leads to a place I want to dwell. I'm not wasting one more day of my life. I'm not spending anymore time or energy on a life that is beneath me and that does not do justice to all that I have overcome.

Freakin' Oprah.

And Nie....keep on keepin' on, girl. The whole world is rooting for you.

Day 6

Today I made bread and the house smells so good. I may just consider sharing it with the kids.

I was going to try and do 2 layouts every day for the LOAD challenge but I decided to get off my lazy arse and scrub the summer out of my kitchen. The place is so clean you could almost eat in there.
It's hard to see the title, but it looks cool in real life, my layout about my "bucket list." It's quite ambitious, especially when I know the truth is that I'd give up all of those dreams for an extra few hours of sleep each day.

I know, my laziness is mind-boggling.

Day 5