Happy Birthdays!!!

Landon, Elisa, Ammon!

(in that order)

Roses aren't green,

Violets aren't too,

From all that you've seen,

Hope this birthday ranks two!

(well one doesn't rhyme with too)

Yep, got it in one. I still can't get pictures to work.

For Now...

...I have discovered I like:

1. mints (especially Jr. mints)- I want to try the chocolate mints I've seen in along the checkout lines, haven't yet though.
2. vanilla mint splash Trident
3. Blistex lip infusion (vanilla or cherry)
4. Hoof ready to grow polish (for weak nails-works great)
5. belgian chocolates (I think they were truffles)
6. Southern Candy Makers Dark Chocolate Mississippi Mud (second only to the aforementioned)- Stephen brought some back from New Orleans with him.
7. Bath&Body works lotions - right now I'm loving plumeria and pink grapefruit 'flavors'.
8. being interested in things (for example looking up what exactly a benign tubular adenoma with focal sclerosing adenosis is)- thus the Internet too.
9. good frozen foods (we liked the last Banquet chicken crock pot classic we tried, and stir fry mixes, for example).
10. baking bread (I've got to keep trying with the rolls, however, my last batch was too big so it took longer to cook, and they looked funny)

What the?

So someone once said we were going one place, but after I arranged for babysitting it was another. Fine, it was work related right? Well then we're going Thursday, so I say that should work with the people I asked, and the next breath it's he won't go, then, until the next Monday? Wha-? What kind of games are we playing here?

Hooray Another Birthday!

Well, dagnabbit. My image button isn't working today. So no picture. Here is a poem that was kind of cool. Not too birthday like I'm afraid. Birth, death, it all goes hand in hand right?

Happy Birthday Mindy!

Spoken From the Hedgerows
by Jorie Graham


To bring back a time and place.
A feeling. As in "we are all in this
together." Or "the United States and her allies

fought for Freedom." To bring back.
The experience of killing and getting killed.
Get missed. Get hit. Sun—is it with us. Holiday,

are you with us on this beach today.
Hemisphere of one, my soul, paratrooper,
greatness I house in my body, deepset, my

hands on these triggers—who once could outrun
his brother—consumed with fellow-feeling like a madness that does not
must not,
lower its pitch—going to the meeting place,

the spire of the church in Vierville, seen on aerial maps, visible from
eighteen miles out,
if it weren't for fog, and smoke, and groundmist,
the meeting place, the appointed time surging in me,

needing to be pierced—but not me—not me—

only those to the left and right of me—

permit me to let you see me—

Me. Driven half mad but still in biography.
By the shared misery of. Hatred. Training. Trust. Fear.
Listening to the chatter each night of those who survived the day.

There is no other human relationship like it.
At its heart comradeship is an ecstasy.
You will die for an other. You will not consider it a personal

loss. Private Kurt Gabel, 513 Parachute Infantry Regiment—
"The three of us Jake, Joe and I became an entity.
An entity—never to be relinquished, never to be

repeated. An entity is where a man literally insists
on going hungry for another. A man insists on dying for
an other. Protect. Bail out. No regard to

consequence. A mystical concoction." A last piece
of bread. And gladly. You must understand what is meant by
gladly. All armies throughout history have tried

to create this bond among their men. Few succeeded as well
as the paratroop infantry of the U.S. Army,
Rifle Company E, 506th.

Fussell: It can't happen to me. It can happen to me. It is
going to happen to me. Nothing
is going to prevent it.

Webster (to his parents): I am living on borrowed time—
I do not think I shall live through the next jump.
If I don't come back, try not to take it too hard.

I wish I could persuade you to regard death
as casually as we do over here. In the heat of it
you expect it, you are expecting it, you are not surprised

by anything anymore, not surprised when your friend
is machine-gunned in the face. It's not like your life, at home,
where death is so unexpected. (And to mother):

would you prefer for someone else's son to die in the mud?
And there is no way out short of the end of war or the loss
of limb. Any other wound is patched up and you're sent back

to the front. This wound which almost killed him
healed up as well and he went back.
He never volunteered. One cannot volunteer.

If death comes, friend, let it come quick.
And don't play the hero, there is no past or future. Don't play
the hero. Ok. Let's go. Move out. Say goodbye.

(attributed to this sight)

Noted

Today I discovered that sugar pears smell like Grandma Walker (or vice versa - uh, spell check suggested verse?). In fact, I found eating them took me back to how it felt to be around the extended Walker family as a child. Neat.

Wahoooooooooo!

Happy Birthday Jedd!

-I just realized most of your family starts the new year off at a new age too- kinda cool.

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha,!

The other day Adria was talking about a boy in her class that will be getting the priesthood. Ammon then turns and asks me, "Is that the ironic priesthood?"

Happy Belated!

Happy Birthday Natalie and Candace!

Hope it was turtle-ific....uh, o.k., it's a stretch, work with me here.

Welcoming in the New Year with One Week of Success with an Unofficial Resolution

So my resolution wasn't consciously made for this year, but it's been working none the less.
Many of you know my embarrassing habit that I picked up again, oh, a year or so ago. Anyway, I've been trying to quit for a while, and have finally been free of it for a week. It may have been longer, but I haven't really been keeping track, so officially I am sure it has been at least a week!
A big help - Ammon saying smokers use the "I KNOW I can do it" mantra (is that the right word, it sounds right), drinking lots of water, and finding something to do (usually with the help of my family). Oh, and food of course, especially anything labeled as snack or fat food (I will endeavor to avoid creating that habit any more than it already is, however).

Thanks everyone.

Now, for the next week...

**Hey, spell check on the new blogger is way cooler!**

By the way, if anyone comes across a pillowcase - blue with yellow stars - I made that for Ammon, and it matches his soon to be finished quilt - please let me know. It mysteriously disappeared not long after he opened it (a few days late because I had forgotten about it already wrapped, up in my closet). Grrrr. Thanks a ton. heh.

Hooray, Snow!

Sorry about the mostly foggy pictures. I later discovered my lense was very dirty.

Belated

So I'm late again, but this year I'll do better. I'm sure. I, uh, hope.

Happy Birthday Megan!

Hope it was full of laughter and light. Hope today is too.
Love you.

"What is it?", you may ask. Gum. A very, very large wad of gum.

By the Way

We got a call that someone was worried about our Christmas, so I wanted to assure [maybe it was because of a previous post?] that all is well. We waited until Tuesday to start because Stephen was waiting on a bonus. So I was on pins and needles. But it came. We conquered. In fact, I'm done, and Stephen is out finishing up what he wants to do. It wasn't as bad last minute as I thought it would be either.
Thank you so much for looking out for us.
Lots of love,
Riley's

Does that Really Happen?

I didn't think so. Until I did it. I had some MS clean up, so I left them in the sink and turned the water on, went into the other room and promptly forgot. My bathroom had a half inch of water on most of the floor, in the cupboard under the sink and across the entire counter before I came back to it, thinking of course, when I heard the water running, that Landon had left it on after I wiped his bottom a little while before. Nope.

I couldn't leave a comment on Melanie's blog because I am on the new one and she's not I think. I switched only because when I went to post on Megan's blog I couldn't without the new version. Anyway, Melanie, hooray for English Toffee and Peanut Brittle (yes they require capitalization), and, actually, for K'nex too!

added later: It's almost unbelievable. Tonight when I went to put the pickles away I didn't have the lid on tight and tipped it over as I set it in the fridge. Pickle juice everywhere. Oh, and when I emptied the shelf to clean it? I dropped a yogurt and, yes, it split open on the floor. Sheesh. What's a girl gonna do with a two year old if she is still one herself?

Food from Thought (and lazy necessity)

Monica's chicken pot pie

2 frozen single crust, deep dish, 9" pie crusts
1 can cream of chicken soup
milk
frozen mixed vegetables (I used peas, carrots, corn, Lima bean mix)
frozen hash browns (not patties, although if you break them up maybe they could work too)

Invert one pie crust on towel, allow to thaw 10 minutes or so, until it lies flat.
In a bowl mix soup, 1/2 soup can of milk, vegetables (maybe three cups?), and hash browns (2 or three cups?). It should end up really thick, like mashed potatoes maybe. Place in remaining pie crust and top with flattened crust, make a slice in the center of the pie (or a smiley face).
Bake at 375 F for 45 minutes or until crust is browned.

optional: reduce veg. and hash browns and add chopped cooked chicken.
May need a sprinkle of salt and pepper depending on personal taste.

Drawing a blank

The problem is I almost never have anything to say, and when I do it is the wrong thing or time. I am pretty sure whatever it is I am always doing wrong is right in front of me, but for the life of me I can't figure it out.
I am thankful for all your blogs though! This gloomy weather mirrored my mood (or vice versa) until I remembered I could go read something from somebody who knows me and might like me anyway.
I can almost face the dirty house.

Almost.

Maybe I'll go Christmas shopping with a credit card.

The children made some homemade gifts for the children in our rotation, and I thought It was o.k. but Stephen goes and says we need to get something 'good'. Grrrr. Am I totally in the wrong or was encouraging them to give what they could (they and I have no money) a good thing? Will our family really be disappointed because we are too thoughtless to get them whatever we could find on the shelf at the store that might be enjoyed by another, or is it better to give what we think is good and the best we (the children) could do this time? Anyway, they had fun thinking of their cousins this way rather than begging for what they want from the store while I try to convince them we aren't there to shop for them, but someone else . Maybe, as always, I am going for the easy way out?

Happy Thanksgiving!

So many things to be thankful for, where do you start?
I am thankful for...
A five year olds rendition of a pilgrim
someone to go to the store with (yes, even a two year old sometimes)
playing chess on the computer while Adria and Ammon tell me what moves to make
color
Mom and Dad
Grandparents
My ward
Aesthetically pleasing stuff
quilts
quilting magazines
cuddling with a small child
flavors
Holidays
Teachers
'imperfections' of all kinds....
etc.

Have a good one.

Happy Halloweeeeeeen!

***Picture and costume by Ammon!***

Or will be if blogger starts working today.

Happy Late Birthday to Melanie!

Trunk or Treating Tonight!

Thought you all might not mind seeing the snapshots of the kids!

Check this out!

For some reason this is great fun!