Tagged by HSF October 28, 2007

I was tagged a few days ago by HSF to write 7 things about myself you may not know.  Assuming anyone besides my own children read this, here I go:

1.  I love Christmas music.  Not just during December, or even November and December, but all year long.  By the time January rolls around I’m getting tired of it, so I don’t listen to any until we get a cold, wet day in April or June or whenever, then i pull it out.  I get back into serious listening with the first really cold weather after Labor Day.  When I have to clean the kitchen or do dishes or whatever, it all goes by better if I’m listening to Christmas music.

2.  I love to sing, but I’m not very good at it.  When Piano Man and I were first married, he wanted to be in the ward choir so I went along.  I couldn’t sing high enough to be a soprano, but I didn’t know how to go about singing alto.  The very first practice was terrible for me, so afterwards we brought the music home to work on it.  I played the alto line and Piano Man sat with me until my voice could find the correct notes at the correct time.  After all these years I now know how to pick up the alto line by myself, but it takes some effort most of the time.  Piano Man is the ward choir director and my good friend and I are in the ward choir.  We are both alto’s and we always bring the music home and work on it together until we both know how we are supposed to sound.

3.  I want to be a chef when I grow up.  I love cooking and trying out new recipes, but I’m not very good at coming up with new ideas on my own.  But if I eat something at a restaurant, I can usually figure out how to make it at home.  I’m a Food Network junkie and love to try out those recipes.  I recently watched the “chefography” about Giada de Laurentis and she started out as a personal chef for a family.  I told Piano Man that I want to be a personal chef, and he pointed out that, oh yes, I already am…I forgot.  Problem is, NOBODY PAYS ME FOR IT!!!

4.  I wish I could design clothing.  I love sewing and choosing fabrics and patterns and threads and embellishments, but I would love to be able to create my own patterns.

5.  I have been blessed to have a best girl friend through all the phases of my life.  I met my first best friend, C, when I was 4 years old, and we are still friends and when we talk to each other a couple of times a year, it seems like no time has passed at all.  J came along when we were both in 7th grade, those hated junior high school years.  At our school they had a dance 3 times a year, during the last hour of the day.  Since it was still during school hours, we weren’t allowed to just go home.  So J and I would go into the bathroom, polish our glasses, shine up our braces, adjust our dresses (pants weren’t allowed in school in those days!), and go to the stinky gym, where we would stand against the wall for an hour, wondering why nobody was asking us to dance.  Hmmmm… Let’s see.  CL came along in high school and was amazingly talented in every way.  She eventually lined me up with Piano Man after I suffered a broken heart.  I’m thankful every day that she thought of lining me up with Piano Man.  When we moved to our first house in West Valley City, I met P.  Our boys were the same age, and we ended up having our oldest girls within 6 weeks of each other.  When we moved to our current home 18 years ago I met L and we have been laughing friends ever since.  I still stay in touch with all of these women after all these years and I can’t imagine my life without each one.

6.  I’m one of those girls who is married to her best friend.  I think a big reason we have a happy marriage after almost 30 years is that we honestly, truly like each other.  We enjoy spending time together and he makes me laugh every single day.  It’s great to married to someone you can be goofy with.

7.  HSF said that she loves the smell of Tide, and a comment from Loralee said that she likes smells, too.  Well, I’m with those girls.  I am a big-time sniffer, but not for getting high, I promise!  I just love to smell things, mostly chemicals!  Weird, I know.  I actually keep a can of pine sawdust in my pantry so I can sniff it when I miss my daddy.  I can’t walk past the shoe aisle at Walmart without stopping to sniff the shoe polish.  If I’m driving, I try to get behind diesel trucks and tar trucks.  And I took up decorative painting because I get to use varnish.  It’s hard for me to believe someone thought it was a good idea to invent odorless paint!  However, there are some smells I don’t like.  Living out in the country we experience many smells that I consider cucka.  Like when the manure truck drips all over the road…ick!  And when the breeze blows in from the blood pools at the local meat processing plant.  Ick again.  Apparently natural smells are not my favorites.  Give me some good chemicals any day!

I am tagging Fuffy.

Motherhood Meme October 12, 2007

| October 13, 2007

 

I was tagged today by hairyshoefairy. Thanks,  Pumpkin!  Fun!

How long have you been a Mom?
28 years and a little bit more

2. How many children call you Mommy/Mom/Mama?:
Four who actually use the term “Mom”, plus one in-law kid (NYDD) who, after almost 5 years of marriage to HSF, still doesn’t know what to call me so he goes with Grandma.

3. Girl? Boy? or both?
boy (28), girl (25), boy (22), girl (15), who, BTW, is already being asked by numerous boys when she will be 16…oh dear.

4. Did you know what you were having?:
Not on the first three.  Ultrasound in the 70’s and 80’s was limited to diagnostic imaging and wasn’t done routinely.  Teeny came along enough later that we got to have an ultrasound with her, but only because I was so dang old (36).  We could tell she was a girl and it was fun to know ahead of time.

5. How old were you when you became a Mom?
22, 25, 29, 36

6. How long were you in labor?
13 hours the first time, 6 hours the second time, and 5 hours on the 3rd and 4th times

Apparently question #7 is missing. ?????

8. What was your least favorite thing about labor?
Every time it was the back labor that bugged me the most.  I had an epidural block with each delivery, and shouted Hallelujiah about that.  The freakiest thing was that with Teeny, the epidural didn’t work on one particular nerve bundle, so every contraction sent pain into my right pelvis and leg, but everything else was numb.  Go figure.  It was none fun and very strange.

9. Do you want more kids?:

NO!  But thanks for asking…  More grandbabies would be good though…(eventually)

10. Do you plan on having more soon?:
As I’m almost 51 years old and had a hysterectomy a few months ago, probably not.  And BTW, to any one who happens to read this, menopause is not a terrible thing!  Hip Hooray for middle age!

11. Does daddy change diapers?

Not currently, but he did way back when.  Happily, diaper changing isn’t occuring in our lives right now, but I imagine it will again someday.  Although they will probably be diapers of a different size and sort…hmmmm…Depends, anyone?

12. How many times have you been peed on?:
Too many.

13. Barfed on?:
Again, too  many.  Our oldet boy, Jazz, was born with a heart defect and barfing is part of the territory with that, so for the first few months he barfed every time he ate.  Not just plain old urping up, but projectile barfing.  The memories kind of make me shudder.

14. Is your child named after anyone?
Jazz’s first name is after his dad, and his middle name is after my dad.  HSF’s first name is after  a favorite babysitter from my childhood, and her middle name is after my mom.  Fuffy’s  first name is just one we both liked, and his middle name is after  Piano Man’s dad and my brother.  Teeny’s first name is after my grandma and her middle name is after me.  That was long, wasn’t it?

15. How did you come up with their name(s)?
See above

16. When your child(ren) gets in trouble, who is the bad guy?
Nobody gets in too much trouble anymore.  Did I mention I like being middle aged?  Piano Man and I were pretty equal about good cop/bad cop.

17. And who is the good guy?
See above.  I guess you could ask our kids.  They would probably remember better, but if they say I was the bad guy, they are wrong, Wrong, WRONG!!!

18. What is the longest you have been away from your child(ren)?
We were apart from Jeff for 2 years and I didn’t like it.  HSF and NYDD have lived away from us for over two years, but we get to see them every now and then and that makes it easier, but I’m still somewhat cranky about it.  We’ve been away from Jazz and Teeny for about 2 1/2 weeks I think.

19. Kids bedtime routine?
When the kids were young we usually tried to read a story or two and sing a couple of songs before bedtime.  My repertoire of lullabies was limited to 3 or 4 that were somewhat gruesome and frightful and could have been based on “Grimm’s Fairy Tales”.  Mostly I sang Primary songs.  Teeny loved to have me sing “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief” to her night after night, all 7 verses.  I knew she was just trying to buy more time, but I love that song, so I didn’t mind.  I think I sang to her at bedtime until she was about 11 or 12.  Now I don’t know what their bedtime routines are, because I’m old and tired and I go to bed before everyone else!

20. Are your toes painted?
Yes, but the paint is chippy.  They need to be redone, but oh well.

21. Last movie you saw in the theater?
Hairspray, which I thought was hilarious.  Watching stiff old what’s-his-name (Tracy’s dad) singing and dancing was a riot.  Oh yeah, Christopher Walken.  So funny.

22. Last time you had a date?
A week ago.  We go out almost every weekend with friends in the neighborhood.  Last week we went to dinner at Iggy’s, then went and relaxed in their hot tub.  Nice.

23. One thing you will not give up just because you are a mom?
It’s been so long I can’t remember.  I know I kept sewing and crafting and cooking (for fun) when my kids were young, so I guess I’d say those things.

24. One thing you did give up now that you’re a mom?
It seems like I recall thinking that I had given up my own identity for a number of years.  I was somebody’s mom or somebody’s wife and sometimes I couldn’t remember who I was or what I enjoyed doing.  I also gave up sleeping late in the mornings once my kids got into school, and now I’ve become a morning person!  Yuck!

25. Best Mom you know?
My mom was a great mom, and I plan to tell her that when I see her again.  She died 18 years ago.   I know I told her when she was alive, but I’m sure I didn’t tell her often enough.  I hope she knows.  Another great mom is my daughter, HSF.  She is darling with Peanut and I love seeing her being a mom.  It’s very rewarding to see your kids love doing the same things you love, like parenting.  I get to be a kindergarten teacher, so I see many really good moms every day.   Hooray for the moms of the world!

I’m not tagging anyone, because HSF already tagged all the moms I know.

Conference Weekend October 7, 2007

I LOVE conference weekend! Everything about it just gives me a new lease on life. The weather here was perfect conference weather. It was cold and rainy/snowy yesterday, then cleared up today for chilliness and clear skies and amazing scenery! I’m hoping to get a couple of pictures posted, but I’ll have to see if I can get one of my kids to do it for me.

I loved all the speakers, but the talk that really “spoke” to me was President Eyering’s talk about gratitude. I’m going to start a gratitude journal. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but that talk gave me some extra incentive. I loved it.

For many years I have considered conference weekend to be my weekend off. Since I’m “required” to sit around and watch TV for 8 hours, I find things to do that I don’t normally get done. Not housework, mind you. Fun stuff. Yesterday I finished a wall quilt I’m sending to HSF, then made another one for Halloween. I used my new walking foot for the first time and it worked great for the straight machine quilting. So fun! I also got a skirt for myself cut out, but not put together yet. Maybe this week.

Many years ago, my girls and I established the tradition of going to the Bluebird, which is an old, old soda fountain, for ice cream while the men in the family go to Priesthood Session, so Teeny and I did that last night. We were sad HSF and Peanut weren’t there. Maybe next year!

Today was baking/cooking/creating fun food day. Here’s a picture of today’s disaster. It’s a recipe I cut out of the newspaper a few days ago. It’s called Raspberry-Orange Braid, and it was very yummy. It just looks…well…odd. You know, I’m 50 years old and I’ve been baking and cooking for a very long time, so you’d think I’d know better, but oh well. The recipe called for 7 cups of flour, and it made a huge pile of dough, but it said to make it all into one braid and put it on one cookie sheet, so I did, even though my brain was screaming, “Stop! This cannot possibly work!” Turns out my old brain was right. It couldn’t possibly work. So after I cleaned the oven and tossed a few inches of dough into the garbage, it was OK. When I copied the recipe onto notebook paper, I cut all the ingredients in half and made a note to make it into 2 braids or 2 dozen rolls. Should work better.

Fuffy made hot apple/cranberry spiced cider, which was very good, but a little too cranberry-ish. Still very yummy and warm, though.

For dinner we had my FAVORITE: Beef Stroganoff. I usually let the beef braise in a large skillet, but I decided to try using my knock-off Le Crueset dutch oven. What a great idea! I accidentally made the meat/onion/broth mixture extra rich because the lid fit the pan really tight, so it just kind of caramelized. Mmm-mmm-mmm! Happy day!

Oh, and speaking of things that are caramelized, maybe I should quit typing and go upstairs and make some microwave caramels…oh, yippee!