Many Years Ago...

Not only was today Thanksgiving and my brother Adam's birthday, it is also Brandon and my 12 year anniversary. I love him more than ever. If I were at home I would upload pictures of his handsome face. But I am in Arizona, enjoying the company of my four sisters and three of my brothers, my brother-in-law, my two sisters-in-law, my parents, my seven nephews and my three neices. I also got to see Grandma, a bunch of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. tonight. What a fantastic day:)

New Words

Elora has taken to calling me "mommy" this week instead of "momma", it seems so grown up and SO cute.



Jonah (seen here with "stegosaurus" hair) has started saying "remember" today. For example, earlier today he shows me a picture from when we went to the dinosaur museum and says, "Mom, Jonah see dinosaur bones. Rememmer?" I love it.

Girls' Nights

Last night was Culinary Club. Rebecca taught us two vegetarian main dishes. One of them I make fairly regularly already and the other one was a quinoa dish that I'm excited to try on my own.
Wednesday night I went down to Salt Lake because my high school friend Sara Jane is in town, selling her watch bracelets at a botique and staying with Jen. Jen and I made chicken enchilladas and then we ate with Sara and Jen's brother Devin as well. It was tons of fun. Then the girl's went out for dessert and did a little late night shopping.
My double girls' nights made me realize that I took pictures at my girls' night out a couple weeks ago but hadn't posted them.
The first weekend in November I went and saw the top 10 (+2) Season 5 So You Think You Can Dance Contestants on their nationwide tour stop in Utah. It was a blast.
We went out to dinner with about 12 ladies and then went to the show where we met up with two more. We couldn't get that many seats together though so here I am with my little bunch who got to sit on the floor.


Me, Debbie, Casey (Rena's daughter), and Rena. Super fun group!

Sunday

Elora kept her hat on all day. I was not the only one overwhelmed by her cuteness that day.

Heaven?

You can't tell from their expressions in the photos, but this is my kids' idea of heaven:




My little bit of heaven today? Brandon brought me home yellow roses for no reason. Yellow flowers are my favorites (followed closely by purple).

So You Think You Can Dance, Season 6

Current Celebrity Crushes:

Tyce Diorio, Choreographer


"Legacy" Perez, b-boy Dancer

Favorite dancer this season:

Russell (I also may have a small crush on him). My other favorite was Billy, who left due to medical problems. I think the guys are definitely the stronger dancers this season.

Probably my favorite routine of the season so far:

But I've pretty much LOVED all of Kathryn & Legacy's routines.

Best Looking Contestant Overall:

Ellenore

But rather than give you a full rundown of my thoughts on each of the top 20, I think I'll wait until it's down to the top 10. Just watch!

"Some Say It Is So"

I'm not one to toot my own horn, well, not too much at least. But Lisa must have spent hours writing this, so go check it out. It's almost like going to my funeral.

Thankful

Tis the season.
I am so grateful that my kids are healthy and happy today. I know it may sound silly but I attribute my good health in part to the fact that I thank God for it everyday and have for as long as I can remember. It is truly a great blessing.

Jonah's sentences are getting better and better. He is saying such cute stuff lately.

Elora says 'outside' (or something that is supposed to be that) a lot these days. Thankfully it's been nice enough to still spend some time outdoors every day.

Puke-y

Friday after a fun day of riding ponies and looking at dinosaur bones at Thanksgiving Point, Elora got some sort of stomach flu. Just before dinner she threw up. She barfed over and over until there was nothing left in her tiny, little belly. She slept fine and then acted starving in the morning. I just gave her water at first, then a little apple juice, but she kept begging for our sausage (we had Alan & Linda over for pumpkin clove pancakes) so we finally gave her a piece. About an hour later she threw everything up again. She was on liquids-only until dinnertime when she had a little bread, whipped cream, etc. and slept fine again that night and seemed perfect Sunday morning.
Unfortunately, Sunday evening at dinnertime, Jonah started acting crazy. He was making weird noises and acting wild. We were pretty sure he was freaking out about feeling like he was going to puke. We asked him if his tummy hurt but he said no. But he did say he was sick. He finally threw up about a half an hour later. He threw up about five more times before going to bed at 7:00. This is when the real ordeal began. From 7pm until 3am Jonah woke up every thirty minutes to throw up. It was horrible. We were up at the cabin and slept in the same room as he did (except for Elora who slept like an angel in another room all night) so we could take care of him. None of us got more than a couple hours of sleep. He woke up at 5:45 ready to start the day. He kept telling us "I tired" all morning but we couldn't get him to nap until 11. He slept for four hours. Brandon, Elora, and I slept for a good portion of that time too. It was possibly the longest/hardest night of my life.
He managed a few bites of breakfast today (though he kept asking for more), a snack, and a decent dinner. It seems to have been a 24-hour milder bug for Elora and a violent 12-hour bug for Joe. Poor kids. Sadly, the grandparents picked up the virus while they were with us at the cabin. So far, Brandon and I are feeling fine. Let's hope it stays that way.
Going to bed early tonight.

BFFs

I know I already did a post recently about friends, but I have to do another. That one was about my three best friends in Heber. Since then I had to teach a lesson in Relief Society about friendship. When I asked what makes a good friend to the class, one woman replied with something like, "People who share common values. My very closest friends are all LDS because the thing dearest to us, the gospel, is the same." That is a lovely sentiment, but it certainly doesn't hold true for me.
When I taught my class I brought a bunch of pictures. Each one was of me with one of my closest friends (something I will not do again because as much fun as it was and nice as is was to have a visual for once it made me incredibly self-conscious even though obviously I only brought flattering pictures of myself). There were multiples of a few friends. I brought a framed picture of Jen and I and a framed picture of Lisa and I. I met Lisa in sixth grade and I met Jen in eighth. If someone were to ask me the childhood question of "Who is your best friend?", I would have to say, "Lisa and Jen."
Lisa started a blog this week. I am very excited. She is a great writer, funny and articulate. She is opinionated, intelligent, and sassy. Her profile is an alliteration. Our opinions overlap in some places but we have a lot of differing opinions. Lisa has been living with her darling boyfriend, Matt, for three years. Her first blog was contemplating why people bother getting married. I know that most of my readers feel very strongly about marriage, as do I, so I'm guessing she won't get many followers from this blog.
Nonetheless, differing opinions certainly have never kept us from being close, close friends. Lisa and I haven't lived in the same state since the beginning of eighth grade. She was a loyal pen pal all thru Jr. High and High School. Our first year in college we flew back and forth between Utah and California to visit each other like four times. I think as adults we have talked on the phone pretty much every week for the past 13 years (except for 5 months when we weren't speaking at all).
We get in regular heated debates. We never shy away from discussing religion (she is a devout Christian who does not attend any services) and politics (she is a liberal democrat, I vote both parties and liberally on certain issues and conservatively on others), or even The Great Pumpkin. I love hearing her point of view.
Now obviously she isn't perfect, I mean, she doesn't like old movies or Christmas music and she's perpetually tardy, but other than that she's pretty great. She likes even less romantic comedies than I do but she does have a great sense of humor. She's turned me on to a lot of great stand-up comedians and we love sharing book recommendations as we are both big readers.
The best thing about Lisa is that she listens, really listens. She knows all about each and every member of my family. She knows all about my kids, my cat, my husband, and me.
When I talked about Jen and Lisa in Relief Society I mentioned that I call them for different reasons when I'm annoyed with my husband. I call Jen for sympathy. "He's such a jerk!", she'll tell me when he's frustrating me. I call Lisa for reason, "Well, he's probably doing that because..." Lisa and Brandon are alike in lots of ways and she can always see things from his point of view. It also helps that she began her education in psychology and has experience as a counselor.
Did I mention that Lisa rocks? Oh yea, she rocks. Lisa was born in Long Island, New York but moved to California early in elementary school. I met her there while my family lived in CA for 2.5 years. Lisa was the smartest girl in the grade and also an "early bloomer", so despite her braces and frizzy hair, she still got attention from the boys. Lisa comes from a very religious family and I loved praying with them. Her house was so weird because her only sibling is 13 years her senior so she was the only one living at home, whereas I had six siblings at my house.
Lisa finished college and went on to get her teaching certificate. She was a very dedicated and talented elementary teacher. She had always longed to go back to New York and when she found a Master's program that paid your tuition if you taught in a special education program at an at-risk school for the NYC school district she applied and was accepted. She left her mother, who she talks to everyday, and all her friends in California and packed up and moved across the country where she only knew relatives. It took a lot of guts and I was really proud.
She struggled with the bureaucracies of teaching and coupled with stress, poor money management, few friends, and health problems, had to make major life changes again a couple years later. She changed careers and went into medical sales and began eating healthier, relying on more holistic health regimes, and started exercising a bit obsessively. When she turned 30 last year, she was out of debt, in the best shape of her life, off of most of her medications, and had a 20% down payment saved for a house. She is now the mommy of an adorable labrador retriever and a home owner. She is supporting her boyfriend's choice to leave his career as a chef and open his own pizzeria.
Lisa, I love you.

"Trick-or-Treat, please" - Jonah

Halloween night.
Too exhaused to upload the rest of the pictures and write clever captions, but I did take about 30 pictures of Elora that day. More to come when I get around to it...