Little Gym was fun today. Rees practiced walking on the balance beam and doing pullovers on the bar. Michelle is a great teacher. She actually reminds me a lot of Cashell. Rees was very proud of his “ultrasaurus” stamp all day.
Add comment January 31st, 2007
A few weeks ago in a YW presidency meeting, Maryanne (P) noted how disgusting our ward hymnbooks are. I had never thought about that before. So we set up a service project for the girls to clean them up. Our mutual activity tonight was to wash the hymnbook covers, and repair torn and broken books. The dirty wash water was so disgusting - I can’t believe how filthy those books were!
Add comment January 30th, 2007
I left for church early (with baby Jamie) for a meeting with the Young Women class presidency. I planned to take the Jimmy, but couldn’t get it to start - the battery was completely dead, so I took the Mazda instead. Bryan and Rees met us there. As long as Rees has a runny nose, he doesn’t go to nursery. Today he stayed with Bryan and the young men, and then I took him and Jamie home during Sunday school for lunch and naps.
During naps, I made some progress on my current quilt project. I started out with the “Dancing Stars” pattern from Open Gate several months ago. I chose similar pinks and browns for my quilt. My blocks were done, and almost completely assembled into the quilt top, when I decided to change it (what’s new?). I wanted a less busy, more traditional-looking quilt that incorporated a good amount of muslin. I toyed with some different ideas using the same fabrics, but I ended up deciding to use the same pattern, using muslin in place of a lot of the pink. This allows the stars to really look like stars. This also means that I don’t have to undo the individual blocks I made, just the block assembly.
For the past few days, I have been unpicking. Today I was able to finish unpicking the quilt top down to the blocks, and separate them out. With my new design, I have enough pink blocks to do three quilts. I then cut all the muslin squares I need for one quilt top. Now I need to work on adding brown corner points to my muslin blocks.
After naps, we went out to jump-start the Jimmy, but couldn’t get it to work. We hooked up the battery charger and moved all the seats to the Mazda. Then we went to Bryan’s parents’ house for dinner, where we had very good chicken cacciatore. We hadn’t really had a nice visit there since around Christmas. Rees had a lot of fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa.
When we got home, the Jimmy battery showed a full charge, and started right up. Not sure what drained the battery in the first place…
Add comment January 28th, 2007
Bryan made his signature Basil Scrambled Eggs with Bacon for breakfast. He also baked the last of our white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie dough. Yummy. He and Rees then went to Costco to pick up some necessities (including a giant block of Tillamook, a la Kip Dynamite). Rees brought me back a big, beautiful bouquet. Then we went to visit Jeff, Cashell, Liam, Kegan, and Quinn, to deliver a very late Christmas present. We hope they will enjoy it. Liam and Quinn were sleeping, but we visited with Kegan. He is getting so big, and will be walking on his own soon. All three of their boys have the cutest curly blonde hair.
We picked up lunch at Arctic Circle, and then Jamie went down for a nap. Rees and I went to see Liz, Lorin, and Emily the Bunny to deliver our final late Christmas present. Emily enjoyed the chewable toy baseballs that Rees picked out for her. I told Liz and Lorin that had the store carried bunny baseball caps (as depicted on the toy ball packaging), Emily would have gotten one. Rees and Lorin played with Liz’s Nightmare Before Christmas nesting dolls for a long time. Rees is also a big fan of their IKEA rug that invites driving with a toy car.
For the rest of the afternoon, I worked for Verio. We had planned to stain and finish my new quilting machine, but we didn’t. 
Maybe next weekend. After the boys went to bed, we watched A Prairie Home Companion. It was very mellow and low-key. I liked it; I think it helped that I was in a mellow mood. Bryan did not like it very much. He said that he kept waiting for it to go somewhere, but it never did.
It did have some nice one-liners:
“Just 30 minutes ago, he was exchanging gases with the atmosphere!”
“We come from people who brought us up to believe that life is a struggle, and if you should feel really happy, be patient: this will pass.”
“This song is brought to you by The Federation of Associated Organizations: somewhere out there, there’s an organization for you.”
Add comment January 27th, 2007
This morning we went down to Kristin’s house to play with Parker and Hannah. Parker and Rees had fun, but their age difference is still pretty clear. I think Parker gets frustrated that Rees doesn’t do a lot of interactive play with him. Rees is just learning how to play with other kids - not just near other kids. 
Rees was so excited about all the new toys that he was kind of in his own world. Becky was also there with Violet, and Ashley brought Olivia. We headed home at around 12:30 for the boys’ naps.
While Rees was eating lunch, I got started on a pot roast. We recently went in with Bryan’s parents and grandma on a beef cow in Cedaredge. Needless to say, our small chest freezer is packed with assorted cuts of beef (and we don’t even have all of our share yet). Earlier this week, Bryan got out a chuck and requested that I try to make a pot roast. It’s been in the fridge since then. I have tried pot roasts before in the crock-pot, with varying levels of success.
I got a cookbook a while back called American Classics. I think it is similar to the America’s Test Kitchen series. It has recipes for all the standard “American” dishes, with exhausting detail about the different variations they tried and the testers’ reactions to the variations. It also includes some scientific information about why one method or ingredient works better than another. There are also interesting product reviews, with the goal of telling you the best waffle iron, bacon, food mill, mayonnaise, etc.
I had looked at the pot roast recipe in this book several times, when my mom was trying to figure out the best recipe. I had never tried making an oven pot-roast myself. I followed the recipe in the book almost exactly. I didn’t have celery, which the recipe called for, so that was omitted. The recipe calls for a little sugar, but doesn’t specify which type, so I used brown. I used dried ground thyme (the recipe called for a fresh sprig).
The roast wasn’t completely thawed, so I guessed it would take about four hours. The book explains that in order for a roast to tenderize, it must reach at least 210 degrees, and hold that temperature for at least one hour. Near the end of the cooking time, I baked rolls and made mashed potatoes (I like mashed better than chunks cooked with the roast). The recipe included instructions for a red wine sauce, which I didn’t make because I ran out of time. I will try that next time.
It turned out great! I am really proud of my first oven pot-roast. Totally yummy! Bryan thought it was really good, though he wasn’t sure if it was the superior beef or the excellent preparation.
Add comment January 26th, 2007
If I don’t write an event on my giant refrigerator calendar, I forget about it. Normally I am really good at writing things down, but I forgot to write down this multi-stake Young Women Presidency training meeting-slash-dinner taking place tonight. When I found out about the meeting, I knew I would need to come home from work right on time in order to make it to the 6:00 meeting. But I completely spaced it today. Bryan reminded me of it when I walked in the door, sometime after 7:00. I rushed to the Ivins building as quickly as I could. I had missed the dinner but made it just in time for the meeting. Unfortunately, Liz arrived at about the same time as I did. She had a better excuse though - her stepfather-in-law was taken to the emergency room.
The speaker was Sister Elaine Dalton of the Young Women General Presidency. She is very charming and engaging. I was expecting the meeting to include more practical advice and tips, but it ended up being sort of a “keep-up-the-good-work” pep-talk. A little condescending, frankly. But it was nice to hear her speak and know that she took the time to come visit us.
Add comment January 25th, 2007
We bailed on Little Gym today, due to Rees’s still-runny nose. Later in the morning, we took baby Jamie to his four-month doctor appointment. He’s close to average on length & weight, but his head is in the 97th percentile. That would explain why size “6-12 month” hats are getting tight on him. He got his second dose of the oral rotavirus innoculation, as well as three shots, which upset him quite a bit. The doc suggested I put hydrocortizone cream on the dry patches on his cheeks, along with some Aveeno lotion. He also prescribed Nystatin for the backs of his ears. He’s got some weird cradle-cap thing going on there that is pretty gross. I clean it as much as possible, but it just looks bad.
Rees was really good during the appointment, just sitting in a chair and reading books the whole time. Doctor P’s assistant, Judy, offered him some stickers for being so good. I am not sure what the choices were, but he came back with two big, glittery “My Little Pony” stickers on his shirt.
Add comment January 24th, 2007
Today was a catch-up day. I did some shopping & housekeeping. I also planted my new hostas. I made quite a mess in the kitchen (potting soil).
Tonight I started the book my dad gave me for Christmas - What Is The What. It’s written by the author of my favorite book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I’m only a few chapters in, but so far I’m enjoying it.
Add comment January 23rd, 2007
Today was a work day for me. While in Orem, I traded cars with my dad. We have had his Acura for a while, due to a knee injury he suffered in August. He had to have some surgery and was unable to drive the Acura, since it’s a manual transmission. So he borrowed my grandma’s (his mom’s) car, which is an automatic. He decided now that he is fine to drive his Acura again, so we traded him for my grandma’s GMC Jimmy. It will need to go back to my grandma in March (or before), so we won’t have it for too long.
This whole car-borrowing thing is just delaying the inevitable - fixing the Commando up and getting it registered.
Add comment January 22nd, 2007
We heard Rees coughing quite a bit last night, and he was still pretty snotty this morning. However, we still enjoyed our standard Sunday breakfast (Bryan’s excellent sourdough pancakes). I had a YW Presidency meeting at 10, so I went off to the church while Bryan stayed with the boys, prepared his YM lesson, and got ready for church. It was an awesome day to walk. Snow had fallen overnight. The sun was out, and was warming everything just enough to melt a little.
I got home with just enough time for Bryan to get back to the church. The walk was so nice that I decided to shovel the walks. Rees was still in his jammies and wanted to keep watching his current favorite movie, and baby Jamie was taking his morning nap. I went out and shoveled our walk as well as Diane’s. I knew that this temporary warm wouldn’t last, so I wanted to get the walks cleared so they could dry out. I also got a good portion of our driveway done. Great exercise.
The rest of the day was mellow - Bryan did some work, I relaxed and did some housework too. Oh, and I stayed in my jammies all day again. Rees watched one of his favorite shows, Deal or No Deal, in the evening. That show is pretty irritating, but Rees can’t get enough of the numbers and phrases. “Open the case!”
Add comment January 21st, 2007
