The Stoner Buzz

The Exciting and The Terrifying

2010-06-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

Public toilets are always a mildly scary thing for me. Germs, smells, potential lack of necessary equipment, etc. Japan has taken my feelings about public toilets to a whole new level. From the bizarre, to the "wow, this is awesome", to the "I pray I never have to use that ever in my life".

Somehow, I have managed to avoid using the infamous "squatty potty"... it terrifies me.
The thing I find strange is that a lot of Japanese seem to prefer this, I'm sure it is what they are used to, but I've had to have Rylan and Beckam use these, and they are way dirtier and smellier. Any guess why? I'm not even sure how I would manage this without stripping everything off.

Here is fairly typical "Western-style" toilet. (heaven bless the person who introduced Western-style to Japan!) None of the buttons on the handle are for flushing. Good luck figuring out what they are for :)

Directions on how to use a Western style toilet...no standing on it, or sitting backward

Directions on how to use all the buttons on the handle

Here is a close up of some of the options you might have while using one of the high-tech toilets. Two different sprays for different areas, increase or decrease the water pressure, you can have the toilet make a flushing sound, you can also increase or decrease the volume on the flushing sound, "powerful deodorizer", clean the nozzle's of the sprayers, and my personal favorite the heated seat option. We stayed in a cabin last weekend, it was freezing, and I said a little prayer of gratitude every time I sat down on the toilet. Ingenious. I will be bringing one home.

There are even more high-tech toilets out there that I have yet to encounter. I think some greet you, some automatically lift and lower the lid. My friend's toilet has a sink above the tank so the clean water you use to wash your hands get's recycled to flush the toilet! How very green of them :)
Even though we don't really feel like tourists anymore, the simplest of activities are still mini-adventures :)

Surprise...We're Alive!!!

2010-05-18T00:08:00.000-07:00

I think it is rather appropriate that after a 6 month or so hiatus, my first blog back is about food. My life revolves around it. With so much that has happened to us and for us since we've moved to Japan the thought of blogging has been overwhelming, so I figured I would start small.

Is ice cream universally delicious??? Most treats in Japan have been...well, different. Does red bean curd sound tempting? It's not bad, (unless you expect it to be chocolate, since they are the same color, and bite into a treat expecting chocolately goodness, only to have the bland taste of red bean curd, then it's disgusting) but that's it for me, sweets have typically been "not bad". (that does exclude chocolate, their chocolate is yummy) Then we tried their ice cream. Delish. And not just delicious, but their ice cream is in line with many things Japanese, innovative.

What's the best part about an ice cream cone? The end of the cone, the part, the last bite where the cone is soft and full of creamy ice cream. Now imagine a product that is entirely the end of the cone...yes, not only is it possible, but it's here and readily available:

Not only is is delicious, but it avoids the typically huge mess we have when our boys eat ice cream. Who could ask for anything more?

Also, for anyone who is crazy enough to hate cones, they have an awesome way of delivering that option as well:

It's like a single serving of soft-serve ice cream. Just pop the top off and squeeze it right into your mouth...

Both options are in grocery stores or vending machines all over Japan! (are they not ingenious???) There are many things I often wonder why we haven't adopted them in the US and vice versa. We have been enjoying our adventure in this exotic country, hopefully I'll be better about sharing those adventures from now on...we'll see :)

My Twins

2009-11-04T14:36:00.000-08:00

The boys just turned four! Time has flown, and we've loved every minute. The other night I said "Goodnight Boys" when I was putting Canon to sleep and teared up a little that my twins were no longer babies. It's been so fun to watch them grow up. They are a lot alike but definitely individuals with their own personalities.

Rylan: Baby "B". Mr. Rambunctious. He is a mover and shaker, always has been, even in the womb Rylan was constantly moving. He is fun-loving, hates being the center of attention, but loves to be around people. He never walks normally, he's either skipping, shuffling, jumping, zig-zagging, running or walking on his tip-toes (I'm serious). Loves Lightening McQueen, the color red, apples and bananas (he thanks Heavenly Father every night for apples and bananas :).

Beckam: Baby "A". He is Mr. Outgoing. He doesn't seem to care what others think. He's not a follower, he will do his own thing if he isn't into what his friends are doing. He enjoys his alone time. When he sings it sounds more like Mike Myers poetry from "So I Married an axe Murderer" (listening to him is one of my all-time favorite things). He loves Batman, the color blue, and cold cereal. Today he came up and hugged me, then told me quietly that he wants to live with me forever. I almost died. :)

They are both awesome big brothers, and Canon lights up when they are around. Life is so much fun with these two. Happy Birthday to my twins, I love you!

6 Months

2009-09-27T16:32:00.001-07:00

All right, so he'll be 7 months next week, at least we took his 6 month pictures when he was still technically 6 months! Is there anything as wonderful as a naked baby?

I love my little man!

Lost in Translation - Food

2009-09-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

There is way too much to post on Japan. Why have I taken so long? Now it's overwhelming, so I will just do little bits at a time. It has been awesome, we have seriously loved our time here! I'm still trying to adjust to living in a foreign country versus visiting a foreign country. There is so much we want to see and do, and it's hard to stay at home and try to live a normal, stable life!

One of the best things we've experienced has been the food. Sushi. Tempura. Sashimi. Super fresh and high quality (even when it's relatively inexpensive). Not to mention the tons of delicious food we eat, but don't really know what it is. Plus the other Asian food here is awesome! But good food has only been part of our culinary experience here. There have been many surprises both good and bad!

Robert eating from a Bento box

Dinner at a work party. Sashimi, white beet, tons of tempura, whole fish (Robert ate the eyes! ) It was all amazing, except the shellfish, we don't really know what it was and it was a combination of slimy, overly chewy and sandy...

Some restaurants have you take your shoes off and put them in a cubby and wear their slippers (they were WAY too small for us!)

The snack food has been fun to try. Many have "english" names, and some just make me realize how immature I actually am!
The name says it all with this one, it tastes like sweaty grapefruit juice!!! YUCK! Of course it didn't help that we tried it at room temperature.

We tried this because we thought the name was funny. So far it has been our favorite, it tastes like orange creamsicles

They have about every flavor of KitKat you can imagine, here is mango, it was all right

Again with the funny names, this is just like a Crunch bar

Of course the seafood markets are awesome here. I was especially impressed with Costco's seafood section, you can get whole octopus, eel, sea urchin, and countless other things

This is the sea urchin.

The vending machines here will be the topic of another post, but I have to add that at some restaurants you order from a vending machine, it spits out a ticket and you hand it to your waiter, pretty cool! It's very nice for us because there are usually pictures so we have a better idea what we are ordering :)

It has been an awesome adventure, we are trying to enjoy every minute of it!

Modern Medicine

2009-09-08T23:22:00.000-07:00

It seems as flu season nears the media won't stop talking about Swine Flu. Wash your hands people, and STAY HOME if you have symptoms! Anyway, Robert read this book called "A Short History of Nearly Everything", and in it there is some info of the "Great Swine Flu", also known as the "Great Spanish Flu". He read an exerpt for me that really puts everything into perspective. I will share some of it. The Great Swine Flu killed about 21 million people in its first 4 months!!! About 80% of American casualties in WWI, came from the flu. Yes, very shocking, but here is the exerpt that made me feel so blessed to live in these times:

"In an attempt to devise a vaccine, medical authorities conducted tests on volunteers at a military prison...The prisoners were promised pardons if they survived a battery of tests. These tests were rigorous to say the least. First the subjects were injected with the infected lung tissue taken from the dead and then sprayed in the eyes, nose, and mouth with infectious aerosols. If they still failed to succumb, they had their throats swabbed with discharges taken from the sick and dying. If all else failed, they were required to sit open-mouthed while a gravely ill victim was helped to cough into their faces."

ewwww. Those poor prisoners! How disgusting! What is ridiculous is that NONE of them got the flu! The only one who got sick was the ward doctor, who then died! The author, Bill Bryson, goes on to say that the explanation is that the epidemic had passed through the prison just a few weeks earlier, and all the volunteers had survived that, and probably had a natural immunity.

Aren't all of us happy to be alive today? And, of course, happy to not be prisoners willing to go through anything to get pardoned :)

Rylan's Latest Talent

2009-09-04T05:17:00.000-07:00

I think we may have a future Olympic figure skater on our hands...

Can you believe how fast he is spinning?

Sweet Sorrow

2009-08-28T07:03:00.000-07:00

I had to say goodbye to some old friends today...our dining room chairs. They were sentimental to me as they were my first makeover project. We got them for free 6 years ago. I remember it well. They were an oak stain with teal and mauve paisley for the fabric cover. (why didn't I take a picture???) If the little old lady could have foreseen what I was going to do to her chairs I'm not sure she would have given them to me. I learned a lot from refinishing those chairs, (like how unnecessary it is to strip furniture that you are just going to paint! it was so laborious and completely not worth the trouble!)I still love the black with the animal print, but there were only 5 chairs, and they were in desperate need of being re-upholstered and repainted. Goodbye dear chairs, you've served me well, hopefully your next owners will love you like we have...

My Chunka Burnin' Love

2009-08-24T02:38:00.000-07:00

Mr. Canon

My Littlest Man is a thumb-sucker, and it is the absolute BEST THING EVER!!! He is a self soother, and over the last couple months that ability has been priceless (I know, I know, enough whining I promise!). He is a dream baby, I am absolutely in love. He'll be sixth months on Sept. 3rd, I can't believe it. I'm trying to enjoy every minute, but this time around it seems like time is flying faster than with the twins.

Look at that face, whenever I see his smile I forget he ever cries or fusses, all the bad just melts away! He seriously makes my heart sing!

Part Three - Crossing the Pacific

2009-08-16T20:39:00.001-07:00

Well I finally have a second to sit down and finish the story of our cross-global move. After five weeks of travel we finally got to the highly anticipated trans-pacific flight. Our flight was set to leave at 2:30 AM! We had to arrive at the airport at 11:30 PM! It was a military chartered flight, and if we weren't there at 11:30 they threatened to give our seats away to people on stand-by. (I was wondering who in their right mind would be on stand-by for a 2:30 am flight? someone without children I'm sure)

We had our awesome friends drop us off at the airport, and they stayed and helped juggle the children, who were all asleep, and the 12 pieces of luggage/carry-ons. Each of us had to stand on the luggage scale and be weighed. You've never known humiliation until you've had to stand on a large scale while 100 or so people look on. It was fun. The boys were freaking out, since they had just woken up, and did not want to stand on the scale, so I had to not only stand up and be weighed myself, but then had to continue standing there and hold each of the boys while they were weighed. Only in the military.

We walked around and fed the boys while we waited the 3 hours for our flight to leave. None of us were too excited about boarding another plane. But we did. And it was just our luck that Seattle's long runway was under construction so instead of flying directly to Japan, we flew up to Anchorage, Alaska first. It took about five or so hours to get up there. That leg went well, we mostly slept. Then we waited in Anchorage for two hours. We had to refuel, but that doesn't take two hours. After talking to the flight attendants, we figured out that the Air Force airport didn't open until 6am, so we had to wait two hours so the airport would be open for us to land. The question is: Why didn't we leave at 4:30 am instead? Again with the amazing forsight and planning!

Aside from the ridiculous two hour layover (where we didn't get off the plane, just sat there staring at each other in disbelief), the flight went well. After we landed though, we had to stay on board and fill out paperwork for customs. So annoying after being on the plane for 12 hours! Finally we got off the plane around 7am Japan time.

Robert's boss picked us up, and we drove another couple hours to the Naval base. We lived at the Navy Lodge, the hotel on base, for about 4 weeks. It got old. We finally moved into our apartment on base two weeks ago. We've already painted, put in more comfortable flooring, and changed light fixtures. (I refuse to live like a college student anymore!)

After two+ months of living out of suitcases, it feels so good to have our home again! The boys were ecstatic about getting their toys again. (Beckam asked me, literally every day, if his toys were on their way to Japan) the best part is having our beds back, and having Canon sleep in his own room!

Japan has been amazing, we love the culture, love the people, I will be posting more on Japan soon!

Part Two - The Reprieve

2009-07-22T22:39:00.000-07:00

Thank-you for your sympathy, it was well-deserved!!! Fortunately Part Two of our journey, wasn't nearly as horrifying as Part One.

In less than four weeks we flew from Virginia to Seattle, then drove from Seattle to Colfax, Colfax to Spokane, Spokane to Vancouver, Vancouver to Olympia/Seattle, then flew from Seattle to Japan! Whew, it was a whirlwind of craziness, crankiness, mixed in with some fun. Travelling with 3 kids 3 years and younger was, well, challenging. Thankfully, (for us, not him) our friend Troy dislocated his ankle (yes, even the doctor was surprised by that one), rendering him incapable of driving. So he loaned us his Lexus SUV for the month, it was rough. :) I can't even imagine how expensive it would have been to rent a car! It was fun to have a pimpin' car to drive after selling our souls to the minivan underworld nine months earlier. :)

It was great to see everyone. We did manage to have a good time in between all the driving! We didn't do anything too outrageous or super exciting. We relaxed and visited everyone, which was enough after all the crazy travelling! My parents did have a nice surprise when we arrived, we got to help them set-up their above ground pool and re-landscape their front yard! We managed to finally bless Canon, I'm glad we waited to be around our families. We celebrated our 7th anniversary. We saw almost all of our family members, which is quite the feat. (Robert's family is quite large, it is nearly impossible to get everyone in the same place at the same time!)

Unfortunately Canon's sleep habits got worse and worse, and by the end I felt like I had a newborn again. (I can't imagine what his problem was!) It was wonderful to see everyone, although I must admit, I'm in NO rush to go through all of that again! It was exhausting!!! The nice thing was, by the end we were very ready to move to Japan :) I think next time we will stay in one place and make everyone come and see us, after all, the first leg of our trip was enough to last us a couple of years!

Summer fun in our old backyard! (they've made some improvements)

Aunt Susan with Canon, and Aunt Pam with cousin Tessa (just 7 wks younger than Canon, but a whole lot chubbier!)

Fun at Riverbend (Susan and Jesse's property) Perfect for getting energy out and s'mores roasting (to put energy back in)

Loved ones gathered for Canon's blessing, loved this day!

Canon with Aunt Jenni

Canon with Uncle Jared and Uncle David

Rockin' out with Rock Band

Beckam and Rylan getting thrown around by Jared and David (I'm glad to see that their uncles have as little concern for their safety as their father :)

Hiking in Vancouver

My parents with 4 out of 6 grandsons

All 6 boys together, smiling (mostly) and looking at the camera!

The Journey - Part One, The Nightmare

2009-07-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

I think I'm at the point where I can write about this and laugh. Our journey from Virginia to Japan was a long one. Thankfully there was a nice extended pit stop in Washington along the way. A little bit of info: the military doesn't do anything they don't have to, I can't possibly explain how frustrating this can be. Things just aren't effecient, and there are about a billion hoops to jump through to get anything done. This is especially true when it comes to moving.

We had four days of people packing up our house, Tuesday through Friday. One day of long-term storage, two days of regular shipment packing, and one day of express shipment packing. Each of these were done by a different company, which gives us three different companies to keep track of. On Thursday we no longer had a bed, so we moved into a hotel. And so began our 7-week (so far) odyssey of living out of suitcases.

We were supposed to fly out on Tuesday. Of course, the Navy did not purchase our tickets until Monday. Yes. Robert told them two months before when we wanted to fly out. Still they get the same rates no matter when they purchase tickets, so they weren't in any rush to buy them. Nevermind the inconvenience it is to the family flying out, what do they care, it's not like they are going to get fired, haha. (allright, maybe it is too soon, because I'm not laughing) Anyway, our flight was to leave Tuesday morning at 7 am.

We had someone in line to buy our van at 7pm Monday night, he had put a deposit down on Saturday, so we took it off the market and turned others away saying it had been sold. Can you guess what happened? He backed out at 6:30 pm. We were livid. (I think this was his way of trying to get us to come down in the price) We called the other people who had been interested in it, but no one was ready to buy it that night. Robert took our other car to the dealership to sell it to them, but in the process found out there was a hold on our titles at the DMV so we couldn't sell our cars. We had planned on selling both cars Monday night, and both fell through. We couldn't call the DMV because it was 9pm by that time. So we called United and had them change our flight to Wednesday instead.

We got things figured out with the DMV on Tuesday. We found a man wanting to buy Robert's car, but he was driving down from Williamsburg and wouldn't be there until 8pm. Of course he was late, and then he didn't have the cash. So he and his 5 family members drove around Virginia Beach trying to find a place where they could get the cash. Of course everything was closed so we were out of luck again. We had no takers on the van that day, so again neither car sold. So frustrating! Our awesome neighbors came to our rescue, they took on both cars to sell for us.

So we were set to fly out Wednesday morning at 6am. We got up at 3:30am, loaded up a taxi with all our stuff and us, and headed to the airport. We had a mountain of luggage, including the car seats, and the stroller had a big pile as well, and stood in line for about 30 minutes. We got to the front of the line and were told they only had a seat for Robert. The boys and I were set to fly out of Chicago at 6am, not Norfolk. The flight was full and they couldn't help us. We again, were livid. They were so rude to us as well, at one point the lady actually said "How do we know this wasn't your fault?" Right, because this is what we consider fun. They would not take any responsibility, "We are United Express, not United, it isn't our fault". After 30 minutes of arguing with them, they got us a flight out for the next morning at 6am. I cried. Too stressful for me, I was so upset.

So we loaded up a taxi again, and drove back to the hotel. (which United Express refused to pay for "Oh there will be no hotel", she was a witch) Anyway, Robert, Canon and I took a nap. We got a call from the witch, apologizing for the morning, and said she had found a flight for us that left that afternoon at 2pm if we wanted it. Plus she gave us vouchers for future flights. At least she recognized they were completely unreasonable.

We flew from Norfolk to DC, no problem, things went well. We had a 90 min. layover in DC. Then we boarded up in DC to fly to Seattle. As soon as everyone was on the plane they closed the door, and told us there was going to be a slight delay, due to a storm that was about 30 miles southwest of the airport. 1 1/2 hours later we finally started moving, Beckam exclaimed "WE'RE MOVING!!!" Everyone laughed. Then we sat there, we weren't even on the runway, for another 1 1/2 hours. The flight attendants passed out water, and the pilot got on saying "The storm is now too close and the airport is closed, no incoming or outgoing flights, so we have to wait for this to pass" The storm was crazy, lots of lightning and thunder, all around us. Finally, the storm passed and we had to wait for our turn to fly out. We were on the plane for 5 HOURS, before we even took off. We flew out around 11pm, the time we should have been landing in Seattle. What an absolute nightmare. The boys fell asleep once we got were in the air, of course they'd wake up and cry because they weren't comfortable. Robert sat with them, and I sat with Canon, trying to nurse him while sitting next to a middle-aged man who wasn't about to give me any space. Thankfully Beckam and Rylan did very well while we were waiting to take off. (thank-you Target for your dollar section, the boys had plenty of new things to look at and play with that I'd been collecting for a while)

After that we were really looking forward to our future flight to Japan. UGH, what an experience! Surprisingly we have no pictures to document this momentous occasion in our lives, so sad. So sorry for the LONG post.

Is that sushi crawling?

2009-07-13T05:57:00.000-07:00

We'll have to take pictures of the sushi here. Wow!

So, we're now in Japan and experiencing the culture to the fullest! We arrived July 2nd and went to a party for the Fourth on base. It was nice to be welcomed with something so familiar and yet so different. I've seen celebrations on base in the US before, but this was a much bigger deal.

We took a respite from the carnival chaos and had a seat in this nice restaurant. Can you see the kids in the Kimonos? Awesome!

Check out the view too.

Here's a better picture of the view from out on the terrace...

And where, pray tell, were we dining? The old faithful; Mickey D's. The Golden Arches. That's right, something as familiar as McDonalds can be that different. What a view huh? They even had little flavor boosts you could add to punch up your Sprite... Lemon, Melon or Grape. That came out at the same time as the drink!

Things are familiar but different enough to throw you off. You drive on the left side of the road, the right side of the car. That's pretty much the theme here. Familiar but different. Hey, at least you still get to drive!

We got Japanese cell phones for free! A stripped down crappy model? Oh no! This thing has a 5.0 Megapixel camera, and a TV antenae in it. We can watch TV in 3-D on our cell phones! They also have GPS and a mini-flashlight!! Free cell phones I am familiar with. The rest, not so much...

We finally got a car today and will be making trips to Ikea and Costco. More of the same familiar craziness? I hope so...

--- Post by Robert---

Size 10 Please...

2009-05-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

I know the economy is bad, but maybe everyone just has a few dollars to spare so I can have the object of my desire:

These beauties are the sandals Kyra Sedgwick wears in a Trop 50 commercial. I actually started drooling when I was watching the commercial, and it had NOTHING to do with the orange juice. I desperately hoped that maybe Tropicana would be frugal in the celebrity wardrobe department, and that maybe they would be in my price range. Turns out I was wrong. They are Martin Margiela sandals and cost $658.00. Not exactly what I was hoping to spend. Just a few hundred dollars off, ok about six hundred off. For $658 dollars I'd have to have these permanently attached to my feet, and sign a contract not to ever buy another pair of shoes in order for my husband to support me with this purchase. Unfortunately they don't look like they'd be comfortable for running, so that's out of the question. I've looked for a less expensive version, but can't find anything remotely as cool as these. But maybe if I put my hopes and dreams out there in the universe I will somehow find a way to get them!

Time Flies

2009-05-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

We had Canon's two month check-up yesterday. He is thriving at 13 lbs 9 oz, and 24 1/2 inches tall. He is half an inch taller than his brothers were at his age, 1/2 a lb lighter than Beck, and a full pound lighter than Ry! (no wonder I had to eat half a package of oreos every day to feed those two!!!) So he's skinnier, but he is absolutely adorable! Plus he sleeps way better than they did at his age (he's slept through the night almost every night for the last week and a half!).

He has found his fingers and loves to suck on his hand. He hates the pacifier, and gets livid if we attempt to give it to him. (i bought every single pacifier available, I actually like that he doesn't take a pacifier, but I think it would make our upcoming cross-global flight easier if he would take one...that is going to be one long day) He laughed for the first time on Monday! Of course he hasn't laughed since then, maybe when he gets over the fact that I allowed him to be shot in the leg 3 times yesterday. He took his shots like a champ though, he cried and then got over it and fell asleep. He is a wonderful baby, and has me completely smitten. I love his shy little smiles, how he coos loudly to get my attention and then gives me a grin, he is perfect!

Why I'll never think too highly of myself

2009-05-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

The other day I had the boys watch the movie Mulan when we were returning from North Carolina. We made a stop and when we got back in the car Beckam said “Mulan turned into a guy.” I kind of laughed (thinking great, why did I have them watch a movie about cross-dressing?), then I said “No she’s just pretending to be a guy.” Rylan said “Oh, are you pretending to be a guy?” “NO!” then he said “Are you pretending to be a girl?” "um, no, but thanks for that."

I love my boys, they are constantly entertaining!

Here they are buried at the Outer Banks, NC

The Pudge that won't Budge

2009-04-21T15:15:00.001-07:00

UGH. So for the past couple weeks I've been trying to get back into shape, well working on eventually getting back into shape. IT SUCKS!!! We go to the YMCA (they take baby's 6 weeks old AWESOME!!!), but Canon isn't exactly on a predictable schedule, so taking classes is hit and miss. Mostly I've been relying on the treadmill, or just running the loop around my neighborhood. so boring. I have a few songs on my Zune (just say no to ipods) that keep me going, but I am in desperate need of some additional musical motivation. So, I am taking a leaf from my sister's book, and asking everyone for ideas on music to exercise to! Please help me!!! Here are a few of my favorite workout songs:

"So What" by Pink

"Rooftops" by The Lost Prophets

"Hands Open" by Snow Patrol

"Pump It" by Black Eyed Peas

"Sugar, We're Going Down" by Fall Out Boy

I don't care what kind of music it is, I have all kinds on my workout playlist that I wouldn't normally listen to. Anything with a good beat that gets you moving!

And, because I can't resist, here are a couple of pictures of the reason I need help :) (he was worth it)

canon vs cannon (aka what's in the spelling of a name)

2009-04-13T11:17:00.001-07:00

All right, so when we were trying to decide what to name our latest addition I posted a name poll on Babycenter. All I wanted were votes, but Babycenter allows people to comment, and comment they did! (why are people so opinionated about what other people name their children, it's not like I was trying to name my baby Adolf or Osama) Anyway, we had many, many people "suggest" we spell his name Cannon instead of Canon. Which really surprised me, because the meanings behind canon are infinitely better than cannon. Since then, we've had a few others question the name etc. I thought that people knew that canon is more than just a brand of camera, but apparently not. So I'm putting it out there for all to know. I actually came up with the name when I was going through my Bible Dictionary. Here is the definition of canon in the regular dictionary:

1.an ecclesiastical rule or law enacted by a council or other competent authority and, in the Roman Catholic Church, approved by the pope.
2.the body of ecclesiastical law.
3.the body of rules, principles, or standards accepted as axiomatic and universally binding in a field of study or art: the neoclassical canon.
4.a fundamental principle or general rule: the canons of good behavior.
5.a standard; criterion: the canons of taste.
6.the books of the Bible recognized by any Christian church as genuine and inspired.
7.any officially recognized set of sacred books.
8.any comprehensive list of books within a field.

There are more, like a musical canon (i.e. Pachelbel canon in D), but I won't put all of them in.

So compare that to this cannon:

1.a mounted gun for firing heavy projectiles; a gun, howitzer, or mortar.

2.British Machinery. quill (def. 10).
3.Armor. a cylindrical or semicylindrical piece of plate armor for the upper arm or forearm; a vambrace or rerebrace.
4.Also called cannon bit, canon bit. a round bit for a horse. (what???)
5.the part of a bit that is in the horse's mouth. (double what???)
6.(on a bell) the metal loop by which a bell is hung.
7.Zoology.
a.cannon bone.
b.the part of the leg in which the cannon bone is situated.
8.British. a carom in billiards.
9.Underworld Slang. a pickpocket. (my favorite)

Why would anyone want me to name my sweet little boy after heavy projectiles, machinery, or the part of a bit that is in the horse's mouth? It's like choosing between good and evil. :)

(no offense to anyone who chose or chooses to spell their son's name cannon, it's just not for me) ;)

Here is my canon of cuteness, he's much more of a standard or criterion than pickpocket or artillery

Canon's Room

2009-04-07T13:12:00.001-07:00

You'd think he'd be happy that his room is complete, but it's just not cutting it for him! I can't seem to get a normal picture of him! So this will have to do. Isn't he the cutest little dinosaur you've ever seen? He's filling out, and gave me his first smile a week ago. I like being with him in the late evening when his "helpful" brothers are sleeping peacefully and I don't have to worry about them jumping on me, or getting into mischief!

The room is complete, and I finally remembered to take pictures of it while Canon was awake! I think this is my favorite room in our house, as it is the closest to what I had envisioned. Really the only thing I didn't get to do was paint it something besides off-white. I also wish we had a glider/rocker in it. I bring him into our room to nurse and then take him back to his crib when he's finished.

I didn't like any of the store-bought mobiles, so I decided to make one. I found a pinwheel mobile on Etsy that I really liked and decided to go ahead and try. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, and Canon seems to enjoy looking at it. :)

While Canon Was Eating...

2009-03-30T05:15:00.000-07:00

What I said: "Boys, you can play outside, but DON'T play in the water!"

What they did:

It might be hard to tell but Beckam (above) is soaking wet from the mud puddle he was playing in (when I found him he pretended to be confused as to how and why he was so dirty), and Rylan was emptying the water from our sand box using a cup, he was throwing the water in the air so it was raining down on him and on the side of our house...boys.
In other crazy boy news, we were driving in the car the other day when Rylan exclaimed "Oh she's SOOO pretty!" I asked who he was talking about and he said "The bulldozer!" I looked out the window and sure enough we were next to a construction site and there was a dirt-covered bulldozer in all her glory. I used to be so flattered when he told me I was pretty, now I know I might just look as good as a bulldozer. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Boys Room

2009-03-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

We are mostly eating, sleeping, and changing diapers these days, so I will spare you all the fine details and post some long overdue photos of Ry and Becks room.

Thanks to my SIL Tera and her vinyl plotter I was able to make the pennants with their names on them in vinyl

I love this picture of them with their arms around each other. They can be so loving to each other. The poem is called Two Little Boys and Robert's mother used to sing it to him when he was a child, and now he sings it to them.

Another Craigslist dresser I bought and repainted, I'm pretty happy with it. Rylan loves that it is red.

I made these in Photoshop, they are in the shadow boxes next to their dresser

All right, so I have to put at least one picture of Canon on here. His umbilical stump fell off (the boys called it his "leaf", it did look like a dried up leaf) so we gave him his first bath, and he loved it. I think he is a beautiful newborn! He is doing well, we had his 2nd week check up and he's gained a pound. We all adore him.

Canon Everett Stoner

2009-03-05T15:29:00.000-08:00

He's Here! We went in to the hospital on Tuesday, the 3rd, to be induced. My parents came on Sunday and since I was already over due by a few days, we decided to go ahead with an induction. It was wonderful. I didn't wait too long to get the epidural and spent most of the day enjoying time with my husband and napping. Around 7pm I felt a lot of pressure so the doctor came in and checked and I was ready to go. Two pushes later and our son was born at 7:06, weighing in at 8lbs 12oz, and 21 3/4 inches long. As with pregnancy, the delivery was so much better than with the twins! I was so sick last time, and this time, it was a breeze. We are home now, and adjusting to everything. Beck and Ry love their new brother, they are so excited about him, and were so excited to meet him and hold him in the hospital. I'm so in love, all over again, he is beautiful and so sweet.

2009-02-28T23:48:00.000-08:00

My baby ticker is counting up now??? Seriously? This is getting old...

An Update

2009-02-26T13:27:00.000-08:00

Some of you might be wondering whether or not I've had the baby, and to answer all of you enquiring minds: NO!!! I'm STILL pregnant, and SUPER happy about it (can you sense the sarcasm???) I still haven't had a real contraction, only the Braxton-Hicks variety. I went to the doctor today and found out I'm dilated to a 3 and 50% effaced. We scheduled an induction for next week, but I'm doing EVERYTHING I can to get the show on the road before that happens! Pregnancy is wonderful and all, but I'm ready to move on to the next phase of sleeplessness :)

Since this one isn't 50 questions long I'll play :)

2009-02-10T10:13:00.000-08:00

December 2007, here is a picture of us trying to get a good family picture for our Christmas card. It was our last Christmas in Seattle so we wanted the Seattle Skyline in the background. The boys had so much energy that day, it was hard to get them to sit still (it's so strange because our boys are usually so calm and patient :) ) I love their flannel shirts!

It's Photo Tag: here are the rules- 1. Choose the fourth folder you store your pictures in on your computer 2. Select the fourth picture in the folder 3. Explain the picture 4. Tag four people to do the same. I tag Jenn Tukuafu, Julie Nye, Eileen Bailey, Julia Ditto...

The Reason I haven't Posted House Pictures...

2009-02-05T15:22:00.000-08:00

We found out a few months ago that we would probably be moving from Virginia this summer. So all of our house stuff came to a halt! Not a grinding halt, we finished projects, but we didn't do anything exciting in the way of decor. So I've painted the boys room and the baby's room (no more hideous trains), but they are both off-white, not too exciting. I will still post pictures when I've finished decorating what I can, but they won't be what I had originally envisioned. Pretty disappointing! I was very upset when we found out, obviously we wouldn't have bought a house had we known we wouldn't live here all three years! But that is the way things are in the military, and we have learned our lesson. To make things worse they gave us two unappealing options, and we didn't feel good about either one. (both involved Robert leaving on a ship for many months) After a month or so of crying, fretting and praying, we found renters for our house and we finally got an offer we were excited about, and we will be eating this every day:

We have official orders to move to Yokosuka, Japan!!! It's about 45 minutes outside of Tokyo, and we are seriously excited about it! It's overwhelming to think of being overseas with a new baby and the twins, but we joined the Navy to have adventure, and what could be more of an adventure than moving to Japan? My biggest concern is where am I going to get clothes that are long enough for me over there???

Looking Back

2009-01-25T04:33:00.000-08:00

I wanted to put this in my last post, but I couldn't find it. I look so tired in it. Just looking at it makes me feel exhausted, my back ache, and my feet & legs swell! UGH!!! I was about 35 weeks with the twins in this picture. We should have taken a better angle so you can see how big I really was. This does give me a huge appreciation for my uterus; I can't believe how big it can get only to shrink down to nearly pre-pregnancy size.

34 Weeks

2009-01-20T05:17:00.000-08:00

All right, here it is, the belly shot. I cannot believe I have less than 6 weeks before he's born! I went to the doctor last Wednesday and found out I was measuring 3 weeks small, so she did an ultrasound to make sure he was still growing. Well he's thriving at an approximate 5 LBS!!! Insane. I'm a little nervous.

I've been keeping busy trying to FINALLY get Beckam and Rylan's room decorated as well as #3's. While I have been sanding, priming and painting the boys have kept busy doing this:

We sold a bunch of things on Craigslist and finally cleared out our garage. And it has been put to good use! The boys love riding their bikes, but it is too cold for me to want to go outside with them, so this has become our compromise. It's perfect.

Our first real vacation

2009-01-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry I'm so lame. Maybe it's the pregnancy that's made me lazy, but I wait WAY too long in between posts! (and can I just add that I had a mini panic attack when I saw how many days I have left before baby #3, I'm TOTALLY not ready!) Every time I blog i feel like I'm giving a report. So maybe a resolution of mine should be to post more frequently. We'll see. :)

I call it our first real vacation because Robert actually had to put in for vacation time, and work continued while he was away. Anyway, Christmas was great, Robert's parents came into town Christmas morning at 4 am! It was fun to have company since it would have been our first Christmas by ourselves. The boys got way too many gifts, especially since they would have been thrilled to just get what was in their stockings. Although I have no regrets since they have been spending hours upstairs in the playroom with their new toys! priceless.

The boys loved their spiderman costumes their cousins gave them

Here they are finally riding the bikes they had found a couples weeks earlier in our shed! (I told them they were Mommy and Daddy's bikes, which caused momentary confusion on Christmas)

Robert actually took a couple weeks off work for Christmas and New Years and we finally did some travelling! We went up to DC, again, and then to Philadelphia and New York City. Two three year old boys aren't the ideal travelling companions, I had to really lower my expectations of what wanted to do, since they have low attention spans, and absolutely NO interest in American History. So it was a whirlwind tour, but still worth it. New York was a bit of a bust because Robert and I caught some 24 hour flu and we were laid up in the hotel for the only day of good weather. The other full day we were there it was pouring rain, so we took the boys to see The Little Mermaid (the Lion King was not playing a matinee showing) on broadway, because everything else we wanted to do was outside. The boys loved riding the subway, but it totally freaked me out, since any psycho could push someone off the platform. I figure we need to get used to travelling with kids, otherwise we won't be able to see nearly as many places as we want to!

National Air and Space Museum, DC

Museum of Natural History, DC

An example of great photography...what's that in the background?

Oh! The Liberty Bell, why would we have wanted that in the picture?

Rylan pretending to be a tiger at the Philly zoo, it took us a while to convince him to walk like a human again

Inside soldiers barracks at Valley Forge, Beckam kept telling us "We need to get out of his house!"

Beck felt a lot more comfortable inside the empty soldiers barracks

At a train musuem in Amish Country, a highlight for two train obsessed boys

Beck twirling on the streets of New York, he seriously wouldn't stop, so we took a picture

While Beck was twirling Rylan was jumping over every crack in the sidewalk

Times Square, raining and pouring

On Liberty Island, with Ellis Island and Manhattan in the background

Posing with Lady Liberty

The boys haven't shared a bed since they were 3 months old, so it was fun to find them in different positions all the time, an hour after we took this they had switched positions and Rylan was sleeping in Beckams lap! They are wild sleepers, I hear them fall out of bed almost every night.

DC

2008-12-07T15:54:00.001-08:00

Well Robert and I went up to DC to go to the temple. We live about 31/2 hours away from the temple, and weren't able to find someone here to watch the boys. So we decided to make it a little overnight trip. We stayed with my friends parents' best friends. They agreed to let us stay and they would watch the boys while we went. Only, when we got to the temple we realized our recommends had expired! So embarassing!!! Our hosts/babysitters were very gracious, but I still felt so bad. Anyway, we made the most of it, and finally did some sightseeing. We only walked around a few hours, so we will be going back soon to see some more!

The boys rolling down the hill in front of the Lincoln Memorial

It's That Time!

2008-12-04T04:38:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to gather addresses for Christmas cards. So many people we know have moved, and we lost our old ward directory, so our list is looking rather sad. Please email me your address! jessicajostoner@hotmail.com

Thanks!!!

3 Years Old!

2008-11-03T07:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Rylan and Beckam!!! The last three years have flown by, and they have changed so much. They are as adorable as ever. They are best friends and can't stand to be apart for too long. They are always breaking out of quiet time and sneaking in to the other room to play together. I love when they sing songs together, sometimes they recite them like a poem, and they will take turns saying every other word. They love snakes, trains, cars, superheros, pirates, basically anything and everything. I remember feeling so incredibly blessed when we found out we were having twins, and I'm happy to say I am still overwhelmed with joy from my two little boys!

Beckam

Rylan

Weren't they adorable pirates on Halloween???

Curried Pumpkin Soup

2008-10-27T06:44:00.000-07:00

It is starting to feel like fall here(FINALLY!!!), and I can't get enough fall food. Here is one that I love, obviously if you don't love curry or pumpkin this is not the soup for you. It is pretty healthy, although it takes a little more time than I normally like. So make it earlier in the day and then warm it up for dinner. Serve it with some naan, it's so good!

1 lg sweet onion

1 T olive oil

1 T minced garlic

1 T minced fresh ginger

1 T curry powder

1/8 tsp ground red pepper

1/8 tsp ground cumin

2 (15 oz) cans unsweetened pumpkin

1 c water

1 (32 oz) container low sodium fat free chicken broth

1 (13.5 oz) lite coconut milk

2 T lime juice

2 1/2 tsp salt

Saute onion in hot oil in a dutch oven over med-high heat 8 minutes or until tender. Add garlic and next 4 ingredients; saute 1 minute. Add pumpkin, 1 cup water, and broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to med. Add coconut milk, lim juice, and salt, and simmer, stirring often, 25 minutes. remove from heat; cool. Process pumpkin mixture in batches, in a blender or food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. Return pumpkin mixture to dutch oven, and cook over med. heat until thoroughly heated. Garnish with sour cream.

Latest Makeover

2008-10-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

I love making things more beautiful. We got this dresser before we moved on Craigslist for $40, the lines of it go well with our bed, but the color did not. I spent last week repainting it, and I love the way it turned out, so I thought I would share. I'm sorry the after picture isn't great, unfortunately our bed is in the way so I couldn't take a straight shot. I still need to line the drawers, but I'm just so happy the painting part is over! And yes, that is the NEW color of our room, we chose it, it's a bright lime green, and looks awesome because everything else is black and white!

Number 3

2008-10-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

We had our ultrasound and we found out we are having a BOY!!! Just one this time. He looked so lonely in there; although he was totally scrunched up like he was trying to take up as little room as possible. He was stubborn and stayed in that position, with his knees in his face, the entire time. Rylan and Beckam are excited about having a baby brother. We are excited, I can't believe we are going to add to the already overflowing energy of our house! Now I have one more room I need to figure out how to decorate!!!

Wall Paper, Wall Border, Wall Stencils, oh my!

2008-09-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

For almost every room in our house I have had one thought upon first seeing it "What were they thinking?!?!?". We have been quite busy tearing our house apart to make it more our style. I wanted to wait until we had each room re-done before I showed any pictures, but I was a little more optimistic on our timeline a month ago. Things are progressing, but it's exhausting tearing everything down that the previous homeowners have done!!! Here are some before pics and some after glimpses of what our house is going through. And my apologies to anyone who has a tender spot in their heart for early 90's style wall paper, and stenciling, I think it's absolutely hideous, and want it banished from my house forever! (and I would seriously reconsider it if I were you) All right, first are the rooms we haven't touched, and then we move on to the rooms we've actually changed.

Guess which room this is???

Our half bath downstairs, this print makes the space feel quite regal really

Our master bathroom, and another touch of class

I don't care how much our next child loves trains, this artwork will be gone

All right, you REALLY can't tell how bad this one was. The color on the wall was a weird pinkish/peachy tan color...it sort of freaked me out

All right, so here is a little aftershot of the room, it needs a lot of decorating, and I'm working on it, but I love the chocolate brown color

We didn't have time to take a close up of the multiple wall borders before I tore them down. UGH, they were SO BAD (we have yet to change the light fixtures, but oh the flourescent light will be torn down and burned soon)

a little glimpse at the kitchen, new countertops, new appliances, and a new look for the walls. We still need to put up a backsplash, change hardware, light fixtures and flooring, and I don't know, maybe some decorations?

Ah, my personal favorite. I really have no words for this

I've always wanted a red room, and now I have one. Here is a tiny glimpse, I'm planning on making this a show stopper (it was before, but in a very bad way)

Anyway, back to tearing things down, sanding, priming, washing, caulking, spackling, and painting! (I'm so tired!)

Here we go Again

2008-08-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

Well I wanted to wait until I saw the doctor and had a cute ultrasound picture to show, but insurance has been more tricky than I thought, so here we go: I'm pregnant again! We found out on our anniversary, which is the same day 3 years earlier that we found out we were having twins,it was also the same day that we were loading up our truck to move, our last night in Seattle. (i also "misplaced" my wedding ring that day and didn't get again until we loaded our stuff up from the storage unit into our truck 5 weeks later) Big, fat, emotional day!!! I'm 12 weeks along today, my due date is February 28th, but I'm fairly certain I won't have it until March. (I didn't have Beckam and Rylan until 38 weeks and 5 days and that was after two days of pitocin...ugh) Things are good, I feel fine, just tired. We are getting adjusted to life on the East Coast, but I have to say I miss Seattle! I should be posting pictures of our house soon, hopefully :)

M.I.A.

2008-07-13T13:24:00.001-07:00

Well this post has been a long time coming! We've been a little busy with things, and we didn't have internet access for a while. Here is what we have been up to:

I'm now married to Dr. Robert D. Stoner DDS, PharmD

I took a little trip to Vegas

We marked things off our list of what we wanted to do in Seattle before we moved, ride the ducks, golfing, Robert's first trip to the Space Needle (we ate in the restaurant for our anniversary and of course forgot the camera)

We moved out of our beloved apartment, and said goodbye to the mice, squirrels and raccoons :(

We bought our first house

Robert started Officer's Training, and got a uniform

Enjoyed the 4th in Vancouver, WA with cousins

Robert is in Rhode Island for two more weeks for training, he's been there for three. We moved out of student housing and I drove down to Vancouver to stay with my sister for two and half weeks, now I'm in Spokane at my parents. June was a crazy month, and an emotional roller coaster! As happy as we are to have a house, it is very hard to move and say goodbye to our life in Seattle! But we are looking forward to new adventures on the east coast :) right now I'm just excited to see my husband again.

Halibuts and Slip n Slides

2008-05-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Robert went deep-sea fishing with two of his brothers and his Dad. They caught halibut and Ling cod. The biggest fish they caught was 70 lbs. Can you believe how big and ugly the halibut are??? (keep in mind that he is 6'6) But they sure are tasty :)

While he was doing that, the boys and I were doing this:

I will actually miss life in the ghetto, my neighbor bought some plastic from home depot, used a couple of screwdrivers to hold it in place, and got the hose, the boys had a blast!

It was nice to actually experience some warm weather last weekend...too bad it didn't last!!!

I still love technology...always and forever

2008-05-13T09:14:00.001-07:00

Allow me to introduce you to my new best friends: Zeno and Moto Q.

Sure my Mother's Day came a day early, and instead of having Robert with me on the real Mother's Day I was busy corralling my sick kids during an extra long sacrament meeting. (5 minutes over feels like 500 when you have two toddlers) But before my dear husband left for 4 days he gave me my new Moto Q "smart phone". We found an incredible deal with Sprint, it is an employee deal that they opened up to the public, but don't advertise it. (See Robert for more details, he would be delighted to inform anyone and everyone, believe me, it would make his day) It turned out to be a surprisingly good substitute for a husband; I feel protected (Hello 911 while I'm hiding under the covers from a psycho-killer), less lonely (I can connect to the internet, watch videos, text, take pictures, plan my day, take notes and call people, it's like a mini-laptop), and it doesn't snore :). When Robert got his, I thought "I will never need to connect to the internet when I'm not at home"; but then after he had it for a little while I became addicted to it! (And I believe that people thought cell phones were a ridiculous idea, and now we all feel naked if we forget ours at home) Seriously though, it's the coolest thing ever, I highly recommend it. Just go to the Sprint store on 45th, tell them Robert sent you with a nod and a wink and you can get one too :)

Now onto my other friend: Zeno the zit-zapper. When I first heard of this product, I thought it was a gimmick, similar to most infomercial products. But I was browsing through Target, and noticed it on their shelf, with a "Best Beauty Buy" label from Allure magazine. So I decided to investigate. After doing some research online, I discovered that Zeno is loved by most people who have used it. It is on the pricey side, but anyone who suffers from acne (especially as an adult), knows that clear skin is priceless. This little device is a miracle, some zits disappear in a day, and they all seem to get smaller almost immediately. I love it!

If I were a billion-dollar woman I would give these two items out to all of you :)

Lime Dipping Sauce

2008-04-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

I've been looking forward to spring (and still waiting) for many reasons, but one of the biggest would be all things LIME. I love the flavor, the color, the smell, everything. I finally got to use one of my favorite lime recipes a few days ago, and I feel the need to share.

This recipe is meant to be a dipping sauce for strawberries, and I've used it as a dressing for fruit salad.

8oz sour cream

2 tsp lime zest, finely grated

2 T fresh lime juice

2 T powdered sugar

Mix them all together and serve.

My Beef with Disney

2008-04-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

You would think that a company dedicated to making movies for children would be a little more mindful of how they named the characters in their movies. But no, they make a fantastic movie, that most children love and adore, and give the main character a name that has other non-G-rated meanings. And so it leads to this:

Me: "It was really nice to meet you, have a great day"

New Lady I've never met before: "Yeah, nice to meet you too, your boys are adorable"

Beckam: "Wanna see my Woody?"

At first I was smiling and thinking "oh Beckam is so cute, being friendly and outgoing", then I looked at the lady, and realized what she was probably thinking. Unfortunately he didn't even have his Woody doll to show her. I had to quickly explain he meant Woody and Buzz from Toy Story. Then she smiled and laughed, luckily she had a young child too, so she understood. But I looked like some pervert parent for a few seconds.

Really, couldn't they have come up with a better name???

Cherry Blossoms

2008-04-08T20:40:00.000-07:00

As our big move looms in the distance we are trying to soak up every great thing about Seattle while we still live here. One of them is the cherry blossom trees on campus. We managed to get up there before they were gone! The boys just loved all the space to run around.

I Love New York

2008-03-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

As a graduation gift to ourselves Robert and I decided to take a trip to NYC for his spring break! My parents watched our children so we were kid free for an entire week. We had an amazing time. We found an apartment, thanks to Craigslist, on the Upper West Side; we were able to make meals, so we didn’t have to eat out all the time. We went to the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, we took a cruise around Manhattan. We walked through Central Park, went to the MET and the Museum of Modern Art. We saw 3 Broadway Plays, (Wicked, Young Frankenstein, and Spamalot), we went to tapings of Conan O’brien and The Colbert Report. I could write an (exciting) essay about the food we ate, it was divine! We went to Chinatown, and did knock-off shopping on Canal Street. We went to Brooklyn to eat pizza and walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge. We loved walking on the streets, riding the subway and crazy cab rides. It was so much fun, we are so grateful to my parents for watching the kids and making this possible. It was nice to come home and see the boys, I was starting to miss them, although they weren't missing us! They were spoiled to death by my parents, they didn't seem to mind the change :) In front of the MET

At Wicked

Top of the Empire State Building

Saturday Night Fever

2008-03-04T09:46:00.000-08:00

My sister threw a surprise birthday party for her husband last weekend. The best part? It was a 70's/80's themed party. So I got to unleash the disco diva inside. My handsome husband transformed himself into Sonny Crockett, oh yes, it was hot! :) We had so much fun dancing the night away to our favorite tunes from back in the day. Here are some pictures for all of you to enjoy!

You might not be able to tell that Robert's suit is a wonderful pale pink, and he has no socks with his mustard yellow dress shoes, the perfect outfit to perform a drug bust in. My outfit is a polyester jumpsuit, it made my butt look about 5 feet long! I was so excited when I found it, I love how flowy the legs were, my mom helped me style my hair just right.

Check out the lovely 80's fashions, why did we ever stop dressing this way? It's so flattering.

The party planner and her Axel Rose, hers is a lovely orange polyester jumpsuit

My mom is dressed like Annie Hall, check out the ruffle on Heather's jumpsuit :) it goes down her leg (click on the picture to make it larger)

Who's the freak at table 9? My Father! Doesn't he look awesome, he was passing out LSD all night, trying to enlighten everyone.

It was such a fun night, my sister did a great job of pulling it all off. She had rubik's cubes, a pin the glove on Michael Jackson game, Cheez Whiz, Shasta, and everyone received a complimentary 70's/80's cd. Robert won for best male dancing (I love my husband, he NEVER gets embarassed), he had some fantastic moves, people had to move out of the way for him.

I can't wait to meet Virginia

2008-02-11T16:49:00.000-08:00

Well we finally know where we are going after graduation, drum roll please...Norfolk, Virginia! We are excited, it has been quite the process. The man who makes the assignments has been on vacation FOREVER, (we were supposed to find out in December) so he didn't get the assignments out until last week. It is nice to finally know for sure where we were going, we were pretty sure it was going to be Virginia, but not 100%. We will be there at least 1 year while Robert does his AEGD, and hopefully for the next 2 years as well.

Oh Deer

2008-02-06T08:50:00.000-08:00

Oh my poor mother, this is her story, but I have to share it because it is the craziest thing I've heard in a long time. So my parents live in a little place called Nine Mile Falls, just a few miles outside of Spokane. It is fairly rural where they are, and my mom drives about 20 miles into work every day. A few weeks ago, on a particularly icey morning, my mom was driving her little red mustang very slowly into work, when a deer ran out in front of her car, the deer slipped on the ice and fell and my mom ran over the deer. She is totally freaked out and feels horrible, but she keeps driving, only she looks out her rearview window and doesn't see the deer. So she thinks she is dragging this poor deer under her car, and every time she comes to a stop light, she won't look at the people next to her for fear they will tell her there is a deer under her car. When she finally gets to work, she jumps out of the car, thinking the deer is under there and perhaps (after being dragged 20 miles) is still alive and ready to attack. After not getting attacked, she looks around the car and doesn't see the deer. She goes inside and tells her coworkers about her unfortunate incident, and a few of her fellow nurses go out and look under the car, and they don't see it. My mom is relieved and works the rest of the day. At the end of the day she goes out to her car, ready to go home, she looks under her car again, and thinks she sees the deer. Thinking she might just be crazy she goes and gets another friend to come out with her and confirm what my mom thinks she saw. Her friend comes out and they both see the deer. So they call security to help them get it out, only they can't, the deers legs are wrapped around the cars axel; so they have to jack the car up and CUT the deer off the bottom of the car. There was fur and deer meat stuck all over the bottom of her car, and they had to get the bottom power washed to get out the smell. My poor Mother, she was pretty shaken up by the whole thing, and I know how I've felt when I've ran over a squirrel or a frog!

What we learned on Christmas Break (by Beckam and Rylan)

2008-01-03T15:03:00.000-08:00

Driving in the car for 6 hours isn't that bad as long as we have Toy Story 1 or 2 playing on the portable DVD player (our newest obsession) When either movie is not playing we feel like our world is crashing around us. (We are now going through Woody and Buzz withdrawal and ask to watch them 15 times a day)
Sledding is the funnest thing to do as long as we never have to actually touch snow, or walk on it, which means our parents carry us back up the hill or pull us on the sled, or we will have a meltdown.

We can sleep anywhere as long as we both have cribs, the room is pitch black, a fan is on full blast, and we are not sick or teething
It is cool to wear the same exact pajamas as each other and as our cousins

We're now too cool to sit in high chairs or booster seats
We will hold still for at least one family picture, but don't expect us to smile or be as cute as we are

Elmo slippers make us run faster and jump higher

Santa Claus is someone who now haunts our dreams

We hope you all had a great Holiday season like we did :)

Does that make me crazy??? Possibly...

2007-12-14T18:00:00.000-08:00

I have been tagged by my closet-teeny bopper sister, so here are 5 interesting/quirky (more like disturbing) things about me. Well first off all, I'm sorry you all have to discover how truly crazy I am. I like to give it out in small doses, only after people have known me long enough to love me and forgive the craziness, so I hope those of you who don't know me too well will just forget everything!

1. I LIKE the smell of my boys bad breath. OK, don't get me wrong, I don't want to turn it into an air freshener, I don't actually think it smells good, I just think it's endearing. I have the nose of a bloodhound, and absolutely HATE everyone elses bad breath. But I actually try to smell their breath in the morning, I think it's funny, because it seems like an adult thing to have and they are so cute and small.

2. I love the feeling when someone runs their fingers up and down my arm, so much so, that I have been know to do it to myself when I sleep. I'll be sleeping and one arm will be straight up in the air, and the other will be caressing it. Bizarre I know, and my poor husband finds it rather creepy...but he didn't find that out about me until it was too late and we were married, yeah for me!

3. One of my favorite past-times is performing minor surgery on my husband. I love to pop zits (as my younger siblings can tell you), but with Robert it's a whole new ball game, because he gets these wicked hairs that grow under his skin, and when I find them, I get so happy, and I pull out the tweezers and straight pins and go to town. The best is when the hairs come out and are an inch long!!! I have this desire to share all of the amazing hairs that I've found with all of you, but I will resist the urge :)

4. I love lip stuff. Balm, gloss, stick, stain, glaze, whatever, I want everything, and I never use all of it. I bet in every coat, purse, and diaper bag that I have there is a tube, or jar of something. I never keep it in my make-up bag, they are just stored in every portable item I own. I am always buying whatever is new out there. Every time I buy make-up I feel the need to buy a lip item as well. It's my go-to make-up item to make me feel good, just like when I'm shopping for clothes and I can't find anything, I go to the shoe section, I can always find a pair that fits!

5. I attrack freaks. (after reading the first four things I'm sure we all understand why, because I AM ONE) But seriously in public the one crazy person will find me in a crowd, and find their own special way to let me know they've noticed me. I've had two complete strangers pretend to shoot me. One in a hospital in Utah, it was an old man who looked like Einstein, he pointed his finger at me and then shot, but he made a weird duck noise when he shot me. Another time at Pike Place market there was a guy sitting on a wall, and he pointed at me with his gun hand from the moment he saw me until I was out of "range". I had a homeless person just yesterday tell me I had nice teeth. Random. I had a guy yell at me in Barnes & Noble wondering if my children were of Scandinavian descent, and told me they were beautiful; seriously he was across the store. I could go on and on, but it seems to happen mostly when I'm with my sister. I think she pulls them in, but since I'm taller they lock on to me, thanks Heather :)

6. I used to be attracted to freaks. Ok, not freaks, but bad guys. When other kids my age had crushes on the Coreys (haim and feldman) I had crushes on Skeletor and Jabba the Hut. No I'm not kidding. I think I was attracted to the power. Or maybe I was just delusional from eating peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches. No I'm not kidding, my Mom had to make me stop eating them. Or maybe I was just a typical 4 year old with big dreams...

Ok, so I added a 6th one, which I'm sure I'll regret. I now tag Julie Nye and Jenn Tukuafu, don't be afraid to let out the crazy, you know I'll love you anyway!

Never to young to party

2007-11-28T08:43:00.000-08:00

The boys have recently been having their own "raves" in their bedroom. They turn off the lights, close the door, and one of them gets on their bouncy zebra which produces music and flashing lights, the other one jumps up and down on the floor. Then they switch. It's quite funny to witness, I took some pictures but the flash is so bright you can't tell the lights are off!

2 x Two

2007-11-11T19:44:00.000-08:00

Well the boys had their 2nd birthday on the 2nd! I cannot believe two years have gone by, I know I'll say that every year, time flies by faster and faster each year. My parents came for the weekend to help us celebrate, and we had their friends Ally and Belle come over for cake and presents. They already look taller and older to me :( It's a little sad, but it is so much fun watching them grow up together. I made snake cakes for them, and they loved them, until we lit the candles, they seemed rather alarmed that their precious snakes were on fire.

look at their faces! Beckam looks so concerned, and Rylan just looks frightened, this was right after we lit the candles.

Halloween

2007-11-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

We went to our wards Trunk or Treat the Saturday before Halloween, and the boys were fascinated by the process of getting candy in their bags. They loved when people would let them pick their candy. Their costumes were so cute from last year that I decided to use them again. Last year the costumes were a bit too big and this year a bit too small, a little ghetto I know, but they were still cute! Last year Rylan was the monkey and Beckam the lion, so we switched them for the trunk or treat and playgroup, Beckam loved being the monkey, and Rylan loved roaring like a lion. They were tired of wearing the outfits by Halloween night so they switched back, and Rylan was the monkey again, and Beckam was happy to be the lion. We just went trick or treating around our apartment complex, but it was fun, they loved knocking on the doors, only they wouldn't stop knocking until someone came, I'm sure our neighbors loved that! Here they are with their adorable friends Belle and Ally, they were on their way to playgroup. Aren't they all so cute?

Thanksgiving Burgers

2007-10-31T20:29:00.000-07:00

This is like a leftover Thanksgiving meal. It's delicious, quick, easy and healthy!

1/3 cup herb-seasoned stuffing mix, crushed
2 Tbsp reduced-fat milk
1/2 tsp rubbed sage
1/4 tsp salt
1 lb uncooked ground thurkey
4 whole wheat hamburger buns, split and toasted

Preheat broiler. In a large bowl combine stuffing mix, milk, sage, and salt. Add ground turkey; mix well. Shape into 4, 1/2-inch patties. Place patties on unheated rack of a broiler pan. Broil 4-5 inches from the heat for 11 to 13 minutes or until internal temperature registers 165 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer; turn once.

For condiments I use cream cheese and whole cranberry sauce, it's so good! I make sweet potato fries or squash fries to go on the side, it makes a great "poor mans" Thanksgiving dinner :)

I wish the lady at Safeway could see this

2007-10-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

I saw this on a friends blog and figured I'd copy it. Everyone always says how the boys look EXACTLY like Bob, but here's proof they actually look MORE like ME!!! (I actually had some lady in Safeway ask if the boys were mine, when I said yes, she looked at me like "yeah right")

Caramel Apple Cider

2007-10-23T20:40:00.001-07:00

Well I'm in LOVE with Starbuck's Caramel Apple Cider, so while they were making mine one day, I took a peak at what they used. My home version is pretty dang good, and FANTASTIC considering I could make 12 at home for the price of one at Starbucks.

Apple Juice or Apple Cider (not those disgusting little packets of "cider", real stuff 100% Juice like TreeTop)

Caramel (I use ice cream topper)

Redi-Whip

I heat the juice up on the stove, sometimes I'll throw a cinnamon stick in there, and when it's nice and hot take it off add caramel to your liking and top with Redi-Whip. (btw the whipped cream at Starbucks is about 12 grams of fat per serving, Redi-Whip contains about 1 gram!) I have this a lot, especially if we have people over, I'm totally ADDICTED!

Do they sell straight-jackets in size 4T?

2007-10-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

Well, as usual, the boys are the wildest children I know. They must egg each other on, because I never feel on top of things. I heard Rylan crying the other day during nap time, so I went into their room, and when I reached into his crib to pick him up, I found him trapped underneath the fitted sheet, while the fitted sheet was still tucked in! I have no idea how he managed that one, I had to rip the sheet off to get him out of there. I blocked the top off with the tent, so he was apparently trying to burrow his way out of the bottom.

Both of them have been stripping down, to their birthday suits, after they're done sleeping. We've had to change both of their sheets a few times, but this week, Rylan had a particularly bad surprise for me after his usual strip down; so we've been inspired to put their zip-up pajamas on backwards for naps and bedtimes. It's worked pretty well; although the other day Rylan managed to get his PJ's around his waist without unzipping them at all; he's like Houdini! So we are enjoying our accident free days while they last, it's a good thing they're cute :)

Punkins

2007-10-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

Our boys have added a new word to their rapidly expanding vocabulary, "punkin". We went to an adorable pumpkin patch this weekend, where we picked our own pumpkins, took a tractor ride, and got to pet farm animals. The boys loved it!

Can I just point out how cute their little shirts are for the occasion?

Stoner Penitentiary

2007-10-11T12:30:00.000-07:00

Remember the "cage" we had to buy for Rylan? Well Beckam decided to take advantage of his "open-air" crib and climb out when he should have been napping. I thought they were asleep for their naps the other day when I heard "knock, knock, knock" on their bedroom door! At least Beck was polite about it! Rylan tore the room apart and climbed on Beckam's crib when he got up! It didn't take us nearly as long to buy Beckam a crib tent, we aren't messing around :)

They also continue to throw their food on the floor no matter how many times we take their trays away, so I decided I'm done picking up their food. So they now pick up all of the food that they throw on the floor, it's very liberating for me! I don't want to strangle them anymore when they throw food on the floor, which is always a good thing :)

Justified

2007-09-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

Well it's taken me some time to get the pictures, but here they are so I'm posting them. Eldon surprised Abbey with some Justin Timberlake concert tickets, and I went along for the ride. I have to say, I used to hate the guy (In-Sync, Mickey Mouse club, Britney etc.) but after a certain SNL skit (which he performed at the concert, and sadly was the only song I knew all the words to, but it was awesome!), my view of him began to change. My biggest concern was that Abbey and I would be the oldest people there by about 10 years. But thankfully we were not, and we had a great time! We were so close to the stage that when he tossed water (from the water bottle he drank out of) on the crowd we got wet. I don't think Abbey's washed her clothes since the concert :) It was fun to have a night where I felt like I did before having children!

One of Abbey's more artistic photos, aren't our eyes beautiful?

Scary Mary

2007-09-21T20:03:00.001-07:00

I LOVE YouTube.
FYI there is also a Top Gun spoof, that I highly recommend, I would put it on my blog, but it is slightly inappropriate :) (Top Gun Recut)

All the nutrients you need!

2007-09-21T15:42:00.000-07:00

What does it say about me if half of my blogging is about food? Well, now you all know why I workout. I've been meaning to spread the news about this ice cream for quite a while now, Robert and I have been using the word-of-mouth method, but that's so limited ;) Cinnamon Buns is like Cinnabon's and Cinnamon Toast Crunch put in a delicious ice cream form, from two of my favorite people Ben and Jerry. I'm afraid they'll quit producing it if more people don't find out about it, and then what would I do?! So, I know it's not really ice cream weather anymore, but take one for the team...just eat it, it's worth the chills!

Lemon-Garlic Shrimp

2007-09-14T15:06:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post this recipe for a while, it is another favorite of mine and SO easy to make, and of course delicious and healthy! I will often buy the 2 lb bag of frozen, peeled shrimp from Costco, they are so easy and still taste great. (they can thaw pretty quickly under cold water too if you forget to put them in the fridge the night before)

Cooking Spray
1 1/2 lbs med. shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 c. dry breadcrumbs
3 T finely chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1/4 tsp salt
3 large garlic cloves, minced
2 T fresh lemon juice
4 tsp olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Coat 9x13 in pan with cooking spray. Spread shrimp evenly in the pan.
3. combine breadcrumbs and next 4 ingredients in a bowl; stir in lemon juice and oil. Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture over shrimp. Place dishes on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until shrimp are done and breadcumbs are lightly browned. Yield: 4 servings.

298 days and counting...

2007-09-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I woke up to Bob looking at spiders on the internet, and then he said "yep, it's a Hobo". Which to me means death. He found a gigantic spider (3 inches in diameter) sitting in front of our door! He sprayed it and put a jar on it so he could look at the markings before he killed it. (I can't even imagine what I would have done had I come upon that thing) I have a moderate phobia of spiders, especially large poisonous ones, so I made him research if we needed to fumigate our ghetto house to ensure that no more Hobo's would be making an appearance anywhere else in the house. After looking into it further he discovered that it was most likely a "Giant House Spider" (which apparently exists), and not poisonous; they apparently have the exact same markings, and you can only tell by looking at their genitals underneath a microscope. I have to wonder about the people who know these kind of things. I cannot stop thinking every time I pick something up there is going to be a gigantic spider underneath it! I'm just reminded that it won't be too long before we live in a REAL house, with no holes large enough for mice or giant spiders to crawl into!

Actually I'm not sure how long until we leave, I'm too lazy to count out the days, but I know it's about 9-10 months away!

BTW I was planning on posting an actual picture of a hobo spider, but it turns out I'm too much of a wimp to even look at the pictures (what would I do without my big strong husband?)

Little Boys-Good and Bad

2007-09-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

Beckam blew out the other day so I gave him a bath by himself, but Rylan would have none of that, so when I wasn't looking (not that I don't watch my children in the bath 100% of the time) Rylan jumped in clothes, shoes and all! I'm not sure if you can see what he's wearing: mis-matched pajama top and bottom, with non-matching shoes. Classy. It's like his mother doesn't love him.

Here they are after I took Ry's clothes off and drained the water. Beckam is super happy, and Rylan is licking the non-slip frogs, so disgusting.

They can totally redeem themselves by doing things like this! Holding hands at Alki, and doing the "spider" on the swing" I could just eat them up!

Boys on the Beach

2007-08-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

We went down to Vancouver last week for my families annual reunion. We played on the Columbia River, the boys were in heaven!

This looks like we are having more fun than we are; Rylan was clinging on to me for dear life!

Beckam stealthly moving through the water

Rylan basking in the sun.

They looked like they were pretending to be in an 80's music video, they kept rolling around and stretching out. They did the same thing on the sandy beach; I'm not sure what kind of children I'm raising here...

They aren't exactly "never-nudes", they were irritated with the sand in every crevice of their bodies, so we stripped them down and they were prefectly happy!

Berry Picking

2007-08-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

We went up to Burlington to visit the Yeates (and their new beautiful home with a huge backyard the boys played in all day long!); they took us to a blueberry farm, where we picked 20lbs of blueberries between us. They were so cheap and SO DELICIOUS! It was basically heaven for the boys, endless amounts of delicious fruit, and it just grows on trees? I would have felt the same if the blueberries would have been handbags or shoes! Although it was heaven to have the boys content all day because they had a FENCED backyard to run around in, oh, I cannot wait for that!

We also picked blackberries for FHE Monday night, this was a little more thorny, so I had to hand the boys a lot of berries, and they acted like crack addicts getting their fix, pushing eachother to try and get the next berry Mommy grabbed, you'd think their parents would teach them some manners!

Look at their dirty, greedy faces!

This area was a bit more pleasant, the grass was mowed so they could move around better and they had better access to the blackberries

My Latest Conduit to Joy

2007-08-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

So I'm sure many can relate to what I've gone through since having children: an uphill battle of remaining hip. (maybe I wasn't ever hip, that would make the battle harder) Everything changes, and you suddenly realize why your mom wore mom-butt jeans and flowery dresses. Who has time to keep up with what's in the now when you have children? So I figure if I find ways of staying in touch with who I was before I had children, then maybe I should pass those on to others, so we don't all lose ourselves and realize the only music we recognize are The Wiggles or Doodlebops. (I'm actually embarassed that I know who both those "groups" are, and I feel the need to say that my children do not watch tv no matter how much I try to make them!) I used to listen to my music in the car, but now it's Wee Sing or the music is off. Anyways, this is a big build-up to say that I found an online radio station called Pandora, that allows you to enter an artist or a song and it creates a radio station for you playing similar music to that artist or song. Like if you enter Amy Winehouse, it will play her, and india arie, joss stone, john legend etc. I play it while I'm online or cleaning or anytime my children are sleeping! This way you get to sample music from many different artists and then you can buy a cd if you love any of it.

Return to 1997

2007-08-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

Well after months of debating I finally decided to bite the bullet and attend my 10 year high school reunion. I'd say the experience can be summed up in one word: PATHETIC. My BFF from high school, Felicia, was supposed to come, we were only going to go if we both were able to. Well after Bob and I trekked across the mountains to Spokane, with the boys, I found out that Fee wasn't coming at all! After that I decided not to attend the Friday night casual get together at some bar, and just decided to go to the family BBQ. There were only about 10 people from my class at the BBQ. Very lame. But there were a few of my old friends there, so it was fun to find out what they were up to, and they had updates on others from our class. At least my parents still live in Spokane, we were able to spend most of our time with them, so the trip was not a complete waste of time.

Here's Beckam in the pool, I love how blue his eyes look

Rylan loungin' in the pool, he's all about taking time for himself

Party, Party, Party!!!

2007-07-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

Well the surprise party went off without a hitch, well if you don't count the surprisee being half an hour late for his party. Other than that everything went pretty well, I have to say. I'm pleased, and now I can sleep again, at least I hope that is the reason I haven't been sleeping. We'll see now that our house is empty again, and we are back into our normal routine.

Yes, we are huge dorks and went to Barnes and Noble for the release of the 7th Harry Potter book! Oh it was worth it, look at all the awesome people we were surrounded by! It was fun to see everyone, there were so many people dressed up, and not even characters from the books, as you can see from our pictures. When we left the store there was a crowd outside that were clapping and cheering for everyone who had the new book! The store was packed, as was the parking lot, it was pretty crazy, but I'm glad we went.

Greek Style Scampi

2007-07-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

Well here is another recipe that met my requirements!

1 tsp olive oil
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 (28oz) cans diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, divided
1 1/2 lbs large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup (4oz) crumbled feta cheese
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic; saute 30 sec. Add tomatoes and 1/4 c parsley. Reduce heat; simmer 10 minutes. Add shrimp; cook 5 minutes.
3. Pour shrimp mixture into a 9x13 in baking dish; sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with 1/4 c. parsley, lemon juice, and pepper. Yield 6 servings.

Serve scampi over rice or pasta.

I always add more lemon juice, and I also use a lemon-garlic-oregano flavored feta cheese from Athenos. YUM!

Summer Pasta

2007-07-12T13:58:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while I come across a recipe that has everything I'm looking for: healthy, quick, and delicious! So I figure when I find these rare gems I should share them, because I really get so excited about them, but I can't have everyone over for dinner. So here you go, enjoy!

Summer Pappardelle with Tomatoes, Arugula, and Parmesan
9 oz uncooked pappardelle (wide ribbon pasta)
2 Tbsp extravirgin olive oil
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 1/2 c. halved yellow cherry tomatoes
1 1/2 c. halved grape tomatoes
3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp salt
5 c. loosely packed trimmed arugula
1/3 c. shaved fresh Parmesan cheese
4 slices turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled

1. Cook pasta according to package. Drain, keep warm
2. heal oil in a large nonstick skillet over med. heat. Add pepper and garlic to skillet, cook 1 minute or until garlic is fragrant. Add tomatoes, cook 45 seconds or just until heated, stirring gently. Remove the skillet from heat; stir in lemon juice and salt. Combine the hot pasta, arugula, and warm tomato mixture in a large bowl, tossing to coat. top with cheese and bacon. (Yield 4 servings)

I actually used Barilla Plus spaghetti noodles, to make it healthier and that was great, pappardelle is hard to find. And i grated the parmesan cheese and stirred it in instead of shaving it. This takes about 15-20 minutes start to finish! (I got this from cooking light mag.)

Rowing Boats

2007-07-10T15:06:00.001-07:00

Well we wanted to play on the water on Saturday, but lack the money have a boat, so we rented a row boat from UW and toured the arboretum. It was so fun! The boys loved sticking their hands in the water, watching the bigger boats almost kill us, and observing the ducks.

On Friday we went to the free concert in Magnuson Park for the first time. It was a lot of fun, despite the boys running all over the place and stealing toys from other people. But we used our picnic basket for the 2nd time since we've been married, so that was good :)

Train Wreck

2007-07-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

We've been staying cool in our 80-90 degree weather by going to Seattle's wading pools and "beaches". It's been great, the boys love the water and the rocks on the beach. It was when we went to Alki and I was digging in the sand with my boys, when I was blinded by the sun reflecting off of so many scantily clad bodies that I realized how in denial the general population is. Or maybe it's just high self-esteem. I've never seen so many people in skimpy bathing suits who shouldn't be in skimpy bathing suits! At children's wading pools! I just have to ask, if 65% of Americans are overweight, why do 90+% of the women wear bikinis? They can't all have the same bad mirror, they can't all have the same friends lying to them...it must be really high self-esteem! I am not trying to be mean-spirited but I really believe that only about 3% of the population actually look GOOD in a bikini, and they are either in Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, or playing beach volleyball. The rest of us need extra fabric. (especially with small children around!) And I can't stop staring at them in disbelief!

Tales from the CAGE

2007-07-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

Well our little Rylan started climbing out of his crib a few weeks ago. And it wasn't a big deal because he was surprisingly graceful and never injured himself. Well last Monday he decided to wake up in the middle of the night climb out, we could not get the little stink to lay down and sleep for another 3-4 hours! As if that wasn't bad enough, he wouldn't lay down for his nap, he kept climbing out and I'd throw him right back in, over and over and over, for an hour or so, finally he fell asleep, only to have Beckam wake up. He actually tore the curtains down and was handing Beckam toys when I came in, at least he was sharing. This war lasted until Friday, because Thursday night I finally went and spent the $70 on a crib tent. Holy crap I've never felt so good about spending $70 on anything in my life! We call it "The CAGE". Now I can actually take a shower again without worrying about Rylan hurting himself. I figure we can also use it for cage fights, if Rylan and Beckam are fighting and I don't want to deal with it, I can just throw them in Rylan's crib and zip it up! We'll see if Beckam ends up needing his own cage, I hope not, but I can say it will take me one night before I go and by the tent, not four. Just think of all the sleep I lost!

Beckam wanted a turn after he saw Rylan in it.

Celebrations!

2007-06-26T01:22:00.000-07:00

Well Bob and I celebrated our 5th anniversary last Thursday! Crazy times! It's funny how these things make me feel old. For our first three anniversaries we would go out of town for the weekend and have an extended celebration, now we go out to dinner and come home by 10pm because we are tired! SAD. At least I have parents that I can look to and see that there will be a day when we can just focus on ourselves again!

Over the weekend we went to Bob's high school reunion! It was surprisingly fun. I played b-ball and v-ball against many of the girls that were in his class so it was fun for me to see what people were up to. Bob was of course great friends with ALL the girls, he was MR. BULLDOG, so I was proud to be on his arm :) Sometime I'll have Bob blog about winning Mr. Bulldog, he did a little rendition of Michael Jackson's Beat It, that some people said was their most frequently told story from high school. So I'm looking forward to mine next month, well kind of looking forward to it!

Road Trip With Twins...

2007-06-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

We went to Sacramento last week for my uncle's funeral. It's too expensive to fly so we decided to drive down, UGH. We divided it up into 3 days on the way down, so it wasn't too bad, we didn't even have to break out the DVD player! AMAZING!!! My parents met up with us in Vancouver, and the graciously took Rylan with them, so we just had Beckam, which was heavenly. Not to get rid of Rylan, but because the boys feed off of each other and get more and more angry as time goes on.

The funeral was good, the service was probably the best I have been to. Everyone was in good spirits, and we had fun most of the time. We played in my aunts pool; at least Bob, Beck and Ry did, I forgot my swimming suit. Everything was great until we were done swimming Rylan decided to sneak outside and jump in the pool when none of the adults were paying attention without his life vest. I was inside gathering all of our stuff, and Bob was outside by the pool but he had his back to it and was also gathering our stuff. Thankfully there were still some kids in the pool and the oldest, Michael, asked Bob if Rylan was supposed to be in the pool; Bob looked over and saw Rylan sinking, Bob said no and Michael grabbed Rylan and pulled him out. Rylan was coughing and upset, and sounded terrible, but he was thankfully ok. We are so thankful that he was ok, if only one or two things had been different we may not have had the same outcome.

The ride home wasn't quite as good as the ride down, we did a straight shot from Sacramento to Seattle, only stopping to change diapers, get gas or eat. The boys still did really well, but it was a long day! We are glad to be home.

Rylan going down the slide

Beckam and Daddy playing in the pool

Here We Go!

2007-06-19T15:58:00.000-07:00

Well we are jumping on the blog bandwagon so we can keep in touch with our friends! Should be fun, I'm hoping for lots of comments, so don't be shy :)