A new addition to our family....

Not what you thought, huh? We only paid $1200 for this 1999 Grand Dodge Caravan. The family we bought it from goes to church with us, and with the birth of their fifth child, they upgraded to a Suburban. I am soooooo excited for us not to have to stuff ourselves into the Jetta anymore! We were going to buy a mini van when David got his commission in the Air Force, but this was such a good deal, and we figured it would be a GREAT thing not to have any car payments while we're paying off law-school loans. The Jetta will be paid off in nine payments and we will be car-debt free. Halleluiah!

What we've been up to.

We've been at my mom's since last Friday helping her decorate her house for Christmas, bake, and shop - three of my favorite activities! We spent Thanksgiving at my Granny's house yesterday, and I was too busy eating to take any pictures. Here are some from earlier in the week. They LOVE this Christmas decoration of my mom's..a little ice skating rink. (And how about those braided pigtails??)

This is an ornament that lights up and plays "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." They play it over and over and over and over again.
Sara Katherine breaking it down to "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Hilarious!
Here they are being sweet to each other. Look close, Sara Katherine has two cotton swabs sticking out of her ears. Yes, I know this is dangerous, but she somehow managed to get them out of the bathroom drawer where we hide them and thought it would be a good idea to stick them out of her ears. After we got done telling her no, no, no, my mom and I laughed so hard at how funny she looked that we had to take a picture. Probably sent her conflicting messages!I have no idea what Ethan is doing here and don't know why he's outside in November with no pants on, but look close - he's wearing big boy underwear! We went cold turkey on diapers AND pull-ups about two weeks ago. I found that if I used pull ups, it just caused him to have more accidents when he wore underwear. So we just started on underwear only and I dealt with accidents in underpants, which was more work for me, but I think he wouldn't have the hang of it YET if we'd continued to do both. Thankfully he's never had an accident in his bed where I'd have to change sheets, knock on wood! I think that's one of my least favorite household chores, changing and washing sheets. Now, if I could only get him to go #2 more than once every three days, that would be great!


Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! I braved the Black Friday Madness at a late 8:30am to get a few deals I couldn't pass up. What a madhouse! Could never tell our economy was in trouble by the amount of people out today! But that's what's going to help our economy get back on its feet, so go buy that flatscreen, people!

And, a few of my friends had lists of things they were thankful for on their blogs and were asking what others are thankful for. Here is a short, short list.


-My husband and my children, of course. I couldn't ask for a more patient husband or a more loving father. He is truly the answer to many years of prayers asking for him. And my children fulfill me in every way. Motherhood is the most rewarding of all the jobs I've ever had.


-My relationship with Jesus Christ. I know He lives, I know He loves me, I know it is because of His selfless and ultimate sacrifice that I can return to where I came from; the presence of a loving Heavenly Father. I am thankful for the peace the Gospel brings my life and the way it helps define me.

-My extended family: mother father, in-laws, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc, etc. I am fortunate to be surrounded by loving, close relationships in all areas of my family. I am fortunate to be able to call my mom my best friend. I am also thankful for my mother-in-law who I know loves me like her own. I can imagine that is not an easy thing to do when women marry thier little boys and the relationship between mom and son shifts a bit. I don't see this shift as much with women who marry as I do men. I think men tend to depend on their mothers more than daughters do before they marry for various things, and when men marry, the women they marry tend to take over a bit of the mother's role; hence I don't know how I will handle it when Ethan marries one day and doesn't need me like he did before. I think mother in laws of women have it tougher than mother in laws of men. But I know my mother in law loves me all the same.

-I am thankful that our needs always are met. We do our best to follow God's commandments and he blesses our lives so much for that effort. It doesn't really even feel like we're poor law students most of the time. We own our home, two vehicles, always eat very, very well, and all with minimal debt. Not only are our needs met, but through this time of being "poor students", we have been able to enjoy many of our wants as well.

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-I am thankful that my parents provided me with a college education. Between their savings and sacrifice in my youth and my scholarships, I graduated from college debt-free. What a gift.

-My wonderful, wonderful friends. We are flung out all over the state and country now, but when we get together, it is as if we have never been apart. Despite differences of opinions on different issues and even differences of religion, we love each other all the same and respect the differences we have. I have a group of friends from high school that I am fortunate to have been able to have kept in close contact with after all these years, and I have a group of friends from college who I know Heavenly Father sent to me in part to keep me from going off to BYU, which would have changed the path of my life. I adore them all. They are as much my family as my true family, and I hope they all know that.


-I am thankful to be an American. For all its flaws, we live in the greatest country in the world. I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to live abroad for a time and have visited a dozen other countries. I can assure you, the is the best one. I am thankful to have had a father, two grandfathers and an uncle who has faithfully served in the US Military. It is a legacy of which I am proud.

So I guess that probably sounds like everyone else's thankful list, but there you have it! Happy Thanksgiving. Bring on the Christmas Season!

My little professors.

Bath time can be so much fun!

Shelf Reliance

So I mentioned a few posts back that David and I canned three months worth of food storage at the cannery. While I feel very good that it is sitting in the garage, I want to have a system to use it and rotate through it and add more to it. I have known about these Shelf Reliance shelves for awhile now and have been pining away for this particular model. They're kind of pricey, so most times I just go to the website and stare at it and tell it, "One day, shelf. One day." So I go to look at it the other day on the website and what to my wondering eyes.....they are ON SALE, AND they are running a FREE SHIPPING promo on orders over $99! And for some strange reason, there is no sales tax on things you order over the Internet from Utah (mine and David's wedding bands were ordered from a company out of Provo, and same thing, no sales tax). Soooooo, I used part of my October Pampered Chef money and bought this bad boy for the bargain basement price of $386.39, exactly what the price is listed on the Internet This model, their most popular model because it holds a variety of can sizes, is orginially $459.99. So I saved about $75 AND got free shipping. Now I can rotate through my cans of flour, sugar, rice, beans, cream of mushroom soup, etc and know exactly what I need to replace. Merry Early Christmas to me, and halleluiah for Pampered Chef paychecks! Their website has all kinds of great stuff on it. Add it to your favorites and check it out!

www.shelfreliance.com

Driving Miss Daisy

We inherited this Power Wheels dump truck from my nephew before Ethan could even walk. It has been sitting in our garage for quite some time now waiting for him to do something with it other than run it into the garage/fence/tree/insert other non-moving object here. I think he's finally mastered it, or enough so that we feel confident in letting his sissy ride shotgun next to him.

He started out so little...

Don't mind me, sitting over here, crying about how my baby boy has gotten so big, so fast. Sniff, sniff.

Sweet Daddy.

Instead of watching football on Saturday night, David sat at the kitchen table with Ethan and did this with him. I hope Ethan's memory is starting to hold all these things. I am as lucky as our kids are to have David for their Daddy.

Rachael and Lilah's Baby Shower

One of my dear college friends, Rachael, is having a baby girl in January. Her name is going to be Lilah. Rachael is about as thoughtful a friend as anyone can have. I've known her for going on ten years now and I am almost certain that in those ten years, she has never forgotten my birthday, or my children's birthdays for that matter, and even sends David and I a gift for our anniversary. And then she does random nice stuff like send me surprises in the mail, and they usually come on days when I really, really need them. And she does this for ALL her friends. I don't know how she keeps up with it all. It exhuasts me to even think of it. Aside from being just about the best gift picker-outer, she is just good and nice. And thoughtful, and kind, and although there are some issues on which we differ, that doesn't affect our friendship at all. And that's how it should be. We revel in the things we have in common and respect our differences. I am so thankful to Sara for introducing me to the niceness that is Rachael. She has blessed my life in so many ways. Because I could never begin to return all the sweet things she has done for me, I figured the least I could do was host her bridal shower here in Tuscaloosa. She did her undergrad and graduate degree here and has lots of friends here. I love planning baby showers and events that celebrate the good things in life, so this was right up my alley.

Lilah's nursery is going to be a map/globe/world theme. Wanting to keep the theme of her shower in that realm, I thought it would be a good idea to have a spread of food representative of different countries. Sara, who is all the way across the world in China, wanted to participate as well, so she came up with the menu, which was a huge help to me, as I didn't have a whole lot of time to find things on the Internet. So, here we go with the food, because it's kind of my trademark. There's going to be pictures of the food at my gatherings.

So there was homeade salsa, guacamole, and tortilla chips representative of Mexico.
Strawberry/Rhubarb crumble representative of England (and for those of you who have never had rhubarb, you're missing out. Had never tried it until I lived in England. Yummy!)
Greek pasta salad, from um, Greece.Spiced cranberry punch from I guess the U.S. This is one of Rachael's favorites and holy cow is it goodBadly shadowed pictures of the favors. Cute little jeweled purse boxes with Almond Joys and Hershey Hugs and Kisses in them with a sign that read, "Sweet Lilah, For all the "joy" we know you will bring the world, and for all the "hugs and kisses" we can't wait to give you!" I have GOT to take a photography class or something. My picture taking skills are pathetic.
Chicken Salad on croissants (so I guess that would be the U.S. and France?) Gawl, that was good chicken salad.
Fruit and vegetables so we don't feel quite so bad about all the other not-good-for us stuff on the table. The cake. Oh, the cake. (And there are assorted creme puffs in the background of this picture. Somehow I missed those. Creme puffs = France, which that and the bread were my favorite parts of my travels there. Crepes with nutella redeemed Paris for me). Okay, so back to this cake. So the theme of the shower was "Welcome to the World, Lilah." I decided I wanted to do a globe cake. As you can imagine, there are no instructions anywhere I could find for making a globe cake. So I bought the Wilton sports ball pan, and figured I'd wing it. Well, if I don't have exact instructions in front of me, it's pretty much a lost cause, as you can tell here. It's supposed to be a blue earth white cumulus clouds everywhere and in pink writing it says "Welcome to the World Lilah". When I finished it still looked too plain so I added pastel color sugar flowers all over the cake, which I think compounded the problem. I wouldn't be surprised to see this cake wind up on the Cakewrecks hall of fame, but, I worked hard on it so I decided I was going to put it out anyway. It's the thought that counts, right? And, this cake wouldn't seem so very pathetic if the cake Rachael did for my bridal shower didn't look like this and if other cakes she's done didn't look like this
and this
and this
and this
Now you can see my hesitancy with putting that blue ball of cake and icing front and center. But, it came from the heart. :)April, Rachael, and me. (April is another friend of Rachael's who helped me host the shower. She made the yummy Greek pasta salad and the homeade salsa, and brought a plate she painted at All Fired Up (a pottery paining store) that read, "Welcome to the World, Lilah" and then everyone signed it. Thank you April!

Thank you, Rachael, for driving your pregnant self down here to Tuscaloosa all the way from Greenville, SC so we can shower you with food and cake and feel on that cute pregnant belly. Now we anticipate Lilah's arrival....love you!

Here we go again.

After my Palin post from awhile back, I swore that I was done blogging about politics. It generated some comments that unsettled me, and I figured I could have my opinions about things, and keep them to myself and have that be that. There are some things in this world on which we are not supposed to agree, I guess. But, I absolutely have to comment about the backlash my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is receiving after the passage of Proposition 8 in California. I have read several articles about how gay people, gay and lesbian groups, and quite a few straight people as well are absolutely FREAKING OUT about the passage of Proposition 8, which overturned California's Surpreme Court decision from this past May to allow gay and lesbian marriage. Proposition 8 once again defines marriage in the state of California as a strictly heterosexual institution and union.

Let me be clear about my position. I support Proposition 8. If I had been a California resident, I would have voted for it. I would have put a sign in my front yard. I would have spent my free time on the phone discussing the issue with total strangers and asking for their support. I would have done it because I believe in traditional marriage. Absolutely, positively. Even if it is politically incorrect, and even if it is an unpopular position to take in the world which we now live.

I am not going to debate here whether or not I think homosexuality is a choice. I have my opinion on that, but that is not what the focus of this post is about. The focus of this post is that I am absolutely appalled at the backlash the Church is receiving after the passage of this Proposition. Groups are protesting in front of our most sacred places of worship, up and down busy streets in Utah and in California, they are calling for boycotts on Utah tourism and even the Sundance Film Festival this year, which, I might add, has nothing to do with our Church, and calling for the church's tax-exempt status like medieval kings called for heads on platters. It is so ridiculous I can barely get my mind around it. (And as for the church's tax exempt status, I say go ahead and take it. I'm afraid it won't detrimentally affect it as much certain people hope it would).

It is true that the church asked the California members to support Proposition 8 by donating members' time and money. I think it is significant to note that our church typically stays out of politics. We typically don't discuss them over the pulpit, we don't campaign at church, we don't put up signs in the front lawns of the church, nothing. I can remember several times in my life where statements have been read over the pulpit on Sunday mornings reminding members that church is not the place for campaigning of their favorite candidate. Because of that, it made it wholly more significant that in this one case, the church did ask its members to support it.

The $64,000 word there is ask. It didn't demand, didn't threaten to take away church membership, or turn people away from the doors of the church on Sunday mornings if you happen to not support the passage of Proposition 8, or even if people decided to be indifferent about it. That is significant to note. I truly believe many members of my church would have supported this, with all the grass roots support and money they gave, because of this document, given to the world (not just the members of our church) 13 years ago that made the church's definition of marriage perfectly clear. "The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ." And the scriptures made it clear long before the church released that document. I see now that the Lord knew this day was coming, and he was trying to prepare the world for it.

But back to the groups marching in protest against the church I would say this:

-Mormons make up less than 2% off the population in California. Mormons didn't win that proposition. But I will tell you who did - it was the incredible turn-out of voters coming to vote Obama as president that directly helped pass that Proposition. California had a record-high African-American voter turn-out this election. African-Americans as a group tend to be more religious with statistically less homosexuals, and consequently less tolerance for it. I will gladly take Obama as my president if a by-product of his election meant the passage of a proposition that protects traditional marriage in even just one state.

-I would also remind these enraged people that Utah residents cannot vote in California.

-Mormons were but one group that supported the passage of Proposition 8. Just one group. Catholics, conservative Baptists, and scads of other religious groups actively supported the passage of this as well. But we've always made a good target, I guess. Bring it on, I say. Bring it on.

-Contrary to popular belief, everybody who lives in Utah is NOT Mormon. I wish it weren't almost 3am so I look up some statistics for you, and give you some sources for things I've already stated. Soon. I will do that soon. (And FYI, I'm up this late because I've been preparing for a baby shower I'm hosting tomorrow and after jumping on-line to search for a recipe and discovering these stories, I'm just too bothered to sleep).

-Members of the church who donated time and money in an effort to get this proposition passed were simply exercising their right as given by living in a democracy to stand up for what they thought as right. The Church didn't MAKE them donate time and money or threaten to take away membership. I believe this is democracy at it's finest. There was an issue, people studied the issue, formed an opinion, went to the ballot box and cast their vote. And the majority won. What a bunch of sore losers. It's democracy, people. It's how it works.

-I can guarantee you with almost 100% certainty that if Proposition 8 had NOT passed, Mormons would not be marching down the main streets of San Francisco and cancelling their family vacations to DisneyLand.

-And if Melissa Ethridge quits paying her taxes in protest to this, then she should be hauled off to jail.

I want to make another point here. The church makes this a religious and moral issue, which has to be just terribly frustrating for those who do not deem themselves to be "religious" or have a belief in God or Diety (and I certainly do not mean to imply that homosexuals as a whole are non-religious. There are plenty of homosexuals with a firm testimony of God. My point here is that people, homosexual and heterosexual alike, are making this an issue of "rights" over "morality"). But people like me do recognize this to be an issue of morality over rights. And as much as some homosexuals' conscience tells them it's okay to be married to each other, I have scriptures and prophets of the Lord telling me it's not. And for me that's the bottom line. I wish there could be a resolution where everybody could be happy, but unfortunately, homosexual marriage is not God's plan, and therefore our church had to take a stand. People on both sides of the issue believe they're right, which leads me to believe there will never be any real resolution on this issue, and the bridge will never be gapped. And that is disheartening.

I appreciate this quote by James E. Faust, who served in the presidency of our Church for many years:

"Alternatives to the legal and loving marriage between a man and a woman are helping to unravel the fabric of human society. I am sure this is pleasing to the devil. The fabric I refer to is the family. These so-called alternative life-styles must not be accepted as right, because they frustrate God’s commandment for a life-giving union of male and female within a legal marriage as stated in Genesis. If practiced by all adults, these life-styles would mean the end of the human family." (Liahona, Nov. 1995, emphasis added). Chew on that.

So I've guess I've opened up a can of worms. Again. No anonymous comments this time, please. Have an opinion, and even let it differ from mine (and I love that this is America and we can share our opinions without fear of censorship or violence as retribution), but for goodness sakes, for the sake of all those without this right, sign your name.

So I like tags....

....so much so that Meghan didn't even tag me, and I'm doing this that I saw on her blog. Sad, huh? I think others learn a lot about you this way, maybe things they would never otherwise learn (and maybe things they didn't want to learn at all, but that's beside the point). Since all this is going into a scrapbook for posterity, I think it'll be fun for my kids and grandkids to go back through this and maybe learn things they didn't know about me before. And, it's a good thing to do when you're wasting time on the Internet anyway.


8 TV shows I watch (in order of preference, but I don't watch hardly any tv at all anymore..spend way too much time blogging and on facebook!)
1. 17 Kids and Counting (my current favorite, and I don't care what the haters say, this is good tv)
2. Criminal Minds
3. John and Kate Plus 8 (I just love that incredibly crabby woman!)
4. Whatever, Martha (thanks Rachael for the recommendation and for those of you who don't know, this is where Martha Stewart's daughter completely rips on her mom's talk show..hilarious!)
5. Law and Order
6. Any crime investigation show having to do with murders or autopsies (not one word, Sara and Lacy - (They gave me a terrible time about this in college!)
7. Oprah
8. A whole lot of cartoons that the kids watch.

8 Things that happened yesterday
1. Changed three different sets of peed-in underwear and pants because Ethan was having an anti-potty day (but we're back on track today, thank goodness...I knew I couldn't handle much more of that.)
2. Went visiting teaching with Jessica
3. Made chicken taco soup and cornbread for the missionaries who came to dinner (thanks, Hila for that great recipe!)
4. Went to the post office and bought Christmas stamps for Christmas cards
5. Did a cross-fit workout at the gym and ran a mile on the treadmill.
6. Put away Halloween decorations and got out Thanksgiving/fall decorations.
7. Read some talks on lds.org for the 2nd half of my marriage lesson I have to give in relief society on Sunday. I only got halfway through my lesson this past Sunday and thought I was home free, but I've been asked to finish it this week AND to add a few things to it. Sigh. Marriage is such a touchy subject to teach in a class setting, but I guess somebody's gotta do it.
8. Put Sara Katherine in time-out for swatting at me after I told her no more Halloween candy (attituddddddde).

8 Favorite places to eat:
1. My kitchen table with my family (I know, such a Molly answer, but I really mean it).
2. Mexican anything, but most recently in Tuscaloosa at Jalapenos and Los Calientas
3. Quiznos (Raspberry Chicken Chipotle chopped flatbread salad..ummmm)
4. Hokkaido Japanese Steakhouse
5. I love a Burger King Whopper Jr. with Cheese
6. Taco Casa
7. The Melting Pot (COOL fondue restaurant)
8. P.F. Chang’s

8 Things I am Looking Forward to:
1. David graduating from law school and us finally "graduating from the grasps of higher education" as Tracy puts it.
2. Buying a new pair of shoes without feeling guilty.
3. Having more kids. Ethan told everyone in nursery this past Sunday at church he was having a little brother, which was a surprise to David and me. (And to be clear: NO, I AM NOT PREGNANT RIGHT NOW).
4. Rachael's baby shower at my house on Saturday. I love party food and pregnant women. It will be a good time.
5. Getting out all my Christmas decorations. I always buy decorations when they go way cheap on clearance after Christmas, so it's always fun to pull everything out and see what I got after Christmas the year before.
6. Sara Katherine learning to speak in full words and sentences all the time. Seriously, it's killing me. I guess Ethan was way ahead of the curve when it came to speech because by the time he was her age, we were having full blown conversations. She still does a lot of pointing and grunting and half-words. Makes me crazy sometimes.
7. Hopefully an Air Force assignment somewhere in Europe so I can finish seeing the places I didn't get to see when I lived over there (Prague, Poland, and Belgium are at the top of the list of places I want to visit that I didn't get too last time around).
8. An Alabama national championship...is that asking too much?? Okay, I'll settle for an SEC championship. There.

8 Things on my wish list:
1. A mini-van. Yes, it's #1 on my list.
2. To be able to run a 5K with Caroline and keep up. (One day, Caroline. One day).
3. A pressure cooker.
4. A new pair of black knee high boots..zipper on mine finally broke after like, seven years.
5. Willpower to spend less time looking at facebook and blogs and more time reading things that really matter. Obviously that willpower isn't winning out right now.
6. Finishing the kids Christmas stockings before Christmas (and yes, this was on a tag list from months ago) I'm determined to finish them.
7. Earning a trip to Disney World through Pampered Chef. I LOVE some Disney World.
8. An IPOD nano
.
8 Tagged People
1. You
2. You
3. You
4. You
5. You
6. You
7. You
8. and You.

You know how when you hear a song you like, you just have to find it and then listen to it on repeat about a thousand times? I haven't heard one like that in a long time, but I am LOVIN' Jason Mraz's new song, I'm Yours. Love it, love it, love it. I added it to my playlist over there for those of you who haven't heard it yet. Love it. By the way, speaking of playlists, how do the artists get paid for letting us listen to their music this way, or do they just consider it free advertising? Anyone know how Playlist.com gets away with letting all these people's music get played for free? Just curious. And, I found the video on Youtube, but couldn't get it to embed, so just follow this link. This song makes me smile. Ridiculously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkHTsc9PU2A

More and more Halloween.

Trick or Treating on Sorority Row on the UA Campus on Tuesday.

I warned you this holiday went on forever in our family. True to my word, here are some more pictures for your viewing pleasure, and I will try to keep the commentary light, as no one really cares much about anything except the pictures anyway (right, Natalie?). :) So, here we go.

The bomb dog for Tuscaloosa PD. He was SO friendly and let the kids just wallow all over him. You can bet he and Sara Katherine became fast friends, and you should have seen the way he was studying her costume. He was so confused.
Sara Katherine and Aunt Meg.
Bless those girls hearts, it was COLD that night! And did you know Native Americans had Uggs too?
As awkward as that dog head was, she would NOT let us take it off her head, and she also insisted on dragging her candy bag. It was too big for her to pick up, but she was not about to relinquish it to any of us to carry for her, no m'am. That bag was hers. The Jay Stubbs family was in town while Jay was speaking to MBA students, so we got to do a little trick-or-treating on Sorority Row with Addisyn and Bradley, then went to a very cool new Mexican restuarant in the Midtown shopping center, the Iguana Grill. Mexican food with ambiance. What a cool place.
Cousins!After a long day of pulling out EVERY toy we own, she crashed for nap on the floor before heading out for Trick or Treating and UA's homecoming festivities on Halloween night.
After doing some Trick-or-Treating in Aunt Dena's neighborhood, we went up to the UA campus for the Homecoming Pep Rally and Bonfire. Our kids are such troopers.
!I love this picture. When David went to put the kids to bed, Sara Katherine kept pointing from her crib to Ethan's bed going, "Bubba, bubba, bubba, bubba" over and over and over again. David was like, "You want to sleep with Bubba?" "Yeah," she says. So David asks Ethan if he cares if Sissy sleeps with him. Ethan doesn't care, so he puts Sara Katherine in bed with him, and this is how I find them a little while later. Melt my ever-lovin' heart. I love those babies.

And that, folks, is all the Halloween I've got for you this year. The End.