Surprises

One of the neat things about moving is surprises. About a week or so ago, I woke up to find daffodils and these purple flowers. Fun! Below is the whole bed, and then the cute purple ones.About 3 weeks ago I planted some garlic in my greenhouse. Some of them were already sprouting so I planted them about 1" be above the soil. I went back the next week (I only go to the greenhouse once a week after Weight Watchers) and this is what I found. Cool huh! Here are some close ups. These are my herbs at least what is left of them since I pruned them. I need to probably keep them smaller so I don't have to do such a severe pruning job. It's just when the summer comes, everything just goes crazy. Well, love you all!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

Well, I have been meaning to blog for so long now. I have been home since the 16th of February. I had a great time at Lizzie's even though I got almost no sleep and was running most of the time. I played more games than I can count of "Go Fish" and Chutes and Ladders. We only played candyland a few times. We baked, chased each other, read books, walked to the store, and I am sure things I forgot. Elle was a dream, I hope she still is good for Lizzie.

I know I couldn't have done any of those things if I hadn't been in good shape. I am grateful a gillion years ago in high school that I ran "Cross Country" and became a believer in exercise. I am also grateful to the woman in Wyoming that gave me my first Nutrition book, and that we were poor students when we got married, so that I made everything from scratch. By the time we could afford boxed food, I was converted to scratch cooking. I am grateful for the Public Library, one of the good things our government spends money on. I started going to the library when Rebecca was a baby. I would put her in the stroller and off we would go for about two miles and I started on my road to craving knowledge. I have learned more things from the library than I can count. It was in Wyoming that I got my first gardening book from the library. Boy did that start something way bigger than I would have imagined back then! Anyway, all those things have contributed to my health, I am soooo grateful!

I came home and crashed.

Amy and Mike came out the following Monday and we had the joy of having them out here for a week. Amy and I mostly vegged for the first few days, and then she couldn't stand looking at my DVD's and we organized those. I am sooo grateful for that. Then I asked her to help me decorate my living room. It was so funny, you know those shows where they go around the house and grab things from other rooms and not "spend any money" and make a cool new decor? Well, that is what we did and voilahere are some close ups, the glass hurricanes have some of my shells I have found on the beach as well as some I have purchased. It was great fun! Then we moved on to start painting my family picture frames red! They look so cool with the pics, way cuter than we even imagined. But they aren't all here (I still need to order some). So sad to say can't blog those yet. Then I have been collecting sand dollars for years, I have always wanted to find a way to display them. I had these frames I bought years ago, (the TV show thing again :-) ) and they were laying on the floor and Amy said why don't we mount the sand dollars in those. The cool thing also is that the cardboard thing that holds the pics in turned out to be a great background, so we didn''t have to do anything but Velcro them on, that's right we Velcroed them with sticky Velcro. Cool huh? Some close-ups.
They hang in the living room by a wall just to the right of the fireplace. By the time we were done with all that (two days worth of decorating) we were pretty done in and Amy and Mike had to leave. I couldn't have done it without Amy. I kept saying to Polly that I needed Amy and then I would start getting things on the walls. THANK YOU AMY!!!!!

Well, the day is getting on, I need to get some more things done. One last thing, any Lost watchers, I am digging it!!!

Love you all!

Baby Elle, and Cars

One of the things I love to do with my grandkids is cook. Williams Sonoma has made plenty of money on me since I became a grandma. I have cup cake pans, miniature petifours, a trackter cake pan, barn waffle iron and lots of cookie cutters, and pancake molds. Tanner I learned to my sadness doesn't like to actually help make the cup cakes, he just wants to decorate them. In some ways its less stressful , but I do like the whole process. It was so fun to decorate them. I was walking around the grocery store and found these cookies that looked just like tires. Then as I was going through the store I thought about fruit snacks and then thought how fun it would be to use them as people. It was a BIG hit. Anyway, here are the cupcake cars.

Scones

Well, once again I regret not bringing my own camera. I am a camera girl and should not leave home w/o it. Since I have been at Lizzie's I have been making scones for Tanner everyday. Lizzie made bread and put it in the dough state in the freezer. So first I put some frozen bread dough in the fridge overnight, the next day made him scones (fried bread) that looked like bread sticks with cinnamon sugar on them. With the left over dough I made a small loaf of bread. Well, fresh bread... who can ever get tired of that. Well, next day Tanner says he wants scones again, I take the frozen loaf out put it in the microwave for a very short period of time, cut off some of the dough and put the rest back in the fridge. Well, this went on, fresh baked bread, scones until the dough ran out. I laid in bed, who knows why I was awake! but thinking about scones. I decided the next day to make bread dough, divide part of it up into balls the size of the amount for scones, put them in plastic wrap and then split up the rest of the dough into loaf size wrapped them in plastic wrap and put all 3 loaves in a zip lock thinking the saran wrap would keep them separate...WRONG! I had to pound them on the counter then pry them apart with a knife. Next day I take out the dough ball, pop in the microwave for a minute and a half on 30% power and presto, dough thawed and ready for scones. When we need bread, I just put dough in the fridge the night before, (you can put it in the microwave also, but trickier) next morning shape into a loaf, set out on the counter and then later let it finish rising in a warm oven and bake it! Fresh bread instead of frozen thawed bread. It has been great. I think because it kind of has two raising periods it is even better than normal. Anyway, I have decided to do my bread this way in the future, and when I know I am having grand kids come, I will have some balls of dough for scones!!! Fun! Plus it will be so easy to take some dough out early in the day when we have company and have fresh bread w/o the mess!! Very cool!

Well, I am exhausted, but in a good way. I miss my hubby, and my life, but I wouldn't do it any other way. I am grateful I am healthy enough to help my kids with the new babies. Plus I feel so privileged to be with these perfect spirits as soon as they get here. I feel very blessed!

Love you all!!

Baby Elle!!

Baby Elle, was born on Feb. 4th in the evening. These pics are all when she was less than a day old. I will do more tomorrow.

My Walk

Today was my aerobic and strength training day. One of my goals this week was to add 20 minutes to my exercise routine. I wanted that to be walking on the beach. BUtttttt it has been very stormy with very high waves. Today it was mild weatherwise. Still mostly cloudy and cool, but the wind was hardly there and the tide was a little ways out for a change. I was a little concerned about sneaker waves but not too much since it was just going to be a 20 minute walk. As I was walking I found myself doing what I usually do and that was look for interesting things on the beach. I saw a small clam shell and thought it looked different, so I bent down and it was a fossil. I thought, that was interesting. I put it in my pocket. Then I walked a little further and you guessed it, another fossil. I thought hmmm.... maybe this is a fossil beach. Then I found some petrified wood. I started to think about how every beach we have lived on is a little different. In bayshore it was the whole sand dollar beach, with the dunes to hide in and sea lions to watch. Then we moved to Idaho Street and in the winter with the storms came the agates. I think I found maybe 2 sand dollars in 6 years while we lived there. We had easy beach access, roaring waves in our face and yet wide long sandy beach to play on. Here in South Beach, I am still discovering. Here it's like a mini 4th year hike without a back pack when I go down to the beach. The path is full of nature and shrubs and trees with little peeks of the ocean and occasional scenic view spots as you go down. I can't wait for Clay and Danielle to come so Clay can give me a geology lesson about the banks here. I don't think it is unique or special, but it is definitely different than our last 2 beaches. Now would be the time for me to be philosophical. But I'm not going to be. I just love how Heavenly Father has given us lots of beauty and adventures. Well, I'm glad I got up earlier than I have lately, the rain just started pouring down. With all the skylights we have here, you can really hear the wind and rain. Kind of cool! Love you all and hope your day is great!

Way Behind

We had Jake, Lyndsey, Ruby and Miles over last weekend. It was fast but fun. Since they were only one day really (two nights) we did things from morning till late. I made pancakes with Ruby first thing in the morning. Lyndsey told me she has been looking forward to that for some time. She had told everyone that she was going to her grandmas and we were going to make PANCAKES!!! That was so funny to me. I knew she liked pancakes and that she liked to make them with me, but I didn't realize it was that big of a deal to her.

Then we started to get things ready for a tea party. By the time we got everything ready it was close to lunch time, so we had a lunch/dessert tea party. Lyndsey and Miles joined us. Miles didn't last as long as the rest of us, but way longer than I thought he would. I bought these cute top hats for the boys, but I didn't know where they were since our move. So he wore my red hat.Miles is a kick in the pants. He loves being funny. He is quite advanced in the humor area for his age in my opinion. He saw this pic of him that everyone loves where he is laughing, and later in the day when I was getting ready to take pictures of him, he tried really hard to make that face. He loves to fake laugh, it's pretty funny.

Then we went to the aquarium. Needless to say I was exhausted. BUT we needed to eat and it is our ritual to feed people fish, so that meant I had to fix dinner. Jake offered to help, but he looked tired. Sunday we went to church and they went home, I crashed after church.

We didn't go outside because it has been non-stop rain!!!! I love and appreciate the rain. BUT one of the things I love about the coast is because of the wind, we usually get some sun on a regular basis, but no such luck, it has been one storm after the next.

I think everyone knows by now, but I have been called to be the Education counselor. I am so grateful. I was starting to hide in my house and just watch TV instead of finishing the unpacking. Since it was Christmas when they called me and the Pres. is in a play right now. So between those two things it has been a gradual assigning of things. I am so grateful, my mind is still fuzzy at times. When I was set apart the Bishop said something very interesting. He said that the Lord would cause small miracles so that I could fulfill my family commitments, and then I was to share those small miracles with my family. Sooooo I need to be paying attention, not procrastinate blogging and share those things.

I have gone and worked in my greenhouse one day. My goal is to go after weight watchers every week. I think it will work.

Right now instead of New Years goals I can only think about getting off the 14 pounds I have gained over the last 8 months, and unpacking the rest of my house. I lost 2.2lbs last week and am hopeful about this week.

I made some yummy brownies that were made with half Kamut and some applesauce in place of some of the butter. Steve never knew! They turned out to be 5 points for a 3x3 piece. They had lots of nuts in them, so if they didn't they would be even less.

I finally set up my tea party stuff, it looks so cool. I am going to put some pics of the kids at tea parties with me in black and white or sepia tone (Jake's idea). I am really excited about that. I am excited to get some pics up. That will come later this week. I have loved our bathroom. It is the first time since we have been married that we actually have a place for everything, nothing is on the counters! Yea!! The bathroom always looks so clean. It's amazing how easy it is to put things away when there is actually a place to put it!

24 starts tonight. I am excited. I hope it is good this year. I liked it last year, but it was a little to political in the annoying way last year. Keiffer Sutherland is involved in the producing now, and so in comes the liberal stuff.

I can't wait for Lost. It will be when I am at Lizzie's for the baby. I will probably have to wait until I get home to watch it. We'll see. I am usually too tired to do anything but take care of the kids and Lizzie. If there is free time I am unusually sleeping.

Well, I have babbled on long enough. Love and miss you all!!!