My latest Obsessions:

Obviously this little guy. It was amazing to me how much he changed in a few days! The photo above was taken just before we left the hospital last week. Can you see the little "lo-jack" on his right leg?  The hospitals put them on babies as a security device to prevent baby snatching. What is this world coming to?

 First time in new car seat!

Grandma rocking his lusciousness!

 Momma giving him his first bath at home. He didn't like it much at first, but then calmed down.

 

In honor of the Olympics, she dressed him in this for one of our outings. She received some darling stuff from some friends in Wales. Thanks Theresa! She LOVES it, but I don't think he will be able to wear this much longer due to his enormous size.

I'm not going to be with her this week, sniff, because I have to catch up on my own life-how boring is that! They live an hour away but I'm thinkin' I may have to make a quick trip just to give him squeezes and kisses!

Next obsession.......I bought this book and I'm anxious to get started on making some of the quilts. The premise of the book is how to use up all your stash and scraps. I'm thinking it's going to be an awesome way to get nearly free quilt tops!

Downton Abbey. I think I watched more movies while I was with Amy than I have in the past six months. We had just gotten started on this series, and we were interrupted, so I went home and watched the entire first season on Netflix on Saturday afternoon! Now I'm salivating for season 2 and trying to figure out how I can watch it for free or nearly free. It's agony! Season 3 doesn't start until January 2013.....

Speaking of movies, Amy & I also watched the BBC Masterpiece Theater version of Jane Eyre. I was able to find the book for free to download to my iPad and now I'm obsessed with reading it!  I remember trying to read it when I was much younger but had a difficult time because it was so "dark" to me. Plus the fact that any time my mom wanted me to read something she considered a "classic," I would rebel and refuse to read it.  Like how I refused to read "The Secret Garden" for over 35 years and when I finally did, I LOVED it. Sorry momma, you are right.....

Sheesh-after re-reading this post, I'm thinking I should title this.."my British obsessions.....Thanks to the influence of my sweet anglophile, Amy!

So now I'm trying to figure out how to cram all these current obsessions into my life and still keep up with  "real life."    {sigh}

Wednesday-What's on your iPhone?

A random representation of the fotos I've taken recently on my phone. Six in no particular order.....

Ridiculous photo of Daniel taken during our recent (rare) heavy rain. He's trying out his old raincoat that he wore in Alaska. Just checking to see if it still keeps him dry.

It did.

Don't ask me the significance of him wearing the lava lava. You may have seen this one on facebook.

 

Photo taken at Home Goods and sent to Jessica for opinions. I  frequently send photos to my offspring so I can make sure that I don't make a horrible mistake in a purchase, especially with clothing. The pillow on the left was mine. It currently resides on our sectional.  I nixed the one on the right. It was too scratchy to cuddle up with while sleeping on the sectional. (she liked it tho-guess I do have a little taste)

Another ridiculous photo taken of my son in law in Oceanside. He's demonstrating the Donald Duck beak purchased at Disneyland. It was the only thing my 7 year old grandson wanted.

It takes many hands to french braid hair. Since it was so cold at the beach, we spent nearly one whole day inside. The girls played hair. The boys played cards.

 We aren't sleeping on the floor anymore!!!

Photo taken of an impending dust storm. I was driving fast to try to get where I was going before it hit.  They are called haboobs. Why, I have no idea. We all love saying the name over and over just for laughs.

I know this is more than six, but I COULDN'T resist adding an extra one of little guy's first bath at home.  He is luscious!!!!

So that it for my photos for the last month or so.....

What about yours?

Beachie Keen

Well hello there......I decided that since I'm going to be spending most of the week munching on those fat cheeks of my little grandson and loving his squishiness, that I would post a few photos of our beach trip just to tide you all over........

Our umbrella village.  U is for umbrella, dontcha know? Notice that TL is on the phone......ALWAYS on the phone, can't leave home without it......

Yea, I was a ding dong and overexposed most of the pics. I forgot to switch to automatic when I had the zoom lens on.....so most of the boogie boarding pics look like this. I figured they would make great background pictures for my beach book.

These are some more seriously munchable cheeks. She turned 6 months while we were there and she was SOOO good!

This year there was a lot of really intense crab hunting. When the kids finally got some hot dogs and wire hangers.....

SUCCESS! Look at those little faces!

 Some extreme sports on the beach.....

This was just before a wave knocked this little guy over. He went running out to the ocean in his jammies and I started screaming and chasing after him. Fortunately someone else with swifter feet than me rescued him from the next incoming wave.

It was COLD! Colder than in years past. After a couple of days in the wind and cold air....

We decided to stay inside all one day. Our resident hairstylist played hair with the girls, and the boys placed cards......(can you see the big boys sitting behind the little guys?)

And there was a little romance.  We really had it all......

And you can't forget the s'mores!

Flying kites....

Eating fresh tortillas in Old Town.....

Pretty much eating too much.....

Being silly.....

And getting really, really dirty......

Finishing up a lil project

There's a lil project that is going to be completed today! It's not MY project. It's Miss Amy's day to give birth to her HEALTHY baby boy!! Yippeeee!  We are trucking down to the hospital in a few hours to wait for his arrival via c-section. The little tiger decided to grow so big that he's not such a lil tiger and has to be born that way.  So I'll post some photos as soon as we have them!  I'm so beyond excited!

EDIT!!!

He made it all safe and sound! Don't know if you can see the numbers on the last photo, but the lil chunky monkey weighed 9 lbs 15 oz! No wonder poor Amy was dragging. He has huge hands and feet and is all boy-all 22 inches of him.  We are so blessed and so grateful that all is well. Amy has a little bit of a recovery ahead, due to the c-section but we are so happy and relieved......I'm sure more pics to follow!

Tuesday's Tip

So this year in my garden I decided to grow some pumpkins. Never had any success with them before, so having faith, I planted my seeds and waited........

They grew!!

Dang it, I can't remember the name of the pumpkin, but these are not the regular Halloween type. They are made to cook and make pumpkin pie with. So if anyone out there is waiting anxiously for their pumpkins to grow and ripen, here's how to cook them.... easy peasy!

Here's my lovely orange beauties.

Cut them in half and scrape out all the seeds.  I saved them and actually roasted them but due to my extremely sidetracked personality (ie doing too much at one time) I forgot about them and they burned.

 

After everything is cleaned out, place them on a cookie sheet and bake them in the oven at 375 degrees. Mine took about an hour to get soft.

Now, here's the rest of the story.....without pics. I got busy and forgot to document it...

When everything is cooled, peel off the skin and puree the cooked flesh in a food processor. I placed 1 cup of the puree into ziplock bags and froze them.  Now I'm ready for pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin bread.

The fresh cooked pumpkin is really delicious! It didn't taste ANYTHING like the pumpkin out of a can.  It was more like squash and had a nutty flavor.   I got five pumpkins out of my little patch and it was super satisfying to grow, harvest and preserve the fruits of my own labor.  Although it's a pretty good thing I'm not a pioneer, because I think I would have starved due to sad lack of production........

Monday Morning Musings

Well hello there! I'm taking a few moments to check back in.  I've been noticeably absent for awhile. I really don't need to explain why.......but I'm kind of purging my brain at the moment.

A while back I had posted something on my Five Facts on Friday that had completely offended someone. This person wrote me a really nasty message that totally and completely crushed me. Now I know someone will say, this is your blog and you can say what you want, but the person accused me of being someone that I am NOT. I decided to remove the post (nope you can't find it) and I've been pondering whether or not I want to continue with blogging. Blogging is a really public forum, and I know that I can't please everyone every time, but much of what goes on in my life may not be for public consumption. I've been evaluating what the purpose of this blog is and whether it should continue.  I'm leaning more towards continuing it, due to the pleadings of my dear mother, who lives far away, and also a few of my kids who actually read it.  I love reading other people's blogs and so I guess someone else may be interested in my regular little life. I also need to develop a little tougher skin if I'm going to put myself "out there."

Secondly, I've been LIVING life and not really writing about it much. I'm either going crazy doing too much, or spending time recovering from doing too much. (If there is any middle ground, please educate me on how to reach it!!) For example today I have to make bread for the Pioneer trek coming up this week. Each ward/branch was assigned a certain number of loaves to make and so the task fell to little ol' me because not too many of my dear Hispanic sisters know how to make bread and today there is not enough time to teach someone how to make it. So with the assistance of one of my English speaking sisters, the task will be done today.  There's also some service to be done this morning and just the regular everyday stuff like having clean clothes and food on the table....oh yeah, the house needs to be shoveled out occasionally.

I've always had a problem with journaling and keeping track of my life. As I get older I realize that I'm not going to be here forever, and if I can at least get a few highlights down, well maybe it will prove that I did do something in this world!

So for my mama, I'm going to continue. Realize that what you read is only a tiny snippet of my life and thoughts, and if everything seems all peachy keen, well, it may be that I cannot share everything that is rumbling around in my head, at least publicly.

Okay, I gotta go clean up my bread mess. Before I do, I want to share a favorite photo from our trip.

I'm watching my baby fall in love. It's sweet and tender and bittersweet because I realize that my nest will be emptying sooner than I think. No! There is no announcement! But I heartily endorse this wonderful young man.........

AWOL

I've sorta been absent the last couple of weeks on this lil ol blog o mine. That's probably because I've spent last week prepping for THIS week, which is the ultimate culmination of events in our family's life- The Trip to the Beach. So as I ruefully pack my bags this Friday morning, I will give the Readers Digest synopsis of life this past week.....sin photos...... Preparing insane amounts of food Eating insane amounts of food, including Red Vines, peanut m & ms, bacon, chocolate covered toffee and some pretty nasty Mexican food. Thinking of fasting all next week..... Rescuing one year old from oncoming waves. Giving many kisses to six month old. Spending hours watching grandkids try to catch the elusive crabs. Freezing. (it was cold this year) Staying as far away as possible from freezing cold water. Laughing uproariously playing goofy card games with the men in my life. Taking a multitude of photos. Watching my youngest fall in love. And so I prepare to return to the pressure cooker of my life, literally and figuratively....... Photos to follow.....