Back to the Grind

I'm sad to report that my Spring Break is officially over. It was still a busy week but I did manage "to free oneself or escape suddenly, as from restraint" of school by not doing an ounce of homework for statistics or biology. So you see, Webster agrees that I had a "break". Here's the highlights.

Tuesday:
I had my friends Doris, Nancy, and Victoria over for lunch. My independent study food preparation course from BYU required me to cook a meal for 3 people and have them critique my cooking. I made crêpes and we filled one with roasted chicken, butter lettuce, tomato slices, sautéed mushrooms, swiss cheese and Brianna's Rich Poppy Seed dressing. It was marvelous! The second crêpe was filled with the holy and beloved Nutella and sliced bananas. Everyone had a good time and I enjoyed hearing of Doris' adventures. She's in her 80's and moved here from Scotland many years ago. She has the best stories of serving in the Queen's army and all her adventures. I love her to bits.

Thursday:
At noon I hosted my book show/luncheon. For the meal we had a salad that I'm trying to perfect so I can enter it in the Cooking Light Ultimate Recipe Contest. I'd give you more details than that, but an impostor could duplicate my recipe and steal my glory. We wouldn't want that now would we? Along with the mysterious salad, we had spinach artichoke dip and homemade bread. That's right, I made the bread in the picture below and will post the recipe some time or another.

And for dessert we had a lovely lemon poppyseed cake from the Cake Mix Doctor cookbook that Dave and Jo gave us. (Thanks! It was delicious!)

Note: The daffodils in the above picture were grown in my yard. My flowers are blooming!
Tammy did an excellent job telling everyone about Usborne books and it was really fun. I'm not a sales party person because I usually think they're selling cheap stuff at expensive prices and I hate feeling pressured. But Tam, and the company, I presume, had a no pressure approach and their books sell themselves. I had 10 friends that came and about 12-14 kids. Needless to say, my little house was rather full. But it was loads of fun and will be a yearly tradition for me from here on out.

Ethan was especially happy because his girlfriend, Arden, came to the book show and he got to wish her a happy first birthday! Thanks to Arden's mommy, Nicole, we have pictures of the book party and the cute little couple.


Thursday night I sang in a ladies' barbershop quartet at the Stake Relief Society Birthday Party. We sang a piece called "The Beauty Shop Quartet" which is a medley of old barbershop songs. It went well and I was happy to be able to sing. I'd gotten a little sore throat on Tuesday night and after the book show my voice left entirely. Travis watched E when he came home and I took a nap. When I woke up a had a little voice back and was really blessed that my voice worked at the R.S. party.

Friday - Saturday:
Friday after I cleaned Mel's the sickness really hit me and I was wiped out till Saturday night. Not very exciting, but at least it happened when I didn't have class or lots of homework.

Sunday:
Ethan got his very first haircut. He has wispy, crazy hair and it was getting long on the top (think: Mohawk) and longer in the back (think: Baby Mullet) . That morning during his bath I trimmed it down and our camera worked for a couple minutes so we got a few pictures.



Sunday night we went to Steve's house and played games with my family that lives in Utah. We're starting a tradition of getting together one Sunday night a month to play games and eat dessert. It was a blast! Our teams tied and "everyone was a winner", though Steve is still suspecting foul play surrounds the final verdict. After all, our team was ahead and our final Pictionary clue was, "Something Rumpelstiltskin might say." for the answer of, "I'm cuter than that Leprechaun!" Right... Suzie was in charge and the judge and Steve says the problem with having a peacemaker be the judge is that they make it so everyone wins. It was a lot of fun and we're looking forward to the next one.

Ethan Update

Here's some things that you may not know that Ethan's doing. Since we want you all to know, we knew we'd better make a list.

• Giving high-fives when you ask for one.
  
• Saying Da Da when he sees Travis or when he picks up a phone.
• Saying Duhh when he gets in the tub and wants his rubber ducks.
• Saying Lehhh when we call Lexie together.
• Army crawling around and sitting up when he wants to.
• Eating anything and everything, especially trying to intercept any food I'm trying to put into my mouth.
• Putting his toys back into the basket when we get them out.
• Saying Na Na, which I think is the beginning of mama!!!
• Looking through books and squealing.
• Drinking out of a sippy cup by himself.
• Clapping!
  

Well, there's the highlights. We can't believe how much he's growing and every day we're more happy/excited/blessed to be his parents. We'll keep you updated with any future developments.

Blessed Spring Break

Does anyone know what time it is? That's right, it's beloved Spring Break. Yours truly has no, read it, NO, classes all week. This means I get to finish up my BYU foods class, crank out some curtains, finish sewing my Easter skirt, and my personal favorite, host a book party!

My sister, Tammy, has become an Usborne books consultant which is a very good thing since their books are absolutely awesome. If you happen to be unfamiliar with Usborne, they're quite the company. The real clincher about them is their dedicated to educational, moral books that can capture children.
(Warning: You are about to read a rant, if you wish to avoid this section please skip ahead to the following paragraph.)
Even more since I became a mom, I've realized that battery operated toys can be the bane of a s.a.h. mom's existence. Even our bouncer and playpen came with battery operated attachment. They're everywhere and I can't stand it! Who cares if a toy can spout out 10 pre-programmed phrases? I thought the joy of being a child was using your imagination to make a toy say whatever you wanted it to. But, alas, society today tells us kids are so high maintenance that if your children want you to play with them you should promptly buy an automated Dora the Explorer doll to take your place before your child takes over your life. Ridiculous. A few electronic toys are fine, but roam the toy aisle at Target and tell me how many engaging toys you can find that aren't battery operated. And heaven forbid your child want you to read to them! In this case you need to put on some Baby Einstein as quickly as possible and exit the room.

Well, Usborne books are the kind of books I want to read to my kids and that I want my kids to read. They were the first book company to offer internet linked books and continues to do so with sites that are constantly screened for any inappropriate material. Their baby books are darling, sturdy, colorful and exciting. I don't have a girl yet, but I love that the fairies and mermaids in their books are darling and don't have cleavage bursting out of their sea-shell bras or dresses. They have sets geared towards teaching values and helping kids with first experiences (ie: new baby, moving, etc.) I fell even further in love with Usborne when I saw their section dedicated to teaching kids to cook that including books on children's vegetarian cooking and healthy cooking.

Anyway, you're all invited to my Book Party/Luncheon this Thursday at noon. What's that you say? You live too far away? Well, then you visit my virtual open house at:

www.ubah.com/hos80648

That way, you can still see their quality books and get some for your son, daughter, future son or daughter, brothers, sisters, grandkids, friends, spouses, really anyone! My online open house ends this Friday, so hurry on over and take a look-see!

In other news, our camera broke so our site will be picture-less for a while. Sorry. Hopefully, you'll keep reading anyway. I might surprise you with pictures from the past. Happy Spring Break to you, my friends!