Madame Vegetable

Emma and I were at the grocery store not long ago, when she saw these little lettuce things and thought they were so cute. Because they are so cute, they must be good, so she begged me to get her some brussel sprouts! I have never made them before, but said ok. I thought I would steam them or something since I think that’s what you are supposed to do with them. I only got a total of four because I was sure she wouldn’t like them. After several days she didn’t want to wait another second to try them so she got out the ranch dressing and ate all four of them raw, and loved it! She has always been more of a fruit and vegetable person, especially compared to Hunter the candy addict, but I was shocked. She was hopping around telling me how much she liked them, and then went crazy again a couple of days ago when we had corn on the cob, another of her favorites. I’ll have to take a hint from her and get into buying more produce again, I have been doing more canned things lately because it’s easy and it keeps longer. Good job Emma!

Happy Anniversary

So, we went to the mountains to celebrate our anniversary. It was a little different than we had expected though because Rob had to work, of course. I don’t hold it against him at all, I hold my grudge completely against the corrupt philosphy of the finance department at the firm. He has billed so many hours recently, and I was really hoping for a break for him and a chance for some quality family time at the cabin. Without going into why, we felt that it was important for him to take a job in another department that happened to be the same time as our planned trip. So, on Wednesday night I cried, and Thursday morning Rob went off to work and I started packing up for the trip not knowing when he would be able to join us. I packed clothes and food etc. for everyone including Rob. I figured even if he had to go back in the next day at least we could see him for a little while. Everything went well once we got on the road, and the kids were so excited when we entered the cabin you would think it was Disneyland. They ran from room to room laughing and saying, “This is so cool!” That night we went out for pizza at the nearby village and took pictures at the cutouts they had in the village. We played games and watched some Nickelodeon and Dad arrived just before bedtime. He read the kids some stories and then we spent the rest of evening holding Sabrina and laying next to Hannah so she would stay in the twin bed. He and I talked about stuff and that put Hannah and Sabrina to sleep after a while.

The next day Rob spent a lot of time working there from the cabin, but we did get to do some exploring of the little shops in the village. The kids and I found a little pond nearby and walked around and watched the ducks. Then there were more games, some reading, and relaxing. Except for Rob, he was off to find a cell signal to check his emails (by this I mean he got in the car and drove 5 miles until he got a signal and pulled over to check messages) several times during the day, and reading through his documents and made revisions. Poor guy didn’t get much of a break but, to his credit, kept a positive attitude the whole time! On Saturday we cleaned up and packed up for home. As I was pulling away I heard a thunk, thunk, and of course it wouldn’t be a family vacation without a flat tire! Luckily we had a full size spare and it didn’t set us back too long. After we got home, Rob took off for the office and worked until 2:30 am. All in all it was a great family time, and we made the best of the situation. However, the demands of this job just don’t seem worth it! I want to know when he’s ever going to get that two weeks vacation he’s supposed to have. He took one week off when Sabrina was born and is supposed to have two weeks more… I feel like we’ve been tricked.

I have two new albums in the gallery.

Welcome Home Elder, um… Uncle Matt

My baby brother Matt, returned from his mission to Manila Philippines last week. All of the siblings were able to come with their families to welcome him home. Except for Rob, as my family says, “he works for Hitler.” I will hold back my own feelings about that because I am a supportive wife! Matt was able to fly into a smaller local airport, so it was so fun to see him walk off of the plane and toward the crowd of us waiting inside. Nana had special shirts for all 4 of the nieces and nephew that were born while he was away. Each one had their name on it so he could keep their names straight. Yes, two were mine! He has lots of stories to tell about the people and experiences over there, and it was fun hearing them.

We all stayed at my parents home, which has been dubbed, “The Halfway House” because of it’s location to all of their children. So it was a bit of a zoo, and our grandma/great-grandma ended up staying in a makeshift bedroom in the living room, that I liked to think of as the Cabana. It was a full house, but tons of fun to be together, especially with all of the cousins, for a few days.

And the Winner is… Heather!

Heather guessed four out of the five careers correctly. The five careers chosen for me were: Editor, Florist, Criminologist, Script Writer and Film Reviewer. It seemed to be pretty heavily weighted to writing careers, but there were a few surprises such as carpenter, and interpreter. Thanks for playing!

Career Tests

Ok, so Rob got me this book to help me find the career I’m best suited for… Other than my current one that is. I have always had this feeling that there is something out there I should be doing in addition to mothering, and haven’t had the time to find it, or maybe just not the courage; I’m not sure which. It’s funny how you can be afraid to try something new, just because of the fear of failure. Anyway, we were discussing this recently and Rob got this book to help me figure out what my strengths are and where I should focus my energy. It took a while to complete the tests inside the book, but they are all pretty short, so I would just do a couple when I had time and eventually got through it. I was surprised at how accurately they seemed to get my personality, strengths and weaknesses. I would recommend the book for any of you that aren’t sure what to do with your life, or are curious about what it thinks you would like. So, now it’s time for you to guess what it came up with for me. Following are a list of occupations. Five of these are careers that were recommended for me, guess which five:

Make-up Artist, Editor, Criminologist, Clinical Psychologist, Florist, Chef, Film Reviewer, Cabinet Maker, Script Writer, English Language Teacher, Forensic Scientist.

Musical Self Esteem

The kids love this movie! High School Musical is cute kids movie that is actually geared more toward the Junior High crowd, but it is a huge hit at my house. I really like it too because although it’s a little cheesy, there are some fun songs and great choreography! The message is a bonus too, teaching that you shouldn’t be afraid to try new things. There’s just enough romance in it to get the kids saying ewww!, but it’s innocent enough to be cute. There are also some basketball sequences to keep the boys interested if they’re not into singing and dancing… Anyway, I highly recommend it, but be careful, you’ll be singing the songs for the rest of the day!