Not for the Faint of Heart!

All right, so this is just a flashback into a former life that Jake and I lived when we were in Utah. This is truly not for anyone with a weak stomach, but this is such a memory, probably not my best but I had to document.

This morning, one of Jake's Home Teaching families called and had had some troubles with a mama goat that had had kids last night, could Jake help out? He said he would, and called just as Spence came home from his first preschool and needed lunch on the way to his second. . . Can you go with me to see a goat? Ummm, do I get a choice? Can we go a bit later, no, I want to go now. Ok, I guess let's go. Spence grabbed a sandwich and we all went to see the mama goat. She hadn't passed the placenta, (I am graphic, but like I said not for the faint of heart) -- and Jake needed to see what she needed. He checked and he thought she had another kid inside -- he needed to check her to be sure. We went home, he got his glove, changed his shirt, a dumb dog ripped ANOTHER pair of his work pants, that is two pairs at least his month -- ughh (and I grabbed the camera)! Spence got dropped off at preschool and we went back. . .

He had to see what was wrong and I will spare you the gory details and tell you that there was a kid inside and it was stinky dead, and he pulled it and had a stinky hand for a long time (other hand stunk) -- an orange or two took care of the smell. He got to stay home the rest of the afternoon, so that was lucky and we got to go shop for his food for his trip, and I got to campaign for a new car. . .if he hadn't had to go to scouts, I think he would have gone car shopping. Dang those scouts :). Ahhh, he glamour of being a vets wife! Bet your jealous! Hopefully if you haven't been thoroughly grossed out yet, the picture won't be too gross. Yes, we have more than a year supply of soap, sweeeet smelling stuff, and this is part of the reason my laundry detergent MUST be TIDE!

 

This was just a cute kid that was hanging out wit me while I waited and tried not to watch!

 

A Favorite Recipe

 

Ok, so yesterday I had to make a breakfast casserole for a baby shower I helped with. I am not a casserole girl for breakfast, but I do LOVE breakfast food, and with our family tradition of Christmas breakfast at my house, I kind of like to collect them and I love to have them most any time. Well, here is one of our favorites -- we put bell pepper and green onion in as a layer but you can add anything your family loves for breakfast! Enjoy!
Breakfast Loaf
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 ablespoon butter
1 round loaf (1 pound) French Bread
6 ounces thinly sliced deli ham, divied
3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
3/4 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese, divided
1/2 medium sweet red pepper, thinly sliced
1 medium tomato, thinly sliced

In a small bowl, combine eggs, salt and pepper. Melt butter in a skillet, add eggs. Cook and stir until set; set aside. Cut the top fourth off loaf of bread. Carefully hollow out top and bottm, leaving a 1/2 in shell (Use the discarded bread for something else maybe Spinach dip :)) Set top aside. In bottom of bread, place a fourth of the ham. Layer with half of the cheeses, red pepepr, scrambled eggs, andtomato slices. Top with the remaining cheese and ham. Gently press the layers together. Replace bread top and wrap tightly in foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until heated through. Let stand for ten minutes before cutting.

Out of my League?

We have been very boring as of late, just doing the usual. . .no noteworthy pics. . .

But today, I got shoved out of my comfort zone. . . I get to church and we amazingly found a seat in the pews and I sit down to enjoy my meetings. Well, the man behind me leans forward and says I understand you are teaching Deacons today! Say what?@! The story goes, I am a ward missionary and we are assigned to teach Deacons on once a month, they originally had me scheduled to teach in April, but Jake was going to be gone and well, I was thinking I would be too, so I said it wouldn't work. Someone who was going to be doing a Dental rotation for a while but would be home that week volunteered. No sweat. Well, the rotations work on fast Sunday. My mision leader didn't remember all of this conversation, so he just said I was doing it. Well, I am a team player and I can roll with the best of them, so I agreed. There are THIRTEEN deacons in our ward, FOUR leaders FIVE if the member of the Bishopric comes and ME in a teeny tiny room! I actually felt like I was teaching my own boys but I didn't have the ability to knock them on the head when they were naughty. The class was ok, for reading the material but Deacons and leaders are just a little out of my league I think -- hopefully they will request only Priesthood leaders to teach. Otherwise, I am bringing snacks and blankets and taking them all outside!

Our Trip to Colorado

About two hours after we got back from Ryan's surgery, we flew up to Colorado (Deana, and the boys)! It was a wild, fun, testosterone filled trip! We went up to see my brother Clint, and his ADORABLE family! They live in the same town that Jake and I met and lived up until Jacob was 6 weeks old. It was like going home in some ways for me, but I didn't realize how I would try to put different towns together in my mind when navigating! :)

The weather was BEAUTIFUL! The boys were ultra disappointed that it wasn't snowy and thought about praying that their mom would like snow so they could move back, truth is, I don't mind snow, it is the driving in it that is nerve wracking to me, and there are about twenty vet offices there so where would Jake make a living?!

 

But, we had a blast, PARKS were on the agenda EVERY day. There are tons of amazing parks in Fort Collins and we hit a couple of fun ones! The kids had so much fun. Spencer thought that Torrie was super lucky because she had stairs, a door that opened in her bedroom and she had a chimney -- he always mentioned how lucky she was.

We took the boys to one of my favorite places in Fort Collins, Walrus ice cream! Seriously, it is the best ice cream anywhere! It is made in salt water ice cream tanks and they always, except for this trip, have a joke flavor of the day. It is so yymmy! My boys drool just thinking about it today!

 

Spencer found some snow on the north sides of peoples houses that hadn't melted so he had to eat it! Can you say GROSS?! But how do you deny a kid the opportunity of eating snow?! He had a little before it was just too gross to allow!

 

We got to see my youngest nephew when we were up there, he is so cute! I just loved holding him -- his name is Porter Maxwell, and seriously he is darling! It was funny to see him, he looks like his dad even as a baby!

Thanks Clint, Natalie, Torri, Colton and Porter for letting us come to visit! We had a BLAST!

Ryan's Surgery

On the sixth of March, Ryan complained his ear was hurting. Remembering the star incident we asked the usual questions and took him down to Jake's office to peek and see what there was to see. There was a small scratch in his right ear, but no stars and no sore looking ear drums. He acted totally normal over the weekend and would occaisionally complain about his ear on Monday and Tuesday, but never really crying about it. On Wednesday, he complained to Jake and Jake looked and there was a lumb on the inner part of the earlobe on the way into the ear canal. . .ouch! It looked like it HURT! So, I took him in to our pediatrician on Thursday, he got put on augmentin and I was told to watch it. On Friday it was worse, the Dr's office called, and we took him in to be seen, the Dr. agreed it didn't look better on the antibiotic and we are headed out of town on Saturday. The Dr. decided it needed to be seen and drained by a Ears Nose and Throat Dr -- so we headed over to this new Dr's office and he said that it had to be SURGICALLY removed, and he was leaving town but was doing surgery Saturday. So, Ryan got to go in for surgery this morning -- we didn't find out until Friday late afternoon that this was happening -- so it was a whirlwind, and Ryan DIDNOT want surgery!

The surgery center we went to suggests that kids bring a favorite toy or stuffed animal, so Monkey came along.

 

Ryan was lessed than excited about the gown, the hat, the socks, you name it, he didn't want it!

 

Recovery was rough, but he was GLAD to come home!

 

I am grateful for the many tender mercies that we received in being able to get his ear taken care of, and I am so glad that his ear is not as painful!

Krispy Kreme Visit

We went on a Wiggles and Giggles field trip today to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts! YUMMY! We brought Justin Friend with us and boy were the preschoolers excited -- the thought of seeing how one of their favorite treats is made?! Yummers! Spencer could hardly contain his excitement, let's be honest, he was climbing on everything, I am sure the other customers were thinking, can't you control your child?!

 

The boys and girls were so cute, all of us had to wear our own Krispy Kreme hat. . .

 

Krispy Kreme has discontinued letting the kids make their own sprinkled doughnut, so we had to buy them, I think they are really smart, let the kids see them making sprinkle doughnuts, but then tell us you can buy whatever you want. . .go figure :)

 

Of course we couldn't not get a doughnut, so we got our doughnuts and took them to the park and then I "chased" the boys around with a camera, ok, so I was in the mood to take pictures, I thought some of them looked good on the little screen, but well, not so good on the big screen, anyway, we had a fun time!

 

Owen and Jenell's visit

Ok, for anyone that lives where the summers are beautiful, this one if for you :), or for anyone that still has to wear a jacket! The weather was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

Last weekend, Feb 28, Owen and Jenell and their four kids came down to visit. It is always a little crazy when they come to visit, puppies to sell, cousins to play, garage sales to hit, steaks to grill, shrimp to eat, dogs to x-ray and doughnuts to eat. But, we love it, we always seem to do a few different things and sometimes are able to do some really cool things, this wasn't one of those times. Jake had a lot of stuff going on at work and they were really here only one full day, so we packed the day! We ended up relaxing in the beautiful weather at the park in our neighborhood, Owen a fantastic pitcher, he is why Jake got into baseball, threw the baseball for all the kids and we got to watch some good hits. Spencer enjoyed riding down the hill in his dumptruck and posing for the camera -- we all had a great time and look forward to the next visit in just a few weeks! Thanks for coming!

 

Field trip to the zoo!

The week of President's day was BUSY! I guess the teacher's for the first grade decided they would not have a complete week fo school, there was a half day on Wednesday, so they might as well throw in a field trip too. The paper asking for chaperone's came home and they insinuated that they would just draw names, well, I am a busy person, and I have a preschooler, so let them go to the school, I will stay home or take Spence to the zoo, when the newsletter came home begging for help, I conceded to go. I got the assignment of taking three boys to the zoo, I had to laugh, it was just like taking my three to the zoo. None of them wanted to do the same thing at the same time and there was always one way ahead and one lagging behind. We had a great time, except for I left all of the important papers at school and the snacks I was supposed to feed the kids. I ended up having to fork over like seven or eight dollars for popcorn for teh kids, and they didn't even seem thankful! Oh well, the weather was perfect and the animals performed like, well, I guess like animals. The Phoenix zoo has improved some of their exhibits since I was there last, they have opened up the elephant exhibit so you can see the elephants more at their level rather from on high, and a closer vantage point. The bus was still stinky and smelly, but I did get my own seat and they did have some a/c, so it was endurable! Glad I got to go and spend some time with just Ryan and get to know some of the kids in his class!

 

I LOVE Arizona

There are times when I watch my boys and it just brings back such memories! In February, Jacb and the fourth grade at his school did a salute to Arizona. The salute was a fun little program about the love of Arizona and teaching about the counties and industry. Anyway, when I was in fourth grade, I went to Copper Rim Elementary -- I remember being in Mrs. Loqa's class (she broke the English spelling rules and no u was in her name, it would drive computer's crazy today) but I digress, I remember we were doing some kind of descriptive word mural I think to describe either Arizona or the school (it was brand new that year) and a nerdy kid named Mike Cathey described it as colassal! I ahd never heard the word, thus nerdy must describe him :)! Anyway, I think up until I moved to Washington after my sophmore year in high school, I was in grained with this great love for Arizona that the other states didn't get the love I had :)!

 

At the program the first song they sang broght back many memories from Fun Festa at BYU, my sister's group, for some reason learned the song, Fifty Nifty United States, and she was like six when she learned it, so as the older sibling, I heard her singing it ALL the time and learned it too. I just don't remember her ending it off with something that you shout our your favorite state, and when Jacob's fourth grade class yelled out Arizona was the best it just made me chuckle, I bet Jake just inwardly groaned and figured that Jacob was actually speaking under his tongue saying that Utah was his favorite state of all -- I watched Jacob and I know that it was AZ that he said was his favorite :)!

 

The boys in Jacob's class had to do a Mexican hat dance and they did a great job. It was fun to watch them doing their thing.

 

One of the tings that they were told to wear was either cowboy clothes or the school colors, I only think in traditional cowboy, think Jake and his chaps and spurs, or Spencer in his vest and boot and hat -- not, just a cowboy hat and a button down shirt, if I had thought easy, Jacob would have been a cute cowboy, but he did a great job! Way to go Jacob!