Birthdays

For all you who don't know tomorrow is my birthday. I used to really look forward to my birthday. While growing up my mom would make us our favorite dinner and bake us a cake served with icecream, and then of course it was great to get presents. Then there were the birthdays were you turned an age where you got more privileges like going into young women, dating and driving, being old enough to be considered an adult, and being able to go on a mission. 

Now to have it the same way, I would have to cook my favorite meal and the clean up that goes along with it. If I made myself a cake, let's see there is Abe, Gwen and me to eat it. Talk about being sugared out. As for presents I still enjoy those but each year is different. Some years finances aren't good so you feel guilty even receiving a present. And now that I'm past all the ages where something happens, I am just getting older and older. I remember as a kid thinking how old everyone was. My eighteen year old sisters were just right but after that you were just old and decrepit. I don't have the same view as I did then luckily otherwise I would feel like I was knocking on deaths door. But I do feel like the sands of time will not be stopped and every year I get older my body is now going to start falling apart. I've already noticed some things already that don't work the same as they use to. For example, I use to be able to eat anything with no side effects unless I ate too much. Now I get indigestion with some foods, and other sorts of symptoms which I won't mention because of embarrassment. But I'm sure some of you can guess. 

Well I have to stop this rambling now because Gwen needs me and I'm sorry that this one doesn't have a point. I'm sure if given more time I would have come up with something. So it's up to you to give it a point. Try to end it on a happy note though because sad endings make me cry. 

Gwen's Cooking

It has been fun to let Gwen help me cook. The other day we made some more cookies. She helped me put the ingredients in the bowl spilling half of the contents onto the counter. Then when I let her crack the egg she was a little too enthusiastic and cracked it all over the counter, floor and my hand. 

Then a few days later I let her help me with dinner. This time she brought her favorite toy with her. It's a very cute panda bear that she likes to call "Cow".  The first thing she does is plop him down onto the stove then she reaches over and tries to turn on the burner. After that plan was thwarted by my husband she takes panda and puts him in my kitchen aid mixer. And she turns it on. Luckily it was unplugged. Gwen then takes a dash of flour and a smidgeon of salt and puts it on the bear. Mix some more with the unplugged mixer and it was almost ready. She then gives the panda a kiss and she has just completed the recipe A La Panda. It was a lot of fun to watch. I love how she had to give him a kiss just so he knew there were no hard feelings. 

This concludes cooking time with Gwen please tune in next time for more recipes of cooking exotic meats and in some case endangered species.

Rambling on and on

Time can sometimes fly by, these last couple of weeks seemed that way. Even though not much happened in that time. I got to go to a meeting where they try and recruit you to sell their stuff and set up other people under you as a pyramid. That way supposedly you will continue to get money. I thought about it for a little while but those types of things are not for me. I'm not really a people person. If I was I probably wouldn't be using a blog to get out all the random thoughts I have. Besides all the people I know are relatively poor. 

I've done really well with the exercising. I've exercised every day except Sunday for 30 min. I probably should exercise for longer but I need to work up to it since my body is not use to it yet. So hopefully I'll start to see results. I've also tried to be better at making dinner every night. The hardest part about that is thinking of what to make. So if anyone has ideas let me know. I really should try and make a list of things we could eat. 

I always thought that girls were bigger talkers than boys but it doesn't seem to be the case with my Gwen. She mostly tries to communicate with body languages and grunts even though she knows words. Every once and a while she'll use a word here or there. Then she has her favorite sayings like "Where'd it go?", "What are you doing?", "Let's go, Come on." "Sit down." and my favorite "Ow, sorry".  I know she knows a lot of words and could probably put together more phrases but she just isn't interested. And she doesn't do things she's not interested in. Very stubborn and determined. But she does get cuter everyday. Now she knows how to get into the refrigerator and pull out what she wants. I'll have to keep an eye on that so she doesn't leave it open and spoil all the food. 

(switch topic)

I think that the ward we are in has problems with keeping records. Abe is no longer on his role for elder's quorum. Me and my sisters birthday aren't listed with the other birthday's for January. They think Gwen's birthday is in March. My visiting teaching people have a hard time getting a hold of me because my phone number is not listed. And anyone who tries to get a hold of Abe has my number instead of his. (I hope you understand that all this information was written down and given to the ward authorities previously.) My sister Pam and her husband were just called at Sunbeam teachers and told they would only have 7-8 kids. They ended up with 20. Whoops. At least things are kept lively.

I've convinced Abe to give me an allowance so I can save up and not have to ask for money when I want to buy him a present for Christmas or birthdays. I might also start buying a book a month to continue to build my library. This also gives me things to read on a regular basis. 

2009

Well here I am again, although I don't have much to say. I invited some of my nieces and nephews over for Christmas break and we had fun. It's nice that I have some game systems for them to play if I ever want time to myself. They can entertain themselves for hours that way. It was also nice because I had free babysitters for a little while. The part I enjoyed the most was having people around to play card games with. I don't get to do that very often anymore. 

It's a new year and I only have a couple of resolutions. One is to survive and the other is to try and exercise more. Abe and I just got the Wii Fit so I will get a chance to exercise and play. The nice thing is that I won't have to worry so much about Gwen. I can just put her in her room with a movie or something while I go at it. We'll see how it goes. 

Adult Christmas Party

I really love what my family does for the adult Christmas party. It's called a candlelight dinner and each year it's a little different because we switch who is in charge of it. This year it was sister Kari. She chose to do chinese food this year. So we all pulled out recipes for chinese and had fun making them. The food was very tasty and the dessert was really simple. It was just shaved ice with fruit, nuts and sweet and condensed milk on top. It sounded a little weird but it was very yummy. We also played some fun games which we found in our fortune cookies. My two favorites were the paper bag game and the pig war. The paper bag game consists of two people each with a big paper bag and they have to try and pick it up with their mouth while balancing on one foot. It was fun to watch and then you just cut the bag down until one of the people can't do it anymore. Almost everyone had to at least try it. My biggest problem was that the leg I was using kept getting in the way. This was fun to watch as my family members would tip over or fall flat on their face. It was hilarious. The pig war originated between me and my sister Pam. When the movie Babe came out, the fast food places has little pigs that they put in the kids meal. And my mom was able to purchase a lot of pigs from people giving those little stuffed animal pigs to DI. So at times when things were boring around the house Pam and I would pull all the pigs out and start throwing them at each other. It finally turned into a game where you had to aim for the person but also get rid of all your pigs faster than your opponent. And whoever had the least pigs won. It is quite fun if you don't mind being hit in the face with a pig. 

I just thought of one more game I had to mention because it was also one that was just made up. This one is a race to see who can do it the fastest. And just what were we doing? Placing shapes through their proper hole while blind folded. The toy that you use is one that most kids have. I don't know if it has a name. But I hope that you understand which toy I'm referring to. We got some fierce competition going on with that one. 

Anyway, the candlelight dinner was a success and everyone had a great time. It's funny how sometimes the simplest games are the most fun. 

Children Christmas Party

My mom likes to give a party for all the grandkids but she doesn't like to do just superficial things so this year she decided to do 3 short plays about the Nephites and the pioneers. So each child had a role to play in one of the plays and some of them had lines to memorize. Then there were hymns sung in between and a narrator who could help explain things and keep things moving along. We even invited great grandparents and grandparents to come to see it. It turned out pretty well considering there are about 22 children there participating and they are all between the ages of 14 years and a few months old. So you can imagine there was a little bit of mayhem but that was mostly the younger ones. During the performance most of the children knew that they we doing something that required reverence. I was really proud of Gwen. She was really quiet during the whole thing. We just let her wander around. She liked to be in the middle of the performing children and sometimes she would wander in front of the camera. For one of the songs my nieces Hannah and Charlie were singing a duet and Gwen grabbed a hymn book opened it and stood right next to them and leaned in toward them. It was the cutest thing I ever saw. She also danced during most of the songs and toward the end she was sharing her popcorn with anyone she could find. I admit I paid more attention to Gwen than anything else but she was being so cute. 

I feel like it's been a week since I've written. I was having internet problem a couple of times and things have been happening like the party for the kids. Lately I've been playing a game on my DS. It is a Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney game. I've been really enjoying it. I get to go search for clues and talk to people plus then I get to defend my client in court. I get to cross examine the witnesses and such. It's quite fun. I have a harder time in court though because I have a harder time finding contradictions in what people say if it's not too obvious. But I still like it. Well gotta go. I can't keep typing forever. Gwen is tearing apart her room right now and burying me in a pile of clothes.

Night-time ramblings

I really should be in bed right now but my mind is going a mile a minute and I want to keep talking to my husband. He really needs the sleep so I thought I would get rid of my random thoughts onto to here instead. So if I jump around that is the reason. At least I won't have to worry about keeping anyone up.

First off I wanted to relate a story about my daughter. The other day we were all planning on going somewhere and Gwen gets really excited and has to bring everyone their shoes to hurry things along. She was bringing me mine when I was heading into the other room for a minute. So she brings them to Abe instead. He was trying to finish up the level on the game his was playing while Gwen tries to shove them onto his feet. He then tells her to bring them to mommy and then returns to the game. A few minutes later I return and try to find my shoes. They have disappeared. We look around but seriously it was like a black hole had swallowed them up. Where had Gwen put them? I finally grab some other shoes and we go. I wasn't too worried because I was sure they would turn up eventually. A couple days pass and there is still no sign of them. But today while I was looking for a Gwen's sippy cup full of grape juice that she had stashed somewhere I found them.  They were behind our TV. The funny thing is that place is her personal hiding spot and the first place I should have looked. I didn't think they would fit behind there. But there they were and as I pull them out underneath I see two of her missing binkies. I really should get her off those things. She loses them all the time. The good news was some missing items were found the bad news was I still couldn't find her sippy cup.  I could just picture it dripping grape juice slowly onto my carpet and staining it forever. But this story has a happy ending because Abe found the cup in her box of diapers (which happens to be another favorite hiding place for her). 

Well I hope that story made since because it is getting late and I don't proof read. That was quite a mouthful or a typeful well whatever. I think I finally purged my need to talk so I am now going to go to bed. Goodnight world.