Let's see if this works

In this video every time Gwen pretended to crack a pistachio she made a funny face. Hope you enjoy.

Fun Photos

Here shows Gwen's love for berries. She'll even eat them with a teaspoon, while singing a tune, with a cow, eat them now, she'll even eat them here or there, and when she does they get everywhere.

We also see Gwen here in her favorite perch on the counter stirring noodles. Yes she did try and add juice from her cup.

                                              

More of Gwen goodness

I must be a little slow but I finally realized something today. Every once and a while Gwen will be sitting on the floor then will crawl over to some ones foot and lick it. It made me giggle and I just rode it off as one of Gwen's oddities but I finally figured it out. She is playing doggie. She did it again tonight first daddy's foot then mine and in between she was making some sort of barking noise. Now I know why she licks peoples feet. It's a relief to know that there is some reason behind it and that Gwen is not just crazy. 

I mentioned earlier that Gwen likes to call her panda bear 'Cow' Well now she has me calling it that. If we ask her 'Where's cow?' she'll find him. Likewise if we ask her 'Where's bear?' its the same result. Abe said today that we will never know whether she thinks it's a cow called bear, or a bear called cow. I guess it's one of the mysteries of life what is going on in a child's head?

More cooking fun, Gwen the other day made me put her on the counter and said "Cook?" At the moment I didn't have anything to cook so Gwen was disappointed. Another time I gave her something to stir and she stirs it forever. She thinks it's hers now and will not let me touch it. All the while I have to keep things away from her so she doesn't add salt and pepper, sesame seeds, minced onions, or whatever she can reach and open to the mixture. 

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.