Backyard pics

I call this collage, "Big Brother Stuffs Little Sister through a Hole."


This one is "Big Brother Tries to Put Little Sister on Swing and is Unsuccessful."



Hazel really should never get a license...she doesn't steer!! She just runs into things and Daddy has to pick up the back of the jeep and turn her around. Scary stuff.

Stuff

Today I asked Jethro what he would do if he had a million dollars and his first response was, "Buy lots of expensive things, because I would have enough money and even more!" Funny thing to say, I thought. Then after a little more prodding from me, to give him some more ideas, he said he would buy a motocross motorcycle for him and one for Daddy, and lots of science books. ?!! Where did this kid come from? Actually, I think the science books thing stemmed from the fact that we went to his school book fair, and I had let him do extra chores around the house that week so that he could earn a book. The book that he wanted was a hard-back book about reptiles. I told him it was too expensive. But still, kinda funny that that was second on his list of things to buy if he had a million bucks.

I really love dishwashers. They're kindof wonderful and miraculous. I mean, think about it--you can go to bed, doing nothing but resting and sleeping and you can wake up in the morning to clean dishes which just the night before had been dirty. Dishwasher, I love you.

Tonight for dinner we had navajo tacos, which is what my family calls scones with taco-seasoned hamburger on top and lettuce, tomatoes, etc. I haven't made scones in ages and it's amazing how much more delicious the same bread dough is that I regularly bake into normal bread, just by frying it in oil. Anyway. So, Hazel had got into the costume box earlier in the day and was wearing her Pocahontas costume at dinner. Brett called the scones 'Indian fry-bread' once, and then later, Hazel said, "I want more Pocahontas bread." Ha ha. It was so funny. She ate a ton, too--maybe just because of the cool name thing.

Don't you just hate things that fail at their intended purposes? Like bobby pins that don't even hold your hair up, or tape that isn't sticky.

Is it bad that I bought 5 or 6 dollars worth of chocolate Easter candy when it was 50% off on Tuesday and have eaten almost all of it?

Which reminds me, so on Tuesday I took the car on my first trip without Brett (remember our trial run together was Monday night). So, I get to Target, return a shirt I had bought for Jethro and decided he didn't need, and then go out and try to start the car. It doesn't even make a growl. I was like, "NO WAY!! There is no way I am going to walk home (we don't live far from Target) and call Brett and say the car wouldn't start. Especially when it started just two minutes ago on the drive here." But then I calmed down and wiggled a wire that had come loose from the special start up button you have to hold down, and all was good again. (No one would be able to steal our car even if they wanted to--which the probably wouldn't--because of all the tricky things you have to do.)

And finally, if you're still reading, the mooshy part. I was lying all cozy and snuggly next to Brett this morning because for some strange reason I happened to wake up when the alarm went off at 6:00 (I normally never do) and so I rolled over to lay my head on Brett's shoulder and he wrapped his arm around me, and it was just so comfy and nice, and I realized that it's really a huge blessing just to be able to sleep next to my best friend, and the one I love so much every single night. I remembered how, when we were engaged, I absolutely hated when we had to say goodnight and go to our separate houses and leave each other. It was so right and so wonderful and fun to be together that we pretty much were together every possible minute during the day, and it just seemed like we should be able to be near each other at night too (I realize that would have led to problems and have been a bad idea, but it just felt terrible to have to go our separate ways for that time). Anyway, and now I get to snuggle up to him every night, and it's something I don't even think about because it's so normal and I take it for granted. Anyway, I love my honey and I'm glad I get to have him beside me every night. The end of the sappiness.

The other night Brett was the first one to have to go to the corner for hitting someone in the face with Jethro's gun. The someone was Jethro, and even though I could tell it really hurt, he felt pretty awful that Daddy had to go to the corner for it and was trying to say "it's okay, he doesn't have to go, I'm okay." Which was sweet, but Daddy had to go anyway because that was the consequence. If it wasn't for daddy, the rule would have been no shooting people at all, but on Sunday he started playing hide-and-seek and get to home free before It shoots you, so we had to change the rule to no shooting in the head. Silly daddies. What would we do without them?

For FHE (which was a quickie-made-up one, since we had gone to the grocery store and were running late), we had everyone say one thing they loved about everyone else, and every single time Hazel would say, "I love Daddy (or Jethro, etc.) because they play Barbies with me." Hmm, she's a little excited about her Easter present.

I think that's all. No pictures twice in a row. Unbelieveable. I'll make sure to have good ones next time to make up for it.

Tidings of Great Joy!

I have a car!!! WHOOHOO!! AND...I can even drive it. We went to the grocery store tonight, and I drove it home and guess what--no problems getting it to go into gear. Of course not, Brett was in the car. We'll see what happens when I try to drive tomorrow...maybe the car hates me. Hmm, I hope not, it's the only one I've got. Anyway, I was so excited it was like getting a new car or something. Also I'm a little rusty with the stick shift driving. Brought back memories of learning to drive Pinky (moment of silence for my beloved first car that Kami demolished).

So, that's my big news. I'm a little bit sad because two of my sisters traveled to Utah for their spring breaks, so me and Derek were the only loners far away from everyone. And they periodically posted pictures of all twenty million or so of them riding horses or playing at the swimming pool or searching for Easter eggs on our family website, making me sniff. They're mean like that. I think if they have parties without me they should lie and say they're having a terrible time and they're all sick and no one can get along so that I don't feel so bad. If you want to see a few of the pictures, go here.

Well, that's all except one funny story. The other night I was cutting Jethro's hair and Hazel and Ethne were in the tub and Brett was doing the dishes, and we suddenly heard Ethne SCREAMING like she was really hurt. Brett ran into the bathroom and I listened, wondering what had happened. Well, she stopped screaming but was still crying, so I went into the bathroom to see if she had just gotten dunked or something. Well, she had pooed in the tub--nice runny stuff too--and was freaking out. (Hazel had assumed the position of straddling the tub with her feet on both sides to keep out of the gross water.) Then when Brett was cleaning Ethne off, she kept pointing to the water and jabbering in a very concerned way. Ha haah aaa! That kid is hilarious.

Well, I had more to say, but Brett wants me to come to bed, and I want to go get a snack before I do, so ciao.

Our day in (lots of) pictures.

This one actually taken Thursday- I think. No, we do not beat our children (too much)--Hazel just has a hard time walking without falling and hurting herself.




I htought she looked funny there.




Please Daddy, open this for me?
Mmmmm....yummy!



Hazel's basket contained lots of Barbies.

Jethro's had a shark kite and a dart gun.

Playing with the new toys.


More candy to fill Ethne's cheeks.



A little dancing.





Some faces.

After taking the kids to the park to fly the kite, (while mommy mopped the kitchen floor) Daddy broke all the rules with the dart gun and started playing 'stick-em-up' and shooting people. tut tut.
Ethne just looks so cute and big here.

Then some finger-licking dinner. Cheddar ham soup--one of my personal faves. Apparently one of Ethne's faves too.

Finally

I was trying to teach Hazel to make a face where you furrow your eyebrows and pucker your lips, and she couldn't do it....but Ethne could! Actually, these pictures don't have her doing both parts at once, but she can, briefly. It is sooooooo stinking cute!!

I'm finally feeling better. Being sick is miserable and makes me grateful for what my body does everyday without my even thinking about it. For example, I can do the dishes without having to sit down while I do them. Anyway.

So I just got back from a parent-teacher conference and it was very cool because Jethro's teacher had soooo many positive things to say! She said he has really taken off on reading (I knew that) and his scores for the DIBEL (don't know what that is, except it's a test that scores phonemic awareness--- what's the first sound in the word ball? What are the sounds that make up cat? etc.) were off the chart. Also, she said he's a good helper, gets along with the other kids, and then she started to say, "He's just so....well, mostly all kids in kindergarten are sweet, that's part of the good thing about teaching K, but he's just really nice, and fun personality. It's been fun watching him learn and grow, and I'm really going to miss him next year." Awww. She said that he loves music and dancing (knew that too). I mentioned that we think it's pretty fun to hear what he has learned, for example, Brett was really tickled that Jethro came home and told him how chicks grow from the germinal disc in the egg. Brett made him tell him that a few times cause he thought it was so cool. She said he's always curious and inquisitive and wondering--especially in science. There's some people who come from Purdue to teach science, for a research study or something, anyway so they keep track of the participation and stuff, and she said, she's always writing down Jethro...Jethro...Jethro. I was like, yeah--he's smarter than me in science. Anyway, lots of great things to hear. The only negative things were that he needs work with his fine motor skills--although he can write neatly when he really puts his mind to it, he just doesn't very often, and that he has a hard time putting things away neatly. YEAH. I know that too. So, it was fun. She said he's all ready for first grade. First grade? Crazy.

Here are some pictures from way back when, before I got sick, when the kids went to Lowe's to do one of the kid projects. They made a periscope. The picture of Hazel hammering is one of the only times she hammered. She prefers me to do it for her. That's all right, the real highlight for her is when she gets to paint it at home.

So, very exciting news...Brett has a telephone interview tomorrow for a company in Switzerland. Pretty wild. If only we could skip the whole graduation thing. But nothing better to motivate you than a cool job opportunity, right?

I'm going stir crazy after being sick for so long and not going anywhere, and now I'm still without a car, even though it was supposed to be finished. I'm such a dork sometimes....on Monday I had Brett take me to an appointment I had to go to, and after I got in there, they realized I had come a day early. Sigh.

And then, Brett had the car all put back together yesterday--with a standard transmission, and he woke me up before he left so that he could show me how to drive it (not that I don't know how to drive a stick, I do, it's just that our cars are never just normal. There's always little tricks to them that you have to know.) Anyway, I said, no I'm asleep. So then, I called him and had him tell me all the things, and so I got in the car ready to go to my appointment (again) and couldn't get it to go into gear. I was getting very annoyed. So I went into the house and called Brett and asked him again, and he gave me a tip, and I went back out, finally got it into reverse and backed out into the street, then couldn't get it into ANY gear. Seriously. So. Frustrated. So I pushed it to the curb and called Brett and told him his stupid car was across the street just so he knew. And he came home early--not out of sympathy mind you, after all "I offered to show you this morning"--which is true but at the same time, if we had a normal car like normal people I would already know how to drive it!! Anyway, he took the transmission back out, and took it to a place to get the flywheel balanced, because it hadn't been. So that is why I am without a car again.

I was really really really frustrated yesterday, but I'm over it. I just hope we get our car back sometime in the near future. I guess on the bright side, as long as I was going to be sick, it might as well have been while I was homebound anyway, and I've probably saved money by not being able to run to the grocery store or other stores all the time.

I tried taking family pictures, but Ethne just does NOT cooperate, (as you can see) so I think I'll take them to JCPenny and see if they can get anything better. Why is it impossible to take a good picture of three?

Anyway, that's all from me. Have a day.

worm story

So, I feel like it's been ages since I posted... but I was working on something else at first, and then I got sick sick sick, so I have been trying to stray from the couch as little as possible. I am still sick, but better than yesterday, so that is good.

I have things I've been thinking about posting, but for now, I just have to tell you about my very sensitive son. Today he went out in the garden and was digging around. Then he came to the door to ask me if he could keep a worm that he found, and I said no. Then he came back IN HYSTERICS, crying his eyes out because he couldn't find his worm and he was sure that birds would eat it. I tried to tell him that it is good at hiding in the ground, but he wasn't convinced. I tried telling him about how birds need food too, and besides we eat chicken, don't we? But he said he didn't want any other animals eating his worm. Finally I told him to go dig around until he found his worm and then dig a REALLY deep hole and bury it, and then the birds couldn't get to it. So he did that, but really---bawling over a worm? Crazy kid.

For Lindsay

I'm trying to get my sister Lindsay to start a blog, but she says she can't--at least until she's finished with her Pathophysiology class. So until then, I take it upon myself to tell the world her news.

da da da DAAAAAAAA:

She got accepted to the Dental Hygiene program at Weber State. (She's already been going to school there for two years and has her Associates, but now she's officially in the program.) I asked her if she already works at a dentist's office, what does she need to go to two years of school for, and she said so that she can administer laughing gas and other anesthetics. So now we'll have two people in our family that can put people to sleep. Except, Lindsay pointed out, that she won't ever be able to give enough that could kill a person. That's nice. Should be less malpractice insurance then, right?

Anyway, the more touching story is that she was really really sick yesterday--enough so that she called in sick to work and stayed home and layed on the couch. No eating, no studying, nothing (and that is amazing for her...the no studying part). So anyway, she tried calling mom for sympathy and couldn't get a hold of her at home or on her cell, so she called Dad demanding to know where she was, and he said she was probably at such and such a place. Anyway, so he asked if she was okay (must have sounded bad) and she said no, not really, she was very sick. So he said, "Well, do you need anything?" and she answered "No, I'll be okay." But dad said, "Well, do you have some juice? I'm right over here at the credit union, I could pick up some juice for you and bring it to you (my mom and dad live an hour away near Logan, but dad works at Weber, which is in Ogden, where Lindsay lives)." So he came over and gave her some juice and some other stuff and a rose!!!!!!! Awwwwwww! Lindsay said she was so weak and sickish that she almost started to cry. Oh....what a great story.

And this from a man who has made famous ALL of these quotes in our family when we tried to get sympathy about some pain or ailment (sheesh, how would it be to be the youngest daughter?!):

It's a long way from your heart.

It will feel better when it stops hurting.

Suffer in silence. (I really like this one and use it on Jethro when he's whiny.)

Put a tourniquet around your neck.

Better amputate at the neck.

You'll either die or get better.


In honor of this sweet story, I found the only pictures I have on my computer with Dad AND Lindsay. They are stellar, as you can see. Especially this one, in which dad is chewing on his dinner, and Lindsay is hiding her face.

And this one is from when we were camping at our family reunion this summer.

Post from Brett

Brett is my clever honey. He made this shifter knob from a grill badge and a wooden bannister knob. He painted and shined up the Mercedes thingee and stained the knob and then covered them with clear epoxy. He is changing our transmission from an automatic to a standard this weekend and so this will be the cool shifter knob to signify how cool it is that we now have a standard. I told him it seemed a little Mexican-ish (no offense), but he said it's not because it's not a picture of the Virgin Mary. Anyway, he spent much creative energy on this and I think it turned out super. Yahoo Brett. (p.s. he wanted me to post this...so he really does contribute to this blog...whenever it's about a cool project that he's made, like a Mercedes shifter knob or a CO2 car.)

Piggie

So much fun with only a small piece of tape and a small kid. HA HA HA!!! What a cute little piglet she is!

I didn't know so many other people loved cilantro. It is weird that I had never really used it for so long. Thanks for all the ideas. Anyway--I don't have a hard and fast recipe for my salsa, I just throw things together. But I will describe what I did, because I hate it when people don't have a hard and fast recipe. :)

I chopped one onion, pretty fine.

I chopped about five or six smallish tomatoes.

I added all the cilantro I had left.

I squirted a bunch of lime juice (not from fresh limes, though I'm sure that would be great).

I mixed it around and added a small dash of garlic salt and lots of shakes of salt. Then, I took large bites of it, and put more dashes of salt in until I thought it was perfect. Then I let it sit in the fridge for the flavors to meld (that is, that's what I do when I can keep myself from eating it all right then.)

Some people like to add chopped up jalepenos, but I don't really.

Try it, and taste a small bit of Exaltation on a chip. :)

I'd just like to say that I cleaned my bathroom and did all the cobwebs in the house today. I'm so proud.

Food

So, I've had a fixation with food lately. The other night I went to Applebee's with a friend, and I ordered some really yummy cheesy noodle stuff with chicken. It was really good, and it was a huge helping. At one point, a little past halfway done, I thought, I should stop now. But, I just kept eating and eating, and I ate it all and my stomach was soooo full! Then I went home and after putting the kids to bed, Brett started watching a movie, so I sat down and joined him. Now, the day before I had made some tortilla soup, which is quite yummy, but my FAVORITE part of it is the fresh cilantro. I *LOVE* cilantro. I only used it really for the first time last summer, and I fell in love. So, anyway, you don't use up all of the cilantro in the bunch for the soup, so I had some left over. In the summer, I always made fresh salsa with it, with the tomatoes in my garden. Now, tomatoes are not in season, and so you pay a whole lot for them, but I decided I couldn't let my cilantro go to waste. :) So I made some fresh salsa, and Brett brought it out and I grabbed a chip, and he's like, "I thought you said you were sooo full?" And I said, "I'm just going to have a few chips." Yeah. It was SOOOOOO good. I can't even describe the goodness of the tomatoey, oniony, limey, salty, CILANTRO-yness. We ate the entire bowl. It was heaven. Absolute heaven. And I was really full. :) (If anyone has any fantastic recipes using cilantro, pass them along please! Brett asked if we had a neighbor who was a witch who had cilanto growing in her garden would I make him go get some and give up my baby. I said, I hope we never have to find out.)

That's not so weird, after all. It's something (at least since last summer) that I know I completely ADORE, but I had a weirder craving today. I actually bought store-bought bread, and the american singles cheese--two things I don't think I've bought in my married life--to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Now, I like grilled cheese sandwiches, but we always just have it with our bread, and regular cheese. In fact, I actually HATE american cheese EXCEPT in grilled cheese sandwiches like these. And I flipped through a magazine this morning, saw an ad for Kraft singles that showed a grilled cheese sandwich (it wasn't the one at above, but you get the idea) and I had to have one. It was delicious too. I had chocolate milk with it to dip it in occasionally (that's how it's done at the Rasmussen house--sometimes we'd have after we got home from boating or other occasions, grilled cheese sandwiches in the waffle iron and chocolate milk, it was such a treat!!) Anyway. We used up the whole loaf of bread in one afternoon. For your information, Kroger american cheese has twice the sodium, half the fat, and half the calcium of Kroger regular block cheddar cheese (not that I care). Anyway. I know I've held you spellbound about my eating habits of late, but we must move on to other news.

We got a new computer. It's WONDERFUL in that we don't have a tons of things half-ways corrupt, and we have a WHOLE lot more space, but also it's hard to get used to a new layout. I always think that the old way is better.

I cut Ethne's hair today. I'm not positive if I'm glad I did or not...it got gradually shorter and shorter as I tried to make it even, but it's not a mullet anymore.

What a cutie.

I like this one. ;)