Happy Friday!

This was a fast lunch because we had just gotten back from the Zoo, very nutritional wouldn't you agree?

Abygail couldn't get enough of it :)

Welcome To Earth!

Welcome to Earth Brooklyn Avery!

We are so excited you are here!!!!!

Happy Birthday Shawn & Kellee!

...and many more
on channel 4
and Scooby Doo
on channel 2
Y'all look like some monkeys
and you smell like them too!!!

A Picture for Earth Day:

Thank NASA for this picture.

Make sure you look at it full size and scroll around the picture.
Its awe inspiring.

golden girls

Make A Change: Earth Day

Picture it, Sicily 1937 ... OH WAIT, that's a Golden Girls episode. (Which happens to be one of my all time favorite TV shows..)

It was the day before Earth Day 2008 (Monday) and my Method All Purpose Cleaner was empty, rather the sprayer could no longer suck up what was left in the bottle. I check the bottom and see that the recycle logo has a #1 in it. "Yup", I think to myself, "it's recyclable". I begin washing it out. After the second attempt of rinsing the residue out I notice it still smells like the cleaning solution, I stop and think "WHAT AM I DOING!!!". I realize if it still smells maybe it still has some cleaning power too...and who am I kidding, I use it to wipe down my counter tops and table - who needs more than water for that on a daily basis. I stop rinsing it out and fill it with water instead, accomplishing 3 things: 1 reusing the bottle thus keeping it from a landfill, 2 replacing it with and even earth friendlier cleaning product - water, 3 saving money by not buying another bottle of the cleaner right away. Then I make a decision, I've seen on many a website the powers of baking soda and vinegars as cleaning solutions, that's it - I'm making my own cheap cleaner for now on and reusing this bottle for it.

I share this with you because it's Earth Day and there are lots of things we can all do, lots of changes we can all make. A wise woman once told me (and I can't find it so I can't link to it) it's step by step that we make changes. This Earth Day make a resolution to change one thing for the betterment of the environment. Maybe it's something simple like using cold water to wash your clothes instead of hot, or possibly changing to recycled paper products. Maybe you will grow a garden or hang up a clothes line to dry your clothes. Or maybe you will start making your own cleaning products or replacing them with eco-friendly ones. Perhaps you will start bringing your own bags to the supermarket or start shopping at the farmers market. Whatever it is, just do it. Make one change and stick to it. You, we, the animals, the earth...everything will be better for it.

Disclaimer: I hope that no one takes this wrongly - I'm not perfect and I'm still so far from running an eco-friendly house and family. I hope that my inspiration for this day will also inspire you - that's all. One change at a time.

Happy Birthday Jaden!

Jaden (my nephew) turned 1 yesterday and although I normally don't do birthday shout outs on here I thought a 1 year birthday was worth shouting out (and I actually remembered it - this is the real reason why I don't do birthday shout outs - I always miss the date and then feelings get hurt and I just don't want to do that).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JADEN, WE HOPE YOU HAD A SPECIAL DAY YESTERDAY!

My Mouth Is On Fire!...And Other Random Things

I picked up a new salsa at the store the other day. We are salsa lovers and it's a staple of our diet. I haven't found any good salsa since leaving Texas. I found a replacement. It's called Screaming Hot made by Garden Fresh of MI. I really didn't notice or realize that the name of it was SCREAMING HOT. Once I did take note of that I thought "how hot could it be, I'm from TX!" Well...

Down Side: IT BURNS! HELP!
Up Side: SOOOOO YUMMY!
Down Side: So Yummy I can't stop eating it - IT BURNS! HELP!

We've now tried all the other flavors (except Mango - yuk!) and honestly - none of them are quite as delicious as the Scream Hot. We'll have to see if mixing it with one of their milds will do the trick. Until then - if you come to our house and we offer you salsa, consider yourself warned!!!

We finally bought Jason a bike with some of our tax return money. He's really been enjoying riding to school. It takes him about 15 mins to get to south campus and 25 mins to north campus from home. We are so proud of him for riding! This will not only help our pursuit of treading more lightly on the environment but it will also save our pocket book about $30 a month in either bus tokens or gas.

Yesterday Jason removed the tree from our front yard. Many people have worked on this tree. First the weather uprooted it, then the city chopped it up and left us a stump half in the ground, then the gas company repaired the leak in the gas line from it's uprooting and pulled most of it the rest of the way out of the ground for us, lastly Jason chopped it up. It's been a long time coming but this weekend was the perfect weekend to do it and frankly, it could not have been done before now. He did a great job and had a lot of "fun" (in his words) doing it. It gave him a reason to buy a chainsaw and do manly things. He looked like He-man at one point - he was swinging a rather large ax to chop through a root.
Abygail loves music (as we've mentioned many times before), she's learning so many songs. It seems like we sing all day long. A few months back I started trying to involve her in the singing. We were in the car and I was singing Popcorn Popping and I stopped mid-verse to see if she would sing the next line...SHE DID! Now I sing part of the song and stop, wait for her to pick it up, when she's gone as far as she can then I pick it back up. Our singing sessions go back and forth just like that. This morning on the way to church she wanted to sing Child of God "by self" (as she likes to say about EVERYTHING). It was such an endearing and precious moment to hear her sing as much of the song as she could remember.
Abygail has nick names for all of us. Jackson is Jackson-Boy, Daddy is Daddy-Man and Mommy is Mommy-kins. She also likes to say HI!, in her sing song voice, to everyone she sees and walks around the house saying "my name Abygail!". Her favorite show is Little Bear and she has finally started to like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

The kids love playing with Daddy, their favorite thing to do is clobber him!

Jackson has become quite the character. He loves his Daddy very much and can't wait to see him and crawl up into his arms. The other day he got up in Jason's lap all by himself (he was on the floor and Jason was sitting in a chair). He likes to wave at everyone. He says "bye, bye" and "hello". He likes snuggling his blanket and rubbing his face on it to go to sleep. He wants to eat whatever we are eating ESPECIALLY if it's pizza. He also like eating dirt!

We went to a playground Friday morning and he got to swing for the first time, just like Abygail's first time, he wasn't sure if he liked it. Abygail got to swing in a big girl swing and L.O.V.E.D. IT! I had a hard time prying her away from the regular swing and the tire swing. We had such a good time that we went back after dinner that night with Daddy. It was a perfect day and EVERYONE from the neighborhood was already at the park. I was glad there were 2 of us. The kids had a great time running around, sliding, jumping on the 'jumping bridge' and eating dirt. Someone had a bubble machine there and Abygail loved dancing under the bubbles too.

Jason and I took on Chris and Rozannah's challenge while we were there. I'm sorry to say that I only made it around once and Jason did it twice. I think we need more practice and less people there watching us! Just give us a few more weeks and we'll be the winners!!!!!

That's it - we've been up to ... nothing. ;)

A Picnic

We went to the zoo today to, but just kept on driving when we saw that everyone that lives in the city of Buffalo was at the zoo too. That's the nice thing about having a pass, when it's crowded you can just say "we'll go another day". It would have been miserable, no walking or playing on the playground for Aby because I'm too paranoid to let her do those things when there are lots of people around. Maybe another day, that's what I told Abygail and promised to go to the duck park instead. She fell asleep in the car just before we got there so we turned around and came home for naps instead.

To make up for a promise we took our dinner of P.B.&J.s to the duck park for a picnic and hike. We found a quite little spot and enjoyed our dinner and watched the ducks. Soon all the male ducks swarmed in on the female duck...you can guess what happened next. I'm glad I'm not a duck because it was pretty violent and I'm sure she's missing lots of feathers now.

Abygail had fun climbing the hills and running around. We took a little hike by the river (until we couldn't go any farther with the stroller - next time we'll go stroller-less). I showed Abygail how to skip rocks - she thought it was fun to just throw the rocks into the water.

We topped dinner off with a trip to our favorite Ice Cream Parlor, Sweet Jenny's, YUMMMMO! They even had my favorite flavor, orange chocolate.

We all had fun and enjoyed the warm weather with the temp pushing 70. I forgot the camera so no pics.

An Email To My Mother In Law

(The following is an email I sent to my MIL this morning. I've deleted a few parts that were personal but since I haven't posted anything in a week and this email contained the exact discription of our week I decided to post it as a post. I've added some extra thoughts in () and blue - Enjoy!)

I hope your day yesterday was in the moment and stress free. (excerpt from her email to me: I read yesterday that stress comes from resisting the present moment (what ever is happening in your world) And that joy and fullness of life comes from accepting and giving 100 % to the present moment. I am experimenting on that today.) The weather here has been gorgeous this week. We've been playing in the back yard, doing some yard clean up work and we went to the zoo on Monday. (The Polar Bear was so funny and active. He was splashing in his water and playing with his toys. Also one of the Sea Lions was sleeping and every once in awhile he would stick his full head up out of the water for a good 3 mins and then go back under and float while sleeping.) We are planing on going back to the zoo today. Jackson road on the carousel for the first time and he wasn't quite sure what to think of it until the end, he finally started smiling. (Another first for Jackson is that he has discovered how to stand up in his high chair. We have been putting the buckles on him now, silly boy!) Did you go to the zoo with us? I can't remember. The carousel is NOT as fast as the one at the mall but it is a long ride too. By the end I'm so ready to get off that I start to contemplate jumping (but the kids, I decide not to for the kids sake - who would hold them on if I jumped?)

Jason is gearing up for a service project with the elder's quorum this weekend. Hopefully he'll have enough time and energy afterward to do some work on cleaning up and cutting down all the dead trees in our yard, if not I guess it will wait until next weekend (if it doesn't rain).

Jason signed up to teach at Trocaire again this summer, for one session instead of 2, it's the same class as last year so there will be less prep work for him.

For me: I'm reading a book called Eat, Pray, Love right now. It's pretty good but it's not holding my interest as much as I'd like. I've been reading it, this SHORT book, for a few weeks now. I like a lot of the things she talks about in it but I just can't get entirely into it. Next up will be our book club book call Influencer. While working on the lawn Tuesday I discovered a huge grouping of bulbs coming up. There is one lone daffodil already up, I think daffodils are so pretty, like little sideways tea partys.

Abygail is in a 5 1/2 shoe size now (my little girl is no longer in the toddler sizes, "cry, cry"). It's a little big for her but she likes wearing her shoes that are 5 1/2 better than her 5's and they stay on so we just hope she will be able to use them for awhile.

Well, that's about all. I know I haven't posted anything on the blog lately. It occurs to me as I'm writing this that portions of it would be perfect for a blog posting. Hmmmm, maybe I'll just copy it, modify it and post it. I've got a few other posts in the works but haven't completed them or compiled my full thoughts on them yet so they are sitting in my un-posted file waiting for my attention. It seems as the weather has gotten nicer I am on the computer less because we are home less.

Have a great day and LIVE IN THE MOMENT. (I think I'll adapt that as my new motto).

What I Miss About Texas

I saw a friend's blog recently that had some great pictures of Blue Bonnets (the Texas state flower) and it started me to think about what I miss.

This is what I miss about Texas (in no particular order):
-Blue Bonnets
-thunderstorms - the smell, the before, the after, the during, the desire to curl up with a good book and read/watch it all happen, the panic of taking cover and tornado sirens
-pecans
-friends
-family
-spring
-On The Border
-all Tex-Mex food
-salsa
-Easter-because you can actually have an easter egg hunt outside and my family is there so it would be fun
-Stephenville/Morgan Mill and weekends with my adopted family
-REAL Texas Ruby Red Grapefruits
-the zoo(s)
-The Water Gardens
-the aquarium
-sky scrapers
-the Pegasus down town
-cowboys

I'm sure I've forgotten things but these are the things that I miss most.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Tuesday I celebrated my long awaited 25th Birthday (for the millionth time).

My sweet husband got me just what I wanted and more. Sewing Machine, Quilting supplies, socks, and cinnamon gum-yum!

Other things that happened on my birthday:
The gas company dug up our front lawn and repaired a leak in the gas line as well as moved our meter to the outside (now I don't have to let them in, yea!).

Jason and Jackson have both been sick but Jason was sick as a dog on my birthday. I wasn't very sympathetic, I must admit, darn it - it was my day and ... well birthdays are a day off and there are no make up days for your birthday. He took it well though and still made my birthday special. He got me a cake, which I shared with Abygail. (I was a bad mommy and gave her a pizza party but no cake for her birthday - which is probably a bigger deal for me than for her. I make a special cake that is 'Abygail's' cake-heavenly angel cake- and a special cake that is 'Jackson's' cake-lincoln log cake. I started this tradition before she was even born and we ate her cake just days after her birth. It makes me sad but there were several reasons why it didn't happen, the biggest reason was I couldn't find the whisk attachment for the kitchen-aid, which is mandatory for her particular cake.)

We didn't give Jackson any cake but he just couldn't help himself - he loved it finger full!

All in all it was an eventful and nice 25th birthday for the Xth time!

Note Worthy

Sunday morning as I made cinnamon rolls for our ward's conference breakfast we watched the birds fly in and out of the backyard. There were Robins and Sparrows but there were 2 other visitors that we took special note of. One was a Cardinal that also visits our front yard from time to time, gracing us with it's presence right in front of our living room window - offering a perfect view of it's beauty. The other was a wood pecker, we didn't get the best look at it but we hope to see it again.

When we arrived back from the first session of conference we took note of flowers pushing up out of the ground (irises, tulips, daffodils - we know not, that's the joy of new home ownership and suprises left from previous owners), we were very please and excited.

Cauliflower and Broccoli

The seeds I've planted so far are coming right along. The Zinnias sprouted quite awhile ago, the Cauliflower and Broccoli came soon after, now I'm starting to see the Tomatoes emerging. This has been an exciting process for myself and Abygail, who loves to help me water them and even helped me drop a few seeds in.

Sunday afternoon we enjoyed a lovely chat with our neighbors in the back yard. We are so excited the weather has gotten so lovely. It's nice to come out of hibernation from a long winter.


Last week we went to the zoo with lots of friends, Abygail loved playing on the playground and 'hanging' out with her friends. She also loves to see all the animals. Mostly, I think she just likes being outside and able to walk freely around (close by mommy of course).


Today we visited the duck park and enjoyed seeing that the Mallard ducks are back from their winter homes, the squirels were scurring about and the birds were singing their songs.

Abygail's Birthday, Part II

(This is a picture of playgroup, a lot of people had already left by the time I thought to take a picture. There were 16 adults and 27 kids - we had a great time!)

Our church group has playgroup every Tuesday. Usually we forget or we don't remember until it's too late. We were lucky enough to switch dates with someone so that we could hold playgroup at our house for Abygail's birthday. We made pizza and cookies for everyone and played, played, played. We also had an art area set up so that everyone could put a hand print on some poster board for a memory keepsake of this special date. Abygail had lots of fun. We sang happy birthday to her and she just smiled. She also got to say the prayer and bless the food...very sweet. She had so much fun with her friends and really liked the pizza. She zonked out after everyone left - she was "pooped"!

Abygail's Birthday, Part I

This morning woke up and came down the stairs to tons of balloons in the living room. She loved them and was so happy (unlike a lot of mornings). She saw her presents and was excited to open them. Most importantly she saw her tricycle, she knew immediately what it was.

It was so much fun to see her excitement and happy face.