Getting back on track

For 3 weeks I did really well watching what I ate and going "sugar free". I was really starting to feel good about myself. But then, for the last 2weeks, I have been in a hormonal induced eating frenzy that is out of control! It's terrible. Next month, I'm going to have to be locked up and chained.

Last Birthday of the Year

Good Morning Birthday Boy! I'm having a hard time believing that I'm a mother to a 15 year old! I'm kinda thinking that I'll be feeling that way with each passing birthday from now on. To celebrate, we went to a place called Monster Golf. It's an indoor glow-in-the-dark mini golf. It was very fun!

They have a huge clown's face against one wall. For the last hole you have to hit your ball onto his tongue and into his mouth. Liv HATES clowns and had her back toward it anytime it was in view.

My boys!

Here we are TRYING to take a picture. The creature we were sitting in front of started moving and the little ones took off. I'm trying to tell everyone to sit back down when hubby takes the picture. That was the end of our photo session.

A New Addition!

We've been wanting a piano for years. But because no one plays, it's hard to justify the expense on a "what if". Luckily for us, someone in our old ward was giving this one away, and you just don't say no to a free piano. Obviously, it is very old. Early 1900's I'm told. But I love the oldness of it. It needs a lot work, new ivories, tuning, refinishing. But hey, it works! And since no one plays, we can't tell it's out of tune! (Don't worry, we will have it tuned soon) I have to say, I'm impressed with how the kids have showed an interest in learning. Years ago, I bought the church books on how to learn to play the piano and they have actually been trying to learn. G-man even played a simple melody for FHE! We Love it!

Yes on Prop 8

As you may or may not know, in 2 weeks California will be voting on Propostion 8. This propostion is about saving and defining traditional marriage as "only marriage between a man and a women is valid and recognized in Californina." The debate on this issue has really been heating up lately. With only 2 weeks left before election day, it seems both sides are hard at work to get their voices heard. I'm not one to usually take a stand and advocate any particular issue but this one, I felt like, is just too important. This issue is important to me and my family because we believe in traditional marriage and all that it stands for. I do believe that marriage is ordain of God and should be kept as such. It's people and government that have taken God out of marriage. This propostion will have far-reaching effects on our churches and schools. I don't want my children learning about alternative life-styles at school. That is a parent's resposibility. No on Prop 8 will tell you that won't happen, but in Mass. where gay marriage is legal, it already has. Even though you may not live in California this could very well effect you. They say that if this passes here, it won't be long before you will be seeing this kind of propostion on your own ballots soon. There are many good websites out there to get informed and I just wanted to pass them along. Get involved. We can use all the support we can get.
Go to Protect Marriage or WhatisProp8

Tolerance doesn't mean acceptance.

Off-Track Fun!

Another adventure for my off-trackers. This time hubby took them to Mount Diablo. They first climbed to the top of Mt. Diablo and then to a place called Rock City. It has cool sandstone formations. So the kids got to do their favorite thing, climb. It was probably a good thing I wasn't there or I would have been a wreck! Again, another memorable trip with Papa.

Recipes

I've been meaning to add some recipes to my blog for while, but I'm barely managing to post at all. I ENJOY cooking this time of year. Yummy homemade soups, fresh baked breads, pot roasts, turkey with all the trimmings, pumpkin cookies and muffins!! All those foods you've stayed away from in the summer because it's just too hot to cook anything! Makes me hungry just thinking about it. I just recently made a Southwest Chicken Chili, (my husband will debate with me that this is actually a chili, but I didn't make up the name, so you can call it what you want.) and these yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Yes, I did indulge, just trying not to go overboard. So anyway, here are the recipes, hope you enjoy them.

Southwest Chicken Chili (soup)

In a large pot add:

3 whole chicken breast (cooked)cut up into bite-size pieces

1 cup chopped onions

2 cloves of garlic

Cook in 2 tsp of oil

Then add:

2 cans stewed tomatoes (if you want some kick, sub 1 can for diced tomatoes with chilies)

2/3 cup mild salsa

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt ( I don't use this)

1 can ranch style pinto beans

1 can bush baked beans ( I usually use chili beans instead, I bet black beans would be good)

Heat through and serve with sour cream, green onion, shredded cheese, diced avocado, chips. MMmm good.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 cups flour

2 cups oats

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp salt

Mix dry ingred together.

1 1/2 cup soften butter

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 16oz can Libby pumpkin or it's 15 oz I can't remember

a bag of chocolate chips, I prefer milk chocolate

Mix together wet ingred. then add dry to wet and mix all together, add chocolate chips and Bake at 350 for 10-15 min. It depends on the size of the cookie. I tend to make mine big so I bake for 12 min. This dough will be moist and sticky. Enjoy!

P.S. Liv heard this song and has been singing it ever since!

This week

This week hubby took Mr. E and Sweet Pea to the newly renovated Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Hubby has been waiting a long for it to open. They had a great time and he even took pictures.


After visiting the Academy they made a stop at the beach. Always a good time.
Unfortunately I couldn't go because I still had daycare kids that I had to watch but we do plan on going again next month when all the kids are off for Veteran's Day. This week I've been making dresses for Liv. She is a part of a little Musical Theater group that a lady in our Stake started. This year they are doing Cinderella, the Rodger and Hammerstein version. She is one of the townspeople and needs two dresses. Luckily my dear friend, Ashlee ,helped me out and interpreted the directions for me. I have one finished and I just need to put a zipper in and hem the other. I've come to the conclusion that I don't like sewing dresses. Too complicated. I'll take a picture when I'm all done.
Oh, My sister did great in the marathon by the way, she was worried for nothing, although I knew she would be. She calls me when she's done and tells me it was her slowest marathon ever. Her and I have different opinions about what slow is. She still ran it in 3:45:45 and would qualify for the Boston if she wanted to. Oh well, I guess that's the problem when you run fast it's harder to beat your own time. Luckily for me I'm slow enough so I still feel like I have room for improvement! Although, this week I only ran once. It's getting chilly in the morning and it's hard to get the motivation to put on running clothes when you're cold.
I've done really well without eating sugar. I went two full weeks without cheating. (not bad, for me) Then I had a brownie and went another week or so without any sugar. This is a really bad time of year to try to go without sugar. With all the holidays coming up, I really like to bake this time of year. The kids and I made sugar cookies tonight and I couldn't resist eating one. Oh well, at least I know I can do it even if it's just for a couple weeks. I do feel better anyway.

Sacramento Temple

Sunday after Conference, I needed to get out of the house. It was such a beautiful day and I needed some fresh air. So the kids and I took a little drive to the Sacramento Temple. I don't know why I have never done this before. It was so nice and peaceful to walk around the Temple grounds and the kids really enjoyed it. We saw the Temple turkeys that hang out there and even saw around 7 deer running around. It was very cool. We'll do this more often.

A little break

My two little elementary school aged kids are now off for the month of October. The benefits of year round school. The downfall, the two older ones aren't. Oh, well. Sometimes it's just nice to not have to worry about getting them out the door or doing homework. I'm looking forward to it.

Besides being General Conference this weekend, it is also the St. George marathon. Which means one year ago tomorrow, I ran my own marathon. It seems so out of reach now. Maybe, when little A is in school I may want to try again. We'll see. But my sister is running it! She isn't feeling too positive about it because she's had some problems with her hamstring but she's going for it anyway. Good Luck! I'll be tracking you!