x-country

Andrew had his 4th cross country meet this afternoon in Jerome.  Steve had the day off (canceled jury duty) so we took the whole family to watch.  I was happy we were able to make it and even more happy Steve knew the course so I could be where I needed to be for pictures.

We arrived around 10 minutes before the 7th and 8th grade boys ran.

 Here Andrew was at the beginning of the race...

the middle...

 and the finish line.

Steve and I were both really proud of him.  He's improved tons from last year and stays with the lead pack for the entire race.  He came in 14th this time.  

 Steve and I both commented how we can't believe how fast he is growing up and we know his little brothers aren't far behind.

Slow down kid...you're killing me.

A good portion of his cross country team.

(I'm thinking 12-13 year old girls are even more crazy than  boys.)

Even more evidence that Steve and I are becoming parents of "older" children is the fact that Andrew once again does not have ONE decent cold weather jacket that fits him.  Ghee Whiz.

He is going on a service camp-out to Camp Bradley tomorrow night and as we helped him pack I realized his lack of cold weather gear.  His arms once more have grown inches and inches.  I will be (again) going to the store in the morning to buy him new sweatshirts and jackets.  I was just there last night to buy him sweats for cross country.  Little did I know I would be going back the next day...mostly because I don't want to go to jail for neglect.  Juvenile frostbite wouldn't be good.

gf gingersnaps

I bought some gf ginger cookies this last weekend and payed WAY too much for how many were in the package.  I hid them in my closet and ate them when my kids weren't looking.  

My favorite part were the chunks of candied ginger in them.  It also made so Steve wouldn't eat as many as he doesn't care for fluffy stuff like that in his cookies.  He's a purist, and I'm grateful for that...more cookies for me.  Well, the package was gone way too fast so I decided to come up with my own.

I took two recipes I like, one molasses and one gingerbread and combined the two all the while adding WAY more ginger than either of them called for.

I came up with...

 these.

Yes, they are as good as they look and nobody in my family could tell they were gluten free.

Sadly, I did not have candied ginger in the house, but next time I will add that too.

GF Gingersnaps

1 C. shortening

1C. brown sugar

1/2 C. molasses

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1tbs vinegar

1/2 tsp cloves

2 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1C each of oat, domata and maninis flour

The dough was really thick and I ended up kneading it like bread dough with my hands.

Roll small balls of dough in sugar and bake 350 degrees for about 11 minutes.

 Whats one thing better than a gingersnap cookie?  

Grady at 6 months.  Love love love this blue eyed boy.

Just had to document what happens when Say does her own hair.

It's pretty awesome let me tell  you!

New Hair...or just a lot shorter, however you want to look at it.

The last time I had a haircut was November 2012.  The previous one before that was probably January 2012.   I guess one could say haircuts are not a priority for me.

 Because of my lack of self grooming, my hair got really crazy long.

(Great picture...I've got mirror skills.  cough cough)

The braids made my hair look about 3 inches shorter than it was.   It was a bit ridiculous.  

It was heavy too and always in my way- why it was always pulled back in a bun or braided.  

Because of the post partum shedding thing, there were REALLY long pieces of hair all over my house and I was constantly cleaning them up.   (I won't even go into what I cut off of the vacuum roller today.)  It was time to say goodbye to my "Little House on the Prairie" hair.  Laura Ingalls called and she would like her hair back.

 So I took the plunge yesterday, actually entered a salon and got my hair cut.

The stylist first cut off these babies.  Gulp...no going back now.  She then took off another 2 inches finishing the style.  I will attest to there looking like a furry animal on the floor when she was done.

 Self picture in the car waiting to pick up kids at school

Carter was shocked and gave a grimace as he walked up to the car.  He thought I looked a little hideous.

 From the back.

 I broke out those sweet mirror skills of mine and took this picture after I curled my hair this afternoon.

You get the idea.

Self portrait of curly hair.

(That halo is NOT from an illuminated light fixture...but from my angelic personality...no really it is.)

I cannot believe how much lighter my head feels without my long locks.  Washing, combing through, drying and curling were a breeze!  My hair has much more body and-surprise surprise- is super curly in the back (tragically, just in the back).  Those curls were pulled straight with all that weight.

I think I'm going to like this cut.  

The stylist tried to get me to highlight my hair in that crazy "just the tips and front" style.  Whoa...slow down...hold your horses!  Only one drastic change at a time.  

Plus, I kind of like my natural color.  Now when it starts going gray, that will be an entirely different story!

Pictures I stole from my own phone

Silly (but some not so silly) things from this week.

aka:  Man, I must be really blessed with a sweet life if this is the most complicated things I've had to deal with this week.   Or, I'm just loopy enough to have blocked anything truly stressful out.  

My kids had spaghetti earlier this week.  I ate my sauce on roasted cauliflower.  

It was WAY more delicious than I had anticipated.  I'll be running to the store soon to buy more cauliflower.  GF makes me think outside the box sometimes.

 

But this box...really ticked me off.

Why?  

Because I love Crispix, always have but haven't eaten them in a while.

Was all excited when I saw them at Costco and for about .5 seconds when I thought I could eat them.  "Crispy Rice and Crispy Corn"  

No wheat = no gluten, right?

Wrong.

Blasted malt flavoring.

Blasted Crispix and their gluten flavorings.  

 I'm really mad at Kellogg's right now.

(See how my life must be pretty awesome if my biggest gripe is to a cereal company?  No, the absurdity is not lost on me.)

 My neglected garden is producing.  

Bring on the sweet meat pies and muffins.

Andrew is so busy lately it makes my head spin.

Cross country meet at Magic mountain yesterday and one in Rigby today.

I miss him and hope I get to see him at all this weekend.

Gluten Free Banana-Zucchini Muffins.

Amazing recipe that I tweaked to be gluten free.

2 eggs

1 C sugar

1/2 oil

1 banana mashed

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 c grated zucchini

3/4 C domata flour 

3/4 C plus 2 Tbs manini flour

chocolate chips- lots.

Bake 325 for about 30 minutes.  

This picture is from the first batch...the second batch I cooked longer.  It was browned more and didn't fall quite as much.

pictures I stole from my mom

Last night I borrowed my mom's phone for a few minutes and stole pictures.  Some were from over a year ago.  Most of them were from when Steve and I were in Italy last fall.  

Love my Mom.  Love her phone.  Love these pictures, however old and outdated they are.

Saylor with her Minnie and Micky brought back from Mom and Dad's Disney World trip.

Say loves these things.

Digging potatoes with Grandpa.

 Grandpa's trains will forever be cool.

Attempt to guilt me into buying a pet for my children.  Didn't work.

 (Yep...my dad takes my kids to the pet store for a good time. We are easily entertained.)

 My. Mom. Can. Braid. Hair.

 I'm a horrible mother and left the country on my son's 9th birthday.  Grateful that my mother loves him enough to party him.

(oh yeah...and I'm leaving him again this year.  Dental meetings can be really inconvenient.)

 8 months pregnant. 

Why did I let my mom take this picture?

Please note the Diet Dr. Pepper in the background that I'm sure was mine.

Taken the day my water broke.

 Yes I am wearing the same shirt as in the previous picture.  I only had like three shirts that fit by this time.

 Brand-spanking new Grady.

 Sister Love

 New brothers are boring.  Helicopter pad at the hospital is much more fun.

 Cleaning up pine needles at Grandpa Walkers.

I love that my dad has lots of property and trees so my children can learn to work.

Shoe Tree.

My parents came upon this during their travels to Oregon this last week.  I think we should start one in Twin.  Any ideas of where a good tree is?

we survived the weekend

Whew.  I lived.

I made it through another week alive.  

Sometimes just saying that seems like an accomplishment.

As a coping mechanism to minimize stress, I compartmentalize my life into weeks at a time. If it doesn't have to do with the upcoming seven days, it doesn't matter.  I don't even think about it or my head might explode. 

This week, even with my seven day or else approach, just about did me in.

Here are a few highlights of my most recent almost undoing.

Wednesday I was the guest speaker for my ward's Young Women activity.  I was asked to speak on Real Beauty.  This talk weighed on my mind (for a lot longer than seven days) as I wanted so badly to help the darling young women in my ward realize how beautiful they really are.  I wanted to make sure I fulfilled their YW president's expectations of what she wanted the night to be.   I ended up taking in pictures of myself and all the ward YW leaders when we were teenagers.   It turned out great and I was happy with my talk.  I also took in flowers from my flower beds as a living copy of the Mormonad "Be Your Own Kind Of Beautiful".  

 Thursday morning after taking Andrew and Colby to school; Steve, the rest of the kiddies, and I drove to eastern Idaho for Carter's endocrinologist appointment.  I snapped this picture for my sister JaNae.  I miss her living in Pocatello.  Stopping at her former home was the highlight of our diabetes days.

Now we have to settle for stopping at Costco for their really delicious preservative free bread.  (Yep...I've become one of those nuts.  But, mostly just about this one kind of bread. It's really good- so I hear- and I bought 10 or so loaves to stash in my freezer for future school lunches.)

 We lived through Carter's appointment and I was grateful for his Dr's help in increasing Carter's I:C ratio and night time basal rates.  My brain has know this has needed to be done, but for some reason (new baby...new school year...my brain is oozing) I couldn't make it all work.  I couldn't sit down and figure out where to make the changes.    The day after his appointment his #'s read something to the effect of: 120, 89, 99, 120, 150...  Thank you, thank you Rocky Mountain Diabetes.  My fried neurons appreciate you, as do Carter's blood vessels.

While I was sitting at the diabetes center with Carter and Grady, Steve had this little miss at a quick care down the street.  On the way IF, Saylor's cold turned wicked and she started to cough non-stop and her breathing was super shallow.  (And I wonder why I can't concentrate on just one kid and their needs?)   One albuterol treatment later she was hyper and breathing great.

Friday, I took her again to a pediatrician here in Twin who prescribed a new inhaler...for such occasions as having an asthma attack on the way to Idaho Falls.

This picture is just to document why I need a bigger kitchen.  I have big kids who like to cook and do their own thing in the kitchen.  Here they are making a chocolate cake and pudding Friday night.  They even made a decent attempt at cleaning up their mess.  

Love these boys...really want a bigger kitchen. 

 Last night I chaperoned a Stake Dance.

The smell is still lingering in my nose.

-nuff said.

 Today was well...my birthday.

 Apparently, I turned 29.

Again.

 My wonderful offspring made me homemade cards which I admit are the absolute best kind.

 I love that my teenage son threw this beauty together and had it lying on my pillow when I woke up.

He deserves a gold star.

I love being 29 (ok...really I'm 36, but 29 sounds so much cooler).

 

Saylor was determined that I make a cake, just like I do for her birthdays, so I obliged with her help.

I made a gluten free lemon poppy seed cake that looked beautiful while it was baking, but as soon as it came out of the oven fell like a ton of bricks.  It then resembled a...ahem...bum crack.  

So we filled it with lemon glaze and carried on.

This recipe will forever now be known as bum crack cake.

(If you don't believe this name will stick, just ask my mom about her famous "Lead" bread.)

The only present I asked Steve for was smoked ribs.

(The presents I bought myself came in the mail on Friday.  He was so off the hook.)

Like a trooper, he started the ribs early this morning.  Unfortunately, the smell of the ribs smoking reminded me of when we first bought the smoker when I was just barely pregnant with Grady.  I spent most of the morning nauseated.  

...the ribs at 6 pm tonight were delicious and nausea free.  Thank goodness.

My kids and me with the bum crack cake.

Thanks family of mine for the fun birthday.  I love all of you!

But hey...aren't I missing someone?

Grady!  We HAVE to have pictures of you!

Grady started sitting in a high chair as of this morning.  

He is growing up WAY WAY WAY too fast.

tears

Tears were shed today when I went into Carter's school to change and infusion set that had come off during recess.  He was mortified that I wouldn't take him home, but insisted on changing the set in a locked bathroom where nobody would be able to see.  I felt horrible.

Tears were shed by him again tonight when he realized he had forgotten his bolus after dinner of 66 carbs and therefore had a blood sugar of 442 at 7:30.

I might shed tears when I have to do the walk of shame when Carter's A1C comes back higher than usual at his appointment this Thursday.  I feel like his numbers have been creeping up higher and higher lately and I'm struggling to keep them down.

I'm trying to keep my chip up and remember that I can only worry about one day at a time with diabetes.  One frustrating day at a time.

...the non-frustrating days I don't worry about.

Life will go on and we will survive.  Perspective is everything.  So his A1C is crappy this time?  I spent an hour reading a blog last night about an 8 year old with reoccurring leukemia.  I'll take our crappy A1C any day.   We will try harder and be more aggressive with his insulin dosing.

...one day at a time.

Monday

Definitely a Monday today.

How could I tell?

The laundry was backed up and once again (what else is new) oozing out of the laundry room.

It was so thick today I let Grady sit right in the pile of clothing waiting to be washed...I wasn't worried about him falling and hurting himself that was for sure.  Little worried about his brothers' dirty underwear though. 

 As I walked through my house this morning- in between batches of laundry- picking up piles of junk and crap my kids left out this weekend, I happened into my teenage son's room.  I haven't been in there for a while.  It's a place I try not to smell regularly (jk Andrew.  You're not too smelly)  Anyhoo...I got a kick out of the top of his dresser.  Star Wars Lego armies are the best...as are Land Cruisers...and pictures of the prophet, temple and the Savior.  

I enjoy my eldest son growing up and I'm grateful he is a part of our family.

Totally not related to it being a Monday or having anything to do with a teeangery room...

Um...yeah...I think he is officially too big to sit in this seat anymore.