carrot top's prayer

dinner prayer by carrot top last night,
"dear God, thank you for the people that made this food. help me to get my bleep (he really said bleep) together. amen."

funny....

our good friend troy was helping us out because by scanning in our family picture & emailing it to us. here are some variations on the original that i thought were funny.




everybody always says how much caleb looks like his dad.



ben's wish finally came true...about 6'2" wouldn't you say?

one flew INTO the cuckoo's nest

so yesterday i came walking down the stairs when to my left i heard some frantic fluttering. i looked over to see a small bird had flown through our front door which had been left open accidentally about 5 inches. 

i called for ben and he did his best to summon the small creature....think a male version of mary poppins with a spoon full of sugar but without the awesome purse that holds everything. the bird actually sat on ben's hand for a minute. but the second ben would walk or do anything, the bird would flip out and start ramming into the windows. i was afraid it was about to do some harm to itself. finally the bird caught on to the fact that we were trying to help him, and flew out the open door. 

my dreams of one day owning my own aviary or possibly singing a duet with a bird were shattered.

but it got me thinking...we had a really REALLY bad day with carrot top yesterday. to the point that he did some more property damage and then decided to try to get some negative attention by doing some self-harm. he goes through this cycle every so often of not knowing how to deal with his anger...or boredom...or fear...or whatever it is. 

i thought about this little bird, as ben and i were doing everything we could to get it to safety & freedom, the bird continued to freak out and bash itself into walls and windows. i was soooooo frustrated with carrot top yesterday and couldn't believe the level he will take things just to get negative attention. 

while ben and i and carmella (our AWESOMEST staff member) were standing there, talking softly, reasoning, trying to make him laugh, finally telling him he is sinking his own ship and needs to start bailing himself out, that there is nothing more we could do. and he just kept hitting himself against walls, windows, dressers, couches, you get the idea.

what i'm saying is that i got a little perspective yesterday. that i don't know how much time it will take for carrot top to understand that the front door has been open the whole time and all he needs to do is just stop fighting and start flying. 

maybe he will never understand. maybe it will just take some time, like the bird. 

but whatever he chooses, ben and i will be standing there with our hands open, ready to help.

thankful...

this year thanksgiving is not traditional for us. carrot top is still here, the other two clients have left. ben and i were really hoping that it would just be us, but we understand that this is the life we have chosen for a year so we just take it one day at at time. it doesn't make me any less grateful though, i love this day because it really causes me to sit and think of just how much i have to be thankful for. there have been so many amazing people that have gone in and out of my life and so many that are still involved in my life. i've heard the saying "if you don't have your health, you don't have anything." and i agree with that. but i also think, if i were to come down with a terminal illness tomorrow, how would i get through it? i think with my strong faith in God, and then with the support of those who love me. so this blog is dedicated to my friends and family, i love you so much and am so grateful for all that you have done and continue to do. you have shaped me to be who i am today.

i am grateful for my little family, ben and caleb. these two boys give me so much joy and happiness. i couldn't ask for a better husband than ben. he is patient, kind, freaking hilarious, and a good man. i have the best time with him and am so grateful that we found eachother and are still as in love today as we were 5 years ago. it just keeps getting better with ben and i can't wait to see what our future holds. and little caleb. we have been through a lot with him in his short 2 1/2 years and sometimes when i look at him, my eyes fill up because there was a time...not so long ago...that i did not know how long he would be with us. i was so afraid to love him because i was so afraid to lose him. but i've realized the true lesson that faith and fear cannot co-exist. so i chose faith, and that however long he was granted on this earth, i knew he would not leave unloved. each day with these two guys is a blessing.

i am grateful for my extended family. my parents who have always tried to teach me what is right and did an amazing job being parents. i love you. my brother and sister, as we grow older our relationships just seem to get better. i love you. my in-laws, i love you guys! thank you for being awesome, i feel so lucky to have fantastic in-laws. none of those scary in-law stories. well, just a few, now that we've actually LIVED with some of them. just kidding felt fart family. my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and all that comes in between, i am grateful for you and the people that you are.

i am grateful for my friends. some of these fantastic people are so close that they feel like family. they are my elementary school friends, junior high & high school friends, college roommates, friends from rexburg, and now our new friends here in north carolina. ben and i thrive on our relationships with others and we are grateful to have been able to keep in touch with so many of you. you know you have a good friend when you don't see each other for 2 years and you are able to pick up just where you left off.

most of all i am so grateful for my heavenly father and jesus christ. all things that are given to me are direct blessings from heaven. i am so thankful that i have this relationship and will continue to strive to be more like my savior. i am so grateful for the gospel in my life and the light that comes from the truth. it has been so much fun to be out here in the mission field where we are able to introduce others to the gospel.

i hope you all have a fantastic thanksgiving. thank you for being a part of our lives! we love you.

day 3-5

DAY 3:
this was the day for ben & i to go to the conference so we enjoyed attending classes and learning more about the teaching family model which is the model we use in the home. we both learned some really great information and enjoyed the classes we went to. my mom took caleb out again and tried to get into the white house to take a tour but there was a major riot going on this time, some type of racist protest that my mom felt was better to avoid. that night we met up with a favorite girl of mine, my sister lauren's best friend marianne, who is currently living in d.c. we hung out with our awesome supervisor, adia and enjoyed a really good italian meal at a restaurant called "luigi's." yum!





DAY 4:
2nd day of conference, some more good classes. this was the last day of our vacation and we'd felt like it had gone by way too fast. my mom & marianne met up again and took caleb to the lincoln memorial and the weather was beautiful after a couple of cold days.







everyday, we had eaten lunch at this yummy restaurant called "cosi" that ben & i dreamed about opening a franchise in chapel hill just so i could enjoy a tomato, mozzarella and basil pita wrap whenever i want to. makes my mouth water just thinking about it! we checked out early and drove home, stopping along the way for a good old bob evans dinner....minus the love-stricken hostess with the mostess.


DAY 5: my mom left this morning. :( i've loved spending some time with her and it was hard to see her go. back to the old daily grind of being threatened by carrot top, stopping fights between fantasia and ernest and getting unpacked. d.c. is only 4 1/2 hours away and i can't wait to go back!

day 2

DAY 2:
we opt out of the continental breakfast from the HO JO which i am sure consisted of some wrapped up leftovers from out of the dumpsters just to the right of our rooms. ben joked that he bet some used syringes were probably also on the menu. wouldn't surprise me. we check into our 2nd hotel, the capitol hilton which made us feel almost as uncomfortable because it was so beautiful and nice. suddenly WE were the white trash, having valets park our rental car and help the bell hop pack up our unmatching luggage & random target bags full of caleb's stuff onto the luggage carrier. we checked in to our fancy pants room and decided to make the most of the day. unfortunately we had not discussed this with mother nature who had other plans in mind. it was cold, windy and off & on rain while we set out on foot to the white house. we were just blocks away so our location was awesome, but it still was a bit miserable with the weather conditions, but we refused. to let our spirits be dampened. i was blown away by the beautiful architecture and the "feel" of the city. it reminded me of my trip to NYC, where everything just feels more exciting for some reason. just a bit less hollywood and more political. we saw the white house, and enjoyed the picketers that were protesting thanksgiving. they were holding signs that said "meet me don't eat me" which didn't even make sense. who wants to "meet" a turkey? i just felt they could have been a bit more creative but oh well. we went to the washington monument and the museum of natural history. we were pretty tired by about 5:00 and it was cold so we walked back to the hotel.

ready for a day of being tourists.




my mom & i had a girls night where ben had surprised us with tickets for an evening out to the austrian embassy. we dressed up, heard child prodigies play the music of strauss on the piano, ate fancy music and shared a cab with a good-looking drunk couple. the lady sat in the back and was very friendly. it took a turn for the "weird" when she told my mom her voice was very 'melodious.' that was nice, then she continued on, and said it was 'melodious and sensuous.' huh? i teased my mom the rest of the trip about her sensuous voice. we had a fantastic time.




meanwhile, ben and caleb had a "guys night" and ate at burger king. caleb got a crown, which he wore the rest of the night, even in the bathtub. pick your battles.







i love the architecture in this city. the buildings are huge and even though i know the buildings aren't old enough, i can practically see george washington walking out of one.








ben & my mom, the national christmas tree being decorated, the washington monument & the flags surrounding the washington monument.







the white house & the picketers.

d.c. vacation day 1

so we had a great time hanging out in washington d.c. last week. even better was the fact that my mom joined us & we were able to spend some quality time with her. caleb couldn't get enough of nana and she is always great with him. here are some highlights from the trip:

DAY 1: we decided to rent a car because we are planning on selling our car & didn't want to put the miles on it. so i was behind the wheel, enjoying some good conversation with my mom and chilling to death cab for cutie, when all of a sudden a little screen pops up that says "check your right front tire PSI." before we know it, we've got a flat tire. so that was a thrilling way to start off the trip in the middle of dinwiddie, virginia. where, you ask? exactly. we pull off, ben changes the tire which is the SMALLEST tire i've ever seen. i think it was actually an old tire from my first bike when i was 6, and somehow the rental car company got a hold of it. so we end up having to drive into richmond where we exchange cars.



we finally get into D.C. about 2 hours after we're supposed to. and we pull into the howard johnson, a.k.a. "ho jo" hotel which was a steal according to cheaphotels.com. as i go to check in, the first red flag went up when the man in the lobby is talking to me through bullet-proof glass. the next red flag goes up when i read an enormous sign that reads "VIDEO SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS 24 HOURS." nice homey touch, don't you think? we get into our hotel room, which is NOT a non-smoking room and as i run to the bathroom, notice a large piece of duct tape covering a hole in the wall. and i ask myself, why was this 60% off the normal rate? we ordered pizza in, made sure to use all 3 locks on the doors, washed and sanitized ourselves every 5 minutes, and woke up at 5 a.m. to a domestic dispute next door. 2nd day starts off with a bang. literally.

some pics of our home

so i've been asked to post some pictures of our home. i only have a couple of our bedroom & bathroom & caleb's room so here they are. i couldn't get the pictures of caleb's room turned around for some reason so whatever, you get the idea. we really like our home & our upstairs is spacious & we've been grateful to have been able to paint it how we want to....well for the most part. i will explain.


here is our bedroom. i love love LOVE the blue that we picked for it. our bedroom is really big with vaulted ceilings and enormous walls. i wanted to paint the entire room this color but my supervisor (who was paying for the paint job) consulted with an interior decorator who said that the painting the entire room this color would have made it "too dark." which brings us to....




here are the accent walls, a "buttercream" which is okay now that i've gotten used to it. it really does lighten up our room but i still wish that the whole thing had been blue. i love blue.




ok i just realized that you can't even SEE the colors with the template i chose so anyway. we got a new armoire for our t.v. it is awesome, i love it. cheap, from target, love it.




here are a couple of pics of caleb's room. the colors of the walls are a tan...like a camel color. his room is bigger than it looks, i just didn't have anywhere to take the picture that would show the size.









the master bathroom. double sinks, yes! we really like this room, it's the same color as two of the walls in the bedroom, the buttercream. off of the bathroom is a big walk-in closet. so there you go! all in all, we have 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a loft just for us upstairs. i'll take some more pictures soon. sorry you can't see the colors very well. i'm thinking about changing my template, as soon as i have the time to deal with the backlash of having to re-do everything again. sigh.

spread 'em

so we were talking today about how many fat grams and calories were in those pb&j 'uncrustrables' that fantasia takes to school everyday. when i told her how fattening they were she said,

" 15 grams of fat, wha? man, if i keep eatin those, they gonna be makin my butt cheeks spread. then no one will want me."

i think she should do the anti-marketing for any product out there. she definitely has a way with words. i know i'm not going to be biting into one of those anytime soon without thinking about my butt cheeks. thanks girl.

the way i am

i know i'm a bit obsessed with this song but it's just one of those pick-me-up songs that i love to listen to on rainy, windy days while i'm sitting in a sweater getting some work done. can't help it! i really like ingrid michaelson & will often go on her website to just play through her songs while i'm doing something else. kind of indie-pop-chill-out music. perfect with a cup of hot chocolate.


ps-i will be posting our DC trip as soon as i can get our laptop to start working for me instead of against me. we had a great time though.

d.c. next week!

so i'm excited because ben & i were asked by our bosses if we wanted to go to a conference next week in washington d.c. ben served his mission there but i've never been. we just finished booking our hotel & will have two days to hang out & tour around, then two days to go to the conference. yippee!

cookie monster

here's caleb eating oreos. i'm sure almost every kid has a picture like this but this is seriously the first time caleb has actually eaten one....actually two in a row. usually he will only eat one bite, then put it down and ask for a cucumber or something. he doesn't like the frosting part but otherwise he downed them. he IS a real boy!

recipe

so i've been asked to do a lot of recipe exchanges and i am a total slacker because i always procrastinate & then end up just forgetting. so here is a good one that i like a lot. it is:

Baked Artichoke-Spinach Dip
Tortilla Crisps (to dip in the dip & when i dip you dip we dip:)


Baked Artichoke-spinach dip:
1/2 c. shredded mozz. cheese
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. mayo
1/2 c. grated real parmesan cheese

1-2 tsp. dijon-style mustard
dash of white pepper (who writes dash in a recipe you ask? i do!)
1 14-oz. can of artichoke hearts, drained & chopped up
1 c. loosely packed spinach leaves, chopped
1/2 c. finely chopped red onion (i leave this out)


*Preheat oven to 350
1) in a large bowl, combine mozz. cheese, sour cream, mayo, 1/4 c. of the parm. cheese, the mustard, and pepper. stir in artichoke hearts, spinach and onion. spread mixture evenly into a 9 inch pan plate (or i've used a pie tin before)
2) bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven for about 15-20 mins. or until heated through.

***you can do the low-fat version of this by using lite/fat free mayo & sour cream. no it doesn't taste as good as the fat-full version but if you make it this way the first time, you'll never know the difference!

***i always chop up a roma tomato and put it on the top after it's baked & ready. it makes it perfect, in my opinion.

Tortilla Crisps:

10-12 round soft tortillas, 8"
1/4 c. butter
garlic salt

**Preheat oven to 350
1) use a pizza cutter to slice each tortilla into 8 wedges. spread wedges out onto cookie sheets, don't layer on top of each other.
2) melt butter & then spread a little bit with that brush-thinger...what's it called? the thing you baste a turkey with...i'm sleep deprived...sorry.
3) sprinkle garlic salt over wedges
4) bake for 5-10 minutes on 350 until dry and crisp. cool before serving. store in an airtight container with lid for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 3 weeks.


ENJOY!!