boo hoo hoo

Bailey's gone! I hate this time of year. I finally get my girl home for the summer and she takes off to go climb rocks and zipline and have water fights. She'll sit out under the stars and roast marshmallows around campfires. She'll meet new girls and stay up all night giggling and impress the leaders with her mad hiking skills. She'll participate in archery where she'll surely be top dog since that's one of her hidden talents. (Is it weird that my daughter is freakishly accurate with a bow and arrow?) Unfortunately for me she'll be gone not once this year but three times. I guess the first one didn't count, she didn't spend the night but was gone for two days at youth conference where she ate WORMS!!!! Yes, you heard me, she ate worms!!!!!! She's very competitive and when the other team was ahead in a little game she decided to make sure they didn't win. The young men leader told me the next day that the boys then had to attempt to eat a worm as well because they couldn't stand the idea of having a girl beat them.

As if this isn't bad enough having one of my precious children gone, my sweet baby Zach (almost 16 is still a baby, right) will be leaving this week as well for a camp of his own. I have NEVER let him go to anything even remotely connected with Boy Scouts. Scouts scares me to death. They play with fire and shoot things and jump off of rocks that are much too high. I decided this year against my better judgment to let him go. He's so excited. I like the leaders and I'm pretty sure they'll keep an extra close eye on him since they all know who his mommy is :)

So if you can't find me this week its because I'm huddled in the corner counted down the hours until all 4 of my sweet babies are back home.

Should Have Been a Cowgirl

It's no secret that I am an animal lover. Just walk past my front door and see the piles of bird poop from the little babies that have made their home inside my porch because we can't stand the idea of killing them. Just last week I had a bunch of kitties rescued from under the neighbors porch in my bathroom while I found homes for them. (No, I didn't keep any!) I have two cats, a dog that I keep despite the continual stress she causes and a squirrel named George that lives in my rock wall and destroys everything I plant. I have deer that eat my bushes and something has eaten my tomato plants. As long as it has fur I will forgive it and just plant a bit extra. I LOVE animals. I wanted to be a zoo keeper at one point but once I found out that I'd have to work with reptiles I changed my mind.

I want an alpaca, a mini horse, a peacock, a jersey cow, a sheep, a goat for yard work and of course a horse for each family member. I dream of having a giant barn with a swing on the top floor that I can use to get from the upper floor to the large pile of hay I'd store at the bottom. It's a dream that I'll probably never realize because in reality, I don't really like poop all that much and I'm kind of lazy.

I mentioned this dream to my brother when he was here and I can still here his laughter. Apparently, he remembers when we lived on a mini farm as kids and wouldn't go outside for fear of getting dirty.

After going to our local rodeo last week I've decided that I truly was meant to be a cowgirl. I LOVE the sound my cowgirl boots make when I walk and how Jacob can step on my feet all night and I don't feel it. I love having wearing my hat and standing by the fence watching the cows and horses do their thing.

I'm thinking of listing my house and moving to the country. Only Bailey and Jacob are on board with this. Kaitlyn thinks I'm nuts and Zach knows that means he'll be the one scooping the poop so he's not to thrilled with the idea. My husband is all for it. Of course, he knows that Zach will be doing the brunt of the work so of course he's thrilled.

So friends, find me a mini farm where I can have my alpaca and grow my own corn.

Wonderful Way to Start the Summer

What a terrific way to start the summer. My brother and his adorable daughter Stina were able to come and visit for almost 3 weeks. We had such a great time and it was so fun to be able to be with them. Shad'o and I have always been very close. He's seven years older than me and was often the third adult in our house. I really wish he didn't live so far away. I know he loves Denmark but I can't help but secretly hope one day he'll find himself back in the states. We did all the typical American things while they were here, including eating so much that I had to pull out the jeans from the forbidden pile on top of the closet. The highlight of our trip was a local rodeo. It was more fun to watch their faces than the rodeo. When I've caught up on my sleep I'll write more about our wonderful adventures.

Mongolian Beef on Steroids

Amazing Stir Fry

(kind of a Mongolian Beef on Steroids)

Who wants to see the recipe that had me eating asparagus AND broccoli? I know you do!!!!! Can you believe it??? The recipe was so popular that after the kids had eaten ALL of the beef out of this I HAD to resort to eating the veggies to get more yummy saucy flavor. Who knew...I can eat green stuff and not die!!!!!!

2t. veg. Oil
½ t. ginger (I used ground) plus a little more for a bit more flavor
1 T. garlic (I like garlic so I added a pinch more
½ c. soy sauce
½ c. water
¾ cup brown sugar

This is your sauce. Sauté the garlic in the oil and add the other ingredients and cook until the sauce starts to thicken. I ended up adding a pinch of corn starch to thicken it up a bit more but in reality I didn't need to. Then set the sauce aside and work on the meat.

I used flank steak but chicken would be super yummy as well.

1 lb. Meat
¼ c. cornstarch

Coat the meat in the cornstarch and let it sit for a few minutes. Then in cook the meat in a pan until almost completely done. At this point I added my veggies. I used asparagus, broccoli, and carrots. I would have added baby corn but I was out. Add sauce and continue to cook until veggies and meat are desired doneness.

Garnish with sesame seeds or green onions. Serve with rice.

Bro. Downs

Whoever said it takes a village to raise a child obviously did not have Ken Downs in their life. While it might be true for most people, I firmly believe that this one man alone has saved countless lives, raised dozens of children and touched the lives of every person he's met.

I came into the story years after it began. Downs, as everyone referred to him as, was at one point in his church service my husbands priest quorum advisor. Now that in and of itself should qualify any man for sainthood. It can't be the easiest job when all the teens are doing their best to follow the gospel standards but imagine it when you have a kid whose greatest pleasure seemed to be seeing how many schools he can get kicked out of in a school year or how many mail boxes could be blown up before anyone caught him. This might have put a mere mortal man off, they may have turned tail and run but not Downs. He had a way with the boys, the good, the bad and the down right ornery just seemed to gravitate toward him. A fireman by day he had all the cool gadgets and new lots of cool tricks and the best part of it for my husband was that he knew how to safely blow things up, catch things on fire and put it out again. Perhaps this was before law suits and permission slips were a must, but he was able to take the boys on trips to Mexico where survival skills and running from the Mexican police were an exercise that ingrained the importance of prayer into the minds of scared young men as they ran for cover and tried their best to stand for truth and righteousness with the military police breathing down their necks. Despite my husbands quest to “find himself” which often meant “running away from himself”, Downs never let go. He was an anchor in an otherwise turbulent see of teenage hood. The connection the two had did not wither after GC was no longer in his charge.

He would check in with him frequently and continually offered words of encouragement and when we moved back to California as a married couple starting our career and family it was to Downs that we ran. He met us at the moving truck ready to unload. He had made one phone call and what seemed like the entire ward was there to help us move and they were there a few months later when our home was ready and we moved in for good. A somewhat shorter man in stature, he was larger than life and within moments of meeting him your soul was over come with warm fuzzies and the feeling of complete and unabashed love. I will never forget the first time he laid eyes on Zach. He walked in the room, took a double take at what appeared to be a miniature version of his once disobedient priest and paused to place his hand upon his head. His eyes got big and he turned to me and with conviction said, “wow, that is one special spirit right there...you can feel the goodness leaking from every pore. He'd remind me of that often through out the years. He reminded me of it again one day when Zach had locked Bailey in a closet on accident and the door would not budge. The poor girl was trapped without a light and even worse...no game boy or toys. Zach immediately grabbed a flashlight and played flashlight games under the door to entertain her while I reached for the phone and just as always, Downs was on my doorstep within minutes. I am sure the man had super powers, I would often clock the drive from his house to mine and there is no human way possible he could have made it there in the time he seemed to when ever I called.

I liked to think we were special, that our family was his favorite, but as I listened to ward members over the years I found that Downs seemed to be everyone's “go to guy”. He served as counselor, mentor, friend, confident, advisor, and companion to any who would let him.

One of the things we were the most sad about when we left California was that we would no longer have Downs up the street. We were thrilled when a few years later we both ended up in St George. What a thrill to have him at our home once again. When Kaitlyn become very ill and fear set in he came. I don't remember calling him, but then, he seemed to come before we knew we needed him a lot anyway so we weren't shocked that he came. He looked at her, looked at me and said, “she'll be OK”. That was all it took for me to believe it. I felt as though he had a direct connection to my Heavenly Father and if he said it then it must be so.

He passed away this week and the LDS members of the Camarillo Stake let out a collective sob when the news was announced. The tears spread through out the country and even the world as his relationships were on each continent. I myself dropped to my knees in prayer to thank my Father in Heaven for sharing with us for what seemed liked too brief of a time. I didn't pray for his soul, I knew where he would be...serving the youth, comforting those who needed it and watching over his friends and family from a place far better suited to his amazing spirit then Earth. Monday after his death there was something that I would have picked up the phone to discuss with him and of course the realization that he wouldn't pick up was daunting. I was comforted by the fact that his legacy lives on in each of us.

OH Yummy!!!

I am trying to find a way to get breakfast into my children who just don't seem to have the time or the desire to eat in the mornings before school. I realize that with one leaving at 6:30, 7:30 and then 8:00 it's kind of hard to make something that we can all enjoy without me cooking that many times. We're burned out on cereal and I'm burned out on buying cereal. I found this recipe and thought MAYBE my kids would eat it. I know my husband won't but then he only likes breakfast from McDonald's. So yummy and filling. I used some frozen fruit and while I'm sure it isn't the healthiest of recipes (butter and brown sugar) it will surely make the transition easier for my corn pop loving kiddos.

Torture Can Be So Fun

I had the most wonderful last few days. I had the opportunity to spend time with my wonderful friend Ann who came to visit and one of the highlights of the weekend was learning how to wax. I have suddenly become hairy and I'm just too cheap to pay someone to do it. I of course didn't want to experiment on myself and the last thing I wanted to do was to screw Bailey up but Zach would make a great candidate. He isn't the most hairy child but thankfully he had a trail on his tummy that was just screaming for a good waxing. We laid him on the table and went to work. I'm sure that any neighbors looking in the windows would have wondered what four women were doing standing around a shirtless teen laying on the table. He was a good sport. But in his own way of seeking revenge I think that he purposely controlled his response to the pain so that I would think that it was a painless process. After about an hour of experimenting I am pleased to announce however that my face is hair free (not to worry...eyebrows are still in tact).