Halloween!!

This picture has nothing to do with Halloween, I just thought it was funny. Quinn was playing with this ring and it fell on his face. He sat there with it on his face totally unaware, playing with his toes. It was hilarious.

Hobbes


We came up with a brilliant costume for Thurm this year, to shave off his beard. So we decided to go as Ward & June Cleaver (Leave it to Beaver). It was a BIG hit. He went to school today clean shaven, perfectly parted hair, in dress pants, shirt & tie. There were kids that thought he was a substitute, kids hearing the rumors and coming to see during breaks, kids taking pictures of him with their cell phones, mayhem ensued! The adults liked it too. And I loved dressing as June Cleaver. We went to dinner tonight as some friends house and to get into character I baked some bread and made pasta in a skirt with lipstick on : ) Well I was actually dressed up to go over to the school and show off Quinn to Thurm's students. Quinn was Hobbes. Everyone called him tigger. Lame.

The many Halloween faces of Thurm

Hippie

Scary cowboy dude

Ward Cleaver

Our 2-year anniversary was yesterday!

Thurm's bread he was so proud of.

My dad's dining room that he is so proud of.

Poky

Went to Poky this weekend to visit my family. Thurm went on a hiking trip with his brother and friends. We were apart the longest we've ever been since we've been married. Five days! Quinn got to play with his cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. My mom was exstatic to see him. She told me she sort of misses me, but REALLY misses Quinn. He loves his grandma. She is alot more expressive and excitable than I am, much more entertaining. I got in some good TV time on the BIG screen. I have to make up for the six years without TV when I am around one. That Project Runway is addictive.

Parents Fall Portraits

Gnocchi

INGREDIENTS
6 russet potatoes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pinch salt

DIRECTIONS
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool slightly, and peel. Season with salt, then mash potatoes with fork, masher, or in ricer. Place in large bowl, and stir in egg and olive oil. Knead in enough flour to make a soft dough.
On a floured surface, roll dough into a long rope. Cut the rope into 1/2-inch pieces.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Drop in gnocchi, and cook until they float to the top, about 3 to 5 minutes. Serve with pasta sauce.

I'm not really a gnocchi connoisseur, but as far as I could tell, this is a good recipe. I used a butter sage sauce on top.

I have had a few scary "baby" moments that have haunted me and that I still think about.
1. When I was 16, I was babysitting my niece. She was sleeping in my bed for the night and I woke up practically laying on top of her. It scared me to death thinking I could have crushed or suffocated her.
2. I was cutting my little nephews fingernails when he was just a few weeks old. He moved his hand at the last second and I cut his finger. It bled like crazy and he cried like I broke his arm. My brother was pretty mad at me, but since then has let me babysit his kids.
3. I was playing with my other niece in a hot tub and I was pretending to be a shark and biting her leg under the water, not realizing I was pulling her head under. When I came up she was sputtering and crying because I almost drown her. My sister-in-law did not look happy.

Now I can add my own baby to list. I put him on the couch to run and grab my flip-flops so we could go on a walk. I heard a thud and knew he had rolled off the couch. I felt terrible. He cried for a few minutes. I cried for a few minutes. And then he smiled at me to reassure me he was Ok. And all my nieces and nephews still seem to love me. Oh to be as forgiving as a child.

Babyland (as Thurm calls it)

My grandma recently told me that she reads my blog. My first thought was “wow, grandma is savvy!” and then I started wracking my brain if there was any content I would be embarrassed for her to read (the hickey debacle comes to mind). Then I thought about an incident a few years ago where some friends asked me how I would react to someone reading my journal (I’m pretty sure they asked this because one of them read it on the sly). I told them how violated I would feel because I have written some personal, some stupid, some embarrassing, some untrue (though I probably thought they were true at the time) things in my journal, as everyone does. I write my blog partially to entertain myself, partially to entertain others, and partially to document my life. We should write journals as a history of our lives for our posterity. I used to think that it was a place to write all my deepest, darkest secrets—but that’s just incriminating! ☺ Because somewhere along the line, I’m going to die and someone will read it. I’ve now changed my mind to; if you don’t want someone to read it, don’t write it. Or if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all (this is really hard for me, by the way. But if you know me at all, you know that already). Though with this blog, I forget that sometimes and write whatever I want anyway. I read the biography of my grandpa, written and compiled by my grandmother. A lot of his history is from his journals. And it was so cool to find out about his life told in his very words. Some of it was boring record keeping about his farm and how many row of beets he planted in a day. But still cool because I wouldn’t have known about the details of his life otherwise. So basically the moral of this rambling is, now before I write, I will try to keep in mind, “is this something I want my grandma to read?” Sort of in the vein of WWJD.

On a somewhat similar topic, I read a talk given by N. Eldon Tanner in 1972 about judging and criticizing others, a weakness of mine. I have the annoying habit of doing it through biting humor and sarcasm. It’s something I have to constantly re-commit to changing about myself. There are times when I’m better and worse about it. And the times that I’m at a peak of criticizing others is usually a time when I’m the most grumpy and unhappy with myself. Because really, who am I to judge? I have more flaws and faults than most everyone I know. And it’s not something I want to teach Quinn. Elder Tanner wrote:

“As parents, we have the responsibility in our homes to guard against any of these things. Also, we must realize that every word and every act influences the thinking and attitude of the child. It is in the family that the child picks up the elementary lessons in getting along with people and the virtues of love, compassion, and concern. These lessons will have been well taught if parents can bring up their children without prejudicing them by precept or example against any other children on the grounds of color, race, religion, social status, or intellectual capacity, and if they teach them to love the Lord. I am so thankful that my parents, through their tolerance, were able to accomplish this with their children.
Jesus Christ, some 2,000 years ago, realizing man’s tendency to make unrighteous judgment, said:
“Judge not, that ye be not judged.
“For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
“Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” (Matt. 7:1–5.)”

I look at sweet little Quinn and think about how sick and messed up this world is and I want to be the best that I can be so I can have the spirit with me all the time to know how to raise him and protect him. And I’m pretty sure I don’t have the spirit with me when I’m judging, criticizing and being grumpy. So the moral of THIS rambling is that if I don’t have anything nice to say or THINK, that I won’t say it or think it at all. Yeah right, but I’m going to keep trying ☺