If Ye Are Prepared, Ye Shall Not Fear

For about the last year or so, I have been fascinated with the signs of the Second Coming of Christ. Things are happening so fast, it's hard to ignore the fact that it's right around the corner.

My mom and brother introduced me to the author Roger K. Young. I HIGHLY recommend reading these books. I read his book "As A Thief in the Night" and have started another book of his, "Dreams and Visions of the Last Days". I honestly have to say that these books will make you strap on your halo, and get to work preparing yourself faster than anything I have ever read. Some things are truly frightening. I'm the type of person that would rather know what is going to happen rather than be caught off guard (I've had enough of that this year...).

Get your food storage, stay out of debt the best you can (given our country's economic situation, it's not easy), and get your spirit tuned up starting TODAY. Do the best you can, prepare the best you can. The effort will be well worth it.

Halloween 2009

Aaron: A giraffe? That would not have been my first choice.

Me: It wasn't mine either, but I had to go with process of elimination. The monkey costume was way too thick, he would have sweat to death. The lion costume had long mangy fur all round the face and hands, that costume wouldn't have stayed on for 2 minutes. The dragon costume had a big thick tail, so he couldn't sit down. Therefore, he will be a giraffe.

Halloween was great! In the morning, the cousins came over and we carved pumpkins.The boys got to play and have a great time. Later that afternoon we took all of the boys to the church Trunk or Treat. The church is just down the street so the boys got pulled in a big red wagon - which Ev loved.There was a huge turn out. Ev had a great time having free reign to cruise the parking lot and have mom and dad follow close behind. He scored 2 lollipops.
I refused to bring him around with a bag for candy. A one year old does not need candy and everyone knows it's for the greedy parents. That would NOT be me. He was such a good boy for having no afternoon nap.By the time we were finished with the Trunk or Treat festivities and were on our way home, Ev was slouched lower and lower in the wagon, almost asleep. There was pizza waiting for us at home. We ate some yummy food and headed out to the driveway where the firepit was blazing. Ev kept wanting to get into the fire, so I opted to have him playing in the house instead. By 8pm, we retired the giraffe costum and put our tuckered out baby boy to bed. Can we do this again next weekend?

The Lamest Pumpkin Patch Ever

Last night, we took Ev to the pumpkin patch. The one we usually go to was not open this year, so we were forced to go with Plan B. We only knew of one other patch in the area, so we headed there.When we pulled up, we were greatly disappointed. It wasn’t lit very well, there weren’t very many pumpkins to choose from, my camera wasn’t working right and I had to use the flash on every photo, so they didn’t turn out that great.We were hoping to get just a little Ev sized pumpkin, but they only had medium or large ones.Ev was more interested in the cars whizzing by on the side of the road and staring at the other pumpkin patch parishioners. Everett was a little shy and nervous walking around by himself, so we had to coax him into exploring the patch. Ev likes nothing more than to have his dad hold him. This boy loves his dad!We picked out a pumpkin, let Ev give it the durability test shake and headed home before he turned into a popsicle! It was cold! Despite the setbacks, we had some great family time and picture proof that we did take Ev to the pumpkin patch, however lame it may have been.

Just Like Dad

Last weekend Aaron and Ev were playing with trucks. After a little while of playing, Ev started to mimic Aaron's "truck sounds". All week I've been catching Ev making "truck sounds" as he pushes various cars and trucks across the floor. Aaron is quite proud that he learned this skill from him.

Saturday night we were sitting at the dinner table and had just finished our meal and Aaron let out a burp. (Classy, eh? Aaron's parent were out of town, so his mother was not there to give him the "stink eye".) Everett looked at him for a moment, made an "O" with his mouth and made an imitation burp noise.Aaron and I looked at each other and just started laughing. Aaron tried a few more times to get him to do it again. He did make the noise a time or two, but never the full imitation. I was instructed not to encourage this behavior unless he "did it right".
Well, excuuuuse me!

Aaron is learning that Ev is going to copy everything that he does. When I ask him to watch his words and actions, I'm not being a bossy wife - I'm trying to keep my kid on good behavior.
Oh, what will he learn next?

Guilty Party

My Father in Law chiseled out the bottom of the yard trash bin. Matted, fermented grass and dog poo, ick. He put it in a garbage bag and put it where he thought the dogs couldn’t get it. The next morning, the garbage bag had been shredded and grassy poo stains were all over the concrete.

You get one guess as to who made this mess:
HoochOr MoeI dunno…jury is still out.

A Day at the Farm (aka: My Mom's House)

Two weeks ago, I didn’t have to go in to work. Instead, Ev and I hung out at my mom’s house. Ev refused to take a nap, so we all headed out to the garden.We fed the chickens, collected eggs, picked apples, basil and parsley.To our surprise, there were even a few raspberries – yum!While I was collecting basil leaves, Ev walked up and handed me a slimy, wet snail. Thanks, son.

He kept wanting to play with the hose. Even though it was only like 65 degrees, I gave in and let him play while we worked.He had a great time drinking the water and letting out a big “Aaaah!” when he was done.After about 10 minutes, his jaw started chattering so we knew he was ready to go in. I wrapped him in a towel and followed up with a warm bath from Grandma Carol.

While my mom and Ev took a nap, I made an apple crisp,a huge pot of home made applesauce,and dehydrated a batch of basil and parsley.The house smelled wonderful. It was a great day. All we need to do now is figure out what to do with the rest of the apples!Time to get busy dehydrating some more! I had been craving a creative outlet, and this satisfied the need. I am really missing my kitchen.

Coin Collector

Two weeks ago Aaron decided it was time to get into his “rainy day fund”. Given our crappy financial situation, I guess every day this whole year could have qualified for the “rainy day”, but Aaron was saving it for a splurge.

Last weekend, Aaron, his brother and their friend went on a backpacking trip in the Sierras to Cattle Creek. No people, no phones, no distractions, no stress. He thought this would be a worthy cause to bust open the bank.

For years Aaron has had the habit of saving his change and putting it in a glass water jug at the end of the day.The change will accumulate for years and when the jug looks full enough, he’ll find a worthy cause and put the money toward that (usually something fun!). Somehow, it seems I’m the one that gets stuck with the task of rolling all of the coins. Luckily this time we had an automatic change counter. In the years before, I got to do everything by using just my brain power and sorting skills.Ev went down for a nap and I got to work rolling. I got quite a pile going by the time Ev woke up. I decided it might be fun to have him help me put the coins in the counter.

This was a mistake.

He was more interested in throwing the coins, trying to eat them, and putting them in Aaron’s hiking boot.After the coins got boring, he went on systematically emptying out every drawer in our bedroom. By the time I got to a good stopping point, our room had been ransacked and I had to wait until he went to bed to put our room back together.

By the time Aaron got home from work, I had rolled enough for him to go on his trip. The guys had a great time backpacking. I have to admit, I was dying that I couldn’t go. We backpacked there years ago, and that has to be my all time favorite trip we ever took. I told him to take lots of photos for me, and I’ll just dream about hiking in the mountains. Sigh…

Nature Boys

I love being married to an outdoors man. I love the rough and tumble boys that love to get dirty and could survive in the wild if they had to.Last weekend, Aaron and I took Ev to the mountains for the first time. Aaron's parents were camping at Dogwood campground and we went up to join them for dinner. Ev loved it! He was perfectly happy to be sitting in the dirt, throwing rocks and sticks.He did have a taste of a dirt clump and instantly started dry-heaving. Luckily, I got it out of his mouth before we had another "cake episode". If anything remotely strange touches that boys' mouth, he makes himself throw up, a gift from his fathers' side of the gene pool.We had a great dinner, went on a nice walk and headed down the mountain back home. It was hardly a night in the wild, but it's a good start.

Smooth Talker

Yes, I've been neglecting my blog.

The truth is, I've been so dang tired the last few weeks. Anytime Ev is down for a nap, I pass out too which means computer time is almost zero. Things will get better soon and I'll be back to my usual blogging schedule.It's hard to explain to a husband just how tired and yucky you feel when you're pregnant. They just can't relate because they don't feel what you feel. I can take a solid 2 hour nap and still be exhausted and go to bed at 8pm when Everett does.

I feel bad for Aaron, because many nights he gets home so late. I'm either already in bed or so tired I can't see straight. Last week I forced myself to stay up when he got home. I was an exhausted mess and apologized for being so.

My sweet husband's answer to my apology? "Ah, that's OK, I understand why you're tired. You probably grew a butt today."

Huh? What did you say?

"You know, like one week you grew a heart for the baby, another week the hands. Maybe this week you grew a butt or something."

Thanks for being so understanding.

Birthday Hike

I'm a bit behind. The photos were on Aaron's camera, the battery died, and I had to search for the charger, and work's been busy. So here's a little catch up:

August 21st was my 32nd birthday. Not only was it cool that it was my birthday, it's also cool because I found out it's President Monsons' birthday too. How cool are we?In the past, Aaron has taken me on some killer birthday adventures. My mom and sisters are always chomping at the bit to find out what Aaron's going to do for my birthday.

This year we're flat broke, so I knew what ever he had planned would be simple and no big deal. Boy, was I wrong! My Aaron came through for me again, making me feel so very special. Aaron had a long day at work and when he got home late that night, he brought with him a giant happy face balloon tied to a case of my favorite orange cream soda and a birthday card.On the table was a beautiful hydrangea plant with giant purple blooms. He told me he hadn't planned on getting the hydrangea for me, but when he saw it at the store, he thought of me, knew it was my favorite and that I would love it, so he bought it for me. So sweet!

The next day, Aaron got home from work early (1pm) and had his hands full with grocery bags. I asked what he was doing, he told me that we were going on a hike for my birthday. One of my most favorite things to do (besides eat and take a nap) is to go hiking. He had already arranged for his parents to watch Ev that night so we could go on an adventure! Woo hoo! Aaron had gone to the grocery store and bought all of my favorite snacks and drinks and packed a lunch for us to bring on the hike. We packed our gear and headed on the road.

As we rolled down the road Aaron turned on some tunes. To my amazement, he had made 2 CDs of music just for me of music that he thought I would like (he did great!). He put a grocery bag up front with us of travel snacks, so we munched on jerky and sunflower seeds as we headed up the 15 freeway.

Aaron handed me a book of California hiking trails and told me to turn to the section on Deep Creek. He had scoured the book and found an easy hike he thought I'd like. I started reading the description of the hike and location - it sounded great! I turned the page and continued reading "clothing optional, approximately 50% of swimmers choose to swim nude..." This DOES sound like an adventure! Aaron's jaw hit the floor. "I didn't read THAT part! If I had known that, I wouldn't have chosen this hike!" I calmed him down, "oh, come on, there's not going to be naked swimmers there."

We drove through the "lovely" city of Hesperia. I thanked Aaron profusely for NOT having us live there. On dirt roads and up the hills we went. The directions lead us to what was described as a 1920's cabin, which was actually more like a run-down shack in the dirt with hand painted signs everywhere. Out of the "cabin" came this dirty, sweaty Aussie who looked like he hadn't seen a bath in 2 weeks. He was really nice though, and gave us great instructions on the hike. Aaron filled out the needed car information and put the toll in the "box" which was a hole in the side of the cabin with a rock that had the word "box" pained on it. Hmmm...We parked and headed to the trail. Anyone who's ever been pregnant knows that the first thing on your mind is - where is the bathroom? Out here, that big rock, or that cluster of bushes IS the bathroom, so we smartly brought the toilet paper with us and I got to "bush it" along the way. I'm an outdoor girl, so it doesn't really bug me as long as I have someone to be a good look out.
During the first five minutes of the hike, you come across this warning:Nothing says adventure like a dangerous amoeba that will eat your brain. Nice!

The weather was perfect (80 degrees, with a cool breeze), and the hike was pretty easy – until the last drop into the canyon: Our mothers would have some words if they knew what their pregnant daughter was climbing over. Upon making it down the mountain alive, I saw a strange animal prancing through the bushes. It was all pink with a shaggy head of hair and boots. Yep, it was a naked person. “Aaron! Give me the camera!” He handed it to me and as I raised to shoot he realized what I was doing and snatched the camera away from me. “What? You don’t trust me?” His response was, “No way. You will NOT be taking pictures of naked people!” We spotted a couple more “pink animals”. The thing with swimmers that go nude, is that most of them should NOT go nude. The human body in its real form is not very pretty to look at.We headed down stream and found our own quiet spot where we could enjoy our lunch without the thought of naked people polluting the water. We ate our sandwiches and string cheese while we dangled our feet in the water.It was a perfect afternoon of just being alone. No work, no babies, no interruptions. It was nice to have a break. We didn’t get to stay too long since we got a late start and we headed back before it got dark.
Going back up that giant hill was not fun, but I did it – no complaining, plus I get pregnant lady points. That’s what I love about hiking. When you get to the top, you feel the sense of accomplishment. We went a bit slower on the way back. Mostly because I’m just a wee bit out of shape, but I loved every minute of our hike. We made it back to the truck just in time to see the sunset.On our way home we munched on the last turkey sandwich, root beer and Cheetos. The one thing I did miss right away about not having the diaper bag with me, was not having wipes readily available. I had Cheeto-fingers most of the way home.
Ev was asleep before we got home, so Aaron and I got to go in the spa and sip on orange soda floats – yum! My husband is just the best and knows me perfectly. What a great day.