When You're Hungry...

One of my goals on my list of things to accomplish this year is to try 50, yes, 50 recipes. We're halfway through the year, and I'll admit that I'm not yet half way...nor am I a quarter of the way there....but hey, there's still half a year left! I say recipes because I'm allowing myself to be a little flexible....dinner here, dessert there...it'll all add up!

I am happy to report, however, that the new recipes I have tried have been a HUGE hit in my home. Most recently I made am Creamy Tomato Pasta, which can be found here.

Just look at all that yumminess.... That's not quite how mine turned out, but hey! It tasted amazing either way, and it was served with French Bread!

My sister Kim came over earlier this year and helped me to create Cheesecake Filled Strawberries....Delicious!

 And the boys helped out when making Apple Chips. I loved these! I should make them again...

A few months back, I stole the recipe for Three-Cheese Pasta Bake off my friend Kelsey's Pinterest board. (Thanks by the way for the great find!) and just recently repinned it to mine. Not sure why I didn't do it sooner! 

Perry isn't a tomato lover like me, so I'm doing my best to make more dishes with Alfredo sauce instead of marinara. Its a rough change for me, but this dish was simply wonderful!

Try them out and let me know your thoughts on them!

Showing My Age

Am I showing my age? I don't know, its hard to say. When I was in high school, I looked like I should be in elementary school, and in college I looked like I should be in high school. And then I had kids...

It funny how that ages you, a lot. I hardly ever tell anyone my age because I find it to be quite fun listening to people guess. Those who don't know me guess in the 20-22 range. Its odd how when you tack on that you're married, your age increases. I know quite a few people who were married at a "young" age. Love is love. But boy am I aged when they know I have not only one, but two kids! Now I'm guesstimated between 27-32. I find it really surprising!

Often times when I'm asked how old I am, I generally always have to stop and think about it. I'm so used to hearing what age people think I am, that I forget how old I actually am! But do I feel like I'm in my mid-20's? Not at all. My mind has me stuck in my early 20's. Because that's when I had kids? Maybe so. Its strange to say, but I think that holds me back from a lot of things because I don't feel like I'm old enough. We've got a great MOPS (Mothers Of PreSchoolers) group here, but I feel so out of place, solely because of my age. Most moms are in there upper 20's and 30's. I feel so young, kind of inexperienced. Because of this I find it hard to make mom friends. Really frustrating! 

In the reality of it though, I'm glad I'm a young mom. I am *so* excited to have both of my boys out of the house by the time I'm 40...not that I want them to be gone already though! Being as young as I am, I have the energy to chase them around and Perry will be that young hot dad on the field coaching and I won't have to worry about him breaking a hip! And then once we're "done'" (are we ever really done?!) with their teenage years and such, it'll just be Perry and I at home. Most likely I'll be that parent that cries when they leave and will want them to come visit all the time...but still! Can you say hello free time?

Words My Kids Say Incorrectly

I love hearing my kids talk every day! The things they say just blows me away! And of course, its even funnier when they mispronounce words.

Little JP has been talking since he was about 20 months old and has been using 3 and 4 word sentences now for quite some time. He impresses me! He can't, however, pronounce his "l"s. He changes the "l" sound to a "y" sound. Instead of "hello" its said "hey-yo". Blanket get changed to "bwi-ket". This kid is so cute when he talks!

Hunter was some what slow to start talking, probably because of that drat binkie he lugged around. I know he didn't say much at 2, but was finally getting some words together by 2 1/2. Hunter kind of struggles with his "w"s. We never get to go swimming, its always "slimmin". But what gets me every time is when he says "wagon ride". He can say the words individually, but when he puts them together it comes out "ragon ride". And armadillo gets mispronounced too..."armadildo".

Growing up, I had an extremely hard time with my "ir" sound. Girl was always "gil" or "grill". I remember practicing that word over and over on my way to bed one night, when I *finally* said it right. And squirrel was always "squil". I had to go to speech class in the 1st grade because of my "ir"s. We came across a picture of a squirrel, and I knew I couldn't say it right so I played stupid and said I didn't remember what it was called but that I saw one when we were in Yellowstone (which was true!). To this day though, I can't say "Swiss". I love the cheese, but I always opt for American because of my tongue! I absolutely LOVE Swedish Fish candy, but I always say it slow because it'll come out "Swish fiss" if I'm not careful!

My Favorite Drink

Hands down, my favorite drink is a Shirley Temple.

When my sisters and I were young, we would go out to the ranch with our dad to feed the cows (but mostly just to play on the hay bales!) Not every time, but often enough, before we headed home, we would drive to town to have a drink at the bar with all the other farmers. My dad would have a Roy Rogers and my sisters and I would get Shirley Temples. We were always excited when they'd give us extra cherries in our drinks!

There are a few variations to the drink but here's how I've enjoyed them!

Add a few ice cubes to your glass

Fill glass with Sprite or 7-Up

Top it off with a splash of Grenidine

Stir

Garnish with a couple cherries

ENJOY!

Other variations include adding lime juice and using Ginger Ale instead of Sprite. This is a great drink for kids! Or make it an adult beverage by adding 1 oz of vodka to make it a Dirty Shirley.

If Only My Kids Would....

If only my kids would listen to me!

This is a day to day struggle for me. I'm not sure how many times I've called my parents in tears, or nearly in tears because they (mostly Hunter) will not do what I ask of them. Maybe we've just really hit the Terrible 2s and the Tantrum-ing 3's at the same time. Either way, they know how to push my buttons!

I dread bedtime just about every day that they *actually* take naps. At least when they don't take naps, we don't fight about staying in bed because they are too tired to get out! But then there are those days when they clearly need a nap, so we go back and forth about staying in bed not only at nap time, but again that night at bed time. 

Even simpler things like putting toys away are often challenging for us. It gets done, but occasionally there are tears involved, which I hate! I feel like I have been raising them the wrong way. The most frustrating part about them not listening to me, is that I haven't found a way that works to discipline them. 

Maybe I'm just crazy for thinking that only my kids won't listen to their mom when she asks them to go use the potty, or put their shoes on, or take their coat off, or heaven forbid, eat their food.

Don't get me wrong, I love my boys to death! And they are angels - when they want to be! Despite them not listening to me, they still manage to make me laugh and be silly with them. They just melt my heart. Wouldn't parenting just be a piece of cake if they did though? What's the fun in that?

P.S. Sorry mom for not listening when I was little...I think I just got slapped by Karma...

In Ten Years...

To think about my future makes me a little nervous. After all, in ten years, I will have two pre-teen boys, a 13 year old and a 12 year old! And hopefully a 9 year old girl? (We're I'm still praying about that one!)



My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com

In ten years, I'll officially be a soccer/hockey/football/baseball/whatever-they-want-to-do mom, running my boys around from game to game. Hopefully in 2022 I'll be a stay-at-home mom, and loving all the "me" time I'll have, which I forgot about while they were young in 2012!

I foresee Perry and the boys and I living in the same house. I'll still be driving my Pilot around, though she'll be old and warn out. Perry will have sold off his Sorento and will be driving a nice ... black?... truck.

Our kitchen will look completely different that it does currently. We'll have new cabinets and counters and I'll no longer have to listen to how dis-functional our kitchen is.

My garden will actually have stuff in it, other than weeds and trucks.

Our relationships with each other won't be perfect, but we'll love each other dearly regardless.

Perry and I will have grown together in our relationship and will be in the process of planning our 10 year anniversary trip to .... England? France? Ireland? Who know!

Love will be plentiful in our home. <3

Ten Years Ago...

Looking back to 10 years ago seems like such a long time ago, especially considering the "major life events" that have taken place since! 

10 years ago puts me back into Jr. High. As 7th and 8th graders we had a new-found freedom before us called periods, not subjects, as they were in elementary. We finally were able to "choose" (as much as 7th & 8th graders do) our classes. Band and choir? Home Economics? Shop or Art (I picked shop!) Our lockers became our space - our dumping ground, our lunchtime hangout place. So long "my" desk! Hello countdown to last 10 *predictable* minutes of every period! No more bus rides home after school. Thank you for taking over my afternoons, volleyball, basketball and track! And HELLLOOO cute boys! ; ) 

Although I am a little embarrassed to post this photo, I feel as though I must. This is me at the end of my 8th grade year. I LOVED this shirt. Futhermore, I love that Hjortsberg let us use our precious Spanish class time to take photos of each other! Not sure how this one made it back to me!

In five shorts years, I became a young lady, graduating from High School and starting life on my own.

Now, five years later, I'm a wife and a mom...and I still stand the same!

My how I've grown up! 

But in all honestly, it's funny in as little as ten years, how everything you once knew is completely different than what it is now. As an 8th grader, I occasionally thought about my future. Did 14 year old Sadie think 10 years later she'd be married with 2 kids? Um, no! I didn't even think I'd be married, let alone have kids! I predicted myself to still be in college, studying something cool. Instead I finished early, settling for an Associates degree instead of a Bachelors. I envisioned moving out of state to find my husband-to-be and to settle down. Not quite how it all went down...

Funny how life works!  

What I Want For My Birthday...

#30. What I want for my birthday....

Not many people know when my birthday is. Last year, I received only a handful of "Happy Birthday" greetings, and I went to work and everything! I like to keep it a secret. Not sure why though. I simply just don't care to celebrate my birthday. I do enjoy the birthday wishes I get though because not many know when it is!

With that said, I still want things for my birthday. This year I really wanted a Kindle so I could read more to the boys. I opted to get the Kindle Fire because it is in color and can stream videos and movies and music...etc. I'm currently borrowing a book from Amazon's online library. I have to return on February 1st. Kinda cool. But I love it. Perry has an iPad and I use it frequently to play Fruit Ninja (it's better than Angry Birds, in my opinion!). Now I can play it on my Fire, which I love and hate at the same time! Anyways- I told Perry I wanted one, so he gave it to me as an early birthday present.

Since I've already gotten what I wanted, the only other thing I need now is Amazon gift cards to buy more books! *Wink*Wink*Wink* Or a sewing machine so I can be more crafty : ) Either one! Or just a hug!

Snow Days!

#22. Snow Days

Where I live, we generally get our first snow of the season around the end of October, sometimes November. It hasn't been unnormal to not have snow on Christmas, but more times that not, we do. Except this year. This year was just bizarre. It snowed twice in December, but didn't stick. It was averaging high 30's, sometimes low 40's. I love winter...as long as there is snow on the ground! And then we FINALLY got snow last week!

It started snowing late Tuesday night the 18th and it continued to just snow and snow and snow until Friday morning. I shovel the drive about 7 times, and Perry 3 times (he was either working or sleeping) and boy was it tiring! We ended up with about 18 inches. And the entire county ended up with two snow days! Some businesses closed because the roads were so bad, and all the schools shut down. Didn't affect me any!

Here's how the boys spent their days!

JP's first "real" time in the snow

Here I go shovelin' again....

JP is doing his "cheesy" smile

Hunter's attempt at a snow angel

JP helpin' out

I Wasn't Supposed to See....

  

#24. I wasn't supposed to see...

My wedding band. Perry bought it when he bought my engagement ring, but had left it in his parents possession for safe keeping. 3 months prior to the wedding, they brought it to and Perry was sure to hide it.

Not very well though. Like a logical person, he hid it in our safe. One night we opened up the safe to look through Perry's grandpa's coin collection to see if we could find a six pence for my wedding to put in my shoe. (You know, something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a six pence for her shoe.) We found one and I was super excited! And then Perry pointed out that the ring was in the safe....I wanted to see it soooo bad! But I resisted. Multiple times.

Because Perry was in Phoenix on the days leading up to the wedding, I had to bring the ring up to my parents house. I told my parents over and over that I wasn't allowed to see the ring until the wedding. My mom almost spoiled it for me. But I resisted looking when she opened the box. And again, I resisted looking on the day of our wedding when our photographer, Dax, took the ring box to get a few photos.

And then it happened. I saw it. My bridesmaids and I had just finished taking pictures and we were on our way back into town and Dax handed me the camera for me to scroll few the photos to see how I liked them. What I forgot and what he forgot, was that the pictures he had taken earlier of the rings were at the beginning. I started at the end and scrolled and scrolled and scrolled through thousands of photos taking a quick look. And then I got to the beginning. I saw the ring and it startled me! It was so pretty! I didn't take time to stare at it because then it would have been obvious that I saw it. So I scrolled forward and said I'm done looking, I don't want to see the rings by accident. I left it at that.

I never told Perry I saw the ring because that would have just crushed him. But the first time I saw it in person, it was hard to take my eyes off it! It was so perfect - just like the man I married.

Laughed Until I Cried

#19. The last time you laughed until you cried....

On our honeymoon in Jamaica, Perry and I went snorkeling right before a storm set in. Our boat was called in early, which wasn't a surprise. By the time we made it to shore, it was down pouring on us. It was so cool to be on the beach when it was storming because it was still hot outside, and the rain was warm! Because we were already soaking wet, we decided to go sit in the hot tub and watch the lightening, which was out on the horizon, or so we thought. There was a bolt that cracked right above us and Perry screamed, a high pitched girly scream while I merely jumped. We jumped out of the hot tub and laughed for the next 20 minutes or so. The look on his face was priceless...I'm surprised he didn't spill his drink!

Something Useless...

#18. Something in your house that serves no purpose....

Without a doubt I would say our toaster oven. When Perry and I moved in together, he brought along his toaster oven. I've never used one before but thought it might come in handy. In the year that we lived in our apartment together, it was used once. I made pizza in it. And burned it. Otherwise for the entire year, it just took up counter space.

We now have a kitchen with twice the amount of counter space. Up until just a few months back, that same darn toaster oven just sat on our counter taking up space. I often stored things on top of it... I grew up using toasters. They are one hundred times faster and easier to make toast in compared to a toaster oven. I've been rejoicing ever since Perry put it in storage! Now I have an Edmonton Oilers toaster that brands my toast with their logo every time I use it. LOVE IT!

Annoying Cartoons

#14. Why I don't like a certain cartoon....

 I'm not sure exactly why, but I've always despised SpongeBob Square Pants since the show first aired. I don't recall ever watching an episode, but I've seen enough previews. I cannot stand his voice. At all. I find him to be annoying and a bit crude. Patrick just seems like a "dumb" character. Regardless, JP loves SpongeBob. We're fortunate to not have cable, and primarily rely on PBS for our cartoons.

When we first had Hunter, Perry and I made a pact to not allow Dora in our home. So far so good. Closest thing we have is a Diego sippy cup. I'm fine with Diego, but Perry and I have a mutual hate for Dora. I think most of it has stemmed from the remaking of her. She doesn't even look like a little girl anymore! I like that she incorporates the Spanish language into the show, but I just don't care at all for her character.

 

Don't get me wrong on this one, I LOVE Winnie the Pooh. And I can't say I dislike Darby, who is Christopher Robin's younger cousin. She replaced him a few years back because, to my knowledge, the person who Christopher Robin portrayed passed away. Darby was then created to carry on the adventures with Winnie the Pooh. I guess the show is now called Tigger and Friends. I like the original!