And breathe...

I had a marvelous holiday and a great birthday! Yes, I am one of the cursed few with a birthday the day after Christmas. But it was awesome. I love to go shopping on my birthday and also had lunch with great friends Stefanie and Stacey. Thanks you guys!

My family was out with the husbands and kids of Stefanie and Stacey snow machining. Or snowmobiling to all of you Lower 48ers. As JaDee was leaving at he kissed me one more time, "Are you sure its OK that we go."

Do I look like a mean wife/mom if I push them out the door? Are you kidding! I practically jumped for joy when Todd asked if he could take them!

After they left I went back to bed with a bowl of s'more mix and a book for breakfast.

I did not mind at all that they were off having a great time!

videos

730 to go...or exactly one year ago today...

It has been exactly one year. One year since we touched down in a land frozen and dark, not knowing a soul. One year ago with 10 suitcases, 2 cats (one of them howling) and a dog (he was peeing in the men's room of the airport) where I almost lost it. [Click here here or here for details of that journey.]

So how is life in Alaska? Are you going to stay?

Those are the 2 questions I am asked the most. By new friends here, by my mother every other phone call, by relatives to my mother/father/sister/in-laws and out-laws.

A year ago I was counting down the days (1095) for our 3 years to be up in this forsaken, brutal land. I was desperately homesick, lonely and in the chaos of re-establishing ourselves and our possessions it was all I could do to hang on to that one ray of hope: I could go home.

Then I got to go home in April by myself. On the return of that trip when I touched down in a slightly warmer, brighter land, I had the soft whispering in my heart as the landing gear pounded the tarmac, that I was home. My dearest ones were here and I belong with them.

I can do this, I thought. I can love it here.

And love it we have. That is the answer to how we are.

As for the answer to are we staying here...

The jury is still out.

We are enjoying the now.

The most wonderful time of the year

To answer a few questions about our family pictures: We were outside, it was not a back drop. It had snowed the day before and the trees were perfect. It was about 35 degrees out so of course us Alaskans didn't need coats. The snow was about up to my knees and Olivia needed to be carried. We took a red bench from my room and packed it around to the different places we shot pictures. It took us about 45 minutes to get our shots. For those of you familiar with the area, we were at the Eagle River North Fork state recreation area on the way to the Nature Center.

We saw lots of animal tracks and heard a moose bellowing in the not too far off distance, but no wildlife encounters.

But this weekend we had the most holiday-rific time of all! It started Saturday morning with the boys Christmas piano recital and Olivia's primary Christmas party, both at 10 AM. Luckily we just had to drop Olivia off to her teachers at church and we both made the recital. It was Ethan's first performance. He was thrilled to play on his teacher's cherry red baby grand piano because "It sounds cooler than the smaller black one downstairs."

Olivia had a visit from Santa at her party. "But," she told me. "It wasn't the real Santa. He only comes out on Christmas and its not Christmas yet." Olivia asked for, "The doll withe the llama." Luckily, as one of Santa's helpers, I know that this means the American Girl Doll "Chrissa" and her pet llama.

After the party/recital we went up to Palmer for their annual Colony Christmas celebration. Just like Perry, UT celebrates the 4th of July in a grand way, Palmer uses Christmas as the back drop for their towns celebration. We decided to check out the Nativity display set up at the LDS church house. The building was also hosting performers and our friends little girls were participating in a couple of numbers that their little dance group put on so we decided to go and support them and see what kind of Nativities were set up.

The Church gym in Palmer at the Nativity Display. This is just a taste of the set up that was all over the building for us to enjoy.

I was blown away. There were over 1000 Nativities set up in over 10 rooms of the Church. The decorating was over the top. Complete with rough wood arches, hundreds of yards of butcher paper stone wall murals (that were incredibly well done), yards of fabric swathed the walls and ceilings of each room transforming the scene to a rich and warm backdrop for the literally hundreds of Nativities lovingly set up on display.

We spent over 2 hours taking in all of the Nativities, playing the "I spy" game set up for the kids to look for objects all over the building, and then moved on to see more of Palmer. We saw the ice sculpture garden, and many lights and carolers, but missed the gingerbread house displays, the night time parade, and only glimpsed in on the Orchestra Concert playing holiday music.

Ice sculpture Gardenn at Palmer's Colony Christmas Festival

We had to get back to the much discussed Adult Ward Christmas Party. No kids and many of the 12-18 crowd was asked to serve. So who to babysit? Carter and Ethan forget that Olivia exists so we still need to hire someone to come. And we can't exactly leave a 12 year old girl alone with my 12 year old boy, so we got them a 16 year old boy who has lots of experience with his little nieces.

And the party was fantastic!! A HUGE amount of work was put into a very nice evening.

The end of weekend was wrapped up with a Messiah Sing A Long at the church last night. The amount of "amateur" was incredible and the quality was top notch. A small orchestra and an army of pianists accompanied the soloists and the congregational choir. It was a lot of fun and a awesome way to worship our Savior this time of year.

Yes, the Moncurs are feeling the Christmas spirit!

Did you see this on FB?

We had our pictures taken by the wonderful Catherine, who is also my partner in backpacking adventures. I posted the one on Facebook but here are some others.

OK you will have to come back and see some more because I am having upload problems...

photo log: Christmas Tree 2009

Last year we did not get to break out the Christmas decorations that were of huge concern to me as we house hunted last December. A concern as in "Where are we going to put them since none of these homes come with basements?" The answer has been our huge heated garage that only holds one car (mine) 6 months of the year when it is too cold to ride bikes and they can be hung from the ceiling. Never mind that it is a 3 car garage. But that is another post.

So when our house ended up boasting a 2 story living room with a bay window perfect for a Christmas Tree, I was most excited. The Christmas Tree is my thing. Our ornaments are from every place we have ever vacationed starting with our honeymoon in Jackson Hole. I love to scour the shops of every place we have been in search for the perfect ornament.

We have a space needle, a statue of liberty, a San Diego fishing boat, a Confederate Soldier from Franklin, TN, moose on white water rafts, and even one from Germany when JaDee was there for work a million years ago.

And then there are the kids ornaments. Of course the baby ornaments but also ballerina slippers this year for Olivia, a cowboy boot for Ethan several years ago when that was all he would wear, and the salt dough ornaments made by Carter in Kindergarten.

I spend hours wrapping each branch with lights and hang my strings of red beads just so before the ornaments touch a branch.

This year we chopped one down and it was FREE! Wahoo! And the wild trees here are exactly the kind I like and which I have been known to spend way too much on in UT.

And so enjoy these pictures of our trees journey, where 5 days ago it was growing in a field on the Fort Richardson Army base, until we came a long with our axe and strapped it to our car. I like to think that it is glad it got to be our tree this year. That it is honored to hold our stories on its branches for a few weeks.

what I was going to blog about...

...Was the Christmas tree we chopped down the other day. And how it was not much different from picking one out at a tree lot. Meaning I loved the first one we saw, went all over creation to double check there wasn't one better only to trudge back to the first one and tie it to the roof of the car. I had pictures and everything.

But my camera is locked in my car.

In my garage.

With my keys.

Which leads me to blog about cortisol levels and how mine are off the chart high in the morning.

See I know this because I have been getting a bunch of hormone tests done as a result of feeling like crap for the better part of the 4 years Olivia has been alive. After several doctors in Utah told me I was just getting older and "it is because you are a Mom," I found a women's center here that does everything but babies. So no offense to all the preggers out there, but it is nice not to have to be scheduled around you. And it being not preggers, and therefore not the cash crop that babies are to a women's center, I am not waiting 3 months in between appointments.

So long story short, I have hypothyroidism and to be thorough I got a work up on all sorts of other hormones. This was done with an attractive saliva test. Ever done one of those?

Me either.

You get to fill (yes, I said FILL. I will wait a minute while you gag at that image. I gagged when I saw it for real) a test tube with your own spit 4 times on day 19, 20 or 21 of your cycle (so this was done about 3 weeks ago), mail it at the UPS store and they get all sorts of info from that. Who knew there was that much to spit?

Turns out one of the things they read is your cortisol levels. And mine are through the roof at 6:30 in the morning.

I reviewed these results yesterday with my nice doctor lady, and she monologued about saying no, not doing too much for the PTA, getting enough sleep, and exercise and eating right. Blah blah blah. The irony of this is that since we moved, I have said no to the PTA, I do eat right and exercise, and since I cut off the Diet Pepsi at 3 in the afternoon and get up before 6 most mornings, I sleep great so what the heck could be stressing me to the point of needing a whole new bar graph to track my cortisol levels from 7 AM to noon every day?

I came up with 2 answers.

First: I am LDS. We are a busy people. We have many obligations to our faith and the organization of the congregations we belong to. Not only do we attend a block of 3 hours worth of meetings every Sunday, we have Tuesday night youth activities that JaDee has always been a leader in and now Carter is old enough tot attend. There is also choir, and cub scouts and Relief Society activities and cleaning the building, feeding the missionaries, and other miscellaneous activities like chili cook-offs that come around once every so often but there is usually at least 1 or 2 "miscellaneous" things a month if not once a week on top of the usual.

But aside from that, the second set of stresses I came up with was this:

Dealing with ages 12, 8 and 4 provide a wide variety of needs.

All day I am inundated with all the things like just now, for example as I sit here typing the last line: "Mom, how come you always get silverware for wedding presents." "Mom, I want you to play ponies." "Mom, can I play Wii before my homework just this once? Please, I promise I will do it tomorrow!"

How can one person's brain cope with questions like that all day long! Blooms Taxonomy would put things like this at a level 5 or 6. In other words, high level thinking and like being under fire in the intellectual/emotional kind of way.

Not to mention the sheer effort it takes to coordinate all of this/them.

Here is a typical Thursday:

6-6:30wake up get the boys out of bed say prayers with JaDee before he leaves for work
make lunches, get the boys through the shower.
7:25 leave to take Carter to jazz band leaving 8 year old Ethan "in charge" for 15 minutes.
7:40 come home get changed out of pajamas. Get Olivia up and dressed, get Ethan finished up.
8:30 take Ethan to school
9-10:30 go to the gym, run to the store/bank/post office
11:00- 12:45 eat, shower, quick chores, phone calls, whatever
12:45 take Olivia and friend to pre school
1-3:15 I take this opportunity to run to Costco, fold laundry, get dinner started, make a doctor appointment, work on cub scout stuff, blog, Overall it is amazing how much you can NOT do in 2 hours without any children.
3:30-5:30 pick up Ethan, get both boys through homework (A note about homework: kids cannot do it alone. I could, I guess because I was smart. My kids are apparently not. I spend a hellish 2 hours a day helping kids with homework). then dinner, lament the breakfast dishes that are still out from this morning, tell Olivia I will play later, etc.

Then the usual after dinner rat race. But only on Tuesdays are we really busy after dinner with scouts, youth activities and piano.

So as I wake up every morning and run through my day in half hour blocks and try to fit in "take your vitamins" and "switch the laundry" I realized that I am constantly working out a schedule in my head. I think in terms of "First I have to..." and "Before I do this..."

It starts the minute my feet hit the floor, apparently as my double bar graph of spit results so aptly shows.

And then today I get to the car to run Carter to school and the keys are locked in it.

Of course it takes an extra graph to chart my cortisol levels.

Of course it does.

Oh Girl

Out walks a naked Olivia into the room where JaDee and Ethan were playing Risk. Her eyes were covered by her hands.

"I don't want anyone to see me." she says. "I need a bath."

JaDee guides her by the arm into the bathroom and turns on the water. Only then does he notice the sweet smell of cotton candy coming from his daughter. But not actual cotton candy. It was in fact, my perfume, Pink Sugar.

"I don't want Mom to see me." I hear Olivia say from the TV room where Carter and I were just finishing the Amazing Race.

I trot back to the tub in time to see this:

peeking out from behind her fingers.

Surprisingly, not a lipstick was smashed. Nor was an eyeliner left on the counter. Her crime scene was very well put back together. And except for the nauseating smell of too much cotton candy, Olivia would have gotten away with it.

Good thing she has a such a sleuth for a mom.

And with no graceful segue...



...our turkey was stuffed, cooked and eaten.
Our pie was delicious even for breakfast the rest of the weekend.
We had 2 other "orphan" families over for dinner and divided the Thanksgiving tasks into manageable job sharing.
The day was very good.
Even when I was a drill sergeant getting the house clean.

The next morning 2 girlfriends and I hit Wal-Mart at 5 AM then Best Buy, Target and Old Navy. I am 3 gifts away from being done!!
We got our tree permit to cut our 13-15 foot tree on Dec 1 but the other decorating is done.
My blog is changed for the season.

All that his left is tree decorating, present wrapping, shipping to only 5 states, 150 or so Christmas cards (with our new address securly fastened to the corner so I am sure to get many cards in return), a ward Christmas party to help cook and decorate for, one work party for JaDee, a ballet recital, a band concert, service project to the old folks home with the cub scouts, and neighbor gifts.

Bring on Christmas!

Martha called...

Lately I have been feeling crafty.

I am in a frantic hunt for a sewing machine too...any suggestions??

I get together with a few friends every week for what we call Project Day. We each bring something to one of our homes that we are working on and we work. Sometimes we sew, knit, scrapbook, whatever the project we happen to be working on. Not only does it carve out time for us to get something besides laundry done, we have fun too.

One of the women I work with is the YW president in our ward. She was saying how there has been an effort to get away from CRAFTS in YW and in Relief Society and there has been for quite a while. The conversation continued with us agreeing that often times teaching a craft also teaches a skill. We decided that it was crafting with a purpose. Everything I do I could define as CRAFTY. From my peg board organizing system above my computer, to the bows I glue together for Olivia's hair.

I CRAFT sometimes out of necessity to get what I want when I can't/won't buy it.

But sometimes I CRAFT because I like it.

I spent the rest of week pondering the word CRAFT.

We say it like it is a bad word. We call each other "crafty" and "Martha" and not always is this meant endearingly, although it is the real name of Big Fat Kitty. We think of CRAFTS as being badly spray painted necklaces of macaroni our kids bring home from first grade. We think of crayon green Christmas wreaths and Santa's made out of cotton balls hung on our refrigerators. We think of macrame plant hangers and bright yellow flowers glued to a Styrofoam ball in our grandmothers' houses and cringe.

These are the images of CRAFTS.

But in my mind it is different. I got to thinking about what it is I like about doing crafts and other domestic things. And another word came to my mind.

EDIFY.

I love this word. It is a word that describes the feeling when something speaks to my soul. It is a word I became aware of as a youth in a lesson/fireside/or talk where the speaker was guiding us to choose music that edified our spirits.

But as I was cutting fabric with a rotary cutter on a self healing mat I realized that I was feeling edified.

What? I was doing crafts? How is that edifying?

I don't know. But I recognized my soul was singing as I lined up the selection of fabrics to the 10 and a half mark on my cutting mat and sliced through the fibers. I relished in the textures. I drank up the colors and devoured the patterns of each piece I cut.

(Ethan has this same soul singing quality too. In his note thanking the owner of our local quilt store for helping his class with their quilt, Ethan told her that he loved her shop; especially the Jelly Rolls. And he wasn't talking pastries either)!

So my thoughts went back to the earlier conversation of steering our women's activities away from crafts and the bad connotations "crafts" seem to invite. And I realized that teaching "crafts" teaches us important skills and may introduce us into something we truly love. I recognize that it does not have to be everything we do or teach. I recognize that it may not appeal to everyone. But what I include in CRAFTS may reach a broad spectrum.

Sewing, furniture refinishing, gluing, cutting, spackling, crackling, painting, knitting, pottery, ceramics, weaving, quilting, arranging, hammering, sawing, hanging, tying, drawing, decorating (cakes or other things), scrapping, tacking, imagining, welding, glass blowing, beading, bending, taping, scraping, matching, tiling, vinyling, decoupaging, HTML-ing. Whatever your thing is...

Embrace your inner Martha!

TONIGHT!

So I wasn't with Courtney and Sherie at midnight like for the last "Twilight" movie, but I am going with friends to Moose's Tooth and then the show tonight!

I had a dream about the movie last night.

It came when I slept in instead of going to spin class.

I'd say that is a fair trade.

One year ago today part I

Just for fun, as I to not puke every time I remember what I was doing this time last year (as the one year anniversary of living in Alaska approaches next month) I decided to re post a few of them. Here is November 17 and because it made me laugh, a link to November 16, What you have to do when you are moving to Alaska during the Holidays. U

Unfortunately, many things on that list have stayed the same. Moving has nothing to do with it.


Here you are...one year ago today...

Monday, November 17, 2008

I am so glad I'm not them ...Thankful #17

Or you could read I am so glad I am me.

So my neighbor has a daughter who sells the cutest shoes, boutique style, for little girls. For those of you familiar with Olivia's squeaky shoes this is where I get them. Anyway, I got a call saying Heidi would be at her mom's house selling her cute shoes today. Of course I go because Olivia loves shoes as much as I do (I have to tell you about the sweet North Face boots my sister picked up for me at like $80 off).

So I get there and I am a mess. I had been painting the newly finished laundry and family rooms all day and I was speckled from head to toe and smeared on my legs and shoes. No makeup and not even the No-Shower do of curly hair (yes 3 pregnancies have given me curly hair). I was frightening I'll admit it. There was a new feature to the shoe boutique and this was trendy handbags, Juicy sweatsuits and some way expensive jeans. This was not Heidi's gig. Her cute baby shoes were in the back and these tag-a-longs were set up for all to walk through. Even paint spattered me. I even had my safety glasses on my head still.

I don't even know how to start telling what happened next. It was like a Twilight Zone. I stepped up the stairs and said "Hi, I promise I am all dry I have been painting all day (duh) and had to hurry over for Heidi's shoes." Nothing. Silence. Just a few looks up and down at my obviously not worth their time appearance.

See these girls were ummm... lets say plastic. What was that movie that took place in a high school where the girls who were surgically enhanced were referred to as The Plastics? (Leave a comment if you know). Well these were those same girls only 20years later and stuffed with a few more recycled milk jugs (or tubs of chicken fat). Totally huge stacked boobies (silicone). Gigantic pouty perfect lips (collagen). Hair extensions, acrylic nails, false lashes, lifted booties and tucked in tummies, tattooed eyeliner so thick Tammy Fay Baker (rest in peace) would be rushing to the bathroom to apply more just to fit in. All this was clad in Juicy Couture (not the knock offs they were selling) velour lounge wear and Coach bags (again not the knock offs they were selling) poised perfectly on their arms with the faint sounds of custom ring tones from a blackberry acting as background music.

I thankfully found Heidi in this landfill and we chatted about Alaska, her vacation there, my move, her wanting to hear how it all turned out etc. Found darling shoes, squeakers and all, for Livs and went to check out The Plastics merchandise.

Now I am a shopper and not a fraid of a knock off ( I do own a "burberry" bag from the swanky Times Squares Hawkers. So covert that it even came out of a black plastic garbage bag in someone's trunk). I have even been known to have acrylic nails, hair extensions, and a very good Victoria's Secret bra that I have dubbed Cheaper than a Boob Job (Body by Victoria). But as I perused The Plastics' wares I got not a one "how may I help you?" or "what size do you wear?" or "look what we got just for this boutique." Nothing. I was invisible.

I guess because the only silicone I had on me was smeared across the leg of my jeans from caulking the bathroom 2 years ago...that stuff just does not wash off...I was not worthy of the knock offs, the flashy bags, the chunky beaded watch bands.

So me and my Fossil watch, 6 year old paint splattered Ralph Lauren jeans (authentic not even outlet) and Simple loafers, delegated to household chores, walked off.

So why did I name drop the brands I was sporting? Because if they had looked past the grime they would have seen some of the very labels they and the world hold in esteem. I like them because of function. Waterproof watch, sturdy shoes and jeans that didn't make my butt look big after Ethan was born. but now they are worn out, stained, and not worth a whole lot.

And what did I think on the way home? I am so glad I am me. I practically skipped I was so happy. So glad that I did not care or feel insecure, or even worse try to fit in. I am so glad that I know myself and feel comfortable in my own skin no matter what. And even if I was my normally put together self I still would not have received the time of day from The Plastics because I know I carry myself as someone who knows her values and what she is really worth.

Ethan's Christmas story

"Told by Ethan"

Once when I was in kindergarten I licked the pole at the playground in Willard Elementary School in UT. It didn't stick. My mom told me it would because hers did. When she was in kindergarten and to a fire hydrant. I know I did it right because it was really cold in Utah but it still didn't stick.

I had kind of forgotten about it until last week. It was Olivia's birthday. It was really cold. I went out on the playground with my friend and we were talking about all the unbelievable stuff we knew. Like did you know my mom was alive in WWII. That is why she knows so much stuff about it. And did you know that our wool rug makes electricity and one day I am going to shock the heck out of my brother.

I started to remember what Olivia said to me the other day. She says I am her best friend. And my sister told me that mom said not to touch the handrail at the post Office without gloves because it would stick to it. So she kept her hands in her pocket. That got me to thinking about the time she said my tongue would stick to a metal pole.

So I asked my friend, "Did you know that your tongue can stick to metal."

"Yeah."

"Do you really think it works?"

"I don't know. Why don't you try it."

"No way. You do it too."

"OK."

So we went to the edge of the basketball courts where the fence was really high. I stuck out my tongue and so did my friend.

And they stuck. Like it only took a second!

Mine was stuck on a lot more than my friends. He just barely stuck the tip to the pole but I full on licked it.

I figured I would be stuck there forever but my friend got loose and told me to just pull hard. So I did. Then he told me it was bleeding so we went to find a Recess Duty.

We told her what happened and she sent us to the nurse.

The nurse gave me some salt water. First I drank it because I thought that it was like medicine that I had to take. Then she told me that swish and spit meant to rinse my mouth out and spit. My friend wasn't bleeding so he just sat their. He didn't get any salt water.

The nurse called my house and left a message that I had an accident on the playground. Nothing serious, she assured her, but wanted to let my mom know what treatment had been given. Then she called my mom's cell phone and left the same message. Finally she called my dad and left a message for him. She was very thorough. They were at Olivia's birthday party. But I had to go back to class because i wasn't hurt that bad. I asked. My friends parents didn't get a phone call either.

She told me I couldn't eat orange juice or anything that will sting or if it was too hot. And I needed to rinse with 1/8 a tsp of salt for 3 ounces of water. I didn't do it when I got home. It's fine anyway.

I learned my lesson.

the 4th birthday

Disclaimer: I have accepted my limitations in patience and my thresh hold for self inflicted torture, I did not make the cake. I bought it and was never happier with the results.

Olivia beamed all day long. Big cheeser grin from ear to ear every time someone wished her a happy day. She told me last night before bed, as her little head rested in her daddy's arms, "I had an amazing birthday, Mom. Thank you so much!" And gave me a big squeeze.



The day started with 6 of her friends joining us for a trip to Build A Bear. Last year we took her for her birthday with our family and she saw a birthday party going on. Olivia told me then, that was what she wanted when she turned 4. I can't say that bit of information stayed with me as we moved across a continent, but when I asked her a month ago what kind of party she wanted she answered without hesitating, "A Build A Bear party, me-member."

We had 4 boys and 3 girls all together. None of the boys had ever been here before. They were speechless or grinning madly and captivated by the magic of the place.

Like this guy here!

Our "host" was so good with the kids and made it all seem so real and important to there 4 year old minds. All in all a very, very well behaved group of kids.


Olivia is making a wish on the heart of her pink unicorn. All of her friends made a birthday wish for her and put extra hearts in her unicorn too. SO SWEET!



Of all the cute bears and cuddly rabbits, Olivia chose the ostentatious pink sparkly unicorn and promptly dressed it in a purple evening gown and pink Pegasus wings.

Oh and she named it herself....Fonda.

Which I don't think is because she is a fan of this:

Photo courtesy of this blog

but loves the book:

and got it confused.

Since Build A Bear doesn't have a party room or allow food in the store we ate sack lunches (seriously, I just bought everyone a Build a Bear, we were not buying Happy Meals no one really eats anyway) in the food court but then we didn't know how to do the presents since the tables didn't move and we had kids kind of everywhere.

How about Olivia, you sit in front of the garbage cans and we surround you with the gifts.

Yeah. that works.

A great day.

Happy Birthday sweet heart.

PS- Stay tuned for Ethan's version of the Christmas Story. Yeah he got his tongue stuck to the fence at school because when he tried it UT it didn't work and he didn't believe it ever would. This is after my story of getting stuck to a fire hydrant licking snow of one in kindergarten. He thought I was making things up for dramatic effect and had to see if it was real.

In case you are wondering. It is.

Are you considering a dog?

We all know about Champ. I have this love hate relationship with him. Like how we almost lost him after the move and how I threaten daily to turn him into a rug.

But I hate dog hair.

I vacuum it every day.

I have lint rollers stashed everywhere.

I tell the missionaries to leave their shoes on when they come for dinner because I know they will leave with dog hair on the bottoms of their black socks.

I brush the dog often yet it still seems to be everywhere!!

We have 1000 sq. feet of hard wood and oh the hair balls that are under the couch.

and the table.

and the cupboards.

and in the garage

and tracked into the car.

I pay the kids to vacuum them up.

I yell at JaDee to sell him on a weekly basis.

Yet why am in love with these:



These are just a sampling of my red headed sister's litters of Mastiffs. Check them out here. LOVE these dogs!

I could maybe buy another vacuum for one of these!

and name her Duchess, or Daisy. Or Delilah.

I think about this a lot.

Like when I vacuuming dog hair.

read me here

I submitted to be a "guest poster" on this blog. I hadn't heard anything so I thought for sure I was too lame to get a spot on their blog. But today I flipped over and saw me and my post! Check it out here.

ads

I just opened Olivia's baackpack from pre-school and unloaded a treat from one of her classmates. i saw a Mounds bar sticking out and knowing she would never eat it, I opened the goody bag and instead of a tasty treat I grabbed this:

Want to have mounds of fun!

Be a smartie (also in the treat bag)

and host a Pampered Chef party with _________________.

Hmmmm, I thought. Soliciting via pre-school treats. Maybe a bit tacky?

I also love a certain blog whom many people love as well. Many creative people who have businesses. And they send her many things because they love her, but maybe with a small hope that she will love them too? Enough to feature the gift in a blog post like this one. Thus sending a lot of traffic their way? Is it a genuine gift?

So the dilemma in my mind is how tacky / appropriate is it to ad-gift? Whether at pre-school, the blog world, neighbor gifts this Christmas? Is it OK to send someone a gift with the ad for your business included and maybe the small expectation attached with it?

Halloween of course! (and a recipe)

Princess Olivia is full of sparkles in her hair. I still need to get them out for Church this morning.

No snow for Halloween in Alaska! It was cold, but with hand and feet warmers in place the kids got quite a haul. Between the neighborhood and the Trunk or Treat at Church we are not lacking in the candy department.

Ethan the Garden Gnome (not so angry this time). All the grown ups knew what he was and loved his costume.

All 3 in front of the quilt from Nonna in the background.

Champ surveys the neighborhood as the doorbell keeps ringing.

The haul. Including 3 full sized candy bars. But NO FUN DIP!! I didn't see it in the stores even. I do not think they ship to Alaska. So send some for Christmas!

At 5 PM Carter still had no idea what to be, so since I knew he only really needed to dress up his head I put on a wig and some makeup and made him a girl. He looks rather pretty I'd say. He took a look at himself and said he might just get a crush on the girl Carter.

And the recipe for the Spinach Artichoke Cheesy Tortellini:

From Rachael Ray's book Express Lane Meals
1 10 box of frozen spinach
2 TB EVOO
1TB butter
3 garlic cloves chopped
1 small onion chopped
2 TB flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 14 ounce can artichoke hearts drained and chopped
A couple of handfuls grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
salt and pepper
1 pound cheese tortellini

Boil the water for the tortellini

In a deep skillet over medium heat, add the EVOO and butter. Add garlic and onion. Saute for 5 minutes.
Add flour and cook for another minute. Should look like cookie dough.
Whisk in broth and cream
Bring to a low boil stirring constantly so the cream doesn't burn to the bottom
Lower temp and ad salt pepper and nutmeg.

Place the defrosted spinach in a clean towel and wring it dry
Add it to the white sauce separating it as you go.
Stir in artichokes and a couple of handfuls of cheese.

Salt the boiling water and cook tortellini according to package, about 3-5 minutes. Drain well and toss with the sauce.

Serve!

ketchup

No it isn't another hot dog post. I only eat ketchup on french fries. This is a post of the latest goings on at the Moncur house. And a picture (finally) of the necklaces we made in Relief Society.

Ethan's class made a quilt to auction at his school's fundraiser. Each child made their own square on a sewing machine. Ethan loved it! He wants to learn more about sewing. Apparently this quilt was sold for $700! Insane, I know! The auction made $19,000 over all. Crazy!

Then we went to Halloween party last night at the church.

Olivia was a pink princess eating a donut on a string.

I went as a Groovy Girl. Only the little girls and the moms with girls knew who I really was. One guy thought I was Rock star Dora. The old guys thought I was a Spice Girl. The real detail was the tag on my side. All the Groovy Girls have a tag with their name on it.

Ethan was a grumpy garden Nome. He is such a nut.

This is our neighborhood moose. She was a young mom this summer, but we haven't seen the baby for a while. And she was limping pretty bad the other day so we think they got hit by a car and the baby must not have made it.

Speaking of hitting moose. We were coming home on the highway last week and a moose stepped in front of us as we were going 70 mph. She jumped back just in time and we barely missed a really bad accident. So I added a new line to the Moose Counter on the right.

Moose in Alaska are like squirrels in Vermont. Only bigger.

Saturday we had a party for Jed and Sarah and their friends in Alaska to celebrate their recent nuptials.

I did not make anything from a box as my sister would have done (haha sis!)

I made Chicken soup, spinach artichoke cheese tortellini casserole, party ham roll ups, salad an bread. We also had chips and salsa and Pirate Booty to snack on (I didn't make that). I called my brother and cook extraordinaire, Stephen to tell him to move to Alaska with me and start a catering business. I loved cooking for this! But my family had to clean house all by themselves with me just barking orders while I stirred. I paid each kid 5 cents for each piece of trash they picked up. Then JaDee had Carter pay him 5 cents for each article of clothing he put away for him (that was a lot of pronouns: JaDee put away Carter's clothes. Then Carter had to pay JaDee for doing it).

I got to buy flowers at Costco instead of just looking at them.

And these are my Best-Cupcakes-in-the-Whole-World-and-I-have-tried-Everything cupcakes

Oh the butter I used to make all of this.

But I have been getting to Spin class MWF at 6 AM and to weight training class MTh at 9:30 AM to help off set all of that.

And we had snow yesterday. It was sticking at my friends house because she lives on the mountain. I am just below her and it did not stick. I am trying to wait to November 1 for snow tires.

That's all for now!