Klutz

Last year, Sophie learned how to fold "cootie catchers" (or, "fortune tellers" as they called them back in my day) from her friends at school. She enjoyed making dozens of them from plain white paper until one day last summer when my friend surprised us with The Klutz Book of Cootie Catchers!

It had 20 or 30 tear out pages that could be folded into full color cootie catchers with all kinds of different themes. What a riot Sophie had with that.

We have since found several Klutz books that have brought joy and creativity into our home. For Ian's last birthday, he received the Klutz Book of Paper Airplanes.

Ian has loved folding paper airplanes since he was three (in fact, it was a nice source of entertainment for us while living in China). But, try as we might, we had only one main model with slight variations from time to time. Nothing too interesting, until this book came along providing illustrated step-by-step instructions for 10 different planes. It also came with 50 sheets of paper in fun designs.

Ian has had lots of fun with this book over the past few months. And, Saturday, after Karen's Cafe, we were having kind of a lazy day. He asked me to fold some airplanes with him. It turned into a great afternoon as we created the Flying Ninja -- that turns corkscrew tricks as it soars through the air, and the Pteroplane -- that does a wide backwards loop-de-loop. I am loving these books!

Karen's Cafe

When I was asked to do the Restaurant Features for the local newspaper two years ago, there had been a different guy filling that position for three years before me. I was told that I could not repeat any of the restaurants he had done -- and, boo-hoo -- he had already written up all of my favorite restaurants! I also couldn't cover any chains, and, they had to be sit-down establishments. My area was from North Salt Lake to Brigham City. More than 100 restaurants had already been featured. That left me with some pretty slim pickin's. Aside from the occasional new restaurant gem, I was left scraping around in obscure corners for something new, covering a never ending slew of Chinese and Mexican joints (not that I have anything against them, it's just that they all started to seem the same and there was often a language barrier).

Finally, a few weeks ago, I got the green light to go ahead and throw a few repeats into the mix. Huzzah! How easy is my job now? That is why I was able to just shimmy on down to Historic 25th Street to rummage up a story last week during the snowstorm. And, in doing so, I met Karen, the owner of Karen's Cafe. Interviewing her was a treat.

She is 67-years-old and 14-years-ago, when her husband was retiring, she decided to open a restaurant because she has always loved to cook. I don't know if I've ever met anyone as passionate about cooking (except for maybe Layne). When she was a kid, her favorite thing to do was watch cooking shows. When she was in the 3rd grade, she sneaked into the kitchen, pulled out a recipe, and taught herself how to bake bread. "I've been baking my own bread ever since," she said. After raising eleven kids, making all their meals from scratch, and literally dreaming about food and recipes in the night (she jotted down one of the restaurant's most popular recipes after she dreamed it five-years-ago), she opened Karen's Cafe, where she continues to make everything from scratch.

Here is all I have to say to people who have raised eleven kids -- "Go home and put your feet up already!" But, she thinks going into the restaurant first thing every morning and cooking, followed by an afternoon of socializing with the customers is her dream life. One of my favorite parts about my job is meeting people who love what they do. After I found out that she even goes so far as to bake buns for the hamburgers and sandwiches from scratch every day, I decided that we needed to take a little trip to Karen's Cafe, which we did today. It was suppose to be a breakfast date for Brian and me, but, we didn't have a sitter, so we ended up taking the whole family at lunchtime. Brian ordered the "Big Bubba" breakfast and all of our kids got Micky Mouse pancakes with bacon (they don't have a kid's menu, but, if you ask, they will tell you the kid's menu items). I wanted Karen's Crummy Chicken (the yummy recipe she dreamed about), but, it turns out they only serve it at dinnertime, unless it's the lunch special that day. So, I got a BBQ sandwich with slow roasted beef and house specialty BBQ sauce on a fresh homemade bun. Everything was delish.

When they brought us the check we discovered that the kids' meals were only $1.25. What!? I love surprises like that. You know how happy that made me, sucker for a great deal that I am. Why, that was even cheaper than paying a sitter. And, the kids were using their best restaurant manners. Every one of them cleaned their plates, Isaac stayed put in his chair, and Sophie and Ian conversed the entire time about an alphabet show Ian saw in his Kindergarten class.

And, since the meal ended up being so cheap, there was no excuse not to go across the street to the Cakery for dessert. A great day on Historic 25th Street!

Adventures in Snow Land

I should have taken it as a sign that this would be a day full of adventures from the moment Izzy fell fully clothed into the toilet. You read that correctly. I was standing there fixing my hair and the babies were both close underfoot when -- splash! -- I turned just in time to see her mid-section fully submersed in the bowl. That's right. Bring your children to me and I'll take good car of 'em. Luckily, I had a handy change of girl clothes nearby to keep the trauma level from soaring to even greater heights.

After it rained all night, it promptly began snowing all day (rain in the night and snow in the day, does that seem backwards?). I would have loved to stay nestled snug in my home, except that I was suppose to take the little ones to pre-school at 12:30. And, I had unfortunately put off writing a restaurant review until the last possible moment. If I didn't rummage up a menu and an interview this afternoon I would be in serious deadline trouble. Not the place I want to be as a freelancer in this day and age of cutbacks.

I dropped off four kiddies at pre-school and drove down 25th street to scout out restaurants. The snow fell steadily, but, as long as I took it slow, the van was handling fine. I made contact with the owner of Shin Sei and was granted an on-the-spot interview with the owner of Karen's Cafe. I decided to grab a hot chocolate and slice of chocolate cake to-go from the Sugar and Spice Cakery and then headed over to the bank to deposit a check. I had planned to spend under an hour running errands, but, with the snow, it was 2:15 by the time I approached my home. I called the pre-school carpool pick-up mom and told her not to bother getting out in the snow, I would just bring the kids home.

No sooner had I parked my van in front of the pre-school, then, I got a call from my other son's elementary school saying that Ian was ill and requiring a change of clothing and was quite upset waiting to be picked up in the office. It was 2:20 and the other kids would be out at 2:30. It was only 6 blocks each way to pick-up Ian and come back. I figured that would be the right thing to do. And, that was the right thing to do (I knew as soon as I encountered my tender tear-streaked boy that I had been right to not make him wait), but it was also the beginning of my adventures in Snow Land.

I got to the school and loaded Ian up without much worry. It just took longer than usual and my windows were severely fogged on the insides, making it hard to see. But, then, I got stuck in front of the school!!! So, I tried to call the other mom to say "pick up the kids!" But, her line was busy. After 10-minutes of tire spinning, I got out. Then, the windshield wiper on the driver's side flew off -- the icing on my adventures in Snow Land cake. I was 15-minutes late picking up the pre-school kids. They were standing outside in a snowstorm the entire time, which was awesome. And, when I got out to load them, I found myself standing in a slush covered river that completely soaked through my winter boots and filled them with water -- even more awesome.

So, my feet were then cold and soaking wet, my windows were still very fogged, the snow was still coming down, I was missing a wiper blade, and it was then that I realized the carpool mom who was suppose to pick up Ian, Manthy and Lexy didn't know I already picked up Ian. I called her house. No answer. I called the school to try to get a message to Lexy. No answer. All the time that I was making phone calls and frantically looking up numbers in my phone, I was trying to drive on slippery roads with low visibility. Finally, I delivered two pre-school kids to their homes and decided that I had no choice but to go to the school to let the mom know, rather than make her wait with her pre-schooler and infant in a snowstorm, trying to figure out where on earth my son was.

Of course, the area in front of the school was a complete mess with cars jammed and stuck in every direction. I pulled into a spot, jumped out, found said mom, delivered the news, collected two more kids, jumped into the van, and discovered that we were stuck again!!! So, I sat there trying to be patient while I was conspicuously close to the crosswalk and sticking out a little too far from the curb (making traffic even worse and the crosswalk less safe). Finally, at 3:15 enough traffic cleared out for me to manage to get unstuck without ramming another car or driving over a kid. It was then that I realized that Sophie's carpool would have dropped her off to an empty house at 3!!!

I tried to hurry home. Of course, there would be no hurrying. When I arrived I was a little surprised to discover that a full foot of snow had fallen since I left the house 3 hours earlier. Perhaps, that is why I was having so much trouble. Sophie was (luckily) waiting patiently in the backyard and not freaking out about the fact that the doors were all locked and no one was there. I took my best stab at pulling into the driveway, and, in the process, got extremely stuck -- half in the road and half in the driveway. After sloshing in my soggy boots up to the house three different times to carry in various items including two sleeping babies, I told six kids to please entertain themselves and headed back to the driveway with my snow shovel. As I started shoveling out my tires, I soon realized that I was in no condition (read: Six-months pregnant) to shovel very much of the 12-inch thick heavy snow. So, I tried to pull in again. After sliding all over the place, some young boys walking home from school offered to push me in. Bless those boys for their kindness! Together we managed to get the van pushed up into the driveway and off of the street. And, now, I'm planning to stay put for the rest of the day. And, definitely until this crazy storm stops (and I have a new wiper blade). If you will please excuse me there is (ahem) some chocolate cake upstairs with my name on it. The end.

P.S. While I was typing this, my 87-year-old neighbor used his snowblower to clear our driveway so now Brian won't have to get stuck when he pulls in at 1 a.m. I am so blessed. The end.

Holiday Weekend

When I was young, Valentine's Day was a very good holiday for me. Before I was born, my parents had a scare with a carbon monoxide leak and they were released from the hospital on Valentine's Day. They were so grateful to be alive that every Valentine's Day they told us the story and gave us extra gifts to celebrate.

As I entered the teen years, Valentine's Day became a holiday of receiving flowers and going out to fancy dinners. That only got better in the college years. So, yes, Valentine's Day has always been good to me. And, just when I could have started being bitter about the holiday (my photojournalist hubby frequently has to work on Valentine's Day), a sweet Auntie of mine shared with me that Valentine's Day is one of her favorite holidays because it gives her a chance to show her gratitude and love to others. I'm so grateful that she gave me that gift (it was on the Valentine's Day before Soph was born) because, since that time, I no longer think about what I will get, but rather, enjoy the opportunity to make cards and pink frosted heart cookies to give to friends and family.

The kids were bathed in love notes and candy from their class parties before the weekend even started. Saturday morning began beautifully with an early yoga class while the rest of the family slept in. I haven't been working out much since my walking buddy had to quit due to pregnancy complications. Since I pretty much have two choices: 1) get up and work out at 5:30 a.m. or, 2) don't go to the gym -- I've been choosing sleep. I overcame my fears of falling over or being a weakling and got myself over to the gym Saturday morning where I was reminded of just how much I love yoga.

I was so pleased when I got home and found that the family really had slept in. That meant I got to make heart shaped waffles for them. And, after breakfast, the kids and I cut out heart shaped cookies and frosted and delivered them together. Photoguy and I exchanged little boxes of chocolates before he had to go to work in Salt Lake. And, I devised a plan to meet him for dinner. I needed to go to his parents' house in Bountiful because Photoguy's Aunt who lives in Sweden hand pieced a beautiful Sunbonnet Sue quilt top for the baby. And, now my mother-in-law is going to hand quilt the whole thing. I can't believe how incredibly lucky I am for this gift! We needed to go to the fabric store to pick out the back (and, I picked out pink, yes indeed I did).

The only hitch in the night was that Photoguy was too busy, so we couldn't meet for dinner. Photoguy's mom was so sweet to invite us to stay for her homemade mac and cheese, which we did, and it was a mighty fine way to spend Valentine's Day with family, even if we did miss Photoguy (and, he was bummed out that he missed the mac and cheese -- or, as AiAi calls it "mac and cheese and roni and cheese").

Sunday afternoon, my mom invited the whole extended family over for a beautiful Valentine's dinner, complete with all the tiny details of decor and a heart shaped cake for dessert.

And, then, as if things couldn't get any better, Monday was President's Day, meaning all the kids were home from school (more heart shaped waffles and a lazy morning in our P.J.s were in order). Plus, I was able to convince Photoguy in advance that he couldn't really drum up sponsorships on a holiday so he should spend the day with us. He did get called away on a project in the morning and ended up working the late shift at the newspaper (someone was sick), but, in between all that he spent three whole hours with his kids -- who have been missing him greatly while he's been ultra-involved in the book project. He took the whole bunch to Nickelcade and guess what I did? I went to the chiropractor and had a 60-minute massage because my sciatica has been making me walk funny for the past couple of weeks. It was only $30 for the massage and I found a spectacular therapist who works my muscles so deep it feels like they are turning black and blue. The results are amazing. I wish I were back there right now.

Photoguy handed off the kids to me and headed to work while I went to Costco. The kids were so well behaved and I was thankful for that (well, except AiAi was tired and crying the whole time, but two out of three is pretty good). As we headed toward the exit with our huge cartload of goods, I had an idea. It was dinner time, so we did something we haven't done in a long time -- we ate at the food court. $6 later there were pizza slices, churros and ice-creams all around. We had a big bad food feast and AiAi was even pretty calm as long as he could have his very own super sized ice-cream all to himself (and smear it all over his coat . . . ah, well).

Back at home, the kids got ready for bed early which meant extra snuggling time. Really, just a fabulous weekend around here. Hope your holidays were awesome too!

The Other Best Part

In December, a good friend of mine took a trip to Hawaii with her hubby, leaving their two young boys behind to be cared for by relatives. When she came back, I asked how it went and expected a gushing response. Instead, my friend said honestly, "We really missed our kids."

I had flashbacks to the first time we left Soph and E-Man for an extended vacation. Soph was 3 1/2 and E-Man was barely 2 when we headed to D.C. and Virginia for nearly a week to visit friends and so Photoguy could run the Richmond Marathon (his first). Leading up to the trip, I was ecstatic about the prospect of a kid-less vacation. I practically did a cartwheel every time I thought of it -- the freedom! No working around naptimes! No hauling around heavy strollers and giant diaper bags! Just Photoguy and me doing whatever we wanted.

Let's just say, there were many tears shed (don't tell Photoguy I said this, but they were not only my tears) before we even got to the airport over missing those kids. We thought of them the entire time. "Wouldn't E-Man love riding the Metro?" "Wouldn't Soph go crazy over those squirrels running around the Mall?" "Oh, look an airplane. The kids love airplanes." Ugh, we were pathetic. We did have a nice trip, and the one redeeming thing about missing them so entirely was that I couldn't stop holding them and enjoying them every minute of the day for at least a month straight when we got back.

We missed them so much that we didn't even attempt a kid-less vacation (longer than a one-nighter here and there) until last Spring when we went to Boston. In Boston, I steeled myself against missing them and we had an amazing time.

Yet, as we prepared to leave for San Diego, I felt the familiar anxiety welling up inside of me. How I wished I could tuck that little AiAi in my suitcase and take him right along.

As it turned out, I reached full relaxation mode only hours into the trip. The first time we went to the beach, we were surrounded by young parents chasing their squealing cherubs in the surf. Photoguy and I looked at each other and briefly discussed how nice it would be to have our kids there. "Yeah. But, then someone would be hungry and someone else would be 'bored' and someone else would be upset over sand in their swimsuit and then we would have to pack up our million gadgets and bags of kid things and go take care of everyone. So, it's nice that it's just us this time," I said once I came to my senses.

Besides having a great time ourselves, the other best part of our vacation was that our kids were so thoroughly spoiled in our absence. The first night, Soph and E-Man got to have a "sleepover" (very rare occurrence in these parts) with friends who treated them like royalty. The rest of the weekend was spent in the adoring embraces of my parents. Soph got to dance with the Weber State cheerleaders at a basketball game. E-Man gave a wildly successful show and teach presentation on how to fold spy planes for his Kindergarten class (attended by my mom, thanks mom). AiAi got to stay up late watching cowboy movies with grandpa. And, my parents even took all three kids to their first circus. What a tremendous blessing to know our little ones were in good hands the whole time.

I Love You San Diego

Thanks to some friends with a WorldMark membership, we scored a beautiful condo right in the heart of San Diego. We were right next to Ocean Beach, Sea World, Balboa Park, the Gaslamp District and Little Italy. The drill was mostly: Go to the beach, explore the city, go to the beach, eat fab food, go to the beach, and relax in the hot tub at the end of the day. Oh, and we got to pick fresh citrus and avocados while we were there. Photoguy thought I was kind of nerdy for thinking that was such a treat. Especially when I had to carry all 50-pounds of it onto the airplane because it made our suitcase too heavy. But, I don't regret all that yummy citrus and fresh guacamole one bit!
We visited four different beaches, but this one was the closest to us.

These pictures were taken at Ocean Beach on our actual anniversary. The happy couple 10-years later . . .
When we arrived in San Diego, we hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was about 2 p.m. The first place we headed was a Ruby's Diner at the end of a pier. Here I am perusing the menu to find the turkey guacamole burger that I devoured like a famished pregnant woman. And, then spent the next 14-hours digesting.

Photoguy checking out our awesome view from the restaurant.
Walking on the beach after dining.
A long-legged sexy couple as the shadows lengthened and the sun set.
We struck up a conversation with some flight attendants during a layover and they told us about a tasty dive of a restaurant in Little Italy called Fillipi's.

Total "Lady and the Tramp" atmosphere, awesome pasta.
Thinking about cannoli's for dessert.
My preggo self at Balboa Park. Loving this fourth time expecting and the anticipation of another little one.
On our honeymoon, we did a session at the San Diego Temple. This time, it was closed for cleaning. I love this beautiful Temple.

The sun sets on our 10-year-anniversary. May there be many, many more decades ahead.

50%

Another successful day of sponsor round-ups. He is slightly more than halfway to meeting his goal! We are both holding our breath since he has only eight days before it has to be sent off to the publishers. Or, delay (to his great sorrow). Or, severely pare back (also to his great sorrow). Or, completely finance ourselves (is that even an option?). I'm so excited that he's come this far. Keep us in your thoughts this week. More to come on the dreamy San Deigo trip in which we told everyone that we'd been married TEN YEARS and received a ton of congrats plus a box of chocolates and a card signed by the staff at the condo where we stayed. Weird, but kind of nice, and the chocolates were yummy (do you think they were trying to convince us to buy a time-share?).