Good Food and Family Fun

As I mentioned before, I LOVE going out and having fun with my family. And I can’t think of a better combination than family and RED LOBSTER. Generic as it is, this is my very FAVORITE place to eat and coincidently, it’s my Dad’s favorite place to eat also. So where did I take my Dad for his birthday dinner to enjoy endless shrimp?

An order of scampi (or two or five or more)

The Fam getting ready to dig in to round two!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD! I love ya a whole big bunch!

Oh, The Newfangled Conveniences of Our Times

Today (and this WHOLE ) past week, I am thankful for the internet. When we first moved here, we had to make a choice – either have internet or satellite tv. We couldn’t afford both, so the choice was easy for me; I have to be connected to the web. I need to keep in touch with family and see pictures of cute kids and laugh (or cry) with those friends and family that I can see. Plus, I can watch the news online also and the news is the only reason I wanted satellite.

So we went with the Verizon broadband card. For $65.00 a  month, we got unlimited mobile broadband usage. It was great (compared with dial-up) AND we could take it in the car or anywhere else we were going. Then came the fateful phone call, the one where we called and asked Verizon to please change the texting to our card because we were getting charged for it. 30 days later, our texting problems AND our unlimited privileges were gone and we had to watch our usage to make sure we didn’t go over 5g. We called and asked, countless times, if they could please revert back to our original plan, after all, we WERE paying almost 70 bucks a month for their mediocre service, but nobody would do anything for us.

So on his way home from work, my hubby would stop and ask the Qwest guys how soon internet would be available in our area. He asked so often that one of the techs took our name and number and put in a special order for us. And guess what? We have high-speed, reliable, CHEAP internet in our home. AND free long distance, with call waiting, caller id, and line backer, PLUS our local service, all for $45 a month. Is that awesome or what? I love these new technological advances. I can post pics of what Mr. B WOULD have been for Halloween had I not found the Superman costume on ebay for five bucks.

Shark Boy after (humanely) eating a yummy dolphin

The phone call with Verizon could have gone like this,

Me: Hey, your service STINKS. Cancel my contract today!

Them: But, but, but…

Me: NO Butts!! (hee hee) Cancel our service, our contract is up this month!

Them: Ma’am, what can we do to keep you as a loyal customer?

Me: NOTHING, MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! *click*

But, as it so happens, it went much nicer and smoother, though I am sorry I didn’t get to use the creepy Halloween laugh. Verizon did offer to put us back on the old plan, the unlimited one, but I said no thanks and just asked them to cancel our service.

So I am grateful for being able to post with no limits, and grateful for great customer service.

Halloween Fun (and an explaination)

Ah, November. The month of my FAVORITE holiday. Thanksgiving is all about being kind, thankful, seeing family and eating good food, and remembering those we love. Now, I love me some Christmas time spirit, don’t get me wrong. Christmas and Thanksgiving are very nearly tied, but it’s Thanksgiving that continues to hold the number one spot on the favorite list. Because it’s my favorite holiday, and because I think that these are all great ideas (I stole that cute idea from Gerb), I figure that I’m gonna bore you to absolute tears and post every day. AND I’ll even tell you something I’m thankful for, because, really? That’s sometimes how I make it through the day with a smile on my face.

I’m thankful for fun family times. Like the time we went to the Sonoran Desert Museum, or when we drove downtown and rode little tiny race cars around the track and I WHOOPED Gila Man in a race, or like the other night, when we dressed our kids up and headed down to the ward Halloween party. This was fun!

Funny Family Pic - Baby O ALWAYS has his hand in his mouth (he was a frog).

The Damsel in Distress - she's such a sweet girl!

These guys are best buds in real life!

Bobbin' For Chocolate Donuts

Chompin' On The Prize

"Yes! I shall knock over all those cans and, in doing so, will save your life!"

After All The Fun, Washing Out The Color

Clark Kent is melting, melting!!

And so ends another night of fun with the Lamb fam, tune in next time when Mr. B says, “It’s not my fault I’m all stressed out Momma!”

Quote of the Day

So Mr. B and I were cruisin’ the internet, checking out the websites and blogs of friends and family who we know and I was listing the people and their names and who they were to us.

“Momma! That boy looksth like he’sth the thame age asth me!” he exclaimed.

“You know what? You guys are about the same age, and I think you even met him once.” I replied.

“I did?” he asked. “What’sth histh name?”

“Herbie.”

He looked at me. Back at the screen. Then back to me again with his little brow furrowed in a questioning glance.

“But he’sth a boy, Momma.”

“Yep, he’s a boy.”

“Thso then his name should be “HIM-bie, not HER-bie, Momma!”

Being Thankful and Learning Lessons

Being thankful should be a part of my every day – yet somehow it isn’t always foremost in my mind. On a daily basis, I can constantly think about things I need, or need to do, or need to get done, or want to do, or want to have, or want to need to do.  I know I don’t spend nearly enough time thinking about what I have, or have done, or can do, or are able to to but don’t, or what I can be doing but aren’t, and most of all, what I can be thankful for.

Today, and probably for the rest of my life, I am thankful for a lesson. A hard, painful, hurtful, lesson – which probably made it more valuable.

I have a quote that reads,

“Look for the lesson, learn, and let it go.”

Hard stuff, right there. That, “let it go” part. This started as a journal entry, but I thought I would edit it a little bit and share it as a blog because, we all learn lessons in life, and I would rather learn one from someone who’s done it and shared than to go make the mistake myself and have to deal with the consequences.

Once upon a time, there was this friend. Someone I hung out with, or at least talked to, every day. I shared things with this friend that I didn’t share with anyone else, for I felt that I might be judged abrasively and unfairly by them. Turns out, I was right. I was cruelly and unfairly judged and spited for all I shared with her. But not by others. Sadly, it ended up being her that turned on me so harshly.

(I’ll refer to her as “She”)

“She” was upset when I told her the truth – it was something small concerning our children – and it all went bad from there. I should not have said it, I should have changed the subject, I should have lied.  There were plenty of small, hurtful, and downright silly things leading up to the final phone call, but in the end, it was quite ugly. That phone call was the most hurtful and sincerely meanest 45 minutes that I think I have endured from any one person in my life. I didn’t know a human could be so brutally cruel.

Afterward, my stomach hurt, I did a lot of crying, and I wished I could call her back and say all the nasty things about her that I could honestly say – “she” was NOT a nice person. That’s why I initially distanced myself from her.  If “she” would say things about them, what was “she” saying to others about me?  One thing I learned very quickly is that you should, no, you MUST surround yourself with good friends. Good people. People who want to help you be a better person.

After the initial blow up, I was foraging ahead and trying to forgive, but every time I did I remembered how hurt I was, I would feel angry all over again. I wanted to retain the lessons I had learned but not the pain or anger associated with the issue, and it just wasn’t happening. I found an article in the December 2008 Ensign called “The Other Part of Forgiveness” by Becky Dastrup. In it she said, “if others are having a bad enough time that they are ready to hurt us, they too must be hurting inside”.

Man, this friend had to have been in TREMENDOUS pain.

Then came the hard part: “When we pray that they will be able to resolve their difficulties, that they will be able to find happiness, we can’t help but feel kindness and love toward them.”

Matthew 5:44 says to “pray for them which despitefully use you”.

What??? I have to pray for HER?!?!? I don’t want to pray for her! I want to pray for myself! I want to ask my Heavenly Father to please, please, please, take this hurt away from me! Help ME! Forgive ME! I’m the one who needs the peace here, not her! “She’s” the opposite of peace! The peace-taker-away-er!! “She’s” the pain-inflicter! Why on earth should I pray for her?

So in all my maturity and grown-upness, I ignored the article and continued to ask for peace for myself.

I asked to please take away the horrible pain in the pit at the bottom of my stomach. I asked Him to please help me to forget the things that “She” said. I asked Him to please, please bring me peace. And after awhile, the pain did lesson, a little. A very little. It wasn’t complete, and I still got angry if I thought about the episode too often. I then realized that I needed to do more. The next time I saw the article, it was taped on the inside of my medicine cabinet in my bathroom. I saw it every morning and evening for a week before I started using it’s principles. And you know what? It worked.

To pray for someone who has purposefully hurt you is about as humbling a thing as a person can do. And then…

I felt better.

I found the peace.

I was able to forgive.

I am so thankful for that.

Why Won’t My Chickens Lay Eggs? Another Random Mystery…

Now, I know that some of you are surprised. A couple of you readers even called (or texted) us to ask the question: “You got chickens? Why in the heck did you get chickens?”. And how many and what kind and why?!? Well, I think I can tell you why…

One of my very first memories was when we lived in Marana, AZ. I have lots of memories from our first home on “Waterman Lane” (though for the longest time I thought we lived on “Watermelon Lane”) but some of the very earliest and fuzziest I can still remember.

I know I was little because I had a hard time walking, so when I finally reached the sliding glass door leading out into our backyard, I was very happy to lean my arms up against it and rest. I also remember how much I liked to lick that door. I’m sure my mom didn’t appreciate that, hee, hee.

One evening, I wandered over to that sliding glass door and saw something very strange – it seemed to be a sea of yellow. It was an interesting sight – the ground seem to be covered in a layer of  yellow that was moving, like the wind was blowing it and making it ripple. I also saw lights on in the yard, something I had never seen before.  Those lights were shining on the yellow ground, illuminating the strange sight. My mom opened the sliding glass door and went into the yard without letting me out. I heard a strange, high-pitched noise repeating itself over and over through the opened door before she shut it in my face. Now this made me mad. I started crying and smearing my tears (and probably snot) on the window, letting my mom know that I was unhappy and NEEDED to come outside with her too. Then I saw that the funny yellow floor moved away from my mom when she came near it. I saw her pick up one of the yellow things in the yard and walk back toward the door, and as she lowered her hand toward me, I saw a tiny animal standing there, peeping for all it was worth. It was a baby chicken. A teeny, yellow, fluffy chick. I remember I LOVED it! I loved it and wanted to hold it and play with it and bring it into my room and keep it. But my mom (knowing better) put the sweet little chick back into the sea of yellow chicks on the ground in the magical backyard.

Now what really happened that day is that my dad went to the feed store to buy a flat of chicks to add to our little farm. When he got there, the owner of the store told my dad that he had ordered way too many chicks and wanted to get of them, so for every flat my dad bought, the owner would give him two. He had taken the Honda Civic to the feed store ( I don’t know WHAT would have happened if he had taken the station wagon) and came home with that car FULL of chicks. They were stashed in every cranny of that car, and I can only imagine what my mom said when she saw him start unloading.

From then on, chickens were the staple of every home I’ve ever lived in. We always had chickens (along with most other farm animals).  While some people reminisce about things that remind them of their home or their childhood, for me, silly as it is, it’s chickens.

There’s A Chicken In My Fort

Awwww….Chicken Love

Chuck The Chicken

Eating Mashed Potatoes

Ming Ming Diggin’ In

Takin’ A Bite of Dinner

So now we have 3 chickens (1 Araucana and 2 Red Rocks), and Mr. B has named them Linny, Tuck, and Ming Ming (you know, like the Wonder Pets). But one of them is the boss of the others, kind of a bully actually, so we call her “Chuck” (that’s the Araucana). We get two eggs a day, one green and one light brown. It was really fun to set up the pen for them and they come running when you call, “Here, chick, chick, chick!”. Mr. B is having a grand ol’ time finding out what they will eat out of his hand (almost anything) and what they won’t (cauliflower, and peanuts).  He also is understanding how to take care of animals – that it’s always more work than it seems.

So, now we have a home, because without the chickens, it was just a house.

Oh, and as to why my chickens aren’t laying as many eggs – it’s a number of factors:

• Chickens lay fewer eggs in the winter because there is less sunlight.
• I have been feeding them cracked corn instead of the laying mix because the store was out, but mixed one 15lb bag of cracked corn with one 50lb bag of laying mix and we are back on track.
• My chickens are young and aren’t quite full layers yet.
• Turns out, the chickens don’t like going down the slide so much, nor do they like hangin’ out up in Mr. B’s fort. Hm, now we know.

A Moment

I sit at the computer, scrolling through my friend’s blogs, enjoying a quiet moment as I nurse my son. It’s fun to have an excuse to sit here – I don’t have to explain myself to anyone – I am feeding my son. I have 10 guilty free moments here, and I am gonna enjoy every one of them. After being up 4 times with him during the night, I feel like I’ve earned this break. The laundry can sit, the dishes can soak…

As I scroll, a little face peeks up at me. I gently push him back to eat. He stops eating and peers up at me again. “Oh,” I think to myself, “you can’t be done already! I haven’t looked at Gerb’s blog yet and it’s my favorite…please just a few more moments!”. I encourage him to eat again. He looks up at me expectantly.

“Sheesh,” I think sarcastically, “that was a quick one. Thanks for the break, kiddo.”  He stares at me.

I grab his hand playfully and pretend to eat it. His tiny, unblemished brow crinkles, as if to say, “C’mon, Momma, that’s not what I want.”

I stare down into his amazing little eyes. He stares back expectantly and raises his hand.  I lower my face. He reaches up with his small, chubby hand and places it on my cheek. We look into each others eyes again. He smiles. He coos. He smiles at me and yet, through me. He taps into my body and squeezes my heart. He tugs on the strings that exist only in poems and songs. It’s one teeny moment, but an amazing one that gives me a little perspective and peace  in this life of flashy minutes and chaos.

Thank you, my sweet baby boy, I really needed that.

Grinning Baby Boy

Meet Our New “Neigh-bors”!!

You know, since we moved out here, I don’t think I’ve shared a whole lot about the fun little quirks that are associated with this area. When I tell friends and others about where we live and what we do around here, they always seem surprised, so maybe I’ll share a few of the “funny” things about this place.  The first thing we learned when we bought our home is that our area is still technically “open range”.

Open Range:
A cattle- or sheep-ranching area characterized by a general absence of fences.

General absence of fences is right…Having the area deemed open range allows us to have lower taxes and allows for the developers who own the land and who haven’t built houses on them yet to get a tax break as well. So it’s safe to say that the fence builders in this area are doing ok for themselves though the economy is not so great.

I dug 6 holes (well, I supervised), planted 5 trees (I really did this part) and we have 2 left. It’s really sad because there was NOTHING to eat before the rains came, so when I saw a momma cow and her calf eating the leaves of my mulberry tree, it was very hard to go out and chase them away. Then those sneaky cows came like huge, four-legged thieves in the night and devoured the leaves and tore the trees in half, and I was MAD. When we got a few monsoon storms and green stuff FINALLY started growing out of the ground, our two remaining trees were a little safer and actually look like trees instead of $20 sticks in the ground.

So when I heard Shatzie barking like mad the other day, I assumed it was the cows again and opened the front door to shoo them away, and BOY was I surprised! I guess these trick-or-treaters are a little early this year!!

Where are the treats?

Here ya go.

Here it is on video – the light is behind the horses, so it’s hard to see, but it’s fun to watch them.

Summer Lovin’

So I guess I have to admit that I’ve been a bloggin slacker. I could blame it on having a kid, but it’s been nearly 5 months since he was born. Or I could blame it on the fact that we have been enlarging our backyard to about 4 times the size in was before (which is AWESOME!). Or because we were busy making a chicken coop. Yes, I’m serious. We TOTALLY made a chicken coop and even put chickens in it. It’s so fun! But as you can see, I wasn’t the only busy one this past summer – Mr. B totally ran amok, making friends in the strangest places. We read this book about a little fox who’s mom tells him to go make some friends (rather than catch them) and the little fox took it quite literally. He made friends out of a leaf, an apple, and some sticks. It was really cute and that story has stuck with Mr. B all summer.

Doesn't this look like fun?

Wow, it's soooo cute!!

Those creepy-crawly bugs are so GROSS!! If we have a particularly mild winter we have them in DROVES in the summer and they hiss at you. HISS!!!!! It is soooo creepy! But there are more friends to be found in this desert…

These guys should meet the creepy-crawly bugs!

Then he caught “Leo”…

Lizard Lover

Who then laid eggs in the nice little habitat and who’s name changed to “Leah”.

Leah's Lizard Lunch

And there’s one more critter who’s been having LOTS of fun with his big brother..

A Very Happy Critter

So passes another few months for us on the Lamb. I’ll take more pictures of the farm and let ya’ll in on it. The chickens are really cute!

A Birthday Present..

In our home, birthdays are great days to get your favorite breakfast. In fact, looking back at it, the whole day seems to slowly revolve around food. Like homemade french toast with FRENCH bread, at FOUR in the morning (if that’s when you wake up and have to go to work). Then there’s the thoughtfully packed lunch to enjoy out in the desert while out on the trail. The birthday also allows for the dinner of your choice and a gift or two, followed by your favorite dessert and a birthday song. But while celebrating the day of one’s birth, let’s not forget the pivotal, MOST important part – the reason that it’s good to even HAVE a birthday…

The “Get Out Of Jail Free Card”. You know, that little card you can pull out and say, “Hey, LOOK! It’s my birthday, you can’t get mad at me! I don’t get in trouble for this! I can do this and you can’t say anything because it’s my birthday, woo-hoo!”.

Now, some men would use “The Card” to go shooting or hunting or fishing. Others would use it to head to the bar or a non-wife oriented place of business. And still others would play it to keep from having dinner with the in-laws. But not Gila Man, oh no. Gila Man got to use The Card to get out of a completely different situation…

Like locking the only set of keys we have…in the van. WHILE it was RUNNING. In the garage. At 6pm on a Tuesday night. All I have to say, is that it’s a good thing we have road-side assistance included with our insurance. A DANG good thing. And a good thing he did it on his birthday.

So happy birthday, babe. I love ya a whole big bunch!