First Time to Beijing

These pictures were taken just hours ago and sent immediately by cell phone from the other side of the world. Ridiculous!!!

The Great Wall of China, The Birds Nest, and last but NOT least...Peking (Beijing) Duck. WOW!! What a great opportunity. But I sure do miss this guy!!!

In the first picture, the guy behind John is Rex Remigi, his traveling buddy!!

Another Break for Mom!! Thanks Grandma!!

Thanks to my mom for being "excited" for me to leave my kids with her and go out with my friends. If there is anyone who knows the value of a good friend, it is her and I appreciate that she knows the importance of it in my life as well. But not just being with my friends but being with the girls in my family. She knows the importance of getting together with the girls for a short break every once in a while. Women need women!! Wow, I believe it!!! Thank you mom!!! You are amazing!!
I just got back from dinner with Heidi and Denise. It was wonderful and I've got the greatest friends. They help me be better. They teach me and I feel like I am the only one who benefits from the friendship.
I feel like I am still a kid that is trying to figure out life. The thought of me being a wife of 12+ years and mother of 5 from ages 11 to 2 just doesn't seem right. Shouldn't I really have it together to be in this position?!!! Well, I sure don't. I scream and yell. I say stupid things. I have pity parties for myself. I throw fits. I hate to clean my house. I can't stop eating. And for the most part, I am a big baby that can't handle life. Oh Poor Me!!!
But I constantly have the words and the voice of Pres. Hinckley in my mind "Forget yourself and get to work". I just need to be better at doing just that.
I have really been blessed with amazing people in my life. First and foremost....JOHN!! And I am grateful for amazing women who just "get" each other!!! I love you girls!!!!
And when I say girls, I mean all of you!!! My family and friends. I love girl time and I love to be with you!!

Book Review

Now this is a book worth reading....again and again.

Have your own copy so you can highlight and take notes.

Or have a paper and pen handy so you can write down the things you learn and remember it!

Just finished....

WOW!! What an excellent book. I couldn't put it down and I learned so much about the pioneers trek west. This book is very worth the read. During the month I took to read it, everytime I would get stressed or discouraged or frustrated,

I would think about what these pioneers had to go through and a lot of them with a cheerfu heart. It actually made my burden lighter.

I can't understand why they had to suffer so much but maybe it was for nothing more than to teach me to endure, and endure with a good attitude.

I went to our annual February stake enrichment tonight. It was uplifting and nice to sit and be inspired. The theme was 'Finding Joy in the Journey' So fitting. There were some things said that were just what I needed to hear. A couple thoughts I wrote down: "Don't waste your time feeling hopeless and discouraged." "He will make weak things become strong." "If you are looking to be a offended, or looking for the negative, you won't have to look far." "I don't need to see around the bend because He can and He's guiding me." "Take time to LIVE. Take time to LAUGH. Take time to LOVE." "Smile more." "Think about someone else." Now I just need to apply these in my life.
John and Emily picked up a second paper route. The "values" (free weekly paper) isn't going to be published anymore which meant a big pay cut so with a second route, they'll be making about the same as they were with the values. It is so fun to watch them earn money, pay their tithing willingly, and save money. Emily's has to stay in the bank or she would spend it all on small random things. John wants his in the bank and refuses to spend it.
So as it always seems to go, as soon as I recognize and verbalize that something good is happening in my life, it goes downhill quickly. Does this happen to you? If I feel good about the way something is going, I will usually keep quiet or it will be jinxed. I hate that. So, I gave away my secret to keeping acne away....well, since then, I have been having issues on my face. A lot!!! I seriously have only had a few zits in the past couple years. And never more than one at a time. Right now, I have at least 6 big ones! So either Satan hears I'm happy about something and ruins it for me or Heavenly Father notices that I've recognized a blessing which means it's time for me to grow. Hmmmm....
Someone looked at our house again tonight. It seems we are getting about 2 lookers a week. Pretty good but we don't get anyone coming back. I keep telling myself it's just because the right person hasn't come along yet. Until today, I would get excited that someone was coming and it literally takes hours, no matter how clean or dirty my house is, it takes hours to get it ready to show. Because I want it to be perfect. As of last night, I just don't want to think about it anymore. And as I was cleaning ALL DAY today, I would think about all this work just so someone can spend 20 minutes or less walking through my house to go away and never be heard from again. Last week we had our second interested couple. The first couple were interested back in November. They came twice, called and said they wanted to come back and make an offer, and we never heard from them again. I don't mind that they didn't buy our house because if they didn't feel like it was theirs, that's just the way it is. But, I thought it was kind of rude to not call and let us know their plans have changed. I had way too many emotions tied up in it for it to end that way. Well last week, another couple came through and said it's exactly what they are looking for but they have to work out financing and a couple other issues. So I haven't thought one thing more about it. Just nice to know that someone was interested...again.
If we didn't feel so strong that this is what we should be doing, I'd be tempted to take it off the market, unpack, rearrange everybody, build a garage and stick around. But it has felt right to move forward.
We have had a couple issues with video games at our house lately. So last night, John and I decided we would be done with video games for the rest of February. We'll see how that goes. I told the kids this morning and they didn't complain. After school, they still didn't complain. We'll see if we can keep that up. I want them to use their imaginations and I want to see what kinds of things they come up with doing and enjoy doing when they don't have a controller in their hand.
Jack woke up this morning with a tummy ache and ended up throwing up a couple times. The other kids were late for school because I had to pull over to the side of the road and help him. On the way home, I rented Madagascar 2. It is great! Jack watched it I think 4 times today. It is full of dancing and is just a fun movie.
I have two large drawers of recipes. A lot of recipe books and probably about 200 random papers from printing off recipes, etc. etc. I would love to go through all of them and type them up and organize them. It actually sounds fun but I don't have a computer at home during the day and that is when I would need to do it. Another project looming is many, many CD's of pictures from many years that need printed. But every time I go through them, I'm just not sure how to organize it. By child? By year? And what do I do with them? I have about 20 photo albums from the first several years of our marriage. It's ridiculous. Who cares about that many pictures. It is so overwhelming that it's not even worth getting started. So how should I organize all of it? Any suggestions? Are any of you out there who are pros at photo organization? Third project: I want to make a quilt. A simple one to start. Just get cute fabric, cut small squares, and sew it all up. So is anyone interested in getting together once a week to work on projects?
Well, that's about all that has come pouring out of my head. I've drawn a blank so I'll end here. Have a good one!

The Girls!!

(I stole this picture from Denise's blog. Thanks Denise!)

This is some of the girls. L to R, F to B. Lezlie, Sandra, Tawnie, Denise. We made time to get together and it was wonderful!! I have amazing friends. They mean the world to me and I am so glad they are still a part of my life. We missed Tisha, Kathy, and Heidi.

Maybe one day it will work out to have all of us together!
Do you recognize the restaurant? If not, you should!! Texas Roadhouse. I crave it weekly. Their rolls are sooo good.

Sam caught in the act of playing John's iTouch. He's not allowed but he knows when it's being charged and he can reach it.

John and I were talking about how he is growing up with touchscreens being just the way things are. Crazy how things change and how technologically savvy this world is. I would love to throw my kids (and myself for that matter) into the time my parents and grandparents grew up. It would be fun to see the difference.

Love this....

I love this blog. I love to read her wisdom. She lost her 14 month old daughter to drowning in June of '08. I love to check in on her and see what new and inspiring things she has to share. Her thoughts today are from a question asked of her about the statement, 'God doesn't give you more than you can handle'. I have had that phrase go through my mind countless times and I liked what she had to say about it!

She says:
"Let me start my answer by pointing out the falsehood in the saying. God does give us more than we can handle. For it is by realizing how utterly unable to handle things in our lives that we are most likely to turn to Him for help. He wants us to turn to Him for help and not to walk alone. When we turn to the Lord with all our hearts, He will help us to carry our burden. For it is WITH God that all things are possible. So the saying should be that God will never give you more than you can handle with His help."

The rest can be found here: http://adailyscoop.blogspot.com/2009/02/more-than-i-can-handle.html
And this is her great blog: http://www.adailyscoop.blogspot.com/

Breaded Chicken with Lime Sauce

mmmmm!!! I love the flavor of limes. Have you ever had the Tequila lime chicken and noodles from California Pizza Kitchen? It has a very strong and different flavor but it is WONDERFUL!! That and a BBQ chicken salad from California Pizza Kitchen and I'm a happy girl!

I have no pictures but I had to share something I made for dinner last night. It was inspired by this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Breasts-with-Lime-Sauce/Detail.aspx?ms=1&prop25=15225830&prop26=DailyDish&prop27=2009-01-30&prop28=DailyRecipe&prop29=FullRecipe&me=1

But this is what I did:

I did this with shrimp as well. I dipped the shrimp in flour, then egg, then panko crumbs. Then I fried it on the stove in a little olive oil. We dipped these in cocktail sauce.

Next I defrosted some frozen chicken tenders from Costco, dipped them in the flour, egg, Panko crumbs and fried them the same way on both sides. They cooked through pretty quick and they were delicious and juicy. I poured some of the following sauce on each piece of chicken after it was on the plate and ready to be eaten:

Dump out the oil from the frying pan, put in the juice from one lime (I only had lime juice so I put in a tablespoon or so). It boiled quickly so then I added a chicken boullion cube, a little water(maybe half cup), and 3 tablespoons of butter. It made only a little sauce but plenty for the meal. But this sauce was AMAZING!!! I have been craving it ever since.

This is the first time I've ever used Panko crumbs (Japanese bread crumbs). I love them but they are expensive (well, not as cheap as bread crumbs). Luckily I don't bread things often so I can splurge every once in a while. If you like lime, you will love this.

On the side we had the frozen green beans from Costco. Have you ever had those? They don't need butter or salt. They are perfect cooked right from the bag. We also had garlic noodles on the side. I got this recipe from Maureen Corless, a fellow wife of a student at BYU.

To make the noodles cook spaghetti noodles. When they are done, drain them and stir in 1/2 - 1 stick of butter, immediatley crack an egg into the noodles (they are hot enough that they cook the egg), then add your choice of garlic and parmesan cheese to taste how you like it. It is delicious!! Wish I had pictures. I was pretty happy with the way it all turned out!!

Sledding

All the kids were really sweet to help Sam get back up the hill. Especially John. He carried him on his back and tried pushing him up on the sled. He's a good big brother.

It was a nice warm day. In the end, we had a big pile of snow clothes that weren't being worn.

No one complained about the hike back up. They'd just get to the top and head right back down. We were all so fast up and down that we got worn out pretty quick which is why we only lasted an hour. Max enjoyed it too. He'd run as fast as he could down the hill chasing after us.

Yesterday I had to get out of the house. We had a showing Friday night and the house was really clean so we woke up early Saturday and left in hopes of more showings and the house staying clean. No one else came and today it is a wreck. Good thing for tomorrow, right?!!

John and I woke up Sam just after 7:00 am and headed to Ikea. As we got to the exit of Ikea, I called my mom to ask her a question and she said they don't open until 10:00. I don't know what I was thinking but we turned around and went back home. At home, the rest of the kids were awake so we fed them, got them ready, then I spent 20 minutes looking for little John's wheels to his Heelys. Which means we were late getting to Ikea. As I was in line for the $70 duvet that was on sale for $19.99, they ran out of King size. I was not happy to say the least. I loved this duvet last year when I saw it but didn't want to spend $70 on it so it was worth it to me to go get it. So I pouted for a while then got over it and we shopped a bit. Ended up with 2 toilet brushes and a pot for a plant that I needed. The next 45 minutes was spent searching for "Five Guys Burgers and Fries". Finally we found it and enjoyed a delicious burger and fries. Next we came home, got ready, and went sledding for an hour. It was so fun. Emily and little John ended up with injuries and Sam should have but he had a blast. I think he went down more than anyone because he hopped on with everyone else. We had so much fun and John and I laughed every time the kids went down. It was cute.

After sledding, little John went to the BYU game with Richard, Nairn, and their 4 boys. Thank you for inviting him!! Emily played went with Kristina to the Gateway. John and I went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and to Wal-Mart. It was a good day, staying away.

Nice Landing!!

Little John is a paper boy. It is his job but Emily is an equal partner and they split the pay. We drive them around to do it a lot. I guess we got in a bad habit with John's leg. He wasn't able to walk on it for so long that we drove him around to do it. Then the weather was bad and it for the most part has just stuck. Thomas and Jack love to help too but they like to be paid in the form of candy. The other day, John threw the paper from the car window and it bounced on the porch and up right in front of the door, right in the middle, and it wasn't leaning on or touching anything. We thought it was pretty cool and had to take a picture. Man, he must be an awesome paper boy!!!

Auto Show 2009

A lot of pictures but whattayado?!!

We use to go to the Auto Show every year probably until we had Thomas. Then I guess we got busy with school and kids and haven't been in a while. So we thought we'd go back this year. It was really fun. We once again picked out the cars we would want if we could have any car and the kids (including my husband) loved getting to sit in the drivers seat and pretend!!

Beautiful Eyes

I am always amazed at Jack's blue eyes and took a picture of them the other day. So I thought I'd get a picture of each of my kids eyes.

My John John

My Emmers. She's been called an american chinese girl by many.
My Mr. Thomnas

My Jackalacka. Can you believe those eyes? The only blue in our family. He has pale skin, beautiful blue eyes and blonder than blonde hair and we love every little bit of him.
My Sammy Sam.

Brace yourself......Sam's Sweetness!!!

That above is what you needed to brace yourself for. Sam's gigantic wart on his knee. It has slowly been coming off but growing in the process. YUCK!!
Next he got himself ready to watch a movie. Everytime I pull into the bank, Sam says "candy" over and over. He picked up on that pretty quick. He fell asleep enjoying his sucker from the bank.

This is my sweet boy after his first haircut. And below you'll see why I finally had to give in and cut off his beautiful locks. (The haircut will be posted backwards...oops.)

I sure love this kid.