Best of 2010: Emma

photo by Dejah Morris

* Not getting sick when everyone else seemed to be.

* Going to the temple to do baptisms for the first time.

* Going to Disneyland with Caitlyn.

* Strengthening my relationships with my friends.

Best of 2010: Nash



photo by Dejah Morris

 * Playing with the puppies at Auntie Rachel's house.

* Being in preschool with my friends.

* Playing in the waterfall on vacation in Colorado.

Best of 2010: Dedan



photo by Dejah Morris


* The field trip to the zoo with my class at my new school.

* Having my first sleepover at my cousin Sean's house.

* Dad got a job.

Have Emma. Will Wrap.

Don't have time to wrap your own presents?

Need a gift wrapped before it comes home from the store?

Don't want to pay for the extra bag and bow at the store?

Emma's Gift Wrapping Factory!

Small Presents=50 cents

Medium Presents = $1.00

Large Presents=$1.50

You define whether the gift is small, medium or large

LOCAL pick up and delivery available

Confidentiality guaranteed

Leave a comment with your email address and we'll make arrangements

(unless you have our number then just call us)

Happy Holidays!

Comfort Cooking

I love to tease my mom about the food she made when I was growing up. I know. It's not nice. She still loves me. Truth be told I'm like most kids who have a dish or two that no one makes as well as Mom did. This soup (her favorite thing to make) is slightly green (my favorite color), creamy and perfect for a cold day (and by that I mean anything under 65 degrees here in SoCal). She's made it twice for activities at church recently and both time people asked me to ask her for the recipe (not because she's intimidating... I'm just available on line more often).

This is my Christmas gift to you. Make it. Share it. Claim it as your own. I won't tell.

J.R.'s Mulligatawny Soup

3 T butter
2 bunches chopped green onions
3/4 C chopped onion
saute until onions are clear then add
4 T flour
stir & add
2 Qts Chicken broth
2 T curry
1 1/4 C raw rice
1/2 pint cream
2 med Granny Smith apples (peeled & diced)
2 C diced cooked chicken
Salt & Pepper to taste
Cook on low until rice is cooked stirring frequently.

Mr. No Name

Sixteen years ago I was at an activity for the young single adult members of the local branch of my church. The person(s) in charge of the activity totally slacked their responsibility, so we were just sitting around. I decided to be productive and introduce myself to people I hadn't met yet. A few minutes later I came to a young Marine...who would not tell me his name. His response to my request, "If you really want to know, you'll find out."

He was right.

Nowadays I call him lots of things:
Father of my children
Babe
Har (sometimes Haaaaar!)
CARPEN'R (when he's not listening to me)
Sweetie
Boyfriend (the kids hate it when I use this one)
Perv
Husband (lucky me!)

but today we all can all call him...
The Birthday Boy!
He's 37.
Yes, that's younger than me. I'm good like that.


Opening gifts with his helpers



Happy birthday, my love! (Ooo. One more for the list)

Change of Heart

Years ago my husband made me a promise: He would be moving out by the time our sweet little Emma became a teenager.



2002 making Dedan's 1st birthday cupcakes



2003 Ponto Beach



Teenage years filled with emotional girly drama terrified him. He didn't want any part of it. As the years have passed he has stuck to his guns. Last year on her 12th birthday Emma pointed out that he only had a year left with us. He agreed with more enthusiasm than she expected.

Alas, November 19th, 2010 has come and gone. Harland is still here. Perhaps he saw this beautiful young lady that Heavenly Father graced our family with and realized he could handle anything she is going to bring on. He'll probably even enjoy her teenage years...not that he'll admit it.

Emma's post birthday self portrait

...or maybe he changed his mind a few months ago when I told him if he was leaving he'd be taking the boys with him. Either way, I'm glad he stayed. Life's better with him around.

Happy birthday to my favorite teenager!

Garden at Grandpa's

My dad has a nice backyard. Since we live in a condo and share our "yard", visiting him has it's privilleges. We bring our dog, Lula, and she gets to run free. Plus, for the second year in a row we planted a garden. It's hard work....for Harland.

This year we planted pumpkins and watermelons. Recently (ok, so it was 2 months ago, but whatever!) we went to Grandpa's for grillin and chillin and to check out the progress of our future jack-o-lanterns. This is what we found.

It was exciting to see we grew a watermelon! Last year we had 2 small pumpkins, but this year we grew a watermelon!

...or did we? Look closely at the picture below.

Yes, that IS a sticker you see on that melon. My dad thinks he's soooooooo funny. Our one pumpkin didn't get carved. It's sitting on the counter as Thanksgiving decor. And the ??? well, they looked like tiny watermelons but when we cut them open...pumpkins that stalled in the early stages. {Sigh} Maybe next year.

Anti-depressants

So my last post was unintentionally a little depressing. Every time I look at it....I want it gone. I could post about little Wally's first birthday or how our fantastic youth helped his family move away....but that isn't exactly uplifting :(

SO! Here we go. Who doesn't love to see people they love dressed up in costume?! Here's a little sample of our Halloween fun.

The ward party:

A few women came up to me and told me what a "trooper" Harland was for wearing this - like I had anything to do with his decision! I think he liked it when we kept calling him, "Kitty!"

 Harland called Allison "glamorously creepy"

Allison's rough & tough crew included a biker/rocker, a cowboy and a pirate

The Hills made the best cheerful pirates

Sully and his friend, Brother Oudadate...what a pair

The Jensen's were saving cute baby tigers - like Elise

The witchy woman and her friend with Bieber fever waiting in line for chili

Halloween Night:

Everyone was kind of over their costumes after the previous night's three party marathon (that's right, we skipped one), but I convinced them to costume up for a picture and a loop around the greenbelt to extort candy from the neighbors. Although, once wasn't enough for Nash. He came home, suited up in last year's Buzz Lightyear outfit, and hit the neighbors again. Gotta love him!

above: Dedan isn't a ghost or an angel. He's a white ninja! Big & little Sully stole the show everywhere they went and Emma (below) in her duct tape Astrid costume was ready to train some dragons.

The email I can't write

I'm an optomistic person by nature - always have been. I try to only complain to my closest friends who will recognize the true me underneath all the whiney mess. And yet....I find myself unendingly mad at someone (or maybe several someones) that I've never met and need a place to vent in the real world. My head is getting sick of the same angry ramblings on a daily basis. Sooooo.....

Welcome to my rant!

We're unemployed...and I say that like a man might say "We're pregnant!" As a family we've decided it's my job to be the main care taker for our home and children. Harland's unplanned 20 months of unemployment hasn't changed that.

We paid Cobra costs for our health care insurance as long as we were eligible. Now we're on Medi-Cal. It took me several months to bring myself to apply. We've gone through our meager savings and haven't gone into debt. We've survived rather well, partially in thanks to living with my mom and partially because we had no debt to begin with. We're not on food stamps, although I'm sure we'd qualify. We are actively involved in our children's schools and church activities. We don't have our kids in sports or music lessons, because it's out of our budget.  We've made lots of sacrifices. I don't need to list them. I'm not looking for a pity party.

My point is we are honestly doing our best to weather this "storm" and maintain our standards.

Yet, both Harland and I on separate occassions (more than once each) have heard employed people complaining about their job or "wishing" they could just take help from the government instead of working. Generally, it's people who don't know us or our circumstance, but....seriously?!

We are - even in our circumstance - trying to heed the prophet's counsel to be grateful. I supposed that is a blessing/ benefit of believing in the current prophet of our Lord. (Want to know more - just ask me!) I can't expect others to believe the same thing.

There's the rub. The longer we're unemployed, the more I realize how blissfully ignorant other people are.

For example, Harland applied for a job in July at a new hotel that is opening in Park City. He got a call within a few days scheduling an interview. The guy not only didn't call on the scheduled day, but didn't answer Harland's call either....until a month later. Then he got passed on to another Guy who has not kept a single phone appointment (he kept the one in person appointment) or deadline that he gave himself. NOT ONE. The last time Harland talked to The Guy he excitedly gave him details/benefits of the job and all but offered him the job then said he would call in 2 days. I called my sister who lives in Utah to share my excitement about the possibility of having a job and being close to her. We sat on pins and needles waiting for him to call.

It's been more than 3 weeks.

Harland emailed him once and never got a return answer. You'd think we'd "get a clue", realize they chose another candidate, and move on. Well, in a sense, we have, since Harland is applying for all sorts of jobs and has a fairly good local lead. But when someone has such a reputation of not keeping appointments it is difficult to give up hope. Actually, at this point, hope is all we seem to hang on to. Daily I stop myself from sending him a nasty email by writing it in my head.

Unfortunately, this is not unique in Harland's long search for a job. Not even a little. Employers constantly avoid the unpleasant task of informing the candidate that they are not hiring. Some have even passed it off to other people who weren't involved in the hiring process. Some just wait weeks before they let you know. Others (the kind we like) call and field Harland's questions about why he wasn't hired and what he could've done better in the interview process (must give those guys big props).

This isn't just a job search for Harland. This is a job search for our whole family. Occassionally, like the Park City job, we even share our excitement with people we love. When we wait, they wait. When we get disappointed, so do they. So, when you ask how things are if I answer "fine", please understand. I don't need to pull anyone else into our circle of disappointment. 

And if you are in charge of hiring people or know someone who is... man up. Do the unpleasant tasks now. Don't make me wait. It's just rude.    

Popular

Anyone want to dress up like the Carpenters and crash a party Saturday night? Take your pick.

Nash's Day of Crime

Apparently, the cat burglaring was just the beginning.

Har and I took Nash (or as some call him "the Legend") for a quick trip to the grocery store. We promised a treat for good behavior - not an every trip occassion, but we knew it would be neccessary yesterday. As we were walking out of the store he realized he didn't have his treat. Har followed him back into the store to pay up for the appearance of Good Nash. Alas, Good Nash was long gone. By the time Har caught up to Naughty Nash he was out the door with Airheads in hand making a break for his getaway mini-van. Husband took him inside, made him fess up & apologize, and told him there would be no treats today. It was a fun 2 block ride home in the car.

Fast forward a few hours. I'm making dinner. Har is watching something about football (or maybe it was actual football, I'm not sure). The phone rings. I check the caller ID and wonder why the Sheriff's Department is calling. Then go back to work as someone else has answered. Apparently, the someone else was Nash. Naughty, naughty Nash. He'd highjacked a phone and been hiding in his room calling 911. I guess he needed someone to talk to.

The phrase "lucky to be alive" comes to mind.